Cylusthevirus

Aren’t most farms corporate operations now?

Tea. Just make tea. You’ve effectively ruled out almost everything else.

I got to visit Scotland once and was told in no uncertain terms that we were not to refer to the weather as “cold.”

It might be brisk. It might even be bracing. But never cold. Has to be something to it.

Hah, my mom fell for this shit from letter that circulated around. Dumbest shit ever.

All due to Sodium Erythorbate.

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I did a version of this during the height of the pandemic where I hung up a big old clothesline in the front yard and pinned dozens of full size bars to it. Always interesting to see which ones get taken; Twix and KitKat proved the most popular. And the line wasn’t empty at night’s end! Our neighborhood kids are sweet.

Here’s the bit that chills me:

Representatives from the Kremlin, the Russian defense ministry, and the Russian embassy to the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the issue.

If they’re not denying it immediately that says they think there’s some utility in not doing so.

Yes, clearly the only people that don’t like commies are fascists, like all of those people who lived under nominally “communist” regimes. Weird how they developed fascism from the experience.

Off topic but I love that people still remember Space Ghost Coast to Coast.

Okay but Obama with Spike Spiegel’s hair though.

I really do try to model the behavior and stay home when I’m ill. I had Shingles and Hand, Foot and Mouth this year, so they’ve seen me call out (I was happier before I knew that viral orchitis was a thing and also, boy does it suck to get a shingles out break near your bloody eye).

Well I’ve told them and behaved that way to suit. It’s been a bloody year. Also we’re public sector, so it’s not like we’re going to be downsized out of nowhere.

Okay so here’s what I don’t get. I run a small team of 10. I am SUPER cool about people calling in. I don’t give people grief for it. I don’t have ridiculous performance expectations. I get that timelines have to slip when people call in. Even my upper management is pretty sane.

YET PEOPLE STILL COME IN SICK. WHY?!?

Motherfucker you’re in a union shop with 8 hours sick leave a month and 10+ hours of vacation time per month AND at least 3 floating days you can use whenever AND other leave benefits. Most of you assholes are sitting on like 200-500+ hours of leave in your banks. I tell people to take care of themselves and their families first on the regular. The hell else am I supposed to do? Give people a gold star and a BJ for calling in sick? Keep your goddamned plague at home.

As scientists age, they begin exhibiting symptoms like takes on why other disciplines are totally doing it wrong, and how whole fields of study are bogus. Please take care of your scientist as they approach end of life. Particularly noticeable in Physicists, but found in most STEM fields.

Aren’t all hands meat hands?

In Japan. One of the least religious nations on earth.

Italian American Immigrants, sure.

Luckily nobody said there were zero well design AAA games, only that I don’t much care if the big studios eat each other. You can always make another studio. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again. This isn’t like car manufacturing where startups face overwhelming costs and regulatory burdens to begin work. Get some capital, hire some good devs, come up with a thoughtful concept, and people will pay for it. Shit, they’ll pay for virtual goods with no expectation of seeing a finished game (coughStarCitizencough).

but there are experiences that cannot be replicated in the indie sphere at the moment

The key phrase there being “at the moment.” And frankly the reverse is a lot more true for more enduring reasons. AAA development is entirely too invested in graphical fidelity at the expense of everything else and entirely too beholden to shareholders to take meaningful risks.

I do not give one tiny, insignificant shit what corpo entertainment goons do to each other or what hats they wear and neither should you. Blizzard as you knew it has been dead for years. This acquisition means nothing. The people that made the Blizzard you knew great can make their own company and probably will if they’re still working. Stop caring about companies and start caring about the human beings that make good games. Remember their names, look at who they work for.

Game dev has to grow up just like Film did and you can expect the same market driven patterns to emerge. Indies take risks, the big boys iterate on the formulas they establish, and occasionally they stumble into something legitimately good. So it goes.

But for every big budget film that’s good, you’ll have a dozen Michael Bay style 'splosion and lens flare fests. That’s the expected pattern.

Do people still like the shambling husk that is Blizzard at this point? I’ve been playing their games since Rock N’ Roll Racing and they’re not even close to the same company anymore.

Let them eat each other. I’ll be over here playing indie games with actual depth, real care, still getting updates for free years down the line.