Zeusthecat

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Posts posted by Zeusthecat

  1. Posted

    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.

  2. Posted

    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.

     

     

  3. Posted

    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.

  4. Posted

    (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!

  5. Posted

    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.

  6. Posted

    2 hours ago, SecretAsianMan said:

     

    WHO HATH SUMMONED ME FROM MY SLUMBER?

     

    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.

  7. Posted

    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)

  8. Posted

    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.

  9. Posted

    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. 

  11. Posted

    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.

  12. Posted

    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. 

  13. Posted

    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!

  15. Posted

    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.

  16. Posted

    @Roderick, I just had to chime in to say that everything you said is 100% how I feel. I don't know why I've kept Polygon bookmarked, but I've found myself hate reading just about everything they've put out lately. I haven't seen the new Spiderman movie and when I saw that headline I let out an audible "what the fuck Polygon?". Between Ben's super bad takes and trashy articles defending EA's monetization practices in sports games and that "Why I Worship At The Altar Of Crunch" article, it's quite an overwhelming amount of shit.

     

    Kotaku's been pretty great though. I could do without the constant "internet reacts" articles but other than that I'm pleased with their output and the hard work they are clearly putting in to produce quality articles.

     

    Waypoint doesn't really do it for me with their high ratio of podcast articles and the fact that the slate of articles on their homepage seems to update like once per week. 

  17. Posted

    11 hours ago, SecretAsianMan said:

     

    This also describes me. But even before the current hiatus I felt like the forums were slowing and most of the active community had moved to Slack (which sadly isn't a viable option for me). I'll keep a silent vigil just in case.

    Same here. Still have it bookmarked. Still browse the latest posts almost every day. It was nice to meet so many great people over the years and post so many dumb things. And getting to experience all those wonderful LucasArts games that the Thumbs introduced me to will always be a treasured memory.

     

    Not a big fan of Slack and the direction the forums went when that became the predominant format for this community but hey, things change and uh, life finds a way I guess. I'll see you all around.

  18. Posted

    Seriously Twig, fuck right off. This place has gotten so goddamn hostile to any point of view that isn't shared by the Idle Thumbs hive mind. It's fucking sad. I agree with you guys on so goddamn much but as soon as I show any disagreement with anything, it's a fucking dogpile. So many decent people have been chased off of these forums because of pathetic shit like this.

     

    And since me putting any perspective out there that isn't shared by the hive mind seems to bother people so much, I'll just stop posting. What else can I do really? At least it will make things more pleasant for the rest of you.

  19. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Gormongous said:

    And Zeus, I like you, but you seriously need to work on how much you process this criticism of Dan as criticism of you and your tastes. No one's out to get you, certainly not me. It was not my intention to criticize anyone but Dan, and criticism of Dan isn't implicitly meant as criticism of you or anyone else except Dan, because I know we all have problematic faves. That's how the world works.

     

    To be fair, you didn't just offer up a criticism of Dan, you continuously beat me over the head with it by responding to every post I made with increasing aggression. If we're giving advice to each other now, maybe you could work on sometimes just accepting that people have a different opinion than you and not trying to tirelessly educate them on why they are wrong. I don't appreciate being talked down to like I am some naive idiot who doesn't seeing the whole picture like you do.

  20. Posted

    7 minutes ago, Spenny said:

    So, like, yeah, a hundo percent, the question I'm asking after reading this thread, is does Dan, intentionally or not, use his platform to promote dangerous ideas. I can pretty much rule out intentionality, but, I'm not convinced that excuses it  Yeah, I'm not going to get a cut and dry answer, but, this is going to be on my mind for a while.

     

    I really don't think so. You could even potentially say that his backwards views and willingness to say dumb things has the opposite effect since he has a room full of people telling him how stupid he is and why he is so stupid whenever he brings those things up. Especially considering how willing he is to admit he is wrong. A lot of people share a lot of the same backwards views he does and you could see it as a good thing that there is a platform out there where those things are brought up and dissected by a group of less backwards people.

     

    And I agree @miffy495! Dan has shown a propensity for change that you don't often see in people like him. Having grown up isolated in small religious towns, I can sympathize with how he came to see things the way he does and it's great to see how far he has come on so many things.

  22. Posted

    19 hours ago, Badfinger said:

    I'm sure the folks here that aren't interested in any stuff with Dan in it didn't listen to Danswers, but that show ended up being surprisingly boring because every answer ended up being "we realize we're white men of privilege so there's only so far any advice we give anyone who isn't literally all of those things will go, but as people who suffer from anxiety and depression the thing you should do is reach out for professional help because there's no substitute. If you're having an issue with a relationship the best thing you can do is talk to your SO about it, writing into a podcast isn't going to produce magic answers." 

     

    I seriously can't believe how often I defend fucking Dan Ryckert in these, the pages of the idle thumbs forums, but I have heard from his mouth over and over again how getting over the stigma of having anxiety and accepting that he could go to a doctor, see a therapist, and talk to his friends and family to help him was the biggest part of what he's done.

     

    I just want to quote this because I keep seeing these claims that Dan is advocating against people seeking professional help. I haven't seen a single piece of actual evidence to back up the claim that this is the case. I've watched and listened to a lot of Giant Bomb content and as stupid as Dan is, he constantly acknowledges how naive he is and rarely advocates that others adopt his point of view. 

     

    And to provide another perspective, it's not always as simple as "seek a professional's help and get prescribed the right medication". For one, that shit is extremely expensive and after years of my wife seeking therapy and going through every different medication imaginable, we are still barely hanging on by a thread. Some of the medications had horrific side effects, others made her depression much worse, and those that did work tended to lose their efficacy over time. She's on Latuda now and finally doing a bit better but we are thousands of dollars in debt and she still regularly has days where she can barely get out of bed. 

     

    Also worth mentioning that the very things some of you guys are lambasting are exactly the types of things every medical professional has recommended to us. Yoga, meditation, and self help books have literally been recommended by every single professional we have seen because those things actually do work for a lot of people and you need every bit of help possible when dealing with something so crippling. Not to mention, those are sometimes the only options for people who can't actually afford to seek medical help. Even with good health insurance, we can barely afford it because it is so incredibly expensive.

     

    I think there's some confirmation bias going on here and people are taking their hatred of Dan to an unhealthy level. I thought this was a lighthearted thread where people just mused about how much they can't stand Dan. Instead, it sounds like people are just grabbing sound bytes from each other and making assumptions about his intentions with his stupid book to build a case for why their hatred of Dan is justified and why any of us who don't hate him are bad people that should feel bad. Because he's objectively a bad person right? He found a way to cope with his issues and managed to write a book about it and get it published. You may disagree with his perspective or think he was incredibly naive in refusing professional help but he's not this sinister person that's going around telling people that doctors are bad and that only he can cure their depression. And from the reviews of his book it seems like people generally like it and find it pretty entertaining.

     

    Funny to think that merely stating that I like Dan Ryckert was going to initiate such a vitriolic backlash from so many people.

  24. Posted

    1 hour ago, Gormongous said:

     

    So it wouldn't creep you out if your kid or a friend was suffering from severe mental health issues (or even mild ones) but didn't want to take medicine or even seek medical help because Dan Ryckert doesn't like drugs or doctors and says he didn't need them to feel better? I mean, I'm fine with having someone being the dumb and goofy one on a podcast, but when you're selling that ignorant worldview to people for a profit, that crosses a line for me.

     

    I'm not judging him based on his qualities as a potential role model, I'm speaking strictly about how he comes across to me on the podcast.

     

    And I haven't read his book but from what I've heard, I don't think it is as nefarious as you're making it sound. I thought he just decided to write a book about his experience navigating through his issues which I don't really see a problem with. If he handled shit a certain way and managed to write a book about it and get it published then that's fine. I don't see the need to judge someone based on their potential as a role model and from all the podcasts I've listened to, he has made it pretty clear that he acknowledges he is weird and never really spends any time advocating that everyone else should see the world the way he does. Considering all of the other shitty humans out there he's pretty damn harmless.