• 40 Posts
  • 166 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 13th, 2023

help-circle
  • Congress hasn’t passed a budget yet for the fiscal year, only a continuing resolution. The fiscal year started on Oct 1. So, Congress could include language that legalizes the buyout in the full budget, in theory*. There’s going to continue to be lawsuits against it before and after the budget becomes law. So, who knows what will happen in practice.

    In any case, my take is anyone that took it will find that it won’t work out like they hoped. At a minimum they will have a stressful couple of months. At a maximum they will find that they screwed themselves.

    *IANAL so apply appropriate skepticism to my Thursday evening quarterbacking.


  • I don’t know if I can give a straight answer. Agencies and their divisions, orgs, branches, teams have to do records management. There’s a federal law somewhere in the federal registrar. So a certain amount of historical knowledge is preserved. Where, how well, and how far back is a bunch of rabbits holes.

    But what I think you might be getting at is tribal knowledge. Everything that’s passed around orally or by experience rather than being written down. There’s always that risk with people leaving and that knowledge going with them. But that impact can vary depending on agency practices, work culture, or even just the responsibilities of the person leaving.

    The area I’m keeping an eye on are the people with decades of knowledge and experience that are also skilled enough to apply all that to their niche fields within an agency. They’re usually the ones in federal service for the long haul and are some of the more difficult people to get time with. If an agency is gutted and that living knowledge base is lost then the agency will struggle to fulfill the missions Congress has directed they must do as federal law.


  • Of the handful of people I know of, most were retiring anyway. They’re basically getting 7 months of paid leave. I wished one person a happy retirement last week and then “welcome back” this week. They’re working until the end of February.

    Of the one person I know that isn’t eligible for retirement, they were planning on leaving anyway due to circumstances in their family.

    What I’m interested in is how many of those people will be back by October as contractors. I’ve seen it before where someone retires and then a few months later they’re back working in a similar job. Just because someone leaves gov services doesn’t mean their skill sets aren’t in demand.








  • According to preliminary information, Jabber, a U.S. citizen born in Texas, had a black flag affixed to the hitch of the pickup truck he allegedly drove into the crowd. Officials are investigating whether that flag is related to the terrorist group ISIS, two senior law enforcement officials said.

    I’m going to make a prediction and say it’s self-radicalization. As for which group he self-radicalized to, I’ll wait until more information comes out. I have an obvious suspicion, but I’d rather wait.




  • So, most of my recommendations are going to be FPS or first person. For Valve related stuff:

    • Half-Life 2 is pretty much a must have along with Episodes 1 and 2.
    • Black Mesa is a remake of the original.
    • Entropy : Zero 2 is a fantastic fan made mod that’s a good follow up after finishing Half-Life 2 and the episodes.
    • The original Entropy : Zero is pretty good, but the default difficulty is hard as hell.
    • Portal 1 and 2 are also a must have
    • Portal: Revolution is an independent mod that’s a good follow up after 2.

    As for non-Valve games and related:

    • Crab Champions - fast paced, third-person, rogue-like shooter.
    • Talos Principle 1 and 2 - first-person puzzles with a serious philosophical scifi story. It actually gets a bit heavy when it discusses mortality and death. 1 is being remade into a “definitive edition”.
    • Untitled Goose Game - Honk!
    • Gnorp Apologue - fun little game
    • Pineapple on pizza - it’s free. I would describe it as games-as-art.
    • Any of the Serious Sam games. They were made for PC.
    • Fallen Aces is still in early access, but a good story driven retro FPS with sprites and multiple ways of navigating each level.
    • Trepang2 - a bit of an odd FPS with bullet time.
    • Roboquest - rogue like FPS
    • Exit 8 - horror walking simulator. Kinda short once you figure it out.
    • APE OUT - Ape smash! Top down “shooter”.
    • Hotline Miami 1 and 2 - top down shooters with fast deaths and excellent soundtracks
    • The Binding of Isaac - has always been popular if a little dated
    • Gunpoint - stealth puzzle third person. Came out a decade ago, but a good game.
    • Party Hard - little indie murder-everyone-and-don’t-get-caught.
    • The Stanley Parable - walking simulator with some interesting dialog and interactions. 9-to-5 office people can relate.
    • Dusk - awesome boomer shooter
    • Antichamber - came out a decade ago, but it’s mind bending first-person puzzles.
    • Hades and Hades 2 which is in early access. Third person isometric rogue-like.
    • The Invincible - Story driven walking simulator based off the book of the same name. Good story.
    • Firewatch - story driven walking simulator
    • Deep Rock Galactic - wasn’t my pint of beer, but a lot of people like it.







  • Yeah, I would mostly agree. The poll peaks in 2020 when there was COVID, a virus that was putting people in the hospital on ventilators and had a mortality rate we hadn’t experienced for over a century. Along with a healthcare system barely holding on, lockdowns, masking, social distancing, a major recession, people losing their jobs, kids going back to school with all that chaos, and in the middle of one of the most chaotic and stressful presidential elections in history. BUT 55% of people were better off in 2020. Hmm…