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- bjladams21
blog
Old day catch-ups?
I’ve not been here for a bit.I lost my hearing kind of suddenly and was deaf for about a decade, then a few years ago got a cochlear implant and it’s all back and sound is so beautiful and I connect my brain to anything with bluetooth. I closed down my studio in the US and moved back to NZ and got a little spot on an island at a nude beach and spend my days painting and diving. I teach some figure drawing and work on a few private commissions. It's a slow and calm existence. Besides a twitter account, I’m not on the internet so much these days but do like to check in here and read through and I still recognise a few names.
- That’s amazing!monospaced
- damn! I thought about you this week! how are the kids doing? do you still have that studio?oey_oey
- oh, I just read your post.oey_oey
- :-) kids are all getting older and starting to move out on their own - but keep coming back for laundry and foodbjladams
- just like my brother at 44oey_oey
- so nice to hear from you man.oey_oey
- heyrenderedred
- yobjladams
- sweet :)Gnash
- I'm going through some serious hearing loss at the moment too. Thanks for the uplifts though man. Sounds like some good vibes. I need to visit NZIanbolton
- <3PonyBoy
- Dream lifenb
- Live your best life !d_gitale
- you're not missing much.pango
- damn Ian - feel free to send a note if you need to offload some of that; it can feel a bit lonely and everything is just offbjladams
- Woahhh... a dream life. Great envy. I tried to slow dowbñn, but apparently I still need this crazy life. Enjoy!OBBTKN
- Hey man. Life sounds good in many ways.Horp
- Good for you island boy!milfhunter
- sounds great - literally!Fax_Benson
- PonyBoy5
fight of the day
Is Paul just showing the guy respect? he could have knocked the man senseless a few times now.
- I was thinking that tooYakuZoku
- i am disappoint.renderedred
- it is what it is, no honour in knocking out a 60y/o_niko
- YepPonyBoy
- I had exactly the same feeling! Read my post a couple below.maquito
- srhadden4
fight of the day
Netflix is trash. It can't handle all these streams.
- 250 million plus streams?_niko
- I've been getting odd glitchesYakuZoku
- smooth for me right nowrenderedred
- Was shit on 5G (5 bars too)... back on wifi and it’s smooth.PonyBoy
- mg333
fight of the day
That was silly. Glad it was free, glad there were some earlier fights that were great.
Just totally silly.
Paul post-fight saying Tyson is the GOAT... NOBODY THINKS THAT. There isn't a single list of top boxers of all time that has Tyson at #1.
- agree. it was a circus.renderedred
- That was shitd_gitale
- best ear biter?
But I think an argument can be made for peak Tyson vs peak anybody._niko
- AQUTE5
Punches For:
JAKE PAUL
- thenohero20
- Really nice!nocomply
- +1garbage
- These are outstandingstoplying
- Thank youthenohero
- Lovelyutopian
- nice colors!futurefood
- stunningmilfhunter
- 5timuli31
blog
Got laid off yesterday for the first time in my life, from a 13-year run at one of the world's largest tech companies. This happened while I was on medical leave for stress and anxiety (totally legal, just shit). I also found out yesterday that my divorce was finalized, so it was a pretty eventful day.
People keep telling me that they're "so, so sorry", etc., but honestly so much fucking awful shit has happened to me in the past few years that I think I'm just desensitized to it all.
The silver lining is I fucking hated that job and now I don't have to deal with their bullshit corporate politics anymore. That and the fact I honestly have pretty much fuck all to show for those 13 years.
I'll miss the money (so much money it was ridiculous). I'm also terrified and exhausted thinking about how I need to conjur up a portfolio out of nowhere and get back to interviewing. I'll be 50 next year, and I honestly just want to sit around and scratch my arse all day for the rest of my life.
No idea where I'm going with this. I recently just ticked over from being able to take all my daily pills in one go, to needing to split them in two, which weirdly is bothering me more than it should, especially given how everything else has been crumbling around me.
Wah fucking wah, whatever. Gen X represent.
- wait, they can let you go while on medical leave? wtfsted
- Yeah, if the role no longer exists. I was one of around 5 folks who got canned.5timuli
- To clarify, it was part of a huge org-wide restructuring, and apparently they have no openings on that team at my level.5timuli
- Damn dude, 13 year run at one of the largest tech companies.... You should be proud of that run. That’s impressive.nb
- heard from a friend at Amazon that the average tenure for new hires is 18 months.nb
- That’s in the tech org, not like people in warehouses or drivers.nb
- Netflix is supposedly just over a year. So if you did 13 years, that’s fucking impressive!nb
- Just apply at other tech companies or smaller, slower ones. If the name is as big as you say, you’ll get interviews.nb
- And don’t include dates on your resume that give away your age. You can get past agism somewhat.nb
- All great tips, cheers. I saw the Netflix culture deck years back and one of the slides said something along the lines of...5timuli
- “Average performance leads to an average severance package” (I forget what replaced “average”)5timuli
- It was “average performance gets a generous severance package”
Slide 23 here: https://www.eosworld…5timuli - This exact thing happened to me. I took a month and now I’m building my first portfolio in almost 20 years.monospaced
- I’m terrified, depressed, and optimistic at times. I have no idea how this will turn out. Best of luck. Here for you!!’monospaced
- what's the worry here, I don't understand? You are on holiday! Away from work and and a wrecked marriage. Go live your life now. NOW!!Beeswax
- ya you have the time and money. Go do whatever you want! go crash a kids birthday party and smash some cake!pango
- Good luck 5timuli, now you're free, totaly. Sure you're being laid with good money, invest on yourself, but be cold-headed, you're still young!OBBTKN
- Best of luck to you too, mono!5timuli
- Stings giving so much of what I earned away to a fucking leech. And I still have to pay a few years of spousal support and sell the house. It’s slow going but5timuli
- at least there’s a timeline.5timuli
- I need to get in shape. 13 years of a doomed relationship really fucked with my waistline.5timuli
- 5timuli, Mono... hugs n stuff. It will turn out ok. 5timuli: the waistline thing... yeah. That happens. You'll get back in shape. I'm fitter at 54 than 40.Horp
- F*ck! 13 years, and then this... Meanwhile, they invent Midjourney. Stay strong. Gen X represent: https://www.youtube.…uan
- I read the first two words, but the third one disappointed me. All the best!SimonFFM
- That really sounds like a lot. But as many mentioned: I also think you still have a good setup to come out of this stronger.Longcopylover
- Fuck man, sorry...stay positive!utopian
- Gen X: getting the short end of every other generations' sticks since 1973.Continuity
- stay strong and best of luck to you from a gen x comrade!renderedred
- Unsolicited health suggestion: plan an exit strategy for those medications. Treat the problem with coping skills and less of the symptoms with meds.cotton
- You may find if you work on yourself, your outlook might change and new solutions could present themselves. Good luck, sir.cotton
- Embrace the new. New job. New broad. New direction. New balance. And sorry man...stoplying
- Potential bright side: if you have no income, maybe she’ll have to pay support to you?monNom
- It’s like judo.monNom
- Good luck to you! Lots of us here to offer help however we can. I was laid off after 9 years at an agency in March, FINALLY starting a new job Monday.mg33
- It's had ups and downs, but the time off has been good for me. The same thing happened to me in 2013; 8 months out of work, doing the job that is finding a job.mg33
- I'd barely interviewed anywhere since 2013. Got plenty of good advice that helped me land new job - calmness, casual confidence, and never a hint of desperationmg33
- I'll be 47 in December.mg33
- Remember: we are just a piece of dust racing around a fireball in the the vast nothingness. No time for corporate bullshit.d_gitale
- fooler1
- looks like Tyson is off his meds...should be interesting. For the first round at least_niko
- I'm so inYakuZoku
- Shame it starts at 4am UK time. I actually wanna see it.HAYZ1LLLA
- 4am? I thought it said 1am on the BBC website. Or is that when the build up starts?Ianbolton
- https://i.imgur.com/…PhanLo
- Jake is pretty well trained, he has unlimited money to get into great shape. Whole thing is a bit sad.PhanLo
- The main card is at 5PM Pacific time which is pretty weird. Jake will be a loser win or lose. Either he gets his ass kicked or he beats up an old man for money.fooler
- Fixed?grafician
- not sure if tyson has the temper to fake a fight.pango
- Watching Ramos vs Barrios now. Nice fight. Let’s see what Mike does later!maquito
- yeah, it was a good fight!renderedred
- Horp13
blog
Read a few posts here and decided to blog.
Losing jobs, losing the illusion of security. It's not personal it's everybody (not literally everybody)
I dropped out of my career for over a year and for that year it seemed like it was ober and I'd never get back. Not at my age, not with my wildly diverse career path (its not even a path, it's a drunken trampoline park freestyle parkour)
But I got back into my career. I'm not entirely sure I want to be. But I am. Somethong comes up eventually. The world makes use of useful people. Heck, it manages to make use of useless ones so useful ones don't need to fear permanent obscurity.
Maybe go do somethong else for a while. Something more mundane, regular, blue collar daily job stuff. I did and I absolutely loved it.
===
Kids and music. My eldest - who back in the day during my time here on QBN was a little toddler who I posted about here regularly, so she was kind of a known entity on QBN when she was 3 - is now nearly 19. She has developed a strong interest in music which as she herself says was directly inspired by my music interests.
She started studying at Manchester Uni this year and has got herself a regular Saturday night slot on Manchester student radio.
There'll only be about 5 people listening, but it is so amazing to tune in every Saturday night to hear my daughter broadcasting on the radio.
===
The future.
Everything is changing fast. I'm not sure the design industry will survive in any recogniseable form.
It's good to be fluid and flexible, to not identify so strongly with a specialism and a title. It's no longer possible to lash our lives to reassuring certainty.
- awwwe thats sweetNutter
- and I'm sure you'll find a new job / path you are happy with!Nutter
- The future will be a prompt.utopian
- Good luck. Change is scary. But it's great to be alive. Fight and enjoy!OBBTKN
- Oh, to be clear... I'm working and I'm not in the design industry anymore. Although where I work does habe a design dept.Horp
- Ha, nice to see you back, Horp! I had a look at your new employers' website — are they as cool to work for as their refreshingly swear-y website would imply?Continuity
- "It's no longer possible to lash our lives to reassuring certainty." - Nailed it, unfortunately you need to stay frosty.thenohero
- These are good words I needed to hear!nocomply
- Yo... 'tinuity. Short answer to your Q is no
(Please don't name em here though)
:DHorp - Natch!
Eh ... disappointing, though. I liked the cut of their copywriting jib.,Continuity
- jagara7
blog
A no-politics news/information mental hygiene detox for me until Orange One's inauguration in january.
Tired of that shit. I'm not even American.
- Do it.nb
- Your life will be better and it won’t make one lick of difference to pay attentionnb
- This so much, I use twitter for work and the amount of specifically American right wing crap I see is insane, even after blocking keywords and accounts.kalkal
- We barely knew you.palimpsest
- Me too, all it offers is unnecessary stress and distraction from the important things in life. You start feeling so much better, much more focused._niko
- Practically all my friends are "left-wing", which is why I use X to detoxOBBTKN
- But, yes, X is lately invaded by the same discourse. Damn, but it's fun!OBBTKN
- renderedred0
RIP of the day
Peter Sinfield, lyricist for King Crimson, Céline Dion and more, dies aged 80
- Just pointing out, no relation to Jerry Sinfield.mg33
- How did he manage to go from King Crimson to Celine Dion?CyBrainX
- I know, right? King Crimson was amazingnb
- he wrote 20th century schizoid manrenderedred
- and all the lyrics on first 4 albumsrenderedred
- and one song for dionrenderedred
- CyBrainX - some people have the skills to pay the bills!mg33
- His Celine Dion era is arguably his bestfuturefood
- nb3
Elon Musk
Elon has demonstrated, notoriously with Twitter, that he can ruthlessly cut expenses even when his top advisors tell him that it will destroy the company. He ruined twitter, gutted it, lost a ton of value, hasn’t recovered from it. Twitter costs far less to run, and is far less valuable to society. He failed but he did cut the costs.
In short, Elon has demonstrated that his ego is strong enough to ruthlessly cut even when painful and unpopular.
Trump is appointing him because he’s looking for a scapegoat, a ruthless bastard that can take the criticism and push forward even if it’s a massive failure.
Agree or disagree, America has a massive debt addiction that WILL sink the country if not addressed. 13% of all tax revenue goes only to paying interest. At current levels, this will rise to over 20% in ten years. For every $10,000 you pay in taxes, $1,300 gets us nothing.
If left unchecked, it is only a matter of time that that would rise to 50%, then 75%, etc. That’s how debt works. Spend more than you have, endlessly, and you go bankrupt. Simple.
The only way out of this problem is massive cuts to govt spending, or printing money, or kick the can down the road. The US has been kicking the can down the road for decades.
I’m not saying Trump and Elon will succeed. It’s possibly a problem destined to be met with failure. I’m just telling you what is happening. The stock market agrees, but it also can be wrong.
And by the way, both political parties are well aware of this problem. They just don’t talk about it much. Most politicians would prefer to kick the can.
It is the biggest problem facing America. Trump is going to try something different. It could end in disaster, but I’m guessing trump knows that doing nothing is also disaster. And he seems to be the kind of guy that would rather do something and fail spectacularly than to do nothing.
- One will surely sink the other. We tried something similar in the UK with Cummings + Boris. Unstable genius / narcissistic man-child combo. Not a natural fit.Fax_Benson
- Yeah might happen. Could be catastrophe.nb
- But kicking the can forever is guaranteed eventual catastrophe.nb
- And of course like most things in life, we’ll end up somewhere in the middle.nb
- Users can flock to competing platforms but Twitter will always remain relevant as long as it champions uncensored informationhotroddy
- Anyone with even a hint of insight understands that big government often leads to the downfall of nationshotroddy
- A twat on QBN argued that Milei was a bad choice for Argentina because of 'LGBT' rights. Not high inflation, declining real wages, not currency devaluatiohotroddy
- is that the same free speech champeen who has complied with more government requests to remove information from Twitter than the previous owners?face_melter
- or the same free speech wunderkind who bans accounts because they post publicly-available information about his pedo friends?face_melter
- dunno man, something makes me think this Musk fella ain't on the up-and-up.face_melter
- Don’t know why you’re talking about free speech. Irrelevant to this post.nb
- If your argument is “Elon lost a ton of value but retained free speech” that really has no bearing on the economics of American foreign debtnb
- Btw most of that debt is to China. Americans paid about $600 Billion JUST IN INTEREST. Just handing money to China.nb
- Yes, we should increase taxes on the wealthy. But it won’t be enough. Americans simply cannot afford these interest payments. Simple as that.nb
- Imagine if we didn’t get involved in every war and just kept our $$$.monospaced
- Raising taxes is not the solution—money will simply flow elsewhere. The most effective way to address debt is by eliminating government corruption + bureaucracyhotroddy
- how's your 401k doing QBN?hotroddy
- cart before the horse... Elon hasn't been appointed to ANYTHING... it's a press releases from someone who hasn't taken the oath of office...jonny_quest_lives
- for a department/role that only exists in their minds at this point. and what authority would it have? super easy to say the government is wastefuljonny_quest_lives
- In 2023, around 19.58 million people worked for the US government start randomly laying those people off and see what it does to inflationjonny_quest_lives
- also the guy who just got elected plans to raise national debt to fund tax cuts which will saddle the United states with an estimated $5.8 trillion debtjonny_quest_lives
- his oll Alma Mater crunched the numbers not me: https://budgetmodel.…jonny_quest_lives
- The price of goods today is probably closer to the actual true cost than it has been in decades.jonny_quest_lives
- Sadly we have practically squeezed the last few drops out of the Earth System to fuel the last American Century... Figure we are all on borrowed timejonny_quest_lives
- @mono, I agree about not spending money on war. And so does Trump.nb
- spending money on war? That money goes to American companies that create jobs and distribute profits to shareholders. That's actually good for the country LOLgrafician
- Do people think the US sends money to UKR directly?! I guess they do, no wonder half the country is low IQgrafician
- Inflation has delay, high inflation started with the pandemic, then the war in Ukr
All good done under Biden admin will be seen during Trump admin ironicallygrafician - And you think you have high inflation? 3% is high? We still have 6% with a GDP the size of Space X valuation lolgrafician
- Trump will most probably DESTROY the economy which just got back on track under Biden.
Lord have mercy, as they say...grafician - Also why discuss debt? Debt is good. Discuss the deficit - look into Chynas surplus before even starting a real discussion lol
China crashed their economygrafician - The US has a good economy now, just that many have no clue how an economy works
Handing the keys to the country to a dumb orange man because egg prices too highgrafician - will guarantee the US will suffer in the coming years. A lot of cleaning up to do after Trump again...
And no Elon won't get shit, they already fightinggrafician
- elahon11
The Onion isn't funny anymore
Well, this is something!!
The Onion Says It Has Bought Infowars, Alex Jones’s Site, Out of Bankruptcy
The satirical news site plans to turn Infowars into a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities” who peddle conspiracy theories and health supplements.
- Not all heroes wear capes.elahon
- FAKE NEWWWWZ!monospaced
- This is the most Onion thing The Onion could do. Surprised Cards Against Humanity didn't kick in some funds.bulletfactory
- lol wasn’t info wars always a parody of itself?_niko
- Like nothing the onion will publish would be more outlandish than what Alex jones was already peddling._niko
- ^ If you thought the frogs were gay before..garbage
- lolYakuZoku
- Difference being the onion isn’t serious.monospaced
- Jones was nominated US press secretary a week ago, probably doesn't need his own news channel no more.
https://x.com/RealAl…uan - The Colbert Report 2nb
- @mono what do you mean?garbage
- Haha. The Onion sure knows how to Onion. Is Alex Jones ACTUALLY Trumps press secretary? Wtf?!Ianbolton
- ^ ah, no he's not. Gotta do your fact checking these days. Just like Jones should fact checked his sandy hook stuff before mouthing offIanbolton
- prophetone2
- death star dripprophetone
- death star budget
( ✜︵✜ )prophetone - Looks dope! holy crap. 2Gs!!futurefood
- It’s cookoo for cocoa puffs... like you could grab a fresh Octatrack and a couple used Syntakt, Digitone etcprophetone
- At first glance at it I thought it’s an OPZ meets OP1, so limited features and ui but like same price as a Syntakt maybe?prophetone
- I was wrong lolprophetone
- That thing would look excellent on my shelfletterhead
- I LOL @ the first comment on YouTube for the top video: "It's going to cost $3 million dollars."mg33
- Almostprophetone
- yeah, idk many that could justify this price. but feel like they would fly out if sold on 18/ 24 month finance like phones.kingsteven
- looks fun but i think this might just be the incentive i need to try and properly work woth midi using the existing shit i got haha.mantrakid
- This is so damn tempting. The price is the only thing holding me back from an impulse buy this instant. Been watching all the YT vids.microkorg
- Yeah same.... needs financing.mantrakid
- It’s def totally sick... but the $$$ is sickeningprophetone
- people making good music with TE stuff? sounds so tinny and digital to me. beautiful looking toys thoughinteliboy
- Guys, let's go into debt! +1futurefood
- Motivates me to re-approach a diy version of op-1 platform either ras pi-based or otherwise, 3d parts, open sourceprophetone
- There are options out there to build out the engine and ui using open source libraries and then wrap it all up in a open hardware bowprophetone
- mort_9
- Screentone, still love you!!OBBTKN
- Haven't heard that term. Halftone applied digitally?mort_
- Two in the Toneutopian
- https://en.wikipedia…OBBTKN
- LOL Utopian!!!Projectile
- futurefood2
blog
Anyone else running into this while playing videos here?
I have to sign in now to play videos on qbn? I avoid signing in on yt because I'm using my work rig.
- lol wow ... YT/Google are getting increasingly outright hostile to users.Continuity
- I had it some years ago...went away by itself. I bet it's some change in bot protection algo that is being implemented or tested or deployed without testing :-)uan
- The enshittification of google marches oni_monk
- Constantlymonospaced
- No. Using Brave.grafician
