Zink

This comic speaks to me because both the general vibe and the specific actions are the kinds of things I've consciously been putting more into my life.

I have managed to curate an existence similar to the comic in many ways. As opposed to their tranquil little home being a camper in the woods, mine is more of a combination petting zoo and computer lab hidden in plain sight. It's a little old house in a blue collar neighborhood. Being old means even though it's quiet here, I'm located SO close to local resources and POIs.

Being able to walk my son to elementary school is also some next-level wholesome and calming stuff. I get just a dose of the walkable lifestyle, even though I expect I will be driving a car everywhere else for my entire life.

"Trump is bad, but Harris is worse because she's a woman"

It is stunning to imagine somebody actually saying this out loud, conscious of what they are doing rather than mindlessly acting on biases without introspection like a normal moron.

But somehow I also have zero surprise about it. Even if it's just a fake story you made up for Lemmy it doesn't matter because it's genuinely a mundane everyday concept in so much of the country. (middle aged USian white dude from a conservative family here, it's been a long time but I've heard it all)

I feel like I've gained a new understanding of quantum superposition!

Yeah, that would be a shame. Although the shift in direction we could see switching from a Vance-run crumbling Trump regime to AOC would have SO much potential to do good for the US and the world that losing a couple decades of her as a vote in congress would be a bargain. Plus even in retirement she'd have a huge platform to influence hearts and minds.

Standard caveats and disclaimers apply, of course. That goes for everything from the 28 elections happening, to the US still existing, to the Earth's biosphere still existing. ^__^

I feel the need for this in my bones, but right now I'm probably a bad candidate for it.

Sure I have a 3D printer still in the box that's worth a couple hundred bucks, but that is still gonna happen because it's a father & son interest. But my photography equipment, and now after this year my collection of power tools, are both fairly valuable and those hobbies are a significant part of my life.

You take back this AssSMR image you put in my head!

Yep, that's me. I have my smart phone but I try not to keep it on my person for large swaths of the day. I've stopped wearing a smart watch entirely. I'm slowly getting the traditional "smart" devices out of my life. I recently bought an inexpensive sewing machine too, and I went with Brother brand, but I got one that was adjusted mechanically rather than computerized, just in case.

But I do love me some free/libre technology! In was just getting a bunch of games installed on my son's Linux PC (I am bringing LAN parties back in this home), and if hobby time permits this winter I might start getting into home assistant and locally controlled smart devices. And since I'm already an embedded systems dev, I'll probably come up with some fun stuff to do with raspberry pi's or similar.

If you do things that bring you joy, frequently, you're less likely to become all festery and bitter, angry goblin.

And misery loves company. You can't just go find a positive existence and be one of those weirdos who is like, into things.

Hell yeah! I learnt that in F-Zero from Samurai Goroh and his Fire Stingray.

Lets-a GO, Margo!

I think it's silly and wasteful, but I don't think it's difficult to understand. Modern aristocrats have so much money that the cost doesn't matter at all, and they probably get it for free in the hope that they'd be seen wearing it by all the wannabes who can afford it.

But even if they pay full price and pick it for some dumb reason like the color or because it's soft, with the average net worth growth these people see in a month or year, any time spent buying the thing would be far more valuable (or they would passively make far more money) than the cost of the shirt.

But silly things like transactions and opening packages of free overpriced fashion are for underlings to handle anyway.

I bet that's also roughly the time that some higher ups in that party realized it must never be allowed to happen.

You are correct!

But you know what isn't as easy or basic as that? Convincing Product Managers and others on up the chain that you should be able to take some time to code and test to fix an issue they don't give a fuck about because it doesn't affect their metrics.