Miles O'Brien

I’ve managed to get two first round interviews, and I’m a “perfect candidate” for one and have been invited to a second interview. They dropped a surprise drug test that wasn’t mentioned at any point before, and while they won’t find any hard drugs, THC is legal in my state. So if I get past the second interview, I have to just hope they don’t care about thc.

At least if they do, I’ll have wasted their time as much as mine, and more importantly, their money on the tests.

Lol. I wasn’t going to be paying full price for a game anyway, but now I’m not paying for gearbox games ever again.

I live in Ohio and am currently looking for work.

I’m still paying to places that say drug testing, but not places that specify thc testing.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a legal state, and unless they have similar testing and employment rules for alcohol (which they wouldn’t be able to since it doesn’t show up two weeks later) then I should be able to smoke when I want, off the clock.

If they test and it prevents me from getting the job, I feel slightly satisfied I wasted their time and money. If they follow up and ask about it, I will tell them straight up it’s legal in this state and they’re only limiting their options by refusing to hire people who do a legal thing.

It’s probably just wasting my own time, but hey I’ve got time to waste.

Also sometimes I use a photo editor on my phone.

The crayon scribbles of my 3 year old nephew on the back of a soggy napkin holds more value than a mountain of AI slop.

Honestly I’m hoping for Rapid Unplanned Disassembly the first time it hauls his dumb ass into the air.

I know a woman who doesn’t stutter, but has some pretty severe social anxiety. Among other problems.

She began playing a game much like D&D but uses cards for various actions (my parents knew the game creators so we always played that with their game groups instead of D&D)

Super shy and quiet when she started coming to the games, and she didn’t know anyone there. She just saw the sign for the group and decided to stop in (the sign basically says “welcome in, ask questions, stay for a game or two” ) and stuck around. We figure she mostly stayed for the free food.

Once we started playing this not-D&D game, she decided to join during session 2 after observing sessions 0/coordinating/creating and session 1. Had a full character with cards ready to go, even though she hadn’t approached any of us about how to make a character or play, she was not only spot on from the start, she (in a good way) absolutely would not shut up while playing.

Her character is (I think) everything she wants to be. She’s popular, she’s outgoing, as quick with her dagger as she is with her tongue. Basically a rogue/bard wombo combo of charisma and extroversion.

At first nothing changed. The moment the game ends, she shuts down and goes back in her shell.

Then slowly as we wrapped up game sessions, she would begin chatting with her seat neighbors.

Then she started showing up early to sessions when it’s just a bunch of socializing.

Then after awhile, she basically just stayed in character after the games, showed up to sessions already in-character.

After about 6 months she stopped us as we were breaking things down, and had an entire prepared speech where she thanked the group for giving her something to live for.

Apparently she was not only homeless when she first came in, she was suicidal. She just wanted a place to sit and not be judged. Then she noticed we had food. Of course everyone always greets people when they come in and offer any snacks they want. She came back for the snacks. Then she came back for the vibes. Then the game.

She could barely speak to people before she started playing. Panic attacks when she tried. Her character is confident, and when playing with us she feels like she’s confident too.

Now she pretends like she’s her character in her daily life. She got a job at the library we played in every few weeks. She got an apartment, got a bicycle to get around quicker. Made friends outside of work and the games group.

I can’t remember her name, this was almost 20 years ago now, but I will ask my parents about her, I’m curious how her life turned out. I was a teenager and barely cared about some so story that wasn’t my own (cue emo music and it’s not a phase mom) but I’m sure they remember her.

I continued to see her every so often around town when she stopped coming to the games after moving, but she didn’t go back to the library any of the times I was there.

You never know how small a gesture might completely change someone’s life, whether it’s a huge lifestyle change or just someone being a bit more outgoing in certain situations.

I can confirm yahoo still exists, and they’re great for my junk mail since I don’t have anything signed into it, it was made before you needed to link any personally identifying info so I think my name is still something like “fart boob” or something like that. 13 year old me thought it was hilarious.

Honestly if someone managed to hijack that account, either they’d quickly realize it was worthless or I’d be laughing as I tell them to have fun with their garbage, I’ll be sending some more soon.

I’ve meditated a lot.

I’ve done a few drugs.

I liek drugz

water soluble powder

Oh god I’m having flashbacks… That shit is nasty.

I’m gonna go with “ascended energy being” since that’s a common trope. Nothing springs to mind otherwise.

Yeah, I definitely see those as contextually non-gendered, but the moment someone asks me not to call them a certain thing… I just don’t call them that again, and apologize if I do. It takes almost 0 effort to use a different word.

He didn’t finish LOTR at 45, and arguably he never finished them as he was always fiddling with some story or another.

I’d say you’re still doing quite well

Well then there’s the answer to “why is this community putting babylon bee headlines on my front page”

Okay I know I like to joke about how bat’s look like sky puppers, but this is CLEARLY a bat-canine hybrid of some sort.

BAT-DOG!

Treating a telescope like a jackhammer isn’t going to work well.

They just haven’t figured out your jackhammer just looks a lot like their telescope.

Elmo has claimed to be autistic at multiple points. Most recently to my knowledge, to try and excuse his nazi salute.

So when RFK was drooling droning on about how terrible autism is, and how autistic people can’t use the restroom unassisted, by extension he was saying Musk can’t have a solo bathroom experience.

I recently watched a 3d video in a small theater about dinosaurs, and in the video we follow a T-Rex mother from her first eggs to death, including a fight with another dinosaur that ends up crippling a leg, and then the last few shots of her are limping toward carrion to survive a little longer, and then dead in a creek bed and I legitimately almost walked out of the little theater we were in.

I may have smoked a little before going in, so I may have been a little more emotional than usual. But still.

It was.

In Ohio? I’m almost positive it isn’t legal. It’s definitely illegal in states like California. But they’re banking on nobody recording their interview audio (which I will now be doing as Ohio is single-party state) and nobody complaining if asked.

I doubt it’s a company policy, but I did send an email to their company offices to complain about it, for all the good it will do.

Not programming, but in the same vein, A Trek Bicycle store manager asked me in an interview if I would be willing to work a trial shift the next day building bicycles. Unpaid, of course. Just to see if I was a good fit.

Of course, since I was used to building 50 a day, I would have gotten all of them done in a single shift whereas they were needing to call in stores from surrounding areas to come help in a few days.

I laughed and said if they needed help tomorrow I would be happy to work for my usual fee of $20/bike.

Oddly, I did not get the job