Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
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User ID: 894
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1d ago
What a writeup. Thanks for your input. I'm normally not a huge TTRPG player, but I'd love to get into them and tell a story.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2d ago
After watching the (Amazing) Cyberpunk Edgerunners show, I've decided to get into the TTRPG. I have the 2020 core rule book already, and in theory that's all I need, but can anyone with some experience in either Cyberpunk 2020 let me know what I need to write and run a campaign? Or should I start with Cyberpunk RED instead, since that's still being actively supported?
General TTRPG discussion as well.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3d ago
all it establishes is that Asian women are soulless statusmaxxers who will hop onto any bandwagon as long as it’s prestigious enough … and hop right off as soon as its fortunes change.
This is just Asians in general, but especially in Asia. If you’ve been exposed to Asian dramas, you’d be familiar the quite frankly psychotic social games being played there. I’m happy that I was able to avoid most of it.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3d ago
I swear this example is pertinent. In porn, there is a specific genre of race fetishism videos, where the main draw of the video is a woman of a certain race glorifying and fetishizing men of another race. The woman is generally of a minority race and the man is generally either white or black. This obviously humiliates the men of the woman's own race while elevating the fetishized race.
Asian-American dating content is essentially a softcore version of those videos on repeat. Asian girls are quite open about their preferences, and even if they weren't people have eyes and can see for themselves in real time. So much so that "Oxford Study" is a well known meme at this point. As noted before, Asian-American men are disturbed by the fact that Asian-American women both prefer and are preferred by whites (for an extreme example of this just go to /r/asianmasculinity). Based off of the videos I linked, there has been a lot of discussion, at least among Asian-American men themselves, about this and how to deal/cope with this phenomenon. It's also quite difficult to even discuss this topic as an Asian-American man without coming off as bitter and emasculated so discussion generally remains within our own circles.
As an Asian-American man, I personally feel the effects of this dynamic as well.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3d ago
If, god forbid, you get divorced, you can always get a taste by moving to Thailand, Vietnam, or the Philippines in your old age. Just remember that every single one of those women really loves and values you.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3d ago
I have not had any personal experience with the Hmong population, so I can’t really speak to their specific dynamics. I’d say that I have noticed some differences between populations that came as refugees (Vietnamese, Korean) and populations that came willingly. A large one being that refugee populations are generally more insular. Even Koreans aren’t really a part of the refugee population anymore.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
4d ago
I must say that the beauty standards in Asia, even compared to the much stricter western beauty standards of 20 years ago, are completely psychotic. I'd say that Korea is the epicenter (just look at the plastic surgery rates) but China and Japan are not far behind. If the average American woman had to meet the Asian standards of today, they would kill themselves. Asian-American standards are more lax, but still far and above the current American standards.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
4d ago
Asian-American women are not OK, at least if you go by what they write about.
Any Asian-American man would have told you this without you torturing yourself with Asian-American women diaspora books. Asian-American men are not OK either, but no one cares.
All the books the author read feature a difficult mother-daughter relationship, with the author giving a hilarious quote of "Chinese mothers spent a thousand years binding their daughters’ feet, so maybe there is some deep need to torture their female offspring, which can nowadays only find an outlet in forcing them into piano lessons and telling them they are getting fat. "
This is actually not even really gendered. Family dynamics in Asia (China specifically, since I'm Chinese) have always been like this. I myself, when visiting family, often go through the "You got fat," "Why aren't you married," and "When are you going to have kids" waterboarding, and without being female. I even went through ~7 years of piano that my parents tricked me into.
The books are mostly portraits of neuroticism. "Neurotic about not being attractive because they are Asian. Neurotic about only being attractive because they are Asian. Neurotic about being too Asian. Neurotic about not being Asian enough. Neurotic about taking after their mothers. Neurotic about not living up to their mother’s expectations. Three of the books feature visits to therapists."
This is actually just Asian women in general. I've found through personal experience that Asian women, as a group, are some of the most neurotic people I've ever met. Obviously, being a part of any diaspora does not help, but it seems that it merely gives them more topics to be neurotic about. Chinese women (especially southerners, I've found) and Koreans are especially prone. I have less experience with Japanese women, so I can't speak on them.
They're largely obsessed with white people, but in the worst ways possible. They think white society is a hair's breadth away from putting them all in concentration camps. They all have white boyfriends, which presumably fill the same niche that orcs do in hentai, with their physical characteristics (especially their height) always being brought up.
Asians in Asia are also obsessed with white people, but more as a curiosity than the neurotic fixation that you find in the West. And to try to disentangle the sexual psychosis present in the Asian-American community would require an amount of effort that I cannot summon up. The simple gist is that Asian women hunt for white men like a tiger hunts for deer. The average white man is obviously defenseless against such a pursuit, leading to an above average number of WMAF pairings in Asian heavy population centers like the SF Bay Area and LA. It obviously doesn't help that Asians are more neotenic in general, giving Asian women a leg up in terms of sexually selective traits while simultaneously giving Asian men a large disadvantage. This, in turn, causes a deep psychological disturbance in the Asian-American men population. This disturbance is amplified by the type and amount of Asian-American dating content available on social media (IYKYK). Each population deals with this differently, depending largely on their country of origin and where they ended up in America.
They think white people are just as obsessed with them. What might seem like a casual conversation to the white person feels like an intense struggle for racial supremacy that both people are obviously aware of to the Asian woman.
See above.
Overall, the article just confirms my suspicions about all of these Asian-American diaspora books, and Asian-American women in general. The entire thing makes me sad.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
21d ago
Most places near me don't give out samples without purchases anymore. Nordstrom still lets you make your own samples, so that's one way you can go. I'd suggest you go into your local department store or Sephora and smell a few that you're interested in. Bleu is one that is available in most major department stores. Don't smell to many at a time though, because you will get nose fatigue. I try to limit myself to 6 when I go to the mall. When you smell one that you really like, spray it on skin and walk around with it. The opening might be really good, but you need to test how the fragrance will smell on you after an hour or so to test the dry down.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
22d ago
Responding to ping from @George_E_Hale
I'll suggest a few for colognes for some of the vibes you listed. A few things before I go on though. Everyone has their own tastes and preferences so please, please PLEASE sample before you buy anything, especially when the price tag is +$100. The last thing I want to do is to convinde you to buy a $300 fragrance that you hate. Further, for any fragrance
Businessman in a good suit: You can go a few different ways with this, but when I think of this type of feeling, I think about confidence, competence, cleanliness, and something traditional.
Aromatic fougeres are perhaps the classic professional/formal masculine scent profile. Colloquially, this would be the "Barbershop" scent. Common notes are lavender and oakmoss, and when you smell this family of perfume, you should think of a clean shaven professional. Most traditional aftershaves are of this family, so think Old Spice, Brut, or Clubman Pinaud (All of which are great scents by the way. If they made them in edt or edp concentrations, I'd buy them. I have a bottle of Brut edt and I quite like it).
A fantastic example is Drakkar Noir. Though it's old enough to be a classic at this point, the fragrance really holds up. It's got a list of notes that's longer than a CVS receipt, but Lavender, oakmoss, and vetiver are all traditional Aromatic fougere notes. It might smell like it's a little rough around the edges, but I think it actually adds to the charm. While the fragrance has been reformulated to hell and back over the last 40 years, I still quite enjoy the scent profile. When I smell it, I think about the crazy afterparties that businessmen used to get up to in the 80s and 90s.
Another great example is Sartorial from Panhaligan's. Though it's not technically strictly traditional, with a honey note that gives it a slight twist compared to the more clean smell of traditional aftershaves, Sartorial is one of the best examples of the aromatic fougere that's out currently. I think about formal work party, perhaps even a black-tie event when I wear this.
My personal favorite from this family is Beau De Jour from Tom Ford. Smoother and softer than a strictly traditional aromatic fougere, to me it gives off the man-in-suit vibe perfectly. It is pretty strong, so if you're going into the office, 2-3 sprays is quite sufficient. I didn't want to mention it first because it seems that it has been discontinued. You can still get bottles at a reasonable price, but not through any retail channels. This one makes me think of Don Draper from Mad Men leaving the barbershop.
Now for a few recommendations outside of purely aromatic fougeres:
Bleu de Chanel, and Blue fragrances in general. A more modern fragrance family, Blue fragrances were first pioneered by and named after Bleu de Chanel. Blue fragrances are generally clean, fresh, inoffensive, and mass appealing, and the perfect example is Bleu de Chanel edt. The opening is citrus and the drydown is musky and woody. Elegant enough for formal occasions, but also casual enough for every day wear, Blue de Chanel is perfect as one of your first fragrances. The internet consensus is that the edp concentration is the best of the line, my personal favorite is the edt. The parfum and L'Exclusive concentrations get a little further away from its roots, and become a little too heavy for me, but both are good for an older, more established crowd.
Green Irish Tweed and Aventus are two fragrances from the house of Creed that perfectly fit the bill of businessman in a suit. Creed as a house has a mixed reputation nowadays (I swear I'm not a Creed shill, I just like their scents), but their fragrances are undeniable in their influence. The two fragrances are completely different, but the feeling of masculinity is prominent in both. Aventus is probably the more famous of the two. It has a fruity opening and woody drydown, and there's a reason that it's the only niche fragrance that is on the top 25 sales list. You youself have probably even smelled fragrances that were influenced (or even directly copied) Aventus. This is probably something that Jordan Belford would have worn in his prime Wall St. days. Green Irish Tweed, on the other hand, is much more formal. GIT would be natural at a dinner party or black-tie event. In my mind, this is what James Bond would smell like.
Jazz Club from Maison Margiela is another way you can go. Instead of smelling like something that a man in a suit would wear, Jazz Club instead smells like the inside of a Jazz Club, somewhere a man in a suit might be. It has prominent boozy, tobacco, and smoky notes. Personally, I am a huge fan of it for fall and winter. If you're going to be in an enclosed space, however, I'd go lighter on the number of sprays.
A few honorable mentions: Eau Sauvage is a classic fragrance that smells professional and elegant.
Wood Neroli is classic Italian perfumery. The old Italian adage is that the cleaner the man, the sexier the man, and Wood Neroli is incredibly clean and fresh. When you smell this, think Italian cut suit in a beach house in Sicily.
Sandalwood:
Santal 33 from Le Labo is probably the most famous modern day Sandalwood fragrance. During summer, you'd instantly recognize it walking down the street in LA or Manhattan. It's clean, fresh, and quite mesmerizing to me. In fact, similar to Aventus, it's caused its own crop of copies and influenced by fragrances. Santal Cream from Nonfiction is one fragrance that was obviously inspired by Santal 33 and I'm actually quite a big fan of it. It's smoother and creamier than Santal 33, and while the opening is very similar, the drydown is a lot softer. A word of warning, however, a lot of people seem to smell pickles when they smell this fragrance. I've never gotten it, but that's also a good reason to try before you buy.
Sandalo from Acqua di Parma is a noticeably different take on sandalwood from Santal 33. To me it's much more of a winter scent compared to sandalwood. Before Santal 33, I'd say that Sandalo embodies the stereotypical Sandalwood scent. I'd say that to the average person, this is maybe a more challenging scent as it's not clean or mass appealing in my opinion. I quite like it for fall and winter, however.
Outdoorsy/Backpacker: When I think about an outdoorsy smell, I think about woody, musky, earthy, and maybe even a little funky. Personally, I'm less familiar with this feeling because I prefer a cleaner scent profile, but here are a couple that I think will fit the bill.
Antaeus from Chanel is one such scent in my opinon. It's named after a Greek demigod who was born of the earth, and was unbeatable as long as he was connected to the ground. I think it was well named, as it smells woody and earthy. There is an animalic funk to it but it's still nice enough for every day wear. I'd probably stay away from this for something more formal.
Wood Essence from Bvlgari is fresh woody. Instead of going for a forest floor smell, Wood Essence goes more for a pure wood smell. It's not a very complex scent, but I think it fits into the outdoorsy theme.
I've probably written more than anyone cares to read, and I hope I've given you a variety of different fragrances you can try.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
1mo ago
This is probably a little too Culture War-y for Friday, but I am literally begging the people who are in support of AI to start actually trying to sell their AI future, especially if they want the public to get on board. I would caution that perhaps finding a new name to call the Anti-AI in order to demean them further is not a good strategy toward that aim. I'd suggest laying out an AI future that people would actually want (90%+ unemployment with the potential for Terminator live-action remake does not seem to be it), laying out the path that we will have to take to get there, and annunciating how we will avoid the threat of nuclear holocaust beyond "Just trust us bro".
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
It is already the case that half of all people are not net tax payers. Where is the culling?
It hasn't happened yet because there isn't enough control yet. I'm not sure that you appreciate just how big of a change your ideal AI future will be. In your ideal AI future, the levers of power would necessarily be concentrated with the AI or the people responsible for its decisions. I'll pose a question to you. Suppose you can tomorrow, with a snap of your fingers, make your ideal AI future become reality in the US. But in the process, you'd have to liquidate the bottom 10% of the US population. Would you do it? What about 20%? 30%? How much of the population are you willing to liquidate to realize your ideal AI future?
Organizing against local datacenters, or worse American data centers in general, will do less than nothing against xrisk
Ok so what do you actually suggest I do? Say I'm a private citizen who one, doesn't not support the AI future and two, would like to stop AI development world wide. How do you suggest I act to achieve these goals?
Why? If it can do our work trivially why would there be a culing?
I think the question whoever in charge of AI would ask is if AI can do our work trivially, what's the point of having so many people around at all?
The idea that people who are themselves threatened with unemployment are going to vote to cull unemployed people beggars belief.
Keep in mind that is scenario would be that AI eliminates 99.9% of jobs, as you described. In this hypothetical future, I don't even believe there will be any voting. Society will essentially be controlled by the AI and the few who actually still work to maintain or guide the AI. That's what I mean by turn people into pets or cattle.
If you're taking this seriously then data center moratoriums are trivially not sufficient and you should absolutely be advocating for bilateral treaties with china to cease frontier development.
I do, and I would support a politician that made this a part of their platform. I'm only a private citizen, however, without a platform. So I can only reach as far as my immediate circle.
We're getting points mixed up because I've described multiple potential scenarios and did a poor job of separating them. Here are what I see as likely futures under three different scenarios:
AI is everything the marketing says it will be.
Under this scenario we have three likely futures.
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AI is benevolent and everything works out like you appear to believe it will. This is probably the best result. It's also the least likely, in my opinion.
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AI is benevolent but only for a select few. This is the culling scenario I describe. The AI heads or AI itself eliminate 99.9% of all jobs and look around and start wondering why they bother keeping all these people around. This is the second most likely scenario if AI is all it's cracked up to be, in my opinion.
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AI is malevolent. This is the scenario covered by James Cameron. Obviously this is probably the worst result. If you ask me, this is the most likely out of the three described so far.
AI is pretty good, but not the paradigm changing technology we were sold as.
I'd say this is where we currently are. Productivity is slightly up, but we've also created an increasing underclass. Productivity is not up enough, however, for us to implement UBI or similar policy, meaning these people will just have to suffer as a permanent underclass. In this scenario, The AI heads would still have oversold and underdelivered. Maybe we haven't been sold a complete bill of goods, but we'd still have greatly expanded the permanent underclass for what? A 20% increase in GDP?
AI is not and will never be as good as the marketing.
Under this scenario, we've done like I said. We've ruined hundreds of thousands of lives and been sold a complete bill of goods. In this scenario, I'd be advocating for public executions of the major AI executives.
Edit: I didn't address one of your points
Now that this labor isn't necesary it is a trivial thing. People will find a way to self define and fine meaning without the need to do labor.
Do people do this right now? If you took someone off the street and told them that they don't have to work in the future and everything they need will be paid for, do they find a way to self define and find meaning? Do lottery winners self define and find meaning? If people don't do this right now, what will have changed between now and the omniscient AI that will cause them to self define and find meaning in the future?
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
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I think a lot more people than you think derive meaning and value from their work. Maybe not a majority, but I'd say a large minority.
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I, and a lot of people, don't even believe AI will ever allow the majority of us to live in luxury. Personally, I believe that if AI were as good as it's touted as being, there will be a culling in the best case scenario. Worst case scenario would still be Skynet. (Bit of a tangent, but part of me actually thinks that if AI gave us functional immortality and infinite luxury, that that result might be a worse hell than any other. This isn't based on anything other than my feelings.) But if nothing changes, and things simply continue to be as they are, it would still be a disastrous result as that would mean that hundreds of thousands of people have lost and will lose their livelihoods and futures because we as a society were sold a bill of goods by an entire industry of charlatans.
All that is to say that we've sacrificed the livelihoods and futures of people today for future benefits that I don't think exist. And if these benefits do exist in the future, I don't think the vast majority of people will ever be party to them.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
Is this because of a rational calculation or because communist twitter artists have been throwing up a nonstop alarm since the second stable diffusion was able to generate furry smut art for pennies undermining their only marketable skill?
Let's not pretend that the heads of the AI companies haven't been boasting about the hundreds of thousands of jobs they've already eliminated, and the hundreds of thousands more they are soon to eliminate. Further, it's not like the vision of the future that these heads are selling (the best case scenario being that humans are some form of pet or cattle, to be dispensed on the whim of an AI overlord and the worst having already been tastefully adapted by James Cameron) are particularly attractive to these people either.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
This is too broad of a definition of "bribe." Food drives, little league, and the like are a way of buying good PR that's existed for the better part of the last 100 years and to a certain extent, does actually make the community better. programs like these are simply ways of reminding the community that actually, the nameless, faceless corporation that has taken over a part of the town does bring benefits to the town. For the likes of OpenAI, this type of good PR is especially important because unlike the factories of old, they don't actually bring that many jobs to the local community. When done correctly, the community itself views the company as a pillar of the community. They actually want the company to be involved in events. The loss of the company is actually seen as a loss to the community.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
I'll paraphrase something I read on Twitter recently: Currently, 80 IQ cartel narcoterrorists have a better idea of civic duty that the tech oligarchs. When your town gets taken over by the cartel, at least they bring electricity, hospitals, running water, and a level of stability. Because even the lowest scum drug runner knows that they need to at least give something back to the community they exist in. Tech oligarchs will go into a community, drive up utility prices, and call anyone who isn't enthusiastically supportive a luddite who deserves to rot in the permanent underclass. In this way, the drug cartels are closer to the likes of John D. Rockefeller than anyone alive in Silicon Valley.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
To me, it's not very surprising, and seems genuine. Let's ignore the problems with the physical data centers for a second. There's been much ink spilt on the issue of water, electricity, noise, and general quality of life for the people who actually need to live next to these AI data centers. I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that some of those concerns are legitimate and some are not. The backlash against data centers seems to me to be an indictment on AI as a whole and the view of the future that has been, let's be honest, forced on us.
The average person's experience with AI is slightly positive at best. Maybe they use it as another, better search engine (with how trash Google has become, this is probably the most prevalent use of AI. Maybe they see some vaguely amusing AI slop on social media. Unfortunately, however, a lot of the average person's experience with AI is extremely disruptive and literally life ruining in some cases. It's not hard to find people who had their parents, grandparents, or friends completely one shot by AI on Facebook or companies replacing all customer service with AI agents, making it impossible to get any help. And don't even get me started on AI and its consequences on the job market. As if mass AI layoffs weren't enough, if you're searching for a job, you're now getting your resume reviewed by AI, interviewed by AI, and rejected by AI all before a human has ever seen your resume. People are resorting to using AI to apply to hundreds of jobs a day to have a chance. And when you get a job, you're being forced to use AI as a part of company policy. I'm not saying that a small slice of the population didn't make great productivity gains with the help of AI. I am saying, however, that these gains are simply not felt by the average AI user, let alone person.
All of that is to say nothing of the actual people who are responsible for AI. Everything I said before might even be acceptable if the people who ostensibly are responsible for selling AI to the public even vaguely resembled humans. Instead they loudly and often brag about how many jobs they've eliminated, how everyone's current way of life will be completely upended, and how everyone who does not enthusiastically support this is a luddite and should be left behind to rot as a permanent underclass. And by the way, the AI layoffs will continue. And not only that, they will actually accelerate. And actually we think it's a good thing that you're being rejected by AI hiring managers. And also, do you have any more of those subsidies that lets us build more of these?
Is it really, truly a surprise, then, that the average person is against anything and everything that supports AI?
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
2mo ago
I relapsed on League of Legends this week. Classic is literally like if they released a new strain of crack. They brought back a lot of stuff I used to love playing back in seasons 2, 3, and 4. They even brought back the old map and music. Hearing the music feels as good as heroin does, I assume.
All of that being said, Riot is a complete cesspool of a company, even worse than the average.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3mo ago
Kavinsky, French DJ behind hit track 'Nightcall' found dead at home in Paris
One of my favorite artists in terms of Electronic Music. To be honest, I'd consider him a pioneer in the genre of "Retrowave", "Outrun", or "Synthwave", whatever it's called nowadays. It's not an overstatement to say that his I distinctly remember watching the intro scene to Drive that featured Nightcall some time in my late teens and being blown away by the scene. I've been a fan of the genre for a long time, and to see one of the pioneers pass away in this way is quite devastating to me.
Here are some of my favorite songs that he's done. His discography isn't extensive, but there are some absolute gems in there:
Nightcall. This is THE song that made Kavinsky. If you only listen to one of his songs, make it this one. Something about this song seems so sad to me. I've literally spent hours driving to this song in the wee hours of the night.
Odd Look (original version). If you're a Weeknd fan, you might recognize the song as this is the original version that The Weeknd remixed. And this was Kiss Land Weeknd too, so you know how far they go back. Two very different songs, but also very similar. If you asked me, I'd say that I prefer The Weeknd remix by just a hair, but it's close. The Weeknd himself actually put out a tribute for Kavinsky after the news broke as well.
Zenith. Canonically, this is a sequel to Nightcall. And yes, there is a canon story to his music. I won't go into it because it really doesn't matter for the music, but it's just an extra little layer of presentation. This song is different from Nightcall, but has a similar feel to me. Much more melodic and melancholic, this song focuses on the woman you hear from in Nightcall.
Cameo. I just really like this song.
Roadgame. Higher tempo than some of his other songs. This one gets me pumped. It almost feels like the opening credits for a good 80s action movie are rolling when I listen to this.
Testerossa Autodrive. Another higher tempo song. This wouldn't feel out of place in a chase scene in an action movie.
Rampage. This one's fun because it's a remix of one of Cell's fighting themes from Dragon Ball Z.
Renegade. To me this one actually has a similar feel to The Weeknd's version of Odd Look. It's pretty soothing for me, and I like this song.
This has been a bit of a trip down memory lane for me. I'm not one of those guys that got the scorpion jacket from Drive, but I was on 4Chan a lot when Drive took over part of the culture, so it's been really bittersweet to go back and revisit what in hindsight was a formative part of my life.
On a side note, for me, this is a reminder of my own mortality that has become very common recently. I recently watched the disaster that was Conor McGregor's comeback fight. He literally blew his knee out within the first 15 seconds of the fight and couldn't throw a punch after the first 30 seconds. This one hurt me a lot because I was a huge fan of his when he was coming up, fighting Jose Aldo, Eddie Alvarez, and Nate Diaz. The fact that he's visibly aged since then was another reflection of my own mortality.
In hindsight, this was not a very fun topic for a fun thread.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3mo ago
I'm smelled some of these, but this is definitely a more extensive list than when I first started buying colognes. I haven't even heard of some of these before.
Regarding samples, there are many ways to get them. Large department stores will generally hand out samples of scents, but generally only of designer brands. Outside of that, brands will sell samples of their scents or give away samples for free with a purchase. If you ever go shopping in Asia, the brands are generally really good for throwing samples at you with purchase. There are also online stores that specifically sell decants at smaller sizes. Scent Split and DecantX are two I've used before. Fragranceswap on reddit also has a lot of decant sellers. I've never had a problem with buying samples, but YMMV, especially on Reddit.
Do note that when buying decants, the price per ml is generally more expensive than buying full size from a brand. You're baying for variety as opposed to volume. I think it's worth it, because I'd much rather spend $100 on samples and $100 on a full sized bottle than $200 on a bottle I won't use.
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話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3mo ago
If we're talking about anime, I'd like to spin-off in a tangent and note the increasing "Furry-ification" of anime conventions. I can't claim this idea as my own, as I saw it somewhere online, but I can't find the post now. It seems that in recent years (especially after COVID, for obvious reasons) anime conventions have become less about anime, and more about degenerate sex. This is just one example of the phenomenon. In fact, It feels that many cons that are internet adjacent (anime, comics, streaming, board games, video games, etc.) have just become places for people to practice their barely disguised sexual fetishes. In the case of furrys, this was always the point, but I've been noticing more and more that this is happening to almost every con. I'm not going to pretend that this didn't happen before (I've heard about the nasty Klingon orgies that used to happen in the 80s and 90s) but the fact that it's now so in the open bothers me.
I don't think this is merely a result of the lack of socialization for zoomers during COVID (although It's definitely a large factor) as the process started back with the millennials. I personally think that it's a result of a few factors:
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The type of people who go to these types of cons are generally more predisposed to being sexual deviants in the first place (see nasty Klingon orgies from before). There's that meme of people you think have orgies vs people who actually have orgies. The people who you think have orgies are the Chads and Stacies while the people who actually have orgies look more like the It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia bit.
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Society is now more lax regarding to weird sex shit in general. It's not really a controversial point to say that the sexual norms have changed even within the last 10 years. Especially nowadays, I notice that everyone online is extremely open about their weird sex shit, and it seems that they're just bringing that same energy to real life.
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What seemed extreme before is just the norm now. I still remember when being into feet was some weird sex thing that only degenerates and communists were into, but nowadays, everyone is into some weird shit that wouldn't even have imagined 20 years ago. I'll stop right there.
Regarding anime, what I would suggest is that even if you do let your kids watch anime, absolutely do not ever let them go to conventions, even with supervision, until they're adults. I don't think it's anime itself that's causing the weirdness. Anime is just a medium. Just like every medium, there are differences in quality. I don't think that even the most anti-anime person would be opposed to watching Spirited Away or Ghost in the Shell. It's the community. The community, while ostensibly being about anime, is much more about the community itself, so that actually watching anime or being a fan of anime is less important than being "a part of the anime community." Going back to the Feet Juice example, what exactly is the anime that they're fans of? What show are they showing appreciation for? Do the people that are buying the juice even watch anime? You don't know because anime is not the point.
All I can say is keep that nasty shit away from me.
Here's Joe debating against Phil Plait on the moon landing. Two guesses on which side he's on.
Flat earth was actually a false memory. Joe Rogan himself is not a flat earther. He discussed it with Eddie Bravo, who actually is a flat earther, and Alex Jones, who he's been friends with for over 20 years.
Here's Joe Rogan talking with Rosie O'Donnel about 9/11.
There are literally thousands of clips of Joe discussing his fascination with, love of, and belief in some conspiracy theories. His earliest podcast episodes had many instances of him bringing people on to have conversations, and when conspiracy theories came up, he'd waterboard the guest with knowledge of them. In fact, that was a part of his early appeal. He is deep, deep, in the conspiracy theory rabbit hole.
Closedshop
話說天下大勢，分久必合，合久必分
3mo ago
Yes he seems to have gone down some conspiracy rabbit holes
This isn't anything recent by the way. He has believed, among other things, the flat earth, the US faked the moon landing, and 9/11 (or at least tower seven) as an inside job. One of his oldest friends is Alex Jones. He doesn't go down some conspiracy rabbit holes. He's been a conspiracy theorist since almost the beginning
If I were to intellectualize my feelings, I'd say that when this topic comes up, I feel a sense of inferiority and shame. The feeling is especially intense when I have to explain the WMAF phenomenon to a friend who is not in the know, and I end up sounding like a race fetishist. It is doubly humiliating if the friend is white, for obvious reasons. Generally, I've come to terms with it. I'm not going to pretend that I don't get a gut feeling sometimes when I see a WMAF couple. I made the comparison to race fetishism content earlier, and I'd say that if you were aware of the dynamic, it's just living in that world every day. You just have to accept it and move on. Like I said before, there's no real way to explain it without sounding completely pathetic, bitter, and emasculated. I can only imagine the mental picture you'd have of me if you judged me purely off of these posts.
There's also the specifically racial component. As we all know, Asians are "White adjacent" when it comes to racial politics, so it's perfectly acceptable to be openly racist toward them. One thing that bothers me is the nonchalance that you see in the Asian women when they say "I don't date Asian men." As if that's just no big deal. But that's just normal racial politics in The Year of Our Lord 2026.
Like I said, Asians can get really deranged and about it, and to be honest, I understand. Men are already suffering intensely in the current dating market, and to add a racial component to it definitely does not help. I might have even fallen into the rabbit hole had I been less successful with women. There but for the grace of God go I.
Just as a side note, you noticed the views that Asian women have toward their own father/brother/future sons. A lot of ink has actually been spilt on this. Believe it or not, there's actually intense discussion in some parts of the internet about the effects of having WMAF parents, as opposed to AMWF, with one theory postulating that the Asian female in the WMAF relationship would actively start to feel disgust toward the Asian part of their children, especially sons. For example, there are some that believe that if Elliot Rodger had been born to AMWF parents instead of WMAF parents, he would not have turned out the way he did, and that part of his psychosis came from the deep rooted self hatred instilled by his mother. Obviously it's all conjecture (and quite tasteless at that), but I can see why such a theory may be attractive.
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