100% on the not forcing yourself on anything in a PhD. I was ABD and my heart wasn’t in it anymore. The whole thing was a disaster, committee was unreachable, department was no help, and by the time I was done, I hated myself for ever doing it. It was an exercise in completion. Absolutely be open to saying “this isn’t fun anymore.” There is zero problem with just getting a masters — in fact, I think you get the most value out of one because it’s a concentrated experience on what you want to do. There’s a stigma on “mastering out” but that’s crap. Know your limits and stop while you still love what you’re doing. I wish you the best in returning to school!

It’s like Ben Dreyfuss minus the ambien in there.

I don’t know if it’s “weirdly” relaxing given how chill it’s supposed to be, but Joe Pera Talks With You is perfect.

It’s not so much that they don’t give a damn, but that they can’t tell. I taught some basic English courses with a research component (most students in their first college semester), and I’d drag them to the library each semester for a boring day on how to generate topics, how to discern scholarly sources, then use databases like EBSCO or JSTOR to find articles to support arguments in the essays they’d be writing for the next couple years. Inevitably, I’d get back papers with so-and-so’s blog cited, PraegerU, Wikipedia, or Google’s own search results. Here’s where a lot of the problem lies: discerning sources, and knowing how to use syntax in searches, which is itself becoming irrelevant on Google etc. but NOT academic databases. So why take the time to give the “and” and “or” and “after: 1980” and “type: peer-reviewed” when you can just write a natural-language question into a search engine and get an answer right away that seems legit in the snippet? I’d argue the tech is the problem because it encourages a certain type of inquiry and quick answers that are plausible, but more often than not, lacking in any credibility.

US, had Verizon for $170/mo (2 lines) with a lot of extras on an “unlimited” plan they’re actively trying to kick people off of. Switched to Visible (aka different flavored Verizon) on a discount for $35 per line (normally $45) for up to two years, basically the same unlimited phone plan but no extras. The only benefit for the extras was locking in a price on subscription services until Verizon started monthly surcharges to keep up.

Second 2FAS, at least on iOS devices. I switched from Authy after Twilio got motherfucked the first time.

*microplastics

“Hand us your money and us MBAs promise it’ll eventually get somewhere safe” is not reassuring even before the lie.

Streets of Rage theme starts playing

Approximately 36 hours. Got on a serious roll with some friends to beat Super Mario World 3, realized when we finished that it was about 4:30am, just went with it. I ended the day after throwing up a shrimp burrito from Taco Del Mar when the guy behind the counter misheard “shredded beef” and I had already got home (I don’t eat seafood, so it was already tough to get down). Never again.

You need to take a risk on some level, which probably isn’t what you want to hear, but other commenters have said as much. I think that even worse than a solid “no” is just not doing anything and getting up in your head about the what-ifs, and missing an opportunity entirely.

Collards. I only recently discovered them as a transplant to the southern part of the country, and I love making them because they’re phenomenally tasty. Plus you can justify that they’re dark leafy greens (never mind the gratuitous pork fat).

Yeah, I just got the TestFlight access to Loops and it’s janky. A useable web UI would go a long way.

A sestina based on the rules is, formally speaking, easy. Ask me to write one that will be studied after centuries, and you’re asking for Petrarch.

This is a good explanation because it gets at the source. L. Ron was a failed Freudian and had some mental issues of his own, he lashed out at the psychiatry community, and built this whole thing out of a hatred for what (rightfully) rejected him. He just happened to write shitty sci-fi, so he channeled that into pseudo-psychiatry (Dianetics). There’s a reason those e-meters exist: bullshit stress response devices to measure “clearing” certain negative thoughts. They don’t actually work, but that’s the principle: you have a “auditing session,” and let’s say you get asked about your propensity for lying in a certain situation. E-meter response is measured until you’re no longer stressed by the thing you were asked about (according to the meter), you pay them absurd amounts of money, they now have dirt on you in case you try to leave, etc. This is its core, reductively. Anti-psychiatry money mill.

Always liked Power Pete, and if you don’t have vertigo, the Descent series.

Nobody’s mentioned the sensory overload that is Buc-ee’s yet?

I’ve had good results with the cushionlab car-specific one. I know they make a regular one, but the car seat shape works great on the particular mesh chair I have for some reason. Getting out for an occasional walk helps a lot too, even 10 minutes.

I was offered $21/hr to remote work at some google outsourced company for one of their LLM projects. It was going to be grueling work, full-time, no benefits. It took about 120 applications (two responses) to even get there, and they ghosted me after a second interview. It’s awful out there and I feel for you 100%. Best of luck, genuinely.

Tradition dear boy