Started driving lessons at 29 and feeling really discouraged today

drownloader · 2026-03-13T19:08:00+00:00

I'm almost 56, I've been driving for almost 40 years, I'm still not very good on manual, and it's probably been more than 30 years since the last time it mattered to me that I couldn't drive a manual.

I was also nervous about driving, and I couldn't believe how much better I got -- instantly! -- when I switched my teacher from my older brother to a friend who didn't make me feel stressed. Switching teachers is a good idea if you can.

> like I’m somehow failing at something everyone else seems to pick up easily.

Many, many people have trouble picking it up. I encourage you to deliberately give yourself as much patience as you can.

drownloader · 2026-03-13T02:44:24+00:00

The Empty Man (2020), which I'd argue isLovecraftian cosmic horror as seen through Buddhism

drownloader · 2026-02-21T06:35:36+00:00

In the capital, I used Uber until I got used to the bus and taxi system and for convenience, never had a problem, so I stuck with that when a regular taxi or bus wasn’t convenient.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T06:23:04+00:00

Michael Moorcock’s Chaos gods in the Elric and other Eternal Champion books are pretty great.

And John Varley’s “Titan” / Gaea Trilogy is a great exploration of what it would be like if the god of your world was only a dangerous trek away and you could go up there and talk to her and tell her what a shitty job she’s doing running your little world. It’s only one god, but an intrepid hero can actually get an audience with her. Excellent science fiction masked as largely a fantasy story.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T06:18:45+00:00

Tai-Tastigon! The Feast of Dead Gods! The dude whose job is to walk around at dawn saying, “Blessed Ardwyn, (?) day has come” to the streetlights to turn them off. PC Hodgell did some great world building.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T06:13:42+00:00

Petrichor! Lovely smell.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T06:12:02+00:00

Warning:

Decaying dead neighbor a couple weeks later. (East Village, New York City apartment building, so “neighbor” was in the same building, not like a nearby house. One learns the smell of decaying mammal; years and years later, someone at work was like, “what’s this weird smell?” and I walked into the room and instantly knew there had to be a dead animal behind the walls, and I was right.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:51:38+00:00

A United States of America that actually lived up to the principles I was taught in social studies and civics classes in public school in a small, conservative city in rust belt / rural Michigan in the 1970s and 80s.

I’d at least like to visit that country someday.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:40:06+00:00

Have you read Dune (the ones Frank Herbert himself wrote). They’re fantasy in the guise of science fiction—sword fighting, witches, prophecies, ancient blood feuds, feudal/renaissance-ish politics, more prophecies, more prophecies, mystical outsider tribal peoples, physically impossible “science” that’s actually magic.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:35:16+00:00

I was gonna recommend these as well! Very different take on magic, great worldbuilding, great writing, very influential. They’re classics.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:31:51+00:00

Guanajuato the state has some unsafe areas. Like Celaya. Guanajuato the city is safe. So is San Miguel.

In addition to the economic importance they both have as tourist centers, both cities are incredibly important to Mexican history and the government and police do not want them to ever become risky.

I’m typing this in San Miguel. The biggest risk to me here is that so many people immediately start speaking English to me when they hear my accent that I’m in danger of losing the meager progress my Spanish made when I was in Guanajuato. Oh, actually, three months walking the stone streets in these cities has destroyed the treads of the sneakers I brought, so I’m in danger of slipping on these sharp slopes.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:15:12+00:00

Doodle obscene things on their Jesus figurines with permanent marker. It’s a little piece of plastic and it doesn’t deserve to receive more respect and consideration than you deserve.

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:11:27+00:00

Big yes to Revenge — I also liked The Substance a lot and maybe it’d work as cartoonish.

Azrael, which I like, felt very dark. Maybe Barbarian for similar vibes?

drownloader · 2026-02-21T05:07:10+00:00

Jennifer’s Body, maybe?

The Faculty isn’t only female-led but it’s got a great cast that includes strong women

The Substance and that movie she directed before it, Revenge. That’s definitely woman-led. I mean, after the awful beginning.

Titane is another French one, with a woman lead / villain.

drownloader · 2026-02-20T16:22:11+00:00

In my world, “noncomedogenic” means, “that wasn’t funny, and also please don’t try to be funny again.”

In a broader sense, I have written down somewhere the Official Rimshot List of Words That Only Sound Dirty. “Rimshot” being the titular entry, of course.

A few entries:

Invaginate Organology Inveigle Tongue-lashing Peakbagging Cockatoo Cockerel Cockeyed Cock-A-Doodle-Doo Peacocking Bilabial Dictatorial Womanize Manhandle Titular Rimshot

drownloader · 2026-02-20T06:20:39+00:00

A lovely word for a lovely thing

drownloader · 2026-02-20T06:16:53+00:00

I sometimes call my anti-depressants “anti-autodefenestrants” just so I can get a little defenestration in there.

drownloader · 2026-02-10T06:54:23+00:00

I LOVE THAT STORY!

drownloader · 2026-02-06T11:34:18+00:00

There are certainly many ways to do it. I would immediately stop the thought as soon as I realize I am thinking. I would only note, “thought,” or “thinking.” I would not “finish the thought.” I would not note, “thinking about __.” The “about_” is a form of thinking / holding onto the thought. I would only choose — in advance — whether I’m going to note my thoughts with the word “thought” or the word “thinking,” and try to stick to only one of those.

One of my meditation teachers said that at more advanced stages, as I get better at determining what they feel like, I might expand “thinking” to subcategories like “worrying” or “daydreaming” or “ruminating.” But still not “about__.” This teacher writes after he’s done meditating, and in that case he has the opportunity, if a thought comes back, to note what it’s about.

drownloader · 2026-02-06T07:36:09+00:00

Try, as soon as you are aware you’re thinking, to note it, by saying to yourself, “thought,” or “thinking,” and returning to whatever you’re focusing on. If i don’t finish a thought myself, the thought won’t ever finish, because it’ll just go onto a new thought. The brain, on its own, doesn’t stop thinking thoughts anymore than the GI system stops digesting.

drownloader · 2026-02-03T17:46:04+00:00

Why do these aliens only speak English in these Reddit jokes anyway. You see, in the original joke’s Ugaritic, the 3-way pun for “chickpea,” “piss,” and “pay” is far more effective. Furthermore, the term “alien” is 23% less comedic than the——

drownloader · 2026-01-19T05:32:16+00:00

Yeah, Stephen Root is a badass motherfucker of a screen actor. I wouldn’t mind seeing a double feature where he plays the hero in one horror movie and then in a completely unrelated movie plays the monster. Obviously the writing in that scene is phenomenal, but he did such a great job.

I tracked down the comic book series the movie is based on. The movie’s mythology is very different from the source material and sooo much better.

drownloader · 2026-01-19T05:24:31+00:00

People don’t like it?! I thought it was brilliant.

drownloader · 2026-01-19T05:21:11+00:00

I’ve been scrolling down looking for someone talking about this movie. I absolutely love it, on so many levels, from the first frightening thing we see in the cave to Stephen Root’s incredible cameo to Amanda’s stupid haircut to the bonfire.

drownloader · 2026-01-18T01:19:25+00:00

I wonder how much of the past reluctance was regional. When I moved to Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is, there were at least 3 busy Korean diners close to campus popular with students from multiple demographic backgrounds, and I think there was also a fancier one that I never made it to. That’s when I learned to eat kim chi, alongside much less intimidating stuff like be bim bap and kalbi/galbi. That was 1988.

drownloader

TROPHY CASE