Akir's recent activity
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Comment on Automotive repair costs on modern vehicles. Any horror stories? in ~transport
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
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Comment on Fitness Weekly Discussion in ~health
Akir LinkI've been skipping out on the gym lately because I got a theme park season pass. Going to a theme park obviously doesn't work out the same muscles as the gym, but it's a heck of a lot more...I've been skipping out on the gym lately because I got a theme park season pass. Going to a theme park obviously doesn't work out the same muscles as the gym, but it's a heck of a lot more engaging and fun than your average leg day! I have an allergy to waiting in long lines so I'm not standing around all day. Sunday I passed my average number of steps five times over. My Apple Watch logged 2.3x my calorie expenditure goal, while it also logged roughly the same amount of exercise time I get at the gym just with the automatic logging.
The downside, though, is that the parks generally have zero or near-zero healthy food options, so any calorie expenditures pretty much get cancelled out. I'm going to have to see if I can sneak in some food of my own or something. There's still a health benefit, but it's not really contributing to my weight loss goal.
I should probably mention I have arthritis in my ankles, so this was probably a bad idea, but thankfully a good ankle compression sleeve prevented me from being in much pain at all. Sadly I seem to have lost it so I will probably have to go buy another soon. I'll be heading out to the same park this coming Sunday with a friend in tow.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
Akir Link ParentThe difference between these examples is that Lincoln could and did directly prove his point. Anecdote and metaphor were used to transmit those ideas to those who would not listen. Ayn Rand...The difference between these examples is that Lincoln could and did directly prove his point. Anecdote and metaphor were used to transmit those ideas to those who would not listen. Ayn Rand published those fiction books but never bothered to publish a nonfiction accounting of her philosophy. Why? To obscure the obvious shortcomings of her positions.
I can't speak to how she lived and talked because I was not witness to such things, but it strikes me as the same kind of strategy we hear Donald Trump doing all the time. He says a lot of things but he doesn't make any strong claims. It's plausable deniability. It feels like this so-called "original school of philosophy" is less of an actual invention of hers, and more so a collection of what she could get away with people believing after pushing her works for decades. This is what I feel is the heart of why reading her books is such a hollow experience; there's a distinct lack of substance behind it.
But then again, perhaps I'm not qualified to say these things about Rand. After all, I've never completed the entirety of any of her books.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
Akir Link ParentMy Atlas Shrugged story is that in high school while looking up scholarships, one required writing a book report on it. I got through something like three chapters before realizing that it wasn’t...My Atlas Shrugged story is that in high school while looking up scholarships, one required writing a book report on it. I got through something like three chapters before realizing that it wasn’t anywhere near worth the value of the scholarship to spend my time reading it, and completely dismissing Rand’s entire bullshit philosophy.
To be fair it taught me an important lesson: if a position cannot be directly argued for, it isn’t worth listening to. If objectivism actually made sense, Rand wouldn’t have needed to try to hide it behind theatrics.
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Comment on Hate-reading? in ~books
Akir LinkThere are two books I have hate read in my lifetime. The first was The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald may be a wonderful author, but I hated all of the characters so much. I would have stopped reading a...There are two books I have hate read in my lifetime.
The first was The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald may be a wonderful author, but I hated all of the characters so much. I would have stopped reading a few chapters in if it were not a school assignment.
The second was Maia by Richard Adams. It is the sequel to Shardik, which is my personal all time favorite. It is so incredibly long; it’s something like 800 pages to my memory. And most of it is just plodding along. There’s a political revolution in there somewhere but by the time it happens I had long stopped being interested in the society it happened in. The ideas in the book are also just plain bad. It’s about a young girl who gets sold into slavery by her parents, later becomes a sex slave, and there is a very unnecessary lesbian sex scene. I am a pretty masculine guy, but it was pretty obvious that the author didn’t know much about what it is like to be female, which is a problem because most of the book is from Maia’s perspective! The book basically killed any idea of how good a person I thought the author was.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
Akir Link ParentIf you're going to recreate the idea with loose teas, just use paper sachets. The store you buy from very likely has sample size ones already.If you're going to recreate the idea with loose teas, just use paper sachets. The store you buy from very likely has sample size ones already.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
Akir LinkJust a quick note: Christmastime always has a bunch of weird advent calendars being made, and this year is no different. But it's worth noting that this year I'm seeing a lot of tea advent...Just a quick note: Christmastime always has a bunch of weird advent calendars being made, and this year is no different. But it's worth noting that this year I'm seeing a lot of tea advent calendars. Particularly with blended western style teabags. I found one the other day at one grocery store or another with 12 bags that were apparantly made by Lipton, and another one at Aldi that has 24 bags for about $8. Are any of these good teas? Probably not. But it's going to be a fun daily experience.
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Comment on What are some of your favorite stews/soups? in ~food
Akir LinkJust as a reminder: the things we call "curry" are actually stews. So there's my answer. Thai yellow curry is my current favorite. I like to make mine more vegetable-heavy so it's kind of more...Just as a reminder: the things we call "curry" are actually stews. So there's my answer. Thai yellow curry is my current favorite. I like to make mine more vegetable-heavy so it's kind of more like a braise than a stew in a way. It means I can have bigger portions with less guilt for the high-fat coconut milk base.
I don't have a ton of specific recipes. The thing i like about soups and stews is that they are free-form; just put in the things you like. I had a phase for about a year where I was making a different soup every week with just slight variations on the exact same recipe.
Alternatively, hot pot is practically a genre of soup in and of itself, and it's also built on a base of customization as well; just choose your base, add whatever vegetables and seasonings you want, and you're good to go. Optionally serve with a dipping sauce. It's even better if you go to a specialty restaurant for the experience.
If you want a specific soup recipe, I really really like this old Alton Brown recipe for lentil soup. I have yet to find grains of paradise anywhere and still don't know what it tastes like but substituting black pepper seems to have done the trick.
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Comment on The fetch()ening (plans for HTMX 4) in ~comp
Akir Link ParentThis was the first time I have heard of it. At first I thought it was a terrible idea because of the removal of separation of concerns. But the more I think about it, it doesn’t seem that bad. It...This was the first time I have heard of it. At first I thought it was a terrible idea because of the removal of separation of concerns. But the more I think about it, it doesn’t seem that bad. It solves a lot of the HTML cruft about building dynamic pages and it’s probably a better implementation than most solutions that have similar ideas.
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
Akir Link ParentI really envy you because the vast majority of my high school memories are being bored out of my mind. But I will admit also that my writing was perhaps a bit hyperbolic.I really envy you because the vast majority of my high school memories are being bored out of my mind. But I will admit also that my writing was perhaps a bit hyperbolic.
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Comment on Paid e-mail providers - your experiences, how you use them and how I would use it in ~tech
Akir Link ParentI'll second Fastmail. Everything about their service runs extremely seamlessly and is very well thought out. I don't use the contacts or or notes features, but they are there if I want to use it....I'll second Fastmail. Everything about their service runs extremely seamlessly and is very well thought out. I don't use the contacts or or notes features, but they are there if I want to use it. It basically does everything you would expect out of an exchange-like server, with a few nice extras like a really good webmail client and integration with some third party services; I use 1password with Fastmail's private email address service so I don't have to give my real email address out.
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
Akir Link ParentTo be clear, I completely agree with this sentiment. I'm not against private schools in general, and I think that alternative means of education can be incredibly powerful. By all means, public...And why is there this assumption the one-size-fits-most public school model is the most perfect thing ever, and all it needs is simply more money and parental involvement? [...] We should salute efforts to experiment with alternative models that might better nurture the individual.
To be clear, I completely agree with this sentiment. I'm not against private schools in general, and I think that alternative means of education can be incredibly powerful. By all means, public schools - especially American public schools - have numerous problems for many reasons. But the thing that makes public schools good is that they have a holistic approach to education, and they provide probably the single greatest public benefit to society of any other coalition.
But when developing a new educational model and putting it into practice, there is a very fine line between providing a service to help children and developing a product. I fell that these people are leaning very far into the latter territory.
Private education can work. There are countless examples of it working out very well. The same is true with alternative educational systems. Montessori schools are seemingly everywhere around me where I live, and by all means the students who attend them seem to be doing well.
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
Akir Link ParentHonestly, most time spent in school is not focusing on academics at all. Think about your average high school experience. There's usually something like 5 minutes between classes plus a lunch...Honestly, most time spent in school is not focusing on academics at all.
Think about your average high school experience. There's usually something like 5 minutes between classes plus a lunch period and when a class starts, the teacher will begin with a greeting, getting everyone settled down, and taking attendance. Usually this includes an update as to how the class as a whole has been doing with the content so far. When the actual instruction begins, there are usually quite a lot of interruptions for various reasons, usually having to do with misbehaving students, but sometimes because of people coming into or out of the classroom for various reasons. Even basic things like handing out paperwork to 30+ students takes time, and drammatically more if specific papers have to go to specific students - like every graded assignment. The amount of time in any given class could easily have half of the time dedicated to non-instruction.
Getting rid of this waste is not difficult; it can be easily managed when dealing with private instruction which doesn't have to fit in a complicated schedule and will have minimal interruptions. But that's based on assumptions that the downtime in school is waste. What do students do with the extra time? Usually they mess around and talk to their friends. We, as jaded adults who have assimilated into the machines of capitalism, can easily view this as wasted time. But for those who deal in any way with youth development, we know that forming these social links are crucial for raising children to be happy healthy adults. Heck, even the most deadbeat of parents know that it's a good thing for their children to make friends.
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Comment on A review of Alpha School in ~life
Akir Link ParentBoy, does that increase my understanding of these people as hypercapitalist minmaxers. Academics has only ever been part of the reason why we send kids to school. Public schools are holistic...Boy, does that increase my understanding of these people as hypercapitalist minmaxers.
Academics has only ever been part of the reason why we send kids to school. Public schools are holistic programs for children where they learn countless social skills crucial for young people to learn on top of their academic studies. There’s a reason why public schools don’t require sports, but do require physical education, for which sports is only part of. If one were to focus on academics over literally everything else for school, it doesn’t surprise me to see students learning at double or more the speed of average public school students. I am a private teacher, and when I see students who are motivated they blaze through everything I give them; on beginner classes where the goal is not to finish the curriculum, but to cover as much as possible, I end up having to find new things for them to study to fill the time they have paid for. The combination of motivation and personalized instruction is hardly a new invention in education.
But when you have kids who are not going through the regular school experience, they suffer in ways that are hard to project. I was a bright student, and because I was developing mentally faster than my peers it caused me many social issues; I ended up getting kicked out of the public schools and put in alternative schools instead. If such students do not literally have autism they will effectively be treated the same as if they did. I guess you could say that I think that this kind of program is a form of child abuse in that way.
If you have GT or Alpha amounts of money to spend on school, it’s a much better approach to simply send your kids to public schools and spend the extra money on a tutor. But that pales in comparison to the simple and most basic way to ensure success: investing your actual time and effort into raising your child. Help them with the problems they are having at school. Encourage them to take extracurricular and enrichment programs. Talk with their teachers and advisors to see how they are doing. Check in with your child and make it into more than asking them what happened at school and leaving it at them saying “nothing”. You’ll notice that most of these cost nothing and many of them are government subsidized in one way or another. That’s because we already know how effective they are and have invested in them as a result. The expensive ones like hiring tutors often have alternatives, such as study programs or bespoke study groups.
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Comment on Tips for becoming a tea person in ~food
Akir LinkThis is going to be a strange recommendation, but one thing that will make you appreciate tea is to stop drinking sweet beverages. Sweet is almost but not quite the opposite of the astringency of...This is going to be a strange recommendation, but one thing that will make you appreciate tea is to stop drinking sweet beverages. Sweet is almost but not quite the opposite of the astringency of tea.
More importantly, get used to drinking water. It is, after all, the largest component in tea, and teas tend to compliment the flavor of the water you brew it in. It’s a lot more noticeable than with coffee.
Maybe start off by drinking plain black tea so you know what plain tea starts as. No, Earl Grey and English Breakfast don’t count; they are blends. After a few cups start to experiment. If you have a store that sells loose tea or individual tea bags, that can be a great way to get small quantities of multiple varieties.
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Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 PlayStation WHAT? in ~games
Akir LinkThere’s a 50% chance I will skip PaRappa 2. PS2 does not work on MiSTer, I don’t want to dig out the PS2, so I’d probably play this on the steam deck if at all. But I don’t really like the first...There’s a 50% chance I will skip PaRappa 2. PS2 does not work on MiSTer, I don’t want to dig out the PS2, so I’d probably play this on the steam deck if at all. But I don’t really like the first game to be honest.
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Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 PlayStation WHAT? in ~games
Akir Link ParentYou just gotta get better rhythm bruh. 😜 In all seriousness I totally get you here. I love rhythm games but PaRappa just kind of rubs me the wrong way. It’s charming in a way that I don’t like,...You just gotta get better rhythm bruh. 😜
In all seriousness I totally get you here. I love rhythm games but PaRappa just kind of rubs me the wrong way. It’s charming in a way that I don’t like, and I can’t exactly express why. Maybe playing it again will make me better able to explain it.
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Comment on CGA-2025-11 🔴🟡🔵🟢 INSERT CARTRIDGE 🟢 PlayStation WHAT? in ~games
Akir Link ParentIt’s very arcadey in that it’s actually a very short game but it’s made more difficult in an attempt to pad out the experience. But for what it’s worth, it’s a very unique experience.It’s very arcadey in that it’s actually a very short game but it’s made more difficult in an attempt to pad out the experience.
But for what it’s worth, it’s a very unique experience.
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Comment on Signs of introspection in large language models in ~tech
Akir Link ParentWell, given that these companies' stated goal is human-like intelligence, it makes sense they would anthropomorphize it as much as they can. Which is not to say that I like that they do that.Well, given that these companies' stated goal is human-like intelligence, it makes sense they would anthropomorphize it as much as they can. Which is not to say that I like that they do that.
On my old Leaf, a cooling pump failed on it due to my own neglect (read the owner's manual, people). I forget exactly how much I paid to replace it but I think that the part cost alone was something like $400 or so.
They actually showed me the pump before they actually replaced it and I realized that it was a bog-standard pump by Laing that was mounted to a custom-made bracket to justify the expense. If I had seen it myself I could have likely bought it or one close enough to it for less than $100.
I'm with you on the entire industry being scammers.