/ub/ - Überhengst

German for "over stallion," and a reference to Nietzsche's "Übermensch," /üb/ - Überhengst is about bettering yourself physically, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally. It is about self-improvement, constructive self-reflection, and seeking advice from others. You may discuss here those personal hobbies through which you develop your creative energies, and the efforts you take to improve your talents, artistic and otherwise. And of course, this is a board for fitness and literature, as they are parts of the backbone of physical and mental wellness. This is also a board where we may discuss Western culture - history, literature, architecture, and philosophy - as when imbibed, culture improves the mind and spirit, sharpening mental faculties, and providing a greater connection to those around you and to civilizations millennia old.

As this is a self-improvement board, discussions of personal problems should be constructive. No wallowing in self-pity. We are here to become better, and while seeking company in misery may be a helpful part of the process, the process does not end there.

Enjoy!

When you see this thread, do five push ups.
if busy do ten later

One problem plaguing a lot of people these days, especially burgers like myself, is that many people eat out at restaurants too much instead of preparing home cooked meals. Eating out is frequently both more expensive and less healthy for you than a home cooked meal. Furthermore, many people live with a limited library of meals that they know how to prepare and don't realize the culinary possibilities that are right in front of them.

The purpose of this thread is to try to break that habit of eating out and to make cooking at home become the norm in our lives. Please share meal ideas and how to prepare them here. All meals are welcome, although preferably we should post meals that are easy to prepare so that novice cooks will not be intimidated by the prospect of preparing them for themselves. Even simple sandwiches are fair game. Sometimes that may mean cutting corners with pre-made mixes instead of preparing everything from scratch.

Remember that the goal isn't necessarily to post the most inexpensive meals or the healthiest meals, although those meals are certainly very welcome. The goal is to encourage people to dust off their kitchen appliances and flex their atrophied cooking muscles. I realize that this opens the door to culinary nightmares like /tg/'s infamous meat-bread, but so be it. Let's get cooking!

In this thread some useful advice right from the hoarses mouth.
I was hearing from asinine and counterproductive advice from women about how to date men. So I asked myself who would suitably explain this stuff.
Ah, of course Princesses Mi Amore Cadenza.
So to help spread such knowledge out into the wider consciousness of mankind a blog post, VTuber stuff may happen else where.
So in the mean time schizo posting for/about what princess Cadence says.
Yes this includes peetzer posting and Hi Anon!

Hey /üb/, how much do you know about Narcissism?
I'd like to direct your attention to Dr. Ramani Dursavula - clinical psychologist, professor at CSU LA, author, youtuber etc, and arguably the leading authority on Narcissism.
The problem with Narcissism as a clinical disorder is that it doesnt bear any of the classical signs of a disorder; the people who bear the symptoms of a narcissistic relationship are not the narcissist themselves, but the people around them. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that narcissists are over-represented in otherwise successful, prestigious, and competitive professions, fields, and careers, effectively calling into question the idea of dysfunction and disorder.
Narcissistic abuse is real, and it's a problem that is not getting any better by the cultural shifts brought about by mass media and technology. What's more, it isnt just the narcissist one has to be on the lookout for, there are plenty of people out their doing the bidding (they're called 'flying monkeys', ala the Wizard of Oz) of narcissists.
Arguably the worst trait of narcissists and those who work on their behalf is that of Gaslighting, which is the deliberate undermining of a person, their perspective/experience, reputation and standing, and other social interactions.
As an easy example, let's look at CNN. Let's assume for a moment that Brian Stelter, Rachel Maddow, Chris Quomo and Don Lemon arent malignant narcissists. I know, but bear with me.
It doesnt matter for those mentioned to not be narcissists if their job is to gaslight on behalf of Jeff Zucker. And what are some examples of gaslighting? Russian hackers, Quid pro quo, Epstein killed himself, Hunyer Biden, and of course muh Covid. A person can be gaslit hundreds or even thousands of times a day just by watching the TV, and that says nothing about their interpersonal interactions.
Let's look at things from a broader scope, and I'll throw out a few names. Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, Er8c Schmidt. How many times has one or more of their companies abused one or more individuals on their platform, and has publically denied it even in the face of evidence?
The purpose of this thread is to provide examples of narcissism as well as resources and information that can enable a gradually emerging /üb/erpony to better navigate the world and some of the more nefarious players they may come into contact with. To start things off, here are some good primer videos to broach the subject, by Dr Ramani. She has hundreds of videos ranging from 6-20+ depending on how deep she goes with each topic, all relating ultimately to Narcissism, abuse, awareness, and healing. As one who has lived with narcissistic abuse for years and am only now becoming better able to identify/detect and mitigate the presence and practices of narcissists (most especially malignant ones), my hope is that the content is as informative and actionable to the viewer as I have found it.
https://youtu.be/o8U321uCcvc
https://youtu.be/B9knwjZTaOU
https://youtu.be/d79qPeIt1GY
https://youtu.be/UTS5XsZe9Jg
https://youtu.be/lLsH2NJD1Vo
https://youtu.be/trh_eTkZLeU
https://youtu.be/8S5BtjpF9dA
https://youtu.be/qbFBOAmmu7Y

IIT we discuss and study the Bible. I will be using the King James Version and will take the stance of a fundamental literalist, which is a bit redundant, but these days there exist many that claim to be fundamental but reject the literal interpretation of Scripture when they encounter something they don't agree or understand. I am not a Bible scholar, I'm not a pastor, I don't currently attend any denomination's church service. I'm just an anon that really like to study the Bible. Feel free to argue with me, I could be completely wrong and I hope to learn more about the Bible along the way.

I will post below my first study topic and what I have researched about it. Hopefully it will be interesting and somewhat engaging.

Masturbation is degenerate. It's highly addictive, frequently develops into a compulsion, and causes dysfunction amongst those who practice it.
ITT we discuss what the effects of masturbation are, from a physiological, mental, and shall we say metaphysical standpoint.
Spoiler alert, it's not good nor pretty. However, while we're busy going on about how abortion is conclusively reprehensible, it is also important to be honest with ourselves about the nature of behaviors which we perpetuate.
Im not advocating for immediate and unyielding puritanism, but that doesnt mean we can't make progress, and Imo that progress begins with an honest conversation.
So grab your meat and lets break down why you shouldn't.

For the record, Im doing this OP from memory, and Ill be refuting supporting the thesis in subsequent posts with citations.
I posit and maintain the following:
Abortion is immoral and inconscionable, at the female level of reproduction.
Masturbation is immoral and inconscionable, at the male level of reproduction.

I am NOT equating masturbation to abortion, they are quite apart in terms of severity. However, I posit and maintain that from the operant perspective of the male, it is consequentially comparable.
The Masculine responsibility in reproduction is obvious, to inseminate the female.
The Feminine responsibility in reproduction is to receive and 'process' the semen, through her very complicated systems.
Abortion is the abdication of the Female responsibility, of processing the child to term.
Masturbation then, is the abdication of the Masculine responsibility to inseminate the female.

>men produce millions of sperm
Irrelevant. Sperm have a specific purpose; deprived of that purpose causes degradation of the individual. Sperm die for a variety of reasons. Inside the man, if not ejaculated they will die quite naturally and be reabsorbed and made into new sperm cells. Obviously, thats not what happens when one jizzes in whatever their cleanup method of choice is. At the risk of sounding cheeky, it would be like sending a military squad to an uninhabited island with no resources and telling them to stay until they had performed their essential function.
Same goes for fuccbois who bang lots of whores, condom/pull-out game or not.
Obviously, there are no immediate obstacles to masturbating or being a whore of whichever sex, other than what is socially imposed; one is entitled to do what they will.
My hope is with a bit of exposition, perhaps (you) will consider taking - and leaving - the dick out of your hand.
It's NOT easy, but it does get easier over time, and more than anything the thought of not masturbating was far worse than the act.
This isnt about NoFap or any trends or challenges or wtfe else, this is about becoming a more formidable person gradually, day by day.
Gratuitous No Homo

I need to get a gf. To get a gf, I will drive to a park or a place where cute, non-stacey girls hang out. To do this, I need to learn to drive.
I hate being alive no matter what I do, so tomorrow I will spend three hours practicing driving in the DMV parking lot, even though it says "No practice driving allowed."

There are a few things I'd like to do in this thread
- document my soap making process
- document process changes and upgrades to equipment
- detail common problems when making soap
- answer any soap making questions
- eventually let everyone know when and where product can be purchased
Basically everything to do with soap.

I'm not concerned about telling somebody how to make a product that I'm selling either. There are a few reasons for this: Some people won't be able to receive such a product overseas, or it wouldn't be feasible to ship. I'm not so petty to think that trying to conceal information somehow results in "job security". The soap making process is already quite well documented. Finally, I didn't start making soap to make money with, I started because of the memes, but also to have a product to better prepare myself for economic collapse.
I wish to share this with you guys so (you) too can better prepare yourself for whatever is coming.

Lets start with the boring stuff, like what is soap?
I would define soap as a surfactant. A surfactant is a molecule that will bind to water, oil, and particles.
The US legal definition is 'soap made from natural ingredients'. Synthetic soap is often sold as 'beauty bars' or 'body wash' instead of soap, because they are not made with natural ingredients.

Most modern engine and transmission oils, and heavy grease used for equipment will contain detergents. Don't let the word detergent mislead you, it means the same thing as surfacant.

Lye harvested for soap making in ages past is called potash. The potash lye soap making process is a fair bit more involved, and the chemical reactions are a bit different. https://classicbells.com/soap/woodAshLye.asp
Potash soap has been made for a very, very long time. If one of you decides to try this out, please let us know how it goes!

"modern" naturally made soap uses either potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide for the lye. Sodium hydroxide is used for making liquid soaps, sodium hydroxide for solid soap bars.
The easiest way to get sodium hydroxide is from a hardware store selling containers of "pure lye" drain unclogger in the plumbing section. For example https://www.homedepot.com/p/Instant-Power-Crystal-Lye-Drain-Cleaner-1650/204374017

Soap made from natural ingredients is a very sloppy chemical reaction. There are untold numbers of different chemicals and compounds found naturally in any given type of oil. Most of those oils will react with the lye to make some rather complex reactions that result in "soap". It is not uncommon for the soap to change color as it cures for this reason.

Oils are typically mixed and matched to make a nice bar of soap, as no single oil has a good mix of the fatty acids necessary for a good bar of soap.

When making your first batch of soap:
Start with solid bars of soap, instead of trying to make liquid soap. Liquid soap is much pickier about what kind of oils you use.
Use an existing recipe for your first batch, then try to make soap using as much local products as possible. When economic collapse happens, getting those foreign oils will be much more difficult or impossible.
Start with a 2:1 water:lye ratio. If your recipe calls for 12 ounces of lye, use 24 ounces of distilled water. Ignore however much water the recipe calls for.

When building your own recipe, or modifying an existing one, use the following two web pages:
http://soapcalc.net/calc/SoapCalcWP.asp
https://classicbells.com/soap/soapCalcNumbers.asp
And when in doubt, ask in here.

This first post is just a boring autistic dump on chunks of important or related information. I'll post a lot more (actual making) soap stuff when I get the chance. I think this is a pretty good start though.

Be sure to ask whatever in here about anything related. Over the last year I've been pretty autistically going over how most people make soap, refining my own process, and doing fairly deep-diving research on the topic and general chemistry.

mundanities like bathing, walking the dog or going to work do not apply