Old-school clockwork is very interesting, I get that.

I just have no personal desire to try to build something like that, lol. Then again, due to a neurological issue, I have slight tremor.

Working on laptops can be difficult some days. Clockwork gears? Eesh.

Worked in Yellowstone for a summer.

Spent some time with the rangers. They got all sorts of questions…

Like which handgun caliber would be best to defend oneself from a bear.

Essentially, the ranger broke it down stating there was a weakness in the skull about the size of a bullet that you had to hit directly to have a chance of dropping a bear with a handgun. While its coming at you and pissed/hungry.

So essentially, you’ve just pissed off the bear before it gets it claws on you.

Well placed slugs from shotguns, rifle rounds, and preferably (according to the ranger in question) a tranquilizer to re-home the bear away from people. That being said, the bears are tracked to an extent and bears who show repeated behavior endangering themselves/tourists tend to be exterminated, sadly.

Hand to claw combat? Human is going down.

This is why in the past, when bears were hunted, they were hunted in their dens during hibernation - at the end of spears to keep that hungry bear as far away as possible from your soft easily rent flesh.

Black.

To those that will argue that black is the absence of color, or ALL the colors, fine. Then blue.

I’ve done a little volunteer work, and in the past I’ve donated financially to various charities.

At the moment, my last paycheck was for two days, and it took 5 months to get this job.

So, currently, no. I’m trying to get back in the saddle, pay off some shit, and start saving for emergencies again.

Also, you know, eating at least once a day can be nice, even if it seems like a luxury some days.

I’ve seen that, and variations.

I’ve noticed house flys being more common than bees.

That being said, I’d piss on a fly. A bee could sting me. Rightfully sting me, I might add.

Someone pisses on me they have a good chance of being hit.

I had some, before I moved.

Let me just say this, what came easy to young me in boy scouts… well, I’m just glad if I hit a safe area in the general direction I’m aiming.

The other issues is as a boy I shot off the right of the riser on a longbow, and this was an off the left takedown (recurve) bow - still the amount I sucked surprised me a little, lol.

So hopefully you have time to practice.

I mean, it kind of is.

Debtor’s prisons were never fair, but at least it usually involved adults who made their own choices.

Kids can’t legally consent to anything - though I’m sure the republicans want to change that too.

Rain and thunderstorms used to be nice for me… used to.

7ish years ago we (wife and I) rescued a pitbull mix. Well three of them, but only one has an issue.

Wind, planes, rain, thunder, all of that kicks on the fight or flight response to 110%.

If she is crated, she will try to bust out to the point of injuring herself. At our hold house we had a two story, she broke through a banister spindle and nearly fell to the ground floor. Hard wood. Would have been bad. We’ve found her in the top loading washing machine - it was closed. She will try to go through solid objects. Walls, doors, windows, whatever.

CBD is about the only thing that helps her. We’ve tried various medications through the vet, even one they use as a sedative per-surgery.

Its been raining here for about two weeks, on top of other issues in life, and I have a migraine that may just kill me at this point. Not to mention sleep deprivation.

Also, as current day shift at my new job - I hate it, I want to go back to graveyard shifts, lol. Though, I did get some comments when I stopped at a liquor store right after they opened. Once they realized I worked overnight, they used it to mess with OTHER customers, lol.

I miss the original GW classes.

I could never “click” with any of the classes in GW2. I wanted to enjoy it, and did to an extent, but it never kept me coming back.

That being said, I have a friend who is still VERY active in GW2 all these years later, so I guess its just me, lol.

As someone who used to be skinny, and now, decidedly, isn’t…

I’d take metabolism any day. That being said, I do have a friend who struggles to keep weight up due to a medical issue. Taking that dude to an all you can eat buffet is almost traumatizing, lol.

Pffft. I write everything as a one liner in notepad and just copy and paste into a compiler.

Note: Sarcasm. I’m not a dev, I just script shit for my own convenience at work. I’m the guy the idiots talk to first. After 12 years I’m pretty good at filtering out the bullshit and giving a concise ticket to escalate in the event I don’t have permissions to fix something.

I have fixed code before, but its been very rare, and was most certainly a case of the actual dev not seeing the forest due to the trees. It just happened I had the cube next to him and he wanted any other set of eyes, lol. I just happened to have some education in various languages that I opted not to pursue further.

Awesome, thanks. I have listened to those, I think, but I’m pretty sure I was at work at the time, so I was in and out on it.

I’ll have to go back and give it a re-listen.

Thanks again.

My wife practices witchcraft, and I have begun to lightly look into it and attempted a few things.

My experiences, and what others would say is this…

Magic is not a 5th level wizard casting a fireball spell. Magic is subtle. Magic is coincidence that you willed.

You’re not gonna hit the jackpot on the lottery, but you might find that you have the money for what you needed during the ritual through, shall we say, happenstance?

Intent is paramount. Will is secondary.

If you want a good primer on “real” magic, I suggest looking into Chaos Magic. Liber Null is a book to start with, and is generally recommended. That being said, it assumes a little bit of the reader, and a general understanding of the concepts is advised before reading.

Of course, it could all be bullshit and, like I said, coincidence. However, as research into quantum physics advances, I’m less and less doubtful of “random” things causing long term effect. That being said, I’m human. I inherently have biases no matter how hard I try not to.

Also: I bounced around their podcast based on subject, can you list any specific episodes they discussed this?

Oh shit, you just made me realize when I get my first pay check I should really invest in a decent UPS. I had to sell my old one before moving state lines to condense space.

Eh, task ChatGPT with it.

Yep.

I work in IT, if I’m on a call or actively working a ticket that I can finish and just ran out of time? I’ll stay, happily, and finish it.

I’ll help cover vacations, and if I like the company, other people calling in to an extent.

The longest stretch I worked was when I was much younger (and dumber). Retail, before the holidays. There were a variety of contributing factors at work, but in the end I worked 22 days in a row, most often 12+ hours a day. The OT pay was nice, don’t get me wrong, but I quickly learned that my time and well being are worth more than most employers can offer, even with OT adjustments.

I slept over 24 hours straight, and my body hurt ALL over for two weeks. That was with a wonderful girlfriend at the time who knew her way around a massage, and was happy to do so when asked - and I needed it then, lol.

Pagers certainly still exist.

Troubleshooting issues with them is a pain too.

That being said, I’ve only seen them in the medical field.

Had a dude take power equipment into the meat freezer, sheared off a sprinkler head in the process.

The freezer remained operational, so everything was coated in frozen sludge. Total loss of merchandise, and I think the power equipment was a loss too.

I’m not sure how he kept his job, but that wasn’t my call.

I think, due to lack of diagnosis and medication, plus age - I was barely double digits - Aeris/Aerith in FF7.

I had no spoilers. And it wasn’t so much the death itself, it was the fact that I had fucking FARMED shit for her. She’s healer coded? I already had a history with RPGs, and healers are worth their weight in gold.

I think all that time and effort invested really solidified it.

Also, I had phoenix downs. WTF?

Well, factually, throughout history, women have had a terrible deal.

Living in red states my whole life, women having opinions, much less rights, is polarizing.

I don’t agree, but man… women voting is STILL an issue in some rural areas. Thus, polarizing. Not so much with the common consensus, but with some.