First, try to understand what’s actually being said here. Sometimes I call myself fat because I’m above my target weight. But in my case my self-esteem is just fine: I’m a former gym rat who knows where I am, what I need to do to get back in shape, and that I’m still okay if I don’t get there. Saying “I’m fat” is a light jab at myself and a reminder to take steps toward my goals, nothing to worry about.

If your GF is calling herself fat more hurtfully (which is sadly common) the issue is not how fat she is or isn’t. That’s just a symptom. The issue is whatever negative feeling is prompting her to tear herself down. Arguing with her about whether she’s actually fat won’t help with that, and might even do more harm than good. Maybe ask her how she’s doing, remind her that you love her just the way she is.

Most of these companies are just arguing that they shouldn’t have to license the works they’re using because that would be hard and inconvenient, which isn’t terribly compelling to me. But Adobe actually has a novel take I hadn’t heard before: they equate AI development to reverse engineering software, which also involves copying things you don’t own in order to create a compatible thing you do own. They even cited a related legal case, which is unusual in this pile of sour grapes. I don’t know that I’m convinced by Adobe’s argument, I still think the artists should have a say in whether their works go into an AI and a chance to get paid for it, but it’s the first argument I’ve seen for a long while that’s actually given me something to think about.

Mostly Cities Skylines 2. The performance is not great, but it’s passable with the settings turned down and the actual city building is really good. Right now I’m working on a big expansion to my city further down the highway, just got the water/power lines run between them so it’s one big happy grid exporting the extra to other cities. Already looking forward to the things I’ll do differently in my second city!

Also playing some Super Mario Wonder on the side, which is fantastic. Great mix of easy fun levels and hard-as-nails secret special levels. Very fun!

I’ve occasionally ended up on Reddit accidentally when following a search link. Which immediately blasts me with notifications and pushy requests to browse in some other way than I want to. After using Lemmy for this long, which lets me peacefully do my thing my way, it comes off as really rude even before I get to the comments.

At this point, I’ve actually started actively avoiding Reddit links in my searches. I can generally find the info I need somewhere else without getting yelled at by the website.

I vote on every post I see. That combined with the “hide read posts” setting means I always see new stuff on the front page.

I upvote any post that I want to see more of in the community it was posted to. Posted game news in a gaming community? You get an upvote, whether or not I actually like or care about that game. I also upvote anything I don’t have any particular reason to downvote. It’s my default vote.

I downvote any post I want to see less of. Clickbait titles or misspellings are an automatic downvote. Off topic posts are always a downvote. And any post that comes off as salty gets downvoted, especially if the post is salty about being downvoted. I just don’t want to see any of that, so I use my vote to discourage it.

No matter where you go, upvotes and downvotes are still subject to the Lizardman’s Constant. Someone will end up voting in a totally contrary way just to be contrary, or because they didn’t understand, or because they just hit the wrong button. No matter how great your content is, it would be weird and possibly suspicious if it didn’t get some downvotes.

Technology Connections has a video on exactly these devices that dives into how they work and what they can and can’t do. TLDW; you’re not wrong about the physics of cooling a room, though in some cases this little thing might make you feel a bit cooler.

The full soundtracks to both games are on the Fat Man’s Bandcamp, which I linked up above. Also, the “greatest hits” collection album 7/11 is on Spotify. It’s surprisingly easy to listen to these days!

The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour remain top-tier for me. The music was half the experience, turn it up and just enjoy that creepy vibe while solving puzzles. And they’re all on The Fat Man’s Bandcamp now!

Also, there’s an industrial rock cover album on vinyl currently looking for funding on Kickstarter. I’m super excited!

Lemmy scratches the Reddit itch for me. It doesn’t have all my old niche communities yet, but it’s got enough for me to log on and see what’s happening in the Internet.

Also, I haven’t been pestered to use an app since I got here, which is so nice. Reddit was getting more and more aggressive about that before I quit.