Thank you, this reference is why I clicked into the comments.

I have a relative who did it.

But they are super into genealogy.

At this point, to go deeper, they would need to learn a new language and travel half way across the world.

I was not consulted before this was done. I would have cautioned against it.

I mean, Jesus was a liberal.

Gandhi was problematic in his own right, but he wasn’t wrong when he said, paraphrasing, I like your christ, he is so unlike your Christians.

I briefly worked as a state employee, IT for a school district.

I swear I had a full day during orientation regarding “gifts.” What was considered a gift, who the actual giver was, limitations on receiving them, how to report them however minor, etc.

The only time it came up was during an emergency that required an extended shift. Overtime pay would have been considered a “gift of the state” and wasn’t allowed (somehow? I was young, whatever) and I got half a day off rather than OT pay. Coming from a retail background, half a day off and I didn’t lose any money? Pretty sweet in my mind at the time.

With a pi hole, you’re basically setting up a DNS server that has built in abilities to stop ads.

What that means is, you can point your router (or any device really) at that DNS server (pi hole) to block ads.

Ublock is good.

Due to remote work constraints, a pi hole doesn’t play nicely with their stuff and I can’t be bothered to figure out a work around. Mostly because it’s my wife’s remote work, and their IT is hesitant to talk with me about it - I get it, I wouldn’t do that at work (I’m in IT).

So I use ublock on Firefox on both my desktop and phone, plus I run through a VPN that blocks ads and malware for everything else. The VPN is a separate use case, but that’s just an added benefit.

This makes me miss a bar I used to go to, and was the favored watering hole for most of the staff at a previous job.

It had had several owners, and it’s name changed on official paperwork every time. Locals still called it Big Tree.

Why?

It was built around a big tree that went out of the roof lol.

It was bought and demolished, the tree removed.

Nothing has been done with the lot since, and it’s been a couple years.

Damn shame.

Social engineering, arguably, is one of the harder things to learn.

It’s a collection of soft skills, and if you’ve been paying attention to rank and file tech jobs, places are looking for people with soft skills because they’re so impractical to train.

This goes down to your basic help desk tech.

Anyone with an interest in computers can sit down and learn how to analyze and exploit weakness in code. In fact, it’s a fun puzzle. Dealing with other people, let alone establishing oneself as another person and fucking SELLING that character enough to get what you need?

People write off social engineering far too quickly. It’s quick, it’s effective, and if done well, the person you exploited doesn’t even realize they’ve been tricked.

The same technique works back home in the US too.

Foreign immigrant, but they’re not brown enough to shoot on sight? Louder and slower while you assess the foreign devil… Just because they’re white doesnt mean they can’t be a commie.

This was meant as a joke, but living in the south this has certainly happened recently somewhere nearby.

The electoral college is always my stopping point for any pop culture relevance or “conspiracy.”

Sure, can the various stars sway the popular vote? Absolutely.

Hell, my entry into the world of politics as a child was Rage Against the Machine.

However, my vote doesnt count in my state. Between gerrymandering and the state being rabidly red outside of major cities, the few left leaning people just don’t add up. Its a sad realization for some.

But what’s sad to me is that my vote is ultimately not relevant because the electoral college does what it wants regardless of their constituents, and there doesn’t seem to be anything place for violating their constituents desires. This effects everyone able to vote in the US. And every vote I’ve cast has had no relevance to the political landscape.

If the popular vote actually meant anything, I’d be far more inclined to not only vote, but be active in some capacity politically.

To summarize, fuck the electoral college. Fuck two sided tribalism that’s present in US politics. Ranked choice popular vote is my preffered method (that I’m aware of). Also, fuck states “winning.” Total popular vote from the entire country.

Would we still have amoral shit bags in office? Yeah, sure, hard to escape those people in politics. However, it would represent a chance for anyone eligible for the office to shake things up if sufficiently popular.

Before you say the future of the country shouldn’t be based on a popularity contest, it already is. Its already a dog and pony show every 4 years. Time, energy, money, and more all wasted for the popular vote. Before that its the primaries, a popularity contest in itself. This would just open up the field for people who weren’t raised with wealth and political pull.

Fuck it, some only fans chick winds up in the oval office? Cool, maybe we can see some reform based on perspective of someone struggling to make ends meet before turning to sex work to put food on the table. Not denigrating sex work, BTW. If I was an attractive lady I’d already be doing it at this point, lol.

Change is never easy, but often necesarry.

My record is 9 days without sleep.

At that point I had seen a doc who just loaded me down with large doses of like 3 different benzos.

Slept for 2 days straight.

The creepist hallucinations were dark figures in the corner of dark rooms chanting in some language that didnt sound human in origin, just reproduced by humans.

The oddest was a stop sign that turned into buddy Christ from Dogma (I think) and then back into a stop sign.

I wasn’t religious at all at that point in time, though I went through elementary in a private christian school before transferring to public schools, and the area is certainly part of the bible belt.

Of course this leads me to ponder how much of our beliefs and such is shaped by the cultural norms of the area we’re in, even if your own family doesn’t participate.

Then again, what is “normal” is viewed through the lense of the community being studied.

So realizing this, I have to wonder how much of my beliefs and morals stems from the area that I was raised in versus what I have actually experienced and value.

Just how much of “me” has been brainwashed into me, subtly over time and reinforced by various methods of society. Then that moves the thought to how much of me is just directly rebelling against that force, but wouldn’t be present without that external force. Which all boils down to essential philosophical questions that man has been asking for centuries with no real answer.

Maybe this is why I have trouble sleeping.

The only code I fuck with is my own. I’m not a Dev, but I write things for my convenience.

Sometimes it gets the attention of those above me, and I get some sweet sweet time off the phones, blasting whatever music I’m in the mood for through noise canceling ear buds while I add a little form to the function, so to speak.

So mostly, its a challenge to myself while working night shift, also part of why I enjoy night shift.

That’s a symptom of capitalism as a whole.

The whole perpetual growth, and being legally bound to try to provide that to shareholders, means only “safe” ideas are given any traction.

The only time any “innovative” comes out is when billionaires have a pipe dream.

However, they lack the skills or expertise (or even common sense) to execute them.

Musk had ideas, bought his way into leadership, and essentially had to be corralled by handlers while other people did the actual hard work.

Then, at the platform formally known as Twitter, with no handlers… Well, the world has seen how an unleashed Musk handles that. Spoiler: not well.

Slower? Sure, I’ll grant you that.

However, there are some things in life I’d rather not do, even if it resulted in being bored out of my mind.

And I hate, hate, being bored.

I nearly killed a group of people one night.

Full on slamming of brakes and trying to not have another sort of accident.

Roughly 3am, a major major highway, and a group of people decides to dash across.

Dark clothing. Crossed between where any lights were.

Everyone involved was very lucky in that moment.

The language also includes “any office.”

Pretty inclusive if you ask me.

Insert AlwaysHasBeen.jpg here.

To be fair, Tesla is owned by a South African who immigrated to Canada, then the US - and had apartheid slaves do the hard part of precious stone mining.

Much like the former cheetoh in chief, completely removed from the realities others face, and never had to deal with consequences.

It isn’t a solely American thing, though we may be the world champs at it.

I’ve got the hardware to use VR on my gaming rig.

But between the entry cost for the actual VR equipment, and the sheer lack of games that look interesting I don’t see the point in it.

Then again, the lack of games that look interesting isn’t just a VR problem - to me at least.

Repeating patterns of slight upgrades to visuals, mechanics I grew bored of a decade ago, etc.

I used to rip on Madden/FIFA/Sports games in general for that crap, but it seems to be the trend.

That being said, I’ve felt jaded about games since I was a teen, and that was a long time ago, but there was always something to keep my attention.

Don’t really have any other majornhobbies though, so I’m at a bit of an impasse on that subject. I do spend more time with my wife though, lol.

You know, if I threatened violence in any work place I’ve ever been in, I would be shit canned immediately.

Why the fuck are these people not held accountable?

They should be held to a higher standard, with more severe penalties for misdeeds. Not just violence either, every kind of crime.

He is representing the people of Oklahoma… Which is par for the course, but it shouldn’t be.

You didn’t clean them weekly?

Man I did, but they were hockey skates (ice was not a thing here at the time) and I wanted to get every ounce of performance out of them.

Cleaning bearings, rotating wheels, relacing them cause my feet grew crazy for a while.

I was a weird kid though. Now I’m just a weird adult.