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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • Before the election we will be preparing bugout bags for my nuclear family and establishing concrete plans to flee.

    After the election, if Trump wins we will monitor and be ready. At the first sign of trouble we get out of dodge. I have the ability to get EU citizenship for my family if need be. In the meantime, my wife and I have skills that can get us the privilege to move into some countries based on their employment needs.

    My family and I would have reasons to be targeted by white nationalists if they felt empowered. I have received semi-threatening letters from such people in the past.

    I hate that we have to think this way, but we do.


  • Each kid and wifey could have individual Daddy/hubby attention at the same time. My yard and home would look immaculate because my ADHD task burnout could be overcome by calling in a new helper.

    I could probably make bank and help improve the lot of humanity by allowing my duplicates to go through controlled medical and scientific testing.

    At some point one of me would figure out how to leverage this ability for the absolute betterment of humankind. That would probably become a driving mission for the collective me at that point.



  • I belong to several chicken groups on other social platforms, and the number of people who view this as part of a giant conspiracy is wild. Nope, this cannot possibly be the consequences of the known spreading mechanisms of well documented disease in a factory farm setting. It is clearly an attempt to control the populace through a narrative of limited food supply. Or it is a justification to release the next phase of the scamdemic. Or it is an initial cull to drive up prices and make more money by - checks notes - refusing to sell eggs.

    I agree the corporations are out to take us over the coals and that large scale government has aspects that should not be trusted but still, people go from zero to pedophiles in pizza basements really fast.


  • I use it almost daily, mostly for educational content. I really enjoy how much meaningful content people are producing there in easy-to-consume chunks.

    I am also not surprised at how much the potential federal legislation in the US is getting characterized there as, “Ban TikTok.” As much as I enjoy the service, they are absolutely doing their best to spread their own misinformation.


  • Sincerely, I wish her the best. I know it is common to jump in with hate-the-rich feelings here, but I don’t know of anything she has done that makes her deserve cancer. Cancer sucks. The flight is awful, and once it is done you don’t get to know if you are actually better for a long time. For the rest of your life you get to carry physical and emotional scars from the fight.

    I did this fight. I would wish it away from anyone except the most evil. I hope her treatment and recovery are as smooth as possible.





  • This is a huge case of, “Yes, but . . . .”

    Yes, exercise absolutely can and does help mental health. It helps me a great deal. That said, exercise requires some level of time, energy, and focus. The key is to find a form of exercise that you enjoy or at least do not mind. If going to the gym is exclusively a chore, you will more likely fail. If exercising brings some Internet inherent reward, you will more likely succeed.

    I love lifting weights, but I did not have the mental energy to put together a program or figure out how to work around big physical issues after cancer. I paid a trainer to help, and that eliminated enough of the focus needed that going to the gym became fun. Now I am transferring to running my own program because I have learned enough that it is not as big of a mental load. Along the way my energy has also increased.

    Contrast this with running. I hate running. It hurts my joints. It hurts my lungs. Getting outside and running should be easier than a trip to the gym, but it is actually much harder for me because there is no inherent reward. It just sucks, and it continues to suck as I get better at it.

    So yeah, exercise is great for mental health, even if it is not a cure all. This only holds true once you find something you enjoy. If you think you enjoy nothing, you are most likely wrong. Keep looking. Keep trying. Maybe you like walking. Maybe you like a specific martial art. Maybe you like biking, but only on a stationary bike in your living room while binging your favorite shows.

    Find something that you enjoy doing that fits well enough into your life. That way on the days you don’t want to start, you will anyway because you know it will be enjoyable once you are doing it.




  • Ooh, I actually know the answer to this! I had cancer a couple years ago, and it got really dicey for a bit. While my story has a good ending and I am now effectively cancer-free, I had to look the potential of death clear in the face and start making some concrete plans.

    My answer is unequivocal - I would prepare my family for my untimely demise. My wife and I got together when we were young enough that we entered adulthood together and grew that way. There is no me and her - there is only us. This is not some creepy codependency thing. We just became adults whose emotional and mental shapes are highly complimentary. That happens when you are with someone longer than you were not. We also have kids for whom I am the primary caretaker and stay-at-home dad while she works. Both boys are autistic though you might not notice it, and I am their primary coregulator. My family needs me in ways that are not universally true across families.

    Most of my plan can be summarized as follows:

    • Prepare my wife for life without me. Ensure she has the basic skills that I have taken over in our lives. Impress upon her the notion that while she has been the love of my life, I sincerely hope I am but one of hers.
    • Spend as much time with my kids as possible. Cement myself in their memories. Record messages and fatherly advice in writing and/or video for every major life event I can think of.
    • Set up therapy and support services for my family once I die.
    • Get my friends and family on board for specific forms of help as time goes on. People who want to help do nothing when they do not know what to do. They are more likely to follow through when told, “I know Jimmy really looks up to you. After I die, please take him out for some bonding time at least once a month. He is going to be lost without me, and Wife cannot be a masculine role model like I was.”
    • Plan my funeral and write my obituary. Make it clear that any of this can be changed.
    • Basically, do anything I can to prepare my family for life without me.

    I know this is not terribly exciting, but it found that what I feared far more than death was the fate of my family without me there to care for them.



  • First, I am sorry for everyone just dismissing this question. There are many valid reasons for wanting to know the unloaded weight of machines, including just being curious. If you want to change up your routine or compare results between machines, you absolutely want this info.

    Some machines will have this information in fine print on the main instruction panel or some small label on the machine. You have to search for it.

    The most reliable way to know would be to ask the staff at your gym. A gym-employed trainer would be a great resource if they are off without a client. At my gym, I just put in a request that they label all of the machines with this info. It seems like a big quality of life increase for the cost of some printer paper and packing tape.

    Keep lifting heavy and pushing for the details you want. I know on my leg press sled, I absolutely want credit for the 105 lb. sled in addition to the plates I put on it.


  • As a small child, I feared that humanity would go extinct. I knew the following:

    • Species can go extinct, like the dinosaurs
    • In many million years, the sun will expand to encompass the Earth
    • If we do not invent interstellar travel before then, say goodbye to humanity like the dinosaurs.

    I stayed up at night worrying about this. I was precocious in this very difficult way, and it was hard for my parents.

    As a teen, this fear was somewhat replaced by an increased understanding of entropy and a fear of the eventual end of the universe.

    As an adult, that fear has been somewhat replaced by an increased understanding of human nature and a fear that we will ruin ourselves before either other fear can come to pass.

    Looking to the future, I see that my oldest wants to be an engineer for NASA and has the chops to pull that off of his interest maintains. My youngest compulsively helps people. Maybe there are enough people like the two I was blessed with. Maybe one day we can get off this rock and scatter like seeds on the wind. Maybe raising them right will be my small contribution to the continued success of humanity.





  • Sandwiches should have their contents rearranged so they each bite has exactly the same amount of filling. If that cannot be done, the bites with the least filling should be eaten first and those with the most should be saved for last.

    I bristle on the inside when my kids want a slice of bread for breakfast. Toast is for breakfast, and bread is for other meals. I don’t even actually care about this, but my dad did when I was a little kid and I clearly internalized that lesson.