LasagnaLover's recent activity
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Comment on Fellow Canadians, what's on your mind this week? in ~talk
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Comment on Fellow Canadians, what's on your mind this week? in ~talk
LasagnaLover Link ParentI'm going to challenge this here... though I want to hedge this by saying I do definitely wish we had a greater cultural appreciation for winter. It's something I personally enjoy a lot myself....it's also depression central, and as Mowat says, largely the result of having all of our creature comforts at home.
I'm going to challenge this here... though I want to hedge this by saying I do definitely wish we had a greater cultural appreciation for winter. It's something I personally enjoy a lot myself.
Mowat is an author and an environmentalist. He is not a doctor, psychologist, or scientist of any kind. Not only that, but he's repeatedly criticized for presenting fiction as fact. Taking his assertions of what causes depression is dangerous.
We have several studies proving Seasonal Affective Disorder. Now, I do agree that a healthier attitude towards outdoor community and activity in the winter would be a great way to combat SAD, I see it as more of a problem with modern society's (and arguably late stage capitalism's) continuing isolation of the individual, rather than like, heaters and tea causing me to stay inside.
I guess this is a roundabout way of saying I agree with your conclusion lol, I just disagree strongly with your premise.
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Comment on Game recommendations, specifically (round 2) in ~games
LasagnaLover LinkI would love a recommendation for my partner. She loves board games, but has only ever been able to get into one video game: Civ 5. Currently she has over 400 hours in it. The only other game she...I would love a recommendation for my partner. She loves board games, but has only ever been able to get into one video game: Civ 5. Currently she has over 400 hours in it. The only other game she has ever liked is Spy Party, which she has about 12 hours in. She has tried a few others with no success. After some trial and error we have figured out some of her (very) specific preferences.
Likes:
- Historical/historical fiction games. Especially modern (WII - present. Especially cold-war) history, or classical (Greek, Babylonia, etc) history.
- Espionage
- Political intrigue
- Emergent narrative
- Turn based games
- Logic/deduction games
Her dislikes mainly are just the opposite of her likes:
- Fantasy/sci-fi
- Real-time games, especially stressful ones. I think real-time games that include a tactical pause feature would be fine though.
- Cartoonish representations (for example my partner hates civ 6 purely for its art.) I think she would be ok with hyper stylization though like Okami or Ape Out (though the gameplay of both she would hate)
She is fine with complexity and length. The board game Twilight Struggle is one of her all time favorites which is notoriously complex.
Games she has tried but did not like:
- Assassins creed odyssey (she saw me playing and loved the history, but the real time combat was too stressful for her)
- Hitman (same reason as AC:O)
- Overcooked (friends wanted to play so she gave it a go)
- Papers Please (the aesthetic turned her off)
- Return to the Obra-Dinn (same as Papers Please)
Now, I know this isn't a board game thread, but I'll include a few of her favorite board games incase it helps:
- Coup
- Twilight struggle
- Warchest
- Evolution
Video Games I plan to have her try:
- Crusader Kings 3
- some version of command and conquer (hoping the RTS isn't too stressful)
- Advance Wars
She is very picky, but Civ 5 has been a massively positive hobby for her and has become one of her main relaxation outlets since she discovered it. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~talk
LasagnaLover LinkHey, I went through experiences that are weirdly similar to where you find yourself now. For me, it was right after my undergrad. I felt incredibly lost, was depressed and didn't even realize (me,...Hey, I went through experiences that are weirdly similar to where you find yourself now.
For me, it was right after my undergrad. I felt incredibly lost, was depressed and didn't even realize (me, depressed? No way, that's for other people). And most strikingly similarly, I developed incredibly debilitating headaches near the end of my school degree which was INCREDIBLY isolating and problematic.
There's Two things I want to share with your about my experience:
- I partially agree with part of what the other commentor said about taking a break. I'm definitely not saying drop out though, I'm just saying if you take a year before your masters you can take time to sort out your headaches. You are living with chronic pain at a young age, and like me at the time, it sounds like you might not have come to terms with what that means on the level you need to. Taking a year off before I really jumped into my full career was the best decision I've made. During that time I started seeing doctors and taking care of my health, and finally found ways to mitigate and deal with the pain. I also got diagnosed with depression that was co-morbid with the headaches and was able to treat that as well.
- it never feels this way when you're in the throes of it, but things do get better. It's a few years since I was in your position, and I can gladly say that I am happily married, have a good social circle, and really love my career. Most importantly though, my depression and headaches are both managed and treated. The headaches are still a big part of my life, but I went from living with headaches 70% of my waking hours, down to about 25%.
I obviously don't know you, and I can't ever really know what you're going through yourself, but I want to stress that your situation can absolutely improve and you will find yourself much happier one day in the future. I hope after your undergrad you're able to take some time for yourself and your health and that things turn around for you.
Fuck chronic headaches. You can get through it though.
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Comment on Why don't we help each other? in ~talk
LasagnaLover Link ParentHey I love your post, it's very inspiring! Can I ask what you mean by: What does that look like? Just trying to get ideas for myself.Hey I love your post, it's very inspiring!
Can I ask what you mean by:
I do unpaid community work online, locally, regionally and nationally in my country.
What does that look like? Just trying to get ideas for myself.
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Comment on What are some corporate websites that you consider extremely reputable sources of information? in ~tech
LasagnaLover LinkI think a short answer to your question (for US based sources) would be: Reuters, or AP, though I would also strongly encourage people interested in this discussion to check out allsides.com (I...I think a short answer to your question (for US based sources) would be: Reuters, or AP, though I would also strongly encourage people interested in this discussion to check out allsides.com (I have some gripes with allsides, but I think it's a solid starting point for people who are starting their education and still developing critical thinking.)
It's an interesting discussion though because judging the generalized accuracy of a news source is incredibly difficult because it presupposes that the one forming judgement has accurate information in the first place to make said judgement. I mean, unless we read an outlet's coverage of an event we personally witnessed, we can never really verify it's accuracy. Allsides has, imo, a pretty good write up about this here.
We then also have to consider if/how bias affects the accuracy of information. For example, two different outlets could report the facts accurately, but the presence of bias will shape that accuracy no matter what, whether intentionally or not. Again, allsides is helpful at illustrating this and does a good job of breaking down how events are portrayed by different publications.
To illustrate this point let's take a look at this bloomberg article that was posted here a few days ago.In Cold War II, The US Risks Playing the Soviet Role (linking to the comment thread rather than the actual article for context.)
The top comment on here by Nosewings illustrates an issue I take with Bloomberg's coverage here. I'll copy the segment they highlighted.
Perhaps to reinforce this narrative, would-be presidential candidate and current California Governor Gavin Newsom organized a long-overdue cleanup of San Francisco, the once-lovely city that he and his fellow Democrats have turned into a dystopia with such absurd policies as “injection sites” for junkies to do illegal drugs, effective decriminalization of shoplifting and officially sanctioned shanty towns. This effort was not thought necessary for the people who live in northern California and pay the taxes that make dystopia possible. But with the leader of the Chinese Communist Policy coming to town, Newsom & Co. knew what had to be done. . . .
Is this statement true? Well, it is true that SF has safe injection sites, but does that make it accurate? The bias here is evident, and if you set aside any personal feelings you have on the actual topic at hand, it's hard to disagree that the writing style and bias shapes the presented accuracy. (On a semi-related note safe-injection sites drastically lower death rates and HIV infection rates)
I think this is all to say, that one of the reasons many people in my experience typically rate Reuters as factual is that it is often dry reporting that is (hopefully!) factual without much of the tone and bias we see in the above snippet.
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~health.mental
LasagnaLover Link ParentI resonate with your sentiment behind "the labels are just for insurance companies anyway" in that, ultimately a label does not affect how we feel personally and internally, that's just how we...I resonate with your sentiment behind "the labels are just for insurance companies anyway" in that, ultimately a label does not affect how we feel personally and internally, that's just how we are.
I do think that it's worth cautioning about three very important counterpoints to this though, for how labels can be very important to us as individuals as well.
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Different labels = different treatment. Getting this wrong can be disastrous. In the case of bipolar specifically, anti-depressants can significantly increase the manic episodes from bipolar disorder. On a personal, anecdotal note, this happened to an acquaintance recently which led to a suicide attempt and has really stuck with me.
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Labels can help us find groups affected by the same patterns and diagnoses. Since I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago, you're totally right in that the label doesn't change much personally. I'm just me, and my feelings are just my feelings. But, it has been immensely comforting to be able to speak with other friends and family about their experiences with depression.
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It helps others understand you. There's some people in life, (more or less depending on your geographic area) who really struggle to understand the experience of poor mental health. For these people, I've found the label of "depression" to be be very helpful for having them understand that sometimes when I flake or cancel an activity, it's not them, or even me, it's my depression.
Anyway, I didn't mean for this to turn into such a soapbox, so apologies! Again, in general I agree with your sentiment - and I also have a similar mindset to being monkeys on a rock. I find both of these things quite comforting, but since OP sounds like they have been diagnosed with depression, but think they might have bipolar, it's worth splitting hairs on the label imo.
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Comment on Menu and decor 'reprehensible,' some Kitigan Zibi members say - ‘Indigenous fusion’ restaurant raises concerns about appropriation in ~food
LasagnaLover Link ParentHey I wanted to join this discussion. I'm no where near an expert, but I think discussions about cultural appropriation are really interesting because they are often blurry. But as a (white,...- Exemplary
Hey I wanted to join this discussion. I'm no where near an expert, but I think discussions about cultural appropriation are really interesting because they are often blurry. But as a (white, non-indiginous) Ontarian that spends a little time in an Indigenous community some things in your comment and this article stood out to me.
No one makes a fuss about any other culture having their food appropriated or "fusion'ed"
I don't think this is a fair or accurate statement. Googling anything along the lines of "cultural appropriation fusion cuisine" will bring up several articles about this very thing. Here's one article from Dallas about a Taiwanese-American unhappy about this very thing.. FWIW in my anecdotal experience I agree with you about about people I've interacted with happy to see their culture's food becoming popular, it's more the handwaving "no one else" I think is problematic.
Even if we accept your premise that this restaurant is a way to celebrate indigenous cuisine, it would require the food served to actually be of indigenous origin. Most of it is not. I'll highlight two that stood out to me.
1. Using Poutine in many dishes.
Many people associate poutine with Canada. It's probably the first dish that most would say when thinking of Canadian cuisine, but it is most definitely not indigenous. It was invented in Quebec in the 1950s.
2. The Before Sundance Plate
This platter is chicken wings, chicken fingers and poutine. Nothing about this is indigenous cuisine. There is no "fusion" here. The only relationship is that the menu designer decided to associate it with the Sun Dance. How is this dish and the ceremony related? How is this celebrating indigenous cuisine?
So what can we do? What's the point?
You haven't asked this question directly, but I've seen it elsewhere in this comment section, and I think it relates to your statement:
If they don't see the benefits of promoting a watered down version of their culture to the world then what can you do?
Well, for starters something we can do is listen. When there are indigenous people saying "this makes me uncomfortable" and "I don't think Canadians should be supporting this" we can listen instead of waving our hands and ignoring the problem.
It's true that you, and probably everyone reading this is not even anywhere close to this restauraant and thus couldn't patronize it. But you can listen and read about it, and if someone you know brings it up, you can talk about the issue. You don't need to go on a crusade against this restaurant, fly out to Ottawa and join a protest, but I think saying "what can you do?" Is disenguous.
There's lots you can do - always.
Yeah I generally agree with what you write here, especially your last paragraph. I also don't mean to overly detract from the value of artists, writers or cultural critics to society, we could use more of both right now.
I just hesitate anytime discussion of public health type decisions include material from non-medical/policy experts.