Board 8 > what's up, guys?

(+) Yeah! (+)

how is everyone? I'm doing pretty good and hope you all are too. I don't spend much time here anymore, or anywhere online really. I mean, I still use the internet all the time but I just don't spend much time being part of online communities anymore, keeping up with dozens of people and what they were up to.

I kinda miss it sometimes - but honestly, most of my online time is spent trying not to think about all the other things I should be doing, work or kids or chores or whatever else, so I usually just zone out, watching videos or playing old games that require zero mental energy. I guess that's what happens when you go home and be a family man? I'm guessing this is why middle aged-ish people watch pointless TV all the time. I'm feeling a little sociable today so I thought I'd check in on one of my favourite places.

I'm watching my Sacramento Kings get destroyed for the 16th year in a row which is a favourite pastime of mine and gives me comfort. I've spent way too much time looking in on the Ukraine stuff this past week and it's starting to creep into my dreams so I probably need to stop doing that. I definitely don't want to talk about that. I'm looking forward to playing Triangle Strategy when it comes out in a couple of days - the demo is certainly overly wordy but I think I'm very much in the mood for an FFT knockoff, and this scratches that itch somewhat. I bet it doesn't hold up that end of the bargain, but I've been searching for something to fill the FFT void for 20+ years now and that feeling of letdown has become an odd pastime of mine. I have a graveyard of mediocre strategy rpgs in my house that is ever growing.

speaking of wordy things, I'm definitely one of those dweebs who play the wordle and all of their associated knockoffs - nerdle and worldle (how do you even say that) or octordle or whatever. every morning I make my kids breakfast each morning and we do the wordle together and it feels so wholesome. we have a 55 day streak going and I'm going to be crushed when we lose it.

and speaking of kids, my youngest (8) broke his arm riding his bike recklessly a few weeks ago so I've been spending a lot of downtime with him as he struggles with a cast. he gets it off Monday. we've been watching star wars rebels together which has been fun - almost at the end of season 3. we also picked up an xbox series s recently so we've been checking out game pass - dragon quest builders 2, monster train, spiritfarer, all that kind of good stuff. the game I've played the most on it is peggle and I'm baffled as to why.

my oldest kid (14, yikes) is currently dress shopping for a dance at the end of the week and I don't even know how to handle that. we're gonna go see uncharted this weekend because tom holland is her boy. I don't have high hopes but hopefully it's fun enough.

anyway, that's me. how're you?

Oh hey, getting ready to have our first kid soon! Due date is April 28, and we're having a boy.

I've been playing Ori 2 lately and enjoying it. I'm not far into it (just got the grapple) but I think I already enjoy the feel of this one more than the original.

Did you hate the Halliburton trade as much as everyone else did (at least initially?)

oh nice! congrats dude. how are you feeling about it?

I actually didn't hate the trade. I thought it made sense. I could write a whole post about how we played it perfectly - we took out Fox, let Hali cook and then traded him when he was at his peak value for an all star, then brought back Fox the next day. but, I did really love Haliburton and he actually wanted to be here (you know how it is with OKC) so it hurt. the thing that bugged me was that our starting center, Holmes, is really good and now just has no place on our team.

Hi. During GDQ there was something Super Metroid speedrun related mentioned that I've been meaning to ask you about. They mentioned that a runner by the name of Hotarubi submitted a world record a long time ago and he saved the animals during the run. That reminded me of the time you mentioned a run (you were involved with verifying?) where the runner also saved the animals. Do you recall if that's the same run or are there somehow more than one WR run where the runner saved the animals?

yep, that's the one! I wish I had the irc logs from that one. there was this one section in Norfair that we were convinced was fake because of the artifacting, but it was probably just crappy vcr quality from 2006ish and hotarubi has proven himself as very legit many times over at this point.

transience posted...

my oldest kid (14, yikes)

JFC

my condolences!

I'm getting to the point where I will soon have an adult niece (she turns 16 soon), which is very strange. I will visit that family in a couple months.

I own a house and work long hours (main job and "side hustle") because I can't stop being productive, and always have some home improvement project going on. I am going to have a kid soon whenever that happens. And then I still find a few hours a week to sit down and play video games on my TV. No mobile games for me, it's couch or nothing.

With the warming weather I'm going to plant my vegetable garden this weekend. The seeds stay indoors until the last frost happens. My newest plant to try is pinto beans which should be interesting. Last year had a ton of success with pepper plants.

My siblings and spouse all play a ton of wordle/etc. and share the results on our family discord. Yes, we have a family discord which I think is something I never would have thought about years ago.

wait, a family discord? that's wild. why not like a text thread? this must be with people outside the house? I'm fascinated by this.

transience posted...

yep, that's the one! I wish I had the irc logs from that one. there was this one section in Norfair that we were convinced was fake because of the artifacting, but it was probably just crappy vcr quality from 2006ish and hotarubi has proven himself as very legit many times over at this point.

That's the impression I got. The commentators were hyping him to the moon and back.

Pretty sure Im gonna finally finish up my PhD this semester. Im about ready to submit my last paper and am trudging through putting together my thesis. After that I have to figure out what type of job I want and actually get a job (looking unlikely that Ill get around to starting to apply for things before graduating); not looking forward to that!

oh nice! that's worth a hearty congratulations. what's the PhD in? I love how you are a certified superexpert in something and don't know what kind of job you might want.

transience posted...

wait, a family discord? that's wild. why not like a text thread? this must be with people outside the house? I'm fascinated by this.

I started it with my parents and siblings (8 of us, all adults now) and their spouses, because half the family uses iphones and those of us without iphones felt left out of that ecosystem (imessage, facetime). It just became this way to keep in touch during covid, as we are scattered across the US and the most remote of us (including me) could not see anyone for years.

My mom barely uses it but we have a channel for pictures of her grandkids that she reacts to regularly. Before this I would often go several months without talking to some of my family members but now we have regular interactions. We have channels for memes, sports, pictures, games, etc. and I think it's helped us grow closer together. It's certainly helped us get through the isolation of covid.

oh yeah, I forgot that discord does voice chat and all that stuff too. I just think of it as modern irc, because I'm old as hell by internet standards.

we just got my oldest an iphone for that very reason - she felt left out by the walled garden that imessage presents. a lot of kids don't have cell plans so they end up using a family member's old device without service which cuts them off from the non-apple crowd. watching kids figure out all these third party apps that exist on both platforms is pretty wild. reminds me of trying to play an online game between playstation and xbox or something.

Oh you know. Working. Playing Zelda. Repeat.

Physics; I could definitely get a job doing like data science or finance or something, but I suspect I wouldnt really enjoy a lot of those jobs. Ideally Id like to find something where Im mostly doing pen and paper math rather than coding, but Im not really sure to what extent those exist outside of academia. The one thing Im potentially thinking of doing is quantum computing, but there arent that many companies doing it.

Yeah whenever I am in a text thread with my family I get bombarded with texts "so-and-so loved this" and things like that. It's super obnoxious. But I am so used to android that I cannot ever see myself switching to something else. I once had a work iphone and was not at all impressed.

yeah, you probably won't find too many jobs like that, I would think. there isn't much that uses pen and paper these days! data science is obviously very attractive from a financial standpoint but not sure you need a phd to do that - but then that's how phds are sometimes. you finish school and then what? you certainly know your avenues a lot better than I do. I got a degree in psychology and then ended up moving into IT and that's worked out well, but it's not like anything I learned in school even applies to what I do now.

My spouse got her PhD and left academia after a few years to do private research. There might be some job for you that uses your degree and you still get to use those academic skills.

Yeah I dont actually mind coding itself. I mostly just dont have much interest in analyzing data, and unfortunately I think thats probably the largest component of the work across most jobs I could get. And then Im probably overqualified for pure coding jobs since those typically wouldnt require a PhD.

transience posted...

oh nice! congrats dude. how are you feeling about it?

Excited and nervous at the same time, of course. I know you're never really prepared to have your first kid, but I'm kinda glad we're both a little older and more established with steady jobs and all that.

My mom is super excited since this is her first grandkid, so I know our son is going to be ridiculously spoiled by her. It's also a little bittersweet for me because my dad isn't alive anymore, and I know he would've been a great grandpa.

Bartzyx posted...

My spouse got her PhD and left academia after a few years to do private research. There might be some job for you that uses your degree and you still get to use those academic skills.

Yeah I think thats basically what those quantum computing jobs would entail, and there are probably some other ones I could get. I did theoretical work though so I think there are probably fewer industry research positions applicable to me than if I had done experimental stuff.

LeonhartFour posted...

Excited and nervous at the same time, of course. I know you're never really prepared to have your first kid, but I'm kinda glad we're both a little older and more established with steady jobs and all that.

My mom is super excited since this is her first grandkid, so I know our son is going to be ridiculously spoiled by her. It's also a little bittersweet for me because my dad isn't alive anymore, and I know he would've been a great grandpa.

I remember when my wife was at like 38 weeks and the end is just really hard. she had a really hard pregnancy in general, throwing up like 5 times a day for months and all that. she went to her OB appointment and said to the head doctor, "how soon can you get this thing out of me?" and he responded with "how about first thing tomorrow morning?" and that was that. I kinda just lost my mind because it wasn't supposed to be that soon and I wasn't ready. like 6 hours later I got over myself, but at the time I was like "no! no! we're not there yet!". I guess the point of my stupid story is don't be a jerk like me! it'll be great!

Yeah, my wife already had a sensitive gag reflex and sense of smell before the pregnancy, and now it's just kicked into overdrive, so she still throws up pretty easily even though she's past the morning sickness stage. It was a bit of a struggle for us to get pregnant in the first place and we know there's a chance this might be the only one we get even though we'd like to have another one and hopefully have a girl, so she's just trying to stay grateful and positive with that in mind.

sounds similar! you're almost there - good luck. got a name yet?

transience posted...

sounds similar! you're almost there - good luck. got a name yet?

Yeah, we're going with Jack Andrew. Jack was my dad's nickname and my wife's grandfather's name, so it was good common ground family name. Went with Andrew because we wanted an A middle name so he'd have the same initials as me and my dad.

married with two mortgages

what a world we live in

good deal!

okay, I'm off to bed for yet another day of work. the fun never ends!

My wife and I just bought a house and have a child due at the end of May. We had only been trying for a couple of weeks when she conceived. We both thought it would take much longer than that based on medical history. We also thought we would have longer to find a house, but despite it being in the lease that we'd go month-to-month after the first year, the landlord of our apartment told us we'd have to sign a new 1-year agreement. So we went out and bought a house after two weeks of searching. Life comes at you fast.

okay, let's try this again! today was a pretty good day, outside of, yknow, watching a nuclear reactor maybe melt down in ukraine. the russia stuff is kinda hard to take seriously because it's so comic book villain-esque. like, it feels like some nonsense out of star wars where russia is the empire and their troops are the stormtroopers, just bumbling idiots that screw up all the time and sometimes blow up a hospital because the big boss said to. nothing makes sense in the world and I've just kind of resigned myself to laughing at the whole thing out of some sort of action paralysis.

anyway! today was exciting because the kirby demo dropped. we've been excited about kirby here. my oldest kid's favourite game is mario odyssey. she plays it every christmas as a tradition, which is kinda weird because the only reason she associates that game with christmas is that we got a switch on christmas 4 years ago. then again, I have been making video game lists every other year on a schedule for going on two decades now, so I don't really have a leg to stand on here. the new kirby looks like mario odyssey so I showed the trailers to my kids and they've been counting down the days. there's nothing really like mario odyssey, especially something that plays to the fact that my kids kinda suck at games. like, they're fine, but they're kids. my youngest loves video games as much as anyone i've ever seen, but he's just not there yet mechanically, and my oldest just loves happy nintendo games like yoshi or animal crossing even though she dies a trillion times in all of them.

I played the demo and.. I don't know, I guess it's good? my experience with kirby has been somewhat limited, just dabbling in kirby's epic yarn or some of the old games for a few minutes here and there. there's something kinda flat to me about kirby: the games just feel so basic and plain. the different powerups give you some added flavor, of course, but the movement and the challenge just feels so obviously missing. you move at a snail's pace and I so desperately want a run button to jazz things up. the button layout feels wrong. the jumps feel bad compared to something like mario odyssey where you have this really dynamic moveset as mario. but, I'm into it because my kids are going to absolutely adore it. they don't come to a platformer wanting some hardcore platforming. they're not pulling off complex wall bounces or trying to break the game in two like I always want to do. I can't wait to show them the demo tomorrow or this weekend when they have some free time.

the weather has been great here and I got out for a nice walk today during lunch. my wife and I watched the first episode of the dropout tonight, which is the show based on the podcast about elizabeth holmes. I liked the podcast and the show is enjoyable so far - though it is super weird that one of the main characters is Sayid from LOST and another minor character is Chloe from 24. it's strange to see some of your favourite characters from 15 years ago suddenly look like grandparents.

speaking of, we marathoned LOST at the beginning of the pandemic because it felt like it fit thematically with what we were going through, and I ended up really enjoying that. it's easy to look back at that show and just remember the way it ended but the buildup to that last moment was really special. LOST and 24 define the 2000s for me. I always wonder what would happen if I dropped LOST on my 14 year old, if that would be a formative moment for her or if she'd watch 5 minutes and just "ok boomer" me. one day I'll find out!

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the new Kirby game because it's something my wife and I can co-op together. We played Mario 3D World together when the Switch version came out and had a lot of fun with it. She enjoys video games but doesn't have a lot of time for gaming and usually doesn't stick with it. She's tried playing Uncharted, Mass Effect, and Kingdom Hearts since we've been together and she's just dropped off somewhere in the second game in all of them despite enjoying them.

ZaziGuado posted...

My wife and I just bought a house and have a child due at the end of May. We had only been trying for a couple of weeks when she conceived. We both thought it would take much longer than that based on medical history. We also thought we would have longer to find a house, but despite it being in the lease that we'd go month-to-month after the first year, the landlord of our apartment told us we'd have to sign a new 1-year agreement. So we went out and bought a house after two weeks of searching. Life comes at you fast.

hell yeah this resonates with me. my wife got her IUD out and then found out she was pregnant like 4 weeks later. I remember being like "wait.. what?" I thought trying was going to take a while, but nope!

the housing market is nuts everywhere, but especially where I am. we built a house in 2015 for about $300k and now we could put it up for like $500k and it would sell within minutes, probably well over the list price. there was this viral video a few weeks ago here (raleigh) where someone listed their house for under 300k and the realtor took a video of like 75 people showing up to see it within minutes.

the only problem is, once I make bank on my house, I then have to overpay for someone else's. I always theorize some way to make this work to finally pay off all the school debt and medical debt we've accumulated over time, but it's way too risky to do, especially with my kids having such an established life with friends and school and whatnot. plus, moving sucks so unbelievably badly.

Yeah, we bought our house right before the market blew up, so we got really lucky in that regard.

I played Mario 3d World with my kids co-op when it came out on Switch. oh my god was that a destructive experience. my son is a literal terrorist when it comes to playing games with him. that dude would slit my throat for a coin halfway across the level.

Hey what's up? I'm just living in denial that I turn 30 in a week. Of course, that probably doesn't sound like a big deal to most people in this topic!

30's a great age! 38 is when I felt like maybe I wasn't on the top of my game anymore. I'm still doing just fine, but things just started to get harder and suddenly my body started having random ailments for no damn reason. there's a reason athletes hang it up at 38!

good to know I've still got a couple of good years left since I turn 36 tomorrow...!

happy birthday!

my birthday, my anniversary and my wife's birthday are all within a 12 day stretch. by the time we get to her birthday we don't even care about celebrating anymore and I always feel bad about it!

transience posted...

30's a great age! 38 is when I felt like maybe I wasn't on the top of my game anymore. I'm still doing just fine, but things just started to get harder and suddenly my body started having random ailments for no damn reason. there's a reason athletes hang it up at 38!

I am... not far from 38. ;_;

Turning 35 in less than two months and I'm already feeling it.

Metabolism finally hit the "no, you can't eat junk every day and stay the same weight" button.

Oh I guess for an update on my life which feels to recap

my grandpa and dad died in a 3 month span, leaving me as the oldest person in my family

i had to be sober for 5 months while I took preventive medication for TB which was a weird way to live (I dont drink a lot and never at home but became very aware every time I was in a scenario where I would have a drink or 2)

Then because of said deaths I started receiving my trust fund and bought a house, which is the first time Ive ever lived in a house so thats nice.
Learning about lawn care and house maintenance is weird.

jesus dude. are you okay? are you living alone in a house or with someone else?

also I have to ask this: did that memphis/okc game hit during any of this and how did you feel about that

Yea the dad death was a slow burn but kind had a idea it would happen. Grandpa was 97 and caught covid about a month before the vaccine came out so that was a bummer.

e- Oh and the TB was latent, and for a lot of people it stays latent, but if you find out you have it you can take care of it now.

Living alone, thinking about getting a roommate at some point.

I dont think I caught that game live as I was busy at work, but I definitey watched the next game where we beat them (with Morant playing this time) and that humor is getting me through the whole season

It feels like I rewatched LOST not that long ago, but it was actually the summer before I started grad school... maybe I'm due for another!

well, all I can do from my computer screen is wish you the absolute best. hope things start looking up for ya. as for the thunder, take solace that you're in the place I've been for as long as we've known each other -- except that the thunder have glorious purpose to their plan whereas we're pathetically flailing trying to get to the 8 seed only to get demolished. you guys have tank commander poku and we have, like, mo harkless and justin holiday and a bunch of dudes who think maybe they're okay. whoops.

TRE, I have no worries about you since you are more machine than man. you'll power through 40 without a problem.

Thanks. I am in that weird spot where Im more set in my life than ever before and I know my family would be happy, its just weird explaining to people how I have a house now.

Last year when we tanked the last 2 months of the season was not fun but this season has been actually fun to follow. Giddey is pretty dang good for a 19 year old Aussie and it is a joy to see how mad the other team is when we win (maybe us beating the Lakers twice earlier this season should clued in everyone a lot sooner about their situation)

Hey man, glad to see youre doing well! Ive been working like crazy for a hospital lab, while trying to handle parenting a crazy two year old. Please tell me it gets better haha

transience posted...

my wife and I watched the first episode of the dropout tonight, which is the show based on the podcast about elizabeth holmes.

I read Bad Blood and it was fascinating so maybe I will check this out.

Also hi

Hey homie

glad you are doing well. You having a 14 year old really does put time in some serious perspective

im pretty similar. I pop in once a year or two, post about weightlifting, then get distracted for a few years. Been drug and alcohol free for 4+ years. Lifes been good but challenging in many ways.

Ryokles posted...

Hey man, glad to see youre doing well! Ive been working like crazy for a hospital lab, while trying to handle parenting a crazy two year old. Please tell me it gets better haha

a 2 year old! I always wonder/worry about people who chose (?) to have kids before the pandemic hit and then ended up giving birth to a new world. and to do it while working in a hospital lab -- wow! how are you doing keeping everything together? are you working crazy hours, then coming home exhausted and trying to deal with the madness of a kid who maybe can't go to daycare? do you feel like you're failing at everything all at once? 'cause that's what a lot of us have felt like during this crazy time.

last year, I was homeschooling a second grader who is too smart for his own good and therefore tries to cut corners because it's all too easy for him. one day, his mom was out of town and he was on his morning meeting next to me while I was working on a call. he then took out his headphones at the end of it and I found out he was just playing on some chess site with the awful midi music blaring while maybe listening to his teacher. god, I could have killed him! I mean, chess is the GOAT so I kind of applaud the move, but really? you didn't think this one through and now I have to catch you up on your work while also trying to keep my job?

that's the kind of failing at everything that I've struggled with, and if you're anything like me, you're probably in the same boat. I really hope you're keeping it together because it's not always easy. 2 is bad, but 3 is worse! after that it's smooth sailing in my view, though 14 is a whole new list of problems that I can't even comprehend yet.

FFDragon posted...

I read Bad Blood and it was fascinating so maybe I will check this out.

Also hi

my dude. how are you holding up? I want to say that I clicked on board 8 some time ago - it's like muscle memory, man - and saw a topic that I didn't click on about you struggling. I can't remember the context, but are you hanging in there? anything you want to share? what're you up to these days? god, I have all these old memories but they're fragments so I can't remember if you got out of the military or what. it's been a few minutes since last we spoke. hope everything is going all good for you man.

iiaattgg posted...

Hey homie

glad you are doing well. You having a 14 year old really does put time in some serious perspective

im pretty similar. I pop in once a year or two, post about weightlifting, then get distracted for a few years. Been drug and alcohol free for 4+ years. Lifes been good but challenging in many ways.

hell yeah dude. I knew you would always get yourself straight - not even the drugs, just that I knew you would find your way. sounds like maybe you've got it. challenging is a good thing honestly, and I hope life continues to give you challenges so that you can continue to overcome them.

one thing the pandemic has done a number on is my physical fitness. I've never been someone to work out regularly and I'm pretty terrible about self care, but it's gotten worse when I can just laze around the house working from home. it sounds awful, but I used to be in some sort of "life shape" just by having to go work and communicate with people, take walks to get away from the office, all that. but now? sometimes I go to the office just to meet up with my coworkers and after a few hours I am just exhausted. it's sad.

like, I was just playing my switch while keeping my eye on email, dropping it when I had to respond to something. will I get outside today? to pick up my kids, sure, but not something where I have to be "on" all day. I need to find a better life balance and it's hard to make myself do that. some people, like my wife, are intrinsically motivated to just do things, and I'm just not made that way. it sounds like you're more her than me and kudos to you for that.