https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/cd407ae9-2199-4fc7-8a79-0c634d04510d.jpeg

This seems apt.

So, bad things happen, absolutely. Sometimes, they go in a run. I’ve had some epically shitty times in my life, and it just seems like they pile on. But… Things also change. I had an absolute nightmare job for 19 years. My Dad died. I got sick. I got laid off. I went back to school. It sucked, so bad! But then, I got an internship. It was awesome! I made friends. The reduced stress let me kick my illness. Now, I’m almost done school, and I have a really good chance of getting full time work at that internship. We’ll see. The point is, things go in cycles. It’s so cliche, but it’s true that it’s always darkest before dawn. Hang in, find your joy. It’ll change.

I got some video goggles about 10 years ago. The picture on the box? A guy wearing cool shades. Me? It felt like 10 pounds strapped to my face in such a way I had to look straight up to sort of see a blurry, blocky video through a screen door. This had to be plugged into a DVD player or a VHS player (yes, really) with three separate cords, but still also ate four AAs more than once an hour, and had built in earbuds in exactly the wrong size. Also, there was a separate cord to a remote control that managed to get tangled up very easily despite being too short to fit in a pocket while the goggles were on your head, so I just kinda looped it over my shoulders. Claimed to have a 3D mode. Never found it. 300$ well spent.

I have a Mode 7 Retro ii from Japan. The number pad? Useless. But it folds up and fits in my pocket, and is good enough. (Writing this on my tablet, so…)

I ask myself that on a regular basis.

I volunteer at the public library. Almost all the people who come in are phones only, and totally lost on a PC. They come in to fill out gov’t PDFs that won’t open on their phones and to print stuff out. My classmates, in the IT program (!) have a lot of trouble navigating on their laptops, and only a couple of us have desktops at all.

This is what makes me so sad. I have a friend, got married, had a kid, looked at the world and said, “This has to change.” He bought solar. Bought a Tesla. Started growing food in his back yard. Joined a farm co-op. Did all the right things. Frankly, I admire his willingness to actually be the change he wanted in the world. Then, the owner of the car company turned into a Nazi. Not exactly his fault. Some Tesla drivers need hugs.

I used to be a dry texter, but now I intersperse gifs of waterfalls, oceans, lakes or rivers every three or four messages. It took effort, but nobody accuses me of being dry anymore! (Also, I moisturize in the winter.)

I have a boox Poke 3, again, not quite the same. My workaround for the settings thing: install Lawn chair app. It’s an alternative launcher, and for some reason, it lets me access all the normal android settings. I have modified my DNS settings on it, and connected to VPN that way. Might work on the Palma.

That’s it, I’m going to go find my Mandrake Floppies…

So, I never had to try, it just always worked for me. But, a friend of mine once said that she got it to work by holding her finger up in front of her face, like a foot away, and then looking past the finger at something farther away. Then, back to the finger. Looking past her finger, she’d see two of the finger, but as soon as she was thinking about the finger, she’d focus again on it and start just seeing the one finger. The trick to the magic eye is basically getting to where you can deliberately focus past the finger and still look at it? I don’t know, I just look and see the image. Once, someone made a fake one that had no image to try to mess with me. There’s also a neat trick where you can immediately see the difference in side by side images by “magic eye-ing” them. The differences kinda flicker or glow, it’s hard to explain.

Yup, totally could. Loved that game. Would get the Meteor power, then erase the map!

Because of how it was coded, it was really hard to emulate. Haven’t tried in years.

Magic Carpet also had red/blue 3d mode that worked pretty good!

I can see magic eye pictures instantly. Like, at a glance.

There are some games that run anti-cheat that just don’t run. I don’t play any of those at the moment, but other than that, no. The odd thing has quirks, but between Steam and Lutris, I’m good. Not a heavy duty gamer though.

Hear hear! I’m living in Fedora-land for school and gaming, and I run into way less trouble than my classmates!

I really like self -hosting, and some great concepts are coming out of containerization, but I also feel like the next generation are being fed a steady stream of “Rent, lease, stream” to such an extent that kids I know literally don’t understand files on their computer, only cloud connected apps and content. I kind of wish there was a philosophy of tech course that made people carefully consider some of the trade-offs we’re constantly making with the big five.

Yeah, I’m Canadian. Thus, non-confrontational by nature. Now, If I was answering a call and someone did that, I’d let them get away with it, 100%.

You can’t cancel your reservation within 24 hours. You can rebook it. Okay, rebook it for one week out. Call back a day later, cancel.

Well, I guess I’m re-sending Starter Villain again…

Short story. Favorite aunt, cancer. Still miss her, so many years later.

Sending a virtual cyber hug your way. I’m a bit the same with Thanksgiving. Feeling a loss during a “cheery happy time” blows. Not too much else I can say. I hope you get through it.