cobysev

Akira is a total trip as well.

There’s been a live action Akira film in development hell for over 20 years now. I’ve been patiently waiting since my teen years to see it and I’m in my early 40s now. I guess directors are so scared of not being able to live up to the masterpiece that is the original anime film, so nobody sticks with the project long.

Personally, I’d love to see it recreated as a miniseries. If you’ve read the manga, the film barely touches on the plot. There are gang wars, political factions, economic and social collapse, insurrections and riots, even global wars! None of that is covered in the film; they just focus on Tetsuo and Kaneda.

Heck, even its namesake, Akira, isn’t around! He was a central figure of the manga, but he’s only around for some brief flashbacks in the film.

A miniseries would give it time to world-build and cover everything in the original manga series.

I got my first DM from “her” today as well! I was feeling left out.

I mean, I am the source. This was my personal experience while serving in the military.

But if you want official reports to back up what I experienced, here’s you go:

Intelligence officials withheld sensitive information from Trump while he was in office because they feared the ‘damage’ he could do if he knew.

I was working in an Intelligence unit when Trump was president (not the one directly briefing him) and it’s all anyone talked about at the time. They had to be extremely careful what information they shared with him because he would just go and post details on his social media accounts.

My unit had to change a lot of their missions and coordination because Trump would expose our secrets online. It ruined a lot of ongoing missions we had planned, and we had to scrap and rebuild a lot of our programs after he blabbed about them.

Trump fires top US general in unprecedented Pentagon shakeup

This was more recent, after I retired. But he basically fired our top military leaders, then made his own suggestions for replacements, completing ignoring the official promotion system we have in place.

He didn’t want people with years of experience and exemplary service to lead our military, he just wants his own loyalists in charge so he can control the military. He nominated highly unqualified people for the positions, with the only seemingly common quality being that they were loyal to Trump.

He was also annoyed at how hard it was to replace key people and wanted to circumvent official processes so he can hire and fire people at will, like his old businesses.

I retired from the US military 3 years ago. Yes, they can refuse unlawful orders. If I was still serving, I’d be abusing the hell out of that regulation right now.

During Trump’s last presidency, our intelligence community actually held back a lot of details in his intelligence briefings because we knew he couldn’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut. He has a top secret clearance, not because he could be trusted with it, but because it was a requirement for his job. And he also reversed our decision to withhold clearances from sketchy members of our government, so a lot of untrustworthy people also got access to our sensitive data, and thanks to that, we had a lot of compromised missions during his first tenure as president.

But we also had a majority Democrat government, which kept him in check. This time around, he’s attempting to replace everyone he can with his “yes men” so he gets no push-back. He’s even been trying to replace military generals with his own loyalists. If he can control the military, he can basically stage a coup overnight and no one will be able to stop him.

Things are getting really dangerous right now, so that regulation about refusing unlawful orders is very important, and I hope our current military members are willing to exercise it as needed.

40-yr old male here, been retired since I was 38. (Collecting a military pension, plus 100% VA disability benefits) I’m usually awake until around 4-6 AM, then sleep until either noon or 1 PM. Unless I’m having a night of PTSD-induced insomnia, which strikes randomly. In which case, I might be awake until 10-11 AM, then crash for the rest of the day.

I’m a night owl and am at my most productive at night. Then I go to bed and usually don’t set an alarm so I can wake up naturally. After I wake, I might lie in bed for another hour or two, catching up on news or social media on my tablet. Then I’ll shower, grab some food, then plan out my day from there.

I’m drowning in hobbies and interests, and I have ADHD, which makes me hyperfocus on a dozen detailed tasks all at once. So there’s never a shortage of things to do each day. But I also don’t feel the need to be accomplished every day. Some days, you just need a day to rest and do nothing.

My first car was a 1991 Honda Ascot. I bought it in 2003 in Japan, when I was stationed there with the US military. I bought it off a fellow service member who was leaving the country, for $1,000. I gave it to another service member for free when I bought a better car a year later.

Dozens of people die

“It’s just a prank, bro!”

I just posted a review for a game that kind of fits this theme. MiSide, a game that looks like a dating sim, but has dark psychological horrors hidden within.

When I served in the military, my first supervisor taught me a valuable lesson: “15 minutes early, or you’re late.” I actually got in trouble with her if I was less than 15 minutes early to any meeting, appointment, or event.

Or even arriving to work. We worked in an IT field, so our office had a large row of server racks along one wall. Her desk sat facing the door, but next to the GPS server that kept accurate time for all our computers on the military base. It had a giant digital clock on the front of the server. Every day when I walked into work, she would look up at me, then turn and look at that clock. If I was even 10 seconds late (to the 15-minute rule), I got in trouble with her. I was never late to work though, because she ensured I was always there earlier than my official shift start time.

Being 15 minutes early to everything has changed my life. If I’m running behind, I have a quarter hour window to get myself back on track. If I arrive 15 minutes early, I have plenty of time to get myself set up and situated. Or just time to sit and clear out some other pending tasks while I wait for a thing to start (check phone notifications, clear out emails, etc.).

When it comes to virtual meetings, I like to join 15 minutes early, then mute myself and turn off my camera. Then I can sit at my computer and knock out some other tasks while I’m waiting for the meeting to start. That buffer gives me time to mentally switch into meeting mode while also giving me time to be productive beforehand. And no one is waiting for me to show up, so if the meeting is ever running late, it’s never my fault.

Only worth it if Christopher Lee plays the werewolf.

In the first grade, I was bullied by a popular kid in my school.

Back in those days (early '90s), the cool thing was to have pencil grips. Kids loved to show off an assortment of colors and styles of them. This bully of mine happened to have a single pencil, covered from tip to eraser with pencil grips, which was his prize possession. He was always showing it off to everyone. It was rumored he’d been stealing them off other kids, but no one could definitively prove it.

When he wasn’t looking one day, I snatched his favorite pencil with all the pencil grips. It was justice for all the times he picked on me in grade school. I enjoyed watching him frantically turn his backpack inside out, trying to find it.

I didn’t get to keep it for long, though. A week later, one of the stricter teachers found it in my backpack and told me I had too many pencil grips for a single pencil, so she confiscated it. I didn’t know any better at the time, or else I would’ve complained about her stealing my property. But it was already stolen, so I didn’t really care to fight it.

That was the first and last time I stole something. I actually agonized over it for a long time afterward. I was relieved when the teacher stole it from me because it was finally out of my hands and I didn’t have to worry about it anymore. I never stole anything else again; the anxiety of holding onto stolen goods etched itself deep into my psyche.

Also calling out my sister: When I was maybe 6 or so, my mother found a stash of candy in a cabinet of our kitchen; mostly Lifesavers. She asked me where it came from and I just shrugged. She then asked my sister, who was 2 years younger than me, and my sis immediately broke down crying. Turns out, every time my mother went to the gas station, my little sis would grab a couple rolls of Lifesavers and pocket them. She thought my parents would never look in the messy cabinets of our kitchen.

I'm pretty sure she never stole again after getting caught. She was a wreck for a while afterward and almost terrified of candy when offered.

A coworker of mine did this. He and his new wife took parts of their last names and blended them together to create a unique new last name for both of them.

We used these ToughBooks on deployments in the US military about 20 years ago. One of the guys in my unit tested it by slowly driving a Humvee over it. It still worked. Screen was a little cracked, though.

When I was stationed in Germany with the US military in 2010, I wrecked my car in a blizzard. It was totaled; I couldn’t drive it anymore and I needed to get to work every day, so I dropped cash on a used 2006 Mazda 3. It was a 5-speed manual and was in immaculate condition. The former owner had detailed journal entries and receipts for every bit of maintenance they’d ever done. They were only selling it because they had more cars than they needed at the time and they needed some quick cash.

Fast forward to 2020… I was stationed in Nebraska and my Mazda 3 was finally showing its age. I had driven it across most of Europe and half of the US, and its mileage was approaching 200K. I was in the market for a new car.

I found myself “deployed” to South Carolina for 4 months during the pandemic, and while I was there, my wife called me up and asked if I wanted her to buy a new car for me. Apparently, some married friends of hers bought a brand-new 6-speed 2017 Mazda 3 Touring Edition as their daily driver to college classes. But their entry to college was delayed a few years, then the pandemic hit and all classes moved online. So it was just cluttering up their garage. They had 5 cars and hardly drove any of them, so they decided to sell 4 of them during the pandemic.

The 2017 Mazda 3 had only 7,000 miles on it. And they sold it to me for $17K cash. It was a helluva deal! I sold my 2006 Mazda 3 to a coworker and my wife bought the 2017 version for me. And I’ve been driving it since. It’s way nicer than my older version, and the previous owners had even paid for some upgrades to the base car.

I’m retired now, since 2022, and I don’t need to drive as much as I used to, but I always take my 2017 Mazda 3 when I leave the house. I enjoy cruising around in that car. It’s not a super fancy luxury car, but it’s the nicest car I’ve ever owned. I’m hoping I can get a solid decade or more out of this car before I need another one.

Why are there so many articles that drop the second Y from his name? It’s Zelenskyy. I haven’t seen an article on Lemmy in the past couple weeks that spelled his name right.

For the most part, I just avoid topics I know will upset her, and I try to keep the conversation on topics I know she appreciates. It’s just peacekeeping at this point. I feel like I lost her long ago and all I can do is try to keep her happy now. It’s rough because I lost my father earlier this year and all I have left is my mother and sister, but they’re both deeply conservative people and shut down any topics they’re uncomfortable with instead of having open, honest discussion.

There are the occasional fights when I’m trying to relay something important and my mother won’t listen. Like the fact that I’m fully retired as of 38 years old, only because I’m a 100% disabled veteran will full medical/dental benefits for life. But Trump plans to eliminate the VA benefits program and privatize our hospitals. Which means I won’t be able to afford to live anymore and I’ll need to find a job. This severely affects my life, but my mom doesn’t believe it will happen and she doesn’t want to discuss it further. I basically need to become homeless and destitute before she’ll believe me, and even then she’ll probably have an excuse about how this is thanks to some obscure program Biden set up in the past.

Outside of my mother (and sister), though, I’m uncompromising. If I meet someone like my mother, I do my best to talk with them and have a meaningful conversation. If they won’t allow it, then I’m done with that person. I won’t keep people like that in my life; having to deal my mother is stressful enough.

You may ask why I keep my mother and sister in my life at all. The truth is, I grew up in a very loving, caring family and I’ve always gotten along with my family members well. I love them all and they love me too. I’m not going to let political discourse destroy my family, and I’ll still be here to help them when political decisions affect their lives. My sister even told me she’ll gladly take in my wife and I if we do end up homeless due to some policy change.

It’s just frustrating that I feel like I need to wear a mask in front of my mother and sister now. I’m not as open with them as I used to be and it eats away at me because I care for them so much.

My mother was one of the most intelligent people I know; she had a genius-level IQ and always seemed to know how to handle any situation with grace and efficiency. She was the breadwinner in our family, making much more than my dad and supporting our family well. She was my role model growing up, and thanks to her, I prefer strong, independent, intellectual women in my life.

In her old age though, she’s moved in next to her favorite brother whom she idolizes, a hero back in his day. (Firemen chief who’s always been aggressively involved in his community and can fix/build anything.) Unfortunately, he’s extremely pro-Trump and has convinced my mother that anything progressive is evil and “the way things used to be” is far superior to any “modern crap.”

My mother now argues vehemently against any programs that help her out in old age, she attacks progressive politicians and projects, and she immediately shuts down conversation if I mention anything about politics, even just stating neutral facts like “Trump won the presidency.” I just can’t get through to her anymore.

On top of that, she doesn’t handle controversy well anymore. My wife and I had one minor disagreement in front of her (not even raised voices, more or less an argument, just working through a misunderstanding) and she practically blew up at both of us, claiming we put her in an uncomfortable spot and she didn’t want to be stuck listening to us “fight.” Which prevented us from resolving our disagreement in a healthy manner and led to my wife and I having an actual fight later.

I’ve learned to be happy and cheerful around my mother and never bring anything decisive to her. Let her enjoy her final days in ignorant bliss. It hurts because I can’t be myself around her. I can’t have difficult discussions with her anymore and I can’t go to her with my own problems. She’s no longer the voice of logic and reason. There’s nothing wrong with her cognitively; she’s still all there in the head. She’s just so rooted in her conservative belief structure that she won’t accept me unless I’m the “perfect son.” And that sucks.

Um. I was born in 1984 and I just turned 40 this year, thank you.

I’m too anal about cleanliness and organization, my house typically doesn’t have a drawer like this. My favorite mantra in the home, which my chronically disorganized wife is tired of hearing me repeat, is “a place for everything and everything in its place.”

However. I inherited my childhood home when my dad passed away this year (my wife and I had already been living here for a few years, in a separate apartment in the house) and my dad had a junk drawer like this. As a matter of fact, my dad was extremely messy and almost every drawer in his house looks like this. It’s probably the reason I’m so anal about organization in my life; having to grow up in a constantly messy home.

Growing up in this house, though, my family always had 2 drawers side-by-side in the kitchen which were always filled with random junk. They’re still here. I haven’t gotten to them yet. So yes, my current house has a couple junk drawers. But if I have my way, they will be organized and cleared out. If there’s going to be any messy containers filled with miscellaneous junk in the house, it’ll be boxes stored in the garage or basement - not a random drawer.

When my parents first moved in to my childhood home in the mid-'80s, the 6-acre property was wide-open fields next to plowed farm land, with a handful of freshly planted trees scattered around the property. I loved to run and play across all the open land as a child.

When I was really young, my dad decided to let sections of our 6-acre plot of land go back to nature, because he didn’t have the time nor energy to care for it all.

When I was old enough to use our riding mower by myself, (around 10 years old) I made it a personal goal to reclaim some of the land. Which got me in trouble every time my dad caught me mowing down the tall grass. But apparently, my mother was also upset about the lost lawn. When my dad wasn’t home, she would go out and trim back the overgrowth so we had some semblance of lawn around the house.

When I turned 18, I joined the military and left home. About a decade into my service, my parents divorced and my mom moved out. When I retired from the service after 20 years served, my wife and I moved back in with my dad.

It turns out that my dad spent the past decade ignoring large chunks of the lawn. I came home to a literal forest on the property, where trimmed lawn and open grassy fields used to be. My dad was old and suffering from Parkinson’s Disease, so he wasn’t able to mow much anymore and pretty much gave up on the lawn. I did my best to keep it trim around the house, then I started cutting back overgrowth and the new trees forming in the yard.

It’s been almost 3 years since I moved back in. My dad passed away almost a year ago and I inherited my childhood home from him. I’m still spending my summers cutting back overgrowth and trimming/removing trees. This will probably take me another decade by myself to reclaim the land, but I intend to turn it back into a beautifully manicured property instead of the tangled, overgrown nightmare my dad left it to become.

I started 30 years ago on this side project and I’m still going today.