I have two:

1. I was the main tank of a raiding guild in WoW during the Burning Crusade era. Our guild was the best on the server, but nothing too notable outside of that community. However, when a new quick raid encounter came out (Magtheridon’s Lair), we unintentionally completed the encounter in a novel way. I know that because the next week when we went to clear it, a developer whispered me and asked me if he and a few others could watch us because they noticed through some automated log to prevent cheating that we completed the encounter last week without engaging with a major mechanic of the fight. They let us know they were there, but you couldn’t see anyone and when you looked up the character name it wouldn’t show up if you searched the name. We showed them how we did it, they congratulated us for our ingenuity then told us they were changing the encounter for next week. It was really cool.

2. A few years ago I got into Enter the Gungeon. For those unaware it’s a bullet hell, rogue-like, dungeon crawler with a steep learning curve but great graphics and snappy controls so it is a great time. The first time I beat the game I posted a screenshot on Reddit and the entire community was convinced that it was fake because of my build and the lack of max health I had. At first I was annoyed then I realized that if they didn’t believe me then it meant I did something, literally, incredible.

I’ll add an experience I had in the inverse.

Friend of mine who works in film and has a great appreciation for interesting movies recommended me the movie Barbarian. He was talking about the major plot points but only got about 20% of the way through before saying there was a twist and I stopped him because it sounded interesting. I downloaded it on my tablet and promptly forgot about it.

About a year later I was on a flight and decided to give it a shot. At exactly 21% of the way through the movie the plot shifts and becomes exactly the type of movie you should not be watching on a flight surrounded by coworkers. I was too engrossed to register that, watched the whole thing, then had the pleasure of explaining to my pearl clutching coworkers what it was.

Great movie by the way.

Just listened to it and god she is amazing. Great recommendation!

If you want to hear a surf rock instrumental cover that is actually phenomenal check out The Surfrajettes. Also amazing name.

I can’t make you love me by Bonnie Raitt

I recently found out about the Zelda: Link to the Past randomizer community. Essentially there is a method to modify the original game to randomize the item locations and other aspects of the game while ensuring the game can be completed. Each game has a seed so you can look it up if you get to stuck. I played through it once and it was a really interesting challenge since I didn’t get the bow until 60% of the way through the game.

On my 8th birthday my dad took a couple friends and I out to dinner and we stopped to buy a video game. My friends and I were arguing about what to get and my dad came by a couple times to get us to hurry up. Finally he said we had to make a decision and ushered us up to the cashier.

As soon as the cashier started to talk a truck off the highway that was above the store crashed through the side wall of the shop with enough speed to hit through every aisle and collapse all the shelving to the back as well as ripping down the ceiling. The guy was covered in blood and slumped over the wheel. No one was hurt in the store luckily, but we all would have been killed if we argued any longer in that aisle. My dad just got us into the car and we drove home. Afterward my dad would just downplay it whenever I would bring it up.

hear ye

They need to upgrade their dead drop locations then. 🤣

Looking for things on the ground or the side of the road. Some notable items I have found:

1. Unmarked envelope with ~$400 in it.
2. Change purse filled with random international coins
3. Pair of knipex channel lock pliers that have dog bite marks on the handles
4. Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket i727
5. Ticket for a festival which I then attended
6. Many sunglasses
7. Many cool rocks and sticks

I take the time to find the original owner whenever I find something but it’s pretty rare. These are only the things that I have kept because the original owner couldn’t be found.

I got access to a really nice VR system through work and binged through Half Life Alyx. I was in a room that was large enough to walk around in, but for larger moves you use the controller to teleport a short distance. Also you can gravity attract items within a few yards with your gloves.

After playing the first time I went to cook dinner and got embarrassingly frustrated when I tried to summon a spoon with a hand gesture.

I played Like a Dragon with no background and it was a great experience. Really wacky in a satisfying way. Only grievance is there is ~10 hours of cut scenes to beat the game.

When I was in secondary school I had to fill out a form over the summer to be allowed to leave early for some school activities. The form required a coach or teacher’s signature. Since it was the summer, I had no contact with any faculty so I had my parents call the coach who told me to sign the form for him, which I did and I turned it in. Unfortunately, that coach left before the beginning of the year so when school started I was called to the principal’s office and accused of forging his signature. I told the principal the coach told me to, so it wasn’t a forgery, I was signing on his behalf, and I even put that on the form. He ended up calling the coach and he even confirmed but at that point he didn’t want to back down and still denied the request.

After I left the two older ladies that ran the office found me and told me they just approved it after he left for the day and he would never know. They were super nice and told me they were proud of me for sticking up for myself. As a barely out of primary school kid it was really intimidating to be yelled at by an adult but I felt so vindicated when they recognized the inequity of the situation and helped me.

That principal ended up only lasting a year too.

Depending on the complexity of the part either Fusion 360, Tinkercad, or even just 3d Builder. I usually can find something close already existing and just modify that.

As someone who has been in the 3d printing space for awhile, I am amazed at how cheap and featured the entry level printers are. For ~$150 you can get a printer with auto bed leveling and a magnetic bed. At $15/lb of filament, you only need a few projects to pay for itself.

For example, I printed the housing for a USB hub for a friend which is a clone for a ridiculously expensive one that fits Lovesac couches and he paid me $50. It cost ~$2 of filament and ended up printing a few more for others. That alone paid for the cost of the printer.

For anyone who is thinking about it, now is a great time to enter the hobby.

I would say Robin Hobb. She writes easy to read, character driven fantasy novels that gracefully deal with a gamut of difficult topics (e.g., orphanism, otherness, sexual violence, mortality, etc.). The books really helped me build empathy for people and concepts that were far afield of my own experience.

I used a coiled cable and put my audio interface to my side higher up on a shelf. That way when I am seated the headphone cable barely touched the ground.

Mentor children.

It only takes about an hour a week and once you establish a relationship with them you just bring them along when you are doing something fun anyway. You feel a sense of purpose and they fare better in nearly every measurable statistic of emotional well being and academic success. Men in particular are needed to mentor young men and can have the greatest impact. Many organization will match you with a kid who has your same interests too so you’re just doing stuff you both like. I really can’t recommend it enough.

That’s true but the difference is exceedingly small.

According to 1 FDA study, the mean difference for AUC values between test and reference products was found to be 3.5% in the 2-year period following the Waxman-Hatch Act, and 80% of the absolute differences between generic products approved since 1984 and the corresponding innovator products were within a 5% range.

Debunking a Common Pharmacy Myth: The 80-125% Bioequivalence Rule Jun 8, 2016

Nethack is like the Jumanji of games. You finish it by introducing someone else to it.