Eww

I worked in a call center for an internal support team. We had a group that started early in the morning since our headquarters was on the West Coast and calls would come in really early from the East Coast offices. Every Friday we would organize a group order for breakfast from a local diner and I usually was the one who would go and pick it up (long before DoorDash). One particular morning the order was missing a side of bacon for one of the team members. This person got so angry that they didn't have their bacon, they decided it would be a good idea to call the diner from the middle of our office while most agents were on the phone with end uses. They proceeded to yell at and lecture the poor diner worker who answered the phone saying things like "You forgot my damn bacon, I think you did it on purpose" and "What are you gonna do to fix this?" The call lasted a couple minutes as most of us were looking at one another in shock. Unsurprisingly, they did not return on Monday and we all couldn't believe someone was fired for missing bacon.

Mr. Pibbs' wife.

The Rings Of Saturn

Was chosen by my Community College English professor and it was the most mind numbing thing I've ever had to read. It was translated from German, so there are multi-page, run-on sentences that haunt me till this day.

I guess my deranged mind was right. https://www.newsweek.com/north-korean-troops-deserting-ukraine-frontline-hours-after-arrival-report-1969726

The discovery of catnip.

Your comment just made me $10, thanks for participating!

I have been looking at trying to support all the creators I watch on their Patreon pages, but I can't pay that much to follow everyone.

I am aware that I'm not just paying for Premium features, but helping them keep the lights on. The cost for data centers, storage, and workers to keep it running comes from my contribution, so to say I'm just paying for features is inaccurate. The fact they still pay their creators after all that is good, but I agree they could do better.

All in all, I do feel there is a tipping point approaching where I will abandon Google which I am actively working on by setting up a personal cloud on my own server.

I don't work for Google, but I have been in IT Support for almost 20 years.

Same. I also remember when it took forever to load and there was nothing but viral videos. Now I can learn a new skill or watch in depth research on things I am interested in buying by people who took a lot of time to produce a video to help me make the best decision. If I was only consuming trash YouTuber content like Mr. Beast, then I would understand. The majority of my watch history consists of educational or informational content, and not having to watch ads and have it on-demand reliably is something I see worth paying for.

If I'm shilling for anyone, it's the content creators. The platform wouldn't be what it is without them. I don't consume YouTube, I consume the videos it makes available which is a big distinction.

I'm not bootlicking, I just recognize the value their platform adds. Do I wish there were a better alternative? Absolutely, but I have not done the work to figure that out and am able to pay without issue. I have been working on Tech for nearly 2 decades, so I am acutely aware of who I am dealing with.

I acknowledge your opinion, but you won't make me feel bad for exercising my freedom of choice. I do appreciate your upvote.