I have worked a front facing customer service job in 7 locations over 80 miles of road for 24 years. I have had people walk up to me and say, “This is my best friend angryseal! He helped me get through my divorce with Steve.” and I have no clue who they are. My wife hates going shopping with me because people are running up and giving me hugs everywhere we go and then keeping me still talking for an hour.

It’s a very poor area for the most part and I’ve talked a lot of people through a lot of shit over the years, just standing there like a bartender in a Bible Belt area with no bars. I guess it makes sense that some people have developed friendly and fond feelings for me. It’s just been so many people that I can’t keep up with them all. I’m an extreme introvert with the personality and friendliness of an extreme extrovert, so that has made life exhausting for me at times, but I love people and care what they’re going through.

I’ve had people pop in during hard times in their lives and then come by daily to talk for hours for a few months. I guess I’m just good at coming up with what folks need to hear in those times.

There’s a guy who promises me that he’s going to come to town and shoot me one day because I convinced his wife it was ok to leave when he blacked her entire face. He likes to periodically remind me, “When I come back down there I’m gonna kill you bud. You took everything from me. My wife got on drugs because of you. She’d still be sober if she’d stayed with me.” I remind him each time that his wife left because he blacked her face and that she wouldn’t have left and ended up on drugs if he hadn’t, you know, blacked her face. I always wish him well and hope he doesn’t kill me one day.

I can’t imagine having a front facing job where the entire country knows who you are, and half of them love you religiously.

I can’t stand Donald Trump, but I’d be in a mental hospital right now if I were him. Same goes for any world leader I guess. I can’t imagine remembering anyone outside of my family in that situation.

Poor little feller. I’m glad you tode eem what was what. You’re good fer lookin out fer the poor little feller.

I seriously have a boiling hatred for computers now because I couldn’t even be a little bit mean. I’ve snapped a few times when people blamed me for problems years after I worked on their stuff, but mostly I just got trampled on and robbed at every turn because I didn’t want to upset anyone.

By the time I was mean enough to demand payment and things like that, I already hated it.

My daughter is passionate about computers, so nowadays if I so much as want to tweak something a little bit I let her do it unless she don’t want to. I don’t want to burn her out too.

Your dad sounds like the childhood hero of mine who got me into computers.

Severe ADHD prevented me from ever learning to code, but I became damn good at repairs and things and just general understanding of computers because he was available to ask questions at almost any time.

He went to school auctions every year and got me a pile of hardware to learn from. He never asked for anything in exchange. All around great guy.

I heard him on the phone a few times dealing with the people who he worked with though. Good god he was mean. I couldn’t imagine him being that way with me ever, but he was brutal when it came to work and money.

A dude called him one time while I was sitting there, he listened for a few minutes and he said, “I’ve got a 14 year old kid here, he’s been doing this stuff for about 2 years. I’m gonna let him walk you through this for the 10th fucking time because you’re a goddamn idiot and feeling like a fool when you hang up the phone with a grown man isn’t teaching you any lessons. Maybe get a pen for this one because if I have to remind that a child walked you through it last time, I’m not going to be so fucking friendly.” I was so nervous, apologized multiple times, when I was finished walking him through it he took the phone and said, “now don’t you feel stupid? 25 years and this kid just schooled you.”

He told me, “you gotta be real with idiots or they’ll bother you with stupid problems every single day of your life.”

I wish that lesson had stuck haha, it just wasn’t in me to be mean. As a result, a hobby that I was passionate about all of my life is something I avoid like the plague now. People ruined it for me by bothering me constantly.

Damn. I hadn’t even thought of it. Isn’t it crazy that some people among us would see things like that burn and not even wince. Hell, some would even celebrate. Our lives are so short. It blows my mind that anyone would want to destroy something like that for any reason.

And also, preaching to the choir I’m sure, that’s the biggest reason I hate AI. We’re already contending with misinformation and bad information, and here comes the confused talking computer to make things worse.

Your original reply had me confused for a moment haha. Thank you for clearing it up and removing it.

I exist because my mother told my father that she was taking birth control. My father hasn’t been a part of my life except on a few occasions where he wanted to be here and there, and I don’t hold a grudge. My mom proudly told me this when I was about 9. I don’t blame her either, she raised herself from the time she was 4 years old when her mother committed suicide. She did the best she could with what she had as a person with no education and no parents to guide her.

My father came for the birth of my oldest biological child. He came for a few Christmases. He showed up when I was going through a divorce and helped me fix a car for my now ex. He didn’t have to do any of that. I barely know him at all, and even though it bums me out from time to time, it is what it is.

Life is a mess for everybody haha.

Hell, I googled mine and can’t find any info so I’ll share it here, fuck it. 91369100

Mine is 8, so I was behind you I guess.

I still remember mine somehow.

That’s what I was thinking.

Uh oh!

I can say with 100% certainty that my family didn’t have political views until they got Facebook. They didn’t vote. They didn’t talk about it. They didn’t care. They all vote now. Christmas dinner used to be a time to catch up with everyone and see all the new offspring. Now it’s a Trump rally. Literally everyone in my family votes now, and they all say “I didn’t ever vote until Obama/Romney if they got online earlier, and they didn’t vote until Clinton/Trump if they got on later.

Tech isn’t entirely a bad thing, but it has certainly played a role in radicalizing nearly everyone.

I abandoned religion when I was 18 years old, and I spent a lot of time in church before then. Every church I went to talked about spiritual growth, how folks needed god to make good decisions, and the two paths you could take and how to avoid taking the wrong one.

I went with my uncle to about 20 churches in 2019(ish) and holy hell had it changed. It’s all radical politics now. Only one of those churches talked about spiritual growth, literally only one.

It spreads even to older folks who don’t use Facebook. They hear the radical speeches from everyone they know.

Whether we like it or not, most platforms are profit driven and in order to make the most money they have to keep people engaged. If you’re enraged you’re engaged, that’s the profit driven tech at work.

It doesn’t end well when everyone is radicalized.

CDs are cheap as fuck now.

I’d cancel my Spotify but my teenager would drop dead.

We the shareholders trust Musk completely. He is, after all, a genius.

Nah, I’m playing! Only thing I ever had shares of was the ex wife, and I wasn’t even aware she was publicly traded until I accidentally dropped in on a shareholder meeting. I gave mine away. :p

I live in western Virginia. I don’t know much about northern Virginia, but I’ve met several people from northern Virginia. Wanna know how I know? Because every third sentence they speak contains the words “in northern Virginia”.

I know it’s not exactly relevant haha, but I get a kick out of that.

This one old dude comes and chats with me early in the morning. We can be talking about anything and he finds a way to throw it in there. “Try that new coke yet?” “I tried Vanilla Coke in northern Virginia.” “Man, it’s gonna be a rainy day isn’t it?” “In northern Virginia it rained so hard one time…” “what are you getting into today?” “Well, once upon a time in northern Virginia I… oh, did I tell you that’s where I’m from? Northern Virginia.”

I’m in Trump country. It makes my brain bleed talking to people sometimes. I felt my eyes melting out yesterday talking to a preacher about the state of the country. The folks around here talk about seceding and joining WV. They love that guy. He’s a man of the people, you know, the dude with the golden toilet and pictures of himself on every wall. Man of the people… gah.

I feel like I seen that photo way before deepfake was a thing.

Reminds me of Pentecostal church as a kid.

Wooooow.

What a strange time to be alive.

To be fair to our ancestors though, this isn’t new. They just change the target from time to time. Once they do their damage and everyone sees how ugly it is and gets behind the victims of their shit, they just switch targets.

“Well, I got a half black grandbaby, I reckon I’ll stop lynchin’. I’m sorry. You mean I can lynch a gay? Well heck! Yeeeehaw! Git over here fruitcake! Awwww shucks, you mean my grandbaby done growed up to be gay? Well, now I understand, it all makes sense. Can I lynch the trans? Wooooohooooo! Git over here deadname!”

Oooh, me too.