There was some anxiety on my part when my middle child told me he punched his bully in the high school cafeteria. I had felt his punches through a heavy-duty punching shield, and I assumed it would lead to criminal or civil cases. However, when I asked if the bully was ok, he said he pulled the punch.
I always knew shoes weren’t going to save my kids from bullying, so I got them karate instead.
The bullying still happened, until they decided it was time for it to stop. Then it stopped.
All have their place, but canned black olives tap into childhood nostalgia. Putting an olive on each finger and eating them one at a time.
Right. Except … Spiderman. Always Spiderman.
I have a moral objection to naming guinea pigs after food, but…
Cheese Steak
I wouldn’t answer atheist because I feel that’s as much a belief as any religion. I’m agnostic. The most undecided choice possible.
When you’re around a cat, stare at it. It will leave you alone.
Just don’t stare too hard, or you’ll convince it you’re such a threat that it must kill you.
It’s serious. Looking at a cat is interpreted as threatening. To be non-threatening, you have to look away and even close your eyes. By ignoring the cat you show that you aren’t a threat.
That’s why cats always approach the person who doesn’t like them. That’s the only person looking away, so it’s the only person who is signaling that they aren’t a threat.
I could be wrong, but in the case of Mikayla Raines, the subreddit wasn’t necessarily discussing self harm, but was promoting online harassment which led to suicide.
Assuming the lenses can be removed and replaced, opticians should be able to cut prescription lenses to fit.
When my wife had her practice, we had a machine that could cut patterns using the frame. Then the pattern is used to cut the lenses. I’m sure it’s even easier today.
Later on, I learned that an excess of comments is actually not considered a good practice.
Pointless or uninformative comments are not good, regardless of the quantity.
Useful and informative comments are always good, regardless of the quantity.
I learned that comments might be a code smell indicating that the code is not very clear.
When I’m looking at someone else’s code, I want to see extensive, descriptive comments.
Good code should be so clear, that it doesn’t need comments.
That hits me like something a teacher tells you in a coding class that turns out to be nonsense when you get to the real world.
I’m not sure how others do it.
As I’m coding, the comments form part of my plan. I write the comments before the code. As I discover I’ve made incorrect assumptions or poor decisions, I correct the comments with the new plan, then correct the code to match the updated comments.
As a final step in coding, when I feel it is complete, I’ll review comments to determine what should remain to help future me if I ever have to dig into it again.
Variable names should be reasonably memorable and make contextual sense, but that’s it. That’s what they exist for. Don’t overload the purpose of anything I’m the code.
From the show I saw, the early choice was between foxes that would immediately try to kill you versus foxes that would be willing to let you live. The floppy ears and curly tails happened very gradually in the process.
The “not selected” foxes were snarling and snapping and generally being nasty as hell.
The coolest thing about that experiment is that just selecting for tame and docile foxes also caused them to develop floppy ears and curled tails.
We need another banana for scale.
No way.
In that situation, you didn’t hire door dash, Best Buy did. You paid Best Buy for a product. If they used a delivery service that stole your product, then Best Buy didn’t deliver what you paid for. Best Buy would have a brief, reasonable opportunity to do the right thing, then it would be a charge back.
Don’t get me wrong, I think we’re at the point where it may be the only way out. It’s just nothing to look forward to, and suggesting Europe “does it better” isn’t comforting.
Even in Europe when things would get bad enough for the people to put aside their differences and kill the ruling class, the differences tend to re-assert themselves once the common enemy is gone. That’s where things go south. Cutting heads off is like eating potato chips. You can’t just stop once you’ve started. Eventually you’re pulling crumbs out of the bottom of the bag.
If it gets bad enough for the American people to unite to kill the oppressors, the oppressors will definitely have a bad time, but you better be ready for one hell of a rough ride after.
More like:
Use reports lightbulb is broken. Support spends an hour talking user through diagnostic tests. Determines that the lightbulb in question is a houseplant.
Oldest was told every day he was going to be murdered while walking home. That continued until he dropped his bag and told his bully, “today’s the day, put up or shut up.”
Youngest was blocking a bully to give her friends a chance to get away. He tried to kick her and got the karate demonstration he was asking for.
Middle child was harassed and mocked for five years from Middle School through high school. He spent years begging them to stop, because he didn’t want to hurt them. He finally told his bully he wasn’t going to put up with it anymore and warned him that if he said another word, he was going to punch him in the face. The bully opened his mouth once more, and my son closed it. No one ever said anything again.
Teachers did nothing. Schools did nothing.
Here is the quote they recited in every karate class:
“I come to you with only Karate, Empty Hands. I have no weapons, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principles or my honor, should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong, then here are my weapons, Karate, my Empty Hands.”
— Ed Parker
I see no conflict between the teachings and their actions. They have a right to defend themselves against harassment, and if asking for it to stop doesn’t work, escalation is necessary. All the bullies had the opportunity to just walk away. Some took it, some didn’t.