This right here. Listen up.

My boss needed my work. He got me when I was 16 years old and told me that in 10 years he intended to retire and if I came and worked for him he’d lease one of the businesses to me until he died and I’d take over.

At the 11 year mark I was losing hope, but I kept going because it really did seem like a possibility.

I loved my job, but I got paid so much less than everyone else who did what I did. I thought it was a decent trade off because I really did love it so much.

My store was sold in August after 24-26 years there. I have been unemployed and staying at home with my kids. My skills are out of date, my resume a single paragraph.

Don’t. Be. Loyal.

Sell your skills to the highest bidder and develop them as you go. I loved everyone I worked with, but I left when the place was sold. I left for the reason I mentioned above. I took care of it like it was my own personal space because it was supposed to be. Your friends will not hate you for improving your life or they aren’t your friends.

I made the people who worked under me do no extra, because in my mind they didn’t stand to benefit from it like I did. Now they’re dealing with all of it and they still talk to me.

Oh man you just took me back. I was dirt poor as a kid and my mom always busted her ass to get us the latest Nintendo, but we usually only got a couple games. We rented and borrowed the rest.

Anyway.

I went with my step brother to his grandpa’s house one day. He said nothing to prepare me for the glory I was about to see. When we came through the door his grandpa greeted us and said, “Jason, take your brother to the game room.”

We walked down into the basement and there in the coolest, most badass, teen movie room, was this giant rear projection TV. There on the floor sat a console I had never seen before. The original PlayStation with the original controllers and Nascar Racing. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I swear to god I said, “OH MY GOD IT LOOKS REAL!” We played Tomb Raider. I just kept jumping into the pool. Mortal Kombat Trilogy, man what a game.

That Christmas two of my closest friends got the N64. One showed me Doom, the other Mario 64.

I ended up with the N64, my best friend got the PlayStation.

I’d love to go back for a day just to hang out with him. I wish he’d lived to see the graphics of today. Shit, if he’d made it long enough to see The Last of Us I’d be stoked.

At my store (which I worked at for 23 years and miss dearly), I would always let my regulars come in after closing if I could still serve them. If they had cash, I’d ring it up the next day.

That was one of 7 stores I worked in over the years (same company).

The other 6, hell no. Once they realized that I’d open the door after closing those bastards were coming up to an hour after I locked the doors. Same jerks every time yelling and cussing at me, “Well yer still here yuh faygit I don’t see why you won’t let me git a beer!”. Sometimes I’d stay late and hide in the office to watch a little tv before going home. It was always the same jackasses beating on the door at 1 AM putting their hands and faces up to the glass with stupid looks on their faces. I stopped letting them in after it became a problem for me and no matter how many times I said no, they’d walk their drunk asses to that store to try me.

It is amazing how much culture can change over 40 miles of road. I mean it, it’s crazy. Even the meth heads were polite and reasonable when they were in the middle of a 3 week, no sleep, hallucination fueled nightmare. “Ah, man. I’m so sorry that I bothered you. There’s people following me across the road so I’m just gonna borrow a little of your light here until someone I know comes to get me. I hope you have a good night.”

In that one store every local was always polite. I had two memorable assholes there over 23 years. At the others I had so many I couldn’t tell you.

Well, I guess I won’t need one then. Hardware is a bit older but if I can get the same performance I’ll avoid the windows partition.

Oh yeah, people who need more power definitely want something else. It’s all I need really. I’m about to inherit my daughter’s old gaming laptop though so I’m not sure what I’ll do then. Definitely Linux with a small partition for windows to play some VR games. I’d say I’ll still use the Steam deck for most things though because it’s so portable.

I’ve been docking mine and using it as my primary pc. The only issue I’ve had is that I was able to play CSGO perfectly, and CS2 don’t do so good.

Nah, cocaine good. Easy cheese and ritz too.

I just found the one I have and it has an ARM processor. :(

I have one. It’s one of the higher end deals from a couple years ago (for a chrome book). I have been excited to work on it every time I’ve seen something like this posted.

I CAN’T FIND IT! Gaaaaah.

I seen the damn thing a thousand times. I wasn’t looking for it. Now? Gone. Nowhere.

Does this shit happen to anyone else?

Should I not be playing the native Linux version? Or am I just an idiot who doesn’t understand how the game works?

I grew up playing a 1965 Yamaha FG-150. I got a Martin when I was 18.

Guess which one I’m still playing today? :p

Sometimes cheap instruments can turn out very well.

As a dirt poor musician who grew up recording with a computer and a ham radio mixer I had rigged up, I was always disappointed when I’d hear my music on any setup that wasn’t mine. It never came out right.

Good headphones changed that. One day I’ll go back and remaster it all even though I have no clue what I’m doing.

Works for me as long as I’m on safari.

I’m still rocking an old CA tv (it’s missing the R). It’s an L32WD12. It does 1080i.

Someone I knew bought it for over a thousand bucks back in the mid 2000s and one day half of the picture went black so they gave it to me.

A cable in the back of the tv was heating up and shrinking and disconnected itself. I took off the aluminum heat shield (which is what seemed to be causing the problem) and stuck a piece of a credit card in there between the cable and the connector to hold it down, taped the cable so it wouldn’t move much. I have been using it since about 2009. I’ve had to push the cable down a few times, so I just busted a hole in the back so I wouldn’t have to take it apart any more.

The most reliable car I ever owned was a 1998 Suzuki Sidekick Sport. I drove it for over a decade. It was the only car from my son’s childhood that he remembers. We got two more with identical parts to move stuff around when it broke.

Now he’s driving it. It’s all to hell at this point, but it’s sentimental to him. It isn’t his daily driver, but he still takes it out pretty often to ride around in the mountains.

That car is two years older than him.

I barely ever changed the oil in it. Speed shifted one transmission too long and had to replace that. The harmonic balancer took a shit once. Otherwise just coil packs and a battery from time to time. Any other parts were minor and yanked from the identical one that sat right beside it. He still has both. I hit a deer with the old one, he hit a deer with the other one before we parted it out. The front is rigged together.

I can’t believe it’s still going.

Mine is a sears video arcade.

I have an original 2600 too that my exes dad bought for her when she was little but it doesn’t work any more.

My console collection is stupid at this point. I have like 15 Sega Genesis consoles and I’m too sorry to sell them.

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I’m rocking one too bud. :p

I like hooking the old consoles to it.

I won’t ever forget how cold it got here last Christmas in Appalachia.

I closed the store for the 24th and 25th. When I came back the place was flooded because the heat stopped working and the pipes in the ceiling exploded. The entire store was flooded and I spent the day after Christmas pushing water out of the store.

I had to take a heater and melt the ice to finish the job.

What a nightmare.

I don’t shit at work. Now, back in the day when I had my own private bathroom in my office (luck of the draw), I never shit at home.

I got paid 5.50 an hour (was shitty money even then, but a man could eat) to shit there, and by Krishna I was gonna shit there.

One day the boss said, “I don’t pay you to poop.” And I said, “Bud, you’ve paid me for every shit I’ve taken for the last four years. I’d like to take a moment to thank you while we’re on the subject.”

He was not amused haha.