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CombatWombat

@ CombatWombat @feddit.online

Posts
13
Comments
427
Joined
12 mo. ago

In the fediverse since 2017. I mostly talk sports. If something on the internet doesn't spark joy, mute it.

Do not yell at me simply because I am in front of you and the people responsible for the problems are not. It is extremely unpleasant.

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  • Best/Favorite Lemmy Community?

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  • What was your "we have to leave now" moment?

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  • I served a mission for the Mormon church in Russia. One of my companions (the other teenager who is assigned to you as a stranger and must stay within earshot of you at all times for the next few weeks or months) was really enamored with the idea of tracting, or going door to door asking people if they want to talk about Joesph Smith. He had watched too many Mormon missionary movies and was very disappointed to discover the Russian Federation has made tracting illegal. But he really wanted to do it, so we rang a random apartment and claimed to be a postman and snuck into an apartment building to knock doors.

    Things started off okay. Russians generally have two doors, a normal wooden door on the inside, and a thick, metal fire door with five deadbolts (three in the wall, and one in the door and ceiling). Mostly, folks would open the inner door, ask what we wanted and then tell us to go away (fair, considering what we were doing was as rude as it was illegal).

    But then we got a nibble! A single man invited into his home. The first thing that seemed kinda strange was that he locked and bolted the fire door. This was a little strange — usually people would leave the fire door ajar when they had guests and only lock the inner door — but not enough to really spook me. He led us into the kitchen and made a quick pot of tea and we launched into the first discussion.

    The discussions are pretty well rehearsed. The first one, if I recall, has eight parts, and we would give them in sequence — I would do the first part, then say the handover phrase and look significantly at my companion, and he would do the second, then hand it back until either the investigator got bored or we got to the call to action, where we issued some thing we wanted them to do — come to church, pray, read the Book of Mormon, what have you. My companion was starting this round, and was pretty invested in preaching so I don’t think he really noticed as our investigator lit a cigarette, put out the match in a tumbler, filled the tumbler with vodka, and shot the vodka and match together. He made the handoff, though, so at least I could start to figure out a way out of the situation.

    Pretty quickly into my segment, the investigator derailed the conversation. Turns out his wife had just given birth to twins, and the prognosis was poor — he was worried they wouldn’t make it. He grasped a kitchen knife and he told me that if god was going to take his newborns from him, he intended to take us from god. I don’t think I ever in my life spoken better Russian, beautiful, flowing, eloquent, explaining it wouldn’t help his suffering and offering prayers and blessings on his children’s behalf. He had this gleam in his eye that really unnerved me, and I really felt I was pleading for my life.

    Until my companion finished his tea, and the investigator seemed to forget the whole line of questioning in his haste to be a good host. I quickly made some excuse, but apparently my companion had completely tuned out because he launched into the next part of the discussion as if nothing had happened! I cut him off pretty quick and told him we needed to go, now. When we finally got out of the apartment, I sat down on the top step and began to sob, and my companion looked down at me, amazed, and asked what happened — apparently he had no idea we were ever in any danger.

    In any event, I’ve never gone door-to-door soliciting ever again.

  • If your child came out to you, how did you adjust?

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  • You’re good people.

  • US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants

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  • Everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

  • US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants

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  • Sure, I guess you could apply license fees for hunting permits on billionaires to conservation efforts if you insist.

  • US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants

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  • I mean, the guise we use for hunting is that it's for population control to properly conserve the environment. I suppose if you wanted to say there were some populations that needed controlling on environmental grounds, like billionaires or something, I might be amenable.

  • US millionaire big-game hunter dies after being crushed by elephants

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  • If we're gonna pretend hunting is sport, you've gotta be prepared for the other team to show up and play.

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  • I left my comment and got out of that thread real quick so I didn't see how bad it got, but I'm not surprised it got ugly. Hope you recover -- being in the trenches can leave you feeling rough for a few days after.

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  • I think rather than revise up how comfortable you think most people are with the current leadership, you should revise down how much "consent" you believe is actually required from the governed by their governors and how comfortable you think the average person was historically with their leadership.

  • Jucika: suspicions

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  • Can we get Jucika to check Hegsheth's weights? I too am suspicious.

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  • You could make an MJ biopic that was critical of his relationship with children and celebrated his musical career — you don’t have to uncritically depict people as 100% evil or 100% good. I suspect they haven’t, but I’ll reserve judgement until I’ve had a chance to see the film.

  • Surprised Oak face

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  • Definitely number one best thing about Palworld vs Pokémon is being able to catch humans in pokeballs. It just makes sense! If your pokeball can catch the mythical dragon who created all of reality or whatever, it can definitely catch Jan from accounting. Plus, it really makes you stop and think about the ethics of catching pals and making them work in your factory.

  • Every heard of the kiss doctrine

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  • Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.

  • Prego Pivots From Budget-Tier Pasta Sauce to Small Microphones That Listen to Your Family's Intimate Conversations

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  • Okay, so Campbell's owns a bunch of brands: Campbell's, Prego, Swanson, Pace, Snyder's, and Pepperidge Farms. Campbell's could have used any brand to launch this product, so my biggest question is: why not under the Pepperidge Farms brand? Pepperidge Farms remembers would have been the perfect ad campaign for this launch.

  • The AI Revolution Could Usher In a New Age of Stagnation

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  • I'm not sure there's any more depressing climax I could imagine to this story:

    While the talk of eradicating friction or even rents suggests a “freeing up” of capital for more productive investment, given services would follow manufacturing into a realm of hyperproductive overcapacity, there would seem to be no upside to the euthanasia of the rentier in this instance.

    Rather than “free up” business, this development would destroy it. Capital may well be a parasite, but in the absence of revolutionary pressure it is still work-producing. Our jobs might be bullsh-t, but without them there is only unemployment and (even more) poverty.

  • Why do folks enjoy repetitive activity/content so much?

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  • I read once that toddlers enjoy watching the same movie over and over again because they have little to no control over their lives, and a limited ability to understand what is happening to them, or to predict what is going to happen next, because of their limited experience. Watching the same comfort movie repeatedly gives them a sense of control because they know what’s going to happen next, and how they’re supposed to react to it. So, maybe that but for adults?

    Edit: I read this back and it comes off very “people who like repetitive content because they have the intellect of toddlers” but I meant it more as a “we’re seeing a (perceived) rise in the popularity of repetitive content because people feel like they don’t have control over their own lives anymore.”

  • ‘The President Is Right, The Pope Is Wrong’: Hannity Suggests Leo Has ‘Totally Lost Sight of the Bible and Its Teachings’

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  • I know you meant this comment as a portent of ill tidings, but "out in 2028" and "the media wasn't covering him" just sounds so relaxing, I'm having a hard time getting worked up over it.

  • What was the smallest python hobby project you worked on?

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