• 21 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I don’t know where in the world you live, but here in the US there is a decades-long trend of people abandoning group social activities in favor of individual activities. Robert Putnam wrote a whole book about it called Bowling Alone back in 2000. Organizations of all kinds have seen declining membership, from adult sports leagues to scouting organizations to PTA groups. If you can find a group of people dedicated enough to form and maintain a club, then you are bucking the trend.



  • I was working for an HVAC contractor and we did a job at a prison. We would work at night while all the residents were locked up and sleeping. We had a corrections officer escorting us the whole time. The hallways were all on the exterior of the building and lined with large windows. That allowed the guards in the towers outside to watch people moving within the building.

    One night, in the wee hours of the morning, we’re walking down the hallway when a red laser dot appears on the wall next to us. All of us contractors freeze instantly. We don’t know what is happening and we DO NOT want to get shot. Our escort gets on his radio and tells the guys in the tower to stop fucking with us. The little red dot disappears and we go on with our night.

    We were briefly afraid for our lives because some bored asshole prison guard couldn’t resist flagging us with the muzzle of his rifle and teasing us with the laser sight.








  • Current favorites:
    99% invisible
    Articles of Interest (on hiatus)
    Serial (takes long breaks)
    Revisionist History
    Cautionary Tales
    Behind the Bastards
    The Economics of Everyday Things
    The Past and the Curious (for the kids)

    Podcasts I don’t listen to you much anymore, though they have some good episodes: Deep Cover
    Radiolab
    This American Life
    The Moth
    Odd Lots
    Animal Spirits Podcast
    Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History