Random Rants ': No, YOUR thread titles suck!

[Gori the Grey]

Well, I was diagnosed with depression in the past but moved to another city shortly afterwards, never went into therapy and the depression kind of went away (for a while).
Looking back, I've convinced myself that my moods and behaviour are very consistent with type II bipolar disorder (yes, yes, I know that armchair self-diagnosis is unreliable) which would have been very useful to know 15 or 10 years ago when my life was salvageable, but since then I've dropped out of uni twice, had some crappy jobs and spells of unemployment, and haven't made any progress since I was 21. My cv is an utter disaster.
Even if I got a happy person brain tomorrow, I don't see how I could be happy. It just feels too late now.

I didn't mention friends or relationships because that's not a factor at all in my life and hasn't been for years.

If you're ballpark 36, a big chunk of your life is still "salvagable" The portion of your life that it's not "too late" for is the remainder. You don't have to some how make up lost ground and get to where you would have got to if you'd been properly treated when you were 21. You just have to "salvage" the fifty-odd years that remain of your life. If you can get yourself treated, if you can start working toward a "happy brain," you'll be glad you did, starting within two months of that happy brain kicking in. And you'll treasure the amount of the rest of your life that you've salvaged.

I join RT in wishing you the best.

 

[Lohrenswald]

It annoys me I can only find interesting things in video format and not something to read.

That being said I think this guy seems to be right, and I feel like some of the things is what I've been saying for a number of years
(though the jokes aren't nesecarilly great)

Spoiler :

Link to video.

But it makes things seem worse in the end, after all

 

[Kyriakos]

I think this deserves a rant:


Link to video.

or even a tear.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

What breed is the dog?
How old is he?
What was his background before you had him?


I'm honestly surprised that you're allowed to have a dog in an apartment building. Most apartments in this city don't allow dogs unless they're registered service dogs. I guess it's a safe bet that you're not going to get your damage deposit back.

He's likely a Chihuahua/Jack Russell mix. He's two years old. The girl who sold him to us lied about everything about him, including his age. We later learned he was not old even to be adopted to us when he was. We learned this when it took almost a full month for his puppy teeth to fall out after they were supposed to start.

As a result, he's extremely attached to us in an unhealthy way. And both he and our other dog (schnauzer mix) are extreme barkers.

We chose this apartment specifically because it's 'dog friendly'. But yeah, moving across country and finding lodging while owning 2 dogs placed extreme limitations on our options.

I'm to the point where I want to get them both in obedience training to control their barking and maybe help with his pissing problem. But it's really hard to do that when you work 60 hours a week and still take an hour out of every day to walk them on top of their other needs.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Rant: just got back from Montreal...everyone smokes like a chimney. I don't understand it.

 

[gay_Aleks]

nothing quite your whole family being smokers and seeing them waste their money on cigs

 

[thecrazyscot]

Seriously. I used to work in a call center in rural South Carolina...so, nobody was making much money. Most of my coworkers were chain smokers. I often wondered what percentage of their income they were spending on cigarettes when they complained about barely being able to pay their rent.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Now switch rural South Carolina with rural northeastern Bulgaria and stuff like my brother priotising smokes over food and you've got the last 5 or so years of my life

 

[Kyriakos]

Rant: just got back from Montreal...everyone smokes like a chimney. I don't understand it.

Smoking should only be for cool people. I am unhappy that virtually everyone smokes here, cause i would like to be one of the few to do so.
And also be paid to smoke.

 

[Commodore]

Ugh, people can be so disrespectful of personal boundaries. When picking my daughter up from school yesterday I brought our newborn daughter along to give my wife a bit of a break. Well I'm standing there waiting for my daughter to come out when some lady yells out of nowhere "oh my god, look at how adorable she is!" in reference to my newborn daughter. That's annoying, but I can shrug stuff like that off. Well then she starts walking towards me with her arm outstretched like she was about to touch my daughter. I pulled my daughter away from her and said "please don't touch my daughter, she's only a week old." She then gets this nasty look on her face, huffs, and then walks away like I'm somehow the bad guy because I don't want some random stranger touching my kids.

I mean, what is it about babies that makes people think they can just violate another person's personal space and get all handsy? Maybe it's because most people just put up with it and never say anything. Thankfully, neither me nor my wife are the slightest bit afraid to tell these people to back off.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I mean, what is it about babies that makes people think they can just violate another person's personal space and get all handsy? Maybe it's because most people just put up with it and never say anything. Thankfully, neither me nor my wife are the slightest bit afraid to tell these people to back off.

I don't understand this either. Some people seem to view babies as toys rather than people.

Similar with pets. I always appreciate when people ask whether they can pet my dog. It's fortunate that she loves everyone for those who are too rude to do so.

 

[Lexicus]

Similar with pets. I always appreciate when people ask whether they can pet my dog. It's fortunate that she loves everyone for those who are too rude to do so.

Well, I have to say that I've petted dogs without asking the owner's permission explicitly, but this is usually preceded by sharing a mutual grin or some kind of eye contact with the owner, or by the dog coming over and saying hi first.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Well, I have to say that I've petted dogs without asking the owner's permission explicitly, but this is usually preceded by sharing a mutual grin or some kind of eye contact with the owner, or by the dog coming over and saying hi first.

I think there's something to be said for implicit permission, but I think there's a difference if the owner is keeping the dog on a tight leash and carefully controlled. If the owner lets the dog come over and say hi first, I'd say all bets are off.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Well then she starts walking towards me with her arm outstretched like she was about to touch my daughter.
.
I mean, what is it about babies that makes people think they can just violate another person's personal space and get all handsy?

It's an evolutionary adaptation. Babies are adorable precisely so that a lot of people will seek to touch them. Helps them build up immunities. Long term, you're putting your daughter's health at risk if you don't let people touch her. Please rethink your position on this.

 

[Takhisis]

Did this woman come at you saying ‘braaaains’? Did she have greenish skin? Did she shuffle awkwardly? Had she bitten by a zombie? Was she herself a zombie?

Because, if you want to get near a child when they're that age at which they eat, pee and poop in no particular order, something must be wrong with you.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

It's like nobody can have any new ideas outside of having to reference them in some way or another.
Like it feels like even if you have radically different thoughts you need to explain those on their terms

I know that feeling as well. It can be extremely frustrating, since it seems like a lot of labor for little gain.
If I am not mistaken, Wittgenstein tried to find a universal language for philosophy - and he ended up declaring it impossible and philosophy mostly a silly game of words.
Goes to show why there is such a persistence to cling to ancient history. Otherwise it would just disintegrate into competing word games (but they will tell you it is because the Greeks and others were so dame smart or at least interesting).
You have quit similar issues in sociology, which is why sociology pretty much abandoned the evolution of macro theories, to my knowledge.

Also - are you effing seeking treatment already? I just read an earlier post of yours and man, a guy with tomatoes on his eyes can see that you really really need it.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Lohrenswald I agree with your concern. You are free to articulate a new understanding if you discover or devise one.

I haven't really thought about it in terms of philosophy, but sociology, but as I just said in my reply to Lohrenswald, the issues are pretty close.

In either discipline, I think the effort of a universal tool-set of categories and special words etcetera to talk about it is a fool-hardy endeavor, which was also the conclusion Wittgenstein arrived at. But I arrive at it for my own reasons.

This effort stems from a desire to be like the hard sciences. An objective science that deals with tangible real stuff. And that effort is IMO the primary problem.
I think we have to learn to accept that we are too dumb to practice this in philosophy or sociology. Objectivity can not be our fundamental anchor in those fields, because, as I believe we have learned, language is just overburdened with this role. You need something real as an anchor, not words or categories, but sociology is fundamentally concerned with abstractions, with figments of our imagination.

The solution to this dilemma: To transparently and knowingly embrace subjectivity and make that subjectivity the real and tangible anchor you need.

I'll explain what that means: Macro-theories in sociology are concerned with describing human society in an objective manner and developing a tool-set (special words) to do so. The result? Trivial truth and ambiguous vagueness, for the most part.
What I suggest is to forget about even trying to describe society in an objective manner. I suggest doing so from an agenda-driven or in other words subjective POV. And more precisely I'd suggest: Comparing a given society to a theoretically possible ideal society. And then investigating what is up with the difference.

This provides you with real things it is all about, with direction, a clear view where evolution of the science needs to lead to. It immediately cuts out all the mundane, the trivial and the vague, because you do not aim to describe, but to explain. This way, a "silly game of words" is forced in to a hot debate over real questions, causes and effects.

As said before, I have never concerned myself with the question how the discipline of philosophy could be fundamentally improved, but I think it ultimately requires a similar anchor and a similar change of culture.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

Well, I was diagnosed with depression in the past but moved to another city shortly afterwards, never went into therapy and the depression kind of went away (for a while).
Looking back, I've convinced myself that my moods and behaviour are very consistent with type II bipolar disorder (yes, yes, I know that armchair self-diagnosis is unreliable) which would have been very useful to know 15 or 10 years ago when my life was salvageable, but since then I've dropped out of uni twice, had some crappy jobs and spells of unemployment, and haven't made any progress since I was 21. My cv is an utter disaster.
Even if I got a happy person brain tomorrow, I don't see how I could be happy. It just feels too late now.

I didn't mention friends or relationships because that's not a factor at all in my life and hasn't been for years.

You know I recently got to know a bus driver, who also is in his 30s, has a girlfriend, a kid and leads a happy life. And he isn't even dumb at all, from how I have learned to know him. You could be this person, a simple job, a simple life, but happy. Or maybe you could have even more, I am not the one to judge that. But there is certainly still good things for you to have and experience. Stuff of real great value and satisfaction, even, the stuff that really touches and carries your inner self.

It is possible that you can not "catch up" as Gori put it. That you will have to say goodbye to versions of yourself you wanted to be, perhaps also to compensate things. That can be effing depressing. For anyone. But yeah, you still got some solid years of health and possibilities left to make something really valuable out of them. That is just a fact.

edit: I'd make a 4th post, but I am afraid I have run out of material.
Maybe next time.

 

[Commodore]

It's an evolutionary adaptation. Babies are adorable precisely so that a lot of people will seek to touch them. Helps them build up immunities. Long term, you're putting your daughter's health at risk if you don't let people touch her. Please rethink your position on this.

It's not like we shelter her from anyone touching her, we just don't want random strangers approaching our kids since we don't know what their intentions are.

 

[Snerk]

Rant: I have zero appetite these days so I'm losing weight and it annoys me.