Got hooked on Warframe again. Been having a blast listening to audiobooks while playing around with different builds. Finally getting around to finishing The Jakarta Method and Mirage Men and re-listening to The Southern Reach as I haven’t got to Absolution yet.

They probably pre-gamed the interview by doing just that.

“Ehrm, it actually increases blood flow to my brain so I write into my contract that before any debate my opponent must give me uppie-spinnies.”

The real news is that the UK was even considering blocking the pedophile robot.

The personification of “what no theory does to a mfer”.

Don’t forget that he’s stated that he is not a communist, just someone who hates the USA. Which I can respect to a point, but that does mean that his unhinged rants have no material analysis. It’s literally just vibes based bullshit. Sometimes he’s right, more often than not he’s wrong.

Which is why he’s also been recently saying he hopes the USA invades Greenland because it will mean Europeans and Americans will kill each other. Except that the population of Greenland is nearly 90% Inuit.

Do what makes you happy, don’t think about that creep. If I saw someone with a Sgr A* tattoo I’d think it was cool as hell, I wouldn’t think of a weirdo billionaire blasted on ketamine.

I think the real problem is the refusal to actually progress the story and have a plan for that progress. WoW is a good example of this. They keep rehashing the same old shit with the same old characters that can’t really have any growth anymore because anytime they do the player base hates it and Blizzard backs down. So expansions basically become “what is this older expansion again, but with a twist!”. They never move on so they’re always trapped in this liminal comic book reality that just gets exhausting. I keep wanting to get back into retail WoW because I started playing with Warcraft 2 so I’ve got a lot of nostalgia and love for some of the story and characters, but I just get exhausted with them teasing character growth that never happens, a world that changes only superficially, needlessly convoluted end game systems, and one of the most toxic communities in gaming. I’m happy just mucking about in Classic with IRL friends for nostalgia anymore.

FFXIV is an example I like. I haven’t played since Endwalker because that felt like a true ending. I’m glad that it’s still going for people and I may jump back in at some point, but for now I’m fine.

Warframe has been doing a good job of keeping their story going with interesting stakes and good character development and progression. It’s the one that has my attention at the moment, but with any of these MMOs when it starts to feel like a chore I just let myself move on and I have plenty of books and other games also to break things up.

I’m probably missing some bit but from what I gather Gabriel Rockhill wrote a book titled “Who Paid the Pipers of Western Marxism?” that is about how Marxism in the west has been co-opted on purpose and distorted, specifically focusing on how anti-imperialism has been stripped from the discourse to defang theory in the west. This is probably a much better summary from the publisher, the book is high on my reading list but I haven’t got to it yet.

Now on to this Sebastian Budgen fellow. As if on queue he starts posting incoherent tirades calling Gabriel Rockhill a Stalinist specifically because of Gabriel’s examination of the lack of anti-imperialism in western Marxist thought in his book. Sebastian is a senior editor at Verso Books, a member of the editorial board of Historical Materialism, and a contributing editor to Jacobin. All three publications have a noticeable tendency to do exactly what Gabriel Rockhill’s book is about, remove the anti-imperialist elements of Marxist theory. I find it particularly amusing and not surprising in the slightest that at the slightest hint of criticism Sebastian throws an incoherent tantrum, on Facebook of all places, calling Gabriel an evil Stalinist. Oh and Sebastian bragged that he helped prevent the publication of Gabriel Rockhill’s book in France by using his connections to get a French publisher to stop their publishing deal with Gabriel.

That whole story is quite the intense read. Thanks for sharing!

I really enjoy the vibe of Returnal, but it is absolutely too difficult for me. I’ve never been great at quick reaction games. I don’t mind the difficulty, I love Dark Souls and Elden Ring, but in those games patience and being able to make a tankier build make up for what I lack in twitchy reflexes.

I still haven’t beaten Returnal, but I did find a slate of mods for the PC version that help with the difficulty without being flat out godmode cheats, so I absolutely plan to jump back in at some point using them.

I think Tremors is the one that sticks with me the most. Such a good movie, I watched it all the time growing up.

The end of the beginning of the beginning of the end of history.

I can’t sit my pets down and explain to them what chemo is or that they’re going to have an invasive surgery and may get better afterwards. All they know is that they love me, but they’re in pain. You may question it for a long time afterwards, but if they’re miserable and don’t understand why then keeping them around is more for your benefit than theirs.

I’ve spent way too much money getting care for a sick, young cat because I knew the pain would be temporary and they could get back to their bonded half and recover quickly and I’ve had to put down a dog that could have lived a few more years because their dementia had become so bad they were confused and lost constantly, even when in the same room as I was.

Compassion and love are always important, but you can’t explain to them why they’re in pain, only save them from needless suffering.

Fourteen Years of Flames. Looks quite good.

Sounds like a classic bait and switch.

Listen bro, listen. You gotta let us pump some sulfur into the atmosphere bro. It’s just temporary bro, just for a little while until we stop burning dino juice bro.

Would Jet Force Gemini and Legend of Dragoon count? I loved those games so much growing up. They had their good and bad, but man their bad could be real fuckin bad.

It’s a lot more recent but I love Civilization: Beyond Earth. It has its good and bad as well but I still love to spin it up now and again and mess around with it.

I knew something was off about all the Little Dark Age edits I’ve run across on YT but I never looked into it. Fucking nazis.

The legally distinct lightning bolts over the phones is a nice touch.

You lazy commie millennials wouldn’t understand the work ethic of a hot, red-blooded boomer trying to avoid spending any time with his abused and emotionally destroyed Karen of a wife whose only joy is now tormenting minimum wage workers and his kids who don’t talk to him anymore because he’s a brave patriot who speaks his mind and doesn’t give into the woke left.

If its a small jumpkin wouldn’t it be a jortkin?