Tending the garden

I'm in the middle of Act 3 of #silksong, chasing down the four hearts, and I'm just ... tired? Every part feels like a slog to me now except the very small amount of new area exploration. Whee, it's another arena, this time with void enemies. Whee, it's a another long runback to a recycled boss. 😕

Counterpoint: No there are no actual demons, there is no spirit world or devil, and there cannot be real-world consequences. Mess with it all you like.

Haha I'm being Raptured! This is wonderful, ha ha goodbye losers [It is revealed that the events of the film Nope are happening to me] fuck shit

The thing MacOs introduced a while back where it added context guessing to the emoji menu is among the dumbest features ever added to an operating system.

It is just extremely unlikely I'm ever going to replay #Silksong. It's a really good game that just has too much shit in it I can't stand. Similar to Sekiro in that aspect. I'll get through it, be glad I did so, but I'll just watch it on YouTube if I ever want to relive it.

welcome autumn! 🍂 🎃

France: the most important thing for anyone immigrating to our country is that they get a job and contribute Also France: Yes, your work visa expired in June and the prolongation expires tomorrow, and the visa renewal application is still on step 2 out of 4 after six months. Why, is that a problem?

In case you're in the habit of ignoring LinkedIn's emails ... which you probably are ... note that they are changing their terms of service in November and defaulting AI training from user generated content to "on" for people in Europe. You can turn it off in your settings.

Finished my kit guitar! It plays pretty well and sounds just fine. The tuners suck and I'm going to replace them, but that's honestly my only complaint. Here's a "how it started / how it's going" comparison 😄

Nothing like doing your Duolingo while two French kids stand directly behind you and shout "mais c'est faciiiiile!" as you struggle to string together a basic sentence 😅

imo a fair conclusion to draw about dem leadership's obstinance in the face of revolt from their voters is that they'd rather win an intra-party fight with their left wing & their own voters than maximize potential electoral gains in the midterms

[silksong] hornet and lace doodles

This happens every time some company capitulates to the vocal minority of right wing assholes out there, and yet companies just keep doing it.

First coat of Danish oil (satin finish) applied to my kit stratocaster clone. I spent a bunch of time sanding and staining it previously. Won't win any awards but it looks nice enough!

I can't express in words how disappointed I am in the two Rhode Island senators who voted to approve the Charlie Kirk hagiography motion. Fuck you, Reed and Whitehouse. And fuck the rest of you, too. How is there not a single senator that's not a craven coward? Not one!

"Chris, why do you hate Tailwind?" Because this is an unreliable and difficult-to-read way to build things that requires way more refactoring when designs change than working with actual CSS classes. Having to hand-style every single piece of every single component misses the value of CSS entirely.

if there is one thing I've learned from a decade in sports analytics, it's that normal people have absolutely no fucking idea how percentages work

If you like the Black Keys but wish they were a little more ... heavy? Rough-edged? You might want to check out Reignwolf's 2019 album Hear Me Out. It's really good. open.spotify.com/album/6jPxwv... music.youtube.com/playlist?lis... music.apple.com/us/album/hea...

Paris is weird because it'll get hot but it almost never stays hot. The temperature at 7 AM is between 52 and 62 degrees F (11-16.5 C) like 10 months out of the year, and the other two months it's winter so ... maybe 42 - 52.

50 hours into #Silksong ... haven't even finished Act 2 yet. Gotta admit, I was ready for it to end ten hours ago. Nice game. Way too long, and padded out with way too much tedious platforming.

I've been to five of the top ten largest cities in France (six of the top eleven). Still to hit: Marseille, Lyon, Nice, Montpellier, Lille. Certainly seems like a trip to SE France is order. Three of five, and Lyon's kind of on the way.

A thing I love about stage acting is when mistakes FORCE an improv. We were doing the Odd Couple in high school & we had a door knock joke, but another actor left the door open. So I went "What were you people, raised in a barn?" and went and closed it. Director thanked me after the show.

I would Boycott Disney/ABC but there's literally nothing in my life to cancel or not-buy from them. I don't have Disney+. I haven't paid for a Marvel movie in like five years. I don't go to Disney World. etc. So effectively I don't exist to them and nothing I do will matter to them.

I think, every so often, about how the student protesters in South Korea figured out there was a finite supply of tear gas, and then staged retreating marches that caused police to burn off most of it, before the big "bring your auntie and kids" marches that ultimately toppled the dictatorship.

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

I've never heard the phrase "kidult" before today but it perfectly describes this current thing where as people grow up, they're increasingly refusing to put away childish things. I have mixed feelings about it, tbh.

A good way to start a software business, and I'm not joking about this, is to find an existing popular product that has gotten over-complex with time and build something similar that does fewer things very well. And then the cycle begins again.

I'm going to finish it but ultimately I do not think #Silksong is as good a game as Hollow Knight. It's a bigger and more varied game, with an even deeper story, which I appreciate. However, it leans too hard and too intentionally into difficulty and (much more of a problem) tedium at times.

I have never met anyone in real life who is 1/10th as concerned about trans people existing in public spaces as the media and politicians are. Most people, and I mean this in the most complimentary way possible, truly don't give a shit. You learn someone's pronouns and you go on with your life.

Hmm. The iPad Pro getting actual windowing is compelling. I might finally be able to use it as a personal laptop instead of just a very expensive sketchbook

I have all of the necessary skills to make a small video game myself. I can code, I can make reasonably nice-looking sprites or even 3D models, I can make music, etc. What I lack is the faith that I'd be good enough at those things to produce something decent. Also C# scares me.

A thing you gotta know about me is I will git gud if a fight is fun ... but I will cheese the shit out of a fight if it's not doing anything for me. The Forum? Not doing anything for me. Cheese strats it is. #Silksong

I may need to do a reset of who I'm following on here. My timeline is too much doomscroll. I understand that it's hard NOT to post about all this stuff, and I'm certainly guilty of it too, but I want to try to find and amplify more voices that are delivering positive news, fun lists, etc.

Registered for my TCF test on October 25th. It's a 95 minute French language test with oral and written comprehension, three writing sections, and a speaking-with-another human section. I'm trying to get certified at B1 level before the citizenship requirement goes up to B2 in January. 🤞

Was screwing around on my guitar before work this AM and came up with something I like but the more I think about it, the more I suspect it may be near-identical to the chorus of Jerry Cantrell's "I Cut You In"

obsessed

we're on the precipice of a universal antiviral medication, mRNA technology is out here curing cancers every other month, HIV is cureable AND preventable, renewables generate more energy now than fossil fuels worldwide and and more cost-effective, coral reefs are growing back all over the world rn

We could be 5 to 10 years from toothpaste that can regrow tooth enamel. The scales are beginning to tip in favor of Mars once sustaining life. We’ll potentially know for sure by 2040. The blue macaw is up to 160 individuals from an all-time low of 7, and confirmed to be breeding in the wild.

Charlotte and I try to avoid buying ziplock bags. They're bad for the environment and etc. But whenever we end up with a couple for one reason or another, we horde them like gold because they are SO USEFUL.

Looked at my data collections for state-backed activity. If the report were a picture:

A thing I've been thinking about for the past few days: Osama Bin Laden expressly said that the point of the 9/11 attacks was to destabilize and ultimately bring down the American empire. It feels like that mission is proceeding successfully. It's a slow burn, but it is very much burning.

Every state that doesn't ascribe to fascism should pass a version of this bill. If I have to show my papers to the Gestapo, the Gestapo needs to show me their face and their badge number.

Something beautiful for the weekend! An extraordinary Acheulean handaxe knapped around a fossil shell c. 500,000-300,000 years ago! The shell’s central display has been described as an example of aesthetic intention by the toolmaker. West Tofts, Norfolk. 📷 MAA Cambridge University #Archaeology

It’s time for the white community to stop playing the victim & have an uncomfortable conversation about violence, parental responsibility & the families raising the thugs causing all the white-on-white violence in Republican-controlled cities. Maybe it’s their culture Did I do it right?

"Your reward for completing this difficult platforming section is yet another combat arena" ... thanks, #Silksong.

Zero-point-zero percent shocked to learn the shooter was a right wing white kid. Shock of shocks, when you radicalize the shit out of mentally unwell people and give them unlimited access to firearms, some of them do unexpected and terrible things.

posters joking about charlie kirk were held to a higher standard than the wall street journal this week

Charlotte: is the governor of Utah republican? Me: does a bear shit in the woods? Charlotte: *laughing* ... thank you for reminding me of that *lovely* American expression