sevan

@sevan@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree with you on both points there. Skyrim NPCs are definitely a weak point and there was some good content in the side quests of the Witcher series.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends on what you like. I love Skyrim and hate the Witcher games. The thing that I hate the most about the Witcher games is that using a main character from books locks you into certain parts of the canon that kills my vibe from an RPG perspective. In particular, I don’t care about Yennefer even a little bit but any time she shows up in the story, the main character throws away all prior decisions and chases after her. I prefer RPGs that let me imagine who my character is as much as possible.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨if all birds sing and if they do why do geese honk, ducks quack, and chickens bawk?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I would say not all birds sing, mainly just song birds sing. Lots of other birds don’t sing either like crows, woodpeckers, jays, pelicans, eagles, hawks, owls, etc.

  Note: I’m not any kind of bird expert, so it is possible some of the birds that I listed have a song-like call that I’m unfamiliar with or am forgetting about.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why when I rent an Apt I need to have the electric turned on first? I spent my first year of contracting living out my car to save all the money I could. Shouldn't the land lord do that not you?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Everywhere I’ve ever lived in the US you tell the electric and gas company what date you’ll be moving in or out. The power and gas are normally already turned on and they just switch billing to whoever the new responsible party is.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why when I rent an Apt I need to have the electric turned on first? I spent my first year of contracting living out my car to save all the money I could. Shouldn't the land lord do that not you?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  In Georgia (USA) you have the illusion of choice in a “deregulated” market. In reality, there is a single gas provider and you get to pick which company provides billing service to you. Each company advertises a rate to “compete” with each other, this rate is added on top of the base rate that the actual gas provider charges and then they charge you a service charge on top of the that ($5-6 per month) that is not advertised.

  The base rate is the same no matter who you choose. And the base rate plus admin fee make up most of your bill, so the advertised “competitive” rate is basically meaningless. Also, you have to sign a contract or you pay a variable rate instead of the advertised rate, which is MUCH higher. Also, there are big discounts for “new” customers (lower rate, monthly bill credit, cash back visa, etc.), so after the first contract period your price goes up quite a bit.

  So you need to change providers every 6-24 months (depending on contract length) in the month before your contract expires. Otherwise your bill goes up because you either switched to the much higher variable price or lost your new customer discount. Or if you switch early, you pay an early cancellation charge.

  Also, if you ever have any issues with your gas lines, you have to call the actual gas company to get assistance. The company that you pay doesn’t actually have any technicians or anything and provides no other service than billing you and paying the real gas company their share of the bill.

  I’m so glad I don’t live in Georgia anymore for lots of reasons, including this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Okay... so how do depressed people even have relationships? Did they get depresion after they already got into the relationship or did they actually went dating while having depression?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve been married to someone with severe depression for a very long time. It isn’t necessarily a 24x7 experience. During the good times, she is an incredibly happy and fun person to be with. During the bad times, it is really hard on both of us. Medicine has helped, but isn’t perfect. We do our best to get through the hard times and enjoy the rest.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Asking for a chocaholic friend⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My kids used used to call it chokit. They have since learned to pronounce it correctly, but my wife and I have adopted chokit permanently.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨See their point⁩ ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Not even a little bit true for me. I listened to pretty much only country at 14 and I don’t listen to any country now, not even the stuff I liked then. By 16 I had switched to mostly rock & alternative. I will still listen to that occasionally, mostly for nostalgia, but it isn’t on any of my playlists. I suspect most everything on my regular playlists came out after I was 30, but it continues to shift forward over time. I suspect eventually most of my current playlist will age out too.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As The Outer Worlds 2 hits $80, director says "we don't set the prices for our games" and wishes "everybody could play" Obsidian's new RPG⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I bought the first one for $20. For the second I’ll play on Game Pass, if it is available, or again wait for $20. Maybe even less if I forget about it, which I might.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Just got charged for reading it⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It drives me nuts that my state has “deregulated” natural gas. All natural gas in the region is supplied to every home by a single company (the same one as before deregulation). I pay at least $35 a month all year just for the privilege of being connected to it.

  BUT, I don’t actually do business with that company. I get to pick from a dozen companies that all provide front-end billing for my natural gas. They advertise how much they will charge per therm used (plus an admin fee), but that price is on top of what I pay to the company actually providing gas. If I have an issue with the gas, the supplier comes out to deal with it, not the company I pay every month. And, I have to change companies every 6-24 months to maintain the advertised rates, otherwise they increase my cost after the new customer price expires. Its fake competition that added an extra step to the process and increases prices compared to the regulated version that used to exist.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 doesn't require reflexes, says player who beat the game without dodges or parries⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I loaded up Story Mode + as many gameplay mods as I could find and am making progress. I might finish it in the next month or two at my current rate.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a highly-rated, critically acclaimed TV series that you couldn't get into, or have no interest in?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Same. I watched maybe half of the first episode and then left to go fold laundry and never finished the episode.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some exploits that have already been discovered that people have been sitting on in anticipation of support ending soon.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨3's grip looks the most comfy⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  5 forever!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I feel my life is empty. Is there any way to stop this?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  healthline.com/…/how-to-survive-midlife-blues

  Depending on how old you are, you might just be hitting the normal midlife low point. It hit me hard in my late 30s and I spent a lot of time reading about it once I found out it was typical. I think a lot of it has to do with the rate at which you’re experiencing milestones and life changes. It feels like you are constantly progressing in your life up to your 20s or 30s and then the time scale suddenly shifts. Things take much longer to advance - saving enough for a house or retirement, that next promotion (assuming you even want one), major family changes, etc.

  Understanding that helped me recover somewhat, though it still took a couple of years. I’m still in that lull, trying to figure out what I really even want to do next, but I don’t feel sad about it anymore. I don’t know if this applies to your situation, but I found it really helpful to learn about it.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sounds like a problem for them, not me.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I’ve never asked for time off, only informed my boss that I will be off. I have only had push back twice. Once, when I was in high school my boss said I couldn’t, so I quit on the spot (nothing to lose in a minimum wage job when my parents were still supporting me). A few years later, a shift lead (who was not technically my boss) challenged me, I told him I wasn’t asking for the day off, I was providing advance notice that I would not be there that day.

  The irony is that I now manage people who have an attendance policy. I try to make sure people have plenty of opportunity to plan time off so they don’t have to call out. They’re going to take the time either way, I may as well know in advance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How can a US citizen invest outside the reach of the federal government?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  If your main concern is the US currency or just wanting your money to be out of US-based assets, I believe Interactive Brokers provides a lot of flexibility to move your money between assets and currencies. You’re still going to pay taxes and be subject to all US laws.

  If your concern is US involvement in your personal financial affairs…good luck. The US has tremendous influence over the global financial system and no legitimate foreign organization is going to work with you unless you have substantial assets. The few countries that do not respect US influence are not particularly trustworthy and trying to do business with them will put you at significant legal risk.

  You could also try converting to physical gold, but the US has confiscated gold before, so that’s not a sure bet.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Smart methodology⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to work for a cable company. I remember a coworker telling me a long time ago that one of the challenges they used to have was making sure the caller’s TV was tuned to the correct channel. So, the conversation would go like this:

  “Please change the channel to 27” (or any other random number that isn’t a locally used channel) “What do you see?” “Nothing…” “Good, change it to 3, now what do you see?” “Nothing…” “Good, change to channel 4” “It works!”

  For those that don’t know, there was a long period of time where the auxiliary input into TVs was tuned to either channel 3 or channel 4. There was a good chance that the customer didn’t know which one was correct for their TV and would have assumed that it was already set correctly if you asked.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨TIL it's impossible to delete a free trial account for AppleTv+ or Apple Music without an Apple Device⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I tried to sign up for an Apple TV free trial without an Apple device. It let me create the account, but then I had to “activate” the account, and I couldn’t do it on any of my devices (android, windows, the TV that gave me the free trial). I talked to tier 1 and tier 2 support, they couldn’t get it working either.

  Then it gets even more ridiculous. The tier 2 agent asks me to upload screenshots of the errors I was getting for the tier 3 (?) engineers to review. Oh, I need an active Apple account to upload anything. I emailed the images and their email system stripped the attachments from the email. Tier 3 closed the ticket and banned my account. I talked to Tier 2 again and all they could do was put in a ticket to request I be unbanned…it was denied.

  Finally, I gave up and asked them to delete my account. They said my account can only be deleted if I log in and use the delete account function. I pointed out how that was not possible and they said there was no other option. The whole situation reinforced my plan to never buy an Apple product.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why do so many UK electrical sockets have an on/off switch next to them?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s common in the U.S., especially in apartments, to have rooms with no light fixtures. Instead, there will be one outlet that is wired to a switch by the door. That outlet is sometimes upside down to distinguish it from the other outlets. That gives you the option to connect a lamp to the switch to get the same result as having a light fixture. I would generally prefer that every room has a light fixture on the ceiling, but this is marginally better than having to walk across a dark room to turn on a lamp.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Accurate cartography⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, depending on where exactly you ended up, it could go either way. I’ve watched some British TV over the years and I frequently need subtitles and I assume the actors are enunciating better than the average person.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Accurate cartography⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I hope you’re not using that map to navigate your new home.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Oh, that sounds like a sweet deal. I should have been aspired to be a corporation instead of a normal person.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nintendo stock falls after mixed reaction from Switch 2 announcement⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Stock “news” is stupid, the Switch 2 announcement has been expected for a year. The only news is that the company confirmed it will launch this year, which was already expected. Real news is when we start hearing what games will be available at launch (or soon after).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Walgreens Replaced Fridge Doors With Smart Screens. It’s Now a $200 Million Fiasco.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t really understand how Walgreens is still in business. I only go there when I need something that the grocery store pharmacy section doesn’t carry and I’m not willing to wait 1-2 days to have it shipped from Amazon. Every time I go, its a ghost town with more employees than customers.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They just don't understand⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Way back in the late '90s, my first apartment was a brand new development with a T5 connection (I think) that offered each unit 8 glorious Mbps. However, I needed to get that connection shared between 2 PCs in different rooms. Wifi was not an option (expensive and slow), even a router was a major financial investment for me back then. So, I bought an extra network card and a 100 foot crossover cable and ran it down the hallway.

  It was so successful, that I continued to incorporate very long cables in my builds for the next 20ish years. Even today, my desktop computer is not wifi capable, but first I migrated to powerline ethernet and more recently mesh wifi with my PC plugged into one of the child nodes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Communism⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t know a lot about the Amish, but possibly. From what I know, it seems like they embody some of the core principles in terms of contributing to the community and managing a balanced, relatively equal society. I don’t know anything about their religion, so I don’t know if there is a level of control from church leaders that might be more of a centralized control structure. But they might be an example. You can also search for examples of hippie communes or artist collectives.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Communism⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  There have been many groups that form communes within a larger system. Sometimes its built around a religion (or cult), sometimes around various ideals, like artist communes. In my opinion, what makes these work is that they’re small (your reputation matters), people join it voluntarily, and people can be kicked out if they don’t uphold the ideals. So, you don’t need a state to enforce the rules aside from a mechanism to remove people who don’t participate fairly. And because they are within a larger entity, they don’t have to deal with things like national security or foreign affairs. I don’t think that model scales to a national level.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Half-Life Opposing Force still known to current gamers, or is this a side game that's fallen through the cracks.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks, I’ll check it out!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Half-Life Opposing Force still known to current gamers, or is this a side game that's fallen through the cracks.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I actually liked Opposing Force and Blue Shift better than HL1 back when they were still new. Recently I thought I would play through them all again, but I only made it a little way into the original before I quit. Going back to old mechanics is not generally enjoyable for me. Or maybe I should have just skipped HL1 and gone directly to the ones I liked better. To be fair, I skipped ahead to HL2 and am still struggling to enjoy the dated mechanics.