Kyle Jacob Biodrowski

I regret waiting so long to listen to this song...

This thread prompted me to reflect on myself. Upon reflection, I quickly shut the door for fear that I would discover I was looking in on me. I also fear what I may find.

Excellent work. My compliments. Love the stone paths, I have built many up in Pennsylvania and anywhere else I have lived. We used slate for some of ours in PA.. However, they do have a potentially slight "slip" problem in light rain. A... It took a year and a half and a fair amount of engineering to lay those rails. And except for the scale (1:8), it's like building a real railroad. But it's so much fun. I love mechanical things. The grade is insane, 7% in places so the little pull cart needed a lot of leverage and all wheel drive to work. That stone path is actually on site cast concrete and is extremely rough, and my wife did it. She's also a mechanic like me. She also built the stone retaining wall along the fence. Greg That is some serious handiwork. I remember watching a video of you(?) using the tracks. Until then, I didn't know people actually used those tracks. I thought it was all just for show, lol. I think I'll just stick to sound production and editing, lol.

And where would I be without Ronnie James Dio... And while we're on the subject of "Push"...

Perhaps the power just makes their own stupidity obvious. Note to self: When dictator, discard the idea of having monkeys joust one another.

http://youtu.be/FKQknGhcCkY

I hope to finally finish some of my stories.

Those are some great finds. Makes me want to visit garage sales and look through the books on display.

C'mon, show her the video, you know you want to.

If you have a weak stomach, I recommend against watching this video. ...Or just watch the video and grab your teddy for courage.

I'm currently reading The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers can Teach Us About Success, so this post fits snugly with my readings. I've also taken a self-diagnostic psychopathy test. I scored 2.9 out of 5.0 (0.1 being the least psychopathic and 5.0 being the most psychopathic). I suspect my score might be higher since some of the questions were a bit confusing, or the potential answers were ambiguous. Michael, would you like to see my new knife I recently ordered off Amazon.com?

Good thing the video was short; I don't think I would have made it to the end otherwise. It was so damn boring. The video consisted of common Liberal misrepresentation's in a Christmas tale format. Is this innovative? Is this progressive? Who, or what, exactly was being parodied? On second thought, I think this video may be taken as a parody of Liberal parodies. Now that is progressive. Or, even better, this video may be thought of as a metaphor for a common Liberal idea. The idea is "progress". Progressives tend to think they are being, well, progressive, when in fact they are just backwards as all hell. Perhaps the video's creators thought they, too, were being progressive when, in fact, they were just being backwards (and bland) as all hell. I remember seeing an animation, a few years back, of a snowball fight between Rand, Friedman, Rothbard, etc. While that animation wasn't particularly exciting or funny, it was funny to see Rand call Rothbard a hippie.

Huh, I didn't know Objectobot had his own website. I like browsing his Facebook page.

A name is a name is a name is a name. Any relation?

Is that really you in the video? The uploader's username is "supermotogreg" and, given the few views on the video, I'm inclined to believe it really is you. This video has great potential to go viral. Good luck.

One for the whole family.

DOGECOIN Due to the rising popularity of Bitcoins and Litecoins, numerous cryptocurrencies have been created. One of the newer cryptocurrencies is known as Dogecoin. Founded on HackForums.net, and based on the popular meme Doge, it is similar to other cryptocurrencies in that it can be mined, traded, stored, and bought from other users. Though it has yet to reach the popularity of BTC and LTC, I think this cryptocurrency has potential. Currently, the Dogecoin network may produce 100 billion coins. At the moment, each Dogecoin is worth $0.0001 or 10,000 coins for $1. 6% of the 100 billion coins have been produced and the total market capitalization of Dogecoin is around $900,000. There are a few exchanges that allow internet users to trade BTC or LTC for Dogecoins. The most notable exchange, at the moment, is coinedup.com. Dogecoin is still a highly volatile currency, but that hasn't stopped people from forming communities around it. Even a few Dogecoin gambling sites have emerged. To end this, I want to ask Doge's opinion about this new coin:

I had a children's dictionary when I was growing up, but I was more fascinated with video games. My public education, namely my middle school education, pretty much killed any fascination I could have had with books. It wasn't until I began reading Marilyn Manson's autobiography that I discovered my love of reading.

My favorite saint.

Spend enough time on this forum, and your political alliances will change. MSK may refrain from using covert persuasion techniques. I, on the other hand, lace my comments with them. And I've noticed a few other users on this site do, too. You may be thinking "Gee, Kyle sure does seem confident in his methods. I mean he's actually telling me he uses covert persuasion techniques to influence my political leanings! You can't get any more confident than that!". And you're right. I'm damn confident! Even the most stalwart of liberals eventually crack under the pressure of hundreds of subliminal persuasive techniques. I'll see you all in therapy.

In the picture, it appears she is trying to keep her hair out of your daughter's reach.

I never knew Ms. Branden, neither online nor in person. I do, however, occasionally browse the archives at Rebirth of Reason and I've always looked forward to reading her posts. Her posts are both informative and, more importantly, interesting. She could say so much in so few words, which is great for a guy like me because I don't have the patience to read giant walls of text. She even made a biography interesting to read. Though, it was about an interesting life, it is still quite a feat to make a biography interesting. When I learned of her death, I felt a subtle sadness. Though, I'm not certain why. I suppose I just enjoyed her work.

I finished watching a Let's Play of the game "The Walking Dead" today. I never really appreciated it's soundtrack until I watched a short clip of the game after I finished watching the Let's Play. Perhaps there is something to be said about music one doesn't notice. The music was so well integrated with the game-play that I didn't identify the music as a soundtrack. I just took it all (the music, game-play, imagery, etc.) as one giant, seamless whole. Here's the original soundtrack: http://youtu.be/aB7eLzGHvFc

There's something about the way cats paw their toys that kills me.

Identifying and Resisting Social Manipulation (I didn't know where to put this, so I decided to list it as an article). I’ve taken an interest in social manipulators. That is, people who manipulate others by using various, illegitimate techniques. The creation of this list is my attempt to help the victims of manipulation recognize the fraud being perpetrated by conmen. Please note: Conmen are usually very charismatic and “likeable”. People of low self-esteem are especially vulnerable to manipulation. Another way to fight these manipulation attempts is to build one’s self-esteem. Another way is to “do your own thinking”. Never let another person do your thinking for you. You’ll likely encounter a conman who will abuse those who refuse to think. The best way to resist all manipulation techniques is to realize they are being used. How to discover they are being used may be difficult, but I list ways certain techniques may be recognized and resisted. Another note: manipulation techniques may be used by conmen who don’t know they are being manipulative. This is a bit confusing. Some people manipulate others on a daily basis, so the manipulators may not immediately realize they are being manipulative. They’ve grown accustomed to manipulation and find it natural. I’m entering dangerous territory here. Namely, I may confuse manipulation with persuasion and vice versa. So, for clarity, I will define manipulation and persuasion as follows: Manipulation: to influence by means of using illegitimate (read: immoral) influencing techniques. Persuasion: to influence by means of using legitimate techniques. Illegitimate (immoral) techniques are as follows: lying, blackmail, fear raising, browbeating/harassment, and confusion. (The above section is subject to amendment whenever I feel like it.) (Please note: I’m likely not the first person to identify and label these techniques, so they are likely categorized somewhere under different names.) Manipulation technique 1: Playing the narrative This technique helps the user gain something from another by assuming the target’s worldview. That is, the target’s narrative. Usually, what is sought after is the victim’s trust. For example: Bob just met Travis today. Bob decides to use this technique on Travis. Bob asks Travis about himself and learns that Travis holds certain views on abortion. Bob makes it appear that he holds the same views on abortion as Travis in order to manipulate Travis into becoming a close “friend”. How to resist this technique: The victim may “test” the person who they suspect is using the technique on them. This test is performed by taking outrageous positions on various subjects. If the suspect agrees with you on all your positions, you can be fairly certain that he is “playing the narrative”. Manipulation technique 2: Special insight My current girlfriend just loves to use this technique on me. This technique involves the user claiming special knowledge about something while the victim is oblivious, especially if the victim “can’t know” (or doesn’t want to know) of the knowledge due to some inherent blindness (explained below). For example: Bob pretends to possess special knowledge about Jen. He claims that Jen secretly wants to sleep with him. Jen claims she doesn’t, but Bob insists that she really does and that she can’t see that she does due to her involvement with another man. I mentioned that my girlfriend loves to use this technique on me, so I’ll give her use as an example. She often claims that I’m both a racist and a sexist. I just can’t see it, or I don’t want to see it (she jumps back and forth between these two rationales). I resist this technique by claiming I just started a trust fund for disaffected Negroes. I demand that she donate. When she refuses, I use her refusal as proof that she hates Black people. Quite fun. If I ever get any money out of her, I’m not giving it back. If she claims that I’m just scamming her, well, that’s even more proof of her refusal to see how racist she is. ;) How to resist this technique: The victim may notice that any argument that he gives is met with “you just can’t see it because…” or “you don’t want to see it because…”. This is a sure sign that the conman is using the “special insight” manipulation technique. I advise the victim to disassociate himself with the user. Manipulation technique 3: Guilt inducement The user discovers a person’s values and then uses the values against the person in such a way as to induce guilt. For example: Bob discovers that Jim is a fervently against racism. Bob mentions instances where Jim was “secretly racist” and that he (Jim) can’t see it because he is a racist (special insight). Bob then uses Jim’s “guilt” against him in anyway Bob likes. How to resist this technique: The victim may easily recognize that this technique is being used against him, but he might not be able to resist it. This is an instance in which high self-esteem is invaluable. If Jim has high self-esteem, he’ll likely just brush off Bob’s remarks. (I can’t emphasize enough the importance of having high self-esteem). Feel free to add to this list of manipulation techniques. I likely will in the future.