So much of social media (and online in general) is just ads in disguise and people shilling products, intentionally or otherwise, and it ultimately spills over into real life conversations. So I agree with you completely.

You might have given a thumbs up to your aunt Gina’s photo of her and her friends at the office party celebrating her promotion. Ad networks see it as you interacting with a photo that contains a bottle of Schmudd soda, even if that’s a detail you didn’t even notice.

You have dinner with your dad that night and the topic of Schmudd comes up due to the latest forced controversy (ermagerd the trans) so naturally when you start seeing Schmudd commercials the next day, you might assume your phone was listening to that conversation. But actually the reason you’re seeing the ads is because of the thumbs up to aunt Gina’s post.

And yes, the tracking and analytics tools find those types of patterns and relationships, and so much more. And they’ve been able to do that for over a decade. No telling how good it’s gotten since I was last working adjacent to that field.

On the other hand, it’s amazingly easy for advertisers to figure out what topics / products you’re talking about without the need for constantly recording via your microphone. In most instances, it doesn’t even really make sense to constantly record audio via the mic to monitor folks, other means are much more cost efficient while being just as effective. That’s not to say that some app isn’t or hasn’t done it, just that historically speaking, it hasn’t been as ubiquitous as a lot of people seem to think or imply.

Sometimes with these things, you have to apply Occam’s Razor.

I stayed with some family during the holidays a few years ago and they are conspiracy theory fanatics unfortunately. The type that swear their phones are listening to everything they say. They get ads for things they’ve only ever talked about in person. That sort of thing.

As proof, they pointed out how the prior night the topic of old timey candy from our childhoods came up and all of a sudden they were getting news stories and facebook ads about those liquid filled wax bottle candies. To them, the only plausible explanation is that our phones were listening to us.

Except, as I pointed out, I specifically looked those wax bottle candies up later that night because I was curious if they were still for sale. They live way out in the country and there’s limited cellular data, so basically everybody there that night was using the same wifi connection. Which means, our internet activity is all linked because to the outside world, we’re all on the same network/IP address. Even more curious, though, nobody got ads for any of the other candy that we talked about and which I didn’t specifically look up. So, if our phones were actually recording us and serving up ads based on the things we talked about, then why didn’t we get ads for Blackjack gum, wax lips, and Brach’s? Only the very specific one I happened to search for.

I live in a part of the USA where, decades later, I still hear brand new and seemingly made-up idioms on a fairly regular basis. This skill set, making sense of otherwise fake sounding idioms based on limited context, is practically a necessity 'round these parts. After all, you can’t feed a cow a carrot and expect it to shit you out a cake.

My opinion is subject to change, since I do plan to eventually give Eternal another attempt, but I know why I like 2016 better. It’s because I can go at my own pace and have the freedom to play the battle scenarios out how I want to (for the most part).

Eternal basically tells you early on, you have to go, go, go, go, go. Keep moving or you die. I find that kind of annoying.

But then the fact that you’re almost constantly being forced to use every single button, skill, weapon, etc on-demand, in very specific ways with a fair amount of precision basically kills the joy for me. I don’t get to play games much, sometimes it’s weeks or months between sessions. I can’t keep up with all that bullshit and it sucks nearly every last drop of fun out of the game if I have to waste my limited fun time having to relearn all the mechanics.

I just want to casually rip and tear for fun. Eternal felt like a micromanaging boss constantly telling me that I’m doing things wrong and behind on my unrealistic deadlines.

MY new Tesla? Doubt it. Considering I’m unemployed due to this clown administration and I don’t tend to upgrade much of anything, let alone a vehicle, unless/until the old one no longer functions.

Sorry for being very busy and also kind of poor and also for living about 45 minutes away from the closest movie theater but even further away from one that doesn’t completely suck. Also sorry for being incredibly disappointed the past several times I tried to watch something in the theater which left a bad impression that made me less apt to repeat the experience regardless of whether it’s an original movie or not. Similarly, I’m very sorry that most of the movies I had even thought about going to the theater to see turned out to be movies that after seeing them in the comfort of my own home, I would have been kinda upset at myself and the universe in general if I had paid movie theater prices to see them.

The tape is a lie.

Mark my words, Big Minge will never let this technology see the light of day.

To be honest, I don’t get a lot of time to game as an adult. For the past several years, my gaming is mostly restricted to fall/winter, like November through early March and even then, it’s primarily around the holidays when I have extra time off work. Even during my “gaming season”, I’m usually only able to get in a 45 minute session a few times a week. The rest of the year, I’m lucky to have the down time more than a couple times a month.

So, the big thing is: I have to really consider my time limitations and that restricts the types of games I play. No point in trying to play games with super complicated control schemes, complex story lines, or which require a lot of time dedication to “get gud” because I’m going to forget how to play, what I need to do to advance, and I’m just going to suck compared to kids who play 18 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Steam Deck actually did help me do a bit more gaming. Like you, I sit in front of a computer all day for work, so being able to game elsewhere and in a variety of locations is nice. Plus, I can fire it up when traveling.

I also stick to games that I feel like there’s a good chance I can “beat” over the course of my gaming season or games with simple mechanics and limited stories. Like this past winter I played Doom. The year before it was Cult of the Lamb. The year before that it was Hades. Short enough games (at least the main story line) and simple enough controls. Then there are games like Vampire Survivors that offer short, simple, self-contained and satisfying mini gaming sessions if and when I have a random bit of down time and feel like playing something.

On the one hand, yes, yes, yes, absolutely.

On the other hand, way too often people are absolutely vile here and nobody sticks up for themselves or for others. Really a shame that r-word-it bullshit behavior is often times totally accepted and approved and even rewarded here.

The real question is: Do I care? And the answer is no. No I do not.

For me, Hollow Knight started out a bit rough, got fun and interesting, but ultimately, I lost interest in trying to finish. There were parts which were a lot of fun, but eventually it became nothing more than a chore. And I’ve got too many other REAL chores to let a game like this stress me out. So I set it aside without finishing it.

Despite that, I’m looking forward to this sequel. I likely won’t be a day one buyer (but who knows???), but I’m still pretty sure I will eventually play it. I’m hoping there are some nice game play and story improvements, but even more of the same could be nice.

Probably just a temporary hitch, but I tried to use the app today to look for some Little Britain content. I’m certain that a decade+ ago, HBO carried Little Britain episodes. I was under the impression that Max was basically rebranded HBO and Cinemax in crappified app format.

Tried to open the app, got a loading screen for well over a minute. Closed it and tried to open it again. Waited another minute and it finally showed the profile selection screen. I clicked on my profile and got a completely useless error message, so I clicked on my partner’s profile and it worked. Clicked the up button a few times to get to the search screen, nothing happened. Clicked again, and it finally registered the first few click PLUS the newest click, so it overshot the search icon. Finally got it back to search and then clicked the microphone button so I could speak rather than type. It completely did not understand “Little Britain” and instead searched “Britain britain” with no relevant results. Tried again, and it failed harder. Ended up having to type in Little Britain manually. So 10 minutes later after having the thought that I’d like to watch Little Britain, I finally get the results. Turns out the show isn’t available to watch anymore (or else the search failed, hard to know for sure). Terrible experience.

This should be an embarrassment. I would be embarrassed if I had developed some bullshit like this.

If it’s got platformer elements, then it’s a platformer, right? Yes? Then Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is it for me.

I won’t say it’s my favorite, but I didn’t see it mentioned, yet, and it definitely deserves at least one mention: Earthworm Jim

I know how that goes. We sometimes have watermelon for a snack (and no I don’t live on the Africa).

Honestly, it’s almost a relief to hear someone say “sorry about your job” without adding the caveat “but DoD/DoE/NIH/USAID is fraud/waste/bad/scam” to the statement. And yes, it was a pretty darned good dinner as long as healthy wasn’t one of the criteria.

I’m guessing not since I don’t use google chrome and haven’t for a while.

Possibly, but this happened long ago enough that AI probably wasn’t a factor. Just good ole fashioned human stupidity and/or ignorance.

Nice permanent ban!

I left for much less; A 24-hour suspension. Though to be honest, that was literally just the straw that broke the camel’s back.

I got suspended for using the word “retard” in a scientifically and non-offensive context (ex: put bread in the fridge to retard the growth of mold). No way to appeal that obviously retar-- ridiculous decision.

You might consider adding a couple eggs to that. Since you can afford “permesan” and butter, I feel like it’s possible you might even be able to afford the eggs without having to take out a small personal loan.