Akir's recent activity
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Comment on Ugly characters in video games in ~games
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Comment on Asking neighbors to turn down noise in ~life
Akir LinkTo be honest, I don't know how you could have possibly handled it more delicately. You weren't being the jerk here, the people having the party were.To be honest, I don't know how you could have possibly handled it more delicately. You weren't being the jerk here, the people having the party were.
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Comment on Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of April 14 in ~games
Akir Link ParentOh neat! This has been on my "to get" list for a while; I have no idea why I never added it to my wishlist to get notified of the sale. I think this was made by or with ThorHighHeels who has a...Oh neat! This has been on my "to get" list for a while; I have no idea why I never added it to my wishlist to get notified of the sale.
I think this was made by or with ThorHighHeels who has a youtube channel that I watch. I can't help but be mesmorized by his sense of style.
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Comment on California sets nation-leading limit for carcinogenic chromium-6 in drinking water in ~enviro
Akir LinkThe statement this article makes about the previous legislation being overturned because the government didn't make a good enough study about how expensive mitigation means would be terrifies me....The statement this article makes about the previous legislation being overturned because the government didn't make a good enough study about how expensive mitigation means would be terrifies me. I wish that the article they linked to on that passage actually talked about it because I can't see why anyone should be able to block public health laws because it's too expensive to stop poisoning everyone!
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Comment on Finnish startup hopes solein, protein grown with CO2 and electricity, will cut environmental impact of farming in ~food
Akir LinkThe way the title describes the product makes it sound extremely worrying when it's actually much more mundane. It would be a lot nicer if they would be more direct about what it actually is. It...The way the title describes the product makes it sound extremely worrying when it's actually much more mundane. It would be a lot nicer if they would be more direct about what it actually is. It sounds like it's some kind of yeast, but they never actually classify it beyond "microbe".
I'm not really sure how much luck they will have with this product. I feel like it will only see use in processed food products, and that's only going to happen if it's cheap. It's good that this has a lower environemental impact than vegetables, but that's already very low when you compare it to meat.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentThis is a very good recommendation. It’s very weird that the most down to earth take is coming from a comedian.This is a very good recommendation.
It’s very weird that the most down to earth take is coming from a comedian.
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Comment on Have you had a life-altering change in who you are? in ~talk
Akir Link ParentYeah, I can totally get this. For me it's not so much that I didn't have a personality before I came out as it was that I wasn't allowing myself to be who I really was. I was so deep in the closet...Yeah, I can totally get this. For me it's not so much that I didn't have a personality before I came out as it was that I wasn't allowing myself to be who I really was. I was so deep in the closet I was watching gay porn and just thought it was a fetish. The possibility of me being gay wasn't real to me until I decided to roleplay it on a MUCK. The main reason why I came out was because I was terrified of what my life would look like if I stayed in the closet; I finally understood what a happy future would look like and I realized that I couldn't attain it from where I was.
Don't worry too much about putting a label on your sexuality. I also have a very low sex drive most of the time, but I don't consider myself to be asexual. There are a lot of reasons why sexuality is at the forefront for a lot of gay people, but don't think that it means that you have to conform to that image. There are plenty of other gay men who don't have very high libido.
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Comment on Online shopping - how convenient is it actually? in ~life.style
Akir Link ParentYeah, I find that there are a lot of addicted shoppers these days. I find a lot of the tactics that are used by online stores these days to be sickening. There are many examples of online stores...It's definitely easier to get carried away shopping online, and that can spell trouble for people who are prone to impulse purchases. Shopping addiction is very real and for a lot of people it started online and spiraled from there.
Yeah, I find that there are a lot of addicted shoppers these days. I find a lot of the tactics that are used by online stores these days to be sickening. There are many examples of online stores that have "gamified" their websites and apps to make as many addicts as possible.
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Comment on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism in ~news
Akir Link ParentI think I might be a bit confused about what you are trying to say; I don't understand if you are trying to say that we shouldn't be calling people fascists or if you're just trying to point out...I think I might be a bit confused about what you are trying to say; I don't understand if you are trying to say that we shouldn't be calling people fascists or if you're just trying to point out that the fact that people are doing so is accelerating the pace of our journey towards a civil war.
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Comment on Online shopping - how convenient is it actually? in ~life.style
Akir LinkGenerally speaking, I only buy things online if it's something I either can't get in person or if the price is dramatically better. Last weekend I was at Microcenter and they sell soldering flux...Generally speaking, I only buy things online if it's something I either can't get in person or if the price is dramatically better. Last weekend I was at Microcenter and they sell soldering flux in a syringe for something like $12. But earlier this week I bought five of them from Aliexpress for about half that price. I also bought three LCD screens, for which there are no local distributors. This is usually the case for my occasional electronics hobby.
I grew up poor (and still am, probably), so I'm very sensitive to prices; I frequently trade my time for improvements for price or quality. I shop semi-frequently at grocery stores that are miles from where I live. The grocery stores around me sell apples for an average of $2.49/lb. Going further out will get me apples that are $1.49/lb and are notably better in quality. There's actually a local store that I can get Cosmic Crisps for $0.99/lb, but they've got extremely inconvenient hours.
I very rarely buy food online, because it's usually a terrible deal. Here in the US online food shopping is either Amazon which generally has high prices for grocery, or there's third- or second-party options which are run by middlemen who not only give you an inflated price for the goods, but they charge you additional fees on top of it. The one major exception I have is Butler Soy Curls, which I buy directly from the manufacturer. They're extremely scarce in the markets around me, and buying directly in bulk halves the price.
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Comment on Online shopping - how convenient is it actually? in ~life.style
Akir Link ParentOne thing I like about Amazon which I wish that more online retailers would implement is that they have an AR viewer with many of the items they sell scanned. A lot of the items have important...One thing I like about Amazon which I wish that more online retailers would implement is that they have an AR viewer with many of the items they sell scanned. A lot of the items have important dimensions but they aren't usually something you think of that way, and personally speaking I am absolutely terrible at estimating lengths. AR lets you see it, to scale, as if it were really there. You're still missing touch, of course, but it's much better than simple 2D pictures.
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Comment on NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism in ~news
Akir Link ParentIIRC, NYT has published several articles that claim that Hunter Biden's laptop was real. To my memory the official story as of a year or two ago is that government agencies have managed to verify...IIRC, NYT has published several articles that claim that Hunter Biden's laptop was real. To my memory the official story as of a year or two ago is that government agencies have managed to verify that it used to belong to him, but the path it took to get to them made it an extremely unreliable piece of evidence.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentI think it's safe to say that the current social environment is what had allowed these problems of capitalism that are causing distress. They pointed out that the gen z voice is louder, but less...I think it's safe to say that the current social environment is what had allowed these problems of capitalism that are causing distress. They pointed out that the gen z voice is louder, but less effective. People are less powerful collectively than before. Legislation and governmental rules are now commonly being enacted against popular will. Here in the US we have seen our democratically elected government flounder about while the the appointed supreme court has managed to raze centuries of legal precedent and change the laws dramatically.
I do think that we need to do more to fix the economic problems that our age are suffering from, but right now the only thing that will get that going is a cross-industry general strike, and that's not likely to happen any time soon. It's probably more realistic to expect a revolution.
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Comment on Why the short-lived Calvin and Hobbes is still one of the most beloved and influential comic strips in ~comics
Akir LinkI think that Calvin and Hobbes is and was so influential as something of a cultural fluke. I don't mean to discount the tremendous quality of artistry and ingenuity that Watterson put into it, but...I think that Calvin and Hobbes is and was so influential as something of a cultural fluke. I don't mean to discount the tremendous quality of artistry and ingenuity that Watterson put into it, but at the same time I think it's worth noting that the reason why it was so powerful was because he was lucky enough that the planets were aligned for it to happen.
The thing that makes the comic resonate with people so well is that the artist had a genuine respect and understanding of children. There may be jokes may be aimed at Calvin (the times his father gives him crazy made-up answers to his questions come to mind), but I can't recall when the joke was at his expense; Calvin was never really a bad kid, he was just a kid, and that made him universally relatable.
The planets aligning would be the time and means it was published in. It was a syndicated comic in newspapers, and that meant that it was basically available to everyone, so it got a very wide audience. The author also made an astoundingly good decision to actually end the run rather than run it into the ground. I was upset about when Daisy Owl had finished it's run, but in retrospect it was one of the best things that could have happened to it; I would not find it anywhere nearly as charming as I remember it today if it were still going. One of the last posts actually kind of makes fun of comics that continue well past their prime. There are some legacy comics that have been around forever that are practically unrecognizable from their earlier runs. Even Marmaduke and Garfield used to run storylines, unlike today. Heck, there's a lot of comics that have outlived their creators, like Popeye and Lulu.
Comics were also a lot more influential back in that time. Adults would read them just as much as kids would. When Charles Schultz introduced Franklin in Peanuts, the syndication distributor did not want to publish them because they feared the newspapers would drop the comic, but Schultz managed to strong-arm them for fear of losing him.
Calvin and Hobbes is also not the only comic to have had this kind of effect on it's audience either. You might recall some of your parents loved Peanuts for the same reasons you love Calvin and Hobbes.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentThis is because of Western religious dogma. If you look at the (secular) history of any Christian denomination that started in the United States, they all basically started the same way; a bunch...This is because of Western religious dogma. If you look at the (secular) history of any Christian denomination that started in the United States, they all basically started the same way; a bunch of people out in the world had a church and that church structured their teaching around their way of life, and that eventually grew into a distinct religion in and of itself. But nearly all of them will tell you that their religion was given to them in some way. In the real world, the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith. But in LDS cannon, Joseph Smith was merely the translator of some metal plates given to him by a divine messenger. Almost every christian denomination says that their faith is imposed on them by their creator.
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Comment on Have you had a life-altering change in who you are? in ~talk
Akir LinkI've been through quite a lot of them, like others have been saying. I've talked about most of them here on Tildes already. The latest one was a change of diet, to a whole foods plant based diet....I've been through quite a lot of them, like others have been saying. I've talked about most of them here on Tildes already. The latest one was a change of diet, to a whole foods plant based diet.
It took a lot for me to want to change. Probably the biggest motivators for me were the health-related ones. I was suffocating at night from sleep apnea and it was causing my quality of life to get really bad because of it. I had a machine to help with it but the pressure was so high it was extremely uncomfortable and I could only sleep for about two hours before I would tear it off of my face. Beyond that I was also seeing that I was starting to develop some inherited health problems; I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high A1C, and was approaching pre-diabetes. I have spent years before this seeing my family suffering from these problems, and even though I'm still in my early mid 30s, both of my parents are dead, and my older sister is dealing with all of these problems (and furthermore she just got her teeth pulled and fitted for dentures). She's just 7 years older than I am.
I don't mean to be grim, but my youth was spent with me seeing the appeal in death. I never really feared death so much as I did the pain that would preceed it. But nothing is more terrifying than a slow death. I'm seeing that in realtime right now with my grandmother.
It's only been around a year since I have made the change, but my health has improved on all accounts. My blood tests have all come back clear since then, my blood pressure has (only minorly) improved, and I just got reexamined for a lower pressure for my sleep apnea problems. Most notably, I've lost a lot of weight. I've got some circus tents I used to call shirts in my closet right now. I have more energy; I can walk significantly longer and have been known to take walks in the morning from time to time.
None of this would have been possible if I didn't first change the way I thought. A whole foods plant based diet is a vegan diet, and I was previously eating meat for almost every meal of the day (often for snacks too; I loved beef jerkey). This meant not only cutting out meat, but any dairy or animal products and most all processed foods and even salt. I actually chose to go this way because it was such an extreme change; it was supposed to be a way to reset the way I thought about food, and boy did it.
Basically the entire world has big problems with food, both in the ways it gets produced and the relationship that people have with it. It tends to get swept under the rug because it's just part of the status quo; food is, after all, a foundational part of culture. When we get taught in US history classes about Upton Sinclare's The Jungle and how it managed to get people up in arms about ensuring their food was unadulterated we tend to think, "how on earth did things have to go this far until people started to make a fuss about it?" But there are still so many problems with food production today that basically get ignored. Regardless of if you are vegan or not, everyone should be concerned with the countless issues of factory farming and the environmental impact our extreme consumption causes. Dairy is thought to be this wholesome thing, but we produce so much milk that we barely know what to do with it. How is it that nobody has realized that the dairy section in the markets have become so huge, or that dairy products are in virtually every processed product in the store as well? Even plants have problems; the world is consuming huge amounts of oil and that's lead to deforestation as oil palm plantations expand - global consumption of palm oil alone has quadrupled since 2000.
As a result of this I have come to appreciate the role of individuals as a means to global scale change. By no means do I expect everyone to become vegan, especially not overnight, but I think that some basic changes like reducing meat consumption or processed foods can cause some massive improvements - not only to the environment or marketplace, but to your own personal health! Big changes can't happen if everyone's implicit in the the problems at hand. The only path forward is to make those good choices yourself and be a positive influence to those around you.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentI have slightly higher faith in humanity than you. I don't think that religion is the only thing pushing anti-queer sentiment. I think it's plain old fashioned irrational hate. They're just using...I have slightly higher faith in humanity than you. I don't think that religion is the only thing pushing anti-queer sentiment.
I think it's plain old fashioned irrational hate. They're just using religion as a justification for it. There's plenty of religions that are perfectly fine with queer folk.
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Comment on Kroger’s panopticon: Making criminals of grocery shoppers in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI'm not entirely sure about that. There was a bunch of high-profile stories that got really popular in the past few years about organized retail theft, where grocery and drug stores would have...I'm not entirely sure about that. There was a bunch of high-profile stories that got really popular in the past few years about organized retail theft, where grocery and drug stores would have gangs of people walk in and march out with huge hauls without anyone being able to stop them. It turned out to be a near-lie; It's not like that kind of thing never happened at all, but it was extremely rare and not a commonplace thing like the retailers were making it sound.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentI find it kind of ironic. When I was very young, I was chided about interacting with people over the internet because it was clear that it doesn't have the depth of communication that in-person or...I find it kind of ironic. When I was very young, I was chided about interacting with people over the internet because it was clear that it doesn't have the depth of communication that in-person or phone conversations do. But these days most of the people who told me that who are still alive are probably all just as terminally online as the rest of us. The few people who are saying to disconnect that I know are all my age or younger.
But I don't agree with you about a few of your ideas. Most importantly, I don't think that gen z or anyone else really believes in rejecting every belief system. The only way to avoid thinking about one's own personal belief system, I think, is to be brought up in a monoculture where there's no alternative. To think about why other people make the decisions they do is a natural part of human curiosity. People who are being brought up today are not being brought up without exposure to a multitude of religious thought and schools of philosophy.
I think the primary problem is that people today are still doing the things that are like building a community, but are not doing it in a way that actually builds community. As an example, one could manage to change the mind of every single person in their friend group on Instagram or whatever, but when you look at the people who make it up, each of them have an entirely different friend group with different memberships. Previously, within a community, there would certainly be different groups that make it up, but people would belong to multiple of them. Social media generally tends to homogenize social structures that turned out to be more important than we realized.
Come to think about it, it's probably important to realize that Tildes does this too. We're not still this tiny site; I'm seeing more and more unfamilliar usernames and that goes far beyond the usual scope of my infamously terrible memory.
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Comment on Why Gen Z is quietly giving up in ~life
Akir Link ParentBoth modernism and postmodernism was largely fueled by scientific and technological advances, so you're not exactly wrong about that. The term "postmodernism" gets thrown around a lot but many...They say postmodernism killed god, but I would argue that science did that.
Both modernism and postmodernism was largely fueled by scientific and technological advances, so you're not exactly wrong about that.
The term "postmodernism" gets thrown around a lot but many people don't understand what it means. I don't blame anyone who doesn't understand it though, because it's such a large topic that requires understanding of what modernism is, and nobody seems to know what that is either.
I am really not a fan of YouTube response videos where one party calls out another and makes drama.
That being said, I have previously had the misfortune of having watched another video by the targeted channel and the kinds of sexist and chauvinist views he espouses is sickening. I’m honestly still a bit pissed at YouTube for having the video I watched show up in my recommendation feed. I feel sad that he is so popular because it means a lot of people agree with his pseudointellectual garbage opinions.
I’m actually a bit surprised that GrayWalf didn’t point out that one of the negative traits that the person mentioned for men was “verbose”. You know, as in “talkative”. Why on earth is this a negative thing? Is talking feminine? That’s quite a take from someone who makes money by speaking long tirades to publish to the internet.