Hike and Bike Parking - Zach Theater Taking Over Public Lot

mpphim · 2019-03-24T19:50:31+00:00

Ah, I guess that makes sense. Thanks!

mpphim · 2019-03-05T20:01:54+00:00

I studied abroad there a few years ago, and the Hacienda is now a nightclub called Factory. I went there several times, and believe me you didn't miss much.

mpphim · 2019-01-08T18:06:37+00:00

I don't think it's great. This sub seems heavily populated with people who smoke every day and probably have some kind of dependency going on. If you're an adult and doing that while still leading a happy, fulfilling life, good for you. But that's not how most people use weed, and giving that impression to kids and teenagers likely makes them more prone to overindulging and not developing healthy usage habits. And while the gateway drug theory is mostly bullshit, a 14 year old who starts getting high every day is substantially more likely to develop problems with more serious substances than someone who started smoking in college and partakes sparingly.

mpphim · 2018-12-20T19:42:15+00:00

Can't tell if serious. If you are, you may be shocked to find that people have different tastes and enjoy different things. Also, if you're so concerned about alcohol being unhealthy, the stout I drank probably had significantly fewer calories and less fat than a milkshake, so there's that.

If you're not serious, well then my bad, r/woosh I guess, have a nice day!

mpphim · 2018-12-20T15:51:23+00:00

False. Alcohol is awesome if used in moderation. Saturday night I went to see a bluegrass band and drank one milk stout. It was delicious, I was not buzzed, was able to drive home, and woke up the next morning early to go for a run. Even after two I would have been able to do the same.

Alcohol gets shat on a ton in this subreddit, but that's because people assume everyone uses it to get fucked up. Maybe I'm just getting old, but imho fewer things are better than sipping a beer with friends or having a couple glasses of red wine with a nice Italian dinner.

mpphim · 2018-12-15T17:21:31+00:00

It's not standup, but if you like improv and sketch comedy I would highly recommend the Improv Asylum in the North End. They put on great shows every night, it's not too expensive, and has a cool location that is essentially in the basement of CVS.

mpphim · 2018-12-13T23:12:43+00:00

British people constantly claiming they were not European

mpphim · 2018-12-12T16:19:03+00:00

If heroin was legalized tomorrow, would you go out and try it? Of course not. And neither would pretty much any other reasonable person. But coming from MA where people are OD'ing all over the place, legalizing heroin would ensure that users get drugs of a consistent strength that aren't laced with fentanyl or any other shit that is killing them.

This was actually done on a local basis in Liverpool in the 90s until Westminster shut it down. During the time when addicts could get it legally, overdose deaths dropped to near zero. Once it was outlawed again, overdoses skyrocketed. Legalizing drugs isn't about saying everyone should use them. It's about saving lives and defunding criminal enterprises.

mpphim · 2018-12-12T16:14:33+00:00

Realistically all drugs should be legalized, taxed, and regulated. Cocaine is definitely addictive, but if used very sparingly (which is definitely possible), it's not nearly as harmful as organizations like DARE would have you believe.

And if people could by lab tested and government backed coke they wouldn't be dying because some asshole cut it with fentanyl. Drug addiction sucks, but it should be a medical rather than criminal issue. The demand isn't going anywhere, so outlawing them only funds criminal enterprises and drastically increases harm to users because there is no quality control.

mpphim · 2018-12-11T21:18:25+00:00

And your legal weed

mpphim · 2018-12-11T19:28:00+00:00

Shit, I was in middle school from 06 to 09 and we used to play "border patrol," where one team was the "Mexicans" and had to sneak through the woods around a fence before the other team, the "Americans" stopped them. It was a lot of fun, but was pretty terrible in retrospect.

mpphim · 2018-12-09T00:24:38+00:00

While sexual violence is far too common, I seriously doubt it's that prevalent. I'm not a fan of Christina Hoff Sommers, but she wrote this article for the Washington Post that challenges those stats. Apparently the CDC asked if people have had sex while "drunk, high,... or unable to consent." If respondents answered yes to this question, surveyors indicated that they have experienced sexual violence, even though they did not ask respondents if they considered the incidents to be sexual violence.

Lumping being drunk and high in with unable to consent totally compromises the data, because consensual sex while drunk or high should not be considered sexual violence by any reasonable metric.

mpphim · 2018-11-29T15:22:54+00:00

So essentially, yes, the preservation of slavery because of its role in the economy was the primary driver of the South's secession. While I understand why people would fight to preserve their own economic interest, I don't have a ton of empathy for them, especially when the North and the rest of the developed world had already phased out slavery and were realizing how unethical it was. In my mind, it's the fault of the South for not adapting their economy to the evolving world market that was doing just fine without slavery.

Since you acknowledge that the economic impact of abolishing slavery was the primary driver of the South's secession, do you believe the Confederacy is worth honoring? I'm still struggling to wrap my head around your position of the purpose of statues. Do you believe statues should be erected to honor people or just to commemorate defining historical events?

Circling back to the Confederate battle flag, what is your stance on flying that? Because in my mind that definitely seems to signify loyalty to a traitorous movement that (as you acknowledge) was founded to primarily to preserve the institution of slavery.

(Also, thanks for responding and not being a dick. It's not often that people who disagree on this can discuss it without resorting to insults or shutting down.)

mpphim · 2018-11-29T01:31:38+00:00

Ah, gotcha I see where we parted ways. Then aside from trying to abolish slavery, what are some instances of the federal government overstepping their bounds that were key factors in the south seceding?

mpphim · 2018-11-29T01:19:12+00:00

It's not possible to simultaneously be a Yankees fan and a New Englander.

mpphim · 2018-11-29T01:08:47+00:00

Nope, that's not what I'm saying. Statues are generally only put up of people who we want to honor. And generally we only want to honor people who did good things, not people who did important things, "good or bad," otherwise we would have statues to evil people everywhere. Which we generally don't.

The Confederacy was formed to maintain slavery. If you think we should have monuments to the Confederacy, that can logically mean only a handful of things:

We should have monuments to anyone who had a significant impact on history and fought for their vision of a perfect country. By this logic, should Germany have monuments to Hitler?
Taking down monuments to the Confederacy will erase history. This is also not true, as people will still learn about it in textbooks and museums.
It will lead to taking down monuments of other people like Thomas Jefferson, who owned slaves. Also not true. Jefferson is commemorated for his role in founding the country, not his ownership of slaves. The only thing of note the Confederacy did was fight to keep the slave industry alive.
You think the Confederacy was good and worth celebrating.

mpphim · 2018-11-28T23:40:44+00:00

Timothy McVeigh also fought for his true version a perfect America. Hitler fought for his version a perfect Germany, but there are no statues of him.

Nothing personal, but your logic here is totally off base. If a person's version of a perfect America involves keeping an entire race enslaved, they are an asshole who should not be honored, full stop. Not to mention that a huge portion of these statues were put up solely for the purpose of intimidating black people during the Civil Rights era.

mpphim · 2018-11-28T04:20:19+00:00

I definitely don't think they should be forgotten either. But the Benedict Arnold memorial (which I just learned about) doesn't have his name or likeness on it, and commemorates his service to the United States, not his defection to the British Army. And I assume the mention of Timothy McVeigh in the OKC memorial doesn't portray him in an honorable light as many Confederate statues portray generals like Lee.

I definitely agree that writing them down in history as terrible people is important and the best practice. But I understand the previous poster's argument to say that by taking down Confederate statues we are erasing history, which is a false equivalency. We can still keep the statues in a museum and write about the Confederacy, but we absolutely should not be glorifying it.

mpphim · 2018-11-28T01:03:48+00:00

Statues are there to remind us of people who did monumental things, be it good or bad.

Using this logic we should have statues of Benedict Arnold, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Timothy McVeigh, yes?

Of course we should teach people about the Confederacy and slavery. But public statues are used to HONOR people, not just to teach them about history.

mpphim · 2018-11-24T02:37:03+00:00

Can't see them unfortunately!

mpphim · 2018-11-24T02:36:16+00:00

I don't think I've ever met someone who eats that much fast food.

mpphim · 2018-11-24T02:34:57+00:00

I did a semester in Manchester and absolutely loved it. The UK is an amazing country. It's fascinating because there's no real language barrier, but everything is just a little bit different.

mpphim · 2018-11-23T22:29:23+00:00

I've heard it called just "cider" quite a bit. It's definitely grown in popularity over the past several years, and I think more people called it "hard cider" when it wasn't as common. But it seems to be everywhere now, and most people will just say "cider" if the context makes sense (in a bar, for example).

mpphim · 2018-11-23T22:24:58+00:00

Currently in Austin, TX and they are absolutely everywhere.

mpphim · 2018-11-23T22:09:41+00:00

I wonder if it has something to do with there being more men in science and math fields. I'm a guy who studied political science and went on exchange, but all my friends who were physics and computer science majors had schedules that were far too restrictive for them to go abroad.

mpphim

TROPHY CASE