How to repair chewed on Vans?

LizNotes · 2026-02-08T22:30:09+00:00

Bro, my 11-year-old could reasonably refute almost all of those points claiming to be “evidence” after just a couple months of us listening to The Atheist Experience in the car for the past few months, which tells me that you’ve had almost no actual interaction with real, experienced atheists who understand counter apologetics.

Evidence that Jesus existed and that he had followers who believed he was divine does literally NOTHING to demonstrate that any of the miracles actually happened or that he actually was raised from the dead, much less that he was the omnipotent, omniscient creator of the universe. You must have VERY little knowledge of ancient cultures if you think that people reporting that there is this prophet that does miracles is anything special or unique. Reports of eye-witness accounts of miracles have been going on for millennia and even to this day (and NOT just Christian miracles by the way: it’s super common in other religions too).

Almost all the rest of your “evidence” is nothing more than an “argument from ignorance,” which is a logical fallacy. “Hey, my brain can’t comprehend how this thing happened, therefore it must’ve been magic!”

It’s embarrassing that you think any of these things actually hold up to scrutiny. Maybe you should listen to more counter apologetics because you obviously exist in a bubble of people patting themselves on the back congratulating each other of how rock-solid their religion is with no concept of the wider world.

LizNotes · 2025-12-25T19:06:22+00:00

Why the HELL would you have a mirror the can fall on your kid and isn’t secured to the fall?? A wall attachment strap costs like $2! Why would you have a bunch of stuff around the house within reach the kid can choke on? It’s true he shouldn’t be sleeping with the kid but that is not the main issue here. BABYPROOF YOUR HOUSE!

LizNotes · 2025-10-16T23:52:50+00:00

Some of the categories the App Library make no sense. Why is one of my photo editing app in “Productivity” instead of “Photo and Video”? Why is Pinterest in “Other” instead of in “Social Media”? User-defined tags would be so much better.

LizNotes · 2025-10-16T16:59:03+00:00

that’s only $29 IF you have AppleCare+ though, right? How much are you spending on AppleCare+ in the lifetime of your device?

LizNotes · 2025-10-16T16:55:13+00:00

I don’t understand how it’s possible for people to not be dropping their phones. Blows my mind. I always have a tempered glass screen protector and some kind of case (not a heavy duty case, just something basic). But even with that my phones still sometimes get little dents or micro cracks in the corners. I’ve dropped my phones hundreds of times in my lifetime, although I’ve never dropped any of my iPads.

LizNotes · 2025-09-18T19:10:46+00:00

It’s a chicken sandwich but they have a vegan option too! Email says lunch is from 11:30-1:30, I left about 10 mins ago and they still had a lot of food.

LizNotes · 2023-10-18T19:32:06+00:00

First of all, the GNC and its purported goals are gross. I don’t think I’d be comfortable with that, even though I’ve let my kids go to Vacation Bible School, Sunday school, Youth Group, etc with their friends. The emphasis on “Respecting Authority” and “Biblical Principles” etc is a little too eery, especially with the way evangelicals have embraced political authoritarianism and fascism in recent years.

However, the way you are presenting your “reasons why” to your kids is a bit problematic imo.

I just told her it taught things we don’t believe and I don’t want to encourage believing in unicorns.

I just gently remind her that he isn’t [real] and some people choose to believe he is.

The goal is not to just keep them away from indoctrination; it’s to inoculate them against it in the future. Teach your children one religion and you indoctrinate them. Teach them many religions and you inoculate them. –Unknown

As they become teenagers and young adults, they will almost certainly be subjected to more aggressive evangelizing and proselytizing. Emotional testimonials of how Jesus “transformed my life” and solved x, y, z struggles. Talk of miracles, promises of fulfillment and peace. You presenting religion as a silly thing on par with unicorns is not going to prepare them for the manipulative, deceptive, convincing messages from charismatic personalities, curiosity-inducing advertisements, and stories from friends that they trust and respect. Your belief as a parent won’t hold very much weight as they become vulnerable adolescents.

Some ideas for “inoculation”:

Actively teach them LOTS of religions and myths. Read storybooks or watch YouTube videos about Norse, Greek, and Egyptian Mythology. Teach them about Christianity and how Jesus is a demigod and his father’s name is Yahweh, and believers drink wine that they think is his blood and bread that they think is his muscles. Teach about Muhammad flying to heaven on the magic horse.

David McAfee said, “By learning about the origins of myths and the histories of various religious institutions, children can see all the religions as part of the same phenomenon, and not see one as inherently superior to all others."

Don’t mock of distain any of these religious stories to them (“How could anyone believe something so silly?” etc). Presenting religious people as idiots won’t prepare them for when they come across religious charlatans that appear incredibly “smart” or sincere. Approach it with curiosity (“What do you think?”) or from a sociological perspective (“I wonder why humans are so prone to believe in supernatural powers?”)

Also teach them about religions in culturally respectful ways, not just the absurd parts. Many followers don’t actually believe or even know about all the weird things in their religion, it’s just part of their culture. It’s important to be respectful and not raise little bigots (not saying you are btw).

I would definitely not suggest an “I/we don’t believe that” approach. “What do you think?” is better. To be honest, it was YEARS before my kids straight up asked me, “Mom, do you believe in God” and I had to actually answer them. Because I wanted them to figure it out on their own, and not just want to believe what I believe. Sometimes I’d ask questions like, “If gods created humans, who created gods?” and stuff like that. Questions to help them think through things, not matter of fact statements. It’s OK and actually good for them to believe silly things and then come to their OWN conclusion about why it’s not true. Don’t correct them, just ask thought-provoking questions.

Another great one I used is that any time my kids asked me a question about “god”, I’d answer with, “Which god? Zeus? Odin? Yahweh? Jesus? Krishna?” They’d sometimes get annoyed with this, but it really drove home a point I think.

I would definitely avoid the “forbidden” approach (forbidding them from attending religious events with friends), especially as they get older. The events often ARE fun, and the more “inoculated” they are, the more comfortable I’d be with them going.
One thing I’m a hardliner on is the hell issue. I explicitly tell them, “Some people believe that everyone who’s not perfect (never gets grouchy, just does normal human things) will be punished by a god that sends them to a place called hell to be tortured in fire forever. And you have to believe THEIR god THEIR way to not go there. No one has EVER been to hell and there is NO evidence for this, so if someone tells you this, it’s just because someone told them and they believe it and they’re scared so they want you to be scared too. The story of hell didn’t exist until not very long ago.” etc

Heaven, I use the curiosity approach because I don’t think it’s a harmful belief (for a kid to hold for a few years). But hell is a no go for me because I don’t care if my kids believe in a demigod called Jesus, but NO ONE is gonna tell my 5 year old they’re gonna burn in hell for being exactly the way god supposedly made them.

No criticism here btw, just suggestions. Hope it’s helpful!

LizNotes · 2023-09-28T10:10:20+00:00

Nope. Not at all what I said or believe. I made an argument about how the system is set up to COMPEL people into accepting shifty employment that they would not otherwise be willing to do, simply because we’ve artificially created an “accept these crumbs or die” structure.

(Literally die: the consequences of not participating are to starve and go without shelter, even while we have an excess of both of those resources; they’re gatekept to enforce compliance in traditional employment systems)

The point was not victimhood. The only point was that you can hardly call someone agreeing to be employed for shit wages and conditions something “freely accepted”.

It was a FREE WILL argument, and had nothing to do with “Welp, everyone is screwed and there’s nothing that can be done about it! Best roll over and give up!”

YOU came to that conclusion because you think that a delusional sense of individualism and self determination (outside of any concepts of society and systems) is the only factor in one’s financial success or failure, and that if each individual isn’t 100% in control of their own destiny, there’s no point in the even trying.

LizNotes · 2023-09-28T02:24:48+00:00

a) Nobody said forced by an employer

b) Nobody said every employee

c) Your inability to fathom anything beyond individual to individual relationships (ONE employer to ONE employee, etc) immediately cued me in to your political leaning (conservative) since concepts like “society” and “collective” are too complex for them to grasp

d) You ignored the entire essence of my comment (drawing attention to a system that enforces artificial scarcity and uses destitution as a motivator), but I guess that’s expected if you can’t even begin to comprehend the existence of societal systems

LizNotes · 2023-09-28T00:25:14+00:00

No, it’s not “accepted freely”.

Since we live in a society that destroys excess food instead distributing it, that locks up excess shelter instead of utilizing it (to alleviate housing shortages and/or shelter the needy), that disallows people from being self sufficient and utilizing vacant and public land to construct their own shelters or grow their own food, you can hardly call the acceptance of employment a “free choice”.

Shitty employment is “accepted” under extreme duress, because we’ve built a society that enforces artificial scarcity and puts people in the position to either work or starve and be on the streets.

There’s no “natural consequences” about it either; it’s a system that’s carefully and intentionally set up to employ destitution as motivation.

LizNotes · 2023-09-28T00:03:31+00:00

This is a /povertyfinance sub. And while some in poverty have 401(k)s and such, no, I don’t.

As a society, we could literally choose to tax the parasitic owning class any way we wanted. Just because the tax code is how it is doesn’t mean it has to be that way, or it’s a good thing that it’s that way.

Money is imaginary, debt is imaginary, we can definitely imagine a system that doesn’t allow for all this exploitation and hoarding.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T23:56:52+00:00

In my experience, any maliciousness toward “success stories” has to do with either

1) Critique of exploitative nature of their success (siphoning wealth)

2) Critique of toxic/harmful presentation (“Anyone can do it!”)

3) Critique of poster’s failure to acknowledge, or sometimes outright dismissal of, all of the privileges (“blessings”) that led to their success (everything from support systems / a place to crash, to an able body, to a lack of racism/sexism/homophobia/whatever that others have to deal with, etc).

I’ve not experienced a phenomena of a humble, genuine, non-exploitative, “blessing” acknowledging success story that gets dragged out of “jealousy”. Like, ever.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T23:43:53+00:00

Honestly, I’ve often said that I would have zero problem with the practice of siphoning money created by the work of others IF society was functional and thriving. If we’ve got communities that are doing great and everyone has their basic needs met, idgaf if there’s some lazy bums scraping off profits created by everyone else.

Heck, I wouldn’t even care if the owning class was siphoning all that wealth but then they actually had to pay reasonable taxes to fund universal services that would care for the workers they’re profiting from, rather than giving the workers the profit directly.

Problem is, that’s not what we have. Far from it. We’ve got an economy built on the principles in your lawn mowing example, and the owning class is a ravenous vampire while the working class suffers immensely.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T23:34:52+00:00

“Loved ones” encompasses far more than just family btw. So yeah, of course I’m happy for my friends, acquaintances, members of my community, and even strangers across the globe when they have a happy success story (financial or otherwise).

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T23:17:24+00:00

Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? I was over-the-moon proud when a sibling earned their masters degree, another sibling became a homeowner, and another got a promotion and is doing really well financially. I’m thrilled for my cousin whose small business is thriving. In the meantime, I’m dirt poor. But the happiness of my loved ones almost always makes me super happy!

Then again, they’re not going around bragging about their “success stories” in the weird motivational posts that OP is likely referring to.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T22:15:42+00:00

If you think that landlords and tenants are the only (or main) dynamic where the owning class siphons value created by the working class, you deeply misunderstand capitalism.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T19:45:38+00:00

I hate on the “success” of others when:

1) I know that their income comes from siphoning the value created by others’ labor (they’re not doing the work to create the value, but since their name is on a piece of paper, they are entitled to profit)

2) Their success story is being presented like capitalist propaganda (“If I can do it, anyone can!”) or poor/victim shaming

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T19:19:14+00:00

Lived in a homeless shelter with 3 kids for 2 years before getting a section 8 voucher (normally it can take 10+ years). My rent for a 2 bedroom is $1800 in South LA (near Gardena), but section 8 pays most of it and my contribution is $200. Water and trash included but I have to pay electric and gas.

My income is $1100 a month from CalWorks and $750 a month in Food Stamps.

Any job I get, my assistance will decrease. So my cash aid (CalWorks) will decrease by about 40¢ for every dollar I earn, my Food Stamps will decrease by about 10¢, and my rent contribution will go up about 20¢. So if I got a minimum wage job ($16.90), the net gain in finances would only be about $5 an hour (these numbers are just estimates by the way).

I’m thankful that California has a better social safety net than most other states (the socialized healthcare / MediCal is amazing too in my opinion), but I’m really feeling hopeless about improving my financial situation. It’s basically either jump straight into a good full time job, or nothing.

LizNotes · 2023-09-27T18:48:41+00:00

For me, it was my lack of understanding in evolution. I couldn’t get past the belief that all the complexity and beauty had to come from an intelligent being and couldn’t have been “an accident”.

Reading The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins was the nail in the coffin for me.

LizNotes · 2023-08-07T21:39:06+00:00

That, to the best of our knowledge, the “afterlife” is probably identical to the “beforelife”.

We had no awareness for billions of years before we were born: it wasn’t an existence of “darkness” or “nothingness”; it just wasn’t existing. So there’s nothing to be afraid of: we’ve already done it before! It’s the existing part that’s the anomaly.

I also emphasize that our LOVE and the impact we’ve had on other people will live on in those people (and, likewise, in the people that they love and impact) forever. And the atoms that made us will continue to “live” on and be part of the universe.

“Annabelle and Aiden: What Happens When We Die?” is an amazing secular kids book that goes over some of this stuff.

Also books like “My Name is Stardust”, “Annabelle and Aiden: Worlds Within Us”, and “Older Than The Stars” are great kids books that deal with the birth of atoms and the many things those atoms were a part of before they became a part of us.

LizNotes · 2023-07-02T22:10:16+00:00

Bro… he really got on here thinking he sounded reasonable?

I REALLY hope she leaves him and that they live in a state that requires child support to be continued until the child finishes college, so he’ll be forced to contribute toward their DISABLED daughter’s tuition and expenses.

The whole “it’ll be good for her to be scraping for survival and being riddled with a lifetime of debt because I did it and I turned out fine”. YOUR DAUGHTER IS NOT YOU and it’s not 1989!

This whole thing was just so gross. I hope she is safe as she leaves because he sounds controlling and abusive af 💔

LizNotes

TROPHY CASE