nickwitha_k (he/him)

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  • 18 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 16th, 2023

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  • I’m on an extended hiatus from riding motorcycles, after getting sideswiped on the highway by an SUV. My minimal injuries and likely survival, I owe to my gear.

    My criteria for selection started with looking at available standards for protective gear. In the case of motorcycle PPE, the EU generally has the best safety requirements, so, I’d generally select gear certified to the highest CE standards. My gear pieces were:

    • HJC modular helmet (performed very well in independent studies). This saved my face, which I used as part of an unconventional breaking technique.
    • Revit ADV-style jacket with CE level 2 armor inserts at joints and spine. This resulted in my only apparent external injury being a small abrasion on my arm, treated with ointment and a bandaid.
    • Dainese short cuff gloves with CE Categoy II EN 13594 Level 2 rating (highest standard at the time). These literally saved my life. The steel sliders allowed me to halt my tumble and steer myself away from traffic.
    • Motoport kevlar mesh overpants. Armor was upgraded as much as possible, exceeding CE standards and including coccyx protection.
    • TCX Infinity boots rated at the highest CE standards at the time. These were heavily worn and near replacement. They did do their job well, resulting in only a sprain or hairline fracture of my ankle (suspect the latter with how much it bugs me these days). If I had been able to replace them with a new pair, my ankle may have been better protected.

    Things that I think would have helped more:

    • New boots
    • Abdomen protection/armor (my worst injury was a minor hemorrhage of an adrenal gland from hitting my handlebars but needed no medical intervention).

    For your case, I would recommend looking into dirt bike or ADV PPE. The sort of protection that you’re looking for should be somewhat similar. An extra bonus is that you can likely wear body armor under your normal horseback gear (might need to size up). The technological advancements for impact armor this century are just amazing.








  • I’ve been on an SNRI for a bit now, specifically a synthetic metabolite variant. Surprisingly, for me, it has both an emotional feeling and a perceived physical sensation.

    For the emotional, it’s kinda like wearing a climbing harness with a trustworthy belayer. Sure, sometimes life throws a bit of a curveball, causing me to lose my emotional purchase but, most of the time, it keeps me from falling into depressive thinking patterns. More recently I had some pretty rough stuff happen in my life, to put it lightly, that took me to to some pretty places but, I my little chemical belayer caught me before I went splat on the rocks and helped me to get out of the funk.

    For the perceived sensation, it’s a bit hard to describe. At times throughout the day, I feel a sensation that is kinda like a tingling on the inside of my skull. It’s a bit weird but much better than brain zaps.



  • As much as I hate to admit it, I understand zero tolerance policies.

    What is it that you understand about them? Is it that all extant data suggest that they are not effective in increasing the safety of childhood learning environments? Or that they have a statistically-significant impact on juvenile and adult rates of incarceration and criminality, increasing both (ex. children who are students at schools with SROs are five times more likely to get arrested for disorderly conduct)? Or is it that zero-tolerance policies, while resulting in overall increases in student suspension rates, additionally result in an additional two-fold increase for black children?

    https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/midwest/Ask-A-REL/10185

    Basically, my point is that zero tolerance policies enable racial discrimination against children of color and has measurable long-term educational and legal implications on children well into adulthood. It is, simply put, state-sanctioned children abuse.


  • A therapist, really?

    Why not? Noone should feel ashamed of needing a bit of help, if they need it. My mention of it was not a demeaning “go see a therapist, crazy” or anything toxic like that but a suggestion that it’s worth exploring if things are hard to handle.

    Suffering is completely normal and a true necessity if you are striving towards any sort of development of “self”.

    That will depend on your philosophy and what you define “suffering” to be. Yes, we need challenges and the like in life to give us stimulation and impetus towards self-discovery. However, I would much rather noone have to experience the pain and trauma that I have experienced and try to do my best to support others towards that end. I don’t by into the idea of needing to experience a painful and challenging life to make something of oneself. There’s plenty of people who are successful without experiencing traumatic events. There’s also plenty who are left entirely broken due to their traumas.


  • Being a man isn’t about strength

    One of the few things that I disagree with in your statement and, really, it’s down to semantics. The are more types of strength than physical strength. There’s strength of character, there’s emotional strength, and more. But, like physical strength, all of these can be “exercised”, for example contemplating ethical quandaries can strengthen one’s character and ethical self-identity.

    While much more abstract, I do find “strength” in this usage part of my model of masculinity.

    Now, about this:

    Yeah it might not be the most physically attractive all the time,

    I guarantee that to someone, you absolutely are. Remember that practically noone just “sees” another human being, they perceive them. Our visual perception is NOT raw data. It is filtered by the context, real or imagined, that we associate with the person that we’re looking at. It’s the combination of all this in a non-straightforward manner that will impact how physically attractive someone finds us.

    but I see my purpose in life to make sure we all have better so that we can all do better.

    You know what I was saying above? Yeah. This is exactly the kind of thing will influence how you are perceived, even visually.

    Walz joining the VP has really given me a new sense of courage I’ve been lacking lately, and I’m really happy to see others recognizing it to.

    I’m sorry that you’ve been feeling less courageous lately. The world can fuck us all up from time to time. If it gets too severe, I’d definitely recommend seeing a therapist, if you are comfortable and able to do so (and aren’t already).