I live in a county that is very strongly divided on several issues. Nextdoor has to constantly remove posts for excess intensity. A discord would rapidly devolve into death threats.

I do believe that there will be violence. Probably some bombs in buildings. Probably some rogue shooters. Disappointed zealots taking revenge. Certainly assassination attempts.

• Dragonslayer
• Excalibur
• Time Bandits

Most of those are due to COVID. Not that he didn’t make it all worse…

My current job.

Many SQL servers use scripts that run as domain administrator. With the password hard coded in.

Several of the various servers are very old. W2K, 2003, 2008. SQL server, too.

Several of the users run reports via rdp to the SQL server - logging in as domain admin.

Codebase is a mashup of various dev tools: .net, asp, Java, etc.

Fax server software vendor has been out of business for a decade. Server hardware is 20 years old. Telecom for fax is a channelized PRI carrying POTS - and multiport modem cards.

About a 3rd of the ethernet runs in the office have failed.

Office pcs are static IP. Boss says that’s more secure.

We process money to/from the Fed.

You might be surprised how much this means to me. But maybe not - you reached out in the first place and seem to have knowledge of this type of trouble. But thanks.

Meanwhile…

My wife is going through chemo for colon cancer.

Her aunt is living with us. She has Parkinsons.

The company I work for has been purchased by a competitor. No one is sure which department gets fired first.

My 80+ year old mom just had gallbladder surgery.

My 79 year old aunt just found out she needs spine surgery. I think she’d never survive it.

…and we still find ways to laugh. Being old and having lots of familiarity with death and grief helps. Perspective. All things fail. We fall short. And that’s OK.

Way too thin. Only 4 possible foods with vomiting if he tried anything else. Plus associated co-symptoms.

Therapist and nutritionist have been HUGE help.

My son is 14. He has ARFID, and a therapist.

My wife and i went to Tortola in '99. Everything went wrong, and we still had a good time. If things had gone right, we might have never left.

That said, the off-trail areas of the state parks of north NY, NJ, PA, up to Canada and into Vermont) are where I feel most at peace. A quiet cabin on a lake ten miles from a small town would be a perfect place to retire to.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Capo

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Packing/moving. We’re almost done, but discover another part of the attic around a corner. It opens up into a multi-level mall-like area (but with narrow stairs) full of dining room and bedroom furniture sets. It all needs to be out by morning.

These guys claim to want a degree, but really will take a warm body:

https://careers-tierpoint.icims.com/jobs/2572/operations-technician-i/job

The pay is still peanuts, though.

Hurin Thalion. Excellent choice. I like you.

1978? We had a commodore pet. “Open 1,8,15”. My father had some HP touchscreen thing.

Upgrade was the atari with the ms-basic cartridge and cassette storage. I coded up a database.

Then I had an Amiga 1000 with a real 2400 modem. And then later a beige box 486.

First cell was 1990. I owned a town car - ran airport service. Needed a phone for the execs to show off. Charged them $1/minute.

I was a lazy jerk that just bombed out of the local college in record time. I figured I’d try photography trade school. She was a natural artist with no plan and picked the same trade school. We were in the same 6-month program. She specialized in lab work, I went into product photography. Class started October 1984. We had several family deaths, financial ruin, and other calamities - but supported each other through it all. Lived with family and in the car. Got my life on track in my 30s. Bought a house in 2000, married in 2004, kid in 2009. Now a boring but desperate suburbanite staring down the next downsizing wave and big medical bills.

Does CC BY-NC-SA meet your intentions?

Slackware. About 1994 or so.

The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and The Left Hand of Darkness - by LeGuinn

The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion

Dune

The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis

Stranger in a Strange Land