Hey at least Dean Koontz would have finished the fucking thing.

The last few died.

There’s a large group of folks here that swear by renting a VPS. A common argument is that when you fully self host and expose anything to the internet (incoming connections), you’ve always got some security risk you might not know exists.

A VPS offloads a lot of the low level security concerns to someone else (it’s the whole cloud sales pitch) and if someone breaks in, there’s little for them to steal (assuming you’re not putting anything personal and sensitive on the VPS).

The nice thing is that you can start with a small and cheap VPS and set things up and decide if you even want to self host, or to what extent. Then you have data to make a decision as to whether you need to upgrade to a better VPS, or port your setup to a local server (which you can now buy with a good idea of what sort of specs it should have).

On the flip side, you could also self host on whatever computer you have laying around (leave the laptop open) and play with some services there. If you decide you want to open it to the internet, you could just as easily port your local playground to a VPS and keep going.

I don’t think there’s anything in the self hosting world that really paints you into a corner.

How old are you that you have the time and interest to do this?

20% pay increase for a 12% time increase. Honestly, those numbers aren’t big enough to entice me on their own.

But I think the bigger thing is job satisfaction. In your current job you spend 35 hours a week doing something you hate. Would a PA mean you’re spending 39 hours doing something you enjoy?

I would focus this more on your happiness than economics. Being miserable has no money associated with it but it’s the thing that follows you around 24/7.

If you just want to get away from bedside, you might want to keep shopping around for other degrees you think you’d like. If being a PA is something you know you’d like (never mind the 39 hours - just the tasks the job itself entails), that seems like a smart path to follow!

This is Moon People erasure

All the evidence for this comes from a linked article that says only

To add to the drama, a wild rumour, and I stress rumour, is doing the rounds in San Francisco: some Anthropic engineers have begun to worship Claude.

Can we really get nothing more substantive than that?

“Behold!”

These articles that focus on what people on Chinese social media have to say about something more than the something that happened always confuse me.

It’s like if all the 9/11 coverage was not on planes flying into a building, but what people were tweeting about it.

I try to miss order updates but it doesn’t seem to matter. Whether I see them or not, eventually there’s someone banging on my door with a bag of cold food.

“I can’t carry it for you, but I can carry you!”

scene fucking EXPLODES into a high tempo musical number

Should have been:

“Shut up Wesley”

“Shut up Wesley?”

“Shut up, Wesley”

Of course I do! I’m on speakerphone and holding the phone an arms length away from my face for some reason.

If it’s going to happen, just play cool. If they terminate you, you don’t have to agree to anything or say anything you don’t feel like.

7 years is a good tenure. You can apply for new jobs from a strong position. Learn to leverage your sales pitch for what you learned and how you grew in those 7 years - that’s the story your next employer wants to hear. What are you finally good at? What did you fuck up and learn a valuable lesson from? Tell stories about that kind of shit in your next interviews.

Establish lines of communication with coworkers you want to maintain contact with. LinkedIn is good enough. You just want to be able to contact them for a reference on your job hunt. Prospective employers want to talk to them - so pick people that will sell you the best. They aren’t going to call your previous employer and ask how you did - fuck the company. Keep lines open with people you want to, and set them up while you’re still employed and can exchange emails with them.

What do you want to know in the meeting? Just ask. You aren’t under any obligation to answer any questions but you can ask whatever the fuck you want. It is unlikely to have any impact on the rest of your life if you ask a question or don’t. You’re done with these people. Don’t feel like you have to be obedient or indulgent.

If this is how it goes, that sucks. I know the anxiety that comes along with it. The last time I got laid off, I was even looking into fucking military service. Don’t panic and make rash decisions like I almost did. A gap in cash flow is scary as shit but you will bounce back and hit a new stride. The uncertainty is just shitty.

Good luck!

Paying anybody a small compliment is free.

some test body text suggests there’s more.

Well. Give it to us.

Is he having a conversation with VLC media player?

Sometimes I am not a good person. Then I revise my definition of “good” until we’re good to go again.

Not supposed to talk about it anymore, sir.

I had completely forgotten that sequel existed until I read your comment. Utterly forgettable.