Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

Updated my PS4 games collection so far (37 games).

Oh how I wish I had a PSVita this weekend in particular. Travelling up to London this morning for UFC London at the O2… and will be on our way back on Sunday. Obvs we’ll have a lot to keep us occupied while we’re in the big smoke but I haven’t suffered any travel boredom for what feels like forever!

@ThereThere cheers buddy... train journey has been 'hilarious'. Must've been a delay, so we got on and it was standing room only, as it was filled with drunk cardiff city fans needing to get past us to the toilets every two seconds.

So I wouldn't have had much use fir a Vita anyway in all honesty.

@colonelkilgore I thought you had a Vita, don’t you? Did you just forget it?

I sometimes forget I have a Vita and end up wishing I’d packed it.

@Th3solution nah, I have discussed maybe getting one in the past but never bothered. I think the fact that they're no longer supported is the main reason. Still, if Sony were to make a new handheld (which I doubt they would) I'd be in board day 1.

@colonelkilgore I’ve played less and less of my Vita the last few years. However I do adore it for the experiences I had. I still have a backlog on it of a few straggling games but with each passing year it becomes less likely I’ll get around to them.

Since you still enjoy playing older titles on PS3, I do think you’d really get some quality use out of one. If nothing else for the odd holiday trip or train ride. I’m not sure how hard it would be to find one, but it would obviously have to be through the used market. But I know it’s hard to justify adding a whole other game system when you’ve got more than you can play on your existing consoles. That’s what’s been my situation with the Switch for several years. I like the idea of it but every time I get ready to pull the trigger I look at my heap of PS4, PS5, and Vita games and I know it will end up competing for my attention with all the other games, hobbies, and work that I already have.

@Th3solution funnily enough, I do have a switch but I never even consider playing it. I think the reason is a combination of me being pretty focused on the PlayStation ecosystem and the fact that I’ve never really gelled with the Nintendo vibe that seems very pervasive across the whole platform.

In regards to the vita being hand for travel etc. well, after this brief trip I just had to London… I won’t be going ANYWHERE for a while. Seriously gonna expose myself for the boring, grumpy old fart that I am… but wish I’d just not bothered and watched the event in the comfort of my own home 😅

Cheers @RogerRoger, it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t a fan of London (though I did find much of the service we received poor)… we just ended up spending so much time on our feet, for the whole train journey between Wales and London, then queuing for this and queuing for that (and we both made the rookie error of wearing brand new shoes). I’d guess we spent at least 6 hours simply stood up across the whole day… as well as close to 20,000 steps when we were actually moving. So we both just felt absolutely beaten up by the time that we got back to the hotel… and still don’t feel right now. Probably more to to do with our age and our lack of fitness if I’m honest… but yeah, glad to be back.

@RogerRoger I quite like London but then again, I only visit every few years and I’m probably sticking to the more touristy parts!

https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/trump-2025-radical-plan-seco...

So, essentially, there's a conservative shadow government preparing to help Trump purge tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with loyalists via the ominously named Schedule F if he's re-elected.

It looks like a second Trump term would be a literal end to American democracy (what little there is to begin with). Although if some other Republican like DeSantis wins, it's hard to believe they won't just do the same thing with him.

Always comforting.

@Ralizah Truly horrifying. The worry is that if this happens, the next President could go the other way and replace those America First civil servants with ones loyal to them instead, completely undermining the entire system. There’d have to be a candidate that unfailingly believes in bureaucracy and they aren’t exactly charismatic people pleasers.

@nessisonett It's truly disturbing seeing fascism rise up in this country. And it's easy to feel powerless. Especially when you consider we just had the biggest protest movement in American history recently, and it accomplished almost nothing, because our system is no longer responsive at all to the needs or demands of the people.

There's also a pending supreme court case, Moore v Harper, that'd have an even more profound impact on our system if the activist right-wing majority decides the wrong way.

Even if, by some miracle, we clear all of these landmines, one thing is clear to me: any system that can so easily dismantle its own democratic mechanisms and traditions is inherently broken, and these threats will continue being an issue until the system itself is either dramatically reformed or burned down and replaced entirely.

@Ralizah It’s been seen in many countries round the world that democracy relies on faith in the system and not much else. All it takes is one person to completely disregard tradition and etiquette and it all crumbles. Optimism is pretty hard to come by these days.

@RogerRoger yeah that probably did have a part to play in how altogether beat-up I felt by the end of the day. Still, it might actually end up being a good thing in the long run… as it was the first real push of a physical kind I’ve had in the last month… and maybe I needed it (though it felt like the last thing I needed at the time).

Things I don't like as a contractor/working for myself:

My business client giving improper expectations. My job was impacted big time by COVID because people aren't traveling, so I went from working 30+ hours a week (and not really needing my pension) to around half that, most of the time (and having to draw my pension). I normally wouldn't say this, but I'm happy that my wife makes the lion's share of the money, otherwise we'd be ***** with a capital F.

Random thought here, and curious what the take is from my friends over in the UK and Europe —

What do you all think of ‘tipping culture’? In the US, it’s an expectation to tip your server at restaurants and some other service and hospitality industries (hotels, cab drivers, barbers) as a token of appreciation for good service. The expected gratuity has ballooned to be an expectation of 20% and now you’re asked for a tip at almost every retailer, including restaurants where you walk up and order and aren’t even ‘served’ by anyone, and now even online retailers have started prompting for a tip at checkout. It’s almost like there is an entitlement philosophy and the customer has to carry the weight of the business owner and pay their employees for them.

In some cases where you’re prompted for a tip at the counter before you receive your food, I’ve heard of staff spitting in people’s food if they didn’t tip and things like that.

Has this gotten out of hand? I think Europe/UK might have an opposite culture where tipping is considered an insult to the worker, like maybe it sends a message that the server is pathetic enough to need charity?

Anyways, it’s something that’s puzzled me for a while.

@Th3solution I've never heard of tipping being considered an insult but in many of the cases you mentioned it's considered entirely optional. You'd usually tip your server at a restaurant (10% is fine) but not necessarily a driver or a barber. Bars and cafes often have a tip jar but they'll rarely mention them to you. That's my experience anyway, it might be different further west.
I think tipping might be considered "mandatory" in the US more often than in Europe because the US labor laws allow those workers to be severely underpaid and rely on tips a great deal.

@Th3solution It’s never never a necessity over here. If I have change on me then I’ll do it, or if I’ve had great service. I usually tip my barber too as he’s a nice bloke. But as you say, tipping culture results in businesses either skimming or subsidising their workers’ wages with it. It’s polite to tip and also they do work hard and it’s nice to recognise that. But I’ve never felt pressured to tip.

I basically never use cash these days so half the time can’t tip even when I want to. Woe is me.