Mister_Rogers

I follow tech pretty avidly, my wife has a steam deck on her christmas+birthday list (they're close so it's a combo). I've intentionally not told her about the refresh and all the goodness it brings, so that I can surprise her with a 1TB Steam Deck that surpasses everything she expected! I've got the whole family pitching in to get it, Valve's timing couldn't have been better!

America (and alot of countries to be fair) need ranked choice voting systems so damn badly for this exact reason (if you're unfamiliar with it, a simple version is that basically you rank your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd pick, your first pick gets 3 points, 2nd pick 2 points, 3rd pick 1 point. At the end they tally up the points, and the party with the most wins).

Singular vote systems trend naturally towards 2 party systems often, whereas with a ranked choice system, far right people would vote for far-right-person that loads of people hate, far left people would vote for far-left-person that loads of people hate, but since almost everyone would put moderate-person as their 2nd choice that everyone kind of doesn't like, they would be the one to get elected in this case. It's like the old saying, a good compromise is when nobody is happy. That's what's needed to move away from extremist politics, but without a ranked choice system, it's not going to happen any time soon.

*this is grossly simplified, and there are examples of multi-party systems that don't use ranked choice, and there's many many caveats besides when talking so simply about something as complex as electoral politics, but the fundamental point stands.

For what it's worth, I'm 100% a nihilist, it's absurd to me that there is some inherent meaning in life. Who tf am I to say I know the meaning to life??? BUT I also recognize that I'm alive, as is everyone able to think that thought, and we might as well do something with it despite this. I think everyone contrives meaning in their own lives, and THAT. IS. OK. That itch for meaning needs to be scratched, I live as a rule utilitarian primarily, even though I accept this worldview as one I've contrived for myself rather than something inherently right. If you've got a kitchen full of ingredients, and there's not outright purpose to the "right" thing to cook, it still seems to make more sense to scramble an egg or two, than to demolish the kitchen over the notion of a lack of inherent meaning.

I achievement hunt in video games, sure as heck not because it's the most enjoyable way to play a game (some are annoying and hard) but because I also struggle with feelings like yours, and when I get that little ding, it feels like I've done something (I know I haven't!) but it feels like I did, and that's nice to scratch that little "I did a thing" itch. It's okay that it feels nice, even if deep down I know it means nothing. Crap, so what? Same thing when I finish a book, finish a puzzle, watch a new movie, etc. Everything else means nothing too! But it doesn't do me much good to dwell on that, and so I plod along for my next little ding. Sometimes that ding is the thought that "damn, this subway sandwich, is fucking bangin". Sometimes that ding is getting a chuckle out of how stupid life is (I recently won a costume contest at my work I joined over Zoom. I planned to just watch, and as a dry stupid joke I pulled the lampshade of my lamp, plunked it on my head, and said I was a lamp. I promptly won a vote, and a gift basket to the chagrin of everyone who actually tried on their costume. If that's not some stupid good shit to live for I don't know what is.)

Sometimes that ding (and get this) ISNT EVEN FUN. That's also okay. I often say satisfaction, is more important to my mental health than actual happiness or fun. THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR EVERYONE, GIANT DISCLAIMER but this is the case for my particular brain. When it's hard to be happy, or smile, the feeling of "hey, well at least I beat that hard level today" sometimes is enough to feel satisfied that I did something today even if I was banging my head against a wall a bit to do it.

My hobbies aren't important, there isn't an inherent meaning in my life, and perhaps I'm not important (who tf decides anyways though?). But I'm here, and I'm going to at least scramble a god damn egg, because someone built the kitchen so I might as well get cooking and see what happens.

I hope you open that fridge and scramble some wicked fucking eggs man.

I feel like that's a bit of a cop out to say "it was good except for the last season". That statement is true, much of GOT of absolutely S-tier stuff, but the last season was also part of the show. That's like saying "that meal I was the best I ever had", and when your friend asks "what about the chef's eccentric decision to put dog feces on the potatoes?", you replying "oh don't get hung up on that, it was the best meal I had, but you have ignore that part", if it was on the plate, it was on the plate.

I adore the first few seasons of Community, but would never in a million years (like Game of Thrones) say it's the best show I've ever seen because they both have garbage parts, that as unfortunate as it is, are legitimate parts of each of them.

I held on to physical media for a long time, and the legal ownership implications are scary for digital media, BUT the argument of avoiding creating plastic waste at one point outweighed this for me, and I've been all digital ever since, but to each their own. Definitely pros and cons either way.

Wow I must have totally spaced there, thanks for catching that! As I note in an above reply Amazon probably makes my top 5 most hated companies, I absolutely 100% do not shop there or use it, I can't believe I missed that on my list, my apologies.

I did not know that their only profit is on their subscriptions, and I'll look into that as I'm doubtful of that (I could be wrong though!) Thanks for the info there, but I still fundamentally take issue with subscription based models, as well as other issues I note in replies above with them like business displacement, bad personal experiences, and the urban sprawl they create. Again I'll reiterate that no company is outright good or bad, and Costco is definitely pretty low on my bad list (perhaps deserving of being viewed more neutrally by me), the general view definitely seems to vary from mine so perhaps it's worth reassessing.

As to your notes on Amazon again, I 100%, utterly, could not agree more, I just apparently missed them on my list and have since edited them in! Definitely an awful awful company, it astounds me furthermore how virtually everyone is unanimous on this, but nonetheless virtually everyone seems to use them anyways. Some others in the comments swayed my views on Hyundai to change, but I believe my views on Costco stand, based on the replies of some others, it seems the policies of Costco vary somewhat where I live vs. other countries (e.g., using bouncers instead of machines at the door, disallowing people from using even the food court without a card, etc.) so that might factor into why my views on them are different. Thanks for your input, I'll be looking into Costco more about their profit model!

Last minute addition: I did a bit of looking and it seems we're both partially right, while Costco offers some items at cost or at a loss, they do indeed turn a profit off of actual sales in store(again, perhaps this is different by country, and might not be the case where you live?), as well as membership fees, and profit margins on eCommerce sales as well.

At all the Costcos where I live, there is staff rather than a machine at the very front door that prevents entry without a membership, even to the food court. I think it's much more likely that their policies vary from country to country, rather than their being a rogue sect of policy breakers in my city. I don't think my view of Costco based of the customer experience I've had there is any indication of lunacy, I've had a bad time there, and so it's okay I don't like it. Just like it's okay that you do. I'm glad you've seemed to have had a more positive experience, and they definitely do treat their staff better than some. My issues with subscription based models, and land development with Costco remains though and I don't think my opinions changed.

I hope you have a good day and that people's differing opinions on Costco isn't nearly so upsetting for you in the future!

This 100% is NOT an ordered list, maybe I'll edit and make that clear. I just didn't have the time or energy to order this properly, if you're curious though my top 5 might look something like 1. Facebook/Meta, 2. Apple, 3. Google, 4. Nestle, 5. Amazon. There's of course companies that are obvious that I didn't included, virtually any gambling company, tobacco company, gun companies (although that's less universal depending on your views on gun laws which is another can of worms we perhaps don't need to open here), oil and gas company, etc. Thanks for pointing that out so I can clear that up!

I've definitely had some good discourse on Hyundai above and have learned alot, I still wouldn't put them in my bad list, but they might not be in my good list anymore either?

I'm curious as to why you disagree on Plex and rPi? My knowledge of them to be fair is far from exhaustive, but to massively simplify they're on my good list because of (plex) how open, flexible, and ownership of your own media focused it is vs. every company buying out shows from each other and subscription feeing users into oblivion, and (rPi) their education focus for kids, tinkering and repairing attitude, and making open useful little chips without being part of the hellish behemoths of other tech companies. Thanks for sharing!

I was hoping someone would mention that :) Man, their devotion to continue just making outright pieces of art, with incredible passion, and a seemingly small niche fanbase is something I can't not respect the hell out of. No gimmicks, no DLCs, no selling out. They've just been doing what they love since their days of browser games, and never stopped making those types of games. Good guys.

She is, thanks for asking. And to be fair to Old Spice it was probably a fairly localized issue, and isn't some massive awful pattern of being a bad company, but call it my personal vendetta, it's forever marked them for me, particularly given their response.

You do need to be a member, or accompanied by a member to enter the building and buy it though (at least where I live, perhaps this rule is different in different places?)