Ive been in and out of college since 2014 and my most recent attempt, specifically one programming course, was the final straw that made me throw my hands up and say fuck it ill teach myself.

On top of paying out of state tuition, i had to pay fees that were meant to support the online learning platform the school used to deliver virtual courses. No biggie, every school ive attended has the same fees. However, this one programming course was integrated with pearson and not just for a few assignments, but for literally everything. Every module, assignment, quiz, etc. was a hyperlink to pearson. My teacher was doing 0 teaching and grading, I was still expected to pay fees for the schools learning platform that was nothing but hyperlinks to pearson, and then on top of all of that i was expected to pay an extra fee to use pearson’s platform. But, wait, it gets better. The hyperlinks to pearson were actually directing to pearson’s in-house built course that they openly sell on their site at a lower rate than what my school tried to charge me and with a longer access period than I would have gotten through my school.

UMGC, university of maryland global campus, essentially tried to outsource my education to a 3rd party and then asked me to front the cost in addition to their own fees. Yeah, no, i withdrew from the school. As much as I want my bachelors, its not worth it if i have to play these games.

I got into gaming console collecting as a hobby, (though on pause at the moment) and decided early on the ps4 and 5 are not a generation of consoles i want to purposely seek out anytime soon, so a bit of a different perspective, here.

My general rules for adding a console to the collection is 1) it has to be a good deal, no above market rate, because the hunt for a good deal is part of the fun for me, 2) it has to either be fully working or clearly repairable, 3) it has to have a disc drive, and 4) it has to be within budget.

The only console I found made post-360 that fit those rules was a 20.00 xbox one listed as for parts on shopgoodwill. They couldnt get it to boot fully, but it turns out the drive was just full and taking 5+ minutes to turn on.

Other than that, im not holding my breath on any other post-360 consoles making it into the collection within the next 15-20 years. Any fully working ones i find are/were outside of my budget and since theyre intentionally designed to not be repairable at home, the broken consoles within budget are too risky of a purchase. I took a chance on a 15.00 xbox one S model that wasnt turning on and wont be doing that again. I’ll admit i’m no professional and sometimes a repair is just outside of my skill set, but it was the first busted console i couldnt even diagnose. It was frustrating as hell given the week prior i was able to bang out a recap for a Sega game gear and fix screen tear on a gameboy without a second thought.

I had Thursday/Friday off, making a nice 4 day weekend, and felt like i was starting to relax by Sunday. I actually baked cookies Sunday evening on impulse, something I havent done in years because i just havent the energy. The thought of working today stressed me out so much i woke up at 5am and couldnt fall back asleep, then had a small emotional breakdown while sitting at my desk staring at the number of tickets in my queue. We downsized this year and let everyone else in my position go, leaving only me to do the work of a team of 4…Im so tired…

how in the fuck have i lived in ohio all my life, central for the last decade, and not know about the field of corn sculptures. I feel like i need to turn in my ohio native card for my blasphemous corn ignorance.

I went to save this for future use and had to double take when i saw the .gif extension.

They made coming up with a user tag easy

Ill be honest, i agree that therapy may be needed, here.

Ive tried this with them. It doesnt work.

Im not a therapist, so take this with a grain of salt, but this is concerning to hear for me. It gives me the impression you might be closed off to your role in the conflict and the effort your spouse is putting in to understand your side (assuming there is effort to talk in any way). Talking together as a couple isnt a “Im trying”, its a “We’re trying.” “We” coming from the recognition that both sides are trying to understand the other even if resolution hasnt been found yet. Dont approach it as a “talk with them”, theyre not a dependent that needs a lecture, but rather as a “talk together” where both sides are actively heard and recognized regardless of if the other agrees. The goal is to understand the other, not necessarily to make your side heard. Once you both understand the other persons perspective, it becomes easier to find the disconnect or middle ground.

Declaring “it doesnt work” isnt trying to understand the other, its shutting things down and wont solve anything anytime soon.

Oh man, i dont know if i could eat a pb&j on whole wheat. My go to is usually the classic white bread or toasted sour dough if im feeling fancy.

So…i hate to add to it…but my husband is mildly autistic and we’ve had this exact conflict with gift giving early in our marriage.

He sees the act of gift giving very logically and practically, which is perfectly fine, but i didnt really understand this early on in our relationship. We eventually sat down, talked about how we each felt, and it clicked that we had a disconnect on the social/emotional layer of gift giving. I saw and felt that gift giving was more of an act of showing the other person they crossed your mind; a display of emotion. On the other hand, my husband saw and felt gift giving was more about making sure the item is exactly what the other person wants, including if that item is “nothing”; logical, literal, and practical.

Sit down together and talk. Use “I” statements, keep calm voices, and dont interrupt. The goal is to express how you feel, listen to how they feel, and work together to help each other understand both perspectives.

They provide the instructions, but last time I checked they took down the install files. Im hoping they come back because i would love to give it a try on my system.

Edit: Just rechecked and it looks like everything is there including files. I know what im doing tonight!

So I was 5 when WoW released and it was my first mmorpg followed by EverQuest. I couldnt type, my mom had to do it for me and when she did the other party members were always surprised because i apparently played really well.

Played until my character level was nearly maxed out, but my dad deleted the character to make room for another god damn character for him to max out. My interest sort of died and never picked it back up again, though ive thought about it.

Its what first got me on the computer in the first place and sparked that initial IT career interest.

I’m a bit anxious Steam is taking the initial steps of enshitification with their recent store front UI update, but that could just be me being a grumpy fart about change.

I saw that on our calendar this year and laughed. The company i work for had a huge influx of buisness for a year or two, but they mismanaged the hell out of the profits. With everything going to shit this year they had to let go of over half the company, including my husband just days before his hire date anniversary when he would have gotten more vacation days and his yearly raise… Yeah…boss…i dont have many reasons to be thankful this “bosses day”

If you count discord, just about every night. We have a whole list of things we rotate between from movies, games, and brain rot videos.

In person, once every few months. We get together for some holidays, events, etc.

It almost reads like an AI pretending to be an adult thats pretending to be a middle schooler.

So… first thing in the morning, automatic telling machine you make sure to look at the big black cock?

The idea of there being an ATM version of you that likes to look at big black cocks first thing in the morning gives me a chuckle.

Ours isnt walkable. We live dead center of a suburban neighborhood thats equal distant between two major roads with various grocery stores, restaurants, and shops, but its a minimum 45 minute walk just to reach either major road. Its another 10 minute walk if you want the grocery store and 15-45 if you want a place to eat.

There are no sidewalks for about 100 feet on both ends of the only road that connects the two major roads and our large neighborhood. This isnt really an issue on one side because theres grass you can still walk on, but on the other end you have to walk across a shoulderless bridge to reach the main road or climb over the 6ft deep drainage ditch to get to a parking lot that runs next to the bridge.

We tried walking to a restaurant once and havent had the energy to try it again which is a shame because we have an insanely diverse number of options for food and shopping, not that we can really afford it anymore.

I get called on at work a lot for questions and training on our websites, but i honestly feel like the least knowledgable person in the entire company. It took a few years before it dawned on me that im not called on a lot because of the information i know, but rather for my ability to find the information i dont.

…and the call back ring tones. For about 5 years i hated calling one person in particular because id have to listen to Hey, Soul Sister every…fricken…time.

I was born in 96 when my mom was 19. I remember sometime in middle to early high school looking up the generation year cut offs and thinking it was wild my mom and i were considered the same generation; her being the start of the generation and me being the end.

Obviously thats no longer the case with current generation year cutoffs, but im now starting to see 96 included as the first year of gen Z which feels…wierd. I definitely dont connect with people of gen Z easily because it feels like…well…a different generation, but at the same time I feel a disconnect with other, older, millenials because they tend to remember the 90s more than myself. Im not sure about anyone else, but being born in 96 feels like being stuck between two generations that you partially relate to, but not really.