Dear bison: the May advice thread.

[Talk2BigSteve]

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As long as you're Living, Learning, Laughing while doing it, I'm gonna guess it's okay

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Please let that [censored] go, everyone complained about it, and then when I stopped using it, everyone puts it as a reply to everything that I post, WTF?

Big Steve [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[juanez]

"Ask me about racial slurs"

Dear bison,
Is simply mentioning someone's race without mal intent considered a racial slur?

-juanez

[Jazza]

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Dear Bison,

why do other people matter when it comes to my decisions?

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They don't. The defining characteristic of any relationship is the degree to which the persons involved in the relationship are committed to maintaining the illusion that they are ends and not means.

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this has always been a suspicion of mine, but i am open minded and will consider other's opinions

[somethingstupid]

Dear Bison,

Can't say I've read enough of this thread to know if someone's asked this question already. I am currently a grad student. My only classes are in the afternoon. I have no pressing reason to get out of bed before 11 AM. This means I often show up to lab around noon. This is a problem for various reasons that I won't bother explaining at this point.

How can I make myself get up and start my days earlier?

[bisonbison]

Dear Jaunez,

When we talk about slurs we're really talking about nouns and verbs. In the same way that yelling 'Fire!' can be fine in combat and bad in a dinner theatre, there are times when the long list of ethnic slurs can be trotted out appropriately - for humor, for comradery, for reflection. It's the intent that shines through.

For the less offensive terms of racial identification - skin tone, ethnicity, national origin, there are often times when including them makes perfect sense, but just be aware of the subtle difference between:

My doctor is Chinese and sometimes it's hard to understand her.
I liked the Chinese doctor better than the American one.
I went to my Chinese doctor.

In the first two examples, the fact that the doctor is Chinese adds something to the explanation. In the third, it just sounds wierd.

[bisonbison]

Dear SomethingStupid,

The key to getting up earlier is going to bed earlier. If you're going to bed at midnight, you can't really expect to start your day before 8am. 1am > 9am, 4am > noon.

The best way to move your sleep schedule earlier is to exercise daily, cause then you'll actually be tired.

[bisonbison]

Dear Big Steve,

We all have burdens to bear.

Living, Learning, Laughing,
bison

[purnell]

Not to poop in bison's yard, but I have something that really works, and has no harmful side effects.

The phenomenon is called "brain wave synchronization" . I made my own audio track using fruityloops and cooledit, based on this theory. The one I'm using now is 30 minutes long and has a constant binaural beat at about 4 Hz. When I want to go to sleep but don't feel sleepy, I listen to the track at high volume in headphones, and I am asleep before the track is over.

[MarkL444]

Dear Bison,

What do you think matters most in life? If there is no afterlife and nothing we do in life has any bearing on what happens when we die, what actions still have meaning?

Mark

[bisonbison]

Dear Mark,

The primary drives are to live and to be happy. Everyone's primary obligation is to pursue those drives without causing undue suffering to others, through action or inaction. The fundamental question: what is 'undue'?