bitofarambler
@bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
I like to travel, learn and tell stories
- Comment on Oh crap. 2 days ago:
Got it. Thanks.
What a job.
- Comment on How difficult would it be to live in a modern-day developed country without a smartphone? 3 days ago:
I did these in China.
4 first, poor had nothing, moved to teach English. It was fine, I paid for things with cash, I had a debit card to use the ATMs.
And up until that point I still didn’t have any phone, so I climbed the hills behind the apartment I was renting and just walked around town learning stuff, trying for, living life.
Then I got a dumphone, which changed little except I could hang out with close friends from the school but usually we coordinated when we work together in the school anyway, so there was very little change with a dumb phone.
Then I bought a laptop and I could study Rosetta Stone and watch TV/movies.
eventually I got a smartphone and then I could start dating in the modern world. I dated in China before that through organic meetups, but I didn’t realize how far into the digital age dating head lapped until I got a smartphone and used all the apps.
It’s very feasible and I’ll say a lot less stressful to not have a phone, but it’s not as anxious-fun, and I do like looking stuff up all the time and having gigabytes of music in my pocket.
which reminds me before I had a laptop or smartphone, I bought a mini iPod in China and used one of the school computers to load it up with music.
Shoot that was a revolution for me, I loved the little clip on the back and how late it was.
How bad would it be for your social life?
I’d say that without the tech you won’t make new connections as easily on a surface level, but whenever an unteched person does get into a conversation, their side of the conversation tends to be a bit more well thought out and significant.
You’ll also put more work into the real life relationship since you don’t have a hundred virtual relationships vying for your attention on your phone.
So it would probably help your social life, by my metrics.
- Comment on Oh crap. 3 days ago:
More than other fish?
- Comment on Magic Rocks 1 week ago:
Dang, I’m reading that next. That sounds fascinating
- Comment on Tetris Elements – one of the strangest Tetrises ever released 2 weeks ago:
that sounds really fun, I want to play tempest or earthquake mode.
- Comment on Honorary 5 weeks ago:
- Comment on Fuck off Babish 1 month ago:
i make my own noodles thanks to babish.
babish is cool.
or was when he taught me about noodles.
- Comment on Caption this. 2 months ago:
Methalodon
- Comment on The first weekly What Are You Playing? thread! 2 months ago:
just started journey to Savage planet, which is a lot of fun.
the humor reminds me a lot of outer worlds and the exploration feels a lot like outer wilds, coincidentally.
I’m having a really good time playing it and will probably check out the sequel when I finish.
- Comment on How strong is fermented bean curd supposed to taste exactly? 2 months ago:
if you’re talking about the fermented bean curd that I’m familiar with, the flavor is insanely strong.
and despicable, haha.
describing the spiciness of fermented bean curd as superfluous sounds accurate to me.
- Comment on You Are Diving in the Ordovician Period 2 months ago:
that is a great video, the “all original artwork” tag impressed me.
- Comment on Why can I get a credit card for $2,000 at best buy for dumb shit but can't get a care plus card for dental work? 2 months ago:
You’re accessing a system meant to profit rather than provide care.
medical tourism means you choose which country has the medical procedure you’re looking for at the price point you’re looking for.
I get all of my dental work done in Thailand: same technologies, same expertise, much lower prices, often 50% lower even at the best international clinics, cheaper if you go to the local clinics instead(many still speak English)
the Thai government heavily invested in medical infrastructure 20 years ago and it paid off for both their local economy in terms of medical tourism and for people like me and you who don’t want to pay obscene amounts of money for medical care.
- Comment on I’m very good at math and would like health insurance. What is the easiest option? 2 months ago:
hi, I’ve been living abroad for 15 years or so.
if you want to move, you should move.
most countries have a very low cost of living, so you can teach math or English abroad(what I usually recommend for first time travelers who want money) and save thousands per month, in a country like Thailand, which is very welcoming to trans people and has great, affordable medical care.
if you can get any remote programming job that pays more than $500 US a month, you can live abroad and immediately start saving any income over that 500, which covers your own apartment and food for the month.
and it is awesome out here in the world, btw.
you can live and save abroad for a couple years and if for whatever reason you want to go back to the US and buy a house, you’ll have the money to do that.
I’ve helped other people move and would be happy to go into any details you’re curious about.
- Comment on What efforts would it take to strip the name Americans from the folks inhabiting the US? 4 months ago:
I say “US Americans” to differentiate, works well
- Comment on Seeing a lot of copium but am I fucking crazy? The market would have to do more than just recover for people to recoup their losses? 4 months ago:
correct.
there’s also the maybe more important scientific literature ban that is forcing scientists whose job it is to make sure crops grow correctly in the US out of their jobs because they aren’t able to talk about the gender of the seeds they are breeding.
or the physicists who can’t talk about the “status” of the material they’re using, because that word is banned.
country is don’t want to buy American military equipment anymore because they rightly cannot trust the US, which is a huge source of revenue for the US.
the disastrously policies already enacted are going to economically and socially reverberate for decades.
the scientist who goes to another country rather than the US to practice physics, agriculture, anthropology, anything, that’s an entire career of innovation and scientific benefit lost to the US.
and those scientists are already avoiding the us, that’s already happening.
the market numbers are the tip of the iceberg here.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
public baths in Japan got me comfortable with being naked and i wholeheartedly agree that there are some cultural activities like saunas that obligate nudity.
and are far more comfortable when nude, anyway.
that’s usually why those activities are done nekkid in the first place.