Is games I tend to gravitate towards a warrior, I’m a simple man, I don’t care to learn a whole lot of different spells and moves and theorycraft on how to best use them, i want to just hit things with my sword and move the plot forward.

IRL, I’m sort of roguish, I have a whole lot of random skills and knowledge, specialized tools, I’m pretty good with my hands, etc.

In my weirdest fantasies, mage, because fuck you, I cast fireball.

No Mans Sky comes to mind

I wasn’t exactly crazy about the story personally, but its there, and the game feels fairly Minecraft-y to me since you also mentioned that game.

I didn’t play it at launch, and I know that left a bit of a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths, but in its current state I think its pretty amazing.

I’m betting on some language or accent just sort of dropping/mashing syllables together and that pronunciation just kind of catching on or getting passed along to someone else who further mangles to pronunciation until it finally ended up at bike.

Personally, as a Philadelphian, when I say “bicycle” I’m usually not fully saying 3 syllables like “bi-sih-kul” it usually comes out more like “bise-kul”

Take that a step further to maybe something like “bi-kul” and then finally onto “bike”

Most people do not consciously give a shit.

Most people also subconsciously kind of do. People are going to tend to treat a guy wearing jeans and a hoodie, with bit of stubble differently than they would treat the same guy if he was clean shaven, in a well-tailored suit, than they would if he was in a grimy work clothes than if if he was wearing slacks and a polo… And that’s going to depend on you and the kind of experiences you’ve had and what kind of associations your brain has made with people who look certain ways. You almost certainly have some biases about this even if you don’t realize it.

But those opinions can also be manipulated.

Let’s look at John Fetterman, who is somewhat famous for wearing shorts and a hoodie whenever he can get away with it instead of the suit we normally associate with a politician.

(And let’s pretend it’s 2019, before the stroke and he went mask-off as the piece of shit he’s always kind of been.)

Democrats, overall, tended to look at him as a bit of a breath of fresh air. This wasn’t some well-groomed schmuck in a suit like all the other politicians we’ve come to know and hate. He looks like that guy you see at the local bar or riding the bus with you or out buying something at Walmart at 10pm to fix his leaky toilet because the hardware store is closed. He was sold as someone more like us, who shares our frustrations, and who was going to fight for us, and for a lot of people that worked.

And let’s be real, have you ever looked at the fetterman-looking guy next to you on the bus and thought “yeah, this guy seems like he knows what he’s doing, I’d vote for him?” No, probably not. You probably didn’t think much about him at all. But based on how he dressed, you probably still subconsciously made some assumptions about him, like maybe whether or not he looked like someone you’d get along with, you may not have gotten as far as thinking about what he does for a living, but odds are that if you were asked to guess you probably wouldn’t have said that he’s a politician, you’d probably have guessed he works some sort of normal, dead-end job like the rest of us. If you saw a guy in a suit who wasn’t at a funeral or something, you’d probably be more likely to assume he works in, maybe not politics, but maybe a law firm, or in some sort of finance, that wherever he works he’s probably not the lowest guy on the totem pole, etc.

Republicans, on the other hand, played things up the other way- that he showed disrespect to his office, if he can’t even be bothered to put on a suit and clean himself up a bit, can he really be trusted to do his job as a politician, etc. and that also worked for a lot of people on their side.

But to a lot of those same Republicans, you could also easily spin things differently and they’d eat it up just as readily. If Fetterman ran as a Republican (and as we’re seeing now, he sure could have) the spin machine would probably have been more like:

“This is what a real man looks like. He doesn’t wear skinny jeans or purple hair, he’s wearing shorts, not a skirt. He’s not some out-of-touch politician in a fancy suit from a metropolis like Philly or Pittsburgh, he’s a real working man from Braddock in the heart of pennsyltucky, where people are farmers and loggers and harvest clean-burning natural gas from the same earth that our forefathers worked for generations until those gay commies from the big city tried to take it away. He owns a shotgun and he’s not afraid to point it at the first black guy who cares to run past his house.”

Fast forward a few years, if Fetterman was just entering politics now, saying he’d vote the way he has been, a lot of us would probably assume he’s a Republican, and be outraged that they’re not even trying to hide what they are by trying to install some skinhead-looking motherfucker who’s not even trying to look like a politician, they obviously just want some puppet who will vote for their bullshit.

So those opinions are malleable and can be shaped by the context and what other people are saying about them.

And politicians and the media are aware of that and try to use it to their advantage.

If some talking head never pointed out that Obama was wearing a tan suit, most people probably would never have given it a second thought.

For most of us a suit is a suit and we’re not looking into it a whole lot beyond that. Maybe, maybe we notice if the suit fits well, or is wrinkled, or is a really outdated style or otherwise a particularly unusual style choice, but so few of us wear or are around people in suits often enough that we just don’t have an eye for those kinds of details. We might clock a lighter colored suit as somewhat less formal than a darker colored one, but we’d still think that almost any suit is still appropriately dressy for just about anything but a funeral (in which case the suit should be dark,) a tan suit wouldn’t exactly turn heads in any board room or what-have-you, and previous presidents have worn tan suits without a lick of controversy.

Some people do have stronger opinions about style and what level of formality is appropriate for different occasions, but most of those people aren’t in any position where we’re going to give much weight to their opinions.

But some talking head latched onto that idea one way or another and realized they could spin up a bit of controversy over it, and their base was already primed to hate Obama for any reason they could come up with, so they latched right onto that idea. If it hadn’t been pointed out to them, I doubt anyone would have even noticed.

I had the best wonton soup I’ve ever had at some random Chinese restaurant in Montreal

It had little crispy bit of i think cracklins floating around in it

All of the food we had in Montreal was great, and this was just some random place we stopped in for a quick bite on our way somewhere

I kind of wish schools would take you on a more thorough tour of the building once in a while, my high school was pretty huge and there were parts of it we never got to go to, doors we never saw opened, etc.

Now a lot of those were janitors closets and such, mostly nothing too exciting, but one of them in particular had a stairway that went pretty far down and the rumor was always that there was a bomb shelter down there, which is pretty likely because that part of the building was built in the cold war.

And there were a few pretty cool rooms that you’d only get to see if you were in certain clubs and such. We had a whole little public access tv station sort of thing and I never saw more of it than what I could see through the front door because I wasn’t in the TV production club/class, the band orchestra, and choir had some pretty cool rooms that most of the school would never see, there was a whole courtyard that I don’t think I ever saw a single person in the entire time I was there and the doors were usually locked despite the fact that it was completely closed in by the school building, so hardly a security risk, I doubt we were gonna have many people scaling the walls to rappel into the courtyard or parachuting into it

There were also rumors that under our pool was once a bowling alley.

Pretty much anything to get a groan or chuckle out of my wife.

One time while cutting up an avocado I remarked that they need better prizes, because I always get the same one- a little wooden ball.

That was of course good for a groan, but it would not be the end of it. I tend to do most of our cooking, and since our kitchen is kind of small my wife is usually in the living room while I am and can’t really see what I’m doing

So now whenever I’m cutting up an avocado I let out a groan of disappointment. And since my wife is a loving, caring sort of person she always asks “what’s the matter?”

To which I reply with an exasperated “Another little wooden ball”

Going on 10 years, and she falls for in any time.

–

This isn’t one I think particularly much of, I wasn’t even particularly trying to be funny, but my wife got quite a chuckle out of it, so it ranks. I was doing dishes, while she was again in the other room, I think on the phone with her mother.

I go to grab a spoon to clean from the rather large pile in the sink, which set off a bit of a chain reaction of dishes and pots shifting around and making a bit of a racket.

I paused for moment, and just kind of commented out loud to myself “huh, so that was a load-bearing spoon”

And apparently something about that delivery made my wife crack up.

–

Another time I was dead tired and crashed early, and was apparently not very willing to share the blankets or pillows or something when my wife came to join me.

Being more asleep than awake, I mumbled that she could pry them from my cold dead hands WHen she tried to get me to give some bedding up for her use.

Unfortunately for me, my wife is one of those people who is always somehow cold, and so she just applied her icy hands to my body, causing me to exclaim “AAH, COLD DEAD HANDS!”

–

I once showed her a picture of a snake I saw when I was out for a hike. She asked me how big it was, I told her about 2 feet

Which I also told her is 2 more than most snakes have.

–

I pointed out some geese, and asked if she knows how geese fly in a V-formation, which of course she did. Then I asked if she knew why sometimes one side of the V was longer than the other, she did not

I informed her that it’s because that side has more geese.

I haven’t really noticed a burst of activity, but it’s certainly occured to me if I ever turned to a life of crime that I’d do stuff during that shift change, a couple of the departments we dispatch for definitely take their time with it and there’s often a pretty solid block of time where unless something serious is going down you’re not getting a quick police response.

Some of them handle it more efficiently than others, and the size of the town is a pretty big factor too. I’ve had more than a few callers complain about how long it’s taking because they live right by the station, but usually officers aren’t just hanging around at the station, they’re out on patrol and responding to incidents, shift change is pretty much the one time you’re going to find the station full of cops.

I work in 911 dispatch, and there’s definitely something about full moons.

It’s not that we’re busier, or that the calls I get are more serious, but everything is just a little bit off when the moon is full. It’s subtle, I don’t think it would even be reflected in the types of calls we’re entering, but a lot of our callers just get weirder.

Here’s one out of left field- Bucky O’Hare

The franchise has been dormant for about 30 years, and even back then there wasn’t that much established lore for a modern reboot to tiptoe around- a comic book that frankly not too many people read, a couple pretty good video games, and a Saturday morning cartoon made to sell toys, and there was little to no continuity between those different properties, you pretty much have free reign to go in and do whatever the hell you want with it.

And there’s was some pretty good stuff in there to work with that’s maybe even more relevant today than it was when it came out- plotlines about inept bureaucracy, imperialist/capitalist toads controlled by an AI, pollution, climate disruption, slavery, etc.

And the property was kind of hamstrung by its budget and stuff. I definitely enjoyed it as a kid, and when i went back to rewatch it a few years ago as an adult I thought it held up well enough but the animation and voice acting was definitely pretty janky at times, but even still it managed to have some bigger overarching story arcs. It also had a couple strong female characters without getting preachy about it, though there’s certainly some room for improvement in how they were written.

And if nothing else, today we can probably count on the furry community to watch a show about a green rabbit space ship captain, a cat space witch, a 4 armed pirate duck, a muscly baboon, and their nerdy human audience surrogate.

I think the name Donald has been out of style since before Trump was born.

Imagine spending your whole life being compared to Donald Duck.

That’s a big part of the reason we went with it. Even if it didn’t destroy the washing machine, you just know eventually it’s gonna break open somehow and then you’re gonna be stuck cleaning up those beads.

And the weight distribution on some of them just isn’t very good, more like having a pile of beanbags on you than an extra heavy blanket

We have a bearaby blanket. It’s a little different from most weighted blankets in that it doesn’t have a bunch of little beads or whatever sewn into it for weight, its just knitted from a ton of fabric. Because it is knitted it’s very breathable which is nice because I’m a pretty hot sleeper.

It’s also probably a little more washable than a lot of other blankets because of that, but you may need to make a trip to the Laundromat to use the big washer.

If you’re not a fan of the knit, I imagine you could probably stick it in a duvet cover.

I was a delivery guy for a local pizzeria once upon a time (and that place still has their own drivers, and even their own delivery vehicles, which is practically unheard of)

And I’m not gonna lie, door dash and such was great for a while because it let me get food delivered from restaurants that otherwise didn’t do delivery.

But I’ve stopped using them, for a few reasons including their shitty business practices

But the straw that broke the camels back in each case that made me delete was them fucking up my order.

And that happens, I’m not particularly mad at the store or the driver, I’ve been there

But the way that these delivery apps handle it is, to me, unacceptable.

When I contacted them, their response was to just issue me a refund.

And to me, what should have happened, is I should have immediately had a replacement sent, expedited as much as possible, at no extra cost.

That’s what we always did when I was a delivery guy, and often with a gift certificate as an apology.

And sure, a refund on top of that would be nice, but really the root issue is that I don’t have the food I ordered. If I order it again, I’m going to the back of the delivery queue, and if I happened to order it when I was low on money I may not even be able to reorder it that day because that refund often takes a couple days to clear.

My wife and I did a quick courthouse thing because I got a new job and she needed health insurance. The plan was to do an actual wedding of some kind a year or two later but COVID and a bunch of other stuff happened so it’s been on the back burner. I think we’re looking at a 10 year thing now, which is nice because it’s given us a lot of time to think about guest lists and such.

We have a pretty decent amount of friends we want to invite, I think we’re in the ballpark of around 30

Some of those are gonna have +1s, so that gets us up to around 50 or 60

Then we have parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. and some of them have +1s, depending on the size and relationship you have with your family, that can make things balloon really quickly.

And if you’re able to budget for it, it can be advantageous to invite as many people as you can, money and other wedding gifts can add up pretty substantially. That’s not a major factor in our guest list, but for a young couple, maybe looking to buy a house and have kids or whatever, that can be huge.

Got up bright and early and had my mom drive me to target for the game cube launch

I’ve done a lot of midnight movie releases, and a couple Harry Potter books releases

It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but I worked late at the time anyway, so when Skyrim came out I just swung by game stop after I got off work to get that at midnight

I started reading it just before COVID hit. My reading habits are very sporadic, sometimes I’ll devour a book in a day, other times I’ll read a chapter or two once a week and it takes me months to finish a book. This happened to be one of the later cases

It was really good, but holy shit that was not the book to be reading when people were getting into fights over toilet paper.

So I did not finish it, I intend to eventually, but it had to go on the back burner.

Everything about it just kind of oozed bleak hopelessness. I’ve caught myself starting to say I enjoyed it, but “enjoyed” is really the wrong word, there is no joy to be found in that book, perhaps you appreciate it, maybe you feel it, maybe you just read it and acknowledge that it’s a good book.

I have some friends who used to have a really shitty apartment, first floor and basement of a shitty rowhome that by all rights should probably have been condemned.

The basement was two rooms, a larger room with nothing much but an old claw foot bathtub (that appeared to be hooked up to a drain but had no faucet or any obvious pipes nearby where it could have ever had water running to it)

And the spider room. I shit you not this room was almost nothing but floor to ceiling spider webs. Being a bunch of broke college kids with little enough use for the basement in general, they decided that they weren’t going to do anything about it. They just placed a sheet of plywood in front of the doorway and let the spiders do their thing.

And the spiders, accepted and respected this arrangement. They lived there for several years and not once did they ever see a single spider in any other part of the apartment.

The centipedes were another story, they frequently ventured into other parts of the house. One of those friends still likes to go on about how you can reason with spiders but not with centipedes.

But, I can only assume due to the high spider and millipede population in this apartment, there was basically no other bugs to be found there. The house was in the sort of perpetual state of squalor that you’d expect from 3 guys living on their own for the first time. The pipes leaked, everything was drafty, there was often a thin coating of grime on nearly everything, they had mice and maybe the occasional rat, but there was not a single roach, beetle, or fly to be found.

I’ve never owned a car personally with less than about 150,000 miles on it

My parents did get a brand new Kia sportage during cash for clunkers so pretty close to 0 miles on it

After that, the runner up is my dad’s truck. It’s a '93 forD ranger, and it just hit 100k within the last year (I’m proud to say I was driving when it happened)

He’s the third owner, my grandfather had it until he lost his license and he basically never went anywhere, and I have no idea who had it before him.

For a lot of the time after that my dad also worked less than a mile from home and other than that my mom does most of their driving. They also had 3 cars for much of that time so that further cut into how much use the truck got.

Edit: did a dumb, read this as lowest for some reason

I’m currently somewhere around 220,000 on my '07 4runner, and I believe that’s about the highest I’ve had.

A whole lot of people just seem to have absolutely no sense of timing/rhythm.

A really weird place I’ve noticed that is at my work as a 911 dispatcher.

Once in a while we have to give CPR instructions over the phone, and a big part of that is counting with the caller to make sure they’re doing the chest compressions fast enough (100-120 beats per minute)

I was in band back in high school, I can keep that sort of rhythm in my sleep (though my throat starts getting pretty dry depending on how long it takes responders to arrive and take over)

But a handful of my coworkers really struggle with it, they count too fast or too slow, speed up and slow down, it’s a little terrifying to be honest.

The ones who do manage to keep good time have mostly had at least some music training, or are at least keeping an eye on the seconds counting by on the clock on our computer to keep time.

I just tried counting Mississippis with my eyes closed and a timer going, and I nailed it within a second. But I think I definitely went a little faster for the first 19 and then slowed down a little after that because there’s just less syllables in the numbers until you hit that point, and more after it.