I really struggle to enjoy crafting in Subnautica. Something about it just feels clunky and/or a step removed from me, and I don’t engage with it very well.

I love long open-world games, but I also reached a certain point in TW3 where I just burned out. It was weird too, because up until that point I was getting anxious over how little map I had left to explore. Then boom, I just lost my drive. Maybe I subconsciously sabotaged it so that I wouldn’t run out of game. I’d really like to try again sometime.

THE CRAWLING CHAOS NYARLATHOTEP IS UPON US!

No, but I miss the days of smaller forums with user recognition. The last time I really recognized a user that wasn’t a mass repost bot was a user on the r/stalker (game) sub-reddit by the name of CeliceTheGreat. Every interaction and opinion we ever had were seemingly in solidarity with one another, and it was always a pleasure to encounter him on other subs occasionally. I doubt he was any more Russian than I am (American/Canadian), but I miss you, comrade, and think of you often.

Facebook.com

It’s so great, you guys… You would love it.

Thank you!

With or without the Google services, I bought my first Pixel years ago and have never looked back.

My wife and I just bought my first home this week. The market is fucking brutal. You think you’re getting in early to view a new listing and there are ten other realtors’ cards already on the kitchen table. Made the highest offer? Fuck you. This guy out of Vancouver offered market price with zero conditions. House is old as hell and really should have had an inspection. OH WELL! SUCK A DICK! 🤷

We wound up getting exactly what we had been waiting for. House was on the market for 13 hours, we were the first to make an offer, sellers accepted almost immediately. Inspection went well. Detached home in a cozy little cul-de-sac. Lush back yard with a high, solid fence. Dude, I can’t fucking wait. I’ve been in a townhouse with a back 40 that looks like the dormatories of a Russian mining complex.

I’ve tried to get into ESO multiple times, always hyping myself up to just ignore the combat/difficulty and pacing and do it for the story alone, but it wears me down quite quickly every time. The vibe is just entirely off in every way. It’s like playing with a cheap McDonald’s toy with stiff legs and a weird button that makes it move it’s arms vs. a licensed action figure.

Save for my issues with the lack of real risk or challenge anywhere outside of running end-game group content solo, I always get irritable with the weird class themes the developers went with. I think if they had three guardian base classes (Thief, Warrior, Mage) and allowed players to spend their limited pool of points into other Elder Scrolls trees (Destruction, Alteration, Restoration, Conjuration, Blunt, Blade, etc.) it could have been balanced well enough and felt true to what we’ve come to expect from that universe. But instead it feels like they made the game as an entirely different MMO, then at the last minute agreed to put an Elder Scrolls skin on it.

I’d like to be a Warrior with minor specialization in Restoration and Alteration, but if I want to play that sort or archetype I basically have to be a Templar who uses sun spells and does all of his fighting with aetherial javelins, maybe joining the Mage’s Guild or something to simulate some sort of Alteration type buffs. Or I roll a Dragonknight who is themed entirely around fire and lava spells. Or I run around labeled a Sorcerer and use daedric spells/buffs to simulate Alteration, and ignore the rest of that classes abilities to branch out into melee and armor abilities. It’s all just so convoluted and unusual.

Beautiful soundtrack, though… Moth, Butterfly and Torchbug really does things to my heart, and leaves me hopeful that even without Jeremy Soule, TES6 may still have the type of score it deserves.

I want to be positive and I’m trying to remain optimistic, but somehow I just know it in my bones that they’re going to further Fallout 4 the franchise and strip away even more skills and attributes. Hell, maybe they’ll get rid of dialogue entirely.

“Pewtin here’s got a job! Pewtin’s got prospects!”

Well, we ain’t usin’ Fop, goddamnit.

Mediocre? He’s the goddamn paterfamilias!

I remember seeing be was a guest on Rogan and thinking, “Oh, wow. I guess I’ll listen to Rogan again this one time to hear a Kennedy talking.”

Turns out it was right on fucking brand for Rogan.

Raw mushrooms dipped in Hidden Valley are pretty good… I love how they pop lightly when your teeth pass through them. You also can’t go wrong with a peanut butter and banana sandwich…

I have a copycat recipe for Taco Bells quesadilla sauce that is dirt cheap to make. I’ve probably made 30 liters of it in my lifetime. Smear that on a mini flour tortilla with some Great Value grilled chicken strips (no doubt made with tortured chickens to keep the price low) and a bit of shredded cheese (cheddar and monteray jack) and you’ve got one hell of a tasty quesadilla to fry up.

Here’s the recipe for the sauce. Let me know if you get around to making it. Would love to know what you think.

1 cup mayo (I use Helman’s 1/2 fat)

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp pickled jalapeno juice (from Old El Paso pickled jalapeños)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

A dash of salt

And how ever many diced pickled jalapeños you see fit

Ava Louise, for those curious. Her/her tits are… not really my thing… Like a Bratz doll with Thanksgiving turkeys stuffed into her chest.

I don’t recall ever interacting with my phone in my dreams.

Richard passed beyond the veil Tuesday morning. His brain was made into mince-meat. He poofed into a cloud of smoke and was carried away by a wayward zephyr, destined for the clearing at the end of the path.

My dad suffered a heart attack and died suddenly about a year ago. I’ve never been religious or very spiritual, but after his death I became a lot more open to peoples’ various ideas on the afterlife. There was such an unfair finality to losing him. I always feel as though he’s right there on speed dial, even at this moment, but when I go to reach out to him I’m reminded that he isn’t ever going to pick up even though he still feels close. It’s like he’s always on the tip of my tongue.

Of all the things I’ve read and heard in my exploration of the topic since, NDEs are hands-down the most comforting and convincing of them all. Even if it’s all some kind of grand and miraculous illusion that we endure across all cultures, with or without any physical brain activity, the thought of him finding peace and comfort in that moment of death and choosing not to return to his body is very beautiful to me. My dad lived a life or immense chronic pain. His leg was obliterated as a young man and reassembled with rods. He had degenerative disks in his spine, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. So many memories are of him whincing and breathing through pain. Of course he wouldn’t return to that battered and broken body.

So while it still feels shitty, and still feels unfair, I take solace in the thought of him shedding that shit, seeing his dad (suicide) and mom (cancer) with him again, and choosing to return to the ether, knowing full well that my mom, my brother, and myself will heal, and be okay, and reunite with him eventually too on the other side.

And when I die, even if it’s all a last-minute illusion, I hope it gives me the peace I need to let go too.

I don’t know if it’s still this way, but at the time I felt as though I had joined an empty cell on reddit and had to go through pages upon pages of potential subs/interests, many of which were vastly under-populated or duplicates from various other instances. It felt a bit like using a radio dial to find stations out in the static, and most of them weren’t interesting. I was using Jerboa and didn’t care much for it, but after Sync arrived my experience became nearly indistinguishable from reddit… except I’m not always stressed out and constantly dealing with inflammatory assholes and social confrontation.

Lemmy has definitely grown a lot since I arrived, though. I do miss niche communities, especially for old PC games that are no longer mainstream… But I haven’t been back to reddit since before the blackouts. It wasn’t good for my mental health.