I’m of two minds on this. I agree that fewer safe spaces for bigots is fantastic and pushes back against the normalization of some really vile things as “just an opinion”, “just joking”, “voicing all sides”, “making up funny stories about famous people”, “just boys being boys”, or other means of “criticizing” those in power.

However, we are ACTIVELY sliding down the slippery slope that people have been calling a fallacy for over a decade, and watching the same arguments used to create spaces free from the most hateful people on the internet get twisted and co-opted by those same people to ban and punish genuine criticism of atrocities and voices against abuses of power.

There are sacrifices with either choice more akin to a check in chess than an opportunity to choose a truly better outcome. Seeing all the good other Minecraft communities have done in making libraries and humanitarian resources available in creative ways gives me hope, but watching a government bedbuddy of a company like Microsoft start with the easy win of banning Nazis and bigots makes me really hope that thats truly their focus and not an opening to take out some of the amazing and creative workarounds people have done to combat censorship and human rights abuses in their own Minecraft way.

Lots of pink and teal and spots and sparkles….then that brownish spider. Spiders are awesome, but that one feels a little more redcap fey than tinkerbell fairy.

I’m disappointed I didn’t see a piracy parody of this before seeing this. Come on internet.

Gaming LoFi, Gaming Metal, Gaming Jazz, Space Folk

Nice! I read another of her’s without realizing it: The Loom saga. I enjoyed it and would read more. It seemed a lot less YA, though. So if it lines up to get it again, I’ll see how she handles that audience.

And perfect timing, it’s been a few since I checked on Lemmy.

One of my nephews asks about these sorts of things all the time. It’s a delight that he’s frequently interested in the answer. Usually I have to abstract it by a bit, but he’s smart and will often bring up my answers later.

Sounds very little like Shadow and Bone, but good try ChatGPT. Especially after the edit, so might have been an even better try initially.

It sounds like the world of Cinder Spires meets Shadow and Bone with a hint of Golden Compass, but not enough like any of them to remotely be a match.

How was that series? I almost picked it up via Audible sale, but I wasn’t sure at the time. It looked like it could have hit a few different levels of quality.

Adrian. Tchaikovsky. Children of Time.

If you don’t like spiders, he at least makes it hard to hate them.

Genuinely curious:

Is the author saying that ACO and VBC were decent ideas that got UHG’s fingers grafted into the legal structure, or are they just saying that ACO and VBC are bad in general?

And I knew that we had some awful structures within our healthcare system, but I LOATHE UHG and didn’t realize that they OWN our medical system. Disgusting.

I see someone has found the back alley of the Geoff’s Trash Anime restaurant.

The update has been queued for about a month on my work computer. No. I won’t do it.

Guess I’m no longer an Apple fan. Huh. I’m just locked in at this point. Switching would just spread my data around more and I’m already committed to not upgrading for a few years.

So Prey team made Redfall and Dishonored team is making the new Blade game? Good to know!

Been playing Dishonored for the first time and really enjoying it. I’m only at the bridge and trying to play a low/no kill game. I’m not succeeding just yet, but it’s been really enjoyable and they do stealth really well. I’m baffled that they mismanaged to get the team that made this and Prey to push out Redfall? Man.

Just picked up FFVII after the second or third hiatus or my third or fourth attempt to play it. FINALLY made it to the Nibelheim story and past Midgard. And that somehow still manages to work on me as a first time player.

Just beat Banner Saga 1 and have never felt so much like a failure after “beating” a game. That game is trying to unseat This War of Mine for decisions regretted/minute.

I’m wanting to start up my Nintendo series playthroughs again by either starting Mario Galaxy 2 or trying to remember what on earth was happening in Majora’s Mask (3DS) something about the water temple maybe?

Hmm…

So I only use Brave for YouTube. I definitely won’t be recommending it, but I’m torn between whether I’m being a leech of ad-free user generating what should be near zero revenue or if I’m being valuable as a number to ad to user counts.

I use “Observational Maintenance” all the time:

When you ask someone to look at a problem and it’s fixed by the time they do.

A friend showed me an issue they’d been having for over a YEAR. I did almost NOTHING and it was working by the time I looked at it.

More often than not it’s me that looks dumb, though.p

Never mind. See below.

I left last year having read exactly and barely my goal of 100 books (including manga, shorts, and mostly audio books) with no goal for 2023.

This year I had more in-office time plus a commute and am on track to have read a book for every 2 days in 2023 (183). Which…has now only become a goal in the last month or so.

Reserving books at the library and having short Audible Plus stints really drove urgency from time to time, especially where I struggle with visual reading. But I just found a lot of good books this year: 11 Tchaikovsky, 17 Pratchett, and 15 Sanderson-related (Dan Wells and Janci Patterson collabs), and lots of solid manga and sci-fi series that kept me juggling the next available book for a few series at a time. It’s been a ride and I’m only more excited for a lot of books and series in 2024.

So, I’m unsure if I should goal out fewer or more next year or just go with the flow again.

I beat Hyper Light Drifter for the first time. And I think I spent some time on the new Mario kart levels, though that might have been last week.

HLP is a fascinating game with a novel approach to gameplay and world building. A few controls issues annoyed me, but they were growing pains and not fully learning the system. I love games that use that particular art style. I think I’m doing Mario Galaxy next.

I’m trying to figure out my second Voucher game to get.

My top choices are: Arceus - I enjoy pokemon, but it sounds like a lot of “research” busy work. Pikmin 4 - I haven’t clicked with Pikmin demos previously, but the idea has always seemed pretty interesting if I’d let it go farther. Mario Wonder - feels shorter, and more peripheral to my interest, but I’ve heard great things. Xenoblade 3 - I’ve only played XBX before and not all the way through. RPGs aren’t completely my thing, but I’ve heard great things.

None of them are THE game I’m after with pros and cons to each. The decision paralysis is rough and I don’t see anything worth waiting for before May.