sevan

@sevan@lemmy.ca

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How does one figure out what to do, after getting out and done with high school?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  tldr: exercise, learn to cook, and start saving some money (keep your expenses low as long as you can)

  I know a lot has changed since I was 18 but if I could give myself some advice to get a better start in life on a second try, here are a the first things that I would share.

  1. Learn to take care of your body, it’s the only one you get and it is much easier to work on your fitness and health when you are 18 than when you are 30 or 40 or whatever. While you have free time, this is a great time to learn and practice some good habits that you can carry with you for the rest of your life.

  Two main ideas here:

  • Find some kind of movement exercises that you enjoy doing and can make a routine of. You don’t need to be an athlete or anything. It could be a daily walk, yoga, jogging, weight training, climbing, cycling, sports. For sports, I would look at things that are easy to keep up with as you get older, typically things with less structure or equipment requirements. For example, American football or volleyball might be harder to manage than tennis/pickle ball or indoor soccer/football. Don’t make it a chore; you don’t have to be great (or even good) at any of it, just find something that you want to keep up with. I know a lot of people also make connections with other people in some of these places (like climbing, cross fit, and sports gyms) but those also tend to be more expensive options.

  • Learn to cook (if you don’t already know how) and try to build a short list of reasonably healthy recipes that you enjoy and could live on every day, if needed. Try to focus on simple things to start, like eggs or oatmeal for breakfast, healthy sandwiches or wraps for lunch (try to minimize processed meats or peanut butter), for dinner maybe pastas, casseroles, salads, roasted vegetables & potatoes.

  Try to come up with things that are quick and easy to make and especially things that can be made from staples that last a long time in the pantry or fridge. For a lot of people, planning, shopping for, and preparing food every day is a major challenge once when added to a job, school, or family. However, if you have a reliable list of foods that you can repeat without much effort, that takes away a major point of stress in your future life.

  2. If you have a good relationship with your family, take advantage of this time to minimize your expenses and get some savings started. A lot of people are in a rush to move out and “start” their adulthood. If you are in a bad family situation, that may be the right move. If things are good, maybe get a low stress part-time job to earn a little income and get some experience.

  For me, a big part of “low stress” is know that you can walk away at any time because you have a safety net. In my case, I can’t quit my job because my family needs the income, which makes stupid things stress me out more than they should. However, when I was a teenager working low wage retail and fast food jobs, they did not stress me out because I knew I could walk out the door at any time without caring. From the outside looking in, my current job pays much better and is much more chill than working retail but I was way less stressed flipping burgers while living at home as a teenager.

  The biggest “mistakes” I made after I graduated high school were eating a ton of fast food while going to college, dropping my gym routine when my parents canceled our membership when I was 20, and rushing to move out with my friends about the same time. The result of those things caused me to get fat and deeply in debt in my 20s and it took me all of my 30s to get back to even. I was probably around 35 when I got back to anything close to my high school graduation body weight and around 40 before my net worth went positive and I started any meaningful retirement savings.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do I make the most out of a mediocre laptop?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I assume the answer is no, but do you have access to a more powerful desktop? If so, you could potentially work remotely on the desktop to have the benefit of portability with your laptop and more capability with the desktop. That’s how I play more demanding games on my laptop.

  Since you don’t need a powerful GPU, if you have a little cash available, you could potentially get a more powerful refurbished desktop for that purpose for $300-500 (in the US). The low end of that range would get you 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage; the high end would potentially get you 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. If you don’t have a monitor, you could potentially plug it into a TV for setup and then just remote into it the rest of the time. (or grab a cheap refurb monitor)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The worst of the worst⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I definitely agree with that.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The worst of the worst⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  This week at work, my team reported a major system outage. There was a lengthy conference call to solve the outage and afterwards someone (not from my team) ran a transcript of the call through copilot to generate an executive summary and sent it up to top level leadership.

  Copilot misunderstood the relevance of various comments (surprise!) and effectively reported that my team reported the outage almost an hour after we became aware of it. This caused us to get yelled at by senior leadership for failing to report a major issue in a timely manner. We then had to waste time proving that we had escalated the issue appropriately within minutes and listen to the call recording again to figure out where the incorrect reference came from and provide quotes from the transcript to explain why the summary was wrong.

  So far there have been some very small use cases where I have found LLMs slightly useful but mostly they cause me more work than they save (by a lot). And yet, I keep hearing more and more from my company that they want “AI” to analyze things for us.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I still can't get over Skyrim. Are there any games that can replace it?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ 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?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨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 ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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 ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ 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 ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨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.