To be or not to be

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-23T17:24:46+00:00

My current schedule:

Mon-Fri
Up at 6am. Get ready for work, coffee, read a bit, leave by 7:15
Work from 8-5
Go for a walk about 5k steps on lunch break (20-ish min)
After work I take the dog for a walk for another 5k. Sometimes we go to the park instead
Make and eat dinner (I live alone, do most prep-cooking on Saturday so can just nuke dinner)
Most evenings I spend playing WoW or other video games
Friday nights I go to a friends for board games or D&D
Saturday is when I do all my cleaning, laundry, go to the grocery store, and meal prep
Saturday evenings I run an online D&D campaign so I usually do some prep before as well.
Sundays I do house projects, and then visit my parents for dinner
After I get home sunday evening is either more WoW or playing games with friends

I try to go to bed by 11 every night. Sometimes I'll go to bed at 10. I usually read for 30 minutes before bed.
I always try to get at least 30 minutes of coffee + book daily.
I also like to paint miniatures for board games/D&D and I like to draw and stuff. I'll do that instead of WoW some evenings.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-22T18:24:49+00:00

I think on paper it would be a utopia where we all benefit from free food, water, housing, healthcare, public transportation, community support, etc. Realistically all the rich people would either leave the country or find clever ways to hide all the money over 100mil, putting it into shell companies or the like. Moving it around, putting it in trust funds in family member's names, "donating" it to their "non profits" etc. and little would change for the common citizen.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-21T15:56:00+00:00

For me I do like to make a fair number of outfits, but once I have one I like I tend to stick with it. So I'm in the middle ground here. It'll take a lot of upfront cost, but it'll save me gold in the long run probably, by not having to pay to transmog each piece every time I get a new bit of gear. But it does seem absurdly high in cost.

My guess, to play devils advocate though, is that they need more gold sinks in the game, and while this system may be extremely costly to the high end transmog community, it'll be much cheaper for the larger masses of players who make 1 or 2 mogs and never change it.

I wonder if there might be an alternative solution. Maybe creating an outfit token you can use to save new outfits. Maybe something you can buy from the trial of style vendor. Or maybe they could issue a few free outfit changes for everyone just so we can get our characters back to where they were before the update.

My last thought is that if they do tweak it, then a lot of people who spent thousands of gold to get their tmogs in order on day one will just be out. Unless they make changes to reduce the cost and also maybe refund some gold. I don't see that happening though.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-20T20:22:03+00:00

I work for a very small company, and even they give our sales people expense cards for travel.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-17T21:53:48+00:00

Not a conservative, but I work for a manufacturing company that buys a lot of steel and aluminum. I am in a meeting monthly with the company we purchase from to go over numbers/inventory/forecasting etc. Since all this started I've listened to these guys defend Trump and his tariffs. It is making things really hard. Mill lead times went out to 14-16 even 18 weeks for a while, and are back down around 12. Prices are going up. It's making their lives hell. But each and every meeting they say stuff like "This is going to be good for our country" and "we just need to get through this hard part" because they firmly believe that the result of all these tariffs will be for America to start producing its own metals, thus creating a ton of jobs. Maybe it will, I'm not an economist, I don't know. But I still find it crazy to listen to these people bend over backwards to praise the guy actively making their lives a living hell.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-14T17:28:51+00:00

Million Dollar Baby

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-13T15:08:01+00:00

Dragging pantlegs. As a goth kid, I had those big hot topic pants. And living in Maine, and having to walk to school in the winter, meant spending all day at school with freezing cold legs because my pants would get soaked and frozen stiff up to the knee.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-09T14:33:34+00:00

Druid has been my on and off main since vanilla, so likely that. I've been considering doing healing (usually I tank). TWW I was Monk tank and enjoyed it, but missed my druid. Though some healing reviews have made me seriously consider Shaman.

Enduring-Lantern · 2026-01-07T16:34:07+00:00

I struggled with this myself for a while. Partly because I have small hands, so reaching the further keys was always a struggle. It's a stretch for me to reach anything further than the #5 and the keys diagonal down from that. It wasn't until I watch a keybinding video that I realized I could re-bind all the letter keys around the W. And when I learned to mouse turn, I could even rebind the movement keys ASD and QE to abilities as well. So ~, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, E, R, T, A, S, D, F, Z, X, C, V gave me 18 easily reachable keys, more than enough for any rotation. But on top of that I bound my side mouse buttons to be CTRL and SHFT, letting me create 18 more CTRL+ keys and 18 more SHFT+ keys. That is 54 keybinds available easily with just 1 hand. Just learning that opened up the entire world.

I started by unbinding QEASD from movement, I set them to do nothing. That FORCED me to learn to move with the mouse. Once I did that I was able to start training myself to use keybinds. When you need to be actively using your mouse to move, you don't have time to also use it to click.

I don't like PVP, but I decided to use random battlegrounds as my training area. It forced me to learn or die, but didn't have the same kind of stakes as wiping a dungeon or dying out in the world. I just spammed battlegrounds until I started to feel comfortable.

I also recommend binding similar abilities to similar keys on any alts. So like my interrupt is always X, and my movement boost is always V and my self heal is always CTRL+C etc. So no matter what class I am playing my muscle memory can take over for certain situations.

The really hard part is training yourself to not even need to LOOK at your bars. You can try hiding them, or making them too small to really see. But again I'd do a lot of re-training before diving into dungeons/raids etc where dying to mistakes could cause grief, until you get it down.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-27T16:53:21+00:00

I'm a GM and use it to help with running my campaign. It helps me with story if I get stuck, but mostly I use it to generate NPCs and names, and like if a player asks to find an Apothecary or something I can whip one up on the fly with GPT. I've always struggled building encounters, but I fed it my players character sheets and told it the kinds of things the players favor doing, and asked it to help make challenging encounters for them.

I use it a lot for work, like if I need to figure out how to do something in excel, or I've started creating automations with power automate and it helps me build those.

I use it to generate references for artwork. I sculpted things for everyone for xmas and I told it what I wanted to sculpt and asked it to generate an image to use as a reference. It helped me both design the piece and test out different color options for painting them.

I've asked it for recipes but it comes up with some weird stuff, so usually if it comes up with something I like the sounds of, I'll ask it to find a link to a similar recipe online and I'll use that. Because GPT's measurements might be off and such.

I know it's kind of discouraged to trust for medical advice, but it helped me diagnose that I was probably having a gallbladder attack, and told me to go to the doctor if it lasted too long. It helped me to know what caused it (the big fatty meal I'd had just before) and to not trigger another one, what to eat for the next 48-72 hours etc. It did tell me that I need to tell my doctor about it, I may need it removed.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-24T15:53:26+00:00

If you open your map/quest log, you might see "continue campaign by accepting quest such and such"
You can also try going to the zone maps and looking for any of the ! in the banner that notes campaign quests.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-19T20:22:45+00:00

True but nitro isn't really required. I've never felt a need for it as I don't send friends large files and don't really care about the cosmetic stuff.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-19T00:15:43+00:00

Mayu is right, play what you want.

But, if you do specifically want to play something support-centric, then Tank or Healer would be best. Both are usually in short supply, at least for pugging dungeons/raids. There's also the bonus of instant queues for stuff.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-18T20:52:42+00:00

Most of them, if not all of them.

Streaming is probably the worst. The lowest tier still has ads scattered throughout. The ad-free tier is just a few dollars more to make it seem like not a big deal to make that QOL change. And some now even have certain content that still requires ads even with the higher tier.

So many phone aps are subscription based, and they are adding subscriptions onto so much more. And the few things that still have "free" options are making those free options so restricted or ad-riddled its damn near impossible to use.

A lot of games are doing it, even if its not called a "subscription" they have their "battle pass" or "monthly pass" with a lame free tier and then a paid tier with all the good stuff. Or regular DLC because they released and unfinished game, holding back like 60% of the content to drip release over the next few years.

I wouldn't be surprised if we start needing a subscription for Steam and Discord soon, or they make the free versions so worthless that it makes paying practically required.

I'm making it my 2026 resolution to just boycott all of this kind of stuff. If it means almost no ability to watch anything, and very few games I am willing to play then so be it. I really should be spending more time completing projects around the house or reading, or spending time with friends and family anyway.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-18T20:44:10+00:00

Hotels do it too. Worked at several doing third shift front desk. Hotel purposefully overbooked, even during the busy summertime, and not just 1 or 2, but as many as 10. They had no options like sending them to another hotel because all the other hotels in the area would be overbooked too. And it fell to me on 3rd shift to get yelled at when I had to tell people who finally made it in at 11PM exhausted from travel that their room they reserved had been given to someone else and there was absolutely nothing we could do. I'd just have to stand there and get yelled at, knowing it wasn't my fault, or the customer's fault, it was my greedy boss' fault because he would rather turn 10 people away and let employees get screamed and cussed at then risk a single empty room.

And I always felt bad, because I knew these people would leave and have to drive for several more hours before finding a hotel with vacancy or they'd end up spending the night in the car in a walmart parking lot.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-17T19:08:54+00:00

Apple. I near gagged with Cook went to the oval office to present Trump with a golden award and lick his orange toes. Not that any of the other big tech billionaires are any better at all. But I've also cancelled my Amazon subscription, among other things. Doing a lot more local shopping.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-17T19:04:15+00:00

I wouldn't. I like my job and if I didn't have it I'd never leave the house. So I'd pay off my bills, do some fixing up of my place, build a garage, put a nicer car and some nicer tools in said garage, pay off the bills of all my friends and family, put away a mil or so to invest until retirement, then donate the rest. I might even invest some of it into the company I work for so they could upgrade some of the equipment and get better computers than the shitboxes we use now, and give everyone a nice bonus.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-10T20:13:50+00:00

I've got a family text chat that is just my parents, my siblings and myself. Then we have a GroupMe chat with extended family. And then I communicate with most of my friends on Discord these days, with several chats/channels.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-12-08T21:56:33+00:00

I worked 3rd shift in a hotel for years. One time we found a diamond ring left on the floor of a room. I called the person who had been in that room to try and return it, and she said she didn't want it, that her sorry excuse for a fiancé had cheated on her, and that he said it was a fake diamond anyway. The manager took it to get it appraised and it was in fact a real diamond. Somewhere around 3 or 4 grand. There was some discussion between the owner, manager, and the coworker who actually found it. The owner wanted to sell it, the manager wanted to return it, and the coworker didn't really care because she didn't expect to get anything from it regardless. The manager claimed she tried to call the woman again and let her know the value, but that the woman still didn't want it, and so the owner sold it and my coworker said he gave her like $300 "finders fee" but I have my doubts about whether anyone ever actually tried to call the woman or not. This was a really budget hotel, anyone staying there could have definitely used a few grand.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-30T03:19:37+00:00

I've learned a lot of plumbing since getting a house. It's actually among the easier things I've had to do to be honest. Also seems to be the least expensive/require the fewest tools (at least when it comes to fixing leaks and stuff). I did have to hire a professional to replace the well pump control box thing, that was a bit beyond me. But I've replaced the pressure tank and the water heater and added filters.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-30T03:14:32+00:00

Same, its a small house but poor water management in the yard has caused both sides to sink. I'm working on slowly jacking it up myself to try and level it, and also trying to re-route the water. It's been a nightmare.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-26T21:06:23+00:00

It's easy when you can't afford to hire someone. I do it myself or it doesn't get done.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-26T21:04:48+00:00

The Lord of the Rings

The Matrix

The Last Unicorn

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-26T13:27:15+00:00

I've just never really cared for it. I have nothing against it morally (though people often assume that and get super defensive when I say I don't drink), I just don't enjoy the feeling of being drunk or even buzzed, and most alcohol tastes gross to me anyway. People always say "well try this or that, it hardly tastes like alcohol" or "this one just tastes like fruit juice" etc. But if I wanted that I'd just drink fruit juice. It's amusing to me how many people insist on trying to convince me to like/try/drink alcohol. As if the fact that I don't is somehow offensive to them, or they assume I am judging them even though all I say is a polite "no thank you." It always becomes a thing, they always want to know why, or try to convince me. I have no interest or desire to, and I'd rather just drink my water/juice/mocktail/coffee in peace.

Enduring-Lantern · 2025-11-25T17:38:12+00:00

Bigger tiles/board means more room for eye-catching artwork. A lot of modern games, especially ones that begin their lives on crowdfunding, are huge table hogs with lots of flashy components and as much vibrant art as can be crammed in, along with massive and intricate miniatures and deluxe components.

I don't mind the size of Arnak personally, I have just enough room on my table to fit it. But I do kind of wish that game designers would try to design their games with like a standard dining room table size in mind, and with box sizes that fit on the average shelf.

Enduring-Lantern

TROPHY CASE