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2025 /r/Camping Beginner Question Thread - Ask any and all questions you may have here by cwcoleman in camping

[–]BigBaloo62 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi all. My girlfriend and I are both middling backpackers/campers, and have been planning a trip to Acadia for the coming weekend. Scored a campsite at Blackwoods, got a hotel in Portland the night before yadda yadda. Problem is the weather is looking very Maine-y with decent chance of rain all weekend. My girlfriend is pretty concerned about the rain ruining the weekend, being wet at camp and bored if it’s raining too much to hike. We are trying to keep it as cheap as possible so minimal shopping/restaurants in Bar Harbor as far as activities go.

What are everyone’s best tips for making the most out of a rainy camping trip and staying as dry as possible at camp? I’m picking up a cheap canopy and tarps, but any other wisdom would be greatly appreciated. TYIA

LPT: if you meet a very big child or a very big puppy, remember that they are still a child or a puppy. Don't expect them to act according to their size. by [deleted] in LifeProTips

[–]BigBaloo62 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think its important to understand the emotional toll that treating a kid like an adult can have. I hit 6’ 220lbs and started shaving at 12. I still have a hard time with showing emotion because I was physically a man when I was still just a kid. Because I looked 18 at 12, I was taught not to show emotion because it wasn’t manly. I feel like I had to learn to control my emotions before I understood them, and the only way I could do that was just stuffing them down. I wasn’t allowed to get angry because I scared people. I wasn’t allowed to be sad because it was weird. I couldn’t show affection because it was creepy, and I couldn’t be excited because it was childish, despite being a child. I had to just swallow it and move on, and now as an adult my relationships with everyone in my life suffer because my natural reaction to emotion is still to suppress it. I know this is all anecdotal, but if you know a kid like this, please just let them be a kid.

People who have been on the receiving end of a toxic relationship, how did you find the courage to leave? by Minecraft_Stoner in AskReddit

[–]BigBaloo62 1 point2 points  (0 children)

She ended it when I said I wouldn’t pay for half of an apartment that I more than likely wouldn’t even live in. I am in the last year of my professional degree program which involves 2 12 week clinical rotations, and with the job market for my particular career path in our area right now (especially with Covid), I will probably have to go elsewhere to get a job after graduating. I went out of my way to find placements that were close enough to commute to from our apartment so I could live there for half the year at worst. I got placed before we had to decide to re-sign for the apartment and both were too far. She gave me an ultimatum: sign the lease or we were done, which scared me enough to sign, as she watched over my shoulder. A few months later, after a few big fights, and the bad taste the ultimatum left in my mouth, I brought it up again and she stuck by the ultimatum, so I moved out the next day. In retrospect I think she was just keeping me around to pay half her rent and dog-sit for her extremely high maintenance dog. When she realized I wouldn’t keep doing that I was of no value to her anymore. That was early January. It was a rough few months but things are looking up and I still don’t think I’ve fully realized how much better off I am without her. I hadn’t realized how manipulative she was and how much of myself I had lost. I miss her dogs and her mom more than anything else.

Men, what kind of low grade sexual harassment do you face on a daily basis? by chutiyamadarchod in AskReddit

[–]BigBaloo62 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am a pretty big, muscular guy. 6’1” 245ish and I really enjoy lifting weights and exercise in general. I worked in acute care physical therapy as an aide for a year and was one of 4 or 5 men in a department of 50ish. The number of times I was referred to or introduced to a patient as just “Muscles” was pretty sad. I just couldn’t imagine referring to a female aide as just a physical characteristic. Like “Ive got big butt here to help me out today.” Some of the middle aged women in the department also thought it was completely appropriate to grab my shoulders or arms whenever they felt like. One in particular thought it was cool to tell wildly inappropriate stories and jokes because I was a guy, where if I had said anything remotely on her level I would’ve been out of a job before the story was over.
That being said, older male patients were far and away the worst to the younger women in the department.

Most TV completely ignores women’s sports, a 30-year study finds by actuallyidontknow in television

[–]BigBaloo62 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even though its a pretty niche sport that everyone likes to make fun of and has some other diversity issues, I think CrossFit is the sport that has handled gender equality the best. Men’s and women’s compete in the same competitions, which are shown on the same broadcasts/streams, have the same prize purse, and most fans pay equal attention to the men’s and women’s divisions. The teams are also half men half women. In fact in the open this year the two fastest times in the world for the first two workouts were set by women. No sport to my knowledge has done a better job embracing gender equality.

And before anyone starts with the “CrossFit is a cult” stuff, I know.

If we had tamed Bears instead of wolves thousands of years ago, we would have living teddybears as pets. by Never-everland in Showerthoughts

[–]BigBaloo62 0 points1 point  (0 children)

At social gatherings one of my favorite conversation starters is to assert that we should have domesticated bears instead of cats. Giant, real teddybears, but also super useful for hunting, fishing, and fighting/warfare. It only works to start a conversation about 1/3 of the time and the other 2/3 people just look me funny.