I’m not sure the time he has left in him but, while he is up and going, he…we should be grooming his replacement. Not AOC either. Not that she wouldn’t be a good one. It’s that we could use the numbers. I wouldn’t want 2 to turn into 1. We have to have someone lined up and ready to go from the get go.

Had ours replaced 2 years ago. All on insurance dime as well because of wind damage. Roof was 20 years old though.

I just found out our company is going to start peak hour surge rates that will be double the normal ppkwh. They’re also proposing buying up another power company that is under multiple lawsuits for negligence that caused a large wildfire which hit a small town. I expect prices will go up if/when that happens as well. Last thing is, they’re getting rid of the 1:1 energy credits, but people with it will be grandfathered in. So now is the time for me.

I ran numbers all day yesterday and I think I have a solution that will benefit me, financially and for energy, on multiple fronts. Hopefully it works out!

With everything going the way it is, I really don’t know why more are not putting solar up if they can afford it. It’s like renting a house (no solar) with nothing to show for it at the end of the day vs buying a house (putting up solar) and you have something to show for it at the end of the day. Even if the house isn’t as good as when you bought it, you at least have something to show for all that investment. Something with a value.

I just talked with a dude from Purelight. He’s been cussed out and threatened. Just amazes me how short sighted people are and how they can get angry over something and they don’t even really know why.

Which definitely supports my theory that home value will only increase over time.

I’m working my numbers to add solar right now. Estimates are that we can offset 69% of our power usage. It will return 150% of our investment overall. That’s based on a very conservative rise of 5% in energy costs.

Adding solar right now is really no no brainer imo. Prices are only going to rise, and much more than the current 5% annually estimate out there currently. Panels last for a long time, and even at reduced efficiency towards the end of their life span, it is still a net gain. By then they’ve paid for themselves well, well before this point.

Right now they give an average home value increase of between 6% and 9%. I think we’re going to see that rise as energy prices rise. Especially if you can get a low carbon footprint rating on your home.

Things are only going to get hotter. I’ve been in e wa state for 27 years now. I’ve never seen the weather as wild as it is. It’s been getting steadily hotter and hotter. Breaking triple digits was super rare. Now it’s the norm. We’re breaking high temp records left and right. Not just summer either. Offsetting that increase energy use is going to be a must for everyone.

From “The Hunt for Red October”, to “you shouldn’t have started the war against russia then.”

Red Dawn to half+ our leadership bowing down to him, and a president calling him a good guy.

God damn what a wild ride.

The internet came way too quickly, or at least it evolved way too quickly for us. We should still be on 56k and surfing Limewire for what may or may not be what we’re actually looking for. 24/7 access to everyone all around the country, and world, was too fast as well. We can’t acclimate that fast. Our brains weren’t ready for it.

I’d love to do the same but I need to max out my ram before doing so. I have been working with Blender as well, so it’d be a benefit on that front as well. I have been going through the making a head tutorial and reached a point where it maxed out my system resources and I couldn’t progress.

I used it to help fine tune a couple short campaigns for other artifact items. I am going to run through those eventually as well.

It’s a very interesting usage case imo. DnD Beyond has that 3d campaign program out in beta right now. This would be a good usage for that system to me. Especially for small groups that struggle to find a DM or enough players to run. It could be a help to someone trying to run solo as well.

I’d love to see LLM integrated into video games more to help give the NPCs life and make the game feel more life like. Even enemy NPCs. I’d love to see a game where enemy NPCs wander from their “zone” and try to attack different areas. Maybe even cities.

It’s something that DAoC had in it, in limited quantities. I remember one small town would get attacked every so often by a group of NPCs. You could watch them march from their usual camp over to the town. They’d stand outside the walls and the leader would yell that they were in the area first and would yell insults. While this was happening, they’d throw rotted corpses over the walls. It would give you a disease debuff every time you entered, and you could get attacked by giant bugs that were attracted to the corpses.

Eventually they’d retreat on their own. If you could take out their leaders, they’d retreat then as well. If you killed the leader while he was in their camp, it would delay them going to the city until he respawned. If you kept attacking the camp over and over, it would diminish their number so much that the respawns would slow down. You could eventually clear the camp and keep it that way for some time.

What we need is an mmo where you can make a difference. What do I mean by that? How would that work?

For start, the “you’re the hero” thing, where 12981891961899 other mother fuckers are in the background doing the same exact thing, or getting the same exact speech as your are, needs to go. Just make me a regular dude that is adventuring. Just like DnD tt.

How do you affect the world then? In DAoC, there were NPC raids on cities. You could go in and kill the leader, then the whole group would disband and run back to their village across the river. There were other similar events like this throughout the world. We need stuff like that. NPCs, or even players if you choose PvP, that affect the world. Instead of staying in one spot and just roaming a set path, they should be attacking the cities that they are mad at or revolting/gathering to revolt against. Make it so they can actually take territory. Take over cities. Assault capital cities. Even just randomly wander on a not set range. What I’d give to play an mmo where I have the chance to be randomly jumped by (level appropriate) NPCs. Even outside of a place they’re normally found.

This adds dynamic change to the world. It’s not a static area. It makes it so that beginner zones are abandoned as soon as most level out of them. You need to make sure NPCs don’t take over the city because you need that flight path/horse route/etc.

We could even have animal infestations. People aren’t killing farmer bill’s rats? They take over the farm and whatever he supplies isn’t available in the local city’s stores.

There are so many things that can be done with NPCs to make the world feel alive and more dynamic. Again, I’m not the hero here. I’m just an adventurer, a normal mercenary, that is trying to keep the enemy in line or the rat population from getting out of control.

My man, I watched an accident yesterday in a grocery store parking lot. A raised up truck was backing out and a car was behind it. The car honked. Laid on that horn. It was a loud horn. Truck didn’t even flinch. Backed right into it.

I’ve been passed by “loud” motorcycles many times. I saw them in my mirrors. I have a tiny blind spot, but I tracked them the entire way. What I didn’t do is hear them. Especially at highway speed, they’re undetectable.

It would add to the price, which would suck, but I’d love to see some sort of HUD assist system. Even if it was a wire frame or something that appears as a HUD on the windshield. Not bright enough to blind you or be in the way, but enough to see. User could adjust the color (within limits to maybe not negate the system). To me, we don’t take enough advantage of HUD tech and different types of vision that a computer could do that a human can’t. Make it come on with the headlights or something. That way it’s not on during the day.

I’ll add onto the answers already. I lived in both an inspection state (Virginia), and a non inspection state (Washington state). I was in Va for about 2 years. I never saw more janky ass cars on the road and broken down ones. I saw more in those 2 years than the 20+ years I’ve lived here in Wa.

When it came time for mine, all my neighbors sent me to a mechanic down the road. It was a long ass line, but moved pretty fast. No appointment needed. “WTF is this?” I thought. I got to my turn. The guy was in a short stool, like a dr’s one. He didn’t even leave it. I was in and out in 5 minutes. I’m anal retentive on our vehicle maintenance. So I’m not a danger, but man, I know how others are.

One of our neighbor’s friends brought his car by one time. When it was off, oil was flooded into the spark plug holes. I swore it would never start. He cranked it. It turned over right away and all the oil sucked back down into the engine. I’ve never seen anything like it, nor since. I’m still flummoxed by it.

I saw one car where the person cut the roof away from just behind the driver’s seats. Regular old car. They half ass put a piece of plywood and, what I assume, is plexiglass to act as a wall. The “bed” of the vehicle was now the passenger seat area. It also had some janky work going on back there.

Our inspection system is really shitty, even in the states with them. There are so many, “I know a guy”, things going on that they might as well not have them. Then there are exemptions as well. Year ranges exempt. They do no real good if they’re there. Completely defeats the purpose.

Everywhere I look, assholes! /s

We’d be fucked. My memory sucks and I’m on a heavy dose of neuro meds for pain. Flying would also be a no. I have a constant vertigo sensation.

That said, I’m usually pretty good at keeping upbeat and friendly. Not greedy. Don’t care how you dress, what you worship, what you call yourself or identify as, and think you should have your own agency over your body. So at least there’s that.

Sexy time would be weird too. Do I call my own name?

Oh! And I can do that mirror prank endlessly!!

It’s like he’s writing a performance report and desperately trying to pad the bullet points because he doesn’t have enough to fill the required “what have you accomplished” area.

Watch them become the new Epstein for the rich and powerful. tRUmp still has the jet iirc.

IIRC, when the remaster was in the works, they were asking for files from the community as some of the cut scene videos from OG were lost. I think there are a few low def ones in there still because no one had them. There’s also an issue with the Nod ending theme song. I only have it because I had the game on Saturn and you could play them like regular CDs once you got past the information tracks. So I burned it in .flac.

I would honestly not be surprised to see the suicide rate increase. Especially among the marginalized veterans. We’ve already seen a couple. I remember the one who jumped off of the VA building wherever they were at. It’s been mentioned a few times on the reddit vet board, and I’m noticing an increase in vets posting that they’re at their limit and contemplating ending it all.

My BIL is a vet as well. He was having a mental break last week. I was able to talk him into going to the ER. He’s getting better, but we’re all worried about events going down. We’re trying to prep as best we can. We feel as though something really bad is coming up. I told him to take a step back from the news and social media. I had to for a bit as well.

it’s about a 50/50 at my local base. The vets, on the other hand, tend to lean towards tRUmp. I have never gotten it either. Our regional congressman, or ex now, never did jack shit for us. We were a tool to get her elected every time. She didn’t really do anything to help. When she left, what did they do? Idiots voted in another useless GOP.

When PACT was first shot down, I had to actually explain why that was a bad thing and that we needed it. They bought every last fake talking point. I had actually read the measure. Anyone that did had seen why it was a good thing.

We have a problem of propagation of fake news on bases. A lot of them show faux on the TVs in waiting areas. On top of that, it tends to be conservatives that join. Officers do tend to be less red. I really don’t know what would happen if the military actually fulfilled its oath to protect against the domestic threat part of our oath.

It is disgusting hearing fellow vets with the “I got mine” attitude, or other attitudes that are directly against the nature of service. That isn’t what we were serving for.

I’m a vet. I’m unsure why the DoD hasn’t put a stop to this yet. There have been clear violations of this oath by elected officials. At the very least, letting Elmo wreck shit.

We have a problem though. The retired boomer vets, and some younger ones, voted for this. Conservatives tend to be the ones that raise their hands. They seem to have forgotten the oath and think that all of this is A OK. They’ve been guzzling the kool aid. Hell, my base still shows Faux “News” at the base hospital on some TVs. Even though a base commander banned news channels during COVID.

Those of us that do recognize this as a violation of the constitution do not number enough to do anything. Rising up involves getting rid of the entire GOP, plus multiple billionaires, multiple media moguls, SCOTUS, lower court appointees, appointees of many other government agencies, and on and on. It isn’t something even a couple thousand can accomplish. We saw this with the attempted coup on J6.

What we’re doing is making sure we’re armed enough to defend ourselves in case of a civil war, or violence from the lunatics who still think this is all fine and good while we scream towards fascism. I hate this. I wish I could go do something. With every fiber of my being I do. My nervous system is fucked. I can barely leave the house many days. Especially in the winter when the cold shoots pain and fatigue through the roof. I can defend my own, probably my own neighborhood if it came to it. That’s about the extent for me.

I live in a place with a bunch of these nut bags as it is too. There is a crazy trump church in my town with heavy ties to a christian nationalists extremist group. It’s the largest church in the small town. Those people concern me. There is a crazy guy 2 houses down from me that thinks the local base dropped COVID on us with the tankers. I think I broke the gerbal wheel in his brain when I told him I’ve seen them inside and out and there isn’t anywhere to even put a “bag o covid”. We had a major wildfire hit and he blamed the firefighters for not flying in heavy smoke, at night and in super high winds. We’re talking 70mph+ gusts and 45 sustained. There are some that still have trump/pence signs up. That’s the type of crap I’m working with. Many are vets as well.

I get how it looks from the outside. We’ve been claiming that our firearms are for exactly what is happening. Thing is, those that support this. Those that voted for this, have the vast majority of firearms in this country. The last statistic I saw was from 2022 and republican firearm owners numbered nearly 2x democratic owners. That didn’t even count the amount of firearms owned. That percentage is the same for individuals who live in a home where firearms are present. The left has slowly been arming up due to increased violence from the right against the left, but we’re in no position to rise up.

If the right does end up realizing that they fucked up and need to finally rise up with the left, then you’ll see it at a local level first. Other countries poke fun at us for not taking vacations because we don’t have the days or money to do so. Yet they expect us to travel across country, with absolutely no guarantee others will be there, to maybe get a shot off at 1 person? It’s over 2500 miles for me to get across the country. That’d take me at least a week and a half. I wouldn’t even be able to do that solo due to the medical issues. People can’t afford to do that. So the local level would be the target. Local congressmen (most of whom live in DC over half the year as it is). Local senators. State capitals, provided they’re red states and are following suit with the fed govts.

This got long, I’m sorry for that, but this is a much more complicated issue. I seriously don’t think people realize just how fucking far it is to get to DC. Just how useless it would be without some serious backing by the right and the military, or at least enough of the military that remembers their oath and don’t fire on us. That combo could hold off the cops, but remember as well. We’re dealing with police who are militarized now. They’ve been eating up old military equipment for at least a decade now. Some even have old APCs. They have no qualms over shooting everything all the way down to your dog just because it looked at them funny.

I’ve been making sure I have each range covered. Short, mid and long. Short and mid are both .45. Long is undetermined yet, but it’ll be between .223 and 5.56. All depends on what has a threaded barrel.

I’d definitely be for fines and punishment for bad gun ownership. Any rational person should be. Too many times we see that a shooting happened because someone that shouldn’t have had them got them from a family member. If you have someone in your household that shouldn’t have firearms, you should remove them from the home. Not just a storage unit or something either. Police should be holding them for you until that person is either out of the house or has completed a treatment program. If you want to go hunting or something, it wouldn’t be a big deal to go check your firearm out from the station.

True, and this is a very sad statistic. It would be great is we would actually work on mental health in this country. We also need much stronger purchase laws. Required classes. Better registration tracking. Even concealed carry laws are lax in harder states. My state is just fingerprints, background check, and you have your CPL. Renewal is completely online. 5 minutes, $40, about 2 weeks wait, and I have my new license in the mail.

On the tyranny. Usually when the DNC is in office the GOP use it as a chance to cement more votes for the next cycle, and just bitch and moan in general. They generally don’t call it tyranny, aside from tRUmp. They generally say that whoever is in office is causing whatever problem the GOP had just caused. They lay the blame, and lay the groundwork, to wreck shit next time while shifting blame from themselves. Eventually people get sick of the economic slump and a new dem gets in office. Que bitch and moan, and the cycle starts again.

However, this cycle is wholly different. We have someone in charge that is actively dismantling everything like a bull in a china shop. This is something that is pretty unprecedented for the US. We have never had interference from another nation. The misinformation campaign usually came from within, and was ham fisted at best. This time, with a different, hostile, nation(s) involved ,that misinformation was turned to 1000%. Social media. Corruption coming to a full head. Then the economic downturn of both a major pandemic and bird flu causing legitimate shortages, only fueled the fire. To be sure, however, this was something coming. All of that, combined with the “perfect” storm of tRUmp, really sped it up.