cobysev

I’ve spent the last year or so playing Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint with a couple friends.

It has an interesting sci-fi/military story, tons of side missions if you’re tired of following the main campaign, and a wide open map to explore if you’re just bored of everything. Plus, there are random missions every day, so if you’re done with the main campaign, you can continue to do missions and enjoy exploring the world even more.

Also, your party doesn’t have to stick together. You can play on the same map, but go off and do your own thing. I have a buddy who can’t follow instructions to save his life. He’s always running around, causing chaos everywhere he goes. We’re trying to stealthily infiltrate a base and he just crash-lands a helicopter into it and runs in guns blazing.

So… we let him run off and grief other bases or enemies while the rest of our party focuses on the mission. Everybody wins, and we all get to play together and have a good time.

EDIT: Same goes for Tom Clancy’s The Division and The Division 2. Unlike Breakpoint, which takes place on an island nation, fighting against a wannabe dictator, The Division takes place in America after a virus plague has wiped out most of civilization, and you’re playing as an elite team that’s trying to restore order to the population.

I’ve been playing The Division with my friends for a few years now. It’s a very fun game series.

My grandfather had a massive heart attack in his 70s. He only stayed alive because my mother was a Red Cross certified CPR instructor and kept him going for over an hour until an ambulance got there. Doctors said his body was pretty messed up and they gave him maybe a month to live at best.

My grandfather said, “To hell with that, I wanna keep living!” He lasted another 10 years until he finally passed away.

Similarly, my dad was on hospice care earlier this year. He had a strong body, but his Parkinson’s was affecting his functions and they gave him less than 6 months to live. Not even a month later, he told my sister that he’s tired of fighting and just wants to die. Within a day, he had passed away.

I definitely believe that the conscious mind plays a role in keeping the body going. If you can convince yourself to keep going, your body will fight the good fight, but if you give up, your body stops trying so hard and gives in.

We are. I just read an article yesterday about how Microsoft paid research publishers so they could use the papers to train AI, with or without the consent of the papers’ authors. The publishers also reduced the peer review window so they could publish papers faster and get more money from Microsoft. So… expect AI to be trained on a lot of sloppy, poorly-reviewed research papers because of corporate greed.

If I’m on the go, I’ll hook up my laptop to the TV with an HDMI cable, set the TV as a duplicate screen so I can close the lid on my laptop (make sure closing the lid doesn’t lock your computer or put it to sleep), then use my wireless mouse and keyboard so I can sit on the couch/bed/whatever and control it from afar.

At home, I bought a micro PC that I keep connected to the TV via HDMI. Then I use a wireless mouse/keyboard to control it from the couch.

The micro PC has WiFi so I can connect it to the Internet, and all devices on my home network can see each other, so I can quickly copy something from my regular PC or laptop to the micro PC if I want to view it on the TV.

I mostly use the micro PC for my streaming services. I don’t trust my Smart TV to be connected to the Internet, so I don’t use any of its apps. But I’m old; I’m used to TVs being dumb devices. I don’t like handing over control of my apps to companies; I’d rather access them directly from a computer.

I did this with my Steam Link in the past. Interestingly enough, my new Smart TV has Steam Link as a downloadable app for it, so I don’t need my physical box anymore.

hunter2

Reverse this for me. I shower first thing in the morning every day and my bath towels are just drying clean skin. They only touch me for maybe a minute or two before being hung to dry.

However, I go to sleep at night, after a full day of developing natural body oils on my skin. And I lie in bed for 8+ hours at a time.

My bed sheets are far more gross after a week of use than my towel will get in a month, more or less a couple weeks.

It’s more about framing the conversation in a way that helps OP’s supervisor realize they’re at odds with each other, socially, and that the supervisor needs to make changes, not OP. I know it’s a bit blunt and direct and may not exactly describe their relationship, but I’ve found that being direct and binary with extroverted people generally gets them to the point faster, rather than beating around the bush with complex descriptions of their dynamic.

And the supervisor being an extrovert is definitely a part of the problem in this case. They’re ignoring signals from OP that they don’t want to be social, shaming them for it, and forcing public interactions in order to change them. This is classic extrovert behavior which is making OP uncomfortable.

The topic of discussion is definitely off-limits and deserves a conversation with HR, but the supervisor still needs to understand that OP’s antisocial behavior isn’t a problem. Otherwise, the discussion will change to be more work-appropriate, but the behavior will remain.

As a fellow introvert, I’ve found that being meek and timid about uncomfortable situations just invites more trouble from extroverts. The best way to handle it is to be direct and firm. If she wants to be nosy, then drop all the gory details:

"I’m an introvert and I don’t feel comfortable sharing my personal life with coworkers. I know you, as an extrovert, want to be involved in everyone’s personal lives and there’s nothing wrong with that, but as a leader and a manager, you need to understand how to change tracks and adapt to your subordinates’ needs.

“I need time to myself to recharge; being around people is mentally and emotionally draining for me. It’s not something I can “fix,” it’s just the way I am, and no amount of exposure to people or social events will ever change that. I need you to understand that and adapt to my needs, in order for you to effectively manage me.”

I worked my way up the ranks in the US military and eventually found myself managing people. As an introvert, I found it extremely difficult to get out and talk to my subordinates. But I soon realized that the mission wouldn’t get done unless I did my job, so I quickly learned how to fake an extroverted personality while at work so I could talk to people and ensure mission success. Then I’d go home and crash. I’d spend my evenings either sleeping or bundled up, watching TV or playing video games, just to recharge so I could do it all again the next day.

But one of the things I learned was how to adapt to the needs of my subordinates. I had one guy who was a complete fuck-up. Couldn’t do anything right without someone holding his hand. So I either had to be very hands-on with him, or delegate that responsibility to one of my subordinate leaders.

But then I had another guy who grew up in a ghetto being plagued by corrupt cops, and he hated anyone in an authority position over him. Why he joined the military, I dunno. We were all about authority and respecting rank and file. But if I even spoke to him, he would shut down and then be unproductive all day. As long as I left him alone, he was my hardest and most productive worker. So I learned to leave him alone and he practically did my job for me. Maybe your supervisor needs to learn that lesson with you.

Yes, this is what I meant. The Red Cross said my blood type is rarely needed in my area so they don’t care about me donating blood. But they’re always needing plasma donations, and you can donate them more frequently than blood, so they recommend I do that instead.

People are getting paid to donate plasma?! The only scam here is that I’ve been giving it away for free!

I donate to the Red Cross here in America. Honestly, I’m happy to donate. I get to sit and relax for a couple hours, the Red Cross I go to has TVs attached to the chairs so I can watch a movie while I donate, and I get free drinks and snacks afterward.

They’re always hurting for plasma donations and you can donate every 28 days, so I visit frequently. I don’t really see how it could be a scam. They always tell me plasma is more important than blood donations. Blood goes bad quickly, but they can keep plasma for a long time. And pretty much everyone can use it. Unlike blood, which you need a compatible type to use.

I donate because I enjoy helping others. I’m not looking for a way to personally benefit from it, so I don’t really care if they offer to pay or not. I feel like that should be the default mindset going in. But I understand there are people who are hurting financially, and donating blood or plasma is an easy way to make a buck. So I’m fine with them offering to pay for donations.

Nope, he did this one himself. The reason? His employees spent so much time at the factory, they didn’t have time to actually buy his cars.

Yes, he improved working conditions to make a profit on his cars. A selfish reason, but it inadvertently helped us all.

Mine is video games.

I’m 40 and I’m gaming now more than I ever have before!

Granted, part of that is because I’m retired young and have all the time in the world. But another part of that is because I made a small Discord server with a few close friends from my high school days. It’s how we stay in touch, since we’ve all moved away since childhood.

We game online every Monday and/or Tuesday evening. It gives us time to talk and catch up through Discord while also playing some fun online multiplayer games together. The rest of the week, we share news, memes, videos, and other text discussion through various channels I’ve set up in Discord.

I’ve never heard of anyone losing their love for video games as they get older. If anything, continuing to play games later in life will help keep your cognitive functions strong. Remember the Skyrim grandma? She’s still going strong in her late 80s. It’s never too late to get into gaming again.

I had a borderline breakdown when I was a kid when I discovered that life was kind of set on rails: go to school, get a job, get married, have kids, work until you’re too old to function, then retire for a few years and wait to die. Any deviation from this plan would put me at risk of dying poor, lonely, sick, and very likely young. At least, that was what the adults in my life impressed upon me. I felt trapped, like I wouldn’t ever have a chance to just explore the world and enjoy life my own way without stressing about things that needed to be done.

For a long while, I fantasized about living the Swiss Family Robinson lifestyle: build myself a multi-level tree house on a deserted tropical island and live my own free life, far away from people and taxes and jobs and all expectations. I kind of idolized the hermit lifestyle. I just wanted to be left alone.

Then in high school, while I was stressing about what to do for college, an uncle of mine suggested the US Air Force. He said they treated you much better than any other branch of the military, gave you free college education, free travel around the world, free food and housing, free medical and dental, gave you some solid training and experience in a trade, and they even paid you to do it all! On top of all that, I could officially retire after only 20 years served and collect a pension for the rest of my life. It sounded too good to be true!

So… I went that route at 18 years old, served my 20, and now am fully retired as of 38 years old. Granted, my pension isn’t enough to be fully retired. But the military did break me a bit, and through several small things adding up, I earned 100% disability with the VA which pays way more than my pithy pension. Plus, my wife also served and was medically separated with a 100% disability rating as well. So with our 3 passive incomes and free medical/dental for life, we can be fully retired!

My father just passed away in January and my wife and I had been caring for him in my childhood home since I retired. So I’ve now inherited his home, which is on several acres out in the countryside. And I’m basically back to living my idealized childhood; free to do whatever I want with my days while relaxing in my childhood home. I have very few bills, no job, no obligations, and enough income to live comfortably. I’m not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I make enough (and don’t spend enough) that I don’t have to be budgeting or micromanaging my bank account.

My wife and I also decided not to have kids. We watched as our friends and family all had kids, and no matter how much they all loved and/or hated the process of child-rearing, we saw how it hurt them mentally, physically, and financially. Plus, my wife has medical complications which would make her bedridden while pregnant and unable to take the meds she needs to function without pain every day.

In the end, we decided it wasn’t really worth all the effort. Besides, my wife’s immediate family all has mental issues, and there’s a huge chance any kids we have would inherit them too, so best not to take the risk. If we want children in our lives, we can go visit my sister who has two wonderful kids. We get our fill of being around children, then we can go home to our stress-free life at the end of the day.

So yeah, I think the young version of me would be very proud of where I ended up at 40. I’m not stuck in a dead-end job until I’m too old to do anything with my life, I’m not financially stressed, I have the freedom to travel, explore, learn, and just enjoy life every single day. I’m not lonely; I’m happily married to my best friend. My life actually worked out pretty well.

I was in the US Air Force for 20 years, working as an IT guy, and our computers were so locked down, you couldn’t use password managers at work. Nor were you allowed to bring them in.

Almost every office I worked in was secured; no removable electronic devices allowed. No cell phones, no flash drives or removable drives. Heck, CDs were a controlled item. You had to check with a security manager for approval before bringing in a music CD, and and data CDs required a log of their use and physical control by a trusted agent.

Plus, the computers themselves had a custom-configured OS and you couldn’t install any software on them that wasn’t on a pre-approved list. Half the time, normal users needed to talk to an admin like me to install something, and I might not even have the rights at my level to do it.

I didn’t get to mess around with password managers until I retired a couple years ago, and they’ve been a game changer! In the military, we needed unique complex passwords for everything, can’t reuse passwords, can’t write down passwords, and you had to change them every 60 days.

Having a password manager makes my personal accounts so much more secure. I can have super complex passwords for everything and not need to remember them. I currently have Proton Pass (been de-Googling my life and switching all my stuff over to Proton lately) and it’s been wonderful.

I don’t know why the military doesn’t get some sort of password manager approved for use. This is far more secure than what they’ve been doing in the past. I had 3 standard password templates, then made minor changes to them for every unique account. If they got too complex, I’d forget them (and again, we weren’t allowed to write them down). Now I can just auto-generate a 25+ character complex password and I don’t even need to remember it. I love it!

Fluently? Only English. But I spent 20 years in the US military, nearly 8 of them living full-time in foreign countries. So I did my best to learn at least a little of the languages I was exposed to in my travels.

I was stationed in Japan for 3 years. I learned how to get around and order food in Japanese, plus some limited conversation. I’m actually studying to read the language now. I could read Hirigana and Katakana (the Japanese alphabets) when I lived there. But it takes their students their entire school lives to learn how to read Kanji (the complex Chinese-borrowed symbols that represent entire words), so that one will keep me busy for a while.

When I was stationed in Germany, I learned some basic German, thanks to having friendly neighbors who spoke nearly fluent English. They helped me correct and improve my German language skills. But I was only in the country for a couple years, so I didn’t get very advanced with it.

I took 4 years of French in high school. I thought I was pretty decent at it, but every time I attempted to speak the language in France, the locals immediately switched over to English to converse with me.

Random related tangent: my wife and I took a vacation to Berlin once, and my wife, like me, spent several years studying French in high school. She decided to test her German language skills with the locals, and when she spoke, they immediately switched to French for her. Turns out, she speaks German with a heavy French accent. She was able to finish her conversation in French.

I’m currently studying Norwegian. My 3x great grandfather immigrated to America from Norway, and I still have living descendants of my ancestors over there. My dad and I went to visit them once, and I would like to be able to speak their native language the next time I go back. It used to be a rule that everyone in my family line learned English and Norwegian, but my grandfather died when my dad was only 2, so my dad never learned Norwegian, and thus neither did I.

I learned some extremely limited Korean. I was assigned to South Korea twice, for a year each time, and the military wouldn’t let me live off-base amongst the locals, so I didn’t get much free time to explore the country and learn the language. But I made an effort to learn some phrases so I could be polite in public, order food, and find my way back to the military base if I got lost.

Other languages that I’ve been exposed to and picked up a handful of words/phrases, but never seriously attempted to study: Italian, Arabic, Spanish, and Hawaiian.

As a former IT guy, I got used to just saying “secure shell” every time I saw SSH, to help teach my younger IT folks the lingo. I don’t even say the acronym anymore. When I did, I just spoke the letters (es-es-aich).

Same for ZSH; I just call it Z-Shell (zee-shell).

Sudo has always been “soo-doh” (or “sue-dough” as OP spelled it; same pronunciation). I’ve never met anyone who pronounced it differently in my 20 years of IT work.

My oldest dog, Lady - a 13 yr old cocker spaniel - has been having massive bloody noses lately. Like, I come home and it looks like a murder scene in my living room. The vet hasn’t figured out what’s happening to her, but she was scheduled for a specialist to take a look in a couple weeks.

I took her to the emergency vet the other night because, on top of the bloody noses, one of her eyes is super red and kind of bulgy. Turns out, she might have a tumor in her head behind her eye socket. Which would explain the bloody noses and bulging red eye. Her specialist appt was bumped up and we’ll find out for sure later this week.

I’ve had this dog since she was 2 years old; rescued her from a shelter after her previous family abandoned her on the streets as a puppy. And since my wife and I can’t have kids, our dogs are basically our children. So it’s hard coming to grips with the fact that they’re getting old and may not live much longer.

I expected something like this to eventually happen, but now that she’s having medical issues and is in constant pain, my wife and I are already talking about the possibility of having to put her down if we can’t remove the tumor. Money is not an issue; we’ll gladly dish it out to get her an operation. But she’s also getting old and her other medical issues are increasing (arthritis in her hips, fatty lumps popping up everywhere, clotting pores turning into itchy red bumps, her hearing is almost gone, etc.) so we’re preparing for the worst scenario.

She’s the sweetest dog in the world. Totally introverted; she won’t lick faces, but she enthusiastically licks hands and forearms when she’s excited and happy. She’s embarrassed to cuddle anyone for long, but you can tell she’s happy when she’s being given loving attention and she grins from ear to ear even if I just talk sweetly toward her. She always makes an effort to follow me from room to room, even if she just quietly hangs out somewhere nearby. She’s totally a daddy’s girl. I suspect her former family treated her like garbage because she’s extremely reserved and shy and it’s been a decade-long struggle to get her out of her shell. My wife and I used to think she was mute because she never barked, just quietly whined, or huffed and puffed when she wanted something. Getting another dog who was extremely outgoing helped her get out of her shell a bit, and now she sometimes barks if she needs something and we haven’t given her attention.

She’s just old, and eventually, we’ll need to end her suffering if/when it gets too much for her. And I’ve been depressed thinking about it all week.

EDIT: I just lost my dad to Parkinson’s Disease in January this year, so having another near and dear family member suffering from a potentially fatal issue is just hitting a bit hard right now.

Years ago, when I learned that World of Warcraft allowed you to either speak in common tongue or your character’s native racial tongue, I would park my night elf in capital cities and shout in Darnassian about how night elves are superior to all other races. Got a lot of LOLs from other night elves.

There was one low-level night elf who popped up once to rant back in Darnassian about how dwarves were the superior race. Guess someone made a new character to see what all the shouting was about and got offended. We had a pretty fun debate over the characteristics of both races, and it came down to personal preference by the end.

I miss old WoW.

I love Xena! It’s technically a '90s show, but it fits with the '80s Sword & Sorcery theme pretty well.