Open Thread

Open Thread #392: Misc.

Aaron "Sleazy" Elias

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41 thoughts on “Open Thread #392: Misc.”

  1. AlekNovy, you around?

    You’ve talked quite a bit about Skincare in the past. May I ask if you happen to use any specific soap product?

    I’ve definitely been neglectful with using lotion, it gets inconvenient but I get that’s on me and I really should care more. I’ve been using Kojic Papaya Soap(recommended by my sister) however. Its definitely doing a good job at smoothening my skin. There might be more ideal options though, which you might know about hence I ask.

    Reply

    1. I haven’t been around since I’m going hard on rebuilding offline. Life has been good. I kind of got lazy on skincare. I’m considering maybe switching to this product that YouTubers recommend as being for busy people, where it’s all in one. So you don’t have to do a regiment and stuff.

    2. Best of luck with the hustle, man. Thanks still for taking the time to dig this up and respond.

      This Kojic soap seems to be the best thing for me. It also wasn’t long ago that my relatives started commenting on my skin complexion, so its definitely not just my imagination. Only issue is that it dries up my skin somewhat. maybe I should consider getting Dove for men as well to counteract this downside. Use the Kojic soap only once a day, and then Dove soap for the rest.

      My skin seems a little sensitive to sun these days. I wonder if its from the soap (you must avoid the sun as much as practically possible using this) itself, or from me avoiding the sun so much that my skin isn’t used to it anymore.

  2. This is probably a good place to post this.
    I’m getting a bit sick of my job again.

    There’s been the discussion here I’m sure re “do what u love “ Vs. “ learn many marketable skills” (if I recall). Whereby marketable skills trumped working in a passions or following dreams.

    how do I figure out my next career move ?
    Are those Personality surveys n stuff any good for that. Any of you guys done a successful career change and love it?

    I think the only way I’ll care about a job is to run my own business tbh .
    Or do a part time gig doing what I really love .. (creative endeavours like music / art etc)
    But there’s no money in that. Can figure out my next career move atm.

    Should I just “leap and the net will appear”?
    Network more…?

    Reply

    1. There is a good chance that you will get tired of any job you are ever going to have. Even if you run your own business there will be aspects you dislike, perhaps chasing after your clients because they do not pay their bill or dealing with government bureaucrats when you apply for a project.

    2. Ain’t that the harsh truth.

      “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

      Another quote, but this time, its sadly not totally true. I find fulfillment in training Martial Arts for example, and I might even want to compete in MMA one day just for the experience, but would I ever want a career as a professional fighter? (putting aside of question if I even have what it takes to begin with) Definitely not. Those guys train/work like DOGS, and pay pretty steep prices in terms of their health down the line.

      Muhammad Ali has talked before about how he hated every minute of training, but gritted his teeth through it all to achieve greatness. According to Wikipedia, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1984 which only worsened throughout the years till his death in 2016.

      I can already imagine it, and it would suck all the life, love, and fulfillment out of the activity. I don’t have to be the best or most badass fighter in the world (and it only makes sense to pursue this if that is what you want the most. UFC Fighters get paid like peanuts. Hopefully in the future, they will make as much as world class boxers.) to be more trouble than I’m worth, and that is enough for me.

      There’s been more than a few reports out of there of folks successfully making a living out of their passion, only for that passion to turn into something they dread because of all the complications that come with trying to make a living out of it. You can take a break from a hobby whenever you want, but not from something you need to do to put food on the table.

      I’ve developed the theory (feel free to take it with a grain of salt, its not something I have personal experience with. I’m just getting the idea out there) that, the best compromise you can probably hope for is to make a living (or a business) out of something you LIKE, but not something you LOVE. (unless you truly have no other choice. Life do be like that)

      This way, you at least don’t end up with the kind of work you hate/are indifferent to (especially if manage to make a living out of something that works towards a pursuit that has personal meaning to you) without tainting what you look forward to when work is over.

      This is all assuming life gives you a choice in the matter of course.

    3. @Sleazy.
      This is somewhat true.
      I think the key is in the ‘passion’ for a particular area though. Something that holds almost endless fascination somehow. And probably something from childhood & teen years according to these career change advice gurus.
      Perhaps the fascination and thirst for more knowledge would trump the grind elements of the job perhaps. 🤷🏻‍♂️

      To me it’s having 3 jobs this past year. A steady part time a job with leave & benefits 3 days pw, a better paying casual job 2 days pw with penalty rates for shifts and a hobby weekender job or passive income stream type thing. That way I have a mix of work and different tasks to keep me from boredom. But the con of this is shift work and working odd hours.

      A salaried 5 days per week office computer based corporate job I don’t think I can go back to again.
      It doesn’t pay enough for the stress and bullshit.
      And I could never “switch off” from thinking about work in the evenings and weekends.
      Upcoming meetings, upcoming projects, KPI reports, budgets , forecasts. planning , variances, corporate values, bullshit HR etc etc

      It’s the cumulative stress of planning and analysis jobs that got me in the end.
      I put the hard work in .. but it’s all a big game at the higher level in the end. Mgt have their own agenda anyway.

    1. I know virtually nothing about this genre but feel free to recommend a few artist or records.

    3. Aaron,
      Country music is a genre that you will either love or hate. I grew up listening to county music as a kid. Country music focuses on themes like marital discord, alcohol abuse, love, breakups, family, alienation from work – blue collar jobs, life in rural America, conservative values etc.

      A lot of people are unaware of the depth country music has. Many people associate country music with redneck people (white people) who are fundamentally Christians who are xenophobic.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music

      I honestly don’t know where to start, but there are so many great country music artists. I listen to old country genres and sub genres, western, and honky tonk. Modern day country music sucks as it lacks substance and it tends to be very pop.

      Here is a list of some country singers.
      Johnny Cash – Cocaine Blues
      Rosanne Cash (Johnny Cash daughter) – Tennessee Flats
      Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Fishin in the Dark
      Dwight Yoakam – Little Ways
      Charlie Pride – Crystal Chandeliers
      Bill Anderson – Po Folks
      Tom T Hall – The Year that Clayton Delaney Died
      Ray Price – Heartaches by the Number
      Rodney Crowell – I couldn’t leave you if I tried

      Porter Wagoner – Carroll County Accident
      Ferlin Husky -Wings of a Dove
      Hank Thompson – Oklahoma Hills.
      Merle Haggard – Okie from Muskogee (Muskogee is a city in Oklahoma)
      Alan Jackson – Chattahoochee
      Billy Ray Cyrus – Achy Breaky Heart
      Clink Black – A better man
      Anita Carter – Lovin’ Him Was Easier
      Moe Bandy – Picture in a Frame
      Ricky Skaggs – Honey (Open That Door)
      The O’Kanes -Imagine That

      Bellamy Brothers – Old Hippie
      Clint Black – Killin’ Time; A better Man
      Hank Williams – Family Tradition
      Shania Twain – Honey, I’m home
      Sammy Kershaw – Yard Sale

    4. Thanks for this comprehensive list. I recognize a few names. The themes you mention also feature heavily in the lyrics of some mainstream artists. I recall Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska record. Even his most popular song, Born in the U.S.A., is about alienation from society.

    5. @GoodLookingAndSleazy
      No, I have not. The signal is not able to reach me.

      If you are interested in listening to country music here are some few country radio stations you can listen in your cell phone or computer.

      KZNQ QCountry 101.5; Santa Clarita, Cali
      https://www.qcountryscv.com/

      105.1 Go Country, San Bernardino, Cali
      https://gocountry105.com/

      KJAX 93.5 FM Jackson Hole, Wyoming
      https://www.kjax.live/

      96.1 & 102.1 The Wolf; Idaho Falls, Idaho
      https://wolfidaho.com/

      101.9 The Bull; Boise Idaho
      https://boisebull.com/

      102.3 The Coyote; La Verkin, Utah
      https://coyote1023.fm/

      99.9 KONY Country; St George Utah
      https://999konycountry.com/

      101.5 Country, Salt Lake City, Utah
      https://hankfmutah.com/

      104.3 Country, Salt Lake City, Utah
      https://www.z104country.com/

    6. I like country music. I think Blowin’ in the wind by Bob Dylan was influenced by country music.

      This genre is what makes America unique.

      Most topics of country music interests me, really!

    9. I like country music because it is kind of similar to Blues. They sing about rough edges of life, which should be the perennial topic for art.

      If you listen to more songs, you will notice certain melodies are rockable, which means they can be turned into rock.

      Country music and rock have more similarities than you think.

    10. You’re right CQV. Rock-‘n’-roll is heavy influenced by Country, Jazz, and Gospel. Elvis and Jerry Lee Louis are good examples. Even rockabilly is more Country than rock-‘n’-roll IMO.

    11. @GoodLookingAndSleazy

      Here a song by Emmylou Harris – (You Never Can Tell) which is a blend of country and rock.

    12. I like that song.
      Are there somewhat darker, sadder songs in this genre?

      I would say I like Russian folk music, and then country music.

      Just that I lack the cultural reference to fully appreciate its nuances.

  4. I recently watched the movie Monster Hunter, primarily because I was curious about Tony Jaa’s performance. Even though the movie is total crap, I found it quite engaging at times. Anyone enjoying King Kong or Godzilla movies probably finds plenty to like in the CGI battles against monsters in this movie. The art direction is quite good at times.

    To briefly address the movie: there is no proper story. The movie does not really go anywhere. In that regard, it perhaps mirrors the gameplay loop of the Monster Hunter vidya franchise quite well. You need to be able to look past the ridiculous girl boss in this movie, played by an aged Milla Jovovich. Amusingly, that woman is the wife of the director. He puts her in basically all his movies.

    Reply

  5. I find it funny that Jordan Peterson claims to have been poor during his student days. He lived with his girlfriend in a nice apartment in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Alberta and Montreal, had a car and his parents were in the top 5% of Americans in terms of income. That damn con artist and shill just pisses me off. Then he preaches child rearing to people even though his own daughter is a slut and his son is a drug addicted loser. I know that everything has already been said about Jordan Peterson, but he still gets me worked up all the time. The fact that he never takes a stand so as not to upset his audience doesn’t show integrity. I prefer Douglas Murray.

    Reply

    1. Let’s not forget his “clean your room!”-advice. While I agree with the advice, I recall someone here on the blog posting a clip where Jordan Peterson streamed from his own, disgustingly dirty room (basically just a step or two up from a crack den IIRC).

      I also don’t understand this obsession with falsely claiming you come from humble backgrounds. Reminds me of Victoria Beckham’s recent false claim to having grown up in a working-class family:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqGkAaOLipQ

      So her father was an engineer who drove a Rolls Royce, while David Beckham’s father was a kitchen fitter (according to Wikipedia). Yeah, totally the same, working-class, background. 😀

    2. Among US self-help gurus, the origin story normally includes sleeping in their car, having been close to getting evicted, or something else. They all first hit rock bottom, only to successfully lift themselves up by their bootstraps. They could do it so you, in your much better economic circumstances, can do it too, so pull out your credit card and pay $999 $249 $99 for this digital product that contains all the secrets to instant wealth and endless pussy! Or do you want to remain a loser forever, regretting on his deathbed that he did not pay $999 $249 $99 when he had the chance, missing out on the opportunity to turn his life around?

    3. Among well-off students, I have noticed that a lot of them downplayed their family’s money. This was sometimes quite grotesque. A Turkish woman in London I met told me about how she had to “fight” to be able to study in England and one of her parents was not to keen on her attending a particular high school. The real story, though, was that her parents are probably among the 1,000 richest families of Turkey. She attended one of the ultra-expensive UK boarding schools for girls from age 10 onwards (you can look up how much they charge in tuition fees), and afterwards attended university in London, which is not cheap either. Oh, but she had to struggle so much to get where she was!

      In the United States, there is also the myth of the self-made millionaire. Even in some autobiographies of very successful men you can find some utterly bizarre descriptions of their upbringing. They all grew up in “modest circumstance”, yet somehow found a rich benefactor who paid for Andover, and then they “lucked out” and won a scholarship for Harvard, and them gaining admittance had nothing to do with their families being ultra-wealthy and donors. I recall reading about some business executive who claimed that he worked on the weekend at the local country club, and made important connections by carrying the golf bags of rich guys, completely ignoring the guy’s family connections.

      A very prominent example is Bill Gates, by the way, the “Harvard dropout”. Yet, he comes from an ultra-wealthy family, and his mother was instrumental in setting up the IBM deal, which built the foundation for the subsequent great economic success of Microsoft. There are very few self-made men out there.

    4. Reading your blog makes me appreciate my background even more and makes me have a more realistic look at my success. There are many more talented people who achieved far more than I did with a less advantageous family origin.

      I am still a pleb, though.

    5. @Karl

      “ clean your room advice” 😆 👌 love that one.

      JP does my head in . It’s his accent mainly.
      What about Tony Robbins?Does he get a shout out around here…

      I read somewhere Tony’s biz makes $150K a week selling books, courses and merch. Those include pendants, motto mugs and even energy crystals and other assorted energy crapola.

      He’s basically selling “Motivation” and raking it in. A broke ass idiot I met paid $5K (!) for his intensive course. The guy drives a clapped out old 1990s banger of a car .. does social work and was so excited and raving about his future the amazingness of Tony and his hanging with “entrepreneurs” online. Idiot,

      I gave a friend some Robbins advice recently as it just popped into my head.
      And then a few gifs I found in iPhone gif database. One was Tony pointing seriously with authority and saying “ RAISE.. YOUR.. STANDARDS!” Lol

    1. I don’t know what the hell will happen. Kamala is such a horrible candidate that she makes Hillary Clinton look beloved and charismatic by comparison; she couldn’t get a decent amount of Primary votes despite her tokenism, and every time she opens her mouth for the slighest amount of unscripted exposure she looks worse than Trump in his worst moments.

      Having said that, once leftists get ahold of an electoral system enough to rig a national election, they never stop at one. The US electoral system (not necessarily the College, but almost everything else) is a joke, from holding the election on Tuesdays to mail-in ballots to not requiring an ID because of “racism”. Even the wretched Nicaraguan elections don’t have these braindead policies.

    2. I bet everything I own that a Zionist/corporatist/warmonger will win the election.

    3. Let’s not be so cynical! At least you are free to chose between an Indian woman and a white guy. It could be worse. You would be in an open tyranny where the deep state does not even bother to set up such a charade.

    4. The election is of course rigged. However, it seems that Trump has enough Big Jew support to pull through. I can almost imagine a comical situation in which first five million extra mail-in ballots for Kamala get discovered, which will be dwarfed by an extra ten million Trump ballots that have been printed in advance.

    5. If the Zionists have anything to say, then Trump will win for sure. He’s the most staunchly pro-Israel president the U.S. has ever had.

    6. I don’t know guys, I try to be a little less cynical about this. For all we know, the few Big Juice support might be the only thing keeping Trump out of prison. Or alive.

      I still regard it as a positive if he wins, if only because it’s a pushback against rampant wokism, which is the biggest reason my corner of the world benefits from Trump. Maybe he’ll get around to fixing these stupid migration policies as well, that so often help the scum of LatAm to enter, and the Mexican cartels to do business with scum and decent folks alike.

    7. It’s looking like Trump won 312 electoral votes, as well as the Republicans claiming both the house and the senate. I expect Israel will be blowing a lot of shit up in the next 4 years. On that topic, things are not looking too good for Islam. You know, with the whole Europe getting fed up with them thing and Israel having all the backing in the world.

    9. Trump is off to a great start. There is the cynic take that the Deep State needed Trump because of his ability to motivate young, white men to fight wars for Israel. He surely will be able to do a better job at that than Indian-turned-black Kamala would have done, but with the current backlash against woke insanity, it is quite likely that not even Trump will get enough goyim to enlist.

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