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The tiles burst the Tuesday before last. Luckily, even though here it was the orthodox Easter week, I got a couple of contractors to help me strip the damaged part of the floor and pour a layer of concrete. Once dry I painted it white, then added colours to have some orientation. I then threw forks down and sprayed outlines. And spend a couple of days painting faces for the cats from morning 'till way after midnight. Then spread a few hundred actual wooden forks painted as cats over it. The floor hasn't hardened yet, so all I got is a peak of the shiny new floor. I am leaving it overnight and am going to shine it tomorrow then varnish it to protect it from sunlight.

I've been continuing on with my very first BG3 playthrough and am now, finally after months!, almost at the end, about to head out to the final confrontation. And, nothing has changed in my view of the game. As I've said before, the game is fantastic on such things as graphics, cinematics, and cut scenes, the game is very big, and its main story is quite epic and compelling (though with some questionable areas). But in so many other ways, ways that are much more important to a CRPG, it is a weak game. Most of the companions were not at all likeable, with the mild exceptions only of Karlach and, surprisingly, Minthara. The rest were all whiney, angst-ridden prima donnas. I especially hated what they had done to both Jaheira and Minsc, and was utterly appalled by the "new canon" for Viconia. The side quests were meh, and a lot of the areas in Act II were a slog. Despite the claim that combat encounters were/would be fewer in number and more interesting, I found the number of encounters to be no less/different than in any other RTwP RPG and, as I'd expected for TB combat, very frustrating and aggravating and boring. Thankfully, due to mods allowing me to go with larger parties, I was able to breeze through virtually every combat encounter within 2-3 rounds. Not being able to "pause" the game during real-time exploration was a huge pain, especially when trying to be stealthy (and being forced to go into TB mode), as was how party movement is set up, with, for example, party members walking through traps and mines they themselves just announced having discovered. And the UIs were atrocious across the board. The quick access bar was surely the worst, but other UIs were pretty bad/non-intuitive as well, including inventory management. This is not by any means an exhaustive list of the ways the game falls short, but covers some of the biggest failings in my personal opinion. My rating of the game would be a C+ (77/100).

Sadly, harsh despotisms often seem better able to withstand economic pressure than democracies, and the Iranian theocracy just crushed the political resistance. Politically, I think it's also question of how much the economic impact will sway the vote in this year's midterm election. This is an unpopular war with the American electorate, so there will likely be a stronger voter turnout as a result. Redacted could spend the last two years of his term dealing with the fallout.

In 4 hours it should be hardened and I'll be able to step inside. Then you'll be bombarded :P

melkathi probably has more creativity (not to mention energy) in one hair follicle than I have in my whole body. Will we get a picture of the cat-pattern for the floor?

Iran does have a rail line to China, so it's not like they are completely shut off. But yes it will hurt the Iranian people. It remains to be seen how long this blockade will last, especially given that this is hurting the world's economy.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/what-is-strait-hormuz-why-is-it-so-important-oil-2026-04-17/ So Iran has changed course after 5 days of the US blockade and opened the Straits to commercial shipping " Iran's foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz was open for all commercial vessels for the remainder of the U.S.-brokered 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, prompting a sharp fall in the price of oil. A senior Iranian official said all vessels, except for naval ships, would be able to sail through the strait but their plans needed to be coordinated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and ships transiting would be restricted to lanes Iran deemed safe. " They are expecting the US to now end its blockade on Iranian ports This is both understandable and expected because Iran relies on 80% of its total revenue for oil and gas sales on its ships using the Straits. So the US blockage will literally bring the entire Iranian economy to its knees. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. That's another sign how fragile the Iranian economy really is What is more interesting is analysts spent weeks discussing how the US could get Iran to reopen the Straits which has become its most successful and impactful strategy. Island invasions and "boots on the ground " were considered but no one thought of the obvious and easy approach. Just block the Straits, do what Iran is doing and block Iranian ships Like I mentioned in previous posts. Irans greatest weapon has also become its greatest weakness