Real Life and What's Happening...

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So, tonight was the fourth or fifth time I've dropped my wallet somewhere in this city, and the fourth or fifth time it has been returned to me completely intact, sometimes by people who went out of their way to do so.

Cheers, Chicago!

(After the third time, I went back to wearing a chain-wallet for a bit, not really minding looking like a '90s skater kid, cuz, ya know, I was a '90s skater kid, but then one time the chain got caught in the slats of a bench, causing me to miss my train, lol. So it was back to non-chain wallet after that.)
The news/internet tries to sell you the world is full of assholes but life keeps proving if it was we'd all be dead.
 
Most of my peers have now been vaccinated, and I have not just one, but three in-person social engagements this weekend! That was a rarity, even pre-pandemic. Movie night with one friend tonight, movie night with a different friend tomorrow night, birthday party for a third friend on Sunday. :grin:
 
First world solutions to first world problems. My eyesight isn't really up to reading text on my shiny new 4k monitor without magnifying everything, which kinda defeats the purpose of getting it in the first place. The solution I'm thinking of is getting an ultra-wide monitor (which has about the same DPI as my old NEC, around 110 vs. 100) and flogging the 4k one; fortunately I still have its packaging.

In unrelated news, I'm quite pleased with the new A/V kit. It's been great for my onlyfans siWork and online D&D game.
 
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Today I got my new internet connection installed, fibre to the home, so I'm now getting over three times as many internet as I was for a pound or two more, which I feel is a pretty good deal.

And after I'd logged off for the night, my boss messaged me saying he wanted to speak to me, and it turns out I've also been given a pay rise.

So all in all, not a bad day.
 
Today I got my new internet connection installed, fibre to the home, so I'm now getting over three times as many internet as I was for a pound or two more, which I feel is a pretty good deal.

And after I'd logged off for the night, my boss messaged me saying he wanted to speak to me, and it turns out I've also been given a pay rise.

So all in all, not a bad day.
What's your actual speed?

It looks like they do FTTC in my new abode, and they certainly did it at my last-but-one, which is coincidentally just a few hundred metres down the road.

Congratulations on the pay rise.
 
3 of my players are vaccinated, but since playing online I've added two from out of state. So when we go back to playing in person I need to figure out a way to include the distance folks. They might just be floating heads on laptops set up around the table.

Has anyone had luck blending online and in person players?
 
What's your actual speed?

It looks like they do FTTC in my new abode, and they certainly did it at my last-but-one, which is coincidentally just a few hundred metres down the road.

Congratulations on the pay rise.
Speedchecker says 106 Mb/s download, 93 Mb/s upload, 21ms ping, and I'm on £26 / month. Faster options are available here, but given I live on my own I can't really see a point in paying double that.

They installed fibre to my area just a few weeks after I moved in and already had an internet connection set up, so while I've wanted to upgrade for a while I had to sit through my contract first.
 
Speedchecker says 106 Mb/s download, 93 Mb/s upload, 21ms ping, and I'm on £26 / month. Faster options are available here, but given I live on my own I can't really see a point in paying double that.

They installed fibre to my area just a few weeks after I moved in and already had an internet connection set up, so while I've wanted to upgrade for a while I had to sit through my contract first.
That's quite an impressive upload speed for consumer broadband. The FTTC options available here go up to 200Mb/sec or so down but up is still only 30-40. Having said that, I'm in an apartment block now, and the interwebs are a bit ambiguous about whether FTTC is available here.
 
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3 of my players are vaccinated, but since playing online I've added two from out of state. So when we go back to playing in person I need to figure out a way to include the distance folks. They might just be floating heads on laptops set up around the table.

Has anyone had luck blending online and in person players?

Negative. If anyone has a satisfactory method for managing online and in-person players at the same table I would like to know.
It's very hard. I've been on both ends of that arrangement and the in person group usually dominates. You might try to limit side conversations and as much as possible limit speaking to initiative order or something like that. It sucks some of the fun out for everyone because it isn't as congenital but the alternative is the long distance group gets a series second fiddle when comes to engagement.

That or just remind the in person folks that side banter and discussion really leaves the distance players out of the game. A year of virtual should make that obvious but they're also missing that fun group dynamic.
 
Today I got my new internet connection installed, fibre to the home, so I'm now getting over three times as many internet as I was for a pound or two more, which I feel is a pretty good deal.

And after I'd logged off for the night, my boss messaged me saying he wanted to speak to me, and it turns out I've also been given a pay rise.

So all in all, not a bad day.
We got a letter they're going to switch us to fibre for free, at no extra cost /month. I didn't feel like it would be worth any extra money so I hadn't really considered switching to fibre yet, but this way I'm fine with it.

3 of my players are vaccinated, but since playing online I've added two from out of state. So when we go back to playing in person I need to figure out a way to include the distance folks. They might just be floating heads on laptops set up around the table.

Has anyone had luck blending online and in person players?
I think my brother did some boardgaming where one player communicated with the rest over Skype.
 
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Speedchecker says 106 Mb/s download, 93 Mb/s upload, 21ms ping, and I'm on £26 / month. Faster options are available here, but given I live on my own I can't really see a point in paying double that.

They installed fibre to my area just a few weeks after I moved in and already had an internet connection set up, so while I've wanted to upgrade for a while I had to sit through my contract first.
I have FTTC just outside Dallas in Plano. I get about a third of your performance and pay about twice as much.
 
Wasn't it something called the Dunning-Kruger effect that allows some incompetent people to fake it all the way?

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is just the bit about fooling yourself, it does not involve fooling other people.

Though if you have a Dunning-Krugerite as a boss he or she might promote incompetents because of being unable to recognise good work.
 
I forget where I saw it, but I saw someone’s remote setup with a monitor, speaker and camera right at the table, so it was like the person was sitting there and got a table view similar to what they would have had sitting there.
 
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is just the bit about fooling yourself, it does not involve fooling other people.

Though if you have a Dunning-Krugerite as a boss he or she might promote incompetents because of being unable to recognise good work.
I'd say people in general are easily fooled by someone who seems to radiate confidence.
 
It's turned quite warm here (85-88 F/29-31 C), over the last few days, after a long cool spell, so I've begun sleeping with my window open. Every year this leads to some sleepless nights, until I get used to the increased light and noise compared to my bedroom with the curtains drawn and windows shut. It doesn't help that the birds start singing at about 5 a.m.

Last night, to make things worse, a house down the street was having a drunken party at 2 in the morning. I could hear loud singing and lots of giggling/laughing although the house was half a block or more away. That sort of thing is pretty rare in my neighborhood; quiet hours are supposed to start at 10 p.m. and few people make much noise after that. I recall a couple of years ago a neighbor wanted to have an outdoor graduation party for his son that would have a band playing until midnight, and the family basically canvassed the neighborhood for permission.

I almost called the police, after the racket had been going on for about a half-hour, but I thought of all the stupid and inconsiderate things I'd done when I was young and decided to give it a bye. Fortunately, the noise stopped before 3 a.m. and I was able to get back to sleep. On the positive side, I got a few good Lord Dunsany stories read while waiting for things to quiet down.
 
Yeah, if it's on the weekends and it's not every weekend I just go with "let people party".
 
So, tonight was the fourth or fifth time I've dropped my wallet somewhere in this city, and the fourth or fifth time it has been returned to me completely intact, sometimes by people who went out of their way to do so.

Cheers, Chicago!

(After the third time, I went back to wearing a chain-wallet for a bit, not really minding looking like a '90s skater kid, cuz, ya know, I was a '90s skater kid, but then one time the chain got caught in the slats of a bench, causing me to miss my train, lol. So it was back to non-chain wallet after that.)
Interesting as a 60's, 70's, 80's skateboarder/surfer and motorcyclist (the last I still do), I had no idea that chain wallets were a thing with later skaters. I did for a time make use of one as a motorcyclist, but like you found it snagged on things far too often to be worth using, plus the noise of the chain annoyed me. These days I use a very slim, lightweight wallet.

Also, very nice to see humans being be kind and helpful still.
 
3 of my players are vaccinated, but since playing online I've added two from out of state. So when we go back to playing in person I need to figure out a way to include the distance folks. They might just be floating heads on laptops set up around the table.

Has anyone had luck blending online and in person players?
Remember that it's really easy to step or inadvertently ignore the online players. After I moved I was doing that with a group who played in person and it was hard to feel engaged or heard. ☹
 
Our younger girl cat decided it was time for some affection this morning while I was getting ready for work, and she was really getting into the head rubs. Problem is, when she's in that mood she gets so excited about scritchies that all her claws come out and then she's the world's most affectionate ball of knives. I look like I tried to slit my wrists during an epileptic seizure while drunk.
 
Our younger girl cat decided it was time for some affection this morning while I was getting ready for work, and she was really getting into the head rubs. Problem is, when she's in that mood she gets so excited about scritchies that all her claws come out and then she's the world's most affectionate ball of knives. I look like I tried to slit my wrists during an epileptic seizure while drunk.
This is why dogs are better.
 
What I love about window unit AC units is the white noise they create. Allows me to sleep much better and ignore noise like Lofgeornost Lofgeornost was dealing within their post above.
Yeah. For the last several years I have been wishing we could install a window AC unit in our bedroom, but unfortunately we have casement windows and so cannot. Years ago in Northern Ohio AC was scarcely needed, but global warming has changed that.

Fortunately, a fan achieves much of the same effect as far as white noise goes.
 
Yeah. For the last several years I have been wishing we could install a window AC unit in our bedroom, but unfortunately we have casement windows and so cannot. Years ago in Northern Ohio AC was scarcely needed, but global warming has changed that.

Fortunately, a fan achieves much of the same effect as far as white noise goes.
Yup, I use a fan in our bedroom for white noise even in the winter. I've always been a light sleeper even before the years in the military, worsened with age.
 
First world solutions to first world problems - I got an ultra-wide Viewsonic monitor (VP3881) and now I can actually read text on it. First impressions are:
  • This works so much better for me than the full-fat 16:9 4k unit that I got. I can read it without having to magnify the image.
  • The bass on the built-in speakers is much better than the Eizo I had.
  • The box is too big to sit on top of my storage cupboards so I have no idea where I'm going to put it.
I will flog the Eizo on Ebay at some point, unless some Pubber in the UK wants a 4K monitor, in which case PM me.
 
One of the guys in my gaming group just had a heart attack followed by some strokes. He's paralyzed on his left side of the body. He was a real gym monster so this is not going to be easy for him. Not like it's easy for anyone but just going to add to his depression. Guess I'm starting to enter that stage of life. :sad:
 
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