Probably Mario on the first NES system. Then I got a Genesis, and I was constantly playing a little-known number called Ranger-X. THAT game was Dark Souls-hard.

Eh, not bad I guess. I’m laid off for a few days (can’t pave in the rain) so I’ll have to collect a week of unemployment, but on the other hand it gives me time to get some things done around the apartment and see some friends that live nearby.
Other than that, trying to play Armored Core VI without getting frustrated with the difficulty, and eagerly awaiting Starfield’s early release on Labor Day weekend.

That’s forbidden knowledge among the mechanics in my union local, lol. One of the shop mechanics at my training center was teaching some of my peers how to pick locks when we had completed our training and were just killing time helping the shop guys out. Had some downtime and he brought out a couple sets and some locks.
Apparently it’s sort of an unspoken tool of the mechanic trade when you work around machinery like that. Never know what you’ll have to get access to and you never know if anyone will have the right key. You’d think the ignition key would suffice to open, say, an access panel or storage cabinet, but some of these machines use a different key entirely for such a thing.

That’s almost anarcho-syndicalism, which I am a proponent of some of the ideas of, but it leaves capital and government generally intact. That’s probably the easiest way we could transition away from capitalism as we know it and not collapse the system entirely. It sounds almost feasible.

That depends entirely on what instances we are talking about. Lemmy.grad and Hexbear users have no business existing anywhere but their own shitty tankie bubble.

Yeah I’m not sure why or how this would be a topic of conversation when, yknow, dating women.

Way I see it, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. When you get out of high school and either go to college or join the workforce or learn a trade (I did both; went to college, got a degree in biochemistry and now I do unionized construction [as part of a trade; I operate heavy equipment] for way more money), your entire life opens up. You can do whatever you want with that time, and live your life on your terms.
That said, there’s gonna be times ahead that you may be stuck in one town or place. That’ll be a good time to familiarize yourself with the area and see what’s happening socially. Not just bars or gyms, but clubs, group activities, etc.
Urban exploration was always fun when I was your age, but just be careful. Especially if the abandoned building you and your friends are interested in is military. Never know what they forgot, or who’s still watching the place.
Anyway, hang in there, it gets better.
Edit: Also when I say “clubs,” I don’t mean the dance floor. Hobby clubs.

Supervisor was being a prick last night during our shift, but I’m on 4-10s so I have the weekend now. And I’m unionized, so really whenever the mood strikes me, I can tell said supervisor to blow me. I’ll still have a job. Thing is, the guy’s like a parasite: if you let him get under your skin, he wins. So I bite my tongue and do my thing, fuck 'em.
Aside from that? Might finish Baldur’s Gate 3 this weekend, but I’ve got errands to run and cleaning to do. Maybe some shopping. All in all, not a bad week. I leave the bullshit at work and live my life.

Pushing a livestock dewormer as effective protection against COVID puts him about the same level as Gwyneth Paltrow selling pussy candles and whatever other dumb shit she’s hawking these days.
I’m also tired of “libertarian” being a dirty word. Far as I know, classical libertarians aren’t the Randian capitalist sociopaths the right fawns over, yet it’s another thing the right has co-opted and fucking soiled, much like the Gadsden Flag.

I don’t wear one in my day-to-day, but I’m certainly not going to begrudge somebody for wearing one, and you can be sure I’m gonna have em around for flu season, COVID or no.
The problem is masks got politicized by assholes that want to be contrarian for the sake of preserving their paradigm, their worldview.
These are people so mentally weak and reliant on the lifestyle they’ve grown accustomed to that when something like a plague comes around, it shifts their paradigm so fuckin’ hard that they have to tell themselves the science is wrong and everybody is going to be fine. I suppose the other part of it is treating your national politics like a fuckin’ football game, but that doesn’t even warrant discussing because it’s so goddamn obvious and pervasive.
Now imagine, as a hypothetical scenario, the government tells us aliens are real one day, and they’re here. Watch these people really lose it. Wouldn’t know whether to shit or go blind.
Edit: As for the people that are just genuinely tired of hearing about it, be it on here, Reddit, or else where… Pull the fucking plug and let everything go for a bit. Decompress. You don’t have to be online and connected to everything every minute of your boredom or free time.
There’s no lockdown anymore. Go touch grass.

You’re looking at PPE one-dimensionally. The most effective use of PPE is combined with other types of PPE, as well as additional precautions and safe habits. Masks ALONE aren’t saving shit. A vaccine ALONE isn’t making you infallible.
This is basic OSHA shit that everyone should at least realize where it applies to work. It carries over into your everyday. I’ve got a HAZWOPER certification I have to keep up every year, so it’s something ingrained at this point.

How dramatic. I don’t think people are generally still scared of this. It’s been part of our lives for a few years now.
Normal people see this and go “Hmm, I’ll keep some N95s around in case there’s a notable uptick in people gettin’ sick this flu season.” Meanwhile, some people, such as yourself, seem to have a negative knee-jerk reaction to anything in the news related to COVID, and then proceed to get shit upon by the community when you bitch about it; their knee-jerk reaction is to immediately assume you’re a right-winger and call you out on it (they’ve done it to a couple other people in here). While I don’t think that’s a fair assumption off the cuff, I can see how they’d jump to that.

Then they’re not properly educated, they have no better option, or in the case of the news anchor, they’re a parasite feeding on fear.

That’s not how any of the COVID vaccines were reported to work. No such thing as total immunity.
The virus is deadly depending on what conditions are met (underlying risk factors, etc.). Not all of those conditions are obvious or well-studied, so it always seemed to me like a lottery who gets killed by the virus.
Furthermore, I don’t believe the article is fearmongering. As I said in a separate comment, it’s more like “hey, there might be a bit of an outbreak in some places this flu season, so keep some N95s on hand just in case numbers go up.” I HIGHLY doubt we would see another shutdown.

I find myself still standing a moderate distance away from people while in line at stores etc.

And where do you get N95s that filter outgoing air effectively? Besides, even these N95s are leagues better than the Chinese mass-produced KN95 junk you see on something like Amazon.
Edit: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/free-masks.html
Here the CDC lists brands and models of masks that are effective in protecting yourself and others. As you say, the 8511 just happens to be one with an exhalation valve. I do remember the CDC explicitly saying exhalation valves were a no-go during the pandemic, so I don’t think anyone looking for N95s for COVID protection would buy masks with valves anyway. There are other options available from hardware stores.

Home Depot carries NIOSH-certified N95s. Looks like they’re in stock online.

So just make sure you have N95s handy. There’s no reason to panic, but just be prepared if a new strain takes off over the flu season.
I don’t understand why the comments are so contentious.

Somebody else pointed out MintPress is tankie bullshit.
These scum are everywhere on lemmy.ml, I swear.

Good lookin’ out. Somebody remove this garbage.