Yeah this is why facts and evidence aren’t that persuasive. We’re all emotional first. All of us

This feels like an origin story for a Punisher reboot.

Recommendations for…? Just any music?

Caroline Rose’s new album is very good and very human: https://carolinerosemusic.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-the-slug

Tagged as “alternative psychobilly acoustic guitar alt-country alternative pop art pop folk indie indie folk indie pop indiepop rock n roll shoegaze Los Angeles”

Meta should be broken up and its leadership barred from working in tech (or politics)

I don’t think they thought about it very much. It’s like that spongebob meme where patrick has the wallet. Or the Friends one that I don’t know the name of the template. You could go point by point building up a case for why there should be government regulations, but as soon as you say like “regulation” they go “Nope bad”

Though some people really do believe they as a rugged individual will be able to research and test all of their food without an FDA or whatever. If they buy bread that has sawdust in it, they’ll be able to tell, and somehow get a refund, or buy some other bread that doesn’t have sawdust. That seems like a lot of work and optimism compared to regulations and inspections by qualified professionals earlier in the process.

This kind of problem falls under “communicating badly and acting smug when misunderstood”. Use parenthesis and the problem goes away.

https://xkcd.com/169/

Most email is short. I don’t see a need to summarize it. Google is run by idiots and assholes.

Tech companies don’t really give a damn what customers want anymore.

Ed Zitron wrote an article about how leadership is business idiots. They don’t know the products or users but they make decisions and get paid. Long, like everything he writes, but interesting

https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

Our economy is run by people that don’t participate in it and our tech companies are directed by people that don’t experience the problems they allege to solve for their customers, as the modern executive is no longer a person with demands or responsibilities beyond their allegiance to shareholder value.

I’ve always had trouble finding players, not DMs, but yeah could be.

I feel like if you’re going to get a group that shows up on the regular you might as well just play regular DND?

I just tried “Language Drops” and it was… interesting. It didn’t place me at the right level, so I got a very beginner lesson when I’m closer to intermediate (but definitely not fluent). I’m not sure I liked matching the pictures- the picture for “thank you” could mean different things depending on how you interpret the person’s face and body language- and then I hit the end of the free content for the day. It didn’t get to different tenses or even whole sentences- just basic vocabulary and no verbs. Maybe it ramps up quickly?

I hate space yielded to cars that would be better used some other way.

All those cars parked on the side of the road? Could be a bike lane. Could be outdoor seating for the restaurant. Could be benches. Fuck those cars.

Big ass parking lot? Could be something green. Could be another building. Fuck those cars.

i don’t think we should promote private car ownership. If someone needs point to point transit occasionally, we can solve that some other way. I know people that have a car because they go on trips a couple times a year. Wasteful.

If people want a car of their own, they should pay all the externalized costs.

Just walked home from the bar. Extremely pleasant. Under no circumstances would I prefer to have driven.

What kind of sad sack is so anti-bike that they run a whole “no bike lanes” social media account?

I think I posted this the last time this topic came up, but Ed Zitron’s article about how business idiots run things despite not really understanding the users or product is pretty solid. Long, but solid. https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

One of the reasons I don’t want to live anywhere else in the US is NYC had public transit that mostly works. Even if this weekend I had to do a Q to the N to the 7 to back to the N to get to queens. I played a whole game of Lords of Waterdeep on my phone and read some of my book.

DND 5e (the rules the game is based on) is a weird system, mostly forgiving.

Your stats matter a lot. The bonus from stats only goes up on even numbers. A 10 is +0. An 11 is +0. A 12 is +1. Yes, this is crazy.

You can only improve your stats every 4 levels, where you can choose to get +2 stat points (or take another bonus from a list, but most of them aren’t worth the opportunity cost)

Different classes and backgrounds have different “proficiencies” in skills and equipment. Your wizard can’t function well in heavy armor. The game will tell you if you put on something you can’t use. Pay attention to it, otherwise you might end up wondering why you can’t hit anything or cast your spells.

The game expects you to long rest in camp a lot. Even though the story suggests otherwise and it says resources are limited, don’t worry too much about it. A lot of story beats happen in camp, and most of the game isn’t really time sensitive. Dnd’s balance is kind of stupid imo in that it expects you to do like 6 encounters before resting, and that typically means (after low level) only the last one is a challenge. Rest as often as you need to. Blow your spells. Don’t be like me and hold onto them until you finish the whole map.

You can respec for cheap pretty early on, too. Can’t change your species or background but you can change your stats and class.

Oh yeah. Cars are bad on like every metric.

Socially they isolate people. You don’t interact with anyone when you’re driving except to get angry. The micro interactions you have on the train matter. Seeing people that aren’t just like you, also annoyed that the train is delayed, or just having a nice time with their kids, matters. More than makes up for when other people are annoying.

Economically they hurt. It’s much harder to just pop into an interesting looking shop when you’re cruising along at 40mph. All the space dedicated to parking could be used for other stuff- housing, commerce, communal space, whatever.

They make spaces less safe. Other than the direct impact (no pun intended) of people getting hit by cars, or crashing into stuff, a space that has steady foot traffic is generally safer. If everyone was in their car instead, you’d probably be alone on foot with no one to help if something happened.

They’re bad for the environment. Air pollution, micro plastics, whatever.

Drunk driving is way more dangerous than drunk “riding the train”.

The more non-car options are built out, the better it will be for people who need to drive for whatever reason.

Cars culture is trash and if we ever escape from it, it’s going to take years.

Ed Zitron wrote a blog post I’ve been thinking about, where he said that a lot of decisions are made by “business idiots” now. People that don’t really use or understand the product, and don’t really understand the users or their needs. It’s an interesting read, even though the guy is rather verbose: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-era-of-the-business-idiot/

I see what you did there and I’m not going to fully fall for it.