I’m admittedly in a bit of a bubble, but right now my PC gamer friends are a pretty even split between windows and Linux. Know anyone with a steam deck? They’re gaming on Linux.

No, it’s not quite as user-friendly as windows, and it takes a couple extra steps to get things running, especially if you’re playing non-steam games, but that’s one-time setup stuff then you’re golden. Most games are able to run fine on Linux these days, by some measures more PC games may actually work on Linux than in Windows because sometimes new versions of Windows have broken compatibility issues with older games.

There’s edge-cases to be sure, like some stuff with kernel-level anticheat have issues, but the state of that constantly improving, even the game devs are improving Linux support from their end in a lot of cases.

Anecdotally, I’ve had some cases where games are even running better for me on Linux than they did on Windows. Part of that is that most of the main components of my computer are pushing 15 years old, but I think that alone is a pretty big endorsement for Linux gaming that in some cases it can keep your rig relevant for longer.

When I was about 17 I started training for my first backpacking trip. First shakedown hike I loaded my pack up with about 40 or 50lbs, and I think I lasted about 5 minutes before I went back to my car to lighten my load because I was dying carrying it.

Worked my way up to doing it no problem over the next few months, and for the next few years I hiked and backpacked pretty regularly. I never exactly got in good shape, I had a gut the whole time but I could carry a heavy backpack 10 or occasionally 20 miles a day up and down mountains no problem.

I’ve been a lot more sedentary the last few years just due to being a busy adult with a wonky schedule. I still squeeze in some hikes here or there, but nothing with a heavy pack, and rarely doing more than 10 miles, and usually not going up and down any significant mountains, and I’m definitely not hitting the gym or anything, and I’ve probably packed on about 50lbs of mostly fat since I was 17.

But still, a couple months ago I went backpacking with a friend. Didn’t really do anything in particular to prepare for it, and I still carried about 40-50lbs in my pack

And I did just fine. Definitely huffed and puffed a bit more than when I was in my prime backpacking shape, and I was definitely a bit sore and had some blisters after it, but I was able to hit the trail with a heavy pack and almost no prep and I definitely couldn’t have done that when I was just starting out at 17 years old despite being generally younger, healthier, and more active back then.

So to a pretty great extent, my body definitely “remembers” how to backpack.

I had the best wonton soup I’ve ever had at some random Chinese restaurant in Montreal

It had little crispy bit of i think cracklins floating around in it

All of the food we had in Montreal was great, and this was just some random place we stopped in for a quick bite on our way somewhere

promptly drove to the chick fil a right next door

That’s… not better, you know that right? The owners of chick fil a have funded some pretty horrendous anti-LGBQT organizations

Please lead the way and get off of it thene be the change you want to see.

Pretty much anything to get a groan or chuckle out of my wife.

One time while cutting up an avocado I remarked that they need better prizes, because I always get the same one- a little wooden ball.

That was of course good for a groan, but it would not be the end of it. I tend to do most of our cooking, and since our kitchen is kind of small my wife is usually in the living room while I am and can’t really see what I’m doing

So now whenever I’m cutting up an avocado I let out a groan of disappointment. And since my wife is a loving, caring sort of person she always asks “what’s the matter?”

To which I reply with an exasperated “Another little wooden ball”

Going on 10 years, and she falls for in any time.

–

This isn’t one I think particularly much of, I wasn’t even particularly trying to be funny, but my wife got quite a chuckle out of it, so it ranks. I was doing dishes, while she was again in the other room, I think on the phone with her mother.

I go to grab a spoon to clean from the rather large pile in the sink, which set off a bit of a chain reaction of dishes and pots shifting around and making a bit of a racket.

I paused for moment, and just kind of commented out loud to myself “huh, so that was a load-bearing spoon”

And apparently something about that delivery made my wife crack up.

–

Another time I was dead tired and crashed early, and was apparently not very willing to share the blankets or pillows or something when my wife came to join me.

Being more asleep than awake, I mumbled that she could pry them from my cold dead hands WHen she tried to get me to give some bedding up for her use.

Unfortunately for me, my wife is one of those people who is always somehow cold, and so she just applied her icy hands to my body, causing me to exclaim “AAH, COLD DEAD HANDS!”

–

I once showed her a picture of a snake I saw when I was out for a hike. She asked me how big it was, I told her about 2 feet

Which I also told her is 2 more than most snakes have.

–

I pointed out some geese, and asked if she knows how geese fly in a V-formation, which of course she did. Then I asked if she knew why sometimes one side of the V was longer than the other, she did not

I informed her that it’s because that side has more geese.

I haven’t really noticed a burst of activity, but it’s certainly occured to me if I ever turned to a life of crime that I’d do stuff during that shift change, a couple of the departments we dispatch for definitely take their time with it and there’s often a pretty solid block of time where unless something serious is going down you’re not getting a quick police response.

Some of them handle it more efficiently than others, and the size of the town is a pretty big factor too. I’ve had more than a few callers complain about how long it’s taking because they live right by the station, but usually officers aren’t just hanging around at the station, they’re out on patrol and responding to incidents, shift change is pretty much the one time you’re going to find the station full of cops.

I work in 911 dispatch, and there’s definitely something about full moons.

It’s not that we’re busier, or that the calls I get are more serious, but everything is just a little bit off when the moon is full. It’s subtle, I don’t think it would even be reflected in the types of calls we’re entering, but a lot of our callers just get weirder.

Maybe you need some visual aids

This is what most Americans mean when we say “jelly.” It’s a spreadable preserve similar to jam.

And this is a gelatin/gelatine dessert, in America it’s commonly called “jello” after the brand name, and I believe in what you call “jelly”

I believe this is a common brand where you are

So which one were you thinking of when you wrote your comment.

I think this is something that gets lost in translation sometimes between different English dialects

When you say "jelly"are you referring to a fruit preserve similar to jam that gets it’s gelatinous qualities from pectin

Or are you referring to a gelatin-based dessert like Jello?

When most Americans talk about peanut butter & jelly, we’re talking about the former.

Here’s one out of left field- Bucky O’Hare

The franchise has been dormant for about 30 years, and even back then there wasn’t that much established lore for a modern reboot to tiptoe around- a comic book that frankly not too many people read, a couple pretty good video games, and a Saturday morning cartoon made to sell toys, and there was little to no continuity between those different properties, you pretty much have free reign to go in and do whatever the hell you want with it.

And there’s was some pretty good stuff in there to work with that’s maybe even more relevant today than it was when it came out- plotlines about inept bureaucracy, imperialist/capitalist toads controlled by an AI, pollution, climate disruption, slavery, etc.

And the property was kind of hamstrung by its budget and stuff. I definitely enjoyed it as a kid, and when i went back to rewatch it a few years ago as an adult I thought it held up well enough but the animation and voice acting was definitely pretty janky at times, but even still it managed to have some bigger overarching story arcs. It also had a couple strong female characters without getting preachy about it, though there’s certainly some room for improvement in how they were written.

And if nothing else, today we can probably count on the furry community to watch a show about a green rabbit space ship captain, a cat space witch, a 4 armed pirate duck, a muscly baboon, and their nerdy human audience surrogate.

No first-hand experience, and arguably not really a cult, but I have a friend who’s a recovering alcoholic, and according to him a few of the local AA groups around us have a few members who are in the weird fringes of the rationalist community, maybe sort of tangentially connected to the “zizians”

For those not familiar with the zizians, behind the bastards had a pretty decent series on them

There’s also a decent amount of weird overlap between self help type groups like AA (not that AA isn’t without plenty of valid criticism) and abusive cult-like organizations. I think the elan.school (Joe vs Elan School) webcomic touched on that, and I also recommend that as an interesting look into the troubled teen industry (trigger warnings for child abuse and such on that)

I was a delivery guy for a local pizzeria once upon a time (and that place still has their own drivers, and even their own delivery vehicles, which is practically unheard of)

And I’m not gonna lie, door dash and such was great for a while because it let me get food delivered from restaurants that otherwise didn’t do delivery.

But I’ve stopped using them, for a few reasons including their shitty business practices

But the straw that broke the camels back in each case that made me delete was them fucking up my order.

And that happens, I’m not particularly mad at the store or the driver, I’ve been there

But the way that these delivery apps handle it is, to me, unacceptable.

When I contacted them, their response was to just issue me a refund.

And to me, what should have happened, is I should have immediately had a replacement sent, expedited as much as possible, at no extra cost.

That’s what we always did when I was a delivery guy, and often with a gift certificate as an apology.

And sure, a refund on top of that would be nice, but really the root issue is that I don’t have the food I ordered. If I order it again, I’m going to the back of the delivery queue, and if I happened to order it when I was low on money I may not even be able to reorder it that day because that refund often takes a couple days to clear.

I once heard Spam described as “everything but the oink”

And so when I describe scrapple, I usually start with that, and then describe scrapple as being “mostly oink”

I’m not too sure about what the version of scrapple you received was, it sounds like some kind of bastardized hash, but scrapple is a common breakfast thing in the Mid-Atlantic/Delaware valley area.

The version I’m familiar with as a Philadelphian, admittedly doesn’t sound a whole lot better on paper, but the actual eating experience sounds a lot more pleasant. It’s basically pork scraps and organ meats simmered down until they’re falling apart and mixed with cornmeal and buckwheat then formed into a mushy loaf, which is then sliced and fried.

You’re not going to identify any particular piece of pork or anything else in it, it’s a pretty uniform grey mush, and the only real texture comes from frying it to give the outside a nice crispiness. Nothing tough or chewy about it, you barely need to chew it, the texture is probably more like polenta (which it kind of is) than anything else you might be familiar with. It also usually doesn’t contain any apple or potatoes.

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you find yourself near Philly don’t let whatever you were served in the south turn you off from trying actual scrapple.

Parts of Ohio have goetta, which I think is supposed to be pretty similar to scrapple but with oatmeal instead of corn meal.

I’ve also heard of “livermush” and “liver pudding” being served in some parts of the south, which honestly sound like dead-ringers for scrapple to me, though I have some friends from the south who insist that they’re different from and better than scrapple.

I feel like whatever you were served was some southerner trying to recreate something they heard described one time but never actually tried themselves, or just slapping the name on something without knowing that there’s another dish out there with the same name.

Got up bright and early and had my mom drive me to target for the game cube launch

I’ve done a lot of midnight movie releases, and a couple Harry Potter books releases

It was a bit of a spur of the moment thing, but I worked late at the time anyway, so when Skyrim came out I just swung by game stop after I got off work to get that at midnight

The real shame is that the coffee table isn’t really visible because it’s pretty cool itself, it’s a hatch from a ship (I believe a WWII Liberty ship)

Bit of family history with it too. My dad originally had it, but my mom hated it, so eventually it went to live with my grandfather. He died, and it ended up back in our basement. My sister and I both really liked it, and we had a bit of an agreement that whoever moved out first got the table, and I won.

EDIT: Also for anyone else who likes my setup, the entertainment center and shelves in the wall are IKEA Fjallbo, no pretty affordable. The shelf of the far right is just an IKEA Kallax.
And I have the TV synced up to Phillips hue lights behind it and in the ceiling

I’m not totally sure where the bottles came from, we don’t really drink chianti, and they’ve just kind of been hanging around on a shelf somewhere, but they ultimately ended up on this chandelier

I started reading it just before COVID hit. My reading habits are very sporadic, sometimes I’ll devour a book in a day, other times I’ll read a chapter or two once a week and it takes me months to finish a book. This happened to be one of the later cases

It was really good, but holy shit that was not the book to be reading when people were getting into fights over toilet paper.

So I did not finish it, I intend to eventually, but it had to go on the back burner.

Everything about it just kind of oozed bleak hopelessness. I’ve caught myself starting to say I enjoyed it, but “enjoyed” is really the wrong word, there is no joy to be found in that book, perhaps you appreciate it, maybe you feel it, maybe you just read it and acknowledge that it’s a good book.

I find it pretty weird that you’re obsessing over this so much and have posted about it several times tonight.

Yeah, it’s a bit strange, and it warrants investigation, and as the article says it is being investigated.

But also as someone who has spent a lot of time around water fishing, boating, swimming, etc. there are a whole lot of ways you can get yourself in trouble in or in the water, and I wouldn’t be terribly surprised to learn that it was just plain bad luck.