Zeusthecat

I've been playing Rocket League on a regular basis for about 2 years now. Finally hit Diamond rank in competitive 3's before the last season ended and am getting somewhat okay at the game. Anyone else still playing this? Despite Epic doing everything in their power to ruin this game I'm still having a blast. New season started yesterday and has some pretty good stuff in the Rocket Pass if anyone's interested.

Randomly stumbled on Jacob Collier in 2020 when COVID started and he quickly became my all-time favorite musician. He might be the single most talented musician of our era. This song is my absolute favorite. Listen to it on repeat at least 5 times and there is no possible way it won't pull at your heart at least a little.

Hey don't sell yourself short. Retirements or no, I'm sure you've earned it. I'll try to pop in from time to time with some random thoughts. I've been delving a bit more into epistemology over the last few years and that's been pretty interesting. It's given me some pretty good insight into just how shaky the foundation is for many of the opinions and beliefs that I hold and increased my level of empathy for my fellow human beings holding opinions that differ from my own. It's got me pining for some of the old debates we used to have on these forums. Those are hard to come by these days with many people immediately either labeling people they disagree with as 'evil' or just outright assuming they are arguing in bad faith. And pretty much every major media outlet dials that up to 11, pouring gasoline on an already raging fire. So yeah, that's kind of where I'm coming from with my original CNN/FoxNews comment. I just see everyone organizing into their little diametrically opposed camps, seething with vitriol for those that disagree with them. It's heartbreaking. I'd like to see some warmth come back to humanity and for everyone to collectively chill the fuck out. Sorry for the rant. This used to be the one place where we could delve into shit and then everyone moved to Slack and the dynamic fundamentally changed. If anyone else shares my general sentiment, then please chime in. If not, I'll remain in the background and bring my reanimated corpse in here every 6 months or so to try to keep Idle Banter limping along.

(Don't feel pressured to keep responding btw, I'm just feeling chatty today) I'm happy for you SAM, that's so awesome. I remember you posting about your first child being born and all the stresses of your job (which you admittedly had to be somewhat discreet about when sharing details). I didn't realize you had a son now too. And the age difference between your kids is almost exactly the same as mine (my son is 10 and my daughter is 14)! I hope as senior engineer that you have a good team under you that you can delegate work to and that those previous stressful responsibilities don't still fall solely on you, assuming this is the same job you were talking about all those years ago. Thanks for making my day and for always being cool towards me, even when I was being ridiculous!

Haha, that's such a crazy coincidence. It is great to see you respond and I do appreciate it. I hope you're doing well and I think about you and some of the other forum regulars on a fairly frequent basis. We definitely had some good times. To this day I still avoid social media like the plague and this remains the one and only place that I ever engaged in "internet discussions". Crazy to think I was still in my 20's when I joined. I'll be 40 this year. And my daughter's turning 15 next month. I'd like to think life has made me a bit wiser now, but I'm not so sure. Seems that every time I learn something new, it only reveals how ignorant I undoubtedly am about a million other things.

SAM!!! I missed you buddy! I guess I have to keep sharing Idle Banter after all. I'm a little light on random thoughts right now but I've been feeling a bit nostalgic for the old days on these forums. We had some good debates and discussions and I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw some shit out there and see if anybody's actually checking in on the forums.

Dead Thread Redemption... Anyone else notice that almost all information out there has become completely unreliable unless you have a super strong bullshit detector? I swear, almost every "fact" I try to research has reams of information that both support and disprove it. Something fun that I've started doing (well, technically not fun, but interesting at least) is to pull up CNN and FoxNews side-by-side and just observe the wildly different universes they are portraying. And each supposedly backed by facts! It's gotten to the point that I eschew any and all group identification and prefer to just make up my own mind about each thing/topic on a case-by-case basis. Also, I think pretty soon I'm going to get to exercise squatters rights on Idle Banter. If nobody else posts within the next 6 months, I'm claiming this section of the forums for myself! (Gormongous, SAM, Ben, Synth, I know one of you is bound to check in here eventually)

Heyo! Hope everyone is doing well. Saw that the last post in Banter was sometime in April and thought this section was overdue for a refreshed timestamp. Fortunately, life has been good in the Zeus household. I'm very grateful for my children (10 and 14 now) and the amazing relationship I have with my partner. We'll be getting married soon and I couldn't be happier with our situation. It's strange because my past life feels so foreign to me now. But those memories are there and stand as a vivid contrast to the life I am living today. And I'm glad they're there because they are a constant reminder to feel gratitude every day and not fall into complacency. Anyways, I hope life is going well for others and I miss you all.

Hey Gorm, I know it's several months later but that's great to hear that your relationship is going well and that the podcast is still alive. And I appreciate you inviting me on that one time years ago, that was fun. I hope life is still going well for you and for everyone else on here. Reflecting back a bit, it's amazing how much of a difference it makes having a truly good and supportive partner. Sometimes I can't believe how good life is now. That's not to say that there are no struggles or challenges (there are definitely some difficult things we are dealing with right now). But man, being in a relationship where we both lead with empathy and put each other first just makes every challenge seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'm closing in on 38 now and for the first time in my life I don't feel like anything is lacking or missing. And even better, my partner treats my children (now 9 and 13) as if they were her own. They suffered a lot of verbal and emotional abuse from their mother and it's been great seeing how much life has improved for them too. I can't imagine how hard it is for them to reckon with the fact that their mother completely abandoned them (none of us have heard from her in over a year) but they genuinely seem so much happier now than they've ever been. In times like these I try now harder than ever to take the time to express gratitude and not take any of this for granted. Fuck the hedonic treadmill.

Hey, good to see you here Gorm! Hope you're doing well. Anything new going on with you?

Ah cool, good to see you Ben and I hope life has been treating you well! Cool that we at least have one old regular still popping in. I'll try to check in a little more often. Hope to see some other regulars back in here at some point.

Wow, it's been a long time since anyone's been on here. Hope everyone's been doing well. Life has taken some wild turns these last couple years. Wife cheated on me a bunch and my marriage went down the shitter. Moved from Arizona to Colorado. Got divorced. Got full custody of my kids. And somehow at the end of it all ended up with the woman of my dreams, someone I've known since 3rd grade and who I reconnected with through a chance encounter on one of my Twitch streams. Definitely some bad years and dark times but somehow life now is better than it's ever been.

That is some particularly bad timing @SecretAsianMan, sorry to hear. As frustrating as those different childhood phases can be and as desperate as you end up feeling when you are sleep deprived and overworked and wondering when you'll ever get a break again, I always thought it was pretty damn cool to see just how much you are truly capable of when you are solely responsible for guiding a little life towards adulthood. That shit is terrifying when you actually stop to think about it! Hang in there man, and cherish every second. They really do grow up way too freaking fast!

Man, I wish I had the solution too. But I know enough now to know that I don't know shit.

Hey Erkki, thanks for sharing all that. Your feelings are eerily similar to where I'm at right now. It feels like so much has changed in just a couple short years and lately I find myself wondering what I'm ultimately trying to accomplish in life. I'm at a point where it's clear that despite reaching most of my life goals and making some important changes in my life, I haven't reached a greater plain of happiness and find myself looking back fondly on the good old days when I had less responsibility and less life clutter. It's funny to think of how much time I've spent looking back at the past fondly, looking towards the future eagerly, and not fully appreciating where I'm at in the moment. Working hard to fix that but Jesus Christ it's hard to stop myself from falling victim to my own internal narrative.