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Cake day: August 21st, 2023

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  • Replayed the Prime series a bunch, most recently the switch remake of Prime.

    Great series, I didn’t like some of the dialog/cinematics of the third one but the gameplay was great.

    Dread was really good, exceeded expectations. Final boss was hard I’m not sure I ever beat it.

    Super Metroid was great but I’m not sure whether I ever beat Ridley.

    I think I completed the remake though. Really hoping to see Prime 4 at some point, maybe on a new console.



  • What helped for me was to just focus on consistency of activity first and foremost. Making sure I have a consistent 1hr a day fitness plan that I don’t hate, and use a fitness watch to look at streaks over time so you don’t want to break them. For me upper/lower splits every other day helped make sure I get enough core/legs in because I was always skipping leg day. I try to do the major compound movements and supplement with additional stuff if there is time… Pushups, pullups, squats, deadlifts. I’ve also been doing intervals on the exercise bike so 3 min of bike for every 7 minutes of lifting

    I started to see results after a few months, but it’s only recently that I’ve started to pay more attention to what I’m eating. I think it’s good to get the consistent activity down first before you worry about cutting and calorie deficits. That way whatever you’re doing, mentally you know you can do it even if you feel more physically fatigued.

    I also didn’t realize just how much protein I really needed, didn’t see much in the way of results until I started to eat around .8g protein per pound of body weight. Chicken, salmon, low-fat Greek yogurt, egg whites, and some protein bars/shakes… I found it wasn’t that hard to stay around 2000 calories and still eat 160+ g of protein.

    I’m probably going to eventually get a fitness and nutrition coach because my health insurance will likely cover it, just to have additional confidence in what I’m doing.


  • Ah yes, my last company bought into that crap. They called it RPA for Robotic Process Automation and they also used it to access internal apps that we had full control of.

    It wouldn’t have been so bad if they just used it to enter data into third party websites which had no APIs or integrations.

    At one point we updated the title of an HTML page and we had to revert the change because the RPA team said it would be a three week turnaround to fix their script.

    I noped out of there not long after, it was yet another “project management driven” company where managers and project managers were repeatedly duped by vendors and outsourcing firms instead of hiring and retaining developers.





  • The best I ever had was a 6% full match, and the company contributed another 3% that I didn’t have to match. The result was company contributing 9% and me contributing 3%. So I agree with other comments saying you should probably be contributing about 15% total. That extra 3% doesn’t have to be in the same account though, you could open your own if you get better investment options with lower fees.

    12% contribution that you don’t have to match is amazing and just make sure you’re fully vested before you take a new job. Sometimes there is a rule that those contributions are not truly yours until you’ve been at the company for a number of year.


  • The best I ever had was a 6% full match, and the company contributed another 3% that I didn’t have to match. The result was company contributing 9% and me contributing 3%. So I agree with other comments saying you should probably be contributing about 15% total. That extra 3% doesn’t have to be in the same account though, you could open your own if you get better investment options with lower fees.

    12% contribution that you don’t have to match is amazing and just make sure you’re fully vested before you take a new job. Sometimes there is a rule that those contributions are not truly yours until you’ve been at the company for a number of year.


  • Gens Y, X, Z, and soon A are being taught by conservatives that capitalism can’t be reformed, and therefore are digging capitalism’s grave with their own hands.

    You want reasonable restrictions on firearms? Conservatives say that can’t be done because of the 2nd amendment. They’re basically teaching gens Z and A that the 2nd amendment needs to be eliminated and those generations might actually have the numbers to do it eventually.

    It will be the same with capitalism. You want reasonable regulations and taxation to reign in the abuses of the rich and corporations? Conservatives say you can’t do that because the free market must be supreme.

    Conservatives will dig the grave of capitalism by continuing to fight against any reforms that would make capitalism more livable for future generations.



  • I personally recommend that people (men especially) stay away from them.

    I always struggled with confidence and self-esteem, so for me dating apps were just making that worse. I spent months swiping and the breakdown for me was something like 200 swipes before I’d get a match, then out of those matches, at least half were spam bots or fake profiles, then out of the other half, probably only 1/5 would answer my messages. The ones that did answer either weren’t very engaged or just never responded at all often the initial interaction. All of this just contributed to lower self esteem and more bitterness and depression.

    I found the women on these apps would put in 0 effort at conversation, and yet would say things like “We should get to know each other first” when I tried to set up a date.

    Then the dates that I did get, I felt catfished but more likely it was my own wishful thinking and being willing to overlook obviously misleading photos. I had at least one date with a girl who matched her picture but then was a complete psycho.

    I don’t really blame the women, it’s just market forces at work. These apps tend to have way more guys on them than girls, so the women are (generally) able to just sit back and the men are expected to wow them with fantastic opening messages or have the exact right physical characteristics. For this reason, Bumble was the only app I had success with and would have recommended.

    For me, I had hoped dating apps would be a useful tool for meeting other singles in person to get to know them, but I ended up with the impression that many women were just using them to inflate their own self esteem, and loved to chat and get compliments but never actually wanted to date.

    Anyways, it sounds cliche and I’m sure someone has said this to you, but you should work on building yourself. What worked for me was to find an activity that I could be secure and confident in and also meet women in that setting. I found two different long-term relationships through coed rec sports, and it’s not like I was some superstar at sports impressing the women or anything. Just go into it thinking about improving your own mental and physical health, work on getting better and meeting more people.

    Both women I met through coed sports told me that I was much more appealing in person than my dating profiles, so maybe some profile improvements were warranted, but I concluded that it’s just not possible to get a good sense of someone you might want to date through pictures and a chat. Dating apps are only useful if they lead to meeting people in person, so if they aren’t enabling you to do that then you just have to get out there and meet people without them.


  • I second the recommendations here about finding an activity that you like. For me it was rec sports. Gets me out of the house a few days a week, and for me it was an activity to help me stay active but also a reason TO get fit. I wanted to feel less beat up after playing, so I started working out and stretching regularly.

    I also had trouble with getting to the gym, and had trouble with focus and picking workouts, so I had success with P90x. It’s all workouts you can do at home with some adjustable dumbbells. I think I got a deal on the streaming subscription to Beachbody for 100$ for the year. Then I just followed the program and the workout calendar. They have a number of different programs on there, if you want to get ripped I recommend P90x, if you just want to do some sort of workout for 30 minutes a day I’d recommend p90x3 because it’s easier to stick to.

    That was a good start for me, but I ultimately settled on just picking my favorite moves from the program and I switch between upper and lower body workouts every day because I found I was consistently skipping certain days of the programs.



  • Public opinion was very much in favor of the war in Afghanistan after 9/11. Maybe not so much Iraq, but it’s hard to blame Bush squarely for those wars when they had bipartisan support.

    Bush is done doing damage to our country, and might actually be considered a voice of reason compared to today’s Republicans.

    It’s definitely already Trump, and he’s not even done doing damage yet.

    Even if Republicans elect someone who is identical to Trump in his words, views, and actions, that person would still be better for the country than Trump. It’s critically important for the justice department to hold him accountable for the insurrection and trying to overthrow our democracy, or it WILL happen again.