christian

The welcoming greetings I would receive whenever I would arrive back home were literally the most reliably happy part of every day.

Wow you wrote a lot of nonsense.

I'm reading what you're writing as saying IQ tests should not be taken seriously but it also sounds like you're disagreeing with me for writing that I think IQ tests are a garbage concept that someone would be inclined to buy into if they're overly insecure and want a shortcut to claim that they're "smart". What did I write that you actually disagree with?

I was replying to a comment wondering how people can take them seriously and I was trying to imagine what could lead a person to entirely avoid looking at the very obvious reasons why iq tests should not be treated seriously. It feels like you're condescending to me while holding the same opinion I have.

My intuition is that "smart" is a vague word that means a lot of things, but almost all of those interpretations are generally seen as a positive and respectable. The idea of being respected is inherently appealing, so if we entirely conflate the colloquial meanings with a very specific meaning that can be measured accurately on a linear scale, well then you can just show people your good number and take a shortcut to being revered without having to actually behave in an observably respectable way in front of other people.

A person taking an iq test has experience with claims of being smart being met with skepticism, so the next idea is that a third party would help clear up that misunderstanding. They're not paying to be told they're smart, they're paying for the certificate from a third party to back them up.

My guess is that overlooking the obvious issues is more about desperation than anything else. No one calls someone intelligent to convey that they can score high on a specific test that measures nothing meaningful. It also should be very natural to ask whether other people might find reason to doubt the value of a certificate. Not doing any investigation into these thoughts is pretty fucking stupid, but stupid to the point where I think there has to be a certain level of desperation to not see them at all.

Yeah, I think over ten years we only had ours actually pose for us twice.

Oh I like that Baby. I put on my robe and wizard hat.

I've been following the NHL for forever and I've understood in some sense that for the past decade the sabres are where dreams go to die, but I don't think that ever sunk in for me as much as it did last night watching how sad their first-rounder looked after being picked. Maybe I'm a dumbass and it's just how he normally looks but I can't ever remember getting that bad an impression from an NHL pick's facial expressions and body language after being drafted.

On the flip side imagine knowing you're going to be drafted in the NHL first round, the sabres are up and there's a decent chance they take you, and then you dodge that bullet and the very next pick has you boarding a helicopter to fly to disneyland.

My train of thought after seeing this:

1. I wonder if at this point an adversary ever deliberately starts arguments for intel.

2. Man, what if fake documents get leaked to throw off my imagined adversary.

3. Imagine the internal reaction from the org putting out the fake leak when someone replies to call them out on their bullshit by posting the authentic documents.

We had a tiny basement and a small single room upstaira, both were mostly used as storage (and laundry for the basement). Our boy would spend most of his time hanging out with us, but sometimes he would go upstairs or downstairs just to yell his lungs out. Even though he was typically very affectionate, if I came to check on him he'd act kind of aggravated and run off, like you're not supposed to be here, gimme my space. Okay little man. I really don't know what that was about.

One night I was drifting off and my wife woke me saying "Did you hear that?" I said "No, what was it?" and she said "it souded like he screamed upstairs" and being a loving husband and cat dad I said "he always screams" and fell right back asleep. The next morning he had a mild limp so yeah, he fell off the rail edge partway down the stairs. I'm glad he healed up quick because this story would be a lot less funny to me.

I have never played Mario 64 outside of a couple five-minute sessions on a Toys-R-Us demo when I was maybe 10, but the Watch for Rolling Rocks half-A-press video - a speedrun with the added condition that a longer time will trump a shorter time if the player presses 'A' (jump) less than in the faster run - is almost unquestionably my favorite youtube video ever. It's a hilariously silly niche thing, but beyond that it's like watching someone try to explain their doctoral dissertation, making their best attempt while knowing full-well both that they won't be able to get their audience to follow every piece and also that no one else is as engaged in the topic as they are. As long aa I don't feel like a captive audience, I can find a real joy in exposure to that sort of enthusiasm. Laying that on top of something that's just a little funny hits the spot for me so much.

Now, you're probably wondering what I'm gonna need all this speed for. After all, I do build up speed for twelve hours. But to answer that, we need to talk about parallel universes, and if you thought my other tangents were complicated, just you wait. Okay, so Mario's position is a floating point number, but it's converted to a short when the game uses it to test for collision with floor triangles...

This hurts a lot to watch, but I really appreciate the conclusion she draws at the end about showing gratitude for positive impacts even if the experience isn't great as a whole. A few times I have gotten thank-you emails after a semester that have remained extremely meaningful to me many years later. I wish I could let them know the impact it had, but I'm not going to hunt down old students. I would say don't feel any need to send something if you don't fully mean it though, platitudes after a student sees their grade are not the same. They're not insulting but if it feels like a template the student could send to all their professors with a couple changes it just comes across as networking.

The "thank you for caring" note resonates with me a lot too. About a year ago after I started breaking down I had a lecture where I really didn't have my shit together and it was embarrassing. I knew I was half-assing my prep for that day but I just needed to show up. I was kind of caught off-guard when three students stayed after, but it meant a lot to me that they phrased it as "are you okay" rather than as a complaint. I opened up more than I should, definitely more than the teacher in that video, I knew better but I was too broken at the time. I think support from an unexpected place was helpful. So many of the people I have come across in my life have been exceptionally kind to me.

I felt like I had to double up because she was already late on vaccines and it was very unlikely I'd have another opportunity soon to get her to the vet.

Knew we were moving months in advance so about six months before the move I was trying to get her comfortable going in the cage by giving her wet food in there. I thought after a couple months I would try shutting the door quietly and opening it right back up and then gradually get her used to the door being closed for longer durations, but the very first time she was very unhappy and the next couple months she basically said fuck you I'm eating the dry food in protest right in front of you when you're doing this. When she finally started going back in I felt like I can't play with getting her accustomed again, I've got to just do it on the day, and I was pretty confident that if I didn't get her vaccines then it would be a very long time.

Our little lady had some trauma in her youth and was extremely resistant to being picked up and would absolutly not take direction to go into a crate. After a few years of her getting more comfortable I knew I could probably get her in again one time by tricking her, but I should save that for an emergency and nothing else. Eventually that was needed when we had to move. Of course, knowing I had to make the most of that I scheduled a vet appointment for that day.

It was somehow much worse than I had anticipated, starting as soon as I shut her in. She was so scared, throwing her full body with as much force as she could against the walls of the crate over and over and over, keeping that up while I was carrying her to the car and the first few minutes of the drive before she finally started to calm down. Watching that shook me, emotionally painful and just building anxiety about the appointment.

She actually was very submissive for the vet, who seemed to think I was crazy because at that point I was visibly a lot more terrified and upset than the cat.

Awful day in general, I have never seen an animal more depressed than she was after finishing that appointment and getting to the new place, it was horrific. She was normally extremely skittish about potentially being touched, but would invite pets sometimes. In that first day though, she was just do whatever you want I don't care. I had to pick her up body basically limp out of the crate, she had never let me pick her up. She didn't move from where I had placed her for hours, zero reaction to any action from me. She got back to her old self after a few weeks, but that day is still very painful to think back to I feel like I'm about to cry just from writing this.