Mostly kind chonky weirdo. Gentle nerd freak of the pacific north west. All nation states are vermin.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 24th, 2023

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  • I was just having a discussion with my family about recent union wins in the US, and when something good is a sign of how bad things must be. I suggested that there must be a german word for it, and my sister suggested maybe a chinese saying.

    If you like the category of ‘things that sound like german has a word for it’, look into the 4-character chinese sayings called chengyu. One of my favourites is ‘Melon Patch, Under Plum’, meaning something that is completely innocent but should be avoided because it looks really sketchy. Don’t tie your shoes in a melon patch or fix your hat under a plum tree.





  • The only thing I’ve found that helps is feeling like I achieved something worthwhile in my day. So after 6+ hours of video games it’ll be like 1am, I’ll yawn and suddenly think, oh I should get in a couple hours of writing. Whereas if I had already cleaned the house and emailed my family then I’ll be in bed by 11.

    It’s a problem where the solution is to not have the problem in the first place, which doesn’t help if you already have the problem.






  • I’m ~3/4s through my second playthrough and appreciating it more and more. Haven’t picked up the expansion yet either.

    I found it hits much harder with a female character. The Johnny Silverhand situation especially felt much more… metaphorically resonant? And Jackie feels more rogue-with-a-heart-of-gold when his best buddy is a woman.

    Quickhacks are OP but felt correctly haxx0r, mantis blades are super fun. I enjoyed the combat well enough. Cars are meh, but it’s cyberpunk so if you’re not riding a futuristic bike ala Akira you’re doing it wrong. And wiping out on a bike is great.

    The characterisation and world building are what really shine. I was reluctant to play the corpo background but it really makes the story sing.

    spoiler

    The first time you’re in a car with Judy she has a prominent tattoo that says “underwater where thoughts can breathe”. Then next mission or a while later her apartment has jellyfish looking paint splotches and an aquarium. It’s expanded on more explicitly later, but I really enjoy the way they pull together their characters.

    The scene with Takemura on the roof talking about Bakeneko is another moment that I enjoyed first playthrough and came to really appreciate a lot the second time. His food snobbery becomes quite endearing after he accidentally texts you his attempts to search for restaurants.






  • Jealous! My sister lived in that area and we went squirrel walking a few times on visits but I was never so lucky as to have one crawl over me.

    That walking up to you and standing up behavior - I’ve started to see that at a cemetery here in Portland that we walk around, but so far all the squirrels have waited a short distance away for food to be thrown to them.


  • Squirrels are just the best. If anyone goes to visit Taiwan - which I certainly recommend as strongly as possible - there’s a park in the capital Taipei called 2/28 Memorial Peace Park (二二八和平紀念公園).

    There are these gorgeous squirrels with red bellies that will eat nuts right out of your hand. They’ll come up to you, take a nut and then run off about midway up a tree. Using their back legs to hold onto the bark, they dangle head-down against the trunk, eating with their front paws. Then you look around and all the trees have these vertical furry tree-slug looking squirrels dangling against them. Just cuting it up cutefully.

    Red-bellied plumpers is what my wife and I called them. They’re just the best.


  • I personally believe that preserving a false and misleading picture of reality designed to trumpet a deranged cult that is working to make the world objectively worse for everyone including themselves is not acceptable.

    I would say, “Look mum I love you more than anything in the world but preserving some of these movies crosses an ethical line for me.

    Of course I grew up in a house of atheist jewish academics, so making and justifying personal ethical stances that contravene wider group stances is expected behavior in my family. And we take document preservation fairly seriously.