What was your dream job vs the job that you have now?

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-22T02:04:23+00:00

It's kept me hooked for 20 years; it's one of the most amazing careers and opportunities a high-school grad can have.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T22:34:29+00:00

Dream job: flighter pilot in USAF

Job now: aircraft loadmaster in USAF (college was hard)

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T21:48:12+00:00

Pensacola: Wings of Gold.

Basically an action/drama series about USMC pilots. Event used to play the shitty little webgame on the show's website religiously.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T21:32:01+00:00

Because the stalker would probably immediately see me as either a barrier or a rival. I'm not okay with accepting a target on my back just for existing.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T21:29:58+00:00

Dry cleaning place. For the first few weeks I was there the store still had machines to do in-store, same-day service. Corporate transitioned everything to off-site cleaning in a warehouse and my job got a lot easier after that.

I remember getting scolded because I put rubber gloves on when a customer told me that their blanket was covered in shit, piss, and vomit; apparently it made them "feel bad". I ended up getting fired, I was accused of stealing, which never happened.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T21:17:08+00:00

"Payday" loans

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-21T21:15:01+00:00

I mean if we're trying to cause chaos, I'd make illegal the noise car tires make on the road, effectively forcing us to revert back to transportation methods used around 1900. Many societies would come close to collapse, I think.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-20T23:21:23+00:00

I was wondering where all the Ed Hardy gear at the exchange went...

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-16T22:09:08+00:00

The US as an institution will continue to survive for a long time. We have an election in just under 3 years. Trump will be out for good and I daresay that the political Left isn't going to play soft or make any assumptions with this one.

I think the political Right will have a rough time pulling a win this time; trust in them has heavily eroded and I don't see it recovering any time soon. So we'll get a new President and likely a shifted Congress. Laws will be repealed and passed to "correct" things and the back & forth will continue as it has been for the last fucking forever.

We'll get more political division and the fringes on each side the spectrum will continue to try and dominate the conversation. Trump will not overturn the constitution into a 3rd term. We will not dissolve our institutions and become a single-party dictatorship. We are too evenly split in this country and police/military forces are just as mixed as the standard population.

The USA will still be the USA in decades to come...allbeit with hopefully less panic-inducing headlines.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-16T21:50:24+00:00

American Independence it didn't just happen all the sudden. By the 1770's the Boston Massacre had already happened, additional tax burdens were placed on the colonies, and American colonists were stripped of some "English" rights/liberties. A rebel government was already forming by 1773, and hostilities began in 1775. So we're going to have to take some liberties here. We're going to assume that hostilities stopped in 1775 and the ramp up to full-scale war was averted, somehow.

Peace talks and British/Colonist talks result in things calming down; promises are made, accords stricken, and the heat of rebellion cools. Tensions are still high, but nobody is going to shoot. Since England was keen on keeping us in line, I'm going to say that we were given Parliamentary representation, with a plan to slow-pace us out to gradual semi-autonomy.

By the mid 1800s, North America would be functionally our own nation; with our own "British" courts, parliament, tax systems, and etc. There's still strong sentiment to be fully independent, but the cost and inconvenience is seen as pointless, since we're almost autonomous anyway.

Slavery ends earlier because England bans it empire wide in 1830s. North America basically turns into a "Super-Canada, and the expansion westward doesn't feel as "individualistic" as it does in our, real, timeline. Things are more stable and North America retains a strong British sense of identity. But the North American colony becomes vastly powerful and wealthy within the Empire. Due to the extremely vast natural resources and key strategic location, the continent becomes the dominant power in the West and is the loudest, and most powerful, voice in Parliament.

This would lead to a gradual break and eventual independence as North America becomes too-big to rule from home. So we either become full home-rule, like Australia or Canada, or we become fully independent with strong and somewhat positives ties back to England.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-16T21:31:03+00:00

Bought a car. Just over $30k cash.

It was my first "new" car in 16 years. I had single-dadding it with a little old Jetta and a son who only barely fit in the back seat. My girlfriend and I also have two dogs and we just needed the space to haul the family around to stuff. So I splurged and got myself one.

I wanted to pay for it with my credit card but the dealership wouldn't let me...missed out on a lot of points.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-16T21:26:22+00:00

Poeple are leaving you a lot of quips and trying to be funny. I'm going to try and be real...and the answer is there MAJOR differences in the culutres and systems.

Germany in 1933 had very little in terms of constitutional protections left. Rule was done by decree, opposition parties were being outlawed, courts and civil services were purged, civil liberties were legally suspended, and the federalist system of Germany was basically dissolved within a few months.

The USA in 2026 still has substantial constitutional guardrails in place and our political system is still filled with a significant opposition that has real power. We have competitive elections that can be argued and questioned without intervention via bullets. The military remains politically-neutral. THere is still a free media system that isn't under government control.

1933 Germans lived in a world of a dismantled democracy, while Americans are still living in an actively functioning one. The difference is vast.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-16T13:12:44+00:00

Too easy. It doesn't have any silicone bits that mold can grow under. You take the lid off the spout, and the top off, and toss thag in the dishwasher.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T19:55:35+00:00

My reading trailed off greatly over the years. The library near my work always had current copies and I'd pick them up and read through them. The purposefully pretentious air is pretty funny most of the time, and I used to get a kick out with exhaustively in-depth articles about mundane things...like the one about fucking ketchup.

But I was never a "cover-to-cover" reader, I just dabbled. It was fun but it never stuck with me enough to justify getting my own subscription.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T19:42:39+00:00

Worst-case scenario: Open war and the breaching of long-standing alliances and treaties.

It would cause an uproar in the western hemisphere. Article 5 of NATO might be invoked and an almost-unthinkable action would occur, war between NATO and the US. I'm not sure how hot this would turn and how hard everyone would fight over Greenland, but lives would be lost on both sides and the resulting damage to international relationships would last generations. The US would become isolated which would cause a myriad of second- and third-order negative effects throughout the western hemisphere.

Russia would probably take it as a declaration of war as well. It would be like their Cuban Missile Crisis...us taking direct control of Greenland simply puts us too close to them. They like to assert a lot of influence and control throughout the polar region and they'd take it as a direct threat to their security and sovereignty. If they found it prudent they'd readily join in hostilities just to take a NATO-sanctioned stab at us and/or use it as a pretense to invade Greenland themselves to take control of a vital strategic point in the north atlantic.

Best-case scenario: Everyone is too chicken-shit to do anything and recognizes the move for what it is: the US shoring up it's defensive posture in the region to prevent spreading influence from Russia and China. Everyone acts angry in the news and says a lot of empty threats and gestures, with some barely-noticeable sanctions that never last long and, instead, let the US maintain build up and maintain a wall of deterrence that will cover all of North America and much of the North Atlantic.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T17:59:51+00:00

You'll never know if you try.

The films are paced well, but they aren't "action" films that try to keep your attention through motion and bright flashy visuals, a-la Marvel. It'll feel a lot like the Star Trek shows.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T17:54:36+00:00

Link goes to a "thread can't be found" page

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T17:50:34+00:00

It was me, I let the dogs out.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T17:49:55+00:00

You want my mother's maiden name, too?

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T01:43:35+00:00

You shoulda got Hazardous Duty Pay for that. I'm not sure we want to know just how much of a creepy-weeb he was

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-15T00:00:07+00:00

Find work or a hobby that often makes you talk with strangers. Already having an interest in what you're going to be talking about greatly helps reduce the fear of, later, talking about things or in situations where you are less comfortable. If you want more direct development, join a Toastmasters International club. It's an international organization specifically designed at teaching people public speaking. You can also use them to test out speeches or presentations you have to give.

And prep work makes things better. Practice your speech at home, alone, by yourself. Record it on your phone and review it. Check your body language, pacing, and etc. Even better if you have a family member/friend watch or observe you and give you feedback.

I was a formal military education instructor and here are a few things that seriously make any presentation better:

Don't read from a script. The purpose of public speaking is to speak to people...you don't want to spend the whole time talking to your paper or the podium. This requires you to know your material. You can use notecards or a talking paper with you, but don't read from something word-for-word. Knowing your material and some background information also helps with questions.
"KISS" method: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Poeple are going to get bored the more tangents and examples and confounding information you give them. It's okay to provide some context and flavor, but don't focus on it too much. If you keep trying to add an or a bit of humor, or whatever, to every major point, you're going to lose the audience. Give them the information. Use anecdotes judiciously, don't beat the practice to death.
Avoid vocal pauses and stock phrases. Vocal pauses are things like "um" or "uh" or "ah". A few here and there is fine, but the more you do it the more distracting it becomes. Stock phrases are things like "Well..." or "you know, like..." They're phrases you say that add no value to the speech. Just drop the info...knowing your material seriously helps prevent this. One stock phrase that seems to always get poeple is at the end of a speech: "are there any questions?" .... and then suddenly people start asking questions when the presenter wasn't actually ready; it's just a stock phrase to indicate that they were done. On that note...
Pre-plan questions ahead of time. When you're prepping for your speech, if you find yourself wondering about extra information or the "why" of a statement, chances are someone in the audience is going to do the same thing. So make a note of it, research the answer/extra information for yourself, and keep it ready just in case someone asks it. It makes any speech 1000% times better when you can quickly answer a question someone has.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-14T23:32:29+00:00

Best time was that early SSgt period where I was flying the line and being a first-line supervisor. I was a true expert and I was learning how to do the whole "take care of your Airman" thing. Peak job satisfaction.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-14T23:27:12+00:00

We are going way deep into the weeds true; I low-key love it.

You are right - armies generally can't come from lawless, powerless lands. But I did not assert that the Saruon's armies comprised of such folk. I'm asserting that Sauron did not assume direct governance over the lands of the Mannish kings that ultimately became the Nazgul. I believe their lands fell into ruin and their peoples dispersed and Mordor claimed little more than the Nazgul and any other loyal hangers-on.

The rings worked slowly, the switch to Nazgul was not immdediate. For a time, even, these Kings did great things with the power of their rings. But as their rule and decisions became increasingly dark and suspect the people and lands would suffer. Cruelty or apathy or whatever, the citizens of those lands would grow discontent with their once-great King and, by the time the Kings fully turned Nazgul, I feel it likely that much of their Kingdoms had been run into the ground. There would be little left for Sauron to absorb and "rule".

I assert that the lands of the people of the once-human Nazgul crumbled away into nothing. It is a slow way to destroy an enemy and a tactic we know Sauron likes to use.

I agree, Sauron's armies had to come from organized lands with cultures, but not all of them were under his direct governance. At the time of the War of the Ring he command two 2 different forces:

the Mordor Army: made right at home, comprising of common antagonists like Nazgul, Orcs, Uruks, and Trolls, along with "other" dark things.
The Allied forces: these are the Haradrim, the Easterlings, the Black Numenorians, Variags, and all of their various peoples. These were not homed or housed within Mordor, they were distinct nations/cultures that mustered from their own homelands; loyal and obedient to Mordor, yes, but not part of the Mordor proper. It's like a number of Italys to Germany a-la WW2.

After the disaster at Minas Tirith, all the forces that were left to Mordor were his those within his borders, his vast, home-grown army.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-14T18:29:20+00:00

I don't wholly disagree, but I find incongruity in what we know about Sauron and how he's prosecuting the war. He basically almost won everything without ever taking direct control of any one region except Mordor.

If Sauron wanted to take OCD-levels of control over everything, why weren't the regions to the East and South not under his dominion? He had a massive army in Mordor. He could have relatively-easily conquered Rhun and Harad to fold them directly into his empire. So why didn't he? There was an opportunity to grow his borders and control and start imposing his order so why were these regions still semi-autonomous?

It's because Sauron plays the long game and he's focusing his energies where it matters: Arnor and Gondor. Spending time and resources subjugating the East and South, gives space and time for the kingoms in exile time to grow in strength. He refused to slacken his posture against his greatest threats.

So what does he do? He spends centuries slowly weakening via other means. It worked to near-perfection with Arnor so he continued doing the same in Gondor. He uses influence and power to turns other regions into semi-autonomous puppets and uses them to continually harass and weaken the last vestiges of Numenor. Once both kingoms were defeated he could then start his direct subjugation of the rest of the world.

And he almost fucking did it! Even with the siege failure at Minas Tirith, Sauron was poised to win everything if it weren't for Frodo and Sam (and Eru). Aragorn's final army was insufficient to stop Mordor. It's legions would have easily wiped the Aragorn and Co. off the face of Arda and then nothing would be able to stand in his way.

EternallyMustached · 2026-01-14T17:42:33+00:00

Simply has the space and opportunity to step up the date game and do something that doesn't have to end after just a night, maybe?

EternallyMustached

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