This made me laugh a lot. Well executed

Whilst not open source, I appreciate that the notes are locally stored in straightforward markdown. I no longer use Obsidian, but I appreciated how there was next to no platform lock-in (the only snag I experienced in moving to a different note taking approach was a couple of plugins that gave additional features. But that’s easy to avoid if portability of data is important)

I’m inclined to agree. I hate AI, and I especially hate artists and other creatives being shafted, but I’m increasingly doubtful that copyright is an effective way to ensure that they get their fair share (whether we’re talking about AI or otherwise).

I’ve been working at getting better at being mediocre at things. So far, it’s been a source of positive growth, but I do find it ironic how even when it comes to this, I feel compelled to frame it to myself as improving at a thing

Whilst the meme is overtly sexual, the underlying message of the meme isn’t necessarily: Some of the humour that I found in this meme was the idea that sex work is often particularly stigmatized in a way that I finds baffling, because in a sense, we’re all selling our bodies to avoid choking under capitalism (Though I realise the meme doesn’t invoke sex work specifically)

However, I do feel like invoking sex generally has a useful rhetorical function. The first thing I thought of upon seeing this meme was the idea of consent; it’s most frequently discussed in a sexual context, but I think the world would be better if consent were something we properly considered in other contexts to. Given that coerced consent isn’t consent, the meme causes me to question the extent to which I am consenting to the exchange of my labour for basic life necessities.

Granted, most people aren’t prone to overthinking memes to this extent, but also these aren’t necessarily things I’m consciously thinking when I see a meme like this. You may find this cringe, but different people respond to different kinds of messaging. I do also find it somewhat cringe, but in a self-aware manner, which, for me, negates much of the cringe. Besides that, I am (or historically have been) a prude, and because of this, memes that invoke sex in a glib manner helps to remind me to not take things so seriously.

This is all to say that your preferences are your own, and they’re as valid as anyone else’s in this space. However, for some people, dumb, crass memes are a part of their leftism. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be, for the people who find that useful.

Your comment has caused me to reflect on the early game, and I think I agree with you. I suspect I hadn’t noticed the slow early game because the catalyst for me playing the game was grieving a friend who had loved the game — this means that even if I had found it painfully slow, I would have been likely to push on regardless.

I’m trying to remember at what point it potentially gets better. It’s hard to say without knowing how far you got in (especially because it’s entirely possible that maybe you just didn’t jibe with this game (which is fine, because subjectivity is cool)); I remember part of what I enjoyed about the game was the general vibes.

That being said, going off the map above, I think the most engaging parts of the game for me happened after Boulder City. The world gets more content dense as you approach New Vegas, and I remember enjoying the anticipation as I got closer to the city, and how I was beginning to feel like I understood the various moving parts of the world better (such as the politics around the NCR).

So I think the short answer is that yes, it does pick up. If New Vegas seems like the kind of game you usually play, it might be worth giving it another crack (but I can’t gauge how far into the game it starts picking up, time-wise)

“Multiple new scylla songs too, Supergiant are spoiling us.”

Awesome. I love how catchy the Scylla songs are

Anyone who doesn’t understand this reference should consider playing Fallout: New Vegas, because it is a very good game

Perchance do you have autism and/or ADHD? I ask because I experience the same thing as you do, and for me, it feels like it derives from my autism/ADHD. Like, sometimes the first cue that I am severely dehydrated is that I get a headache. I get a similar thing with hunger, where I could legitimately go for multiple days without noticing I’m hungry if I don’t get reminded that food is a thing.

Risk and safety is on a spectrum. You’ve got a wide range of answers here, so I won’t go into depth on specifics, but the safest thing by far is to not take a phone at all. However, in practice, some people can’t do that. For example, a friend has a continuous blood glucose monitor that connects via Bluetooth. This affects the kinds of protests that they feel comfortable going to.

If you do opt to take a phone, there are things you can do to make yourself safer. Wiping the device beforehand can help, if you have a good backup. Turn off biometric authentication and have a strong password/pin. Airplane mode can help, as can a Faraday bag to blog signals (though DIY ones of those can have leak problems, I think). Also having a quick way to turn off your phone is good — there might be settings in your phone to make that easier. The reason for this is because your phone is harder to break into if it’s waking up from being turned off (i.e. before you put your pin in when booting up). However, even with precautions like this, it’s pretty damn hard to protect your device if it is confiscated and law enforcement is determined to get into it. This means that if you do take your phone, be extra mindful about doing anything that might make you of particular interest to law enforcement.

In addition to the personal risk angle, it’s also useful to consider the community risk. One of the ways that Bluetooth is used, for example, is to track the motions of crowds of people. The more people who are using their phones at a protest, the easier it is for them to be tracked and possibly controlled. This means that even if your security was perfect, you might be made vulnerable by someone being more careless with their privacy. Equally though, it means that you taking what steps you can helps make everyone a bit safer.

Thank you for the reminder that I’ve been meaning to buy a menstrual cup.

I like that having a controller gives me more versatility in my seating position when gaming. At my desk, I can use either the controller or mouse and keyboard. If I get tired in that position, the long wire on my controller means I can sit elsewhere and play (my desk is positioned such that I can just rotate my monitor and play it from my sofa if I want).

I also enjoy that a controller is more portable than my mouse and keyboard for playing games on my laptop when away from home.

This is horrifying and impressive in equal measure. Thanks for sharing, OP

I share your frustration. I went nuts about this the other day. It was in the context of searching on a discord server, rather than Google, but it was so aggravating because of the how the “I know better than you” is everywhere nowadays in tech. The discord server was a reading group, and I was searching for discussion regarding a recent book they’d studied, by someone named “Copi”. At first, I didn’t use quotation marks, and I found my results were swamped with messages that included the word “copy”. At this point I was fairly chill and just added quotation marks to my query to emphasise that it definitely was “Copi” I wanted. I still was swamped with messages with “copy”, and it drove me mad because there is literally no way to say “fucking use the terms I give you and not the ones you think I want”. The software example you give is a great example of when it would be real great to be able to have this ability.

TL;DR: Solidarity in rage

The early-mid game is one of my favourite gaming experiences of all time. It’s usually the most part of a survival/crafting game, but I was surprised by how well Subnautica was peppered intrigue.

As you and many others on this thread have said though, a mobile port seems odd. Even if the UI were reworked, I can’t imagine that players would be able to feel the same sense of awe that I associate with the game.

Nice. How long did it take you to write this comment? Whenever I attempt stuff like this, it takes far longer than expected because I overcomplicate things

No. I’m pretty burnt out.

Everything I read on burnout says that the best (only?) way to treat it is to reduce or remove whatever is causing such chronic, disproportionate stress. Unfortunately, much of my burnout is caused by the most basic aspects of living (partly because I have disabilities that make it hard to reliably fulfill my basic needs, even with support).

Given that cutting out the bad stuff isn’t an option, I’ve been trying to instead add more good stuff to my life, in hopes that it will increase my capacity and thus reduce my relative level of burnout. I’m so tremendously tired though. I’m trying so hard because I do want to live, and there are things I feel I can offer the world. However, sometimes, in my exhaustion, I find myself thinking wistfully about the depression I felt as a young adult — it was simpler when I genuinely and wholeheartedly wanted to die. In some ways, it was easier to be hopeless and merely staying alive for other people.

I’m just tired.

Is there a particular cut of beef that’s ideal for this?

I agree with both your original comment and the edit, but especially the bit about cast iron. Neglecting mine for an extended period led to uneven patches of seasoning, but when I got round to giving it a proper scrub, it was like hitting a reset button. I’m going to try to be better at basic seasoning/maintenance this time, but the joy of cast iron is knowing that it’s super forgiving if you do mess it up.

Tangential to your edit: I enjoy being able to sharpen knives, but that’s mostly because I’m a nerd who has other tools I need to sharpen anyway, so I already have the stones. Something that I found striking though is that when I was learning how to sharpen knives, I asked if I could practice on various friends’ kitchen knives. Most of them were poor students, so I sharpened many cheap knives, and I was impressed by how well some of the cheaper ones performed compared once they were sharp. They held their edge for surprisingly long too.

I’m quite fond of my Wusthof chef’s knife, which was a bit of an indulgent treat for myself, but I am utterly baffled by the gear acquisition syndrome that so many seem to fall into. It’s not just that prospect of someone who barely cooks buying a $300 knife that perplexes me, but that so many of these people keep acquiring more knives. If they said that collecting knives was just their hobby, and that they were never intending to actually use them, then I’d shrug and say fair enough. That’s pretty rare though — the underlying implication that these people seem to operate under is that the fancy knives make you a better cook (and that the perfect knife will make good cooking into an effortless, joyful endeavour). It’s an odd culture that’s developed.

Damn you all, because I’m now emotionally invested in this