Help me pick my next game to play from among the many I have amassed: - Deus Ex Human Revolution - Deus Ex Mankind Divided - Death Stranding - Dishonored 2 - Prey - The Stanley Parable - The Talos Principle Or if there's a different one that's been free on Epic that's story-driven and not open world

Come on up to the house, man

I think the reason the ending of Mass Effect 3 feels unsatisfying is because the big reveal/choice feels like a massive false dilemma. I know we're supposed to believe the ancient computer child that the conflict is truly unresolvable, but I just spent 3 games resolving unresolvable conflicts.

TIL that William B Riley, one of the fathers of Evangelical Fundamentalism, was an antisemitic conspiracy theorist and Nazi sympathizer in the 30s. I guess in some ways it's nice to know that the things we're seeing now maybe aren't as unprecedented as they have seemed. The wheel of time turns, etc.

Oh to be a little Tardigrade walking across a microscopic slide. 🫧🐻🧪

This book is not just amazing for its titular audience, but it's also very effective cult deprogramming for people trying to heal from Fundamentalist Evangelicalism. Turns out emotionally immature parents and abusive religious leaders use a lot of the same control tactics, who knew?

My brain can't process the idea that 2025 was a terrible year because it's such a beautiful number! It just slides right off all the bad stuff and searches for the good with this compulsive conviction that such a nice clean number MUST have been one of the best years ever actually, deep down.

I was thinking about this the other day, BUT ALSO about how despite this, they do still give him character development and it's great.

I always forget how great the last season of Agents Of Shield is 🤣

The Mass Effect trilogy is like one of those animes where 90% of it is absolutely amazing, but then there's also this other 10% that makes it to where you can't just recommend it to your friends without some disclaimers.

I saw the first Narnia movie in a packed theater of other college students, and right at the big climactic battle, the audio cut out and was replaced by the between-movies-music, which was Manheim Steamroller, so one guy up front started doing sound effects for all the animals and it was hilarious.

Time for that dead man to finally wake up

Almost done replaying the Mass Effect Trilogy, and my biggest takeaway has been how much I DON'T miss cutting-edge graphics. ME3 looks great (aside from some goofy face models and pre-mo-cap animations), and it barely gets the fans going on my laptop.

Is this the Sparrow Racing League game I've been needing for a literal decade??

UM 👀 Neither of us had the presence of mind to take a photo until after he passed, but I'm case you can't make it out, this is a giant shopping cart on a car chassis with the driver sitting up in the handle

I remember learning in high school that the Grant presidency was notoriously the most corrupt administration in US history, and I'd LOVE to hear a historian/political scientist discuss whether or not that distinction still stands.

We went to the new Books A Million, and 1) I learned they are no longer publicly traded, which makes me feel much better about supporting them, 2) it was a pretty cool bookstore with a great selection! and 3) I'm LOVING what the BookTok explosion is doing for production value in publishing!

SKULL OF THOMAS AQUINAS: TAKE A LEFT NOW PRIEST: No, the GPS says we have to keep going— SKULL: I KNOW A SHORTCUT PRIEST: Do you remember the last ti— SKULL: FOR THOSE WITH FAITH, NO EVIDENCE IS NECESSARY; FOR THOSE WITHOUT IT, NO EVIDENCE WILL SUFFICE

Grave Of The Fireflies. I've always said it was one of the best movies I've ever watched and I never want to watch it again.

I miss Win 8/10's fully customizable start menu. I liked being able to label sections of the menu and put visual space around groups of icons to set them apart. The Win 11 menu is just a wrapping list and it's just a big bummer from an Information-Design/UX standpoint.

This is an extremely apt way of describing the modern US economy as I understand it.

The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service

There's not much I can say about Alan Turing's cryptography in WWII that Benadryl Cabbagepatch didn't already cover in "Imitation Game." But did you know he explained how the tiger got its stripes, why hair parts on one side & why your heart tilts to the left? Let's talk about Turing patterns.

Ok so the song "House Tour" by Sabrina Carpenter — a silly fun song ostensibly about the singer inviting her date in to see her house at the end of the night, but everything is double-entendres, EXCEPT for ONE LINE, which turns the song into some kind of indeterminate horror. Welcome to my Ted Talk:

EX— CUSE me, WHAT is going on with Youtube's layout???? I think this might actually be an intentionally adversarial layout to combat people like me who carefully place their cursor into the margin between videos while they scroll so as not to trigger the obnoxious mouse-over auto-play.

firefox AI and slop disablers from tumblr for the people from local hero mckitterick. Tried it on my end and the browser is significantly faster now (copy paste-able in the alt text)

Love it when I finally got the motivation to do some recording, set up all the equipment, and then someone starts using leaf blower outside.

Please read & repost❤️

I can't stop thinking about the talk Robin has with Will in the latest episode of Stranger Things. That was legitimately kinda revolutionary for me. I know people love to hate that show, and I'll grant that it's not always the most artful, but I don't think it deserves the derision it gets.

It's astounding to me how much of history has been shaped by influential men overconfidently starting their opinions as undisputed fact.

Good thread, helpful thread.

I just finished reading Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, and DANG, that was one of the best Sci-Fis I've ever read. I'm very excited that there's two more books. HIGHLY recommend.

I'm not the best at hearing it, but I don't think they autotuned For Good, and it sounds amazing??

HO LY CRAP This might be the most important thing I've read in my *entire life* for understanding modern evangelicalism. This is from a section talking about the Scofield Bible, which enshrined Fundamentalist and Dispensationalist theology in evangelicalism. My jaw literally dropped as I read this

I just saw someone in a video refer to games like Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, Redfall, Marvel's Avengers, etc. as "Executive Slop". I love that term so much that I think it should be used beyond just video games. We're surrounded by executive slop everyday.

Internet bread people are some of the absolute worst at effectively transferring information to others. Almost without fail, any bread recipe you find will be like a GBBO technical, with half the steps missing and absolutely no warning or tips about pitfalls or techniques you'll need to know

Let's bring back the ancient tradition of displaying our cool rocks

I have discovered a new worst ad in existence. YouTube now has ads for audiobooks that are literally just an AI voice reading from the book with AI pictures behind it, FOR 20 MINUTES. If you're not able to get to the skip button right away, it'll JUST KEEP GOING.

TIL the spread of Christian Fundamentalism was HEAVILY backed (we're talking more than $170M, adjusted for inflation) by an oil tycoon named Lyman Stewart, who personally funded the writing, printing, and distribution of most of its founding documents.

Breaking: Federal court blocks Texas from using new congressional gerrymander in 2026 midterms.

Last night I learned that the (very good) advice to read a book in bed as the last thing before going to sleep, in order to calm your brain before sleep, doesn't work if you're at a really intense, anxiety-ridden section of your book.

aHA, so it was D.L. Moody's fault!

I know I talk about Define The Great Line by Underoath a lot, but DAMN if it is not one of the best albums I've ever listened to. It's just somehow got this amazing emotional journey from depression and despair through to reclaiming courage and motivation to keep pushing forward again. It's amazing.

I think I've officially hit middle-age because I just googled to see if one of my favorite bands from college is doing a 20th-anniversary tour for one of their albums 💀

We lived in a pub when I was growing up and when I was 3 (50 years ago!) we had someone in to draw the pub for a business card. I sat next to him and watched him draw every line. I was transfixed and it was a huge inspiration for me. I’ve dreamt about owning that drawing for years…

Millennials are truly the IT generation.

It sucks going back and trying to rewatch classic movies and finding them just absolutely riddled with misogyny to the point that they're basically unwatchable.

One of the worst parts about being sick is how bored I get, because one part of my brain is still like, "Come on! Let's do something!!", but the rest of my brain feels like it's melting out of my ears.

HEB had Goya tamarind soda, which sounded too interesting to not try, and it's... very good