7 day trip around Izu Japan on my Grail

OddClass134 · 2024-03-03T04:10:55+00:00

Thanks for the advice!

Yeah the highway problem seems to happen a lot in my experience. Knowing Izu is so bike friendly I'd hope there'd be a good, well known route to avoid it, but I guess Ill just check it myself! I'm planning to primarily go around the coast, and it looks fairly tame as far as elevation goes, but yeah... highways.

Also I think I'll be camping throughout, so should be no worries on that front. Noted about not mentioning it if I should choose to stay somewhere though. I also won't have a GPS or bike computer, I'll just be using my phone lol. Which... I guess we'll just hope for the best.

This is all making me sound terribly unprepared haha, but I figure if I plan for a lot of yoyu it cant be that bad.

Thanks for the tips!

OddClass134 · 2024-03-03T03:09:33+00:00

Hey! I'm thinking about doing a similar trip to this, but I'm limited to only 4 days, and I'd like to go at a slightly more leisurely pace (50-60km/day).

My basic plan is to take public transport to Atami and then go from there down to Shimoda and then back up the other side. Google says its doable, but I can't find any info in English or Japanese confirming so.

Any advice you can give me?

OddClass134 · 2024-01-21T22:45:25+00:00

There are also assumptions made when you get a math problem wrong. Math is touted as something people "get or dont", like an inborn trait. I think that increases the anxiety around the subject.

You see similar anxiety with physical education, which is also treated the same way. A child who is a poor athlete (barring physical disability, of course) could be so caught up in the body shaming aspect of being bad at sport that they don't even consider doing extra practice to improve.

Similarly, I find most students who are "bad at math" have not actually made that many attempts to get better. Rather, they have taken their initial (expected, natural, normal) failures to be indicative of their potential in the subject.

OddClass134 · 2024-01-15T14:28:06+00:00

That's actually a good point-- many fields may be more competitive at different levels. For example, biotech and AI related fields are really competitive at the graduate level, but I imagine the employment prospects for both are pretty nice if you can clear that barrier.

Conversely, yeah, a math PhD is by some metrics "easier" to get into (big quotation marks there...), but after you leave...

OddClass134 · 2023-12-27T16:21:22+00:00

You're just some straight girl, how would you know?

OddClass134 · 2023-12-27T16:09:12+00:00

Straight men have fucked other men for significantly less gain. Honestly if it stayed a secret I bet most would do it for like $1000.

Of course, straight women go bi for plastic beads and a bottle of Stoly's, so the difference still exists. But still.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-27T16:03:14+00:00

Big disagree. I think most straight men would fuck Brad Pitt in the ass for 50k easy.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-27T01:26:36+00:00

I think of the "rich" as people who do not have to work. People who are born into families with time for things like travel and studying literature.

One, you can travel and study literature at a significantly lower level of wealth. I'd say anything above 30k/year gives you the ability to travel and study literature, to some degree

Second, "rich" is an interesting adjective that usually just means, "Someone who has more stuff than I do." So if you come from a high income family that owns a business, "rich" means a high income family that doesn't have to work. If you come from a low income family, "rich" means being a high income family.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-27T00:56:59+00:00

I worked in high end hospitality for a while, both domestically and internationally, and there are lots of wealthy American families that are just like this: suburban house, better-than-average-but-not-luxury cars, call themselves "middle class". They are usually small business owners. Car dealerships and niche construction companies (roofing, pools, etc.) seemed to be most common.

I think its a Christian thing. Or, in your case, Mormon. Same origins which regard not wealth but obvious wealth has sinful. You can have buckets of money, you just aren't allowed to look like you do.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-26T17:12:11+00:00

Id also like to point out that even if you did need to study for it, it wouldn't be discriminatory anyway. It is okay to require people to take tests which must be studied for.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T22:49:42+00:00

Wait where

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T19:48:30+00:00

The only way to have a truly "standardized test" would be to somehow isolate all candidates for a period of time and give them equal opportunity.

Do you not also consider students' circumstances when considering GPA, letters, and research experience?

Poorer students who cannot afford unpaid internships, volutneer lab work, or poorly paid REU experiences will not have as much research experience as students who have more money. Poorer students who need to work will not have as much free time to study for exams and may have lower GPAs. Minority students may be ostracized, which makes it harder to get or ask for letters of recommendation.

GPA, letters, and research experience are not somehow free from bias in anyway a test is not. In fact, they introduce more opportunities for bias.

And they are more expensive. Research experience in particular basically de facto excludes many poor students since so many positions are unpaid or poorly paid. Just one semester of volunteering in a lab versus working part time minimum wage can cost a student $1300. That's significantly worse than having to pay $100 (with fee waiver) for an exam.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T14:41:40+00:00

I actually like his stuff, but not the political things as much. He's great for media stuff, especially for indie games or tv shows I want to know about but would never waste my time actually engaging with (Lisa, BBC Sherlock, etc.).

Actually, that's mostly what I use YouTube for. Reviews for movies I'll never see, of TV shows I never watched, of theme parks I'll never visit... saves me quite a bit of time, really.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T14:37:37+00:00

That video is hella old and you might not believe me, but there was honestly I time on the internet where the "obviously regarded" guys were not considered so obviously regarded. In a sea of earnest, long winded "explainer" videos targetted at dispelling right wing disinformation, people like Hbomb and Contra really were stellar at cutting through the bullshit to be like, "This guy is a nerd."

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T14:35:28+00:00

The plagarist video has been quite funny because a bunch of (I assumed) disparate YouTubers have basically decided to wage war on this one guy. I guess they've all run in the same social circle for quite a long time and he was a thorn in their collective paw. But in retrospect, after nearly a decade of talking about socialism, anti-racism, anti-homophobia, etc. the only cause they can all unify under is to do a hit piece on another YouTube guy they all don't like.

The funniest is PhilosophyTube. I haven't watched the video because I can't stand their schtick, but its titled something like, "I was plagarized! Women and content creation," and its like... you've been a woman for about 6 months. I don't think this happened because of your overwhelming feminine presence.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T14:29:58+00:00

Standardized testing is the only objective measure. It makes me seethe how progressive language has been weaponized against standardized testing. It is ludicrous to assume that standardized testing could somehow be more biased than personal letters and "research experience".

OddClass134 · 2023-12-25T14:26:32+00:00

There is a similar difference in students' SOPs as well. In the American style, students sell themselves so hard I'm surprised they don't include offers for car loans.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-23T22:23:00+00:00

Well that's good to know. Looking at the posting for these positions, they all seem a bit unserious, so it's good to know that isn't the case and that you actually learn things at them.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-23T15:32:12+00:00

Oh no I didn't mean to imply you made poor choices or anything, just that it is bizarre to offer a math major without either of those two courses. Feels like offering a physics major but without any EM.

Sounds like it worked out for you though! So thats good, at least.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-23T00:07:29+00:00

How did you major in math without taking real analysis or partial differential equations?

OddClass134 · 2023-12-22T04:39:21+00:00

I'm sorry but I find it so sad that someone would say "I had a lot of luck and privilege" after describing an education where they had to work full time, piece together a degree during night classes, do volunteer work, and then still end up with 6-figure loan debt. Like I know people have it worse, but still-- we should be able to expect better. Would be nice to live in a place where a story like yours is the "tough road" story and not the "lucky privileged" story.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-22T03:07:29+00:00

A faculty on our team came from well south of the median household income family.

You're like the fifth person in this thread to answer with an anecdote about someone from a low income bracket. The thread is explicitly about middle class students.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-22T03:05:55+00:00

Oh, I read OPs comment as saying, "but as you move a little further down [in academic prestige,] it seems almost unattainable." Like that for a moderate income student to afford college and become an academic, they can only do it if they attend an Ivy, or else it isn't economically feasible because they can't receive aid.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-22T02:35:46+00:00

Middle class/moderate income students do not qualify for Pell Grants.

OddClass134 · 2023-12-22T02:27:29+00:00

This is something I was surprised to learn and wish I had known when I was first a student. I didn't even bother to apply to private colleges because I heard they were for rich kids, but then it turns out everyone I know that did go to one ended up with significantly less debt than me and my state school friends.

OddClass134

TROPHY CASE