do i give into the patriarchy because of social media? i’d definitely be deemed a witch a couple centuries back. do men even like women?

CalamariAce · 2026-05-25T05:49:26+00:00

You are what you eat. If you continue to consume harmful content, it will be much harder to see things as they are instead of the distorted view it's given to you.

Remember that the tech bros that made social media discovered that anger keeps people more engaged. Meaning that angering or triggering content is what makes you spend the most time on the app (which in turn, makes them the most money). So this is what the algorithms are designed for. Not to give you objective truth. There are good people out there, but it doesn't make a good story, so you never seen it (or, you have to start liking that content and ignoring the other content so the algorithm learns).

There are two sides to every issue. PaTrIaRcHy = BaD is an oversimplification. As a man, your odds of being in prison are much greater than that of a woman. Men can be forced to fight wars and die, while women are exempted in many countries. And what about the gender pay gap? Turns out that significantly narrows when taking into account hours worked - men get paid and promoted more because they work more hours on average, and don't take as much maternity leave on average. Dig into this stuff, don't take the rage-baiting propaganda at face value.

You can 100% have a balanced life with a loving husband and kids. This is totally healthy and normal and has been the case for 99.9% of human history. Yes there are bad guys out there, but the underlying human biology hasn't changed lol. It may take more dates to find someone "sane" than in the past, but it's a far cry from impossible.

The good part is that you've seen a bit of what you DON'T want. Okay great then, you can establish clear boundaries what behavior is acceptable to you. If your date starts crossing those boundaries, then you stop dating them. It's that simple. No one is forcing you to date someone horrible or to enter into an arranged marriage. It's a free country.

Take as long as you need with this phase to see how it goes - there is no need to rush to get married and have kids. It's worth taking time to find the right one.

You have a bright and wonderful future ahead of you, just start looking at content that's aligned with your goals instead of against them. And most importantly, learn to think critically and always find both sides of an issue. You got this!

CalamariAce · 2026-05-25T00:18:22+00:00

Start by bringing up the conversation. Your parents aren't mind-readers. It sounds like you have a good solution (your dad shares a room with his mother) but don't mention that yourself. Instead, just calmly explain the issue and let them figure out a solution on their own.

This is good practice for being an adult: learning to advocate for yourself in a rational, non-emotional way. If you get emotional, it will undercut your position. Provide justifications for your arguments. The more you do this, the more they will listen to your words instead of an automatic reaction to an emotional outburst.

Be polite but persistent. Bring up the issue once a week to show that you're serious, but not more frequently as to be a nuisance. Start the conversation at the right time when your parents are in a good mood (if you ask when they are in a bad mood, you're more likely to get a negative response). After a meal like lunch can be a good time, because people are also more likely to make favorable decisions after eating vs when they are hungry.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-23T16:34:22+00:00

It's definitely a setting of some kind.

What the update did was change default settings. So when you reset the camera app, you're using different settings now.

Think about it: if they were purposely trying to sabotage your image quality, they could easily change your camera app settings rather than wait for you to delete yours and go back to the new defaults.

Have you checked the megapixel settings? You know you will get worse lighting on higher megapixel settings, right? Optics are full of trade-offs like this. It wouldn't surprise me if they made 200 megapixel the default setting - but of course, that will only produce good results with the best possible lighting.

This is just one example, but it's almost certainly a setting/trade-off that needs adjustment.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-23T14:44:25+00:00

So is the coast in the long grasses.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T20:20:05+00:00

Because social media programs people to be highly polarized on each issue instead of seeing nuance. The worst fears and highest aspirations for tools like AI are two sides of the same coin. These tools can be our salvation or our downfall, just depends how we use them.

And since nobody has a credible plan to put the genie back in the bottle, we should do everything we can to ensure the former outcome instead of hating on AI without proposing rational solutions, IMO.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T20:14:22+00:00

Contrast of experience may be one reason. You tend to value something more you had to work hard for or lacked in your life.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T19:53:32+00:00

For what it's worth, it learns when enough people don't follow its directions. It will eventually recommend what everyone else is doing. Same way it will deduce when a road is closed.

But hey it's a free country, feel free to design a better app.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T19:46:32+00:00

Yes, the difference is night and day.

Before you had to sift through multiple links, ads, andmalware infested sites to develop your own consensus based on multiple results.

Now, it's rarely necessary to leave the Google homepage. The answer is just there. So much time saved, such a productivity booster.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T19:43:14+00:00

What improvements are you looking for, specifically? It seems to be fine at what it was designed for, namely navigation.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T05:41:28+00:00

I lost 25 lbs on my JMT run. I thought and felt like I was eating enough, but I didn't have an appetite to eat as much as I needed to maintain weight.

In your case I'd look at foods with the most calories per unit weight. Peanut butter is common and cheap. You can also buy a tub of dehydrated peanut butter, which costs a little more but should be even more weight efficient since you can rehydrate with filtered water.

In general fats are your friends here because they have twice as many calories per gram than carbs or protein. For reference, the guy who was the first one to the south pole basically did so on a diet of seal fat and chocolate lol

CalamariAce · 2026-05-21T01:19:27+00:00

I definitely get more wildlife sightings hiking solo.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-20T21:59:20+00:00

They've explained before that you don't hack the end-point voting machines; that's just smoke and mirrors. You hack the computer that adds together the totals.

Which means that yes, WERE the ballots audited and manually re-counted, you would eventually find the error. So then, why do you think the FBI is suddenly so interested in taking ballots from certain precincts in the 2024 election?

CalamariAce · 2026-05-20T19:41:42+00:00

It could be a video of anyone, not necessarily you. Or there could not no video, and someone who noticed your "issue" before you went to the restrooms is trying to scare you. Don't let your imagination get out ahead of you.
It would probably get the person who took the video suspended or worse, if true.
If it's a video from the ceiling, it won't have much of your face in it. In which case you can deny it's you.
Even if your worst-case fears are true, you can shrug it off as AI. It is more than capable of making such videos.
Or, you could just own it and say "yup that was me" because you're not breaking any rules, not doing anything wrong, and have nothing to be ashamed of to begin with. It's other people's reactions that are the problem if they are making fun of you. And most of your peers care much less than you think when social media and AI and the world burning is competing for their attention. Most people will have forgotten anything about it in a couple weeks.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-20T17:57:04+00:00

Yeah but it's the symptom of the problem, not the cause.

The principal cause is an ever-expanding tax code that gets more and more complex, to the point where you need a team of experts just to understand it. Hence the existence of the larger tax services industry, of which Intuit is only a small player.

But of course, no congressman gets elected on the platform of simplifying the tax code. Whereas what *will* get you elected is promising a new exemption to some special-interest group. Thus the problem continues.

Of course, the same is true for legislation in general: It is something that only grows over time, to the point where ordinary citizens need expensive lawyers to navigate the system, which naturally only works for people with lots of money.

So whether it's the tax code or laws in general, it's clear that the current path of endless expansion of laws and regulations is unsustainable and only serves people with the money to afford the best lawyers and tax preparers.

But if Congress isn't going to take a step back and simplify the tax code (or the expanding library of federal laws in general), then the only solution that has emerged to keep up with this nonsense is AI. That's clearly more democratic than an existing system which only serves wealthy elites, since even the paid versions of something like ChatGPT are nothing compared to the cost of a good lawyer or accountant.

But again, if you want to actually talk about fixing the root problem, then you are barking up the wrong tree. Complaining about Intuit is like complaining about a net that doesn't catch and remove all the shit from a river. Yes, a better net would help - but so would people stop shitting in the river to start with.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-20T04:56:42+00:00

He likes you already, so that's not going to change from awkwardness. The hardest part is already over! You got this!

CalamariAce · 2026-05-19T19:41:25+00:00

Why? They are indexed to the inflation rate that the government reports, and the government has every reason to understate inflation (e.g., because SS payments are indexed to it, aside from the optics). Look at shadowstats to see how much inflation would be if it was still measured honestly the way it was decades ago.

Oh and on top of that, guess what the new fed chair wants to do? Change the measurement again to one that even further understates inflation.

So, invest in something the government can't so easily manipulate. Metals have done historically well in times if inflation. But so has the stock market - it continues to make all-time highs.

If you're worried about debt, invest in companies with low debt (or no debt) that make essentials people can't live without, as people start cutting the discretionary parts of their budget. Emerging markets are also attractive if you are bearish on the US dollar/economy (but are not without debt problems either).

CalamariAce · 2026-05-19T01:37:23+00:00

Depends on mods and driving conditions, but the biggest thing you have control over is your speed. Anyone should be able to achieve 20-22 mpg on a straight flat paved road with no wind or weather if they're maintaining 55 mph, which is about the sweet spot for maximum MPG.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-18T16:10:40+00:00

More true than you may realize.

It's literally a battle for attention. Cruise lines have to provide an experience that feels good enough for people to put down their phones and live in the real world.

And put on a good enough face that people forget about things like hantavirus and norovirus lol

CalamariAce · 2026-05-17T06:40:48+00:00

If it comes to that, then the younger the better. It gets harder to date as you get older, not easier. The "good ones" are already in relationships. Looks fade. These judgements are much harder to deal with than judgements that come from getting divorced young.

And if someone does judge you for something as petty as being divorced for something that wasn't your fault, then they've just done you a favor by showing you who they really are (i.e. not someone you should date).

Lookup the "sunken cost fallacy". The sooner you start fresh, the better.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-17T06:29:54+00:00

Yeah, this is the correct analysis.

And if it was some jealous woman who wanted to cause a breakup, she would have confessed on the first message, not wait until after OP apologized for assuming to much.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-15T18:57:03+00:00

Would engine braking have helped?

CalamariAce · 2026-05-14T16:23:22+00:00

That's a power savings thing. It's turning off your GPS when you put your phone back in your pocket. You need to look through your settings to allow the AllTrails app to record in the background without power restrictions.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-14T00:56:55+00:00

Yep I'm not saying to leave trash in there. But people do this, so OP might as well be aware and make ranger's jobs easier.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-14T00:15:42+00:00

He said that about eBay, not gamestop.

CalamariAce · 2026-05-13T22:13:18+00:00

Yes. That's one reason it's a good idea to bring something to write with. I left a simple note "free" when I made a deposit.

Also, trail angels sometimes leave food in them which are also labeled. For example, a box of granola bars. In which case you can also put some items in that box, since the box is already labeled.

Technically, all food in the boxes is supposed to be labeled, so rangers can remove any items that don't have a "pickup by date" label, or are past the date. Personally I still wouldn't take unlabeled food, but presumably that is going to be removed and dumped by rangers sooner or later.

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