I remember writing a comment about invasive advertising by Instagram. Just shared some anecdotes about how a few extremely specific conversation topics soon became the topic for the ads I was seeing on Instagram, and pointed out that if they were in fact using background conversation to target ads, it would be extremely easy to automate with the voice recognition technology available at the time, so why would they ignore the opportunity if targeted ads are their main source of revenue?

It became one of my most down voted comments at the time, and I had about twice as many replies as downvotes, claiming all kinds of wild or easily disproven shit to disprove the idea that Instagram used such tactics. Was very fishy

It’s unfortunate how often it is that the best solution is to combine the powers of 2 sites that have been (not so) recently dipping their toes into the “detestable corporations” side of things.

I share the same sentiment, but the problem is finding a better “elsewhere”.

Google search used to be so far beyond the capabilities of all other search engines, but lately it’s been closing that gap from the top down. Even in its enshittified state, it still outperforms the other search engines out there more consistently, albeit just barely.

That’s my experience anyway, I would love to be introduced to something better if anyone happens to have suggestions!

Lots of people still think that introverts hate social interactions, or feel better without any social interactions at all, but we do need to be social. Some people get dogs or cats and that helps them a lot. But lots of introverted people will tend to find some way to mask the loneliness by distracting themselves that requires a lot of attention, or occupying themselves with something that emulates social interaction. Playing a game while watching twitch streams of that game can fill both of those roles, listening to the streamer and reading chat periodically. That can work in a pinch, but it’s not a real solution. And I don’t have a real solution, aside from “find your balance”, but I know that’s not helpful.

I can suggest something that I found to be a more effective distraction, though. And it even could lead to the first steps to a solution to introvert loneliness if you’re lucky. You can try going to a local bar/pub on a slow day. It helps if you drink alcohol, but you really don’t have to. And of course if there’s a history of alcoholism in your family, you should definitely avoid the alcohol. Make sure to sit at the bar, because a lot of bartenders will start up conversation with lone patrons in their down-time, and the same goes for drunk people getting up to buy another drink, so you don’t have to initiate if you don’t want to. You can end up having a few interesting conversations in a night (or sometimes none at all), and go home either feeling good about going out on your own free will (I.E. Not being forced into a social situation), or exhausted from any overbearing social interactions and therefore a bit more content with going back to spending time by yourself for a while.

This helped me before I made a couple of friends (who I met at the pub) while living alone in a new city, after my distractions got stale. I say it’s worth a try, but everyone is different.

It was hard to initiate that first trip to the bar though, it felt very, very weird. But halfway through my second beer, I felt mostly content with even just listening passively to background conversation. By the time I ordered the 3rd, the bartender had initiated conversation, and before I knew it that feeling of loneliness was gone. It’s important to keep moderation in mind though, I could see that being very effective in catalysing a drinking problem. I did this 2-3 times per month, and that was just enough for me.

So ymmv, but it helped me a lot.

You can always pirate it. I mean you DID buy it so it’s not “stealing” if you’re playing a cracked version that only thinks you’re online at all times

And even it is “stealing”, fuck 'em 🤷

They didn’t care, we were often reminded that our job is not to make good food or even make profit on food sales, it was only to keep people in the casino. If customers leave to grab some food elsewhere they’re unlikely to come back and gamble more, but if they eat in the casino they usually do gamble more.

It’s a big part of the reason why casinos give out meal comps if people have just lost a lot of money, because that’s when most tend to just go home. But give them free food, and they feel more content after a little break from the slots and a full belly, and they’re much more likely to sit back down for “just a few more spins” on their way to the exit. So casinos exploit that to squeeze even more money out of problem gamblers, their biggest cash-cows. Disgusting tactics, truly despicable.

But anyway, some cooks were dedicated and made great food regardless, most of the head chef’s and sous chef’s responsibilities were dumped onto them for no extra pay. Too much pride and loyalty for their own good. But I’d say like half of the kitchen staff on any given day were either nodding off high as shit in the smoking area (or even behind the line, open kitchen btw), buying drugs or selling stolen meat in the parking lot, jacking off in the bathroom, or shooting up/passed the fuck out on the dirty mattress that someone had dragged into an empty shipping container out back.

That said, it was the “high-end” restaurant in the casino.

Oh no, that was my first kitchen job, I’ve since quit the industry after 10 years in kitchens.

Same. I was a cook in a casino restaurant (bear with me), and when I applied for the job the head chef asked me “can you pass a drug test?” I said “oh yeah, I don’t do any dr-”, he interrupts me to say “I didn’t ask if you do any drugs, I asked if you can pass a drug test. Yes or no?”

Well, turns out 2 line cooks had heroin problems, the head chef, sous chef, and morning lead chef were functioning alcoholics, one general manager was coked out of his fucking mind 24/7 until the last few days before payday, the other was taking about 3x as much xanax as anyone should, and the wait staff smoked approximately as much as Snoop Dogg.

Needless to say, that place was the definition of a runaway clusterfuck. Much of their problems were caused by the rampant drug use amongst the employees that could have been prevented if they were a little more thorough with the drug tests, rather than literally giving me the pee cup to take home and bring back later.