Today I’m donating my streaming sticks. I got a ONN brand 2k one I bought for 15 and I got an Amazon Firestick 4K I got for $3 from a thrift store because they didn’t know what it was.
And I love the concept of stream sticks, I really do. Too fucking bad that corporate interests got in the way and now everything has to have a bundle of ads at every damn turn. Not even some of the things I’m subscribed to is free from ads because this is the future apparently, we’re here.
Shame because I don’t want to let these go and even if I were to subscribe to Netflix’s ad-free subscription, that’s only one source. Why do that when I can just grab a long HDMI cable, plug it into my desktop and to my TV and I can watch everything that’s there, without ads because of the extensions I use to block ads.
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Z-Wave. I could never get it working quite right despite purchasing highly recommended Aeotec stuff.
The MultiSensor 7s and door sensors would always report a battery level of 100%, fall off the network, and do other crazy stuff. I spent a year with a Z-Stick 7 before finally bailing a buying a fifth generation stick.
Firmware updates would take weeks because they just wouldn’t install. Constantly factory resetting them never fixed anything either.
I really hate to say it, but Zigbee ended up working much better despite living in a 2.4GHz interference hell hole.
Electronics with bad interfaces.
Either make your shit user friendly, or I’m returning it. If I have Google how to do basic things F U. You and your product isn’t worth my time.
Same with subscription fees.
Biological ‘family’.
My therapist told me that family members can’t be replaced. I disagree. They can be replaced. They only become titles but titles also can be ignored.
You don’t have to associate with, acknowledge or interact with the biological family members if they’ve proven to have been a contractual mess of toxicity in your life.
I’ve replaced members of my ‘real’ family and I got better people. People who care and support. I recommend it, to anyone.
Yes, thankfully my therapist doesn’t say that but she does seem to say it’s all on me to deal with and change since I can’t change them, which is fair.
Thankfully I have a few folks helping me escape them, but it’s a slow process.
I finally blocked my mom’s phone number earlier this month. It’s only taken me 7 years since she blew up at me in a way she couldn’t/wouldn’t take back.
It can be a slow journey and you might question it as you go, but it’s worthwhile. And more people than you might expect are estranged from their families. I used to worry that my IRL acquaintances and friends would judge me for it, but nope.
Windows. I am tired of the constant enshitification. I was waiting for it’s end of support because of games and the extra work needed to make them work on Linux (had to have the support of two friends who know Linux to try and get my steam to actually recognize my games and run them with proton, and it took 3 nights of help to find the issues and then fix them to get it working consistently) but I am so glad I’m doing this now, I’m already enjoying Linux more than windows and the issues I’m having are because of companies like discord not making streaming unnecessarily a pain
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Caring about my life. Im going to let the rest of this one slip through my fingers like beach sand. No need to hold on tight anymore.
Why not? Still so much good and beautiful left… Saying this as someone who has seen more than his fair share of dark underbelly of society.
Sometimes it’s really a dark day but seriously, cheesy as it is to say, the next day will be brighter
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Just be aware enough to hold on whenever you encounter a nugget of beauty
My gripe is with the androidTV/roku/etc being built into the TV. Just give me a big monitor that can switch inputs, that’s it. I install TVs for work and I can’t count the amount of times the TV is just trashed because the software is screwed up and you aren’t even able to switch it to HDMI1 and carry on like it doesn’t exist. It’s hot garbage, keep that shit on little HDMI sticks that you can throw away without throwing away the whole TV. Seriously, your TVs life gets cut in half if you have a whole OS on it. Bring back dumb firmware.
Dumb TVs exist, and they’re 5x the price of smart TVs.
Ads and data mining subsidizes the hardware cost. If you want cheap TVs you get spyware and ads.
A smart TV is a dumb TV when it doesn’t have an internet connection. I won’t put mine on the wifi and do everything through Chromecast or Xbox.
I know OP calls out an ONN streaming stick, bu5 I just got one of their 4k Pro models, and I really like it. It’s a pure Google TV experience with no additional sds.
Meanwhile the tv will bombard you with wifi connection request modal popups. Lol
Oops All Planned Obsolescence
Dont forget Roku’s patent for a way to show you ads over anything you plug into the hdmi.
My roku tv is never connecting to the internet again
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America
Doordash and other similar services. My order is wrong 9 times out of 10, and the price isn’t justifiable. I’d rather save the frustration and money and just make ramen or similar meals when I’ve been smoking or drinking and shouldn’t drive to fulfill the munchies.
Yeah…GrubHub is so fucking expensive that I’m surprised they’re still in business.
I hear you. I have Walmart + and thankfully it’s free. Because for the past 3 orders, one of which I paid $80+ for. The drivers kept dropping off my groceries at two different doors in the same apartment building I’m in. How the fuck can you mess that up?
Trying to draw using vector programs such as Illustrator. Prior to settling on my beloved (Paint Tool SAI) I tried to use Illustrator, and despite the benefit of being able to blow up a drawing without losing quality, it just never sat right with me and always felt awkward.
Depends on the style, I think. If it requires any kind of gradient shading or texture, pixel editing software. If you can get away with just lines, colors, and solid shading, vector is good enough but it’ll be easier on pixel editing software.
Nowadays I just work on massive files so that I can shrink them to size.
Keeping in touch with people. I have no idea what causes it but people just stop talking to me. I’ve lost touch with so many friends and family members over the years that in a lot of ways its just not worth the effort to make new ones. Which gets pretty lonely but I don’t see an alternative.
I realize that part of it is my fault as I’m not the best at keeping up with people either, but I at least make the effort with the few friends and family I’m trying to keep so I don’t lose absolutely everyone. The only exception is work colleagues and my mother who I have a strained relationship with.
I’m sure the work colleagues will fade if I ever leave the company, as has happened every single time before. I’m sure you can guess why my relationship with my mother isn’t something I necessarily want to improve.
I’ve received multiple reasons that people never message, usually some variant of forgetting to respond due to being too busy. But what’s especially frustrating are the people that say, I think of you often and things of that nature, but that never seems to translate into, “let’s see how they’re doing by reaching out”. Adding to this is how I’ve never had much luck making friends so it’s not like I’ve ever had a large pool to draw from.
My job. I resigned earlier this week after 8 1/2 years.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! I am working out my notice period of my job right now, I am taking December to regroup and will begin job hunting in January. It feels so liberating!
It does. Not sure your situation, but I have a mortgage and two little girls. It’s a big risk, but I’m betting on myself.
Regardless of the uncertainty about the new year, it’s the first time I’ve felt any sort of positivity for the longest time.
Good luck to all of us.
Mortgage and three cats (plus a clingy stray and three chickens outside). Luckily the husband has a good job so we’re ok.
I always try to live my life imagining this all being a memory to my elderly future self, and thinking about how I’d be reacting to it. Am I feeling strong pride or regret about my choices? Is there something that feels like it matters right now that will totally be forgettable in the grand scheme? It really helps me when I encounter difficult decisions, and it’s how I realized that I need some time to realign myself with the things that bring me joy.
Best of luck to you, I have a sense (knowing nothing about you) that elderly you is SO freaking pumped that you’re doing this.
i’m about to do something similar and for a job that is a 56% percent pay cut for me; but it’s as far away as i can find from the profit seeking evil that has characterized my most recent jobs while still employing my skillset.
Yeah, I have a feeling I’ll be in a similar situation once I get my head clear.
clearing my head is why i’m doing it too
Congrats!
The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. I just can’t get into them at all. I’ve tried half a dozen times and just got bored after a few hours of gameplay time.
I’ve accepted that I just don’t like them. Games should be fun, not feel like a chore to play.
For me it’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I just gave up again after bouncing off it for like the third time. On paper it’s exactly the sort of thing I should be into, but that game just doesn’t respect your time.
Felt the same. I dropped the Witcher after 10 hours. A solid try, in my estimation. I usually quit games around the 2 hour mark if I’m not feeling it.
I was in a bit of a depressive rut when I started c2077 so I just kinda plowed through the beginning not knowing if I didn’t enjoy it because of the game itself or if I was on the edge of offing myself. Whichever reason it was, after the world opened up a bit I started to fall in love with the characters and story about 15 hours in. Which is a huge ask. If you’re into games as a storytelling medium, it’s a 10/10. On a mechanical level, it’s about a 7/10 for me. It’s ok throughout, and even really great for some of the set pieces.
Yeah the opening of CP2077 is a bit of a slog. I’m glad my buddy warned me.
I’ve had to drop Monster Hunter World, it’s a game that I was so enamored by to play, had it on my wishlist for months and months. Seen many of my friends play it. I really dig what’s there. I finally had it gifted to me by a friend and I gave it an honest try.
Who at Capcom, decided it was the best idea to not give that game a way to pause the game or skip the cut scenes? Like, I hope that person is fired because that is how you just brush away all of the patience one has for waiting for things to finally give you back control.
And it’s because of that, I now have to leave it collecting digital dust.
There were also many popular games that people have recommended so highly to me before that I just got and tried playing and ended up not liking. I ended up finding myself revisiting free games, older games and vice versa than playing what people recommended me. I’m sorry but a lot of AAA games are just boring experiences that have drained all of the good ideas that could’ve been much more.
My issue with MH was the extensive grinding. Getting a full set of armor from a monster could take dozens of kills, with each kill being 30-60 minutes. If I knew I could get it after a flat 10 or even 20 victories it’d be fine, but you’re at the mercy of 5% drop rates sometimes.
Exactly. These are among my all time favourites but there are other very popular games I just cannot seem to enjoy, so I get the feeling…
Burger King. They’ve messed up orders, burned food, and drowned stuff in mayonnaise too many times to tolerate.
Now I just cook frozen burger patties on the stove, and tell myself that their sides were never all that great anyway.
My mum.
