Nokra

Yeah I don't see why it would be a problem to visit your friend. Probably good for both of you!

At the risk of sidetracking the thread (though not really, since this thread is at least tangentially about how to live, right? )... As someone who is also interested in Stoic philosophy, I'm curious what your thoughts are on e.g. Ryan Holiday or Mark Manson. I've read a couple of their books, enjoyed them, and definitely got some good out of them, but I do wonder if they veer a little too far into the "this is an industry" territory. On the other hand, I do think they have a decent understanding of the underlying philosophy, and I wouldn't even mind them dumbing things down a bit to have mass appeal, since more people becoming interested in the topic seems like a win to me. What are your thoughts?

Gotta be young scrappy and hungry </Hamilton>

I'm also really liking the trend of verified people changing their name to "Elon Musk":

Welcome back! If you want to keep up the presidential theme, you could use Joe in his aviators.

The account looks up to me.

IIRC Beerham was Tofurkey's husband, though I believe they divorced.

Probably it was karma for bragging, but my flight got cancelled due to a maintenance issue as we were on the runway about to take off. Now flying out tomorrow.

(just have to give @sblfilms a hard time ) I leave for Hawaii in the morning. Never been before so I'm pretty excited. I'm not usually much of one for lying around on the beach, but it's where my family wanted to go and I think between the hikes I'm hoping to take, the snorkeling, maybe some surf lessons, Pearl Harbor, a couple National Parks, etc. it will be pretty fun/interesting. We're spending one week on Maui and then one week on Oahu. Anyone ever been? What was your favorite thing to do on those islands?

But in all seriousness, yeah you want one or two layers of heat retention (e.g. hoodies, fleece) and a layer of wind/rain stopper (e.g. rain jacket, hardshell jacket, etc.). Hat/gloves optional, depending on your personal comfort level. It might also be a good opportunity to buy and wear a scarf, if you've never done so before. It's the style there (it's where I picked up the habit too) and it's pretty crazy what a difference it makes if your neck is no longer exposed and cold!

A couple weeks ago I bought a ticket to win a Tesla Model S Plaid (and they pay the taxes; worth around $190,000 all told ). Tickets were $150 and they only sold about 1000 of them, so my odds were decent. But yeah, I didn't win. At least the money went to charity.

Dropped off my ballot today too. Even though Oregon does a great job with its mail-in voting, the county (Multnomah, i.e. Portland) election office is three blocks from my apartment so I dropped it off in person. Didn't vote for a single Republican. Shocker.

I found a relevant article from The Atlantic that I'll post a couple snippets from, not with the intention of trying to change anyone else's mind about Twitter necessarily, but more as a discussion point that I found interesting. TL;DR: The argument is that, at least for now, Twitter is still Twitter, and abandoning it as a platform does more harm than good because it will create yet another echo chamber for idiots, lies, and conspiracy theorists. I think I agree in principle, though it's hard to see how Twitter won't become a shithole with fewer restrictions, since a very small minority of idiots can flood the zone faster than people can clear up the bullshit. The article also does talk about not engaging with trolls, complete fools, the inconvincible, etc. but we all know how well that works.

I randomly went to Starbucks on Friday and they told me their location opens at 5 am to accommodate truckers. Those poor employees.

This was clearly a typo; he meant the gun/nut industries.

@stepee Also I think you meant "staved off", not "starved off".

"And introducing Kevin Bacon" Love it, definitely will be checking this out.

Ah, so you were the infamous user, "DROP TABLE".

Perceived victimhood is a heritable trait; who knew!?

They will, but just keep in mind that it may not be on the schedule that you want or expect. These things take time and are gradual, but you'll get there.

What's the source of this figure? There are way too many variables for me to want to just accept this on its face.

It's obviously ultimately their house and thus their rules, but I'm really confused why she "flipped out" about a simple question. What's the harm in putting up a gate or installing a door or something, especially when it clearly means so much to you and would have little to no impact on her? What information am I missing here? Why are they so opposed?

This is the kind of self-medicating I have no problem with.

After she said the English, she said "I won't translate this, but this is a [political] party in which..." and then the video was cut off before she could finish the sentence, but it reminds me how I knew a fair number of Germans who would swear like sailors in English but wouldn't do so in German. Funny how swearing in a foreign language "doesn't count" in some contexts.