More on Education and Also Nut Butter For Some Reason
This and also the education system is designed to prepare you for the workforce e.g. telling you you need to do things that are not enjoyable and often pointless in order to be a proper participant in the system.
I’m awake for ~112 hours a week, and I spend 40 of those at a job that does nothing to enrich my life or help me grow as a person. And some (most?) people spend even more, be it through working multiple jobs, having obnoxiously long commutes, or (often unpaid) overtime.
Which is to say adults are also people and a lot of us hate the single most time-consuming thing in our life, and maybe that should also change, and maybe the two (education and economy) are inextricably linked, and maybe I’m going to keep pointing this out until I die.
Also maybe it’s late and I really don’t want to go to work tomorrow but have a deeply-instilled sense of obligation to do so for SOME REASON and I’m feeling salty about it.
Also maybe the cashew nut butter I bought is too salty? I don’t know, it’s got less salt than the peanut butter I had been using but when I put it in my oatmeal I swear I could only taste salt and nothing else. Maybe ’cause the pb is no-stir and the cashew butter isn’t?
If any food scientists wanna weigh in feel free. Not concerned about nutrition just trying to switch it up because I use pb regularly in another meal and I figured why have pb twice a day 3 times a week when I could use something else?
Mixed nut butter works great but they were out last week, thus the cashew, which I didn’t even think to check whether it was salted let alone whether there was an unsalted option. Now I gotta figure out how to use the rest of this jar ’cause it’s not going in my oatmeal.
is there a metaphor here about salt and capitalism y/n vote below
Originally tweeted by me (@noplotr) on Dec 2, 2021.
Star Trek: Mimesis (this is more about Doctor Who but that pun was too good to pass up)
Just realized that the reason why Star Trek: Discovery and Doctor Who both came up with similar premises for their most recent seasons is because the Anomaly (Discovery) and the Flux (Doctor Who) are both metaphors for the pandemic.
Weirdly [EDIT: I don’t know why I said weirdly, it definitely isn’t weird] thus far (granted, I’m a couple episodes behind on Disco) Doctor Who has actually had the more cynical take. Those in power created the Flux for their own ends and wrote off the Universe as a necessary casualty; meanwhile the doomed survivors fight over the scraps.
Also because this is a sci-fi show working with metaphor, it leads to the insane line “National Health Service be damned, UNIT is the project for which the public will be grateful,” which you really have to hear spoken by a posh military buffoon to get the full effect.
[Addendum after actually finishing the season:]
Doctor Who: Flux is pretty terrible but it’s even worse when you read it as a pandemic metaphor.
Like, they achieve herd immunity by sacrificing the “undesirables” which is…not great? And they play it as a victory even though like half the universe was still anti-mattered?
Next season will be called Doctor Who: Back to Brunch.
Originally tweeted by me (@noplotr) on Jan 9, 2022.
This One’s Just Nerdy, no Politics at All (I Promise)
So I liked the Doctor Who New Years special but all of the durations should have been multiplied by at least 2, because you said you only had until 11:56 to save someone at the end of a 2-minute conversation that started at 11:55.
And another: Could you run up 5 flights of stairs, down a hallway, grab a bunch of heavy canisters, and then run all the way back down again in 2 minutes? Probably not, but you sure as hell can’t do it in 1.
The loop getting shorter each time works great as a plot device but there is zero attempt made to conform the action to that constraint, and given that that’s the Whole Thing I don’t think I’m even being particularly nitpicky.
It’s a shame because I love time-loop episodes and this one does actually do some fun stuff with the genre, like having all of the characters be aware of the loop pretty much from the first repeat, rather than the just the 1 person, as is traditional.
And the loop shrinking is a cool idea that could have instilled a sense of urgency in and of itself, but if you insist on it coming down to literally the last minute then you’re just setting yourself up for failure.
Also, they said they wouldn’t have any Daleks for the first season of Whitaker’s run, and then ended that season with an admittedly pretty good Dalek special, which they then repeated the next year except that one stunk, and now it’s another year and another Dalek special.
At least this one wasn’t really about the Daleks. Although maybe it should’ve been? Because in the previous episode the entire Dalek “War Fleet” got wiped out by the Flux, but there are still Daleks. And I feel like that needs to [be] explained.
Like, what do Daleks do that aren’t part of the War Fleet? Are the Daleks that attacked in this episode like, regular civilian Daleks who got drafted into military service because the rest of the military got blowed up?
But also, the whole thing was that the Daleks were going to be protected from the Flux (until the Sontarans betrayed them), but only at that point in space(time?), so was the Dalek military basically content with the (heretofore unknown) rest of Dalek society being destroyed?
Basically I want an episode about the civilian Daleks (indeed, one might say the workers) realizing that their leaders don’t actually care about their wellbeing and that they have all the power now. Perhaps they might…generally…refuse to work…or something.
Also by containing the Flux (in part by sacrificing the Dalek War Fleet in what was apparently not an act of genocide but maybe [definitely] a war crime?) The Doctor actually saved all of the non-War Fleet Daleks, so now the People’s Republic of Daleks declare The Doctor a hero and—
Sorry, I’m being told by someone at the BBC that it’s just a fun space show and I should go have a lie down.
Originally tweeted by me (@noplotr) on Jan 14, 2022.
Carrots Are More Edible, and Better For Your Eyesight
Oh No, I Guess I Agree with the Supreme Court Now: A Thread
I feel like a lot of vaccinated people are uncritically in favor of vaccine mandates because it will make their lives easier, not necessarily because it’s actually what’s best for everyone. And I get it, I used to be that way with things like guns and smoking.
But “I don’t like it so let’s just make it illegal” is probably not the best stance to take. That’s not to say never make anything illegal (…or is it?) but consider that if you’re trying to make people’s lives better, you might try…making people’s lives better.
The really hard part is that this applies even to people you might not like. It’s easy to see, e.g., how Jeffrey Katzenberg urging LA to ban camping in all of the places where J Katz hangs out is gross and bad, because we feel bad for houseless people and he’s a rich tool.
But when the people who are the potential objects of the punitive action are people we don’t feel bad for (in this case the willingly-unvaccinated*) and the people looking to gain from the punitive action are, well, us, it’s harder to see the potential cruelty.
*We would presumably feel bad for those with medical reasons if we ever bothered to remember they exist.
As far as I can tell the vaccine mandate would not have required employers to give time off (paid or not) for the purposes of receiving or recovering from vaccination (nor did I see any language about exemptions for those with medical reasons not to take the vaccine).
& maybe rewarding people for getting vaccinated is better than punishing them for not? ‘Cause it’s the unvaccinated who are already at higher risk? & making them unemployed or increasing the cost of their health insurance (which we’ve already seen businesses do) is not helpful?
And in the abstract I don’t think “doing good is gooder than doing bad” is a particularly radical philosophy. We just tend to not want to do good for people who aren’t in our group, even if it also benefits us. We’re real pricks that way.
tl;dr, humans are naturally vindictive assholes, but maybe don’t codify that in law. Also get vaccinated—I’ll give you a dollar or do a favor for you of equal or lesser value. Available while supplies last.
p.s. my company instituted a vaccine mandate after most of the employees were already vaccinated. I don’t know if anyone got vaccinated because of the mandate, though language in emails sent by the company would suggest that there are still some people who are not.
Also while the company does say they “expect employees” to schedule vaccinations for their days off, any absences due to vaccination appointments or recovery will be excused. So that’s something.
Originally tweeted by me (@noplotr) on Jan 14, 2022.
Play Has No Limits Except Those That The Invisible Hand of the Market Has Put in Place
In case you didn’t know, Sony’s process for selling PS5s is kind of terrible and so is everything else: a thread
Just so that we all have the same baseline knowledge: due to “supply shortages,” a lot of people who want a PS5 still don’t have one, even though it’s been over a year since it first launched. Again, this has nothing to do with cost, just availability.
So several months ago, my co-worker was like “Hey, I just got a PS5, apparently they’re giving Playstation Plus subscribers a chance to buy one.” And I was like, “Cool, I’m a Playstation Plus subscriber, I guess I’ll get me a PS5 soon.”
A month or two goes by, nothing. Then my other co-worker is like, “Hey, I just got a PS5,” and I’m like, “Is it ’cause you’re a PS+ subscriber” and they’re like “No, it’s because I signed up on the website,” and I’m like “you did what where?”
Apparently on Playstation dot com (which, it turns out, is different than the Playstation Store) you could sign up to be added to a drawing to get an invitation to buy a PS5. “I got the email in 15 minutes” says my co-worker. So naturally I went and signed up.
Cut to 2 months later, yesterday, I finally get the email…telling me that tomorrow (today) I could click a link between 11 am and 4 pm and be taken to a place to buy a PS5. Well, Tuesday is a workday, but I usually take my morning break at around 11:30, so that should be fine.
And I want to be clear here, the email lists the process as:
– Wait until the window opens
– Click link
– Sign in
– Buy PS5
And surely if they slate the event for 11-4, they’re not expecting it to be done by 11:30?
So I click the link at 11:30 this morning…and get told that I need to join a queue, and that I might be able to buy a PS5 in about 40 minutes.
Well, that’s a little frustrating as my break is only 10 minutes long, but I figure what the hey, I’ll take an early lunch or a long bathroom break, it’ll be fine.
Check my phone 40 minutes later and:
Let’s just take a second to appreciate them calling me a “loyal customer” while literally refusing my custom, and also putting the “Play Has No Limits” tagline at the top of a page informing me that the limit on who would get to play had been reached.
(Indeed, even if I had gotten in, there were limits on how many consoles I could get (1), and I think how many of specific accessories I could get.)
And to be clear, I’m not that mad about not getting a PS5 today. I’ll get one eventually, I’ve got plenty of video games, it’s fine. [EDIT: Horizon Forbidden West is out and is apparently amazing, so now I’m a little mad.][EDIT EDIT: But not nearly as mad as I was after playing Horizon Forbidden West.] What bothers me is how pointlessly opaque and infuriating this process was, and how utterly shameless they are about it.
And the fact that I had to sign up to maybe be selected to maybe have the opportunity to maybe give a company my money in exchange for the thing they sell. Never has anyone made it so hard for me to spend money on their product.
Anyway, ever think about how it’s kind of weird that we live in a society where the primary purpose of most private entities who provide goods and/or services is not, in fact, to provide goods and/or services? Seems pretty weird.
The point of Sony isn’t to sell Playstations or Walkmen or Sountinas, it’s to sell anything so long as it’s profitable. So if you’re someone relying on them to provide you with one of those products, and they decide doing so won’t be profitable, then sucks to be you.
And yes, video game consoles are a luxury item and not being able to buy one might not immediately strike you as a damning indictment of our economic system. But it goes deeper than that.
For example, are there rat turds in your cereal? Kellogg’s doesn’t care, they don’t exist to make cereal, they exist to make a profit. That’s why the FDA has to exist, because food is a product first and food second (and sometimes not at all).
(Are we not supposed to make fun of Kellogg’s now since the union won? I don’t know, still seems fair.)
Is Comcast throttling your internet service even though you’re paying $100 a month? They don’t exist to connect you to the internet, they exist to connect your bank account to theirs. That’s why the FCC…well, the format kind of breaks down here. Topic for another day, though.
And I realize this is coming dangerously close to sounding like “I’m entitled to a PS5 and turd-free cereal,” and I’m not saying that—go ahead and limit my play all you want, feed me all the turds. That’s what the current system rewards, after all.
I’m just saying maybe different decisions would be made if the point of a business was to provide, not to take. And maybe those decisions would lead to less frustration, and fewer turds.
The turds in this metaphor are capitalism. But also literal turds.
Originally tweeted by me (@noplotr) on Jan 26, 2022.
Certain of Eventual Failure 