For me it’s driving while under the influence. If you couldn’t tell, I like me some ganja. However I have long since held the belief that it is utterly insane to drive while under the influence of most substances, with maybe nicotine and caffeine being the exception. All too often I see other stoners smoking and driving, which I simply can’t fathom. I’ve only operated a vehicle once under the influence and it was just to move a U-Haul around the block to a different parking spot, which was such a scary experience while high that I refuse to even consider getting behind the wheel again while high.
Car culture constantly being irreversibly intertwined with a bunch of right wing redneck bullshit. Its so pervasive that I have to actively avoid most social media car content because it will inevitably contain or be filled with comments of “FJB”, “cry about it liberal”, “Trump 2024”, and repeats of 500 anti gay/trans statements that have literally nothing to do with cars. And if I subscribe to any of it on a mainstream platform, my entire recommended feed instantly gets filled with a bunch of Andrew Tate chud sexism content and a constant barrage of other nazified political spam.
I’m here cause I like things on wheels with vroom engine, not your political pisstakes. Christ. I can barely even go to local car meets either because almost all of the boomers that gatekeep such events can’t get 3 words out of their mouth without jumping into a Great Replacement conspiracy. Fuck my life this hobby is a hellhole.
As a result I mostly keep to myself, drive my little shitboxes out in the forest, and work on a couple Goofy ahh engine swap projects without talking to anyone else.
And yes, I’m calling gonna call them a racist if they think the confederate flag belongs on the roof of an orange 1969 Dodge Charger (or on the front license plate cover of Generic Pickup Truck #99,412). I don’t give a shit that Dukes of Hazzard was a car culture classic. Get fucked lol.
I feel your pain, I’m a trans woman and cars and motorcycles have been my hobby since I was a teenager but I avoid most car meets like the plague. The import scene seems to be a lot better than the classic and muscle car scenes but there’s still a fair bit of right-wing bs. I do find it hilarious when I roll up somewhere in my classic jeep and notice some maga chud oogling it, the look on their faces when I step out is priceless.
Oh yeah I feel a weird version of this, ugh. See, I’m a big fan of going places and I like complicated mechanical toys and I guess I actually know a lot of deep down details about cars especially after a year or so stint doing car-related tech things, but I’m also an environmentalist who hates cars.
So, like, goofy engine swap projects, actually racing the damn sports car, actually taking the SUV off road to see something cool, details required to engineer a V12 sports car that doesn’t spin out, et al are all interesting to me but then literally everything to do with car culture seems like folks who are driving their super-fancy tuned vehicle in a traffic jam wasting gas spouting right wing BS.
This was explained to me as being a car person vs a “car person” by a friend who mentioned what giant douchebags car people are, in a group chat with her best friends who are extreme car nerds.
I know it’s getting into a sort of strawman/“No True Scotsman” realm, but I’ve definitely noticed it at a lot of car meets unfortunately. There are a lot of people who are very much attracted purely to the idea that “fast loud vroom car will make me attractive as a person”, and those tend to be the assholes who buy a $100k sports car that they won’t even take to a local autocross, and will use it solely to terrorize people in surrounding neighborhoods.
On the other hand, there are people who get excited seeing basically any interesting car. It doesn’t matter if it’s slow and cheap and isn’t flashy, it’s just a unique car and that should always be exciting to see.
My stepfather very much falls into the 1st category, and going to Woodward (absolutely massive car show/cruise in Detroit) was absolutely painful. He would shit on basically every car that went by, and on the rare occasion a flashy supercar drove by, would be like “I bet my car is just as fast”. He’s had multiple very nice sports cars, and I’ve invited him numerous times to autocross/track events, but he refuses it every time questioning why he’d want to. He’d much rather be an idiot doing 3x the speed limit on backroads than just take it to any one of the many nearby track events. Absolute numpty
I imagine going to a track for someone like your stepfather is a rather vulnerable experience. Odds are higher that he might run into someone with a better car than his compared to just toodling around back roads.
Oh, for sure. Likely, it’s not even going to be a “better” car, it’s going to be a much slower car, but with a better driver. That would be even more galling, to have his flashy sports car passed by some dude in a Miata.
Yeah, like, we’ve got a fairly nice sporty-ish sedan that’s approaching 300k and since we’ve only got one car we kinda have to be ready to buy a new one quickly, I’ve done some of the thought process based on our needs and where we are in life. And the thing is, I like a nice car but I’m unclear on exactly how nice of a car I would actually appreciate driving, given that I don’t like to die or hurt other people, so I’m not going to go 3x the speed limit on some backroad and have never gotten a speeding ticket just that the upgrade from a 1.8L engine ecomony-ish sedan to a 2.5L engine sporty-ish sedan did feel real nice.
Meanwhile, one in-law got a Porsche so another in-law on the same side of the family had to trade in his Audi SUV for roughly the same SUV on the Porsche side and it’s all some douchebag power fantasy.
But, yeah, I like seeing actual-car-persons nerd out because I know enough to get at what they are nerding out about. Joy is much funner than douchebaggery.
This is why I got OUT of the scene. It’s a car. Chill with all the hot takes bruh. I just want to have fun with people that know about cars.
That’s a really fascinating, if depressing insight. I’ve long wondered what it’s like for “normal” (nah, fuck it, just normal) people in subcultures with so much baggage.
Try being someone on the liberal side of the political spectrum who is primarily into the history and engineering of firearms, rather than the power fantasy of “gubmint and libruls better fear muh guns”.
It’s an absolute hellscape and it’s extremely disheartening to start talking with someone and sharing in a common interest, then seeing “FJB” and 1488 bumper stickers. I refuse to let bigots ruin my hobby though, and make an effort to make the hobby as inclusive as possible.
I also feel that being into planes. Lockheed Martin and the military industrial complex can get fucked, i just like it when they fly around and do cool stuff.
Sounds rotten :-(
It definitely sucks, but there are an increasing number of people like Ian of Forgotten Weapons getting people interested for the same reasons I am, really only getting into the politics from the historical or design perspectives, and always in a very objective manner. I’m also now in a far more liberal area and the local ranges are very inclusive, so that helps immensely.
I love working on my car and taking it to meets and shows, but I have a hard time finding friends in the community for exactly this reason.
I don’t know you, but I love you.
Check out the honda insight forum, they’re pretty chill over there.
I’ve got a few other places I can shoot shit with people who know some about my daily driver/project car maintenance and have largely avoided the bigoty shit, largely due to my low bullshit tolerance and gender identity lol
same with motorcycles!
oh man, some “biker dudes” are the worst dude bros in all mankind. And it’s like they take pride in committing felony moving traffic violations…
One of my hobbies is the social deduction game Blood on the Clocktower. Heavy social deduction games will draw certain types of people. Many of the people are very nice and inclusive. Others not so much.
I just played a game with a new group the other night - games usually take about 90 minutes in my experience. These people are all about playing super optimally rather than having fun. I made a sub-optimal play as an evil character, solely to create chaos. This led to mass confusion toward the end of the game. When my play was revealed at the end, people were literally yelling at me.
No one cared that it worked, and evil won, and that I completely followed the rules. I just did something no one would expect because I knew it would cause confusion. Some people take all the fun out of the game.
Well that sucks. My favourite moment in a hidden role game was when a player won by misreading their card and convincing both of us that we were allies at the start. They ended up the only evil player for most of the game and then in the last round after we’d worked together to systematically kill everyone else (all weirdly innocents, we were both feeling guilty by this point), when they finally realised they knew there was no evil player they checked and… killed me. Total madness and a glorious victory for them. How can you be mad at that?!
This is really dumb imo (the other people). My friend and I both like to be agents of chaos sometimes, so when we play Secret Hitler it’s a nightmare because even if we’re not on the same team we just cause so much mayhem and have everyone doubting everything. Isn’t the fun in the chaos and confusion???
In most social deduction games, the point of the minority team is to create confusion, since they have all the information. The majority team is trying to deduce roles, so they benefit from players who telegraph their strategy.
Jesus, what a bunch of freaks those people sound.
I mean, set aside that you outsmarted them with an unexpected move, but, oh no, you mean the evil side didn’t do things by the book?? Who’da thunk it?
Even my own team was pissed at me because my move was super risky. But because I could see the way people were expecting optimal play, I figured it would work in our favor.
One person said, “WHY WOULD YOU DO SOMETHING SO FUCKING STUPID? YOU THREW YOUR OWN TEAM UNDER THE BUS”
Yeah, but it worked cuz nobody expected anybody would do such a crazy move.
Exactly - really glad it worked out, especially if that’s how the others are going to react! :-)
My nerd herd play this game too, the usual suspects are getting to the point where I worry that will be the problem. Right now the main irritation are meme accusations. 2 players dont trust eachother even if prove they are on the same team.
Lieing about being someones grandmother and randomly guessing a role (and getting it right) has ended multiple games. Its gotten to the point we have to just treat some people as agents of chaos even if they arnt on the evil team. Its still very fun and most people get a laugh out of a good play.
I turned the spent fisherman in between the vigor and assassin into the empath in my game. Not a single person believed the spent fish would suddenly get a 2 empath reading. They got read as a minion panicking in final three when the raven keeper was on the block lol.
I was pretty proud of the psych out play.
My recent claim to fame from this past weeks game, winning our groups first psychopath script. I got to play Patrick Bateman and didnt do anything for 3 turns (Our GM kept calling me crazy) because my demon (the Al-hadihkia) handed me the flower girl as a bluff. Convinced the town fool, who had validated their role worked in front of everyone, that I was above board and proceded to axe the philosopher on the last day to win the game for the evil team. The fool still owes me a beer or sandwich.
I’ve never gotten psycho yet, which makes me sad. It looks like so much fun to play.
I think playing as a minion is the most fun, demons are too stressful and outsiders usually mean your paranoid or intentionally throw yourself under the bus for the good team.
Some of the most fun I’ve had has been playing the Baron. Just getting to sew as much discord as possible early game, and if I die? Oh well. I once managed to get into 3 double claims on day one and somehow didn’t get executed till day 3 lol.
I’ve got quite the game collection, and that kind of competitive behavior annoys the hell out of me.
If I’m learning a game, I stumble along, take my turns, and figure out how everything works as we go through the process. I don’t expect to win, and if I do, it’s probably because I got some lucky rolls/draws.
I have a few friends/family that get angry when they aren’t winning, and nothing pisses me off during a game more than that.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with getting frustrated with a bad draw, or when someone has the perfect counter in their hand, but, if your enjoyment of the game is solely determined by how much you’re winning, you’re ruining it for everyone else and you aren’t getting invited to the next game night.
Yeah. Even my own team was pissed at me. I took a risky move that worked out in the end because I used their weakness against them. That’s part of the reason that BotC is so much better than many social deduction games - it’s often not entirely solvable, even with optimal play. And just let people have fun sometimes, who cares about making the “objectively best decision” at all times.
I used to play a lot of TTT (for those who don’t know, think Among Us, but its an FPS where anyone can shoot anyone else) and this is what ruined it for me. In the rare occasions where I could get together a group of friends, it was fine, but any attempt to play online was just endless squabbles. Everyone was constantly whining about if X peice of evidence was ligitimate enough to act on, and God-forbid anyone do anything that actually broke a rule, regardless of how fun or funny.
I used to play that with friends, but I knew playing with randoms would be toxic. Glad to know I didn’t miss an opportunity lol
Chaos moves are so much fun.
When a friend and I play Coup (hidden role card game), we’ll typically start out playing normally - especially if there are new players - but as things progress, we get into “advanced” strategies. We might not look at our cards at all, and publicly proclaim it, such that nobody can possibly know if we’re BSing or not - since we don’t know ourselves.
My old group loved to do a few blind rounds of coup after we were ready to move onto another game. Made for chaos and great fun for everyone. That was usually our warm up game - still waiting for people to show up, maybe snacks were still being prepared, Hosts walking the dog, etc.
But of course, first round, EVERYONE is a Duke.
Looks like evil won and then some. ‘evil laugh’.
This is why I get anxious playing with new groups, especially because if I draw a token that let’s me try something out of left field, I can rarely resist going for it. Thankfully, so far everyone has been really excellent, but it takes me a while to slip in and get comfortable
This is a great game, people are constantly surprising you
Pishing. Some birds will make a warning call known as a “pish.” Making that call yourself—if you do it correctly and have a bit of luck—can make flocks of tiny, hard to spot birds come close to you as they try to figure out what some ‘hidden bird’ is warning everyone about.
If you’re a bird watcher wanting to spot them this is super exciting! And if it’s in an isolated area or somewhere not many other birders visit it’s not super stressful to the birds. The problem comes with places like Central Park that are bird watching meccas, and suddenly a patch of woods might have dozens of people doing that in the span of a few hours. Repeated or prolonged pishing can stress birds out the same way that playing recorded bird song at them for hours can stress them out, because it makes them think there’s an unseen threat to confront.
To me it’s just disrespectful to the wildlife. They’re not there to be your toys or to fill out your IRL pokedex, and stressing them out because you want a better look is edging into unethical territory.
This is really interesting because I’m a very casual bird observer and occasionally try to whistle to get their attention, but I hadn’t thought about this aspect of it!
Whistling is probably fine since it’s not something they’re likely to mistake for a warning call from another bird or as a song from their own species, so don’t feel bad about that! 👍
i try to mimick some bird call but yeah it’s usually just to try and get their attention if I’m taking a picture. i don’t play bird noises or anything else, just look at them and maybe take pictures
I just want to teach my neighbor crows to bring me shinies for really, really good seeds lmao
You may know this already, but in Scotland, the term “pishing” is synonymous with “pissing” - ‘going for a pish’, ‘he was totally pished’ (drunk), ‘i pished myself laughing’, etc.
Just a heads up in case you ever decide to come here and ask someone where a good place for pishing might be :-)
Also used in Norn Iron.
Also whenever there’s a rarity photographers always insist on going off the path to get as close as possible often scaring off the bird which obviously ruins it of everyone else who’s just trying to see it from a reasonable distance.
Translation: I can do it but no one else should
Try reading again because I said nothing like that ❤️
Unplanned amputations.
I’m a woodworker.
Table saws are serious shit.
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Carpenter here. I used to get called a pussy by the old dudes all the time. Maybe Jethro, but I’ve been doing this as long as you have and I have all my fingers still and you can only count to 8 if you take off a shoe.
you can only count to 8 if you take off a shoe.
lol I love this. I wonder if they lost 7 fingers, or some combination of fingers and toes.
I think it means they lost 3 or more fingers
But if they took off a shoe with 3 missing fingers they could count to 12! 😛
And is stupid enough to need fingers to get to ten.
That’s actually a perfect retort “You’re such a pussy using the guard Zagami!” “Really Jethro? Do me a favor, take your shoe off and count to ten.”
A razor sharp 10 inch circular saw blade being spun at 5,500 RPM by an 18 amp motor doesn’t care how manly you are.
I worked in a woodshop for a bit too. The story I told new kids is that the band saw a was originally used in butchershops to cut beef sides till a woodworker thought it would make a nifty hobby tool. And that saw wants nothing more than to explore it’s roots and get back to its raison d’être of slicing meat into more manageable sized chunks. And you better believe that table saw over there isn’t going to be shown up by some hobby tool.
The band saw is deceptively safe. It’s a fairly quiet and gentle sounding tool, it doesn’t push back on you like a circular saw does, it won’t kick back, it’s too easy to stop being scared of it.
It does.
Because if it’s low enough it can change it very easily (and potentially for the rest of your life)
Fingers are INTEGRAL. Sapphic safety 101
Woodworking hobbyist with an emergency medicine background who worked in a replantation centre for a while: I can absolutely confirm this.
And table saws are amongst the most harmless devices in an average workshop.
I saw some gnarly shit over the years and tbh, I had some near miss cases as well on my own. (like when a milling head died on my DIY CNC and flew through the workshop - close enough to my jugular vein to graze my skin. 5mm to the right and I would have been in a very very bad spot)
And table saws are amongst the most harmless devices in an average workshop.
You have my attention with that line. I’m used to thinking of the table saw as the most likely amputator of my shop. What in your experience is the bigger maiming hazard?
In absolute numbers the table saw will win because everyone has one. But they can be used in a safe way - with a sliding carriage, a push stick and a cover or even a saw stop(even though that is a ridiculous shitshow on my side of the pond)you have a near 0% chance of hurting yourself. That is different for a lot of other machines. They can hurt you even if you do things right but are unlucky.
Band saws are far more likely to hurt someone and old planes are inherently unsafe as their spindles often are designed in a way that they often easily send their blades towards their operators. Especially when they are older models. And of course mortisers - I saw some really really gnarly shit over the years, e.g. someone who lost control of their mortiser when hitting an knothole and then the machine went towards his groin - still running as he panicked and did squeeze the handle even stronger by reflex. In the end the half groin area was bloody pulp he injured a major vessel that nearly killed him. A friend of mine collapsed (due to a medical issue) on a table mortiser and missed the blade by less than 2cm. With a table saw he would have simply collapsed on the cover, here it was pure luck.
Wow that’s nearly opposite of what I’ve always heard. Like I’ve never really heard of mortising machines being particularly dangerous. We’re talking the specialized cousin of the drill press, right? Like I don’t know how to “lose control” of a Mortising machine.
I’ve actually seen more injuries at the drill press; bits like to grab sheet metal and spin it right at belly level, give you the first half of a tummy tuck.
I feel much safer using a band saw because it won’t kick back on me or generate adverse forces, I guess they’re fairly quiet and affable that you forget it’s a saw until you start dropping phalanges. Table saws can get ornery.
Or does “your side of the pond” mean you’re European and you’re referring to different tools than I am? Like in America a “plane” is a hand tool., and my thickness planer would struggle to throw its very well encased knives at anyone.
Another hobby, though I haven’t been in a few years is SCUBA diving. I learned how to dive under people who took all of the safety limits and procedures quite seriously. I was always diving in a pair with a person I knew, and we always had a comfort level of communication and teamwork based on familiarity with each other.
I left that constant diving life, and later to scratch the diving itch I decided to go do a recreational dive in the US. I showed up to the place and got on the boat. On the ride out to the dive site, I was expecting a pre-dive meeting where details would be gone over, and I’d be assigned my partner so we could interact at least a little bit before getting in the water. That never happened. I was waiting and waiting for the meeting to start when the boat just stopped, the people running it announced we were at the dive spot and just started pointing to pairs of people to be “partners” basically as they were jumping off the boat. I’m used to doing an equipment shakedown with a partner, but my assigned partner was some guy who just hopped in the depths and was gone before I could do any of that.
This was a simple dive to a flat sand bottom. People were mostly looking for trinkets down there. That said, the lack of organization was shocking. When time was up, people just started shooting to the surface. Nobody else was doing safety stops on the way up, and because of me doing it I was the last person out of the water. It was very scary sloppy and I did not go back to any open-to-the-public recreational dives after that.
Thats terrifying, especially given that the ocean is potentially more dangerous than space. the power of water is not to be underestimated
It was really scary. I’d shadowed some recreational groups before to help out with the shop I’d been close with and a reoccurring theme would be that customers who dived for maybe one week a year were so caviler about safety because they were “very experienced”, while the people who dived so much they were having to calculate their weekly limits were abundantly respectful of the depths.
As one person working there would say, “You never get a brain aneurysm until you do.”
Can you explain what the weekly limit is about? I know very little about scuba.
There’s a lot of biology involved that I don’t understand the intricacies of, but basically the more time and at more depth you are underwater the more your body is dealing with changes in the density and makeup of your blood. You need time on the surface to normalize. For a similar reason you need to do safety stops to allow your body to adjust to the changes.
For normal recreation dives, it’s pretty simple that people are limited to (IIRC) two dives/two hours per day as a general guideline. Once you get into deeper dives, using different breathing mixes, and other stuff people have to start doing a little bit of double checking to make sure they don’t overdo it.
I’m not sure about the weekly limit, but I guess it has also to do with the absorbtion of nitrogen into your blood, which is why you make safety stops after going deep and why there are daily limits.
Depending on how deep and how long you dive, more nitrogen will get dissolved in your blood due to the increased pressure. It stays there until you get into lower pressure ( ascending to the surface). If you do that too fast, the nitrogen will build up bubbles. And bubbles in the bloodstream is really really bad, hindering the flow of blood. Doing safety stops in lower depths gives some nitrogen the time to leave your body through the lungs while breathing. Not diving for a certain time after your dive sessions will give time to release all additional nitrogen from the blood, preventing a builtup over each dive.
How deep was the dive? Thinking that these guys do these dives regularly without ever doing safety stops is giving me decompression sickness by proxy
I honestly don’t remember. It wasn’t notably deep, but I had 100% of the time always done a safety stop and a controlled ascent in all my dives. The part that made this especially bad was people would go absolutely flying from the bottom to the top, with no attempt to control their speed.
My ears are very sensitive, that shit would burst my ears. In a normal swimming pool, I would still need to equalize.
Was this ran by a PADI Dive center? I feel like if it was an official dive center they would be more rigorous and Divemasters would be helping you out.
No, I was used to PADI and certified by them (outside the U.S.). The place where I had the bad experience was affiliated with some U.S. organization I wasn’t familiar with.
PADI is international, I feel like most reputable dive shops need to be PADI certified.
I know. Like I said the shop had a US only organization I wasn’t familiar with and it was my first experience with recreational U.S. diving, which is why I specified.
I showed up in the U.S. expecting PADI, but being unfamiliar with how U.S. shops operated, and presumed that whatever non-PADI organization they were with would be similarly standardized. Clearly they weren’t. Which is why I didn’t go back.
Interesting, I live in the US and I didn’t know there are different scuba organizations other than PADI and SSI, and NAUI. I would be sussed out at that dive center. I’m sorry you had to experience that.
With airsoft, it has to be the fascination with using lasers. There’s no such thing as a totally eyesafe laser, just “less harmful ones” and I know that many of the ultra cheap lasers on places like aliexpress are totally lying about their ratings, using lower rating stickers on more powerful lasers. Which is a problem as it’s easier to make a brute force amped up laser when you want something bright to appeal to airsofters. The teens buying these lasers have no idea what laser ratings are in the first place anyway, they just buy whatever appeals to their Call Of Duty addled brains.
In addition to being inherently unsafe, which is full stop reason enough, lasers tend to be pretty useless especially in outdoor games. It is very annoying to be in the woods and randomly get swept by a lasers from somebody far away who doesn’t even know where I am. I have literally heard people explain that they find where the laser is pointed by looking for it with their magnified scope. Which is completely insane logic.
When the topic comes up, laser users claim that they never aim at peoples’ eyes. In a game, that’s a completely impossible promise to keep. Also some people do intentionally aim lasers at faces for an advantage, and since it’s impossible to avoid this whole mess, lasers should be banned entirely.
(And before anyone mentions the laserbox on my airsoft gun, it’s fake. It’s a hollow box where I keep the gun’s battery for easy access.)
I used to play on an outdoor field over a decade ago and still have a vivid memory of this one guy in particular. I distinctly remember that he had multicam EVERYTHING: full MC clothing, a MC helmet, even a MC wrapped Systema. But the cherry on top was a green laser that stayed on 100% of the time. You could see the fucker coming from a mile away.
He was also a douchenozzle
Airsoft runs on the honor system, and you’re relying on the honor of sometimes maladjusted teenagers with access to their parents’ credit cards. (Not all teens, and sometimes the older players are problems, but to be real 8 out of 10 times, it’s a “that guy” teen causing problems.)
With my 3-power optic I get to see great views of BBs just bouncing off people who are invincible to them.
This is a really interesting one i think for the reasons you pointed out above. There is very little safety oversight for this and these people genuinely have no clue how to actually use laser aiming systems. Not to mention that if you have a laser, it should be set up such that you don’t need to look for it (especially not with a scope that’s mounted parallel to the laser) because it’s to help your fine aim. Oh well, i was young and thought tacticool stuff was cool once too.
There are these amazing laser based aiming systems out there called “red” “dots”. They have the advantage of being better AND not flashing people in the eye.
exactly!
A lot of the tacticool is just dumb and awkward; that’s sort of just good fun LARPing nonsense. Some poor choices like not wearing mouth protection are flatly stupid, but at least it only punishes the person making the choice. My problem with lasers is that the person making the dumb choice isn’t affected, only people otherwise doing everything right.
I’ve actually asked a few fields about implementing no laser policies, but unfortunately owners seem apathetic about having to enforce it.
I have guns. I’m also super liberal. The amount of range patrons, employees or gun shops that talk unprompted about politics to me is disgusting. They just can’t understand there are liberal or left leaning gun owners.
I generally don’t get people like that. Starting a conversation with a stranger about polarizing topics like politics or religion is just high risk low benefit gamble.
I prefer to start conversations at the range with “ya ever tried riding a dick while high?” It really kickstarts things.
Rage stacking lol
Step 1: work less & join range Step 2: ask dudes about their preferred dildo manufacturers 2a. Wink wink, suggest tentacles
Especially when you know for a fact said stranger is armed.
Yup. Super off-putting. More than half of my local shops all have massive trump banners and associated ephemera along with some form of lib-bashing. Can’t be in that space for more than 5 minutes without hearing some fake news, racism, or mockery of some group. It’s really killing the sport for me. It never mattered when I first got into it, but the identity politics are destroying just enjoying a good day a the range.
It’s like they believe gun ownership is some kind of underground club that is impossible to be a part of unless your republican.
In photography, its overemphasis on the importance of gear. While it’s true that some shots require specific equipment, the average photographer will not improve with better equipment, and an experienced photographer can take brilliant shots with a phone.
You can’t buy skill. It comes with practice.
One of my exes did photography, first as a hobby, then did some weddings and stuff. He went to a class to learn more, and a lot of the more experienced people gave him shit because his camera was “basic”. It was a Canon or Nikon DSLR. Sure nothing amazing or super expensive, but he knew how to use it and no one ever complained about his photos they paid for.
People in any hobby that requires equipment draws these people. There were a couple cool people I met that he made friends with though. They had nicer gear, but weren’t assholes about it. Let him try them out and taught him about the benefits and use cases and stuff too.
People who gatekeep like that just scream insecurity to me.
Imagine being an asshole to someone who either chooses not or can’t afford to, buy very expensive equipment. Utterly pathetic.
this is the vibe im getting too. i just started with photography and am taking a digital still photography class and got a D300 for cheap. My lens is meh and i can’t do everything i want with it, but I’ve been able to take better photos than i ever have been before with a camera a decade plus old.
The really nice thing about old cameras is that the glass is cheap. With an F-mount Nikon, you’ve got decades worth of lens production flooding the used market and really affordable upgrades for the body if/when your decide to move up.
Let folks with more money than brains (or someone else footing the bill) chase after the latest and greatest while you scoop up the leftovers. :)
I’m the same way with networking gear haha
Good for you! The class will help more than a better lens. Learn to stay within the limits of your lens for now, rather than trying to fight it into situations it can’t capture. Think about the light before looking for a composition. Digital photography has the advantage of being able to take unlimited pictures at no cost, so think, shoot, review, and learn. Most importantly, enjoy it!
Oh, and always keep your camera with you. lol
Thank you, i appreciate the advice! i do think about light a lot, and the first settings i change when getting a good photo are the white balance and exposure. i definitely need more practice overall but im enjoying it enough that i brought my camera case with me today instead of my backpack
Nice! While you’re walking with your bag, make note of good shots with undesirable sun position and try to return when the sun is where you want it. There are some really useful apps that will let you track the sun’s path using AR. They’ll also tell you when to find both golden hours every day.
oh perfect! thank you!
I’m in a Facebook group for my camera, and it’s full of these people. Every other post seems to be telling newbies that they need to upgrade the camera and lens, or every photo will be awful. They treat buying a more expensive camera as an upgrade, no matter how good the photographer is, or what they’re shooting.
I’ve grown a lot over the years through criticism of my photos, not my equipment. Try to find photographers you trust to be honest with you, and ask them what they think of your shots. Criticism of gear is just simply noise.
You’ll know when you need a new lens once you find yourself limited by the capability of your first. Cant get the low-light shots you want without ISO noise? Look into wider aperture lenses. Want to capture the birds you see every morning across the lake? Maybe a telephoto zoom. Need something discrete for city-life shots? Pancake prime time.
The lens bug can bite hard. Try to let your desired shots dictate your next lens, not the sale at B&H or Andromeda, and definitely not Facebook trolls.
I think this is what’s going to drive me the most for a new lens. I’m a night owl and I wanna do more night photography, but my aperture only goes down to 3.5 (i think) at 18 mm and if i use any focal length above that I’m pretty much limited to 5.6. Not terrible by any means but i have to spend a lot of time manually playing with the exposure, ISO, shutter speed, and meter before I get the shot I want. But I’m not experienced enough to know what I’m doing wrong yet so a new lens will have to wait until I know I’m actually being limited by my lens and not my skill.
Sure. Kit telephotos typically have a variable aperture (f/3.5-5.6). You may need use of a tripod for crisp low-light shots with one. Over time, make note of your most commonly used focal length. When it comes time for a lens, check out prime lenses in that focal length. They’re fixed lenses (no zoom), but they have the advantage of much larger apertures, and are typically sharper. You can usually get a “nifty fifty” (50mm f/1.8) from most manufacturers relatively inexpensively. It’ll really expand your low-light options.
I’ll keep that in mind, thank you! i appreciate the advice!
No problem. Feel free to hit me up if you have a question. Even if I don’t have the answer, I might be able to point you in the right direction. Always down to help a fellow photographer.
The “macho” attitude to safety. From soldering to woodworking. In soldering, there are fumes created when burning a substance called flux. There are commercial fumes extractors to purify and remove these fumes, but many refuse to use them, even if they’re cheap. Saying stuff like "What’s a little tree sap gonna do to me?. Chances are, none of them could run a mile due to the irritation of their lungs.
Another one is woodworking, especially around power tools. Table saws can shred your fingers before you can blink. It can pull extremities towards itself, and can launch wood fast enough to perforate organs. Yet there are still people who insist “I don’t need no push stick”, “don’t bother with a crosscut sled, just free hand it”.
I have a pile of hobbies and I guess one common thread is obnoxious dude shit. And I say this as a male type person.
3D printing is a weird one because 3D printers are hella good for all kinds of stuff, from the more “femme” coded hobbies to the “dude” hobbies. But somehow the not-male people I know engage with some of the same communities as I do and for some reason I always get a lot more useful answers to my questions. There’s a certain aesthetic to homebrew open source 3D printers and it’s kinda industrial.
Electronics hackery is worse because it’s a lot more “masc” coded. Even software stuff isn’t quite as bad because at least there there’s been concerted social pressure.
Photography is sad because if I work with a female model I have to go through a whole process for her to make sure that she’s going to be safe during our shoot, some of which I didn’t even fully realize that was part of the process for a while. And pretty much all of the semi-pro-to-pro experienced models have at least one story and sometimes Names Are Named and it’s someone I’ve met, so I have to be constantly on guard.
oh shit yeah i feel you with realizing things you do as habit really are learned because of shitty things that have happened to people.
I knew a few women that played airsoft at a local field I used to play at, who made a habit of wolf-packing around the field in 2s and 3s. I asked them at one point how they learned to coordinate so well, and it turned out that they had to institute an actual buddy system because some players (long since banned from the local community) decided to get handsy with one of them at one point…and got a broken arm for his trouble.
jesus its terrible they had to go to that extent for their safety
You know, we have a word for “male-type person”: its man. It doesn’t matter if you are not a biological man, or in some kind of transitional stage, or whatever else might be the cause for this awkward phrasing. It is simply how this is called and it isnt discriminatory, you can use it. Also, a “female model” might well be referred to as a woman. That’s not discriminatory either.
I don’t know what your goal is in being this persnickety about someone else’s wording, but you should probably be sure that you’re right before you go around correcting people. For example, if we replaced “female model” with “woman”, it would make OP’s comment way less clear, because a photographer works with people other than just models and that wouldn’t be clear with just “woman”.
Regarding “male-type person”, I would ask you to take a moment to try to imagine a world where “male-type person” is a more appropriate and correct phrasing than “man”. Arguing in good faith means temporarily setting aside your belief that “man” is more correct in order to better understand OP’s point and their overall point. As an example, OP may not actually be a man at all, but may be perceived as male by people within the hobby, in which case, “male-type person” may not be elegant phrasing, but it’s more correct and informative than “man”.
You claim your corrections aren’t discriminatory, but that’s besides the point, because a comment can be “not discriminatory” and also impolite and unconstructive to the discussion.
I also found the wording a bit needlessly convoluted (kinda like gender, amirite). But yours is a really interesting perspective. I’m not sure if I’d write the same way but I also wasn’t bothered enough to correct their diction lol
I’m not entirely sure why everyone assumes I have some nefarious bigoted purpose here.
My point is, it doesn’t matter for a quick anecdote if the person in question is whatever makes simply “man“ imprecise, and requires the “male type person” (what could that even possibly mean if not man?) specification, be it they are trans or identify as something else.
Is the next step to introduce the reader to the preferred pronouns of all parties involved? I dont know these people and it has no bearing on the anecdote. That is entirely too convoluted and unnecessarily complicated if there is no actual reason.
I would also argue that if they are for example trans they could just reasonably be called man or woman depending on what they now identify as. Doesn’t require a specific qualifier. Why all this convoluted doublespeak when there are already normal words for that?
Call women, women. Men, men. Trans women and men too of course, because why not and unless the fact they are trans is somehow relevant, it is fully sufficient. For everyone who identifies as neither, keep it with neutral pronouns (again unless more information is relevant).
I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding of some inclusivity in regards to non-binary identities here.
There are a lot of grey areas that use different words very specifically. Masc and Femme for instance describe a wider range of binary and non-binary identities than “Man and Woman” as many non-binary people are closer to binary trans folks but use a different set of mental mechanisms where they don’t strictly align with the categories of “man and woman”. Masc and Femme can be used with “presenting” to specify what people tend to read someone as based on cultural dress and behaviour or but left as is to describe gender identity.
On the other pole of talking about sex rather than gender or gender presentation some have started to move away from “assigned gender at birth” and use descriptives like " male/female phenotypic (or type for short) when needing to refer to one’s physicality to describe aspects when talking strictly about lived experience regarding their body’s sexual characteristics.
The trans community particularly has a lot of very specific language regarding how different aspects of our experience impacts us. For instance a male phenotypic person will have certain aspects assumed about them because of their body independent of their gender which given certain circumstances they need to talk about in a neutral way. Talking about sex can be a bit of a landmine situation in trans circles because it’s both a touchy subject and it’s where the most dogwhistles tend to be. As such it’s a bit chaotic… As such Phenotype does not strictly mean “birth sex”. It’s more about what physical sex characteristics people perceive and react to… Trans language wise it’s something not universally adopted or liked but it is consistent with the usage in the above post where the poster is describing people perceived as at least potentially possessing some sexually male characteristics. This covers cis/ trans men/ masc non-binary people, some trans women / femme non-binary and various flavors of non-binary people.
While I can understand feeling like this is a bit much but it’s mostly that language and conventions inside the community and inclusivity forward movements changing rather rapidly to account for the way discourse changes from year to year with new dogwhistles popping up with the evolving discourse as more people become knowledgeable about the basics. Less awkward conventions of language are always being tested because universality is likely a ways away. Trying to be pedantic about it might prove to be a losing battle. Give it another decade or two and it might settle into a singular convention once there’s more concensus.
They probably likely meant they come off as a typical man. I felt your comment was unnecessary, like stop looking for it and you’ll find it less. You know? You took what was likely poor phrasing into something else entirely.
D&D and RPGs in general. There’s a lot of loud opinions on what other people are doing.
Yeah, go ahead Simon - teach me the right way to pretend I’m an elf.
DnD is definitely one of those hobbies where each table is different and (as long as no one is being hurt) none of them are wrong. The toxicity some people bring to the table can scare away newer people entirely and that sucks for everyone. Less DnD people means we all get to play less DnD.
Queer TTRPG circles on the west coast got this fixed. I can never go back to playing in Completely straight TTRPG culture. Queer TTRPG tables will be like “Can I be a Merperson Paladin of like… Everything spiritual simultaneously and just have to fluidly sync with the nearest divinity while my hyper intelligent mouse sidekick who dresses in a Sherlock Holmes outfit causes random trouble? Oh and can the mermish language be a sign language? " and 9/10 times the answer is " FUCK YEAH! That’s rad! Do you want your mouse to have a tiny magnifying glass?”
Compare that with the grognards telling me sign languages are prohibited because they are " too much of an advantage" and I am just ruined.
I recommend trying to find chill roleplay heavy groups. The tables i ran were never explicitly queer but we were open to anyone who wanted to come and have fun. It was helped by the fact that the regulars at the table would roleplay in character super heavily, but never take themselves too seriously, so it always just ends in stupid shenanigans where everyone’s laughing.
We once had a young kid (<10) at the table with their guardian and when they got the final hit on a difficult encounter the entire table erupted in cheers.
Warhammer, we’re here to play with over priced miniatures, don’t be a Natzi.
i keep up with the lore in a very small capacity, and im confused how they can eat the pasta so hard.
Ah, everyone’s favorite game: is this person playing Krieg IG because they like the aesthetic, or because they "like the aesthetic"?
The bikepacking community sometimes feels more like a gear flaunting contest than a fun outdoor sport. Particularly amusing are 90kg men obsessing over a 10kg bike to save weight.
Mountainbiking in general. I bought a used rocky mountain slayer. I asked the guy why he sold it, because it was like new. He explained me that he liked the bike, but it’s not good for climbing because it’s too heavy, and showed off his new bike. I looked it up when i was back home and he bought a 8k dollar bike that was 900 grams lighter.
I know a guy who bought an 10k dollar ebike because of how light it was. He’s like a 90kg man as well. He doesn’t even really ride it. He also bought some carvon rims for it to shave of a few grams. Bro, lose some weight and save some cashI mean if the seller is still big into it and his mass is mostly compromised of non-fat body mass I can see how shaving of 1kg of weight for a hike of 5km can be worth it.
Probably the cheapest and easiest way for most people to get into bike camping is by getting a trailer instead of obsessing over squeezing everything you need on the bicycle itself. I imagine some folks would consider that “cheating” but fuck 'em.
i really want to get into backpacking but I don’t have a car to travel and the gear is so expensive. it seems interesting. thank you for your perspective
There’s a town a few hours from here and I’m certain that some people drive there with all their gear, then ride around town all kitted up, and drive all the way back to the city.
Thinking new people are stupid for asking the same questions they asked 3 years ago. My hobby is every hobby.
well put. “New people don’t know enough” shouldn’t be a surprise, and yet here we are. Online forums should have a FAQ, at least (many do but not all).
A surprising amount of fire performers think it’s perfectly ok to use fire and other dangerous props while shitfaced on whatever substance of choice. They give all the same excuses that drivers with DUIs give. Majority of them I’ve met like this are from Florida, surprising no one.
Yeah. I did fire eating and related things semi pro for a little while. I was at an event and some hula hoop fire person asked if I could spot her. No blanket, no extinguisher, no plan, no nothing. Just “stand and watch me, if something goes wrong, you know, do something.” I said nope. Not gonna be held responsible for your lack of saftey. She was using fucking gasoline.
Eugh yep I know exactly the type of person you describe. I know the title says hobby but it’s really a profession for me. The amount of crazy unsafe shit I’ve seen people try to get away with is insane.
I’ve had to yell at people for showing up with bags of fuel, for traveling with Coleman in a glass Snapple bottle, and for trying to spin in a polyester onesie. It’s even worse where I live since we have strict regulations (NYC, I’m producer licensed)
What the fuck? I’m an amateur in something similar and while I can take stupid risks like going extinguisher only with isopropyl as my fuel, that’s just ludicrous
If someone’s using the reasoning of drunk drivers to rationalize their behavior, that’s not a great sign.
Not a fire performer, but an aerialist - I love circus arts but some people just should not do it. Not because they suck, or they’ve got the “wrong body” or whatever other bs, but just because they completely eschew anything safety related.
The number of people who assume they can just pop a hookup in their drywall ceiling, maybe checking for a joist first, and then hang a lyra from it and try to do drops or high speed spins on it is staggering. Or, like, hanging silks from a random tree branch. Or doing anything more than 3-4 feet in the air without a crash mat under them. Or trying to teach themselves from fucking tiktok videos. Please, please just stop. You’re going to hurt yourself, and in the process you’re also going to make everyone else’s insurance rates skyrocket. Hate it so much.
thats also pretty scary. I’ll do some stupid shit while fucked up but usually it involves me potentially hurting myself doing something that seems fun. whenever theres a risk of hurting others or being responsible for others i stop that shit quick.
i also don’t put my safety in other people’s hands without prior agreement (like a trip sitter), especially not without having put safety precautions in place.
