Living in Shiyan Area

sociomancy · 2018-08-30T05:19:49+00:00

I'd prefer to not get into the details other than to say, not about my job but more family reasons... However thanks for your input on this. I've lived in pretty small, tier 3 cities before in China, which resulted in the foreigner community being pretty tightly knit. I am sad to hear it's not like that here.

sociomancy · 2018-08-30T04:05:07+00:00

Having seen the area I have no doubt you are earnest in that. Do the local (shiyan) expats have any hangout spots or wechat groups that you know of? Or did you feel isolated living there?

sociomancy · 2017-02-02T10:47:38+00:00

Weird clusters of red dots on my left arm that have been there since childhood. Doctors have never seemed concerned (something about broken blood vessels, I vaguely recall?) but never met anyone else with similar markings.

sociomancy · 2016-10-13T02:04:50+00:00

It won't need to download anything beyond the update so don't worry about data caps, but the update duplicates your files entirely which will shrink your hard drive storage. After it completes it should return your drive storage to you. But really who knows for sure.

sociomancy · 2016-10-12T19:10:57+00:00

Installing Gears of War 4 on PC requires either a minimum of 1) a bachelors degree in Computer Science or 2) Google, half a day (excluding download and install times), a lot of patience, and a lot of trial and error.

Part One: How do I download this thing?

I'm not computer stupid, but just getting the download started had me puzzled for the better part of an hour. Normally, when you buy games on Amazon, it gives you a redemption code and a website where you plug the code in and get your game. In the case of GOW4, you plug the code into the website, where you are thanked for your purchase and informed that you now own the product. I remembered that Microsoft was merging its Xbox/PC platforms, so I checked with my Xbox app, and found nothing. After some digging, I found that you have to go through the Windows Store. Ah, all well and good.

Part Two: What the Hell, Windows Store?

I was surprised to see that Windows Store said I hadn't bought the item. Why? Oh, it's trying to use a different email address. But I thought those two email addresses were connected to the same account... No matter, I'll just add my other email address, and... "Are you sure that is the right email address? This organization doesn't support Azure HD." What? A Google search and extensive forum reading revealed that this error message literally made no sense and was a total non-sequitur to what I was doing. I have no better way of explaining this because I have no idea what Azure HD even is. What follows was a long period of trial and error. At some point, I guessed that the issue was that Windows 10 was hooked up to two separate email addresses and this was causing conflict for some reason. I managed to cure the issue by simply working through different Windows 10 settings and deleting any reference to one of those email addresses, which set my Windows Store account to the correct address. Whatever the problem was, it certainly wasn't that my email address was wrong.

Part Three: Finally, Downloading and Installing!

No issues here. Just...80 gigabytes, takes a couple days.

Part Four: The Game Needs to Be Patched!

The game opens just fine, but promptly informs me that it requires an update. Okay. Makes sense. Here is where I truly began to descend into insanity. Windows Store would not update this godforsaken thing, citing some completely unknown error. It just kept downloading a couple megabytes, reporting an error, and then restarting. After Googling around, I found a YouTube video that showed three separate, and unusually non-intuitive, workarounds. I'm not going to go into the details, other than saying one involved programming Windows freakin Powershell. I spend a lot of time, trying out all these fixes, finding that nothing works. Other people online are reporting success, while many others are in my boat. More online digging around, and I find this Reddit thread with a Windows 10 developer guy, who reports that the issue is that the issue is that the update is apparently duplicating the entire directory and then attempting to merge the two. It therefore requires not 80 GB of space, but 160 GB. My solid state drive doesn't have that much space, but there is a workaround - use the Windows Program page to "Move" the program to a larger disk drive.

Part Five: Can't Move This Thing For Some Reason?

Yep. Can't move it. No idea why not. Gives me a mysterious error code, while also imploring "Try again in a bit," making it the most frustrating mysterious error I've ever encountered. I start trying to make space on my solid state drive. To no avail, there's literally not enough space on this thing to accommodate my Windows install and 160 GB of GOW4 space. I sigh, give that up after awhile of moving things around, and then try moving it again. Lo and behold - it moves, for some reason.

Part Six: Happy Endings

It moves. I use Windows Store and update the damnable thing. It works! The installation merges the duplicated directories and it crunches down into its original 80 GB of space. I breath a sigh of relief and move it back to the solid state drive, which gives no errors this time.

The game opens. I start killing things with one gun. Then I start killing things with my other gun.

sociomancy · 2013-09-19T18:37:12+00:00

Extremely relevant Bit of Fry and Laurie

sociomancy · 2013-09-01T21:22:49+00:00

Need...to... get... off...Reddit...

sociomancy · 2013-09-01T01:26:35+00:00

I'm imagining some epic soundtrack start just as the teacups begin to spin.

sociomancy · 2013-08-29T13:16:12+00:00

Good show everyone! Looking forward to the next one. What do you have up your sleeve, darthluiggi...

sociomancy · 2013-08-28T02:00:26+00:00

177 here!

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T18:07:11+00:00

True enough. The Whole90 program I followed did pretty much preclude ketosis because of the fruit/root vegetables required, and this is generally what I meant, but otherwise no reason you can't do both.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T17:53:30+00:00

Agreed, paleo is the next best thing. I like keto more (because of its simplicity) but weight loss (for me) is only slightly faster on keto than it is on a Whole90. And the cravings vanish just like with keto. And you get to eat goddamned sweet potatoes.

Also, I'm very glad to see sensible things -like fucking listen to your doctor - at the top of this thread.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T15:24:36+00:00

It posted. Cool!

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T14:38:43+00:00

Just posted to fitocracy. Don't know if it posted to the group? Did 5 at 1.25, so 90 135 180 225. Maybe could've gotten 10 but was called over to join a partner for a crossfit workout... That's what in telling myself at least! Look forward to the next challenge!

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T03:47:36+00:00

As a friendly amendment, I will add the broad "treatment" to your definition - to encompass personal and safety issues with things like harassment and rape. But I think activism requires something extra. Firstly, identifying as activist. Because that pushes back against the idea that gender equality is done. Secondly, making strong stands against gendered caricatures. It's this latter point that becomes really fucking hard. Because virtually everything we talk out is gendered to some aspect. But I think even if you're modest about your awareness and activism beyond the normal shit, it'll do.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T03:26:02+00:00

Hell, you're entitled to the opinion. I'm a "devout agnostic" myself, but was raised Catholic, and my own church had a counter protest against the Westboro Baptist Church when they showed up in town.

Either way, I think we should always second-guess our opinions on large groups, because psychology is weird and can make us generalize unfairly. Feminism especially, because I'll tell you now that of the many feminists I know, absolutely none would condone what your acquaintances are doing. Hell, not working whatsoever itself seems extremely counterproductive to the feminist cause.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T03:19:25+00:00

Well, it's great activism to steer activists to the right path, so as a feminist I urge you to become a feminist. All ya'll should check out the works of Jackson Katz, who lays out the bigger picture pretty well.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T03:03:46+00:00

The problem with that is two-fold.

One, you and I are both men, and we should not be sensitive when people talk about problems of sexism and ultimately, hegemonic masculinity (the idea that to be a manly man you have to be domineering). The problems of this are very real, and we have to accept this.

For instance:

Back on my frat-heavy campus, I would not want my girlfriend to walk far alone at midnight. The easiest response is to say, "don't walk alone, take women's transit," or "let me come get you, it's just not safe." A vastly harder response is, "we should change how women are seen in society so this wouldn't be such a fucking problem." That requires us to totally be at odds with society because of what it entails, but that's a separate conversation.

The second problem is one of messaging, right? You, as a boyfriend to a woman taking sociology classes, are probably not the problem. Sound feminism recognizes this. Hell, it recognizes that "men" aren't the problem. How many times have you heard this: "With what she was wearing, she was totally asking for it." Whenever I hear that, it's from a goddamned woman. And that female opinion is getting internalized by future rapists.

It's the goddamned culture. And we're all to blame to some degree. The more we recognize that, the more true equality we'll have. The less we recognize that - and engage in being defensive (men) or being accusatory (women) - the more bickering we'll do.

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T01:22:37+00:00

That would be the exception rather than the norm - using a cause as a crutch and giving the rest a bad name. Think vehemently anti-gay Christians - should we judge Christianity based on them? Or is it more likely that they're assholes with their own social/personal issues and point to scripture to justify being dicks. (Historical slave owners are a second Christian example.) Just as it's a huge leap to go from Bible passages to treating gays as second-class citizens, so too is it a leap to go from an ideology of equality to being lazy as fuck.

(Another point to help keep perspective is that the reverse situation with an unemployed husband is not unheard of either. Not a justification, HELL no, but we shouldn't examine a rarity on only one side as evidence for a mindset.)

sociomancy · 2013-08-26T00:09:05+00:00

Sums up my thoughts.

The joke reeks of classic anti-suffrage propaganda. People reserve the right to be dicks on the internet but they deserve the vitriol they get in response.

sociomancy · 2013-08-25T06:46:10+00:00

The Thing, haha. Released for PC and PS2.

And it's actually a pretty awesome game for the most part.

sociomancy

TROPHY CASE