Asinine's recent activity

  1. Comment on Megathread: April Fools' Day 2026 on the internet in ~talk

  2. Comment on University at forty in ~talk

    Asinine
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    I was proud that I managed to get a 4-year degree before I turned 40 (just a few months). I went back at 35, and they jerked me around with my previous credits - I had to retake a number of...

    I was proud that I managed to get a 4-year degree before I turned 40 (just a few months). I went back at 35, and they jerked me around with my previous credits - I had to retake a number of classes I shouldn't have.
    That being said, I had been out of higher education for a while so revisiting helped me keep decent grades. But it was awkward to some of my classmates that I was mid/late 30s, not that I was the only one, but I was way more like them (no kids, I look young, didn't already have a career, vs the parents who seem to be more in your boat, who I kept trying to do study groups with but they always had weird schedules).
    All that being said, I got my degree, and I got a career and should be able to catch up on my missed time for savings (401k) and whatnot. It would be a lot different if I was in your boat, but I worked full time overnight at a hardware store when I was in school to help pay bills, so it's not like it was a walk in the park.

    All that to say: you know you, and you need to do what you know you can do. If you can take fewer classes for an easier load, do it. If you can't, then there's that. My biggest concern was that most "kids" tried to memorize previous tests and not the concepts underlying the material - I had to learn what was going on because I've been in school enough to know I suck at memorization. I need to understand, and that plays into how I study and whatnot. So, if you have those concepts for yourself down, you should be good.

    Good luck and have fun!

    2 votes

  3. Comment on Ottawa's big bet on world's largest cricket farm ran into a simple problem: the 'yuck factor' in ~food

    Asinine
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    There's also no reason to eat meat, dairy, or non-plant-based, as many vegans are quick to remind us. Not that I adhere to that line of thought, but I'm not agreeing with you on this one. I've...

    I've said this before on Tildes but I'll say it again: there's no reason to eat bugs.

    There's also no reason to eat meat, dairy, or non-plant-based, as many vegans are quick to remind us. Not that I adhere to that line of thought, but I'm not agreeing with you on this one. I've eaten a few bugs, just as a novelty (not counting the spider amount we allegedly eat during our lifetime), and I have no qualms trying new stuff. That has included the sweet and savory tofu restaurant in NYC, crawfish, pferdwurst, and a number of other oddities.

    Just because it's not everyone's cup of tea doesn't mean "there's no reason" is a reason to avoid it. ;)

    11 votes

  4. Comment on Your daily coffee may be protecting your brain, 43-year study finds in ~health.mental

    Asinine
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    No, coffee typically percolates, as you mention. And I've now re-read up on the internet, and I'm wrong. I [mistakenly] thought stronger teas (black) could reach around 80 mg, but this is not what...

    No, coffee typically percolates, as you mention. And I've now re-read up on the internet, and I'm wrong. I [mistakenly] thought stronger teas (black) could reach around 80 mg, but this is not what I'm seeing now... the caffeine I am drinking is not protecting my brain enough apparently. :)

    And, I typically was thinking that time was the key effect - so while coffee typically can produce more caffeine, stronger caffeinated teas could compete. I do not see data for this now, so there's that.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Commonly misspelled words quiz in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    Every day I find a new MP sketch I haven't seen before is glorious. Thank you!

    Every day I find a new MP sketch I haven't seen before is glorious. Thank you!

    1 vote

  6. Comment on Your daily coffee may be protecting your brain, 43-year study finds in ~health.mental

    Asinine
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    I don't play CoD, so I don't teabag. Sorry.

    I don't play CoD, so I don't teabag. Sorry.

  7. Comment on Your daily coffee may be protecting your brain, 43-year study finds in ~health.mental

    Asinine
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    Quite interesting. I actually was really looking into this in Jan-Mar of 2020, just before covid hit, as I was trying to figure which had the most. None of my info was about dry anything - that...

    From cursory research, it seems that while caffeine by dry weight may be higher in tea than roasted coffee beans, the caffeine per cup of drink is almost always lower in tea due to amount used and strength of the extraction. Around 30-70mg for 8oz of tea versus 90-120mg for coffee.

    Quite interesting. I actually was really looking into this in Jan-Mar of 2020, just before covid hit, as I was trying to figure which had the most. None of my info was about dry anything - that really wouldn't matter to me because I wasn't using anything dry.
    I know for a fact (and I have crap for memory, but I actually put it in a spreadsheet on my work laptop, as I had a lot of downtime and was being given bs intern-esque assignments) that teas generally had higher caffeine content simply because of the steeping time, whereas coffee could hit those numbers. What I remember is that coffee could surpass with some espresso roasts (and I'm not 100% sure on that data, it's been a while), the crazy-high caffeine bean types, and french pressing. But at the time I used a prepackaged bag of ground coffee and/or keurig-type drink maker, which also doubled for the teas I consumed. So the pods I believe typically gave more caffeine for coffee than tea, though ... honestly, I don't remember, and yes, I spent that much time working figuring this stuff out bwahaha.

    But yeah, I am speaking as a generic American who is likely atypical simply because I drink both coffee and tea.

  8. Comment on Your daily coffee may be protecting your brain, 43-year study finds in ~health.mental

    Asinine
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    Yeah, but I'm talking about more typical usages. Just an espresso or cuppa vs tea, not a Monster-esque bomb.

    Yeah, but I'm talking about more typical usages. Just an espresso or cuppa vs tea, not a Monster-esque bomb.

  9. Comment on Your daily coffee may be protecting your brain, 43-year study finds in ~health.mental

    Asinine
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    I thought tea had more typically (also varies with type) than brewed coffee, though french-pressing coffee typically ramps up the steeping time.

    I thought tea had more typically (also varies with type) than brewed coffee, though french-pressing coffee typically ramps up the steeping time.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Meet Kit: Firefox's new mascot in ~tech

    Asinine
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    Most Millennials I know now just think I'm nerdy with computers (which I kinda am) when I say I use Firefox... they know what it is but it didn't come preinstalled so they don't bother. I'm GenX...

    Mozilla really is only known among Xennials and elder Millennials. Gen Z and Alpha don't know much about Mozilla. "Mozilla Firefox" probably sounds to them like "Netscape Navigator" sounds like to older folks: the browser for mom and dad.

    Most Millennials I know now just think I'm nerdy with computers (which I kinda am) when I say I use Firefox... they know what it is but it didn't come preinstalled so they don't bother. I'm GenX and have been using FF since AOL took over Netscape (which I used before, since I have always avoided using Windows' browsers).

    6 votes

  11. Comment on A game involving California’s working payphones in ~games

    Asinine
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    Interesting. I was under the impression most, if not all, were gone. My father in law has stated he was the last payphone repairman in the state (he retired maybe around 10 years ago?), which...

    Interesting. I was under the impression most, if not all, were gone. My father in law has stated he was the last payphone repairman in the state (he retired maybe around 10 years ago?), which makes me wonder what the real story is. I've seen payphones in the other areas I've lived in (I haven't lived in CA since the early 2000s), and most are vandalized, but some still do seem operable.

    Shame I won't be in CA anytime soon heh.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on It's only March, but I'm calling it – Esoteric Ebb is 2026's best RPG and the first worthy successor to Disco Elysium in ~games

    Asinine
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    That's what I saw and exactly what I thought!

    That's what I saw and exactly what I thought!

    1 vote

  13. Comment on What are you no longer a fan of? in ~talk

    Asinine
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    The republican party. I turned 18 in 1996 (first year to vote) and my view started shifting slowly with medicinal marijuana passed in California, then shifting quicker during W. I'm very more...

    The republican party. I turned 18 in 1996 (first year to vote) and my view started shifting slowly with medicinal marijuana passed in California, then shifting quicker during W. I'm very more centered now and quite despise most of the figureheads of the party these days.

    Roller coasters. I grew up scared to death of them, but mid teens I managed to swallow my fear, scream really loud, and learned to enjoy (maybe even love?) them. Then after a long hiatus reaching my early 30s, I rode a few at Cedar Point (not worth visiting Ohio for) and got such a killer headache and didn't really enjoy any. At all.

    Beavis & Butthead. I've obviously grown up enough to realize how stupid they are. The old stuff that I've re-encountered is still moderately amusing (probably due to familiarity), but the 2022 reboot had me cringing so much, just like when I hear kids singsonging "6-7". (GET OFF MY LAWN!!!)

    Beets. I loved canned beets as a kid, but never encountered the raw version. But now, the smell makes me retch, and it's difficult to stomach the fresh stuff, usually encountered on salads or my FiL's stewed version (went over to their house, walked in, told them we had forgotten to go shopping and left for a couple more hours).

    Sweets. I just don't enjoy them like I used to. I remember one easter, my parents let me eat all the candy I wanted and I ended up wishing I could throw it all up at the end of the day (and I abhored vomiting as a kid - the flu would send me into panic attacks). The sweet tooth quickly waned after that. Plus Turkish, I'm sweet enough...

    22 votes

  14. Comment on Photons that aren’t actually there influence superconductivity in ~science

    Asinine
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    I love that I was introduced to something similar to this in a community college physics class (shout out to Mr. Balough at F-City [not a profanity, it's my hometown] College), if he will ever...

    I love that I was introduced to something similar to this in a community college physics class (shout out to Mr. Balough at F-City [not a profanity, it's my hometown] College), if he will ever read this). Granted, it was while the Hadron Collider was being built and string theory was included in the education as well... but my later education (~+15 years after that) caught me up. And I almost follow the article, though as @arch stated, Feynman made things easier to easily follow.

    1 vote

  15. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    That's the one that got me into the rabbit hole of old English I believe in the early 2000s (the Seamus Heany version), because when the movie came out, I remembered thinking... that's not how it...

    That's the one that got me into the rabbit hole of old English I believe in the early 2000s (the Seamus Heany version), because when the movie came out, I remembered thinking... that's not how it happened! Now I need to go find it, though I think most of my old books are gone through the moves and my attempt to get my SO to declutter. Also, to be fair, I don't really read much these days...

    3 votes

  16. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    What is your native language? I suspect it isn't a Latin-, Germanic-, or Scandinavian-based language?

    What is your native language? I suspect it isn't a Latin-, Germanic-, or Scandinavian-based language?

    3 votes

  17. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    Yeah, my first German teacher actually highlighted this - his doctorate was in middle-age German, so he utilized that to help us bridge between the languages. He utilized how the thorn looks kind...

    I figured out that "ic" was Iike German "ich, or "I" in English.

    Yeah, my first German teacher actually highlighted this - his doctorate was in middle-age German, so he utilized that to help us bridge between the languages. He utilized how the thorn looks kind of like a capital D, then compared words like danke (thank), Donner (thunder), and Durst (thurst).

    3 votes

  18. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    That makes sense, as yeah, [from what I understand] the characters are each their own syllable instead of breaking things down more. I know no Asian languages, but I do know that the long/short...

    That makes sense, as yeah, [from what I understand] the characters are each their own syllable instead of breaking things down more.
    I know no Asian languages, but I do know that the long/short pronunciations can change a word's meaning/intent. It kind of attest to what @trim's link showed for the English vowel shift, but on a much larger scale.
    Not gonna lie, I would love to learn an Asian language (any, really, or Russian), except having learned very rudimentary options in Greek showed me that my brain didn't do too well with non-Latin characters... and I realized that 20ish years ago.

    2 votes

  19. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    I've never been to the Caribbean area, though I grew up in California, lived in Texas, Germany (though I did learn a good college try before moving there), and now currently nearby where my...

    I've never been to the Caribbean area, though I grew up in California, lived in Texas, Germany (though I did learn a good college try before moving there), and now currently nearby where my grandmother was raised in New England with a horrid Boston accent. I didn't pick up any southern references, but I will reread it a few more times, as I'm still curious to milk all the knowledge I can out of it without studying anymore haha!

    3 votes

  20. Comment on How far back in time can you understand English? in ~humanities.languages

    Asinine
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    That's where I had the benefit, from both learning a bit of German (which has the ß that really helped me adapt to the "it's not an f, it's a long s" in English) and the wynn, eth, and thorn, from...

    That's where I had the benefit, from both learning a bit of German (which has the ß that really helped me adapt to the "it's not an f, it's a long s" in English) and the wynn, eth, and thorn, from previous readings, though I knew what the "ash" was but didn't know its name. I only picked up on the yogh by noticing the words that would make sense and then working out that it was a "gh".

    4 votes