Fighting isn’t macho. It’s not how a man proves himself to another man or how he proves himself to a lady. Fighting has nothing to do with anything but the individual and his desire to prove to himself that he can face his fears, that he can take the pain of getting hit and hit back.
Fighting, just as it is in the metaphorical sense as we fight and claw our way to a better position in life, is completely internal. Every guy wants to know how he’d fair in a fight, and I feel bad for those who don’t know; not because they’re better men if they’re fighters, fighting, after-all, is merely a skill like skating or shooting, actually it’s more than that. Fighting is how we prove to ourselves that we’re men. It’s how we prove to ourselves that we’re not pussies, that even though we’re afraid we’ll stand and fight.
Fighting can be, and often is, a good thing, as well as a bad thing. Like most things there’s a double edge to it. It’s great when there’s both a reason to fightand when it’s purely for sport. The sport of fighting in any form is sport at its purest form. After-all, sport and athletic competition began as a means to train for war. Every “sport” was a skill that could be used in battle, be it running or swimming, throwing the javelin or discuss, and of course punching another human in the face or wrestling them to the ground. Competition has changed from being about war but we still war in the squared circle and in the octagon, and that’s where true competition between men resides. It’s bad when the reasoning for the fight is idiotic and unnecessary, which is typically the case when booze or broads are involved.
We’re not going to get into the various different reasons for fighting, going over which are good and which are bad, you can decide that for yourself, and you likely have a pretty good internal compass to determine a good reason for fighting and a stupid one. The only question I want to ask is how much do you really know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?
How do you know if you’re tough? How do you know that you can face one of the most basic fears we have, the fear of death through its counterpart, pain?
Fighting teaches us a lot about who we are and what we can do in the real world. It teaches us that we’re gritty and resilient or it helps us develop said virtues. Fighting on the playground in grade school was a fun activity. It’s how we used to settle disputes, shaking hands afterwards, always strengthening bonds in the process. I’ve never actually fought someone in daylight and alcohol-free that I didn’t then respect even more, and that’s how fighting should be.
It should be hand to hand. It should be for a reason or for fun.
Every time I’ve fought I’ve learned a little bit more about myself, which is how I know that a guy who’s never thrown a blow in his life is missing that learning process that was once such an integral part of manhood. Every man used to fight. Every boy used to get in scuffles and their parents would chalk it up to being boys. Today that’s turned into charges imposed on the winner and pity for the loser.
History was made on Saturday at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California, where 33-year-old Patricio Manuel made his debut and became the first transgender male to not only fight but win, a U.S. professional boxing match.
After his win, he got on the microphone and called out fans who were loudly booing him from ringside. “I hear some fans aren’t happy, it’s okay, I’ll be back… I’ll make you happy then."
“I’ve got some naysayers out there that I need to prove that I deserve to be here. I’m not in here just for one show in one fight. This is something I love. I’m not done with this sport and I will be back.”
Manuel fought in the 2012 US Olympic trials as a woman, but a shoulder injury ended the athlete’s attempt to make the team for the London Games after just one bout.
Manuel began transitioning several months later, and after surgery and hormone treatments got through the bureaucracy of getting licensed to fight.
California boxing authorities were wary of granting Manuel a licence.
But once the International Olympic Committee ruled before the 2016 Rio Games that female to male transgender athletes could compete “without restriction” the way was cleared for him.
Aguilar, who was fighting in the US for the first time, learned of Manuel’s transition just two days before the bout, the Los Angeles Times reported.
People develop various tastes in their sexual development and it’s beyond their control. You could just as easily ask the question: “Why do some people like people of the same gender?” The short answer is that ‘it’s just how they’re wired.’
I am inclined to feederism myself and I don’t know where it came from or exactly when it first occurred to me but seeing females that have gained weight or are gaining weight is sexually arousing to me. Personally, (to share more than you want) I have this inclination towards fulfilling gender roles where the ideal feminine form is soft, gentle and pampered, being brought nourishment by a strong, lean, provider of a male. When the female is able to become plump it signifies that these roles (rolls? – pun) are being filled. It’s such a strong impulse that I don’t particularly find myself compelled to seek intercourse in a relationship (although I do engage and enjoy in it – sorry if tmi).
Additionally there are all sorts of preferences to be found here, I would not care to have a partner weigh more than 250–275 lbs (and really the weight isn’t so much desirous as the change in weight eg. gained 50lbs) but some people like really large individuals. Under the umbrella of feederism there are all kinds of different things that people will find erotic from seeking various weights and body shapes, to feeding their partner, to being fed, gaining weight along with their partner, weighing and measuring, there are people who just like eating without weightgain and the list goes on.
I should also mention there are some people involved with feederism and fat fetishism that may not be sexually wired that way but take advantage or enjoy the niche found in this area. Some may find it enjoyable to be found attractive when they thought they might not have otherwse, others still may find the idea fascinating and indulge just for the sake of it. Stranger things happen.
In conclusion, I don’t know that you can really hope to glean any insight here, unless you’ve experienced it you will probably never understand it. I do not relate to how some men find other men sexually attractive but I can try and compare my perspective and realize that it’s kind of the same picture seen through a different lense.
– Anonymous
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Why are some women attracted to men in prison?
Isenberg: The real crux of the whole thing is that these are all women who are damaged. In their earlier lives they’ve been abused either by their parents, their fathers, their first husbands, their boyfriends, whatever. They’ve been sexually abused, psychologically, emotionally abused. These are women who’ve been hurt. And when you’re in a relationship with a man in prison. He’s in prison. He’s not going to hurt you. He can’t hurt you. So you’re always in a state of control because you’re the one who’s on the outside. You’re free. You go in and you visit him. You can decide whether to accept his collect phone calls. So in a way, even though cons are very manipulative—that’s why we call them con men and they are manipulative with the women—it’s still up to the woman to decide how far she wants to go and she knows she can’t be hurt. And every single woman I interviewed had been abused in the past and that’s what I found out. That was the big secret.
Why is the song ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ not a rape anthem?
Given a cursory glance and applying today’s worldview to the song, yes, you’re right, it absolutely sounds like a rape anthem.
BUT! Let’s look closer!
“Hey what’s in this drink” was a stock joke at the time, and the punchline was invariably that there’s actually pretty much nothing in the drink, not even a significant amount of alcohol.
See, this woman is staying late, unchaperoned, at a dude’s house. In the 1940’s, that’s the kind of thing Good Girls aren’t supposed to do — and she wants people to think she’s a good girl. The woman in the song says outright, multiple times, that what other people will think of her staying is what she’s really concerned about: “the neighbors might think,” “my maiden aunt’s mind is vicious,” “there’s bound to be talk tomorrow.” But she’s having a really good time, and she wants to stay, and so she is excusing her uncharacteristically bold behavior (either to the guy or to herself) by blaming it on the drink — unaware that the drink is actually really weak, maybe not even alcoholic at all. That’s the joke. That is the standard joke that’s going on when a woman in media from the early-to-mid 20th century says “hey, what’s in this drink?” It is not a joke about how she’s drunk and about to be raped. It’s a joke about how she’s perfectly sober and about to have awesome consensual sex and use the drink for plausible deniability because she’s living in a society where women aren’t supposed to have sexual agency.
Basically, the song only makes sense in the context of a society in which women are expected to reject men’s advances whether they actually want to or not, and therefore it’s normal and expected for a lady’s gentleman companion to pressure her despite her protests, because he knows she would have to say that whether or not she meant it, and if she really wants to stay she won’t be able to justify doing so unless he offers her an excuse other than “I’m staying because I want to.” (That’s the main theme of the man’s lines in the song, suggesting excuses she can use when people ask later why she spent the night at his house: it was so cold out, there were no cabs available, he simply insisted because he was concerned about my safety in such awful weather, it was perfectly innocent and definitely not about sex at all!) In this particular case, he’s pretty clearly right, because the woman has a voice, and she’s using it to give all the culturally-understood signals that she actually does want to stay but can’t say so.** She states explicitly that she’s resisting because she’s supposed to, not because she wants to: “I ought to say no no no…” She states explicitly that she’s just putting up a token resistance so she’ll be able to claim later that she did what’s expected of a decent woman in this situation: “at least I’m gonna say that I tried.”** And at the end of the song they’re singing together, in harmony, because they’re both on the same page and they have been all along.
So it’s not actually a song about rape – in fact it’s a song about a woman finding a way to exercise sexual agency in a patriarchal society designed to stop her from doing so. But it’s also, at the same time, one of the best illustrations of rape culture that pop culture has ever produced. It’s a song about a society where women aren’t allowed to say yes…which happens to mean it’s also a society where women don’t have a clear and unambiguous way to say no.
Is it possible to be a functioning meth addict?
For roughly a year and a half I was using a little over 4 grams of crystal a week, injected. I was a production manager for a company with roughly 100 employees. At any given time I had between 4-24 employees that were directly subordinate, I had two superiors in the building.
Yeah you can function normally for some time. I functioned longer than anyone I have ever met, while also using more than anyone I ever met. I never came down. Every so often I would pass out. Wake up, inject, continue.
Normalcy as in, comparable to what I was capable for before meth. Hard to say. 3-6 months maybe.
At 6 months there was my capacity was undoubtedly diminished. By 9 months it was apparent to others there was something seriously wrong.
After long term use of meth, certain things start to change. You lose everything. Your memory, oh shit. It is like trying to function with 4mb of RAM. Best way I can explain to people is that recall is like a strobe light. Sometimes it’s blinking fast. Sometimes slow. There were things I just could not remember. This affects your functionality.
What else. Interpersonal relationships become difficult. Eventually you will become a megalomaniac. Honestly; eventually you become irrational.
You have moments of clarity realizing your irrational behavior, but these never changed my course of action. So what, I’m just being irrational. Affects functionality.
Somewhere around a year I lost my job. Not directly related to use, but. I mean, what wasn’t related to my use.
Oh and good luck trying to quit. Fuck, many of my problems at work came from times I was trying to get off of it. Vicious cycle, I think the longest I was clean in that year was maybe 2 weeks.
By 18 months I was not the same person. I was disappearing for days and weeks. I wouldn’t keep a phone on me. The amount I used varied wildly. It wasn’t take more to get higher anymore.
I passed out constantly. I was in oncoming traffic three times on waking up three separate times during this period. Honest to god it was as scary and as bad as what you’re imagining.
I was one of the dark people. The crystal people. I was a shadow of the spirit I was.
So. There’s that. At 18 months of consistently injecting roughly 4g a week, I had lost all functionality. During this entire length of time I was the only one with a job, a car and a home. I knew someone with a car and a home for awhile, he’s now off the grid. I was by far and away the most successful user I met. I can’t stress that enough. I’ve heard stories of people using large amounts for years, but I’ve never actually met someone that lasted as long as I did in the real world. 3 to 6 months into serious usage I believe most are going to start seeing serious consequences.
Today my use is a cat and mouse game. I don’t use anything like I did, but it doesn’t take as much to get me thinking crazy. Like maybe after I went there once, it’s that much easier to find your way back to the dark, crystal palace.
I’ve saved enough at age 28 that I’ll be a multimillionaire by retirement, and I used Warren Buffett’s favorite investing strategy to do it – Business Insider
A beginner’s guide to beefing up your privacy and security online – ARS Technica
The Ringer’s 45 Favorite Sports Moments of 2018 – The Ringer
What It’s Like To Live With A Chronic Urge To Die – Highline
Pain and discomfort are the gatekeepers of success.
They are the guardians of becoming extraordinary. No one enters without meeting — and trading punches — with them first.
Most people see these burly warriors and promptly turn the other way, hoping they were unseen. Most people avoid pain, and try to get through life without ever being unfortunate enough to meet it.
Sadly, this lifestyle actually costs far more energy, time, and effort than just getting on with it. Like avoiding the needle at the doctor, we get sicker and sicker as we avoid the very thing we most need.
“When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. My instinct is always to seek out challenges and opposed to avoiding them.” -Josh Waitzkin, world champion chess player
No one becomes extraordinary or achieves true success without overcoming some serious pain.
Pain creates us. It reveals us. It is the fire that hardens us, the crushing pressure that chews up us lumpy pieces of coal and spits out brilliant diamonds.
In the words of Ryan Holiday, “Bad things are fuel. You don’t just want fuel — you need it. You can’t go anywhere without it.”
If you think you’re going to cheat your way into success, and somehow win the pain-free lottery and fall into your wildest dreams without ever breaking a sweat or feeling the sting of rejection or defeat…
You’re wrong.
Pain is the gatekeeper. No one goes around — you must go through.
Most guys make the mistake of making friends with a girl first in the hopes of working it into a meaningful relationship later.
This couldn’t be more wrong. Not only are they wasting their time and money on the girl, but they are also digging their own graves.
These men wait around with their heads down in the hopes that she will change her mind and become romantically interested in them. However, these men fail to recognize the most basic facts: If she wasn’t interested in you romantically in the beginning, what makes you think she will change her mind later?
What makes you think she’s not using you as a surrogate boyfriend until she finds somebody she really wants?
What makes you think that she isn’t just around for the ride while you spend your money and time on her?
The “Friendship Zone” is a trap… a trap so elaborate and strong that freeing yourself out of it is about as easy as climbing Mount Everest.
To her, being friends with you means she doesn’t have any sexual attraction towards you or have any romantic interest in you. You’re simply around to kill boredom or until she finds something else better to do.
She may at one point in time have found you attractive, but since she’s spent enough time with you, she now believes you are as challenging as a game of checkers with her grandma. You simply do not stir the electricity in her body and that’s why you are who you are: A Friend!
More often than not, once a girl has made you a friend, getting her to think of you romantically is damn near impossible. And this is what you’ll hear:“Can’t we just be friends?”
Just because you get along with her and are compatible with her in a lot of areas doesn’t mean you are compatible intimately. Besides all this, she knows you too much already, all the sense of being mysterious and being a challenge is already gone. You are basically in arms reach for the girl and about as exciting as a G-rated movie on a Saturday night.
So how do you avoid the friendzone?
Simple…
In the beginning do not approach her in the hopes of becoming just friends.
If you are attracted in any way — big or small — do not approach her looking for friendship. Always make your intentions known in the beginning.
Do not lurk around the far corner like a long-distance peeping-tom. Come on strong like the man you are and not as the chicken that you’ll become if you start a friendship.
Guys, if you are going to spend so much time and attention with a girl, you better and might as well make her your girlfriend. What have you got to show for it if she becomes just a friend?
Whenever you are interested in a woman, take her out on a real date. Don’t fool yourself by merely pretending to be a friend in the hopes of winning her over later.
There’s nothing worse than having a dirty, itchy asshole after taking a dump. I used to get naked and wash out my asshole in the shower after taking a shit and this bidet has been a godsend and has made cleaning my ass so much easier. #TeamNoStreaks
If you’re tired of your charging cable getting frayed and rendered useless, the Anker Powerline cable is built like a tank and one of the strongest cable on the market. It will not fray and will not wither. It’s also 10ft long, so you charge your phone, lay in bed in any position and waste the entire morning away.
Seriously, this thing will save your ass in some many situtations. It provides almost three-and-a-half iPhone 8 charges or two-and-a-half Galaxy S8 charges.
This is the most impactful and important book I have read this year. It will teach you how to endure and fight through the pain, the discomfort, and all the failures that life will present to you. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Shaving your junk has always been a fucking nightmare, until now. This thing will have your pubes trimmed and shaved like a perfectly manicured botanical garden. Also great for facial hair.
I used to hate eating chicken breast because whenever I cooked it, it was always dry as fuck. That is until my brother got me on to this Air Fryer, a device that uses science and technology to cook your food in a delicious and healthy manner. All you gotta do is season your chicken, throw them into this device and 20 mins later, that shit is juicy and delicious as fuck! You can pretty much throw anything in there and will be delicious as fuck.
I love this thing to death! Having ice-cold water available during and after a workout is one of life’s simple but beautiful pleasures. I’m pretty sure this thing will keep you water cold for at least 12-16 hours.
Before I get into the technical aspects of Ring, I would like to say: Fuck package thieves! They can rot in hell with Nigerian scammers and people who order 5 burritos during a lunch time rush at Chipotle.
Ring is a smart doorbell. It is an internet-connected doorbell that relays a livestream video from a front porch to the homeowners’ phone app. Affixed to the outside of any door frame, most smart doorbells are activated either when a guest presses the button or when built-in motion sensors detect movement nearby. Basically, they’re designed to show you everything happening on your welcome mat — from packages and people arriving to any unwanted guests or potential home intruders — whether you’re at home but away from the door or hundreds of miles away.
These blackout curtains are so good, they will have you questioning whether its day or night.
Darkness is key to keeping our bodies on the right wake/sleep schedule and our bedrooms are anything but dark. We’ve got phones shining in our faces and blinds that don’t do anything to block the bright streetlight outside. Darkness signals a melatonin release – the brain chemical that makes us sleepy and nobody needs to be jolted awake by a ray of sunlight beaming directly into your eyes – that’s what alarm clocks do. Not only do blackout curtains stop sunlight from ruining your restful sleep, but they’ll also help keep the heat out. Nothing is more comfortable than a cool, dark bedroom.
