ArbitraryValue

@ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works

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ArbitraryValue, (edited )

Maybe this isn’t the answer you’re looking for: my job is my passion and the idea of retiring sounds horrible. I image it will only happen when I’m too senile to keep doing what I love, and that’s clearly not something to look forward to. But who knows… I know old people who are tired and just want to rest.

(I got lucky, since I happened to be passionate about computer programming. I know most other people don’t have the same option.)

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

The game starts out hard and then gets easier as you get more tools, but there’s a low-level build that helps you even the odds until your other characters catch up…

Bring Karlach and have her throw things. She gets two attacks a turn at level 3 with the Berserker subclass and Enraged Throw (most other classes have to wait until at least level 5 for a second attack), an enormous boost to her damage and accuracy from Tavern Brawler at level 4, and then a third attack at level 5. Potions of Haste or Elixirs of Bloodlust give her even more attacks, and certain magic items boost throw damage significantly. You can buy a reusable throwing spear for her in the goblin camp, but even before that you will have lots of javelins, axes, and daggers to throw. You just need to pick them all back up after the fight.

(Some people say that throw barbarians make the game boring, but Karlach can pick up and throw small characters like goblins. This never gets old. Imagine that Karlach is about to win the NBA championship for you with a three-pointer, the basketball is a goblin, and the basket is another goblin.)

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

Hah, or you can be me. I grew up in New York City with the ability to go pretty much anywhere unsupervised and I never did - I spent all my free time either reading books or playing videogames anyway. I had almost zero interest in the real world (I think it’s pretty boring even now that I’ve been an adult for a while) but I still feel like there was something wasteful about not bothering to experience things that so many other kids would have really enjoyed.

The worst part was college. I attended a famous party school but went to zero parties, zero dates, etc. At least I managed to graduate in three years with a double major. (By the time I got to college, I did want more social interaction but I thought that I was incapable of it so I didn’t try.)

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

A couple of years ago I got fed up with replacing phones because the battery wouldn’t hold a charge, so I bought a new-in-box, then-six-year-old LG V20. It has some problems, chiefly bizarrely poor reception, but by God it has a removable battery and a headphone jack! I was going to replace it with the Fairphone when that came to the USA but when I saw how expensive the Fairphone was, I decided to stick with the V20.

(The funny thing is that by the time I need to replace the battery, I probably won’t be able to buy one anymore.)

ArbitraryValue,

Renting out property does create wealth. Think of a house as a factory that produces shelter. Running the factory, as opposed to leaving it idle, increases the amount of shelter in the world, and shelter is a form of wealth.

ArbitraryValue,

Did you read the article that you’re linking to? Rent seeking in the economic sense does not mean purchasing property in order to rent it out to tenants.

ArbitraryValue,

Well, yes - George W. Bush appears in retrospect to have been sincere. Some of the other powerful supporters of the war did profit from it, but at the expense of American taxpayers rather than Iraqis.

ArbitraryValue,

This meme contains a common accusation from 20 years ago, but I think it’s odd that it is being posted in 2024, long after it became clear that whatever the purpose of the invasion of Iraq actually was, it wasn’t to obtain oil wealth.

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

I had a six-month-long marriage. My ex-wife was not a nice person and everyone else could see it almost immediately, but I was swept away by how determined to be with me she was. It felt so good to have a woman who was attractive, successful, and very, very interested in me. Too good to be true, as it turned out. I’m not sure exactly what was wrong with her - something like borderline personality disorder? Once I committed to her, she became very jealous and would go from sweet to angry frequently and with no provocation. Although she only ever yelled at me, I was scared of her.

I’ve made mistakes in my life that were good for me because they were learning experiences. My marriage wasn’t one of them - I wish that it had never happened. However, I did still learn from it:

  1. Don’t look down so much on people who make obvious, foolish mistakes. You might end up as one of them. I didn’t think I was the kind of person who would ever get divorced but here I am…
  2. Admitting that you made a big mistake feels terrible, but the real problem is the big mistake, not the admission of it. I was a fool to be married for just six months, but I would have been a bigger fool if I stayed in that marriage longer than that. I’m still ashamed that I married my ex, but I’m proud that I had the courage to leave.
  3. Time does heal wounds. All my hopes and dreams about the future with her were garbage, my judgement was no better than that of a daytime talk-show guest, and my humiliation was known to every single person who was important to me, since they were all at my wedding. Then years passed, and while I still haven’t spoken to some more distant relatives simply because I don’t want to explain that I’m not with my ex-wife any more, I have in fact moved on with my life.
ArbitraryValue, (edited )

Use more save or sucks.

How are you getting reliable success with any spell that allows for a saving throw? I’m seeing pretty terrible odds with my bard’s offensive enchantment spells (on Tactician difficulty).

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

hāt tomāt

Tomatoes were one of the few things my dog wouldn’t eat.

ArbitraryValue,

I wish the track my life is on went through a nice peaceful forest like that :)

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

The guy on the right is carefree and full of joy compared to a guy who walks to the auto-parts store.

ArbitraryValue,

I’m surprised that they would let random people get that close to royalty after what happened in 1914.

ArbitraryValue,

Just to clarify: he wasn’t completely wild. He was well-socialized and he wasn’t aggressive about food - you could safely stick your hand in his mouth and pull food out. Beyond that, I didn’t bring him to places where he could get in trouble that way.

I get that “badly trained” can mean various things including simply neglecting a dog, but in the context of this meme I just meant that my dog wanted to eat whatever people were eating (in moderation) and he whined a lot if someone refused to play with him.

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

People would tell me that my dog was badly trained, but the way I see it, being trained isn’t fun. I have to be trained because I need to be able to earn money and survive in the real world, but my dog didn’t need a job and he asked for so little - why wouldn’t I provide him everything he wanted?

Plus it was absolutely hilarious when he would gradually lure guests away from the dinner table by being adorable and then when they were far enough from it, he would dash back to it faster than they could and eat their food.

ArbitraryValue,

That’s why one ought to drive at the speed of light, the one speed that everyone can agree on.

ArbitraryValue,

Bunkers? Burn? The air will still be breathable and the temperature will still be within the livable range. Global warming is a big problem, but it isn’t going to turn the planet into an uninhabitable wasteland, just as it didn’t during the multiple times in the past when it happened naturally.

ArbitraryValue,

Isn’t that a national poll, as opposed to a poll of Maine residents? I’m talking specifically about Maine, not about the USA as a whole.

Or “oppose the second amendment”, as you propagandistically say, because you dont have facts on your side.

Generally people who quibble about the term “well-regulated militia” do specifically oppose the second amendment. But the constitution of Maine doesn’t have that ambiguity:

Every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and this right shall never be questioned.

ArbitraryValue,

Maine is a state where almost half the households have guns. I don’t think opponents of the second amendment are going to find a lot of support there even after yesterday’s mass shooting.

ArbitraryValue,

People advocating for gun control aren’t necessarily opponents of the 2nd amendment, but people talking about well-regulated militias usually are. What’s the point of bringing up that strange phrase unless you don’t think that the 2nd amendment’s right to bear arms applies to everyone regardless of membership in some sort of militia?

ArbitraryValue,

I knew I was an adult when I started hoping that if I got sick, I would get sick on the weekend.

ArbitraryValue, (edited )

This doesn’t look right. Global temperatures have been a lot higher than what’s depicted here (Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum) and the Earth didn’t turn into an uninhabitable desert. That link is to a time when temperatures were approximately 14 degrees Celsius higher than now!

CORRECTON: I originally wrote “25 degrees Celsius” but that is wrong. The correct value is 25 degrees Fahrenheit, which corresponds to about 14 degrees Celsius.

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous_Thermal_Maximum#/media/File:All_palaeotemps.png. An increase of 4 degrees Celsius would match the climate at the peaks between the cycles of ice ages (last such peak: about 100,000 years ago). The Earth would actually still be colder than it has been most of the time since the origin of life.

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