If you want to pay for audiobooks, Libro.FM is a DRM free alternative that allows you to easily download your books without any issues that Libation solves for. It also supports local bookstores in your community while not giving more to Amazon. Only a handful of books aren’t available on Libro but it’s been a seamless transition for us. It’s only going to be difficult if you’re one of those folks who returns/refunds audible credits regularly as it’s not easy to do with Libro.
I mean, words could be said about Kyrsten Sinema but I think this is far more appropriate of a summary of her time as a politician...
I don't know when I started saying "Pound it" when I would hold my hand out and ask for my dog's paw, but it's always fun and elicits a laugh from anyone who doesn't already know it.
I read this article earlier in the week about how Biden's policy on the Israel-Gaza war may hand the election to Trump, and the last sentence has really stuck with me.
The president’s aides have reportedly been “keeping him in a bubble” regarding voters’ unhappiness with his Israel-Gaza policy. If this Michigan result isn’t what bursts it, then they need to step in and do it themselves.
While phrased in the context of this specific policy, it's this political bubble in Washington DC that needs to pop. I'm astonished at how close this election is. We all know what Trump's about. We've seen this before. Joe Biden cannot seem to get out of the way by either stepping down or pretending to be the communist antifa leader the right will paint him as anyway to securing a victory for anyone NOT Trump. Instead he's content to let us slide into a second Trump Presidency.
I have believed since 2015/2016 that literally anyone else against Hillary or anyone else against Trump would have won in a landslide. No one really liked the candidates. Trump appealed to voters because he promised to go to Washington and stick a thumb in the eye of the establishment. It wasn't Russian interference. The populist message has always done so well regardless of political party because we all see how broken the system is and candidates like Obama, Sanders, and even Trump capitalize on that message to win hearts and minds. Whether or not they actually follow through is secondary (sadly). At this point no one buys that Joe Biden is a "man of the people" regardless of how many Amtrak trains he rides.
But then we're left with even comments here arguing "Trump would be worse" with the implication being "Biden is bad, Trump would be worse". And I get it. This well and truly sucks that it looks like we're going to have two of the oldest Presidential candidates fighting it out yet again from the major parties. I'm fortunate enough to live somewhere that won't ever go for Trump, so I can vote my conscience instead of having to pick the least bad option. Others can't make that call though.
All that to say it's all frankly exhausting and terrible. I think everyone has to decide for themselves how existential of a threat Trump is and vote accordingly. I'm open to the argument that Democrats at least have some amount of shame and can bow to pressure. The conflict in Israel-Gaza is going to be a real test of how they pivot and actually meet the voters where they are.
Seconding the Secretlab chair. For someone who works from home and would play PC games at the exact same desk when work ended, it made sense to invest in a chair beyond my $30 IKEA one and has held up pretty well over the last several years.
Shitty, because we're potty training.
Luckily the kiddo is doing better more than not, but we're having issues with daycare. They said they would "follow our lead" on what we're doing, how we want to approach this, etc...but the reality is not that. And I get it, they have 15 kids to manage and you can't have someone pooping their pants and not telling them about it, it's more just our own frustration that the teachers/admin said one thing and we're seeing another (and never sat down to map some of this out). A lot of our frustration would have been solved if they said how they do things and we could adjust to their style. This is really the first time we've been disappointed in our daycare, it's been fantastic otherwise ever since we started with them.
Plus the poor kid fell in the toilet at school last week because they were playing too much/not paying attention (not at all shocking to me TBH) and has been terrified of the school toilet ever since. The upside is at home over the last weekend, we're calling it one and a half accidents in 2 days, with several longer outings/trips in there.
In non-bathroom news, work slogs on, child #2 is shockingly imminent for us, and I'm mad at my wife for introducing me to The Traitors because I've had a blast watching it and I'm not usually a reality tv person.
The best part of it too was for Wi-Fi calling, if it was off, couldn't be turned on since it relied on AT&T's website/capabilities to approve and authenticate. That was at least my experience as well as my family's.
So if you hadn't already enabled it before the outage, you literally couldn't turn it on.
I thought this article from Vox did a good job laying out how it could fall in Trump's favor.
Taking Trump out of the equation for a moment, I do find resonance with the argument that a state shouldn't be able to disqualify someone from a national election and that a decision like that should sit at the federal level. I'll also echo circularfish in that I don't trust Republican states to fairly apply this standard. It seems like something Democrat-controlled states might do because they believe in rules/institutions so they'll only do it when pressured, if even then. Republican-controlled states will do to score points on Fox/OAN against anyone from Joe Manchin and leftwards on the political spectrum.
Enjoying it a lot, maybe ~12h in or so?
I put about 30h into Valheim and this feels like it will play out a similar way. I'll have a blast for a concentrated time, maybe play with a friend or two, then find something else. I thought the mishmash of realistic world and cute cartoony monsters would clash but it's working for me. Just starting to see the loop of automation and what to look for in a second base. It has a charming amount of jank attached to it.
I spent most of my time yesterday rebuilding my base after one of those grass elephants attacked us for no obvious reason, then a bunch of WAY higher level Relaxasaurus raided alongside the elephant and burned my base down.
It's also not necessarily easier, but more understandable, for roles such as HR, marketing, etc...yes, it's still someone's job but one company probably doesn't need two HR teams worth of people and cuts accordingly.
Message being that everyone should have their head on a swivel during a merger and that goes double for those jobs that provide day-to-day business support to keep things running.
100%. And going down that path you can start to enter into the whole "OK, so all companies are bad or do bad things, but I also need to be a functioning member of society."
I can hate what Shell/Marathon/BP are doing to the environment but I also need to make sure my car gets me to work. Google or Apple can enact terrible policies I disagree with but generally speaking I have to deal with them to have a cell phone. Easier when we're discussing a piece of artwork (not a core need in life) but it's where my comment about a system that incentivizes "bad people" really came from.
So I think my moral philosophy is actually closest to show The Good Place now that I see it written out!
We just had our second kid so any games have to basically be on the phone right now. Luckily, someone mentioned Wildfrost in the same breath as Slay the Spire and it has been awesome to play while holding the little one.
It’s a card/deck builder rogue like, but you’re deploying units into one of two lanes and positioning them for maximum effect. Each unit counts down until it attacks, but you have a handful of cards to directly attack as well. You run until you fight the final boss, unlock more stuff along the way, etc…it’s been a blast. The art style is cute (how big can Yuki’s snowball get? Try and find out!) and I love the soundtrack.
On iOS at least, the game is free to download and try out before purchasing (think it was $7). If you like Slay the Spire and similar games, well worth looking into!