Pedal2Petal's post-ERE life

[cmonkey]

You're probably right. Both of us tend to suffer from catastrophic thinking and dwell on all of the things that could go wrong. Once the baby is here, I'd be much happier, but those 9 months would suck almost as much for me as for her (maybe).

[Kriegsspiel]

I think you have a good story too.

I don't get the meme though, I thought you liked trump. Maybe it is too dank for me to understand.

ZERO DAYS WITHOUT WINNING. He wins every goddamn day.

[Pedal2Petal]

I know people who regret they had children early, who should have waited, who are happy with one child, who are happy with no children, who wish they only had one child. To say having children will work out much better than you think is an odd thing to say.

I stand by my statement, that it will work out much better than you think. When you become a parent, it's like society starts treating you completely differently. Other people with kids (most people) will start to do whatever they can to help you out. Grandparents will step in wherever they can to care for kids on weekdays, and the government subsidises children in many if not all countries.

If someone is already considering having children, I think they should do it as young as possible. If someone doesn't want children, then that's another story and my advice would be not to have them. I've never personally met anybody who wishes they had less children than they do, but if you have then obviously they exist.

From what I have observed in people my age, the biggest barrier to having children is always financial. If you are here on the ERE forums, you have an enormous advantage in that you have already gotten your financial house in order, and are probably working with a significant net worth. Money problems are also the leading cause of divorces. If you have ERE on your side, your success in having children is inevitable.

Once the baby is here, I'd be much happier, but those 9 months would suck almost as much for me as for her (maybe).

pffffff 9 months is nothing. And women love being pregnant because it increases their status among their female peer group. You'll see, once your wife gets pregnant, others in her peer group will want to get pregnant too

I have a piece of memery designed to evoke a positive reaction to the thought of having children.

ZERO DAYS WITHOUT WINNING. He wins every goddamn day.

And he wins for all Americans, many just don't know it yet. I'm not even close to being sick of winning though, so Trump was wrong about that one

[Pedal2Petal]

How is this for a catchy title to a book:

I will teach you to be free

Some alternatives

How to be free
How I became free

[bryan]

looks like following some Trump shit posters is way more entertaining than following liberal weenies (I get most of the latter in more recent times being in CA). Sentiment in Bay Area, CA is Apocalypse Nigh.

Regarding kids.. what are the (requisite) priorities to having a good time with raising them? You mentioned maybe grandparents nearby, financial stability, and maybe having a peer group for "communal parenting"?

By the way, how is the Li battery pack business going? Seems pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing (saw a #vanlife video where their van burned out after a year or so due to lack of protection circuitry in the home-assembled battery).

[cmonkey]

Communal parenting sound great. Neither of us have a peer group though so not sure how that'd come about. With her working from home 100% and myself working with old people I doubt it will change. Making friends is something both of us struggle with. The few friends we do have focus on their careers too much to put much back into the friendship. Such is life.

[Pedal2Petal]

looks like following some Trump shit posters is way more entertaining than following liberal weenies (I get most of the latter in more recent times being in CA). Sentiment in Bay Area, CA is Apocalypse Nigh.

Welcome, friend. I think you'll find you like making america great better than whining and complaining.

Regarding kids.. what are the (requisite) priorities to having a good time with raising them? You mentioned maybe grandparents nearby, financial stability, and maybe having a peer group for "communal parenting"?

Well, having a good time with kids isn't something I've ever consciously thought about, your kids are the ones who want to have a good time with you. A lot of parenting is just following your children's lead.



To make the day-to-day stuff work, the grandparents are great, financial stability is critical, and a peer group of parents sounds good too. Although in our peer group we are one couple out of very few who have had children. Millennials are waiting too long to have kids, a rule of thumb I would encourage you to consider is to have all your children before your wife turns 35. The chance of problems developing in a child during these "geriatric pregnancies" is an order of magnitude higher.

By the way, how is the Li battery pack business going? Seems pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing (saw a #vanlife video where their van burned out after a year or so due to lack of protection circuitry in the home-assembled battery).

Right now I'm not putting work into it, but setting up a lithium ion battery without a protection circuit sounds to me like a case of not even doing the most basic research on the system they installed. It's literally the very first thing you learn that you HAVE to do in ALL cases of using lithium ion batteries.

My ebike was actually stolen, which deflated some of the reasoning for me to work on the batteries. But rest assured I plan to integrate all these cells into future projects, my plans for future solar and battery systems are by no means off the table.

Communal parenting sound great. Neither of us have a peer group though so not sure how that'd come about. With her working from home 100% and myself working with old people I doubt it will change. Making friends is something both of us struggle with. The few friends we do have focus on their careers too much to put much back into the friendship. Such is life.

Finding likeminded people is hard in real life, but I joined a Mr Money Mustache group in Vancouver and they have turned into a great peer group, I'd say around 10 interesting and intelligent people.

[Gilberto de Piento]

My understanding is that the Pepe the frog meme is a symbol of white supremacy. Are you seriously a white supremacist? My apologies in advance if I am misunderstanding.

I say this in part because I just read an article about a college student one state over who started an "alt white" group. He talks over a pic of Pepe in his recruitment video (not in the article, I'm not linking to it but easy to find). It turns out he recently served 5 years in prison for arson of two black churches. https://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/studen ... -churches/

[Pedal2Petal]

My understanding is that the Pepe the frog meme is a symbol of white supremacy. Are you seriously a white supremacist? My apologies in advance if I am misunderstanding.

That's a common conception but he is not. The Pepe meme is infinitely versatile, perhaps the most versatile meme we have. He can be dressed up as anything, from a wizard, to Donald Trump, to an Egyptian deity, to yes, a white supremacist. In an effort to take control of Pepe back from the normies, shitposters pushed the narrative that he was a white supremacist by dressing Pepe in nazi uniform. I would estimate however that less than 1% of Pepe memes have white supremacist imagery in them.

But now that he is branded as white supremacist by establablishment figures such as Hillary Clinton, normies have completely stopped using Pepe, you might have noticed this yourself several months ago. The fight for control of pepe was won by the shitposters.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm glad you are not a white supremacist, I was prepared to be really disappointed. I grew up in a city where the KKK had enough support that we actually had a large klan rally and march. As a group they are very good at having self inflicted wounds and blaming those wounds on anyone but themselves.

That's a common conception but he is not. The Pepe meme is infinitely versatile, perhaps the most versatile meme we have. He can be dressed up as anything, from a wizard, to Donald Trump, to an Egyptian deity, to yes, a white supremacist. In an effort to take control of Pepe back from the normies, shitposters pushed the narrative that he was a white supremacist by dressing Pepe in nazi uniform. I would estimate however that less than 1% of Pepe memes have white supremacist imagery in them.

But now that he is branded as white supremacist by establablishment figures such as Hillary Clinton, normies have completely stopped using Pepe, you might have noticed this yourself several months ago. The fight for control of pepe was won by the shitposters.

As a normie, from my perspective regardless of how he is dressed up he stands for racism. I don't think it has much to do with Hillary Clinton and everything to do with the way I've seen him used. The only encounters I've had with this symbol are obviously racist facebooks posts from my redneck friends and other messages like the one I cited in my previous post. I don't think when the average person sees this the presence of a costume changes anything.

What does shitposting mean to you? Does that mean you only have a passing support for Trump but are more into posting for the fun of stirring things up? It reminds me of the taggers in my neighborhood who do it for the adrenaline.

As a word of warning, note that a lot of modern politics is designed to take advantage for people's need for ingroups and outgroups https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingroups_and_outgroups. When you talk about normies and help to divide people into "us" and "them" you are playing right into the hands of people who are trying to use you for their own ends. It creates short term victories as you are enjoying now but also results in a dysfunctional system where nothing gets done and everyone hates each other. Even though I lean left I suspect we have a lot more in common than not and could probably agree on a lot of reasonable policies. I think we need to return to a politics of moderation (the US works best that way) but the politicians are doing everything they can to divide and conquer and it's working.

[jacob]

I do have some some very interesting pro-white memery I can show you. This image is almost always interpreted as white supremacist, but the statement on the image is perfectly innocuous. Regardless, it elicits a strong negative response from both whites and minorities. It's interesting to observe that if the faces were any other race, it would be seen as completely appropriate. I think this strong negative response is the result of Pavlovian conditioning through propaganda.

I think the strong negative response has more to do with age+historical education/experience than modern internet racism. Anyone who grew up within 1-2 generations of World War II would immediately recognize the style of the image as strongly resembling that of Nazi propaganda banners and posters. Boomers learned it from parents and teachers who fought/lived in the war. For Generation-X, the rise of nazism/fascism was an ongoing school focus not just in history class, but also in literature analysis, socioeconomic, or media studies. So such an image/symbol style would be unambiguously associated with Nazism by anyone over age 35ish.

In my anecdotal experience Millenials don't have the same association, so I could see how younger people, insofar they don't have the same empathetic lessons from school or conversations with parents and grandparents at the back of their minds, see the meme as being about race, anti-PC, a backreaction to affirmative action, or just mindless fun. Speaking of historical lessons, it's interesting/crazy to see how 1984 has become the #1 bestseller on amazon this week. The top 20 also features a bunch of other classics like It Can't Happen Here (#9), Brave New World (#11), and Fahrenheit 451 (#19). https://www.amazon.com/best-sellers-boo ... zgbs/books

[Chad]

I completely agree with Jacob. I'm Gen X and the first thing that pops in my head when I see that is Nazis! The male is especially styled like Nazi propaganda. I think it's the eyes raised looking at the horizon that does it, but I would have to check the historical propaganda. The woman's are looking more directly at the viewer.

I had seen that 1984 hit #1, but I hadn't looked at the rest of the list. It is interesting that all of those jumped up so high.

[7Wannabe5]

I agree with Jacob. I would also note that the line is hijacked from anti-abortion billboard. Since the two people pictured sort of resemble my two adult children, it also struck me as some sort of image from bad dream from alternative universe where I am being haunted by the unborn.

[Pedal2Petal]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm glad you are not a white supremacist, I was prepared to be really disappointed. I grew up in a city where the KKK had enough support that we actually had a large klan rally and march. As a group they are very good at having self inflicted wounds and blaming those wounds on anyone but themselves.

I am white and my children are white, and I want what is best for my them and the rest of my people. To live in a nation where they are not discriminated against. There is considerable anti-white sentiment in the media that does not sit well with me. In does not sit well with the majority of white Americans, which is why they voted in a candidate who promises to serve white American interests.

What does shitposting mean to you? Does that mean you only have a passing support for Trump but are more into posting for the fun of stirring things up? It reminds me of the taggers in my neighborhood who do it for the adrenaline.

I am a hard supporter of the economic policies Trump promised and is now delivering on. The big three for me are import tariffs, slashing governmental bloat, and state's rights. I probably have a list of 20 policies in total that i strongly agree with Trump on, and considerably fewer I disagree on. That's why I support him as president.

Shitposting is a communication medium, not a group of people. Think of shitposting as a guerilla warfare response to state propoganda. Shitposters continue to present an effective counter-narrative to the conglomerated mainstream media narrative which is controlled by very few powerful individuals.

As a word of warning, note that a lot of modern politics is designed to take advantage for people's need for ingroups and outgroups

I will grant you that ingroups and outgroups are used to great effect by the powerful. "Divide and conquer" they call it. But I also believe humans naturally think it terms of ingroups and outgroups. It isn't a manufactured human trait, it's innate. But as I've suggested, I think shitposting is a tactic, not a group of people. You have plenty of left-wing shitposting groups like Tumblr, Reddit, CTR, Buzzfeed, and arguably Huffington Post.

I think the strong negative response has more to do with age+historical education/experience than modern internet racism. Anyone who grew up within 1-2 generations of World War II would immediately recognize the style of the image as strongly resembling that of Nazi propaganda banners and posters. Boomers learned it from parents and teachers who fought/lived in the war. For Generation-X, the rise of nazism/fascism was an ongoing school focus not just in history class, but also in literature analysis, socioeconomic, or media studies. So such an image/symbol style would be unambiguously associated with Nazism by anyone over age 35ish.

I completely agree with Jacob. I'm Gen X and the first thing that pops in my head when I see that is Nazis! The male is especially styled like Nazi propaganda. I think it's the eyes raised looking at the horizon that does it, but I would have to check the historical propaganda. The woman's are looking more directly at the viewer.

This is very helpful information. I can see now by speaking with you folks that the styling of this particular meme will have to be reworked if it is to reach an older audience than it can currently. I'll note that this selection process is how memes become more powerful over time.

Speaking of historical lessons, it's interesting/crazy to see how 1984 has become the #1 bestseller on amazon this week. The top 20 also features a bunch of other classics like It Can't Happen Here (#9), Brave New World (#11), and Fahrenheit 451 (#19).

This is very good! Especially to see 1984 specifically at the top of the list. I've noticed there is a lot more newspeak pushed into our vocabulary than people realise. I have caught my own parents, who have read 1984 and are smart academic people, using newspeak terms such as "conspiracy theory" and "fake news" to shut down debate and as a justification to not even consider evidence. I think the terms "fascist" and "racist" are also used in this way, but are losing their effect as the alt right begins to accept these terms and even to wear them proudly.

In response to this new information, I'd like to create some viral memery pointing out modern newspeak terms so people can begin to recognize it and call it out when they see it. If 1984 has topped the bestseller list, then the time is ripe for this particular message.

[ellipsis_has_expired]

Are you still coming to Hawaii? I've been quietly following your journal (really interesting stuff!) and would be interested in meeting you. I'm in Honolulu with my wife and son.

[Pedal2Petal]

Are you still coming to Hawaii? I've been quietly following your journal (really interesting stuff!) and would be interested in meeting you. I'm in Honolulu with my wife and son.

You just missed me! I was there from the 6th to the 16th, and did not check ERE during that time. I would have loved to meet you. We spent all 10 days on the big island "Hawaii", but we could have made a day trip out to Honolulu.



Aside from the biggest downside by far, the cost, my impressions of Hawaii are positive. It's sort of a bleak paradise, the big island. There are pockets of tropical beauty but by and large it is a wasteland of this stuff I call "Satan's Diarrhea", pictured here.



It's newly formed magma rock, on its way to slowly becoming soil and supporting life. I've taken photographs at a few different stages of this process, it fascinates me.



The people were laid back and happy, including the native Polynesians. I found their history very interesting.



The king who united all the Hawaiian islands for the first time, lived in the city we stayed in, Kona.



Also on our trip, we visited the volcano and caldera, took a day trip to the town of Hilo, and hopped about to at least 5 different beaches. If we go again, we'll stay in Hilo. I found it much more charming and likeable than Kona.



It's too bad I missed you, because part of my devious plot behind this journal is to meet ERE people all over the world in the various countries I would like to visit. In fact, this October we are visiting Europe to see several people who have become important friends of mine, including one reader of this journal who has generously offered to put us up when we visit the country of my own ethnicity, the Netherlands.

We're spending 3 weeks in Europe. Our time is split between 2 countries - the Netherlands, and the UK. Our catalyst for booking the trip is an invite to our friends' wedding in the UK. They are dear friends, even though we have spent comparatively very little time with them. He has a devious genius for business, and I swear, if the two of us ever worked together on something, we would be unstoppable.

Also in the Netherlands, I am visiting a friend who I now employ. He is working for me for 2-4 hours per day, doing the sorts of tasks I myself was doing when I was building my passive website income up. He is a prolific young writer whose work I very much admire and I'm lucky to be working with him. I am young as well, although the current year of 2017 marks passage into my 30's. So I'm not sure for how much longer I will be "young".

Aside from writing new articles, updating old articles, and promoting the content online, he is doing much of my client work for me. Because of his help, I am now willing to take on many more clients than I ever was willing to before. I've actually taken on another since my last post.

I'm working slightly more, but it's a very different sort of work. I'm now instructing apprentices into journeyman, as a master SEO craftsman myself. I'll tell you the truth - it's much more interesting and enjoyable work for me, teaching. In fact - I have a "job interview" at BCIT next month, to become a teacher there. I went to BCIT myself, and have an incalculable degree of respect for them as an institution. The quality of graduates they put out is second to none when compared with any other post-secondary graduate I am familiar with in the entire region. And I live now 2 miles from their campus, so I could bike there.

It would be part time, perhaps I will teach evening classes. This is the perfect year to teach a class or two because our new baby is born in June, which gives my wife a full year of maternity leave to take care of both children. I have the year to myself. And if I continue to enjoy it, I can continue to teach in the evenings after that. I usually don't enjoy any sort of work longer than one year but I am optimistic that working at BCIT might break the pattern. Not that they've offered me anything yet, but I suspect they will.



the Land Plan continues as usual, our community gardens at the co-op will be ready for planting by March first, 12 days from now. I paid my rent on the North Vancouver fief today, 14$ for the year. I should also bug BARAGA sometime this week to make sure they don't forget about my application >:)

[ellipsis_has_expired]

Aw that's a shame. Although I wouldn't have wanted you to change your plans just to meet up on a different island. I'm actually glad to hear you didn't stay on Oahu. This island is more commercial and the asians love to vacation here for all the fancy shopping, but I think you get more of the real Hawaiian feel on the other islands. Honolulu is a big modern city and if I were coming to Hawaii for vacation, I would want to avoid that.

We went to the Big Island for fun once too. I was fascinated to hike through the Kīlauea Iki crater (my picture from my visit)

which was a lake of lava as early as 1959:

You can hike across it, and the surface is still warm from lava deep below.

I never knew you were Dutch. I would think you'd have family you could stay with in the Netherlands, but I suppose it's fun to stay with new friends there as well. Happy travels and see you next time we are in the same place.

[vexed87]

@p2p, great update, DW and I visited Big Island back in June, actually we hopped all around the islands so we could experience it all, but I preferred the slower pace of Big Island. The volcano was particularly active back in June, did you get a good view still? We even saw lava flows travelling down the side of the island approaching the sea. I've never witnessed anything like it, it was spectacular. I also agree, Polynesian culture is pretty fascinating. They weren't particularly fan's of Captain James Cook over there though. There must have been some misunderstanding...?

When and where in the UK are you visiting? If you happen to be nearby it would be cool to meet you. Although I'll put in a disclaimer that DW and I are moving home soon, so things might be hectic for the next few months. I understand if you're too busy though (staying with friends, etc)

[Pedal2Petal]

I never knew you were Dutch. I would think you'd have family you could stay with in the Netherlands, but I suppose it's fun to stay with new friends there as well. Happy travels and see you next time we are in the same place.

I'm 3rd generation Dutch Canadian, and 4th+ generation Dutch American, so I have no close family in the Netherlands. My wife does though, so we will in fact be staying with some of them, they are clustered in Friesland.

When and where in the UK are you visiting? If you happen to be nearby it would be cool to meet you. Although I'll put in a disclaimer that DW and I are moving home soon, so things might be hectic for the next few months. I understand if you're too busy though (staying with friends, etc)

Good question. Our friends live in East London. We are also spending time with my in-law aunt, uncle and cousin who live in Chudleigh, Devon.

Our visit is during October, and is 3 weeks long in total including the visit to the Netherlands. The wedding is Oct 7. The exact dates aren't set in stone yet. I suspect Oct 1-21 or thereabouts.

I'm actually glad to hear you didn't stay on Oahu. This island is more commercial and the asians love to vacation here for all the fancy shopping, but I think you get more of the real Hawaiian feel on the other islands. Honolulu is a big modern city and if I were coming to Hawaii for vacation, I would want to avoid that.

Precisely. I'm physically grossed out by "tourist" things. Which is why we did the big island. Actually, I found it to be much busier than expected, not exactly a "sleepy island" vibe at all. We discussed doing even smaller, lesser known islands in the future. Although a better use of "vacation" would be to visit different countries or states I have a personal interest in. Eastern Europe perhaps, Australia, New Zealand, or Japan. Although I am not a "traveler" person, I would be perfectly happy to live out the rest of my days here in North America. My wife likes it though, so we usually end up going somewhere every year or two.



Rainbow falls in Hilo. A natural wonder. The sun was just right that we could actually see the rainbow.

[vexed87]

Ah, you're visiting the South. I'm afraid that's too far to travel for a day trip. If you get a chance, try see some of God's Own Country (Yorkshire), it won't disappoint, but I'm biased being a local . There's a lot more to the country than London, as I'm sure you'll appreciate if you've travelled outside it, that said, October isn't the greatest time to explore our countryside, it's cold, wet and windy!

Well, if you do happen to be up North at any point, drop me a PM and we shall see what we can do about meeting up.