Christ Centered Gamer

The process is well-within your capabilities amigo. I used our cooler for the brining process (it's going to smell forever. XD) and the smoker was a cinder-block and concrete structure I use for grilling. It's cheap AND tasty. <3

I got some movies from Target, since it was free shipping on any order and I didn't want to risk not getting them by waiting to get them in store. So basically, I just got a little Christmas shopping done. Also, I bought Titan Quest and Dungeon Siege II from Steam. <3 Goodbye sleep; we'll meet again one day.

Nice! I didn't get anything except for a PC copy of Prey for $15 from Amazon. Which I'm excited for, but I also feel bad for spending money. XD

How do you feel about smartwatches?

The deuce. I don't normally like spending money on myself this close to Christmas...but I've wanted Titan Quest for awhile. And DSII was $.97. I was weak. >_>

I am...apathetic, at best. Eye-rollingly aggravated at worst. To my knowledge, Smartwatches basically do a portion of the functions of your phone. Text alerts, small commands, stuff like that. Maybe some GPS or voice command action.

However, you have to have your phone nearby--like in your pocket--in order for them to work.

I...can't understand. For one, I am told that I 'waste money' on video games, board games, and minis. Yet there are people who literally buy a technological device so they don't have to pull their phone out of their pocket to check a text. If you are too lazy or busy to pull your phone out of your pants or purse, you probably need to drink some coffee or cross some activities off your calendar. Something needs to change.

For another, the level of inefficiency and ignorance a smartwatch requires grates my soul like diaper rash. I wish I had that level of disposable income, to buy a device to supplement a device that already does what the other device does. That's like buying a toilet to put beside your toilet. Or buying a TV-specific remote to supplement your universal remote. Just buy a wrist case for your phone. It does everything a smartwatch would do and has the benefit of not only doing more, but not making you look like a rube that bought a $200 watch. Plus, it's futuristic and makes you look like Sam Fisher.

So why, after this rant, am I just apathetic?

Because it's not my money to waste. If someone really wants to waste money on a smartwatch, who am I to fart on them for it? I play video games. The idea of dropping $300 for a smartwatch makes me laugh at the sheer ridiculousness, yet I'd call that fair for a game console. XD

Hahaha, I rather enjoyed reading that. My mom gave me her old Apple Watch, so I've been playing around with it. My conclusion is thus:

It's not as useless as I had initially expected. Some features are super nice to be able to call up on my wrist (such as the gate and time-to-board for a flight, or the ability to pause/play music without digging my phone out of my pocket), plus the reminders to stand up every so often are pretty nice for working. Activity monitoring is also pretty useful if you are trying to move around more.

But on the other hand, I don't understand why you would spend as much money as the Apple Watch costs. It's pretty much just a wrist-mounted phone limited-control and notifications center, yet it costs over $300. While I can't deny that it does have value, I would struggle to justify paying $100 for this kind of functionality, tops.


So, how do you deal with family members who seem to only exist to provoke you at family gatherings?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH--

TLDR: Basically, we just need some sort of magical artifact or futuristic McGuffin.

This is actually not a great time to answer that, as I am dealing with familial flatulence that I wish to solve by unkind, brutally honest words and giant inflatable baseball bat bludgeoning. :3 Let's start this Christmas off right; beat the imaginary living snot out of a few people with giant, can't-really-injure-anyone, toy weaponry until they quit being...difficult. Difficult. That's a nice word for it.

*slumps over desk*

I'ma spin this around in a way that may or may not relate to you, but I'll get there eventually.

Essentially, I have a liberally minded sister who basically walks into the room, gives everything a judgmental stink eye, and then proclaims everyone and everything in occupancy that isn't her, her boyfriend (who is black), a few cousins and the TV, a hardcore dirty racist. I love her, but...wow. Just wow.

I once offered the duo something to drink, with the caveat that all we had was RC cola (because it is, in all honesty, my favorite soda and all I had on hand at that time) and she looked at me like I had slapped her. I'll explain that if you need me to, because it may just be a regional thing. She also thinks Oriental ramen noodles are racist, and has snapped at us over it. There's also some stuff that I cannot explain. But...it's all roots from the same tree.

If you haven't read my Easter rant, this is the same sister. It's well written and witty, so go give it a read when you have half an hour. >_>

Most recently, she came to my Grandfather's 90th birthday party and cloistered herself at the 'cool table' with the only people in our family worth redemption, apparently. She didn't even bother to sit at the table with my grandfather, which yes, hurt.

But here's the thing...much as I have a problem with her and her beliefs, I would no sooner beat her over the head about it than slather my face with petroleum jelly and dip it in fire ants. That would be--both of those things--plain wrong and frankly idiotic. That's not love, nor is that helpful. If I have a problem with somebody and choose to deal with it by needling them constantly whenever I see them, then that is a problem with MY attitude, and I just need to get the poops over myself.

It's not your fault at that point. If you are doing your best to be polite and not controversial, then you're innocent. But even if you're being a dork about your beliefs, it's still not OK bully you over them at family gatherings. You could be wearing a 'Hillary 4 Ever' shirt to a Conservative conference, and it still wouldn't be acceptable to snipe at you all day. That's just not an acceptable way to treat people, let alone family.

I don't recommend that shirt thing, though.

So how to deal with it? Well, there's the sticky point. I don't know. I wish I did. I'm ridiculously tired of all the shenanigans at this point, because I'm an adult and I'm tired of people who are supposed to be more adult than me acting like angry toddlers. Heretofore, I've dealt with it how I deal with all bullying (and yeah, it's bullying. Only word for it): I ignore it, belittle it, don't let it bother me. It only works when you let them get under your skin. Which is true. When certain people came into our home for a Christmas party and spent the entire time making snide comments about our dedication to cleaning the house, and suggesting certain techniques for removing ladybugs (yes...this actually happened) that they literally googled right in front of me, I laughed it off. Ignored it. Said that they were likened to an Egyptian plague, so we treated them as family.

This strategy...is not effective. It's just not an efficient use of energy.

Maybe I should have stood up and loudly said: "Thanks cousin OCD. Feel free to look under the couch and give us some tips there too. I'll try the Ladybug thing, because up until this point I've been pretending they don't exist and totally not trying to get rid of them. I mean, it's not like we've had an incredibly hard year and invited you here for free food and friendship anyway. I can refund your ticket before you leave."

Maybe I should have stood up and said loudly: "Hey sis, I know you COMPLETELY missed the fact that we counted out enough chairs for you and your BF at the table with the rest of us. With your grandfather. And the rest of your family. But that's cool, I know you don't want our backwoods racism stink taking the edge off your glowing superiority. If you could maybe put a chair on top of your table, we could build an altar out of food for you, and you could teach us the ways of wisdom?"

Maybe you should stand up and announce loudly, "Hey family. Great uncle pawdabber has decided it is his moral duty to snipe at me all through dinner instead of just being polite and eating food. Could someone maybe trade seats with me so I can *not* have him whispering bad humor at my expense and logically fallible arguments into my ear the whole time? K thx. No, not you cousin Jimmy. You're just as bad and smell like cabbage."

The problem with these responses--despite the fact that they are patently funny--is that they will hurt someones feelings. I realize this, and realize further that it comes from my own hurt and the resulting anger.

But I'm at the point where I wonder...would it be wrong to parry and riposte the blades aimed at us instead of just taking it? The ladybug thing actually happened, and while I don't give figs, it humiliated my mom at the time. My aunt was deeply hurt by my sister treating my grandfather like that. I could have stemmed both of those by launching my own verbal attack, but held back in the name of kindness and politeness, and fear of creating a familial schism. In short, I put the offender's feelings above the offendee's feelings. I let love for the person swinging the sword come before the person getting hit by it.

And that doesn't feel right.

So again I say: I don't know. I truly don't. The inflatable baseball thing is a complete joke, of course. But I honestly wonder why--even just as family, and not just regular people--we can't sit down and talk to each other. "Hey, I have a problem with the way you're treating me." "Hey cuz, you're hurting my feelings there. I've done my best not to bring up my politics, so would it be too much for you to do the same?"

I could have fearlessly slid alongside the cool table and gently whispered, "Hey sis. Great to see you! Listen, Granddad would like for everyone to pray together, and we kind of set the tables up with that in mind. Since it's his birthday, would you mind moving over there with us? We've got room for you to sit with your BF up at our end of the table."

But I didn't. Didn't think of it nor have the gumption at the time, so all that is left is bitter regret and aggravation.

I think, actually...I'm at the point where I am going to have to figure out a new strategy. Gentility and respect is not working as well as I would prefer, so perhaps a stronger form of stringent--yet no less polite and loving--truth is required. I don't know.

The best solution is, I am absolutely certain of this, to ask God to provide a solution. And I only just realized this after writing this rant, so there's that.

But at the same time, it would be much more satisfying to call up my family and say, "GO SOAK YOUR HEAD YOU SONS OF A MOTHERLESS GOAT."

Good rant, though I guess in my case the political alignments are opposite. I'm the only person in my family (Well, in this half of the country) who is remotely left of center, and I get all sorts of crap for it. I ended up maybe hurting my grandmother's feelings when I told her there was no way in heck I would move back to Texas (I neglected to say that it's because I don't want to be in the same state as these people). I am highly considering moving, but never back to Texas. XD


When your computer gets rebooted without your consent (by power outage, IT, updates, whatever)?

Deepfreeze32 wrote: Good rant, though I guess in my case the political alignments are opposite.

I knew; that was my point. Even with a hard left sibling, I would never think it's acceptable to treat her like a jerk over it. Especially at family gatherings. It's just bad for everyone involved.

For the computer thing...it varies. Power outages? Meh. Can't control it so I don't worry about it. I've got it plugged into a surge protector and modern computers are pretty protected from that sort of thing (barring it's in the middle of an update or something. Woe upon you in that case).

IT or updates? Those bother me intrinsically. IT not so much since I'm the IT guy for my network and thoroughly discuss every shut down with myself until I understand the situation fully and reach a consensus.

But, perhaps as a result of seeing too many sci-fi movies as a child, I don't like my electronics to make decisions for me in that way. Windows and Android both are notorious about making huge updates to their innards or GUI and then forcing an update that will shut both devices down for potentially hours.

I have actually had my plans stymied by this before, and thus I am bitter towards the automatic update system. XD

And heaven help you if you're playing a game or writing something when Windows decides to shut down. I guess it boils down to a matter of authority. I don't like devices to have more control over themselves than I do.

SKYNET.

Yeah, the IT one is a huge problem at work. "We have updates. You will reboot in two hours. No way around this. Screw you."

How about stupid password change policies (that is to say, how frequently you are required to change your password)?

I had the practice drilled into me, I'm not certain I understand the reasoning behind it. My logic is...if I were to filch someone's password, I'm not going to wait two weeks to use it. Or even a week. I'ma use it right away. Perhaps because I know such policies exist, perhaps because it's common sense not to steal a key and then sit on it for fear of them changing the lock, perhaps because truly 'stealing' a password leaves footprints behind leading to the thief.

So a policy requiring me to change my password on a weekly or biweekly basis for 'security reasons' doesn't seem effective. Maybe a twenty minute basis. But that's such a terrifying concept that I would never suggest it. XD

Changing the standard password, or the password the IT crew helped you set up? Absolutely. Change that after they leave the room.

Otherwise, I'm not sure I get it.

At my company we are required to change our password every 40 days. Think about that for a second. That's barely over a month. What this means is that employees are no longer incentivized to create strong passwords, but ones that are easier to remember. Since the password is changing so frequently, employees aren't going to create a new, strong password every 40 days. They're going to create something easy to remember. Like, say, their previous password plus a number that increments every 40 days. 40 days is not "smart security." It's asking to be hacked, practically begging for it to happen.

So, pleh on all that.

Have some music! (Apologies that it kinda cuts off at the end, but imagine it has like...two more seconds to end)



Thoughts?

Your thoughts on Taiwan? (If you have any?)

Deepfreeze32 wrote: At my company we are required to change our password every 40 days. Think about that for a second. That's barely over a month. What this means is that employees are no longer incentivized to create strong passwords, but ones that are easier to remember. Since the password is changing so frequently, employees aren't going to create a new, strong password every 40 days. They're going to create something easy to remember. Like, say, their previous password plus a number that increments every 40 days. 40 days is not "smart security." It's asking to be hacked, practically begging for it to happen.

So, pleh on all that.

Have some music! (Apologies that it kinda cuts off at the end, but imagine it has like...two more seconds to end)

No comment. Like I said: I had the practice drilled into me, but I never understood it's purpose. Seems like it would be better to use like...a twelve character password and teach people how to make it very secure.

That was nice. Not something I'd listen to frequently, but not bad. XD

RedPlums wrote:Your thoughts on Taiwan? (If you have any?)

I don't know much about it, honestly. Just a little but of the culture.

Do you like Mario DoubleDash?

Got another song for you:



Yes, I have been listening to the Wipeout Fusion soundtrack, thanks for asking.

Thoughts?

RedPlums wrote:Do you like Mario DoubleDash?

It's one of the Mario Karts that I don't have extensive experience with, sadly. -_- What I played of it I really enjoyed though!

Deepfreeze32 wrote: Got another song for you:

Yes, I have been listening to the Wipeout Fusion soundtrack, thanks for asking.

Thoughts?

No complaints. With music like that though...I generally have to be doing something to appreciate it. Within a game, I'd really enjoy it. Working on a project? Of course. Driving? Yes. Sitting at my desk at 4am, contemplating extra sleep or extra TV? The feels are somewhat skewed.

I liked it though. XD