MrVilliam @ MrVilliam @lemmy.world

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7

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666

Joined

2 yr. ago

I have been working in power plants for over ten years. Entry level plant operators can make six figures with a high school diploma. At a decent plant, you'll be balls to the wall busy on 5-10% of your shifts, pretty steady with general routine stuff that's mostly just confirming that shit is normal 80% of the time, and the remaining 10% is in outages which can vary between busting your ass and waiting around but it's rough either way because you might be working every day for a few weeks. Every plant I've been to does 12 hour shifts with pretty frequent changes between days and nights, which is by far the worst part. You'll have an easier time getting in and moving up if you are pretty good with STEM stuff, but you're fine if you passed honors physics in high school. V=IR and PV=nRT will get you really far. Spatial reasoning skills are also really helpful.

I'm at a combined cycle natural gas plant where I started as an outside operator almost 3 years ago at $39.80/hour and am now a ZLD water treatment operator in the same plant at $52/hour; control room operators start at about $60/hour here. I had a really shitty 12 hour shift today so I earned every dime of that wage, but sometimes it's only like 4-6 hours of work in a 12 hour shift and a bunch of reading or YouTube in between while monitoring everything. Even the tough shifts are kinda good sometimes because I get to work the puzzle part of my brain.

That's just too much nutmeg.

You're not wrong, but so many people have disingenuously used "touch grass" in a condescending and flippant way that it actually just feels like trolling. The way people live in 2024, it isn't such a simple thing for some people to put their devices away, go outside to a park or whatever, and just be mindful of existing in the moment in just the amount of universe within sight. I'm not sure humans were ready to be tuned into this amount of the planet and numbers that are this big. Ape together strong, but maybe just at the community level with basic technology to survive and enjoy life a little bit. We could've just fought off predators together, did a little hunting and gathering, maybe start and maintain a community garden, and otherwise just chill out and eat fruit and swim and fuck and make up games to play and shit. We didn't need to synergize or circle back or ensure 8% growth year over year or commute. We clear time in our schedules to recenter with the nature we abandoned in favor of a system we feel imprisoned by. It's fucking ridiculous.

But at least we have plumbing and climate control and electricity and Wi-Fi and a comfy bed in our shelters we barely get to spend time in because we spend so much time elsewhere to afford to sleep there.

Explaining a joke makes it less funny. A deep dive like this, however, actually kinda makes it even funnier.

Acid. Lemon juice, lime juice, vinegar, and/or wine. Salt and acid make the existing flavors fucking pop.

For anything cheesy, add a touch of nutmeg. Not enough to identify it, but enough to know that something changed.

Taste as you go.

I make a week of lunches all at once. I have 12 hour shifts so it's kinda breakfast and lunch that I snack on through the day. I get everything from Aldi so it's pretty cheap too.

Baby carrots, honeycrisp apple, light string cheese, yogurt, and a sandwich containing lunch meat and cheese and mayo. Recently, I started fridge pickling jalapeños for my sandwiches too, and that was the right call. I have this pretty much every day. I was broke af when I was younger, so eating the same thing every day vs maybe not getting to eat... I learned to really appreciate getting consistent meals even if it's not something different very often. It's not for everybody and I understand if this doesn't sound remotely appealing to you lol.

Regarding the "no particular game interests you" part... Holy shit does it feel good when a game genuinely interests you. Lately, I've been doing chores or errands or having a tough time at work and in the back of my mind I'm like "omg I could be playing Jedi Survivor right now and I'd be having the time of my fucking life, but instead I'm dealing with this fucking bullshit." I don't get excited about a game like that very often anymore.

That doesn't make sense though. The post is that pornhub banned Texas. The object and subject got flipped around if you're right.

I'm not sure I understand. You don't think anybody should have the option of visiting pornhub specifically, or any porn site at all? And why?

This community might call me an idiot for this, but nord vpn. I got a long subscription a while back for cheap. I'm in a good enough financial position that I can afford a streaming service or two without issue plus this vpn to hop regions. I value my time more than that amount of money, and I only watch so much tv, so I'm really not feeling any fomo from this strategy, plus I don't really have concerns about getting into trouble. I'm streaming, not downloading, and using services that I pay for to do so. If it's not legal to do this, I'm not exactly a power user so I'd be surprised if I were a big enough fish to come after.

Another one for me is PlayStation Plus (extra tier, specifically). I initially started paying for the base tier to be able to play Elden Ring with my friends. Then I saw that for a little more than I was already paying per year, I could get access to a pretty impressive catalog of games. I paid for another year of it when it went on sale like a month or two before they raised the price for it lol. Idk the exact cost now, but I figure as long as I'm trying more than like 3 games in a year then it's worth it. But even better is that because I'm not buying individual games, I don't feel pressured to dump 100+ hours into a game I'm not loving, so I can just stop if I lose interest and move on to another game. I played 2/3 of Ghost of Tsushima and just didn't care after that so I stopped.

Idk, maybe I'm fucking weird, but I feel like I'm getting really good value from doing this. I rarely care about watching or playing something more than once, so I'm okay with paying a fraction of the cost of owning these things just to have temporary access, and then not have clutter leftover when I decide I'm done. I want memories, not stuff.

Agreed. I also prefer rye for my Old Fashioned cocktails, but I don't really like rye on its own.

Unless there's something I'm missing, it sounds like you're implying that you both might be in a better place if you had less of a relationship together. I'm sure you have a better relationship with other family members and want to maintain them, and it's probably not really possible to do that while also not seeing your dad, but I'm not sure I'd want to set foot in that house if I felt like my dad would prefer that I not exist rather than be who I am. Maybe he doesn't actually feel that way, or maybe he does but hasn't heard those words out loud and would be shaken by you telling him that that's how he's making you feel.

Idk, I think I would try one last conversation with him about how you are feeling and you can make the effort to try to understand how he is feeling. I'm sure he's generally feeling pretty conflicted because his political identity is maybe the only Identity he really has anymore, and the only group that is really accepting him is also sending marching orders that his children are the scary enemy. I assume he is surrounded by that sort of messaging all day every day, and he only sees you occasionally. I'm not excusing him or blaming you. It just adds up that there is a sort of tug of war going on and you're losing your dad to it. Faced with this perspective, if he is decent, he will understand that he's gonna need to choose to either betray his family to remain entrenched in his hateful little boys club or he can at the very least put his political identity on hold to keep his family in his life. I don't like ultimatums, but I don't really understand what either of you is getting out of continuing this relationship at all if there aren't changes. Your gender identity isn't a choice, but his political identity is, so the onus is on him to make most of the change here. And conservatives by definition do not like change, so if he puts effort in then he should get some credit. He doesn't necessarily need to donate to LGBTQ+ causes or join marches or anything like that, but he does need to make you personally feel accepted as a child that he loves, and he needs to make you feel welcome for visits for mom's birthday or a summer cookout or whatever once in a while. I don't think that's asking too much of him. This shouldn't even be a difficult decision, but it will be because he's so deep in this shit.

And if he can't or won't meet you there, I think you're well within your rights to cut him out. Invite your mom to come to you for her birthday. Host your own summer cookout and invite everybody but him. It's not your responsibility to pull his head out of his bigoted ass, which is good because it's really not worth the amount of stress it would take to yank him free from that cult. But maybe when he sees that his hate group is causing him to be excluded from family events, he will not like how isolated he is. And if not, who gives a shit, you'll be doing fine without his criticisms either way.

Much love and I'm sorry that your dad is a dickhead <3

I'm really sorry. That sounds like it's stressful in a setting that ought to feel welcoming and safe. I don't know your experience, so take this with a grain of salt, but I have to assume that your dad would rather have you in his life as his daughter than to be estranged from his "son". If I were him, that's how I'd feel. Is it crazy to suggest that you ask him for some one on one time to talk this out and you could make it clear that this isn't some phase or anything and that this is who you are regardless of whether he accepts you this way or not? Like, you are his child and you want to have a supportive father in your life to have your back, and he should want to help his child whether they're his son or his daughter.

Is there an interest you both share? Both fans of a sports team, interested in a specific hobby, into the same music genre, etc? Maybe getting together to hang out in that context could be a good avenue to remind him that he wants quality time with you, and then you could bring up the real talk. I imagine pretty much every activity you could conceivably be interested in sharing with him is not dependant on your gender identity, so it stands to reason that hanging out shouldn't be conditional based on that, so he should be willing to jump into that activity with his child, regardless of that. I guess my point is that there may be a way to illustrate that this is not something that should matter to him in any way whatsoever, and he can have pretty much the exact relationship with you that he wants if he can just shut the fuck up and stop being weird about this lol. And if he can't deal with that, I think you're totally right to back off and take some space from him for a while like you were saying.

It's not healthy, but I do what I can to mitigate the issues. My job schedule is rotating shift work, and it both pays well and nets me 7 days off in a row every 4 weeks. Day shift is just hard for me. As I've gotten older and wiser, I've learned more about my energy levels and now know to just tell myself to go the fuck to bed lol. Sometimes I'm in bed by like 8pm because I just know that I need it like that.

I already thought it was pretty weird of him when I misunderstood and thought you were saying something akin to "I live in his house so I feel compelled to abide by his weird rules." Now that it's clear that you don't live under his roof, it's extra weird.

I know nothing about your relationship with your dad, so I hope this is just one weird thing on an unusual day. If there's a kind of pattern to him passive aggressively being shitty or toxic to you, I think it'd be a good idea to sit down with him and have a conversation about it. You don't want to stew over a thousand grievances you've bottled up and let slide just to blow up on him and wind up estranged. I think that (if there actually is a pattern and I'm not saying that there is one,) it would be better to address concerns as adults and find a way to make the relationship fair to you. You are not a child anymore, so don't play into unreasonable guilt trips for standing up for your own comfort, respect, and happiness. Again, I truly hope that none of this applies to you, but it's an absolute fact that some parents are toxic assholes who can't come to terms with the fact that their adult children do not exist solely to serve them anymore. It sounds like you probably already know how to stand up for yourself, but I figured it couldn't hurt to throw my two cents in on the off chance that you actually are being manipulated and emotionally abused and didn't realize it.

Have a great rest of your day!

That sounds like something your dad should communicate better about, and maybe talk with a therapist about? I think you should spend time with your grandpa if that's what you want to do. Your dad's discomfort with how you dress is a him problem. You wanted to dress up nice today presumably to help you to feel good about yourself, so don't let him take that from you :)

Short answer, tired af. Longer answer...

The time change fucked my head up. I didn't sleep well. I just wish the US would stick to this time year round. I know the arguments against it and they're all resolved by either adjusting timezones state by state where it might be needed or adjusting school and business hours to accommodate seasonal changes in daylight hours. You know, like animals do. Because that's what we are: animals. Our timekeeping system is a tool and we can and should adjust it or our habits and schedules to optimize its usefulness. Otherwise, the world clock is an arbitrary, floating standard that we use out of tradition rather than practicality, especially considering how incredibly fucking different the world has become in a relatively short time. Seriously, planes, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, cellophane, and stainless steel all were around before daylight savings was used.

I've been at work for about eleven hours and I'm ready to go home. I have tomorrow off and then I have to work night shift Tuesday night through Friday morning. So I might take a nap at like 6pm tonight for an hour or so, stay up until like 2am, sleep in until I naturally wake (hopefully 9ish but probably closer to 7ish), and then go to bed Tuesday morning at like 4am. That should get my rest in while flipping my sleep schedule.

:) /rant

I absolutely assumed that this part is true, but I'm wondering if this is pretty useless after it's cooled down or if it's still okay to make a big batch and use it over a couple of months or however long it could last. There's also the concern of mixing vinegar which is acidic with a soap which tends to be alkali. Idk what to expect chemically speaking, but then adding heat and agitation will certainly cause a more aggressive chemical reaction. I assume this won't explode or produce toxic fumes or anything, but this might not be particularly shelf stable because it's relying on the reaction from the mixing to do some scrubbing bubbles action on some of the challenging shit? Idk, I just hesitate to trust this sort of "life hack" type info because so much of it has proven to be anything ranging from useless bullshit to corporate astroturfing (buy Dawn!) to downright dangerous advice.

My hunch is that it probably works great for the first hour or so after mixing and then has immediate diminishing returns, so it's probably best to make a small batch, immediately spray it on everything you want to hit with it, and then go back and wipe up in the order you sprayed this shit onto. But idk, I haven't tried it, use at your own risk. Amateur chemistry has risks.

None of this is true anymore, kinda. Modern phones now bypass the battery so your charger is actually powering your phone directly. As for the 80% thing, you're correct, except that manufacturers account for that and calibrate such that what you think are 0 and 100% are actually closer to 20 and 80% respectively. And that's not just for phones. Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, tablets, laptops, etc. Manufacturers learned to not trust their end users to be technically knowledgeable about this sort of thing since nobody reads the manual and the consequence could be fires or explosions, and that's gonna hit the news without nuanced details, and that's then gonna tank their company's stock value. They found that it was just much more stable and profitable to include some basic lines of code to feed you comfortable little lies that keep you safe :)

Nope. I never made an Instagram account. I used to be on fb all the time, but I deleted my account like 6 years ago and I don't miss it whatsoever. Now unless you count watching YouTube videos, Lemmy is the only social media I'm on. And I'm a happier person for it.