So much of social media (and online in general) is just ads in disguise and people shilling products, intentionally or otherwise, and it ultimately spills over into real life conversations. So I agree with you completely.

You might have given a thumbs up to your aunt Gina’s photo of her and her friends at the office party celebrating her promotion. Ad networks see it as you interacting with a photo that contains a bottle of Schmudd soda, even if that’s a detail you didn’t even notice.

You have dinner with your dad that night and the topic of Schmudd comes up due to the latest forced controversy (ermagerd the trans) so naturally when you start seeing Schmudd commercials the next day, you might assume your phone was listening to that conversation. But actually the reason you’re seeing the ads is because of the thumbs up to aunt Gina’s post.

And yes, the tracking and analytics tools find those types of patterns and relationships, and so much more. And they’ve been able to do that for over a decade. No telling how good it’s gotten since I was last working adjacent to that field.

On the other hand, it’s amazingly easy for advertisers to figure out what topics / products you’re talking about without the need for constantly recording via your microphone. In most instances, it doesn’t even really make sense to constantly record audio via the mic to monitor folks, other means are much more cost efficient while being just as effective. That’s not to say that some app isn’t or hasn’t done it, just that historically speaking, it hasn’t been as ubiquitous as a lot of people seem to think or imply.

Sometimes with these things, you have to apply Occam’s Razor.

I stayed with some family during the holidays a few years ago and they are conspiracy theory fanatics unfortunately. The type that swear their phones are listening to everything they say. They get ads for things they’ve only ever talked about in person. That sort of thing.

As proof, they pointed out how the prior night the topic of old timey candy from our childhoods came up and all of a sudden they were getting news stories and facebook ads about those liquid filled wax bottle candies. To them, the only plausible explanation is that our phones were listening to us.

Except, as I pointed out, I specifically looked those wax bottle candies up later that night because I was curious if they were still for sale. They live way out in the country and there’s limited cellular data, so basically everybody there that night was using the same wifi connection. Which means, our internet activity is all linked because to the outside world, we’re all on the same network/IP address. Even more curious, though, nobody got ads for any of the other candy that we talked about and which I didn’t specifically look up. So, if our phones were actually recording us and serving up ads based on the things we talked about, then why didn’t we get ads for Blackjack gum, wax lips, and Brach’s? Only the very specific one I happened to search for.

I live in a part of the USA where, decades later, I still hear brand new and seemingly made-up idioms on a fairly regular basis. This skill set, making sense of otherwise fake sounding idioms based on limited context, is practically a necessity 'round these parts. After all, you can’t feed a cow a carrot and expect it to shit you out a cake.

My opinion is subject to change, since I do plan to eventually give Eternal another attempt, but I know why I like 2016 better. It’s because I can go at my own pace and have the freedom to play the battle scenarios out how I want to (for the most part).

Eternal basically tells you early on, you have to go, go, go, go, go. Keep moving or you die. I find that kind of annoying.

But then the fact that you’re almost constantly being forced to use every single button, skill, weapon, etc on-demand, in very specific ways with a fair amount of precision basically kills the joy for me. I don’t get to play games much, sometimes it’s weeks or months between sessions. I can’t keep up with all that bullshit and it sucks nearly every last drop of fun out of the game if I have to waste my limited fun time having to relearn all the mechanics.

I just want to casually rip and tear for fun. Eternal felt like a micromanaging boss constantly telling me that I’m doing things wrong and behind on my unrealistic deadlines.

I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead but that looks like something my ex-bestfriend, Patty Henshaw, would have baked.

Just an opinion, but I feel like trouble was on the horizon for Target regardless of this DEI fiasco.

Of the major online general retailers, it seemed like Target held out the longest against 3rd party sellers. That was one of the biggest reasons I preferred to buy from Target. But they caved on that and somehow came out with one of the worst implementations. That decision really tarnished their brand for me.

Another factor that made me favor Target over the years is that their clothing offerings were pretty decent quality in styles I liked and affordable prices. But the last few times I’ve purchased clothes from Target, it’s been outright junk and Target should be ashamed. Either way, it turned me off from buying clothes there, and by extension, soured me to the brand almost entirely.

By the end of 2024 I had basically given up on Target, and I can’t help but think that all the issues I was having were systemic to the company. Feels like preemptively caving on diversity and equity policies was just another sign of the actual problem the company is facing (i.e. bad management and poor decision making).

MY new Tesla? Doubt it. Considering I’m unemployed due to this clown administration and I don’t tend to upgrade much of anything, let alone a vehicle, unless/until the old one no longer functions.

The tape is a lie.

Mark my words, Big Minge will never let this technology see the light of day.

Hello, nurse!

Slaughtered? In THIS economy? Best I can do is have a fairy steal all your teeth.

According to ChatGPT, the result is 355.

To be honest, I don’t get a lot of time to game as an adult. For the past several years, my gaming is mostly restricted to fall/winter, like November through early March and even then, it’s primarily around the holidays when I have extra time off work. Even during my “gaming season”, I’m usually only able to get in a 45 minute session a few times a week. The rest of the year, I’m lucky to have the down time more than a couple times a month.

So, the big thing is: I have to really consider my time limitations and that restricts the types of games I play. No point in trying to play games with super complicated control schemes, complex story lines, or which require a lot of time dedication to “get gud” because I’m going to forget how to play, what I need to do to advance, and I’m just going to suck compared to kids who play 18 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Steam Deck actually did help me do a bit more gaming. Like you, I sit in front of a computer all day for work, so being able to game elsewhere and in a variety of locations is nice. Plus, I can fire it up when traveling.

I also stick to games that I feel like there’s a good chance I can “beat” over the course of my gaming season or games with simple mechanics and limited stories. Like this past winter I played Doom. The year before it was Cult of the Lamb. The year before that it was Hades. Short enough games (at least the main story line) and simple enough controls. Then there are games like Vampire Survivors that offer short, simple, self-contained and satisfying mini gaming sessions if and when I have a random bit of down time and feel like playing something.

I’m too lazy to look up the details now, but I’m pretty sure the SNES almost sort of did nearly have an add-on. Sony and Nintendo were looking to create a CD-ROM add-on / upgrade for the SNES. I somewhat remember the rumors from back in those days and I was, at the time, very excited about it. Granted, my parents wouldn’t have been able to afford it, so who knows if I would have gotten to play it. I’m still bummed that I never got to play the Sega CD or the 3DO. Practicality and foresight aside…

I think a CD-based SNES could have been pretty cool, especially if there were some additional technical upgrades (i.e. updated processor / 32-bit / etc). I suspect that the library wouldn’t have leaned so heavily into full-motion video like the Sega CD, and certainly the first party Nintendo titles wouldn’t have gone that route. SNES had some great RPGs and fighting games and tons of amazing first party titles, so long as the system had enough RAM, those genres would have benefited from more storage. Had there been extra processing power, that would have been a nice step up as well.

On the flip side, Nintendo hardware is basically just a door to the Nintendo software experience. Lots of great stuff, don’t get me wrong, but also lacking. So, the fact that the Sony collaboration fell through and ultimately resulted in the Playstation probably worked out so much better for the video game industry and gamers.

SCORE

The real question is: Do I care? And the answer is no. No I do not.

This is my partner’s behavior, even when his kids have/had friends over. No amount of coaxing or attempting to shame altered the behavior. But to give him credit, wearing briefs (aka tightie whities in my part of the world) is 110% improvement over my stepdad’s behavior. He was a “sleep walker” who slept nude. I thank the heavens and David Bowie for this, but I only ever saw him nude once, it was from behind, and in near complete darkness.

I’ve only ever lived once place where there was a Target conveniently close, but it was in a shopping center that was an absolute nightmare to get into and out of. I would still order from them online here and there, mostly clothes. But the last few times I’ve ordered clothes online from Target, it’s been absolute crap quality. My last order actually qualified as false advertising. I ordered a button up shirt. It turned out to be velcro, with only one or two buttons at the very top. And the shirt was so short, it exposed the bottom of my belly button. Prior to that, I ordered a pack of underwear that stunk so bad of chemicals, it made me nauseous.

So, regardless of all the other crap going on with Target, I’d already stopped shopping there.

Wish I could but I’ve avoided these despicable “businesses” like the plague for decades by virtue of being too poor to afford them so I have no idea because I literally don’t recall the breadsticks from decades ago when a date took me there trying to impress me.