SCmSTR

joined 1 year ago
[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

Yeah a sleeping bag is the way to go here. Get a mummy bag if you can and just wrap up tight.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 3 points 9 months ago

What? Why? I used to do that all the time. You cut it up, and take it with you. Like they said, it saves dishes. Even when I was a teenager at my friend's house, we'd make a frozen pizza, take it out onto a cutting board, then just stand around and eat it off the board. Good memories.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cpa worked good but made me depressed and suicidal so i switched. Spiro worked fine but smells weird and you should avoid potassium iirc. Never took bica before i went on monotherapy.

Drink more water if you have to continue being an alcoholic. For every beer or "drink"'s worth of alcohol, try to drink like 8oz of plain water. You'll be drunk as a fish and you can still enjoy your depression shakes, but also hydrated so your skin won't be as shit, your brain won't be as shriveled, and you'll smell less bad. So if you want to down a fifth or something stupid, you have to mix it with 135oz of water to drink it. A lot of people's health problems and age rates are from UV damage, malnourishment, and dehydration, and alcohol is a diuretic.

I know it's kind of a chicken/egg sitch, but you should do everything you can to chase happiness and know yourself better before you expire. I think you deciding to transition is proof that you're already doing that and you should believe in yourself rather than berate yourself for somebody else's malice and choice to steal. I believe in you and know you can do it. Keep going, onwards and upwards.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Also, a global pandemic and extreme political issues worldwide.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Snapblade 18mm razor, sharpie, blistex (superior to balm/stick in every way), bandages and alcohol prep wipes and triple antibiotic, Sawyer mini filter and a vacuum insulated bottle, and a towel - you never know when you'll need a towel.

Oh also an extra mask, couple napkins, some new folded up tissues, and earplugs.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Make a SWOT analysis for each option. Quantify EVERYTHING you can into personally objective and subjective values. Then A/B all of those values against each other. Then sleep on it, ask other people, and then return to the SWOT tables and try to add and simplify.

If you still have troubles after that, try to figure out what about either choice you don't know, and work to find it out with footwork and socializing, asking pointed questions, and paying attention to the things you want in life about people.

If that still doesn't tip the scale, it's probably because you don't know enough about something else, probably yourself.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

100%, music. Get on a music service (not a video service like YouTube) and go listen to genres of music that feel good.

Music that you liked when you were 13
When you were 21, music that reminds you of the good times
Or music that fits how you feel..

Seriously, don't underestimate the power of music. It's literally like magic and has the power to heal, inspire, distract, inform, validate, remind, transport, stimulate, numb, etc.. I became a musician because I wanted to help people through hard times and to be better people, because I realized how powerful and important it is.

Go try old stuff, too, like bob dylan. Or go listen to Linkin Park again like it's 2003. Or go listen through the entire nutcracker suite by Tchaikovsky (i suggest looking for the decca phase 4 London festival orchestra worth robert sharples that was recorded in the 60s https://youtu.be/S7VrwRJ4t-Y?si=cmLUTdUAmg2jw7kr i think it's the one, I'm not sure on my phone where it is on spotify). Or if you want to listen to the same song over and over and that feels good to you, then that's what you should be doing.

Just keep searching and following the good feelings and don't give up, like trying new sexual stuff and not trying for a specific outcome but allowing yourself to be in the moment and feel then sensations.

And feel your feelings. Just find someplace safe, get a good sound source, and let it all rip.. if you feel like crying, cry. If you feel like being mad, be mad. You have to actually process your feelings.

A wise man once said to me, "there's no bad music, only bad timing". If it feels off or wrong, just switch it. It takes courage to try something different sometimes, though, so try not sweat it too much either way, and just remember to breathe.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

That picture of Pam from The Office, "They're the same picture"

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Thank you for this craving.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Risk management is hard.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Valve is an independent company.

[–] SCmSTR@kbin.social 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

I've been thinking a lot about this for the past few years, and have noticed a trend in what games I've found to be actually good.

I noticed three very specific commonalities, and all of them have at least two:

  • Foreign (Non-American)
  • Indie
  • Small studio

Basically all of the good games that I've liked in the past ten years have been at least two of these, and I'm sure if you think about it, the great games you've played have also been this way.

Stop buying big US studio games, their shareholders all require them to maximize their income with really anti-comsumer and predatory designs and practices. You won't have fun, and it'll be expensive.

Go play EDF5 with some friends. It's jank but super fun. 6 is being translated and ported to PC soon.

Raft is great, too.

Talos Principle was fantastic, if not a little melancholy.

And weirdly, Minecraft Java is still good fun. Go check out some of the mod packs like All Of Fabric 6. Host a local server, port forward, play with friends. Literally world-class, free content made by grassroots, passionate developers who do it because they love it.

Valheim was great years ago, and while their development cycle is slow, it's been solid.

But seriously. When somebody refers or suggests a game to you, the first thing you should look at are how they make money, because that is ABSOLUTELY where the industry is at, and has been for a decade now. We used to have centralized talking heads like Total Biscuit who would bring up topics and discussions trying to keep these studios and publishers in their place, but he got taken out too early and now the community is ultra fragmented with no central integrous authority to reference and publishers and studios are out of control with nobody to answer to except investors.

It's like the loss of a union, except it's industry wide.

There are gems out there, but you gotta get past the advertising and learn to smell the bullshit business practices. They don't have to be standard, but remember that gaming has only turned into gambling and Gaming-as-a-Service (GaaS) because credit cards got involved post-purchase as a source of revenue.

Sure, good things come from it, but the trade-offs are entirely insidious and clearly motivating for standardized enshittification. We adults made our own graves by accepting and spending. Sure, even if the money isn't that big of a deal and the content you get might be good, you're voting with your wallet and training a soulless system.

It's ABSOLUTELY a mirror world, just like the media - if you consume, there will be more. Stop buying shit games like Diablo 4. Blizzard can take the hit unfortunately, and if those business practices stopped making as much return as they did, they wouldn't be supportable.

Sure, initial prices would go up, but at least the games wouldn't be ruined with money shops, proprietary currencies, battle passes, and all the other ultra predatory shit that makes them money that ruin gaming.

Reward creators and studios that stick their necks out to make something purely fun, despite their CFO compromising and forcing their developers to implement these practices because otherwise they'd: "be leaving money on the table, and we are a business, after all."

But remember:

  • Foreign
  • Indie
  • Small Studio

These are demographics that are typically more resistant and empowered to make FUN games.

34
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by SCmSTR@kbin.social to c/news@kbin.social
 

My family shares our Netflix account. We live in different states, but all in the United States.

I used it yesterday and it was fine. But today it was not. I got the "you are not part of this household" message, with the three options being:

  1. make your own account
  2. make this location the household location
  3. I'm traveling

I watch a lot of random stuff, but mostly on different services. So, while it's kind of a bummer to uninstall Netflix, I have plenty of options. It's moreso just depressing that the enshittification has finally hit North America. Will probably see more of this stuff around on the internet soon, as I'm guessing I just got my number pulled before most people (which is doubly depressing since this we've had Netflix since like 2005 or something and were strong advocates of it when linear tv was still dominant - THAT'S CAPITALISM FOR YA!~)

 

So, I've always been fascinated with things like Star Trek and their idea of Utopia. I get that it's basically just Asimov on Adderall, but even then, there are ideas and hopes there that really make you wonder if/how we'll get there.

And one thing that always stuck with me was the replicators.

If we had replicators, a LOT of stuff in society would change dramatically overnight. The ability to essentially turn energy and matter into whatever you want is the science fantasy political commentary version of relatively sustainable 100% production automation. That's a huge deal.

So, over the past ten to fifteen years that I've finally gone back and watched all the different shows, now that I'm mentally mature enough (not 5 years old or so when some of these were still airing new episodes) and can understand and deeply think about a lot more of it, it really makes me wonder:

Society and technology constantly try to approach the magical barrier of full automation, and even my boomer parents have wondered about what that would look like or how unrealistic or unsustainable would it really be? There's been a lot of discussion about how we could get there and what PEOPLE would do. Would they/we just go around doing art all day?

Well, basically, yeah, we're already pretty close to that already. A ton of people basically just shuffle information to other people that shuffle and massage around information. Whole industries, in fact. Except, that we're still doing it for profit. We need profit to buy stuff, right?

TO BUY -STUFF-

S. T. U. F. F.

So, imagine, for a second, that AI and 3D printing and robotics get super progressed, and somehow we, the people, reclaim the means of production entirely. Except... It's all 99.99% automated.

Nobody makes any money except whoever runs the machines. However, goods are somehow infinite (just bear with me, suspend that disbelief, and stay in the abstract "what if"), and essentially we would have nobody manufacturing or production work - nobody would need to work if they didn't want to, because everything was super easy to get, exactly like if you had a replicator.

But wait a minute, you say, there has to be some sort of financial support or movement of money around for this to work, right? Otherwise it's basically communism!

Government takes power of production, actually listens to the people, money doesn't mean much, UBI, and people just find meaning through the stuff we already actually want to do: make music, go to parties, socialize, science, write books, make videogames, innovate, or just get yolked af 24/7.

The thing that's limiting us from ever making this jump will be capitalism. It won't be science, it won't be war, it won't be famine, and it won't be religion. It'll be the people in power, disgustingly rich, at the top, utilizing that existing and well utilized unlimited power to try to seek more power against the very direction that everybody else, regardless of politics or creed actually wants. It'll be the devs of this site being required by society's ever increasing cost of living absorbing all their free time and energy and money just to sustain it rather than develop it, and that's not coincidence.

So, to finally get to my point, the "shower thought", and the punchline of all of this:

The closer we get to [perfect automation], the more the government needs to control price and phase out capitalism and move towards mixed socialism.

Because, as workers become so efficient because of technology and less workers are needed for the same work, the value of an amount of work goes down. Yet, in capitalism, the price goes up because of consolidation - if you only need one person to control your factory, that job is in high demand, you can pay really low and nobody has any money and still needs those goods, and the goods/services cost so little to produce so the owner makes tons of money.

Theoretically there's competition, but because of how capitalism works, eventually there's a threshold of buy-in to compete that most people cannot get to and you end up with cutthroat, profit maximizing, zero ethics industries. And so you have to be as powerful or more to do anything about these companies.

Which is where the government is supposed to step in (when ethics or laws or whatever are broken), but they do less and less since the extreme elite basically control everything, including the government, in pure self interest, which, we've defined above to be explicitly against any movement towards "utopia".

So the real question then, is, if the "overlords" (be it real people/puppet-masters, an unintentional conglomerate of unconnected oligarchs, or even an emergent reflection of our own human idiocy) cannot be controlled by us because WE are being controlled, or the government cannot control them because THEY are being controlled... Then how do we get past this limitation and prevent it in the future?

If I've learned anything from egoistical professors in the past, it's that the first step to fixing a problem is admitting there's a problem, and the second step is identifying the problem.

We all know something is wrong, we just can't seem to all agree on what it is, exactly. We know that prices are way too high, basically none of us have enough stuff, and we have to all suffer from Stockholm Syndrome in our jobs to continue getting better and continue working to pay for the things that we ACTUALLY want. Sure, there are those whose stars aligned and it works for them, that's great, but, what about everybody else? That's not a system that serves us all. We know that something is wrong.

Our level of technology, there's literally no reason that anybody in the world should go hungry, die from easy to treat problems, not have running water or decent infrastructure, or not have the bottom level of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs covered (physiological: shelter, excretion, food, water, warmth, clothing, sleep, air) - except capitalism. Lecherous levels of capitalism prevent basically anything good happening anymore.

I gotta try to end this rant somehow because now I'm tired and this is getting repetitive.

The world needs more technology and less capitalism and more better education. Ownership needs to be more limited, we need to work to provide better safety nets for people in society, and the road to all of this is a complete rehaul of public education. Standardize it, fund it way way better, stop stripping citizens of their rights, the government only exists to help the people, profit is not the only road to innovation and does not lead to prosperity, teach empathy and philosophy and anthropology, make it k-18, all tax supported, and instead of training soldiers, train engineers, inventors, scientists, teachers, creators, and most of all, train people how to be good people. Being a good person is not hard, but learning to be one is and the same way we're taught that 2+2=4, we should be taught that people with heritage nearer to the equator have longer and thinner fingers arms and legs and torsos and have more melanin, and that skin color is just a temporary adaptation by animals of the human race to protect ourselves from ionizing radiation from the increased amount of sun, and that everybody came from Africa, and nobody actually knows how to define biological gender, and that the scientific method is only a hundred years old, and we are ALL primates, and that different people have slight genetic predispositions to subtle differences, that being overweight is almost ALWAYS a physical manifestation of really fucking bad mental health, that everybody WANTS to work, that nobody laziness doesn't exist, that emotions and logic are separately valid but also intertwined and both can be seemingly directly opposed and both be correct, that two people arguing can both be correct and both be wrong, that everybody has real struggles that you don't know about and may never understand, and that, yes, you should ALWAYS follow your dreams because life is too damn short to not, that haters will always hate because that is their very real problem with themselves and it's really really sad, and that no matter what anybody tells you, you ARE worth loving and it's never too late to change your mind and do better.

I don't know why, but I believe that this world has a future so full of hope, so full of peace and beauty... If we are capable of fucking it up as bad as the history books have shown us, we are capable fixing it. Maybe not in our lifetimes, and that's sad. But at least we're not rocks. I'm happy I'm not a rock, because a rock is just a rock, and does not feel or think or see or love or hate or do the things we get to do. Life and consciousness are gifts so rare in the entire universe; every second you're allowed by fate the ability to ponder yourself pondering life and conciousness is an actual priceless treasure. Once you're dead, no amount of money or gold or number of horses or votes or gallons of oil or diamonds can give you that again. How many seconds did it take you to read this? An actual inconceivable amount of value, yet you got this far because you want better.

Seriously, if you read this far and you remember even one thing from any of this, just remember that life is short but the race is long, and in the end, it was only with yourself. And please, try to forgive yourself - past you and future you will appreciate it.

36
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by SCmSTR@kbin.social to c/pcmasterrace@lemmy.world
 

First off, tons of people adopted the name and have accepted the existing and earned elitism that goes along with the name.

Personal computers ARE a superior platform and the users ARE and SHOULD be elitist about it for very good reasons: they pay like 10x more. Forcing that image of elite to the forefront all but ensures that the idea that if you spend more you should get more. And in a time where microtransactions and other incredibly abusive and predatory industry practices are taking advantage of gamers without serving them actually good content is on an alarmingly fast rising trend that's set to be the redefinition of gaming VERY SOON, we all need to be fighting for better quality of content, and let the undercutting that brings down price happen later, which is an unfortunate series of truths.

"PC Master Race" is attractive to those who want more and feel good about it, and it's out there. Whether or not we change the name here on Lemmy, is not going to affect that meme. I'm all for coming up with new names, but, unless there are actual fascist behaviors emerging or being actually attracted to the communities and platforms, I very seriously doubt PCMR is going anywhere, anytime soon.

EDIT:
Also, I want to add that, Linux people are even moreso pcmr than most pcmr and nobody thinks they're actual Nazis. Largely people recognize them as mostly power users, which, in the gaming space, often pc users ARE.

The difference is that, Linux users, and pc users in general, WANT you to join us because it makes us ALL stronger. Nazism and fascism is... exclusionary, but console wars stuff is about as serious as sports teams being angry at each other. And even then, pcmr is about deliberance and technology and intelligence, even going as far as to self-depricate if elitism gets too pretentious:

Getting too full of yourself? Blindly following others? Spending tons of money and getting nothing for it? You must be: PCMR!!

Because at the end of the day, people just wanna play video games, and you buy what you can buy, and console peasants and PCMR are still eclipsed by mobile games, the true dregs of gaming society. 🙃

 

Home video game consoles have numbered generations.
NES was the third.
We're currently in the 9th generation.
Each generation lasts roughly about 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_video_game_console_generations

Is your favorite generation the one from when you first played games? Or is that unrelated and coincidental?

Is there a correlation with strength of a generation and society's financial state (2009 recession's effect on the 7th gen)?

I'm an aspiring developer and trying to answer the age old question of: Are games getting worse? In what aspects yes or no?

They absolutely are getting better audio&video fidelity, but that doesn't mean much to, at least me, if the music is less memorable, the bugs are all patched, everything is over-monetized games as a service, all the assets are generic, and it's all hyper-derivative remakes of remakes. I get that "fun is fun", but once you've played so many games, you look back at games from 2001 and wonder why the only innovations we have are mantling, $20 hats, and Microsoft is buying everything.

There are absolutely good games right now, on the way to par with number of good games of most previous generations. So why does it still feel like everybody I talk to, regardless of age, feels like there's an itch that hasn't been scratched in ages? And, why is this a contentious issue? Surely, there's a measurable way to debate seemingly subjective opinion of where we are.

Game devs: We see you guys working your asses off with very little appreciation. This isn't about you guys, as much as it's about risks (or lack of) that the industry takes as a whole.

 

Historically, porn has organically decided which platform or formats become dominant. It's incredibly anti-censorship, but walks many fine lines.

As Reddit now and tomorrow reveals more weaknesses, where will the OnlyFans creators, porn posters, and all those grassroots porn communities go? The creators need to make money by showing to a large and interested user base. The users need lots of content to choose from and be fed constantly, with very few hindrances between them and their...goals. Many of the niches actually have respectful and healthy communities, too. Those people deserve an easy to use platform, just as much as people that want to look at cats, some of those groups, arguably more.

The thought of how to pose this to the Fediverse, now, has been on my mind for weeks:

Can the fediverse rise to the task? Does it even want to? Should it?

Personally, I think it should absolutely try, but I'm not sure it can do so without several deep strides in tech and development. I'm aware this is a hot af take, but it's undeniable that the internet IS for porn, and denying that would be a huge opportunity loss for inevitably winning this popularity context.

view more: next ›