Omg, I had no clue that existed. Thank you!

FFX

First time I played was at a boyfriend’s house. I got like 80% of the way through, then we broke up.

Second time, I let a friend borrow my GameCube in exchange for his PS2. I got about 80% of the way through, then he wanted his PS2 back.

I finally got my own PS2. Played about 80% of the way through but had a couple bad builds and couldn’t beat a boss. I didn’t have energy to grind my way into a better build, so I just never finished.

It’s been ~20 years. I still sometimes think I’ll break out the old PS2 and see if my save file is there. I probably won’t.

There are some demographics where its usage is extremely common. I’ve come across multiple people who are on FaceTime calls while in public. Just walking around on video and speaker, talking to someone else. I can’t conceive of using it this way, but in some social circles it’s totally normalized.

This page has some interesting quotes. Reading through, it sounds like while it’s hovering at or below the top 5 most common video chat tools. There’s a lot of bias towards quotes about 2020 usage so that’s obviously skewed, but that year at least it there were 9-25% of various demographics cited using FaceTime daily.

I use FaceTime 2-3 times a year to talk to my nephew, and maybe 3-5 times a year to screen share or show my mum things. But I do use Teams video calls literally 5 days a week (I try to avoid the video part when I can, but there are a few in leadership who really push for it. My company is never doing RTO, so I’ll accept a bit of video calling for the sake of permanent WFH!).

I think replacing the physical home button with a haptic button on the iPhone 7 also helped them improve their IP rating (i.e., water resistance). I could be misremembering that, though, and I have no idea if it’s relevant in this case.

Similarly, North Carolina allows unaffiliated to choose their primary, but R and D must vote in their registered primaries. Definitely good to know your state’s laws before taking OP at face value!

And if you stay that many versions behind, you carry a gold mine of vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Your phone might work, but it’s far from a safe or good idea.

902 security vulnerabilities published for Android 9, 179 of which are “critical” (9+) vulnerability scores.

Including “This could lead to remote escalation of privilege with no additional execution privileges needed. User interaction is not needed for exploitation.”

Yeah, no thanks.

Lots of things that ultimately come down to hyper-mobility (thanks Ehlers-Danlos!), including:

• Lick my elbow
• Pull my shoulder visibly out of socket (not painful at all, and happens if I carry something heavy if I’m not careful)
• Pop my hip out of socket while standing (sometimes painful, always somewhat unpleasant, so I’ve had to learn how to not do it)
• Hold my hands behind my back and pull them to my front
• Rotate my arm >360°
• Bend my thumb to my forearm

If I’m understanding your description correctly (the image didn’t come through), I can do this too! I heard once as a kid it was impossible and I refused to accept that, so I practiced until I could do it.

Rephrasing to see if we’re talking about the same thing: I can point my fingers towards each other in front of me, then circle one hand away from myself and the other towards myself, and continue looping them in opposite directions. Most people can do it for 1-2 loops, but then end up moving both fingers in the same direction.

I see my cat doing the same! At 16, she started pawing me incessantly while I was sleeping. Over 3 weeks I lost a lot of sleep and tried many ways to appease her. Finally I was so fed up I grabbed and held her so close she couldn’t paw me any more. She instantly relaxed and purred. The whole time the pawing was a request for me to cuddle her in my arms.

Three years later, the pawing has continued and expanded. She uses it to make me lift the blanket for her or reposition myself in ways more comfortable for her. In the past year, she’s decided I must face her while I sleep, so if I ever roll over on my side she will paw the back of my head until I face her again. She is so needy and getting worse all the time, but at 19 years old, I’ll give her whatever she wants for whatever time we have left together.

Yes!

I also save the last bit of candy or other snacks, sometimes for days, until I really want it (most recently, I left the last 2 pieces in a box of Buncha Crunch for over a week. Yeah, it’s weird. I know).

My partner used to finish things I’d leave, which upset me. Then he’d finish it but replace it with an unopened packet, which I appreciated but it still bugged me.

He doesn’t understand it at all, but he’s learned that saving the last bit for “the right time” is important to me. Seeing him leave my little crazy treats around for days at a time makes me feel so loved.

My last bite should be of my favorite part of the meal. Finish my least favorite part first.

The greatest compliment I can pay a meal is that I couldn’t choose which part to make my last bite.

The question and response you’re responding to aren’t about working in the office on a regular basis, just about the occasional in-person gathering. Your response comes across as complaints about working in the office daily.

I cannot imagine going back to an office job that isn’t WFH, but I agree strongly with the commenter here acknowledging the value of the occasional in-person socializing.

Even before 2020, I worked in a small remote office far from my thousands of coworkers at our corporate office. The relationships I was able to build spending 3-4 days at HQ every quarter or so greatly impacted my day-to-day work for the better. I have a specific example of someone I was having trouble working with for months, but after a single face-to-face interaction, for no reason I could name, we were suddenly great partners. She even left the company for a few years then came back a couple months ago and reached out to me, excited we’d get to work together again.

I don’t see value in working day-to-day in person. The company gets significantly more value from me by allowing me to work from home. But interstitial socializing of the occasional in-person event makes a significant difference in the relationships I have with my coworkers, which makes the team stronger and the work more enjoyable.

Who are you arguing is to blame now? What other parents?

Yeah, our plan is paid for a year as well. If they drop our service quality before the year is up, that sure seems like a breach of contract.

We actually do hire lots of remote positions in general! Only the new software engineer program require being there. What kind of work do you do?

Yep! One of my devs was out at a college recruiting day just this week. I do believe living in the Kansas City area is a requirement though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Great book recommendation! (My friend’s dad wrote it, but I still recommend it without bias.)

What I love about it is that it’s not something you have to sit down and read cover-to-cover. You pick a topic you want to learn more on and read 2-3 pages that give you guidance on what it looks like to be skilled at that thing, what the challenges are, and some activities to improve. Short and sweet. It’s a great length for my ADHD ass that can rarely finish a book that isn’t audio.

You just gave me insight into why my company isn’t bleeding GenZ software engineers.

We have a 1-year program for people fresh from CS degrees or coding boot camps. They have an assigned cohort to build relationships and go through the program together. In it, they have mentors and meet with people across the company to learn more about the business. And while doing this they are fully integrated members of teams. I’m in Product and I know my team takes them seriously and listens to their input.

We also have a year-long program for anyone new in a manager role (either new to the company or promoted), we have a career coaching program people can sign up for, and it’s easy to get an assigned mentor (if you show any competence and interest).

And at least my networks don’t have any of the shit heads spouting politics. Politics rarely come up (except in a small vetted group of like-minded people).

I am approaching 9 years here, and when I took the job I fully expected to leave at 2. Instead, I’ve had five different roles or titles, I didn’t have to ask for 2 of the 3 promotions I’ve gotten, and my pay is almost 2.5x of my first job. I’m not loyal to the company, but I have a hell of a lot of loyalty to the people that make it up, and they’ve earned every bit of that.

Personal experience, but I can only raise my left eyebrow on demand. Same with my upper lip. I cannot independently move those parts of the right side of my face no matter how I’ve tried. This has been true from childhood and I had no injuries I’m aware of that could have caused it.

So from my experience, I’d buy that there is a physical, possibly genetic component to whether it’s possible or not.