Can’t speak for everyone, but I exercise and drink a lot of chamomile tea.

I little of column A, a bit from column B, I suppose.

Is this provided via T-Mobile or did he just rip off T-Mobile’s logo font?

Is this provided via T-Mobile or did he rip off T-Mobile’s logo font?

First playthrough, currently in the tunnels or whatever under the Vegnini (sp?) factory.

Yes. mid-40s, no kids, and I work from home.

Wife and I play RPGs on the weekends (currently enjoying Last Epoch and waiting for the next Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader DLC), and during the week I usually play single player games (right now in the middle of Lies of P and Fire Emblem: Awakening).

I hate that. I had my home built to spec a few years ago. The exterior siding is cedar shake stained a chocolatey brown with forest green trim, and the interior is white walls but with natural wood trim, pale golden laminate wood flooring, and two tone hickory wood cabinets, and the interior doors are all just natural wood unpainted.

I’ve leaned into the wood aesthetic with my DIY standing desk and custom pine desktop stained a dark red oak color, among various other earth tone color hints, and splashes of brighter decoration here and there.

Was going for “cozy cabin/cottage” and I think we nailed it. It’s very rustic.

I really hate the modern trends of white, black, steel, and glass.

Sounds great. I’m in my 40s with myopia, astigmatism, and more recently, presbyopia.

Progressive lenses don’t work for me, and needing two pairs of glasses is not ideal, even if it mostly works. Plus I can’t even just buy reading glasses off the shelf, even my short range office lenses need a prescription and are expensive as hell.

Autofocusing lenses sound like an awesome alternative.

As a former VMware employee this is just sad.

VMware was a great place to work, with a lot of people who cared about what they were building and supporting, and now it’s just a hollowed out vulture capitalist’s pump and dump. Anybody with any sense is migrating to alternatives, if they haven’t already.

This is a weirdly aggressive take without considering variables. Almost petulant seeming.

6” readers are relatively cheap no matter the brand, but cost goes up with size. $250 to $300 is what a 7.8” or 8” reader costs, but there’s not a single one I know of at 6” at that price.

There’s 10” and 13” models. Are you saying they should cost the same as a Kindle?

Not to mention, regarding Kindle, Amazon spent years building the brand but selling either at cost or possibly even taking a loss on the devices as they make money on the book sales. Companies who can’t do that tend to charge more.

Lastly, it’s not “feature creep” to improve the devices over time, many changes are quality of life. Larger displays for those that want them. Frontlit displays, and later the addition of warm lighting. Displays essentially doubled their resolution allowing for crisper fonts and custom fonts to render well. Higher contrast displays with darker blacks for text. More recently color displays as an option.

This is all progress, but it’s not free. Also, inflation is a thing and generally happens at a rate of 2% to 3% annually or thereabouts during “normal” times, and we’ve hardly been living in normal times over the last decade and a half.

I would rather pay more for a better device, and preferably not one from Amazon if I can help it. Its only a matter of time before they start cracking down even more on side loading

They already started that technically with removing USB downloads. I got sick of their shit and jailbroke my Kindles. They live in KOReader now.

Is the price of an eReader that big of a deal? They practically pay for themselves with use over time, and they last a ridiculous number of years.

My first Kindle was the K3 Keyboard for $140 in 2011. It finally died in late 2018 after nearly 8 years of use. I regrettably binned it, as I didn’t know you could replace the battery at the time. Shame, I really liked that thing.

I bought a Kindle PW4 for “cheap” ($80 or $90?) in 2019 to replace it, but I hated it after spending some months reading on a larger tablet, Replaced it with a “premium” Boox Nova 2 eReader for $310, and I still use that one today. I plan to just get a cheap battery replacement when it kicks the bucket, as it’s easily user serviceable and a new battery for it is less than $15.

I also got a Kindle Paperwhite Signature in 2023 for $135 as an “upgrade” to the Boox, but it was more a sidegrade. I use both of them alternatingly today.

So I’ve on average paid about $48 a year on eReaders. Seems reasonable considering how many books I’ve gotten for free or very deep discounts via stuff like Bookbub, as well as “free” Prime First reads and Kindle Unlimited books I read over the years as a Prime subscriber, Project Gutenberg and Standard eBooks, as well as digital library access.

I’ve paid more than $48 in one month for subscription services at times that I used less than my eReaders, which see use daily. And you don’t have to be like me and buy multiple, you can buy one reader and use it pretty much indefinitely so long as the battery is user replaceable, so the upfront cost is sort of irrelevant over a long enough time span.

An old generic pocket knife I bought in a mall shop back in 2001.

I don’t have a mental health issue and the thoughts of suicide come from a place of logic.

It may seem that way, but speaking as someone who has suffered a variety of health conditions, as well as anxiety and depression, what seems logical at the moment could very well not be. Your brain can actively work against your best interest in times of extreme stress.

You’re likely in a bad headspace right now, so I’d advise to keep working with your counselor/therapist and discuss this with them.

Also, maybe trite, but things will not always be this bad, but it will if things end for you now. Hang in there if you can. Not judging, I know what it’s like for life to suck so bad you’d rather it be over. I got through that period and I hope you do as well.

Years ago my indoor housecat would always try to rush out the back door whenever it was opened. One day she finally managed it and then wouldn’t come back in. Okay, shut the door. She proceeded to freak out and start yowling when we shut the door and left her out there for a few hours. Whatever, weather was nice and yard was enclosed.

Let her in after a few hours when it got dark, and she stopped trying to bolt outside. Nobody suffered, cat finally appreciated her cushy indoor life, and that was a win.

You got one of those dongles, like State Farm’s Drive Safe and Save program? Carry a cell phone? You’re still being tracked.

If you haven’t already, check out Upgrade, by Blake Crouch. Good book, similar premise.

I think there’s a difference between people who voted republican (conservatives) who legitimately believed a lie or just saw what they wanted to see(single issue voters) and MAGA who knew it was a lie and deeply corrupt.

I honestly don’t think we should differentiate. Republican leadership in the house and senate have done nothing to stand against Trump and MAGA, and have completely facilitated this mess. Differentiating between “MAGA” and “Republicans” just gives them an out later. MAGA is Republican, and Republicans are MAGA, at least at the policy level.

The Republican party needs a dramatic shift away from utterly insane and corrupt politics and behavior, and that’s only going to happen with a heavy amount of pressure from their base and elsewhere. They don’t deserve leniency in this.

I’m just glad Veruca Salt made the list.

Also, I dunno if I’d lump Sublime into the “happy/horny” category. They’re more on the “sad/horny” side of the chart.

I did worse than comment, I upvoted. I’ll leave my badge and fire flower on the desk on my way out.