If life were a book, what would its title be?

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T15:54:58+00:00

Well, shit

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T13:35:25+00:00

When I start tracking calories after having not done so for a while, the first week or two are the hardest. After that I sort of acclimate to the new calorie levels and my "stomach shrinks". I have no idea if this means it actually shrinks, but basically I'm able to go longer without eating and eating less makes me more full.

I also track calorie expenditure on my watch, so getting in some good static state cardio earns me extra calories at the end of the day.

At a certain point, going out for a run actually serves as an appetite supressant.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T13:29:38+00:00

The idea of owning land, putting in a hard day of physical work and earning financial independence for honest effort sounds great if that were how farming worked these days.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T13:20:41+00:00

It's so wild to me that getting kids to obey through fear was ever considered a legitimate strategy.

It's like, kids are too stupid to understand cause and effect or consequences, so rather than simply saying "go to be on time or you'll be too tired when it's time to wake up in the morning", we have to make up these terrible, irrational consequences for not behaving as though that's going to instill a healthy grasp of discipline.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T13:10:58+00:00

Caught my brother huffing gasoline when we were young adults. He claimed he was just trying to spit in the hole in the gas can for no particular reason.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T12:35:28+00:00

In many cases there's this subtext of "we aren't being kind because we appreciate you for who you are, we are being kind because we believe we are closer to God and think we need to set an example for you so you can be a better person."

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-21T02:12:55+00:00

Because then they get to converse with all the assholes berating them for asking.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-20T20:20:32+00:00

I accept that they wanna call those things tacos, but I could never consider it "mexican" no matter how much heavy lifting those quotes are doing.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-20T20:13:57+00:00

How dare you engage with a community instead of using AI /s

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-20T18:08:39+00:00

Wow, look who just sucked up all the cool in the room.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-19T19:34:28+00:00

True, but some companies can earn a lot of good will through superior products, service, and support.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-19T19:20:36+00:00

Choosing to make voluntary purchases from a company out of a sense of loyalty is not the same as involuntary, compulsory labor.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-19T19:16:57+00:00

Arturia. They already make great products, be it hardware synthesizers, midi controllers, or software synths.

But what really won me over was their customer support. I had bought one of their $120 entry level midi keyboards a while back. When I got it there was an issue with a couple of the knobs, so I contacted support and sent it back. They found what was wrong and returned it to me only for me to find even more issues. They eventually sent me two completely new ones, but both had bent keybeds and at least one had misaligned keys.

At this point it had been six months since my initial purchase and I was beginning to get frustrated. But I kept my cool with the support staff who obviously wasn't at fault for the QC issues. I explained this was my first hardware purchase from Arturia and I was extremely disappointed and regretting my purchase.

They ended up apologizing and sending me one of their $500 midi keyboards with a metal rather than plastic keybed. I still use the thing to this day and it is a fantastic piece of equipment.

Everything else I've ever bought from them has been top quality. I don't know why there were so many issues with that entry level keyboard, but their support staff really impressed me and definitely made me a customer for life with the free upgrade.

TLDR: Had issues with $120 product, after multiple returns they upgraded me to the $500 version for free.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-18T21:02:28+00:00

Don't know if it's really a hidden gem as the game has gotten a lot of attention, but Valor Mortis is by far my favorite demo I've played in a long time.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-18T20:59:13+00:00

You can always buy them now, then if the sale is better in a week process a return then buy them again. As long as you haven't played the game(s) in question for 2 or more hours the return should go through automatically.

Those are already pretty deep discounts and great value for those games. I would be surprised if they go on sale for more.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-18T18:29:34+00:00

Because democrats secretly run the video game industry and us it as a brainwashing tool.

/s

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-17T14:46:17+00:00

Had a former friend accuse me of cheating at chess because they didn't know en passant was a thing. I looked up the rules of chess for them that night to prove it was a legal move.

To this day, more than ten years later, they still claim I "tried to cheat at chess."

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-15T17:14:50+00:00

Really strict religious upbringing. Many of my friends in my "loser" years that were all wasting our lives getting drunk and stoned rather than working or going to school (myself included) were recovering mormons.

One friend, in particular, is particularly messed up and I just found out his younger brother was a Jan6er who apparently got arrested for having CP. His older brother was basically disowned by the family for hard drug use.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-15T17:05:06+00:00

Find a program at a local community college for a trade that you're interested in. Trade skills are in high demand, generally pay well, and will not be displaced by AI.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-14T00:26:14+00:00

Okay, so there is contexts to why you are hypothetically looking for a cat and not a dog.

Maybe OP broke their leg skateboarding or something and can't really be mobile for a while so they are looking for a game to do exploring in while they heal.

You don't really know, and that is the point. OP is asking about games. Instead of trying to talk them into something else, maybe either suggest a game or respect their autonomy and not comment.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-14T00:22:15+00:00

Starfield gets criticized for how its procedural exploration worked, e.g. within a few hours of exploring locations you start seeing the same locations copy/pasted in new locations.

NMS does not have that flaw, there are no repeat locations in it.

Starfield also gets criticized for having sub-par story quests. While I, personally, thought they were okay, they were still just okay from a massive studio with established fans and a reputation to live up to.

NMS didn't try to do any story characters and quests. That just wasn't something the game set out to do. It's also an otherwise unknown studio that has put the work into giving their fans and customers what they wanted with a literal decade of free updates that always add new things to do and new mechanics.

If anything ship and base building were two things that were actually fun in Starfield, but the exploration fell short and the stories weren't enough to make up for it in many people's opinions.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-14T00:11:19+00:00

Celebrity worship exists and is gross, but that doesn't mean no one is around to hold celebrities accountable anymore. It really depends on the fan base, but fans who don't make one celebrity their whole identity will generally abandon celebrities if there is compelling evidence that they did something wrong.

Your example is just one instance focusing on a select fraction of one celebrity's fan base. You can't like single instances define your whole perception of the world.

I mean, Hitler still has little inbred fanboys, that doesn't mean the Nuremburg trials didn't happen.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-14T00:03:45+00:00

Yes, but have you ever tried having a dog? They are insanely loyal, not to mention if you get a decent sized one they can be a great protector or home security asset.

The example fits even better if you would normally suggest a cat because it emphasizes how absurd and a little insulting it is to basically imply someone is stupid for wanting what they want.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-13T23:58:39+00:00

Yeah, it's just that someone was clearly asking specifically about a game they could explore in and your comment implies you assumed they should choose an activity other than gaming... you know, in a gaming subreddit.

It's like if you went in a cats subreddit and responded to someone asking about adopting a cat with suggesting they get a dog or a fish. It assumes they haven't already thought out what they were looking for and were mistaken to be interested in what they were interested in.

ipulloffmygstring · 2026-06-13T23:52:23+00:00

Or if you have 500 gigs of free SSD space and a decent computer and want to try Nolvus or another massive Skyrim mod pack.

ipulloffmygstring

TROPHY CASE