cobysev

More true than you know. Valve won’t allow you to transfer accounts to other people, so your account is legally dead when you are.

Nice! Glad to know I’m not the only person sinking ridiculous money into my gaming habits. 😅

According to SteamDB, $18,181 over 18.6 years. I’m sure that number will be much higher when the Steam sale is over, since it pulls data from current game prices.

I can’t vote because of my VPN… but I’ll wait for a sale before purchasing Grand Theft Auto VI. I don’t agree with spending $70+ for a game that I might enjoy for a handful of hours. No game is worth that price to me. I firmly believe in voting with my money, so I won’t support the industry that keeps inflating game prices.

Plus, I never buy games at release anyway. No game seems to be perfectly polished at release now (unless it’s been in early access for over 5 years) and I’d rather wait and let others find all the game-breaking bugs and get them patched first.

I remember a time when games were strictly offline. A new game released and whatever flaws it had were just part of the experience forever. Game studios were especially careful to ensure their games were as close to perfect as they could get.

Now with everything connected to the Internet, game studios just release a messy pile of code and drop day-one patches to make it semi-playable, with the expectation that gamers will find and complain about other problems that the studio can patch out later. There’s no more pride in making a quality game anymore, it’s just pushing garbage as fast as possible and fixing it in post.

I’ll wait maybe a year or so until Grand Theft Auto VI drops to $20-30 during a Steam sale and then buy it. I have plenty of other games to play in the meantime; I’m in no rush to experience it.

Alt + 0151 (on the num pad)

Or just press Ctrl + Alt + -

Don’t forget the blue silicone wedding ring. They pushed those at the BX/PX as a way to show your marital status without taking your valuable ring to a deployed site.

Ah, I haven’t even met any bosses yet. That’s probably why it’s so slow. I don’t even have engines yet.

I’ve been playing this game. It’s enjoyable, but it took way too long to get started. I was already several hours in before I was able to build my first base/ship and get moving to new islands. I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I spent a lot of time just wandering and exploring. I still feel that way, several hours into the gameplay.

And even then, it just feels very slow paced. Like it takes forever to do anything in the game. On that note, flying between islands is also very slow. I don’t know if it’ll pick up with later advancements to ship engines or something, but it’s kind of mind-numbingly slow where I’m currently at. It could use some fast-travel options so I’m not just leaving to make a sandwich while my ship flies to the next island over.

I tried to get my friends into it so we could all base-build together, but none of them had the patience to get a character started. So I’ve been playing it solo and hoping it’ll get better in the later game.

the devs are continuing to put significant work into the game, and it’s in a good state now

It’s actually been a while since I played it. I should probably pick it up again and see if the game has improved.

I have an app from the F-Droid store called URLCheck. I set it as my default “web browser” and then it intercepts every URL I click with a pop-up menu.

The menu lets me see the URL and breaks it down into various parts, which I can selectively remove if I desire. I primarily use it to remove all tracking tags from links people share. But at the bottom of the menu, there’s a drop-down list with all the detected web browsers on your device. You can select a specific web browser before opening the link.

Sure, you may have to manually select the browser every time, but you can guarantee that every Tumblr link opens in Waterfox instead of a default browser. And it gives you a chance to review your URLs before opening them.

Most people have no idea what kind of parameters are attached to links nowadays. I basically just remove the entire “parameters” section of the URL so it takes me straight to the webpage. No tracking, no data collection on where I clicked from, no custom attributes to load on the page. Just take me straight to the link with no extra BS.

Oh, I just noticed it’s on the Google Play store now. That’s good; with Google threatening to lock down Android to only install from their store later this year, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to update URLCheck anymore.

Around 2014 or so, I used to go to McDonald’s for two McDoubles and a small soda. The McDouble was on the dollar menu, and all drinks, regardless of size, were $1. I could eat a filling meal for $3.

Today, a McDouble is $2.79 in my area and drinks are $1.59, $1.79, or $1.89 depending on size. I’m looking at a minimum of $7.17 for the same meal I used to eat a decade ago, not counting tax.

I used to go out to nice restaurants and spend around $20-30 to feed myself and my wife. Now I spend around that much just feeding the two of us at McDonald’s. Going out to a nice restaurant with my wife is easily gonna cost me $50-$100 today, plus tip.

And I always tip a minimum of $20 regardless of the cost of the meal. Much more if it goes over $70. I don’t agree with tipping, but I’m not gonna screw over waitstaff when their income is heavily based on tips.

[…] have you tried McDonalds overseas?

I lived abroad for nearly a decade, thanks to military service, and I always loved trying McDonald’s in every country I visited, just so I could compare with the US as my baseline.

[…] what item do you wish was available at US McDonalds but only remains in that country?

My favorite foreign item, which I miss dearly, was the teriyaki burger in Japan. It’s the best McDonald’s burger I’ve ever had. Japanese food in general is my favorite of all the foreign foods I’ve eaten and I’m definitely planning a trip back to Japan once day just to gorge on their local foods again. But I will definitely be making time for a McDonald’s teriyaki burger the next time I’m in the country.

Is McDonalds in other countries better or worse?

That’s kind of a complicated question, because it depends on the country and whether you’re looking for “healthier” or “tastier.”

In Europe, food regulations prevent American fast food joints from loading their food with tons of sugar, so they end up being (relatively) healthier than their American counterparts. And depending on the country and where they source their ingredients, it might be tastier too. Although it’s hard to beat a fattening greasy American burger on flavor.

But I remember being in Germany around 2011 or so when they introduced a “1955 Burger,” which they claimed was the burger McDonald’s used to sell in Germany in 1955. It was exceptionally good! I came back many times while the promotion was going on.

When I was back in America, I caught another promotional for the “1955 Burger,” but it was gross! And nothing like the German variant. Apparently, Germany made the burger differently than we did in the US back in the day, and I much prefer the German version.

I’d be careful looking for jobs while at work, especially on a work computer. That’s a great way to get let go if they notice you doing it.

A friend of mine clicked a link to Twitch on his work laptop once. He immediately got pinged by his HR team, saying he was accessing unauthorized streaming sites and might be fired if they catch him live streaming. He has a strict clause in his contract that claims he’s not allowed to live stream at all while employed with the company, for fear of him spilling company secrets in a public forum.

As a former IT guy myself, I can confirm it’s super easy to monitor employees’ activity on their work computers. Don’t do anything but work on your work computer. Save all the job hunting or personal browsing for your personal phone/laptop/home computer. Don’t let your job build a profile on your browsing habits, because they will absolutely use it against you in a termination.

I’ll definitely look into that. Thanks for the recommendation!

I’m stuck in the opposite situation right now. I spent my whole life being skinny-fit. That’s thanks to undiagnosed ADHD, which kept me bursting at the seams with energy 24/7. I was always running everywhere, biking, canoeing, hiking, doing martial arts and gymnastics, climbing trees, buildings, etc. I had a natural 8-pack without ever going to the gym. I used to get lots of attention and compliments, and I would turn heads in public pretty frequently.

I never had a big head about my looks growing up. I never really noticed I was all that attractive, I just thought I was “normal.” It wasn’t until I started losing it that it really hit me.

I broke my leg in my late 20s. Motorcycle accident. It was pretty bad, and my job at the time (US military) rushed me to get back to work and back into the gym ASAP, which meant it didn’t heal well. I’ve basically had leg pain ever since, which has severely restricted my physical activity and almost got me kicked out of the military. Both my legs were compromised; I spent several years walking with a cane before knee surgery finally got me back on my feet unassisted. But I’m still dealing with non-stop aches and pains.

Adding to that… I fell down the stairs in my 30s and messed up my back, so now I basically hurt all the time every time I try to move anywhere. I’m 100% Permanent & Total disabled, according to the VA. I can still walk normally and I don’t look disabled if you meet me. But I’m basically in minor pain all the time, just from existing.

As a consequence, exercising has become an extreme challenge and I found myself gaining weight over the years of inactivity. I’m already 75 lbs heavier than my target weight and it’s really showing in my gut and face. Swimming is pretty much the only exercise I can do with minimal pain, but I hate swimming. So motivating me to go to the pool has been near impossible and I’m just packing on the pounds now.

I’ve noticed that people don’t give me much attention anymore. I haven’t turned heads in public in almost a decade now and people don’t go out of their way to help me anymore. Folks are more blunt and rude with me, which hurts because I’ve spent my life trying to foster positive and uplifting communication with everyone I meet.

Also, at 42 years old, I’m finally starting to show my age. On top of the weight gain, my hair is turning gray and receding, and I’m growing large quantities of unsightly hair everywhere else. People treat me like a tired old man now, not a young fit man. I’m having to come to terms with the fact that, even if I do get back in shape somehow, I’ll never truly be attractive again. Now that I’m aware of what I once had, it’s already gone. I dunno, maybe that’s just part of my midlife crisis, but it’s been one of my bigger struggles in recent years, having to adjust to a new me who doesn’t reflect the me I see myself as. I feel trapped in an ugly body with weights tied to every limb. Every little bit of movement is a painful struggle and it’s frustrating.