My last Ford was a Focus with the dual clutch transmission, it was a complete fucking lemon (to the point where they were successfully sued over it and have done multiple recalls to fix it). I can excuse an automaker for the occasional shit car if their overall lineup is good and they’re honest with customers, but they knew the transmission was majorly flawed and continued to manufacturer vehicles that used it anyway. I’ve had it refuse to shift while I was driving on the highway before, which left me redlining at maybe 45 MPH. Dangerous and it could have gotten someone killed. I will never buy another Ford.

https://www.freep.com/in-depth/money/cars/ford/2019/07/11/ford-focus-fiesta-transmission-defect/1671198001/

Probably not a popular view here but I’ve found my hobbies more fulfilling since I started doing stuff other than gaming. Native plant/food gardening, reading books, working out… all of this stuff can be affected by capitalism too of course but I’m less beholden to it. I still game a bit now and then but much less than I used to.

I honestly don’t get why so many people are so reckless and impatient on the roads.

Driving provides you anonymity and a getaway vehicle. It also anonymzes other people on the road, which I think kinda gives people like, main character syndrome?

AI-generated articles, books, coloring books for example, are all a thing now. Behind the Bastards did a podcast episode on the latter two.

Remote workers are overall more productive, report a better work-life balance, and suffer less from occupational burnout. It also saves companies money because they don’t have to spend as much on office space.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/intentional-insights/202303/the-surprising-truth-about-remote-work-productivity

My time is the most precious commodity I have. Unfortunately I’m in a career where I can’t work remotely, but if I was I would refuse to go back to the office. Life is too precious to waste it sitting in traffic if you don’t have to.

Stasis was in the first game, yes. You were required to use it several times to be able to pass through a few malfunctioning doors. You get it for free early in the game and don’t have to upgrade it at all to open the doors, preventing the game from soft locking itself.

From what I can tell, a lot of jobs are already like that. It’s almost like society isn’t designed to make people happy 😑

There also isn’t any guarantee that a quality game will actually sell well, especially if the dev takes a risk and creates something new instead of releasing the 14th installment in a well-established series. It sucks but this is what it looks like when you have gigantic businesses steering video game development.

I agree with you. Imagine a country starts rounding up and murdering some ethnic/religious minority. Doctors shouldn’t be like “ahh we must help the government kill them in the most humane way possible!” If anything that’s enabling it.

Partway through the article:

Smith was convicted in the 1988 murder of Elizabeth Sennett. Sennett’s husband, a pastor, allegedly paid Smith and another man $1,000 each to kill her.

A jury voted 11-1 to sentence Smith to life in prison, but the judge overseeing the case overrode that decision and sentenced him to death. That practice, called judicial override, has since been eliminated in all 50 US states.

Some of Sennett’s relatives attended the execution and told reporters they had forgiven Smith.

“Nothing that happened here today is going to bring Mom back,” sais Mike Sennett, Elizabeth Sennett’s son. “It’s a bittersweet day, we’re not going to be jumping around, hooping and hollering, hooraying and all that, that’s not us. We’re glad this day is over.”

I think it’s a very personal choice but NA beer just makes me miss normal beer. I’d rather drink seltzer most of the time and have real beer when I feel like drinking. Plus I’m pretty careful about watching my weight and I avoid empty calories where I can.

Did you know they’re based on Japanese history?

I have very little faith in businesses to do the right thing for the right reasons. Publicly traded companies in the US literally can’t do that legally if they think it will hurt their bottom line.

Go vegan. It’s better for the planet too.

the elderly are not always mobile enough for public transport

They should just do what Japanese elderly people do and use the (free) ambulances as taxis!

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-often-do-happiest-couples-have-sex-it-s-less-ncna828491

Once a week or so is the average. I’m at about the same amount of time in a relationship as you and we’re about once a week. Personally I feel like sex is nice but it takes time and effort and I’m not always in the mood to spend time pleasing someone else (and I’m not going to initiate unless I’m willing to do that). I could see myself having sex a little bit more often if I had a better work-life balance where I felt less pressed for time. This gets me thinking that I should check in with my partner about this topic though!

Mindfulness meditation helps me learn to let go sometimes and stop ruminating about unsolvable problems. I really think everyone in the world can benefit from meditating regularly and learning the nature of their own mind. I chose a career that has a large impact on other people. I try to make the world a better place, be a good friend, and treat others well. I don’t see a purpose in dwelling on how eventually my existence will be forgotten, because worrying about it doesn’t change anything. I had an existential crisis like what it sounds like you’re going through around when I turned 30 and it made me commit super hard to being the best person I can be. I am often regarded as a super driven, hard-working person by the people around me now and I grind out every day in order to not waste any of my time on this planet. It doesn’t stop time but it does make it more likely I’ll die content with my life choices.

Here’s my advice as someone that quit drinking about 6 years ago due to my inability to drink responsibly.

Do you want to quit? If you feel like you can’t handle playing a game in moderation, maybe it’s time to think about quitting it entirely. If you feel like playing other genres of games will eventually draw you back into playing more addictive games like WoW, then you could think about quitting that too, it’s up to you. If certain music makes you think about playing WoW and you can’t control yourself if you listen to it , make a sacrifice and don’t listen to it. I avoided bars for years and still don’t really love being around when people are drinking. The sacrifices I make are well worth it though and I’m much much happier as a result.

Have a long, honest conversation with yourself about what you want from life and how video games fit into it. That’s what I did with alcohol and realized I didn’t want to waste my life on stupid shit any more and decided to quit.

Yes, in the US they have gone so far as to lobby against EV adoption and run anti-EV commercials in favor of trying to get people to buy their hybrids. They innovated earlier with the Prius but then stagnated and are behind now and instead of trying to catch up, they spent time and money trying to block competition. Really made me dislike the company despite the stellar reputation of the quality of their vehicles.

It’s certainly possible they’ll have to reassess their strategy in the face of new applications rising so much, but I think up to this point they’ve just felt that community quality is more important than growth. I just recently joined this server and I didn’t find the application to be that onerous. I just spent perhaps 15 minutes or so thinking about why I would want to be a part of a community like this and crafting a response that showed that I do care.