ApathyTree

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

I’ve watched all the series and had no idea.

Thanks for explaining!

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

I enjoy that it reminds me of a Star Trek console.

Probably by design but all the same.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

I look at my keys when I type and I’m not ashamed of that. I always have, since Oregon trails on 5.25 floppy in the early 90s.

I could probably train myself out of it, and I can type whole sentences without looking, but only with the 6 fingers I normally use, rather than the full 8 most people use, and it’s a fucking chore. Frankly, it seems like a massive waste of mental resources to learn to type without looking, and I actively resisted learning it in typing classes in middle/highschool. I’m not doing data entry, so whatever I’m writing is a creative process, and that benefits from sight. I get eyes on what I’m doing while I’m doing it, and again when I check it over. It worked out very well for me when I started typing in Cyrillic, I just added transparent stickers. Homework was a breeze; I was looking anyway! :)

Yes I fucking want backlit keys. Even if just for when I’m laying in bed at a weird angle and can’t see the key layout, or sitting in a dark room. I would want them in a drunken stupor, too, even tho I use my phone for that browsing, which is backlit by default.

In summary, backlit keys are the shit. I spent a gob of money on a backlit, rechargeable, wireless keyboard, and I regret nothing.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

If you ever run into this in the future, you can often stand outside an open door with the lights on if it’s dark and make loud fast clicking noises (to give them a sense of outside through echolocation, plus a light outside the door to draw their attention since they have perfectly good eyesight) and they will just fly out on their own. They are smart, and don’t want to be inside buildings.

I get 0-5 bats a year in my house, not really sure how they get in, other than through some crack somewhere (cheap, poorly historically maintained, 140 yo house is bound to have some, and my neighbors house is basically made for bats to live in the siding so not surprising they try mine too) but I’ve figured out that’s typically a highly effective strategy to get them back out. Very easy, minimal stress for anyone involved. I don’t have anyone to help me, so it’s something one can do solo without wasting all the bat’s energy.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

This did specifically say “happiest moment yet to come”, so no worry of it already being past.

Would, however, suck nuts to see receiving the snow globe in the globe. Or something that happens a week later or something.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Don’t go into STEM, then.

It’s everywhere.

And the definitions in stem fields are often very subtly different, and also different from lay language definitions (like theory in science means something very different than common use)

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

When you catch yourself going into a negative loop, stop yourself and think of or write down the absolute worst possible scenario (and really, how bad is this, likely minor, negative thing in the grand scheme of things?), the most likely scenario which happens most of the time, and the best possible scenario (how good could it be, similar to the bad outcomes?). What separates those possible outcomes? Chance? Effort on your part? Other people?

If it’s effort on your part, it gives you actionable steps you can take and that’s great for anxiety, everything else being out of your control should actually help as well, though, especially when you intentionally step back and look for the most likely event.

I always have this sense when I’m driving home from an overnight elsewhere that my house will have burned down or my animals will be dead or something. I know it’s absurd, but more than that, even if that was the case, there’s nothing I could actually do about it, and I know one of my neighbors would call the fire department and text me if my house caught fire. So when I have that intrusive thought I stop myself and take a step back - logically it’s very unlikely it will burn down when I’m not home because I spend 99% of my time at home - if it is going to burn, it is likely going to burn when I’m here, and I literally never worry about that. So why do I worry about the rare occurrence?

It doesn’t help immediately, because you didn’t logic yourself into that worry, but eventually you can train yourself to be a bit more realistic which, while it may not fix the intrusive thoughts, does help a ton with breaking the rumination cycle.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

I can hear your username. Well done.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

The core game is also included in ps+ (top two tiers with access to game library) for download or streaming.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

It’s a good phrase! Maybe one of the best phrases I’ve been exposed to because it implies a lot without the awkwardness of saying it outright.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

I come from a semi-rural midwestern area, and my first experience with a subway system (or really, any public transit that ran more than once every 3 hours) was in Boston.

Granted, we flew in, so other than renting a car or ridesharing, we didn’t have a choice, but other than needing to plan for the walk rather than the drive, and one very scary bridge we had to cross many times due to where the hotel was (I struggle walking on surfaces I can see through, regardless how far the drop), there was absolutely no need for a car, and indeed it would have been much worse (I dislike all driving and city driving is absolutely horrible - used to live in Houston - plus finding and paying for parking blah blah blah. No.). It was glorious to wait 5 minutes for the next train, then do whatever while getting there.

If my area even had a decent bus, I’d use it, but we don’t. In the 10 years I’ve lived in this town I’ve seen a bus a handful of times, and frankly that’s not often enough to consider relying on unless you have no choice. I do have a bike but I need an e-bike because everything is fairly distant and steeply downhill from my house (seriously, I can go further uphill, but there’s nothing there worth going for, unless you enjoy cemeteries and farm fields) and I’m not even close to in shape enough to bike it. I did get a stationary bike with the goal of getting in shape enough to bike around town, but that’s not going well at all 😅. But I could see a bike in a city. I’d even be fine with mopeds in city limits (not really that different from e-bikes, just ICE instead of battery) as long as there’s no cars. Waste of space and dangerous in cities. Plus all those heavy boxes moving single humans is horrible for air quality which primarily impacts those walking… so it’s dangerous even if you are the absolute best driver in the world.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

lol at the thought of “this part of your body that you use multiple times every day for vital survival functions and various other functions like communication is mostly cosmetic, you’ll do just fine without!”

Teeth bleaching is cosmetic, crowns and fillings and whatever are restoration of normal functioning.

If we were meant to be ok without properly functioning teeth, we wouldn’t have teeth in the first place. That’s a stupid argument biologically speaking. (No offense intended to you personally, ofc)

I understand that Americans have a disproportionate focus on the -specifically cosmetic- aspects of oral hygiene, whiteness and straightness, primarily, but to say that most oral care is unnecessary and purely cosmetic is just absolute hogwash.

Mind you this is from someone who intends to get all her teeth ripped out and replaced with implants because no matter what I do, I average a cavity every 2-4 years. It’s cheaper in the long run to get implanted dentures than to fight my genes. So I understand entirely the being toothless by 30 (tho I’m 36 and still have all of them, I think I have more fillings than teeth at this point, and if most of those weren’t done free in the military I’d just have no teeth) but I disagree vehemently with the idea that that’s totally fine and won’t cause problems.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Is that actually a thing people say? I live in the north woods and I’ve not heard that…particular logic… then again I tend to avoid hunters…

But omg purposely letting something starve because of its biological shortcomings is not the way. I’d for sure be dead in that world.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Oh really? It makes that big a difference?

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Why do I relate to this so much despite only barely knowing what Manjaro is….? Hmm…

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Finally someone who notices the effort!

ApathyTree, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, the coolest thing about the sun, imo, is that while a particle of light only takes a few minutes to reach earth, it can take millions of years to escape the tumultuous interior of the sun to radiate in the first place. That activity is what prevents the sun from collapsing under its own gravity.

We can’t change our earthly perspective, no, but we do have numerous satellites that do have the ability to see certain angles we can’t currently on earth. We can’t see the backside of it (from our current perspective, it rotates and we orbit so we do see all of it), really, because we’d never get good signal from our craft, but we can get some decent side angles.

We just don’t necessarily have the tools to see what we want to know with those specifically, but we put out great new tools on a regular basis, so it’s very possible they will make new tools just for that purpose.

…wikipedia.org/…/Category:Artificial_satellites_a…

As for the other question about not being able to detect it - not really. The stuff we have focused on the sun mostly works with hot material, but the universe itself is very cold, and we can detect things from every wavelength we are aware of, it’s just a matter of what’s usually focused on the sun specifically to catch these things.

(Disclaimer for anyone who might read this: do not ever look at the sun through a telescope without a certified solar filter, you will burn out your eye. Guaranteed.) If you have a telescope, on a sunny day you can watch the sun indirectly by facing the eyepiece toward paper or a wall. It works like a projector. It’s black and white just because it’s bright out when you project it, but you can watch sunspots and stuff. :) and now is a great time to do it a we are approaching the solar maximum, when the most interesting things tend to happen.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

You misunderstand my understanding that most people don’t care, for being deterred from doing it.

No no. It’s a compulsion. I don’t have a choice but to share things, even at my own social detriment. I mean obviously I could subvert who I am fundamentally for the comfort of society, but that’s a lot of work I’m not willing to do when sharing is more fun, and more rewarding when it does hit. That’s why I got the science communication degree. To facilitate sharing whatever I know with whomever I meet in a way they can relate to. I take that skill very seriously. I was good at it before I got the degree.

I know some people stop sharing when beaten down by society, but I’m not one. When things get awkward I say “my bad I’m a science communicator by trait and training and have trouble not sharing cool stuff as a result” to diffuse the social pressure to conform. It works well enough.

It makes building real relationships more challenging than I assume your average individual has, but the connections that are made under those conditions tend to be really good ones so tradeoff I guess.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

All good friend. I wouldn’t call myself an intellectual, though… I’m just a person with specific interests like everyone else. Separating people by, essentially, educational attainment… is a mistake. I barely learned shit in college, I just got a piece of paper saying I was good at what I was already good at so I could get a job (which I haven’t yet, and it’s been a solid while becaue corporate bs is bs and heaven forbid you have gaps! but I can tell people what my degree is for and that’s enough for conversation).

My life has been a series of traumatic events that forcibly removed most of my blinders, and I see things as clearly as anyone really can, washed with propaganda as we all are… and it’s fucking miserable enough to wish I was entirely ignorant. So much easier.

But the rock has been the scientific method, it’s an amazing thing that gives us the tools to share things confidently! And I love telling people about the most recent thing I learned that was based on it. It is so helpful to say “hey what about this cool thing!” And when they go “hmm idk” you can describe the study and results, like being a living scicomm book, and then show them the actual study.

ApathyTree, 1 year ago

Clearly so, as you taught me a new definition - vulgarization - the act or process of making something, or of something becoming, better known and understood by ordinary people.

I appreciate that. Thanks! :) in that definition (and the more traditionally used one) I’m a vulgar mf!

Unless you want to know about like magnetic tornadoes on the sun or how sponges are colonies of cells often using glass/silicate compounds in various shapes as a common skeleton (wouldn’t want to bathe with those!! But each species has their own unique structure!), I haven’t much off the top of my head without a good conversation to spark some back-of-the brain latent info that’s stored and conversationally relevant. I’m a steel trap for niche science stuff, and it often takes a good conversation to bring it out. How else do you know what info is worth sharing?

^_^

ApathyTree, 1 year ago (edited 1 year ago)

They aren’t uncommon persey, it’s just another form of solar prominance, or material lifted above the surface by magnetic field liness. However, the tornado-like appearance rather than a full arc of material that connects to the surface in 2 places is rather uncommon, and it’s even possible that it’s an artifact of the way the sun is photographed (the lenses filter based on temperature, essentially, and material further from the surface may cool to the point it doesn’t get picked up with any of the filters, making it effectively invisible), or the angle at which the photos are taken in relation to the prominence (if we are looking at it head on, we wouldn’t see the second anchor point).

How they form is an ongoing mystery with many models, like all solar prominences, and it probably isn’t disconnected on one end like a cyclone would be, but visually it resembles a tornado, and the material does seem to rotate around the magnetic field lines, much the same way a tornado rotates in air. We see the same rotation in more typical coronal loops, which are what cause coronal mass ejections when it releases. They are absolutely massive when they do form, 10+ stacked earths in size, and can last days, weeks, months.

It’s one of my go-to water-testing facts because almost everyone likes the sun, is at least vaguely familiar with tornadoes, and can envision a “10 earth tall tornado of plasma on the sun”. Which is a damned cool image to envision - the reality is also spectacular but a bit less so.

The one linked below is actually from March this year, which is neat! I didn’t even know it happened again! This one was 14 earths high and exploded at the end of its cycle! How cool! I hope they got some really good data on how it works! I’ll have to do some looking :)

businessinsider.com/nasa-video-solar-tornado-plas…

ApathyTree, 2 years ago

I just say “it’s personal, and I won’t be discussing it.” If they don’t want to hire me because of it, I don’t want to work there anyway.

It’s absolutely none of their business what I was doing, especially that I went into a deep depression after my mom died and my live-in ex cheated on me while I was caring for her, and then spent a couple years selling her non-sentimental possessions to live off. And I’m not willing to make up some bullshit to hide it either, it happened and I’m not ashamed of it, but I’m not sharing it with interviewers. Meh meh.

ApathyTree, 2 years ago

Unfortunately this all happened in my early 20s, I went to college after, but there’s still a big gap that can’t be explained by school alone (and it’s a gap because I had military service prior to that which I always list)

I got stuck on the tempy-go-round (only able to find contracts due to gaps, and too many contracts to land a permanent job - several employers asked why I prefer contracts… I don’t, it’s all I could get… but that answer is it’s own can of worms…). I finally found a permanent job and realized I spent so much time on contracts that I can’t do the same thing day in day out for more than a year without driving myself bonkers. Ultimate catch-22.

So I’m going back to contracts. However, not entry level desperation contracts, ones actually using my degree. Covid remote work was an absolute silver lining for my field - used to be impossible to find positions, now they are there and pay super well (6 mths to make what I make in a year now), but mostly contract.

ApathyTree, 2 years ago

m.youtube.com/watch?v=KO4jaGF8eQE

(Just the first bit with the shotgun)

Also I assume some magic was involved.

ApathyTree, 2 years ago

I agree, it was explicitly for the shotgun part, the rest is too cumbersome to be useful (and frankly so is the shotgun limiting your leg movement…)

None of it is a good design, but let’s be real about the intended market for it - cosplaytriots and tacticools don’t care about actual practicality :)