About The Author

Riven

Riven

[riv-uhn] noun 1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd. 2. often aims to misbehave. 3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.* And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.

99 Comments

  1. Sean

    I clicked through a slide show and got no sex scenes.

    WTF?

    • John Nerfherder

      You were hoping for a squidface 69?

  2. SDF-7

    “If you’ve been even passively paying attention to Baldur’s Gate 3, the latest, perhaps greatest, fantasy RPG from Larian Studios, you know there’s a lot of sex in it.” (t/w: slideshow)

    Yeah… and I’m going to do my best to avoid it. 1) Never know when my son might walk behind me… and he’s too young for that shit. and 2) Not really caring about toon boffing… especially since from what I read, every party member is player-sexual and randier than a pet goat hopped up on Viagra. So I plan on a lot of “Not interested”.

    If they ever stop patching the damned thing… That’s another reason I haven’t played in a while… want the code base to settle into something steady.

    • rhywun

      I’m not reading that because zero interest but… I do wonder how wildly overrepresented the alphabet soup stereotypes are in all the sex that game studios are loading into these games lately.

      • Suthenboy

        Sex? For it has always involved a woman. Two people, not one person and a game controller. Maybe it’s just me.

      • Fourscore

        Two people? Is this new? Have you been holding out on me? I don’t have a game controller.

        I’m going to tell Mrs F about this new thing with 2 people.

      • Shpip

        She knows, she just hasn’t let you in on it.

  3. Shpip

    Mann, who homeschooled his own three children while working to mandate schooling for others, explained that strong parental bonds are obstacles to state education.

    Weakening those bonds was likely one of the points all along.

  4. Shpip

    The 1984 comedy—the third feature starring Jim Henson’s Muppets—arrives with a new commentary from director Frank Oz.

    Bonus if Oz does the entire commentary in Yoda voice.

    • UnCivilServant

      “Hated this, I did.”

  5. Nephilium

    It’s a Friday, so to save KK the effort of putting up the link and grumbling about me, I’ll provide the Zoom link for those who still need it.

    • R.J.

      You are a scholar and a gentleman.

  6. Aloysious

    Riven, thank you so much for linking that story and video of the Barrelmancers.

    I laughed so hard I might have peed a little.

    • Riven

      Same, same. Some people are playing this game on a whole other level.

      • Ownbestenemy

        Almost like they are playing it like table top while drinking with friends. Glad Larius allowed it

    • rhywun

      *clicks*

      OK, that’s funny as hell.

    • Fatty Bolger

      Same here. That was freaking awesome. Just sent the link to all my kids.

  7. grrizzly

    Alex Berenson started penning pro-Trump articles.

    What was stunning about the article was that the Republicans quoted in it did not hide their plans to attack the underpinnings of the modern (domestic) federal government, the agencies that operate mostly independently of the White House.

    The federal government will likely look and act very different. It will be smaller and more politicized. And do not be surprised if Trump turns foreign policy upside down. Everything, including pulling out of NATO and ending all support to Ukraine, will be on the table.

    • John Nerfherder

      Now make me believe it.

      • Suthenboy

        ^THIS^

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      What’s the evidence that Trump wants to pull out of NATO? He’s said that the other countries should live up to their promises, and if they don’t then we should consider leaving.

      • grrizzly

        There’s none. I just liked the idea of radicalized Donald Trump who, apparently, scares Berenson.

    • rhywun

      *Can’t reply… ‘batin’.”

    • R C Dean

      “the underpinnings of the modern (domestic) federal government, the agencies that operate mostly independently of the White House”

      Of course, such agencies are utterly antithetical to democratic, or republican, governance.

      • Suthenboy

        Opportunities for graft draw grifters like shit draws flies.

  8. Suthenboy

    We have compulsory schooling here and half of the children who graduate from it cant read or count to ten.
    What an evil motherfucker. Weakening the parent child bond is killing the only factor (parents) that contributes strongly to successful education.

    Foreseeable consequences are not unintended.

    • Toxteth O'Grady

      Well, if you were generally stupid, but just shy of wise…

  9. The Late P Brooks

    Why would a slick website for a “locally owned” business not include the fucking address?

    I’m not going to email you for a quote, you dumb fucks.

  10. Ownbestenemy

    So it’s starting to look like people who say insane things like a woman is a woman and we come from a womb actually believe and it is the publicist who are afraid.

    Santana says nah….deletes apology

    • Suthenboy

      Fear is the mind killer.

      Wasn’t this covered already today?

      How many animals that attack press on when the target of the attack runs? <— All of them.
      How many press on if you stand your ground?
      Giving apology is just blood in the water. When are people gonna learn?

      • Ownbestenemy

        It was covered on what Santana said and apology. It is looking like it’s not the person who is apologizing like in the case of Ne-Yo. It is their publicist as it appears here with Santana

    • John Nerfherder

      Good for him.

      Think I’ll cue him up tonight.

      • The Hyperbole

        Good god no! The man can make a decent 3,4, or 5 minute song but then he apparently thinks, what this needs is a nine minute groove and we’ll let the bongos be front and center. Stephen King needs an editor and Carlos Santana needs a producer, preferably someone like Shel Talmy or Mickie Most.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I’d like to respectfully drop the retard comment from earlier. Good on him.

    • rhywun

      What good is being old and rich if not to tell everyone to fuck off?

      This.

      • John Nerfherder

        I aspire to this.

        I really do.

        Back to work then.

      • Nephilium

        Back to Work you say?

  11. JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

    I learned a new phrase recently in regards to attempts to blame the Maui fires on climate change: flash drought.

    The government even has a website devoted to the phenomenon. https://www.drought.gov/what-is-drought/flash-drought It first appeared just a few days after Biden’s inauguration. The first Wiki page appeared just last April. I guess “flash drought” sounds scarier than “dry weather”.

    • Ownbestenemy

      That….goes against every definition of a drought. Maui had ONE year of less rain.

  12. The Late P Brooks

    Fancy “Contractors and professionals preferred” building supply place:

    Me- “Do you sell Lexan cut to order?”

    Counter person- “What’s Lexan?”

    • JaimeRoberto (carnitas/spicy salsa)

      “You mean you want to, like, put a sun roof in your car?”

  13. The Late P Brooks

    “You mean you want to, like, put a sun roof in your car?”

    Oddly enough, I’m going to replace the rear window in my car, which got taken out by a rock, with Lexan. But those yahoos don’t need to know that.

  14. Stinky Wizzleteats

    Glenn Greenwald (very long) interview on Patrick Bet David’s podcast:
    https://www.youtube.com/live/b0yUxSwDrNk?si=_DorFtVF6hSgBYnT

    Very interesting and gets into why Trump didn’t pardon either Snowden or Assange and actually cuts him some slack for it. He doesn’t vote but I think he’d vote for Trump if he did.

  15. Suthenboy

    The more I read of Paine and the other founders the more I am convinced that revolution was necessary, indeed inevitable. We are incredibly fortunate that despite their few mistakes they chose the path that they did.

    It also frightens me that the same old nonsense has taken root here and now surpasses what they faced, and in many ways with a lot of support from the very people being trampled on. I wonder what lies around the corner. I am not optimistic.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      The tyrants had trouble tyranting back then because of inefficient surveillance and the fact that it was easy to keep things private. The internet, this supposed boon to the flow of information and freedom, along with Big Data has changed all of that. Not that it’s impossible but meaningful change is much more difficult now.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I watched a doc about North Korea the other day and was amazed how much far they’ve gone over the past few years. Very disturbing. They’ve been able to almost completely lock down their borders and slow down outside information to a bare trickle. Spitballing numbers here, but they went from thousands of defectors per year to just 60 each of the past couple years. China used Covid to amp up their own surveillance in sending defectors back, but NK made their border physically near impossible to cross.

    • Suthenboy

      Must state the first, most obvious mistake: Life, Liberty and happiness. Really guys? C’mon, what the fuck is happiness?
      Life, Liberty and Property. There, fixed it for you.

      Second: No term limits. An aristocratic style ruling class is inevitable without term limits.

      • The Last American Hero

        It’s inevitable period, but term limits may tap the brakes a little. They haven’t done squat for states that have them except make politicians play musical chairs and increase the power of the bureaucracy since the pols don’t have the institutional knowledge and rely on the bureaucrats even more than before.

      • Ted S.

        It was the pursuit of happiness, not happiness.

      • Suthenboy

        Chasing a ghost. In any case it is meaningless.
        They just could not bring themselves to secure property….though that may have problems as well.
        So we get sky-high taxes and eminent domain.

  16. Gender Traitor

    Just realized I spent the entire afternoon rather intensely interacting with people IRL – first, a long lunch with an old college friend who now lives in the Twin Cities but is visiting her sister and BIL in a southern Dayton ‘burb, then a brief visit with my sister who’s home from the hospital recovering from back surgery earlier in the week. That’s more one-on-one in-person conversation than I’m used to at one stretch, so I’m even more tired than I usually am on a Friday evening.

    I think the antidote is to hang out here online with you all.

    (And for the record, I only drank half of the much-too-huge strawberry margarita at lunch. I am become an alcoweenie.)

    • Suthenboy

      “(And for the record, I only drank half of the much-too-huge strawberry margarita at lunch. I am become an alcoweenie.)”

      That is a bad road to get on. It only leads to one place.

      • Gender Traitor

        Sobriety?

      • R.J.

        …And meeting the new government standards for alcohol consumption. You don’t want to accidentally comply, do you?

      • Gender Traitor

        I’d have to significantly increase my drinking to get up to their ridiculously low upper limits, and I don’t feel inclined to do so. I guess I’ll just have to rebel in other ways.

        Maybe I’ll eat more beef.

      • Sean

  17. The Late P Brooks

    Corned beef (not the world’s best, but it will do) and Swiss on rye, with a big dose of Poupon style mustard.

    That’s better.

    • R.J.

      Nice. Got Chinese food here. Folding laundry all evening and then heading to Louisiana in the morning.

      • Suthenboy

        Re: Brooks
        Angel hair with mornay sauce…added a little sweet basil and garlic. Shrimp and flake crab meat added in.
        A nice salad on the side.

        *cooking for wife. I love cooking for my wife.

        Were I alone it would be a ham sandwich.

        Re: RJ
        Oh? Where in La?

      • R.J.

        Shreveport. My mom lives there. I’ll be there Saturday afternoon through Sunday.

      • Suthenboy

        Take her out to eat. Shreveport has a few and bossier city has more good places to eat.

      • R.J.

        She loves the restaurant “Biscottis” so I am taking her there. She is getting frail and I don’t think I can wait much longer to see her. She’s 92 now.

    • Aloysious

      That sounds tasty.

      All I have is leftovers and some Crown Royal Black.

      *looks at bottle*

      I had some Crown Royal Black.

  18. Brochettaward

    First two buckle your shoe
    First four better lock the door…

    • Suthenboy

      Choo-choo trains and endless wars. That is where the real graft is.
      We simultaneously whipped Germany, Japan, and Italy in 4 years, yet we just cant seem to win against cavemen throwing rocks. Why? I guess we will never know…such a brain-buster of a mystery.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Winning wars stops the $$$ flowing and we can’t have that.

      • Suthenboy

        Truth.
        20 years chasing goat fuckers around in various deserts and burying our children should tell us that.
        Clearly there enough idiots around that cant make the connection between their votes and the practical outcomes of shitty policies.

    • Tundra

      Wanna bet?

  19. KK, Non-Man

    Dog is begging me to go outside into the oven blast furnace devil’s asshole. All he’s going to do is pass, then lie down under the RV

    • KK, Non-Man

      *piss you motherfucking prude Puritan autocorrect

  20. Derpetologist

    I emailed Glenn Greenwald today and sent him a link to my blog and a document on my ordeal. As I was typing it, I got an email from my congress critter about the inquiry I filed. They are no updates. The timing of that email’s arrival was probably coincidental.

    Something really weird has been going on, and I will not rest until I get to the bottom of it.

  21. Tundra

    Hi Riven!

    “Jim Henson and Oz co-helmed The Dark Crystal before Oz’s solo directorial debut: The Muppets Take Manhattan”

    Muppets from Space was more my jam.

    Have a great weekend!

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Pursuit of the illusion of happiness.

    • Suthenboy

      My pursuit of happiness was mentioned above – to be in a financial position that allows me to tell everyone to fuck off and leave me alone.
      I have largely achieved that.

  23. Fourscore

    My son is here visiting, lives in Austin. We really have different life styles. Lots of things some city folk don’t know and maybe vice versa.

    He is a true believer in “renewables” but hasn’t figured in night solar energy and no wind turbines that seem to materialize out on private land for free.

    He’s a good kid but 61 ought to be long enough to figure some things out. Hydro power, not understanding there’s not much left to dam up and even those are politically precarious.

    Jimbo pointed to a local article last week of how we are sitting on a serious quantity of manganese here but between the conservationists and NIMBYs struggling to keep the development from happening the rare earth is somehow going to materialize and it’ll be two Teslas in every garage..

    Sometimes I just don’t know what happened.

    • Sean

      “He’s a good kid but 61 ought to be long enough to figure some things out. ”

      Lol.

      • Lackadaisical

        Really gets the noggin joggin. Everyone is a kid to fourscore.

    • Suthenboy

      Not everyone is a cold-hearted rational person that thinks things out. Some people have feelings.

    • Homple

      Hormel Austin, or Texas Austin?

  24. R.J.

    I am watching the Spirit Halloween movie of all things. It’s a showcase for their animatronics and stores with a passable story line. It would be good for pre-teens. Christopher Lloyd is in it!
    I feel like I must be one of maybe 100 people who have ever seen this.

  25. Lackadaisical

    “barrelmancer,” someone who collects flammable barrels, then sets them off to create a daisy chain of explosions.

    A daisy chain for Satan?

    https://youtu.be/uZ62SWoR6AM

    I, for one, really appreciate the gaming looks Riven, thanks.

    • rhywun

      Oh hell yeah. I lived that song in college.

  26. The Late P Brooks

    Hydro power, not understanding there’s not much left to dam up and even those are politically precarious.

    They’re dynamiting dams in the Pacific northwest. Because fish justice.

    • Suthenboy

      …and simultaneously commanding everyone to purchase an electric car.

      Everything the left does causes serious problems and to fix them the moron voters demand more leftist policies. This is how you get hell on earth.

    • The Bearded Hobbit

      The little town that my folks lived in, Thompson Falls, MT, had a small hydroelectric dam, producing about 100MW. That is the equivalent of about 100 windmills with the exception that the dam was 24/7/365 and the windmills only work sporadically. Enough for 20,000 homes, continuously, day or night.

      The population of TF is only about 1100 people which means that the dam is a net exporter of power.

      Kinda like how the US used to be.

  27. Tres Cool

    Hey from Atlanta-Hartsfield terminal C
    After a hellish week I hope to be home by midnight.
    Flying back here on Monday…

  28. Evan from Evansville

    Well I had a big thing written out but I forgot I wasn’t logged in. Bye-bye comment.

    Good news: Xrays came back and my titanium shunt/hip don’t seem to be damaged. The cracked femur affect it! So I still have existential broken-femur pain, but I get to avoid the two worst things: A) Worst case–They use this time to replace my titanium replacement with…a new titanium replacement 2.0; B) they insert a titanium bone and screw in the misaligned bones/stem, etc.

    The best option is the one we’re going with! Cuz nothing seems too much out of whack, we’re letting my bone just heal itself. Gotta be extra mindful about every movement. Stairs are the most dangerous part of my day. Haven’t even considered driving yet.