What addon is that? Its very frustrating using LinkedIn and having to click through so many pages of useless results, especially all the listings from other job boards.

I’ve definitely felt this. I have applied to quite a few roles that I am highly qualified for and get the “we selected someone else” email and then see the role posted again a few weeks later. I wouldn’t necessarily expect to get every job I apply for, but I would expect to get a screening interview for most of them.

I bought these and started DAO again a couple days ago. I had them on console before, but it was cheap enough to add to my Steam account. I loaded up a ton of mods this time. So far I’m having fun, but it crashes a lot, so I’m quick saving constantly. I’m not sure if the crashing is the game, my laptop, or the mods. I’m assuming its the mods and so far don’t care enough to figure out which one(s). The good news is, I can go from desktop to loaded game in about 30 seconds, which is a nice change from modern games that take forever to load.

For those commenting on EA, if you buy on Steam you’ll get a launcher, but you don’t need the EA app to play (at least for DAO, I haven’t gotten to the others yet). However, if you just don’t want to give your $7 to EA (after Steam’s cut), that’s totally understandable.

Sugar Bee and Rockit apples!

From A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (1890):

But when I saw them put the noose around his neck, then everything let go in me and I made a spring to the rescue—and as I made it I shot one more glance abroad—by George! here they came, a-tilting!—five hundred mailed and belted knights on bicycles!

The grandest sight that ever was seen. Lord, how the plumes streamed, how the sun flamed and flashed from the endless procession of webby wheels!

I waved my right arm as Launcelot swept in—he recognized my rag —I tore away noose and bandage, and shouted:

“On your knees, every rascal of you, and salute the king! Who fails shall sup in hell to-night!”

Mine has integrated graphics plus a dedicated card that it will switch to for higher demand applications. I was not aware of USB to HDMI, I’ll check that out. I don’t game when docked, so I only need the integrated graphics for that purpose. If that resolves my issue for now, I can put off a new purchase until I feel spendy enough to buy one of those Framework laptops!

I have one and it would probably work for my needs when docked, but I mainly use my laptop as a laptop. Its frustrating that such an inconsequential part (the HDMI port) is making me consider replacing an otherwise functioning laptop. Trying to get it repaired is probably the smarter option, its a shame laptops aren’t more user repairable. It definitely makes the Framework laptop that people are recommending appealing if I decide I’m willing to spend some money.

Magic brownies sound amazing! Maybe I should move back to California.

That Framework seems like overkill, but I really like the idea. Maybe I’ll hold out a little while until I see what my job situation is and if things go well I can reward myself! 😀

Wow, looking at some of the system specs I was thinking, “who even needs 64GB of RAM?” I don’t think I’ve ever had a system with more than 16GB. But I suppose there was a time when people thought the same about 512KB. I probably wouldn’t shop used, but maybe refurb. I never buy extended warranties, but I do like having the initial guarantee when I buy a new device.

Everything else you mentioned is way outside my knowledge; I could probably learn, but I would rather just have something that works. I used to love getting into the technical stuff, but now I just want to turn on my device and use it.

I’ve never cared about running high quality graphics, medium is fine for me. I’m more concerned with fan noise than graphics. My current system is fine for things like Skyrim and Sims 4, but for something like BG3 I’m streaming from my desktop.

Is there a reverse version of this where all the brownies are middle brownies? That’s the version I want.

This looks great! Is the dead wood juniper also?

Its not always sinister, sometimes its just the petty bureaucracy of HR trying to standardize things to benefit themselves. I once got switched from salary to hourly because HR was trying to align job titles across departments.

My title at the time was Sr. Analyst and they were switching to a numerical title system. My boss said to write up a justification for why I should be slotted as an Analyst 3, which would stay salary, otherwise I would be slotted as an hourly Analyst 2. I asked if there was any benefit to the higher title and was told no, so I declined and was switched to hourly. For me it was fantastic because I regularly worked over 40 hours and traveled frequently, so I started getting lots of overtime pay.

I don’t find it worthwhile to spend mental energy thinking about food, so I eat the same things constantly (though I occasionally change the menu). My wife doesn’t like eating the same thing more than a couple of times in a row, so she always wants to make something different, but is constantly stressing about what to plan for meals. She reinforces my view that food planning is not worth mental energy.

I haven’t tried it yet, but A Little to the Left looks like a fun organizing game. It was just added to Game Pass if you have that. I also see my daughter playing Power Washer Simulator sometimes, which I haven’t tried, but it looks like it could be satisfying to play.

I’m a big fan of Don’t Nod games (Life is Strange, Tell Me Why) for atmospheric storytelling. Life is Strange: True Colors is from Deck Nine games, but falls in the same category. Detroit: Become Human is also kind of similar, but it occasionally throws in sections where you have to quickly react with button pushing that I don’t enjoy. One thing I find interesting about all of these is that you can play them more than once with different choices to get different paths, but so far I haven’t replayed any of them because I felt like the path I took was meaningful and I don’t want to change my story yet.

An MMO could be a good way to go. My wife isn’t really into gaming, but we played WoW together on and off for years. I haven’t played them much, but if I were to recommend one to start with now I’d probably check out Final Fantasy 14 or Elder Scrolls Online.

My regret is buying a grinder with a timer instead of a scale. For a while I got consistent results from it, but now I get wildly different quantities from day to day. I want to replace it with one that works better, but haven’t been able to justify the cost yet.

This is essentially the same way that my employer sets pay ranges.

They send a list of job titles and descriptions to an outside company along with the number of employees and how much each of those employees are paid. Lots of other employers send their info and the outside company tries to match up all the job descriptions and then sends back to all of the employers what the “market range” is for every job.

My employer then decides where in that range they think is “competitive” (hint: its near the bottom). That’s the amount HR and Finance are willing to approve when hiring someone into a role, regardless of experience. The wages are only “competitive” if every other employer goes along with the scheme and offers the same amount.

I agree with this recommendation. After taxes, paying off the loan is probably slightly more profitable and improves your monthly cash flow.

Its only temporary, those employees will be eliminated later under more lax labor laws.