Agreed and well said.

Your post is a reminder that we have choices. And whether we get the future we want rather than the one we are afraid will pass will depend on whether we’re willing to roll up our sleeves and make the hard choices, or give in to the temporary illusion of comfort and convenience.

Add in the fact that you don’t really feel the power and inspiration in a group of like minded souls until you are face to face and in the mix with them. There’s something almost tangible and invigorating about that experience that online communication just can’t replicate.

I weighed several responses to your reply, and even tried a few out before backtracking, more so for the benefit of the other readers, but I think I will settle on this:

I agree with the spirit of your response. I’ve heard variations of my own post for years, before there was an actual public Internet, on BBS and the like.

And I have made the same reply as you, almost word for word, to them.

While well intentioned, I realize now that the exasperated and cynical nature that results from watching the pot boil for years and yet the frogs still aren’t jumping out, makes my responses to others sound abrasive and arrogant.

From this point forward, when ever I see people waking up to the shit storm that hasn’t even happened in full force yet, I am going to be gentle and encouraging with them.

And remind people that the strength to carry on in a challenging world comes from investing and developing the community, the friends, family and neighbors, around us.

For sure

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Yeah, the bear trap has already sprung. The people haven’t realized it because they haven’t tried to pull their leg free yet.

I honestly didn’t mean to doom post so early in the day. It started as a pithy one-liner and snowballed the more I thought about it.

I’m fully soap-ed and not afraid to flail

No. You’ll have to drag me out.

Man, I was just trying to enjoy my coffee before heading into work. Feels like some Prophet of Doom just stepped into my mind and took a piss all over my thoughts.

Now I am late. Ugh. I hate this timeline

Usually somebody would come busting through the front gate yelling “THE POLICE ARE HERE! DA GONNA BEAT YO ASS!!!” and everybody would take off running.

I’ve lost so much which would be considered deeply personal that none of it matters anymore, but you know what I don’t miss? Fucking fast food. Sounds like a giant ad in here.

Porter used to make some great stuff (probably still does). Pretty sure they made my favoritiest dark beer, the Russian Imperial Stout. Phenomenal.

Hyperphantasia. I had to look that up. While it is pretty descriptive of my inner world, I don’t think I would ever self-identify as that. Feels… a little much.

I find the whole concept of cognitive styles fascinating and I think there is a trade off. While the advent of reading is certainly a great thing, I think for many it has shrunk a part of the brain that processes speech. Prior to books, if you needed to know something you had better listen close, comprehend it quickly, and be damned sure you remembered it because there may not be a second chance.

I’m having that same experience with Honkai Star Rail. This is coming from a guy whose first games were on an Atari and pretty much quit any new gaming about the time Skyrim came out.

That’s wild, I am the complete opposite.

When I read my mind takes what I am reading and provides a rich imaginatory backdrop replete with emotional undertones that unfolds and plays out as the words become concepts and the concepts link together in context to the plot/scenario/etc. It’s like a combination of a movie and playing make-believe in real time. It doesn’t seem to require any particular effort, it just happens automatically.

Except with math heavy subjects, I can usually get the gist of any topic by reading about it.

Conversely, I can barely follow audio instructions or explanations at all. Having something explained by a friend is fine, lots of back and forth until it clicks. Casual listening, like a fiction book, is fine.

Anything else and I get a little lost halfway through, usually trying to remember the first thing that was said.

Being at work is torture because I’m nodding along with the boss but I usually don’t know what the heck he’s talking about if he’s trying to explain something complex. Just let me read the documentation, bro.

I dill not see that coming.

…I’ll show myself out.

You shower with pickles?

She was extremely entertainment savvy. She had a 6th sense in knowing how and when to grab the spotlight, how to cause an uproar, and ride it until it died down. Then it was on to the next transformation.

Even if you didn’t like her, she made sure you were paying attention to her.

I was more of a heavy metal, alt and industrial fan, but I give credit where it’s due. She played the game masterfully.

No. But I wasn’t doing anything particularly complex, just a LAMP stack server for some game forums. Think I had a Dell desktop. Was a dishwasher at the time.

Took a few days fumbling through tutorials but I eventually got it up and running. Repeated that a few times over the years, once to host a blog, stuff like that.

Would like to get into it again but all I have now is a tablet.

Ah, a fellow controls guy out in the wild.