Oh, look. Polk County being themselves out-loud again.

1. Glad he's okay.
2. That photo is absolutely iconic.

We used to feed only dry and it ended up causing us problems when we had to switch to wet for medical reasons (one had diabetes, and then the other ended up with CKD). The one who was supposed to be smart was somehow bad at eating it (she kept trying to chew it and it would fall out of her mouth 🙄) and also just generally didn't like it because it's not what she spent her life eating.

I don't think dry food is inherently bad or anything, but if that's your primary source of calories, then you do need to make sure your cat stays hydrated and also that they don't end up in carb-overload (unless you didn't mind the thought of giving your cat insulin twice a day, exactly twelve hours apart).

And it sounds like you don't have to worry about this last part, but for anyone else reading this: please make sure your cats have some amount of both when they're young and not so set in their ways... don't make the mistake we did!

For anyone else wondering what the Open Arm maze was: https://maze.conductscience.com/elevated-plus-maze-basics/

Most major audio companies like JBL, Bose, etc, are putting out linkable speakers. I've got a Bose sound bar which integrates pretty flawlessly with the Google speakers I haven't brought myself to get rid of yet. I've found that, if the logic exists to sync it with other speakers in its ecosystem and an integration for HA exists, you can probably add it to a whole-house setup via music assistant. And you can probably use multiple ecosystems, too (though I'm not certain you can adjust delays across ecosystems... I've never tried that myself, and it's going to be the most vital part of your whole-house setup. My living room, dining room, and kitchen all have to have their delay adjusted by several milliseconds so it doesn't sound like auditory torture when you turn on multiple speakers in the same area. My bedroom doesn't have to be synced, though, since it's far enough away from the other speakers that you don't hear both at the same time.

...okay, yes, just checked and it is, indeed, quite challenging to sync delays across different ecosystems. I'd recommend keeping all your speakers in a single area (e.g. kitchen, dining, and living rooms) all in the same ecosystem and you can change manufacturers as you change rooms. https://music-assistant.io/faq/tech-info/ )

I think you'd be well-positioned to buy a few speakers according to your budget, and add more over time of any manufacturer you like (as long as it integrates with HA/MA) if you so choose. Any of the well-known brands are generally good. I personally prefer systems that don't require an external amp, but that's personal preference. I've been very happy with my Bose stuff, but lots of people love JBL, Genelec, and even our pals at Sonos re: audio quality. I think the world kind of is your oyster here, friend. Do what your heart (and ear) leads you to.

You and your dad will have earned as much, friend.

I've been actively trying to extricate myself from their ecosystem. I hate how incredibly challenging it is.

Agreed. I think we're in the, "fuck around and find out," era of tech company unionization, and I'm fortunate enough to work for a company whose legal team is smart enough to know that a reasonably happy, fulfilled, and compensated workforce is significantly less likely to even start discussing unionization, and so I don't think that my company will see it anytime soon, if ever (which I also think is fine, for the record). But to your point, with the way that the vast majority of the video game industry treats their employees, I hope that every single one of those large game companies ends up joining a union, because the employees deserve better.

Seeing the rebirth of unions in tech companies might be one of my favorite things about this timeline.

Yep! For all the psych nerds, it's pretty much a direct lift of the Milgram Shock Experiment

That and, their action for low-risk is all wrong. The stakes are too high to not give someone help, regardless of the risk level.

Yep. The ones who manage to slip notes to their veterinarian to help them get away are the exception.