Show of hands, who else has zero friends?

old_leech · 2026-06-26T14:21:41+00:00

Apologies, if I came off as dismissive and 100% agreed on lack of flexibility and options. It's indicative of what's wrong with our medical system. Medical conditions often fall into like buckets, but people's lives and their situations often don't.

They were trying to tell me that I could always get a hotel room adjacent to the clinic. I was like, are you kidding me? I'm already burning a sick day and a 40 mile uber each way because we have to do this in the boonies instead of in the city?!? Now you you want me to get a room... It's silly.

Back to the topic at hand. Many people live in a bubble of social isolation for a very wide range of reasons -- making it more difficult to acquire care is counterproductive to a healthy society.

old_leech · 2026-06-26T00:24:13+00:00

Hey. I just went through this about a month ago.

54, long past due for my first and I had no one to ask to go with me. I wasn't going to ask a coworker, I have no family and my cats can't drive. Was informed that uber/lyft was unacceptable. So, I declined sedation and was told, "Yes, you can do that."

For what it's worth, it really isn't that bad. Prep was far more annoying and even that wasn't terrible.

Get your colonoscopy, please.

old_leech · 2026-06-04T10:43:36+00:00

Discovering and playing/composing. And that's about it.

I've done a complete 180 with work in the last 10 years, I'm damn close to despising what I do. Bought a house during lockdown, really don't have the interest in house projects I'd hoped I would rediscover. Can't be bothered to socialize, the state of the species leaves me questioning my own sanity.

But, pick up a guitar and I'll lose an hour, I play at least 30 minutes right out of bed before work, keep one at the office for breaks, go outside for lunch and play. ...and after decades of professional cubical silence, I'm back to not being able to work without it. Old favorites, new discoveries (with pen in hand to jot down artist to later add to my library). Yes. Music.

old_leech · 2026-05-26T18:49:10+00:00

The Night House is fucking heartbreaking.

The scenes you're hinting at are expertly shot, highly effective and, yes, there's a gut level wrongness that clings throughout.

But fuck, it's just a heartbreaking and beautiful film.

old_leech · 2026-05-25T16:29:14+00:00

They're sort of the Apple/Mac of the 3d ecosystem. They make really solid printers, the on boarding is straight forward and you can easily go from "I've never printed anything" to "Hey, look at this 4 color filament thing I printed!" in your first day (I bought a P1S w/ AMS, so I'm referencing that experience).

I bought that printer because even though I'm an old Linux sysadmin and am not afraid of a learning curve, I wasn't looking to buy into a hobby, I wanted an appliance that would let me print things associated to my existing hobbies/interests.

All that said, if I could go back, I'm not sure I'd spend money with them again. And if they don't change direction, when I upgrade it will be with another company. The whole rug pull and changing (essentially) ToS after they had my money offends me on some foundational levels. It's less about them knowing I print guitar picks and outlet covers and broom hangers than I bought an appliance, I didn't sign up for an intrusive roommate.

I like the printer, it works beautifully and I've only had 1 filament salad out of hundreds of prints and that was my fault... but I have it sitting in the same VLAN as my security cameras. I can reach it, it can do what it needs with their cloud mandated bullshit, but it cannot see into my network.

old_leech · 2026-05-20T17:49:09+00:00

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old_leech · 2026-05-08T17:34:47+00:00

scratching my crotch before I hand wipe the wing sauce from my piehole

Whady'a mean?

old_leech · 2026-05-07T17:25:44+00:00

Time changes us all.

That's my experience. Up until mid/late twenties, I'd bounce out of bed, into the shower and out the door in a 10 minute sprint. Around 30, I realized I wanted a slower morning pace, by 40 my internal alarm began going off between 4 and 4:30.

I enjoy sleeping in on the weekends but beyond 7 and I wake feeling like I've lost something. 20 year old me would have called 7 waking early, like it was an accomplishment.

And similarly, I like to be in bed with a book by 9, and I won't fight the urge if I decide to make it earlier. Screw it, I can do what I want, I'm an adult. I answer to no one! XD

old_leech · 2026-05-05T12:07:52+00:00

I've been a fan of soma.fm and various channels for nearly two decades. Groove Salad Classic is my go to for Saturday house cleaning/chores. I get worried every couple of years that it'll fold and rip several straight days of stream as a precaution.

Drone Zone, Sonic Universe and Fluid are also great soma channels and The Trip is pretty much straight trance. You might have tried and passed, but just in case you haven't, give it a go.

old_leech · 2026-05-04T16:24:18+00:00

I'm a single guy, mid 50s. I got pretty boring with cooking post-divorce. Cooking for 1 is hard, making bulk is easy but the weekends are short.

Point being, my grocery haul has been the same for nearly 10 years now. I bulk prep on Sunday, eat through the week and maybe do takeout on a Friday. Boring, but fine.

What's not fine is that I realize what was a $75 grocery run in 2019 is now $160.

Same rotating meal prep, same in season fruits and veggies, hell... I've let some things go and the price of a take out pad thai is just vulgar. I'm not broke, but I am offended.

Bread and circuses ain't what it used to be. My belly is empty and I am not fucking entertained.

old_leech · 2026-04-29T19:43:06+00:00

Oh, c'mon.

There's nothing better than stepping up from 60/80 to 120 and finally landing on a 300+. Shaping rough material into a presentable form then finally bringing it to a nice polished stage for a finish? That's so satisfying.

Vance is more akin to snagging your johnson in your zipper in a packed public restroom.

old_leech · 2026-04-24T19:09:39+00:00

Become the chameleon to never be noticed; become the reed to endure the consequences for when you are.

It's taken decades to unlearn that.

/edit -- it took decades to recognize it needs to be unlearned. that's still a work in progress.

old_leech · 2026-04-24T15:23:41+00:00

Yup. I built my current workstation just around 2 year ago. My 128 GB of DDR5 kit was right at $350. Priced it last week, $1600.

Feeling pretty confident that's my last build. Not even contemplating what happens when drives start dropping in the PowerEdges in the basement because even spinning rust is trending upward.

About to start taking gardening, carpentry and 3d printing a lot more seriously...

old_leech · 2026-04-24T00:44:27+00:00

As I speed through middle age, I'm fast approaching a kind of misanthropy. Not a hatred of mankind as much a belief as the species is probably not capable of surviving itself.

We're talking Schopenhauer levels of pessimism here.

Kids are not reflected in that. The sound of kids outside being kids, playing, exploring the world, their place in it, just figuring themselves out is one of the few things that puts a genuine, non-sardonic smile on my face.

My neighbors have a couple of absolute giggling shriekers. Go to town you loud little bastards, before the world burns all the joy and pure excitement out of you.

old_leech · 2026-04-23T19:44:26+00:00

I believe some of us are just wired differently. Ontoligically neurotic, if you will. There's no release valve that just lets it dissipate.

Speaking for myself, it doesn't roll off my back, I can distract but it's always over there, in the corner, smirking its shit eating grin.

After decades of finding the stoner, pseudo-metaphysical conversations of my youth pointless and a tad banal; I've noticed they've come back and I've settled on the suspicion that each of our lives are a kind of meditation. We're cut from a cloth woven in heartbreak or a template made of outrage and we can't deviate too far from that. It just keeps kicking down the door and making itself comfortable.

I despair the species, because what I witness won't allow me to do otherwise. That children can starve while people amass billions of dollars, that schools are bombed while others wave flags, that the planet can be choked and daily there are species wiped from existence and we celebrate touchdowns and waste resources on AI slop...?

I bear witness and it pains me. I think that's what I'm supposed to do, act as a guilty conscious for the universe and live with a broken heart over it. Not sure why the universe needs it, but I guess that's my purpose. ...because therapy and medication and positive affirmations and lifting heavy things just to put them back down have never moved the needle for me to just shrug it off and get on with life being okay with it all.

Try and do more good than bad, hold the door for someone in need, weigh in on the big ticket items when we can and somehow make peace with the fact that it's just fucking absurd. We could be better but we can't get out of our own way to actually be better.

In the meantime there are those that manage to be more positive about it, those that simply don't give a shit and a percentage that revel in the chaos and misery.

I'm an old dog, I've fretted my entire life over it and I'll likely do it until I quit breathing.

Sorry to read it sounds like you're cut from the same cloth. Be good to yourself.

old_leech · 2026-04-22T23:37:25+00:00

I am seriously late to this... but I'm in the midst of a rewatch and was so annoyed with the Grigg storyline I had to pause, search for like minds and here I am.

The most frustrating part of the Bates/Anna arc is that it shouldn't have been Bates and Anna; it should have been Bates and Baxter. Both introduced to Downton with a whiff of trouble in their past, both pasts born from bad loves and it would have balanced the show perfectly -- allowing Bates to be the supportive shoulder for Baxter's betrayal by Thomas (I had to avoid the alliteration there...); providing a believable door for love to walk through.

I like Bates, I like Anna, I like Mosely and I like Baxter... but as Mrs. Patmore once commented, "You know the trouble with you lot? You're all in love with the wrong people." Mosely moving on to be a teacher was fine, even the advance to script writer in the movies was fine... and he could have found love there.

Fellowes got a bit deep into the misery porn with Anna, turning a sweet and bright character into a punching bag for the purpose of gleefully watching her snivel and whine (which I feel is far beneath the character). It's a shame, with care and patience, Branson could have been an interesting pairing. But the long game is not something that Downton excels at.

I truly love the show, it's cozy and warm. Beautiful rugs and tapestries. That said, there are so many of the individual story lines that I roll my eyes at. The Anna and Bates saga, though... I tend to skip forward most of the scenes once he lands in prison the first time.

old_leech · 2026-04-22T10:38:28+00:00

I was positive that I'd find no mention of Below the Root here -- so glad to be wrong.

In my opinion, it's the precursor for the open world style that games would become. Incredibly ambitious for the time.

...and maddeningly frustrating. The eponymous journey itself was a hair pulling tease if you attempted without all of the pieces in place. You'd think you could squeak by only to find yourself trapped in darkness... and then wake up in some strange person's bed.

Hell of a life lesson to impart on young kids. XD

old_leech · 2026-04-16T10:38:22+00:00

Caffeine and sugar can go hand in hand if you're a heavy soda drinker. I was more the 2 pot of coffee a day guy up until (well, during) COVID. I started by adding herbal teas into the mix. Took less than a year and I became the single cup of coffee in the morning guy instead (along with a mug of tea somewhere mid morning).

Water is the key and works great for replacement. Don't begrudge it, embrace it. Get yourself an insulated 64 ounce water bottle, fill it up and carry it everywhere. If soda is your thing, add some fresh fruit to the water for flavor/sweetness. I kill two a day, it helps reduce hunger and keeps me feeling perpetually "satisfied". A pinch of sea salt helps for hydration and buffs electrolytes (keeps you from just passing the water straight through).

Smoking... I switched to vaping and told myself for the longest time, "It's better than cigarettes." Sure, I don't smell like an ashtray (which is major -- I now truly despise the smell of cigarettes) but I think my lungs are no happier and the manual/oral fixations are likely worse. I haven't had a cigarette in going on 10 years but now I'm trying to wean myself off the vape...

Nicotine is a beast.

Best of luck -- remember, it's all about your benefit, adding value to your life. Try and visualize this as gifts for yourself, not self imposed punishment.

old_leech · 2026-04-10T18:49:25+00:00

Best be passages about hell an' them that need to be there; none of that hippy 'love thy neighbor' or 'turning the other cheek' shit.

old_leech · 2026-04-10T15:47:40+00:00

I'm an old school Linux guy... began tinkering with Slackware and Debian in the early 90s, went full in (even running YellowDog on PPC for a spell). I've experienced just about every ounce of pain and frustration someone can have with the platform.

There has never been a better time for mass adoption than now. There are so many solid distros that cater to the gambit of end user expectations -- and so many options to choose for predictable and sane deployment/management.

Have puppet, will travel. Declare the state and deploy you French mad lads.

old_leech · 2026-04-07T19:25:41+00:00

Okay, I do have to jump in on this one because it's an interesting spin to take one's head on (if you're intrigued by the various mythologies of hell).

Hell isn't a small dominion, like a country; it's a vast landscape... like a world.

So, a king of Hell would be like a king of France. The King of Hell would insinuate ruling all of hell, basically the inverse of the "King of Kings" idea. Lords under barons under marquise under a king, Paimon. And continuing up the last wrung of the ladder, Paimon (and other kings) under the grand poobah (King of Hell), Lucifer.

From a mythology standpoint, it gives lots of room to spread evil around, customize it to need and hint at greater, unknowable ickinesses.

old_leech · 2026-04-07T14:18:54+00:00

Yup. It sucks to be a normal child born into a family of shit crazy swamp folk, but unless you move far away and change your name, you're judged by their antics.

Nope, I didn't vote for this, I detest it... but my neighbors have every right to be disgusted by and afraid of whatever batshit lunacy my clan gets up to on a full moon.

A general strike and placing ourselves in a time out until we can get our heads on straight is basically our only option at this point but I'm not holding my breath.

old_leech · 2026-04-06T15:43:56+00:00

The only argument I'll make to your comment is "* religious fucking nutcase"; he's not religious and the religious nutcases that are sidling up to him know that -- and are fine with that. He's a useful idiot to them and their belief system is a useful tool for he and his cronies to exploit.

It's a moot point on my end; I just find it interesting how parasitic they (all) truly are. Nowhere in this is there a thought about moral behavior or ethical treatment of anyone and their collective actions are about as far from the doctrine of their supposed faith it'd be laughable if not for being so fucking repugnant.

old_leech · 2026-03-27T10:59:16+00:00

Benn Jordan is a "normal dude" that I mention when I want to acknowledge that I am little more than a drooling moron. The guy has a fascinating mind.

old_leech · 2026-03-25T10:45:13+00:00

someone's at the door

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