Same, for the GPU that is. I don't have or want an Xbox so I guess I won't be playing it for a long time. Not that I ever play Bethesda games at launch anyway.
My old man drove wrecks when I was growing up, being the 80s in the UK that meant manuals with electrical problems so I was familiar with both parking on hills and starting dead cars.
Came in handy when I had to bump start the family car just last week. Just finished packing for the return trip from our holiday home only to discover the battery was low and didn't have enough to crank. Jump leads were buried under all our luggage even if I found a donor, but luckily there was a slight incline on the driveway.
Wifey got a bit flustered but the kids thought it was great fun.
SARS-CoV-2 isn't really any less severe, if anything the newer variants are more aggressive, but in a way that's a good thing. The original strain had a particularly long incubation period, meaning an infectious person could do a lot of social mixing before the first symptoms appeared, and the same for all the people they came in contact with, leading to an explosion in cases that could overwhelm healthcare systems. There were varying reports of two weeks all the way up to a month.
Now, between more aggressive strains, and pre-existing antibodies from vaccines and/or prior exposure (even if "outdated") the immune response kicks in much faster and people know they have it much sooner and there's less opportunities for spread (even if some assholes don't care and mix anyway). That combined with awareness of the virus and better treatment for the manageable number of people who get seriously ill means society is able to cope much better while "returning to normality"
Still sucks for individuals who get severe cases even now.
Your mask isn't there for your own good. Wearing a mask may reduce the viral load you may receive if you're exposed, improving the odds your immune system can stamp out any nascent infection, but that's just a bonus.
The purpose of a mask in a mask mandate is to protect others from you in the event you're infected but in the window between becoming infectious and becoming symptomatic and therefore aware (and possibly beyond if you're the kind of person that knowingly mixes with others and coughs openly when sick). Because it's for people who don't know they're sick, it only works if everyone does it. So it's mandated for the good of the whole.
This was particularly important with the original strain of SARS-COV-2 because it had a particularly long incubation period.
The more aggressive variants since, along with more sensitive immune responses in most people due to vaccination, exposure, or both have shrunk that window significantly, but it hasn't disappeared.
General, society wide, mandates aren't imo necessary under the prevailing conditions, but that doesn't mean there won't be situations (close knit group with a spike in cases for example) where reintroducing such rules make sense.
As a side note, as much as I enjoy the odd "then and now" collage, or "this time 3 years ago" album, I really miss those old "auto awesome" videos Google photos used to make, with a mix of video and stills set to music. Don't know why they stopped doing them but they were great.
Sounds like your algorithm is pretty badly poisoned.
It's my primary video entertainment service. I have a premium family plan so I don't have to deal with ads on any device and neither do my wife kids or parents.
I don't see any crypto scams. I do occasionally see clickbait BS in the suggestions, but I've gotten pretty good at avoiding it. Even creators who put out things I like, I'll delay watching stuff with clickbait thumbs or titles so as not to reward it. I found the Veritasium video on clickbait informative. (Funnily enough he's now on my shit list for clickbait)
An inexhaustive list of my follows off the top of my head:
Gaming:
Many a true nerd, mainly for the fallout stuff but I like their other content.
T90official, for AoE2 match coverage, the nearest I get to watching sports
Best Guest (he deserves more subs, with his surreal challenge runs)
SorcererDave.
Karl Jobst
Science:
PBS space time.
Anton Petrov.
Sabine Hossenfelder.
Legal commentary:
Leonard french.
Steve Lehto.
Tech:
Linus Tech tips (although they're all in on the clickbait titles & soyface)
Gamers Nexus
Der8auer EN
Louis Rossman (I've become less of a fan over the last few years, but not enough to drop him)
Other
Meatcanyon/papa meat
Rainman rays repairs (the algorithm offered him up, and I've found him fixing stuff pretty compelling lately)
There are more but that all I want to type out right now. Some also broadcast on Twitch, but I'm not a fan of that platform. I like some editing, and can't stand the "look at me, look at meeeee" aspect of twitch chat (or any 'live' content)
There's a "cash converters" style store in my town (like a pawn shop, but they don't do loans or deal in jewelry). Once, years ago I saw a game controller (Logitech wheel) that I was after in the window . I tried to buy it, and was told it was "reserved"
It's still there, along with everything else. They don't seem to have any stock turnover at all, and they're still open.
After talking with coworkers, it's generally assumed to be a money laundering front.
Ink cartridges. Instead of paying up front, they send you cartridges for 'free' and automatically dispatch replacements whenever they get low (or if you have a problem like they get so gummed up the head clean can't fix them)
If you don't want the subscription, you have to buy your own carts retail, then it's just like a 'traditional' printer.
The sub itself isn't (in my opinion) scummy just a value proposition. What is a bit scummy is that the carts that come with the printer are yours, but you can enroll them in the sub service. You can do that the day you buy it or right before they run out. In theory they're supposed to revert to 'owned' if the sub is cancelled, but I've heard there can be hoops to jump through. The carts that come with the printer are tiny compared to either retail or rental so won't last long either way.
What will his boss say if he checks his pockets at the end of the day and discovers all that lava he took already?