Life

[bakelite]

haha... haaaa...

 

 

You win, I guess?

 

The worst part is that I'm a terrible CS player, after playing the game semi-regularly for some 15 years I still screw up constantly.

[Twig]

Is it a contest?! Well, shit, I better play more Dota!

 

A not insignificant amount of that playtime, to be fair, is idling throughout the night waiting for people to be ready, and/or having it open so I can watch a tournament or something. I have no idea what the distribution is, but I know it's enough to make note of.

 

I'm also garbage at Dota!

[Brannigan]

One of the reasons I stopped playing dota was the insane amount of time that takes up.

[Nachimir]

Also the reason I played DOTA once and decided not to go that route. That, and hanging out with people while they discussed how many hundred hours thy'd put into it.

 

bakelite is hot on your heels Twig, you've only got a 93 continuous day headstart.

[Mawd]

Yeah I had a weird moment when I hit 1000 hours of Natural Selection 2 recently. I've taken a two week and counting break from the game which has felt really nice but I'm being slightly nudged to get back in hard next week because my clan hasn't been scrimming at all without me.

I still enjoy the game and if I play a day or two I'll have my competitive level edge back but I don't think I can play it as hard as I used to now.

[Thrik]

I think there's definitely an honest-to-god addictiveness about this kind of thing. When said games came out, I piled at least a hundred or so hours into Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, and Tribes: Ascend. I just got into this routine where I was putting hours into them every day and I ended up completely putting aside my other hobbies such as art, music, and web development for months at a time.

 

In each case, something caused me to stop playing for a week or so, and just like that I almost completely lost interest in the game and barely touched it again. I can totally see how I would rack up monumentally huge amounts of playtime if that cycle were to continue. There's something about competitive/multiplayer games in this regard, because I've never experienced it with single-player games. Presumably it's some risk/reward psychology shit.

[Mawd]

I think there's just a real rush to outsmarting other humans and using strategies that require multiple people to work together.

Also NS2 is super social. I've met over a hundred people from playing it this year; people who are/were all fairly regular in the small but dedicated Australian community.

Most of the people I know use mics as well (pretty much need to imo) so you end up way more familiar with other players than playing say pub TF2, PS2, BF4, Dota 2, etc.

So the temptation is high to just boot up voice comms and play as long as my e-friends are willing.

That said my recent break has left me way less tolerant for games with bad/stacked teams. I usually try to antistack but lately that means I'm in a team of ten with three other good players and 30 minutes before anything gets done about it.

[Brannigan]

I think there's definitely an honest-to-god addictiveness about this kind of thing. When said games came out, I piled at least a hundred or so hours into Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 3, and Tribes: Ascend. I just got into this routine where I was putting hours into them every day and I ended up completely putting aside my other hobbies such as art, music, and web development for months at a time.

 

In each case, something caused me to stop playing for a week or so, and just like that I almost completely lost interest in the game and barely touched it again. I can totally see how I would rack up monumentally huge amounts of playtime if that cycle were to continue. There's something about competitive/multiplayer games in this regard, because I've never experienced it with single-player games. Presumably it's some risk/reward psychology shit.

The big reason I cut back on games in general is because I am going to school for art, and you really need to spend a LOT of time doing art to even dream of getting anywhere with it.  So during the semester my gaming is cut down to maybe 3-5 hours a week, depending on what I have on my plate.

[Vorlonesque]

Wow, and I thought getting near 200 hours in Tribes Ascend was a lot of time (then again I tend to play mostly on weekends).

 

On a different subject: my new (well new old stock) CRT arrived!  Its pretty cool and does seem to be new or at least barely used in terms of the picture quality and the complete lack of imperfections on the antiglare filter on the screen.  It replaces my old monitor...the new one is the one on the left (same model...the old one is just near end of life and I've used it for a while):

 

 

It has a pretty good picture (displaying a completely black screen you can hardly tell that its on in either a lit room: http://i.imgur.com/w5kO87v.jpg or a dark room: http://i.imgur.com/w5kO87v.jpg) and the only problem I have with it now is that it has an identity crisis.  The EDID shows it being a Dell P1110 instead of an SGI GDM 5411.  Both monitors were pretty much identical and made by Sony, but the Dell didn't officially support 1920x1440 (which is my preferred resolution at 75Hz) so I downloaded CRU (custom resolution utility) and fixed the problem and tweaked the settings and calibrated it and now its really nice.  I will admit that CRTs aren't for everyone, but I really like the lack of any real input lag, the amazing black levels, the ability to run all kinds of resolutions without them looking all blurry (which is nice for Diablo 2), and I just like the way the picture looks on a CRT.  The last one lasted me about 8 years (and I think it may have been used when I got it) and if this one lasts even close to that I'll be happy tbh).  My dad is taking the old one into work to use as a spare monitor, so its still being used (until it completely dies).

 

According to a sticker on the box, the monitor was owned by Composite Image Systems at some point (along with 5 others), and looking into it apparently they did image composition work on Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and Voyager along with a lot of stuff on various movies...and then it was at some point sold off to the place I bought it from (or maybe a couple places in between that):

 

http://i.imgur.com/TbC7fSB.jpg

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/CIS_Hollywood

http://www.cishollywood.com/

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/CompositeImageSystems

 

I don't know why it fascinates me given that it likely sat in their basement or something for a few years...but its weird to have a piece of the chain of ownership of a bit of electronics when you buy it.  I can even tell that it was manufactured in November 1999 according to a sticker on the back: http://i.imgur.com/BD1NiLe.jpg

 

I'm mostly using it for games (both new (http://i.imgur.com/FHfyYBW.jpg) and old (http://i.imgur.com/SNGMSJI.jpg http://i.imgur.com/N3CvUpe.jpg http://i.imgur.com/GcJUxOK.jpg)) and for general computer stuff.

 

I also nearly gagged on all the dust I stirred up taking the old monitor out and cleaning up the dust in the corner behind it (corner desks are bad for that)...and I'm allergic to dust so I was miserable all yesterday...I'm feeling much better today.

[Erkki]

Wow, I put 400 hours into Mount & Blade: Warband's multiplayer (during one year, I think) and I thought that was a lot. Now I hardly play games any more.

[SuperBiasedMan]

I have put 920 hours into TF2. Part of that was from wanting a hobby that made me feel skilled during a unemployed and unoccupied portion of my life. So I think the number is a relatively meaningless "oops" but the actual motivation for playing so much for that part of my life was an actual cause of concern.

(I also suck at my endlessly played game)

 

In totally opposite news, I start my new job tomorrow. I don't know if I'm more worried about doing poorly at the job or doing well enough that they're willing to rely on me and put me into a position where I can do real damage.

[SecretAsianMan]

My highest Steam count is TF2 with 1318 hours, although I also have a significant number of hours on the 360 version as well (probably in the neighborhood of 900).  My second highest on Steam is Dungeon Defenders with 1124 hours, which I'm really ashamed of now because I fucking hate that game.

[Bjorn]

Totally off-topic...

 

 

We went to a wedding last night, and it was probably the single best wedding I've ever been to.  This was a non-religious queer couple, the wedding was held in a gay bar with the ceremony being on a catwalk on the dance floor.  The person officiating the ceremony was wonderful.  The ceremony probably took 30 minutes, but was a combination of stand-up comedy, deeply moving anecdotes about the couple, touching personal vows to each other, audience participation and periodic trivia portions about the couple, which the first person to call out the correct answer would get a shot.  For all the goofiness of it, it was also the most touching wedding I've seen, because it was so authentic to them, their life together and their friends. 

 

Not sure why I'm bringing up, I guess to challenge the idea of what a wedding is, or could be. 

[syntheticgerbil]

you can do a lot of useful stuff in 3000 hours

Yeah but he needs 10,000 to be good at Dota, according to Malcolm Gladwell, so anything less is a waste.

[Twig]

I don't really want to be good at Dota. I just have fun with it.

 

Although I did recently uninstall it as I felt I needed a break, and while I can reinstall it anytime fairly quickly, it's enough of a hurdle that it allows me to pretend I don't care much.

[Nachimir]

We went to a wedding last night, and it was probably the single best wedding I've ever been to.  This was a non-religious queer couple, the wedding was held in a gay bar with the ceremony being on a catwalk on the dance floor.  The person officiating the ceremony was wonderful.  The ceremony probably took 30 minutes, but was a combination of stand-up comedy, deeply moving anecdotes about the couple, touching personal vows to each other, audience participation and periodic trivia portions about the couple, which the first person to call out the correct answer would get a shot.  For all the goofiness of it, it was also the most touching wedding I've seen, because it was so authentic to them, their life together and their friends. 

 

Not sure why I'm bringing up, I guess to challenge the idea of what a wedding is, or could be. 

 

 

I went to a friend's wedding at a local windmill a few years back. He and his boyfriend tied the knot standing on the steps of the mill, then everyone who went had a picnic underneath it on a grassy hill overlooking the city, with loads of kids running around. It was great. My mum did similar with a pagan/hippy wedding in a town hall, then a picnic in a park, and a techno night instead of a reception that evening. That was excellent too.

 

Traditional weddings are a protracted sales window in which various highly organised people try to upsell stuff to a couple going "but it's your special day".

[miffy495]

I just hit 250 hours in Rocksmith 2014, after about 100 in the original Rocksmith. I'm actually proud that the thing that I have the most hours in on Steam is "practiced his guitar with computer aid". My second and third place games would probably be Borderlands 2, then Borderlands 1. The thought of 1000 (or more!) hours in any game is utterly confusing to me. I just don't know how people do it.

 

Re: Weddings,

I have long maintained that the best weddings are almost always going to be for queer couples. They were unable to do it for so long that now that they can, the celebration is ENORMOUS and usually super fun/irreverent to boot. I have been to 5 weddings in my life, 3 for "normal" couples, 2 for queer. I never want to go to another normal wedding in my life. With our 10th anniversary in sight (8th is soon, not unreasonable to just expect that we'll still be together for the 10th at this point), my girlfriend and I have started thinking about how we could finally appease those relatives who won't be satisfied until there's been some ceremony (both of us don't really give a shit about marriage and don't want to bother). Gay bar would be a great way to go. We'd be able to say to said relatives "HEY LOOK A WEDDING" and simultaneously ensure that none of them would show up.

[Ozzie]

Hello,

 

my name is Ozzie, I'm 27 years old, and tonight I had the first sex of my life.

 

w00t w00t!!

[Bjorn]

Huzzah!

[namman siggins]

Hello,

 

my name is Ozzie, I'm 27 years old, and tonight I had the first sex of my life.

 

w00t w00t!!

[MrHoatzin]

Ugh sorry about this, I hope it is as coherent as it feels in my head.
 

On the poly thing, I'm willing to give Apple Cider and other women who've told me similar things the benefit of the doubt that the couples who contacted them were using poor judgment (in being able to appropriately screen women who would be good matches), or were not being respectful in some other way.

I have no issue with polyamory, literally none. But my understanding of poly couplings was consent, respect, boundaries, etc. If I literally list myself as ONLY looking for FRIENDS, a couple (of any stripe, most of this was actually heterosexual "open" marriages or committed couples looking for threesomes, not even all poly) looking at me for sex is not negotiating with me on respectful premises. I grasp that being poly opens you up to a lot of intense scrutiny and trust me, I empathize as a queer woman. Being bisexual means being hypersexualized literally all the time if you are visible, among other things. However, every time I was approached by someone, it was always the man of whatever relationship it was, it was always "want to hang out with me and my wife/primary/etc" with the "and potentially more" hanging out there despite requesting no "more" at all.

I don't care who you are or what you do in your life, but respect people. I can grok that it's hard to screen for potential other poly people since it doesn't seem like they have similar sites for meeting like OkCupid but I thought poly people tend to list that kind of thing in profiles.

 
I get that people are creeps, that they proposition in crass, counterproductive ways, that women just get treated shittily all around, that bi people are subject of prejudice from all sides, vilified, erased, etc. I also think that absence of absolute negation to openness to poly things doesn't mean that you would not be open to it under right circumstances to right persons. It is a dating site after all.

The thing is, I don't really care much for creating an insular community of poly people that can sit separate from the mainstream society—like the gay community, safely ghettoized and neutralized in its radical potential. I want to stumble upon someone who strikes my fancy and feel free to inquire about connecting with them, either on a purely sexual or a more emotional level or anywhere in between. Feelings are fun and complicated.
 

When it comes to polyamory, I see no moral arguments one way or the other, and think everyone should be more accepting and chill the fuck out

 
There is so much drama and freaking out about tone and manners and insult and trauma in the way relationships are managed or mismanaged, conceived or misconceived, and explained or not explained to young people. Everyone needs to chill out about perceived transgressions and impropriety and boundaries and just talk things through. Sex is a big deal and not a big deal.

Human relations are infinitely negotiable and the wacky ossified institutions of marriage, monogamy, heterosexuality, monosexuality are socially pernicious bits of social engineering encouraged by both sides of the state+church good cop+bad cop shtick and should be seriously reconsidered. The more I look at it, queer seems like the baseline, not the exception.
 

The thing about polyamory isn't that I'm necessarily against it, but rather that everyone around me is more or less against it. The specter of going on more than about 2 dates with multiple people at a time and the other people "finding out" is fairly fear inducing.

 
I am kinda bummed POLY is even a THING, like the formulation of "I AM POLY" implies that it reflects a kind of inner material truth about me versus others which is not justified. All I am doing is allowing myself to fall for other people and negotiating all of my relationships with an extended latitude. This is not something that muggles cannot do, it is just that everyone is trained by literary tradition, telenovelas, taboos, etc that non-monogamous non-heteronormative behavior results in jealousy and crazy mad drama antics and that this is why it is an abnormal way to be.

To a large extent this same stigma of needing to BE A CREATURE OF A CERTAIN MOLD, to recognize yourself as a taxonomized other, besets a lot of bi people who don't act on half of their attractions because they're afraid of being labeled as gay. Because they don't feel gay all the time, they might as well stay default, and not act—but it is the acting itself that creates that illusion of material nature in the social sphere to begin with, not the other way around and the available labels are entirely too limiting (see Judith Butler). Why do we have to go through the ordeal of labeling our material nature before we even know we're into it, whatever it may be?
 

Let's say maybe a few weeks, instead? Some level of mutual agreement where you've gotten past the idea of meeting someone just to see how it goes and are doing so because that's what you want. Like, if you're seeing Jane on Fridays and John on Saturdays that's basically wacky sitcom level territory for most people. I actually do prefer the idea of exclusivity, but I know I've felt internal pressure to "make a decision" faster than I would have if I had met people at different times.

 
A lot of married people also go cruising for the wrong reasons, to solve their busted relationships, giving the whole poly thing bad rep. I'm a very competent lover. Why not deploy these finely-honed skills on other cool people? I don't have to automatically elevate them to the same status in my social pantheon that my partner of 7 years has. She has veto power over who I date. And we trust each other. When you start talking to people about what to expect from a relationship, you notice how arbitrary the divinely-sanctified lattice of relationship rules is and how much it varies person-to-person. Romantic relationships like all relationships are built up, you accumulate affect and trust and gain power over one another. It is not really a binarily binding thing the way we traditionally implement it for some reason.

And then some people just don't feel like it, and that's totally fine. This is about doing what feels right after all.

Sorry for slutting up the life thread

[Griddlelol]

Totally off-topic...

 

 

We went to a wedding last night, and it was probably the single best wedding I've ever been to.  This was a non-religious queer couple, the wedding was held in a gay bar with the ceremony being on a catwalk on the dance floor.  The person officiating the ceremony was wonderful.  The ceremony probably took 30 minutes, but was a combination of stand-up comedy, deeply moving anecdotes about the couple, touching personal vows to each other, audience participation and periodic trivia portions about the couple, which the first person to call out the correct answer would get a shot.  For all the goofiness of it, it was also the most touching wedding I've seen, because it was so authentic to them, their life together and their friends. 

 

Not sure why I'm bringing up, I guess to challenge the idea of what a wedding is, or could be. 

 

 

That sounds like my kind of wedding. I recently went to a semi-traditional eastern European wedding and had a rather long discussion about it with the priest about it. I dunno, the ceremony was so pointless and extravagant, no one was smiling, everyone just wanted the party after. Why not just do both at the same time?

 

On polyamory, it's a sensitive subject for me. I think I'm leaning towards it, but I couldn't accept if my partner was (hypocritical, I know). So I either have to not do it, or break my partner's trust since she is not open to it at all. Currently I've not done it, but this is the longest monogamous relationship I've ever been in and it feels weird.

[dibs]

I didn't go to my cousin's wedding because i was in full freak out mode about my phd at the time (i spend the weekend not doing any work and freaking out instead). His husband was a chef and there was a barge full of food, and they walked down the aisle to "gimme gimme gimme".

[Gwardinen]

I didn't go to my cousin's wedding

there was a barge full of food

 

You done fucked up.

[Ben X]

On polyamory, it's a sensitive subject for me. I think I'm leaning towards it, but I couldn't accept if my partner was (hypocritical, I know). So I either have to not do it, or break my partner's trust since she is not open to it at all. Currently I've not done it, but this is the longest monogamous relationship I've ever been in and it feels weird.

 

I may be completely misreading this, but it sounds like what you're considering is cheating, not polyamory!

 

Ozzie - how was the sex? Many details, please.