@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

JCPhoenix

@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org

Internet Addict. Reddit refugee. Motorsports Enthusiast. Gamer. Traveler. Napper.

He/Him.

Also @JCPhoenix. @jcphoenix

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JCPhoenix,
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While I have my W-2 and a bunch of 1099s and 1098s from various banks, I’m still waiting on a few more things. But yeah, definitely silly that I have to gather these forms, tabulate them in the 1040, and technically send them off to the IRS, when these banks have also filed these with the government already. Electronic filing or not, it’s annoying. It doesn’t take me long to do my taxes, maybe like 1-2hrs (and admittedly I use H&R Block via the IRS’ Free File program), but still. So stupid.

The IRS is trialing a “Direct File” system this year, but it’s not open to everyone. Hopefully that turns out alright. I know that still requires people to file in the first place, but I still think it’ll eventually get us to a point where the government “files for us” and we simply confirm the amounts. Anything that removes the influence of the proprietary tax software companies is a plus in my book.

JCPhoenix, (edited )
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Movies and TV are some peoples’ hobbies. I have a co-worker who used to spend $300/mo on a cable bill because she had all the movie channels and stuff. She watched tons of movies and shows. At first I thought she was weird for watching so much TV, but then I thought about how much gaming I do, and realized “Oh, that’s just her hobby like gaming is mine.” Granted, I’m not spending $300/mo on gaming, but people do tend to spend money on hobbies. Sometimes even more than $300/mo.

Anyway, I’ve been letting her use my Netflix account – surprisingly neither of us have seen anything from Netflix about it – for the last several years. She recently (finally) got a Smart TV so she cancelled her crazy-ass cable package and I think pays for YouTube TV now. I’m sure she’s watching just as much as TV and movies as ever, but at least she’s saving some money.

JCPhoenix,
@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

Gotcha, apologies for the misread!

Honestly, I was surprised too. I guess given how ubiquitous movies and television are, it never really occurred to me that it could be a hobby. And I bet most people don’t think of it as a hobby, either. When I think of a hobby related to TV/Movies, I think more like “film snobs” (for lack of a better term). Maybe people who watch the AFI 100 or whatever and know all about film and cinematography. But not people just watching TV like anyone else. But by definition, it’s a hobby. It’s “a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation.”

For my coworker, she’s single and childless. So she has tons of time to watch movies and shows outside of work. I’m the same, but I devote it mainly towards gaming. Though I could certainly stand to devote less time to my hobby. Or pick up some new ones at least!

Hope you’ll be able to find some more time to watch the movies and show you want!

Why are redditors like this?

I made a post on r/civ (Civilization games subreddit) showing a really funky shaped randomly generated river I saw and most comments were fine but one guy was convinced that I went through the comparatively monumental effort of opening the map editor and changing the river for karma, as opposed to just starting the game and...

JCPhoenix,
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I noticed the same a couple months ago. After the API shutdown stuff happened, I largely left reddit. I would only go there for things I needed, like information and news related to my field.

But in October, I started going back more, and even commenting. And almost immediately, I got the “well ackshually…” comments and just so much unneeded aggression. People just looking to be right by ignoring 99% of the correct information in a comment and focusing on that 1% that’s weak or, sure, wrong. And it was over dumb stuff, too.

After being on reddit for 13yrs straight, I guess I learned to be blind to it all. Like I knew it was happening, I saw it all the time, and I’m sure I know I even did it myself here and there. Hell, I was/am still a mod on a reddit; I saw it everyday. I did start getting tired of reddit and redditors about a year ago, but I just kinda brushed it aside.

Anyway, it wasn’t until leaving and going to Beehaw and Tildes for a few months, and then going back, that I realized how bad it actually was on reddit. It’s so glaring to me in threads all over the place. And that there was no desire to improve or change things. That that’s just reddit’s culture and that’s how redditors like it.

As such, I’ve still kinda kept some distance from reddit. I’m still there, but I don’t think I’ll ever go back to how I was using the site pre-APIgate.

Further, I actually get angry when I see people on Lemmy engage in that redditesque way of just looking for confrontation and being smartasses. We left reddit; why are we bringing that mentality with us? If I saw someone on a Beehaw community acting that way, I call it out.

That’s one of the reasons I support Beehaw potentially leaving Lemmy to do its own thing. I see Tildes and see how a standalone forum and community can exist and function well and productively, without all the “gotchas” and just unnecessary aggression. That’s not to say Beehaw (or Tildes) is perfect. That behavior can be found everywhere. But at least there’s a desire to try to stamp that out.

JCPhoenix,
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We’re suppose to have our first big snow storm of the season, starting today. 4-6 inches (~10-15cm) or more. Currently only like an inch of snow. That said, as is often said in the Midwest: “It’s really coming down out there.”

More importantly, I told my boss, the CEO, about my job offer. I’ve had this job offer on the table for like the last 7mo, but the processing has taken forever (it’s a government job). On Friday, he sent me an email that he’s promoting me to a director (which was surprising to say the least). So I felt that I had to finally tell him. I didn’t want for him to announce to everyone he’s promoting me, only for me to be like “Yeah thanks bossman…I’m out. Cya!” I feel like that might humiliate him. Should I care? Maybe not. But he’s been a good boss to me. I feel like I owe it to him to not put him in that position. I’ve worked for him for like 7yrs total and he’s treated me well.

Obviously he’s less than enthused, but he gets it. I’ve been trying to get to a government job for awhile and to move out of here and he knows this. This isn’t my official notice; there’s a chance that something happens and I lose the job offer. But at least he knows what’s going on. He can figure out if he wants to put the promotion on pause or what.

JCPhoenix, (edited )
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This is the third time I’ve seen this referenced. I looked this up and now I feed stupider for having read anything about it.

JCPhoenix,
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I mentioned on another discussion board that I may have to start factoring in the plane manufacturer as I choose flights. Which is insane in this day and age. Unfortunately, Southwest is the carrier with the most flights and direct routes at my home airport, and Southwest only flies Boeing 737s. Plus, SWA is trying to replace their older 737s with 737 MAX models.

I’ve started flying Delta some last year, but like you said, Delta has both Boeing and Airbus in their fleet. But even if I did only choose Airbus flights with Delta, it’s not like they (and all other carriers) don’t sometimes change planes at the last minute, as needs dictate. Rarely, if ever, would I have the luxury to be like “Nope, nevermind, I’m not getting on that plane,” if that were to happen.

I know air travel is super, super, super safe compared to all other forms of transportation. You’re right that the odds of an incident are incredibly slim, given there are several tens of thousands of commercial passenger flights across the world each day that move millions of people. But boy does it feel like Boeing is aiming to change that, just so they can get some more pennies and dollars here and there. Shameful.

JCPhoenix, (edited )
@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

I had a good Christmas. Actually got to have a Christmas with my family this year. Last year, I got caught up in that Southwest Airlines meltdown so I didn’t get to spend it with my family. I avoided that this year by flying Delta down to my folks (and SWA did have some issues in the run-up to Xmas again this year due to weather at Chicago-Midway causing some chaos across the SWA system). Still flew SWA home; in fact got home about 30min ago.

Debating whether to go see my friends later today. It’s a 5hr drive and basically today is the only day I can go, and then I have to be back by Friday night. It’s currently 3:30a here. So if I decide to do this, I’d have to leave by noon at the latest. So we’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Nothing big planned for NYE. Probably just get a bottle of champagne for myself and some Chinese takeout, as usual.

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays, got some time off, and some time for R&R, too!

JCPhoenix, (edited )
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It’s been a thing for a while now. I picked some up bedbugs while doing US domestic travel in like 2014/15. It was awful. Spread to a second room in the house before we were able to stop them and get rid of them.

But there are occasionally media panics about it. That said, better to be somewhat proactive with it. It’s cheaper to buy an anti-bed bug bag and be vigilant than is to deal with them. If you’re lucky, it’s just a lot of cleaning-up, wiping down all surfaces with bedbug sprays, lots of washing of clothes (even clean ones), and throwing out things that appear to be infested. At worse, it could be several hundred dollars or more of intensive professional services that aren’t even guaranteed to get rid of them. Either way, it’s fucking miserable.

What VPN do you use and why?

If you are a pirate VPN is an essential tool. I am trying to ascertain the popularity of various VPNs in piracy community. In this excerise, I will list several Popular VPNs in the comment if you use one of them just upvote that comment and reply the reason. If you don’t find your VPN listed add a comment with just their name....

JCPhoenix,
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I’ve only gotten two strikes in my life, 7-8yrs ago. And I feel like this was because my brother was downloading then recent, popular movies (which I almost never do). But before that, never did, without a VPN, and I used to pirate a lot more. Even further back, used to have a roommate who would go on movie and show torrenting sprees. We never got strikes. And that was when commercial VPNs weren’t really a thing yet, but copyright strikes were well known. I’ve known others who’ve never gotten strikes either.

So I’d say no, not 100% necessary at all. But it’s free or cheap enough to mitigate the risk. So that’s why I use one when I do pirate, which is rare these days.

JCPhoenix,
@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

Windscribe. Mainly because I scored a cheap lifetime deal many years ago. It works well enough. Got two ISP copyright strikes before using Windscribe. Have yet to get another since using Windscribe (knock on wood). But I also don’t pirate as much as I used to.

JCPhoenix,
@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

Gotcha, yeah that checks out. I guess I never made that connection, even though I use TOR and torrent here and there. Probably also because I’m more concerned about download speeds over privacy when torrenting. And regular web traffic over TOR is often insanely slow compared to the clearnet.

Ever since getting a copyright strike several years ago, I’ve switched to using a commercial VPN while torrenting. I don’t know if that’s the all-in-one solution for hiding from my ISP, but it seems to work. But I also rarely torrent these days, too, so not as many opportunities for them to catch me, I suppose.

JCPhoenix,
@JCPhoenix@beehaw.org avatar

I didn’t think people torrented over TOR. Aside from the security issues (which I didn’t know about in the first place), I would think it’s gotta be insanely slow. Is it not?

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