Zink
@Zink@programming.dev
- Comment on always watching 9 hours ago:
That couldn’t be a picture of Andromeda though, since that is not the perspective you get from our galaxy. Andromeda is facing us more with the edge than being broadside like in this image.
I’m not complaining though. Thanks for including the alt-text!
- Comment on Ubisoft Closes Canadian Studio After It Unionizes 1 day ago:
Yeah, that’s another fun aspect of our culture. Jobs that many people actually want due to what they are passionate about lead to abuse.
It’s the reason I never seriously considered getting into game development or becoming a teacher.
I am the rare father involved in the PTO (parent-teacher organization) along with my wife at our kid’s elementary school. We were handing out basic cheap supplies to the teachers last month as a Christmas thing. We’d interrupt the class to give the teacher a SINGLE roll of paper towels and then a small box of tissues or some glue sticks or whatever, and they were excited and grateful every time!
- Comment on I can still smell them 1 day ago:
I remember it well…
The smell of the gunpowder. In the play room.
- Comment on wisdom 1 week ago:
I appreciate the juxtaposition between your username and this comment wanting to beat one of the universe’s most useless life forms.
- Comment on How is Donald Trump able to get away with being part of a child trafficking ring but I get 20 years in jail for littering? 1 week ago:
Wilhoit’s law:
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”
In looking up the exact text, apparently it is often attributed to the wrong Wilhoit, lol.
- Comment on Belief 1 week ago:
Ouch, that line sure as hell would work on me!
But I’m not just an American who watched his show. I’m local to his area and I’ve been to the actual studios at WQED multiple times, on top of all the show artifacts I just saw the other day.
- Comment on EU lawmakers to study ban 'loot boxes' and other addictive features in video games 1 week ago:
It was probably organized by corporations to slow down EU
Cries in red white and blue American tears
The owner class, their paid shills, and their useful idiots had half the population convinced decades ago that all regulation is bad and that government entities literally cannot do anything correctly.
I started believing some of that stuff when I was young and thought that people in the media argued in good faith. Plus I was more accepting of the cornerstone conservative axiom that money and “progress” are the marks of good people and good societies rather than silly nebulous concepts like “being alive is a positive experience for as many people as possible.”
- Comment on Belief 1 week ago:
I found myself among some Mister Rogers quotes and artifacts yesterday, of all possible things.
So just for today I’m gonna push back on this one a little bit. I think the goodness is out there, but unfortunately much of our society is kinda designed to separate us from our humanity and mental peace.
- Comment on With how the republican party work in 10 years the presidential candidate will be an open pedophile and they will say they defeated wokeness. 2 weeks ago:
The Democrats really suck. Our FPTP 2-party system is really some bullshit. However, it is really difficult for me to buy into the validity of the slippery slope you are describing when the people around me keep voting for the option that is #1 worst by a whole fucking lot.
And the further that #1 worst keeps surging and lapping #2 on the evil-dex, the further their psycho supporters seem to like it! We’ll see if the pedo shit can finally reverse that.
This would be a different conversation if we’d elected democrats over and over to avoid republicans and somehow still got dragged to the right. At the end of the Obama administration, for instance, there was the concern of the bait and switch.
But no. He gets impeached a couple times for betraying the US in different ways after being openly terrible for years, and dozens of millions of people still turn out to vote for him. He tries some light coup and all the daily otherwise career ending craziness, and they turn out to vote for him AGAIN in HIGHER numbers.
The fact that the democrats are the good cop capitalists to the republicans’ bad cop capitalists is definitely a problem, yes. Any of us who get to vote in the US should be keenly aware of that. And there are multiple things we can try to fix in parallel. But sometimes you have to fix things sequentially too.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
Ah, my mistake. Thanks!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
He’s already in 3rd grade and they haven’t even covered ESD precautions yet!!
Like I’m gonna let those grubby mitts touch an actual stick of ram or GPU in the year 2025, lol.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
I got caught up on that too.
I don’t do anything with yarn, but will sometimes use fabric to make puppets and other toys with my kid.
Even buying the cheapest fabric from the lowest priced outlets (cheaper than even the random alphabet soup brands on amazon) in bulk, it adds up so fast when you’re actually creating things!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
I’d say spending SOME money and time on your most fulfilling hobbies is damn near a necessity for a healthy existence.
And yeah sure, plenty of people don’t do that, and plenty of people literally cannot afford to do that here in my dear old US of A.
But you know what else I see a lot of people doing in the US? Fighting mental illness and talking ever more openly about the need for revolution and violence.
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
You could fit so many more birdies into a medium format sensor!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
I’m not doing much photography now but I was way into it a decade ago. I did it professionally on the side, which helped justify some of my nice full-frame gear. It’s nice when taking photos at a dimly lit wedding reception.
Your mention of Gear Aquisition Syndrome followed by a picture of a motherfucking peregine falcon in flight still took my breath away for a second there!
- Comment on surely your hobby can't be that expensive 3 weeks ago:
I barely spent any money on my hobbies this year. I’m not some kind of sucker!
I merely spent thousands of dollars on materials and tools to build the supporting infrastructure for them!
I also have some very expensive computer parts waiting to be assembled. But they aren’t for any hobby of mine! They’re for the kid so we can play stuff without him using a computer twice as old as he is. 😉
- Comment on Attitudes 3 weeks ago:
Getting laid off during COVID was like a preview of retirement, on top of other benefits like showing how little of my personal identity was tied to my job and how little I actually care about it. “Career line go up forever” was one of many things I was SUPPOSED to care about, but did not ACTUALLY care about. And that helped me fast-forward figuring out what does matter to me.
It was amazing.
The “I’ll work forever” badge of honor garbage is just one of the many ways people get conditioned to go against their own best interests to help out the rich/political people that really matter. (/s and barf)
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 3 weeks ago:
Yeah, there’s some real truth to that, not gonna argue at all. With my ADHD and weak appetite I’ll just forget to eat, or not want to eat in the first place.
But even with whatever I enjoy in moderation whether it’s due to the excellent food or the environment (thinking holiday family dinners this time of year) or both, I don’t look at it like an escape. It’s just a nice enhancement to your day that engages your senses. In that way I think of the occasional amazing meal the same way I think of the occasional spirited drive home on a twisty road in beautiful weather with all the windows down.
However, I do want to acknowledge that we are all different and have to figure out what works for our particular brain given our experiences and environment. Food might just never be a contributor for you. And it’s not a huge one for me either, but over the past few years I’ve learned to value and hold on to any little incremental positive life improvements I run into.
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 3 weeks ago:
Nah I don’t think that’s the alternative. It’s not about dedicating your life to it. It’s about allowing yourself some nice experiences to enhance your daily life even though you have very important bills to pay and can’t just buy whatever food you want.
I didn’t even comment because I’m some kind of cooking or dining enthusiast. It was more about the general attitude (which I very much grew up with) essentially that it is silly and self-indulgent to stop and smell the roses when there’s money to be made or work to be done. Basically the conservative culture where being a good human means being a productive boot-licking worker bee and not getting into all that touchy-feely human stuff.
- Comment on Fair's fair. 3 weeks ago:
Invoicing intensifies
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 3 weeks ago:
I used to think that way in general, and personally I am still a bit like that. It’s just one piece of figuring out how to get my brain & body to cooperate with me.
But something I have learned, for me at least, is that leaning into things that engage a variety of your senses in a positive way is often a good thing. And even better if it leads to good interactions with other people that matter to you (insert boo-hiss from my introverted recluse AuDHD side).
I think in the US especially, we often treat food as a necessary evil rather than just a necessity. People don’t have time to waste on preparing healthy food and then eating it with their family. They need to focus on the “important things” like putting in long hours at the office so that they can afford to drive a BMW home instead of some pleb Honda shit. They’ll just grab some fast food or something in a box that will fill stomachs provide some macros to sustain life in the near term, and everything will be just fine.
- Comment on My culture also loves music, dancing and telling stories 3 weeks ago:
Some people just do not think about cultures outside their own. Like, at all.
Hey that IS my American culture!
- Comment on Typical monopoly people 3 weeks ago:
Seriously!
We have a third grader, and he’s pretty good at reading. Recently he has been arguing with us about the pronunciation of some new words from his homework.
The problem is, his arguments are sound! He’s accurately following the rules he learned for sounding out words.
When this has come up in the past, all I’ve been able to do is acknowledge his argument and explain to him how English has all kinds of weird rules and exceptions, and it’s the kind of thing you remember with experience using the words. Like, there is no new rule to learn, and you don’t have to freak out about remembering all these exceptions. It will just come with time. (Because we all know there’s nothing that kids like more than olds telling them to just wait or give it time, lol)
- Comment on Fair's fair. 3 weeks ago:
I used to say this kind of thing when I was an angry young conservative because I assumed the culture I grew up in had a shred of good faith in its arguments and actions.
The individuals can certainly mean well at times, but they are fed insidious lies that are made to sound good on the surface.
30 years ago I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you because I knew many people are stupid.
Today I would wholeheartedly disagree with you because I know many people are evil.
- Comment on Fair's fair. 3 weeks ago:
John Deere has entered the farm
- Comment on Anyone in tech confirm? 3 weeks ago:
Go for it.
I got heavy into carpentry this year because another one of my hobbies involved a bunch of construction.
Working with wood is satisfying as hell. So is building the exact thing you need that isn’t a product sold anywhere.
- Comment on I just learned 37% of Americans fear vaccinating their dog will cause the dog to develop autism. 😐 4 weeks ago:
This is so stupid that it makes me think maybe the “great filter” (the reason we don’t see space-faring civilizations everywhere) is actually that life forms who evolved by fighting for survival and going through natural selection cannot psychologically handle a post-scarcity society. It’s like when the threats disappear everybody forgets they exist even if they are well documented historically.
Related: if you don’t know about how horrifying a disease is, go search for some articles and copypasta about it. Congrats on being one of today’s (un)lucky 10,000!
- Comment on Elon Musk’s Optimus Robot shuts down after reproducing the gesture of its human operator removing their headset 4 weeks ago:
Oh no. There could be a whole revolution in sentencing people to house arrest work programs. Just think of the cost savings of making inmates pay for their own housing, and the surveillance potential to keep the neighbors “safe.”
- Comment on My Religion 4 weeks ago:
I was never a coffee drinker for unrelated reasons, and also never acquired the taste for it even though the smell is generally nice.
But now I’m in my 40s and have multiple medical conditions (i.e., more than just the AuDHD, lol) that are treated with stimulants, so I will usually supplement my adderall with a cup of coffee in the morning and one at lunch time.
The nice thing is that I don’t have decades of tolerance and habit around the stuff, so it is still nice and potent. Instead of adding a bunch of junk to it, I just let it cool off then drink it quickly or add a chocolate protein shake to it for a few breakfast calories if I didn’t eat.
Plus even though I don’t like the taste I think the coffee at work is decent because it’s a machine that grinds whole beans, and the operations manager for our location fills the hopper with the beans himself. Some Starbucks somebody gave me recently tasted rotten in comparison. And that’s not “mischievous child” rotten, that’s carcass rotten.
- Comment on I support this 5 weeks ago:
I’m human and I enjoy these stories of pettiness just like anybody else.
But if I may please speak in my “old man who has seen things” capacity for a moment, this is not the way to live. You should endeavor to do positive things every day to make life better for people around you as well as yourself. And you don’t do this because it gets you praise or rewards, you do it because of the internal rewards. It’s good for your mind.