Thanks Sata . . . What the fuck is wrong with you? Who hurt you? You will live rent free in my head for a long time. Just so you know, I hate you for that. You magnificent bastard, you. Bravo. Bra fucking vo. 👏👏

The silver things are runners with ball bearings that drawer slides on. The slides that attach to the drawer will snap into these silver runners.

Usually, you just need to align the slides on the drawer with the runners and push. They should snap in. The runners tend to slide around while connecting them. If they slide to the back, it’s ok, they will still connect once you get them lined up and push the drawer into them. If you can reach from underneath, you can hold the runner in place while attaching the drawer. Do one side at a time.

If you’re struggling to get it to connect, I recommend removing the slide from the side of the drawer and seeing if you can get a single slide to attach to the runner. It will click when it attaches. By doing just one, you might have an easier time seeing how it connects.

Once you figure it out, you’ll need to disconnect it. There should be a little plastic lever that you hold down (or up, depending on the side) while you pull out the slide. Put it back on the drawer and see if you can connect it once it’s back on the drawer.

They are a little complicated, but once you see how it goes together, it should make sense. If what I said is still confusing or if you are still struggling, reply and I’ll see if I can get some pictures to explain it better.

• Edit: A common mistake I’ve seen is putting the slides on the drawer backwards. The part attached to the drawer should have the flat part against the drawer. The drawer should look like this ]|_______|[

I have, conservatively, two dozen playthroughs under my belt at this point, including the original trilogy and remastered versions. If I had to guess, I’d say im about an 85/15 split FemShep over MaleShep. Apparently I’m in the minority, but I much prefer Hale’s performance.

I’m curious as to the paragon vs renegade percentages for each character type. As in, do more people play FemShep as paragon or renegade? Same for MaleShep.

Before I start, I want to be clear, this process works for me. It isn’t for everyone, so take it with a grain of salt.

Outlining is personal. Everyone does it different. Some writers architect the full story, some outline the plot, while others discovery write everything. Personally, I get decision paralysis when I attempt to outline everything and when I attempt to discovery write everything.

When I start an outline, I tend to be detailed with setting and plot. I flush out my world and know roughly where I want the story to go. Characters are left fairly open. I create just enough of each character to get into their head. That way, I can take the characters, plop them into the setting and situation of the plot, and see what happenes. Discovery writing characters works for me, but only if I know where they are and what they should do.

Step 1: Sticky Notes… Starting out, I tend to brainstorm on sticky notes. There is something about writing ideas manually that helps me see things better than typing them. Typically, I have a vauge idea or two to start with, and not much more. I’ll write it on a sticky note and stick it to my desk. Then write something else - whatever comes to mind. I keep going until some ideas start to grow. It could be a character trait, plot point, setting, whatever. I’ll rearrange them to see what, if any, ideas make sense together. I’ll cross things out, throw some away, pull them from the trash, rewrite them, etc. Just an idea board type activity. Sometimes I will leave them on my deak for weeks. By the time I’m done with them, they are usually sad remnants of sticky notes.

Step 2a: Outline in Word… Word worked for me for a while. I created a template in Word that helps me straighten things out. It has custom headers that fill the Navigation panel, giving me sections. Default Word has this, I’ve just customized the look to something more pleasant to me. The problem is exactly what you said, things get lost. It grows fast and by the time I’m done with a full outline, it’s a little much.

Step 2b: Outline in OneNote… For the most part, I have transitioned to OneNote for the majority of my outlines. I created an always expanding template. It has tabs for things like Characters, Plot, Locations, Religion, Economy, Government, Magic, Weapons, Science, etc. I copy my template and start a new Notebook for each story I write. What I’m writing determines which tabs I keep. For example, if I am writing fantasy, I typically wont include the Science tab. Each tab has a page template that is automatically used when adding a new page. My character template, for example, has a table for physical traits, motivations, character arc, internal secrets, etc. I try to put down enough so I feel like I understand the person. Going overboard is easy, but I try to keep to to just what is needed.

Step 3: Scenes… Once I have a good understanding of the story, I start figuring out what scenes I need. These are typically one or two sentences and can help with plot, character development, or just something random and awesome. “A lazy pet cat that wakes up just in time to scratch the eyes out of an intruder.” I throw it in. Then, rearrange. Scenes never seem to come to me in an order that make sense. I’ll prune and expand, but by the time I’m done, I know the story.

Step 4: Fill in the blanks… I go one scene at a time, not necessarily in order, and fill them in. For example, Mr. Whiskers scratches Billy the Kid. Maggy sat straight up in her bed. The door banged agaist the cabin wall. Her eyes fought to stay closed as she forced them open. She couldn’t make out the silhouette in the door. The moonless night was no help. “You owe me money,” a gruff voice said. “Oh shit,” thought Maggie. She knew that voice. If Billy came to collect, she knew he would collect - one way or another. Billy took a step into the room. His boot was muffled by a thick layer of dust. Before he took a second step, a hissing filled the room. Mr. Whiskers sprung from the end of the bed. He landed on Billy’s face and started scratching the man like he was a mouse caught in the cupboard. And so on.

Step 5: Edit it together… Once you have I have all of the scenes, i stitch them together and edit it so it flows. This is where I add transitions and such. By the end, there is a completed story. It isn’t perfect. There might be some fillers, but it is about 95% done.

Step 6: Rewrite it all… I bring up a blank Word document, set it to 14pt Times New Roman, double spaced, and rewrite literally everything. I have my last draft and this one open side by side. Since I’m reading the story as I’m writing it, I notice thinga I missed or phrases I don’t like.

Again, this isn’t for everyone. It is a process that works for me.

I think I get where you are coming from here, though I question the certainty in it. There is too much nuance to humanity to never trust or always ignore.

If you never anticipate good in others, you must be very lonely - never trusting, always defensive, waiting for the next attack. We all have different levels of trust shaped by our own experiences. Personally, I try to anticipate good until a person proves otherwise. I’d rather be disappointed occasionally than miss a possible connection to someone because I never anticipated goodness.

As far as receiving advice, take it from anyone and everyone. We constantly do this, even if we don’t notice. We take in the world around us. We decided if it was good, bad, or somewhere in between. If I see someone hit their thumb with a hammer, I learn not to hold the nail in the way way did. It’s non-verbal, yet in its own way, is advice. Verbal advice works similarly. Take it in, listen to it, accept or reject it. Ether way, it is part of you. You will adapt it to your own view. If someone says that jumping of a bridge is the best thing ever, you can ignore them or you can do it. Ignoring them shapes a picture of that person as irresponsible or dangerous while shaping you to be more conscious and risk-averse. Doing it shapes that person in your mind as someone to listen to in order to do something fun. I suppose what I’m getting at is a simple question, can you really ignore advice?

I’m probably just thinking more into it than you intended.

Of course not. There is also hair styles, acessories, and makeup… I meant beer, football, and boobs.

Fear and caution are not the same thing.

Do you really think the US has any real concern about being attacked? There is plenty to say about US policies, both good and bad. Part of that is the nearly $1T per year spent on the military. I don’t think you’ll find many credible people who think attacking the US will be good for whoever does it.

Attacking the US has been, historically, one thing that tends to unite the country. We - Americans - like building shit and we like fighting people. We never stop building new weapons. But when there is no-one to fight, we fight each other. There is a huge social divide in the US right now. You want to fix that, attack us.

*Edit: spelling

“Would have liked to run tests on the sea shells.” ~Mordin Solus (Mass Effect 3)

Why does my neighbor lock the door to his house? What if he is doing something in there I don’t agree with - like praying to a different god than me? How am I supposed to stop him? If I can’t just walk into his house whenever I want, I wouldn’t even know. This type of security can’t stand. Door locks are NSFWorld.

A quarter has 13 weeks, so if you do 2 week sprints and align them to start with a quarter, there is 1 week per quarter that is not accounted for. That week can be used for stuff outside of daily activities. It can be used for training, offsites, working on a pet project, etc. Its a good way to build time in the schedule for this type of thing. These types of breaks have tremendous long term value.

I played a ton of 3d movie maker back in the day. I’m with you; I wish there were games like that today. It might be a niche, but you can’t tell me there isn’t a market for it.

I had this poster on my wall in my dorm in the early 2000s. I think I still have it rolled up in a carboard tube somewhere. I had a bunch of his stuff as posters.

Over time, the weaken your muscles and make it even more difficult to have good posture. You end up relying on the straps rather than your own body.

I like some of the concepts of agile and scrum. Two week sprints rather than multi-year projects. Faster turn around on bugs. Having a prioritized backlog so we know what we are doing next. Small standups to get ahead of blockers. Spending less time documenting everything and more time developing. You don’t need a PM or scrum master in those things. A good team lead can do it. If the PM needs an update, they can look at the board.

A lot of the crap that gets add in to it is so freaking useless. There is an AVP at my company that keeps pushing everyone to sign and share team agreements so “there can accountability.” It’s so cringy. If someone is getting stuff done, do you really think having them sign something saying they will do it is going to help? If someone is getting stuff done, then it isn’t going to change anything. It’s infantalizing. So much of it is micromanagement and lack of team trust.

As manager, I have to say that is uncalled for. As a developer, I will say you are 100% accurate.

People want someone or something to blame. I think the reason is that certain groups think everything can be controlled. It’s too much of a challenge to their world view to have a large scale desaster not be attributed to someone’s fault. This causes them to dig in more with conspiracies. It’s easier to accept wild theories than change their world view.

It seems to typically be people who don’t have critical thinking skills. Those who can’t see past the superficial. A story that, on the surface, matches something that is true, then gives a speculative leap to something that isn’t, is hard for them to disregard. If A is true, and C happens sometimes with A, then A causes C. Without the ability to realize, B was skipped. Or to say it in a different way, its hard for some to realize correlation is not causation. So, conspiracies are born.

Ex: The ice is melting in Antarctica. Scientists are there all the time, drilling holes to get samples. If you drill a hole in an ice cube, more air gets to it and it melts faster. Therefore its the so called scientists that are causing the icecaps to melt. Maybe they are even putting heaters in it to speed it up just so they can say they were right. We need to stop these scientists before they kill us all. And so on.

More of a physical representation of a debt, but in essence, yes.

I buy a rock from you with $5, that $5 represents the debt I incurred by taking the rock. You have the $5 that you can use to barter for something else. At the end of the day, the government is backing my debt for the rock with a physical piece of paper. Except it isn’t physical anymore now that everything is digital. So, I suppose its more like the bits of data that represent the physical money that represents the debt for the rock is backed by the government. Although that money is actually physical at the bank that conducted the electronic transaction, and they borrowed that physical money from the fed. But even then, it is inflated since not every dollar a bank transacts with, is backed by something physical since the reserve ratio is not 100%. And that is when it starts becoming confusing.