On occasion, we here do a thread of random positivity, where we start with a thematic prompt and talk about things that are enjoyable just for the fun of it. Past examples:

We have also had a couple threads of educational-resource recommendations. These are marginally more serious, since they’re about gathering actually good explanations of things that sneerable people like to pontificate ignorantly on. But I’ll list them here because learning is fun:

Feel free to comment in the old threads and/or suggest new ones in the comments here.

  • Architeuthis@awful.systems
    4·
    23 hours ago

    I survived the house trying to kill me, so that’s a positive. A like 20kg slab of hard plaster fell from the kitchen roof and shattered a few centimeters in front of my toes, just as I was leaning forward trying to find out what the weird creaky sound was (now 100% sure it was actually falling grains of building material rattling on the kitchen table during the last seconds pre-collapse) so this almost went extremely badly for me, I really should learn to look upwards more in environmentally suspect situations.

    I don’t live in a shanty or an otherwise obviously compromised building so that was interesting, lots of people to call tomorrow, especially the fucking landlord. I doubt I’ll be posting an update because who cares, this post is basically adrenaline management, I just stopped trying to clean up because I was starting to feel the dust accumulate on the back of my tongue, and it’s well past midnight here. I’ll do the rest in the morning, probably while half-listening to a teams meeting, and once I find a leftover covid mask.

    The toddler didn’t even bother to change sides, so that’s another positive. The ceiling above the crib sounds pretty solid too.

  • diz@awful.systemsEnglish
    26·
    5 months ago

    A guy I know because he invented a mechanism and I built an alternative implementation of the same behavior out of Lego and put on youtube, cited my thing in his doctoral thesis and will be defending on Monday, and I can watch that online. Can’t wait.

  • YourNetworkIsHaunted@awful.systems
    18·
    3 months ago

    …almost two years to the day after getting laid off I have received and accepted an offer for a new IT job making more than I ever have and working with a client that I’m actually excited to help support.

    I’m somewhat in shock since the last two years have been so incredibly hard. Like, I might have to indulge in some public therapy and put together a more in-depth reflection on this experience for MoreWrite at some point to give me a chance to organize my thoughts and feelings properly. But for now: holy fucking shit we got there.

  • picklefactory@awful.systems
    10·
    2 months ago

    July 31st is Sysadmin Appreciation Day.

    Awful admins, I appreciate you and this. ( self | dgerard | blakestacey - I don’t know how to do usertags on lemmy!) Thank you.

    • froztbyte@awful.systemsEnglish
      3·
      2 months ago

      it uses the fedi semantics, @user@example.com. but I have found some clients to be iffy on completion and addition of href (eg my mobile client doesn’t do it most times unless I hit a specific thing. the jank is a feature!)

  • Soyweiser@awful.systems
    10·
    2 months ago

    At an airport flying back after a nice trip, finally reading Greg Egans Zendegi while waiting for my connecting flight. Have some quotes.

    "Looking at the hollows of his face she could easily have imagined that he was going door-to-door begging for food, but he was wearing a designer-label jacket that probably cost as much as a small car.

    …

    ‘I’m Nate Caplan.’ He offered her his hand, and she shook it. In response to her sustained look of puzzlement he added, ‘My IQ is one hundred and sixty. I’m in perfect physical and mental health.

    …

    ‘I know I look skinny,’ Caplan continued, ‘but I have no lipid deficiencies that would lead to neurohistological abnormalities. I’ve had biopsies to confirm that. And I’m willing to give up the caloric restriction if you make it worth my while.’

    …

    ‘You can always reach me through my blog!’ he panted. ‘Overpowering Falsehood dot com, the number one site for rational thinking about the future—’"

    Gave me a chuckle.

    • BioMan@awful.systems
      6·
      2 months ago

      For more than a decade now Egan has been enthusiastically taking the piss at the rationalists and singulatarians. For more than 20, he has been gently making vague fun of them, or calmly including stuff in his stories that flatly contradict them without commentary in a way you can tell he’s influenced to do so by them.

      • Soyweiser@awful.systems
        3·
        2 months ago

        It is also interesting (but looking at his bsky profile not shocking) how much he predicted re genai like bots. Even if they have a different source in the book. Having bots check bot output for example. Most of the book taking place in modern iran (after a revolution succeeded) is interesting

        • BioMan@awful.systems
          5·
          2 months ago

          Working in academia I have close friends who were born all over the world. A good friend of mine from Iran has told me that the two things he has read from Egan that take place in Iran - this novel, and a short story in a recent collection in which the main character is an afghan refugee woman trying to go through higher education - capture the essence of life in Iran better than any other english-speaking work he has ever read, to the point he was questioning Egan’s Australian origin to me.

  • o7___o7@awful.systems
    10·
    6 months ago

    Many thanks for starting the thread!

    My kids discovered Homestar Runner over the weekend and my eldest demanded that we write an email to Strong Bad right now. We asked the most natural question: “What’s your favorite pokemon?”

    The email address is still alive!

    Also finished Robert Brockway’s new novel “I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200.” 5/5 stars. Hug your kids and brace yourself for some real emotional extremes. Probably should do those things separately, because while the book is about lonely kids coping with the horrors, it’s not really for them. Also, you might cry. Served with good politics and graphic puppet murder.

  • saucerwizard@awful.systems
    9·
    5 months ago

    Tires are actually more interesting than you would expect. I really love hearing customer opinions on how they perform in actual use.

    Also we get a real mix of vehicles at the shop. I’ve seen multiple Mercedes and even a Rivian!

    (I’m also the last seasonal employee left standing/got a month long extension as apparently I’m good at this?!?! I’m going to have like a year of unemployment to draw on for RMT school when this ends so I’m pretty happy. Not going to lie, its kinda stressful but I’m actually enjoying being challenged for once).