kawaiidaigakusei wrote:

How has the grocery life been? There are few better places to people-watch than watching hungry people shop for food.

I don't quite know what you mean by people-watching, unless you mean watching people {shop} for seconds while I'm stocking, but, it's doing alright. I'm on the verge of wanting to do something else; not in the store I work, I mean somewhere else.

Discord’s two-key verification system is the reason I have been locked out of the app since the start of the last DD Awards. The app’s security is so good, it even locks out end users.

And they say using your phone number's your only way of getting into Discord. ((shrug))
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I'm on XMPP and Matrix (not the movie) now. Yes, they're less common than Discord, but at least these platforms, err… protocols don't mine my messages, invade my privacy, or threaten to ban you using third-party clients/extensions. Plus, I told my friends over at a cartoon server where to find me if they're interested.

I liked Discord for the way it was, and I could handle the platform just easily fine. However, concerning T.O.S changes {off-platform behavior, medical misinformation (I assume even by accident), Discord team now monitoring voice channels} and not having a function to preview any server/guild before joining them besides the public ones in Discovery (I told members of a webcomic server this) are the reason why I'm still choosing to avoid the platform. Me spending time for only my spring break with no further plans was justified.
No plans to move on to big-name social media in addition (Mastodon now counts as that).

Tried out direct competitors, Revolt{.chat} and Guilded; they have their fair share of problems as well. Guilded looked more interesting, but is buggy, owned by Roblox Corp., can mine messages, uses a few gigabites of RAM and hasn't had a search function in years. If you have to use Ctrl+F and scroll up to see the messages you're searching for, that's how you know the platform's bad. Revolt is slightly buggy, and has good customization options but you can't change your online status and the search function doesn't stick with you when you scroll down on the sidebar wanting to search for a keyword. I think Revolt also treats privacy as an afterthought as well.

So, yeah. I like how there are many ways to connect with people, even through competitors. Though, when it comes to being social, XMPP and Matrix are the way to go for me. Oh, and select forums also.

InkyMoondrop wrote:
I hate huge servers on discord for the same reason. Sometimes a server is dead but still hundreds are lurking, other times you can hardly keep up. But here's the thing: you want a server where your friends (I assume not some rando who liked your post once on the internet) can have a discourse and you wanna keep it managable? Well, you can make your own server and invite people you know aren't spamming when they're bored and aren't inviting everyone they see and if they are like-minded enough, you can just provide a few themes and they'll occasionally talk. Bigger servers are useful to find the ones who you could connect with on a more personal level, but yeah, basically if you want a server where the active people aren't making things insufferable for you, you can't just let anyone in and let them do whatever they want. It's quality over quantity, you want the people there who wouldn't make you cringe IRL in person either and you want to want them to enjoy each others' company. You don't want the people there who join a 100 servers because they are bored and they end up not reading 98 of them at all and you don't want the people there who spam and meme in every ****ng convo. That's how I'd do it.

The real challenge is finding these people and getting them to care enough if you're not super popular. I still struggle with that. Wrote my own discord bots with fun games that require conversing, with customizable profile with bios and favorites, with Hogwarts houses and point reward systems, even a gacha game (btw how cool would be a gacha game where you can collect characters from Duck comics? free ego boost for any creator). It was dope af, but since my goal was to get ppl there who would locally meet up occasionally not just talk to each other online if they have nothing better to do, it was doomed to failure, people who aren't introverts and prefer things online usually aren't relying on chat services either to enjoy themselves.

You sound pretty good at that stuff.
If the DD discord people need help maybe you could join the team who manage that?
I'm not sure how that all works though. XD

You sound pretty good at that stuff.
If the DD discord people need help maybe you could join the team who manage that?
I'm not sure how that all works though. XD

I'm not against lending a hand if needed, especially since the server is extra chill, so it wouldn't take up much time, could probably even write a bot for the Duck with some custom functions ppl want, eventually (but that would require a server with Windows to run it 24/7, since I myself just use another software to build bots). I'm around and somewhat available if they'll feel like it sometime.

InkyMoondrop wrote:

You sound pretty good at that stuff.
If the DD discord people need help maybe you could join the team who manage that?
I'm not sure how that all works though. XD

I'm not against lending a hand if needed, especially since the server is extra chill, so it wouldn't take up much time, could probably even write a bot for the Duck with some custom functions ppl want, eventually (but that would require a server with Windows to run it 24/7, since I myself just use another software to build bots). I'm around and somewhat available if they'll feel like it sometime.

OK, cool! Next to I email Pitface (I think she has some control over Discord now?) I'll ask her about adding you ^_^

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Here's something new I've just learned!
The name of “Hell” in Christian mythology comes from Norse myth.
I was shocked!
I thought it would have been the other way around or that “Hell” was some sort of Greek derived word (coming from Hellenic“ or Hellene etc), since the bible comes from that language.

I've long known about Hellheim and the goddess Hel with her half skull face who rules over that land, but I assumed that since Sturlson and Grammaticus wrote about Norse myths over a hundred years after their cultures were completely Christianised that they were just using terms that would be familiar to their fellow Christians.

But NO! It's completely the other way around:
”Hell" was used as the name for the underworld in translations of the bible because that was the word already in use for such realms in Germanic languages such as English.

Another post…

The laptop I bought about 2 years ago to replace my slowing but still excellent Samsung ultrabook of ten years, is already breaking down.
This is a pretty good Asus VivoBook, i7 quad processor, 16 gig of ram, 512 SSD etc. But only a few month after I got it the fingerprint sensor stopped working.
About a year later the card reader stopped working correctly.
The Bluetooth stopped working at some time too.
It randomly closes and reopens Windows explorer.
And now suddenly the wifi network adapter is toast. Nothing I cn do to repair it, no drivers work.

Lucky I had an USB Ethernet adapter from an old machine or this comp would have been almost totally useless. No exaggeration.

I'll never get another Asus.

ThrisbyDude wrote:
I don't quite know what you mean by people-watching, unless you mean watching people {shop} for seconds while I'm stocking, but, it's doing alright.

people-watching:: a favourite past time
involving the creation of an elaborate back story of a random stranger on the street that may or may not be true. Watching people while stocking would be a good place to run into a few characters.

I'm on the verge of wanting to do something else; not in the store I work, I mean somewhere else.

I understand completely. Same.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:

ThrisbyDude wrote:
I don't quite know what you mean by people-watching, unless you mean watching people {shop} for seconds while I'm stocking, but, it's doing alright.

people-watching:: a favourite past time
involving the creation of an elaborate back story of a random stranger on the street that may or may not be true. Watching people while stocking would be a good place to run into a few characters.

I'm on the verge of wanting to do something else; not in the store I work, I mean somewhere else.

I understand completely. Same.

Loved doing it when I worked in retail. Anything to keep the mind busy while the hands did the drudge work of stocking. And I stocked everything at one point or another and seen lots of people along the way. Used to keep a list of interesting names I came across to use in stories.

Reminds me of one such name I recall of a waiter when I was in a restaurant one time: Lamandre.

Ah, finally some new/different comics are emerging within the Top 10 on the homepage.

J_Scarbrough wrote:
Am, finally some new/different comics are emerging within the Top 10 on the homepage.

Yes!! I saw The_Jagged’s Meatware was in the Top 4, how exciting.

@kawaiidaigakusei + @bravo1102 - Ah, so literately watching people for seconds while doing the work. Yeah, I often do that. I rarely keep up with faces beyond the usual co-worker or manager but I still watch people for seconds.

ThrisbyDude wrote:
@kawaiidaigakusei + @bravo1102 - Ah, so literately watching people for seconds while doing the work. Yeah, I often do that. I rarely keep up with faces beyond the usual co-worker or manager but I still watch people for seconds.

The most interesting part about store dynamics that I learned about was a team called “loss prevention” where a secret team of individuals dressed like everyday customers would peruse the store and check out at the register like everybody else. I never knew any of them by name, title, or job description. They were all in the store, just like the rest of us, doing our job.

Using that bit of shop knowledge, I would suspect the regular customers the most.

I used to like spotting random ppl at places and analyzing them. It's pretty much just making up backstories. Spotting the ones who work as teachers were probably the easiest, they have a certain type of appearance where I live that just shows.

I'll be having a friend visit me in a couple of months and spend 5 days at over my place. As an introvert who normally has guests over like 3 times a year for an afternoon or evening, it will be an experience to have, but since we're like soul mates, I can't remember the last time I've been this excited about social interactions. Now I can watch parody musicals with someone, while eating ice cream in our pajamas, go to a karaoke night or craft stuff together. Feels like after a decade of missing out on fun stuff the balance will finally be restored for a bit. And since she lives abroad, we might not get another chance like this for another year, so we'll best bring out the most of the experience. :)

Gosh I must be very fortunate because I worked pretty close with loss prevention when a manager. Even better because years later he was my instructor for my security guard classes and let me sleep through then because he knew I'd pass all the tests. I was working double shifts doing both my eight hours and then the classes.

Before that my mother tried setting me up with one women in loss prevention but I wasn't bright enough to pull it off. Heck, the group manager, a very attractive brunette, was constantly flirting with me and I couldn't pull that off either. Things just never worked out for me in that job after that.