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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 3rd, 2023

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  • I think some people are bad at reading through no real fault of their own. Then they feel, consciously or subconsciously, embarrassed and angry when they try.

    I also think a lot about a woman I knew that was like “analysis is stupid. Sometimes a story is just a story!”, and that was very strange to me. I asked some more questions, and she said she hated how in school they were always reading and being told to find the secret meaning. I was like, your education failed you. The game isn’t find the meaning. The game is finding a meaning you can support in the text.

    Like, Dracula can just be a book about a dude that bites people. But you can also look at it and be like “hmm so these women abandon their ‘motherly’ duties of raising children and staying in the home, and the only way to ‘fix’ them is for some men to hold her down and penetrate her with a big piece of wood? Hmmm”

    But, also, you don’t have to think hard about everything you read. You don’t analyze every TV show, even though you could.


  • Other people already gave most of the answers, but

    Parks. Go for a walk. Play a game with folks (Frisbee, soccer, whatever). Ride a bike. Read.

    Meetups. I go to a tabletop RPG one. That’s not unique to cities, but I can walk to this one and there are probably more people attending than you’d find in a less populous area. I also used to go to a basic neighborhood hangout one. There are many others.

    The library is free. Many books and other media to enjoy.

    This city has beaches. It’s $3 for the subway ride there , or if I was really broke I could ride a bike.

    There are free museums. I don’t go that often but they’re interesting.

    But also

    And to make it worse many of them probably have a 1 bedroom apartment so its not like you can sit in there all day long (at least i cant).

    I realize im still spending money by being in my house out of town, but still, at least things I buy are owned by me, and im not paying someone else every time I want to do anything. If I want to stay at home all day I have tons of stuff to occupy my mind without going nuts.

    I don’t think I accept this premise. I stay home in my one bedroom without any more trouble than when I lived in the suburbs. A computer full of games doesn’t need a lot of rooms. I have plenty of entertainment here. I don’t see what’s stifling about a one bedroom. Maybe a tiny studio I could see. But even so, when I lived in a whole house it’s not like I went skipping from room to room.









  • I’ve known 3 philosophy majors that I know of.

    One had a PhD and was absolutely insufferable. We were coworkers, and he’d often say falsehoods to try to be funny. Like, “Did you write that documentation I asked for?”, and he’d say like “I spent all morning writing it as a series of haikus”. I’m like, my guy, just answer the question. I’d ask him to stop being sarcastic so often in professional contexts and he’d be like “I’m not being sarcastic I’m being ironic.” You knew what I meant, Ryan!

    He would also use language to say things that were tEcHnIcAlLy true. Like, “I finished that task (or 1 equals 1)”, except he had more subtle ones.

    Was it because he was a philosophy PhD? Probably not. Some of his annoying habits he tied back to philosophy stuff, but he was probably just an asshole. But that’s who I think of (other than chidi)

    The other one I knew was fine in a messy nihilist rich kid way. Fun at parties. Can’t be friends.

    And the last one is one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Just thoughtful and patient and a really positive person.