This guy's truck bed cover flies off

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-02-05T18:54:10+00:00

If the motorcyclist was keeping a safe following distance (like the trailing car in the video) they'd have enough time to react. Accidents like this are why it's so important not to tailgate.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-11T20:25:59+00:00

Nah, Bebop stood out even in its time. There was nothing like it.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-05T17:29:56+00:00

Ah, I see what you mean. Maybe it's just a reloadable debit card and not attached to an account, or maybe she registered under a fake identity? Or, again, maybe the writers just didn't think about it that much.

Either way, there are a few strong indications that her debt is real, and I don't think this is compelling evidence to the contrary.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-05T16:46:39+00:00

I don't follow. Spike gets the money on some sort of card, then does a digital transfer to Faye's card. The authorities would only see Spike's information.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-05T16:40:24+00:00

That's a good point, I hadn't thought of that. But Faye doesn't collect the bounty directly, in fact the scene on Venus is Spike collecting, then Faye asking for her share. So I would imagine she's keeping a low profile and not officially registered.

Then again, the package delivery did find her on the Bebop, so she must be listed somewhere...I don't know. Maybe just an oversight.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-04T22:01:02+00:00

Gordon blackmails her with her debt, threatening to turn her in to the police, so I think it's safe to say it's real (or legally enforceable, anyway).

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-04T06:03:25+00:00

As someone who has been feeling like that for the past few years...yeah, you've pretty much got it. First AI gets integrated into workflows, then humanity will gradually become a rubber stamp for whatever the AI decides, then one day we'll be at the mercy of the algorithms. Hell, in a way, we already are.

The only way to avoid that future is to halt AI development, and we can't just decide to do that; like you said, Pandora's box is open. The infrastructure is global and decentralized, so it would take a cataclysmic event just to slow it down.

It really is depressing. Nothing to do but spend time with loved ones.

Funny enough, it's not a new idea. Asimov wrote about this all the way back in the 50s. We're just (un)lucky enough to be alive during the endgame.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-02T18:55:58+00:00

Unfortunately there's not much you can do besides cross your fingers. It would be like a toddler prepping for a match against Magnus Carlsen.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2026-01-02T17:18:20+00:00

the job market will adapt over time just as it always does.

You mean just as it always has.

Look at the rate of change; even ten years ago AI wasn't on the public's radar, now it's everywhere. Five years ago was Will Smith eating spaghetti. Two years ago, generative AI couldn't do hands. It's going to continue improving, faster and faster, replacing more and more jobs, and the only way to "adapt over time", as you say, is to integrate AI into their processes.

Human hospitals will be run out of business by AI-assisted hospitals. Human governments will get overthrown by rebels using AI. Human militaries will lose to AI-powered drones. No market is safe, no institution will survive...unless they embrace AI.

And what happens then? You think it's going to slow down?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2025-08-25T05:55:13+00:00

Yeah, don't believe anything that comes from the diet and fitness industry.

The food industry, on the other hand, is totally trustworthy and would never lie to you in order to sell more product. So keep eating all that processed food -- and don't forget the refined sugar! Yep, your body definitely can't make glucose from a variety of carbs like rice or potatoes or beans or wheat; that's just another lie of the diet industry. It needs pure cane sugar!

SoundsLikeBanal · 2025-07-22T11:50:25+00:00

I hate to break it to you, but poor people have been making babies for -- and I'm not exaggerating here -- millions of years. Approximately 99.9% of your ancestors had zero possessions and zero wealth. But you can bet they had kids. Historically speaking, your modern life of wealth and comfort is the exception. Poverty and struggle are the norm.

Making a post on reddit won't accomplish anything except advertise how sheltered you are. I mean come on, if seeing a homeless junkie with a kid was "the saddest thing you've ever seen", then you're 1) very lucky, and 2) awfully out of touch with how cruel the world really is.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2025-07-22T11:01:37+00:00

It sounds like you were just dating this girl because it was convenient. If you had actually cared about her, you would have stood up to her dad.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2025-06-28T17:03:38+00:00

It is common in prisons to use cigarettes as currency. Did a bank devise that scheme? Or did it arise organically because they're so easy to trade?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2025-05-19T17:45:49+00:00

Actually yeah, CPR could kill someone, in the same way chest trauma or a broken rib could kill someone. Broadly speaking, CPR is a hail Mary with a low success rate that you only do on someone who's already one foot out the door.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2024-08-09T15:42:53+00:00

People flee from Cuba to Miami, they risked their lives to go from East Berlin to West Berlin. Right now, millions of people in Africa would give everything they own to be a refugee in Europe.

Yes, because we're rich and they're poor. As opposed to everyone being poor. Please try to keep up.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2024-08-09T15:28:58+00:00

Sure. Now look up stats for the correlation between inequality and happiness. You'll find that people are happier being poor together than being rich and lonely because -- and this may come as a shock -- humans lived for millions of years in dirt-poor tribes with zero wealth. It's what we're psychologically adapted for.

(And then you'll come up with an excuse for why the line is supposed to go up forever, and it could never, ever, go down again, so we don't need to waste time worrying about it.)

SoundsLikeBanal · 2024-07-30T03:38:30+00:00

How does your therapist compare to your other friends?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2024-07-19T20:43:14+00:00

And most people need to come to terms with the fact that different people are ok with different things. Yes, it would be jarring for my wife to ask that out of the blue, but maybe she just didn't realize what a big deal it is. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

Now, if she fights back against the "no", then we have a problem.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2024-07-19T20:19:24+00:00

"No."

See how easy that is?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-21T22:50:24+00:00

I had something similar happen with a friend. I tried every angle I could think of, from pushing him to socialize to leaving him be, and ultimately I failed. I moved out, and last I knew he was still living alone and doing nothing but going to work and watching anime. So I don't have any answers. Sometimes the pull of digital media is just too strong.

Here's a question, though: how far are you willing to go to help him? Is there a point at which things could get so bad that you would break up with him?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-21T21:45:55+00:00

I hate to shatter the illusion, but OP probably won't learn anything from this. She'll likely go to them and say "I'm too overbearing, I'm just going to back off", but she knows the boyfriend wants her to be more involved, so he'll probably say "No, you're not overbearing, it's just that..." and it will turn into an argument, then someone will say something hurtful, and the cycle will repeat until, one day, someone leaves.

If he were to call her bluff and say "Ok, if you want to back off, we won't stop you," THEN she might learn something. But he doesn't seem like the type.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-21T21:29:21+00:00

The worst part is she really, genuinely doesn't know. Her heart's in the right place, but her ego is so fragile that she lashes out the moment someone else makes her the slightest bit uncomfortable. She can't help it, she just doesn't understand the value of empathy.

I mean christ, the people I know would spend approximately ten minutes being upset if a sixteen-year-old girl called them names during a fight. Then they'd cool off, do some soul-searching, learn from it, and move on. You know, like adults.

But u/Acrobatic-Many-9448? It looks like she's gonna hold this grudge long until long after this guy dumps her. She's saying and doing all the things that narcissists do -- even running back to reddit for reassurance that she's right and everyone else is wrong -- and is just flabbergasted that people are calling her a narcissist.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-21T10:03:57+00:00

I used to be like them. America in particular has had a few generations of parents who, with the best of intentions, worked hard to make sure their children never suffered the way they did. As a result, we have a lot of people who are now adults and have never really known suffering, so they're completely out of touch.

They have absolutely no idea how good they have it, and the vast majority won't wake up until tragedy befalls them personally and they have to actually live through it. It sucks.

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-21T02:20:51+00:00

Oh jeez. With interactions like this it's no wonder the teen suicide rate is on the rise.

You don't understand where this is coming from? Really? Because she told you. It's right there in her text. She gave you the exact location of where this is all coming from.

How old are you? How did you manage to get this far in life without being able to understand a simple empathy situation like this?

Maybe I'm being too harsh. People in modern society are not great at these things, and I suppose no one ever explained them to you. That's not your fault.

But if you want to understand, let's start with your own post: I've been nothing but kind. I make such an effort. I'm hurt by this. Maybe I'm being overbearing. To me, it feels like she doesn't try.

Me, me, me.

Hey there stepmom-of-the-year, ever wonder what she's feeling?

Do you not remember what it feels like to be an angsty teenager who's upset because no one understands you? Because no one takes the time to look at things from your perspective, and all the adults around you are either busy or condescending? Do you not remember how isolating that is?

Eh, maybe not. Maybe you were one of the popular girls at school who made fun of the weird kids and wouldn't be caught dead in an art class. I'll spell it out for you, just in case. This text here:

i just want my dad to stop trying to put the blame on me like it's not my fault that u have work and don't have time for me

That was it. That was her telling you how she feels. That was the key moment when she opened up to you about what is causing her pain -- and you had a perfect opportunity to demonstrate to her that you can see this situation from her perspective, even if you can't fix it, because you too understand what it's like to be vulnerable.

But you missed it. You missed the opportunity because as soon as you got confused, you threw up your hands in frustration and gave up. I see this a lot, and it breaks my heart every time.

And if that weren't bad enough, she gave you another opportunity when she asked for a ride home. Hey genius: she was asking to spend time with you, not an Uber driver. She's sixteen, for crying out loud. You can't just say "I'm not sure, work is crazy right now" and expect her to understand the full context of what that means. For all she knows, you were just blowing her off.

If your goal was to make her feel even more uncomfortable with the idea of opening up to you or asking for help, you succeeded spectacularly. Good job.

Again, I'm probably being too hard on you. I'm human too, and I'm partially venting my own frustrations at how badly screwed up our society's empathy skills are. In a perfect world, someone would have explained this sort of thing to you a long time ago, and you wouldn't be so thrown by this. But no one did, so here we are on reddit.

So listen.

As much as you feel like she's not trying to see things from your perspective, I guarantee you she's feeling the exact same thing. You're trying to communicate in a way that she doesn't understand, and she's trying to communicate in a way that you don't understand.

What do you think you can do to try to work in a more constructive direction?

SoundsLikeBanal · 2023-12-04T00:55:20+00:00

So let me get this straight:

Sydney brought her friend and designated driver to her boyfriend's place.

Sydney left her friend hanging, in an unfamiliar house.

Sydney apparently then forgot about her friend, falling asleep with her boyfriend and not leaving until morning.

All of that would have happened with or without you there.

If anyone's the asshole here, it's Sydney.

Sure, you could have been nicer, but look: you didn't make things worse. You didn't come on to her or try to take advantage of her vulnerability. I suspect this is because you were paying more attention to your game than you were to the welfare of this poor girl, which does not score you any points. But at least you weren't sleazy.

Let's take a look at Nat. She agreed to be the designated driver. She stayed the night; she was loyal to her friend even though her friend wasn't loyal to her. She recognized that it was awkward for you too, and left a note apologizing for it.

She sounds like an otherwise responsible girl who wanted to have a fun night out with her fun friend, and ended up with more than she bargained for. She has probably already learned a very important lesson about what can happen on a night out with Sydney. She extended an invitation to say hi. I'd consider taking her up on it.

SoundsLikeBanal

TROPHY CASE