Bjorn

Necrodancer is great. I played it every day for a couple of weeks, then decided to put it away for awhile and let them finish it before I go back.

Oh man, that's great!

We watched Maleficent for the second time tonight, since its out on disc now. I originally wrote up a bunch of thoughts in the Feminism thread, if you're interested in my original take on it. It is a movie that has really grown on me since seeing it in the theater, whereas I was really ambivalent about it originally. I think when I first saw it, I was in such shock at the themes it was dealing with, and how they were presented, that I was distracted for about two-thirds of the movie just analyzing it. This time, knowing full well what would happen, it was much easier to just indulge the spectacle of it. I'm just amazed that it exists at all.

Getting Real Platinum God would have to qualify (unlocking all items, finding all items in a game and completing every achievement).

Also, humanism or claiming to be for some general "equality" are concepts that are historically breathtaking in their ability to exclude significant portions of humanity. Like everyone who isn't a man. Or everyone who isn't white (see, "All men are created equal" for the perfect example of both). So there's some historical justification for creating a new word/philosophy instead. I also think there's plenty of modern day evidence to show that there are people who adopt the humanist label specifically to try and mask their opposition to the goals of feminism.

Yeah, overall I thought it was an interesting attempt at a different take on the horror genre, but ultimately wasn't terribly successful. I think the best thing it did to convey your age was just the toddler shadow you had.

Ben, I really appreciate your deep dives on the media's misuse of deep dive.

Yeah, but this makes XIII look straight up reserved and demure by comparison. I was hoping for another baby step of progress, not a Nestea plunge back into pandering sexist design.

And a Merry Christmas to one and all!

Big KiA thread about some game on Steam trying to get a negative review removed. Weird, this doesn't look like it has anything to do with ethics in gaming journalism. Shit like this happens all the time, I wonder why they're interested in this case? Oh, one half of the dev team is a woman. Right.

So I've been on Welbutrin (generic) for a little over two weeks now, and it's been an interesting experience. I've never taken any kind of anti-depressant or any mood/behavior altering drug before. I kind of feel myself shifting in baby steps in positive ways, but there are two areas where I've seen rapid change. First, I'm still smoking, but I don't think I'm getting much or anything out of it anymore and I'm just naturally smoking less. Which is weird. I've been smoking a pack a day or more for the better part of 20 years. I went a little over fours this evening without a smoke (dinner and a movie with non-smoking family), and didn't even really crave a smoke once I got back home, just had one out of habit. This is the most optimistic I've ever been about quitting. Second, I'm actually getting tired and going to bed in the evenings. I've been a rather notorious night owl forever, its rare that I'm in bed before 2 a.m. I'm finding myself actually tired and wanting to go to bed much earlier (probably still late for a lot of folks, but midnight is super early for me). But I am having super vivid dreams, which my dad had warned me was his biggest side effect when he used Welbutrin to quit smoking a number of years ago. I haven't consistently remembered my dreams for years, but in the last two weeks I've been waking up to very clear memories of very weird dreams almost every morning. I was really nervous about starting to take any drug like this, but its feeling like it was the right thing to do, even if there hasn't been a big change in my mood or energy level yet. The better sleep and stopping smoking will hopefully pay dividends of their own as well over time. :tup:

That's really, really pretty.

I mostly loathe reddit, mostly because of the abhorrent and hypocritical stands on some things. And yet I still find it occasionally useful, and hate myself for that. Every single thing he wrote applies equally and moreso to the guy who runs 8chan. And yet, no acknowledgement of that in the slightest.

Saw the third Hobbit tonight, and there was a satisfactory amount of dwarves. Always could have been more, but they got to take center stage in a lot of scenes in a bunch of ways that they hadn't previously. They get to ride warpigs and wargoats and be generally dwarf badasses. It was actually my favorite of the three movies, but then I didn't particularly care for the first two, so the bar was set low.

I wonder how different (if any) online dating is now versus the 10-15 years ago when I was using it, at the kind of dawn of mainstream acknowledgement of internet dating. Hell, I think a lot of the most popular dating sites now didn't even exist when I was doing it. Oh man, and it was before the widespread adoption of digital cameras. So many profiles with no photo, or with these tiny, blurry thumbnail photos. Or photos that had been scanned in...poorly. Also, all of the profile highlights mentioned were common even then. I never had anything close to a serious relationship out of online dating, but I have to say it was generally more fun than not. Had some good dates, and some good stories about bad dates.

Terry Gross says something similar to this during her interview with Koenig. It's an interesting listen, if you still want to hear and think more about Serial. But other than a few of Koenig's reactions to things (like its popularity or parodies of it), there's not much meat there.

I cleaned up the post a bit more to try and make it even more clear. Also, for people who don't even want to click on the reddit archives, here's a taste of the kind of apologia going on (and this is only part of it, there's plenty, this isn't really cherry picking):

goddamit Squeenix. You make Cid a woman, and then you dress her like that? Ugh.

Totally understandable, but all the links are safe. The first link is to foldablehuman's twitter timeline. The second two links are archives of KiA threads about this, the first one with their attempt to organize a mass report and the second is one of the worst examples of a child porn apologist in a KiA thread. I'll label them in the original post to be clear.

Christ on a cracker. There have been accusations for...well, as long as its been up, that 8chan is a hive of child porn, which gamergate supporters all deny, insisting that 8chan operates within the technical law of the US, is a free speech advocate, rapidly takes down all illegal content, etc. @foldablehuman (Twitter) decided to catalog the kinds of posts that are rampant on 8chan in a Medium post. You can find a link to the Medium post in his Twitter timeline, I won't link to it here. He blurred all the images, but some people still might find it too disturbing. He included examples of both text and image, explaining how most of the images are *technically* legal in the US, though they are illegal in other countries, and would certainly be considered exploitative and obscene given the context they exist in. KiA is losing their shit. They are actively (Reddit archive) trying to organize a mob for mass reporting foldablehuman and srhbutts to both US and Canadian law enforcement agencies for collecting and distributing child porn. You can find child porn apologists (Reddit archive) all throughout the KiA threads on this (but it's about freeeeeeeeee speeeeeeeech and the ethics of child porn.....wait, wut?). Also, you can find a bunch of posts about what "sick fucks" these two are for having the audacity to go to 8chan and look at what is publicly hosted there. I really didn't think gamergate could get more disgusting or insane.

Edit: Dammit, apparently I can't embed the Bandcamp player here. Twelve Fights of Christmas O, Poly Night

I actually watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure recently. Good, dumb fun. It arguably holds up a lot better than some other 80s movies.

I finally remembered to try out P.T. tonight. I'm not sure I've ever been as unnerved by a game as I was this. Got to the fourth or fifth loop and decided I didn't need to play anymore right before I went to bed. The three glasses of wine I had with supper and playing cards might have had something to do with it. I'm going to blame that.

Because non-CGI Keanu Reeves is convincing?

I think you're right, but I don't accept that as explanation, if that makes sense. She dove pretty deep on the personal lives of a bunch of people that weren't authority figures, who pushed back against her and who are still alive. That she did none of that with the authority figures stands out to me quite a bit. I listened to every episode, a few of them twice, and I would have been hard pressed to have named the prosecutor, judge or the detectives. But I know the names of everyone else by heart. On a completely different angle, I do want to say how impressed I am by the amount of work Koenig put in. I've mostly written about criticisms of Serial (because I think they're pretty interesting to talk about), but I don't want to diminish the magnitude of what Koenig and company did either. I doubt many people realize how grueling and exhausting this work can be over an extended amount of time, nor the unique stress and pressure involved. I covered one murder trial in-depth (multiple months and stories on the same case) when I was working as a reporter. Calling the mother of a dead girl is the single worst thing professionally I've ever had to do. I'm not sure I've ever been racked by guilt or self-doubt as much as I was on that piece.