Nuke the world.

That’s not murder; it’s a war crime.

Huh?

I loved Fallout 4, and I still play it. I’ve got it installed on this computer, but I don’t have Skyrim installed. I’m not as attached to the London mod for it, TBH.

Can’t say a lot about what Bethesda is going to do with the next Elder Scrolls games, but I’d love to see a return to the more complicated skill trees and level advancement that they used in Morrowind and Daggerfall. I also really loved the limitless number of randomly generate dungeons in Daggerfall, and how it took years (in real-time) to walk across the continent, but that’s probably not what most people want now.

That’s not entirely accurate. Yes, it was more than the GDP of the entire planet at the time, but that’s not the value of the entire planet. Unless they meant the amount of physical currency that existed, in which case the amount was considerably less than the 62T that the article cites, since most money is never physical.

It’s still patently ridiculous though.

I’ve heard that kind of thing about a number of non-profits. Makes me wonder how they manage to attract so many awful people.

Or maybe people in general are just awful.

Senior managers were also awful then; part of their job is making sure that the lower level managers don’t suck, and they weren’t.

That’s why you generally would want to call cops; it’s supposed to be their job, and they’re supposed to be trained to do shit like that. No, they often aren’t, and don’t do their job, but they’re probably better equipped to deal with it than most non-police are.

I have gotten in the middle of something before–a driver in a huge pickup truck trying to run over a motorcyclist that he was angry at–and shit is not fun. It’s one of the few times that I wish that I remembered to carry concealed regularly, or at all.

Interfering in a domestic dispute is a really, really good way to get assaulted.

Like - what do I write in the card?

“Congratulations on surviving another circuit around the sun.”

What the hell do I get them?

I usually rely on them giving me a list.

I quit smoking four times, IIRC. The first week was always the shitty part, and then it would get dramatically easier. Three of the times I started back up because my ex-wife would secretly start smoking, get tired of hiding it, and offer me cigarettes (‘just one, as a treat’). The last time I quit we were in the process of separating prior to divorce, and so that shit didn’t happen. That was a little over ten years ago now.

This last time I quit because I was waking up every morning coughing. I had that nasty dark-yellow smokers’ phlegm that I’d cough up, and I’d have that first cigarette along with my cup of coffee. When I realized the direction my health was going, and that no amount of cardio and weight training was going to fix it, that’s when I decided to quit.

Each time I quit was cold turkey, no aids. The times I tried cutting back, using gum, etc., all failed miserably. Vaping wasn’t a thing at the time.

I still love the smell of cigarettes, pipes, and cigars. That’s never going to stop. But it’s pretty easy to resist now.

You’re just like yeah I know windows and Adobe will profit off of every button I click

First - Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC is not a consumer version. It’s about as locked down as you can get. It doesn’t even have drivers for the ethernet on your mobo out of the box; you better have already downloaded those. (Yes, I’m serious. It’s about Also, it’s pirated, since it’s not available to consumers at all; Microsoft doesn’t want to let consumers have the Enterprise versions of Windows because that’s no longer software-as-service. And the LTSC? That shit’s going to keep getting security updates–but no ‘feature’ updates, at all, ever–for at least 10 years.

Second - I don’t pay for Adobe, but I have to use it in my job. I’ve limited as much of it as I can, and CC doesn’t start up by default, but yeah, if you work in the commercial arts fields, you simply don’t have any serious options that aren’t Adobe, and yeah, they’re going to bleed you dry. But, as i said, i’m not the one paying. My workplace has a license that allows two seats, and I’m literally the only person there that knows how to use any of it–or even has the password to the Adobe account–so I just use the work license to put it on my home PC.

Soft-oily. Avacado anything is right out for me. Mayo on almost everything is gag-inducing. Tripe has a deeply unpleasant texture, even when it’s in something that’s otherwise enjoyable (like tripe congee).

It’s taken a while, but I’ve managed to expand the foods that I enjoy fairly widely, but I still mostly live off plain yogurt, frozen berries, raw oats, and almonds. Any time I go out to an ‘ethnic’ restaurant, I try to have something new and different. So far, one of the best choices has been zurek (a sour/fermented rye-based Polish soup with uncured sausage and egg.).

Once I finally got it installed, Win 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC has been fine. The only real hitch was that I had a terrible time getting the graphics card drivers instsalled; kept getting a BSOD. But everything is running quite nicely.

As soon as I remember to get my other hard drives installed, it will be time to put the Adobe Creative Suite and Corel Painter X on it, and see how happy it is with those.

Depends on what you’re doing, and how often you’re going to be doing it.

For mechanical tools, I like both Harbor Freight and Gearwrench. I like Gearwrench a lot more, but I haven’t managed to break any Harbor Freight tools yet that weren’t air or electric. For basic sockets, etc., it will be fine for almost everyone. (Spend more for torque wrenches though; don’t cheap out on those.) HF tools have pretty limited sizes though; they don’t have anything really large, like about around 25mm. Unless you are a professional mechanic, you probably shouldn’t waste your money on Matco or Snap-On.

For most cordless general and woodworking tools I like Makita. For more specialized powered hand tools I love Festool, but do not try to fill a shop with them. Just get the ones that no one else makes an equivalent of, like their Rotex sanders, or the domino joiner.

For woodworking shop tools–things that aren’t portable–buy old Delta or Powermatic, particularly stuff that is in no way shape or form portable. Trying to do any serious cabinetry on a job-site table saw is an exercise in frustration and wasted material. A tabletop jointer won’t give you good results.

And for hand-powered cutting tool, like chisels, pull-saws, planes, etc… Be prepared to start spending a lot of money. Hand planes alone can set you back a few hundred each, like for Lee Valley ‘Veritas’ planes. And that’s not even getting into the water stones that you’re going to need to keep them working in perfect condition.

FWIW, Ray Bradbury used to argue that Fahrenheit 451 wasn’t about censorship at all, but the dumbing down of society.

Once work leaves the hands of an author, the author no longer controls the narrative, or how the narrative is interpreted.

I haven’t heard anything in particular about Kentucky Ballistics. His content doesn’t interest me, but I haven’t heard of anything objectionable. Demo Ranch (Matt?) is friends with a whoooooooooole lot of very questionable people. It seems to mostly stay out of his videos though.

There are a few that are decent people. Not a ton. But a few.

I like Ben Stoeger’s stuff, because he largely keeps out of any culture war shit, and focuses on shooting better, and whatever the current USPSA bullshit it.

I dunno, maybe look him up on Instagram? He did an interview with Adminstrative Results (I’ve got his real name written down somewhere; he’s a former cops) on YouTube where he came right out and said it, made a bunch of anti-semitic jokes, and then it went really downhill from there. He was at least smart enough to delete the comment where he was talking about the massive amounts of ILLEGAL ANABOLIC STEROIDS that he uses (since that’s admitting to both a felony, and being a ‘habitual illegal drug user’. both of which would ban him from owning firearms).

He’s a christian nationalist, has called all trans people pedophiles, is homophobic, and is generally a shitbag. He surrounds himself with people that are overtly fascists.

I, involuntarily, learned control myself and put some safeties in place before a meltdown so it doesn’t happen.

Can you expand on this?

PGP is ‘pretty good privacy’; it’s an encryption standard. It’s not the best, but it’s fairly easy to use, and it going to resist decryption pretty well, for most use-cases. The idea is that you have a public key, and a private key. The public key allows messages to be encrypted, while your private key allows decryption.