“It’s a big club and we ain’t in it,” but Trump and co. don’t feel the need to put up the facade anymore.
Bingo. Instead of "hiring" (paying off) politicians, they're just doing it themselves. They've lost any and all care about keeping up appearances. After all, what are we going to do? Sue them?
Whoever wrote that was spot on though. Source: not a rooster but I have been called a cock before.
Of course, they'll be able to do tremendous amounts of irreparable damage to society.
I'm planning to make a "comeback" of sorts once I have better pictures to post. Until now it's been cell phone pics, the next batch will be high res macro images with a sigma lens.
I hear you. I tried to get the ancient coins sub off the ground for months by posting elaborate pieces and links to relevant articles etc...
No engagement whatsoever. I could've "posted" this to a local file on my pc instead of Lemmy and it wouldn't have made any difference.
Still not going back to Reddit though.
The amounts of copium in this thread are extinction-level.
Everything you just said is 100% valid and you are simply correct.
The thing is, it's not a measure of a healthy mind to thrive in a profoundly sick society where the worst of the worst have won long ago.
There's this thing called depressive realism which posits that depressed people, by and large, perceive reality much closer to how it really is than neurotypical people.
Essentially, "normal" people have an (innate or learned) positivity bias. Which is usually a good thing. People like us are the outliers.
But positivity bias in a world where it's actually harmful is another thing. The majority of people are walking headlong into their own extinction while going "Ehh, it's not so bad", while we should ALL be positively irate and picketing the homes (not companies) of our owner class 24/7.
But it hasn't happened yet and at this point I don't know how bad things need to get before people realize what's going on.
Ukraine is facing an existential threat. If they have the in-house knowledge and capability to do this, they absolutely should.
If Russia gives up tomorrow, the war will be over. If Ukraine gives up tomorrow Ukraine will be over.
Touché.
I meant clearly easily attainable by others. If I start comparing myself to them, well, it's like comparing a '97 Pinto vs a 2022 EV.
I will, thanks! No matter how long it takes, I will never give up on him.
Well, guess I'm fucked.
Quantum awkwardness. I for one am in a permanent state of possibly awkward.
Ugh, that site has phone cancer.
A "good" thing from a bad thing: my 6 year old computer monitor decided to croak today. As it's currently black friday deals, I managed to order a new one fairly cheap-o.
Oh I don't even expect to survive. No need for long term planning. I never fancied living in the world of The Walking Dead sans zombies.
Hhaha, I'm going to start referring to my depression as "that dopamine shortage" or even "the great dopamine shortage".
That's the approach we're trying to take. He has a psych appointment today as well. I only hope he "gets" it before he does something really damaging.
Apart from that I constantly offer to hang out, play games with him or whatnot (he used to love playing Subnautica together) but nothing seems to interest him at all. As someone who also suffered a lot at that age, it pains me so much to seem him go through similar and getting thrown so many helplines and not taking a single one. I would've moved heaven & earth back then for even one of them.
As stated in the title. I've worked in IT for over 15 years despite having no related degree.
I've been closing tickets nonstop at my current company for almost 10 years. After several restructurings and shuffling of higher posts, it has become clear to me that while this employer isn't the worst out there, I will never be internally promoted or have my job duties changed if I don't leave.
Worse, ever since Covid I've started falling out of love with IT and computers in general. I used to be stoked to learn about all the new developments in tech, nowadays, not so much - the only "innovation" I've seen in the last 10 years was companies trying to make absolutely everything a fucking subscription model. Now I honestly don't know nor care what's in the newest tech stack, how security has evolved,... I just want my shit to work and not having to worry about everything under the hood.
So getting another helpdesk- or related job seems out of the question for mental health reasons.
What would be another niche or industry where someone with an analytical mind and a greatly developed loathing for corporate mooching could find their spot in the coming two decades or so?
I've long since accepted that I'll never be able to climb any ladders anywhere since I never had the right contacts or stayed long enough, so it would likewise have to be something I could mentally and physically endure being in the bottom rungs of for the aforementioned duration.
Was the best moment of the day by far. Thanks for the li'l boost, fluffy princess!
Spoiler: I'm out 500€ and don't feel any better by any stretch of the imagination. The therapist in question has since blocked me, after I asked her for a reference for a colleague and she refused to give me one, and I accused her of only being in it for the money.
It's also pretty sad that with everything we already have to suffer, people exploit our explicit weaknesses hand over fist and society rewards them for it.
I suppose the majority of us plebs simply exist for the pleasures of our owner class, and seeing us squirm in agony just trying to stay alive day by day is amusing to some, and a source of income/riches for others.
I wish I had the intelligence, balls and black heart of one of these people. Compassion and integrity get you nowhere, ever, except a fast track to poverty.
At this point I don't mind if climate disasters or war do me, or anyone else, in. The sooner the better. I'm too much of a coward to do it myself anyway.
I'm 40 years old, in a crappy job without prospects despite degrees, and I have 0 friends.
I used to have a grand total of 2 friends before Covid, but then we lost contact. I've tried to rekindle, but all effort was onesided so I stopped.
I'm a lifelong spineless people pleaser despite lots of therapy, and the ironic thing is that this turns people off of you instead of having them like you.
At this point I don't see any reasons to continue trying.
If I had one wish in life, it would be to be a stereotypical asshole with actual self esteem - those are the kinds of people who seem to be anle to reach all of their goals and have others worship the ground they walk on.
But as for me, I'm so turned off by other people in general that I would probably be morbidly amused to read, oh I dunno, that Moscow nuked Kiev (or vive versa), that Jerusalem is burning, or that my hometown was wiped away by a hurricane.
Not to be "edgy". It's emotionally debilitating, and to be clear I don't enjoy/wish for human suffering.
I've just become as indifferent to it as the world seems to be to me. Simple tit for tat.
I'm tired. Kinda hoped I wouldn't wake up from my anaesthesia today. Ah well.
EDIT; I can't reply to everyone individually but thanks for all the suggestions! Opiates are out of the question, doctors here will only prescribe those in terms of absolutely extreme suffering or end of life care. I also don't particularly feel interested in developing a hard drug habit. Diclofenac and such are available but also only on separate prescriptions, I'd have to visit another doctor for that. I'm well stocked on paracetamol & ibuprofen, and apart from that, lots of ice cream, pudding & soup :)
Also, since a fair few people seem to doubt the veracity of my story, here's the 22 extracted teeth (the other 10 were already gone in previous extractions).
I've been playing since about a month after release and have since reached lvl 81 (just to show I put in quite a lot of game time since I started). In my first month of play I came across ONE single griefer who TK'd people on purpose. Considering I'd played hundreds of games I thought this game was a shining example of a great community.
However.
The last three(ish) weeks or so, I feel like I'm playing a whole different game. About 1/3rd to a quarter of my games involve randoms with really toxic behaviour. Training mobs on you, throwing barrages on the group for fun, destroying our own sentries in defense missions...
But there's one thing that is apparently suddenly a "fad", I guess? That is kicking someone from the game right before extraction. Seriously, I've run several full 40 minute rounds, usually on decently high difficulties (7-8), with no real communication with any players whatsoever, let alone tk's or toxic shit, and then you suddenly get kicked as soon as the Pelican is on the ground.
WTF gives? I don't know if it's a reportable thing, I doubt it, but I sincerely hope it's just players getting somewhat bored while waiting for more content and that it'll pass, because if this is going to be my regular experience from here on out, I'm going to look for something else to play. Not the devs' fault in any way.
Even IF you somehow manage to navigate today's maze of failures, rejections and heartbreak, what is your reward? To live yet another day in misery? To wait until climate change, war or disease does away with us?
A reward would be to be able to rest. I don't mean death per sé, but it seems like that's the only real-life thing left available to people like us.
Yes, yes, I know very well that "if nothing has meaning, YOU get to choose the meaning". Except I don't. Maybe if I was rich or powerful. But I'm poor, in poor health and powerless.
I read Camus' Sisiphus, and I, for one, cannot possibly imagine him happy.
It took ~5 minutes and there was ZERO pain.
I even anticipated this. There was no reason to think it would be hard in any kind of way.
Why am I like this?? Why is my brain such mush when it comes to my executive functioning while several other parts of my mental being are more than fine or even slightly supercharged (when I'm not depressed or out of mania)
The kicker? The appointment isn't for a doctor or a dentist or something else that would be "normal" to dread.
It's an appointment to pick up a brand new company car. A 2023 Mercedes EQA to the tune of 50K€. Most people would JUMP at that kind of opportunity, but not me. No, I sit there contemplating whether I even deserve a car that costs twice my annual salary, and that I'm just deluding myself into thinking I'm a valued part of society, that someone will realize they made a mistake and such a car was never meant for me (or "anyone like me").
This after a double dose of 15mg ritalin, by the way. Without it I would never have been able to push myself over that limit to begin with.
Fuckin' a...
Roman coinage from the punic wars is interesting, but quite a bit rarer is coinage from Carthage before it was razed. They minted quite exquisite coins in gold, silver and copper. Below is an example of such a copper coin!
30mm, 17.4g Obverse: Head of Tanit left, wearing wreath of grain ears and single-pendant earring.
Reverse: Horse standing right, palm tree in background to left, ligate Punic T and S below.
AI inflicted this upon my retina, so you shall suffer the same fate.
Obv: L AELIVS CAESAR. Bare head right.
Rev: TR POT COS II / CONCORD. Concordia seated left on throne, holding patera and resting elbow upon cornucopia.
RIC 436 (Hadrian).
Weight: 3.23 g. Diameter: 18 mm. !
Lucius Aelius Caesar (13 January 101 – 1 January 138) was the father of Emperor Lucius Verus. In 136, he was adopted by the reigning emperor Hadrian and named heir to the throne. He died before Hadrian and thus never became emperor. After Lucius' death, he was replaced by Antoninus Pius, who succeeded Hadrian the same year.
CAESAR-DICT • PERPETVO, veiled and laureate head of Julius Caesar right / P • SEPVLLIVS downward on right, MACER downward on left, Venus standing left, Victory in right hand, scepter in left; shield at feet behind. P. Sepullius Macer, moneyer. Crawford 480/13. Sydenham 1074. RSC 39. Good fine ex CNG 482/352
Issued from February up to the assassination of Caesar on March 15, 44. This coin represents one of the late lifetime portraits of Julius Caesar, with the title of a 'Dictator for life'. These portrait series were issued in large quantities to pay the troops gathered for Caesar's intended Parthian campaign. His assassination on the Ides of March prevented these plans. P. Sepullius Macer was the most prolific moneyer of 44 BC, striking the widest variety of Caesar portrait issues. Caesar is shown wreathed, sometimes also veiled, and his titles given as CAESAR IMP and CAESAR DICT PERPETVO, as seen on this specimen. The reverse image of Venus includes a number of minor design variants. The varying quality of portraiture and strike likewise indicate great haste of manufacture, perhaps in preparation for Caesar's projected Parthian war.
Notice the weight, which is not abnormal for denarii from this age. They slimmed down considerably after Augustus' reforms.
This particular specimen isn't in the greatest shape, nor in the worst. It retains all its core identifying features, like the veiled portrait of Caesar (one of the most important and iconic in ancient history, given its context and lead-up to his assassination), his controversial title(s), name, and origination of his gens in the depiction of Venus of which he claimed to be a direct descendant.
All in all, a coin worthy of addition to any serious collector's hoard in my opinion.
