For what it’s worth, they’ve had a “Neuro Fuzzy” rice cooker (https://www.zojirushi.com/app/product/nszcc) for years—ours is at least 10 years old at this point. And, I would bet this is a trivial extension of that—using some decision tables supplemented with heat feedback—with only the addition of a user feedback mechanism, rather than any, true “AI”.

We are in his debt. He showed great courage.

My first temptation was to say that it might be an age thing, but then I know many people my age who still don’t care about plants.

For me, it’s like a switch flipped one day. When I was younger, I just didn’t really care, and the few times I was given a plant, it did not end well. Figured that I just had a brown thumb.

But, maybe 10-some-odd years ago, I got a peace lily, and, by then, something had changed. I wanted to see this plant thrive, and it brought me just a little bit of satisfaction to see it doing well. It doesn’t hurt that peace lilies will tell you when they need watered, and, as such are pretty easy to keep.

I’m still not the best plant dad, but I’d since gone on to buy about a dozen more and appreciate the bit of greenery around the house.

I’ll have to buy the White Album again…

Hard agree. I played through the opening twice in my first sitting. Died both times. Put it down for a year and a half.

Finally decided to try again and picked it back up. Passed the opening sequence and got into the game proper. And, I can say that I had a pretty good time—excepting a key, bullshit timed mission that I barely passed.

They really did not need to gatekeep the game behind the poor design of the opening.

I’m happy to see someone else mention Murakami.

I went on tear in university—a long time ago now—reading everything that had been translated to English by then. And, while they had the most bizarro plots, I found them to be the most compelling reads, wanting to read more and more, until I ran out of things to read.

He definitely deserves a place on this list.

I’m curious: Which station was this?

Bold of you to assume that I have family that I want to keep in touch with. Entire family tree is twisted and gnarled, and full of white-trash sociopaths and narcissists.

For the one remaining person I might keep in touch with, it’s a text message at holidays.

He’s on a rest day. Asked us if we could come round instead…

Is that like Thunderdome?

…and fabric maps, and tchotchkes, and code wheels.

Nier: Automata.

Tried to get into it earlier this year after I got it on sale. Was not in the right mindset then to have to replay the whole intro just because I died to the first boss.

Retried again this past weekend and have since been enjoying a pretty decent action RPG.

Oh my goodness… Is this my first [email protected]? Aw…

I want to play a game like Fallout, with perhaps a light plot, but a much heavier settlement building mechanic.

Like, you found a settlement, and it’s filled with trash, debris, and burnt-out structures. As you scavenge and collect things, and attract people to your cause, the place slowly becomes cleaner and more structured. You can have settlers scavenge for themselves and fix up structures, farm for food, treat wounded, lead small armies against mutants and generally secure an area of a map, and really be able to treat the settlement as a home base.

Playing Fallout 4, I was bothered by how I could build out all these settlements, place structures and whatnot, help these people, and still no one had the sense to pick up a broom and sweep up the pile of trash in the street.

The same kind of people who don’t wash their ass because they think it would make them gay.

Being acquaintances for a while with someone with OCD was enough to tell me that the vast majority of people with “OCD” do not have OCD.

“Hi, we need to talk…”

My place of business has this dysfunction with meetings—Zoom being the biggest offender—where people just keep talking through the end of a meeting. 30-minute meetings become 35-40. 60-minute meetings becomes 65-70. And, with meetings frequently being back-to-back-to-back, invariably one or another person is late to the next one.

I think it’s because scheduling a meeting with all necessary parties is so difficult that if you don’t finish the thought, the next chance is at least a week away.

To top it off, we had a company-wide survey that spawned a working group to tackle the problem of meetings, whose suggestion was to update Outlook settings to automatically shorten meetings by X minutes—to allow people transit time, bathroom breaks, etc. Almost no one set that setting.

I both agree and disagree on Dune.

True, Lynch’s version did the book no justice. But, gosh, is a guilty-pleasure of a movie for me.

I’ll judge Jodorowsky’s version when it’s done.

Whatever comes of it—whether you get hurt, or whether you get suspended—you just need to lay your bullies out.

They won’t ignore you. They won’t go away, no matter how hard you work to be unnoticeable. It’s trying to do that—to be invisible so that they’ll leave you alone—that will change the course of your life for the worse. You won’t be a high achiever, you won’t go to a good school, you’ll just coast, forever suffering the damage they did, and regretting that you didn’t do anything about it.

The only thing they’ll understand is the kind of violence that says you’re not worth fucking with. Don’t worry what Mom will think. Don’t worry about the pain of a punch or two. Don’t worry about your “permanent record”. All that will be temporary in the grand scheme of things.