For now.

And don’t forget, humans are also trained on the inputs of others.

Just not sure where they would even go with this or how it would be very fun.

I think Bully happened at a time in gaming when it was pretty groundbreaking and unique. I don’t think they could recapture that.

Upon replaying Bully as an adult, it felt like it was a good story built atop a lot of mediocre mini-games.

Sorry - I really loved the game when I was young so this was hard to admit to myself.

I think it’s relative.

But yes it’s valuable. Even at only 30 years old, I often learn from the 8th graders I teach.

Adults overcomplicate things and rationalize bad decisions. All it takes sometimes is one kid with a “naive” outlook to ask, “Why would you be friends with someone you don’t like?”

Then you think, yeah… Why would I?

Execs (apparently): What if we chose to explore his flaws by showing that he had an extramarital affair?"

Puritans: This biopic should really only show his other flaws. And political intrigue. Sex wouldn’t make sense in an R rated film.

Holy shit.

^sometimes, ^we ^need ^dark ^humor ^to ^make ^it ^through.

I’ll assume you meant that in good faith.

If being trans is caused by microplastics, alright. They’re still not hurting anyone. If there is an environmental culprit, then hopefully conservatives would finally acknowledge that there is a biological process at work and it’s not a choice made by deviants or whatever.

It’s a classroom management thing.

I didn’t understand this until I was a teacher but unfortunately, “if I let you do it, I have to let everyone do it” ends up being pretty true. Kids will absolutely point to other kids and say, “but you let Joey put his head down and listen.”

My response can’t be “but Joey is passing my class.” As much as I would like it to be.

It’s also a respect thing and I don’t mean that like you might think. I don’t demand unearned respect from everyone like an asshole. But one thing that happens is, if you let kids skirt classroom expectations and let them avoid doing things you ask them to do, they learn that your rules/expectations are actually just suggestions. Everything becomes negotiable.

Sorry dude, I would have made you take your notes too.

As a recovering heroin addict, I wholeheartedly believe his story. His later stories contained some region-specific drug slang and his post-recovery updates were the perfect amount of mundane and specific for me to recognize exactly the same feelings in myself.

Side note: if you’re watching a movie or TV show, one thing that non-junkie writers never get right is withdrawal. They often show characters skipping withdrawal entirely, or show them mildly sick but still moving through the story without any real issues. Worst case, they’ll show a character being sick and then totally fine after a short time. Huge pet peeve of mine. Really undersells the catch-22 you find yourself in when using heroin.

What withdrawal is actually like is pure, unadulterated misery and suffering for two weeks at minimum, followed by months or even a year of exhaustion, depression, suicidal thoughts, restlessness, and feeling like everything is weird and new. It feels like you’re a reptile that just shed its skin and everything is raw including your emotions and thoughts. Those first two weeks are just nonstop puking, shaking, sweating, an uncontrollable urge to kick and jerk your body, total insomnia, scary and suicidal thoughts, full body aches and pains, and enough self-loathing to last a thousand years.

I made it three months cold turkey once before relapsing. Fucking never again. I honestly don’t know how people quit dope before modern medications like Buprenorphine and Methadone.

Feeling like you want to break the cycle of addiction but knowing you can’t get through the withdrawal is an incredibly scary and traumatic experience.

I don’t know if this is what you’re looking for, but I was so fortunate to find an amazing job where my coworkers treat me like a good person who has value.

I teach middle school, and I am just surrounded by hardworking teachers who treat each other well. We all compliment everyone behind their backs and to their faces. They tell me I’m good at my job and that I’m a nice person. I used to reply jokingly, “sometimes!” because I honestly could not accept that compliment.

This was incredibly hard for me to handle when I started teaching here. Never felt super loved at home as a kid, only person who told me I was unequivocally “good” was my grandmother, so deep down I always doubted it. I had serious imposter syndrome when people would say nice things to and about me. Still do from time to time, but overall I feel so much happier and more confident than ever before. This job is the best thing to ever happen to me. I’ll work there until I retire - found my forever job. But you could do this without the job.

Surround yourself with people who know you’re good. Be as good as you can be. And know that multiple narratives can be true - I know I have stepped on toes and put my foot in my mouth with coworkers who love me. I have kicked myself for it. But I truly believe that it’s only a very small, very human part of the positive narrative we have all decided to focus on at my job. The positivity has bled into my home life too. I catch myself being better.

I guess what I’m saying is that some of this is “fake it til you make it, then realize you weren’t faking it at all.”

This looks like every single off-the-books biker bar my meth head dad (back then just a drunk and a coke head) used to bring me to when I was a kid.

It’s like the trailer park version of a liminal space because it just has such a recognizable-yet-generic look to it.

What do you even have left to do in Minecraft at this point? Not asking to be rude, but as an ADHD guy I actually can’t imagine playing a game that much!

I probably spent the most time in Red Dead Redemption 2 or ARK, but that’s because I went for 100% completion and there were always things to do for me. Once I completed the games (about 400 hours each), I was over it.

The west isn’t the good guy but you’re nuts if you think China isn’t sucking Africa dry.

I just watched a documentary recently (I will genuinely try to find it again and link here if I can) where Native African workers were being put out of business by China in their own country. China is mining for rare Earth metals using Chinese workers and trapping a lot of these countries in debts they won’t be able to pay back. Once I saw it coming from the mouths of Native Africans, I knew it wasn’t propaganda from either side. Straight to the source - people who live there and see it every day. They start out very grateful for China’s assistance and then later on realize the trap they are in.

Here is some other info: https://apnews.com/article/china-debt-banking-loans-financial-developing-countries-collapse-8df6f9fac3e1e758d0e6d8d5dfbd3ed6

The people of Ukraine didn’t want to be Russian, they wanted to be more like the West. Their leader at the time wanted Ukraine to get in bed with Russia and the rest of the East. They ousted him. Putin seized on their moment of weakness and instability by invading.

Could the US have played a role? Yeah but every country with the ability to project any power almost certainly did as well. That’s just geopolitics at work for better or worse.

Every single country on Earth exerts influence on the others to benefit themselves. Look at Ukraine cozying up with the West right now to get weapons and notice how the US, UK, and other Western nations are happily obliging. Ukraine wants to be Western and the West would love another long-term ally, especially one next to Russia. Anyone really think Eastern nations don’t do the same thing? China is exerting a ton of influence in Africa right now, and it’s not out of the goodness of their hearts - it’s quite predatory actually so they’re no different than the US in that regard.

Mixed bag in my opinion.

The good: No traffic, get to know yourself better since you have a lot of time for reflection, discover way more media (podcasts, books, games, movies) because you’re always doing the night owl thing, always have an excuse to get out of social events during the day time, easy to go to doctor appointments during the day before work, feels like you have a ton of free time, usually meet interesting people on the night shift (see bad part of this below), get to dress down, don’t have to see a high level boss usually, things feel more profound late at night - you’ll have a much deeper appreciation for all that media I described (try some music or an audiobook at night - better yet, try writing. I always feel things deeper at night), get to see the moon all the time which I absolutely love more than anything, etc.

The bad: sleep schedule will be like being a teenager again, there will be days where the sun is shining and you can hear lawnmowers which will make you sleep like garbage, you’ll probably eat like shit, seeing friends and family is hard, friends and family will not understand that you need to sleep during the day - trust me, you’ll meet the outcasts of society on night shift along with all those interesting people I mentioned and some of them will be weird or off-putting, you’ll feel super lonely at times but it’ll be kind of nice somehow (???), you’ll have too much time alone with your thoughts, you’ll be doing shit during the day but have work hanging over your head for hours whereas normal people work and have free time after work to look forward to, driving home tired in the early morning is like having a hangover somehow, etc.

Personally, I’m glad I’m not doing it these days. After COVID, stores aren’t open 24/7 anymore. Night shopping on days off was the best and not being able to get stuff at night now sucks.