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.

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.

If a four person table has three Nazis sitting at it, and a fourth person sits down with them, there are four Nazis at the table.

Accordingly, if a public figure makes a Nazi salute (several times) in a public live recording, they are a Nazi.

If it walks like a duck, etc.

They may not claim Nazism, but fascism is fascism whatever flag you wave. The individual motivators behind it are not relevant.

Both my grandfathers are rolling over in their graves as I watch fascism goose step into America.

You’re bipolar, you just hide it well.

Get your meds sorted before college or you’re gonna wind up dropping out.

Also, its a seizure disorder, it just doesn’t present typically; and its medication resistant. Keep trying. That alone is gonna set you back about 10 years.

Don’t forget, those of us who “produce” aren’t even a consideration.

The working class will starve. We’re already working on it with inflation, but managing to keep enough calories coming in.

Soon, the billionaires will have no labor to produce food, and no labor to stock food, and no labor to handle their banal shit.

Then, they will hunt us for sport. Or, more likely, a few class traitors will hunt and butcher us while they go hungry and the billionaires eat of our flesh.

I’m on W11 with my daily driver.

I don’t like it. I didn’t like it from the start.

So why?

Because W10 will hit EOL sooner than later; and I have to support that shit professionally.

Doesn’t matter that no one is testing or building applications for W11, no security patches mean any employer worth their salt will switch over to W11, despite not having the infrastructure to do it.

Admin VS IT. I’m nearly 40, and that story is older than I am.

I’d also add a lifetime subscription to Nexus, that alone can add so much life to so many games. Hell, if I’m checking out a game, I see what kind of mod support it has first.

Or do they not offer that anymore?

I think I got it way back when for $50 or so.

A bit between friends is different.

Fuck, I was a skater in school. I threw myself down a two story half pipe in a warehouse every weekend. I had bruises on top of bruises.

Pain wasn’t new to me, cause man, I fucking sucked on a skateboard.

Let me put it this way, the kid I gave a broken nose to was a wanna-be MS13 member at the time. Ran into him after high school - guess who was a member? I’m glad I had friends with me, and we outnumbered his crew. They backed down. I don’t know what they had, but we all carried knives - and at the time - were ready to use them. My late teen years were a little wild. He recognized me, and called them to back off.

I guess getting the cops involved over a pool table in a bowling alley would have fucked up their bigger plans.

You’re not wrong.

A school year of bullying stopped by a decisive punch?

Clearly both are the same. Not one kid being tormented to the point of violence in self defense because they couldn’t fucking breathe anymore, over the whole school year. Not something the teachers, our so called care takers, could have nipped in the bud a LONG time ago. No, clearly, both kids are violent offenders.

I’m aware, I didn’t feel the need to reference the game series.

“Going postal” was a thing.

It was a thing before Columbine, cause man, I remember the talks at school about that.

The class was brought out, we sat under a tree, and were allowed to talk about our feelings.

One of my bullies looked me dead in the eye, and said something along the lines of “Its always the quiet ones.”

I’m surprised I didn’t have to talk to anyone after looking him dead in the eye back and replying “Yeah, it is.” Just letting it hang in the air.

I will say, he no longer bullied me after that.

That’s ok, I had another bully who learned the hard way that if pushed far enough, I would break bones if provoked enough. Last day of school that year. He clotheslined me and put me in a choke hold when I was running a football, you know, playing like a kid on the last day of school. He still had a hold as we got up, him behind me. When my vision started to dim, I stomped the arch of his foot (multiple fractures, lot of bones there) to get out, then turned and broke his nose with one punch.

It all stopped after that.

Because my teachers were aware of the bullying (thanks for stopping it, assholes) I didn’t get in any trouble. This was at the beginning of zero tolerance talks. It was a policy the next school year.

Man, war stories from Christmas in retail.

My first time around wasn’t too bad. I was part of a team managing the back room inventory and, essentially, trying to force out merchandise that otherwise wouldn’t fit on the shelves to keep the back room as clear as possible. That black Friday, I was assigned to guard a pallet of shit. It was blacked out so people wouldn’t crowd highly desired items - TVs and such.

The next year, I was in the electronics department, as in, that was my post as I had transferred to the sales floor.

That year, oh that year, the Wii dropped. We’d get a pallet in, and we’d just wheel it out to the register to sell. Of course, it didn’t start out that way. They were all locked in “the cage” and we had to get a manager to get them, one by one. That didn’t last too long as the management team was pretty much just running Wiis back and forth.

To top it off, my former inventory control role and limited register training, I had to train an incoming store manager (who would make FAR more per day than I would, after taxes I made about 70 a day for an 8 hour shift) to use the register. And he was… well, slow to learn. Which meant lines and issues - which would require a lower level of management to come handle - their response time, for a variety of reasons (busy season and sheer idiocy laziness"level of business" slowed down.

Having only one register back in electronics, well… this sucked.

Why would you train someone at the BUSIEST TIME OF THE YEAR? I get it now though, after 10 years of retail and 11 in IT, the one thing I’ve been able to determine is that approximately 1% of management, anywhere, is competent.

That doesn’t beat out the day I was asked to “help coverage.”

Yeah, I worked my full shift, then was asked to stay on for four more hours, then four more. And I didn’t take a second lunch. Now, the state I lived in didn’t give a fuck. Its the kind of state that says “Oh its 100+ degrees out? Better pass legislation to make water breaks legal to ignore.” Yeah, a lot of people died of dehydration and heat stroke in the construction industry after that. As far as I know, employers eased up on water breaks, but the legislation is still in effect. I digress, I got written up for not taking a second meal break. I was not released to do so, AFTER asking about it, and still written up.

After all of that, I moved to the automotive technician department.

It sucked, but for most of the time I had a decent boss. My first week I was struggling. Working outside in the summer, heavy uniform, covered in oil, and otherwise being out of shape.

That boss sent me inside, to sit in his office, and drink some cold water my first week. Knowing the company I worked for, I said I wasn’t ready to take a break yet (I was a smoker at the time, and wanted to time out smoke breaks fairly steady) and he said it isn’t a break. You’re bright red and you stopped sweating 10 minutes ago. If you know, you know. So I did, and I remember that to this day. I remember good managers.

Thankfully, my black Friday/Christmas duties were mostly rescinded (I technically was still register trained, so I got called up to the front to kill lines) which was nice.

The point of this?

Retail is hell. Period.

Mandatory retail service might be more important to our continued culture (USA) than anything else, as hyper capitalist as we are.

Shit, my mom was a college graduate, taught for a little while (not her thing) before working for the government, which I’m not going to go into. She took an early retirement package, cause she could. Good for her. She got bored, went to work at a chain craft store. She realized, and had a long discussion with me, about how much of a CUNT she was to retail/service folks. Her words. It was nice to hear, because I was still neck deep in retail hell at the time.

Realistically, I found left handed opponents to be more difficult to compete against.

It took me longer to learn their body movements that would indicate a strike, and where they are aiming. It wast just less intuitive.

Also, fencing a little person was a somewhat unique experience. Totally threw me off my game.

I’m not clinical, but I worked in medical IT off and on.

The shit I would hear from clinical staff.

Had a senior surgeon call me because his application was frozen. Cool, cool, lets get that going - wait - you’re what - palpating a child’s heart to keep it beating in rhythm? There are back ups upon back ups for anything IT related in that scenario. Don’t call your overnight helpdesk with that shit, have your nurse write it down on paper. Fuck.

Most traumatic IT call I’ve ever had. Didn’t even care to solve his IT issue, just focused on patient care. My 20 something ass with a few years behind the desk told him to focus on the patient’s LIFE first and foremost, we can talk later.

Always great for an interview question though - how do you respond under stress? Well, lol…

I picked up Veilguard because I enjoyed Origins and Inquisition. The second game… at this point, I don’t think I took it right and its my problem and I need to give it another chance.

I’m still very early into the game, but the only “woke” thing I’ve seen so far is variable gender identity during character creation.

You want to play a “woman” who looks masculine, with atypical male traits, even a penis, and a deep voice? You know what, I’m glad the option is open to people. It doesn’t vibe with me personally, but I’m glad that people I care about can make a character that is “them,” because who hasn’t made themselves in an RPG at some point in their life, best they were able.

Again, I’m early to it, but that is all of the “woke” shit I’ve seen.

For the record, I have friends and family in the LGTBQ+(whatever, doesn’t matter) that I support.

I don’t want hate in my heart, and I’ve worked very hard to overcome some biases that came from my more “southern” upbringing. Hell, one of those biased views from the past is now openly trans, and I was the only family member they talked to because they couldn’t talk to anyone else.

I’m imperfect, as all humans are, but it isn’t hard to fucking TRY, just a little, to realize that someone else’s self image and happiness doesn’t affect mine other than what pronouns I use to refer to them. Fuck, its not hard. Just don’t be a dick.

This does not apply to electronics. You want that 99% to leave as little moisture as possible.

I was in band, and marching band was mandatory.

I did not try out, as I did not want to participate in that part of the band experience.

So I was part of the “front ensemble” which is shit you can’t march with. Timpani drums, etc.

We had an L frame rack with wheels that had all sorts of crap on it, half of it made in some garage before I joined.

We called it the ghetto rack.

I had a solo on what were essentially tanks that had the bottom cut off and an attachment point welded on top hung by rope.

So yeah, if you can hit it and make a sound, it becomes a percussion instrument.

Wait and Bleed in my ass.

Please don’t I barely understand subnetting as it is.

Not to mention, it is entirely possible to get home from work, play, and then realize you are now late for work.

Its just engaging on a level that most modern game’s can’t hope to achieve.

Hell, I’ve installed a game (old), then installed mods, then resolved all the mod issues, then launch it to realize I don’t actually want to play it.

Factorio? Mods are easy, and vanilla is enough to keep someone occupied and happy if they lack internet or something.

Its light weight too, it costs me virtually nothing to install it on anything that can run it.