sparksbet's recent activity

  1. Comment on An ED resident and developer built a free, medically accurate clinical casebook for every patient of The Pitt in ~tv

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    I didn't know there was a third thing I could be mixing up the abbreviation ED for! lol this does legit look interesting tho

    I didn't know there was a third thing I could be mixing up the abbreviation ED for! lol this does legit look interesting tho

  2. Comment on German males under 45 may need military approval for long stays abroad in ~society

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    Compulsory military service in Germany has been a big political issue for a while, and I suspect a big part of things is that there's not much faith that this will remain voluntary.

    Compulsory military service in Germany has been a big political issue for a while, and I suspect a big part of things is that there's not much faith that this will remain voluntary.

    4 votes

  3. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

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    yeah, renting for life is indeed more common in Germany, but I think it remains a hit against independence. I also think how normalized home ownership is will vary a lot based on where in Germany...

    yeah, renting for life is indeed more common in Germany, but I think it remains a hit against independence. I also think how normalized home ownership is will vary a lot based on where in Germany you are and what economic class you're from.

    8 votes

  4. Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games

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    I can tell from your spoilered content that you're engaging with the game well and are making good progress, so I wouldn't worry too much about feeling lost. Use the ship's log, and if you feel...

    I can tell from your spoilered content that you're engaging with the game well and are making good progress, so I wouldn't worry too much about feeling lost. Use the ship's log, and if you feel stuck and confused, jump to a different thread that you haven't completed.

    a technically not a spoiler comment based on your current progress that might get you thinking in the right direction, shouldn't spoil much at your stage but open at your own risk

    But I have also now learned all the stars are exploding, so there may not be a safe place to warp to?

    This is a good line of thinking about what's going on, but there's also another practical side -- you don't know of many places outside of your solar system anyway. Certainly not with enough detail that could direct the ship to warp there.

    a slightly more leading question that edges closer to a spoiler, open at your own risk

    You've clearly engaged with the Ash Twin Project, but how much do you understand about what it was intended to accomplish?

    2 votes

  5. Comment on Boomer hate in ~society

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    This depends on the specific political issue ofc, but it very much isn't the case in general, at least not according to US polling data. Age and political partisanship are highly correlated, and...

    I get the sense from polling that the younger generation (maybe zoomers or whatever they're called now) are at least as conservative as boomers.

    This depends on the specific political issue ofc, but it very much isn't the case in general, at least not according to US polling data. Age and political partisanship are highly correlated, and the difference between generations is markedly greater than it was in 1990. There may be some specific issues where Gen Z tends to be equally conservative as Boomers, but I don't think the poll data as a whole remotely reflects that they are in general.

    Unless you're comparing Gen Z to Boomers when they were Gen Z's age, which is harder for me to find a direct comparison for.

    10 votes

  6. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

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    Yeah honestly I think anything beyond that would be too much of a spoiler. It is one of my favorite games ever, though, and was a crazy meaningful experience, so I highly recommend it to anyone...

    Yeah honestly I think anything beyond that would be too much of a spoiler. It is one of my favorite games ever, though, and was a crazy meaningful experience, so I highly recommend it to anyone here who hasn't played it.

    I remember in middle school English class, our teacher divided all narrative conflicts into Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, and Man vs Self. A story could obviously include more than one conflict, but each conflict could be categorized into one of these. This is probably a bit overly simplified since it's a tool for middle schoolers, but using this framework, I think Outer Wilds is one of the best executed examples I've seen of a purely Man vs Nature plot.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

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    Annihilation might be a good pick? At least the movie version seems to go for something similar to what you describe (I haven't read the book so I can't weigh in on how different its take is).

    Annihilation might be a good pick? At least the movie version seems to go for something similar to what you describe (I haven't read the book so I can't weigh in on how different its take is).

    5 votes

  8. Comment on Suggest media in which the antagonist is an idea or an abstract concept rather than a person or intelligent entity in ~talk

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    I assumed based on the examples that "man vs self" style stories like Bojack aren't what OP is looking for, even though they're also exactly what I thought of when I saw the title.

    I assumed based on the examples that "man vs self" style stories like Bojack aren't what OP is looking for, even though they're also exactly what I thought of when I saw the title.

    4 votes

  9. Comment on Indie Pass, a PC subscription service for indie games to launch on April 13, 2026 in ~games

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    iirc Gamepass at least theoretically has the advantage that some games can get up-front funding in exchange for being included, which can make sense. That doesn't seem to be the case for this...

    iirc Gamepass at least theoretically has the advantage that some games can get up-front funding in exchange for being included, which can make sense. That doesn't seem to be the case for this revenue model tho.

    1 vote

  10. Comment on Indie Pass, a PC subscription service for indie games to launch on April 13, 2026 in ~games

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    if cozy-horror is indeed a rising indie genre, then it should be labeled as such rather than just as "cozy"

    if cozy-horror is indeed a rising indie genre, then it should be labeled as such rather than just as "cozy"

    6 votes

  11. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    yeah, I think it's very similar to me. It's hard otherwise for me to reckon with where the kind, loving person I fell in love with went and how they got replaced with someone who was so willfully...

    yeah, I think it's very similar to me. It's hard otherwise for me to reckon with where the kind, loving person I fell in love with went and how they got replaced with someone who was so willfully cruel and callous towards me in the end. They had a lot of personality-related mental health stuff going on in the last year of our relationship, which I don't think helps with the feeling that I completely lost the old them.

    1 vote

  12. Comment on You can finally change the goofy Gmail address you chose years ago in ~tech

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    I haven't done anything with it yet, but I did manage to snag sparks.bet a while back. Someday I'll spin up a proper personal website there... someday....

    I haven't done anything with it yet, but I did manage to snag sparks.bet a while back. Someday I'll spin up a proper personal website there... someday....

    3 votes

  13. Comment on Why Swedish schools are bringing back books in ~books

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    I don't necessarily think the between-classes social element is unique to phones, and I can understand where parents are coming from more on that front, especially at US schools.

    I don't necessarily think the between-classes social element is unique to phones, and I can understand where parents are coming from more on that front, especially at US schools.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    Makes sense! hopefully OP gets a nice balance of perspectives between everyone

    Makes sense! hopefully OP gets a nice balance of perspectives between everyone

    2 votes

  15. Comment on Why Swedish schools are bringing back books in ~books

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    I mean, it seems like "phones are allowed to be physically present in the classroom but only off/silent in a bag or pocket. If it's out, it gets taken until the end of class and you get written...

    I mean, it seems like "phones are allowed to be physically present in the classroom but only off/silent in a bag or pocket. If it's out, it gets taken until the end of class and you get written up" would still be a totally workable policy in a modern school, imo, that balances the kid's ability to use the phone in an emergency with them not disrupting class. Maybe I'm underestimating the amount of pushback from Millennial parents on something like that, though.

    2 votes

  16. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    To be fair, there are definitely things you don't need to lay at your kids' feet, especially depending on how old they are. Treating your kid too much like an adult friend can lead to...

    if you want a truly close relationship with your kids you need to at times treat them like your adult friends, at least when it comes to being vulnerable with them

    To be fair, there are definitely things you don't need to lay at your kids' feet, especially depending on how old they are. Treating your kid too much like an adult friend can lead to parentification, which can be harmful for the kid, so it's a tough line to walk. Age can also be a factor in exactly how easy it is to explain what happened and how you're feeling to them in an age-appropriate way. That doesn't mean that you need to bottle everything up and hide things from them, but it does mean that there are a lot of specific details concerning the kid and their age and ongoing relationship with the other party that you need to consider before pouring your heart out to them, especially when it comes to things like infidelity.

    14 votes

  17. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    I started seeing a therapist I'd previously seen for years again a few months before my spouse left me and that was fucking serendipitous because damn did I need that when the divorce went down. I...

    I started seeing a therapist I'd previously seen for years again a few months before my spouse left me and that was fucking serendipitous because damn did I need that when the divorce went down. I don't know that it would've been as helpful if I hadn't already had a relationship with my therapist where we had rapport and I trusted them, though. I don't think I could've handled the "finding a new therapist who's a good fit" stress alongside the "getting divorced" stress.

    6 votes

  18. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    Honestly, I think the comparison to mourning a death is incredibly spot on. I'm not necessarily proud of this feeling, but I remember when my wife first left me, wishing that she'd died instead,...

    I had a therapist tell me once that our brains process breakups similarly to how they process deaths.

    Honestly, I think the comparison to mourning a death is incredibly spot on. I'm not necessarily proud of this feeling, but I remember when my wife first left me, wishing that she'd died instead, because then I could mourn losing the person I loved without this imposter who hated me ruining her memory. I still feel this way a little bit (though in my case the financial realities of our separation have contributed unfortunately). Someone you love is indeed gone forever -- even if they're not dead, you can never ever go back and be with that person again, because the person you're with isn't the same as them. You're not the same either, of course, but I think the similarity to mourning a death is very much there.

    13 votes

  19. Comment on So it turns out I was cheated on in ~health.mental

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    definitely stealing this book rec for myself as well

    definitely stealing this book rec for myself as well

    5 votes

  20. Comment on Getting permission from your significant other in ~life

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    If you mean your second sentence as in the one that starts with "You can't tell...", it's fine without any commas imo. The preceding sentence could use a comma before "however mildly" but is...

    If you mean your second sentence as in the one that starts with "You can't tell...", it's fine without any commas imo. The preceding sentence could use a comma before "however mildly" but is otherwise fine. I don't have a reference other than being that annoying kid in English class in school and the one who edited my friends' essays for them in college, though.

    2 votes