What’s wrong with his leg? I can’t quite tell from the 4 blurry pixels.

I recently lost my job due to the federal government cancelling contracts with my employer. I won’t claim that I’m going through Hell, but it’s far from unicorns and rainbows.

It’s definitely a lot to deal with emotionally all at once. I worry that I may not find a job that I genuinely enjoy as much as the one I lost. Even though I know it’s not strictly because of anything I did wrong, I struggle with the idea that I was considered unimportant and expendable. It also makes me feel like I’m not a reliable “breadwinner” for my family. Then there’s the little things, like the fact that I’m having to cut back on purchases that aren’t necessities, forgo expenditures that I was hoping to make, and things like that. On top of all that, I have a lot of guilt about feeling bad for myself knowing that a number of my former coworkers who were also let go are in a lot worse situations than me.

I’m able to be a bit optimistic about some things. For instance, I’m glad that the ACA (health insurance not tied to employment) is an option. The COBRA healthcare coverage option is ridiculously expensive, but most of the ACA options are notably less expensive and, at least on paper, seem to be better options (ex: lower copays, deductibles, max out of pocket) and there are tax credits you can take based on income that make it even less expensive. Another benefit is that being unemployed gives me more time with my family, more time with friends, and more time to catch up on all the little chores that need my attention.

But, at the end of the day, I will say that I’m strongly considering getting some psychiatric help and/or therapy. The only thing holding me back at this point is concerns over whether I can truly afford it. Sure I can spend $100USD per session for a therapist now, but in a few months, will the cost of those sessions make a difference between whether I have food on the table or not? It’s a gamble that I’m just not quite willing to risk right now.

I’m sorry, if you’re growing cherries, fucking expensive ass cherries, and can’t stay afloat without almost a half million dollars of welfare, then what the fuck are you even doing? I don’t fully agree with it, but I at least understand the importance of giving welfare to people growing crops we actually need, but frivolous shit like cherries? What a waste. If we’re paying almost a half million dollars in taxes to give you cherry welfare, those cherries better be free or close to it.

If it’s got platformer elements, then it’s a platformer, right? Yes? Then Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is it for me.

I won’t say it’s my favorite, but I didn’t see it mentioned, yet, and it definitely deserves at least one mention: Earthworm Jim

Thanks, Obama.

Not even trying to be edgy here, but I personally wouldn’t consider buying a used apple product (that has a battery).

My Mac laptops for work have all failed before the standard 3 year auto-renewal period. Two failed hard drives in the earlier laptops, and 2 failed batteries in the newer laptops. My partner and his family are all iPhone users, and from the observation of a casual yucky outsider (aka Android user), there seems to be a high rate of failure with the batteries. Like, I went the first 10 years of my smartphone existence without even knowing that lithium batteries swell up and die, to now I hear about it on the regular because of Apple products.

I don’t know what all goes into consumer confidence, but I can tell you that my consumer confidence has been very low and very pessimistic since November 2024 and that pessimism went into overdrive by January 2025.

I’ve dropped all discretionary spending on big ticket items, even the things I have been planning for and saving for since long before the election. I’ve also cut way back on spending for essentials, skipping out on preferred and “luxury” brands at the grocery store and instead going for generic and brands that I like less but which are cheaper, or just going without. I’ve also cut way back on services. If I don’t know how secure my income is or how long my savings might last, then I’m not going to speed up my ruin by spending now.

Ironically enough, the only people I know who seem to be happy with the economy are the ones who were cheering for the “I did that” stickers and asking “why is eggs so expensive” under Biden but noticeably silent on those topics once Trump became president. Unfortunately for the economy, they are almost entirely low income folks (i.e. social security, food stamps, minimum wage part-time jobs) who aren’t typically drivers of the economy to begin with and who are probably going to be hurt the worst if and when things get really bad.

The version I like better for some reason: Pi day is just a fake holiday created by big math to sell more formulas.

Perhaps a couple of Lipitor? In my house we’ve started saving money by substituting Wegovy for eggs in our recipes.

I’ll never have biological children of my own and I’ll never get to use that benefit. From a strictly selfish standpoint, it stings a bit that pretty much all my heterosexual friends and coworkers, male and female, get a minimum of 12 - 36 weeks of paid time off that I’ll never get.

Having said that, I’m genuinely happy that they get it, I think it’s a shame that 12 weeks per child isn’t a minimum standard for paternity & maternity leave. In the professional settings I’ve worked in that offer paternity leave, I’ve never experienced a coworker complaining or making fun of a man taking paternity leave, nor have I ever heard of a man NOT taking paternity leave when it’s offered.

The places I’ve worked that offer it also usually offer flexible leave, so it’s very common for new dads to take 4 - 6 weeks off at birth, and then work a reduced schedule for the remaining time until they’re out of leave, after which they return full time. Even some of the moms are doing that as well, basically maximizing the amount of time that at least one parent is on leave and at home with the newborn.

But, outside of professional settings and particularly within conservative/Republican family and acquaintances, typically lower-to-middle class people, they act like paternity leave is ridiculous. My dad laughed out loud a while back when I mentioned I was taking over a new project because my coworker was about to go on paternity leave “What? Are you serious?” In my opinion, “toxic masculinity” aka stupid, ignorant, and useless concepts of overly rigid gender stereotypes is where this type of opinion is rooted. That and probably a good degree of jealousy.

A number of years ago, I was walking past a cow pasture when I heard a ruckus. The cows were mooing up a storm and there was a flock of geese in the pasture honking back in agitation. By the time I got to the top of the hill and could clearly see what was going on, I witnessed a good ole fashioned standoff.

Perhaps triggered by my sudden appearance in the distance, the geese spooked first. The honking intensified and they started retreating in a hurry as they prepared to take flight, cows charging towards them at full bovine speed.

As the last goose just lifted off the ground, one of the cows managed to catch up and stomp it out of the air mid-flight. Poor bird came crashing down underneath a barrage of hooves flailing on top of it. It tried to lift its head off the ground a time or two, but within moments of its body being crumpled, it was dead.

Everybody acts like Canada geese are bad-asses, not to be trifled with. A goose will leave you broken, but alive. Cows, on the other hand, are blood-thirsty, cold-blooded killers. Watch your back.

In the south we have an idiom “Birds of a feather flock together”, which means people tend to associate with others of similar morals, ethics, beliefs. So, needless to say, I’m hardly surprised. Trump associate and pastor? There was almost no chance this filth was anything BUT a pedophile.

Humulin, amlodipine, and cetirizine. But how did you know I stopped at the pharmacy after my bank trip?

This made me recall an odd bank related situation that happened to me a few weeks ago, and which I am still a bit perplexed by.

Due to a couple of things coming up, I needed to stock up on some bills of various denominations. Nothing all that crazy, in my opinion, 20 $1 bills, 20 $5 bills, stuff like that, a few hundred dollars at most. Where else do you get bills like that? The bank, I assumed.

When I got up to the teller, I explained that I needed to pull out X amount from my account, and I that I needed specific number of each denomination. She looked at me like I was asking something completely unheard of. She even told me, I don’t think I have the money for that as she shuffled through some drawers.

Eventually she asked another teller who told her she’d have to go to the central terminal (I don’t recall the actual name they used) and make a request for each denomination. So the teller walked across the back of the bank to a computer that looked like it was from the 80s. After about 10 minutes of typing, with multiple people helping her, 2 people came out from a room, walked over to a floor vault and opened it. While one pulled out the cash I requested, the other stood guard. It was surreal. They counted the money twice, the teller counted the money twice, and then finally came back to the counter and gave me the deposit. She seemed to be barely holding back her level of irritation at me.

All that for just a few hundred dollars in cash. It had me really wondering if I was mistaken about the role and services provided by banks and whether I was out of line for asking to receive specific denominations. Was I supposed to leave a tip or something?

Why can’t they just make one universal standard format and then just stick to that in all systems rather than have 400 million random different incompatible file systems running around? Wouldn’t 400 million and 1 be better?

Oh my my my, little pony.

High five back at you, my friend.

The Super Nintendo Metroid game was/is my favorite, but I’ll admit I haven’t play most of the Metroid games, so I’m not a good judge.

The NES game was a ton of fun, but I felt and feel like the SNES game was just all of that and then some, if that makes sense to others.

I played one of the 3D Metroid games (the one on the Wii). It was fun, I enjoyed what I played. But it did not scratch the same itch, if that makes sense. In fact, I don’t think I even played that game to completion.

I’m bookmarking this link so I can read it when I have the time. Having said that, it should be clear that I haven’t read the article, yet.

For me personally, 80’s and 90’s 2D Metroid and Castlevania games were fun, but for me, something transcendental happened with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I’m 100% certain that I am incapable of truly putting it into words, but I’m sure a myriad of people have done it, and done it far better than I ever could. I bought the game on a whim because I enjoyed Castlevania 3 on the NES so much. Other than fighting games, 2D games were basically blasé for 90’s 32-bit systems like the original PlayStation. Truthfully, I’m having a hard time recalling at the moment why I decided to buy the game. But I’m absolutely 10010% sure it was a good idea and I’m honestly thankful to my teenage self for that decision.

Modern Metroidvanias are fun, too. Truth be told, I gave up on Hollow Knight. I’m a patient, older gamer, so maybe that comes into play. But it eventually got to a point where it simply wasn’t fun anymore. I was confused about what I needed to do next and I wasn’t making any progress in the game. And then I had to set it aside for almost a year. When I tried to return, my memory had faded to the point where I really struggled to play it and make progress. That made me immensely sad. Once I realized that, I simply set it aside.

On the other hand, I played all the Nintendo DS Castlevania Metroidvania games back in the day and even still own the original cartridges. Via Steam, I also played the Gameboy Advanced Castlevanias. They are so much fun for me. So much fun that I purchased the Dominus collection on Steam, which is essentially all the DS games that I already own.

I also played Bloodstained: ROTN. I know there’s a lot of criticism about the game, but I’ll be honest, I loved every freakin’ minute of it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the graphics, but the game play was exactly what I needed at the time and I don’t regret that purchase one bit.

And to finalize things, nice to meet other Metroidvania lovers. We might not all agree on the nitty-gritty details, but it’s still neat to hear from others. Back in the 90s when I was absolutely in love with SOTN despite the fact that everybody else was hating on it entirely because it’s a “2D platformer”, it was hard to imagine that ~30 years later there would be entire communities of people who love these types of games.

I appreciate you for acknowledging it.