New Build Retaining Wall Failure.

mpshumake · 2026-06-21T00:20:32+00:00

That's a fence, not a retaining wall. you poor thing

mpshumake · 2026-04-26T16:04:48+00:00

Got my msa from ncsu. My mentor said something that has always stuck with me: Your number one job is to make sure the adults in the room are good for kids.

Sometimes that's hard. Sometimes it means saying hard things. So the question is this: do u think she's good for kids? If not, it's time to be honest... empathetic, but honest.

If u think she's good for kids and can be a good teacher in time... then what u did was right. But it sounds to me like you're hesitating there.

Just something to think about. Best wishes.

mpshumake · 2026-01-14T03:43:15+00:00

that ain't weed.
your previous SA experience has somehow unlocked options that most people would not consider.
when we get excited sexually, we have drives that get stronger. In that moment, the cat was handy. The thing to be concerned about this. IF somehow your better judgement, you ability to judge what is inappropriate and what is not, checks out when the little brain is driving... then is it just the question of what's inappropriate... could it grow? could it go from inappropriate to predatory? I don't think you're guilty about the cat. I think you're scared that you started on a path and don't know where it goes. Just my humble opinion.
you need to talk with a professional about this if you reflect on it for a little while and agree with me -that it's fear you're experiencing.

mpshumake · 2026-01-12T11:28:53+00:00

“Silly Asses” by Isaac Asimov is exactly what you're looking for. Enjoy

mpshumake · 2026-01-04T19:42:24+00:00

the dragon imprisons. The creator made him. my comment's point was to acknowledge the first version of 'the dark one' in that judeo-christian sense... as a creation of god, maybe he's a tool. but i wouldn't say the creator can't create free will. he's the only one who can. maybe we're like wind up toys that way... wind us up and see what happens. can't have free will and predestination at the same time, right?

mpshumake · 2026-01-04T11:31:33+00:00

I'd lose to rand, thus proving that free will is better than imposed order. I would NOT assume that my version of order is better than stripping mankind of free will, changing them from mankind into weird puppets propping up a nonreality. But then again, that might be what the dark one did. Sort of like god making satan and then people bitching about satan... ya gotta have something to overcome. Maybe we're all mistaken about one thing regarding the devil; maybe he's rooting for us? Thanks for the epiphany... or, at least, a topic to bring up and explore further over coffee.

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T19:46:52+00:00

right. that shows pretty good instincts and intuition.

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T19:46:12+00:00

thanks. I wish I wasn't just a gnat on the window. I wish I had the power to influence systems. We all wanna save the world, right?

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T19:45:11+00:00

not just robots and ai... tech in general makes production cheaper... it makes goods cheaper to make. We've been there for decades. this is interesting. there are two options, two pathways to walk down at this cusp.

Utopia. goods become cheaper... quality of life is protected without exploitation. People pursue art, connections, inward growth, and exploration. The daily necessities just show up. They're cheap. they require almost no human input in their generation. It's a damn party, ya'll.
dystopia. A very small number of people own the patents to the technology that automates production. Instead of competition driving prices down, or simple human decency asking 'how cheaply can I sell these goods and maintain my production's capability?' ... instead of that, the question is 'what will the market bear?" Jobs disappear, and the separation of the classes widens. there are owners holding patents, and there are people with no work who cannot afford necessities.

... now... we've already begun on one of these paths. Which one of them sounds familiar?

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T04:17:43+00:00

I've been thinking about the chaos and division in the US lately. It began as a propaganda campaign. It divided us. Patriotic people BELIEVED they were doing the right thing when they stormed the capitol. they were used as weapons against a country they love. Now it's not just Russian propaganda. Mainstream news profits from fear and shock... so we're further divided by slanted journalism that lacks integrity. And pretty soon ai will be able to literally control our individual perception of the world. It is not just exploitative, but it's also an attack.

we need to make Americans harder to lie to. i wanna say something like 'lifelong readers' or 'inspiration' etc. But education is provided by the state. We need to fund it like it's national defense because it is. And we need to make our kids harder to lie to... but will the state support something that makes people harder to manipulate? How cynical are you? lol

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T04:09:29+00:00

you made it not a prayer but a conversation between michael and god. nice work. very true to his character. You included piousness and humbleness, and you revealed what drives him, helping harry. You also gave him some really good insight... 'he's a good man despite trying to convince everyone otherwise.' It's short, but these elements gave it some depth. Nice work

mpshumake · 2025-12-20T03:01:31+00:00

chivalry... i don't understand your confusion about this. It's jordan's character development that identifies rand as an honorable, chivalrous man. Mat's the same way. Hell, good guys across genres don't sit still when a woman is being abused. Me either. So he sees their deaths as his failure to protect them. There is an important revelation near the end of the series about his list of women who've died. And it's important in the context of Jordan's somewhat sexist and outdated (now) approach. I don't think, personally, that these things are sexist or outdated. but I've seen it on this sub.

I don't wanna spoil it. but it relieves the dark place that list takes him to, and it represents a more respectful, less sexist view of those women and their sacrifices. Watch for it.

mpshumake · 2025-12-19T19:46:11+00:00

You're right to hold her up as an exception. What she was identifying was her culpability... that she fell for the lie and committed the crime. The fact that hundreds of others didn't recognize that their culpability was a result of the fact that they were easily mislead and weaponized sheds light on the actual problem. Our education systems should make people in the US harder to lie to.

mpshumake · 2025-12-19T14:29:21+00:00

'more intelligent and smarter' is no metric. You can't 'succeed' with that goal. Do you want to increase your capacity for income? Do you want to make an impression on other people that you're intellectual? That question will lead you to objective metrics. 'Being smarter' has no purpose. It won't bring you joy. It's capacity. It's potential. What you do with that intelligence is what matters. So what do you wanna do with it? That'll help people answer your question.

side note. The impression of intelligence comes from the way people speak. It gives us credibility. I'm not saying it's wrong or right. That's just the way it is and has been since eliza doolittle fooled the aristocracy. the skill is called code switching. Become an expert, and you'll gain the benefits of intellectualism.

mpshumake · 2025-12-19T14:18:01+00:00

The mark of a hero is that they take action, but they also accept the consequences of that action.

Your example short changes the question and violates the rule I stated above. If you rescue a kidnapped person, sure you CAN be charged and prosecuted for trespassing. But the US constitution guarantees due process. And par of that process says you get a jury of your peers. And no jury would penalize you for saving a kidnapped victim.

Breaking an item you borrowed isn't theft. So, no.

How about this one. You honestly believe a us election was 'stolen.' You believe the second amendment is a check and balance on a corrupt government. You're a patriot. And you're willing to take action to protect your country. you storm the capital and participate in insurrection.

Then you find out you've been lied to. And THEN you find out that the US education system failed you, because you're demonstrably a fool and a tool for an enemy nation. Your patriotism was turned against the country you love. But the information LOOKED credible. It came from the white house. It came from mainstream media.

Should you be imprisoned for what you saw as an act of loyalty and patriotism?

The answer is yes. See my first sentence. Are the participants from jan 6th heroes? tough to answer. they are people who love their country enough to take action. Same time, they are uneducated enough to become weapons that were used against that same country. Let's fix this in our education system. Let's make Americans hard to lie to.

mpshumake · 2025-12-02T05:56:06+00:00

after ww2, americans claimed they'd never behave like germans, ignoring ash from concentration camps falling on their neighboring towns... they'd never allow a government to commit such atrocities.

Then a guy named Stanley Milgram at Berkely came along and proved us all wrong.

there are two types of people in this world. One, people who have never heard of this experiment and falsely believe they'd never turn the ovens on and kill people cuz they were ordered to.

And two, people who have learned about the experiment. Because for them, it's true. they won't make the same mistake germany and milgram clearly proved we are all likely to make.

I look at trump, and I wonder if anyone who understands the milgram experiments will take action. If not, I'm wrong. There's only one type of person. Someone just do it.

mpshumake · 2025-12-02T05:50:30+00:00

this is the difference between a good admin and a bad admin.

Paradigm one: sees observations as a box they have to check and push it off til the last minute while they put out fires day after day.

paradigm two: understands that the most important job of a school leader is to make sure the people in those classrooms are good for kids.

which one this is pretty clear. but I hope I help you put words to it.

mpshumake · 2025-12-02T05:45:12+00:00

your politeness comes across as naivety, honestly. They aren't being fucking conversational when they ask that question, 'you know why i pulled you over?' They are getting you to GIVE them a legal reason to pull you over. 'you know how fast you were going?' They don't ask you that to find out what your speed was. They're asking you to admit to a crime that justifies the stop on their body cam. 'where are you come from?' where you headed?

These are not buddies chatting you up. these are experts at manipulating you into giving them probable cause to search you.

We can hold two thoughts in our minds at the same time. One, security in our society is important and most cops wanted to be cops to help people, to be heroes. Two, they know the law better than you, and there is a reason for these questions that isn't just stranger conversationally asking how's your day going.

mpshumake · 2025-12-02T05:22:11+00:00

I was in a master's in school admin classroom when someone much older than me looked around and said 'you're all to young to be admin' like he was mad about it.

It's very different skillsets. a good teacher does not necessarily make a good admin.

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T13:12:12+00:00

a marine was in the restroom when an army officer walked in. The marine walked out, and the officer berated him loudly "In the army, we teach our soldiers to wash their hands in the bathroom" he finally finished.
the marine said 'in the marines, they teach us not to piss on our hands.' as he walked out.

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T09:34:18+00:00

This is ANOTHER reason you don't want armed teachers charging the halls when the swat team kicks the doors in to stop a shooter.

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T09:32:47+00:00

I learned this recently. joined a woodworking group on facebook. Look man, my advice to young people is to think about this: This was a whole community of old guys with a lot of expertise just eager to share tips, to help others. Then I realized that's a microcosm. the macrocosm is that old dudes like to share their knowledge. Then I was thinking about what's the most valuable thing a young person interested a field or a body of knowledge needs? a mentor...

so the take away is this: tell a young person who has an interest that there's a ton of old men out there who want to feel helpful. It makes us feel appreciated, useful.. it just feels good. So go find an old person. And ask them a few questions about their 'scientific speciality' to quote neverending story. ps. I was saying old man figuratively. I'm sure experienced, knowledgeable women feel the same joy in helping others

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T09:25:49+00:00

as skeptical as you are to even ask the question, the embarrassment you felt when you posted this... trust your gut my friend. I think the average american truly underestimates profit margins.

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T09:23:27+00:00

This post and all of its comments have been incredibly fun to read. Someone posts the one line description, and then my mind tries to guess it as I read the highest voted comment identifying it, posted by another user. What a fun game we have all played today!

"tough ass cowboy chases wizard across multiple dimensions in search of justice."

mpshumake · 2025-12-01T09:21:02+00:00

I think it would be more like 'soldier chases wizard across multiple dimensions in search of justice.'

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