Yeah, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was a pretty decent adaptation, but it’s still an adaptation of a hard sci-fi book for general audiences. The start of the book, where he’s coming up with ways to figure out where he is, using Newtonian physics and common objects, was a ton of fun for nerds like me, but would be boring af for regular audiences.

It reminds me a bit of Contact. The book is amazing. Sagan explains how one might communicate with an alien intelligence, starting from the basics of detecting signals, to communicating basic logic and mathematics, to communicating engineering diagrams. Pretty much none of that was covered in the movie, but it was still a good adaptation.

Great news, but what’s with that absolute serial killer smile in the main photo?

A friend of mine was shocked when I offhandedly mentioned The Rock’s likely steroid budget. “You think he uses steroids?!” she asked. This was during his monstrous peak years.

I’m also reminded of the reddit story where a guy’s girlfriend or wife suggested that he go to the gym to get into slightly better shape. Nothing excessive, “maybe like Jason Momoa in Aquaman.”

If you watch the movie, you’ll see his abdominal muscles as he’s breathing heavily. Not disagreeing with you, just pointing out that his physique is a bit more impressive than what a single photo might indicate. Definitely not the modern, roided-up action star physique. I wonder if he was even getting pumped before shooting, like modern actors do.

Some other examples are Christopher Reeve as Superman, Tom Selleck as Magnum PI, and Erik Estrada as Ponch in CHiPs. All were seen as strong, fit leading men in the late 70s and early 80s. Schwarzenegger is probably the main reason that roided-up physiques became so mainstream, along with WWF/WWE. Both exploded in popularity around the early 80s.

Not only that, but when the main character wakes up at the start of the book, he is baffled as to why he’s so muscular. I guess the problem with the movie is that he wasn’t visibly skinnier during the classroom flashback scenes.

While they cannot enjoy a good, long run, they can at least take solace in their Instagram popularity.

They’d be shot, at best, arrested and imprisoned in the US

Worth it.

It absolutely blows my mind that no world leader has taken the opportunity, during one of these photo sessions, to simply punch the orange idiot right in the nose. I can think of no human being more in need of such a tune-up.

The average office worker has a good chance of a complete meltdown if an icon on their desktop is moved. Government and business are not going to move to Linux on the desktop.

I fully recognize the absurdity of this, particularly in an era when a huge number of office jobs are basically just interacting with a web browser. I’ve just spent enough time writing software for “regular folks” to see why it’s not going to happen.

Most importantly, love requires both partners to be emotionally vulnerable, right? So then under gender roles, men can’t love women, only objectify them?

By that logic, a man or woman can’t love his or her child. Children don’t really want to see their parent(s) being vulnerable. Is it good to model vulnerability for, say, a teenager? Sure. But if you’re breaking down in tears in front of your four year old, you’re probably going to upset and frighten the child.

I think that people’s interpretations and expectations of ‘love’ vary tremendously, and plenty of people feel like they’re in secure, loving relationships that you wouldn’t see any value in.

Concerns are heightened as one U.S. city has been without power for more than a week.

WHAT CITY?! Is it in the paywalled part of the article? Is it pure engagement bait? This news site is garbage.

Luckily, I know something that would probably help her get over the trauma…

Get out of the house. Pick up new hobbies and meet new people. I don’t know how old you are, but you sound young. Now is the chance to build the future you, with a wide variety of interest and experiences, and strong friendships. You won’t get any of these from passive consumption of media.

I think you misunderstood the parent comment. Admittedly, it was poorly worded.

How did you even find a 20 pack of Coke? All I can find are 10, 12, and 24 packs.

From what I’ve seen, it’s CRT televisions that are sought after by vintage gamers, not out-of-date computer monitors. There were so many truly awful CRT computer monitors out there before LCDs came around. I’m aware that there were plenty of cheap, low-quality LCDs, too, I just want to drive home the point about all the awful, .41 dot-pitch, flickering SVGA monitors with inconsistent, blotchy color that roamed the earth in the before times (i.e. the 90s).

I strongly recommend that you focus on maximizing time doing anything and everything real and tangible, preferably with other people. It’s really easy for games and social media to mess with your brain’s reward system, leading up worse personal outcomes.

I fully recognize the irony of me writing this to you online, btw. In my defense, I’m meeting with friends in two hours and going to do yard work right now. ;-)

Things like the 40 year old computer monitors have a negative value, unless they’re something special like a 21" Trinitron or an IBM T220/221.

Unless the furniture and furnishings are of a sought-after style (e.g. Art Deco), they’re basically worthless.

I sold most of my belongings back in 2009. Furniture and beds had basically zero value. A solid wood table retained decent value. Electronics were worthless unless they were vintage collectable (e.g. Rotel amplifier). eBay was the best place to sell things because people are committed. Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace are a huge time-suck because you get so many flakes, low-ballers, and tire-kickers.

Oh, and another thing: if you’re reluctant to do something, such as reading, cleaning up, going for a walk, etc, then set a timer for 10 - 30 minutes and commit to it. A human can withstand quite a lot for 15 or 20 minutes. It’s how I was able to get through brutal HIIT cardio routines and feel good for the rest of the day. The Pomodoro technique works well for this sort of time and task management, at least for me.

You might want to read up on (or find some videos on the topic, haha) dopamine addiction. It’s not a real term, per se, but it will get you results about the problem you have.

I think that watching the videos 1) distracts you from reality and 2) gives you a little reward, either though little dopamine spikes (e.g. a funny segment, or some tidbit of knowledge), or through a false feeling of accomplishment.

Personally, I would recommend whittling down a short list of favorite YouTubers. Set aside a few afternoons per week to watch the videos, and try to pare the time back further over the course of months. Focus on real-world hobbies and interests. Leave your phone at home, go to a coffee shop, and read a book for an hour.

On the subject of reading and attention spans (which is often a core issue here), I read about a study a long time ago. They had students read from a book every night. They were to read for as long as they felt like it, and then read one more page. At the end of the study, the students reported that they were reading far more per sitting, and that their attention span improved.

There’s also a lot of recent information out there about dopamine resets, where people cut out technology and take walks while focusing on the world around them. This would probably benefit you, too.