I did. I feel like it overpromised it underdelivered. Mostly, I’m not too thrilled about the character and weapon designs. There’s a lot of UI elements that were taken right from Overwatch. 
It’s certainly not bad. Just not what I crave.
Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. In my opinion, these are still two of the greatest games of all time. You don’t get better because your character or weapon is better. You get better because you put in the practice. you improve your reflexes. You learn the arena. Every player starts every match on an even playing field. Every frag feels like an accomplishment.
I appreciate that modern shooters are trying to do something different with every iteration. But stuff like call of duty, overwatch, or destiny never captures that magic. In many ways, they felt more like slot machines.
Halo got close, but I always felt it was too slow. And also, I felt Tribes was the better series for online play that felt similar. 
Just bought a great CPO car a week ago, so… I’ve never cleaned it.
But in general, I use steering wheel covers that I change maybe once a year.
I don’t drive that much, only like once a week. My wife also drives it once a week (we share). In the winter, we often wear gloves. So it doesn’t get too grimey.
The subway here is how I commute to work or enjoy nights out. If it’s super late or I’m lazy, an Uber will pick up the slack.
Politically, we agree on 90%+ on things. Like - it would be really odd if I married a woman who didn’t believe my friends deserved basic human rights. 
But I will say we handle conflict very differently, loss very differently, anxiety very differently, fear very differently. We’re different people.  The important thing is that were able to communicate with one another. We’re supposed to understand each other’s motives, behaviors, needs. And try to anticipate them.
Ideally, we’re strong in areas the other is weak in.
As far as interests, there’s a lot of crossover. But I have specific hobbies (music production mostly), that she has no interest in. She’ll give feedback from time to time. And also, she plays piano. But we don’t play together.
I like goofy nerd shit, she likes The Bachelor. I like some gaming, she thinks it’s lame and reads in her free time. I mean, no great relationship has ever thrived based on a shared love of Star Trek or something.
So most importantly, we match well in two areas. One, we can make each other laugh. Two, we like the same foods and are adventurous eaters.
For what it’s worth, half of every live-in relationship is trying to decide what to eat next.
There’s nothing wrong with having a preference. At the end of the day, when you adopt a pet - you are saving their life and dramatically changing yours. How you come to that choice is deeply personal. It doesn’t matter if it’s superficial or whatever, least of all to the cat. As long as you give them love, warmth, food and shelter.
 I don’t really have a preference on breed, I just care of they’re sociable and friendly. I do have a preference for girl cats. My dearly departed cat was a girl, and my wife’s cat (very much alive) is a dude. Love him, but it’s not the same.
I’m not particularly into anime either, but I thought that “The Devil Is A Part-Timer” and “One Punch Man” were really funny and clever.
Excel for Dummies 2023
Of course, validation is helpful for people that feel depressed or sad. Dark lyrics speak to a listener and remind them that they’re not alone in their struggle.
Having those connections confirms that their experience, thoughts and feelings are a fundamental (albeit challenging) part of the human condition. The song brings those ideas to the forefront where they can be processed.
When done correctly, moody music is an effective instrument of catharsis for the writer and listener.
“Ape alone… weak. Apes together…. strong”
So no, it’s baked-in the DNA of how we survive. We group to fight threats. Early days, that threat is protection from hostile wildlife like bears.
You scale that to a modern civilization - and you have groups of people fighting for resources, food, money, opportunities, land, etc. Sometimes they’re gangs. Sometimes they’re entire countries. Sometimes they’re groups of allied countries.
And heck, you see it in stupidly small scales too. “Coke v Pepsi”, “N64 v PlayStation”, “Rock Fans v Disco Fans”.
Sunni and Shia believe 98% of the same stuff. But the bit they don’t agree on pushes fringe lunatics to terrorism, war, ethnic cleansing, etc.
Same deal with Protestants and Catholics.
The only thing could make us drop “us versus them” mentality is a giant alien force more violent and sick than anything you can imagine.
Then maybe, humanity will be the “us” finally.
I’m not making a philosophical or physiological distinction.
I’m making a semantic and etymological one.
Nature, as its defined in the English language, is used to describe things that aren’t human creations.
Sometimes it’s used to describe things that, even if manipulated by humans, is distinct from an artificial, chemical or industrial process. Like “natural remedies”. Sometimes it’s just a marketing term, “natural flavors” in a soda brand.
Humans categorically can’t be nature - because we use the word “nature” specifically to distinguish our own creations from the rest of the world.
A human can choose to live in nature, meaning they’re living in a place that is plurality not man-made. An cabin in an unplanned forest, versus Midtown Manhattan. But even then, the human is the not-nature thing. They’re only surrounded by it.
Nature - by definition, are things found in the physical world that aren’t human creations.
Modern homes require electricity, clean running water, modern insulation, glass, smoke detectors, town governments oversight, corporate resources, insurance, etc. All of these things are human creations.
Man-made is similar to hand-made. Both are distinct from machine-made.
Nature is a bit of a spectrum. Something being handmade is closer to natural than something from a factory. Still, neither are natural.
Sometimes.
The smaller independent theaters are a nice old timey experience. Most venues have a better sound system than anything most of us can afford - so that’s a good improvement. There’s something romantic about the whole thing, I don’t know. You see a movie the way the filmmakers intended, and being part of an audience, all gasping or laughing together can be powerful.
Big theater chains like AMC are no worthwhile for me. They’re always riddled with unruly teenagers. Like half the time, they’ll be snickering during serious scenes or whatever.
I mean, give it a try. You might like it. You might hate it. It’ll cost you like ~$18 to find out. Not that much.
The content on Reddit has gotten noticeably worse - but less as a result of Lemmy’s existence and more of a reaction to killing 3rd Party Apps.
Unfortunately for me, some of my favorite communities haven’t migrated over to Lemmy. So I’m still using Old Reddit Desktop to access them.
As an accountant, I was like “what does Adjusted Gross Income have to do with anything?”
I’m somewhat agnostic if we’re living in an simulation. It seems slightly more likely than any religion, but I have no evidence to support it. 🤷
I don’t think AI will kill us all. All it has to do is kill one person before we turn it off or legislate it’s limitations (like Asimov’s 3 Laws). I think it’s more likely to save us like develop technologies to combat climate change or create medicines.
Torn on the concept of free will.
Even if it were true that we came from aliens… every race can reproduce with one another. If we all came to earth for survival, then race mixing creates better outcomes through genetic variation.
What a strange take.
My theory is that drugs, excessive sex and to some extent petty crime are partly a result of boredom for teenagers.
Teenagers today have less reasons to be bored than a generation or two ago. Instead, they’re getting dopamine fixes from social media and gaming.
I’m not sure if that’s related to dieting.
If done right, the cultural climate to change from eating living things to lab grown meat will be as simple as ordering the same dishes at restaurants with substitute ingredients that nobody notices.
And cost. It’s hard to justify a diet change otherwise.
Americans went from eating sheep to cows in the 1800s because cows were cheaper per pound, more resilient to diseases and easier to maintain.
Veganism is popular because it’s still a cost effective diet. Mass farming is compatible with it.
I can easily see “Pepsi Challenge” style ad campaigns where people blindly guess which bite was the real meat - and which one they prefer.
Though, I also see a backlash. In a way that the proliferation of hybrid and electric vehicles created the anti-environmental practice of “coal rolling”, whereas asshats modify their truck engines to produce more pollutants to own the libs.
When the quality and cost of labgrown meat matches the real thing - we’ll see the tables turn. Especially if they’re able to produce various *cuts^ and styles.
My best friend was on The People’s Court.
She has a small claims case against a mechanic or something. She lost, but was paid a per diem for her time that was similar to the amount she was seeking anyways. She says good things about meeting Judge Marilyn Milian.
My friend didn’t seek being put in the show, she was approached by the producers when she showed up to the courthouse. Said, “why not”.
Accountant here.
Nobody needs to balance a checkbook. We have live access to our banking 24/7 with apps. And who even uses personal checks anymore? Maybe just for rent - if you have an old landlord. Even then, it’s one check a month.
But yes - having basic financial literacy is really important and should be part of any High School curriculum. It’s a little discouraging when we hire folks, tell them a 401k is part of their benefits and hear “what’s that mean?”
Yeah. I think there’s a lot of room for a Arena FPS Revival, especially for console players who are sick of the monetization and slot-machine point mechanics from games like Call of Duty.
I think the Quake 2 Remaster sales and rave reviews say plenty to that. There’s decent online play too.
Quake 3 Remaster could be perfect for the 25 year anniversary next year.
But who knows.