I’d say GOAT should be a Council of greats, like the Jedi Council but without the religious extremism and child soldiers. I’d like to nominate a couple for this council:

Wilt Chamberlain- go look up his records

Andre the Giant - his drinking records alone should put him on the Council, but reportedly he was a very nice person as well

Dolph Lundgren - he plays a meathead in Expendables movies, but he’s a legit genius, as well as a literally massive human

Steve Wozniak - he managed to build the PC despite Steve Jobs being a colossal dick

Saint Olga - she took vengeance and raised it to an art form

Chomsky is the guy that said Ukraine should just surrender to Russia, right? Truly a great example of living king enough to become the villain, and not in a Batman way.

I’ll outright say it. Other than The Prestige and the later Batman movies, Nolan movies have been very disappointing to me. They’re not clever, they’re pretentious. If you ever saw that Netflix movie where the woman dated Keanu Reaves, the part where Keanu asks the chef for a meal the plays with the concept of time is every Christopher Nolan movie in a nutshell. Also, the action sequences in Batman Begins were unnecessarily choppy, and the idea that it was somehow how a bat would see them is just silly.

If it’s extra sweet she might be diabetic.

You know how you know when Newsom’s lying? His lips are moving. He knows Climate Change is an existential threat, but also that he’s rich, so his family won’t face the effects the way the 99% will. The closest he’ll get is his vineyard will use more water, but don’t worry, I’m sure there’s some PUC decision that will keep his water rates artificially low.

California’s current leadership doesn’t really care about climate change, because if they did, the PUC wouldn’t disincentivize rooftop solar through NEM 3.0 and would instead offer tax credits. It’s too bad the common citizens of this state aren’t valued like the profits of Newsom’s friends at PG&E.

Heck, if they really cared, electric vehicles would be progressively subsidized so more working class people could afford them. Instead, workers keep older ICE vehicles longer because they’re paid off (hopefully) and replacements are financially out of reach, even if they’re much cheaper to operate. It’s like housing. A reasonable mortgage payment is much cheaper than rent, but if you are paying rent, you likely don’t have the down payment to get an affordable monthly payment. A house down the street went into escrow the day after listing at $1.7 MM. The nearly identical house next door to them gets $4-5k a month in rent. How is anybody going to have enough money saved up to get their mortgage into a reasonable range, setting aside the $1500 a month for property taxes? The family living next door would need a down payment over $1MM to get even close to their current rent, which is already $50-60k a year! Just their rent is more than the median income for one person, so they likely wouldn’t qualify for a loan that’s exactly the same amount as their current rent even with that staggering down payment.

I have a really good sense of smell; trust me, you smell after one day and just can’t smell it yourself until day four. I’m sorry if this comes as a surprise.

Four monitors plus the laptop screen. It’s…a lot visually, but my productivity is significantly higher than when I only had two and the laptop screen.

They’re arranged in a square so clockwise from top right:

1. Work entry screen - this is where I’m typing a lot

2. Reading screen - this is the general source of what I’m working on

3. Outlook - I’m fully remote, Outlook is life

4. File folders - I work mainly with two or three folders all day so it just makes sense to have them uncovered

Laptop - Teams!

Of note, I use a ton of keyboard shortcuts and have generally optimized my workflow so I’m not hitting the mouse nearly as often as my coworkers. Having Outlook and Teams each have their own screen means I can keep them open and see what’s coming in while still working on my stuff on other screens. Final thing I’ll say about the arrangement, because you’re probably visualizing this making for a good gaming setup, no it wouldn’t because of how the screens are placed.

No matter what, get yourself a mirror. I don’t like people suddenly appearing by me, and since I’m using noise-cancelling headphones with music/podcasts 40+ hours a week, this keeps me from jumping out of my skin.

Thank goodness Pokemon are fictional; I don’t even want to imagine how much interspecies sex would occur, consensual and other.

Also, for some hobbies/interests, there really isn’t another space. For instance, if you’re into tactical gear, there’s really not another community like r/tacticalgear. Lemmy has the promise of being free from Reddit’s admin and moderator madness, but doesn’t have the user base and neither do any other sites.

TwoXChromosomes has the same problem, though of course it has a much wider appeal. The moderators there protested the API changes and the gradual decline of Reddit in general, but they face two bad choices, and I genuinely don’t know the right answer:

1. Keep serving as a large and visible space for women within the confines of Reddit’s sinking ship

2. Abandon Reddit (ship) and let Reddit powermods run a space that they may be uniquely unqualified to operate. those same powermods/admins don’t care about doing the right thing in every other sub they control, so why would they ensure that women are protected from, say, tracking their visits to Planned Parenthood and selling that data to “advertisers” or hostile governments.

We need Reddit to truly self-destruct to ensure an Exodus, and right now it’s crumbling but not broken yet. It’s honestly sort of a mirror to society in general. We’re in the Crumbles, and every day we inch closer to the final straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Real question is, why are there no UFO’s ever seen from Disneyworld? Quite generous of UFO’s to respect designated no-fly zones.

They’re painted “Go Away Green”, so while the UFOs are probing Clara, visitors are focused on finding Hidden Mickeys.

I’d love to hear more about the frequency hopping thing. What devices would I need, and how difficult is it to program?

So you’re saying the Bible specifically recommends slaying ass?

“Honey, the Bible says I gotta go slay ass! I know I promised those days were behind me, but God wants me to do it! Completely off topic, how’s your sister? She still single?”

Many jobs in Finance (Accounting Finance, not customer facing like banking) are remote at this point because they’re all done via email, spreadsheets, PDFs and corporate systems, none of which require a physical presence in an office building.

It’s a fantastic podcast and I point people to the one on the V-22 Osprey frequently just because we live near an airport and Ospreys practice touch and gos before getting lunch nearby.

Have you read the Old Testament? The deity in that book is not what I’d consider benevolent. He’s also really insecure, requiring that his followers only worship him, which doesn’t at all sound like an abusive partner separating a person from their familial relationships to isolate them.

Heck, in the New Testament he (because somehow a sky deity has a penis) sent his son to be killed horrifically, and because he is both omnipotent and omniscient, he knew exactly what to do to stop said horrific death at the hands of the Romans.

It’s the UK. They long ago traded freedom for the illusion of security and don’t have the ability to forcefully remind the owning class of anything beyond their ability to ignore such inconveniences.

What did the box of potatoes do to you to deserve that?

The Battle of Athens is one such occasion. The outcome can’t be considered 100% positive, but what future ever is? I should mention that the Second Amendment exists as the last resort, a sort of “break glass in case of emergency”. That those weapons are also useful in everyday life in a dangerous world is a side effect, but in the end, civilian weapons exist in case a despot/party gains enough power and starts to wield it against the citizenry, as at least one presidential candidate has promised to do if re-elected. It’s incumbent on all of us to vote our conscience, but also to be ready to respond effectively in case voting doesn’t do enough.

I commend you for voicing this opinion and disagree with you with every fiber of my being.

Why introduce astral projection instead of having Luke become one with the Force and then stall Kylo? The outcome is the same, but it doesn’t require the introduction of a new Force power and doesn’t imply that Luke used up his life force or whatever, which is also a completely new thing in the Star Wars universe. Having Luke’s Force ghost instead aligns with Episode IV when Obi Wan says that when he joins the Force he’ll be more powerful than Vader can possibly imagine.

Do they, or is there a lack of an alternative in that niche? Again, I can only speak from my personal experience driving and riding in one; I’d choose pretty much anything else with four wheels.