Yeah, I’ve had a few issues here and there across all of my devices, but most can be fixed with a restart. I’m literally the only person at work who does not have constant problems with my work Windows laptop. But I’m also the only person who shuts it down every day at the end of my shift and goes out of my way to check for updates.

I get why folks who are more involved in their devices or prefer more customization may not like Apple products, but a lot of people just see them as a device to connect to the internet or write papers etc. and that’s about it. Folks like Apple because it works for them.

I’m really happy there are options for people to have a device that suits their needs.

I still need to get back to that one and read the third one. Red Mars was the first adult level reading book I purchased as a kid and it was beyond my reading level. I kept that book for 20 years before reading it in my 30s. I read the first two and they are good, but very dense books. Eventually I’ll get back to the third.

Hahaha you sir underestimate my ability to read slow!

I actually do read slow and I’m ok with that

Honestly dude, good for you! And I promise I’m not being facetious here. I’m super happy you got motivated to get a vasectomy. I had my fallopian tubes removed a few years ago and it was a massive weight lifted off my shoulders to know I will never again be pregnant.

I’m really fucking proud of you for taking that step!

Honestly, this has been my experience too. I’m not an all in Apple user, but I have had a few devices over the years and for the every day user, it’s a pretty easy experience.

I started with the old Apple router. That thing ran like a champ and I was really sad when they got rid of it. It was what made my gamer buddy more open to Apple products, games ran great on that thing. I didn’t purchase another Apple product for a few years. I used to talk so much shit about Apple and I was hopeful that the Microsoft Zune would be the iPod killer. It wasn’t, but I still have my 2 Zunes.

I had an original Motorola Droid with the flip out keyboard (something I truly miss). But the OS was garbage and I constantly had issues. Eventually, I purchased my first iPhone off a friend for about $50. I think it was a 6 or something. More to help friend out than me needing a new phone, it was my chance to try an iPhone for cheap. It was a significant upgrade to my previous phones.

After that, I have kept with iPhones because upgrading to a new system is extremely simple. Previously, you had to pay to transfer info from one device to the next, it could be done at home but it was a lot harder. With the iPhone, I literally just log in and everything is there. Yes, I save things to the cloud. Yes, I understand the problems it has, but I accept that. Now, I have an iPhone 13 that I will probably be able to get another 2-3 years out of. I don’t ever buy the Pro because it’s more than I need, I usually get the regular with more on device storage when I upgrade. I also have an AppleTV because I feel it’s one of the better plug in TV devices and it links seamlessly to my iPhone.

For me (and probably the vast majority of Apple device users) “it just works” is enough to keep me happy. I don’t need all of the customization that Android provides, but I’m so glad it’s an option for people. I have stability, user ease, and an ecosystem that, while it may be closed, it’s simple and doesn’t really have any issues. I almost never experience the issues that most people complain about with Apple products.

I’m still all in on PC though, I don’t need a Mac because it’s too expensive for what I do on my computer, which is mostly playing World of Warcraft. I still use Windows because I don’t do much with customization so many of the issues people have with Windows, I have never experienced. I’d like to move to a Linux system, but when I tried last year, I couldn’t get Warcraft running, so I switched back to Windows. I will likely wait until I get a new PC before I try again. With computers, most people’s options are Mac or Windows because that’s what is at the store. Linux isn’t typically sold installed on a device (which I wish it was) and a lot of people just want to open the box, start it up, and go.

This one, all day long!

lol I wish we could switch hair because I’d love to have my hair be able to have any kind of body at all

I’m one of those people with curly hair that hates it. I hate it, because I can’t opt out of dealing with it

As a person with straight hair, I empathize with this so much. I cannot opt out of it either, my hair will not hold a curl to save my life and it’s dull, scraggly, and takes so much effort to manage when it’s long.

I know it’s not an option for everyone, but I just said fuck it and cut it all off. I’ve had a pixie cut most of my adult life lol

I’ve been trying to play Boyfriends Dungeon and Star Wars Podracer, but I fucked up my thumb last week and can’t use the left joystick without significant pain. It’s not broken, just fucked it up bad.

So I downloaded The Shapeshifting Detective and a few other FMV games since I can play those 100% right handed

BSG will forever be a love/dislike thing for me. I loved the show and I disliked where it went. It still gets a semi-pass from me though because circumstances were rough at the time.

It suffered a lot because of a writer’s strike. I 100% am on the side of the writers for striking, but the strike caused a lot of shows that could have gone well to flop, Heroes was another. It also gave rise to more reality tv since they don’t need a script. I feel like BSG could have been significantly better if not for the strike.

which is why I hope I never have kids

If you truly believe what you say, don’t just hope you don’t have kids. Either get fixed or don’t have sex.

And I already put my money where my mouth is, I got fixed to ensure I will never get pregnant.

I worked at a library when I was a teen and I just remember all the romance novels looked the same, same storyline, same character types, just all the same stuff. Which is totally fine if that’s your thing, but it definitely is not my thing. When I first read Hunt the Stars, it showed me that romance isn’t all the same, that you can get good science fiction within a love story. I don’t read exclusively scifi romance, but it gets it my rotation fairly often now. I still do read primarily scifi though.

The backlash is real and feels misogynistic, but also real is the slop and ravenous fan bases

I totally get this. I’ve heard the Fourth Wing fan base gets crazy and the romantasy fan base in general is bad. I’ve heard of the drama in BookTok spaces and I want nothing to do with it. This is why I avoid pretty much all big fan bases of anything I truly enjoy, there’s always someone who will ruin it for me.

And beyond that, I’ve seen pulp readers judge romantasy and that’s funny. For all my criticisms of romantasy, pulp is worse

I never got why people get so judgy on what a person reads, criticism is ok, but some folks can get nasty. I’ve had people make snarky remarks on my love of scifi I’ve heard someone refer to superhero stuff as “stupid nerd shit”. I’ve even heard someone criticize people who don’t enjoy romance because “those people have no heart or soul”. Idgaf what someone reads as long as they read. It may not be for me, but just pick up a damn book!

100% all of this! I used to hate romance novels back in the day. To me it was all boring nonsense with beefy long haired men on the cover. When romantasy became popular, more genres started breaking into the romance sub-genre. I realized that the reason I hated romance novels was because I don’t like reading contemporary fiction and that’s what the vast majority of romance used to be. I’m a total scifi girlie. I’ve watched scifi shows and movies my whole life. I prefer scifi over all other genres, scifi is and always has been my jam.

I picked up Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik on a whim as a blind date book and fell completely in love with scifi romance. I read all of the Starlight’s Shadow and Consortium Rebellion trilogies, then I read the Mercenary Librarians trilogy (more dystopian). I’ve never stopped reading, but finding scifi romance reinvigorated my love of stories and books. I get all of my space opera scifi adventures and a good romance story to go with it. I’m extremely happy that the romance genre has broken out of just contemporary and historical fiction. I can walk into the local romance bookshop and find something that hits all the buttons and brings me joy to read. Scifi romance is my jam!

Ngl, this post reminds me of the backlash that seems to follow anything coded for women that becomes really popular

It does feel this way doesn’t it? I remember talking to a guy who said romance novels trashy and worthless with no storyline, therefore it’s a useless genre and women who read it are brainless. This came from a mid 40 year old man who hasn’t read a book since high school. Romance is the best selling genre and has helped keep authors and the publishing industry afloat, but women like it, so it has to be bad.

I have 3 library cards and I use them as frequently as I can. I’ve been building my video collection by borrowing blu-rays and ripping them to my pc. I have all of Star Trek Lower Decks and working on getting The X-Files.

I also walk the stacks to grab random books off the shelf. Sometimes I’ll flip through them, sometimes they will just sit at home before I return them a week or two later. Either way, the use numbers for library books go up and that’s a good thing!

The events are great, lots of art and music access. And one branch has a gardening swap meet to take in extra gardening scraps like cuttings, and extra fruits and veggies. I dropped off a bunch of extra spider plant babies and walked away with some new succulents like my new agave plant 🥰

Everyone should use their library card if you have access to one!

Yup! The beer I learned how to drink beer with is no longer one I want drink. Bunch of Trumper dorks. I was so sad when I found this out because I did a tour of the brewery, had a hat, and some anniversary coasters. A lot of cool history with that beer. Now they all sit in a box. I don’t live where it’s sold easily and I don’t drink it when I go back to visit.

I stick to homemade cocktails now

I dabbled with ChatGPT when it first came out, then this happened:

https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1159286436/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-magazine-clarkesworld-artificial-intelligence

That was the catalyst that turned me against it. I’m a pretty big reader and I love finding new authors and stories. Knowing that people were cheating the system to make a quick buck did not sit well with me. Knowing that a scifi magazine that has published some of my favorite authors received so many bad submissions that they had to shut it down for a while made me angry.

Then came the information about inaccuracies, environmental issues, AI psychosis, and it being forced into Google searches made me not want to have anything to do with it. I was so disgruntled that I switched every one of my default search engines to https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ so I can avoid it.

One of my biggest gripes is that people use it for an easy quick solution but do not verify the information is correct through other sources. I have a friend who is very into AI, to the point he told his employee that he must use it during work hours when trying to find solutions. I told him, if my boss said that, I would start looking for a new job immediately.

That said, I’m not entirely against LLMs in specific circumstances. I can see how it’s useful in research spaces, but it should be triple checked by a human. Or in creating documents and summaries of meetings, but again should be triple checked by real humans.

I don’t trust the output, I don’t trust the companies behind the output, I just don’t trust it.

Who says the fun has to stop at Bajor! Just let everyone have one huge orgy on Deep Space 9. It can be the sex party space station! 🤣

lol I’d go crazy eating the way two eat. It would be constant migraines all day every day. He doesn’t eat much by way of breakfast either for the same reason, his stomach gets upset. Once in a while, he suggests going out to breakfast on the weekend and I always jump at that chance lol

Folks are all kinds of different!

I tend to eat the way you do; 3 meals a day with limited snacking. I eat this way because it helps me manage my migraine issues and snacking too much will cause weight gain, which (for me) causes bad back and knee pain. I used to snack more when I had a very physically demanding job. I’m a healthy weight.

My partner naturally fasts between 9pm-12pm every day. He eats a good size lunch, big dinner, and a good amount of usually healthier snacks. It works for him, I could never eat that way because I wouldn’t be able to afford the migraine medication that would go with it, but he does not have that problem. He’s a healthy weight.

I have a couple of friends who are more 1 meal a day with healthy snacking throughout the rest of the day. They are healthy weights and it seems to work for them.

Everyone is different and if it works for someone, I say have at it!

Nah! Divorce is unnecessary, just make them a throuple! Let Keiko have her fun too :)