Things that also give you this sort of motivation:

• Labelling machines;
• New drill;
• Air fryers;
• Pressure washers;;
• Chainsaws

I was surprised that two thirds of folk here think to be fair.

I gave up thinking years ago. I got bored of the smell of burning.

Get on. Love it. I’m pretty sure the quality and efficacy of cracks and warez were directly proportional to how hard the mad chiptunez hit.

It wasn’t a real crack unless your eardrums had been blown out by an impromptu 16-bit EDM sesh.

I’ve been out of the loop for a long long time, but are they still absolute bangers of MIDI tracks?

Not a Spring or even an EV, but my Sandero pushes out 70hp and it’s a fantastic car. One litre of pure rage and agricultural gearbox.

I’m a big Dacia fan. I’d deffo buy a Spring if I could.

At the moment though living semi-rurally, there isn’t really the financial incentive or contingency planning available for having both cars as EVs otherwise I’d be all over the Spring.

Chatting to a friend or a group is nice, but sitting alone is amazing.

On my days off I quite enjoy going into town and getting a corner table; either reading; studying; catching up on text messages or group chats; or generally just staring out the window thinking about sweet fuck all.

My other half thinks it’s a waste of money - and whereas it’s true that coffee at a retailer is ludicrously expensive for what it is; I’m paying for the chance to sit somewhere else and just do my own thing. The caffeine juice is just a nice bonus.

One of my guilty pleasures is going into the local city centre in the week running up to Christmas; sitting in a coffee shop in a shopping centre atrium or near a window overlooking a concourse or walkway; and just peoplewatch. It’s interesting to watch someone walk for thirty or forty seconds and try to figure out their life story leading up to that moment.

I suppose in that moment, I’m not alone at all, I’m in company with everyone.

Really?

My seed ratio is going to be OVER 9000!!!11

It also sounds like the sorts of character names Sandy would use in their games - looks like an endless pool of NPC names for the future!

Good on you friend, yeeehaa!

I was five, maybe six when I started fucking about with my Atari 800 - I just played games while listening to Another One Bites The Dust on vinyl repeatedly. The fact that someone took on software owner’s challenges at that time when I was struggling to write my own name brings me immense joy.

Good on you dude!

fuckin’ hell bro, that’s some PhD shit

The Gordon Freeman of the taking up cassette slack world

(I’m taking the piss, but man this would have halved the time it took to spool back up my old Atari tapes)

It’s just gatekeeping for Muppets.

I’ve lucky enough to be able to fund my study while I’m in middle age.

I took up my degree course because I enjoyed computing and the theory behind it. I enjoy it for the most part, it’s engaging and intriguing. I’m getting some personal and academic development out of it even though it’s got fuck all to do with my “real” career.

I can see people stressed off their tits with it though - people who have a career pinned on success with the degree; people who went to uni because they felt it was just the next natural step; and people who did it because they were told to.

I feel genuinely gutted for them that a topic that brings so much learning and satisfaction can bring another so much stress and anxiety.

Shame.

I mean, I can’t really talk, I’m still working away at undergrad level; and I’ve got all the social media clout of the average housebrick.

You are absolutely right, but how are you going to make a fire Twitter post if you can’t engineer a situation like this? 🤔

That would make a banging remix to Save A Horse, Ride a Cowboy .

Oh my word, that was a beautiful but incredibly tough read.

edit: sharing my experience below, the length got a bit out of hand!

I live about four or five hundred miles from where I grew up with family, and I got wind of my dad being in hospital. I gave him a call like I did every short while, and the opening lines were a bit of a comedy:

“Hi dad, how are you?”

“Aye I’m alright thanks”

“Anything exciting happening? Any news with you?”

“no not really”

“… you’re in the hospital, aren’t you dad?”

“…yeah” 😂

We had a good chat - I offered to fly down and see him but it all seemed very positive and I’d already had plans to pop down the following month.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance - a couple of weeks later I got the dreaded phone call that he’d died as a complication of his illness. I was obviously gutted, but I consider myself very very very fortunate that in that phonecall, I had the opportunity to have a good chat with him and was able to tell him everything I wanted to, there was nothing left unsaid.

Anyway…

The part of our brain that does evaluation, desire, and choice has been completely overrun; when someone asks “I’m gonna grab sushi, do you want any” we stare at them in confusion.

Absolutely. The day after my old man died, I was due to cover a night duty at my old workplace. It’s a straightforward role to deal with stuff that comes up, most of which is safety-critical in the industry so drinks, drugs, poor behaviour or low mental health are things to declare beforehand so you don’t put yourself or colleagues at risk of clouded decision making.

My other half was away on a family visit, so a dear friend of mine invited me round for a few days to avoid the workplace - I politely declined thinking I was gutted but otherwise okay. I relented on going out to the local town for the afternoon - the Coca Cola truck was doing a promo thing so it would have been a good laugh before work.

And it was - I had a good half hour. He invited me round to his place for a quick BBQ before work, and it sounded like a good idea. Went to Tesco, and we were stood in the meats aisle. He asked me:

“Do you fancy burgers or hotdogs?”

I wasn’t arsed either way. I just said “I’m not bothered mate, whatever you fancy”. He wasn’t having it.

“Do you want the burgers, or a hotdog?”

I wasn’t moved one way or another, I’m usually happy enough to eat most things so I just said “i don’t mind mate, you choose”. Nope. Wasn’t having it.

“No fella, I’m asking you. Do you want burgers, or a hotdog?”

I was getting a bit miffed at him asking me the same shit over and over but I just ran with it, and looked at both things he had in each hand. I could see the prepacked meat in each hand, but I couldn’t choose. I knew I could just almost flip a coin in my head and pick left or right, but I couldn’t critically evaluate what I wanted in such a basic decision. My mind felt like it was full of treacle, able to look and think and feel, but unable to move itself in a particular direction.

I understood what he was doing. “I’m sorry bruv,” I said, “I can’t choose”. I phoned up and booked my three remaining shifts off.

It was the strangest feeling being unable to make that decision. It wasn’t a hard call, just the mind was under so much stress I wasn’t aware of that I couldn’t just step forward.

As it happens I went home, had a good cry, got changed, and went back to his place for the evening and got hammered with him - lots of beer, Die Hard and Predator, and cracking tunes through to about 6am.

That’s dead interesting. I can’t profess to understand the hows and whys, but it’s amazing that these sorts of technologies were adopted so early.

Great stuff. I’d positively melt in 34degrees mind!

Disclaimer: I can write my entire knowledge of DIY and building on an ant’s dong in black marker

A pal of mine started a business building ecologically-sustainable holiday lodges. They were built out of timber and hay, with a limestone render.

They were beautiful and warm, but that was the result of years of battles with the planning dept who pushed back at almost every turn (despite absolute carbuncles going ahead no bother), and the architect who was more concerned with dropping prefabricated lodges in - defeating the selling point of being as green as possible.

I appreciate your input though, if there was ever such a thing as an across-the-water fist bump, this would be it!

Stone houses are awesome.

Not nearly the same historical context as the Dammuso are in, but stone buildings generally mirror that property before you factor in central heating and the like.

I live near a Scottish city which prides itself on the building of grand houses using a particular type of quarried stone, and it’s nice being eight degrees below the summer weather…

…but it isn’t much fun being eight degrees below the winter outdoor temperature either!!

Yeah it’s a valid point. The closest train service is about 35 miles away… and it’s 30 miles to the city by road so it’s a bit of a pain in the backside. I’d love to use public transport more but the infrastructure isn’t really here north of Scotland’s central belt.

When I lived in the south of England, one of the best things about it was not having to plan journeys. I could blindly walk into the local town’s train station and there’d be a London-bound train every twelve or fifteen minutes. It wasn’t really cheap, but I:d much rather pay the premium to travel without thinking; and with fewer emissions.

Here though, we’re a bit fucked. It’s not a rare story either - anything outside of Scotland’s city limits, public transport is a bit spotty and rather expensive, but it is what it is.