I lost a close family member, recently. He was very young, and it was tragic and unexpected. I had to suffer the indignity, over and over in a terrible loop, of Christians comforting themselves and each other and me (they thought) with bullshit platitudes of: "He is in a better place," "This was God's plan," etc. It allowed them to avoid confronting the chaos and terror and beauty and mystery of life. Of his life. Of our lives. It allowed them to utter some nonsense, make themselves feel better, as if this tragedy is actually a good thing, and move on to the food and drink.
Christians are intentionally numbing themselves to life. They would rather fool themselves with a comforting falsehood than to turn and face this real existence we are all actually in together right fucking now.
What mattered to them was not his life, what he did, what it meant, why it was precious. That was all irrelevant. All that mattered to them is where he was going NEXT.
How can one live in this life and spend the entire time with their attention turned to the next one?
Christianity is an excuse to not have to really face a death like this. It's an excuse to not have to feel it. To not have to face life itself. It is anti THIS life, the real one. It prefers to paint over our existential reality with one of its own invention.
Video: https://youtu.be/i4teTJ8geOQ
Basically he says that Bungie went alot more wild and took risks with the Black Armory weapons. They had perks like Rampage and Kill Clip together or Kill Clip on a high impact sniper, Box Breathing on a 180 scout etc.
If sunsetting is going to continue what is the point in releasing weapons with incredibly unsatisfying perk combinations? Is anyone really that excited to chase a Royal Chase? The DSC weapons are really good but that's the saving grace of the past few seasons.
The Seraph weapons had some truly bad perk combinations but they're good just because of Warmind Cells.
In the past, this level of loneliness wouldโve caused a lot of negativity, but I really enjoy it. Iโm learning more about myself, getting in better physical shape, reading a lot.
I just wish that there was someone else in my life that was interested in this as well. Iโm 19 and most people my age (at least that I know) are caught up in the more usual, daily troubles. The only person I can talk to about it is my mom, but Iโm about to move back to college and wonโt see her very often.
So I guess the reason Iโm making this is to ask, is this normal? Will I meet more people with the same goals?
Jack Bogle. DCA VTI till you retire. Go with the 3-Fund. Just buy the S&P. You canโt beat the market consistently over 10 years. Etc...
Times have changed. Funds like ARK exist and could be changing the game with a new approach. Guys like Chris Camillo have averaged over 60% annually 15+ years through social arb investing.
At what point do we consider that times may have changed enough for traditional methods to be challenged?
EDIT: Great discussion everyone... well aside from a few condescending geniuses who seem angry at the world. I hope you find peace. Anyway, Iโm gonna yolo on MindMed for the foreseeable future and then diversify following Chris Camilloโs social arb style (see Dumb Money Live podcast or the book Laughing at Wall Street). Best of luck to all of you who plan on buying the index and retiring comfortably in your 60s. Nothing wrong with playing it safe. As for me, Iโm gonna try my hand at taking on risk and being aggressive so I can retire before Iโm 40 (30 now). โ๏ธ
I recently switched from a Pixel 4 XL to a Pixel 5, and I understand the argument to be made that "that's just a downgrade" or the argument for either of the 4a models. However, I think the Pixel 5 is the best balance between what Pixel has tried to be, and what Nexus was back in the Nexus 5 and earlier.
The Nexus 6P/5X and Pixel 1/XL felt like weird transition phones, so I'm going to focus on the phones preceding and succeeding those.
The Nexus line, as inconsistent as it was, always focused on pure android, competitive prices, and most of all, good use of what was there. They were rarely ever the BEST at anything (stock Android notwithstanding), but they took full advantage of what they had. The low prices and charming designs/builds helped a lot too. I feel like the Nexus 5 was the pinnacle of this.
Pixels, on the other hand, have tried to go toe-to-toe with Samsung, Apple, and literally no one else worth mentioning because Google clearly only cares about the American market (see: delayed products, missing features, and price hikes outside of the US). Since the Pixel 2, Google has tried to leverage their software (which is admittedly great) and cameras (obviously also great) to push them above other flagship phones. They started with a strong push towards other premium features like dual front-firing speakers and squeeze for assistant, and Pixel perks such as unlimited Photos storage or faster updates. I think the Pixel 3 line was probably the pinnacle of this, as the 4 saw the removal of the aforementioned speaker setup.
The Pixel 5 is the culmination of neither of these philosophies. It has neither the insane value (see Pixel 4a) nor the premium bells and whistles (see Pixel 4). What is does have is the most balanced amount of both sides I've seen in a phone since the golden days of OnePlus. The 90hz screen is smooth, but not so smooth as to drive up the price too much (120hz). Wireless charging is a mainstay of modern phones, as is reverse wireless charging, so both are present. The fundamentals of a big battery, great camera, and solid performance are all here too. However, it has no front firing speakers at all, no more face unlock, a very traditional fingerprint scanner, and a mid-range processor.
To me, this balance of need-to-haves vs. nice-to-haves vs. price is what makes the Pixel 5 a great phone. That all being said...most people should get the 4a/5G. Also this makes me really wish I had a Nexus back in the day, not an iPhone 5s, but her
... keep reading on reddit โกSo M+ has been super light on upgrades this xpac. I'm doing 10-12 range and getting 203 items, whereas I go to HC CN and get an upgrade from killing Shriekwing for a 10 min time investment.
This creates an environment where gear kinda stagnates past the 200-205 ilvl for most people, and that makes pushing M+ an even worse experience because you're not getting upgrades in the dungeons themselves. In past seasons, people pushing 10-12s would be closer to HC raiders in gear, but that's rarely true now (unless you raid HC, so don't apply this to yourself if you do).
Even the vault isn't really functioning as "9 options" People said it's gonna offer 9 choices for gear weekly, but there's a massive disparity if you're a M+ pusher. Your M+ options will be 220-226, whereas your other options will only match if you're pushing ranks and mythic raids. Leaving you effectively with 3 options.
If you want 9 options at the same level, you need to be progressing mythic CN (and clearing HC) with at least rival rank and clearing 10 M+ a week. But if you're already playing at that level, you don't need 9 gearing options to begin with.
What is the philosophy of M+ now? Is it gonna be gearing primarily through the vault? Because even through a full season m, the vault would still not give enough gear for all of your slots. And the chance of a bad vault week increases with the more gear we get out if it.
The usual reply is to just raid. But raiding is a genuinely unpleasant experience for a big portion of the playerbase. Especially now that we've lived with M+ for 4 years or so. Communities were built around it. Why take that away?
Just give us back M+. It doesn't make sense now.
***YOUR. Damn mobile.
Iโm a new cat owner (more like butler/slave lol) and Iโve found that there are so many ways to go about the whole cat litter thing.
First, the kinds. Clumping or non-clumping? Sand or pellets? Clay, tofu, pine, silica? Flushable or non flushable? Scented or unscented? Donโt even get me started on the brands. Thatโs a whole other clusterf*ck I donโt even want to go to, especially since brands vary depending on your country.
Second, methodology (specifically for clumping at least). Do you dump out all of the litter after a month or so or do you just keep it deep and refill as needed? Also, can scoops be used with pellets or do you really need those special sifting litter boxes?
Lastly, tips? How the heck do you keep the dust levels low for clumping clay litter? Do you use cat litter deodoriser? And what are your tips for the smell?
Iโd be very grateful if you can share your personal cat litter philosophy.
Mine at the moment is clumping clay litter. I keep it deep and just refill when it gets too low (around every two weeks for my one cat.) The brand Iโm currently using (itโs called Feline Fresh Pink Sand) is so dusty that I wear two masks and use a damn vacuum while scooping and I still feel like I can taste it afterwards ๐คฎ. (Seriously my throat is dry and everything, I hate it.) I have 2 bags of it left but Iโm curious as to what I can do to lessen the dust before I finish it (mix with a less dusty kind?). I use a Arm and Hammer cat litter deodoriser but I donโt know if itโs helping at all? Lastly, for the smells I use Purifie cat litter deodoriser balls but again, dunno if itโs helping at all.
Would also appreciate any tips on transitioning from clumping clay to bigger litter kinds like pine wood pellets. Should I mix them for a while, gradually decreasing the old litter until itโs 100% new litter? Or just replace it all entirely and hope for the best?
PS. Have any of you seen your cats eat the clay cat litter? I saw my cat do that last night and it freaked me out.
PPS. This is where I got the technique of not dumping the litter: https://youtu.be/GoA2AxpK6WM Still not sure if itโs sound advice though.
EDIT: Iโm now determined to transition my cat away from clay litter due the amount of dust it makes and also finding out about how bad it is for me and my cat, and luckily Iโve found what looks to be the best compromise thatโs readily available to me: clumping tofu pellet litter (itโs the Cature Natural Tofu Clumping Cat
... keep reading on reddit โกI have a keen interest in philsophy and being a novice there's still a lot of things I need to learn. I have quite a fascination with continental German philosophy (Nietzsche, Kant, Marx, Hegel) and it really is one of my biggest dreams to one day understand Nietzsche fully and in the original German. I'm still a freshman in high school and it'd be great to be able to study philosophy in Germany for me, considering how it's quite cheap compared to other places, the prospects of studying it here in Vietnam being quite shabby and, well, it is Germany. I'm at B1 moving onto B2 in German now and only have about 3 years to get my proficiency sufficient to read philosophical texts and understand lectures, so is there any strategy as to how to learn German specifically for that purpose? What should I be focusing on instead of, say, food and animal names? I believe, a lot of people who study Greek and Latin do it that way, so is there any tips as to how to that?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/22/white-supremacists-plotted-attack-us-power-grid-fbi-says/4018815001/
####White supremacists plotted to attack US electric grid by shooting into power stations, FBI says
>MINNEAPOLIS โ White supremacists plotted to attack power stations in the southeastern U.S., and an Ohio teenager who allegedly shared the plan said he wanted the group to be "operational" on a fast-tracked timeline if President Donald Trump were to lose his re-election bid, the FBI alleges in an affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed.
Chance the grid gets unexpectedly attacked during 2021 by this type of group: higher than average.
Because I hate that I am. Right now I'm trying to deal with cognitive dissonance and it pushes me into a negative existential spiral. I'm always obsessing about the ultimate truth and being as objective as possible. I think I have a phobia of self-deception and as a human I think we're all really prone to self-deception and confirmation biases. Sometimes I hate that my brain works this way and I look at other people who just take things for face value and believe in their own believes, cognition and emotions while I drive myself crazy and full of existential dread. I would've been so much easier to not be someone who constantly questions and second-guesses things and myself in order to get the most objective and nuanced picture of something. Sometimes it feels like I'm trying to escape or overpower what it means to be human, or try to outsmart the human intelligence, or that I'm so "smart" that I become dumb and suffer (I don't think I'm smart but I've heard and read that if you think along these lines that I described you have a higher chance of being intelligent, whatever that means)
I don't know. I've posted about this before and remember that people talked about how this could be a C-PTSD thing.
An announcement from Philosophy Tube (7:56):
> Hello friends! I'm delighted to say I'm a trans woman; my name is Abigail and you can refer to me with she/her.
She also discusses the difficulties faced by trans people in the UK right now, and how her view of feminism is of a common struggle to be free. And because Abigail is awesome, she also announces:
>The text and video of this statement is free to share, quote, print, perform, adapt, remix, set to lofi music, or anything else your heart desires!
Update: Abigail has posted another video on the topic.
