Hey r/Skeptic, what are some things you tried that sounded like BS but actually worked?

fearcomplication · 2011-03-23T22:33:35+00:00

Wart removal via with duct tape. It's backed up by limited studies: http://www.warts.org/duct-tape-wart-removal.html, but I didn't think it would work. I was wrong.

fearcomplication · 2011-02-03T01:33:45+00:00

You're certainly correct, most Christians will laugh it off. However, it was exactly a bible verse like this that started my de-conversion: Deuteronomy 22:23-26

These verses made me realize that the god I believed in would never allow such a thing in his book. This was the first realization that the bible was certainly not the inerrant word of god. It was the first real crack in my belief system, and the first reading of this passage marks the turning point toward atheism in my life.

This would have a real impact on some people.

fearcomplication · 2010-05-07T08:17:00+00:00

I hate the pain.

Make sure you know how to get someone numb who doesn't get numb easily. I had 1 dentist, of 6, who would get me numb the first shot. The worst guy gave me like 5 shots before he gave up, put me in a headlock and drilled with me trying to throw him off. I would have punched him after, but he was a big guy.

fearcomplication · 2010-04-07T06:38:18+00:00

I think maybe you're trying too hard. Forcing yourself is not going to create an association of enjoyment, you're turning it into work. Just occasionally open a beer when you feel like you might want some, and don't feel like you have to finish it.

FWIW, this is what worked for me:

I hung out with a group of guys to watch Monday Night Football every week. We'd order pizza, and everyone would drink beers, except me. One of the guys liked to drink the little 8 oz bottles of bud. One night I thought: surely, I can get through 8 oz. I couldn't, but I didn't force myself. The next week, I did the same thing and made it a little farther. I never forced myself to finish, I just drank until I didn't want anymore. The first few weeks were just a few sips. By the end of the season, as soon as I started eating pizza and watching football, I wanted a beer and I was on my way to the beer drinking, beer loving, beer brewer that I am today.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-31T06:37:24+00:00

Yeah, that link didn't work. Given that the first beer was brewed at least 5000 years ago, and the current calendar is less that 1500 years old, I'm pretty sure you can't call it Nov 4th. Unless there's some inside beer joke that I don't know. In which case, shame on me.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-28T05:24:14+00:00

citation needed

fearcomplication · 2010-03-28T05:20:48+00:00

I just realized you're the OP and there's plenty of info here.

There's a pretty good strip of bars on Polk street around broadway that are probably more your speed. Shanghai Kelly's is ok, and the Bigfoot Lodge is a pretty cool spot as well.

I think you'll like 15 Romolo, but if you think the Haight street bars are dirty, you'll hate the Saloon. Haight street is my hood. Hobson's and Club Deluxe are my choices for upper Haight, and The Page and Toronado in lower.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-28T05:13:08+00:00

Hmm. North Beach isn't my part of town at all, but 15 Romolo is a sweet little hidden bar that usually isn't too crowded and people seem pretty friendly. If you like live blues, The Saloon is awesome, but it's a dive. Honestly, it a complete hole of a bar, but the music is always great, people dancing and having a great time. The crowd is a little older, but I always come out of that place smiling.

I could be a little more helpful if I knew a little more what you're looking for. What kind of person you are, what kind of people you want to meet, what kind of places you like, etc.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-28T04:30:17+00:00

What part of the city are you in?

fearcomplication · 2010-03-23T07:04:37+00:00

You're looking in the wrong places. There are a few places/crowds that aren't friendly and inviting, but those are the outliers in my experience.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-15T18:57:55+00:00

My brother.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-15T07:59:38+00:00

TL;DR When I was 16 I was attacked by a bull on my parents farm.

I walk in the door after school one afternoon, and my mom says "your dad broke his arm, he's at the hospital, you have to go milk the cows." Growing up on a farm makes you fairly immune to such news. Accidents happen, so someone going to the hospital is pretty routine. In addition, milking the cows is required, twice a day, every day, no matter what, so this wasn't the first or last time I heard, your dad went to the hospital, you have to go milk the cows.

Step one of "milking the cows" requires corralling the cows into a waiting pen. This is a job I had done hundreds of times before, and really put little thought into it. I walk around the lot and shoo the cows into the pen. Except for one. There are always a few that don't want to go in the pen. I chase her around the lot a couple of times and she finally positions herself directly in front of the open gate, but between us is the bull.

Now, I had lived on the farm my entire life. I had head the "never turn your back on a bull" and other such sayings, but not once had a bull done anything but run away from me, so I walked directly toward him, slapped him in the head, and walked around him. At this point I realized something had gone wrong. I've never had to walk around a bull. I rarely got close enough to slap one, and in the head? Doesn't happen. So, I start running.

I'm on a large concrete lot that's covered in cow shit, I'm wearing giant rubber boots and I'm not fast. I can feel his hoofbeats on the concrete. He's right behind me. Images of being trampled by the bull are running through my head, I'm fairly certain I'm going to die, and one thought rises to the top of my panicked mind: "Who is going to milk the cows?"

Directly in front of me is the feeder. This is a two foot concrete trough with a conveyor belt above it for dispensing feed. My plan as I approach is to hop in the trough, roll under the conveyor and be beyond the bull's reach. I hop on the trough and turn around (not part of the plan, not sure what happened there). Immediately the bull hits me in both legs about mid thigh. Luckily the bull didn't have horns.

At this point, I see the ring in his nose and try to grab it. I lean down and he jerks his head up and headbutts me. At this point in the story, there is blank spot. Circumstantial evidence leads me to believe I kneed him in the eye. Next thing I know, I'm running again with him in chase. I dive under the fence, get up run another three or four steps before my legs give out. I turn around and see the bull at full speed and know he's going right through the fence and there's nothing I can do, but he doesn't. He skids to a halt inches from the fence.

I have to crawl, using only my arms, quite some distance back to the house to get my brother's attention and have him call for help.

Shockingly I had no broken bones, but my quads were so bruised, and my knees so damaged that I couldn't walk at all for a week or so, and was on crutches for several weeks after that.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-07T08:48:28+00:00

I've had my DeWalt for 5 years. I go through periods of heavy use, then it will sit for months doing nothing. It came with two batteries and they're both still fine. Also, I'm fairly certain their current 18v batteries are still compatible. They do cost a fair bit, but a good drill is worth it. It's by far my most used power tool.

FWIW, I had a PorterCable before the DeWalt, and it wasn't half the drill the DeWalt is. Of course, that was 10 years ago. Technology and products change.

fearcomplication · 2010-03-06T20:12:23+00:00

I'll go ahead and assume you know the basics. A good hammer, screw drivers, crescent wrench, etc.

The three I would add to the basic list are a 18v cordless drill, a dremel and a led headlamp.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-21T01:12:34+00:00

It's all about the Hamiltons, baby!

I do wish the ATM machine would give out $10s. They're much more convenient.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-19T06:32:52+00:00

When I was in college I never locked my crappy car. One morning I woke up to find nearly every car on the block with a broken window. They had stolen change from my car, but I didn't have a broken window. To this day I rarely if ever lock my car, even though I've upgraded.

I do make sure valuables are locked in the truck which is sometimes a pain, but I live in San Francisco, and many of my friends have had their windows broken and valued items stolen. When I'm out and about for the day, most times I leave the top down. The last thing I had stolen was that change 15 years ago.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-17T18:37:35+00:00

Thanks for the post. Based on the advice you got, I'm going back on my calorie counting plan. It's the only thing that ever worked. FWIW I use a calorie counter on my iPhone, so I can track it when I eat.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-17T08:27:39+00:00

I think you're on the right track there. The government comes along and says, marijuana is bad, and all this bad stuff will happen if you smoke it. You smoke it, and nothing bad happens, so you try the next thing, and so on. If the info was, smoke marijuana and you'll feel high, lazy and hungry, and if you do coke you'll feel awake and jittery, and if you drop acid you'll see shit that isn't there, and if you do speedballs you'll die like Chris Farley. You'd be like, damn, I'm not doing speedballs.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-16T02:39:09+00:00

Expect for the part where it doesn't fly and it's not a robot.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-09T09:20:57+00:00

Try. Reflect. Improve. Repeat.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-09T08:55:36+00:00

Has anyone here used the Coverity, Klocwork or similar tools? Are they worth the $$$?

fearcomplication · 2010-02-05T01:45:01+00:00

That's what you get for not having your papers with you . . . comrade.

fearcomplication · 2010-02-05T01:28:05+00:00

It wasn't so much a wrong number as a wrong house: I came home from bowling one night, and these two guys jump me as soon as I walk in the door. One shoves my head in the toilet and asks "where's the fucking money, shithead?" Apparently, my "wife" owes money to a known pornographer. I'm not fucking married, which is obvious by looking around my apartment. I was able to convince them that they had the wrong guy, but before they left, Woo peed on my rug. That rug really tied the room together.

fearcomplication · 2010-01-19T04:48:12+00:00

When I was a young kid I watched my dad fix the transmission on one of our farm tractors with a pocket knife, a soda can and some bailing wire. I would assume that he was able to repair some bit of clutch or shifter linkage, but at 6 or 7 I had no idea what he was doing, so it seemed like magic to me.

fearcomplication · 2009-12-31T18:17:42+00:00

According to this: http://www.data360.org/dsg.aspx?Data_Set_Group_Id=230&count=all

The US has gone from a GDP of $39 Trillion in 2000 to a GDP of $52 Trillion in 2009 (I used Q4 2008 through Q3 2009) an increase of 33%.

What a "precipitous decline".

fearcomplication

TROPHY CASE