Many people in the US have that “fear of the other” drilled into them starting at a very young age.

You are so very right. I was born in the mid-70’s and I grew up in a rural area, lots and lots of low-income farmers outside of the valley, no minorities. There was a city to the west, and a notorious maximum security prison to the east. The news focused almost solely on the non-white people inhabiting both, and as a result I grew up absolutely terrified of those “others”, because the bad things was all I ever heard. I had no real contact with any minorities until I was an adult and had to get a job in the city. One morning driving in to that job, my car broke down a couple miles from where I worked, in a pretty run-down area. I had to walk the rest of the way to work. Not a soul bothered me, but that fear of the “other” was so strong that by the time I got to the office I was physically ill from it. Reactions and fears like this were the norm with the people I knew back then, and the media and those in power continue now with the propaganda that the “other” are to be feared and distrusted, because keeping us on edge and divided makes us easier to control.

Only if I can go on a cruise, too!

That would just make more more depressed than I already am.

I’ve never thought about it before, but I wonder if the companies with games containing microtransactions can ask PSN for compensation for lost income due to long outages.

That’s pretty normal for any doctor’s office. There is almost certainly items from other brands all over the back area where the patients don’t go, too. Drug reps go hard on the cheap freebies so the office will always have a reminder that their drug exists. If you ever see someone in the waiting room who is particularly attractive and dressed far nicer than average, that is usually a rep who is there to drop more goodies and shill their drug. As I understand it, it’s a very lucrative job.

I beat ET as a kid. I just wanted to share that. No cigarette afterparty occurred, though.

The canary died back when they removed “don’t be evil”. I think the canary was just resurrected as a Horizon Zero Dawn mech canary.

Lots of bears where I am. If you hit them head on, your car is usually totaled.

I like how in their slippery pizza cheese example, google’s ai referenced a really old Reddit comment about how adding glue to the cheese will make it less slippery. Lol

Anyone who plays stealth games knows that you have to watch out for the chickens when you’re trying to be sneaky.

And in the end, they were both right.

Edit: I’m debating printing this out and putting it on my wall at work. I doubt anyone will even notice it, though…

Edit 2: so I looked this comic up, and in 2012 the estate of Neil Postman asked the artist to remove the comic, which he did. https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/amusing-ourselves-to-death/ …

I am glad to see it’s still out there, though, because now more than ever it’s something people should see.

It wasn’t this bad back when I was growing up in the 80’s-90’s. We were definitely fans, though the Superbowl years gave a lot of us football PTSD. I always enjoyed the Bills because so many of the players then were very small town types. It was normal to see even the big name players like Jim Kelly playing pool in one of the small, rural communities outside the city. (Sabers, too!). I moved away in 2004, so I don’t know how much of that community feeling is still there, but something definitely changed. Fans are kind of embarrassing now.

Funny aside:. When Jim Kelly retired as quarterback, he and some others went to play pool at a place in one of those little towns. A friend of mine found out they were there and phoned me up all excited because she was going to go and try to recruit him for her Amway downline, “because now that he’s retired, hell need a new source of income!”. She wanted me to go with her. Haha hellll no girl, you go shill your MLM by yourself! The second-hand embarrassment was awful.

Oh god. This caught me completely off guard and I just laughed so much. Grew up in western NY, understand perfectly!

Thank you!

I had no idea there was such a thing. I wonder if I can make a portable platform with the holes to use on my kitchen table when I need to hold things still. Currently, if I need something held, I put it on a cutting mat and tape the ever-loving snot out of it. Not really ideal lol

How is the new mirror going?

Finally. A rock-solid excuse for why the software I write has so many bugs in it!

Also! Given the amount of time I spend at my job dealing with buggy software (as the only nerdy computer person in the place) you are also helping to keep others employed!

Wait, I’m supposed to be doing my home improvements?

Oh boy, do I feel that one.

1997

…wow. Suddenly I feel really old 😫

If that’s a popular place to cut through, that hedge would also get wrecked from kids trying to see if they can jump it.

Source: the hedge surrounding part of the property of my childhood home. (I could jump it!)