I can’t tell if this is a shitpost or if this is an actual Ctrl Alt Del comic. It sometimes got weird like this.

I served in the US Air Force for 20 years. Ever since I was 18, AF was always the abbreviation for Air Force.

So when “AF” suddenly entered the common lingo as “as fuck,” it really threw me and my coworkers for a loop. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be talking about the Air Force, but the context didn’t make any sense at all! It took a while before we learned that it meant something totally different.

… And then we felt old and out of touch.

hunter2

Reverse this for me. I shower first thing in the morning every day and my bath towels are just drying clean skin. They only touch me for maybe a minute or two before being hung to dry.

However, I go to sleep at night, after a full day of developing natural body oils on my skin. And I lie in bed for 8+ hours at a time.

My bed sheets are far more gross after a week of use than my towel will get in a month, more or less a couple weeks.

I have a Mazda like this. I absolutely hate it.

I have a small built-in touchscreen on the top of the dashboard which is visible in my peripheral vision while driving. But it turns off touch controls while the car is moving. And the physical controls are in the center console behind my manual stick, on the passenger’s side. So I have to blindly feel around for my knobs and buttons while driving, or take my eyes completely off the road to look down at my center console.

It would be safer if I could just tap the screen quick while keeping my eyes facing the road, versus trying to search for knobs down next to my passenger’s thigh.

I also hate that this newer model removed the mute button from my steering wheel. I used to be able to immediately mute my radio by pressing that button on my 2010 Mazda. But in my new 2017 Mazda, I need to find the tiny volume knob by my passenger’s thigh and slap that knob. I still have volume buttons on my steering wheel, but I can’t immediately mute by holding the down volume button. So I need to go searching for that knob, which is more time I’m not looking at the road.

I inherited my childhood home and I’m still over 1,600 miles away from my mother. But she preferred her own childhood home on the other side of the country and moved there as soon as she divorced my dad. I’m still very close with my mother. Just not… physically.

Both recent Ghost Recon games are about toppling dictators in foreign countries.

Wildlands takes place in a South American-esque nation where the local drug cartel has taken over the government. You’re sent to sneak in and take out the regional leaders one by one, freeing the oppressed people from their control, until you gather enough intel to find the dictator himself and stop him. It’s very much like a Tom Clancy spin on the Just Cause game franchise.

Breakpoint goes a little more sci-fi in its story. It takes place on a technologically advanced island nation that’s overthrown by a militia (run by a former Ghost buddy of yours) who wants to use their AI drone swarm technology to “end all wars” (read: conquer other nations via fear, intimidation, and billions of deadly drones).

You’re sent to investigate what happened to a ship that got too close to the island and got attacked, and find yourself also attacked and marooned on the island, with no way to escape or call for backup. So you’re now a one-man army, figuring out what happened on the island and slowly overthrowing the coup and rescuing civilians caught in the middle.

Both recent Ghost Recon games are about toppling dictators in foreign countries.

Wildlands takes place in a South American-esque nation where the local drug cartel has taken over the government. You’re sent to sneak in and take out the regional leaders one by one, freeing the oppressed people from their control, until you gather enough intel to find the dictator himself and stop him. It’s very much like a Tom Clancy spin on the Just Cause game franchise.

Breakpoint goes a little more sci-fi in its story. It takes place on a technologically advanced island nation that’s overthrown by a militia (run by a former Ghost buddy of yours) who wants to use their AI drone swarm technology to “end all wars” (read: conquer other nations via fear, intimidation, and billions of deadly drones).

You’re sent to investigate what happened to a ship that got too close to the island and got attacked, and find yourself also attacked and marooned on the island, with no way to escape or call for backup. So you’re now a one-man army, figuring out what happened on the island and slowly overthrowing the coup and rescuing civilians caught in the middle.

Splinter Cell was amazing back in the day! But trying to replay it nowadays, the controls are so wonky. I barely got through the tutorial before I got tired of it. I’m so used to modern controls now; Splinter Cell came out in an era where part of the gaming challenge was the controller itself.

When you’re playing co-op, the whole map is available. You don’t have to stick together, you can go do anything you want while playing with friends.

One of my friends is a wildcard and likes to go start shit every time we play, so he just runs off and terrorizes enemy compounds on his own. While my other buddy and I actually stick to the mission and take out our targets.

We tried to play along with our other friend, but he has no sense of subtlety and always makes a mess, so we just let him rampage somewhere else on the map while we’re accomplishing the actual stealth mission.

He loves to shoot everything he can with a helicopter, then crash it into the enemy base and jump out guns blazing. He’s the absolute opposite of a Ghost operative. 😅

Isn’t that a PvP mode? I don’t typically enjoy playing against other people online, so I’ve been avoiding it.

I’ve been meaning to post my own screenshots for a long time now, but once I finally got around to compiling a bunch of good images, I noticed another member had just started their own daily posts mirroring yours.

So… at the risk of looking like a second copycat poster, I figured I’m gonna go ahead and post anyway. I’m not planning to tie myself to a rigorous daily schedule like you and the other guy, but I’m still going to number mine so I can keep track of how many I post. And to let others know there’s a series of these that they can track down if they like. I enjoy discussing the games I play, so I figured this is a good way to introduce the discussion to the gaming community.

If a new community opened up just for game screenshots, I’d definitely move my posting over there. Lemmy is still a relatively small community compared to Reddit, so if people are irritated with c/Games getting cluttered with daily screenshot posts, I could understand them wanting to isolate the content elsewhere.

They’re all independent games, so you don’t really need to worry about playing them in any sort of order. Just pick one and enjoy!

Except The Division 1 and 2. They’re a continuation of the same plot, but you won’t miss much if you jump into the second one first. They do a pretty good job summarizing the story to get you going.

My favorites are the two latest Ghost Recon games, Wildlands and Breakpoint. They’re open world games, so you can travel anywhere on the map and get into trouble wherever you want.

The Ghost Recon games are meant to be more subtle stealth games (you are playing a Ghost operative after all), but 95% of all missions can be completed by running in guns blazing if you want. Very rarely do you get a mission that actually requires stealth. But I find it far more rewarding to scout out a mission area, identify my targets, and stealthily sneak in without alerting anyone. Hint: use a drone to tag enemies from the air and then you’ll never accidentally bump into someone while sneaking around.

Yeah, one of the benefits of being 100% disabled is that I can get free annual passes to all federal, state, and county parks. And there just so happens to be a nice park with a sandy beach at a lake down the road from my house. So my wife and I take advantage of it all summer long.

I’m a good swimmer, but I don’t really like swimming, so it’s more therapy work for me than anything. But I’ve noticed some improvement since taking up swimming regularly. And that’s what counts in the end.

When I was still in the military, they had me in physical therapy off-and-on for years, and one of the more interesting exercises they had me do was a weightless treadmill. They squeezed me into some tight rubber shorts, then zipped the waist of the shorts into a giant rubber bubble over a treadmill and filled it with air. Depending on the pressure setting, it lifted me up so I was barely touching the treadmill while walking. Definitely took the weight off my knees. But it sucked to work up a sweat while wearing those tight rubber pants. 😖

Hey, if you feel it’s distracting from other content in c/Games, then I’m all for a new community. For now, though, this is the most appropriate place to share this kind of stuff.

I dunno about other people who post screenshots, but my intent is to start discussion about the games I’ve been playing. And I feel a community centered on discussion about games is the best place to do that.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to challenge yourself in a game or play with/against others. There are many reasons we all play. Personally, I’m a huge film buff and love that modern games have started bridging that gap between gameplay and cinematic storytelling. It’s like I can enjoy a 30+ hour film AND interact with it as well!

I used to prefer to just play games solo. There are so many strangers in online games that can be toxic and it’s not fun trying to accomplish a goal when no one’s listening and everyone’s doing their own thing. But I have a childhood friend who won’t play games unless he’s playing co-op with friends, and through him (and a few other close friends), I’ve learned to enjoy co-op games as well.

Plus, one of my other friends is one of those “do-their-own-thing” kind of gamers and we’re constantly trying to get him back on mission. So I’ve learned patience for difficult gamers too. 😉

It’s semi-related. I served in the US Air Force for 20 years. I got to retire and collect a pension at 38 years old, which is some decent passive income, but not enough to live comfortably on. I would have needed a new job to supplement my living expenses with just that income.

(Un)Fortunately, I also got a bit beat up in my 2 decades of military service. The worst (physically) was a motorcycle accident a decade ago, which I never properly healed from. Both my legs are a bit messed up. I’ve had a few surgeries to fix them and I’m finally back on my feet and mobile, but I can’t really run anymore, nor be on my feet for too long. Which is a shame because I used to be extremely active in my youth. If American Ninja Warrior had been a thing in my childhood, I would’ve dominated that show! I was super fit and bursting with energy back then. I never met anyone who could beat me at obstacle courses as a kid/teen.

Mentally, I saw some shit in Iraq and nearly died a handful of times. My base was mortared at least once a week for the 4 months I was there. I once stepped out to my truck to grab something and a mortar shredded the shack I had been in, killing the 3 Army guys in there. I got a mild concussion from that hit, too. That’s probably the closest I came to dying. So I’ve got a bit of lingering PTSD. Nothing too extreme, just a bit of anxiety and insomnia that comes and goes.

Those, plus 2 decades worth of minor injuries and health concerns, convinced the VA to give me the coveted 100% Permanent & Total disability rating, which includes a monthly pay that’s 2x as much as my pithy pension.

My wife also got the rare 100% disability rating from her military service, due to her own physical and mental issues, which also comes with a similar pay as mine. So with our combined passive incomes, we’re not wealthy by any means, but we make enough to live comfortably without working.

I’m 40 now and inherited my childhood home when my dad passed away this year, so my wife and I have the freedom to relax and focus on our own lives without worrying about needing to be somewhere or making money to get by. It’s very therapeutic, and I wish everyone could experience this earlier in their lives. Retirement age keeps getting bumped further back as people live longer, and it’s no fun being retired when you’re too old to do most things anymore.

I have a ton of hobbies that I bounce back and forth between, but gaming has been a relaxing pleasure of mine since I was a kid. My Steam library is over 3,500 games now and I’m always looking to try out new games. Plus, a few friends of mine play weekly in various co-op games together. So I’ve been a pretty active gamer since I retired. And I hope to share a bunch of screenshots of my games and maybe spark some discussion.

When I lived in Germany for a couple years, I was surprised to learn that the large church in the center on my village was about 1,000 years old. This one building has been standing longer than America has been a country. Over 4x as long, too! European culture amazes me because there’s such a lengthy history, and so many things are much older than I’d imagine. American history is so short in comparison, and we’re more likely to tear down and build new and cheap than create a solid structure that will last for hundreds of years.

I finished the first phase of the space elevator, maxed out tier 3 and 4, then got distracted trying to get coal power up and running before moving on. I was getting tired of running back and forth, constantly feeding leaves and wood into a production line for solid biofuel so I’m not dependent on biomass generators anymore.

The last thing I did was set up a steel production factory using two iron nodes, a nearby pure coal node, a copper node, and a limestone node. I’m producing tons of steel pipes and beams, then feeding about 2/3rds of them into another production line to make stators and encased industrial beams, respectively. Once I’ve built up a respectable supply, I’ll dedicate my time toward finishing phase 2 of the space elevator so I can unlock tier 5 and 6.

My wife is playing for the first time, and despite spending way more time than me building her factories, she’s barely done with tier 3. I have over 600 hours in Satisfactory, so while I’m taking my time and enjoying the journey, my experience with the game means I’m progressing much faster than her. But she’s really into the math of it, trying to squeeze every ounce of power and resource production out of her factories, so she’s going to have a much better build than me by the end.

It’s more about framing the conversation in a way that helps OP’s supervisor realize they’re at odds with each other, socially, and that the supervisor needs to make changes, not OP. I know it’s a bit blunt and direct and may not exactly describe their relationship, but I’ve found that being direct and binary with extroverted people generally gets them to the point faster, rather than beating around the bush with complex descriptions of their dynamic.

And the supervisor being an extrovert is definitely a part of the problem in this case. They’re ignoring signals from OP that they don’t want to be social, shaming them for it, and forcing public interactions in order to change them. This is classic extrovert behavior which is making OP uncomfortable.

The topic of discussion is definitely off-limits and deserves a conversation with HR, but the supervisor still needs to understand that OP’s antisocial behavior isn’t a problem. Otherwise, the discussion will change to be more work-appropriate, but the behavior will remain.