I grew on barbell big lifts. Squats, Deadlifts, and bench were all ever knew. I got a kettlebell on whim just to have something indoors for days I couldn't get to the Calisthenics park. Been swinging around this 50 LB / 22 KG orb of steel and I'm feeling and seeing a lot of improvements. Swings, presses, cleans and other mobility training has been a lot more fun and interesting. Going forward I'm gonna be rocking this thing along with my calisthenics. "Functional training" is now my goal now that i'm in my 30s. I want to be able move and groove with ease for the rest of my days, and I think this kettlebell may be the key to that goal.

I have been thinking about education a lot these days. Mostly because the sharpened cleaver that is student loan debt hangs over my head at all times. I think about my experience personally as well as my younger family members and family friend’s children as many of them are graduating. I’m proud of them and most of them are actually pretty bright kids (one of them is God’s dumbest creatures but their heart is pure so they’ll be alright). I was thinking about all this technology advancement and stuff and I was just curious what would it be like if education online didn’t suck.

The hooks and fangs of the private sector are all over online education. Countless for-profit websites, applications, and services that gamify learning. Even most textbook publishers have their own online learning platforms (which are all “AI POWERED™®©” for some reason) . They vary in quality but all uniformly paywall education which could also be said of traditional higher education system but at least traditional education is built on the premise of social reproduction and social utility rather just the profit motive alone.

There also non-profits organizations that provide some education online, though to be frank the term “non-profit organizations” can be a box of vipers. Some are groups are rock solid and genuinely want to do good, others are hedge funds that help people as a side gig. I don’t know how I feel about places like Khan academy for example. I think it has probably helped a lot of students but also if that’s the goal supposedly why not just make open?

There is an existing patchwork of open/free courses universities all over the globe. all manner of courses which is of course rad as hell. There also Shadow libraries and other 🏴‍☠️Yarharr 🏴‍☠️ sites that provide substantial academic resources. There also of course tons of venerable and good hearted teachers and instructors of all fields that put their know-how on places like YouTube and share pretty freely and openly. Which is also cool and good.

I feel like online education with a more open internet type mindset would be a great way to get people to learn, or at least supplement their learning. There is so much human knowledge that is locked behind gates when it ought to just open and out there. The free exchange of information was one of the core principles of the advent of the internet and it just seems like a good fit for education. It seems like a good counter to everyone using the machine to learn for them.

I don’t know just sort of thinking out loud on the internet but what do you think? I feel like internet/online learning could be a real boon for students and people everywhere and implemented in some sort of PBS-style open not for profit way. Like a local library for everyone on the NET.

The idea of a social network website that solely meant for job seeker is not inherently a bad thing. In fact, I would imagine if done properly it would be a worthwhile tool for helping people find jobs or to find workers. However, because of the modern software as a service/big data surveillance capitalism it has become a carnival of caricatures. It is really everything wrong with the modern workplace, both big and small.

the “content” on the site has zero value, it’s literally content in the sense that it’s something there to occupy space. The websites core value almost is almost nonexistent at this point. Also the content that is there is unhinged. And I would imagine the problem has only supercharged with the advent of generative AI.

It sucks that regular people can’t just log onto a website to find job openings and or connect with other people in their industry in a normal human like way. It also really sucks that the site has sort of become the default job board. There are other sites and weird third-party applications/platforms but in general LinkedIn and it’s general mentality is the norm for looking for a job.

It’s so fuckin’ lame.

In this thread be big mad with me.

I don't have a fancy big brain moral or philosophical framework for arguing this thought, but is there any philosophical thinkers who speak on this?

For context I'm in the tech-world and I hear a lot of my peers with kids making sure their kids are always locked-in with their "Gifted kids programs" or "Advance learning" or whatever to make sure they are ready to be the "leaders of the future". Which to me is not bad inherently, as I would expect any parent who gives a damn about their children to do everything in their power to give them everything they can for their future prosperity. I ain't mad at them for that.

However, I also hear these same parents blaming the "culture" on why "kids/students/young people/XYZ group" are bad or why "[insert current boogeyman here] is way ahead of 'us'". Somewhat tangentially I think about how a lot of suffering that black people in America have suffered has been blamed on their "culture", one that was born from marginalization and lack.

I don't think it's fair to say a "culture problem" exists in black America without really examining the structural problems that exists as well. Is that because some people "make it"? Both in the black example or the student example, do people blame "culture" when there are some instances of people that do well their their personal overcoming of bad conditions?

In both of these cases I think that it's really easy to blame "The Culture™©®" rather than look at why things are as they are. I do believe in personal autonomy and choice and stuff, but I feel like this transcends this. When an issues something that's faced by the majority of people in an instance, I feel like it's no longer an issue of personal choices. The general curve of outcomes for most people are getting worse, and I don't think that is a fair argument to say it’s a “personal choice” problem

Sorry for the rambling, I'm not very concise in my writing these days. So I guess my question is "are there leftie philosophical thinkers who have commented on "culture" as a buffer to avoid crtique of the powerful?"

Tons of indie horror games to choose from, from real human dorks, artists, and weirdos not MEGACORPS. Check out and post which games you're feeling. I like the look of "PRISON OF HUSKS", "ECHOSTASIS", "Painted In Blood", and "HUNTSMEN".

• Housing
• Student Loans
• Medical Care
• Child care/The cost of children (assuming that's something you want to do not making a value judgement)
• Education
• Wages/"JOBS™©®"/"THE ECONOMY™©®"
• Inflation/Cost of Living/Value of currency
• Just the political issues we all face but are the best "hot button" issues

All that sort of stuff. I'm not minimizing stuff like Palestine of course, but I don't recall in the seemingly endless 2020-2024 election campaign. I don't really think I heard any sort of real "kitchen table issues". I feel like even the most basic political issues have been obfuscated or ignored. It feels like these very political issues have been removed from the sphere of political discourse.

I don't know what my larger point is, but it feels strange to think that for example I haven't heard a single mention of something like higher education costs for example. This isn’t just a dunk on Democrats either, though it is worth saying “get fucked losers”, but I think since about 2020 I haven’t heard a damn thing about healthcare or housing in a real political way from the big two or the media in general.

Again this isn't to meant to minimize any other real problems either, not trying to "this is more important than that", just saying I haven't political people talk about politics all the while not being able to escape the political dimension

It's a OST for a really cool cyberpunk TTRPG I played. I liked the game and the OST is great too.

It's REALLY bad on Steam, but on many online platforms (sadly even itch.io) there is so much damn shovelware. Not even "slop" something below "slop", sludge is the only word I can think of (no disrespect to Sludge Life 1 & 2, great games go play them). It clogs up online storefronts and really ruins searching games by tags.

It's really annoying that my personal favorite genre, "immersive sim" has been utterly flooded with these shovelware games. Unless I know exactly the name of a game, I cannot find anything worthwhile. Good games, small games, gems of yesteryear, all that sort of stuff is just hidden by this layer of sludge. I like to browse storefronts (digital and physical) and just check stuff out, get a feel for what's out there, but you can't do that when there is "XYZ simulator: prologue" every other item.

It fuckin' sucks. I really do think many real good games get lost in the sludge pit and have to hope that some internet video essayist/review or something discovers it by chance. I'm not saying everything is an undiscovered legend but I am saying, I can't even find games on most of these storefronts because the whole thing is flooded with effectively spam games.

(I then feel bad that these scumbags can get a game on steam and i can't even hack together a playable game jam thing, but that's a different post)

Build your strength in whatever way you may but remember to properly repair and recover. Get your rest, keep your diet on point, that you may train again and go even harder. Keep training friends, let us all become our strongest selves (in every way one can be strong).

This kind of a public self-reminder, but I just want everyone to remember that fitness is literally a journey. It may not feel like to today or tomorrow, hell not even next month, but you're going to see positive changes and improvement. I mean this in the least "hustle culture" way, but keep grinding everyone.

After doing my budgeting for the upcoming month I was pretty saddened by how little my income seems to cover these days. .

I was curious and checked the existing inflation. It's not looking good. It's insane to me that over the last four years the cost of living has gone up approximately 22%. I think four years is a good period to examine, as whenever I hear "inflation is going down actually, it's gone down 2.9% since July! We are in a "cooling" period" " those people are usually referring to like maybe six month period at best. Also shut your dork-ass up man.

I checked a couple of different sites, some newspaper, some official US Government sites, and an economics site I'm like 96% certain some evil GOP-backed SuperPAC probably funds and they all seemed to say the same thing.

I'm not an economics guy, but one thing I have a vague understanding of is stuff like the Vampires and their ghouls thought COVID-19 conditions would extend forever. I'm not exactly sure of what they did or the mechanisms behind it, but it seems uniquely bad to have everyone's paying power reduced by ~22% (that's numbers probably higher for people who already in a bad spot). I'm sure it gets worse with interest rates and other fancy economic terms and devices I don't understand.

What is a person to do? I'm not even talking about hip and cool leftists of various stripes like us who at least have a framework for understanding why this everything sucks ass, but what about regular "normal™©®" people? I don't understand how people are making it these days. People with kids or dependents, people with medical needs for themselves or loved one, or people with any real complications in life? Just regular people trying to have a decent and upright life, how they supposed to make it man? I think about my younger cousins who are graduating high school or are in college right now and I think how are supposed to even get started?

How are people supposed to survive let alone thrive, when they have 1/4 less than they did four years ago? Also they didn't have enough four years ago to be frank. I'm also sure that this was like a zillion times worse for people nations under US sanctions, as I while I'm a US citizen I don't want to think we are the only people who exists, cause that's not a very cash-money thing to do.

Like what the fuck?

I'm not on some doomer-shit, more so on that "How do i find optimism in these dire times"-shit.

I just watched "Vampire Hunter D" for the first time. It rules, I can also see its influence in a lot of other anime, scifi, and other cool nerd shit. It's really a shame I have never sat down and watched it until now. It fuckin' rips!.

I need more animated films of that era that aren't made for the selling of toys. Doesn't have to be anime but really any sort of sleeper/underrated animated films from the 80s and 90s. I need more animated cinema.