u/annafrida

I just replayed it for the first time since my initial play through (presumably fall 2012 after a night on the town in a jewel tone polyester peplum top and bandage skirt). I remembered basically nothing going into this game.

(Gray’s voice): THESE ARE FULL SPOILERS, UNDERSTAND? You are NOT ALLOWED to read these if you HAVEN’T PLAYED. Now GET OUT AND LEAVE ME ALONE NO MORE QUESTIONS!!1!

First of all I need everyone to know that installing this on steam I had a meltdown because it wouldn’t work. Then my husband pointed to the large banner on the Steam page that said something like “Windows 11 Compatibility.” So that was off to a good start on my capability to play this game, which does indeed involve a lot of reading directions.

1. I like Gray. I relate to his annoyance at literally everyone, because that is also how I felt this entire game.
2. Their security is shit at this building. What is Gray even doing in that booth? Does he not check the cameras? I was constantly breaking into the lab at all hours and except that one time he did not notice at all. “It HAD to have been someone here, this place is like Fort Knox!” Are we sure about that? Seems like a Colorado mountain man could’ve done it tbh. Plus Ryan says that and then the next line is like oh yeah here use my security card I don’t even need it lol
3. What was the alarm I kept pushing? No one else seems to care, Ellie is responding to coil emergencies but doesn’t give a shit about the mystery alarm apparently. You’d think Gray would be like “damn someone keeps pushing this alarm, better check the cameras” but that does not occur to his brilliant mind
4. Where was this massive snowstorm? Never showed for me on the day/night transitions. Most people seemed to come and go fine but here I am spending that week in the bunk room with no yard time allowed
5. I DID NOT LIKE READING ABOUT TOPSY AND THE OTHER ANIMALS IT MADE ME VERY SAD EVEN THO I ALREADY KNEW ABOUT IT

BIG END SPOILERS!!

6. The ending puzzle I’m imagining the culprit watching Nancy open this whole ass tome in the faraday cage like “oh man I can def escape I just have to learn electrical engineering quick”

7. Okay so the only thing on Niko’s computer was the unedited video? Who put that there, his ghost?

8. Who was trying to break into the bunk room? Why did that happen?

Anyway I cheated my way through this, shout out to the HERInteractive boards from back in the day continuing to prove technology SUCKS by being correct while the Google AI overview was wrong. Would Niko be a big tech oligarch today partying with Thiel and Elon? I think yes.

Edit: things I would’ve included if I could make this post into a multi media slide deck:

- the DW “this sign can’t stop me” meme
- Clip of Kip’s wedding song performance from Napoleon Dynamite, the “yes I love technology” part obvi
- an excerpt from Pound the Alarm by Nicki Minaj overlaying me hitting that alarm, but I don’t want to give Nicki any more royalties cause of her behavior lately so maybe not

Edit 2: Smash or Pass on the characters in this game:

Ellie: Smash
Ryan: Pass
Gray: Pass
Mason: Pass but I thought about it
Victor: Smash
Alive Niko: Pass

So my employer covers dental 100%. This is on me for some of the blame since I neglected to look at the beginning of the year to verify that they were paying dental for me, I had just checked that what comes out of my pay for insurance was correct and it appeared to be so (got my medical insurance card etc). There were some weird issues with mistakes they made when enrolling me in the medical coverage which took some time to resolve once found this spring.

My husband (also under my plan) went to go to the dentist in May. Nowadays so many providers just find your insurance for you so we didn’t look for the dental cards.

They told my husband at the appt they couldn’t find his insurance. I chalked it up to the switch to me being the primary, and realized we didn’t have dental cards anywhere I could find (I assumed this was a mistake on us). The online portal said I needed the info from our cards to pull up our account to order new cards, so at this point I reach out to HR for help getting new cards.

They respond with “we’ve ordered new cards for you they should be there soon!” And that was it. They arrive, we bring them to the dentist who resubmits the bill, we get an EOB now a month later saying “you didn’t have coverage at time of service.” I go look online now and see that the start date for the coverage is when I requested the new cards.

I reached out to HR again thinking this was a mistake, transposed numbers in dates was the issue that had happened with my medical coverage and that had been resolved. They say no, that’s when I was signed up, and that I should’ve noticed dental wasn’t on my pay stub (which yes, I guess I should’ve, again I was dumb and only checking to make sure what was deducted from my pay was correct and when other insurance docs arrived I assumed I was good to go). So clearly when I reached out for new cards they realized their mistake, quick signed us up for dental, and said nothing hoping we wouldn’t notice.

I’m guessing we are SOL on this $400 dental bill right? My work has a union so I have contacted the insurance chair although I don’t expect he or anyone can do much short of scold the employer. I’m guessing the insurance company wouldn’t let my employer go back and adjust the start date of the insurance and pay the months they missed? Clearly they had record of me requesting coverage for myself and my husband… the lack of acknowledgement of their part in the issue is what gets me.

We’ve got a Delta companion ticket to use or lose in August (had a different trip lined up that is now canceled) and are looking to take a fun long weekend somewhere (3.5ish days including travel, could push it one more day if we had to). Budget is healthy (decent hotel preferred, have points to rent a car if needed). One person will need to remote work from the hotel for a day most likely. Nonstop flight preferred for time maximization, but as long as the whole itinerary is Delta we can use the companion ticket. Don’t mind warm weather but not looking to roast in the desert (we save that climate for our spring breaks) or the south.

Ideas we currently have:

- Montreal: have only been briefly in cold weather, would love to explore more. I’m fluent in French. Have already seen the biggest sights however. Would love to do Quebec City but no flights that we can use the companion ticket on :(

- NYC: neither of us have been. Not sure if the weekend is long enough to make it worthwhile, especially with one person working during the day one of the days. Also would feel obligated to go visit someone on Long Island and would lose time there with such a short visit.

- Portland, Maine: looks cool, neither of us have been, feels like we’d want to see more of Maine in general though like Acadia and worried it won’t be enough time.

- Chicago: both have been but not in a long time, I know it’s a great city. Doesn’t feel like we are really leaving the Midwest though.

- Boston: one of us hasn’t been, but now we are getting close to where some family live and we encounter the same issue as NYC where we would feel obligated to visit.

West coast is mostly out, we’ve done a lot it recently.

Open to other places we may not have thought of! We are outside-y but not outdoorsy (love a good hike with time for a shower back at the hotel before a nice dinner), so not solely attached to a city-centric visit. We enjoy staying in fun and unique hotels (even haunted ones 👀) so that’s always a bonus.

Early in the season I had fat bumbles abound happily gracing my garden. Now that my main attraction pollinator plants are starting to bloom, suddenly it’s weirdly quiet. Normally it’s constantly active with bees but they’re just… empty.

What gives? Weather patterns? I was out of town a week ago and I know we got some hail, could that have damaged my local bee population and they’re still working on recovery?

I’m usually very good at identifying scams but I’m torn on this one.

Woke up to an email confirmation for a concert ticket I didn’t buy. Platform seemed to be something called “anyroad.” Says the concert is in my city but no venue listed yet (says to be announced) which was suspicious.

I start googling and find the artist it’s supposedly for, some rando from a recent season of American Idol. She is having a concert in my city on that date. Her logo matches what I saw on my email. The ticket sales engine matches.

No charges on my credit card at the moment. Doesn’t have any payment confirmation info in the email (like “charged to card ####”). There is a bit at the top which says “simply reply to this email to respond” which seems very suspicious, although apparently anyroad is some sort of AI powered thing so… maybe?

Now there is a history of someone with my same name accidentally using my email instead of theirs (which has their middle initial in it). Once for a gym membership and once for a Chicago transit card which I had to actually find this person on social media and message them because I was getting so many password reset request emails when they couldn’t reload their card. Idk where they’re living now, I don’t live in/the concert isn’t in Chicago.

My email was semi incorrect as it was sent actually: it was sent to firstname.lastname but mine doesn’t have a period, still made it to me. Also relevant that this is my “uncompromised” email that I exclusively use for personal interactions and never for logins/purchases.

What do we think? Scam? Or the “other me” forgetting her own email yet again (and has questionable music taste)? Do nothing and not panic unless I see charges on my card? Ask “other me” if she’s looking for her concert ticket?