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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 29th, 2023

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  • You are absolutely correct that I’m seeing the news, and the social media posts. I don’t feel either offer an accurate representation of the candidates. The legacy media seems to be focusing on the campaigns, not the actual proposed policies of the candidates (apart of some “sky is falling” clickbaits). Social media is pure hyperbole: Trump wears makeup and his running mate an eyeliner; Harris has a weird laugh, etc.

    Within context of my voting, I make the effort to explore the parties’ previous performance, and read their election manifestos. I didn’t actually bother to find the election manifestos of the two main candidates, so I don’t feel that I’m well informed to make a good voting decision. I can go by the candidates’ previous record. When Trump was President, the sky didn’t fall, his presidency didn’t affect things in my country, just some people were better off and some worse off. When Harris was the VP, same thing applied. Much of criticism towards Trump, especially his mental capacity, can be applied to the current Biden presidency, and I somehow fail to see anything catastrophic happening.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some fundamental differences between the proposed policies of Trump and Harris. However, I can’t see them when casually perusing both legacy news and social media. Or, better to say, I don’t feel I can trust either. To get an accurate picture, I’d need to do proper research, and I can’t be arsed with that. I don’t think either candidate’s win will affect me significantly enough to force me to do my research and campaign on-line for one or the other.


  • Believe it or not, but the US is not the centre of the universe. I genuinely have no idea what policies either candidate is proposing, and the occasional descriptions such as “literal Nazi” or “real Antichrist” aren’t really informative. I’m much more interested in which of my local parties would most likely decrease housimg prices, build better public transport infrastructure or finance more equitable social welfare support. Neither US candidate will have any effect on those, apart from perhaps a few more American immigrants on our shores. So, I really don’t feel competent to speak about American politics, and I doubt Greta is any more competent. It would be an insult to Americans to presume that they need foreigners to tell them how to vote.









  • There is currently a tiny bit of uproar over at r/irelandshittydrivers. A user took a photo of a work van that blocked two disabled spots. He sent the photo via Whatsapp to the company, which responded in a batshit crazy manner (for some reason, escalated it to praising Osama for 9/11). Naturally, the user posted the photo and the conversation to Reddit. Within a few hours, the company contacted Reddit and had the post removed. If a company with perhaps three customers per week can do it, what do you think large companies can do? Censoring user posts would be only the tip of the iceberg.


  • Posted on r/KotakuInAction by any chance? I usually run into this kind of complaints because of that sub.

    My personal take is that subs that ban people just for posting on other subs are actively perpetuating their little opinion bubbles. They are essentially creating little virtual prisons for their members, and most of them are actually happy about that, which in turn tells all I need to know about those members’ intellectual laziness. To twist around Groucho Marx’ quote, I would refuse to join a sub that rejected me for posting elsewhere.









  • A bit late to the game, but for what it’s worth, my experience with the Shockz. I run about 6-7 hours per week, and listen exclusively to audiobooks. As a result, I can’t comment on the sound quality, but I do have some other observations.

    Pros:

    • Waterproof. I’ve been running for more than a decade before I got the Shockz, and no earphones lasted more than 6 months in the local rain. No such issue with these headphones.
    • Not falling off. By their design, they would not fall off, unlike any and all earbuds I ever tried. I may have weird ears in this regard, but I had to learn to run with a hat or headband to keep earbuds in place.
    • Spatial awareness. Excellent at keeping me aware of my surroundings.
    • Good battery life. A single charge lasts me through the week, and a quick partial emergency charge can carry me over the next 2-hour run. In addition, the “battery low” status actually works well. With any other brand of earbuds, from Mpow to Anker, once I got the “battery low” warning, I had about 20 minutes of charge left. So, going for a long run at “battery medium” was always a gamble. With the Shockz, I never ran out of charge when I started at “battery medium”, even on my long runs.

    Cons:

    • Not too comfortable. I have a big head, and even so the band behind my head is standing off enough that I can’t wear my hat over it. So, in winter it’s earbuds, held in place and waterproofed by my hat.
    • A bit too quiet. Everything, including the persistent wind here, is interfering with the sound. So, for audiobooks, I have to process them in mp3gain to around 95 dB, and then play them at max. This, however, may be more related to my mp3 player; I didn’t do an analysis of it yet.
    • The controls are weird. My sense of touch is not too good, so pressing the controls while the Shockz are on my head is a futile exercise. I just can’t feel the buttons properly, so I have to take off the headphones and see which button I’m pushing.

    I didn’t test them with music or calls yet (for the latter, I’d have to pair them to my phone), so can’t comment on those features.