Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

Looks like 2014 MacBook is entering its sunset months, at best. I can probably afford to throw maybe $500—600 into a replacement, $700 if I get back into ramen. :)

Can anyone recommend a good Windows laptop for that range? Reliability, battery life, and a good old-fashioned keyboard are most important. Graphics card is a factor, but it's not like I play anything more demanding than Civ 6. Chromebooks are right out.

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

@Thaminga Yup. Every time I tried to pull away, they guilt-tripped and gaslit the fuck out of me in ways that I am very vulnerable to. And I kept convincing myself that I was the bad one for having issues.

I was far kinder to this person than they ever deserved, in the hopes they could somehow be brought back from the brink if someone showed them a little understanding—and, to be honest, because I knew what a cavalcade of guilt and complaint I'd get if I cut them off—or even so much as mentioned my concerns about their behavior.

And I got stabbed good and hard in the back for it, because I had the nerve to finally voice my concerns about them, and because I had the nerve to speak up in defense of what I created when they decided to demonize it. Which I deserved, because I really should have just gotten the full story from the people they'd hurt and chucked them into the sun.

I wasn't even involved. I basically got told in no uncertain terms that they didn't care that I was collateral damage... and they've since had the fucking gall to act like it was unreasonable of *me* not to want to speak to them again.

I am absolutely mind-blown at how they can still be casting themselves as a victim in all this, but it sure as fuck explains a lot of things in the past. No fucking comprehension or concern for other people's boundaries at all.

So yeah, add me to the "tell them to get the fuck out of here" list.

@anthracite Wait... Link the Hylian elf dude Link, that Link?

Yikes. Yeah, that sounds like something in there is organically Not Right.

@Thaminga @anthracite Oh for fuck's sake. I don't get how "civility culture" ties into this anyhow, since being civil to them in the hopes of dredging something decent and non-abusive out of them was obviously my biggest fucking mistake. >_<

I still can't believe they popped up AGAIN in YET another identity after I told them in no uncertai... wait, no. I can. I really should have gotten the full story from the people they hurt and just broken contact with them.

I... I thought I saw something in there worth trying to save. There might even still be, but they're that something's own worst enemy.

@Thaminga I'm so delighted for them that they've found another buzzword that will spare them any actual responsibility for their actions. I DEEPLY regret having spent any time trying to find something better in there.

@Thaminga If this is the same person I think you're talking about... gimme a fuckin' break. *headdesk* I DRAMATICALLY overestimated how redeemable this individual is. This is just getting crazier and crazier.

@anthracite See your Telegram, pls.

--Love,

Booboo Bear, professional worrywart

@anthracite Er, that might almost be worth a doctor visit. You can get some REAL nasty stuff from a cat scratch, hun...

oh sweet mother mary and joseph they're med students ;_;

I'm sitting here listening to two college-age techbro Solid Citizens pad their resumes together and I am so full of hate.

They're sitting here trying to figure out a better way to spin "served Thanksgiving dinner to a bunch of college students" as a philanthropy event. But they lack the vocabulary to do so, and the best synonym for "charitable event" they could come up between the two of them was "handouts."

These fucking kids are going to have more money, see more of the world, and get more respect than I will ever see in my life, even though you could store the sum total of their personalities, imagination, and cultural knowledge on a 5¼" floppy. They have been very well optimized to play a very shitty game. They will never reflect on this, nor wonder what else might have been possible.

And I wouldn't even resent any of this if they weren't such fucking jerks. :p

@mawr

> Pristiq or Khedezla

Wow, the pharma companies have really run low on low-value Scrabble consonants, haven't they. ;p

Good luck with the meds, mawr!

@hystericempress @Ratttz I... I genuinely did not know you could even cobble watermelon.

Just sharing one of my favorite sites from the Old Web, the "666 Cough Syrup Saga."

https://www.deuceofclubs.com/write/666.htm

@anthracite I have Interesting Opinions on that topic... but they're so interesting that I have absolutely no desire to ever, ever, ever bring them up in front of the Earnest Young Activist crowd that tends to frequent Mastodon.

(However, the college lecture I'm basing those Opinions on did invoke I Dream of Jeannie, so I might tell @Phorm about it in private sometime. :) )

@anthracite I'm a 1, FWIW. Played an Odyssey 2 as well, but it wasn't mine and I think it was slightly after we got our VCS.

My delivery order has been bumped back three times. And I'm pretty sure the poor peon on the chat service just read me the exact same incorrect delivery times that were on my own screen, without bothering to call the restaurant.

Mars has started wars for less than this, you know.​

@anthracite

> I hope she’s not selling my souls to the devil or anything.

Why? Because he's gonna be pissed when he finds out he bought an empty box, except for a slip of paper that says "SOUL IS STORED BEHIND COUNTER—SEE CLERK?"

dinner was just a huge bag of brussels sprouts pan-roasted with pepper jelly and garlic

and lunch was a veggie burrito

i feel like i've let tiger society down somehow

Got 24 minutes through Altered States before they referred to yoga as "Buddhist" (it's Hindu) and I decided to bail before my inner pedant went for the Chair Leg Of Dharma.

I never said I was a *good* Buddhist.

@anthracite You did set him on fire, right?