I have a coworker who is a really nice guy and I like working with him, but he's fresh out of college and it's obvious he's struggling to keep up and get his work done. I don't want him to get fired for falling behind so I've been doing some pair programming with him to help him get caught up. But at the same time, I don't think holding his hand in that way is going to get him to where he needs to be.

I really like this, Melon. Congrats on your achievements

Ditto'd. It's cool reviewing an old post like this. Maybe I'll look back on this one in a year.

Listening to Spacehog from now until Infinity.

Listening to The End Is The Beginning Is The End by The Smashing Pumpkins! :ozwomp: :ozwomp:

I love Smashing Pumpkins, but I always preferred the slower alternate version of this song, "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning". It always gives me chills.

@Cobra! Holy crap, that's awesome and I can totally see it now that I know. Clancy Brown always seemed like a good guy to me. I don't want to look him up in case that's not true, so in my head he's a nice dude that I want to hang out with.

When you were growing up, who is someone from pop culture that you look back on as having the most positive impact on you?

For me, it's Uncle Phil (James Avery, The Fresh Price of Bel-Air). Big letters for a big man who helped raise me.

I grew up in the golden age of family sitcoms, but when I look back on them he's the only positive father figure who stands out. Danny Tanner (Bob Saget, Full House) was so bland that he barely existed except to deliver an exasperated face and a moral at the end. Tim Taylor (Tim Allen, Home Improvement) was a man-child and definitely not someone you should emulate. And Carl Winslow (Reginald VelJohnson, Family Matters (who also has the coolest name in the history of the world)) was definitely good hearted but had a huge temper and was out of line more often than not.

Uncle Phil was the GOAT. He could only ever be considered an antagonist in the typical sitcom dad way if you ignored that Will was an antihero. He stood in Will's way a lot, but it was always out of concern for him when he was making a mistake. Watching him mentor Will over the years, trying to steer him toward good choices and being there for him even when he messed up really stuck with me throughout my life. I'm actually giving myself The Feels by writing this.

My kid and I just watched The Thing, the one from 1982, because we had watched a review of it on Youtube and wanted to see it. I do love action and horror flicks, but that one was way better than I expected it to be. Tons of gore, of course, but the tension was amazing throughout.

I get the feeling that the ending probably upset some people, but I feel like it couldn't have gone any other way. We both really enjoyed it!

This is one of my favourite movies of all time! I'm assuming your kid is relatively young, but I loved horror movies ever since I was a tot too.

You may also want to watch the prequel from 2011, confusingly also called The Thing, which lead to a lot of people thinking it's a remake. It's not as widely loved, and a lot of people felt spurned that they abandoned practical creature effects for cgi, but I still think it's a great watch.

There's also a video game that serves as an official sequel, but it's pretty much impossible to acquire these days without piracy. And there's a board game too that is a staple at all my family gatherings

I've also seen the original "The Thing from Another World" from 1951. It's harder to recommend unless you're a fan of older movies. I can never convince anyone else to watch it with me, but I like it. There is some subtle humor in there that I really enjoyed.

What Dragon Ball Character are you? - I think its is quite accurate!

I think King Kai totally suits you! He would definitely run his own forum and website for random people to stumble across and find a home.

In the spirit of sharing knowledge, post something short and interesting that you have recently learned. If you can, include a source so we don't risk spreading misinformation.

I recently learned that the big, red nose often associated with alcoholism is actually caused by rosacea. Source

I used to wonder if the memories that really stick with us despite seeming mundane would somehow be important at some point in our lives, but I don't really believe in that sort of fate anymore.

One of my earliest, clearest memories is of standing on the driveway of the first house I lived in with my older sister on her bike and our cat Mittens walking around our legs. It was spring or summer, and I was definitely younger than 7 because that's when we moved, but I don't know any more about the time frame than that.

Mittens was black and white. My sister's bike was green and a bit scratched up, but was later painted black with red stripes when she grew out of it and it was passed down to me.

I don't know any of the animes posted so far so I dug up the ones I do know.

Before I clicked on the link, my first thought was the pokemon trainer battle theme.

I have a habit of writing long posts and replies but it's honestly something I try to avoid. I'm really long-winded and an over-sharer by nature, and I subconsciously try to anticipate how other people will reply and cover what they might say or ask ahead of time.

In a forum setting, I find it results in people ignoring half of what you write or skipping past your post completely because it's tl;dr.

I think being succinct is way better. If you can make your point in ten words, why write 1000?

I used to have music going in the background constantly, but for a few years I've noticed that if I have music playing it steals all my attention. So if I'm working or reading something online I have to keep it quiet or I lose focus.

Lately just Elden Ring (seamless coop mod) with friends and a little bit of Red Dead Online. I've been wanting to get back into Quake Live but I don't know if the community is still very active. I used to play a lot of the instagib and freeze tag modes.

The progress is amazing, especially considering how good the original is. I love the crisp lines and use of texture, and the colours make me think of a 70s funk video.

Now, generating AI art and working with prompts can surely require skill, more and more as the time goes, but it's still going to be asking a machine to build your vision out of someone else's feelings, personality and love

This is a great way of putting it, and a perspective I hadn't thought of before. No matter how carefully you craft the prompt to get exactly the result you want, it's always going to generate something possessed of other people.

I believe there is a game in development (or is it released already...) where you actually create an AI generated character to play with before the game actually starts. How cool is that?

That's a really cool approach to character creation in a game. It kind of reminds me of that NBA game that let you put a photo of your face onto a player, but the results from that ranged from bad to nightmare fuel.