Blocking doesn’t mean they “got to you”. It means you value your own time and energy and don’t want to see the same idiot’s vomit-thoughts over and over.

Guessing a book. Or maybe an arrowhead. Hopefully a collector or historian will weigh in. It’s a fun question.

My favorite is Middle Earth, but my 2nd choice would be the Dresden Files. Everything from Chicago to the Feywild to Vampire parties to the realms of the dead.

Is there a printer in the room? Print off a photo of one of your least favorite coworkers, use it as a paper mask, leave.

Like the last 9 out of 10, honestly. Way too many comment snipers. It’s exhausting. You’re wise to not bother with it.

A suit of armor that looks very different when you put it on depending on your gender.

I loved Voyager and don’t understand the hate. I’m more of a Star Wars fan, however, and not that knowledgeable regarding Trek.

Varies for me. Sometimes I can’t wait to dig in, other times I’m over it by the time it’s done. I think the more complicated the recipe is and the longer it takes, the less appetizing it is. My wife is the same way.

It’s like the marathon of anticaption kills it.

I think there’s maybe a lesson in there. Don’t look forward too much to good things, and don’t dread too much the bad things.

In the aisle of a truck stop convenience store between magazine racks. Our tour bus had broken down again. It was in some midwestern town, can’t even remember the state, as this was in the late 80s. Was reading magazines on the floor to kill time and fell asleep. Fortunately the clerk didn’t care.

https://sorabji.net/

My broken brain thinks up of a lot of dumb questions about science, history, and other topics. I use it all the time to answer those. Especially if it’s a question that’s a nuisance to lookup on Wikipedia (though I still love Wikipedia). I like ChatGPT because of the interactive nature of it. And I often have dumb follow-up questions for it.

It has also been a huge help when I get stuck of a coding or scripting task. Both at work and at home.

One of my favorite shows ever!

Same. A former coworker and I were in two different bands together, and we’ve stayed in touch over many years. And I’m pretty tight with 2 of my current coworkers, and friendly-chatty with a third.

But I keep everyone else on a low information diet. Especially my boss. He loves to use people’s hobbies, personality quirks, etc, against them. Almost anything that isn’t “working hard like a professional” is seen as some kind of weakness by that idiot. His only real hobby is ‘craft beer’…because of course it is. (Not meant as a slam against people into beer, but my boss thinks that’s an entire personality).

Not that crazy but I’d never seen anything like it before.

Over 15 years ago, I was standing in a very long line at St. Basil’s in Moscow. A small pack of tourists (half a dozen or so) started to “sneak” their way into cutting in line. About 30 French people in a tour group immediately started scolding them in loud unison. They shamed them into taking their place at the end of the line. It was such an automatic and united scolding. Highly entertaining.

A fellow traveler, far more experienced than I am, said that the French are known for doing that sort of thing.

Glad I helped, hope you find it engaging!

Yup, and people younger than a certain age think email is as archaic as the pony express.

Breaking Points. I disagree with the conservatives on there, but respect them. They are smart and rational, and often make good points.

I think one difference is, video games appropriate for kids aren’t going to expose them to tons of peer pressure and the horrors of the real world to nearly the same degree that social media can.

Sure, it’s possible to cone up with extreme scenarios for either. But I think most of us know that something like reddit or 4chan is potentially far more harmful to an eight year old than Mario Cart.

It’s a little confusing because IMO both of these things are true at the same time: it’s good to make friends at work, but by default your coworkers are not your friends.

But that’s really just poor wording.

Having a friend or three at work is wonderful. It can make a shit job tolerable and a decent job fantastic.

Just choose wisely, take your time, and don’t be too trusting too soon. And don’t reveal too much personal information to coworkers that you don’t know well and trust yet. Some of them will use that info against you. Ambitious psychopaths can be very charming.

I’ve been using Podcast Addict for years and still like it. Has a lot of features.