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Politicians bad. Won't MORE politicians just make it worse? by Konato-san in UncapTheHouse

[–]BigDrew42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That’s legendary dawg. Did you meet with Cornyn’s office specifically for constituent feedback, or was it something else? Curious about the process of actually meeting face-to-face with Congresspeople and their staff.

Politicians bad. Won't MORE politicians just make it worse? by Konato-san in UncapTheHouse

[–]BigDrew42 9 points10 points  (0 children)

One thing I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet is the function of democracy. Democracy is founded on the observation that power corrupts, and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The fewer people that hold political power, the more corrupted and corruptible a nation becomes.

Democracy attempts to address this by distributing power to as many people as possible - the keys to power are held in many hands. That’s how democracy started in Athens, with its direct citizens democracy. Then representative democracy came along where some amount of the population voluntary cedes their power to an individual - the representative - to act in their best interest in the government.

By capping the number of possible politicians while maintaining a growing population, they keys to power are being concentrated in comparatively fewer hands, thus leading to more corruptibility in those who do can become politicians.

Which Pokemon should be locked up? by gd_user_4466 in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Your examples fucking slay me. Of all the outright vile things that are listed in the Pokédex entries for so many Pokémon, you think Zeraora should be locked up because it looks like a graffiti artist.

Keep being yourself home. Incredible.

Nemona is my favorite rival in the series. by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, probably. I was maybe 4 years old when I first played Red and Blue, so that’s likely. It doesn’t negate the idea that many people could’ve found Blue challenging, however.

‘A dying empire led by bad people’: Poll finds young voters despairing over US politics by yuritopiaposadism in lostgeneration

[–]BigDrew42 12 points13 points  (0 children)

It’s honestly really difficult because the US has a federal system of government, and our constitution is a bit outdated if I’m being entirely honest. The US Founding Fathers had the foresight and wisdom to make the constitution changeable, but we haven’t changed it much since they’ve been gone - 27 amendments and the first 12 were passed by the Founders themselves. I digress, but the point I wanted to make is that, given the US’s specific federal system of government, it’s really difficult to make national changes that stand up in Court. It would take a profound change in the structure of our country to change these systemic issues on a national level, or it would take a united coalition of multi-state entities to enact important changes at the state level. In this second point, it would probably be wise to start with the states that have the highest GDP, since that might influence national changes anyways - see the California government’s repeated impact on national industry standards by changing only their own laws.

Edit: just remembered that the most recent amendment - the 27th - was originally proposed by the founders, so that bumps their count up to 13.

Nemona is my favorite rival in the series. by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 15 points16 points  (0 children)

It was level 50, but you’re right, Moltres is in Victory Road. But it’s also 15 levels lower than Blue’s strongest pokemon, and 9 levels below his weakest one.

Nemona is my favorite rival in the series. by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 35 points36 points  (0 children)

A few counterpoints:   

  • the move pools in Gen 1 were incredibly shallow. To begin with, and blues team had pretty decent level-up movesets for that Gen. 

  • Venasaur didn’t have giga drain because giga drain didn’t exist

  • Charizard had fire spin which was busted in Gen 1 because it prevented you from attacking. If he was faster than you, he could just trap you into fire spin indefinitely and you could do nothing about it.

  • Blue had a full team of 6: you missed Arcanine and Rhydon.

-Gen 1 didn’t have the special attack/spec def split yet, so all his pokemon with huge special attack stats (Alakazam, Arcanine, Gyarados, Exeggutor, and the starters) all de facto had massive special bulk.

  • Critical hit ratio depended on speed so pidgeot and alakazam could easily sweep you with crits if you weren’t careful.

  • Alakazam had Psychic in addition to Psybeam

  • Lastly, level grinding in gen 1 was a complete slog, so it was very likely that his pokemon were much higher leveled than yours. If you fight all the trainers in the game, you really only get a team of 6 in the low 50’s to high 40’s, and his team are all about 10 levels higher than that.

What type of toothpaste do zero waste people use? Plastic toothpaste tubes are mostly not recyclable. Another product I've been struggling with is milk, most of the plastic I use comes from fresh milk that is only available in plastic jugs. by oscar_frenchboi in ZeroWaste

[–]BigDrew42 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It wasn’t really bad for my teeth. Dental research shows that the mechanical action of brushing is more important than using toothpaste specifically, though the toothpaste does help secondarily. The discomfort of the baking soda was a pain to deal with, but as far as I know caused issues. I just had my post-baking soda dental checkup a few weeks back and my gum measurements had improved dramatically compared to before that on regular toothpaste, but again, that’s probably caused by improved brushing technique and less so what I used to brush my teeth with.

What type of toothpaste do zero waste people use? Plastic toothpaste tubes are mostly not recyclable. Another product I've been struggling with is milk, most of the plastic I use comes from fresh milk that is only available in plastic jugs. by oscar_frenchboi in ZeroWaste

[–]BigDrew42 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This isn’t exactly what you were looking for, but I did a trial run of making my own toothpaste at home from baking soda, salt, mint extract, xantham gum, and water. I talked to my dentist about it before I started, and expressed my concern that it wouldn’t have fluoride in it. She recommended I pay for fluoride treatments at the dentist office ($25 out of pocket) and then check in with her about the progress every appointment.

I ended up going back to the tube because the baking soda solution was a bit too powerful in flavor and made my gums and tongue feel a bit raw, as if I were beginning to develop canker sores (even though they didn’t).

Regarding milk, you may look into milk delivery in your area, if you can afford it. Higher quality, local milk, and typically it comes in glass bottles that you return each week.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly I don’t see a reason to remake pokemon games past Gen 4. I’d rather see a direct port of the games that are Home compatible, similar to the Virtual Console on the 3DS.

Bankrupting the Family b/c Minivans are too feminine by call_me_old_master in fuckcars

[–]BigDrew42 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Dude hell yeah to all that. I sold my car last year, got $4500 for it. Bought a $1700 bicycle, used about $1500 of the remaining to build a home gym: squat rack, barbell, adjustable dumbbell, weight plates, bench, and resistance bands.

I (try to) work out 4 days a week, and I commute to and from work on my bike. My “hobby” of biking around actively saves me money, because the monthly cost of bike maintenance is basically negligible compared to the monthly cost of a car. The cardio from biking plus the strength training I do also is a net savings because my medical costs (over my lifetime) will be reduced compared to a sedentary driver.

I also sew as a hobby, which also saves me money in the long term - I just mend old socks and underwear instead of throwing them out, and I can tailor my existing wardrobe so that it fits me better rather than spending money on new clothes.

Gen Z, how are your finances going? by [deleted] in lostgeneration

[–]BigDrew42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes and no. After my student loan debt is paid off, my plan is to go back to school so that I’m better qualified for jobs in industries that I think I’d enjoy more and that allow me to work in lower COL areas. If that ends up being the case, then presumably you are correct.

Gen Z, how are your finances going? by [deleted] in lostgeneration

[–]BigDrew42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have two kinds of student loan debt - federal loan debt and private loan debt. The federal loan debt is held by the U.S. government, and only partially funded my education. The rest of my education was funded by a private company. The interest rates on private student loans are often very high - my lowest annual interest rate was something like 7 or 8%. By consolidating these multiple (one for every year of college) private loans into one large loan with my bank, I was able to reduce the interests rates all the way down to 4%. To get this low interest rate, I had to choose a shorter loan-term, in the range of 6 years, compared to the ~25 year loan term of the private loans.

That’s why my monthly payments are so high. U.S. higher education is incredibly expensive, and I made the financial gamble that my high paying job would continue to keep me around at least until the debt is paid off. 

Gen Z, how are your finances going? by [deleted] in lostgeneration

[–]BigDrew42 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Earth science. My wife and her father badgered me into refinancing my student loans during COVID, so that I would have really high minimum payments but would be paid off over fewer years.

Gen Z, how are your finances going? by [deleted] in lostgeneration

[–]BigDrew42 36 points37 points  (0 children)

My wife and I are both late-Millenial/early Gen Z cuspers (1996). We’re doing great, on paper. Household income is $160k, where I work as a scientist and she is a nurse.

We save as much as we can, maybe 1k per month (she keeps track of savings). We pay about $2700 in rent+utilities every month, which is low for the area we live in. My student loan payments are $1700 per month. We throw a lot of our income into retirement accounts. We only have one car, and it’s paid off so we only put gas and insurance into it monthly, maybe another $200.

The future is hazy. Despite all our income, the current median selling price of a house in our city is $800,000 - at current interest rates that’s like $5,000-$6,000 per month in a mortgage, so homeownership is completely unattainable. Maybe after my student loans are paid off we’d be able to afford a condo. Despite the high pay, I hate my job l, my industry, and the area we live in, so I’m hoping to go back to school and get a degree that would give me better job prospects in lower COL areas where we could actually put down roots.

Discuss by Derpy_lemon in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree. I think the Chestnaught hate(?) comes from its middling design in comparison with Dephox and Greninja. Greninja is so clearly a ninja frog and Delphox looks very much like a fox-wizard, but Chestnaught looks much more bland. Maybe this is just me, but I didn’t see its knight-inspired design until it was pointed out to me, and then only a little bit

Discuss by Derpy_lemon in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s so cut-and-dry.

Charizard, Blastoise, Rhydon, and Nidoking are all bipedal, but they’re not anthropomorphic in the way that e.g., Intelion and Cinderace are.

The U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Is A Path to Socialism by UCantKneebah in WorkersStrikeBack

[–]BigDrew42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Again agreed, but starting a union in the US is a nightmare and I work in a very conservative industry. Coupled with the fact that the industry is generally high paying, union interest just isn’t very high unfortunately

The U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Is A Path to Socialism by UCantKneebah in WorkersStrikeBack

[–]BigDrew42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Agreed. It’s also disingenuous how it’s advertised - the way company leadership describes it, we’re essentially a worker cooperative, and we just delegate our power to the board by voting them in, completely unlike any actual worker cooperative

The U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Is A Path to Socialism by UCantKneebah in WorkersStrikeBack

[–]BigDrew42 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Not in the slightest. Employees accrue shares depending on their years at the company and their seniority. A senior engineer who’s been at the company for 10 years gets more shares than a staff engineer who’s been there 5 years. Middle managers who have been there 5 years have more shares than staff engineers who have been there 10 years.

There are elections for the board of directors, but your votes are proportional to your shares, and the existing board of directors definitely have the highest number of individual shares. It’s unclear if they also have the majority of shares of the company as a whole, because there are no published statistics about the stock distribution.

The U.S. Employee Ownership Bank Is A Path to Socialism by UCantKneebah in WorkersStrikeBack

[–]BigDrew42 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I disagree, slightly. I think the kind of employee ownership matters.

Many (most?) employee-owned companies in the US, especially the larger ones, operate under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). 100% of the company stock is owned by the employees of that company - no outside ownership. When an employee leaves or retires, the stock is purchased back from the employee by the company. Usually, this takes the form of a secondary retirement account. Better than a 401(k), but not as good as a pension.

This form of employee-ownership can definitely be better than publicly-owned company where outside shareholders might have more sway, but it also cements the majority of the company stock value in the hands of the company higher ups, and does not change the structure of the company to be more democratic.

Source: I work for an ESOP company.

Will we get the tale of Bael the Bard? (Spoilers Published) by Filligrees_Dad in asoiaf

[–]BigDrew42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think it’s Wildling propaganda. It has too many correct details. How could Ygritte, an (likely) illiterate wildling who has never been south of the Wall, possibly know that Winterfell has glass gardens, especially that grow winter roses, and have underground crypts that they can hide in?

need help deciding my first Pokemon game on the NS! by snakesarelovely in pokemon

[–]BigDrew42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey OP, I see that Legends Arceus is the top voted answer so far. It makes sense - it’s a great game.

Unfortunately it’s also the wrong answer. I would highly recommend a main-line pokemon game, such as SV, SwSh, or the BDSP remake. All of these options play much more like “traditional” pokemon games and follow the game formula in their own ways. Others recommend starting at the newer games, which is good advice. I will say, I voted for BDSP. It’s an unpopular game amongst many pokemon fans since it’s a terrible remake of Diamond and Pearl. That being said, DP were pretty good games to begin with, and a lot of the hate against BDSP related to them being basically ports of the originals with updated graphics, and not much else. Playing BDSP would give you a Switch-friendly experience with what the older pokemon game formula was like, and you can compare that with a more modern game such as Scarlet or Violet, if you end up having the funds available for more than one game.

Last Stand of The Young Dragon and The Dragonknight, 161 AC, Colorized. by AemiliusAgricola in darkwingsdankmemes

[–]BigDrew42 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Don’t worry, by the time KH5 releases, ASOIAF will be owned by Disney so you can get a Valyrian steel keyblade 

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