Yep. I have a standing desk.

Right? Just getting up and doing something is so important. Whatever works to keep people from being sedentary.

It’s called “the silent killer” for a reason. Maybe you’re just tired lately from working hard, or you’ve been having headaches from eye strain, or maybe your blood pressure is at 170/120 and you’re actually near death.

That’s the shit that scares me. I’ve worked really hard to get my blood pressure way down (currently 110/60) and intend to keep it that way.

I actually gained weight when I first got serious about the gym, and that worried me until my doctor reassured me that I was putting on muscle, not fat. These days, it’s pretty obvious in retrospect.

The real metric I pay attention to is blood pressure. As my dad’s getting older he’s been struggling with blood pressure, and I don’t want that to ever happen to me, so cardio is important.

Working out. (I do it most weekdays, too).

I work in software, and I’ve seen far too many guys in my industry who are either skinny as a rail and surviving on Cheetos dust, or painfully overweight. Had several co-workers croak unexpectedly, at shockingly young ages.

It’s a real problem in the industry. People simply plop themselves down at their computers and forget to do anything else for an entire day.

I have kids, and refuse to let them lose their dad early, so I hit the gym for an hour in the mornings, at least every other day. I do a mix of cardio and weight training. I also never stay seated for longer than 45 minutes.

Seriously, guys… If you work in the software industry, make a habit of getting up and moving around. It doesn’t actually take much to reap enormous benefits just from staying more active.

I can easily afford all the stupid shit I’d actually want on $220K/year earnings from interest.

1. Pay off the remainder on my mortgage.
2. Pay off my parents’ mortgage.
3. Buy a new house that is large enough for my family to live comfortably in, without being ostentatious.
4. Give my old home to my in-laws. They could use it.
5. Set up a fund that produces enough interest for me and my family to live off of in perpetuity. $4 million in an account that produces 5.5% interest annually would be $220,000 (pre-tax) every year, which is plenty for our needs.
6. Set up a foundation to help the poor, fund environmental projects, support social justice causes, and so on with all of the rest.

I do not need $6 billion. No one does. I don’t want it. It would ruin me. The absolute best thing I could do with it is dedicate the overwhelming majority of it to causes I believe in, rather than hoarding it or buying a bunch of stupid shit.

Arch Linux user here to say… Ubuntu’s fine, man. Love all the derivatives that can take advantage of the core Ubuntu system (e.g., Mint, which I’ve installed for family members).

I love Arch. I use it all the time. I will not inflict it on any family members.

This is partially true. The rich have definitely benefited more than everyone else. But the actual statistics don’t lie… Wages are not actually stagnant, they’ve been ticking upward, and it’s finally happening faster than inflation. It’s not helping everyone, of course, but it’s not all doom and gloom, either. And inflation really is down - importantly, lower than the global average by quite a bit.

I’m not going to argue that everything is going perfectly, because it’s clearly not. For one thing, everything that can get passed in the House has to overcome Republican obstruction right now, only to face Republican obstruction in the Senate, too. We have a half-&-half government where one half is sociopathic, and that’s not amazing. In fact, while some economic indicators are good, the whole thing does appear pretty fragile.

Which is kinda the thesis of my original comment.

Good, but fragile.

Let’s talk about the fragile first:

• We have unrest due to the genocidal war in Gaza. Israel is a long-term ally of the United States, but… their government has lost its mind. They’ve responded to a horrendous terrorist attack with an even more horrendous war that it’s hard to see a good ending to. Lots of blame to go around on it, but as for the United States, we’re stuck with a particularly sticky political problem because of it.

  If we cut off support for Israel, it’s likely that they’ll face invasion by their neighbors, plunging the entire region into war and strengthening Russia.

  If we give them everything they need to raze Gaza to the ground, no strings attached, they’ll… raze Gaza to the ground, and probably try to destroy all of Palestine in a grotesque act of true genocide. This will also result in their neighbors attacking them, and likely cause an even more horrific war. Biden is currently trying to thread a very difficult needle between these extreme outcomes.

  I genuinely don’t know if he will succeed and ultimately convince Israel to stop the horrific destruction, but at least he’s trying. If Trump wins the next election, we - and Palestine, and Israel, and everyone who isn’t Russia or Iran - are fucked.

• We have a serious long-term problem that threatens the stability of the entire country, which I will sum up in two words: Fox News. This misnamed infotainment channel is almost single-handedly responsible for a decades-long - and horrifyingly successful - campaign to make an entire half of the country stupid, misinformed, bigoted, and angry all the time about utter nonsense.

  Have you heard about how trans people are beating all the “real” women in sports? Or raping them in public bathrooms? Have you heard about how DEI is flooding every business everywhere with unqualified employees, because white people are superior reasons that will remain carefully unspecified? Is Disney trying to turn little Timmy gay? Is the “woke mind virus” something you’re familiar with?

  Then you’ve probably either seen Fox News, or interacted with its victims. And I mean that: victims. These are people who have been intentionally targeted for, quite literally, brainwashing. If you’ve ever found yourself in an argument with a Fox News victim, you’ll have discovered that they’re remarkably impervious to facts, fully capable of believing complete balderdash without a single scrap of evidence, and are prone to become angry - sometimes violently so - in defense of their worldview and in response to anything that causes the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.

• We haven’t yet figured out how to really counter bad actors, both foreign and domestic, who take advantage of all of the above to try to destroy the United States as it is right now.

  Domestically, actual white supremacists and Neo-Nazis are absolutely thrilled with the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine, because 1) they hate absolutely everyone involved anyway, and 2) they see it as an opportunity to try to recruit new white supremacists from college students who are angry about the genocide. Does that make any sense? Of course not; if they’re upset about the horrific slayings of thousands of Muslims in a majority non-white country, it’s absurd to believe that they’re likely to be turned by white nationalism. But it’s not like Neo-Nazis are known for their critical thinking skills, and they still might succeed in dividing enough of the electorate to help Trump get back into office. They certainly want to.

  On the foreign front, there’s Russia, of course. Russia still wants to do everything it can to destroy the United States. Putin and his ilk have long since concluded that the easiest way to become a mover and shaker on the world stage isn’t to make a strong Russia, it’s to make everyone else weak. They’ve utterly squandered the opportunities of perestroika. And they are hell-bent on making the world suffer for it.

Pretty depressing, huh. But it’s not all bad:

• We seem to be taking genuine, if tentative, steps towards actually forcing Donald Trump to experience the consequences of his actions. This will destroy him. He’s a corrupt narcissist, and even being forced to be in court is absolute torture for him. And if he’s found guilty and becomes a felon, it’s a near-certainty that he will lose the upcoming election. There’s some evidence that while it would invigorate some of his base (comprised of Fox News victims), it would also partially divide them. He would, at last, look weak to some of them.
• Our economy is actually doing quite well. Jobs are up, inflation is down, GDP is up, and overall things are actually going fairly well. You don’t hear about it much, because “Everything is going well” doesn’t make for an exciting news headline, but it appears to be true.
• Biden has made remarkable strides, all things considered, on multiple issues, from the environment to student loans. This, even with a House controlled by the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and a corrupt Supreme Court.
• The pandemic isn’t over - it probably never will be - but with actual grown-ups at the wheel, we’re doing much better on that front, too.

So… yeah. Good. But fragile.

If you count light outside of the human visible spectrum, it’s bright pretty much everywhere. Like, getting away from light requires specially constructed facilities.

I’ve never even heard of it. They sure weren’t putting their VPN front and center.

The vaccines actually did do a good job of preventing infection and spread initially. But thanks to anti-vaxxers, it had ample opportunity to mutate. So it did.

I mean, yeah, a few, but there are plenty with Windows too, and the overwhelming majority of games I’ve tried it with work fine.

Well, of course. I mean it’s not like you paid for a Microsoft Windows license when you bought your computer, so obviously they have to advertise to financially support it. If you’re getting something for free, you’re the product.

…

…

…

Wait, I’m being told that when people buy computers with Windows installed, they are, in fact, paying for a Windows license, too.

So this is actually Microsoft trying to turn products they’ve already sold into continuous revenue streams at the cost of usability and customer happiness.

In other news, apropos of nothing in particular, Steam on Linux is working really well these days, with lots of AAA titles running just fine via Proton. Make of that what you will…

Gonna try really fucking hard for that.

I have what can only be described as a “flagon” of water next to my bed. I’ve emptied it like five times today.

Oh, you better fucking believe I’m resting. As much as I humanly can. I’ve spent just about the entire day in my bedroom, switching between bed (when I can breathe through the mucus) and supremely comfy chair (when I can’t). There will be no “push” in this house.

I simply will not buy a washing machine where some of the options for its regular use require an internet connection. I can see adding Bluetooth to it for things like remote control and phone notifications, or even WLAN support for connecting to some kind of smarthome hub that is internet-connected so you can get those notifications remotely. But the idea that smart == device-level internet connection is terrible. Appliances for basic living requirements, like laundry, should not require an internet connection of their own to function.

This particular homeowner is baffled that anyone would buy a washing machine that needs an internet connection. I’m all for smart appliances, but a smart washing machine is a solution in search of a problem.