Casual Conversation

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee

I can't imagine leaving this place. I don't have any money, and I hate having fights and following rules in my family apartment but I just can't survive alone and rent a place especially since I can't divide the bills with anyone. I'm paying the electricity bills and stuff but it's getting harder especially without a job.

Also my family is renting the house, we don't really own a place in this country. But that's the reality we live.

Teenage me in 1994 trying to combine helpfulness and knowitallness. Some things never change.

I hope Rudy got that Ultrastar and other cool stuff too.

And I was SOOO close to truly being a part of the original hordes of eternal September, but I was really about 9-12 months too late.

Feel free to have a look at

• !movies@lemm.ee
• !showsandmovies@lemm.ee
• !animation@lemm.ee

I think many of us have noticed the trend that modern tech just... Doesn't make things better. There's little to be excited about, because anything even remotely innovative is going to be filled with tracking, ads, etc.

Let's say you had a bored software engineer or 2 at your disposal and the goal was to improve something you do often, by creating an application or website that isn't owned and enshittified by a megacorp looking to extract maximum short term value - what would your project be? Is it something you'd be willing to pay for, maybe with a free tier available?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm a software engineer and in the current hard-ass market, while I'm lucky enough to have a stable job, I know that experience alone isn't cutting it anymore in the recruitment process. You need to be able to show side projects too. Plus I have an unemployed software engineer friend who also has no interesting projects to show. So if we make any money out of it, that's awesome. If we don't, it's just something for our github accounts. Probably the latter.

PS: Yes, I know this is not a tech community - I want ideas from regular, non-techy people too.

PPS: This doesn't have to be something in your personal life, it could also be something that would help you at work if you had it.

I was asking myself what makes for good reading. Perhaps it is relatable acumen, technical prowess, or a philosophically well defined notion brought to sharp focus from beyond the edge of my conscious awareness.

!

What do you appreciate, about others? Is it ultimately their moments of showpersonship, albeit based on any realm of thought? From kindness to empathy, from technical knowledge to relentless dependability; are all spaces ultimately a platform of performance and success or appreciation correlated with the show one is willing and able to perform?

The phenomenon of video games being released in an unfinished state and then elying on updates over time is a unique aspect of gaming culture. Something other forms of art and media like film, music, or literature would never really rely upon.

In these more traditional forms, the expectation is that once a work is released, it is a finished product, with little room for major changes post-release. You would never expect a director to release a movie, only to say, "we'll fix the CGI in a few months," or a musician to drop an album with the promise of better mixing later.

1. Interactive Complexity

Video games are inherently interactive, meaning that they have to account for a wide variety of player inputs, actions, and decisions. Unlike movies or albums, which follow a linear path from start to finish, games tend to be designed as complex systems with a multitude of possible outcomes, mechanics, and technical interactions. So finding bugs is a task relayed to the audience instead. Game developers use the player base as a form of mass testing, fixing issues after the game is in the hands of millions. This concept is almost unheard of in other media. Imagine a musician saying, "I'll release my album and let my listeners help me figure out which tracks need reworking." In gaming, however, this kind of iterative process has been normalized

2. Live Service Model

Many modern video games, especially in the AAA space, operate under a live service model, meaning that they are designed to evolve over time with regular updates, new content, and gameplay improvements. This model has fundamentally changed player expectations, as many gamers are accustomed to games receiving long-term support. In contrast, a movie or book is generally regarded as a finished product upon release, with no expectation that it will be materially altered afterward. This is part of being an interactive software I suppose and an option that comes from having a history of

3. Economic and Time Pressures

Game development is a labor-intensive, time-consuming process, often requiring years of work by large teams. Due to intense competition, marketing hype, and financial pressures from investors or publishers, many developers feel compelled to release games before they are fully polished. This is the excuse I hear most often and I have to say .... so are movies.

I've been modding a game for a few days and not on here as much. What's your excuse friend?

This post just got inspired by (trying) to sign another receipt where the restaurant had a clogged ballpoint that would write only intermittently.

I don't carry a pen with me. Most extended text I work with these days is typed, so don't use one enough to really do so, but I have thought about doing so.

There are a couple of pen communities on Lemmy (which I'll mention below, for folks who might be interested). Thought I'd get a broader cross-section view of the general public, though; pen enthusiasts tend to have their own, often kinda niche, positions.

A few years back, I decided that I'd hit up an online pen store, get a variety of pens, and see what I liked.

In general, I've found that:

• Ballpoints are the most-common pen I see in the US. They use oil-based ink. They require a high amount of pressure to write with. They are inexpensive, don't smear, and don't bleed. And they are the only option if you need to use carbon paper, like on a check, due to that high pressure. But they are also exasperatingly prone to clogging, particularly on some receipts -- not sure if it's due to some sort of coating on the receipt paper. If you particularly like a given case, you can get non-disposable pens with semi-standardized inserts to "refill" a pen; these contain a replacement tip and ink container.

• Rollerball pens or gel pens use water-based ink. I'm generally pretty enthusiastic about them; they're probably my favorite as things stand, though I grew up mostly with ballpoints. They do have some drawbacks: they are more-prone than ballpoints to smearing (for those left-handed people out there who don't write right-handed and drag their hand through fresh ink when writing, I suspect that that's especially annoying). They're more-prone than to bleeding through paper (though this depends on on the paper and ink). However, my experience has been that they do much better than ballpoints when it comes to writing consistently without clogging. They also write much more-smoothly than ballpoints; the tip's interaction with the paper is closer to "gliding" over it, is less-fatiguing than writing with a ballpoint; many people find this to be a rather-pleasant surprise if they're used to ballpoints. Larger-diameter tips are even smoother. I have no idea why I see fewer problems with clogging with these, as intuitively I'd think that "water would dry out, and oil wouldn't". But, well, I just rarely see clogging with 'em, whereas with ballpoints, it's a near-universal. As with ballpoints, you can get semi-standardized inserts to "refill" a pen if you want a non-disposable. I would encourage most people to, if they have only used ballpoints in their life, to give a rollerball a try at some point; I was significantly happier.

• Felt-tip pens have a solid core through which ink moves. I used to think of these mostly as permanent Sharpies for writing on odd surfaces (thick, not something you'd write with), highlighters (again, special-purpose, not something you'd write with) or washable, large-diameter pens for kids doing coloring or something, again not what you'd write with. But I have had some narrow-diameter felt-tip pens, and they tend to work pretty well. They don't clog. They can dry out, if you leave them uncapped, but you can normally get even those going by adding a drop of water to the tip and letting the pen sit for a while. These do have some downsides -- if you let the tip sit on one place on paper, they tend to bleed through, since it keeps dispensing ink. That's not a problem with ballpoints or rollerballs. My experience is that they have more friction than rollerballs, don't have quite the "gliding" feel. You have a lot of options as to size of the tip, can get very large ones. For writing, you probably want a narrow one; these have a metal sleeve and just expose a bit of the felt at the end. Apparently it's possible, for some of these, to get refills, though I don't believe that it's common; these come in the form of liquid ink. Normally, I believe that these are disposables.

• Fountain pens. I really thought that these were entirely-obsolete, though they certainly have some ardent fans. I've read a lot from enthusiasts about how one should clean nibs, only store them in particular orientations, etc. However, on a whim, I picked up a package of cheap disposables. I then stored them in a hot car for years, didn't clean them at all, ignored storage orientation, did pretty much everything that I was told shouldn't be done with fountain pens. They wrote without a hitch. So I decided to give 'em more of a chance. These have something of a "gliding" feel, kind of like rollerballs. The tips are a bit more-fragile than rollerballs or ballpoints, can damage them by stabbing things. The big drawback: these guys are prone to bleeding through paper; having a sheet of blotting paper or maybe a clipboard beneath when writing to soak up any extra ink is a good idea, unless you've got more control than I do. I did pick up some thicker, more-expensive paper, and that helps a considerable bit, but obviously, if you intend to use only one type of special paper for writing, that's a pretty substantial constraint on pen use. They also tend to be more prone to smearing. Like felt-tips, as long as you keep the nib down, they'll keep dispensing ink, so you gotta train yourself to lift the nib if you're stopping movement. The big selling point with these, as best I can tell, is that you have an extremely wide variety of inks, and using non-disposable fountain pens that permit for refills is very common. Some people mix their own. The inks have various properties -- here's a page talking about sheen, shimmer, and shading -- that can let them create really visually-impressive effects. They can dispense all sorts of exotic inks that wouldn't work well in ballpoint, rollerball, or felt tip pens. I've never taken advantage of this, don't write enough for it, but I do think that it's neat; I have occasionally thought about picking up a fountain pen plotter, but don't think that I'd likely plot enough for it to be worthwhile. Looking at the state of plotters and printer manufacturers, which frequently use a razor and blades model for ink, I think that it'd be nice to just be able to get whatever consumables from whomever.

There are a few other kinds of exotic pens, like fudepens (or "brush pens") that are really more-interesting when doing stuff like East Asian lettering or some kinds of art, but aren't really what you'd want for writing in normal-sized Latin script. Or paint markers; also not really something you'd expect to normally write with.

In general, I found that I preferred larger tips. As long as I don't have to write in a too-confined space, ink flow with ballpoints and rollerballs was more-consistent and with them or felt tips, the writing was smoother.

As a kid, I used to use wood or mechanical pencils, but unless one needs erasability, I don't really feel that they stand up to pens. With wood pencils, one needs to lug around a sharpener. With either, the graphite tends to smear over time; fold up a paper with pencil writing and put it in a pocket, and it'll slowly blur to unrecognizability. And the graphite gets on things (and I'd just as soon not be having electrically-conductive dust being dumped everywhere).

For me, the big issue with going crazy on pens in 2024 is that I just don't use one all that much. Even a lone disposable pen will last me a very long time. But it is nice to still be able to write consistently when one does want to write, and I felt that I'd never really sat down and looked into the various options out there.

Since I think that it's worthwhile to mention relevant communities to help people find them, if they haven't yet:

!fountainpens@lemmy.world

!fountain_pens@lemmy.world. Doesn't seem to be getting much traction.

!fountainpens@infosec.pub. No traffic.

!pens@lemmy.world. Only a little traffic.

!pens@feddit.uk. No traffic.

There are also some .ml-based communities; I tend to use non-ml-based communities in preference to .ml-based communities myself, but for those who feel otherwise, there are !fountainpens@lemmy.ml, !pens@lemmy.ml, !pen@lemmy.ml, and !pensandpaper@lemmy.ml, none of which are seeing much activity.

I spent some time in Lake Tahoe this summer, mostly South Lake Tahoe, and there were so many cyclists. It was such a joy (admittedly I was on vacation) There were many designated multi use paths for walking/cycling/scooters, in addition to bike lanes on the street. It felt safe enough that I could park my bike in front of any restaurant and eat without worry that someone would steal my bike, which was a big plus. There were even some touristy spots where they would encourage people to park there bikes without locks, which was surreal for me. It seemed like many people that live there own 4 wheel drive, large vehicles, but also own bicycles and made use of them during the warmer parts of the year. It felt like they figured out how to make cycling and other forms of transportation work well for their city.

In San Francisco, I can commute with my bicycle year round, except for heavy rain, which then I can easily take a train or bus (or drive but why bother). San Francisco has green painted lanes on the street, designated bike lanes, and areas for bike friendly rides, like the Embarcadero's multi use path, car free Market St, Golden Gate Park, etc. I still don't feel comfortable street parking my bike in most parts of the city unless I'm being quick. I do use BikeLink Parking whenever possible since it's the best and offers me peace of mind. I find myself biking to areas with BikeLink parking available instead of somewhere closer without it. I know some cafes that allow me to bring my bike on to the patio, so I can make it work for many things.

Which city has a stronger bike culture? and bike infrastructure? I think SF would benefit from more multi use paths like they have in South Lake Tahoe, but are they mostly a benefit mostly for tourists and not commuting? I wish SF had safer bicycle parking, since it is such a wonderful way to commute around the city. South Lake Tahoe was a little hot, and SF always has the best weather, so it's easier to ride in the sunshine.

Things like turning the water off, or unplugging things... At minimum I shut the water valve and unplug pretty much anything I can. I'll usually set the thermostats to be a little more extreme than usual. Do you do anything?

1: my job

2: my pets

3: apartment

What a ride its been that I am feeling grateful and for once, at some level of genuine okayness

Reach down: whats going at least okay that you are thankful to be aligned with?

Jacky shan being the biggest for me, found almost all episodes and binged in a few days. I realized the show is actually very formulaic. Bad guys want to collect a number of artifacts, the good guys tries to collect them all before the bad guys and succeeded but then the bad guys get all the artifacts in the end and the good guys have to stop them. This was plot for season 1,3,4,5,6 and with 2 having the most episode but are all filler. I also watche 50 Code Lyoko but got bored, there almost 100 episodes

Obviously those shows weren't meant to be binged but even then they are repetitive, however with jacky shan i have nostalgia and its still special to me

I'm a guitarist/singer and I'm looking to record some acoustic stuff. I have a condenser mic, but I would need an audio interface. I'm not looking for a fancy setup, just bare bones really. Any recommendations for an open source audio workshop? What's my cheapest quality option for an audio interface?

Thanks!

I'm 25 now. My friends are either 18-19 or 45-60 with nothing in between. It's been like this my whole life.