With spring (ostensibly) here, the weather is supposed to be improving, and things are supposed to start blooming. Not quite there yet up here on the North coast, but there’s buds on the maple trees, and the birds are bothering me during the work day again. I’ll apologize in advance if some of these links may have been in the Monday or Tuesday posts, as I was out and about those days. To compound that, I’ve got tickets to a show tonight.
I’ve been watching Daredevil: Born Again, and… it’s not that great. Strange pacing issues, lots of strange character moments, Vanessa being a different character than the Vanessa from the Netflix shows, subplots that don’t seem to advance any plots (but did try to create a sympathetic petty criminal).
*clears throat*
Not to defend the publishers here, but I doubt this is going to make games better or cheaper.
On the other hand, while I’m not the biggest fan of their writing, I have enjoyed their games.
When you’ve lost PC Gamer…
I’ve already got my lifetime pass.
Well, if a Crimson Tide receiver says it!
Every once in a while, I come across something to share that will angry some people up.
To balance that out, a piece I enjoyed about research funding going forward.
In a world with closed captioning, this seems to be a waste.
Would this make him a Pirate King?
And my AX! (Note the spelling, this is not the terrible body spray)
For the cocktail this week, I’ll be going to an old one that has survived the test of time, and has been considered one of the core cocktails in the world.
The Sidecar
- 6 parts (1.5 oz) Cognac
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) orange liquor (Cointreau is the standard, but any orange liquor will do)
- 3 parts (0.75 oz) lemon juice
To make this drink, park a coup or Nick and Nora glass in the freezer to start with (we’ll get back to it, if you’re like me, you’ve already got a couple glasses in the freezer already). Fill a small tray with some sugar (you want something fine for this, you’re going to rim the glass). Get your glass out of the freezer, and put it down in the tray with sugar. If you’re in an area with any humidity, your glass should pick up a sugar rim, otherwise, rinse the rim in water (or orange liquor, or orange juice, or lemon juice or…) and then put it in the sugar tray. Into a shaker goes ice and the ingredients, which get shaken until chilled, and then strained into the glass. To really class it up, add an orange twist to the top (with the oils expressed over the glass of course).
With that, I hope you enjoy your weekend.
You tease! I was expecting the Federal Reserve being dismantled and Ron Paul getting to do the Dance of Joy.
Not cheaper… maybe better if most/all of the devs don’t suffer from burnout from prolonged “crunch time” in releases.
But that’s being the most generous I can be and assuming they only get goals such as reasonable hours and decent pay and all. You start trotting out “Organizing Change” on me — and I’m immediately thinking you’re Code of Conduct style enforcing Commies trying to get an in… which would completely suck even more than the current crop of “artists” trying to act out their politics, yeah.
The video game publisher/dev world is an interesting one to me (not just because I play the games) because of how quickly things seem to move. You’ve got the big publishers/devs releasing their iterative content (EA, Ubisoft, Square-Enix, etc.) constantly chasing whatever the last trend was (loot boxes, live service, always online, day 1 DLC, etc.) and seem to be where good studios go to die (Bioware, Maxis, Westwood, Origin, and those are JUST EA). Meanwhile, you’ve got dedicated teams (like Larian) coming up with huge games that get critical acclaim and outsell everything from the big guys. You’ve also got the solo and really small devs who manage to hit the right combination of systems, graphics, and timing to get huge (Balatro, Minecraft, Slay the Spire, etc.).
Of course, I also rarely pay full price for games anymore (the backlog looms large), so I’m not the target audience for most of the big guys.
Yeah, if they “succeed” it will make the games worse and more expensive. Because that is the point.
That an infectious disease specialist would say that after what the NIH did during the COVID era merely cements his status as a bought-and-paid-for company man.
Yep, he’s fearless now that he’s basically retired.
Pappas caught a few balls, scored a couple of late TDs and won the Ray Perkins award for most improved receiver.
Dude caught three passes for his career.
Which doesn’t effect his (nonsense) point one way or the other, but let’s not paint him as some big time gridiron hero.
I own 2 of them apparently (BG3 and Divinity). I haven’t been able to get through either (I suspect first act in both cases). Maybe their difficulty curve / combat just isn’t for me… I don’t know… I just uninstalled BG3 to cut down on SSD usage because I realized I hadn’t come back to it in months and wasn’t feeling like I would…
Divinity Original Sin (and D; OS 2) both have very steep difficulty spikes if you aren’t doing nearly everything you can and are just trying to explore and progress. BG3 was better about that, but relied on D&D 5E rules, which they merged with some of the ideas from the D:OS series.
I’d say all of three of the games feature third act issues, some jank, and lean towards tactical and min/maxers for combat. I also really really really hate the way they do stealth systems, inventory, and looting.
That’s probably part of it (I don’t care for 5E from what I can tell… just seems overly complex for no real increase in fun — and I’m really not a min/max’er). Very much a “wander around and see what I can find and hope I can run if I need to”… which BG1 and 2 did well. 3 even on the initial map and on “Easy” mode seems to lock you into things if you try exploring too much (if I remember right my last save was because I apparently am locked into pissing off a Hag which is now practically a Deity Level Witch or something because I dared to talk to some idiot in a swamp….
SDF-7:
Yeah, if you look online for those three games, you’ll see maps with “recommended level” coloration over the various areas. While I appreciate the wide open world, I feel like they could have included a couple more guardrail type encounters for that (especially at the lower levels).
Then again, I usually start any RPG with a character, play for an hour or two to get a feel for the game, and then start over (having an idea of the systems, how they work, and what I enjoyed more).
I don’t play in that elevated world but in my world the vast majority of games are single-player and of course they are not “dead”.
Cue all the teachers on social media losing their minds (again). The defense of the DOE seems to be that it does a lot of really important things that don’t translate to higher test scores, graduation rates, or other things that are supposed to happen in schools.
On the bright side, kids are now proficient in identifying at least 45 of both genders.
Came in late, but I can step on my own links:
Most Americans won’t even notice if Department of Education disappears, expert says
Yeah… the overall performance by just about every metric I can think of since the DOE was instantiated certainly means they can’t point to any of the stuff it was supposed to do as “Good”.
I’m going to guess that 99.44% of them have *no idea* what the DOE actually does but are just parroting what their union newsletter tells them to.
What I’ve seen is a curated list or even a meme. You’d think teachers in the trenches would be bitching about the higher-ups making more money than they do.
The DOE educates. How can you be against that?
Trump didn’t actually do anything long lasting, though, and it will be right back the minute a democrat is elected.
All fake.
It’s easier to destroy than create.
But long term I agree. Team Blue will rebuild and reinforce.
On a positive note, it’s also the 5 year anniversary of WFH.
Lent, you say?
I remember that other guy who said, “Friends, Glibs, and STEVE SMITH, Lent me your ears…”
Or something like that.
STEVE SMITH SAYS LEND ME YOUR REARS!
I say, “Send me your beers!”
What about the
illiteratereading-challengeddeafhearing-challenged, huh? Did you ever think about THEIR needs?I considered that, I expect if they’re illiterate, they probably don’t know ASL either.
Bad assumption.
The day care that my great grandson is going to is teaching babies sign language as part of the everyday communication with the babies. The combination of voice and gesture seems to work well.
As I understand it, the basic elements of sign language have nothing to do with written words.
kinnath:
Then I stand (well sit actually) corrected. I figured written English would be more widespread, as a standard. I also was under (perhaps the mistaken) impression that not all deaf people know or learn ASL.
U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli of Ohio says he plans to introduce legislation that would codify the executive order that President Donald Trump signed yesterday to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.
Massie already did it, and I’ll bet Massie’s bill is better than anything Rulli will do.
It really was a time when totalitarian leftists were sitting pretty, wasn’t it. I try not to stew, it’s just too much.
It got me two days of WFH a week that I never expected to have for the remainder of my working days.
It’s the only thing that helps take the edge off of all the other harm that it’s done. OTH – I was back in the office literally years before some other people.
*cue DeNiro “I never left”*
DeNiro is always left.
DeNiro is always DeNiro.
The sidecar is a wonderful cocktail.
Bought one at a bar last year and it cost me $14. A bargain.
Columbia folded like a cheap suit.
Bonus:
Was this really so wrong?
To be fair, the rot at many schools goes way beyond those departments.
But it is nice to finally see some attention being paid to the “scholars” who caused most of the problems.
A Columbia senior administrator said the school considered legal options to challenge the Trump team but ultimately determined the federal government has so many available levers to claw back money, it would be a difficult fight. Additionally the school believed there was considerable overlap between needed campus changes and Trump’s demands.
We both know you’re a whore, At this point we’re just quibbling about the price.
We like sucking dick and if we can get paid to suck federal dick it just “overlaps” with what we want to do.
Having creamed chicken* for dinner. Since my mom’s living with us now, I figure I should start cooking again. Green beans with bacon and baked potatoes. Good ol’ country comfort food.
*I don’t know where this concoction came from. I know it was an expensive dish when I was a kid, and likely not much less expensive now, so we only got it when I requested it for my birthday dinner some years.
In addition Columbia will develop a free K-12 curriculum on topics such as how to have difficult conversations and foster open inquiry.
Chapter One: “Shut up, they explained.”
They could try that in the economics and political science departments too!
Is there really a need for further chapters after One?
Good ol’ country comfort food.
Yum.
There has been no denunciation of those who drove lockdowns and distancing and toddler masking. These public health bureaucrats should be run out of their jobs and never be allowed to set any policy (or “make recommendations”) again. Randi Weingarten should not have any job that has any bearing on children’s lives.
I stand and applaud
When the county public health cat lady shows up on the news (and she is absolutely the stereotype you think she is), I am always disgusted that she still has a job after her catastrophic performance during the Plague. I mean, she was just an off the shelf, middle of the herd, public health official, no worse (and Allah knows no better) than most. But they were all catastrophically bad, and did enormous damage.
Awwww, cheer up, Mr. Ilium!
Well, they are stuck in Toledo/Cleveland
Friday Funbags will squeeze around the shaft of your week and bring it to an explosive finish.
https://archive.is/8uTw0
re COVID lockdowns: Fuck, they were evil. In every capacity. The US was ‘officially’ locked down March 15, 2020. That’s six months after The Incident, recovering from a coma and ‘relearning’ who my family was. March 15,+/- one day, is also when I steadfastly returned to Korea. (Way too soon, but not the point. I wasn’t ready and had to return Stateside after maybe four months.
Trying to rediscover life, in pretty ‘basic,’ ‘fundamental’ ways, when the rest of the nation was masked up and bubbled in further aggravated the process, like the world was purposefully trying to make my existence harder, more dependent upon the precious Say-So of the political clergy.
How pliantly ‘accepting’ people were of the lockdowns revealed a massive stain deep in the human psyche. Add a bit of fear, real or not, and humans quickly revert to ‘needing’ Daddy to make things All Better. Even as the bullshit unraveled, continued belief in the nonsense and lies was necessary for people to swallow the pill that they’d been played like the Devil and his fiddle. And how happily they danced. Thanks for showing your true selves, scared-y-cats. It’s been duly noted.
COVID was the epitome of dumbass human shit. The human design flaw of zealotry, fanaticism and craving to be ruled was on full display.
We get older and we get fancier toys but we don’t fundamentally change from our flawed firmware.
Hardware version 2025.3
Firmware Version b0.8
“inflating the salaries of the little armies of self-aggrandizing political commissars with titles like Associate Vice Assistant Deanlet of Advancing Excellence”
My BIL was a computer science prof for several decades. Got plenty of grants, but the vast bulk of grant money went to the bureaucrats.