thefncrow

They announced two new people coming on board. One of them is LizzyF, who is a GG member despite the fact that she got doxxed and had that passed around on baphomet. The other is Brandon Morse, a right-wing blogger who founded the site Misfit Politics (which looks like its been abandoned because the last post was from June 2014). Here's a post of his that's on the front page: Brutally Honest Things I (and other men) Truly Think About “Feminism.” In case you don't want to click that link (and I wouldn't blame you), here's his last paragraph which sums up what a shit he is pretty nicely:

I've not played a lot, but I have been trying to squeeze in matches where I can. PSN ID is thefncrow

That really hit kinda hard last night. I ended up re-listening to his last appearance on You Made It Weird, where he was very open and honest on how bad his addiction had gotten. It's somewhat difficult to listen to now, because it's got this gallows humor to it, these stories that are humorous in the context of how fucked up he was but he's sought treatment and is getting better, and that context is gone now. At one point he says something like "I have to be really careful now that I went up to heroin, because it means a relapse could kill me", and I had to stop the podcast for a bit. Just a tragic death.

I haven't noticed that, but there was a time when I'd noticed how much Jeff used "at the end of the day" and it was beginning to drive me nuts. He seems to use it less now, thankfully.

It's also playing into a narrative that Gamergaters have been trying to play up for some time. Because "law enforcement suggests you shut up" (not true), that means publicizing the threats you get means that you're just trying to achieve "professional victim" status and proves that you're not taking the threats seriously (because if you were, you would have approached police who are going to supposedly tell you not to do that). It was a really big thing when we were only a month or two into GG, specifically against Anita if I'm remembering this mess correctly. You're publicizing that you got threats, which means you're not really taking the threats seriously, so they don't really count. I don't doubt that a police officer might have actually said that to Levine, but it was probably just the officer offering a personal opinion and not official departmental advice. Much in the way that numerous women have tried to report harassment to police only to be told "Well, just stay off the internet."

Pretty sure Rorie already recognized it, and I think maybe Danny too. I watched that first video before seeing the mailbag where he said he was gonna do that. Took like 2 of his questions to make me realize what he was doing.

I've made the same decision to not buy games from developers involved in this. The only game that's actually had me worrying that I might really be missing out is Offworld Trading Company. It seems like a really cool game, and I'm left torn between wanting to promote a cool non-combat-focused game from Soren Johnson and the reality that Brad Wardell is President of Mohawk Games and the game is being published by Stardock.

The new demo derby gets really amazing when they get into the old E3 footage.

Ken Levine's been back at it since that article was written: To people who have noted, hey, you haven't exactly spoken up about this: It's sad. Guys, I've sat here and gone out on such an incredible limb to say things like "harassment is bad", and still that's not enough? What is this going to take? Alternatively, are you sure we couldn't just get you all to shut up instead?

Another terminal round of stupid seems to be going around. I was just trying to write something to kinda contextualize that link. The only thing I got was what I just posted, and then I saw you just dropped it here. It's kinda breathtaking how stupid this latest round of shit is, even in the context of what has come before.

Reading about the gamergate SVU episode makes me really glad I went to the Anita lecture instead of getting suckered into watching that really gross sounding trash. Yeah, apparently. Saw a description of the end of the episode that someone posted on NeoGAF: Another tweet from Zoe a little earlier right as the episode ended:

Actually, this is good timing. It's expected that our Republican-controlled legislature is going to pass concealed campus carry this term, which could have created a Utah State type scenario where campus officials couldn't prohibit firearms from the event.

As it turns out, Anita's speaking at my alma mater tonight. I really wonder if assholes are going to turn up, especially with knowing some shitheads from my time there, one of our more infamous graduates being in the news (the Silk Road guy), and the way baphomet has been attacking people involved in that guy's trial.

I've been almost totally out on comics lately, but since I'm seeing nothing about the one thing I'm actually still reading, man, is Multiversity ever a really fun and interesting read. That Watchmen issue is gorgeous.

If you only caught the end, you probably missed the part where Drew snapped and just got up and walked off, calling to switch places with Jason. He then ran the feed while sliding in pictures of garbage (garbage can, pile of garbage, Garbage the band).He ended up coming back to play the last few turns.

GB's hiring someone in the New York office to replace Patrick. I believe Jeff said they were going to start running interviews right after the Christmas/New Year break, and they're a big corporation, so they're probably somewhere around a third of the way to halfway through that hiring process. In my dreams, Cara Ellison gets that spot and her, Vinny, and Alex produce some amazing content.

My grandfather always made these great fried potatoes that were a sort of half chip half French fry. Cut the potato into coin-like shapes (no need to peel them), and then fry the pieces in oil, flipping them as necessary. When they're done, place them on a thick paper towel and pat down the other side to remove any oil that remains. The thinner you cut them, the crispier they get. There's a good medium where you get some good crunch on the outside while keeping some thickness to give you a good French Fry-like interior.

About the SVU episode, my big fear about that is that the way they've set it up around a product launch means that they might try to make their big plot twist a revelation that the developer faked the harassment / is otherwise involved in creating the harassment in order to drum up publicity to try and drive sales.

I think the more interesting Citizen Kane anecdote is that Dan is the owner of a Film Studies degree who has never seen Citizen Kane. Also, he has only seen the first half of The Godfather because he turned it off for being boring.

The Branagh version is good, if you have the time for it. That one is using the unabridged text, which pushes the run time to right at 4 hours. The biggest complaint I have with it is that the final scene gets kinda ridiculous to the point of being silly, but overall it's very good.

Catching up, man, that Chait piece is really ugly. But I don't know if I would have expected much less from Jon Chait, who spent the vast majority of his career writing for The ("Even The Liberal") New Republic. Who would have thought that someone that spent 15 years penning columns for a magazine focused on the interests of the centrist and corporatist elements of the Democratic Party would write a piece that strongly criticizes the progressive elements of the Liberal community and suggests that historically marginalized people need to quiet up so they don't ruin it. Alex Pareene's article on Gawker fairly sums it up, I think: It has about as much credibility as Rush Limbaugh complaining about how argumentative pundits spewing anger and hate speech have ruined the civility of politics Maybe Chait has somehow seen the light and this column signifies him changing his ways, but the way the article both fits the paradigm of so much of what came out of The New Republic and doesn't display even a modicum of self-awareness, I'm not exactly holding out hope. As you can probably tell, I had a rather low opinion of Chait going into seeing that article, and that didn't exactly improve things. I actually erased this post earlier and was just going to move on, but it just got under my skin.

Only watched part of the GB quick look at the game so far, but I was amused that one of the early quest givers is a guy named Brecken. First thought immediately after seeing that was just "F Brecken".

Actually, that's not the guy. If you go to 1:02:20, that's the guy, he actually gets out a somewhat coherent version of the question described, the whole time trying to lay a deliberate subtext of "aren't you just trying to kill video games".

Haha, holy shit. I remember seeing this tweet from Leigh just after she was talking about that presentation. Without running through the rest of this Q&A, I bet that's the guy asking that question. I can imagine why that guy would try to save face after watching that video.

I almost bought a six-pack of that. I actually like chocolate-y stouts (Lakewood Temptress is one of my favorite beers, even though it's really a Milk Stout that just tastes chocolate-y), but I decided I actually have enough beer and held back. Still want to try it, but I kinda doubt it's going to match up to the incredible local stuff I've been drinking lately.