Bjorn

Pi men unite!

The new rules and clarifications look great to me. It looks like they've taken the things that good Kickstarters already do, and mandated that everyone do some of those things (regular communication, honest communication, transparency about how funds are being spent). And it sets clearer expectations of what people should expect in the case that a project fails.

I can believe that. Pressure, obligation, expectation...not the makings of great sex for most people. Probably one of the most "adult" decisions I feel I've ever made was actually removing myself from the gene pool by getting snipped as early possible (some doctors won't do this for men below a certain age, in case they change their mind). It removed the burden of birth control from predominantly falling on any partners' shoulders and made sure I wouldn't have any accidents.

Well that's the most glorious thing I've seen all week.

I get stupidly excited when Kansas shows up in any kind of media, I think it's a pretty typical reaction when you are from someplace that doesn't typically get mainstream attention (unless it's for the dumb shit that my fellow Kansans do to get us in the news, in which case it's horrifyingly embarrassing).

Probably stole it from the neighbors. Fucking cats, can't trust 'em. Edited: QUALITY NEW PAGE POST!

It's both ridiculous and understandable, which says a lot about the state of games. This is the first video game KS I've backed that is (theoretically) 100 percent released and done. So given that, it seems like I really ought to dip right into it, warts and all.

Growing up in land of beef, seafood was literally an exotic and rare treat. A very common holiday bonus for a lot of people was to receive a side of beef (one half of a cow), enough beef to feed a family for many, many months, so even low income working folks often had the highest quality beef in the world (much like how great seafood is super cheap in the north east). I think that's one of the reasons I love seafood so much. My brain will always think it's exotic and special, even when it isn't.

:tup: That's a fantastic idea for a captcha.

Not a gif, but this is our youngest cat begging to come in this morning, after we didn't come to the door as quickly as she wanted.

It's kind of amazing that they decided to make a Final Fantasy x Clockwork Orange crossover, very gutsy and bold direction in our typically safe media environment.

It's out! I'll probably try to get some time in with it this weekend, I've mostly ignored the updates, beta, videos, everything. So I have no idea really what the game is like.

I really appreciated hearing Anita just hang out in a more relaxed environment and talk about things. I'm mostly only familiar with her from FemFreq, which is great, but tends to be very measured and near academic. It was a very humanizing episode for someone who has been so consistently dehumanized and demonized by other fans of our hobby. So thanks Thumbs, and thanks to Anita for being a guest host.

Yep, nothing so far has much changed my opinion from June when I played Ground Zeroes.

Most of my friends who are having kids are pushing (or past) 40, which is also crazy to me. Like, they're going to be almost retired by the time their kid graduates college. Having an empty nest at 37 is pretty much the best.

Thanks for the list, I remember watching Farscape when it was airing new, and alternating between thinking it was near unwatchable or one of the best things I had ever seen. It's nice to know that I wasn't crazy. The discussion on the 'cast makes me want to give it another shot. I think the obvious solution is to use profits to support charities, particularity educational funding for low income people. Most major corporations have charitable arms of some sort, whether it's for tax purposes, good will, marketing or because of a genuine interest in doing good. Both Warner Bros and Disney do (since they were both discussed). People who are interested in the works for historical or cultural reasons won't mind their purchase going to a good cause, and those buying it because they are racist dickbags will have to stomach knowing that their hard earned dollar is going to help make someone's life a little better.

I had no idea it was called Cincinnati Chili. There's one place in KC where that is the specialty, and it's the only place I've ever seen it. That restaurant is like stepping back in time, feels like it was opened 50s and hasn't been updated since. I just thought it was some old type of way to serve chili that no one else did anymore.

That's pretty much exactly how I've reacted over the last 10 years or so, once people started actually wanting kids. My own reaction is definitely tainted by my own lack of interest in having biological kids. Helping parent my wife's daughter was great, and I wouldn't trade that for the world, but I never had that drive to have a kid of my own, so the entire thing is a bit alien to me. Which ties back into the greater adulthood thing for me, because it seems like being an adult should also entail wanting kids or settling down into a particular family structure, which I've never really desired.

Somewhat related to becoming an adult, I still have one odd vestige left over from my much younger days, which is I don't know how to respond to most baby announcements. In my early 20s, usually when someone told me they were pregnant (or if a guy told me he had gotten a girl pregnant), it wasn't an occasion for joy. It was because birth control failed, or someone made a bad decision about not using a condom. So my reaction was usually, "Oh god, I'm so sorry, what are you guys going to do?" I also probably reacted that way because I'm a terrible person. Now, approaching middle age, almost everyone who tells me about a pregnancy is thrilled about it. These are all committed couples who want a baby. And yet, in the back of my brain, my reaction is still, "Oh god, I'm so sorry..."

I totally agree with that, but I also think it's fair for buyers to express some disappointment and frustration that it didn't pan out (as long as they aren't being dumb and hyperbolic about it...oh, wait, right, gamers).

Dammit, I did the thing that people do to me, saw a first name that I associate as being gendered (even though it doesn't have to be), and assumed it was a she, not a he. Yeah, I would have liked to have seen the piece continue a bit longer, with some more thoughts on it, as it's an interesting perspective on violent games in general, and TLOU specifically.

A fascinating piece about the experience of a conflict photographer playing The Last of Us while trying to photograph it as she he would an actual conflict.

Aimed at the shittiness around even being able to discuss police brutality in any kind of informed way because our law enforcement agencies and government have made sure that we don't actually have the data around these events.