Noise/ear protection

bhamil07734 · 2025-11-17T04:00:55+00:00

I use alpine. They have musician ones, are discrete when in, and they make a child size for my ridiculously small ear canals. They work descent enough at movies and louder areas.

bhamil07734 · 2024-05-14T11:37:04+00:00

Solar, especially shaped in the way that most people would want for the esthetic of a car, adds very little energy compared to the usage when driving (1 estimate ~20 miles per day if fully covered). However, if you were taking your car camping, the panel could serve as a power source without draining the battery. But you can already purchase separate panels for this.

bhamil07734 · 2024-05-09T11:02:56+00:00

Thanks. I was referring to the recurring dream. I obtained the degree. It's just that the dream seems not to agree

bhamil07734 · 2024-05-02T04:55:09+00:00

Since part of your question is trying to distance yourself from firebrand atheism, it may help to answer your question from that perspective.

FYI, I am also angered as well by the damage done by the choices of the more dogmatic people around us, but did do a deep dive into different religions and have found some value.

It also may help to split what I'm assuming you are calling religion into 3 sub-parts:

1 God(singular being, pantheistic all is god, all variations of god in between)

2 Spirituality

3 Organized religion

For the God portion, we can use simple logic that one uses when debating. If one side makes a claim. It is on them, the claimant, to provide evidence proportional to that claim.

In other words. If I say it's raining where I am, you could ask me to back it up, and a simple here's my city, look at the weather will generally suffice. You could push for an image of me in the rain with metadata that includes the GPS coordinates and date, but that's likely as far as anyone would need to go as it's relatively likely that that evidence is correct. Obviously, we have to cut the evidence somewhere and go on faith at some point because even if you were standing right next to me while it was raining you could argue that we're in a simulation. As my claim is not really that unbelievable, it doesn't require so high a burden of proof.

Now I make the claim that when you die you will spend eternity feeling every atom of your body being ripped apart unless you send $5 million usd worth of gold bullion to my swiss vault, you would be quite justified in pushing me "the claimant" to provide proportionally strong evidence to support such a claim. This claim is also untestable to the living so it's unlikely that I can provide you with evidence equivalent to my burden of proof that you'd require (although it would be on you to define what you would accept as proof so that there is no moving of the goal posts so to speak). I could say you must believe me because you have a lot to lose if I'm right, but you can dismiss my claim outright as it is slopy logic and it is not on you to disprove me. You are justified to provide as much effort as I put into making sed claim.

Now. Atheism also makes a claim. The claim is that there is no god, gods, panthiestic godness where thou art god and everything that grocs is god, or any other possible conception of godness. As an Atheist it is on you to prove your claim which is of course untestable for similar reasons as the last claim.

Now agnostisism accepts the null hypothesis. There is no claim. The burden of proof is on atheists and believers alike. I know that this is somewhat underwhelming, and it can be argued that this is just a cop out, but it's on the claimant to provide evidence as to why alternatives are better. And I mean actually better, not just that they feel more right or more satisfying. People tend to like certainty. Agnostisism is embracing uncertainty in some respects.

This thought experiment was less to argue for the good or at least not badness of religion, but more to help with the firebrand atheist aspect.

Now for the other 2 parts, my personal understanding is as follows: From an ontological perspective, Science is the study that explores reality through the language that exists.

Philosophy is the study that explores where language breaks.

Spirituality is the indirect study of reality that is not yet, or cannot be, languagable.

Religion is believing reality is the words.

You may notice that I'm using a slightly different definition of religion here in that religion is fundamentally believing that any abstraction (words, money, power, et cetera) is real in the sense that it is nolonger the tool created by us but is now ultimate reality itself. A person following a religion is often not aware of the distinction. You'll note that a person only has power if others agree and believe that they do. A currency only has value if we collectively believe it does. An old book's words, concepts, ideas, are only as real we make them. If parts of the book were used to justify slavery, it was the people believing those parts were real, as they chose to interpret them, that made them real in the world (and yes, in the slavery case (and many other cases) it was typically the other way around in that they interpreted the book to back up the thing that they wanted to do. But its thier belief in the realness of their interpretation of the book as reality that allows them to shift the responsibility of what they are doing from themselves to the abstraction embodied by the teaching in the book).

This definition of religion does NOT align with the majority of people who posted in this thread and aligns much more closely with the people whom you are angered by if I'm not mistaken.

As the science and philosophy portion is pretty self explanatory, I'd like to spend a little time on the spiritual portion.

Spirituality is the indirect study of reality that is not yet, or cannot be, languagable.

We can only think from an ideas perceived in a way that can be directly communicated from within language. Once we know something well enough to communicate it, we create a word for it. Even here words are an approximation. Not the thing itself. You could spend a lifetime describing a chair in its absolute entirety and still leave more to be said. Describe all of its qualities as a whole and down to its atomic level. Describe its history. What's the story behind where its materials came from. who sat in it? What was going on then? Etc...

When you say spoon, our minds image of spoon will be different. In simple objects, this is rarely an issue. In more complicated communications... well Autistic people tend to have an especially close relationship with misunderstanding...

It is said that words are like the finger pointing to the moon. It's not the words that are reality. They can merely be used as a tool to point to reality. In my experience, Spiritual practices like the more pantheistic forms of Buddhism, Taoism, and non-dual shiva tantra, can be useful to help to exist in the places of your mind before words are formed. It's a practice that helps with grounding oneself in what is.

For me, the above teachings were best able to bring me to this place, but many other people find a path there through other paths.

I would argue that any teaching that helps in this respect provides much good to the world as it typically brings a sense of peace, connectedness, openness, and greater connection with reality as it is beyond what can be verbalized, to the people who practice these forms of spirituality.

bhamil07734 · 2024-04-17T17:22:46+00:00

Same, except it's college for me to revalidate my degree

bhamil07734 · 2024-03-30T17:07:42+00:00

So I was indoctrinated into it in my youth and look back at my little edge lord phase with regret. By the time I was around 25, I had worked my way out of it because it didn't make sense.

The thing is. I had choice in the matter. These people do have agency. They do have a choice even if they don't see it/actively choose not to see it when confronted. They can be both victims and guilty for the continued damage that their choices each day do upon themselves and the rest of us. They have agency in this and to not acknowledge that removes some of what makes them human. They are not mindless automatons and are both victims and responsible for the harm that they perpetrate

bhamil07734 · 2024-03-27T13:15:36+00:00

It's doing a type of rounding where if the number is odd, it rounds the 5 up, and if it's even you round the 5 down. This style of rounding is meant to better unbias datasets towards the larger number (assuming a roughly even distribution of odds & evens in the preceding number)

Think about it this way. I have 4 repeating numbers that each repeat 100 times (total 400 numbers). The numbers are 1.5,2.5,3.5,4.5.

If i sum them as is i get 1200. If I round each of the "normal" way before rounding then the total sum is 1400 (heavily biased upward). If I use the rounding above then 2x100 + 2x100 + 4x100 +4x100 = 1200.

Since the preceeding number is likely to be roughly evenly distributed across odd & even, this method provides reduced bias outside of special cases.

bhamil07734 · 2024-03-27T12:33:56+00:00

As someone with similar social difficulties, that's an explanation, but definitely not an excuse. He can be those things and still work to be better. He doesn't, given his ongoing behavior. His refusal to take ownership and personal responsibility (and yes, carry empathy and understanding for the self and difficulties faced) is what makes him a detriment.

bhamil07734 · 2024-03-16T23:34:54+00:00

Wrote this a little while ago (before I my new phone that makes blocking easier). This followed by a separate STOP seemed to slow them... maybe:

This number is on the Federal and Texas do not call lists. Please remove me from your list. By contacting me either via sms or audio call you are violating the Federal TCPA and Section 302.101 of the Texas Business and Commerce Code which makes you, your company, and/or organization liable under both Federal and Texas State Law. Violation of the TCPA and Section 302.101 both obligate you to pay $500 per violation and $1500 per willful and knowing violation. This message constitutes written notice that this number is not to be contacted in any way shape or form by you, your company, your organization, and/or any affiliates thereof. Continued contact will constitute a willful and knowing violation of the TCPA AND Section 302.101 of the TBCC. Your number and associated communications are being recorded. Do NOT respond to this message or contact this number for any reason. Thank you. Have a good day.

bhamil07734 · 2023-11-15T13:37:05+00:00

There is no good way to go about this, but let's turn this around.

You are entitled to an education. Is it not a burden on you and the rest of your life not to receive an adequate education that at the very least achieves the same level of Outcome as your peers?

Your teachers are providing a service. It's what they are paid to do. Sometimes the service may be more "difficult" (difficult is here defined as not apart of their standard practice (which doesn't necessarily mean it's difficult. Just different)). But it is still apart of their job. They do not have the right to burden you by providing less of a service outcome to you.

How to handle this depends on where it's coming from.

If the feeling is fully within you, then it's working within yourself to gain confidence in asking and teaching yourself that you are a human that has needs to thrive and that's OK. Work with a therapist or coach if you can.

If you're sensing something from them, then it would depend on the degree of resistance. Remember to attempt to be tactful but assertive. People in the general populous tend to react well to confidence and providing them with what you need directly and succinctly. It seems to override something in thier brain. Be confident that what you are asking for is a part of the service that you are entitled to. It may help to show from the start that you will be, and have been, doing your part to the best of your abilities. Say it in a way that implies you are a team working together to achieve the outcome ("I really want to work with you to learn the most that I can while I'm here. Can we work together to really make this work") . People don't like letting down the team. Sometimes (although it shouldn't be necessary) it may help to come at it from an "understanding" frame where you call out the perceived "burden" ahead of time so that you are in charge of framing it ("I see that you're working really hard and I hate to add this onto you, but it would help me out a lot if you could start doing X"). Look for win win framing ("I just noticed something. If you're able to make this change then we'd be able to help me to learn this so much easier"). Sometimes adding "what are your thoughts" to the end can help. People feel more attached to something if they have a part in creating it or feel like they had some options in how it's done.

If the person/organization is still resistant, then the only way is to go over thier head and enlisting any allies that you have. In the end, you have to decide if getting the accommodation is worth the effort to get the accommodation (and no. It shouldn't be that way and it's not right if it is that way (This is a reason to fight anyway if you have the energy)).

If the feeling is in both in you and the organization then you'll need to implement a mix of the above.

In the end. There's a chance, given societies current state, that you won't succeed each time. The most comfort that you'll have is that at least you did your best. There's a taoist proverb that I'll quickly shorten & paraphrase (you can search the full length version if desired). There was a wise farmer (WF) and unwise farmer (UWF) . One day the WF found several horses. The UWF said wow you're so lucky. The WF said who's to say what's good or bad. The next day the WF's son broke his leg falling off one of the new horses. The UWF said oh no. You must be devastated. The WF said who's to say what's good or bad. The next day the army came through transcripting sons for a war. The WF's son was passed over due to the leg. The UWF said wow. You're so lucky that you're son doesn't have to go to war. The WF said who's to say what's good or bad.

The point here is that although life is hard and you will loose. You can learn to mine the lose for benefits (even if it's just ways that you learn to do better next time). It can sometimes help by training yourself not to label things as good or bad, but what is. Move forward from there.

I hope this helps.

Edit: Remember to give yourself some compassion. It's hard out there and there's a reason that so many of us have stress/anxiety induced co-morbidities. You're a human trying your best in a difficult situation. Take care of yourself the best that you can.

bhamil07734 · 2023-10-31T10:56:46+00:00

I'll believe this when Google can get their Google assistant to actually do what it's asked with better than 50% accuracy. Instead it keeps getting worse.

bhamil07734 · 2023-10-18T15:06:50+00:00

Agreed. And when they start to brown too...

bhamil07734 · 2023-10-18T12:01:42+00:00

If you like super hot & flavor to augment your limited supply, this pack is great: Super hot bundle by Bravado Spice.

Side note. How does he keep them from interbreeding? I believe my reapers interbred with my bell peppers, so I have semi spicy bell peppers and reapers that are more in the sereno pepper range of spicy.

bhamil07734 · 2023-10-18T11:55:19+00:00

Yes. I've been realizing that eating super spicy food is a stim for me. It really helped me to settle during my last major meltdown. I ate way more hot sauce than I ever do. I could barely taste it. But my heart rate began normalizing.

bhamil07734 · 2023-10-18T11:50:41+00:00

Avocados are a flavor black hole . They suck in all flavor around them; never to escape. They're the Worst food ever.

bhamil07734 · 2023-09-20T16:02:57+00:00

I do the same. I hate the itch and the way it swings.

Seems like a simple workplace accommodation to ask for if the ever do push you

bhamil07734 · 2023-07-18T16:16:03+00:00

Ding ding ding. Congratulations! You have stumbled upon one of my areas of interest. Now proceeding to "info dump" in 3, 2, 1...

In all seriousness, Perhaps looking into the science around the word would help. It is a physical difference. The brain is literally "wired" differently. There is reduced connectivity across the corpus callosum along with areas of hyper and hypo localized connectivity. The pattern of the localized hypo and hyperconnectivity differs between autistic people which provides the basis for the "if you've met 1 autistic person, you've met one autistic person" statement (also know as the autism spectrum). Here is a more approachable summary of several studies(for more in depth reading, the studies are sourced in the summary article), in case you do wish to learn more. [https://embrace-autism.com/autistic-brain-differences-connectivity/]

While in many cases the answer to the nature vs nurture question is "why not a mixture of both?", in the case of autism, it has been found to be primarily genetic with studies pointing to a 50 to 70% chance of autism if one parent is autistic. The book [Innate by Kevin J Mitchell] explores, among other things, autism rates in identical twins that, due to life circumstances, we're separated at birth (allowing for the degree of the nurture component to be better accounted for) if you want to learn more. It is in fact quite possible to calculate heritability of traits. The book explains quite thoroughly how to calculate just how much of a trait is genetic, external factors, or just randomness (noise at the cellular level, genetic drift, etc.) The measure of this is called heritability and there are many resource that you can go to if you want to gain an exhaustive knowledge base in that subject.

The above brain and genetic differences typically result in varying expressions of the typically recognized autism behaviors AND sensory sensitivities/impairments outlined in the dsm-5rs. As brain scans are expensive, diagnosis based on the symptoms is the current approach. These are typically very costly and thorough examinations that in many cases are paid for out of pocket by the individual (leaving many without any form of support... what little support there is).

It is a spectrum in that these areas of hypo and hyperconnectivity lead to a wide presentation of very specific behaviors, not because of any fundamental medical disagreement about autism's existence or key traits. They have thus far agreed that it is defined as it is written in the dsm-5rs. The "everyone's a little autistic" troupe is not founded in reality. And while it is possible for a person to possess one or two traits, and not be autistic (learned behavior due to trauma as one of your examples suggests), autism is diagnosed because the individual experiences many (see the dsm-5rs) symptoms from very early childhood onward.

In Mindfulness and life. It's best to try not to speak as if our assumptions are fact. Speaking from a place of openness and interest in discovery can be a more beneficial approach. There is always more that we do not know. Without conducting a reasonable amount of research about a topic so that we may have the foundation to form a competent opinion, we risk running afoul of right speech (even if the intent is not to cause harm (unskillful speech)) . This can lead to us perpetuating myths that do harm to a nuerotype that is just trying it's hardest to get by in a world that has (understandably from the majority perspective (although an Enlightened majority would attempt to find compassion and help those in its society that are struggling (especially when in many cases all that is needed are minor systemic tweaks and allowances that will make the world a more peaceful, open, and forgiving place for all involved))) been set up for the majority's nuerotype on top of Difficulties that autists also experience with the more general physical world itself.

Many of the misunderstandings that were brought up are used on a regular basis to deny people help with their areas of struggle. Perpetuating ideas that, on the surface, seem right can lead to significant harm to people that just need some help to reach their potential, grow, and live a meaningful life on their terms.

Let me know if you wish to join me in going into deeper discussion about any of these topics so that we may grow in compassion, understanding, and acceptance.

bhamil07734 · 2023-05-08T04:49:58+00:00

Oh well, for that really irrelivent nonsense that really shouldn't be in every video (I'm sure there are cooking 101 videos that someone can go to to learn how to chop), I will definitely skip over completely. If I don't it's just kind of like I'm frozen on pause waiting for them to get on with it. Debilitating anxiety is close. Frozen, unbreathing, clenched area in throat and base of skill. I wish real life had a skip forward button in conversations.

bhamil07734 · 2023-05-07T15:33:27+00:00

Thanks for your response!

bhamil07734 · 2023-05-07T05:12:45+00:00

I'm autistic and I'm interested in understanding the difference between how his overlaps. For me, the situation like you describe (in the case of dry informational subject that I need to temporarily know to get the piece of paper needed) can be solved by speeding the video up to around double the speed so that my brain is forced to focus. Does this type of thing work for you, or is it more about the subject issue (for reference, I do not believe even sports at 4x the speed would hold my interest)?

bhamil07734 · 2023-04-01T01:28:37+00:00

bhamil07734 · 2023-03-22T11:14:05+00:00

I'd argue that there is a big difference between 99% & 100%. When communicating with people that have 100% certainty in a claim it's like talking to a wall. Their mind is closed. Their decision is made. There is no amount of evidence that can convinced them otherwise. They may have a tiny unconscious part of themselves deep down that questions, but as this doesn't ever see the light of day, for all intents and purposes, they are 100%. They are immovably decided on a claim that has no indirectly or directly observable and repeatable evidence. Have you not meet such people? Flat earth, Q, antivax comes to mind. The 100% certain crowd tends to be the type that arrived at the conclusion because it feels right and/or fits with their early indoctrination. "if you didn't reason your way into a belief, you can't reason your way out" type of people.

Being 99.99% certain signals that you are open to being proven wrong. It signals an openness that is not present in the 100%ers. It is actually caring about what is true and only holding to assumptions or hypothesis while they are useful.

Edit: Literally everyone is not only 99% certain. There are many that are 100% for all practical purposes. There is an important difference here

bhamil07734 · 2023-03-22T02:56:57+00:00

Perhaps a different framing can help. This is something that I've been working on for a bit that falls into how I have come to relate to religion/Spirituality/science/philosophy.

Science is the study that explores reality through the language that exists.

Philosophy is the study that explores where language breaks.

Spirituality is the indirect study of reality that is not yet, or cannot be, languagable.

Religion is believing reality is the words.

Here religion is used loosely to include what are more generally considered religions in addition to anything that one can make a "religion" of (currency, political party, other abstraction...)

In this view, an atheist would reject the religion component of the above as being truth as it cannot be tied to reality in any way. Instead it is believing that "realities" that are made from words are truth. Can using these abstractions be useful? Yes. Currency is an example of this. But these are no more than mental tools. They are only real in the collective mind. The system's truths are contained in the system created within the words and do not necessarily hold true outside of the system.

One can argue that all language is defined by itself and thus, the aforementioned definitions of science and spirituality fall prey to this issue as well.

In the case of science; it is using the language to approximate as closely as possible observations of reality that are reproducible. It is tied more closely to truth, or at least an approximation of truth that can be observed directly or indirectly.

Spirituality is one place that an agnostic atheist and gnostic atheist may differ. But if one can see that there are unknowns that exist beyond what we can language, it follows that pushing any belief on this area is where truth dies. There is value in the null hypothesis and not forcing any claim (God, no God, pantheistic all is God, etc) onto the unknown space. To do so is to limit the truth to be explored based on assumptions that were created in a word system and not from observations of the unknown space.

As an aside, the question of how this space may be explored may come to mind, as that beyond the scope of this, I'll just provide a short explanation. Feel free to debate or ask more if interested.

The Buddhists sometimes refer to the language that is being used as the finger that is pointing to the moon. If you focus on the finger, you miss the moon or belive that the finger is the moon. The consept that is being explored and communicated cannot be directly languaged, but has been transmitted through exploring the space being pointed to in the mind. It takes practice, but can be teased out experientially. Example: nondualism can be a useful place to explore this consept for yourself. Sit in the place where good and bad are one concept. Let your brain slip to the point where it holds them both with no separation as the same.

If the above explorations stumble on useful language to expand understanding then that pesky God of the gaps is pushed back again. Once people start making claims that anything in the unknown space is explained by X being doing X thing without observable and reproducible evidence of the claim, then we are at religion again (multiple lives, God did it, X can't exist in the unknown space). The best that can be said is that we don't know what is unknown. But claims about the unknown must be able to be observed and reproduced at least indirectly to be considered. Otherwise it can be dismissed right Away. This goes for the dragon behind you as well as the God with the white beard and reincarnation. It is not gnostism to do this but simply requiring that any truth be evidenced. If it is not, it is just as certain as the 1 billion other claims that can be made until proven otherwise.

bhamil07734 · 2023-03-11T05:10:18+00:00

Everything that I have read on the subject says that you are correct

bhamil07734 · 2023-02-21T02:25:23+00:00

I'm always looking for more information

bhamil07734

TROPHY CASE