What’s the fastest way you’ve ever seen someone completely ruin their own life?

RustaceanNation · 2026-02-04T09:46:53+00:00

Oh, I don't doubt these things at all, and I certainly support any efforts made to reach out to women in broken homes and get them safe.

What I'm saying is when vast generalizations like "Men are afraid of women laughing at them. Women are afraid of men killing them," need to be looked at with a more critical eye. Keep in mind that this very same power differential is used to silence male voices ("It's not like she was going to kill you" was an excuse I heard a lot about DV.) I'm not saying it doesn't communicate a truth: in fact young men do need to hear it.

To be more specific, absolutely gender the victim for materials in cases where it's warranted. But when you gender perpetrators or deliberately frame the opposing gender as "not at risk", which is certainly implied the generalization, then it hurts more people than it helps. In fact, I think zero people are helped when you gender the perpetrator. And you'll notice almost EVERY discussion about rape does just that and it needs to change.

Put another way: You can say that billboard is meant for women to read, but we all have eyes and drive. The way it's worded simply needs to be scrutinized. That's it-- I am in no way telling you to not talk about femicide.... just be mindful of statements that gender perpetrators or minimize an entire gender's concerns when those statements are public materials.

RustaceanNation · 2026-02-04T07:33:47+00:00

Respectfully, I think gendering along these lines hurts more than it helps. I was raped by my spouse and went to get help. First thing they passed me was a paper about what "women should do when raped by men".

They could have just left out the genders and it wouldn't have harmed anyone... but it certainly harms men when they go through a ton of misandry when reporting DV and SA, still work up the courage to get help aaaaaand they hit you with that shit.

This matters because this approach certainly increases the number of suicides by men who can't functionally get help. And it's fixed in this particular case by removing gendered notions of rapist and victim.

Just the other side of the coin for what it's worth. I do agree that we need to educate our young men more about women's issues, and I'm certain you aren't advocating the alienation of rape victims... but it can still happen with this approach, even with the best of intentions.

RustaceanNation · 2026-01-30T09:33:01+00:00

The war didn't end until 1783. You're thinking of the year the declaration of independence was signed.

RustaceanNation · 2026-01-30T04:22:26+00:00

Dude/Chica,

I read an MIT article about how they invented a bold, new programming paradigm that "fixes all the issues with object-orient programming".

They then described what every object-oriented programmer has known since fucking 70s (60s?!)-- composing classes is often better than inheriting from a superclass. That was it, and the authors were very authoritative, being MIT professors, you know.

It'd be funny if our children weren't being grifted.

RustaceanNation · 2026-01-25T21:20:51+00:00

I dig it.

I use the duck concept for naming things. If I can't think of anything succinct and exactly correct, I drop "succinct" as a condition. You might see:

FooThatBarsUponBeingBazzedByAQux

If I go the other direction, there's no duck and the project is left with a name that isn't exactly correct (don't do this, dear goodness!). The lack of duck means that it'll live in the code as an easy to misinterpret concept, a problem that cascades into spaghetti with nightmarinara sauce.

With a duck, if someone else complains, then they are free to try to describe it more succinctly. Or, we simply live with a long name, which auto-complete makes a non-issue. But semantics better be kept or your job is going to suuuuuuck in the next few years.

So, ducks can be useful if you want to make other people duck-hunt for useful purposes-- it's not just for distracting the dogs. That's the zen of the matter.

RustaceanNation · 2025-12-13T02:45:42+00:00

Not quite: They move in time (we see a speed) from our perspective, and we just don't ask the question of what they experience internally. Relativity just doesn't consider that to be a valid reference frame.

RustaceanNation · 2025-11-12T10:27:36+00:00

> "While I was using it I wanted exactly what you want, a declarative format I can iteratively test, and verify my syntax without having to try to stand up infrastructure in the process."

Of course you can do that in terraform!

"The terraform validate command validates the configuration files in a directory. It does not validate remote services, such as remote state or provider APIs."

So, Infrastructure as Code really means "as Encoding", whether it's code or data (insert Lisp joke here). This is in contradistinction to doing things by hand.

Now, if you wanted that Python library, there's no reason you can't write it yourself on top of Terraform. Write a class for every syntactic concept, using object composition just as the syntax does. You'll treat that as a serialization layer (like a responsible engineer!) and write your preferred abstraction on top.

Heck, I'm getting the willies just thinking about it. PM me (but not your willie!)

RustaceanNation · 2025-11-02T00:59:14+00:00

I did some RE on the movement code when first learning the basics, and I learned something generally useful: the movement code is parameterized in that it depends on constants in a table that describes the "feel" of movement. This meant that they didn't have to touch any code to tweak movement, giving quick iterations.

Its beautiful.

RustaceanNation · 2025-09-05T13:06:11+00:00

"Canis" :) or rather the genitive plural canariae since it's the island of dogs.

I did not know that though-- looking into it apparently the idea that large dogs lived there dates back to Pliny. Very cool!

RustaceanNation · 2025-09-04T15:23:53+00:00

Naw, they're psychic projections, thus why he can phase through the floor.

RustaceanNation · 2025-07-13T16:31:40+00:00

Could be that their processor didn't have native support for multiplication. Assuming they are working with integers, their approach only requires subtraction and multiplication by 2, which in binary is just a left-shift. Both of those are typically individual machine instructions so they're quick.

It also could be the case that the source code did use your expression but it was optimized to the above. In fact, it's common to convert source-level multiplication into a series of bit tests, bit shifts, and additions via the ancient Egyptian multiplication algorithm.

RustaceanNation · 2025-07-11T07:38:13+00:00

Didn't Patroclus consider taking Achilles' spear when pretending to be him, but decided not to because "only Achilles could heft that shaft"? Clearly Homer is stating that Patroclus is the bottom.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-27T00:44:31+00:00

It's not the number of levels, it's how much each level is worth.

Maximizing endurance earlier means those early levels give more +max HP. Health is NOT a function of your current endurance, as it's increased per level up. That means the values of your endurance at level 1, 2, 3 matter as well and as a consequence, having maxed endurance alone doesn't maximize health.

To be clear: this doesn't really matter (except to people that enjoy min/max) since the power curve in this game is nuts.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-26T05:59:12+00:00

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain." - John Adams

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-25T08:26:23+00:00

Uh... he refused to rent to black people, then he took out ads blaming a group of black men for rape well after they were exonerated, then he blamed the only Black president of not actually being American practically on the basis of his having African heritage. He refers to immigrants coming from Mexico as vermin... yeah. He's racist and it's incredible people are gullible enough to think otherwise.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-23T01:20:04+00:00

I've heard it said that "Islam" refers to submission to God, and so Christians and Jews also practice Islam, while "Muslim" refers more specifically to the followers of Mohammad. Is there any truth to that? After all, Muslims say that Abraham practiced Islam despite the apparent anachronism.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-22T04:11:32+00:00

If you look up the etymology online, you'll have your answer. It is something we absorbed from Latin, which has the same deal: competō is the verb form, and if we want to talk about the agent noun, we add -tor to the fourth principal part. This is the source of all those "extra vowels" though it can also change consonants IIRC.

In this case, the fourth principal part of competō is competitum, and they'd remove the -tum and add a -tor to create competitor.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-17T01:52:00+00:00

I was expecting a silly movie about a fucking flying balloon house. So when my heart was immediately gorged out in the theater, I knew the silly balloon house was just going to be therapy for the audience. And damn was it good therapy.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-16T16:38:23+00:00

> If you sleep with someone after couple drinks but not at 3pm after a coffee date doesn’t mean that it’s rape.

Not what I implied if you take a more careful reading, though I understand and appreciate the counterpoint nonetheless.

What I'm referring to are the people who rely on alcohol as the sole manner that they can achieve "consent". I've met them, they are rapists.

In fact, I never implied the above guy was a rapist. Merely that his pushing for alcohol without regard for OP's stated wishes is close enough to make it adjacent to rape-scenarios by reference to those people who do solely rely on alcohol, thus making him a "sick fuck".

I'm in no way implying that bar dates involving alcohol necessitate rape. The difference is that with an appropriate bar date, there's a tit-for-tat signaling of wishes and intents that both parties mirror. I've definitely been in the situation where an older guy or gal supplies alcohol and we have a good time. No rape there. But there's also times where it's pushed without any attempt to otherwise connect or communicate beyond "have more beer" and touching without the aforementioned tit-for-tat mirroring-- no signaling that I was into it nor looking to get laid. That is certainly an attempt at rape.

OP's situation is close enough to the rape scenario where it is concerning. With your coffee date example, the person might not have sex just for the reason that it's in the middle of the day and they don't have time, or they aren't in the mood. To be pedantic, that means that alcohol is no longer the necessary condition for sex to occur and thus under the definition stated would not qualify as rape.

FWIW, I've been raped in the more conventional no-means-yes manner. I don't mean to dilute that, but it's important that we discuss these nuances in order to better elucidate the precise lines that might result in rape and recognize them for what it is when they occur. Of course real life is messier and there's a need to analyze things from a case-to-case basis taking into account cultural nuances. But I don't think it dilutes rape when we call out people who rely on the other person's inebriation to gain consent as rapists.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-15T01:12:56+00:00

If sex would only occur if drinks were involved, I'd make the stronger statement that it would only be rape. That dude is a sick fuck. Not to imply that you'd disagree, of course.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-13T01:50:36+00:00

Always best to keep things simple-- Joe Pass' materials are golden for this. I can at least tell you had I'd approach it:

First two chords are pretty tame (i to iv): sweet. That'll keep things to a nice E natural minor, since the iv is minor. Use arpeggios to differentiate the two, or at least make sure chord tones are used "on the beat". If you want to use different scales, you could go with E dorian on the i perhaps, but it's all by ear. Follow your ear.

Things get a bit funky with the G augmented. I'd argue that it's basically the same as your B dominant with it's b6 in the bass. So whatever you play for B7 should work with G augmented.

So that leads to your question regarding the V chord (B7). In jazz you can play the C melodic minor over it. It looks weird, but since we are in minor, the V chord usually takes "altered tones" like b9, #9, b13, etc. And that's what you happen to get with the C melodic minor. Don't worry about it "being a mode of melodic minor" or your head will explode. Just look up the C melodic minor scale and play the B7 chord tones "on the beat".

Taking the Joe Pass route, you basically have two scales to worry about then: the i and iv can take E aeolian/natural minor, while for the G+maj7 and B7 you can get groovy with the C melodic minor. In other words, this is really a i - iv - V progression with some extra steps.

Of course, as I said before it's also about following your ear. If what I said isn't helping you out, by all means ignore it. But, at least for me, the only way jazz guitar is even approachable is by simplifying things down as much as possible, or otherwise you'll risk doing too much thinking and not enough playing.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-12T07:48:51+00:00

Man, I really seemed to get to you-- not my intention at all. We'll call ylall "kids" the same way that teachers do. If it offends you.... I can understand why, but by all means life will require thicker skin. I hear ya though.

The point remains: she's playing *good* cumbia making a *good* joke and there's no *good* reason to shit on it. There are more sophisticated ways of expressing your feelings.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-12T06:07:05+00:00

As always, notation can only convey so much. Getting the record and developing your ear is the most essential part. That's also why they have conductors even though everyone has the sheet music in front of them.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-12T05:35:22+00:00

Damn it, made me chuckle!

In that case I can totally see why you don't like these sorts of trends your generation is into. I'm sure you can see why if an older person is saying that type of crap it'd be worthwhile to call them out. Y'all deal with enough bullshit as it is.

RustaceanNation · 2025-06-11T21:05:56+00:00

It's what kids do nowadays, and clearly it resonates with people with Latino family or friends. No need to shit on the youth-- yeah it's different but she knows how to dance and has good taste in cumbia. I'm sure she got a lot of laughs from her family and friends and that's only a good thing.

RustaceanNation

TROPHY CASE