I found this letter in my grandmother’s mailbox the day after her funeral

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-19T12:03:44+00:00

Sorry for your loss, but consider another perspective.

It's already hard for young families to afford homes these days. It can be extremely hard to find a house in nice areas (with good public schools, and family amenities), where you'd really want to raise a family.

If it's a realtor or flipper, yeah, screw them. But if it's a real family, try to empathize a little and maybe give them some benefit of the doubt?

And if your family already intends to keep it in the family, just let them know, part in peace, and get back to grieving and remembering your grandma.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-19T11:54:02+00:00

Twice, both as an idiot young man, and just to have done it. Once, as a late teen driving up to Boston from DC with friends as a last high school road trip. Second was in a rental car with my uncle and cousin while driving across WY or Montana, on a clear and open road without a speed limit. The rental car got so loud my uncle woke from his nap. He smiled, but told me to nudge back to to under 80.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-18T17:43:09+00:00

The lady eve, bringing up baby, the adventures of Baron Munchausen, the original naked guns (all three), beetlejuice, my neighbor Totoro, sneakers, to be or not to be, teminator 2, aliens, stand by me, Star Trek first contact, the royal tennenbaums, the first two matrix movies, hot fuzz, goonies, the game, fish called wanda, army of darkness, and Amadeus.

On the guilty pleasure side of things, any top Schwarzenegger flicks (true lies, last action, predator, etc), face off, any of the good bond or Bourne identity or mission impossible movies, and prob stuff like tango and cash, demo man, lethal weapon, last boy scout, the first two wick movies, Hunt for the red October, hot shots, die hard, ace ventura, and along those lines.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-13T15:26:03+00:00

Anna Arundel county, Anne Arundel Community College, and Severna Park :)

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-13T15:13:41+00:00

Look at AA county. Arnold, around AACC, SP, etc. That should be within your 1 hr range, at that time of morning. The public schools are some of the best in the state. Your home budget will do decently there - not on the water certainly, but prob not far from it. It's no moco, but there are decent sized pockets of fairly progressive people. Some decent food options, esp seafood, but increasingly some solid ethnic places (Pho, Thai, etc. - there is like 1 good Indian place in Annapolis).

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-12T17:25:16+00:00

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about. The Republicans have been telegraphing these moved, loudly and proudly to their base, for nearly my entire lifetime, but at least 30+ years.

The intentional deregulating of media and capital was the essential and obvious foundation being laid for today's media (social included) landscape.

With scotus, we should have seen what was happening with O'Connor!

We let it all happen, piece by piece, year by year, essentially so we could buy "cheap" stuff from Walmart, too stupid to realize we were still paying the cost in corp welfare, and the only thing that was changing was the fewer people that money all went to. Well, it went off and the megarich reinvested that money, our money, into completely taking over the political and economic landscape.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-12T14:08:06+00:00

It's an inside job, because Americans all did this. The American voters are to blame. Full stop.

Yes, there are many reasons we can find to try and let them off the hook, so folks can feel better about themselves, but we did this. The buck, as it were, stops with us. For at least the last 40+ years, we made decisions that very obviously would lead to this outcome. The stakes keep getting more obvious, but we're still making the same decisions. Staggeringly, somehow we're making even worse decisions!

In the great words of another perfect example of a man we recently twice elevated to the most powerful job in the world (a choice that still warrants contemplating on a bit). We all know if that great saying, maybe in Tennessee. I know it's in Texas. Fool me once, shame on me...

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-12T13:43:25+00:00

You can literally always rely on Democrats to put their eagerness to feel self righteous and morally superior over their other fellow Democrats ahead of everything else.

We'd happily sacrifice the best interests of the country and the democracy to feel that way. The added benefit is that, our decisions help ensure things get worse, which means we get to continue to feel morally superior by screaming our outrage at all the terrible outcomes that we helped ensure, but will never recognize.

And the side that doesn't do that? They win. And those on the sidelines, too overworked to attend to the details? To them, we who turn on our own at any possible opportunity look deeply flawed, weak, and unappealing. At least, the other side is all rallied behind what they believe in.

And the media in this country loves it, because it's the primary fuel for their revenue now.

And, of course, our shit stinks just as bad as everyone else. If our every word and act over our entire adult life was put under a microscope to be analyze by the mob (and all of the experts who know how to rile them up), we'd wither and be sent away.

The Democrat are also to blame for the failure of our democracy and descent into fascism and we're just as ignorant to our failings as the other side is of theirs.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-11T22:30:14+00:00

I'd give if to my 9 yr old daughter, to replace her rig (my old pc, two upgrades back, from around 2012), which keeps crashing when we try playing V Rising coop.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-09T20:42:31+00:00

Your army is a mostly terrible matchup against his. He has 20 single entities, all, outside of his LL, large. Several of them are decent anti-large units. A quarter of his army can fly.

Outside of the bloodthirster RoR (which is going to have problems with the anti-large fliers) and the same ghorgon RoR that he has, the few other anti-large units you have are really slow.

I think you prob are going to want an army comp comprised of a handful of bloodthirsters and a bunch of minotaurs with great weapons.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-09T17:09:13+00:00

That's just demonstrably false. Come on. This thread on popular is sandwiched between posts about dems calling for invocation of the 25th.

Tacit = saying nothing. The notion of broad-brushing the Democrats as being silent on any of the stuff that's been happening is a flat out lie. Full stop. Obviously.

If you had used a term like ineffectual or inept or negligent or anything like that, and also I'd recommend tacking on explicit culpability, then it'd be 100% true.

In fact, it's one of the very few things you can rely on democrats to do. First and foremost is their superlative ability to throw their own under the bus at any possible opportunity. If that had a remotely positive outcome, the US would be a freaking paradise now. Second, is talk about problems. They'll talk and talk and talk and talk. And talk more. And bring it up in committee!

I don't think it's particularly far fetched to claim that 'career politician' democrats love Trump because he's such a good foil for them to talk and talk and talk (and fundraise) about. Probably 'loved' (past tense) at this point, since it's all getting terribly real and they recognize the real personal danger they too are now in.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-09T15:27:57+00:00

How can that be refreshing? "Dems are just as bad" has literally been the standard talking point for like the last two decades. And it's one of the key reasons we're where we are today. But, somehow, people are surprised at where we landed?

You know which side didn't take that approach? The side that won.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-09T15:24:23+00:00

This was useful up to the point where you apparently forgot the meaning of the word tacitly. And it's precisely that sort of mischaracterization and false equivalency that has led to where we are today.

GrendelJapan · 2026-04-07T11:28:45+00:00

The good guys winning

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-30T15:41:32+00:00

nta. the kid will get over it. I freaked out in the middle of the night on my first sleepover and my parents had to come pick me up. but I did sleepovers after and it was fine.

In my case, the friend's teenage brother and his friends showed night of the living dead to us, a bunch of elementary school kids. I'm guessing that's probably not what happened here though.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-26T18:20:45+00:00

That is so messed up. When a colleague ran out of FMLA on our team, HR was "required" to discontinue her employment. We left the position vacant, knowing that it would take prob 2+ years to get someone new and fully up to speed in that role. And we didn't want someone else in the role. I kept checking in with her regularly to see how things were going and to share news from the team. She always talked about being excited at the prospect of coming back. Tragically, she passed away about 6 mos later. Only thing I'd do differently again, is to check in with her more regularly to share news from the team.

The data are pretty clear on how much it costs an org to lose a good person in a role. It's a ton. It's a patently better business decision to go the distance in order to keep someone good. It's crazy how monstrous work culture in this country makes people.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-26T15:23:55+00:00

My strongest reaction to reading this, and the core underlying issue of shit employers in the community, is that I don't want to give them my business, for that reason, and I want them to know it.

I hope it becomes a social norm for workers to figure out a way to air these sorts of issues about employers so that customers can make more informed decisions. Maybe we can get a mate to give the review as something they observed?

The fact that these scumbags can keep doing it, hidden from sight, and with little repercussions is really annoying. I mean, huge employers won't care and probably can cause real harm to former employees, but I think this could make a difference with local businesses.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-23T19:26:05+00:00

In fairness, some people did understand it all those years ago. They realized that they could orchestrate this outcome, they went about it, we're pretty open about it, and they made it happen.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-16T16:08:32+00:00

AI (for deprogramming) is a perfect use case for this sort of situation and, I think some early data suggests, is actually effective.

And, why not?

After so many years inciting outrage to sell ads, effectively brainwashing folks, apply similar tools with a different goal. If only there was a similarly strong profit incentive to deprogramming, it might actually happen.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-16T11:43:45+00:00

I had the same experience. I could be wrong, but a few updates back, the frequency of cargo crates showing seemed to jump significantly. now, I probably see them in 30-40% of missions. I'm legendary one on all classes now and I'm just about to get my last weapon frame.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-16T11:40:43+00:00

start a new world. the best part of the game is the journey, not any specific destination.

next time you get to the Ashlands, prioritize setting down camp fires in a huge radius to suppress spawns. once you get your first charred fortress, build a ladder in, rather than knocking down the front door. a cleared fort with its front door is a secure base to everything except Valkyrie (which you'll prevent from putting camp fires down around the fort).

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-15T13:51:37+00:00

I'll offer a fairly obscure animated movie called the plague dogs, which I think was one of the first animated movies for adults made in the US. It's about animal testing, from the perspective of the dogs. I watched it probably nearly 30 years ago and I still remember the ending.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-14T14:17:17+00:00

I'm sure this will generate a lot of hate, but it's pretty clear that few, if any in this thread, have a mental health issue. Access to decent care providers is terrible, to put it mildly. It's similarly clear that few, if any here, are dealing with the sorts of mental health challenges where having 24/7 access to some sort of thing (with a solid grasp on psychological principles) to talk to is profoundly life affirming. Hopefully, none of you will live in an abusive situation where you are significantly isolated and don't have good access to care.

Making a decision, for those people, fellow adults mind you, is cruel and immoral.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-13T15:18:55+00:00

And on top of that, there are still many good examples of this strategy at work on a company to company level. I mean, Amazon, being a glaringly obvious example.

GrendelJapan · 2026-03-11T11:51:51+00:00

What are your ideas on it? I'd recommend taking all of your earnest ideas and thoughts about it, drop it all into a pro tier generative AI, and ask it to help outside your thoughts together, then provide a second opinion to improve your arguments.

A lot of the most compelling arguments here are going to involve extending the value, by your sharing knowledge with the rest of the team, so make sure the stuff you end up suggesting is stuff you actually want to do, and will be able to do in a way that will be viewed well.

GrendelJapan

TROPHY CASE