rob_t_firefly

rob_t_firefly , 15 hours ago

Dude... you're getting "or else."

rob_t_firefly , 3 days ago

That guy's the maverick who struggles to get the others to understand his comparatively far-out ideas.

rob_t_firefly , 2 days ago

This is an interesting way of thinking about things. I would have probably agreed entirely with this when I was a kid on the early Internet, experimenting, making mistakes, and figuring out who I was and what sort of person I wanted to strive to be.

Now, as a middle-aged old fart who has used the same screenname everywhere online for decades, I generally prefer to fully consider everything I say, whether online or in real life, and contribute things I truly mean to put out there as myself. I also prefer to have a real life, job, family and friends, etc. compatible with the weirdass person I genuinely am everywhere, which includes my online work, activities, opinions, shitposts, etc.

For example, I got so active in subcultural projects and stuff from my online life over the years that things from it built up into legitimate features of my real-life portfolios and resumes and get talked about in job interviews, so I simply don't pursue work at places which would have a problem with finding that stuff out about me. Similarly, my universal screenname and weird online stuff were in my profile on the dating app where I met the person to whom I'm now happily married, and that person enjoys and even helps me do my weird online bullshit while being the greatest real-life partner I could ever ask for.

It's all come together in a rather comfy way for me, and I ultimately find it a much more freeing way to live than trying to do the secret-identity thing.

rob_t_firefly , 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

Unlike Gallowboob, Flying Squid posts interesting things I genuinely enjoy instead of generic gruel obviously calculated to farm upvotes from the mainstream. Flying Squid is also an interesting and fun participant in the comments and seems like a pretty cool person, while I seen to remember Gallowboob coming off like he'd be an insufferable jackass in real life.

rob_t_firefly , 2 days ago

I ain't never met nobody I didn't not dislike.

rob_t_firefly , 2 days ago

If everyone in my real life already knows what I'm like online and vice versa, what's to exploit?

rob_t_firefly , 2 days ago

These are good points, and a lot of people may find that sort of separation useful.

Personally I'm also an activist involved with hacker culture, independent journalism, and weird art and comedy stuff, but I've come to a point where I don't really feel much need to separate that from the rest of my life; the mundane me is hacker me, activist me, etc. I'm also pretty confident that if I said or did something stupid enough to involve backlash from anyone whose opinion matters to me, not only would I probably have earned the criticism but my wife would be first in line to tell me I'm being an ass.

rob_t_firefly , 15 hours ago

Joke's on them, I'm no good for money even when it's legit. 💸

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

In some towns that makes you the mayor.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Just because the politicians want to grab you out of your life and use you as cannon fodder doesn't mean they want to actually be as accountable to you as they're supposed to.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Nope. Nearly all US citizens assigned male at birth age 18-25 must register, with very few exceptions.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

I do know that, it's prominently featured in the extensive dossier my superiors issued me about you. But perhaps I've said too much...

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

The same way you can wear warm clothes in freezing weather and still feel the cold, but at a level which won't physically damage you.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Maybe you do, though. It night be worth getting tested if you have access and haven't already.

rob_t_firefly , 5 days ago

I'm thinking of quitting the Taco Bell deep-marketing department.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Meme of the rosy-cheeked Ancient Aliens guy (in the same screenshot from further up this comment chain) captioned "Cocaine"

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Once they notice space is black, they'd panic and shoot it.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

Sadly this means you'll never see "The Edge of Destruction" a.k.a. "Inside the Spaceship," as the whole thing takes place in the TARDIS it's outside time entirely and therefore impossible to put into any objective chronological order with the others. Other stories like "The Celestial Toymaker" or "The Mind Robber" take place in freaky realities which are similarly difficult to contextualize in the timeline.

Source: I wasted far too much of my precious human life debating this shit on fandom wiki talk pages.

rob_t_firefly , 6 days ago

A lot of domain registrars nowadays have a privacy-protection feature which will fill the public WHOIS entry with the registrar's own geographical address and a randomly-generated email address which forwards to you. It's easy enough to set up a filter sending any email you get via that forwarder straight to spam, as in all probability you'll never get any email of value from someone who looked up your WHOIS to contact you.

rob_t_firefly , 8 days ago

Also Quantum Leap.

rob_t_firefly , 8 days ago

And the classic Beatles track "I Quanta Hold Your Hand."

rob_t_firefly , 8 days ago

If you're looking to do something nice for a stranger, the #MutualAid tag on Mastodon is worth perusing.

rob_t_firefly , 8 days ago (edited 8 days ago)

Back in the reddit days I was pretty active on the Back to the Future subreddits, and one day an excited young man posted his new BTTF tattoo; a big colorful depiction of the 88 from the time machine's famous digital speedometer, glowing orange numbers on a black background, in a very visible spot on his arm.

I sent him a DM to the effect of "I get what you're doing as a BTTF fan, but you should be aware that if you're not a white supremacist there's a good chance that tattoo can be gravely misinterpreted by people who see it out in the world" and linked this page on the number's use as a hate symbol. He replied with an "OMG, I had no idea! Thanks for telling me!" message, deleted the tattoo post, and soon afterward deleted his whole reddit presence. I sometimes still wonder about that guy and how he's managed.

rob_t_firefly , 8 days ago

The person to whom you're responding appears to be saying the opposite of what you seem to have read.

rob_t_firefly , 10 days ago

On the big wall of TVs at Cyberdelia, the nightclub from Hackers.

rob_t_firefly , 10 days ago

PVC is stored in the balls.

rob_t_firefly , 9 days ago

I haven't watched that show in ages and my brain still accompanies this image with that little musical twang.

rob_t_firefly , 13 days ago

*Pecs, unless you're referring to a traditional measure of pickled peppers.

rob_t_firefly , 14 days ago

The rare reverse Malcolm.

rob_t_firefly , 20 days ago

The real question is, how many pee bottles did they force Dave Grohl to fill in order to make his song quota in time?

rob_t_firefly , 20 days ago

The last time I got laid off, that morning I had sent a PTO request to my boss for a family trip the following month.

I got called into said boss' office for the afternoon meeting letting me know I was being laid off, which I had not been expecting at all. I was given the paperwork to sign, etc. and mostly silently acknowledged everything that was going on. When the boss finally asked if I had any further questions at the end of the meeting, I deadpanned "so, you've approved my request to not come in on _____ days next month?"

rob_t_firefly , 30 days ago

Probably only because their wives were, like, right there.

rob_t_firefly , 1 month ago

If you like boiled eggs, you need a boiled egg timer.

It's a clear "egg" made of heat-tolerant plastic with a color-changing temperature gauge visible inside. You throw it into the pot when boiling eggs and it lets you know when the eggs are soft boiled, medium boiled, or hard boiled. It's very readable even in boiling water, and the results are always perfectly accurate. These things are totally worth the few dollars they cost.

rob_t_firefly , 1 month ago

Are you doing a surprised Pikachu face at having a poor customer experience with one of the most notoriously crappy companies out there?

rob_t_firefly , 1 month ago

Thank you! This is the link OP should have posted.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

This owl is so white it wears khakis to the golf course.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

This is entirely true. Censoring words you type like this is actively working against the main way people who are trying to avoid such triggers can take care of themselves.

You can set up a filter to block stuff containing a sensitive word, but your filter will fail against the countless ways there are to censor the word with asterisks or whatever. The censorship is well-meaning but misguided.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

Him getting that Phil Spector mugshot "what his head really looks like without cosmetic assistance" reveal would be so delightful.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

Gel is a liquid.

Gel is a thick liquid.

Gel is a thiquid.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

It's neither petty nor punditry when she's honestly answering the simple and direct question her guest posed to her.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

The first letter of my name is R and I agree, my handwriting is crap but my Rs are great. I'm a fan of my Rs.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

Found Cid from the next Final Fantasy.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

And they were also sold at incredible volume back in the day, for a couple of generations just about every household had a record player or two and shelves of record collections to play on them.

Nowadays vinyl is regaining popularity among people who buy physical music, but that is still a small fraction of the general public who have largely moved on to soft formats.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

I had an abusive ex who had one of those. The times I tried to sit on it, lost my balance, and landed painfully on the floor were, in retrospect, a pretty accurate microcosm for the rest of the relationship.

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

And of course the creep who wants to cut down on the evidence-gathering is named "Tape."

rob_t_firefly , 2 months ago

I miss GIMPshop for that reason.