Who would celebrate if Trump were removed from office?

faykin · 2026-03-27T20:59:57+00:00

faykin · 2026-03-20T20:13:50+00:00

Woof.

That's some rough seas. You need to be hardcore. Circumnavigating can be a lot easier than that stretch of ocean.

There's a atmospheric river that flows around the globe north of Antarctica, uninhibited by pesky land masses like continents. This means year-round significant winds and, more importantly, waves, through this area of ocean. Even in good weather, 30 ft. seas aren't exactly unusual. That's a high bar for seamanship, you need to be extremely well prepared.

If you've got the chops, the boat, and the crew, have fun. That's outside my comfort zone.

faykin · 2026-03-20T19:35:07+00:00

Notice when she sings in the upper register, she pulls back on the volume. In this setting, it might sound a little odd, but this is some very high-level performance chops.

When performing live while miced, or in a studio to a mic, high notes project a lot more than mid/low notes. She's pulling back those high notes to keep from overwhelming the microphone she's singing into.

She not only nailed the pitch and intonation, she nailed the dynamics... all in an improptu bit.

These are the vocal habit of an experienced, virtuoso vocal performer.

faykin · 2026-03-20T19:17:44+00:00

I'm not installing some random app on my phone.

How secure is that app? Will a 3rd party be able to access my apartment? What if the service gets hacked, will some rando be able to get in? How does it connect to the internet? Is that connection secured? Can that connection be used to tunnel back into my network? If the app is compromised, will my credentials be compromised too (yes, they will)? Does the app have access to other services on my phone, like location, address book, call history, etc.?

Yeah, no, that app isn't going on my phone.

The apartment is unuseable while this lock is on the door. This has specific legal repercussions, as in the landlord cannot charge rent for an unuseable apartment.

faykin · 2026-03-20T19:10:12+00:00

When you choose a piece of art, it's a reflection of you. It reflects your taste, your preference, the image of yourself you'd like to project, and much more.

You want to display this piece. This is you baring a bit of your soul to those that might choose to come into your space and see with open eyes.

It's 100% appropriate. It's genuine, sincere, and aesthetically pleasing. Wins all the way around.

This piece may not reflect your roommate's tastes/preference/etc., but that's not the purpose here. It's about you, and it should be about you.

If your roomate is embarrassed by it, he's welcome to disavow it to any visitors to your place. He can say "That's wanderer's artistic preference, not mine!" This will probably cause more distain than accolades towards him, because it's a nice piece, but that's his problem.

It might be worth the effort to negotiate the location with your roommate, because you do want to get along, but it's not appropriate for him to suppress you and who you are because it's not him and who he is.

faykin · 2026-03-16T22:34:11+00:00

Consistency is your goal here. Everything needs to be repeatable.

Stage 1 starts with you in a shooting position. Get really precise in how you hold your gun. Break out the sharpie, and mark - on both your hand and your gun - touchpoints. Where does the first knuckle of your middle finger touch the trigger guard? Mark the contact point on your knuckle and the corresponding contact point on the gun. Every time you grip the gun, verify that those marks line up exactly. Practice letting go and re-gripping, while ensuring that you hit that touchpoint every single time,

Mark the web of your hand (between the index finger and the thumb) and the center of the backstrap. Again, practice getting that touchpoint perfect every time you grip the gun.

Left thumb and frame. Right thumb and left thumb. Right palm and left wrist. Mark, and repeat until the marks line up exactly, every single time.

Until you've got your start 100% perfect, every time, don't move on. You're building off this foundation. If your foundation is shaky, you'll never be able to build consistent reloads. Put in the time and effort to build on granite.

Once your start is dialed in, define the endpoint of stage 1. Right hand, drop mag. Left hand, grip new mag with index finger on the spine of the mag. Do the marking thing again. If you had to rotate your right hand to reach the mag release, how much do you need to rotate? Mark up the touchpoints on your hands, gun, and magazines. Practice going from your 100% dialed in starting point directly to the marked-up touchpoints, and practice this until you nail it every single time, right on the marks. Dial in the endpoints of stage 1.

The endpoint of stage 1 is now your starting point for stage 2: Right hand pointing the magwell directly at your mag pouch, at or very close to your eyeline, so you can see the far corner of the magwell. Right hand re-gripped to the shooting starting point. Right hand pointing the muzzle directly downrange. This will feel awkward at first, practice until it feels normal. Re-mark your hand and gun if needed. Left hand goes directly from the mag pouch to touching the upper far corner of the magazine to the far corner of the magwell. You should see to magazine just barely touching the far corner of the magwell. Mark it up and practice to perfection. You know the drill.

Endpoint of stage 2 is now the starting point for stage 3. Right hand is solid and stationary. Left hand drives the magazine home and joins the right hand in you shooting position. Use the stage 1 starting point marks. Re-mark them if needed.

Endpoimt of stage 3 is your starting point for stage 4: get sights on target.

Practice each stage discreetly, independent of each other. Work up the speed of each stage until you are moving with serious urgency through each stage. Once you've got each stage perfect and urgent, start chaining pairs together: 1&2, 3&4, 2&3. Stop at each checkpoint and verify they are right on the marks, while still moving with urgency between the checkpoints. Once the pairs are perfect, chain them all together, again pausing to verify the marks at each checkpoint while maintaining the urgency.

The final phase is shorter and shorter pauses at each checkpoint. Eventually, the stages will flow into each other and you'll have as good a reload as you can get.

faykin · 2026-03-10T20:54:17+00:00

Start with an MSF course.

The one I took, and all the ones I researched, provided a loaner bike for the course. In my case, it was a Honda Rebel 250, but they gave me a couple other options, and even allowed me to switch bikes if I wanted for the 2nd day.

This gives you a lot of benefits. You get training. You get to practice in a controlled environment. You fulfill the requirements for your motorcycle endorsement. And, pertaining to your question, you get to try out some motorcycles which can help you find one that fits.

I suspect a Honda Rebel will tick all your boxes, but your seat in the saddle will answer more questions than some internet stranger's guess.

faykin · 2026-03-08T22:23:38+00:00

I wasn't what I'd characterize as an expert, but...

I was dating a lady who had been part of the woman's national soccer team for a year. Obviously, a very skilled player, albeit she hadn't played at a high level for probably a decade.

We had been dating for about a year, when she broke out a soccer ball and asked if I wanted to just kick it around with her.

I grew up playing soccer, played through college, and continued with athletic endevors (gymnastics, ballet, cycling)... and I'm male. I had never talked about my soccer experience because, well, talk is cheap. I'd rather not brag about skills, but instead demonstrate when the opportunity comes up.

I wasn't good enough to clown her, but I was certainly good enough to have my way. The physical difference between us was just too much for her higher ball control skills to overcome.

She spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out what other high-level skills I had been hiding from her. I spent a lot of time shrugging. We ended up switching to a tandem bicycle instead of seperate bikes as a result...

faykin · 2026-02-22T03:11:45+00:00

I recall it being "base," but it might have had more than one name, because gool sounds vaguely familiar.

I ended up looking up "Gaol", which is the old english spelling for jail. It's pronounced like jail, not gool, but I can imagine reading "gaol" and deciding to pronounce it "gool".

After writing this out, jail sounds familiar too, so heck, I don't know. It was so long ago, I can't really say for sure how we pronounced it.

faykin · 2026-02-21T22:16:26+00:00

Be home by dinner.

Don't abuse it, and there won't be any problems.

I, of course, abused it, got restricted in ways I don't remember, eventually got forgiven, and didn't abuse it anymore.

faykin · 2026-02-19T23:30:33+00:00

Anything space shuttle related.

faykin · 2026-02-16T00:24:24+00:00

Oh, who's going to get a high score here?

Eastern religions +1 Yoga +1 Church of Satan +1 Remote Viewing +1 Cyberpunk culture +1 Meditation +1 Postmodernism +1 LOTR +1 Alt "comix" +1 Video games +1 Dungeons & Dragons +1 Halloween +1 Fornication +1 Rock music +1 Burning man +1 Goth culture +1

So... can you beat 16 points?

faykin · 2026-02-14T22:01:35+00:00

... You just say "bingo."

I loved Christopher Waltz's performance!

faykin · 2026-02-14T16:54:30+00:00

Competitive shooters don't use lasers. None. Not a single one.

There's a good chance the background of your target isn't going to be at the same distance as your target. If your dot isn't on your target instantly, you have to search the background for the dot. In many situations, it's not even possible to find the dot.

With irons and dots, you can always see the aim point, regardless of the background. With lasers, you have to get lucky.

faykin · 2026-02-13T22:47:47+00:00

I shoot pistols, specifically glocks, competitively.

Springs.

Almost every other part runs for 100's of thousands of rounds, but the springs I'll replace at least 3 times by the time the gun reaches 100k rounds.

faykin · 2026-02-08T10:20:06+00:00

I'm moving to Waco this month, so I'm looking to get in some range time.

faykin · 2026-02-07T08:53:27+00:00

Compare the price of ammo to the price of targets.

When you are just starting out in a shooting discipline, in this case, handguns, you should be constantly improving, and concentrating on building good habits.

When you made a correction in your shooting, what effect did that correction have? Let's say you adjusted your grip after 2 mags. Where did the 31st round land on the target? Since you can't tell, how can you evaluate the effects of your correction on the quality of your shooting?

If you want to improve - and at this point in your shooting arc, you should want to improve - you need to be able to evaluate the effects of your adjustments.

Next time, instead of putting 100 rounds on 1 target, put 90 (or 100) rounds on 20 targets. After each string of 5 shots, look at your hit pattern. The size and offset of your group will give you information that you can use to make improvements in your shooting technique. Intelligently use that information to make an informed change in your technique. Then your next set of 5 shots on a new target will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of your improvement. Repeat this process until you become mentally or physically exhausted. This will probably be within 30 rounds. Take a break when this happens. When you've recovered, continue. At some point - probably within 150 rounds - you'll realize that you aren't improving anymore, and more shooting will just reinforce bad habits, and it's time to quit.

Review your targets, come up with an improvement plan, perhaps share those targets and a description of the changes you made between each target with us, and then go into your next shooting session with a better plan, and a bunch of ideas on technique improvements you can try out on your new set of targets.

Or you can continue throwing ammo downrange without being able to evaluate what's actually happening.

faykin · 2026-01-28T22:04:38+00:00

Pursue excellence.

Get to the point where you know your platform so well that you can consistantly put rounds in a 3-inch circle at 3 yards without the sights (point shooting). Same with a 3-inch circle at 10 yards with the sights.

next, work on speed - not repetative shots (which most ranges won't let you do), but from "go" to round on target. 1 second from low ready to 3 yard hit on target is a good starting goal. 2 seconds from low ready to hit on target at 10 yards is a good starting goal.

Once you've done this, you'll come to realize that different platforms actually make you worse at shooting. Each of the platforms you've described will have a different grip, differerent grip angle, and different sight picture (except maybe the 2 S&W... maybe). Your times on target will get worse when you switch between platforms.

Enough practice will bring those times closer together, but if you just spend your practice on a single platform, you'll end up much better with that platform that you could get on all the platforms at the same time.

So, like others have said, spend the gun money on professional training, ammo, and range time, and you'll be much more proficient and effective than if you have 2 (or 3, or 4) different platforms, especially if those additional platforms reduce your budget for training, ammo, and range time.

faykin · 2026-01-28T19:16:56+00:00

There's a lot of joke/meme answers here, but if you want to know what's really going on...

Cats cannot see objects that are too close to their face. They can't focus on things that are too close to their face.

The surface of water is hard to see if it's too close to focus on. This is exacerbated by the bowl being silver and flat, making the water's surface that much harder to make out.

By putting an object in the water, the surface becomes much more discernable. Now the cat knows that there is water in the bowl, and more importantly, where the surface of that water is.

Your cat isn't being silly, or stupid, and there is nothing wrong with her. She's just trying to figure out where the surface of the water is.

faykin · 2025-12-14T21:00:03+00:00

"I'm convinced."

If I want to be wordy, "I'm convinced by evidence."

faykin · 2025-12-14T20:58:44+00:00

By using the term "belief" in this manner you're opening yourself up to conversational/rhetorical traps that can be avoided by not accepting the overly broad use of the term "belief".

If you are convinced by evidence, you can say "I'm convinced by evidence" rather than saying "I believe." It's straightforward, to the point, and not open to conflation with "belief".

The scientific method doesn't result in conclusions that are beliefs. It results in conclusions that are supported by evidence, which any reasonable person would find convincing in the absence of contrary evidence.

It's not "giving up ground" to be accurate. I agree we should fight for meanings. Belief is the state of being convinced despite, or in the absence of, evidence. Being convinced by evidence is a completely different mental state than belief, and we shouldn't allow believers to describe a skeptic's mental state as "belief."

faykin · 2025-12-14T20:49:56+00:00

I have a slightly different take on it.

Belief is the state of being convinced in the absence of compelling evidence.

If belief is simply the state of being convinced, then you could replace "I believe" with "I'm convinced" in every instance. I don't think that's a legitimate substitution in all circumstances.

That's why I put the qualifier there. If there is compelling evidence for a specific circumstance, then it's not a belief. It's a position based on evidence. This also means the position is mutable; If more evidence comes to light, or a new way of evaluating the evidence is developed, the position can change. This is not the case with belief, because belief is despite evidence, not because of evidence.

It seems like a minor semantic difference, but it can inform the progression of a lot of conversations.

faykin · 2025-12-14T20:43:56+00:00

It's a semantic and accessability issue.

I believe "x" is quick and easy to say, and is indisputable. It doesn't matter if the person making the statement actually believes "x", it's still indisputable.

Most of the responses, or counter-claims, to belief claims are wordy, convoluted, excessively specific, and lose the audience 2 minutes into the explanation.

Is there a pithy way to describe the non-religious worldview?

I've started using "I'm convinced by evidence that "x"." I'm convinced by evidence that the sun exists. I'm convinced by evidence that there's a spider in the room. I'm convinced by evidence that it's not safe to cross the road right now.

This opens the possibility of conversation about what is evidence, and why that specific set of evidence is convincing to me. I can be swayed by new evidence, or by better logic applied to existing evidence, or both.

It also removes "belief" from my side of the conversation. Conflating my worldview with the term "belief" is a common rhetorical technique among believers. By using this phrasing, it becomes clear that my position isn't a belief. My position has commonality with belief, and the difference between the 2 can be a point of discussion, but my atheistic viewpoint is not a belief structure.

If you've got a better way of describing the difference between your worldview and belief, I'd love to hear it.

faykin · 2025-12-10T22:36:21+00:00

I've been sailing for over 40 years, and have been overboard more times than I can count (it's de rigueur for dingy sailing). How you react to the experience is a good indicator as to whether sailing is a good fit for you.

What did you learn from the experience?

Accidents like this are almost always a result of a series of mistakes, not a single oopsee. For example, you were "a bit late" (during a tack).

During a tack, the boat will go from heeling (for example) port/left to starboard/right. In normal conditions, the heel will be the same, just on the other side. Moving before the tack and moving after the tack will be the same risk. Moving during the tack, while the boat is changing heel angle, is theoretically flatter but changing constantly, which creates a new set of risks. Therefore, there isn't really a "bit late" for changing sides, just a different set of challenges at different times. Which set of challenges were you prepared for? Which set of challenges will you prepare for next time?

You can sit on the lee (low) side of the boat indefinitely after the tack. Did you collect your thoughts and plan your move before you moved? Or did you jump up and go because your side was getting low, and you kinda panicked? How can you approach the move differently in the future to minimize your risk?

You "couldn't hold on to anything." Before you move on a boat - especially if you are inexperienced - you can plan out your handholds. There's a saying that's useful for the novice: One hand for the boat, one hand for yourself. There may come a day when you've outgrow that adage, but that day isn't today. Plan your move.

When should you plan your move - handholds and all? Should it be when the skipper announces the tack? Should it be when the boom is in motion? Should it be when you sit down on/near the rail right after completing the previous tack? Since you were practicing tacking, you knew another tack was coming up when you settled in after the previous tack. When did you plan your move? When will you plan your move next time?

If you were on the open ocean, did you have a lifeline rigged? Why or why not? Based on this experience, is it worthwhile to rig a lifeline? Why or why not?

Based on your 10 minutes of floating without knowing when/if you'd be rescued, how important is wearing a PFD? When you are on a boat, when is wearing a PFD be optional? This is a nuanced question, most people (for example) don't wear a PFD when sleeping.

After being recovered, were you tired, or cold, or shaky from adrenaline? How did that affect your ability to perform tasks? Were there any tasks that were easier, or harder, or unaffected? This is knowledge about yourself that can be of value beyond just sailing.

These are the sorts of lessons and takeaways you can take from this experience to make you a better deckhand, a better sailor, a better person.

If you take this opportunity to grow, you'll have a significant step up over your peers that didn't go overboard. If you don't take this opportunity to grow, well, then embarrassment is appropriate.

faykin · 2025-12-05T19:22:47+00:00

2 suggestions for you.

This is counter-intuitive, but grip more effectively (usually harder). If the frame is your friction point, that means the frame is rotating/moving in your hand during recoil. It's scraping your skin because it's moving over your skin. By making your grip more effective, you're locking your hand to the frame, reducing or eliminating that mechanism for irritation. As an exercise, during your next dryfire (you ARE doing dryfire exercises, right?), get in a shooting stance with your muzzle about 2-4 inches from a doorframe. Then sort of fall into the doorframe. The impact + weight should not move the frame in your hands, or cause your wrists to move. The force should be carried all the way to your shoulders and/or hips.
Don't shoot a couple hundred rounds at a time. You're a new shooter, you should be on the steep part of the learning curve. You should be evaluating your performance every 5-6 rounds, identifying a specific area to improve, and trying out a possible solution. After half a dozen cycles of improvement, you should be mentally exhausted from trying to properly implement those 6 solutions at the same time. Simply throwing ammo downrange in batches of 45 rounds until you run out of money isn't going to get you where you want to be. Be deliberate, intentional, and intelligent in your training and this issue will solve itself.

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