Me too. I was going to be a preacher. I went and studied at a place where people from all around the world (mostly Africa) came to live and study. I met some interesting people and I loved the experience.
That was going to be my life. I thought nothing was more important than saving eternal souls.
I met the only atheist I had ever known at that point. I was 17. I just couldn’t convince him. He told me to go online and look at other religions. Not the religions themselves, but the people who practiced them. He asked me to observe their passion and relate it to my own. He said that if I asked the right questions I’d come to the same conclusions as him. He wasn’t trying to convince me, he wanted me to convince myself.
On my desktop pc I have almost every file I’ve downloaded since 1998. Seriously.
Want that old specific version of Nero to burn CDs, I probably have you. Looking for abandonware? Yeah, that was my thing for awhile.
I used to have operating systems I can’t find any record of existing these days (mostly front ends for DOS made to seem more modern in the early 00s). I had something that made Windows 3.1 look like Windows 95, I even had something that made Windows 98 look just like Mac OS 8 (no shit, it layered over windows and everything flawlessly).
I had every version of Mandrake Linux and several versions after the rename.
Tonnns of software to extend the life of 16 bit hardware.
I still have several screeners in 240p from the early 2000s with the audience moving around and laughing in them.
I have a decent collection of Nirvana bootlegs I downloaded from FTP servers way back in the day.
Man I miss the old internet. I’m getting old and that’s part of it I guess.
I find myself hoarding on the Steam Deck desktop too. Something about having a wide open file system just brings that impulse out in me.
His performance in Encino Man moved me to tears. When he wheezed the juice in that wheezing the juice scene I couldn’t breathe. The cashier had such a small role, but my god was it powerful. “No wheezing the juuuuuuh uuuuice!”
When I found out the caveman started a band I was ecstatic. Part 2 wasn’t as good as the first one, but it was still pretty good.
As someone working in my family’s gas stations for the last two decades, this is something that happens at least a few times a month for me.
9 times out of 10 the big winners have sat and played on a roll until it hits something and they move on to the next making it nearly impossible for an average, non addicted customer to get anything. The gambling addicts will spend 200k to win 10k and jump up and down like the 10k winner is going to change they life.
Customers who always share their winnings, I point them to the ticket that hasn’t hit in awhile. Customers who aggravate me and bounce in front of people like someone pissing themselves at a slot machine, I lie and tell them a ticket hasn’t hit even if it has. It’s probably wrong, but my thinking goes that the longer a particular ticket has gone without hitting, the closer it is to a winner. Someone smarter than me can probably call me an idiot on that one.
Pointing people to winners (which is a total freak thing every time I do) has paid me probably 6k in the last 20 years. If decent folks think you assisted them in their luck, they always want to share in the luck.
I’m sorry I’ve pretty much just sat and typed nothing here. Too far in to back out now. :p
I’m in Appalachia. If I worked in an adult bookstore my boss would be an evangelical. Haha
Holy rollers, holy rollers everywhere.
Each and every day of my life someone preaches to me. I just smile and carry on.
Had a really weird 81 year old man in my store yesterday. He said, “I was down ‘are at ‘tuh moose lodge with my girlfriend and some feller flirted with her. My buddy said, “now don’t go fightin’ eem. You don’t wanna git in no trouble.” And I told him I didn’t have to fight him. The lord would take care of him. A few weeks later his cayncer came back. Other night my dead wife was laying in the bed holding our baby that died. She asked me to put a blanket on her. I wanted to talk to her but I guess the lord didn’t want me to speak. Not everybody can see spirits. Only a select few people. I’ve seen spirits all my life.”
Part of me is jealous of these folks. They think they’re gonna live forever and trust that everything will work out. Meanwhile I’m worrying about my health and that everything isn’t going to work out. :p
Ah yes. The poorest people are the smokers, let’s just make them more miserable. Sounds about right.
You should work at a place that sells cigarettes for awhile and scope out the customers. I’ve seen people count pennies and cry because they’re hungry but they’d rather not experience the anxiety of nicotine withdrawal.