chummer

Whenever I read titles or headlines complaining about social issues, I can't help but read it in the voice of Kristen Wiig's Aunt Linda character- the constantly exasperated movie critic. (I'd link a video, but it looks like NBC has been merciless in taking that stuff down everywhere.)

Recently I've been thinking about how people will sometimes throw out "Things have been getting better and they'll continue to do so" as some sort of point when discussing issues of justice. Specifically, how much of a bullshit thing it is to say because it ignores the hard work done by those who changed it. It was good to read it in such clear way. Incredible piece overall as well.

Couldn't help but think "Oh, it's enjoying some Nature Box treats."

I've been thinking about detailed character building in RPGs and how I have this anxiety about making terrible builds. I'm prone to play a little bit of one until I'm forced to make a decision, whereupon I'll stop the game and spend far too much time looking for guides that will make those decisions for me. It's not that I'm a perfectionist, it's rather that I don't want to find myself hours into the game and find that I've screwed myself over with decisions I made earlier. I'll even agonize over wondering if I've picked the right guide to follow. Thinking about this has led me to an epiphany about myself. I've been directionless for about 5 years now and I think it's because of this anxiety of making bad decisions; the idea that I'll have wasted time. This fear isn't completely unfounded. I spent a lot of time in my early to mid 20's working with kids in various capacities (YMCA, in-class tutor, after-school programs, caregiver to special needs kid) thinking I would work with children. Then one day I woke up and realized I didn't have the patience for them. I ended up with an English degree I had no idea what to do with and worked as a janitor. I'm now unemployed and my car officially gave up on me at the beginning of the year, so I don't have that either. I've considered a variety of careers and know I'm capable of doing any one of them, but I find that anxiety of making bad decisions creeping up on me. For instance, I've currently taken to tailoring as my grandpa (a tailor himself) recently passed away and I love making things. When I think about trying to live off of that though, all I can see are the ways it can go wrong. I also have to deal with my immediate problems of having to pay for stuff that I need. So, blurgh. On a tangential note, I also realized I have almost no interest in the idea of competing against other people, but love the idea of competing against myself, I think this is why I'm prone to learn things on my own like playing guitar, developing websites or even tailoring. The only challenge I'm into is challenging me. Not sure what to do with either of these revelations- just wanted to vent them. Now to apply to more jobs to get rejected from. :/

I'm cracking up, but mostly because I'm very much the same way. Do you find it disgusting as a habit itself or b/c of the shows you're listening to? I've made an effort to step away from just video game and comedy shows and start exploring other ones based on people I'm interested in hearing about (searching the store for an author or director's name, for instance). This way, at least I feel it's edifying and not just noise that I need. Lately I've been listening to 'casts while playing Mark of the Ninja, Minecraft, Luftrausers, and XCOM. I've already beat Mark of the Ninja when it came out, but I'm going back and completing all the optional objectives and setting different goals for myself; what a fantastic game that was.

I think this highlights the importance of speaking out. While silence may not be complicity, it is a sort of permission. The Thumbs got into it a bit in this week's episode regarding how claiming to be non-political is merely upholding the status quo. So if you have a platform, speak up, ya'll. Urgh. Glad they're publicly supporting her (as I just stated, it's important), but Tiny Tina and Far Cry 3's racism still leaves me with really bad associations with Burch and Yohalem. Mallory Ortberg is a national treasure.

So tangentially related to all the games bullshit going on these past couple weeks, Leigh Alexander has suggested people on Twitter use anime avatars in an effort to reclaim them from randos showing up on Twitter and spewing vitriol. Come back to us in your anime form, Merus!

So I've consciously made my Twitter feed one where feminist women are predominately speaking. At one point, one of those women started calling out a type of misogynist behavior that upon reflection, I found myself practicing. I was kind of surprised/disappointed at myself, but it made me really think about what the video's point got at: misogyny (along with racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc) is not some burden we can just throw off- it's more like a chronic disease we've gotten from existing in societies that still perpetuate those things. Neat distinction! I don't ever find myself talking about a thing's worth in terms of how 'accurate' it is, but if I ever do, this is definitely the route I'll take instead.

If you haven't watched this you should because at one point Mickey shotgun cocks a window wiper.

Burial At Sea: Episode 2 is done with. What a great piece of DLC. I'll criticize the ending again for indulging in the multi-verse stuff that I didn't find particularly interesting, but exploring Rapture again as a dank, creepy place was really good. This one was much more stealth-focused than Ep 1, but I feel that works well with the plasmids as I often used them to create chaos among enemies instead of running and gunning. The lead up to the ending also spares you from any combat at all, letting you dip into the story some more, which I really enjoyed. They tried to remove the racist treatment of Daisy, and while I don't think they pulled it off, at least they acknowledged that it was a problem. Playing this has got me thinking about BioShock 1 and how whenever I hear it spoken about, it's always in the context of the game's twist and commentary on choice. I never felt that was very substantial though and found the best part of BioShock was always the stylistic choices, incredible world, and stories that took place within that world. I feel like that's what all the DLC story pieces (including Minerva's Den) dive into and why'd I'd say they're the best BioShock things worth playing.

Finished Burial At Sea: Episode 1. I didn't like that the ending indulged in the dullest parts of Infinite, but I really liked the rest. Walking around pre-fall Rapture was easily my favorite bit, and the Fontaine Futuristics section tapped well into the creepy parts of BioShock 1. The combat is as dull as it has always been, but the way the game limits your resources was a neat bit of challenge; forced me to consider an encounter instead of just charging in and shooting off guns and plasmids pell mell. So, BioShock DLC continues to be the most interesting parts of BioShock games.

Damn it. That 'Wake Up America!' coffee had me laughing for a good while. What a dumb pun.

Death takes part in all our ends, friend. 0/5- did not find this review helpful.

Gentlemen, it already exists and you can get it for $1.

So Sierra Online's old HQ burned down in a wildfire. Is this part of Bobby Kotick's purging process? No, of course not. But it gives me a chuckle to imagine Kotick walking away from the building in slow motion as he throws a match over his shoulder or something.

Man. Ya'll already payed for your spot and he's swerving you? Sympathies.

But what does Ja Rule have to say about this?

Does anyone have links to some particularly good articles? I've gotten a few through Googling, but if there's ones that have particularly resonated w/ some of ya'll, I'd love to read them.

True. What I didn't clarify was that I hope it would get across to those people who aren't entrenched and invested in keeping the status quo. Just every-day people who are disgusted w/ the police behavior but haven't thought about the behavior in terms of race relations. That said: https://twitter.com/parabasis/status/500297642573045761

So I was watching a bit of this Livestream from Times Square as it ended. What seems to have happened is that the cops stopped the spontaneous march that grew out of the #NMOS14 vigil and arrested 4 or 5 people. They then managed to cut the march's steam by releasing people in small groups, keeping them from crowding up again and continuing the march. I heard one of the marchers talk about meeting up again at Union Square and starting another march, but I'm not sure if it happened or not. Checking out #NMOS14 on various social media sites, it's apparent that multiple major cities participated in the event and I'd recommend looking at it. I've been watching this whole thing from afar on and have been disturbed by police action, but watching these people's vigils across the country was the thing that kind of emotionally shook my cynicism. Yup. I wonder if this will get across to the people who are willing to listen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botafumeiro#Accidents Apparently not.

From Knytt Underground: I really like Nifflas' visual aesthetic.

Antonio French has on the ground footage and pictures of what's going down. God, I hope so.

Watched the pitch video, but I'm still not sure how I interact w/ the game. It uses a lot of the rhetoric of "choice-driven" video games w/o any of the details. That's not unique to this, but it's just frustrating when I see it.

Harshest call out. Am I the only one here who has almost always heard those phrases used as euphemisms for neurodivergent? When I was growing up, going on the 'special' bus or to the 'special' class was specifically used among my peers to mean so.