Ah, the animal computer books of my childhood, lol.

My parents (both in tech fields) had a library of these before they split up.

Somehow I wound up in IT as a career, no one saw that coming, I assure you /s

As a bipolar epileptic, I got this phrase a lot.

I wasn’t an old soul, I was severely depressed and suicidal.

Call it whatever you want man, whats important is that it helps you.

Could you go into detail, even just privately, that seems like a solid use for some otherwise idle storage space.

Then again, the only part of being a scout (boy) that stuck with me involved fire or survival methods, and to always be prepared is a good maxim.

This has to be satire, right?

They can do it in their free time, and even barter trade. But from sunup to sundown (or whatever labor scale they use to measure shifts) they are doing something materially useful. No contribution, no food that day. Should only take about 3 weeks to get rid of all the slackers (and I say that as a slacker myself) either they’ve gone back home, or they’ve starved to death.

Knowing when to die is the key to a puzzle in fact, if memory serves. Possibly more than one.

I’ve been on a decade long hiatus from multiplayer aspect of games - aside from games I was with people I knew in RL.

I only occasionally get a twinge for the comraderie of some epic raid in an MMO, or tight unspoken squad tactics where everyone just does their job as expected (not necessarily well lol) and came out on top.

But really, I don’t have the time to commit to either of those.

Then I hear about my friend in GW2 (RL friend) who is going through some toxic guild BS and I don’t miss it.

Everquest did this to me.

I mained a bard, and back then you had to stop a song and start a new one every so often…

Mathematically it translates to a button press ever 1.5 seconds, ignoring movement, other combat abilities, etc.

I also refused to compromise on spelling and grammar at the time.

I got real good at typing accurately and quickly.

I have lost a lot of that speed, but at comfortable pace I’m probably 80-90 words a minute, and the last time it was measured was a keyboarding class requisite. 121 GWAM for an eighth grader isn’t too shabby. As long as I fixed the printer I got to play games in that class.

I was way more competitive as a kid. Physically too, if needed. Hockey and all.

I was a goal tender and if I let one past, I considered it a loss personally.

That drive left me with a record that hasn’t been beaten in the league, over half my “career” was shutouts, and the only time we lost was when I couldn’t play.

I’ve thought about getting back into it, but between the cost of gear, the time, and the fact that my knee would give out before a period is over really deters me.

Life protip: don’t be the pedestrian in a car on pedestrian accident.

Read a story about a shifter druid (3.5e) that jumped off a cliff and transformed into a whale.

Landed on an orc village killing all inhabitants.

Cleverly cheesing the rules is a feature, not a bug.

Also the peasant rail gun cones to mind, lol.

Sylvester? Is that an auto correct issue, or is this a public holiday that I might want to move to lol.

Please forgive my ignorance, the schools really failed in the US.

I’m not a violent person. I abhor it honestly.

That being said, actual self defense is always valid.

That’s why I train and carry.

Sadly this.

Any personal matters I may have attended to during work hours were done on a personal device, through a VPN, preferably borrowing some other WiFi signal than one run by any company I work for.

If its even more personal, just drop WiFi I don’t control all together. Either use the phones data plan for 10 minutes, or tether it to a computer and do the same.

I fear it.

I’m sure I could adapt, I just don’t want to.

However, if there was a transition period it would be fine.

Teach it in schools, post signs for both for a while, a couple generations and boom, fully metric.

Just don’t tell me the speed limit is 30 kilometers an hour, I have no frame of reference for that really.

I loved to do that in Everquest.

Started on my mage who could summon a ring that instantly cast levitate on you.

So we had games getting up to, and jumping off of, really tall structures and playing chicken with the ground lol.

On my bard, the combination of raw movement speed and a Lev meant getting into places not designed for players, though I will say they did a good job of making sure you didn’t die out of bounds, back when you had to recover your gear from your corpse.

I only had to petition a GM once to get me unstuck, lol.

They just teleported me to the current expansion at the time “hub city.”

Never got into speed running though, and I don’t think my attention span would allow for it. Respect and all, its impressive what some people can do, just not my thing.

I had some severe sleep issues and ended up abusing DPH, not for any recreational effects I just needed to sleep. 9 days without sleep is bad. Torture.

I took 30 of those pink devils, just to sleep. I was that desparate.

Still didn’t sleep, but I went out back for a smoke and there was a spider towering over the houses in the neighborhood. Didn’t think anything of it while on the meds, just went out front to smoke lol. Also I had some common visitors in the corners of my bed room, cloaked in shadows whispery chanting in a language I couldn’t understand, while the darkness and certain patterns began to warp around me. But at the time it wasn’t concerning. DPH is a deleriant, line jimson weed and some other plants - they differ from hallucinogens in some interesting ways. Erowid has always been a good source on various substances for those inclined to research.

For those who may be concerned, I no longer take DPH much at all, last time was due to a new minor allergic reaction to something I haven’t been able to identify. Something was in that hookah tobacco my body didn’t like. Also, I’m sleeping better these days - in part due to having the right medical access, as well as rigorous sleep hygiene.

Don’t forget potentially useless proficiency skills.

A rogue with wis as a dump stat provably shouldn’t be making too many medicine checks lol.

Ive only messed with that origin once.

I’m still exploring builds, not so much because I’m unaware of the RAW stuff, but to see how its implemented in BG3. I haven’t left act one yet, lol.

I’ve done the graveyard shift for a couple jobs now.

Usually for medical IT.

Its usually quiet, I don’t see my boss very often, and for the most part just run the entirety of IT stuff by myself.

I know how much I value my sleep, so I try not to escalate issues in the middle of the night.

In a lot of ways its made me a more creative problem solver and just a better more rounded tech.

Some things I just don’t have permissions for, and have to escalate. Sucks, but I get it.

It helps that my wife works similar hours to me.

We can both go to bed in the afternoon, though I’m jealous of her getting to sleep later than me in the moments I’m first awake, but I leave work first so its a fair trade I guess.

Yes, its 110+ F here during the day… the attic… well a few years ago we had a guy out to service…

He FELL down the attic ladder due to heat stroke. Its one of those almost straight ladders that fold into the ceiling.

He was thankfully ok, and after some AC and water, was right as rain… I should say, he was a young guy in good health, and not only that a friend of a family member. We wanted to take care of him, first and foremost. If we thought medical attention was needed (and my own ass has had heat stroke, I know it) we would have called emergency services. We didn’t want to stick him with an ambulance bill (no insurance, private contractor) if he didn’t need it.

But fuck, 1k roaches? You know what, I’ll board the animals, use it as an excuse to get a nice hotel room with the wife, see if we can both take PTO for the week off and take an unprompted vacay, while the exterminator does their business.

That being said, 10 years ago, when I was much much poorer, with much more tenuous job stability… I’d take a knife up for the human in the attic, take the body to a family friend with a pig farm. Pigs make the best witnesses. They eat all the evidence, and can’t speak.