Ask me about:
I’m not knowledgeable about most other things
So far, my phone, a Google Pixel 6a bought and promptly Graphenified 4.5 years ago that is still going strong. Not perfect but it does it job
Steam Deck is a close second, it has rotated between being my primary/secondary gaming device and even my primary desktop for varying amounts of time, and it served every single role well. All while being dirt-cheap for the specs it have
As someone who had a poorly-paid yet high-stress job for 6 years straight (thanks grad school!) and still recovering, I have a lot to say on this!
I honestly don’t know if what I did could even count as cooking, especially since cooking standards where I grew up is quite high… I just go to the store and buy a bunch of meat + random assorted vegetables and throw them in a pot. Meat is almost always chicken since it’s cheaper, and the local supermarket used to sell massive packs of chicken legs for just $5. Veggies… used to be just some type of cabbage or cauliflower. Recently I’ve been switching things up a bit, but it’s mostly still just these. Usually somewhere between 30-60 minutes is the sweet spot where things don’t cause food poisoning, so within 60-90 minutes of very easy prep, I can get food that would be good for a long time, depending on how big the pot is. Back when I lived in an apartment with a big fridge I sometimes store up to 3-4 weeks of food… Current accommodation only has a mini-fridge, so 4-7 meals max. I cook whenever I run out of food. This is usually the “meal prep” part, which I can then store in the fridge/freezer.
For eating. I’d just make some type of carbs, reheat the mix a bit, and just place them together and eat. Throw in some spices and olive oil (or one of those funny Asian spices if you are into it!) and almost everything would taste just fine. The entire prep almost never exceeds 10 minutes, half of which can be spent showering which cuts down on the morning routine. Probably even faster (1 min?) if one pre-cooks rice, but unfortunately I really don’t like badly cooked rice so it is mainly spaghetti for me…
Recently I did start to cut down on the total number of meals that are prepped though. Recently for breakfast I’ve started to make fried eggs + bread + mayo (which is also 3-5 min cap, although a bit less hands-off), and have been going to the workplace canteen for lunch. But yeah, still pretty much depression meal so to say
Not much. Reason… is exactly as the meme suggested, why worry about something that is largely out of my control?
OK I do worry about it just a little bit when looking for jobs but that’s it
I do it sometimes, but mainly for music I really enjoy or have a keen interest in. Technically I also did it for a music competition a few months ago but that probably doesn’t count…
There is research on this btw! I had to dig a bit, but this is a 2011 research article (might be paywalled, I can try & help if anyone is really interested in) on why people (psych undergrads, but still) listen to music. They identified 6 mostly independent factors, one of which (“personal identity”) may be more linked to ppl listening just for enjoyment; one of their experiments showed that 75.66% of participants listen to music as “background noise”. So music as primary activity is probably relatively uncommon (but not non-existent). Funnily enough I rarely use music as background distraction these days
Probably more like a super well-guarded secret than just an aspect at this point. There was one anime series that was both my favorite and quite foundational to my personality for a long time. I legitimately have never told anyone about it; not even my parents
And no I have no intention on disclosing it here. Probably not too hard to infer for hardcore anime fans who would know me in person, but still
That’s probably it
I’d like to think I would stand by my principles… but realistically, in this economy?? My degree is too specialized & the job market is pretty tight. I’m pretty sure most people in my field would go to a job at Nestle or Palantir without a second thought for something as simple as 10-20k above market rate and/or visa sponsorship 😭
If I have options, probably at least a net $50k/yr premium for a dubious company, and a net $150k/yr or more (which I will bail quickly) for a company that is straight-up evil
BMS (Be-Music Source), which is technically a file format, not a game. Started off as a Beatmania (now Beatmania IIDX) simulator in 1998, and evolved into its own thing due to some alleged copyright beef with Konami. Someone has made a 20-min video essay about this that is better than anything I could explain
Every song in BMS is original & is fully key-sounded, so the community ended up gathering a lot of (overwhelmingly Japan and Korea-based) music creators. Some of them are… quite experimental. The entire ArtCore genre (which is almost nonexistent outside of rhythm games, but extremely prevalent within) was invented and pioneered by BMS creators. Recent ones… I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a “Hi-Tech Full On” or a “Poetry reading” genre song outside of BMS, but there are at least several songs that fall within these two respectively
Just a heads up… BMS as a game is brutally difficult even by rhythm game standards, which is already a very demanding video game genre to get into
I used to be quite picky & only really listened to J-core and high-energy EDM. Last few months I’ve been getting into a new rhythm game that is known for being… adventurous with its music genre, & even invented some new genres, which has done a number to my music diversity. I think I’m much, much more adventurous with music now
Fun fact, these are genres of some of the charts I’ve played recently. They are… varied, and I think these are only within the past week:
I tried it once before and liked it! Certainly helps that I’m also lactose intolerant
Although, I prefer to just drink black usually. With good beans (locally roasted) and a good grinder the coffee itself provides a lot of flavor so… other additions are a bit unnecessary
Everything about fecal transplant. Or maybe just the fact that it is even a legitimate medical procedure
Depression, Prozac. Approximately 2-3 weeks when the initial benefits kick in, which is also how long it roughly took for me to feel depressed again when I once accidentally stopped the medication
Realistically? Something like “BIOL/STAT 451, Intro to Bioinformatics”
Department head will probably force me to teach “COMP 271 Intro to Generative AI” instead 💀
Not technically an American but lived in America for a long time, also not eligible to claim citizenship anywhere. I hope I’d be somewhat qualified to speak on this
There really aren’t that many countries which are a step up for an American IMO. Probably a good number of the EU/EEA countries, places like Canada/Australia/NZ, and mayyybe places like Singapore and a few more… Fewer if you have a strict limit on English, in that case maybe only places like UK & the Nordic countries; maybe also the Netherlands, but I’ve heard mixed information about language requirements there. This is a pretty short list, so I think you could probably have a passing knowledge of all of their basic immigration processes without spending that much time on it. But yeah you are right, for any expat/immigrant wannabe it usually goes like this:
Winning the “life lottery” (ancestry, asylum, or a literal lottery like the US) -> “Buying” your way in via Golden visa -> Love knows no borders so marriage -> Workers visa, aka getting sponsored to work
The first three obviously don’t apply to you or me TBH, so work sponsorship it is: either international transfer via a large international company (does that happen often for trades people?), or finding a job in your target country. I think others have mentioned this, but since you will likely be immigrating via work, secure a job first. Don’t even think about anything else without a solid job offer. I didn’t follow this advice myself and literally got screwed; I spent several hours learning German everyday during a really busy time of my life, wrecked my mental health along the way due to stress, and never ended up finding a job in Germany in the end… Don’t be like past me
tradesman with a lot of technical skills with some specialized skills in short supply
Probably your biggest asset. Some countries like Canada and Australia/NZ publish their skill shortages, so if your skills are on them you’d be in very good luck. There are subreddits and discussion groups on these topics so I’d look into them
Note that in Australia, allegedly the real job shortage can be quite different from the published list. This doesn’t hurt your chances of moving there per-se, but can make your life difficult after moving in, especially if you don’t have a large amount of savings
Also, I’m not sure exactly what trades you are in (for the sake of privacy I prefer not to ask), but different countries may have different regulations. It is possible that you may not be allowed to work in the EU without local certifications for example. I don’t think it is an impasse per-se, but I’d definitely investigate this beforehand
But anyways, if you are interested why not try and apply for a few jobs first? You never know :D
Neither of us is very good at picking up a new language (lord how I’ve tried)
To be honest… that doesn’t sound very good. Comes without saying that most places expect workers to speak fluently or at least B1 in their native language (which is also required for immigration purposes for most countries), and the English-friendly places (such as Ireland) can have extremely high demand, which can cause other societal complications
I am taking what you said at face value, since I have seen first-hand how much my boss (German) struggled with learning French and had to settle for learning Dutch instead lol. Nevertheless, for most people it isn’t that hard to at least get a passing conversation skill level in a target language in a few years especially with full immersion & government/employer-sponsored language classes, so I wouldn’t completely rule it out just yet! If you’re able to deal with other languages, there are lots of EU countries that have plenty of opportunities; maybe even some more developed parts of Africa would do as well
Usually 7.5 hours, ±20 minutes. I literally can’t properly function at my day job if I do less. On rare occasions when I do sleep less I usually end up making up for it over the weekend so
During college I also did way less, only 4-6 hrs/day… but then I’d fall asleep during classes
Honestly really surprised to find everyone here all do their taxes so quickly. I also did all of mine as early as I could (mid-Feb) but…
The only few American friends whom I’m close enough to talk about this, they all ignore it until the very last minute. So either late March/April, or not at all
Not sure if CC BY 4.0 counts? There’s an incredibly based Japanese producer 森田交一 (often goes by the alias 魔王魂) who released a lot of their music as CC BY 4.0. Hence a lot of them end up in all kinds of small projects, RPGMaker games, etc…
The website is https://maou.audio/, but the guy is also active on YouTube. 12345 is a bop; I was genuinely positively surprised by Burning Heart the first time I heard it, although J-pop may not be up everyone’s alley so
Wanted to get something from the supermarket. Supermarket was closed due to Easter :(
Yes I know this is really minor
Not directly. But
My Autism is actually a bigger issue. Allegedly Australia/NZ have regulations on disabilities, which I’m not sure how much being on the spectrum would affect
More importantly… One needs a job/education to live in somewhere like the EU (the few non-EU European countries almost all have equally or harder visa requirements). Education still costs lots of money for non-EU folks, and job market isn’t particularly good in EU. So having depression, which makes getting/keeping a job harder, certainly don’t help…
Oooh nice!
Something I am very curious: how do the guitar controllers compare against each other? I’m saying this as someone who has been buying and reading up on quite a few rhythm game controllers (DDR/ITG, Taiko, more esoteric things) and knew of the whole slew of comparisons/tierlists between controllers… I knew close to nothing about Clone Hero controllers for high-level gameplay so