RedEye9 wrote on Mar 21, 2020, 09:30:

gsilver wrote on Mar 21, 2020, 09:20:
They were in a death spiral before this started. If they close now, they are done.

So intentionally exposing employees to a deadly virus will pull them out of the spiral?

Heck no. Rather than pass with the shred of dignity that they might have had left, they're just clinging to life without respect to anyone else.

They were in a death spiral before this started. If they close now, they are done.

Those are rather base picks, which seem more picked for popularity than strength of theme. Where are games like Lisa, Actual Sunlight, and Little Red Lie?
There are bound to be games that dig deeper than those, too.

It'd be really nice if we were to switch to permanent daylight saving time. I really hate it getting dark before I get out of work in the winter. And if anything, it being dark on the way back from work is more dangerous than it possibly being dark on the way to work, since I'm far more tired at the end of the day.

Arizona is a bit of a special case, due to summer temperatures rather than winter daylight being the driving factor. Let them keep their year-round standard time.

IMO, game count isn't the end-all metric. There's a big difference between signing up for Humble Monthly and not making extensive use of the pause-a-month feature vs actively seeking out games.

Woo. It took 4 years, but Street Fighter 5 is finally out of early access.

That article on virtual currency somehow made me think of making a mobile game, adding a skin that is purchasable with a million dollars worth of “fun bucks” or whatever, but also purchasable with one “cool token” that players get for “free”. If they bought the skin with their token, the system would generate a tax form showing a one million dollar capital gain.

RedEye9 wrote on Jan 7, 2020, 14:58:

Nimh wrote on Jan 7, 2020, 14:47:

El Pit wrote on Jan 7, 2020, 13:30:

Darks wrote on Jan 7, 2020, 11:17:
Anytime Tencent is involved in any investment, means you just sold your soul.

It is much wiser to sell your soul to US investment groups and hedge funds!

If you sell out, you sell out.

Yeah, imperfect Democracy vs Authoritarian dictatorship. All the same, sure.

meh
money vs money

At least they didn't sell out to EA Games, because if they did, they'd be shut down within two years.

Glad to see that you made it, but I would advise to take care of your gut health once you’re completely off of the antibiotics and have recovered. I’ve been dealing with some chronic health problems, and my doctor thinks that they were made worse by antibiotics throwing my system out of whack.
Not saying that they aren’t important, but antibiotics kill a lot of good bacteria, too, so probiotics afterwards are important.

There's a lot here, so hopefully I don't miss anything:

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 02:15:
A TED talk by a doctor (surgeon) who had debilitating depression and was cured.

The last idea I can throw out is household chemical exposure. A friend with a bad back got a brand new memory foam mattress. His back never felt better but he developed a bunch of other symptoms including some that manifested in mental health issues.
He did some research and determined it might be related to his high dollar mattress. The company refunded the mattress, his symptoms cleared up, and all is well.

The body is a complex organism and what works for one group may poison another.

I've tapped my life experience on the subject.
I'd hope that somebody, somewhere has been in your identical situation and was properly diagnosed. And that the information is out there and you come across it.

Re: ECT
I've heard of ECT, but as a programmer, my job depends on my executive functioning being as intact as possible. My mom did go through with it with positive results (and some memory loss), but worse case scenario, it destroys my capacity to work at the level that I have and doesn't do anything for my sleep/energy.
I'm also not even sure if I'm depressed... My mood isn't the greatest, but the physical symptoms (fatigue, daytime sleepiness, headaches, etc) are far and away the overriding factor.

Re: Mattresses
Both my current and previous mattress were expensive memory foam mattresses. The last time I used a traditional mattress was way back in college, and while I had fatigue issues then, too, it was certainly a lot less than now. Then again, I was a lot younger then, too. It's worth a shot, though.

I do have an old traditional spring mattress left behind by a friend who used to rent a room from me that I've been meaning to throw out, and I've got an extra room in my house that I can use (at least they pay programmers well...). All I need is a box spring and some sheets of the right size and I could try it.
//Ordered box spring. It should get here on Tuesday

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 08:47:
Wow, sorry dude -- sounds like you need a real life Dr. House. It also sounds like finding companionship might need to be down a bit on your list of priorities.

I don't know... if there *isn't* a solution to the fatigue and other issues (and I've tried damn near everything), am I supposed to just live in a cave alone for the rest of my life?

Kxmode wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 11:48:
Hi, gsilver. Have you tried Quetiapine? They initially prescribed 50mg, which hit me like a freight truck and made me feel like a zombie in the morning. I requested a lower dosage, and they dropped it to 25mg. The results were better. However, adding a dissoluble 10mg Melatonin tab with the Quetiapine is perfect for my brain chemistry. My doctor said Melatonin is typically safe to mix with Seroquel-based medications; though they advise against 20mg or more. I now get good sleep, and the previous issues I suffered from have subsided for now, at least. One condition I am willing to share here is that I had extremely bad insomnia. Without the medicine, I will lay in bed for six hours and not fall asleep. It would not be uncommon for me to be up for 48-72 hours at a time with full stamina and alertness; sometimes doing programming during those times.

I've done better on Seroquel than other things that I've tried. I recall sleeping better at night on it, but still being fatigued, and mood was unchanged. It might be worth a second go with it. I don't recall it making anything in particular worse.
As for melatonin, I've dabbled in it, and all it seems to do is make me feel an intense pressure in my head, but doesn't result in any more sleep at all (in some cases, much less).

jdreyer wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 15:07:
Have you tried online dating? Online dating is quickly replacing all the traditional ways of meeting people.

I've tried it a number of times, and it's pretty discouraging. Send out a ton of messages. Get few if any replies.
On the rare instances that I've managed to go on a date, it hasn't gone anywhere.
It's mostly a matter of working up the nerve for a high level of rejection.

Though if could have like an actual group of friends who wanted to do stuff, like, ever, that would be huge.
It'd also be nice to live near family, but there are precisely zero programming jobs within 150 miles of where my folks live. There are two on Glass Door at a few just over 150 miles, neither of which are a particularly strong match for my background, in a city where wages are about 48% the national average...
My sister lives in New York City, but having visited twice in the last year, uh... dear god no, I'm not moving to NYC.

RedEye9 wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 00:38:

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 18, 2019, 00:11:

gsilver wrote on Aug 17, 2019, 23:59:
Though energy is another factor. I've got some bad fatigue issues, and have to lie down for much of the time not spent working. It really makes the hour-each-way to meetup groups after work seem daunting.

You might want to see a doctor about that, it doesn't sound normal. Do you sleep well? Do you "wake up tired"? Could be anything from you are simply working too hard, or a medical problem of some kind -- lyme disease, sleep apnea, any number of other things... You're not vaping are you? (just kidding..)

Your fatigue issues definitely don't sound normal. Tact mentioned some common culprits and here's a few more. Thyroid, depression and leukemia.

It's time for a thorough checkup and a discussion of your symptoms with a medical professional.

As for loneliness, keep working on that, you would not be the first person to attend church with the express purpose of meeting people.
I wish you the best, on both fronts.

According to my insurance website, I’ve had over $35,000 in medical bills this year.
I’ve tried a host of antidepressants (which at best did nothing and at worst... I try not to think about it), sleeping pills (I always wake up tired, and almost always between 3 and 5)CPAP, Bipap, ASV (after the previous two saw almost exclusively central events, then was told by the doctor to stop after a month of compliance but no improvement), a mandibuar advancement split (since my sleep apnea isn’t all central, and this at least doesn’t increase central events), Provigil, Nuvigil, Adderall, supplements, talk therapy (which ends up being 70% “I’m tired”, 20% “I want to move” and 10% everything else, boatloads of tests, an endocrinologist, a nutritionist, an acupuncturist (not covered by insurance, but I’ll try anything at this point), even more esoteric depression treatments like transcranial magnetic stimulation (which may have helped a little), chiropractors, and who knows what else.
I’m still seeing the acupuncturist and therapist, and may soon subject myself to another round of antidepressants, though I worry about what will happen.

I seriously don’t know what else to do. I’m on my fifth or sixth sleep doctor, and they don’t know what to do.

//No smoking, no drugs, no alcohol, no caffeine (it makes my sleep even worse and doesn’t do enough to keep me awake during the day), diet is highly monitored (since the wrong foods make me feel even worse, if you can believe that), not overweight
Work schedule isn’t too bad (Just 9-5, for the most part), but even that frequently takes more energy than I have, and I spend the day with thoughts consumed by how many more minutes until I can justify sneaking out to the car to take a quick nap.

I read the article on the pill that may help with loneliness. I really hope that they make some strides with it.

I'm at an age and location where there are extremely few singles (the fewest in the US of any mid-sized or larger city) that's extremely religious, and I just can't work through the mental gymnastics that being religious requires (though I sure have tried... Maybe Religion is another "fake it till you make it" thing?)

I'm literally shot down every time I ask anyone to hang out, can't even tell you the last time I met someone I'd be interested in (and it's rare to find anyone who's even single +/- 10 years of my age; The singles meetups are filled with the elderly, and the local college is, well, a college) People from work don't want to hang out. I had a small group of friends who I watched anime with occasionally that has all but fallen apart, and I'm going to a number of meetup groups, but no real connections there, and most of them are an hour each way (since most are in a neighboring larger city).

I want to move, but most jobs in my field (programming) are also in places that are ungodly expensive (though thankfully... less godly in the literal sense, in that not 90% people are in the predominant religion)

If I could just count on eating a freaking meal with another human being a couple of times a month, I'd probably feel a lot better.

Though energy is another factor. I've got some bad fatigue issues, and have to lie down for much of the time not spent working. It really makes the hour-each-way to meetup groups after work seem daunting.

Kxmode wrote on Aug 13, 2019, 20:29:
- A
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Metro Exodus is on Game Pass for PC, so no need for EGS for that one.

I could have sworn that they announced a new Armored Core like a year ago.

VaranDragon wrote on Dec 10, 2018, 14:22:
Yeah kind of underwhelming lol. I guess the cool thing about .wad files is they work with pretty much every doom version that exists. Which means that all of the 673 people who still play a version of Doom or Doom 2 can enjoy this if they choose to get it.

GZDoom still runs just fine on modern OSes. Running a Doom wad is easy for anyone who cares to try.

I tried it out... I'm sadly not impressed. The controls are needlessly clunky, and the weapon ranges are such that the environments might as well not be there. You need to either get really close to fire, or retreat (and not far) to let your weapons/shields cool off.

I'm also not a fan of the cool off mechanic. It seems to take entirely too long to get off even a couple of shots.

I'm also terrible at it, being unable to finish the tutorial.

The 2080 Ti is delayed a week so that they can update the price tags to be $100 more expensive, because "Courage"

Good to know that when my ipad becomes unusable, its replacement will be an Android tablet.

While I don't use the headphone jack on my ipad as frequently as, say, my phone, I still use it several times a year (usually on trips) and have decent headphones that I have no interest in replacing for some wireless pair.

I like the way that this creates paradoxes for certain games, like Fallout 3, that don't run properly with Windows 7+

I've been curious about the Yakuza games, so this is nice to see.