37
votes
What do you want someone to ask you about?
Did something cool recently, and no one’s bothered to ask?
Got some stuff on your chest, and no one’s checking in?
Super passionate about a niche topic that not too many people think of?
Toss your question-hopeful here, and let someone pop it!
EDIT: if I get a question for each topic, I will create another thread called "mrbig's AMA" and answer every single one in length in an organized fashion. Take that as a challenge hahaha
I'll have a number 21 please.
For me it's been a rather odd experience since I'm rather outwardly normal. Plus I've learnt all these little tricks for hiding/coping with things over the years, most people don't realise I am until I hint/straight up tell them. Even then they sometimes doubt it. Over the years things have gotten easier and easier. Finding myself in relationships, living by myself, having flings, had some hiccups but I managed all these things I just assumed I'd find difficult because of all the teeny tiny little things I found impossible.
At this point I'm really glad I am autistic. It's a bit of a life saver in certain situations. Just went through a breakup recently and I really don't know if I'd have been able keep such a level head otherwise. Random things are so intense for me that I've had more than enough practice trying to rein in my anxiety attacks and try to work through whatever I was feeling.
Plus it's made me a bit of a chameleon. I just started an access course and it's only the second week in but I've already had impromtu chats with a couple of the guys in some of my classes. Never really been a fan of smalltalk but I could do it in the Olympics if i wanted to, then as soon as they'd show a passion I'd let them share it (and this is the best part about being my brand of autistic imo) and appreciate it with them. Be it study techniques, roman emperors, or languages; I can always appreciate something about it. There's no need to fake being interested or just smiling and saying "that's so cool" because it is actually really cool stuff most of the time!
So yeah, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster and not without its downsides. But I sure am glad I was vaccinated, are you?
You chose a hard one. I'll have to dedicate some time to it, but I will come back. Thank you for asking!
When you rewatch The Office, are there any episodes you skip?
I do not skip any episode. But I when say "rewatch", I don't mean watching with the same level of attention I had at first. It's basically a live background. My absolute favorite episode is "The Dinner Party". I don't have a least favored episode, but I believe the first season can be quite weak at times.
My favorite characters are Jim and Dwight, and the build-up to their friendship is one of the most beautiful things I have ever watched. Including Jim and Pam's relationship.
The breaking of the fourth wall with the boom-mic guy was the greatest mistake of the entire show.
The second greatest mistake was turning Andy, a lovable buffon, into a complete asshole.
I truly believe The Office is the best US sitcom of all time. And yes: I watched and LOVE Seinfeld.
I'm planning a rewatch soon, but I've been compiling a list of essential episodes. You're the first to watch Scott's Tots! :)
Breaking that fourth wall was so bad. I also don't like what they did to Kevin. I liked him being absolutely amazing at everything, but totally unexpected (basketball, poker, music, etc.)
The Office US is the best television comedy in American history. There is no such thing as "essential episodes". Just rewatch the whole thing :)
But "The Dinner Party" should be put in some kind of comedy pantheon.
I love The Office and during it's run I made sure I was available to watch it live, or at worst streamed it the next day, but you cant disrespect George, Jerry, Elaine and Kramer like that.
That's a nice grab bag. I'm gonna go with What would you do in a zombie apocolypse?
I think I have prepper tendencies, even though I wouldn't describe myself as a prepper, so I'm always curious about what other people's ideas for survival in a large scale natural disaster (not zombies specifically, as they're obviously incredibly far fetched, although still an interesting idea) are. What do you think you'd do?
I'll answer to the zombies scenario because it's the one i gave more thought about,
I don't live in north-America. Access to guns ammunition in Brazil is severely restricted (rightly so, in my opinion). A good machete would be my weapon of choice, and we have lots of those here. They don't require reloading, and i could get proficient at it quickly (martial arts experience).
Brazilian military is completely unequipped for this situation and i don't see a good end in sight, but a small groups of machete-armed friends could survive for some time.
But it depends on the kind of zombie we're talking about. the night of the living dead variety is easy to deal with, but runners like in 28 days later would have no problem turning us in less than 48 hours.
So i'll settle with a compromise: not super slow, not super fast.
Near my house there are two supermarkets, a medium-sized shopping mall and many drugstores. We wouldn't suffer for lack of supplies.
I live in the first floor of a small building with little to no fortifications (relatively safe area when it comes to crime). My apartment has a big balcony with no protection whatsoever. This is bad. I would try to negotiate to bunker with a neighbor in the top floor, but if he refused I'm prepared to force my way in (without harming neighbor, of course).
I'd use all would and nails we have in storage to barricade the building and the apartment. I have two bicycles, i fast and agile and i know the region like the palm of my hands. I would take care of getting supplies, kinda like in the walking dead. If i didn't die, i figure we could live like that for a few weeks or even months. Eventually, I'd have to train someone to follow me in the second bike, just in case i die and the group needs a second scout. Eventually, both me and the backup of course, i would die and the group would either die of hunger or by risking themselves out there.
Anyway, like a said before, there would be no good end in sight. But that's how I’d go about it.
Can I get a combo of 2 & 3?
Sure! Those are the fun ones! I'll start with the number 2, and answer number three in another comment, okay?
I was 16 years old and Brazil's equivalent to Valentine's Day was approaching. I was very much in love with a girl from my classroom. She was kinda fat (a long-time obsession), polite, smart and, of course, extremely cute. Her perfume felt like what a faerie had made for her. She was white with long black hair. I was a black skinny dude.
There was a mural in front of the classrooms building in which we could send messages to the ones we fancied. I wrote the most stupid thing anyone could ever write: "Dear Sandra: I love you. Signed: mrbig". Exposed me to the entire school (autism represent), but for some reason she liked it. At least it was honest, I guess.
My father worked at the local theater (one for plays, not movies. I don't know how to differentiate in English). It's a very classy place with many areas for you to hang around and do romantic shit.
I wrote down a few lines from Woody Allen's Annie Hall (or maybe it was Manhattan) in a piece of paper. If romanticism worked once, it might work twice! After all, shyness and neuroticism worked greatly for Woody Allen's characters in the past.
I'm kinda proud of it: I never tried to be someone I wasn't. I was a shy, cute little nerd, and used it to my benefit. The terrace was empty, cool and the sky was clear. I read her the lines. We kissed. We didn't see much of the play and kept kissing on the theater's restaurant afterward. At some point, a waiter stopped by our table to say how beautiful we were. It was one of the best nights of my life. We're not together, but I love her to this day.
There isn't, and it bugs me every day. All we have is context clues.
There is the alternate spelling, "Theatre", that is supposed to be about the art of putting on stage shows, but the only people who use it are the people involved in the industry and a handful of fans.
That sounds pretty fucking adorable. I am glad it ended positively.
I should be 10-years-old or something. Every once in a while my dick got hard, and I thought it was a sign that I had to pee. I peed a lot, so it kinda made sense.
But one day I was watching a movie alone in the afternoon; I think it was one of those silly old movies with a bunch of cool guys fighting some heartless corporation. It was clearly targeted for teenagers, and at one point a beautiful woman appeared crawling on a stage completely naked, tits bouncing in a marvelous rhythm.
And then my dick got hard. Really hard. I looked at the TV, I touched my penis and soon my tiny prepubescent brain understood that, from that moment on, that's what I wanted for my life.
20. Are you happy?
When you're a child, sometimes you wake up on Saturday thinking it's a school day. But it's not, and you get to watch the morning cartoons. For a while you're happy, that's for sure. But eventually, your mom tells you to take the trash out right before the super-cool ending of your favorite cartoon. If you keep watching, you'll feel sad for disappointing your mother, and you'll probably have to endure her screaming, which will kinda ruin the cartoon anyway. So you take out the trash and you're not happy anymore.
You're eating the best ice-cream desert money can buy. It's so good it's like your brain has to come up with new connections to produce new forms of joy. For a moment there, you're one with the ice-cream. There's not a thought in your mind. No job, no relationships, no money, no you, no nothing. The last scoops are already kinda sad.
And then it ends. You could buy another one, but the guilt for eating too much would greatly reduce the pleasure. It's never the same, you know. Plus, it really is expensive. All the issues that were suppressed come back with extra strength: life seems just as unbearable as before.
You're having sex with the woman you love. You find her beautiful, caring, and attractive. You try not to think too much about how good it is, cause you know this tends to make things less enjoyable. But thinking about not thinking is, itself, thinking. So things are less enjoyable, but not enough to ruin the experience. You have a tremendous orgasm, and wonder what people in other rooms are thinking about the crazy couple next door. It was mind-blowingly pleasurable, and your partner seems satisfied too.
But, after you take the condom off, you ask yourself how you compare to her previous lovers. Does she really loves you, like, right now? She said it yesterday, but things change. Maybe she's thinking about how shallow you are, thinking a night of great sex was enough to hook her. Maybe you should read more, learn another language, meditate. Maybe you're simply not good enough for her.
And you know what? Maybe you're right. Cause that's what life really is: suffering. Ignoring that will only make you suffer more.
But at least you got to watch some cartoons, ate a delicious dessert and had possibly the greatest sex of your life.
And, whatever you call it, that is something.
So no, I'm not happy and I don't think anyone is. Happiness is an unachievable goal. But, sometimes, I get to have some great ice-cream.
Cheers ;)
Are you a Buddhist by any chance? Your philosophy is highly reminiscent of the First Noble Truth.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha
I'm not a Buddhist in the sense that I do not follow it as an organized religion.
I am a Buddhist in the sense that I have been studying it since I was a teenager, and Buddhism (especially Zen) had and has a profound impact on my life.
I1ll take 19 please.
I do believe in God. I discussed this question in length on another topic, and it would be a disservice to copy and paste or try to rephrase my positions in a weaker form. So here's the link.
Why do you love chess? And since you love Chess, have you tried modern abstract boardgames like Hive or Tak?
I love chess because it's a game of logic where everything is clearly visible on the board. It also requires a great deal of creativity and little memorization. Gentlemaness and elegance are built into the rules, and my favorite player, the striking Jose Raul Capablanca, is the embodiment of these values: elegance was both in his game and in his persona.
Despite my efforts, I am not good at chess, but I admire the masters and sometimes their games mesmerize me. I haven't followed the field for a long time. It's a very intensive hobby.
It bothers me how much chess is a matter for computers nowadays. I never understood how I could use an engine to my benefit, analyzing games and such. When Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997 my interest in the game was greatly reduced. To me, a computer capable of beating a GM is just as interesting as a computer that calculates 30 trillion digits of PI. Technically commendable, but incapable of causing me emotion.
A Porsche 911 has a top speed of 194 mph (312 km/h), but no one bothers to compares it to Usain Bolt's 27.8 mph (44.7 km/h).
Have you played go at all? Personally, I like it more than chess, and pretty much always have at least a few correspondence games going (very slow ones, where each player usually just plays a move or two each day).
The main reason I ask is because you specifically mentioned "elegance", and I think go is pretty much the most elegant game possible, while having depth comparable to chess (it's played very seriously in Asia, far more heavily than they play chess). There are some details to it, but the game basically only has one rule/principle and everything else just follows from it. There's a famous quote from Edward Lasker, who was a chess master that ended up getting very into go, including being one of the main people that helped bring it to America:
If you've never played, I'd highly suggest giving it a shot. Based on what you say you like about chess, I think you'd really enjoy it. It has some really neat aspects too that chess can't really handle, like being able to play on smaller boards without the rules or general strategy changing. Most people start out playing go on 9x9 and 13x13 boards for a while, with "real" games played on a 19x19 one.
I play on https://online-go.com, which I think has some kind of "learn to play" section, but it doesn't look like it would be the best place to start. The British Go Association seems to have some good resources on their site:
As a lover of oriental stuff, I always fancied the idea of playing Go. But, as I say, I'm not good at chess, and the idea of engaging in in something even more subtle and complex hurts my ego.
One of the main reasons I never played Go is that Go boards are usually imported and ridiculously expensive in my country. I already spend way too much time on the computer and I'd rather take this habit outside. Maybe if there was a Go game for the Playstation 4 I'd be able to get into it, but I doubt there is.
At the same time, the frustration of never getting good at chess makes me want to dedicate myself to it. I have a great app on the iPhone, made by a Brazilian GM, with thousands of exercises. But it takes a lot of time and dedication. Would I be willing to do the same to learn Go? I really don't know. But I can download an app and give it a shot.
I don't know, I think go is less subtle than chess in a lot of ways. Like I said, the rules are extremely straightforward, and it's also very nice that the game is almost entirely "additive" (you don't move stones, and rarely remove them).
You can look at a board of a game in progress and generally see who's winning pretty easily (depending how close it is), and better players can even look at a board and recreate how most of the moves probably went to get it to that point. One of the reasons I like go for correspondence games is that it's fairly easy for me to recall what I was doing in a game even if I haven't played a move in several days and have many games in progress. That's always hard in chess, because "what happened in this game, and what was I trying to do next?" isn't really apparent from a board position.
Because of that, the strategy of it feels more approachable than chess in some ways to me, since in chess you have to think ahead in a way that involves moving pieces around and removing them. Executing strategy in go is still extremely complex, but it's easier to understand the goal and see it on the board.
As for a physical board, there absolutely are nice, expensive, beautiful boards with fancy stones, but you don't have to get one of those. I have a cheap magnetic folding travel board like this that I've played far more games on than my "real" one that just sits at home. In a pinch you can even draw a grid on a piece of paper and use any small object that comes in two different colors, it's a very simple game component-wise too.
One other really nice thing about go (especially compared to chess) if you'd like to be able to play outside with other people is that go has a handicapping system that works very well for letting people of different skill levels play against each other without fundamentally changing the game at all. In chess if you're trying to handicap one of the players, you have to do something like take away some of their pieces, and then they're effectively playing a game that resembles chess, but isn't really chess any more. Handicap games in go play exactly like the normal game, so even if other people you find to play with are much better or worse than you, you can still play games with them that are interesting for both players.
Anyway, I'll stop trying to sell you on it, but I really do think you should try it! It's a great game, and there are definitely apps available for learning the game, playing against computer (and human) opponents, and doing go problems/puzzles ("tsumego").
I tried getting into go a few times.
It was a bit frustrating because I couldn't get a taste the way real games flow.
Are there resources with basic commentary of games? Ideally low-ranked games with lots of trade-offs and blunders, but I'd take anything with discussion aimed at beginners.
Hmm, there are quite a few good go channels on YouTube where people do commentary or teach, so those might be good places to look. I remember watching these videos a few years ago, where Jonathan Markowitz walks through some 9x9 games against a computer and explains as he's playing, I think they were fairly good:
Here are a couple other channel recommendations that might be worth taking a look at, though I'm not sure how much of their content might be friendly for absolute beginners:
One other thing that might be worth trying is just watching some games in progress on online-go.com - it has a section where you can observe all the live games being played, so you could just look through for some of the ones on smaller boards (there's a page selector in the top right). They'll probably go quite fast and be confusing (especially if people concede) so I think those original videos I linked would be better, but this could be a good way to see how some more real games flow: https://online-go.com/observe-games
Other than that I'd really just suggest playing, and not worry about feeling like you don't know what you're doing. There's a famous go proverb that says, "Lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible."
Thanks! I'll check those all out. Clicking through some puzzles has me curious again. :)
Oh man, it's always awesome to find new people who like to play go! I love the game, but there is nobody near me who likes to play, and I find it too difficult to concentrate with online games.
The irony is that I'm living in a spot that is majority Asian, so there are tons of potential players. But there are tons of social barriers, mainly because I'm too socially awkward to talk to anyone I have actually seen playing the game.
Have you tried online correspondence games? One of the nice things about them is that you don't have to concentrate on them for an extended stretch, usually just one move a day or so, which only takes about a minute for each game (depending how carefully you want to play).
I have no idea how our skill levels compare (I'm not very good), but I'd be happy to play with you if you want to sign up on https://online-go.com and give it a try. Here's a link to my account, feel free to send me a friend request and a game challenge if you sign up: https://online-go.com/player/128576/Deimorz
Sadly I'm no good at correspondance games either. I fair a little bit worse at them and I feel that I don't learn as well from them as I do when I play the game all at once. I know you can replay those games, but there are so many more times where I go "what on earth was I thinking?!"
I've never been ranked, either. I'd guess I'm something like a 200-kyu, heh.
I might take you up on your offer, though. We can at least play a short game on a smaller board.
I have had several reasons to both drink and not drink alcohol in different periods of my life.
Up until my twenties, alcohol was simply not attractive to me. I didn't like the taste, the presentation and how people behaved under its effect.
Back in college I realized that looking like an idiot was pretty fun, and developed an unhealthy obsession with Vodka and Cachaça. These were the cheapest and quickest ways to get legally fucked-up. It was great!
Until I realized thinking about suicide 24/7 was not normal. I took a box of Alprazolam and threw myself in the pool. Fortunately, drowning is much less pleasant people think, so I backed up like a pussy. 20 years later, I'm more than glad about being a wuss.
After a long recovery (as much as something like that can be "recovered" from), I started the tradition of getting completely drunk with quality Cachaça on my birthday. And so I did, for several years. Until, one year, I threw up one liter of cake and high-quality distilled beverage in front of all my (very understanding) guests. I proceeded to eat three tasty hamburgers and had a great time, but alcohol was losing its effect on me. Maybe because of the medications, I don't get pleasantly drunk anymore. Just sleepy, annoyingly slow and a bit depressed.
The mild depression can last up to a weak and it's definitely not worth it.
Booze is also expensive as hell, especially on bars.
And that is why I don't drink anymore.
As a kid/early teenager, I had very low self-esteem and a terrible (as in monstrous) acne problem. Shy and unpopular, I thought no girl would ever want to have sex with me. I learned the Inuit ("Eskimos") had the costume to share their wives with foreign visitors. Without formal knowledge of genetics, they did that to increase the gene pool, avoiding diseases and aberrant mutations.
Brazil has a great adventurer called Amyr Klink who went to the North-Pole and several other places alone in a small boat (he is, of course, rich). I figured I could do the same, and eventually find a beautiful Inuit woman to have sex with.
Fortunately, someone closer agreed to fuck me before that.
Valentines Day in Brazil is called “Dia dos Namorados”. I could translate it as Swethearts Day or Lovebirds Day. There’s no religious connotation whatsoever, which is weird in such a Catholic country. I think it was just invented by companies to give us a reason to but their products.
Thanks for asking!
I'll be just a little lazy and refer you to my recent thread on ~creative, where I posted the prelude to the horror short-story I'm writing and also gave a few spoilers and explanations. Enjoy!
I've read it up until 1 Esdras, so almost all of the first quarter. One thing that was surprising was that there was no mention of afterlife. That is in stark contrast with the religions the same tradition begot: Christianity and especially Islam almost centers around the afterlife. When I look at a resource like this page, it confirms that afterlife is not really a thing in Judaism.
So can you talk about afterlife in Judaism, and maybe explain the evolution of the idea across Judaism, Christianity and Islam?
Thanks a lot for both of your answers!
What is the most interesting thing you have learned? Any stories that you'd like to share? I am not religious but bible drama is always enticing to my mind :P
This may be too simplistic a way of asking but what are the main points for and against his existance and the story as a whole?
And a side question, inspired by the link in my other comment, from where the quote below:
I may be mistaken, but IIRC God is not really described as "good" in the part I read. God's jealous, and he created Adam so that "someone" can appreciate his creations. He may even love humans and other creations (tho that might be me confusing Islamic stuff with Judaic stuff), but none of them necessarily mean he is good, and he might well be loving but not good. Am I mistaken, is God explicitly defined as good and as displaying goodwill towards humans and the rest of the creation?
I remember reading about there being parts of the bible that are considered standard which were only introduced in the middle ages. I think it was actually about the resurrection of Jesus? What do we know about the timeline of the text of the bible, as we know it today, being written – or rewritten? Obviously, this might be a huge topic but any particularly surprising bits?
Supposing that both God and Jesus exist, do you think Jesus is God or the son of God, and why?
If God is good, perfect, almighty and complete in every conceivable virtue, why did he have to create anything at all? What would be the motivation for it to create sentient beings capable of suffering in the first place? And, if he should create sentient beings, why couldn't he have made us perfect, so we could instantly share his eternal bliss?
I see. The reason I ask these questions is that I do believe in God. So I actually crave for these answers.
This may not be your area, so feel free to disregard if it doesn't interest you. I'm interested in the intersection between biblical texts, history, and society.
One of the papers I read in my undergrad degree that has always stayed with me is "The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis" by Lynn White ( link )
In short, the argument is: western ethics about technology, science, and the environment are rooted in the Christian creation story (specifically Genesis 1:26: "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”).
The Judeo-Christian mythology depicts mankind as separate and above the earth (unlike the creation myths from most other religions, which depicts humans as part of the earth and/or animals). We are in God's image, and the earth was given to us to rule over. White links this to the western attitude towards the environment.
Obviously, Christianity has influenced western society in a number of ways. Do you know of any other specific ways that Christian beliefs may have shaped our world view, which may not be very obvious to those of us who are less familiar with scripture?
Are there humorous or outright funny passage in the Bible? Some difficult to translate pun or reference that are lighter in tone than "I really dislike this Caesar guy, he's a beast therefore 666"?
What's the academic consensus on the story of God's testing of Abraham by sacrificing Isaac? Many nonbelievers see this as a cruel jape by God but I think I heard somewhere (source amnesia) that it might have been a parable about the importance of ending human sacrifice as during these times such a practice was fairly common. Ever since I heard that I've wanted to learn a little more about the academic understanding of this so any input is appreciated. Thanks!
Thank you for such responsive feedback, haven't gotten a chance to say it until now. What's your personal relationship with religion if you don't mind me asking? I notice you handle a wide range of comments with quite the academic shrewdness which is a rare but welcomed sight these days. You seem to work around biblical academics but don't necessarily seem to be one yourself (correct me if I'm wrong, going by memory here). And you seem to be fulfilled by religious texts without openly pushing any specific beliefs. All a good combo and why I'm curious as to your views
I've subscribed to /r/academicbiblical a while back happy to see a rigor equivalent to /r/askhistorians. Good to hear about the other 2 subs with similar rigor. I've been researching and writing a lot about the Second Great Awakening lately and have been researching about different Christian beliefs specifically. I'd be happy to hear more about your viewpoint. How would you differentiate your agnostic theism from the beliefs of deism? I am not a biblical academic scholar so please give me some leeway if I'm missing obvious differences
Would you be willing to share what experiences you had that brought you from atheism to theism?
Thanks for sharing that with me. You've had quite a spiritual journey. I find serendipitous moments fascinating. I found your description of your visions very exciting and it must have been a powerful moment to have lived through when you realized the first matched your lived experience. The other three seem to show a progression of sorts and maybe you're working on that through your time with academic biblical and things like this thread. As I said I was doing research on the second great awakening and found it interesting that Charles grandison Finney also purports his divine vision to have felt "electric" and described it like "liquid love." It makes me curious as to what psychological processes are occurring in those moments. I think you're doing great work and I'd love to see more religious people with a greater interest in the academic aspects.
Thank you, I enjoyed the conversation and I'm very appreciative of the link you gave me.
Have you studied any Kabbalah texts? I am extremely interested in learning more about "the shattering of the vessels" and the primordial worlds/Adam Kadmon.
I'm not sure how this/Kabbalah intersects with your studies, and it'd be interesting at least to hear the perspective from which you understand these things.
For me, as someone outside of Judaism and Christianity both in terms of organised religion and cultural identity it is sometimes difficult to understand how all of these pieces fit together. I'd love to talk to more scholars and build a more well-rounded perspective.
What, in your opinion, is the most interesting text not found in the standard (Catholic/Protestant) canon?
What are your thoughts on eschatology and what if any position do you hold?
At what point......does someone know they’re depressed? I know that’s probably impossible to answer but it’s been on my mind for several weeks now. I’ve been struggling, wondering if I was crossing over from general unhappiness into true depression.
Is depression something that someone knows they’re suffering from?
For the last few years, I’ve been feeling more and more....just down. Hobbies have lost their luster. LARPing, video games, even sports. Thing I loved doing just don’t hold the same appeal to me anymore. I used to think that maybe I was just growing out of them. I’m 31. Shit happens right?
But as more and more of my hobbies have fallen by the wayside and I’ve just generally felt more and more unhappy, I’ve been wondering, for the last several weeks, if I’ve slipped into depression somewhere along the line.
I’m not suicidal, I don’t have suicidal thoughts or ideations.
But I’m just not happy. I wake up, I go to work, I come home and I usually hop on WoW or Xbox. But it’s not enjoyable right now. I play just to pass the time till I go to bed.
I don’t know. I’ve talked with my doctors PA on it and she did blood work which revealed low testosterone levels. I’m getting ready to start treatment for that. I’m wondering if that’s contributed to my feelings.
It’s absolutely possible to say if you’re depressed or not. There are studies and standards for that. Low testosterone can be an associated factor. Trust your doctors. If you’re unable to do so , than change doctors. Medication plus therapy can do wonder. But be patient, these things take quite a while to start working properly. And the first set of medication is rarely the right one for you. Psychiatric treatments are always being adjusted. You can and you will have a healthy mental life. Good luck ;)
For me, anhedonia is one of the hallmark symptoms that tells me that I need to address my chronic depression or that it is flaring up.
Have you ever been to a therapist? Even if not for your current condition, you might find it useful to simply talk with someone knowledgeable about the problems you're facing and the thoughts you are having. I've found that even when I feel like I'm doing fairly well, that a therapist from time to time is a really useful 'gut check' for thoughts and feelings and to understand whether they are normal or abnormal thoughts and feelings.
In my case, secondary hypogonadism was responsible for a slow decline in my mental state and an increase in my depression. It was also responsible for hot flashes, low energy in the afternoon, a general lack of motivation and anhedonia, a slow deterioration of body composition despite significant exercise, a complete loss of nocturnal erections, and a host of other issues.
I would absolutely re-assess how you feel after you start exogenous testosterone, but I would also highly suggest looking into whether there are therapists available to you at low or no cost because I think they are an invaluable resource even if they are only used sparingly. Even Olympic athletes need trainers; regardless of how stable you think you are, it's always good to speak with someone who has experience with the diversity of humans in a particular field and knowledge of theory and how to apply said theory.
Seconding the anhedonia, with a special mention for anticipatory anhedonia. No longer looking forward to pleasurable things was both a warning sign and a great way to start isolating myself from my friends.
"How is your mental health?"
I struggle with a lot of stuff and people know this but often don't ask me when they see me. Maybe they feel it would be inappropriate. But I'd love to take an excuse to just be like "yeah, I'm really not OK"
What’s going on my dear friend?
So... how is your mental health?
I've been struggling with stuff too, but I have been doing quite good for a few weeks now. Still really anxious about basically everything, but I guess that's just how it is.
Do you want a back massage ?
Absolutely! But I don't think my girlfriend would allow it :(
I have terrible back massage cravings these days, but I'm not keen on going in a massage place (never been to one).
I’ve been. It was good. I never in my life had thought “I think that’s enough massage. She could stop now”.
The girl was small and slender but bent my column with supernatural strength. At some point she had to get up on the table for maximum power. It was a good kind of pain. There’s was nothing erotic about it whatsoever.
Was cheap too. Like the equivalent to 30 dollars a few years ago.
Anything PC Hardware related. Or just PC building in general. I have nobody to talk about who is as passionate about PCs as I am. I have experience about everything computer Hardware related but nobody to talk about it.
I'm heavily considering building my first desktop in about 10 years (been using a laptop for about the last 5) so I've been out of the scene for a while, and even when I was in I was quite young. I started reading up again and it seems like in the last year or so AMD has been blowing Intel out of the water. I've been a pretty loyal Intel customer but from what I saw it might really be worth the switch.
Can you give any insight on the new AMD chips and whether or not they're all they're cracked up to be? I would be doing mostly programming and some gaming but nothing crazy - I'm fine not having the highest settings as long as the game runs smoothly. Why should I buy an AMD chip over Intel's latest line, if at all?
Reasons to buy AMD over Intel:
Better overall price/performance ratios
Excellent performance overall (Intel only really beats them with their most expensive chips)
Longer-lasting chipset support - IIRC AM4 is planning on being supported until 2021, while Intel comes up with a new CPU socket every 1-2 years. Someone correct me if I'm inaccurate.
AMD includes an excellent cooler with their CPUs if you are building your own PC. Their higher end chips even come with a cooler with RGB lights.
AMD has significantly better integrated graphics, to the point that Intel has licensed their tech to use in some of their own APUs.
AMD has PCIE 4.0 Support; Intel is getting it later (though in real terms, this means nothing; there isn't anything capable of transmitting that much bandwidth at the moment).
AMD is at least slightly less evil than Intel. But to avoid personal biases, I'll just leave it at this: they are still the underdog in the x86 game, and they're the only ones preventing Intel from having an effective monopoly on the home computer and notebook markets.
On the other hand, Intel has slight performance advantage at the high-end (read: expensive) range. AMD also does not yet have Thunderbolt support, but that's just a matter of time.
Absolutely. I am running an Ryzen 5 3600 pared with a b450 chipset overclocked to about 3.9ghz. And Boi is it crushing. Rendering, Gaming, Programming... You name it. Its being a blast playing on it. Best thing is: If the game takes up 2 of your cores you still have 2 left for Discord etc. Beats every Intel CPU in that price range by far, overall an amazing chip.
Ok so a few questions:
[1] RX 5700 XT or RTX 2060 SUPER, and why?
I've currently running a GTX 970 with an Intel Xeon 1231v3 server processor. I recently got a VR headset and am thinking it'd be cool to upgrade the 970 at some point in the next couple years.
[2] Thoughts on Nvidia's RTX line in general? It's named as such supposedly because it's better at ray tracing. At this point that only seems to be marginally true for the lower end models. Perhaps that's due to it being so early on that few games are effectively using raytracing?
[3] Thought's on AMD's NAVI architecture? This is another highly VR-related update. From the limited data that's available right now, it seems these cards perform better in VR apps than more expensive AMD chips without NAVI. I don't know much about that but I do know that a lot of people have been reporting BSOD and crashes after installing these cards. I will still consider a second hand 5700 XT after new NAVI cards are out, later next year probably. But the competition will be between the 5700 XT and the 2060S.
In any case I appreciate that AMD decided to name their chips with a clear nod to Serial Experiments Lain :D
[4] Would you say the difference between my current (GTX 970) and one of the prospective two I am deciding between (RX 5700 XT or RTX 2060 SUPER) is dramatic, or "just nice to have"?
that's a lot of questions but I will answer them today or tomorrow. don't feel forgotten, I just don't have time at the moment!
I'm probably much less informed than the person you were asking, but IMHO it may be worth waiting a year to see how well AMD's response to RTX will turn out. Ray tracing is absolutely the future, and from what I understand we are only getting the first tastes of how powerful these techniques will be.
If you absolutely must upgrade now, I would prefer the 5700 to the XT, since the extra performance isn't really worth the price. Save some money so you can invest it later.
(If you can't tell, I'm hevily invested in team red here)
1
Okay, I would not buy any of these. Wait for AMDs Answer on Raytracing. This will cause more competition and will hopefully produce better cards with acceptable pricing.
2
Raytracing is an amazing idea but completely useless for casual gamers/consumers. There are not enough games supporting raytracing and the ones that do eat up so much GPU power that its just not worth the money. If you want to do some professional rendering stuff sure, go ahead and buy an rtx card. But you totally don't need it for casual gaming. The difference between good non RTX graphics amd rtx graphics is minimal. In 2 or 3 Years rtx will probably be really interesting but now ots just completely useless unless you play one of the select 5 games that support raytracing AND care enough about some stupid reflections since the rest looks the same with ans without raytracing.
3
Navi was hyped up a lot and is an amazing architecture but it's not kicking it enough. The cards cost almost the same as nVidias RTX cards but don't have raytracing. Although raytracing is useless if you can get it for the same price then why not? As said above, wait for the next generation. The competition will fuel the market for better cards and lower prices.
4
Depends on the game. Sure, there will be an increase in performance but the question is whether you will notice it. On older games you won't. If you plan on playing the newest games on ultra settings you will see a mentionable difference. A 970 is a decent card, keep it and change when it actually starts to struggle heavily.
Between these 2 cards the performance gap is depending on the game, the rx 5700 xt will have the upper hand a little bit more often tho.
Hope I could help you!
I’m building an AMD with a local builder. He really emphasized I should get a Rizen instead of a A10 but IDK. I feel 16Gb if RAM will make things go smoother. This is not a gaming machine. He also seems to not understand welll the difference between RAM and SSD but whatever lol.
You will get drammatically better performance with Ryzen than an A10. Performance-wise, they're really about two to three generations apart. If you have the choice between an A10 with 16Gb and just about any Ryzen with 8Gb, you should absolutely choose the Ryzen. Literally the lowest-end Ryzen processor outperforms the highest-end A10.
(But honestly the most important performance option you can choose right now is to get an SSD. SSDs are cheap enough now that HDDs aren't really worth the space advantage they have)
Cool., I’ll have. a 240gb SSD + 2tb of regular storage (old hard drives )
Okay, let me help you out here:
Totally get a ryzen. I would recommend the Ryzen 5 2600x. Its dropped in prices but still is a killer cpu. Get a cheap gpu, i would recommend an AMD Rx 580 8gb sapphire nitro. 200 Bucks and out performs every 1060 of you have downloaded the newest drivers! Of you don't want a separate gpu go for a ryzen 2 2400g, one of the best APUs out there. DON'T GET AN A10!
16 gigs of ram aren't mandatory but don't really hurt either so yeah, get em.
And please, please get an SSD. Doesn't have to be m2, sata is enough as well but an ssd will improve everything sooo much!
I'm waiting for someone to ask me about money or about plumbing. Specifically, I'm waiting so that I can ask them for a loan to pay for an expensive plumbing repair job.
How much money do you need?
Not that I have any, just trying to be a pal.
Something like $3500.
The good news is that that is going to be split between three people. Even better, it may be at least partially covered by insurance, but we are still looking into it.
The problem is mostly timing, because it happened while we were saving up for a big two-week vacation on a cruise. We may not be able to go for a full year if we can't save enough money by the deadline. So if the insurance doesn't cover it, there is going to be a lot of stress.
Hey you can always go next year, right? It’s not the end of the world. It’ll all be okay!
I agree. But my partner is very worn out and really needs it to happen. This is kind of a dream trip for him. I can take my vacations practically whenever, but he is restricted because he works in a service industry that is mostly seasonal.
I should mention we're American. Two week vacations are fairly rare here, sadly, especially at our income levels.
I want someone to ask me how I've been dealing with my mom being a cancer patient for a year.
That must be tough. It’s hard to imagine how I would feel. What’s going through your mind?
At the moment, I'm grateful someone replied to me and asked me how I'm doing.
In general? I'm angry and sad a lot of the time. Never in an overt way, mind you, but my mom's illness is literally on my mind in almost every waking moment and it's hard to push it out of the way so it doesn't consume me.
But I guess it could be worse. I did talk to a counselor earlier this year, and during our sessions, she gave me some good tips on how to handle the anxiety and dread.
That's easier to say than to hear: but suffering and death are just part of life as joy and living. I never lost anyone close, so it's hard to relate. We will always feel sad, we always miss the one we love. But things get easier when we accept the real nature of life and abandon the feeling of despair.
Hope you're well.
Thank you, and I will try my best to keep moving forward. :)
Maybe this will help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dukkha
Ask me about resin and silicone casting or 3D printing. I run a shop that uses those processes extensively and can answer tons of questions about how to do them safely, effectively, and economically.
Can you 3D print absolutely anything?
Currently some shapes work far better than others, and it depends what type of printer you're using which shapes will be ideal for the print process. 3D printers in general are really bad at objects that have two solid areas with a vertical gap between them. A fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer, for example, would have a very hard time accurately printing an outline of a square if it was standing up, but a very easy time if it was on its side. A stereolithography (SLA) printer is far better at large unsupported gaps, but they can still be tricky sometimes, and with those you often have the added challenge of print material getting trapped in the contours of what you're printing and being accidentally overcured into place.
The hardest part of 3D printing is knowing intuitively which models are going to have problems printing on your equipment and how you might rotate and add support material to them to help the machine make them. It's something you have to learn through experience and failure, and every printer's limits are a little different.
Can I 3D print a 3D printer who will in turn print other 3D printers?
Actually yes, sorta! My first 3D printer was a RepRap. The whole idea was that someone would send you the 3D printed parts to make one, you'd buy the non-3D printed parts like the all-thread and motors, and then you'd print more sets of the structural parts and send those on to the next people who wanted to build them.
Do you have any advice / words of wisdom / things-wish-you-knew-before-you-started / recommendations for grasping the basics of making silicone molds + hollow resin casts for small parts, using oil-based clay and/or paperclay for the original?
I've been working on a ball jointed doll design and I'm confused about where to start with mold making.
Stuff like:
Thank you very much and I'd hear your expertise!
So many suggestions!
To prepare for silicone casting, coat your masters with a release agent and let it dry. I use Mann Ease Release 200 in spray form. If you have a durable master and want extremely fine reproduction of the surface (like mirror finish on glass) skip the release agent. You will destroy delicate parts doing this, but the mold will come out fine.
To consistently mix first get a digital scale, then mix however you like. How you mix will depend on the silicone you're using. If I have one with a long working time, I'll use an electric blender because I'll have tons of time to degas the mix. If it's a fast setting silicone I'll very carefully mix it with a popsicle stick to try to minimize the number of bubbles and speed up degassing. You'll probably want a vacuum degasser in most cases. It's not required, but it's nice to have and it can get you out of some tough spots if you've got bubbling issues.
Reuse will depend on the type of silicone. I only have significant experience with platinum cure silicones since I work with very small parts that need extreme detail. You can easily get hundreds of casts out of them if you store them in a dry place with minimal temperature fluctuation and nothing pressing on them and apply release agent to them before and after casting so they stay conditioned.
I basically only use products from Smooth-On. There's a distributor nearby, they have clean, consistent data sheets, and their Mold Star silicone and Crystal Clear resin line work exceedingly well for my use case. Whatever you do, do not get polyester resin. That stuff is the devil. You'll smell it for weeks.
Sounds like you'll be doing rotocasting if you want hollow pieces, or you'll be doing some tight fitting molds. You'll want a resin that's rated for thin surfaces, probably a urethane. When you look into a resin line there should be several variations (e.g. Crystal Clear 200, 202, 204, etc.) with different properties. I sometimes cast very large pieces that are like an inch thick and I'll use a different formulation from the same product line I use to make pieces that are only 1mm or so thick. Pay attention to the recommended layer thickness because the resin generates heat when combined and that drives the curing process. Use a resin rated for thin layers in a giant mold and you'll have insane heat and warping and mold destruction on your hands. Use a resin rated for thick layers in a tiny mold and it will never generate enough heat to cure (but you can cheat and help it along with external heat).
As for whether it's feasible for home production, I think it is. You're going to want a respirator and a fume hood probably, and gloves (get vinyl, not nitrile or latex--those two will ruin platinum cure silicone). Some of the resins will have big warnings about how they're not for home use. Definitely not legal or medical advice here, but just vent adequately and protect your skin and lungs and you'll be fine. In my shop I literally built a fume hood that vents out a window using some AC ducting, a few high RPM server fans, and an upside down plastic tote. It may look hilariously ghetto, but spray anything near my workbench and it will get blasted outdoors immediately. You'll probably also want a pressure pot and a compressor. You can buy very, very quiet compressors (mine is a Fortress brand) and paint pots that you can convert into resin casting pots at Harbor Freight. You'll find YouTube videos of how to convert the Harbor Freight paint pot--they're very popular with resin casters because they're comparatively super cheap yet perfectly adequate.
Let me know if you have any other questions! I'm happy to help!
Wow... this is more info than I expected and I appreciate every bit of it. Thank you very very much. One quick question -- the pressure pots/compressors - do you mean like a pressure cooker? And would this be for pushing air bubbles out of the mix?
So not quite. You'll want a compressor like a shop one for inflating tires. A 1 or 2 gallon air compressor is fine, and all of them will go to a higher pressure than what you need. Once your resin is inside your silicone molds, you'll put it in your converted paint pressure pot and set it to about 50PSI to squeeze the hell out of any bubbles left in your mix. They're still in there, but it will make them too small to see. These pots are normally used to hold several gallons of paint plus air pressure so you can paint houses and stuff, but you'll need to convert it to just hold the pressure instead. Look up "converting harbor freight pressure pot" on YouTube. Zac Higgins has a great tutorial on those.