Tbf, the Europeans have some pretty fucked cryptid lore, it’s just that they’re more chaotic neutral and less chaotic vengeance than the American variety. My favorite american cryptid is an old one you don’t hear much of anymore, and was born from Pacific NorthWest loggers: the Hide Behind. Basically, this mf stalks your shit and will always duck behind a tree when you turn to look at it; it’s fast enough to never be seen clearly, but you can just catch glimpses of it if you’re fast/lucky. Eventually, it catches and eats unwitting loggers who let it sneak up on them.

Edit: I also like the deer stories. One of my all time favs was a free text about a deer stumbling up the street very clearly saying “BEEP BEEP BEEP” like a car being unlocked, followed by “Honey, I’m home!” over and over. That was the whole story, just a weird fucking deer stumbling up the street and talking to itself. 10/10 would gladly read again.

Nice. Good to see another fan in the wild. That season was so good

Is your username Taako_Tuesday as in The The Adventure Zone character?

I love 4x games, but playing a game of Stellaris for a week or more just to realize that I’ve inescapably fucked up and lost the game is disheartening. I just don’t have the bandwidth to spend 40 hours per match. Yeah, you can make 4x games run a lot shorter, but it usually feels like you’re doing something crazy to the game.

Agreed, 15 was a huge let down for me because I didn’t take a college course on the lore and watch the movie and all that, so I just kinda went through it like “okay, and…?” And then the game ended.

I would have bought 7 rebirth by now, but a full priced game is a bit of a lift for me ATM. 16 was really good, imo, and comfortably exceeded my expectations.

Agreed. We’ve built a society where you’re largely only allowed to exist in public as a consumer.

I was discussing this whole “safer with a bear” thing with my wife earlier, and she agreed that it was more about the bear will almost always just fuck off and leave you alone. Imo, the problem is the lack of social (third) spaces in the West, particularly anglo-North America. The only places left where you can encounter a potential romantic partner are in their home or in a place of business, and both are generally unacceptable for romantic solicitation. We’ve even managed to largely flush the Internet as a meaningful third space. So, folks are left with the choice of committing a social faux pas or being lonely, which is kind of a shit choice.

If we brought back third spaces whose sole purpose was socializing and community-building, we’d probably see stuff like the “safer with bear” sentiment disappate.

But what if I’m a big huge baby about it, what then?

Unfunny, boomer, asshole, tries to sound cool, smart, and above everyone else, pretty sure OP is actually Elon Musk. Hope you’ve enjoyed your welcome, Elon.

Holy shit, am I talking to Elon? Hey, buddy, I’m sure your dick is very cool, please stop laying people off

ITT: OP has a public skill issue as they claim to be funny

That’s hella cool. I remember talk as far back as the 90s that dolphins might actually have a meaningful language, but I thought those hypotheses just ran into dead ends.

IMO, this is one of the better arguments for parrots having some of the most human-like intelligence in the animal world outside of primates. Having had both toddlers and parrots, they do exhibit a lot of similarities in behavior patterns, and I could swear my kids have done exactly what this person describes their bird doing.

Yeah, “anyone can paint” is a big theme that Bob harped on a lot through the series run. He talks about it almost every episode, and that’s kind of the point of “the joy of painting”. It’s not a talent show, it’s to show you that it’s a lot more fun and less difficult than you might think.

I’d wager that’s the floor because a non-trivial portion of that 2-300 are bots or something.

Tsk’va!

This is hella cool, but I do want to say that it seems like there’s been a flood of news articles talking about how we’re sooooooo close to cracking plastic recycling and microplastics ever since the UN had that big push to try and regulate global plastic production. Seems like the industry is on a PR drive similar to the one for big carbon and oil; “no, you don’t need regulations, that’s ignorant, you’re being ignorant, a tech solution is just around the corner, we swear” etc. That’s primed me to view all “plastic solution” articles with more suspicion.

Been there. Senior dev told me not to write comments, but write self-documenting code instead.

Didn’t honor among thieves largely take place in waterdeep?