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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 20th, 2023

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  • Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. In my opinion, these are still two of the greatest games of all time. You don’t get better because your character or weapon is better. You get better because you put in the practice. you improve your reflexes. You learn the arena. Every player starts every match on an even playing field. Every frag feels like an accomplishment.

    I appreciate that modern shooters are trying to do something different with every iteration. But stuff like call of duty, overwatch, or destiny never captures that magic. In many ways, they felt more like slot machines.

    Halo got close, but I always felt it was too slow. And also, I felt Tribes was the better series for online play that felt similar. 


  • I have a private parking spot off street in a city. I don’t like backing up towards the main road; since it has pedestrians and stuff. It’s a little harder to see.

    So I back into the spot. It’s way easier than backing out - and pulling out is even easier. 

    My work parking garage is already really tight. It’s another situation where backing in is easier than backing out - and driving forward our is even easier. So just some planning.



  • Politically, we agree on 90%+ on things. Like - it would be really odd if I married a woman who didn’t believe my friends deserved basic human rights. 

    But I will say we handle conflict very differently, loss very differently, anxiety very differently, fear very differently. We’re different people.  The important thing is that were able to communicate with one another. We’re supposed to understand each other’s motives, behaviors, needs. And try to anticipate them.

    Ideally, we’re strong in areas the other is weak in.

    As far as interests, there’s a lot of crossover. But I have specific hobbies (music production mostly), that she has no interest in. She’ll give feedback from time to time. And also, she plays piano. But we don’t play together.

    I like goofy nerd shit, she likes The Bachelor. I like some gaming, she thinks it’s lame and reads in her free time. I mean, no great relationship has ever thrived based on a shared love of Star Trek or something.

    So most importantly, we match well in two areas. One, we can make each other laugh. Two, we like the same foods and are adventurous eaters.

    For what it’s worth, half of every live-in relationship is trying to decide what to eat next.


  • There’s nothing wrong with having a preference. At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet - you are saving their life and dramatically changing yours. How you come to that choice is deeply personal. It doesn’t matter if it’s superficial or whatever, least of all to the cat. As long as you give them love, warmth, food and shelter.

     I don’t really have a preference on breed, I just care of they’re sociable and friendly. I do have a preference for girl cats. My dearly departed cat was a girl, and my wife’s cat (very much alive) is a dude. Love him, but it’s not the same.





  • “Ape alone… weak. Apes together…. strong”

    So no, it’s baked-in the DNA of how we survive. We group to fight threats. Early days, that threat is protection from hostile wildlife like bears.

    You scale that to a modern civilization - and you have groups of people fighting for resources, food, money, opportunities, land, etc. Sometimes they’re gangs. Sometimes they’re entire countries. Sometimes they’re groups of allied countries.

    And heck, you see it in stupidly small scales too. “Coke v Pepsi”, “N64 v PlayStation”, “Rock Fans v Disco Fans”.

    Sunni and Shia believe 98% of the same stuff. But the bit they don’t agree on pushes fringe lunatics to terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, etc.

    Same deal with Protestants and Catholics.

    The only thing could make us drop “us versus them” mentality is a giant alien force more violent and sick than anything you can imagine.

    Then maybe, humanity will be the “us” finally.


  • I’m not making a philosophical or physiological distinction.

    I’m making a semantic and etymological one.

    Nature, as its defined in the English language, is used to describe things that aren’t human creations.

    Sometimes it’s used to describe things that, even if manipulated by humans, is distinct from an artificial, chemical or industrial process. Like “natural remedies”. Sometimes it’s just a marketing term, “natural flavors” in a soda brand.

    Humans categorically can’t be nature - because we use the word “nature” specifically to distinguish our own creations from the rest of the world.

    A human can choose to live in nature, meaning they’re living in a place that is plurality not man-made. An cabin in an unplanned forest, versus Midtown Manhattan. But even then, the human is the not-nature thing. They’re only surrounded by it.


  • Nature - by definition, are things found in the physical world that aren’t human creations.

    Modern homes require electricity, clean running water, modern insulation, glass, smoke detectors, town governments oversight, corporate resources, insurance, etc. All of these things are human creations.

    Man-made is similar to hand-made. Both are distinct from machine-made.

    Nature is a bit of a spectrum. Something being handmade is closer to natural than something from a factory. Still, neither are natural.



  • Sometimes.

    The smaller independent theaters are a nice old timey experience. Most venues have a better sound system than anything most of us can afford - so that’s a good improvement. There’s something romantic about the whole thing, I don’t know. You see a movie the way the filmmakers intended, and being part of an audience, all gasping or laughing together can be powerful.

    Big theater chains like AMC are no worthwhile for me. They’re always riddled with unruly teenagers. Like half the time, they’ll be snickering during serious scenes or whatever.

    I mean, give it a try. You might like it. You might hate it. It’ll cost you like ~$18 to find out. Not that much.




  • As an accountant, I was like “what does Adjusted Gross Income have to do with anything?”

    I’m somewhat agnostic if we’re living in an simulation. It seems slightly more likely than any religion, but I have no evidence to support it. 🤷

    I don’t think AI will kill us all. All it has to do is kill one person before we turn it off or legislate it’s limitations (like Asimov’s 3 Laws). I think it’s more likely to save us like develop technologies to combat climate change or create medicines.

    Torn on the concept of free will.