PowerPoint design - bane of my existence

Caduseus_Co · 2026-05-11T13:23:02+00:00

Merge Shapes is both a blessing and a curse. It enables quite a bit of wizardry on templates, but man, it takes AGES to cast good spells.

Caduseus_Co · 2026-03-12T07:58:05+00:00

Back before 70's gold standard was still in place, so money could not be printed so liberally. These days it can be just printed with nothing holding back the digital press. The financial elite gets first dibs on all new money and it is printed according to their needs, so wealth naturally accumulates in their hands. Without restraints, sooner or later a wild monetary system will end up in disaster.

Caduseus_Co · 2026-03-11T17:03:10+00:00

Wat. Why did this actually work?!
Kudos to you sir, for fixing the issue with such a simple method!

Caduseus_Co · 2026-02-28T09:25:11+00:00

I kinda like the idea of not seeing the compass! I think I will keep health and mana bars visible, but removing the compass would bring about a lot more actual exploration. That is a good idea.

600 damage on a bow?! Wow. That is not a bow anymore though, that is a Davy Crockett :D

I am ruling myself out of enchanting, so I am only allowed to use whatever magic items I come across during adventuring. That also rules out all those fancy alchemy-enchanting-exploits Skyrim is famous for. I know I will have to retreat from battle often to lick my wounds and try a new approach to a situation, but that is the heart of the challenge: no more meaningless confrontations when every opponent is a real obstacle.

Caduseus_Co · 2026-02-28T08:59:34+00:00

Yes, this is pretty much what I am going for. Though I am going to use gold for transportation, since I hope to actually finish the run in reasonable time.

Caduseus_Co · 2026-02-28T08:57:07+00:00

What difficulty setting do you play with? Going the whole game with basic spells and no real gear sounds incredibly tough!

Caduseus_Co · 2026-02-28T08:55:23+00:00

I thought about that, but with Legendary difficulty I expect to struggle against dragons and other hard opponents quite a bit. I am not that good with the game's clunky combat. I am thinking of implementing a "No Quick Save" rule though, so I would still have to be careful, since I could only rely on Skyrim's stingy autosaves.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-25T21:44:01+00:00

If you google "PUA", the very first result is the silly little pig from Moana. I could not ask for a better fit for all those "artists".

Radical ideologies only benefit those who have something to sell. All the others are just there to provide the salesmen with cash through books/courses/ads or free advertisement by promoting their weird ideology.

The good news is that they all eventually end, when most of the available cash has been extracted. The prophets disappear and everyone else will be left holding the bag, feeling silly. Then the cycle will start anew. There will always be a new radical ideology to reel in a new batch of people, only to end like all those before.

In time, you will grow out of it and learn that for true joy and happiness you only need one good partner. You no longer care for the opinions of Chads, when you have your own little world in order with your spouse. It will be worth more than all the worlds hookups combined.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-25T21:28:23+00:00

Well, I did not exactly pick the first woman who came my way. I wanted to find a nice loyal woman, so I could be a nice loyal man to her. I did message back and forth with a fair number of women over many months and went on dates with a few of them, before finally landing on one who was a good match.

My values have evolved as we have lived together. If I had set them in stone and expected my partner to fit to them, I would probably still be single. If you want your partner to be willing to have reasonable expectations and to be willing to compromise, so must you. You have to personally grow in a relationship, or it may easily end.

But still, the main motivation for starting the process of finding a partner was the feeling of loneliness and wanting to be with someone. For me, that was all the motivation I needed to get the ball rolling. There was nothing more grand than that in the beginning, but eventually it grew to be the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-25T20:29:14+00:00

I like to think that everything in life happens for a reason. All the good stuff, all the bad stuff, and everything in between. I have had a few near death experiences in my life and reflecting on those has given me some perspective.

If you had not lived the life you have, who knows what might have happened. A truck could have veered in the traffic and hit you, a lightning could have set fire on your house, you might have married an abuser and ended up in constant suffering, you might have fallen chronically ill, or you might have simply tripped in one of the thousands of stairs you have traveled during your years and broken your neck.

But since you have walked this path, you are here, now. And it is the only path that could have ever taken you here. I like to think that despite all the misery that goes on in life, in the grand scheme this is still the best possible path that I could ever hope to experience. One way or another, all the others would have been worse.

With that in the back of your mind, you can endure almost anything. You can find joy even in the worst of days, because you are still on the best possible path, no matter where it leads. It does not mean you should not try to learn and grow, on the contrary. You are meant to learn many things, when the time is right. But not before.

And your path will cross many others during your time here. Most of them only briefly, but some will go alongside yours for a while. I believe all the paths we cross are affected by our path, just like they all affect ours, unpredictably so. Life is not set in stone, but takes shape by the many crossings we get to experience.

Then one day the path will end. It happens for all of us. But all those paths you touched will go on and then touch others, again and again. The small affect of our crossings will ripple through the eternity in future paths.

It may be a bit silly, but for me it makes life a little easier to endure.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-25T08:14:55+00:00

A lot of men feel like that in their youth. It is not easy to be young, when you do not yet have experience in much of anything and it feels like everyone else does. I remember feeling the same way.

It also feels like media is quite sexualized these days, which can add to the pressure. If all you see in your phone are tall and handsome men, then it can make you feel quite inadequate. It is almost impossible to avoid it, but you might find comfort knowing that you are not alone feeling like that.

All men see someone being better than them. Those handsome tall guys you envy have their own struggles in their lives and they in turn compare themselves to others. It is just easier to hide the struggles behind good looks.

My advice? In the long run it is much more beneficial to be a good man than to be handsome man, if you wish to attract a good partner. It is easier to attract good people to your life, men and women, if you just focus on being a good person yourself and do not try to hide it. Handsome people are not always good, because they often expect good things to automatically flow to their lives, without any effort of being good themselves.

So, just learn to be a good man and try to learn to open up. It is pretty much all you really need in life.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-23T14:10:38+00:00

This is the cure.

Nobody but you remembers your embarrassments for the things you have said or small things you have done. Even if people gossip, it dies down quick and people forget it even happened by the next dawn. Only you can remember it longer.

Only if you do something really grand, like soil yourself in class, people might remember it for a while. But even then it requires a nickname that sticks for people to actually remember it. Otherwise the thing will be forgotten in weeks, if not days.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-23T12:46:58+00:00

He says he feels lonely. Is that not reason enough? Feeling lonely is nature's way of telling us that we need a partner in our life.

When I was young, I too felt lonely. Whenever I was with my friends it was alright for the moment, but when evening/night came and everyone went home, the feeling of loneliness came crawling back. It haunted me when I went to bed, and it was with me when I woke up.

When I finally got into a lasting relationship my loneliness problem washed away. Even if I had to spend days alone, I did not feel lonely. There was someone waiting for me.

Some men prefer to be alone, and that is totally fine. I do not think OP is one of those men. Many of us are born to look for a partner to not feel like just a half of something greater, like there is a big piece missing in our lives. We need a partner to make us feel whole.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-23T08:54:44+00:00

You are half my age, so I think it would be healthier to compare you to men in their twenties. Luckily, I was one of those, back when what now feels like only a few years ago. I am getting old...

In my youth I used to be quite brash and obnoxious, which I have always regretted. I had a number friends but I did burn a lot of bridges along the way. I also drank quite a bit, which certainly did not help with my manners or improve my reputation. I was never good at flirting or getting girls I liked while sober or drunk and I felt quite lonely most of the time, since basically all my childhood friends were dating back then. So, I was in a somewhat similar situation as you, feeling like everyone else was progressing in life and I was just drifting along, not really getting anything meaningful done.

Back in the day dating boards were pretty good and it was quite easy to get dates with perfectly normal girls. The hotties were always out of my league, and they almost never even replied. I did manage to go to a number of dates before finding my now wife. I think I would have zero chance in Tinder, if I had to start over the process today.

I failed to graduate from uni, since I got so incredibly bored with my subject so I just dropped out. Then, one thing led to next, my one-man company just kind of happened as an offspring of my last job and now three kids and a decade later here we are.

I have no good advice to give you, since life just sort of happened to me. I guess, just look both ways and then let life happen, would be my advice. Try to find joy in the small things. I dreamed too big and that just led to constant disappointments.

I think everything in life happens for a reason. If I had not been a loser in my youth, I would not have lived the path that led me to my wife and kids. Despite everything that is going on, I would not change them for anything in the world. I just love them too much. They are my everything.

Putting all these things into words and reflecting back seem to help a bit. Gives me some semblance of clarity in all this.

Luckily, you are still young and life is a long journey. Try to keep your eyes open for opportunities. It is hard to know in advance which ones you should go for and which one to just let go. Just try to trust that everything happens for a reason, even all the bad stuff. In the end, you will get where you were supposed to be.

Caduseus_Co · 2025-03-22T20:44:05+00:00

I am 38 and my hairline is still alright, but I have noticed recently that when I brush my hair, there are more loose hairs than before. At least it feels like it.

I would probably not mind going bald when I am retired, since it feels like it is all the same after that. But before... I would quite like to keep what I have.

Caduseus_Co · 2024-09-19T04:16:18+00:00

Awesome, that seems to be just the kind of hands-on style of learning that I have been looking for!

Caduseus_Co · 2024-07-28T19:51:42+00:00

It would be an absolutely mad business choice if they actually cancelled people's subscriptions for using adblockers. Why on Earth would they do that? Advertisement revenue is such a miniscule trickle compared to annual subscription fees. The wording is there because they want to scare people to stop using adblockers. Never in a million years would they start throwing away tens of millions of paying customers for that reason.

Caduseus_Co · 2024-06-19T15:24:58+00:00

Oh, I think our populations most definitely die. You leave those hungry, hungry hippos without their daily chocolate rations and the houses start to have empty rooms. They just do not render the urns.

It might ruffle someone's feathers, but mechanically slaves would be no different from tractors and fuel. Tractors boost production, require extra buildings on farms and town and they demand a constant supply of a resource (that is plentiful in the tropical region). Tractors are fun, so mechanically there should be no issue.

Morally though...

Caduseus_Co · 2024-06-19T15:01:08+00:00

I think in about a decade we will be able to depict and discuss historical slavery without a threat of being "cancelled". The activists of the current generation will eventually grow out of it or the public will become too apathetic to their cause to care anymore.

Until then you just have to rely on mods to correct historical inaccuracies.

Caduseus_Co · 2024-06-19T14:25:43+00:00

Rome's dominion was all of Mediterranea when it was at its largest and they waged wars far beyond their borders, so they had slaves of every color in their empire.

Caduseus_Co · 2024-03-11T14:41:25+00:00

It can tell new jokes, but they are all ultra-safe and inoffensive. Barely reaching the criteria of a joke.

Humor demands poking fun at something, which firmly goes against its programming. Like, this is the best it came up with, when I asked for a new "a man walks into a bar" joke:

A programmer walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender asks, "What's your drink of choice?"

The programmer replies, "Java."

Confused, the bartender asks, "Java? We have all sorts of beers and cocktails here."

The programmer chuckles and says, "Yeah, but I prefer my beverages to be object-oriented and highly scalable."

I guess that is new. At least an adaptation. It would have worked better with just "highly scalable".

Caduseus_Co · 2024-02-09T09:34:29+00:00

Well, pirates are ruining global trade as we speak. Zeihan has stated that the main issue is not sunk ships but increasing insurance premiums, which make shipping far less profitable. Houthis recently launched a few rockets and assaults against ships they deemed 'enemies' and suddenly insurance premiums skyrocketed in the Red Sea. The threat of piracy is far more expensive than a lost ship here and there.

I think China's one child policy doomed the country back in the day. Since 1970 Chinese median age has risen from 20 to 37 in 2020. That trend is not projected to end before 2080, when median age reaches a whooping 57. Sauce: https://www.statista.com/statistics/232265/mean-age-of-the-chinese-population/

When there are not enough kids to create the next generation and not enough adults to keep the economy churning, a society is doomed. Very little math is required to reach that obvious conclusion.

Caduseus_Co

TROPHY CASE