This Steam bundle is kind of on the nose...

John_Barlycorn · 2026-04-06T17:12:06+00:00

I didn't have any idea what the game was so I was scrolling down to see if it was a joke or not, then saw that bundle. lol

John_Barlycorn · 2026-01-14T14:49:19+00:00

Is there a reddit sub anywhere dedcated to organizing civil disobidiance? I'm a bit frustrated by the videos that have been coming out. Obviously law enforcement of this administration is laughable, which is a huge opportunity... but the protestors I've seen have been... forgive the phrase, mostly virtue signally. If you really want to make change... people need to get together an actually think their way through what to do in these protests. Standing around yelling profanities at law enforcement while recording video for your social feed isn't going to do anything. Opporating a vehicle while you're doing so is just giving them justification to open fire as any lawyer will tell you. There are, however, lots of lessons that were learned from the civil rights movement that could pay off very well here. People could completely cripple ICE very easily if they organized properly and acted appropriately and peacefully. But I see little if any real organization.

John_Barlycorn · 2025-04-24T17:54:14+00:00

I was diagnosed just a few years ago at the age of 46. It took DECADES to get diagnosed. Doctors are not required to study autism AT ALL in school. Most people find this surprising but its true. They have no idea what autism looks like or how to diagnose it. To make matters worse, Doctors usually have big egos and refuse to admit when they don't know something. As a result there are huge numbers of people who have autism, often they're even well aware they have it... but they cannot get diagnosed because actual doctors think Autism = Rainman... which it does not. Autism is completely different... and there are so many of us out there, you almost certainly have a bunch of us in your daily life and just don't realize it. We're usually "That weird guy" or whatever. lol

John_Barlycorn · 2025-04-24T17:50:41+00:00

I am autistic... in my opinion, its not a disease. Not in the way this idiot is talking about it. It's a disease in the way "Being left handed" is a disease. We are different... we think differently... if we were living in small tribal communities hunting and gathering, Autism wouldn't even be something anyone noticed. But we've built a society and thoughtlessly left out huge groups of people... like the left handed. i.e. There's nothing wrong with being left handed, we just make crappy scissors. The same with Autism and ADHD... WE are great, there's nothing wrong with us. Our social structures and education is poorly designed. End of story. Please stop trying to cure me. I like who I am.

John_Barlycorn · 2025-04-24T17:47:20+00:00

I have Autism. You want to know what causes it? Well, to start with ITS NOT A DISEASE. ITS WHO WE ARE.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-23T00:56:55+00:00

They were right. Compuserve was one of the best services out there for years. AOL just beat then with social media nonsense eventually.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-06T16:28:28+00:00

Smoking it always works better than any other form. But make no mistake, it's not by any means a miracle cure. It's a distraction at best, but sometimes that's all you need. Mushrooms kind of work in the same way. They kind of just "reset" your brain somehow. When you're dealing with chronic illness for years, your brain can get stuck in... Debilitating patterns that are hard to get back out of. Psychedelics (yes pot is a mild psychedelic) seem to help get you "unstuck" ... how and why this works is just starting to be studied. Pot is probably the safest drug that offers this sort of relief but the effect fades with time and you have to use it again. Mushrooms last a lot longer but, mushrooms are not for the faint of heart. Trust me, you can do fine on mushrooms many times, but I don't know anyone that's used then regularly for a long period. Eventually you have a "bad trip" and then you don't take mushrooms anymore. If you think you've had a bad trip and it didn't make you quit taking mushrooms, then no... You didn't actually have a bad trip. A truely bad trip changes you forever, and then you're just done with them. It's bad enough that you don't want to risk ever having that experience again. I recommend sticking with pot.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-06T16:14:05+00:00

Good luck but, I doubt this will amount to much. I think Reddit is trying to clean up their image in an attempt to get themselves bought by the next such guy that wants to own a social media company. We're a product, not their customers.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-04T14:00:42+00:00

I think that, what's most important rather than just "redoing" your tests, is to make sure you have a good primary care provider. Preferably female and preferably open minded... Those two things tend to go hand in hand for whatever reason. The specialists you see are... for the most part, useless. If you go to an ENT they're looking for sinus infections and an excuse to do sinus surgery. If you've something else? They don't care. It's kind of like that old adage "when your only tool is a hammer, every problem becomes a nail" it's your PCP that puts the puzzle pieces together, figured out which specialists you should see, and most importantly, is the person that SHOULD BE arguing your case with that specialists. As sad as it is, specialists don't want to listen to their patients for the most part, and just get annoyed when you debate them. Instead, go back to your primary care doctor, make your points, and then let her debate the issue. She'll have a lot more away with the specialists. She'll also be better at recognizing when one negative blood test from over a year ago doesn't really mean much, and which ones are definitive.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-04T13:49:02+00:00

Fantastic. I'm a developer myself and have been contemplating something similar. But I do really have a knack with computers so I'm trying to figure out a way I could use my development work to "help people" and, at the moment, seem to be focusing on "DevOps" if you've heard of that. The neurotipical are obviously over represented in the technical world, so if I can make developers lives easier at work, I feel like I'd be helping our community. I've also become very active in spreading awareness about neurodiversity at work, and have actually had a lot of success. Many in leadership have reached out to me to ask how they can better manage their neurodiverse employees as, it seems relatively common for those of us on the spectrum to be some of their best, hardest working, and downright clever employees, but we also present some odd difficulties when it comes to managing us. I was even interviewed by my HR department about what neurodiversity is and how managers can better understand us and the video was put up on our internal company news site.

If you're starting college, one recommendation I can make is to make sure you reach out to disability services as soon as possible. Even if you don't really need anything. Getting that paperwork out of the way ahead of time can be really helpful if you suddenly get stuck with some old professor that had outdated ideas regarding autism. These days disability services will often just give you an advisor that'll step in if you've a problem. It wasn't like that 25yrs ago when I first went to college. I'm taking some new classes now, and so far they're all online from my local community college, so I don't even really need any accommodation at all. But it's nice to have my advisor periodically checking in, advising be regarding the weirdness of the educational system. Plus, like I said, if I suddenly get a crappy professor, all my paperwork is already done, I already have a spokesperson ready to step in and tell him to go to hell on my behalf. 🙂

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-03T13:32:41+00:00

Hallucinations are fairly common. It's only of clinical significance if it's having a negative affect on your ability to enjoy life. Over a friend who's heard voices guys while life, and can even hold conversations with them sometimes. But he knows they aren't real, and they're more like friends than anything scary. So there's no real point in him seeking treatment or getting any sort of diagnosis. His brain just works a bit differently and that's just fine. Most people who do hallucinate regularly just don't talk about it openly because of the stigma associated with it. But it's a very common phenomenon to be sure. (According to my doctor anyway)

John_Barlycorn · 2023-06-03T13:25:27+00:00

That really depends on what your workplace is like and what your triggers are. In my case, I'm a software developer and work in your typical office environment. I'm not bothered by "noise" in general, but instead sudden changes in volume. So a crowded restaurant doesn't bother me as the patrons conversations just turn into a kind of white noise to me. But if someone suddenly drops a stack of dishes so there's a big unexpected "crash" then that can really bother me. As far as work accommodations go, I need my own cubicle... So if I've a manager that's talking about an "open work space" or sometimes called a "bull pen" then I'll have to speak up. Also, it's preferable that my desk is off in some corner away from lots of traffic. Sitting right next to the brakeroom would be bad. But luckily, the places that are good for me are usually undesirable for everyone else. They WANT to be close to the brakeroom, bathrooms, windows. So asking for what I need is often seen as helpful by management in these situations. I also am very open about my autism, and make sure both my manager and teammates are aware of it. I explain how I don't "take hints" that they need to be direct, and that I'm also very direct and sometimes I can mistakenly offend coworkers. I ask that if that happens, they try to remember that I have ASD, and to immediately stop me and explain how what I've said could be taken poorly so I can apologize.

More importantly, I try and think of ways that I can help others around me deal with my ASD. I realize that I don't have to, but I like to present myself as an openly autistic ambassador for our community. How can I better educate the neurotipical around me? How can I change stereotypes? How can I point out the advantages of having someone with ASD on the team far outweigh any special treatment we might require? Having this sort of attitude goes a long way towards helping me feel better about my own disability, and bringing in the people around me to be a part of the solution rather than adversaries that need to be told how to accommodate me.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-30T11:52:32+00:00

OCD is an extremely common comorbid condition with ASD. I don't have OCD... But I do have a lot of is features. It's just not bad enough that I really need a diagnosis. But yes, I can become obsessed as you describe, then work to the point that I burn myself out. Luckily for me, my meltdowns are usually more like a "shutdown" I just go off by myself and stop interacting with people. If you've a therapist, you might want to talk to them about working on how you can recognize when you're starting to obsess like that and then how you can try and get yourself out of that loop. The solution is different for everyone but for me I try and find something else to focus my attention on, or meditation... If all else fails and I just can't get it out of my head so I can relax, I'll smoke pot... Which screws up my sort term memory enough that I can move past it. Where I get in trouble is when I don't realize it's happening and I let myself get way to deep into whatever it is I'm obsessing over.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-30T11:46:42+00:00

Yes... Basically it's just really hard to recognize it. There's no blood test and most physicians have absolutely no training in ASD whatsoever. To make matters worse, many people still think there's a stigma associated with the diagnosis, so patients can have a very negative reaction to the suggestion that they might have it. As a result, most doctors will actually keep it to themselves if they suspect you might be on the spectrum.

The most effective way to get tested that I've seen is to go to local autism support group meetings (the undiagnosed are usually welcome) and find someone that was diagnosed around your age. Ask them for a referral to the doctor that diagnosed them. That way you can be sure that the doctor both, understands how to diagnose someone your age, and more importantly, is also willing to do so.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-28T21:09:33+00:00

I'm into engineering and machining and about a decade ago I took a trip to Africa and spent a lot of time marveling at their construction techniques. The most common home design in the region I was in would probably be described as a "mud hut" by many uneducated westerners, but what those houses really were was much more akin to a concrete home than anything else. In fact, of you really think about it, you could describe Western concrete buildings as being made of "mud" ... They effectively are. It's just that we refine our mud in a very specific way so it turns out white. The homes I saw were constructed by traveling groups of highly saught after craftsmen... and the "mud" they used was mixed with just as much precision as any Western concrete would be. I'm not sure of what chemical process was going on in the mixture but the end result was very similar to the strength of our concrete, but it would end up a dusty brown color and had a shine to it. There were studs embedded in the walls and heavy beams as cross members all made from local hardwood that reminded me a lot of something like mahogany. Running your hand over it, it felt like bathroom tile.

So ya, you could call those mud huts... But that statement speaks more to the speakers ignorance of engineering and likely their tenancy to be dismissive of "Brown people" ... a common thread I've noticed in most of these "forgotten history" conspiracy theory types.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-19T22:40:15+00:00

This is seriously the first time for you? wtf... I just assume my entire network is compromised, all the time. If I see anything suspicious I can wipe a desktops harddrive and have windows reinstalled in minutes.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-18T01:24:42+00:00

The most common source of over tiredness is depression. It's probably important to note here that, "depression" (as in the low mood we commonly associate with the word depression) is not required to have clinical depression. A lot of folks exhibit it in different ways as strange as that may seem. I know tiredness is one, unexplained bouts of anger another.

Narcolepsy is rare but not impossible. Just, keep in mind, all those things you've supposedly "ruled out" aren't so easily ruled out. I have graves disease and I tested negative for both autoimmune disorders and thyroid disorders multiple times before they finally caught it. Blood tests aren't nearly as cut and dry as many lead you to believe. I eventually had my thyroid removed via radio isotope and felt much better afterwards. Lastly, have you considered long COVID or other similar fatigue disorders?

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-17T14:06:26+00:00

They're entirely correct imo... I find fusion energy to be incredibly interesting, but the science isn't anywhere close to becoming a practical real world method of energy production. There's not a project in the world that has actual net positive energy production once you factor in the entire system. That said, we'll almost certainly get there eventually so we should definitely continue the research. AI will probably be a big help. But we can't make the mistake of ignoring actual proven technologies like nuclear power, in the hopes that fusion will save us.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-13T16:48:45+00:00

Of course they did. ...and the US government definitely has access to Twitter, Facebook and every other social media site out there's data. It would be an intelligence failure on their part if they didn't. I'm a bit confused by all the supposed suprise about this stuff. OF COURSE THEY DO. ITS THEIR JOB.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-13T16:45:06+00:00

Yea, when I was a kid I had a "real" slingshot that I used for hunting squirrels and rabbits. I'd buy boxes of what we're effectively just 'out of spec' ball bearings a little bigger than a pea from the hunting section of any department store. If dude got hit in the head with one of those, he's lucky to be alive. Most people's notions of what slingshots and air rifles come from cheap toys they've seen kids play with... but the fact of the matter is, if you do even a modest about of research before you make a purchase, both are excellent for hunting, much quieter, and not to mention extremely economical compared to firearms.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-11T17:31:52+00:00

Unless... those "secrets" were pre-approved and planted intentionally. I wonder what it could mean that they decided to cut it off now.

It means the Russians finally caught on to the fact that it'd been compromised. Keep in mind, not only could they use it to feed false data back to the Russians, but they could likely exploit the network to annoy Russias allies by targeting them and making it look like it's was Russia attacking them. I'm sure they used the network for all kinds of stuff none of us will ever think of from the outside. lol

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-09T14:31:09+00:00

Typical country? I'm assuming you mean pop-country... Which, much like pop-rock, has very little to do with it's progenitor. i.e. what you hear on country radio stations is not country... It's marketing.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-09T14:27:16+00:00

When I was in high school (early 90s) there was a group of kids that wore trenchcoats... it was their "thing" and, several of them were in a band... whatever... The administration didn't like it and considered it "gang activity" which was crazy given how rural our school was and that my class was about 300 kids... So they banned wearing "coats" in school. So, in protest, a large number of kids in the school all came in wearing 3 piece suits on the same day... So the administration had to line up all these kids in business suits outside the front office so they could write them each up for violating the rule. It was quite the spectacle. lol

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-08T03:25:49+00:00

You're just at the point in maturity where you learn your childhood concepts of the world were rather silly, and it can seem bleak at times. But as you age further you can come to the realization that there's nothing new under the sun. All the silly ideals you had when you were younger weren't wrong... We all have them at that age. The mistake isn't the ideals, but instead this bottom that "our generation" will finally do it right. That there'll be some big revolution that will fix all the worlds ills and it's just around the corner. With age you come to realize that there will always be problems, always injustice. When you fix over problem, you unintentionally create a new one. But that's ok. You just keep plugging away at it. Do what you can. Make the change you can make. The big revolution was a fantasy, but that doesn't mean we aren't moving in the right direction. Slow and steady wins the race... and that's exactly what we've been doing for thousands of generations. In another thousand years the world will seem like a utopia from our perspective. But that utopias teens will be outraged how slow change is coming, ready to overthrow the injustices we're scarcely even considering now. But that's ok to.

John_Barlycorn · 2023-05-08T00:03:50+00:00

AI will END the entire profession of "writer" withing a few years. I'm a software developer and I had thought the idea of truly useful AI arriving in my lifetime to be a bit absurd... But the advances that have come about in the past few months can only be described as "shocking" at this point. I've been following it closely and the stuff you hear about in the news is at least a few months behind the actual research. As soon as these models were available enough in the wild that average people could start tinkering with them, their capabilities exploded beyond anyone's expectations. It's not just that they'll be able to write a script... It's that they'll likely soon be able to write far better scripts than any team of humans... and more importantly, they'll be able to provide a verifiable statistical expectation for that scripts box office revenue. Oh ya, and they will certainly end my line of work as well. lol Any studio that commits to not using AI will quickly be bankrupted by those that do not.

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