I’m this way with XIV. I think it’s more common than not. In real life I have to confront unmasked faces every day in the middle of a once in a lifetime pandemic, massive -isms from everyone around me at all times without end, a world that does not give a shit if I live or die or get to work in time (or at all for that matter), and somehow even further alienation from living in the only place affordable to me: rent controlled housing in a way-the-fuck-out-there suburb with a once an hour bus schedule to get anywhere. Life fucking sucks for a lot of people and even having a support network or a decent org or whatever else doesn't really change that for me — hell a lot of the time they’re just as much a part of the problems, too, with the way things are in this stupid country. It is nice to have this thing that I can return to however frequently or infrequently I want and get lost in an evocative and equally-alive otherworld where at least people aren’t champing at the bit to hate crime me or give me the fucking pox for walking to the grocery store or, even worse, daring to suggest the real world be a little bit different. It is 100% a comfort thing to me, too. I get it. And every now and then new stuff comes along and once every few years a bunch of new stuff comes along and all it takes is spending 15 bucks a month and maybe 30-40 bucks every two years, which is somehow still so, so much cheaper than trying to keep up with the rest of modern gaming.
It is a bold claim that a disease which is proven to cause brain damage, evade immunity, and mutate rapidly may have affected your cognitive ability around/after '22 when everyone was told COVID is over and it's cool to take the masks off with no evidence of its eradication or even effective long term treatment? Is it really?
I liked Pokemon and Digimon as a kid. There’s some good video games that I still like as an adult. The little devices are fun. The creature designs are fun in a goofy, over-the-top kind of way. The new card game is pretty interesting, if you like that kind of thing. I don’t think it has to be any more complicated than that.
Watch out, they’ll call you a doomer lib for this one
I have a t480 with the added battery and the thunderbolt dock for my desk and it’s great. Whatever you put on it these were the last computers built like this and it shows.
Do the majority of infections clear completely?
The numbers are still unclear. Keep in mind that HIV/AIDS, TB et al have had a much longer time around to be studied. The researcher I quoted above mentioned studying HIV for 20 years. COVID is only approaching the end of year 5. In spite of its recency, we do still have a wealth of data to tell us how threatening it is, anyway. Being re-infected several times per year is certainly not tipping the odds in anyone’s favor, either.
The safest thing to do is also, thankfully, the simplest: wearing a well-fitting, N95-grade respirator whenever one is away from their home. These types of respirators are, regardless of anything you may have heard, extremely effective at protecting you and others from infecting one another, even one-way.
It is no longer the acute symptoms one needs to worry about. This virus is like HIV/AIDS and will stay in your system long after you are "over it".
they're "wondering how many people I know won't survive the year" rough.
For some of us this never ended, yes, because guess what else never ended?
Covid is still spreading so wearing masks both protects you and others from the spread of debilitating and deadly disease and as an added bonus is a very cheap and easy way to make sure this particular brand of bullshit never happens to you. I cannot think of a simpler solution.
My wife’s coworker complained to her recently that she’s gotten sick like twice since she started working there about a month ago and since we are the only people who ever wear masks 100% of the time we are outside of our home we have gotten sick maybe that many times total since 2020. They don’t care.
Sorry I am physically incapable of engaging with most of the real world because none of them will protect me from the plague and my own precautions are a thin plank against a tidal wave of plague rats so a video game and books are pretty much all I got to keep me sane in this compulsory asylum you all have me locked in. There would be no greater joy on this good green earth for me to touch grass as you all love to say but every other fucker on that grass will kill me by simply breathing on me and none of them seem to give a shit no matter how nice or mean I am about it, so back to Etheirys I go…
quick edit to apologize to OP because I know this is a joke post but there are some very heavy-handed, not-very-jokey “video games suck and you suck too” responses floating around here that I can’t abide. Video games do suck, sure wish I could go volunteer at my Communist Org For Building Communism like you and all your badass friends, except they (and probably you too bitch) are all carrying airborne death and won’t do anything about it. Fuck you.
You'll know a video of me in public is fake because it won't be wearing a mask. Easiest solution in the world