Bags

It's ironic that I have an anecdote that I recently read that feels very fitting here.

Permutation City by Greg Egan. Post-human digital consciousness via uploaded brain-scan becomes possible, and there are interesting questions about how the "sense of self" is derived, and how much someone can change themselves before they are no longer the same person. There are many different characters that deal with a newfound immortality in different ways, and either embrace, or shun, the ability to change themselves at a whim to fit their needs or wants. It's a very prominent part of the overall plot and is prevalent right up until the last sentence.

Also, separate from that, I have the exact opposite feeling as OP. When I'm reading a book, I feel like my world is expanded in new directions. I tend to see certain things from slightly different perspectives in the context of what I'm reading. I've been reading Greg Egan's entire body of work (after reading Diaspora and absolutely fucking loving it), and some insight and thoughts I had about the book Quarantine actually pushed me to make positive changes in my life that have been really hugely impactful, and I don't think I would have had the courage or drive to make them had I not been thinking about my life in such an abstract manner.

While I haven't seen him the most times, I am unequivocally a massive Dev-head. I've seen Devin Townsend 3 times (4 if you count the virtual concert during lockdown in 2020), but one of them was to travel from the USA to the Netherlands this March to see the one-time live performance of The Moth (I was right in the second row, I get a lot of peripheral screen-time in the live-stream). It was such an amazing experience, I'm going to count that as 10 or 20 normal concerts. I probably also haven't cried that many happy tears in at least a decade or two. It was also my first time ever leaving the USA, and I really REALLY didn't want to go home. I'd have happily lived the rest of my life on the Dutch train network.

I've been meaning to get to one of their shows, but just never had the chance, or always learned about it right after it happened.

I really wish Грай (Grai) would tour somewhere in North America...

I had never heard of Thank You Scientist before, but they were opening for one of the bands that I really like to go see live (Rivers of Nihil, seen them 5 times so far). HOLY SHIT they are so good. I have no idea how they ended up as the opener for that show, they're so different from the other bands on the setlist, but I am very glad I got to see them.

I saw Tesseract recently when I went to see Devin Townsend, that was an amazing show.

FxTec Pro1 X... As someone who has spent years searching for a modern-ish phone with a Qwerty keyboard... How has this flown under my radar for 5 years?!?

I've completely rethought my phone situation recently and it wouldn't really fit my lifestyle, but man I am still tempted to keep my eyes out for a cheap one.

You're not going to get an argument out of me lol. I had a Reddit account for over a decade. I was addicted to the karma system of Reddit, it was seriously negatively impacting my life. I finally deleted my account and moved here recently, it's been one of the better changes I've made in my life. You can completely hide post scores here, and the communities are smaller and less active which drives a more genuine engagement vs the hot-take one-liners, memes, and low-effort post replies.

Reddit can burn to the ground and cease to exist for all I care. It's become so big and full of hate and misinformation.

My legitimate advice is just... don't go back and save yourself the headache.

The karma itself is the gamification that increases engagement.

The gated subs, karma limits, etc. are there to cut down on spam, low-effort content, brigading, etc. in large communities to keep the engaged users more engaged so hopefully they spend a few more dollars on silly updoot awards.

It's all supply and demand, profit-driven decisions. If a feature like karma limits alienates a small number of users, it is still worth it if it retains and engages with more high-value users who invest money in the platform with their ad viewership and direct purchases.

Saturday I am going to voice my displeasure at the government in multiple locations, then hit up a concert in the evening (The Fall of Troy and Closure in Moscow, very excited to finally see Closure in Moscow live!).

Sunday morning I have to get up supremely early, like 4:30am, to pack my car and head to a tech flea market at MIT to hopefully sell some of my superfluous junk... Then maybe I'll take a nap lol, I don't expect to get home from the concert until Sunday morning... so then only getting a couple hours of sleep is going to be brutal.

Last year, one of my friends' parents were driving a decent way (around 12 hours) to spend a week in our area around 4th of July. They brought their 3 gallon Berkey with them. It was so big, I initially scoffed, like "That must have taken up so much room in the car!"

I very quickly understood why they brought it. That was the best damn water I have ever tasted. And I'm normally a big water person, straight from the tap for life, I mostly prefer water over other beverages, but this water... Idk, maybe they put some kind of undetectable addiction agent in their filters.

On the opposite end of the size spectrum, I bought a Boox Palma (smartphone-sized) a little over a year ago, and $300 felt like a lot for a small e-reader... I had originally bought it as a "companion" device to my dumb-phone, since it runs Android and has google play services, but I found that even that small single layer of friction to use smart-apps (starting up hotspot on my phone, taking out the Palma, disabling airplane mode) made it extremely easy to just quit cold turkey, and I have pretty much only read on it.

I have found that I read SO much more at this form factor. I slip it in my pocket and take it with me when I go for aimless walks around town, to the cafe in the mornings on the weekend, to work every day to read during lunch... I never took my Kindle Oasis nearly that many places, as it necessitated some kind of bag to hold it. Definitely worth it, even if I am only utilizing like 10% of its "features".

I also spent $350 on a pair of Maui Jim sunglasses last summer before a trip to Hawaii, and I can honestly say that even though I was initially sickened by the price, I do not regret it one bit, and I still love them. They're so much better than any random $100 pair I've had in the past. It was one of those things where I walked into a store last minute and very uninformed to try and find a new pair because I extremely inconveniently broke my only good pair 2 weeks before the trip and the company didn't repair them or sell spare lenses. Picked up a pair of MJ's without knowing how much they cost, put them on, absolutely LOVED them, then saw the price and was like "well fuck... I really want these", waffled it over for a week and 3 days, then rushed back to the store the day before my flight and bought them)

Costco bought RAC in a stunning buyout in 2437 after Costco's CEO Harambe Memelord Disney Jr. offered RAC's CEO Squiggy John John John John Johnson a 2-for 1 deluxe latte coupon and an extra big-ass fry.

As someone who doesn't quite care for sweet things, I've always been a big fan of unsweetened peanut butter. At least in my area, the Teddie brand is surprisingly affordable compared to the other "specialty" peanut butters with no stabilizers/sugar, it's just peanuts and salt (and you can get unsalted, too)