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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 12h

(necessary caveat, given the kind people who inhabit this site, I intended that to be read ruefully and not pedantically explaining something you already know)

smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 12h

it is very funny that an interviewer would choose to put those words in David Simon's mouth, of all people

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 12h

i'm sure raw denim is cool but the hobbyist pitch is so funny: these jeans cost $500, they'll feel like shit until you wear them daily for a year but you can only wash them every 6 months. Also doing so might ruin them permanently and you'd better guess the size right because they'll shrink

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 12h

local news is nearly always trash on anything related to bikes, transit, or housing

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

i mean, the fact that women disproportionately bear the costs does not mean they go away if the arrangement is more equitable!

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

like, the problem with "just raise taxes on high earners" is that a typical household with two kids is effectively poorer than an otherwise demographically similar one earning 75% as much without kids!

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

The whole account is deranged, turns out

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

i took this evocative as fuck picture this morning, i call it Showdown at Dawn

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

(my own bike is a Class II pedelec which I've modded to reach class III speeds, but that requires a lot of effort. In practice it raises my typical cruising speed to about 18mph, up from 14 unmodded.)

smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

it's also context-dependent. A class-3 RadBike going 25 on the suburban road I often commute on is basically fine. On a busy downtown street, no way.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

impossible to overstate how useful it is to have a relative willing to babysit every other week, or a neighbor you feel comfortable asking to watch the kids for an hour. Stuff that's really hard to build policy around.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

i don't think it's possible to appreciate how much unstructured free time you used to have until young children suck it all away like a vacuum sealer. It's a good thing my kids coincidentally happen to be the best people on the planet, even when I want to throw them into a river.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

like it's far from "white collar knowledge workers are an oppressed class" territory but it's legitimately stressful!

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

so either parents of young kids are being systematically excluded, or they're wrecking their home lives, or they're doing some version of what I do, a don't-ask-don't-tell arrangement where I might check email and Teams at 8 but don't actually start work until 9-ish.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 1d

something that snuck up on me hunting for jobs last year is that 8-5 with an unpaid lunch is now pretty typical, including for my current employer. But even with my job being mostly remote that's just not fucking possible with two young kids in daycare and one with some medical complexities.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 2d

we've progressed from "the older kid shits his underwear daily" to "the older kid refuses to poop so every third or fourth day he's constipated and still shits in his underwear"

i love my kids but ngl even if this isn't the worst thing we've dealt with it's by far the most fucking frustrating

smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

the worst person you know just made... like one and half of a good point as well as three other bad points

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

and so are my wives

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

well if you hear Salt Lake City and your first impulse is to make a polygamy joke I'm going to throw a shoe at your head

GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE @golikehellmachine.com · 3d

since portland’s business is apparently everyone’s business, what’s something about *your* city that you can make fun of but outsiders can’t?

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

yeah 90% of the time I'm a least partially to blame for jumping into the mosquitos but i can't imagine being a normal person encountering them unintentionally.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

any time you get a post that attracts them, or interact with an account that regularly does, you're in for at least an afternoon's worth of low effort, identical replies with the exact same dollar store Felix Biederman affect, the online equivalent of walking into a mosquito cloud.

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

i'm not even saying it's *never* out of bounds to wish mortal harm upon individuals in certain circumstances, just that people who choose to do so should be honest with themselves and be prepared to face the consequences like adults.

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Reposted by smol bean language machine

smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

*rubs temples* we really gotta have an internet-wide HR training that "death threat" is, for very good reasons, a more expansive category than posting "I personally will imminently inflict lethal harm upon you"

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smol bean language machine @mightycw.bsky.social · 3d

*rubs temples* we really gotta have an internet-wide HR training that "death threat" is, for very good reasons, a more expansive category than posting "I personally will imminently inflict lethal harm upon you"

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