Share a random fact about yourself

[Gaia74]

in some months im gonna do my exani exam, the exam to enter in the high school :"c

[[McD] James]

I'm baffled as to what anybody ever saw in Chevy Chase along with his movies in general. He's quite skilled in acting like a loudmouthed, obnoxious jackass, but I don't see how that equates itself to being funny. He's also notorious for being one of the most difficult actors to work with, as well as an awful person in general. 

[Chezza]

@ReaperAA once I got my degree I was essentially unemployed for a year as graduate positions demanded a minimum of 2 years experience. I remember applying for intern roles and getting nothing.

 

Now I'm working at a call centre taking orders from people with only a high school education. I'm one of the lowest paid workers but more informed in our field than most. I owe a 20k debt for the education.

 

Universities are obsolete for many fields. It may be more productive picking up smoking, at least you can network with people when they scab lighters and cigarettes from one another.

[Grazza]

On 3/27/2019 at 1:37 PM, Ajora said:

I'm baffled as to what anybody ever saw in Chevy Chase along with his movies in general.

Generalize that to anyone a whole bunch of performers who got a career boost (or start) from SNL, and I'll tend to agree. Pretty much any time I notice someone unfunny and untalented in a leading comedy role in the USA, it turns out that was their origin.

 

Edit: OK, that's too sweeping. Replaced "anyone" with "a whole bunch of performers".

Edited March 29, 2019 by Grazza

[seed]

23 minutes ago, Chezza said:

@ReaperAA once I got my degree I was essentially unemployed for a year as graduate positions demanded a minimum of 2 years experience. I remember applying for intern roles and getting nothing.

 

So, this. Everybody is looking for people with experience, but how the hell they expect you to have any when you're fresh out from university... Well, okay, you can work somewhere to build that minimum 2yrs of experience, but it's just so frustrating how they all want it. Nowadays it's basically one if not the very first thing they ask you during your interview for a job: "Do you have any experience?" And obviously, if the answer is "no" you're better leaving the office in that moment, you're not getting any job, not even being considered whatsoever.

 

Internship is a fucking joke too, I know this from my own experience. Multiple companies are looking for engineers (in my case) and have various offers for us, but what do you know, after you apply, barely anyone gets accepted, if at all, because "we don't know anything". Thanks for taking your time to teach us something, you've been very... educational.

 

36 minutes ago, Chezza said:

@ReaperAA

Now I'm working at a call centre taking orders from people with only a high school education. I'm one of the lowest paid workers but more informed in our field than most. I owe a 20k debt for the education.

 

It's frightening, sad, and pathetic, all at the same time, isn't it? Some people have no idea how difficult it can be to graduate from university, it's a real nightmare. And imagine walking through that fire... only for it to not pay off at all. All the stress, all the anger, frustration, disgust, sadness, tears, and for what? For nothing. It's not normal to be in your early 20s and already feel your life is wasted.

 

42 minutes ago, Chezza said:

@ReaperAA 

Universities are obsolete for many fields.

 

Social Sciences are the biggest trend here. Everyone who knows they have no place at any university goes there, and the only "benefit" it offers is an extra line on your resume.

[DesecratorJ]

Fuck off University, you have to really like school to go struggle there for so many years, at least out there.

[frooben]

spent 6 years on that uni shit, got my BA in computer science and said fuck it after looking for a job for two fucking years... got me a bluecollar job as a industry operator at a dairy factory, best thing I ever did. I pulled in 15k over two months working 54-60 hours a week. Normally I make 4.5-5k a month working nights. And all that shit is gonna go into ETFs and stocks. Don't think you can make it as unskilled labor or skilled tradesman? Just go for it. You have to take matters into your own hands and grab everything you can right now because there's no telling what the future holds for you, it could all be downhill from here on.

Remember we are on the tenth year of his business cycle boom so a recession could be just around the corner, you better put some fucking money away right now. Sure the robots are coming for our jobs anyway but by then I'm sitting in some third world country playing doom and living off my dividends with some cheapass hookers.

[KVELLER]

Since we're speaking of universities, I entered college a couple weeks ago and I'm now studying Pedagogy in English (I actually wanted to study translation, but I would've had to travel to another city and I dont feel like doing that right now). It's... rough, but kinda fun, as I actually like what I'm being teached, unlike in the torture that was school.

 

One of the teachers in particular isn't taking it easy on us at all, and I actually started questioning whether or not I should keep my current curse. But, it was like The Chasm in Doom 2: You look ahead and don't want to keep going forward, so you look left, and what do you see? Toxic waste. You look right: Toxic waste. Forward it is.

 

I did get a perfect mark on my first exam though (yay!) so that boosted my morale.

[seed]

3 hours ago, KVELLER said:

Since we're speaking of universities, I entered college a couple weeks ago and I'm now studying Pedagogy in English (I actually wanted to study translation, but I would've had to travel to another city and I dont feel like doing that right now). It's... rough, but kinda fun, as I actually like what I'm being teached, unlike in the torture that was school.

 

One of the teachers in particular isn't taking it easy on us at all, and I actually started questioning whether or not I should keep my current curse. But, it was like The Chasm in Doom 2: You look ahead and don't want to keep going forward, so you look left, and what do you see? Toxic waste. You look right: Toxic waste. Forward it is.

 

I did get a perfect mark on my first exam though (yay!) so that boosted my morale.

 

Congratulations for making it to university. Now the question is, how things change down the road.

 

Although I hope that won't be your case, if you struggle with it my advice is simply dropping out from university. I can't say I regret pushing forward, but it definitely got me nowhere, no chance in hell I'm going to finish the next year with the rest of my colleagues, which is both embarrasing and pathetic. Only proved to me what I've always known: I never deliver when I absolutely should, and after all I've done in the past, this serves only as irrefutable proof. I suck.

 

4 hours ago, frooben said:

spent 6 years on that uni shit, got my BA in computer science and said fuck it after looking for a job for two fucking years...

 

Sounds familiar.

[seed]

Reading through that recommended soundfonts topic made me realize something else: I don't know jack about music theory or the technical aspects behind it (any genre or whatever, it doesn't matter).

 

I might be able to praise, admire, or criticize it etc. from different points of view, but I have no idea about these 2 aspects.

[KVELLER]

On 3/28/2019 at 3:15 AM, seed said:

Although I hope that won't be your case, if you struggle with it my advice is simply dropping out from university.

 

The problem with that is that in my country you simply can't earn a decent amount of money without a degree, in fact, you'll earn so little that you'll be scraping by at the end of the month, all of this without mentioning that I don't like any of the jobs I could get this way, and I simply won't be able to live in peace if I hate my job and can barely afford food. Going through college - even if it ends up being hell - is the only hope I have.

 

On 3/28/2019 at 3:15 AM, seed said:

Only proved to me what I've always known: I never deliver when I absolutely should, and after all I've done in the past, this serves only as irrefutable proof. I suck.

 

Maybe studies aren't your area. For what it's worth, I think you're a cool guy and I would definitely feel your absence if you were to leave DW.

 

This reminds me of one time where I was in an orientation class in high school. The class basically consisted in moral values and stuff like that, which I thought was a waste of time since I think those things are common sense anyway. Long story short, I was having self-esteem issues at the time, and that day in particular the teacher decided to make a different activity: we had to make a list with our strenghts and weaknesses. At first I just wrote "I'm good at English" in my strenghts since it was the only thing I considered worthwhile about me, but the teacher pointed out how there were other important details, like how you treat other people or how you approach interpersonal conflicts.

 

What I want to say is that sometimes we tend to focus on what we're good or bad at, and forget the value we have as people. To me, a nice guy who never managed to learn how to read has more value than a genius who is always thinking about how to backstab the ones around him.

[BrassKnight]

I keep waking up late during weekdays and during weekends I wake up early.

 

Sometimes, I get a strange feeling in the back of my neck that last for a second. It feels like some sort of fluid is being injected quickly in my neck and I suddenly twitch because of it, it doesn't hurt me though. This has been happening to me for many years and I don't know why this happens.

[seed]

7 hours ago, KVELLER said:

The problem with that is that in my country you simply can't earn a decent amount of money without a degree, in fact, you'll earn so little that you'll be scraping by at the end of the month, all of this without mentioning that I don't like any of the jobs I could get this way, and I simply won't be able to live in peace if I hate my job and can barely afford food. Going through college - even if it ends up being hell - is the only hope I have.

 

It's the exact same case here as well. No studies = no money, but what am I saying, even if you do have studies if you don't manage to build that minimum experience congratulations, you've wasted years and potentially lots of money for nothing.

 

7 hours ago, KVELLER said:

Maybe studies aren't your area. For what it's worth, I think you're a cool guy and I would definitely feel your absence if you were to leave DW.

 

This reminds me of one time where I was in an orientation class in high school. The class basically consisted in moral values and stuff like that, which I thought was a waste of time since I think those things are common sense anyway. Long story short, I was having self-esteem issues at the time, and that day in particular the teacher decided to make a different activity: we had to make a list with our strenghts and weaknesses. At first I just wrote "I'm good at English" in my strenghts since it was the only thing I considered worthwhile about me, but the teacher pointed out how there were other important details, like how you treat other people or how you approach interpersonal conflicts.

 

What I want to say is that sometimes we tend to focus on what we're good or bad at, and forget the value we have as people. To me, a nice guy who never managed to learn how to read has more value than a genius who is always thinking about how to backstab the ones around him.

 

Because I'm a forum spammer so of course my absence would be somewhat obvious :D .

 

On a serious note though, I wouldn't be able to appreciate anyone only because they're respectful, because that should be there by default, just like you said, I also hate how in this day and age this is considered "a plus", like seriously... If someone lacks any kind of decency they're scum.

 

But going back to "being good at something", it's kinda how other people work from my experience, you can be the coolest person on Earth, but if you have nothing of value to offer, then it's ultimately meaningless. Despite not really being concerned with other people's perception of me, it still bothers me that I can't find anything I could say "I'm damn good at this. Maybe not the best in the world, but good enough". Whatever those so-called talents of mine might be, they're pretty well hidden. I'm really clumsy too, which obviously doesn't work in my favor.

 

A genius concerned about such petty things is most definitely not a genius. When you're on a whole different level from others you have other priorities and problems, if you're plotting against people that only show just how insignificant you really are, it means they're a threat to you. You only think you're better, but you are shit.

[seed]

On 3/26/2019 at 11:51 AM, seed said:

*intends to get a CRT monitor*

 

Aaaaaaand as usual, it looks like it might not happen after all.

 

Really pisses me off after learning about a CRTs capabilities, the most important to me being the nearly infinite contrast, 32-bit colors, true black, and far less jagged image on top of no such thing as "native resolution". It's going to take forever to have consumer level monitors that can do at least the contrast part and deep blacks... Now I know why I always perceived them as "darker", because black was black, not an absolutely awful dark gray, and why darker images look so, SO terrible on LCDs. A garbage 1000:1 contrast ratio, you've got to be kidding me... It's pathetic that it took so many years for technology to catch up, but I can forget I'm getting my hands on such a capable monitor on new tech since those monitors are ridiculously expensive at this time...

 

And without dithering in sight at the very least for non-Quadro Windows users... It just fucking sucks to learn about the limitations of LCDs so late in life, but I was never interested about the topic until now, and knowing these things now made me absolutely loathe LCDs with all their laughable limitations.

[KVELLER]

@seed There's a reason we moved on though. While not without shortcomings, LCDs don't weigh as much or use as much space, you've got widescreen, and really high resolutions and refresh rates if you're willing to pay the price.

 

I have been curious about using a CRT though, as the last time I used one was almost a decade ago and my memory is pretty fuzzy. It would be interesting to play old games on one of them for sure.

[seed]

1 hour ago, KVELLER said:

@seed There's a reason we moved on though. While not without shortcomings, LCDs don't weigh as much or use as much space, you've got widescreen, and really high resolutions and refresh rates if you're willing to pay the price.

 

I have been curious about using a CRT though, as the last time I used one was almost a decade ago and my memory is pretty fuzzy. It would be interesting to play old games on one of them for sure.

 

Too bad CRTs had higher refresh rates than LCDs and were much cheaper, now we need "gaming monitors" and other BS to get high refresh rates... and they're also expensive... CRTs also had no input lag or delay. I prefer widescreen over their format but at this point that's virtually the only advantage they still have for me, otherwise, I choose a CRT over an LCD any day, as impractical as they were, which is what eventually killed them:

 

- Heavy as a boat anchor, if not even more. The bigger, the heavier.

- If you drop them, they literally explode.

- Never throw a CRT in the trash... 

- The phosphor could burn out unequally, causing various issues.

- Burn-In images.

- Eye fatigue, although this was supposedly eliminated once they went above 100hz.

- Overheating.

- Took a lot of space.

- Radiations. Although you can argue all electronic devices emit radiations.

- Image was not perfectly flat, but after true flat models were produced this problem was also eliminated.

- You'd probably have to manually adjust the image to fit the screen.

- Consumed more power.

 

So yeah, they were not flawless, but apparently, it turns out I actually do care about things such as the contrast ratio they offered. We only now have reached the point of having perfect blacks with OLED TVs/screens, but those are not going to be available as monitors or enter mass production anytime soon... Also, did you look at their price tag?

 

Anyway, fuck LCDs, with such limitations I'm never going to look at them they way I used to, just wish I was aware of them. If I was, I would have sticked to CRTs back when they were still being produced and only moved on when I had no options left, no way I would have chosen an LCD over them. I would buy one in a heartbeat if they were still being produced. Too bad the 2 monitors that came with my Windows 95 and 98 machines died so quickly... I could be wrong but I think the resolution of the latter went as high as 1600x1200.

 

As a matter of fact, I actually still have 2 CRT TVs, the big one has a DVD player. Not a chance that that TV is ever going to be sold or thrown away, if it breaks, it breaks and only then it will be replaced, not before. The other one, I don't mind, since it's inferior.

Edited April 1, 2019 by seed

[ReaperAA]

4 hours ago, seed said:

As a matter of fact, I actually still have 2 CRT TVs, the big one has a DVD player. Not a chance that that TV is ever going to be sold or thrown away, if it breaks, it breaks and only then it will be replaced, not before. The other one, I don't mind, since it's inferior.

 

Glad to know u finally got ur hands on a CRT. I have never used a CRT since 2007-ish and I am curious to see what visuals/colors looked like on a CRT.

 

Also I want to give some advice related to CRTs (u might already know them but I am still mentioning):

- Use screensaver. Their purpose is to prevent phosphor burn-in on CRT.

- Use screen protector/anti-glare filter to protect eyes especially if u want to use CRT extensively

[seed]

10 minutes ago, ReaperAA said:

Glad to know u finally got ur hands on a CRT. I have never used a CRT since 2007-ish and I am curious to see what visuals/colors looked like on a CRT.

 

You must have misread my comment.

 

The CRT TV with DVD player is almost 20yrs old (almost as old as me, heh). I even played NES games on it before I threw the console and all the games away like a moron. The other one is also years old, but not that much. None of them have ever broken, and the big boy still looks amazing, almost hard to believe it's over 10-15yrs old, and has no burn-in images. But then the small one doesn't suffer from this either.

 

The most noticeable difference would be, you guessed it, the contrast. The big boy is great for watching movies as dark areas look very good on it, compared to the shitty LCDs, although, as I said before, I'm not a big fan of their 4:3 aspect ratio (the only positive quality LCDs still have in my eyes). None of them can be used as monitors since they lack all ports seen in PCs (VGA, DVI, whatever). The small one has inferior image quality and contrasts.

 

Too bad I'm probably not going to get a CRT monitor... Still, I might start saving up for the next "big thing". OLED monitors (after they eventually begin mass production, or be replaced if their current issues (burn-in images, image retention) don't get sorted out) will be the only ones to have perfect colors and nearly infinite contrasts since the days of CRTs.

[StoneFrog]

Fun fact about me: I won my dad the Pick 4 lottery when I was 2 or 3 years old. "8212" in New Jersey, you can look it up somewhere.

 

On 3/27/2019 at 5:15 PM, seed said:

So, this. Everybody is looking for people with experience, but how the hell they expect you to have any when you're fresh out from university... Well, okay, you can work somewhere to build that minimum 2yrs of experience, but it's just so frustrating how they all want it. Nowadays it's basically one if not the very first thing they ask you during your interview for a job: "Do you have any experience?" And obviously, if the answer is "no" you're better leaving the office in that moment, you're not getting any job, not even being considered whatsoever.

:\ that's rough man. I'm currently underemployed, and wondering if it's worth it to persevere and break into my desired field (book publishing) or if, like, "publishing" isn't even an industry anymore so much as it's a vanity field where a few incredibly lucky and privileged people can afford to work, under superficial prestige of furthering knowledge. I'm passionate about that too, but apparently it doesn't matter. Half the people with actual jobs (and even some of the ones with just internships) not only have Bachelor's degrees, but had an extra $6,000 to spend on the NYU/Columbia publishing courses.

 

I was incredibly lucky after graduation. I took an internship writing copy for a small website, and they kept me on for about 2.5 years before running out of money. I don't think I'll be able to replicate that luck again. Sometimes I just think about getting a job at Best Buy or Micro Center. At least they probably like Doom.

[Dragonfly]

Just get a VGA to scart cable and use one of the TV's? These are super cheap too.

[seed]

12 minutes ago, Dragonfly said:

Just get a VGA to scart cable and use one of the TV's? These are super cheap too.

 

Yeah sure, it's going to be great to sit in front of a 30"+ CRT on a real small desk. It was either a "new" (as "new" as you can get a CRT in 2019...) or nothing. Both TVs are still in use, daily in fact.

 

But I learned something new today. I had no idea such adapters exist lol.

 

@StoneFrog I might have out-of-date/inaccurate information, but I think book publishing is slowly dying since more and more books are published in digital format these days. I know how awful it can be to find something that suits you and you love it, only to learn that "it's not for the future/profitable/whatever".

Edited April 1, 2019 by seed

[Chainie]

I can't swim.

[StoneFrog]

1 hour ago, seed said:

 

@StoneFrog I might have out-of-date/inaccurate information, but I think book publishing is slowly dying since more and more books are published in digital format these days. I know how awful it can be to find something that suits you and you love it, only to learn that "it's not for the future/profitable/whatever".

It's definitely not dying in terms of revenue - but I think there's fewer and fewer jobs. Most of the actual editing and compositing is actually done by freelancers. You find yourself caring more and more about a career path and what it "embodies" about you, the more you put in all this time researching and interviewing and selling yourself. It's kind of a double-edged sword and it can hurt you.

 

I just really thought I could fall into steady, predictable yet engaging office work semi-related to my interests and degree. Who knew the bare minimum required so much luck and work? Guess that's millennial life tho.

[Megalyth]

2 hours ago, Сhaingunner said:

I can't swim.

 

#LearnToFloat

[DesecratorJ]

1 hour ago, Megalyth said:

 

#LearnToFloat

Or be Jesus.

[KVELLER]

11 hours ago, seed said:

Too bad CRTs had higher refresh rates than LCDs and were much cheaper

 

Ok, I didn't know that. My bad.

[KVELLER]

2 minutes ago, DesecratorJ said:

Or be Jesus.

 

AKA Doomguy.

[Maximum Matt]

I'm old enough to have played Wolfenstein 3D before Doom came out. 

[nrofl]

I haven't upgraded my computer in 4 years

[Gaia74]

10 minutes ago, Rhebiz said:

I haven't upgraded my computer in 4 years

x2