To be fair, the vast majority of Russian troops were also cannon fodder.

I mean, what is stopping parade drills at places like children’s hospitals?

Do it once a month, give those kids some magic back in their life.

Children’s hospitals suck, no matter how hard everyone is trying to be upbeat. You don’t get over conversations that include phrases like non-accidental trauma in a NICU. Someone beat the shit out of a baby already in the NICU. Hell holes.

Take a doughnut hole, slice it in half, and sandwich a dollop of ice cream between the halves.

Just a bite, all I need.

I worked in Yellowstone for a season. People are idiots and despite being told that the animals are wild beasts and we’re just visiting their home, they think these animals are tame when they wander into civilization.

They’re not. They never will be.

Being late for work because of wild life is common, and while verified, no one gets shit for it.

One day I had to call my boss and say I’d be late because there was a bison blocking the exit of my employee dorm. She just said be safe and get in when you can. Bison wandered off 5 minutes later and I went into my shift. All good, no further questions.

When the local elks gave birth and nested in Mammoth Hot Springs for the first week of their babies lives, it was super hectic and crazy. The elk moms were vicious. Went to pop out for a smoke during my shift, and rapidly realized the usual spot was no longer friendly. Employee rules were relaxed and smoking in front of the hotel was allowed, briefly, because safety was paramount.

In the same time span, me and a few friends were walking back from the employee pub to our dorms and we ended up getting trapped on the loading dock for the employee cafeteria, because elk don’t climb stairs. We had to be rescued by rangers because we were essentially besieged by a vicious (protective) elk.

But you can’t stop a foreign tourist from putting a baby on top of a wild bison if they don’t understand English. You can just call the local ranger station to send out rangers to try to keep people safe.

As a side note, national parks are FEDERAL land. Everything is handled in a federal court house, with federal charges, and rangers most certainly are federal LEOs. This includes being stupid with the wild life.

Until people learn the definition of fascism, which… well, I’m in a southern state. Most dipshits support fascism as long as it oppresses the people they don’t like.

My first thought was, “that looks like a surefire way to injure a human and possibly kill a dog.”

Not to mention, it is entirely possible to get home from work, play, and then realize you are now late for work.

Its just engaging on a level that most modern game’s can’t hope to achieve.

Hell, I’ve installed a game (old), then installed mods, then resolved all the mod issues, then launch it to realize I don’t actually want to play it.

Factorio? Mods are easy, and vanilla is enough to keep someone occupied and happy if they lack internet or something.

Its light weight too, it costs me virtually nothing to install it on anything that can run it.

I’m not a dev, but I do some scripting. Mostly in a windows environment professionally, linux for personal reasons.

That being said, AI is great for getting a bulk outline of a script done, and you just gotta tweak a few things.

You still have to know what you’re doing, but it expedites things.

Worked in Yellowstone.

The bears are smarter than the majority of tourists.

Humans, being able to read and having signs posted in multiple languages for them, choose to ignore the various hazards and blunder through them.

Bears, only rarely, if ever, find themselves in trouble with natural features. And they can’t read the warning signs.

Now I’m thinking of some wide spread agent like pollen being laced with naturally occurring psychedelics.

I mean, pollen, as an allergen is often taken in through the nose, which is a great route of administration to affect the brain quickly.

Oh the rag weed count is high? Get ready to trip balls people, lol.

For a real medical answer, I was, at one point, put on GHB and a Stimulant under the theory that an issue that took 9 years to diagnose (epilepsy, did not present typically). Since I had issues with cataplexy, which is only rarely seen with other issues, this made sense. Turns out it can be a side effect of some psych meds, as I’m also bipolar.

GHB knocks you out in moments, and you’ll wake up 4 hours later. Time for the second dose. 4 more hours. Like fucking clockwork. It was the only time in my life I was consistently on time anywhere I’ve ever worked. Wasted in a Walmart auto shop.

Then stimulants (amphetamine analogue) were supposed to keep a narcoleptic awake during the day.

From a long time nicotine user, I’ll address your bullet points.

Intense: A combination of no tolerance with being sensitive to it.

How do people enjoy: You’re sensitive to it, what you described sounds like a case of nicotine poisoning. When I started vaping and rolled my own coils and all that jazz, I experimented a lot and consumed way too much nicotine in the beginning. The happiness is a lie, as well as the help with anxiety. Nicotine withdrawal feels very similar to being anxious at some stages. It is relief of those withdrawal symptoms that people associate with less anxiety or even happiness.

Are the symptoms related: I could not tell you that.

Addicted: Unlikely you’d be addicted after a single use case, that being said, it feels awful, but the awful tapers after about 3 days - the future cravings mean you’re addicted, in the most tell tale way. I use nicotine pouches as I’ve moved away from smoking. I still want a good old fashioned Marlboro Red, AKA cowboy killers.

Why do people want to keep it up? Often its a situational thing. You smoke with friends on the weekend, but not during the week. Then its daily, because you start feeling withdrawal. Soon you’re smoking a pack a day ten years later kicking yourself for ever trying it.

If you (or anyone else) can avoid nicotine, I advise it wholeheartedly. The simplest way is just not to start, cliched as that may be.

Smelled it?

My first time to Vegas was before any legalization, and someone in a neon green light up pot leaf shirt threw open his jacket to try to entice me along the strip.

Seemed like a good way to end up in jail in a far away from home, so I stuck to drinking in the open like a sensible person.

But yeah, I’ve smelled it too, lol.

I’m only on 11 because I want to learn it from a support perspective for work.

I am not enjoying it. I swear I have to reboot multiple times a day, against Win 10 which was only for updates… or linux, and basically never lol.

We have 8 animals and alcoholic relative living with us.

We went to the local library, I had ear buds and my laptop as was content to do my thing (cyber security stuff, all legal) and my wife was busy talking to the person running the 3D printer because she can’t seem to dial hers in settings wise.

The quiet, the lack of stress, the ability to just focus on something without dealing with an issue for a while…

It was fine until the relative… well, thats another story. They all end like that lately.

Lived next door to a cop, and down the street from another while growing up.

My dad, who only went with his father, trained more often and more rigorously then they did. How do I know? Cops talk a lotta shit, and their kids are sick of fascism already. This was only up until like 6th grade even.

Cop down the street was known for beating his wife, and was probably dirty as hell with the drive by attempt. Thankfully none of the kids were hurt. No one else was either, but even then I wouldn’t have shed a tear for a pig.

One of my meds can cause issues with finishing. Like, I’m hard, I can keep going, but there is no longer a point for me other than making sure my partner finishes.

She takes it pretty hard, but its just a known side effect. Its also fairly uncommon, in almost a decade of marriage its happened three times.

So yeah, totally honest.

I hear things. I’m bipolar though.

I often have to check in with a person close to me to see if they heard what I heard, or if its my “imagination.”

For those worried, I’m under the care of a psychiatrist, and mostly this isn’t an issue anymore.

10 was bad. 11 is… awful.

I’m running it on my daily driver / gaming rig to learn its flaws and how to work around them, because work may be moving that direction. My hardware, my license, not like they can stop me.

I’ve never had more problems with any OS than 11 on day to day stability issues. Vista? At least it had direct X 10. 8? Yeah, a total design fuck up, but even supporting it professionally I never had this many problems.

I was the SME over POS terminals in a past job.

Owners are often the biggest morons at the location.

Before that, I used the same basic software package at Subway because the owner couldn’t be bothered, and the manager, great lady, was not technically apt.