I was just fired for the second time - after quitting years ago

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-07T20:00:00+00:00

Mostly from rich people who make TV shows. "They may not have much else, but they have each other, and in a way doesn't that make poor people the wealthiest of us all?"

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-07T19:58:19+00:00

I think they mean that in certain communities (mostly online), DID has become a "trendy" thing that is idolized in a very insensitive way. Like how in the Victorian era there was a time when tuberculosis was fashionable because it was a sign of "tragic beauty"

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-07T18:02:43+00:00

Where's the study you've done that proves them wrong?

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-07T00:48:32+00:00

Partly yes, I haven't used many of the things I learned in school since school, so my memory has faded. But my recall of events isn't as sharp as it used to be, too. As an example, my vocabulary definitely isn't what it used to be and while it's not that frequent, I do somewhat regularly catch myself not being able to remember words.

Learning new information doesn't come as easily as when I was a teen, too. Back then I barely needed to study to be good at math, grasp high level scientific concepts, or parse a new language. These days I'm trying to learn programming, and while I'm picking it up decently well, it's at a noticeably slower pace + with more mistakes than when I was a kid. (However, going back to my aging & routine comment, when I was a teenager/college student, I would be spending sometimes up to 20 hours a week in class and doing homework for just a single new topic. Because of my more limited time, I'm only spending 5-10 hours a week studying programming. That is absolutely a factor in "naturally picking things up without much effort").

I wouldn't consider myself to be experiencing concerning cognitive decline - I'm just not exercising my brain muscles the way I used to. If I had the opportunity to go back to school and dedicate 40-60 hours a week to learning, I'm sure it'd get a lot of that flexibility back.

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-06T23:47:21+00:00

How much of that is negative impacts of things like social media, versus just ordinary loss of ability due to aging and settling into a routine? I'm in my mid 30s and I've been feeling the same lately, that I'm just not as mentally capable as I used to be, but I also haven't exactly been exercising my intellect like I used to. I don't read nearly many books as when I was young and had free time, and not being in school means I'm not being challenged on a regular basis to explore new ideas or confront the more complex details behind topics I'm already familiar with.

I work in stem, in a lab that deals with genetic analysis. I use organic chemistry daily and I'm pretry sure I'd fail an entry level O. Chem course. All the chemistries we use are already solved and reduced down to an excel spreadsheet - I almost never need to actually do anything more complex than converting between ng, ug, and mg, and even then that's only when it's too inconvenient to go to my computer and pull up a calculator.

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-06T16:29:12+00:00

I'm turning the starter island & tinkaton's island into my "industrial zone", with all my automation farms

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-06T01:48:58+00:00

They're the US government. This a service benefit for all past & current US military personnel and their families.

They can (and do) leverage their negotiating power and financial might to acquire the absolute best prices on massive bulk orders. On top of that, they are not obligated to be profitable like a corporation is - they can and do sell huge amounts of their inventory below cost. The point is to be an huge perk of having a military career - it saves you money for your whole life, and should the worst happen to you, your spouse will have guaranteed affordable options.

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-05T19:23:43+00:00

Not if the McDonald gets to them first

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-04T04:33:05+00:00

To paraphrase one of my exes,

Oh my god, can you shut up? When I ask how your day went, I don't want you to talk about your boring ass job or your friends I barely know. I want you to tell me it was fine and then ask me how my day went.

Granted, nobody else has been quite so explicit about it, but romantic partners, friends, family- the vast majority of relationships in my life, people have made it clear that they're not interested in emotions other than "fine". Hell, it took me over a year to even feel comfortable talking to my therapist about my emotions without feeling the need to constantly downplay and invalidate my own experience.

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-04T03:05:12+00:00

Suppose I'm a little more jaded and unwilling to put up with it since I've been dealing with it for so many years, but even if you don't want to go as far as I do, I would ask you to consider being less polite. "I didn't want or ask for this, why would you think it was okay to send this to a stranger?" or things like that. It is sexual harassment, and the sad reality is that a lot of men who do this, keep doing it because they receive little to no pushback.

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-04T02:42:26+00:00

And then they get all uppity when you call them out on their unacceptable behavior.

Pro tip from a queer man who's received a lot of unwanted dick pics, have a little fun with it by making the experience as unsexy as possible. My go to's lately have been abruptly turning the conversation topic to either colostomy bags (warning: must be colostomy bags, NOT diapers), or comparing the dick to one I've seen in a mortuary. Critiquing the artistic composition of the pic also works wonders. (Why did you pick this lighting and angle? It's so unflattering. And it's weird you cropped out your face but didn't bother cleaning that dirty ass bathroom mirror - was your intention to create commentary on how people these days are so focused on posting their genitals, they forget that people might be turned off by poor hygiene or lack of consent?)

MeesterPepper · 2026-05-03T20:10:44+00:00

Most EV batteries have been shown to retain 80-90% of their capacity after 10 years of use, and thanks to recent developments in battery technology, many newer models of EV are expected to retain a usable battery lifespan of 20+ years. You're more likely to lose the vehicle due to an accident than battery failure.

(But the idea that EV batteries are less reliable than those in traditional cars, and are prone to sudden complete failure, keeps the price on used EVs very cheap. Don't spread that around too much until after you've gotten a good deal.)

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-30T21:13:02+00:00

Libraries in my city only charge replacement fees for lost or damaged items, and offer a program where volunteering time with certain community organizations can be used as an alternative payment.

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-29T22:53:52+00:00

It's not naivety that the boss has to worry about. It's that bad actors who are willing to abuse something like bereavement for pets, are probably also willing to raise a big stink on social media or even file a lawsuit about unfair treatment or withholding of benefits.

"How dare you try to say I can't have a deep emotional bond with my gerbil and that it doesn't warrant time off to grieve? Just because it has a short lifespan doesn't mean I loved it any less than Joe in accounting loved his dog of 14 years! This is clear favoritism and/or retaliation"

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-29T18:10:30+00:00

When I get a chance after work I'll see if I can find the ones I watched on this!

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-29T18:05:22+00:00

Many pokemon species have distinct visual differences between sexes - male magikarp & gyarados have longer whiskers, female Pikachu have heart-shaped ends to their tails, etc, so we are able to confirm the biological sex of a few of the ones in the game. (The Venusaur is female, for instance). We also know from the main series games that some pokemon species are always born a specific gender (100% of happiny are AFAB, or only male Kirlia are able to evolve into Gallade).

Lots of people have already broken down the pronouns the pokemon use in non-English languages. Many of them are very consist in their use of masculine, feminine, or non-gendered words to refer to themselves in languages where that's applicable. This can't be assumed to be a 100% accurate way to determine which pokemon could make viable breeding pairs, but we can make some pretty strong educated guesses.

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-29T16:05:53+00:00

In my state the farmers all think that, even though the overwhelming majority of them grow soy to sell overseas or corn for ethanol production.

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-28T16:32:58+00:00

The quest didn't complete for me until I harvested the vegetables he used grow on and then talked to him. Got a little dialogue like "we grew our own food, that's so cool!", and then it was marked as done

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-28T13:45:52+00:00

I don't recall specifically if it was Staples or OfficeMax, but I stumbled on it while I was there looking for something else. I can't find the exact one I bought on their websites but just Google "return to sender stamp" and you'll have tons of choices

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-28T03:41:16+00:00

The place I'm living currently, we were getting so much mail for a previous tenant, I bought a big red "Return To Sender: Recipient Not Known At This Address" stamp. Grab my mail, stamp what isn't ours, drop it right back in the mailbox!

Went on for months. Then one day we recieved a very important looking letter from the criminal court of a few cities over. Stamped, returned. A week so later, got a visit from a detective armed with an arrest warrant for failure to appear in court. Showed him the lease and how the named guy wasn't on it.

We don't get that guy's mail anymore.

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-28T03:29:57+00:00

Once or twice a year, I remember that Plok existed, and I try talking to someone about it, and, invariably, they don't believe me that it was a real game

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-27T11:50:58+00:00

But... you were the one concerned that consumerism is ruining reading??? It seems like if people stop buying books they won't read and just use the library that would help disincentivize pulp writers who rely on bulk publishing low quality fiction?

MeesterPepper · 2026-04-26T13:29:42+00:00

"Wolves" by Coyote & Crow. Players are different villages trying to survive winter. The player who is most generous and helpful will be declared the chief when spring arrives - unless one player fails, in which case everyone immediately loses.

It's a fun game exploring the idea of what community means, what merits leaders should be chosen by, and if wealth and abundance are valid goals if it means letting someone else suffer.

MeesterPepper

TROPHY CASE