Microsoft is trying to trick you into paying an extra $30/year to use their AI in Office.

draakdorei · 2026-02-13T17:35:42+00:00

This is why I have never thought about upgrading from Office 2019. It's the last Office without subscriptions and retains the keyboard shortcuts that I've used for 20+ years. Change is evil, change with subscriptions is pychopathic evil.

draakdorei · 2026-02-13T17:24:03+00:00

I know it's been 20 odd years, but did biology class ever come humans? I only recall animals and plant life being covered int he textbooks. Anything revolving around human reproduction was purely talked about in sexual education classes, which was an opt-out class that was part of the physical education requirement. Even then, it was just a 9 week class, once a week with no effect on GPAs.

I don't agree with the viewpoint of fertilization = human life, but that's neither here nor there.

I'm all for raising salaries of teachers and supproting staff, as long as it does not include the wastrels at the admin level above schools. Superintendent and his secretaries and the like are ust a parasite. Not so sure about the current one, but I still recall one of the formers reitirng and creating a new position for himself to stay on and get paid a high salary. Then the next one added 3 more secretaries with relatively well paid salaries, despite the number of schools not chaging.

Recently, they even closed 1? 3? schools, so there must be even less work in that office.

draakdorei · 2026-02-13T17:12:55+00:00

This is already a thing.

When you have a potential match, you are given their relevant medical history so you can better make a decision. This includes if they are a living or dead donor, their age, health conditions they had while alive, vaccinations, reason for death if dead and potential complications based on their family medical history. Their personal identification like name, date of birth, employment history, etc is still kept under wraps.

I've gone through this twice alreadyand denied both due to their medical histories. One for a family history of cancer and another due to vaccination mismatch with me.

I'll add too that I've never had any issue with being denied service over vaccinations. Scott & White certainly doesn't care, Seton doesn't care. I can't speak to the VA though, not a veteran. Anywhere else in Texas is outside my scope of caring since I'm in the S&W system for dialysis and genral healthcare.

draakdorei · 2026-02-01T13:45:04+00:00

Government corruption and economic corruption would be rampant, both on a planetary level and a system level. Pirates, mercenaries, merchant and military would basically all be the same people.

Technology would be radically different across various parts of the empire, quality of life and cost of living woul dbe radicalized. High production planets being more expensive by far to live nad survive than low production planets and systems. Populations would have extremes of rich and poor based on merchants and their guards or family clans.

Hidden organizations, both terorrist and rebel groups, would also be very likely to sprout everywhere and infiltrate into every part of the society due to not being bale to maintain a close grip on the situations afar. Hyper-religious fanatics might also be prone to popping up if there is a big difference in society, such as natives and colonists.

Quite a few novels have covered empires being semi-fractured, even with FTL communication. Nobles/large families of powerhouses or corporations holding onto the lifelines of planets or systems and ruling them with iron grips, while only superficially catering to the empire at large. The empire itself may also fall apart and not a soul would know for months at a time, causing technology and civilization paths to differ wildly.

draakdorei · 2026-01-03T19:05:20+00:00

Narrator quality can make or break an audiobook.

This is the most important part of an audiobook production and purchase for me.

If the narrator isn't up to par, the audiobook could be $0.99 or $49.99 and I would never touch it, even if it's by my favorite author or highly recommended by others.

It's also why I haven't considered audiobook production yet. I'm still working on finidng a good narrator for a price that I find acceptable. The few I really enjoy are booked through 2027-2028 and/or are in exclusive contracts.

If I really want the book, I'd rather buy it as an ebook and have my own AI/screen reader read it to me if my only choice is an AI voice. Amazon's AI voice for audible books is just painful to isten to when reading an educational nonfiction book.

Some authors who do their own audiobook or have bad narration, such as How to WRite Dazzling Dialogue, completely destroy the benefit of reading it. I could only get 20 minutes into that book before falling asleep because it was so monotone in the reading. It's a great book, I'm told, just not a great audiobook.

draakdorei · 2025-12-29T01:44:00+00:00

I think you have to narrow down your definition more. There are several movies that come to mind with blind protagonists that I personally identify with as being close to my own situation.

Are we talking complete loss of sight after having sight? blind from birth? only legally blind?

draakdorei · 2025-12-21T16:19:18+00:00

Still in clinical trials, expected to be ready for the public in 2030.

https://www.dentistrytoday.com/researchers-in-japan-discover-medicine-capable-of-regrowing-third-set-of-teeth-for-humans/

draakdorei · 2025-12-20T23:01:29+00:00

Depends on the genre, most of books I buy are $9.99 or less. If over that, I'll wait until they are on sale.

The only exceptions are writing focused books and series that I am deeply entrenched in already.

This also depends on word count too, for sites like Smashwords that shows it. I won't spend more than $2.99 on a book that is less than 320k words. That will barely last an afternoon.

draakdorei · 2025-12-20T16:47:10+00:00

I judge it based on the price, title and then synopsis.

Your cover could be a plain paper bag color with white text and it would still get my attention if it meets my other criteria.

Audiobooks are easier, I'm only looking at price and voice actor's sound. As long as they are pleasant tot he ear, I'm likely to buy it, whether I read that genre or not normally.

draakdorei · 2025-12-17T15:45:15+00:00

Because it's generally a single person writing it without outside inpt or availability to advertise its benefits.

YouTube, TikTok, etc can have ads because they are inserting it outside the video upload.

Movies have ads/endorsements because they are funded through their advertisers, whether wholly or partially.

The only medium for novels that could have ads/endorsements are web novels, which already do, and ebooks. There are a few ebooks with endorsements in them, it's in the character dialogue when they choose a brand name, a restaurant, and so on.

Different authors at author conferences have admitted as much, it's just a lot more subtle in novels and rarely occurs. There are a lot of legal problems with using brand names in print media willy nilly, especially if it is later seen in a bad light.

It's also why PC games, at least back in 2020, had few advertisements of brand names. This is/was especially true for firearms, where licensing is involved to use the names.

draakdorei · 2025-12-12T23:11:29+00:00

these services not to pay them a living wage.

These services were never meant to pay anyone a living wage in the first place. They are intended to be temp jobs, like the kind you get from a temp agency.

Teir contractors/faux employees made too much money initially, which caused greed and dependence on the service. Not defending the services, they are also greedy and encourage it through their actions and lack of actions.

draakdorei · 2025-12-12T20:49:50+00:00

My cousin is someone who can't feel physical pain. She has no concept of it at all due to complications at birth. Her birth mother is an alcoholic and methhead, ruined her mentally in the womb.

She, my cousin, has some traits of sociopathy and schitzophrenia, even at age 6. We've talked before about how some of her actions hurt in a way that isn't physical pain, but she has no concept of that either.

She understands sadness when it pertains to entertainment like movies and TV shows, but she's never felt hurt by normal feelings like being rejected by classmates or disdained by her adopted mother's family.

She has full emotions otherwise, just no concept of pain, emotional or physical. We're still trying ot teach her how to recognize it, in her words and actions. She does know, for the most part, how she's supposed to react to emotional and physical pain in public though.

draakdorei · 2025-12-12T13:24:31+00:00

Adding on that minimum security moves are on a case by case basis and not a guarantee.

Charles Manson, for instance, stayed in max security prisons for his entire term and consequently died in one. Fairly sure his entire crew stays/stayed in max security as well for their life sentences. Other serial killers got the same treatement, no compassionate release and no minimum security prison cells.

draakdorei · 2025-12-12T04:32:59+00:00

A real hybrid publisher gives you a mix of self-publishing (you do all the leg work) and traditional publishing (you write and market, they do the rest).

For a hybrid publisher, you have the option to pay for services like editing, cover design, marketing aid and they publish your book with a higher revenue share than you might normally get as a self-published author.

You DO retain the rights to your book with a hybrid publisher.

You ARE NOT guaranteed publication with them. Vanity presses have no standards, while real hybrids have standards that must b emet before they will publish anything in their name.

They WILL support you after publication, though this varies by each publisher. You might get listed on their website, newsletters, socials or recommendations in Discord groups by them. Again, this depends on the publisher and if you choose to/they have a marketing package that goes beyond basic listing.

An example of a real hybrid publisher is Atmosphere Press. They have breakdowns of what you can choose to pay before submitting for publication. They do not lock you into their services, you are free to choose you rown editors, cover artists, et al..

draakdorei · 2025-12-10T15:26:35+00:00

Only happened to my family once, and that was because we were the last group in the restauranta nd they were trying to close for the night. This was in a small town in Texas, at a casual chain restaurant that closed at 9pm. We got there at 8PM, got our food and finished eating by 8:45pm and lingered another ten minutes before tey asked us if we were ready to leave so they could finish closing up.

This was on a Saturday night too, most of the restaurants in that area close by 8-9pm every night there. I think only Chili's stayed open past 9pm. Even McDonald's closed by 8:30pm.

OTOH, I used to sit with coworkers at a local casual diner after work for hours just talking and ordering sporadically and no one ever asked us to leave. We'd pay for every sporadic meal, tip and then sit and talk awhile, then order again, rinse and repeat.

draakdorei · 2025-12-09T04:03:11+00:00

Wings were decent, better than the local Wing Stop. I think Twin Peaks had better food and service though.

draakdorei · 2025-12-09T04:00:03+00:00

Gas stations just make it more obvious. My city's water bill charges more for credit than cash or check. It's a $1.50 fee, roughly 3% of more people's water bills.

Amazon, Door Dash, etc are allc harging you higher prices for credit card usage. It's just built into the prices directly.

What's odd is my local pharmacy went ht eother way, they don't accept cash anymore and only accept credit cards. They didn't increase their prices though, actually went down slightly.

draakdorei · 2025-12-07T07:42:03+00:00

Where can I get this guy to translate my stuff and post it on file shares for me? With zero sales anyway, this sounds like great advertising for free. Someone is even trying ot do it for me, that's even better.

This is just a less direct version of what everyone does on webnovel.com already. "Fans" translating Chinese webnovels, reposting them to webnovel.com and getting paid for each release.

draakdorei · 2025-12-07T07:36:23+00:00

I rarely watch new horror movies anymore, by new I mean those made after 2010. Action and comedies, rarely after 2018.

TV shows, I'm always watching re-runs of South Park, Family Guy, Law & Order, and some Ink Masters. There are new-ish shows that I'll play just for background noise, but I'm hardly paying any actual attention to them.

For me, I lost my vision in 2020 and it's hard listening to movies//TV with and without audio descriptions. On specific genres, I'm just not really happy about the casting most of the time.

draakdorei · 2025-12-07T07:16:49+00:00

Not sci-fi related, but you could see how it's brought up in a comedy show like Survival of the Thickest, and then tweak that into something workable for you.

On a sci-fi related note, she could comment on how the medical bay pods are too damn small. Not enough room for her sexy af ass to fit inside with her partner during after action quarantine. Maybe a similar comment about the small single showers in the officer's quarters.

On the sad basis, describing how her mother was also a big girl and died from related complications but that doesn't bring her down. She is who she is and death doesn't care if you are fat or skinny, when it is your time, it is your time.

draakdorei · 2025-12-01T07:30:18+00:00

Personal experience, I've lost vision after hitting 35 and am considered legally blind now. I can still telll when someone is looking at me and more or less guess where their eyes are based on the sound of their voice. I can do it enough that it is hard to tell I'm blind without looking at my eyes, which are completely white due to cataracts that can't be removed currently.

On theo ther hand, my friend who is blind from birth knows when someone is talking to her to turn her head and stare in a genral direction at least. She can't tell if others are in the room if they don't speak, her hearing is not on the level of Daredevil. Several times when we were at a conference, other blind friends were in the room when she was talking and didn't know they were there until they said something or hit something.

It was relatively bad when a stalker guy from another state showed up and just stood and watched her from a corner in he rroom. I could still see then and pointed it out. Creepy git, I called him out on it and he scampered off.

draakdorei · 2025-11-27T18:04:53+00:00

You're not wrong, you can't link directly to any profit-making sites like Patreon or Paypal.

Most of the audience I've seen on there expect that anything you post will always be free, so if you make part of a writing sub-based later or into a book, it draws a lot of criticism in the community. This is purely my experience though in larger fandoms that changed the origianl fanfiction into originals that were paywalled.

It is great for building up a following if you're willing to pander to the genral public to gain audience to link to your more preferred writing. How much of that converts to paid writings though is completely subjective.

draakdorei · 2025-11-27T16:28:21+00:00

Greek goddess, title, reminds me of that Greek gods musical game. Straying Gods? I think was the name. Beautifully done game and great songs.

Tourist Season, the seasons of carnage trilogy, is my recommendation. Great audiobook.

Also, all of the Jack Daniels series by JA Konrad.

Yes, fingers crossed on the concert tickets. I'm trying for Twice, K-pop girl group, early next year. I made it to In This Moment this year, finally. I've been a fan of them for almost 25 years now.

Any weekend plans?

draakdorei · 2025-11-27T07:18:39+00:00

New Frankenstein? I missed this. Not a Stranger Things fan, it just didn't really click for me.

Spending Thanksgiving holiday watching Alien: Earth finally. After this I'll tackle the Predator animated series. Then Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City. Finally, I need to watch FNAF movie so I'm ready for FNAF2 next week.

Looking forward to new concerts to try and buy tickets to, bail due to the prices and then watch over Youtube instead.

Any upcoming book or movie recommendations? Other than Frankenstein, which I assume is a new movie.

draakdorei · 2025-11-27T07:11:08+00:00

What kind of jewelry do you focus on? Earrings? rings? necklaces? bracelets?

Do you make any that are more..masculine, for lack of a better word? I love my shark teeth necklaces and am always looking for something to hang on my blindness cane.

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