Spyke

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What is an event that altered you in some way?

Must've been around 13-15, went to a pizza hut with my then girlfriend. I saw a darker skinner, heavy-set lady walking over to the counter with her two kids, all of them looking a little dishevelled. Without thinking I said "She looks poor" in probably a demeaning manner to my girlfriend, and she answered "you say that like it's her fault".

I'm dumb as fuck so the penny didn't drop until several years later about the reality of my privilege, and how unfair and fucked up the system really is. Nearly ended up alt-right, now I'm a comrade.

gaming

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'Marketing's dead, and I can back this s**t up': Larian's publishing director says players 'just want to be spoken to, and they don't want to be bamboozled'

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I work in the industry, and yeah. Before, marketing was based on utility. "Buy this because it can do this and this and that", basically marketing how effective or what it can actually do for you. Around the 50s (in the US) marketing changed to be based around lifestyle. "Buy this so you can be this". Now nearly all ads appeal to emotion instead of reason, and it is very effective.

Researching about what a product offers is so much harder than just buying on a whim because the ads and the product are colorful.

You can see this change in old (really old) newspapers. Ad spreads were chock full of text about features. Now 3/4ths of the ads are an image of a happy woman if marketed for gals, or a stoic muscly man if marketed for guys.

Gives me the ick.

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What single item improved the quality of your life over you got it? (Buyed it/got as present/made it)

An E-reader. There's no more space in my house for book shelves. I've a ton of books stored inappropriately in a bunch of cabinets and on top of furniture, that I hope to find new homes for before irreparable damage is done to their spine.

Having an e-reader also helped me in the gym. Instead of doomscrolling on lemmy or tiktok, I read between sets. Helped me regain my reading habit and kick my social media habit. Also, helped my social anxiety of having to rest longer than half a minute when other people might want to use the iron I'm using.

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What's the worst scam you've fallen for (or gotten close to falling for)?

Couple years ago I won a scholarship to a college in Germany, for the carreer I had always wanted to work in but couldn't practice it, as it just doesn't exist in local colleges. I was born and bred in the third world, and still live here; I thought my luck was finally turning around. I'd be able to maybe have a better future, doing what I really wanted instead of just what I was good at.

One night as I was overthinking ish, I decided to look for everything relevant about the college. It was a scam college. No certifications, and the owners had recently been in hot waters due to money laundering. I had everything ready to hop on a plane.

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What did you do to survive the night of/after a breakup?

The night of the breakup I went to my best bud's house and talked and smoked for hours. After that, I worked on myself, started reading again, going to the gym again and finally got myself checked out by a psychiatrist and a psychologist. I had been putting all of that off for a long time and if there was ever a more cliche time to start, it was then.

Been about 2 years, half of what I was with her, and I still sometimes wish I had someone like her. I miss the connection I had with her. We went through a lot and at the time I thought I'd marry the girl. Then covid happened, some family tragedies, and suddenly our vibe was off. Sucks, but it woulda sucked more if it happened years later in life.

It was easier for me than it was for her, though. I've got issues regarding failure (not sure how else to word it). Whenever something might go tits up, I emotionally distance immediately. Job opportunities, dying pets, relationships, same defensive mechanism. Causes more trouble than it avoids, honestly, because I never know when to trust a gut feeling, or to stop being like this.

I still don't feel 100%, but I wasn't 100% when we broke up. Not looking for anything new, or to start up anything old again either.

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What is the craziest story from your life, so far?

Not much, honestly. One night this year, my friends and I planned on going to a bar to welcome back a buddy who we hadn't seen in a long time. Something happened, can't remember what, and we had to go to someone's place instead to celebrate.

Later in the evening we saw on the news that the bar had been shot up, and plenty were dead. Bar was shut down soon after. It had a good crowd, wasn't too noisy, the food wasn't that bad, and prices were cheaper than other places in the city. My guess is that it was a money laundering scheme and someone would benefit from having it being shut down, because I didn't hear anything about anyone important being there at the moment as if to imply it was a hit.

Lucky us.

adhd

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Life's more expensive

Yk, this is the ONE time living in the ass end of nowhere has been good for my wallet.

I've wanted to paint minis for a while now, and the one mini I got is a small blueberry I haven't even painted because I'd need to buy the tools and paints, which aren't sold here.

If I were stateside I'd be drowning in orc and salamander minis. Or more likely yet, primed but not painted, and tossed aside like half the hobbies I pick up until the moment I got the jist of what its about.