The Skyrim modding anecdote I mentioned isn’t related to the story from this post. I see now my wording is a little unclear on that. This post just reminded me of the Skyrim thing.

Very close. It’s actually Mr. Krabs that the boots are driving nuts in that one.

Yup that’s the one. If you’ve got the stomach for it, by all means go ahead. For me, I kinda regretted watching it after because despite being a well-made video, I realized that all I was left with afterward was a lingering anger and and an unintentionally curated list of things that will probably remind me of that douchebag every time I play Skyrim from now on.

Had a gen z coworker once who was a little mind-blown when I pointed out that the squeaky boots episode of SpongeBob is just “The Tell-Tale Heart.” Usually any time I’ve tried to share that fun fact, anyone who’s already familiar with both stories has already connected the dots. It was pretty fun to witness the “holy shit it IS the same story” realization in real time.

I watched an extended breakdown on YouTube of this dude who’s been an absolute villain of the Skyrim modding scene for like over a decade. I honestly can’t recommend anyone watch it because it’ll just make you angry. I was happily playing modded Skyrim for years without knowing anything about him. After I learned of his existence, I realized that some of the issues I’d had with modding Skyrim over the years were actually deliberately caused by this guy when I’d assumed it was due to the general flakiness of modding.

I know there are scams that convince people to install malicious apps that steal crypto or whatever. So long as there’s always a workaround, I guess I’m not super opposed to protecting people who are… easily scammed. I don’t like the waiting period part though.

Gonna be pretty embarrassing when people still get scammed even with this feature in place. I’ve already heard stories of some old person buying like $2500 worth of gift cards and the cashier, who has been prepped for this exact scenario, is powerless to stop them.

“Is someone telling you to buy these gift cards to settle a payment?”

“…n. n. no I need them for Christmas gifts.”

“It’s common for scammers to tell people to lie about why they’re buying the gift cards. If someone told you to say that to me, they’re lying to you. No legitimate business or government agency will require you to settle a payment using gift cards.”

*clearly nervous but also now getting angry*
“No I need these for my grandkids!”

*sighs. Starts scanning cards*

The first night I owned an air fryer, I tossed in some shitty frozen tater tots that had been in my freezer for way too long, and they came out so delightfully crispy that I cooked two more servings.

I realized immediately that this would be a problem. It’s a bit too easy to make delicious stuff that’s pretty bad for me. I nearly made myself sick of wings within like 2 weeks. That was a close one. Fuckin love wings.

This is one of the things that I’m pretty satisfied with and grateful for in my life. No romance, currently no job, not much I’m excited about on the horizon, but I’m very happy with the friendships I’ve cultivated with other dudes. I just wish we all lived closer together. A handful of us do a semi-regular video chat where we check in and see how everyone’s doing. We hold space for emotional vulnerability and support each other however we can. We talk about issues with life, family, or sometimes just shoot the shit and have a regular chat about whatever we’ve been up to.

When people talk about holding your male friends accountable for saying sexist things or reinforcing typical toxic bullshit, I feel very fortunate that I just don’t have friends like that. I like to think I’d call it out if it happened, but I just never have to hear that kind of shit from my friends and I don’t think I’d cultivate a friendship with someone who’s comfortable saying that kind of stuff.

We’re all in our 30’s at this point and some are starting families. I don’t get to see everyone as much as I’d like, but any time I get to spend around them always feels so restorative. I’ve never been shy about expressing my true feelings and I tell each and every one of them that I love them. I used to really enjoy making my more guarded friends squirm with an “I love you,” but it doesn’t really work anymore because now everyone is just as comfortable saying it as I am.

I wish every dude could have guy friends like this. There’s a lot of cultural baggage that makes it harder than it should be. I appreciate the question because I often struggle with feeling gratitude for the things in my life that I’m most thankful for. I spend too much time in a negative headspace, but I’ve got a good bench of bros I can lean on and I need to appreciate that.

Trekkie friend of mine has a “Boldly Go” sticker in his bathroom. Always puts a smile on my face.

There’s also an EULA that you have to check the box for before you download the server software that basically amounts to “I acknowledge and accept that Microsoft can shut this down whenever they want for no reason at all and I have no recourse if they decide to do that.”

One time I was in the ER, and a doctor noted that my heart beat has a rather pronounced split s2 rythm which is something that doctors need to learn to discern when listening to a heartbeat, so for the next hour as I was waiting around, I had several other younger physicians stop by and say “hey I was told to come listen to your heartbeat.”

Made me feel a little special in a very peculiar way I haven’t known since.

Yeah that’s what I’m talking about. Like I know they explained it, but I was still sitting there thinking “When did that happen? Was it in Spider-Man or some other Marvel thing?” despite the fact that I did watch the previous movie. All the marvel stuff is really starting to bleed together and lose definition in my memory.

I have a bit of a reputation among my friends for missing pretty basic stuff in games. My best guess is that I replay a lot of older games that I already know everything about, so it’s kind of a reflex to just ignore text that pops up on the screen. This is how I end up several hours into a game being unaware that there is a block mechanic.

I did enjoy the new Spider-Man, but I’ll admit I couldn’t remember where the fuck we are in the timeline or whatever when it started. I definitely saw the relevant previous storylines, but at the beginning of the movie I was like “why doesn’t anyone remember who Spider-Man is?”

Almost like movies probably shouldn’t be constructed from required-viewing homework from dozens of other movies and TV shows.

As I insert a blank line before starting the fourth paragraph of a text message:

“Maybe I’m providing a bit too much detail… Should I take a few sentences to explain why?”

I can have a little delicious garbage, as a treat.

“Delicious garbage” is how I refer to ordered food to keep myself at least a little aware of the choice I’m making. I can’t rationalize delivery fees, so I still go get it myself, but it’s still just a little too often that I find myself saying “I think I’ll have some delicious garbage for dinner.”

My favorite part about Death Note is that the whole point of the series is “Nobody could be trusted with a power such as this and the existence of such a thing would only lead to ruin,” but every single person who watches it, including me, can only think “yeah, but if I had that power, I would weild it responsibly and only use it to fix things.”

Fascinating video from Technology Connections all about the color brown.