Item the 1st – On Words: I’ve probably touched on this one in a previous random thought (What, me go back and read through all the garbage I’ve posted here? Fat chance) and I know this come up in the comments often, but I came across an example recently that made me think about it again. And, by definition, I need 3 items.
What is it? The redefinition of words to try and accomplish some political or social goal. Usually, it’s done to make the listener assume a particular set of characteristics associated with the word and apply those to the system the speaker/writer is trying to promote or demote, even if said system has little to nothing to do with the systems originally described by the word. A sort of value, morality, and/or ‘goodness’ by association rather than by evidence. A common old school one was the description of Obama Care as ‘insurance’. It is not, it is pre-paid medical care, if even that. I had this argument with someone while it was being debated. His argument boiled down to ‘we can call it whatever we want.’ He literally said those words. Now this is not a dummy, probably one of the smarter people I know, sort of upper echelon darn near Nobel Laureate material. Obviously in a narrow field. Of course, that completely missed the point – sure you can use whatever series of sounds you want to describe O-care and try to obfuscate what it is by calling it insurance, but if you try to treat it actuarially as if it was truly insurance you going to – and did – create a disaster. Another common one is using ‘democracy’ as a proxy for ‘freedom’ or an ‘free individuals’. It’s not. But casting our system of limited government as democracy has been very successful to the point that if you object to something democratic, e.g. majority (more likely plurality) voting to impose draconian control, you are clearly anti-freedom.
The particular instance that made me think about this again – that damn internal monologue/dialogue – was the continuous casting of Epstein as a pedophile. This was done in the context of arguing that the only way Epstein could have continually gotten away with what he was doing was if he was an intelligence asset, either CIA or, more likely, Mossad. Basically, who could tolerate and give preferential legal treatment to someone molesting young children, a pedophile? The only way something that heinous would be tolerated is for a member of the intelligence community being protected, ergo, Epstein must have been intelligence. Except, as far as I know, no-one has ever accused Epstein of being a pedophile. Trafficking (whatever that term means) young, underage, but sexually mature, women, possibly against their will, yes. But that’s not heinous enough to make it difficult to question whether he was an intelligence asset; but if he’s labeled a pedophile, that will be a much more visceral reaction and can bolster the case in peoples mind. Was Epstein a criminal piece of shit in his behavior with respect to young women? Absolutely. Was Epstein an intelligence asset? Evidence points to very likely. Was he a pedophile? I’ve seen no evidence of that – labeling him as such is just a way of making it more difficult to ask any questions about assertions regarding why he was treated the way he was in the legal system and why the case is being treated the way it is now.
Item the second – Touch My Unit: I was watching a series of videos about how nuclear bombs work because who doesn’t? It’s a very interesting topic, combining what is really pretty simple physics with what is really pretty complex engineering. For purposes of item the 2nd, I was triggered by this one, not by any particular social, moral, or technical statements but by the seeming obligatory obsequiousness with respect imperial measurements. I didn’t time stamp it, but the speaker is reporting pressures at different distances for given yields etc. and the are being reported in PSI (pounds per square inch). The speaker felt the need to make the usual disclaimer about how horrible that was – specifically, in his words, “It’s an embarrassment!” WTF? Why embarrassment? Sure in lots of scientific endeavors, a metric system may be more ‘appropriate’ and I’m not making the argument that we should anywhere and everywhere use the imperial system, but why in the hell is it an “embarrassment”? This is just the usual smarmy pandering of self-conscious smart people who think that they might be left out of the elitist circle if they don’t make all the right noise. Social signaling over units. More deeply, it seems part and parcel of an overwhelming need, seemingly deeply rooted in western culture and even more specifically in the United States, to deride your own culture and apologize to anyone and everything about how backward and unsophisticated you are. Fuck off and man up – make the argument that it’s more useful and easier to use metric units in this particular endeavor, but don’t retreat to the facile and pervasive need to deride everything from the US in the hopes it separates you from all those toothless ‘Merican rubes and ingratiates you to those you, consciously or unconsciously, deem your moral superiors. And whatever you do, don’t cross the streams.
Item the third – Can You Invert an Introvert: This one came to me in a dream, I mean while watching a podcast. Hmmm, that seems a common theme. Anyway, instead of just ranting at the screen, I’ll take the opportunity to rant at you guys too. I was watching Steve Rinella on the Meateater Podcast. Man, the sum-bitch is the most talkingist talker to ever talk. Rogan is another one. And Jordan Peterson. I can’t help but compare and contrast with myself and, frankly be a bit jealous. As we introverts discussed in the comments in the last Random Thoughts, I don’t like talking with people, to the degree of spending time and energy figuring out how to get what I while interacting with the fewest number of people. While I enjoy social situations (admittedly my definition of a social situation is roughly 6 people – above 10 is right out), I’m not going to start/carry a conversation, especially if centered on the dreaded ‘small talk’. I will participate and can lead a conversation in a certain direction once started, but suck at initiating and/or doing the casual work of social interaction that can lead up to conversations. That’s why I like small groups with one or two people who are in the mold of good ‘casual’ talker; perhaps not coincidentally, among the very small group of people I might consider good friends, they are of that type. I actually like to be included in a small group with one such person, but in a catch-22, if you’re a minimal casual/small talking introvert, you don’t get into many groups, small or otherwise.
As a random thought within a random thought, do introverts have more inner monologue/dialog than extroverts? Those seem like they might be related.
I recall a talk from long ago where the aforementioned JPB was very hostile to the negative portrayal of small talk, saying something along the lines of it (small talk) being a key human attribute, essential to establishing boundaries and social ties. To suck at it was to suck at being human essentially, and you should learn. I remember wondering – is that a skill you can learn? Can you turn an introvert into an extrovert? Is it a teachable trait? As I was thinking about Rinella (not that way you freaks), that thought returned to me. I know I’ve managed to convert from being unwilling to talk to a cashier in my childhood to being relatively comfortable talking in front of 100s of people and interacting with them. That’s of course in technical talks on topics I’m fairly well versed in and, to some degree, often rehearsed; it’s not casual conversation in a social setting. But it was something I had to teach myself, so it does give some indication that, yes, you can train yourself to be more socially competent.
So maybe an introvert can teach/force themselves to be an extrovert or at least put on a decent show of it. But I suspect one would never be as competent or engaging as a true extrovert. I suppose that would argue that I see being an extrovert as being an innate property rather than a learned skill, but maybe early development has an impact as well, and you can train yourself to a greater or lesser degree to be at least marginally competent at it. Maybe with lots of booze. (Glances up at wall of text) – Clearly my introversion doesn’t extend to typing…
Personal pet peeve: substituting ‘feek’ for ‘think’.
I hated it.
Feel, goddamit.
I was wondering if that was some new slang The Kids are into.
feek you too, pal!
Feel off, man!
One of my pet peeves in the opposite meanings category: when my father was alive, he had a bumper sticker “I’m a Constitution voter”. Right next to his Bernie for president bumper sticker. Now that he’s dead, I’m sure he still votes for Bernie, if not the Constitution
No sarc, that right there was funny.
And, by definition, I need 3 items.
What is it? The redefinition of words to try and accomplish some political or social goal.
I was waiting for you to redefine the number of terms needed.
I probably should have. Especially since Intro/Extro just dropped in at the end since I pulled out the
Many Worlds bit into a separate article. But, like Rhy below, the most clever things often occur to me long after the fact. Or need to be explicitly pointed out to me.
But it awards soooo may social credit points. You’d be stupid to not hate your country, for some definitions of “country”.
Introverts can be taught/trained to excel at public speaking. It’s a big part of my job, and I get compliments on it. And when it is over, I am exhausted. Because introversion versus extroversion is about the direction that energy flows. Extroverts gain energy from conversation. Introverts lose energy. That doesn’t go away no matter how good you get a looking extroverted during public conversations.
Yeah… that is a hard ask.
I “wear my heart on my sleeve” as they say… I can’t fake extroversion any more than I could fake any other emotion.
I canโt fake extroversion
It’s about engagement.
I can’t fake that either.
I canโt fake that either.
What, you can’t pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend?
I think the argument on ‘engagement’ would be, one shouldn’t have to fake it; you never know, that person opposite you might have something very valuable to reveal to you, and you’ll never figure it out if you can’t engage.
But doesn’t mean I still suck at it.
Back in my youth I was forced to give briefings, sometimes with little preparation.
I found briefing senior officers/congresspeople to be easier, ’cause they weren’t really interested in detail and didn’t pay too much attention. They wanted The Big Picture. OTOH company grade officers and NCOs were more into the operational aspects and wanted to know how it would affect them.
I’m about as introverted as one can be and still be sort of warm.
Yes. I can be a showman. In fact, I LIKE being a showman. I like speaking publicly. I LOVE being ON at a cocktail party.
But man, I go home and drop and don’t want to hear a sound for the next 36 hours.
Re: “part of my job” – Big Thing I learned: Having a Press ID, or just being able to introduce myself as “Evan with the Peru Tribune,” gave me so much more ‘power.’ I had a reason to be there and a job to do. It buys you so much confidence and credit.
Private life is *much* more different. Humans, fascinating creatures are we.
#meneither
Not least because I suck at it. I’m like George Costanza where the right response only comes to me hours later.
AT HH newbies will sometimes be sort of shy ’cause all the old timers are catching up on the new lies, oops, stories. After an hour the new folks have integrated into the group and seem to be brethren.
It’s sort of strange that all of us are totally different but as a group have a strong bond. We’ve come by way of different paths but arrived at the same destination.
Cats, though difficult to herd, are social animals.
While Nick might be the current Grand Old Man of the HH, I am still the Judas goat who lured the other Glibs in.
I am still grateful to Fourscore for building the HH. It has been so much fun meeting all the other Glibs in real life.
Yep, HH was nice, wish I could make it this year.
It’s also a good example – Not a crowd size I’m normally comfortable with, even though I know all the people there are quality – with the exception of Pope Jimbo of course, that extroverted talker.
But I wonder what I miss out on, not engaging in that social interaction as much as I could in that sort of environment.
I don’t have any issue talking to, presenting to, whathaveyou, to anyone who isn’t a peer.
Peers, no way, no how.
One of the fascinating things is watching the wife give presentations on Zoom. She is probably the most introverted person I know, but she can command a “room” like no ones business. But the downside is there will be no loving for a while afterword’s as she is soooooo worn out from it.
Sounds about right.
PutridMeat, I fully approve of the music in this episode. Sorry about complaining about the music last episode.
My deer-hunting buddy is an introvert (as am I), but has developed what he calls “the program”. He listens intently to what people are saying and asks questions until he finds a subject mutually agreeable. His justification is that by getting other people to talk about themselves, he doesn’t have to talk about himself as much. I’ve been trying to “run program” on him lately without much success.
There is no bad music. -Dr. Demento (I think)
asks questions until he finds a subject mutually agreeable
I like that strategy and try to use it when I can. It of course requires the skill of asking the right questions, but, while not trivial, that’s a bit easier for me than the general social skill set.
I have always been gregarious and my volunteer job puts me in front a lot of randos.
That said, being an extrovert can be troublesome, too much attraction with negative payoff.
Its best to keep quiet and listen IMO
Finally got to finish.
Agreed that one can learn to put on a show, appear to be more competent at socialising than one really is. By one I mean me.
Still, at the end of the day I need book time to get my head on straight.
Too many people, too much noise, way too much input to process melts my brain.
Actual introverts are rare.
U.S. monkeys are social critters, the modern โomg Iโm
Such an introvertโ is BS. Itโs herd mentality not unlike the โIโm a gamer girlโ crap.
Introverted does not mean anti-social. We get along just fine with people.
Introverted does not mean shy, although I was painfully shy growing up.
The big part of the bell curve is ambiverts in the middle with true extroverts and introverts out at the tails. Not rare at all, just somewhere in the 1 to 2 sigma range.
I think it is in the recharge stage that it really shows up. I can be out with friends for hours, and turn around a do it again. The wife? She needs downtime every time she interacts with people, even me.
Which is why I am in a hotel four hours away right now.
Yeah, I get along just fine with friends and family. It’s randos that are a challenge.
I can participate in several hours of meetings at work and recharge at home in the quiet of my office. My wife and I are typically in different parts of the house because of this.
But something like PI planning with three days full of loud meetings means that I am fried through most of the weekend.
Yeah, the wife will go to the back of the house to do the exact same things she would do in the same room as me. Just by herself.
In all fairness, she is an only child who grew up out in the country. She is hardwired for being alone.
Definitely out on the ends.
Anti social is another of those terms that has a common usage thatโs much different than its psychological definition.
There’s a difference between being social and being an extrovert. I suppose it’s a matter of definitions, but it is different to me. I’m social, but only with small (very) groups, and do very much enjoy time to myself with my inner monologue.
Depends on your definition and view of what an introvert is.
Its a misheld view that an introvert doesnt want to talk to people or shy away from large groups. I mean, we dont and do, but it isnt an aversion, its a whole body drain to exert the necessary energy to be at least somewhat engaging around people we really arent interested in begin around.
Also, not wanting to have to fight your way through a conversation in which people really dont mean to be engaging, but rather just blabbering.
At least, my experience. And yes, gamer girls and exaggerated ‘im so introverted hehe’ people are appropriating my style man
Or what all the other passionate introverts said abovem
For me it’s mostly just that I don’t like having all eyes on me.
I guess I’m not as “introverted” as I make it out to be but.. I am very different from the gregarious people-person types who are out there. ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
“Another common one is using โdemocracyโ as a proxy for โfreedomโ or an โfree individualsโ. Itโs not.”
Very well-said. It means 49% may have to simply ‘submit’ after being out-voted! Yay!
The “embarrassment” Leftists+ feel about America is crucial to understanding their actions. “[America] gets no respect! NO RESPECT AT ALL!”
They really do hate ‘America.’ They’re fine and comfy with the liberties they’re still granted, but they’ve bought the deep-seeded ‘truth’ that America is an evil nation and ‘society.’ It really is mass Useful Idiocy at-large. Fostered and promoted by the ignorant ‘taught’ in Government Schools. Sigh. So fucking predictable, tedious, and nightmarish.
“It means 49% may have to simply โsubmitโ after being out-voted!”
Depending of course who is in the 49%.
Leave me alone!
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=all+we+ever+waned+was+to+be+left+alone-jeffeson+davis&atb=v198-1&ia=images&iax=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FEhxJwCp77ig%2Fmaxresdefault.jpg
#metoo
Yeah, that one is infuriating. See: The Democrats. I don’t think even they believe their own bullshit anymore. They’re sure not hiding it.
I think the mal-definition of “insurance” really pre-dates Obamacare. The older systems that were closer to actual insurance had devolved a lot before that, and the Obamanation just kept rolling with it.
On the subject on introverts, I’d like to remind you all of the existence of the creature you’ve almost certainly encountered at some point: the “noisy introvert.” This variety of introvert can talk a blue streak to you, even one-on-one, without ever actually interacting. The classic example is the stranger who sits next to you on the [insert any form of mass transit] and will not STFU for the entire, suddenly interminably long trip, utterly oblivious to the fact that you’re trying to read/listen to something on earphones/find some handy weapon with which to commit suicide to put yourself out of your misery.
Please don’t corrupt introvert in this way.
This person is an oblivious idiot — and oblividiot.
Why not both?
These people don’t “lose” energy with their one-way monologues. They’re vampires. They steal energy from their victims.
They don’t lose energy because a one-way monologue is not “interacting.”
Kinnath is correct on this. Vampire…sucking the soul of everyone around them in their endless droning on about nothing.
So you’ve met my daughter.
With both arms flailing, as if that will explain what she means and make it seem more serious.
She was very shy as a child, now she’s a compulsive talker. I can lay the telephone down and every 3-4 minutes pick it up and say , “Uh huh, yeah”
I still love her but she can be annoying at times.
OT, but a question on that alleged narco-boat the Navy smoked: Where was it going? It was supposed to be off the coast of Venezuela, right? But it didn’t look like the kind of thing that could make it to the US. So what’s the deal?
Who knows but it will be interesting watching the Dems defend to the death whatever the hell it was because they can’t help themselves.
Isn’t the Coast Guard supposed to be watching our shores? Why was this plane on an offensive mission, presumably in International Waters. ?
Heard that one of my old golf buddies past away this weekend. He was 74. Prostate cancer lead to his death, although he was suffering from many problems that last few years.
Just six years older than me.
My doctor, who is roughly my age and diabetic, loves to remind me that at fifty, you have one foot in the grave. Sixty, you have both.
My condolences.
My current doctor is this cute young thing (female) from Ecuador. I kind of miss the surly old Doc Cottle I had visited once (!) when I still lived in NYC.
I keep quoting Satchel Paige, “Don’t look back, somethin’ might be gainin’ on you”
His health began a rapid decline right about my current age.
My father, in contrast, is still going strong at nearly 90.
I like your Dad, Kinnath. Even as I’ve never met him but the mileage alone is enough.
“It’s not the years, honey. It’s the mileage.”
I’m sorry. It’s jarring when this happens to someone close to you, especially if you consider yourselves part of the same generation.
Words evolve. They change meaning all the time, go in and out of fashion, find new uses, and so on. Trying to pin them down to a single defintion over time is a fools errand, and one we see to much of. I know this will break an engineers heart to hear this, but so it goes.
Just look at the definition of maggot:
maggot
/mฤgโฒษt/
noun
The legless, soft-bodied, wormlike larva of any of various dipteran flies, often found in decaying matter.
(Slang) A despicable person.
(Archaic) An extravagant notion; a whim. emphasis added
I don’t object to words changing meaning or describing different things, often the opposite from their original meaning. That’s the natural evolution of language.
What I object to is the attempt to make the meaning follow from the word. The meaning of the term insurance can change to refer to whatever the entity/mechanism it is that the affordable care act creates. But you cannot treat that entity/mechanism the same way you used to treat insurance. That’s the stolen base – trying to pretend that the meaning you just created has the same properties as the meaning that used to have that word, and that’s the whole point of things like calling O-care insurance – to steal the value and utility that word implies/derives from it’s previous meaning.
This. It’s actual “misinformation” but it’s the left’s stock in trade so of course you won’t hear of it in the media.
Eh, same thing in my eyes. Either pushing it, or letting it flow on its own matters not, it just changes.
In other words, no one actively moved decimate from its original meaning, it just ended up that way. Likewise maggot as shown above. Yes, insurance was pushed, but it had been pushed ever since it became the term for pre-paid medical care, back during WWII.
I tend to push the boundaries of words around all the time. Slightly change the meaning, use rhyming slang, make puns, and generally pull a meaning out of my ass. Drives my wife crazy, but we are pretty sure she is autistic.
The only thing that matters, word use wise, is if someone can discern your meaning from what you say.
same thing in my eyes.
Guess I just don’t see it that way. I’m not talking about changing the meaning of a word, but rather ascribing the properties of an idea or entity to a completely unrelated one by simply using the same word to describe them. Call O-care insurance. But now you need a new word to describe the entity that used to be called ‘insurance’.
‘Retard’ is similar, if in an inverse way. You can prevent people from using the word – but that doesn’t change the reason people used that word. Preventing the use of the word does not change the underlying reality of what that word represented, nor alter the reality that is experienced by the people afflicted by that particular condition.
Words are descriptions of reality. Changing words does not change reality and if you pretend that you can change the nature of a thing by simply changing the word you use to describe or refer to that thing, you will find very quickly that the properties of the reality are not carried by the word.
Or, as Heroic Mulatto put it so eloquently, “Words don’t have meanings. Meaning has words.”
I wish he’d drop in occasionally.
#MeToo
Did he stop coming for some reason, or just sort of fade out?
(I was gone for a few years myself due to hectic life circumstances and came back recently)
“I remember wondering โ is that a skill you can learn? Can you turn an introvert into an extrovert? Is it a teachable trait?”
“Short answer, no. Long answer: Yes. But.”
Dad has Asperger’s, but only ‘discovered’ this ~15yrs ago. It certainly passed on to me and my brother, but Dad was very wise in ‘teaching’ us to become more extroverted. Simple answer: Exposure. He went out and showed us everything possible. Show kids things and have them experience new and different things. Whatever they are. And the people involved are important to learn exist. (Amish is an easy example.) The kids’ reactions to these new experiences are certainly based on personality, genes and much, much more, sure. But it’s the parents doing ‘something’ rather than nothing. In this case, and not the political version ‘we’ deride, I’d say it’s smart and proactive to at least try to expose your kids to as much as possible.
Dad was also a journalist and can talk to any stranger and talk them up and ask questions and, legit, learn interesting things from the person he’s talking to. He also has never had any friends. He’s a social nightmare in every other way, except when interviewing some random person. That is absolutely taught extroversion. Strange, strange man. (I highly resemble this comment.)
I’m in the middle. Extroverted introvert. I dig and *seek* the Spotlight when I *want* to. But the Birthday Song is *known* to be forbidden at any public bday dinners. Fuck. That. Shit. But I can also talk (and live) to strangers in a strange-strange land and am totally fine. It’s part of the adventure. But one I chose, I s’pose is the difference. I also have no friends in America, still. However, I do have fun sparks to play with at work.
Me needy type lessy. Sorry if this is also much longer than I anticipated or desired.
*He’s a friendly and loving person, great with kids. He has a habit of always saying really wrong things at the wrong time. Which is always. He has *zero* understanding of women, and his comments to Mom and my SiL are something to put up with.
With him, it really is The Messaging. He’s more on our lines, but he phrases things like someone who hasn’t learned anything since the 1980s, which he largely hasn’t. I try to rephrase things for the family on occasion, sometimes to glide over his failings for them, but also to use them as a legitimate point to be made.
So, greetings from a small, funky hotel in the southwest corner of Washington state, just off the coast.
Totally not handicapped accessible, but the owners made up for it by going and getting my bag for me out of my truck. I found a locals bar about a mile away, beer and wine only, and was able to get a couple pops and a cheese burger with zero hassles. Cool little town, will come again!
https://ibb.co/tT0R8Bw0
Weโre going to head to seaside OR in a couple weeks. Likely not too far from where youโre at. Last time we were over there we went a rock the bridge into WA from Astoria.
Havenโt spent more time on the WA coast than that.
I am about 30 miles north of the bridge, in Ocean Park.
I always liked Seaside, though others don’t.
Going there tomorrow. Seaside was my favorite as a kid. Still have the bumper cars there, I think. Less enamored as an adult. I miss the agate shops and roadside knickknack shops that used to be all over.
Seaside has worn on us as adults. We were there last year during the wiener dog festival.
It was disgusting.
And the Karens who have taken over haystack rock. Total jerks.
Still the best beach for the kids though.
Yeah bumper cars and arcade are still there. Pretty modern arcade though. Nice little coffee shop with homemade pastries on the way to the promenade too.
My Birman kittah, we call him asshole because yes, he is.
https://www.glibertarians.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/20250902_192559-scaled.jpg
8 months and a great cat
Aw… fluffy.
Top 3 of my favorite kits so far, he’s a personality and a love beast, top notch
/lucky Bobbo
Oh yeah, blue eyes, beautiful
Epstein as a pedophile
That makes me nuts, too. That word makes me think “Kiddie diddler. Get the rope.”
It’s malum in se.
Epstein was an ephebophile. malum prohibitum in this country and certainly gross, but a whole different class of wrong.
100% the British gall that killed herself was in on it. She was no victim.
Sure, but I’m never going to remember that word and probably can’t pronounce it.
It’s the difference between “he wants to fuck teenagers” and “he wants to fuck kids”.
Both gross but in really different ways.
I think my life is finally getting in order and I can chill.
I still have many things to do, but I feel I have time now, time enough,
/glasses break….
Chill is good. Work is crazy after 2 months but following 13 months on disability it’s totally chill.
Chill is, indeed, good:
https://ibb.co/Q7S895jk
Nice.
VT, at my wife’s elderly cousin’s place, looking at Sugarbush.
He’s 86, lost his wife in February, has Parkinson’s (or something like it), prostate cancer, and is still planning to ski this winter.
Has a BS, MS, and PhD in ChemE from MIT and an MBA from Yale. His various careers were amazing.
He’s an inspiration.
(Great wine cellar, too)
From the little things you’ve mentioned, I think my wife is going to be going down a similar road re implants. Is the wait time due to healing from whatever before they put those in or just to get a slot/have the implants made? Not meaning to pry so ignore if it’s intruding, just wondering what we’re in for.
I’ve been certified an introvert by several puh-sychologists, psychiatrists, scientologists, and witch doctors. Seems to add up. I’ve lived alone and been single for basically my entire adult life, more than 22 years now.
On the other hand, I was Scrooge in a school play in 6th grade (because in addition to being a misanthrope, I was the only one who remember all the lines) and class president (I was nominated by the most popular kid as a joke).
When I was 4 or so, I was with my parents at the natural history museum in DC, and at some diorama, I pointed out all the dinosaurs and gave an impromptu lecture: “oh, that’s so-and-so-saurus and lived during the whatchamacallit period…” I was a little professor. I stopped doing that a few years after being called a know-it-all and became very taciturn. Schopenhauer said that intelligence is generally despised, and that’s been my experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci7VK75sMsY
Basically, saying smart stuff makes other people feel stupid and so they seek to tear you down.
I do enjoy socializing here with the many friendly smart people. I’ve met about a dozen of you in meatspace.
You’re also kind of quiet, but dinner was cool, memories
We met at the LA meet-up in 2015? Or the Frisco meet-ups in 2016? My main memories from those are ruffling the feathers of a certain commenter by saying he looked like Dane Cook and getting driven back and forth from San Fran to DLI because the consensus was I was too plastered. Naturally, my rental car got broken into, and not wanting to drive it back to Monterey, I dropped it off at the agency in San Fran, paid the fee for the broken window and transit, and was promptly banned from that rental agency. I forget whether it was Hertz or Enterprise.
Oh yeah, many thanks to the mystery glib (reasonoid) who chauffered me. His real name is Mike if I remember correctly. USAF(?) missileer vet (he mentioned having a pocket rocket). Not sure about his moniker here or at the before place.
Public speaking is a skill most people can learn regardless of personality. I did stand-up comedy because I like making people laugh and have some ability for it, not because I wanted attention. For similar reasons, I took teaching jobs.
That is me at parties. I hate attention but I do like making people laugh. I’d probably be a good misanthropic, self-loathing comedian in another life.
Someone else still uses โmeatspace?!โ
Mind blown.
An Army pal drew a funny cartoon of it (an astronaut floating next to a big piece of bacon) when I used that term in an email to her back in 2016.
I wish I’d printed out that cartoon and kept it.
Our Zoom is an interesting study in introverts and extroverts.
lol It is that.
Yeah. I feel bad sometimes because I have to interrupt to get a word in edgewise. So I sidestep that by putting stuff in the chat. Also often I hang out until there’s only one or two other people.
Yep…3-5 persons on there is perfect. Though, I really enjoy just listening when its larger.
Then there is Swissy. Just messing…sorta.
I’ve found that conversation and small talk when unavoidable is a good chance to practice elicitation techniques.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZgUTX3VNQ4
Basically, don’t ask questions. Make statements that goad the other person to unintentionally reveal truths. You can state slightly incorrect info, very wrong info, or use both in combination/repetition in a gambit I call “the absent-minded professor”.
“So you said it was a red Ford.”
“No! Again, it was a blue Chevy.”
Ive used that…mainly to expose frauds who pretend they are good techs and I dont want to directly call them out.
Ah so news has moved from “ding-dong ditch” to “similar to the door kicking challenge”
Not saying the kid should be shot..but uh, dont kick on someones door in the middle of the night.
So passe, they it in the 50’s
Fiery flame poos for the win.
A pile of dogshit in a paper bag lit on fire then ring the doorbell
Ringing old man Winters bell at supper time is a tad different than at 11pm.
In certain locations you would be be shot, but hey cali in the 70s, heh
“Kicking” or “kicking in” the door at 11pm?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter got you shot.
The “challenge” is to rap on the door and kick as if you are in a 90s action film.
So while not kicking it in, gives the impression of someone trying to gain entry.
Well, the Chinese approach is to make children so exhausted and demoralized from school that they have no energy for crime or protests.
Chinese elementary student cries over 10 feet of homework:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBgHtzkGxo
At my first US teaching job, the teacher I was hired to replace said that her students should be more tired than her at the end of the day, so she assigned lots of busywork. It was at that moment I realized that the job probably wasn’t going to turn out well. I understand her rationale, but it’s still depressing.
I’m… not seeing a problem.
A musical aid for the problem Rhywun doesn’t see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZwxTX2pWmw
and a comedy aid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXw7LYWNi5E
Social media is a cancer volume MCMLXIX
Yes, we did it.
By the way, how you doing buddy? Read you were helping move and still tossin the plastic amongst the trees?
Yeah, 3 days moving MLW, my hip is jacked up. Ill be back on the course soon enough, til then Owe!
Owie? Ouch?
Dunno, cheers!
Many other cultures are far less squeamish about beating misbehaving children, including teenagers. Can’t say I approve, but I understand why they do it.
I read a story the other day I think from Baltimore about a 15-year-old who’s been arrested 18 times for crimes including robbery and carjacking. Yeah, that’s a paddlin’ in my libertopia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKiLfH3DVGc
I suspect if the Columbine bullies and shooters had been paddled at the right times (most likely middle school), there’d have been no killing spree. No way to know for sure, of course. Beating students was routine in Tanzania. I saw it often and rarely intervened. There were no school shootings, but there was almost a school riot following a brawl with a rival school that left one student dead. It’s human nature to mob up especially when emotions are high, and it can be over something as trivial as a school soccer game. Vonnegut said everyone’s in a granfalloon – a proud and meaningless association of humans.
As usual I think the optimal path lies somewhere in the middle of two extremes.
Kids need a “firm hand” but beating is wrong. As is the pretense of being their “friend”.
Yeah. I told my students I try to be friendly but can’t be their friend.
I think having students copy books is a constructive punishment. It forces them to read, practice handwriting, and build vocabulary. Doubtless students and parents would complain. Being a busywork taskmaster is not much fun either.
If I had to do it over again, I have persistent troublemakers do sudoku puzzle books until they were ready to behave. Those puzzles at least build some reasoning ability, and if they get stuck, the answers are in the back.
I thought the principal and other teachers were dumb at first for giving them word searches and such to do. I mean, it’s better than just letting them play on their phones/laptops but not by much.
I had a straightforward philosophy raising my daughters. They could do just about anything that wouldn’t lead to permanent injury or death. They also had to be polite to other people. If I said something, I meant it. They knew I supported them and was in charge. It worked well for everyone.
I was raised in a gradually more lenient manner, but it was similar to what Chafed describes. No homemade explosives and no experiments on pets. Clean up any blood from fights with your brother, etc.
The first time I made my brother bleed profusely, just sighed and said I should get used to cleaning up crime scenes because I’d probably grow up to be a serial killer. We both had a good laugh about that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOFVXckEiQs
Either extreme is definitely not good, but where the ideal point is seems to really depend on the kid’s personality (which has many, many factors that go into shaping it, some of which are biological and still barely known to us).
I’ve seen both strict and relaxed parenting styles produce great successes and horrible failures.
My stepdad told me one time, “You can read all the parenting books you want, but at the end of the day, you’re winging it.” It makes sense; there are some general truths about raising kids, but ultimately, they’re not tomato plants. There’s no manual with neat instructions that tell you “If X happens, do Y”. You have to figure most of it out as you go.
One of my Peace Corps pals has a few young children (ages about 3 to 6). She said that saying “stop”, “no”, and “don’t” gets tiresome and doesn’t work. So her strategy is instead of saying “no/don’t/stop x” is “can you do y?!” Reframing it as a challenge seems to work.
OK, but in life, everyone eventually hears “no/don’t/stop” and there are consequences for not listening that can increasingly steep with age and the severity of the offense.
This guy seems like a tyrant, but his parenting advice is somehow popular. He suggested a young girl be locked in a room for a month for slapping her grandma. Damn guy, just spank her.
I could see there being advantages to the metric system, probably in the form of reduced errors when calculating between larger and smaller units.
But people act like “switching to metric” would just mean signing a paper in Congress. It wouldn’t. It would involve astronomical costs since any machine or piece of software involving imperial measurements has to be retrofitted. In fact, it’s guaranteed there would be tremendous errors made during the switchover since some workers would mistakenly reference the old imperial numbers instead of metric.
It would also require a shitload of coercion, which I’m not OK with.
We already use metric in the US anyway in a lot of settings, healthcare being one. At my boring job, I look over 20 medical prescriptions per hour on average (at last count) and I’ve never seen one using imperial measurements. Everything is written and dispensed in metric.
And even metric countries persist in using weirdo measurements. I used to be on a lot of fitness forums, and the UK people would razz the Americans about using stupid irregular “pounds”… Yet I’d see those same Brits saying shit like “yea mate i’m down to 12 stone 5 from last month”. Ooooh, so they just like to get high and mighty about their super-duper rational system of measurement, but they don’t even use it! I’ve heard from JJ McCullough on YouTube (who seems fairly reliable on these matters) that Canadians pretty much only use metric when it’s something mandated by the government, like food package sizes. He says that nobody would use CM to describe how tall they are; they’d just use feet.
Metric fails to catch on for the same reason the Chinese writing system persists.
“Because we’ve always done it that way.”
“My car gets 40 rods to the hogshead, and that’s the way I likes it.”
Modern programming languages were invented because Grace Hopper found out that many people refuse to learn mathematical notation.
People describe me as an introvert.
I can be somewhat extroverted around people I know pretty well. But new people, absolutely not. Any job where I’m constantly introduced to new people is a no-no. I was answering “customer service” phone calls once, and I was so fucking drained after every day at work that every non-work area of life started to suffer.
Things that don’t belong on a club sandwich:
Ham
Avocado
Cheese
Mustard
Club sandwich shall consist of
Toasted white bread
Mayo
Iceberg lettuce
Tomato
Sliced deli turkey
Normal thickness regular bacon
Frilly toothpick or plastic sword
Eh, like OMWC, I don’t like mayo. I’m an adventurous eater, but I have to draw the line somewhere. I like vinegar, eggs, and olive oil, but not all together in the form of mayo. Kind of weird, I guess. It all goes to the same place.
I hate how mayo condiments are standard in so many places. It’s probably why Quizno’s went bankrupt. What a shame. I miss the singing gerbils who loved subs.
I like Cuban sandwiches, but at too many places, mayo is standard. For me, a good Cuban sandwich has lightly toasted bread, roast pork, ham, cheese, mustard, pickles y nada otra. Pulled pork and BBQ sauce are acceptable variations.
Maybe an actual, technical “club sandwich” is those things you’ve listed… But I’m just saying, a really dope sandwich is (in order from bottom to top):
Slightly toasted bread (you shouldn’t cut up the roof of your mouth when you bite into it)
A sandwich spread of about 3 parts mayo to 1 part gochujang
Broccoli sprouts
Turkey
Crispy bacon
Swiss cheese
Avocado
Red onion sliced to quantum thinness
Tomato (lightly sprinkled with salt first, duh)
Lettuce
And must be cut into triangles.
….and this bacon is cooked…..? Crispy? Cuz not crispy is delicious but doesnt bite off properly. You end up pulling the sandwich apart if the bacon is not crispy. This is important.
^this guy gets it
I just set up my 590 for action again, getting nervous, things arent quite normal of late
Mpx slugs and Fiachhi number 2, that should work,
And I live a nice place, shame anything happens to it.
As long as you don’t accidentally shoot a hole in your wall like I did with my Zastava (Serbian AK), you’re doing better than me. Forgot to clear it and somehow it fired. I swear I didn’t touch the trigger. It’s all good because it scared the FBI agents who came to my apartment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQuTDQBV29A
I have slightly different model than one shown above. Mag well, 5.56, no full auto, and works best with steel case .233. Accuracy is poor, but fun to shoot and looks cool.
Scroll down a bit to see yours truly:
https://platedlizard.blogspot.com/2025/07/playing-dress-up.html
Why did it take so long for me to come across this awesome battle song?
March of Cambreadth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Jv-d80H1g
Because you don’t read John Ringo.
Morning, Glibs.
You’re up early.
No I’m not.
Today I got up with my alarm.
I get up with alarm most days. The world is just alarming.
No it’s not.
Get off the internet for a while, you’ll get a better perspective.
It’s not the internet, it’s the guys relining the main under my street. They drive past my house at “Why am I awake, it is still dark o’clock” in a truck with steel plates piled in the back, and there’s a bump so it sounds like the gates of Hell are slamming shut. Very alarming way to wake up.
Good morning, U, Ted’S., Sean, Suthen, and Stinky!
How goes things with you and yours?
Very well, thanks! I got a good head start on month-end reports yesterday, then got an exercise session in after work. All the other inhabitants are doing OK, too.
How are you? If you got up with your alarm, does that mean you’re at least getting closer to the sleep schedule you prefer?
I don’t know. Yesterday I slept from 3pm-10pm, then from 11pm-5am. If between today and tomorrow I manage a normal time I’ll start to be optimistic. Tomorrow afternoon, a nap would cost me a $30 no-show fee for the barber, since I’m slated for a haircut.
Sounds as if you’re on the right track, and a no-show fee is certainly incentive to stay awake!
๐โโ๏ธ๐ณ
Happy hump day, 80s style!
๐ชโ๏ธ๐จ๐ปโ๐ผ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLzDFbGdL5M
๐ถ๐ถ
The styles of the 80s were kinda nightmarish.
I make no apologies for the music/video choice.
What music and/or video?
Morning all. I always miss the best articles.
First, as has been pointed out many times, words don’t have meanings. Meanings have words. This opens the door for endless mendacity. When you spot someone engaging in that kind of obfuscation start ignoring them.
Thinking is merely talking to yourself and talking is thinking out loud. This is why you structure your thinking in the way your first language is structured. I certainly agree with you on the small groups bit.
I am going to blurt this out because it is not something I have rehearsed so I am putting it together as I type. Bear with me if it comes out as gibberish.
Have you seen this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9xnhmFA7Ao
Single ants cant really solve problems, at least not complex ones. The hive mind on the other hand can solve difficult problems. In the ‘hive mind’ each ant acts kind of like a single cell while the hive of all of them acting together constitutes a ‘brain’.
People are more like that than they realize. In isolation a person can function and solve problems but eventually will go insane. We need other people, other minds, other sentiences to interact with.
In a way people talking to each other are acting like the ants…raising consciousness so that the conversation becomes a kind of ‘thinking’ with the cells (individuals) interacting with each other and the group being a kind of ‘brain’.
Does that make any sense? Maybe I need coffee? Whiskey? Just shut up?
Think of talking to other people as engaging in a kind of higher thinking but it is ‘thinking out loud’. The group is a brain that you are a part of.
I am not sure that is a very good explanation. *grumble grumble is the coffee finished dripping yet?*
โWhiskey?โ
Only clear booze before noon, Suthen, or youโre an alcoholic (unless you put it in your coffee which doesnโt count).
It does make sense. No man is truly an island and we just arent wired to be completely isolated.
I can go a week or two in solitude if I needed to. I am very comfortable with my own thoughts and being alone, but it has limits.
Ditto on the good article, and comments.
Frank Herbert in writing Dune introduced me to General Semantics. IIRC there was a line about how certain thoughts only exist in certain languages. We are wired with the need to be social, and thus communicate, but we as a species are astonishingly different in how we do that (and that’s not even counting the subtler variations within a language/culture).
Metric vs Imperial.
They both have advantages. I find the metric people more than a little bit annoying. The metric system is arbitrary, the imperial is not.
The notion that the metric system is based on some kind of universal principle is ridiculous. It is not a reflection of the nature of things anymore than math is ‘the language of the universe’. Math is a language that we invented to help us understand things we cannot intuit. It works well for what it is intended but there is not ‘math’ existing out there somewhere between the stars that we ‘discovered’. The metric system works well in the lab because you can more easily describe very large and very small things. the math is easier because you are just moving decimals around.
The imperial system was developed by people who made useful things – buildings, boats, chairs, roads, lamps, clothing….all sorts of things. It works best for that.
Leave the metric in the lab, the imperial in the workshop. Also, stop looking down your nose at me, I dont want to see your boogers. It just make you look like a monkey.
Yes, imperial is superior for building things because of ratios.
If I need a strip of a third of a sheet of drywall, in decimal that’s 1.33333 feet.
12 as a base is superior because it’s divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.
Also, all my triangles are 345 triangles.
Ive met many people that cannot understand ratios.
Yes. The metric system is for Euro sissies who are incapable of understanding ratios.
Volume is also binary from gill to gallon, though pottle has fallen out of use. A 2 oz jig exists taking it down to ounces.
I assume people complaining about non-metric just want to bash the US.
Tell them to take up the metric calendar – with its ten day weeks containing only one weekend day off in those ten.
Yeah, there is a lot of that going on too. When they learn which side of the road they are supposed to drive on I might listen to them.
Ugh….I was going to make some kind of remark the other day to someone here and wanted to include the scene in full metal jacket where the guys are posing a dead enemy soldier for photos but I could not find the scene.
Apparently people’s sensibilities are such now that more than that scene has been cut from the movie and memory holed.
Are we pretending now that evil does not exist? Drag queens for kindergarteners is ok somehow but war is somethiing we have to hide?
suhโ fam
whats goody
/hey from West Vargina
Good morning, homey! How are things in almost heaven?
It’s got factories out of work silhouetted in the back?
Greetings from East Virginia.
When I think of Easter Virginia, my mind fills with the image of miles and miles of fireworks stores along the road from Maryland to the bay bridge and tunnel.
๐๐๐งจ
That’s Fourth of July Virginia. Easter Virginia has more bunnies.
One more bit on the introvert/extrovert – thinking out loud vs thinking silently . Putrid is correct, small groups are best. The ants are superior to us in this regard – the more of them there are the smarter they get.
The queen of ants or bees serves one function. Make more babies that grow up to work. The beauty of socialism.