My other gaming hot take is that Zelda should have been old at the end of Breath of the Wild.

Just been reminded of my hot gaming take: Valve shouldn’t have made the HL2 episodes. Half-Life should have been an anthology series with Freeman at the centre, building up a grand narrative told over a much longer timescale.

AI cannot output art. Using LLMs to generate images or audio or video is simply the biggest loser behaviour imaginable, second only to knowingly consuming it and thinking it’s anything other than garbage. You’ve got all of recorded human history at your fingertips to engage with.

Whoever made this decision can sincerely throw themselves into a ditch.

Logging back into Bluesky to say that BBC Introducing West Midlands can absolutely get fucked for making an AI generated “song” song of the month. Livid.

Turns out Bluesky, while being better than most other social media platforms, is still pretty dull. Ah well.

Maturing as a guitarist is realising and accepting that your old cheap guitar is better than your new expensive one

Thomson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the US. The decision has big implications for the battle between generative AI companies and rightsholders.

Accidentally played a riff of mine while my guitar was in a different tuning and it immediately became twice as cool. Lydian mode is the best and I will fight you on that.

Listened to Rage Against the Machine’s first album for the first time in ages and couldn’t figure out why it sounded so much worse than I remembered. Turns out it was the Dolby Atmos mix, which sounds like a shit bizarro version. Turned off Atmos and we’re back in the real world.

I miss the internet

New recording set up, hu dis?

The best things so far in this round of Skyrim which I’d somehow never come across before are: the blind man’s book in Embershard Mine, and “I’ll just quickly grab that dog outside Falkreath - wait what the fuck?”

I’ve been playing Skyrim again recently, going through it on Survival mode, making a point to take things slowly and actually role play as a real person interacting with the world, and it’s incredible.

If you spend a lot of time thinking / worrying about all the art stuff you think you should be doing, take a step back and look at what you’re already doing without trying. Take a hint from your subconscious.

Started up a new game of Skyrim in survival mode and damn it if this game isn’t just evergreen. Janky as all hell but utterly sublime.

Okay 2025 is the year I make a website, what’s the best option out there for a total novice on a budget?

"Nazism? At this time of year, in this part of the hemisphere, localised entirely within a two-party system?" "...Yes" "May I flee it?" "No."

"Lynchian" is a fully realized and instantly comprehensible adjective, as concrete a one-word summation of an artist's aesthetic and worldview as has ever been associated with any artist in any medium. Things will forever be Lynchian, but there was only one David Lynch. #RIP

David Lynch is the perfect exemplar of making art for yourself without a care for an audience, what a hero. Rest in peace.

Seems like a good time to post this excellent advice which I only became aware of very recently from @willdixonmusic.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lRE...

This is cool. A guy's ring door camera captured audio and video of a meteorite slamming into the ground, possibly for the first time ever. www.iflscience.com/for-possibly...

Impressively acrobatic murder

Realising I can run Apple Music on my Xbox to listen to my running playlist while playing Titanfall makes getting dunked on more bearable

Musicians struggling with GAS: please stop and learn to love what you’ve got, I can’t tell you how relieved I am to realise the guitar I’ve had since I was 15 is as good as any I’ve been lusting after.

No film should be allowed to be more than 3 hours long. The only exceptions are: the Lord of the Rings extended editions (release the 20hr versions you cowards), Avengers Endgame (they earned the right to indulge), and RRR (the greatest achievement in film history).

Every now and then I remember that Metal Arms: Glitch in the System never got a sequel or a remake and I get sad. One of the all time great AA titles from the peak of creativity in console gaming

PMQs is a national embarrassment. Not today’s specifically but the entire thing, the jeering and cheering has always been gross, and the entire concept is pointless and achieves nothing.

Got a frankly insane deal on a guitar pedal I’ve wanted to re-buy ever since I sold my original one. Pretty sure I’ve made money in the process of owning two versions of it

Not only is my partner moving in with me in the next couple of months, but a couple of my best friends is about to view a flat literally in my building!

Crazy how even after 14 years Minecraft is still the best video game

Hot take people like to say that having to work is what keeps us from being artists but I stg you’ll never meet someone less interested in making music than a musician who actually has the time to do it

The whole album is great sure, but there are a few parts of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess which are genuinely euphoric in a way I’ve not experienced since hearing Le Fleur in a club for the first time

Titanfall 2 had better still be playable online in a decade’s time because I’ll still be playing it. Minecraft too, if that ever dies I’ll be so mad.

@nytimes.com this is the most niche deep cut crossword clue I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t be happier to know the answer immediately

Zuckerberg scrapping fact-checking while promising to deliberately flood his sites with even more AI slop is a wild move and I for one cannot wait to see it all crumble. He didn’t lose enough money on the Metaverse nonsense, time for the rest of it.

My Instagram Suggested feed is just ads, and my Following feed is just friends self promoting. Feels like no one is just making stuff for the sake of it on there anymore. Is that why YouTube still appeals the most to me?

New sofa being delivered today, a prime opportunity to confront how dirty the carpet is in that corner of the living room and do nothing about it

Man I really want to get a CRT TV and play Minecraft on it

First gig of the year coming up this Friday - my first time on stage with Space Planet Mission: an improvised science fiction story! If you love #improv and live in #london come along! www.thefreeassociation.co.uk/fashowslist/...

All I’m asking for is the ability to never use Instagram ever again without compromising any aspect of what little creative career I have.

I don’t understand the appeal of relic’d guitars, why on earth would you want a guitar which looks artificially old?

Rewatched 1917 with @samakain.bsky.social and christ I remember it being good but not THAT good. Absolutely stunning film.

If the dead internet did not exist it would be necessary to invent it

Been reading about the Meta AI plans and Jesus Christ I’ve never encountered anything more depressing in relation to social media

Ash in Pokémon 2000:

Hive is a great little game, especially when played with some 0.0% Innis & Gunn in Glasgow

Die Hard isn't a Christmas movie because of the setting. It's a Christmas movie because it has The Christmas Plot: A man who is neglecting his family to focus on work learns What Really Matters through an improbable crisis around the holidays and rededicates himself to his wife and kids

In 2024 I failed to really create any of the art I wanted to. I planned a lot, oh boy I made a whole bunch of detailed plans, and I sorted out my workflow to show myself how easy it is to make what I want to make, but I didn’t then follow through and CREATE.