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Didn't see one, so I figured I would create one, just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you lovely saints, sinners, heretics, heathens, faithful, lost and found people out there. I haven't been active online much the last month and a half, because crunch time and projects going live at years end. Comes with the profession Hope you guys are going to enjoy some time off with family, friends, loved ones or favourite spider pet, whatever you fancy

Happy Holidays indeed y'all! FYI https://forums.obsidian.net/announcement/74-happy-holidays/

But only about a month behind me playing it, so you are good, carants. Just be careful that you do Old Countries in a New World before Mystery if the Ancient Ruins. Anything else in the game you can progress and leave as you wish (the few times things are timed it will tell you). But if you progress those specific quests in a mix, you can get the game breaking bug I got.

Merry Christmas.

Happy horror days?

I guess we've reached the stage of occupation forces murdering people in broad daylight in Trump 2.0. Someone from Minnesota, like @Bartimaeus I believe, may correct me on it, but this is apparently a 15 walk from where George Floyd was suffocated. Really ****ed up, ICE needs to be abolished and Nuremberg 2 should happen for ICE specifically but probably the whole US government. It was.

Once upon a time, I reported one of Volourn's posts by saying that I and a few other people would start re-framing everything Volourn said as supporting dog-****ing if staff didn't tell him off for constantly re-framing everyone and everything he disagreed with as being or supporting Nazis, and while I never heard back from staff, he coincidentally decided to take his ball and leave the forums forever literally immediately after that. Food for thought, people.

640KB should be enough for anyone.

Spent all day fighting with my AI agents and not in a cool Matrix way. The only bright side is that our jobs are safe for now. Happy New Year!!!!!

I recommend drinking while playing.

A danceable rendition of a Christmas carol

Merry Christmas everyone and happy NY This is my best holiday of the year

Yes, of course. That's why I said "highly evolved AI systems." So, not current AI systems, which I agree are hugely limited (and biased) by their human creators and maintainers. I'm talking future AI systems that can truly think for themselves, and thereby overcome and reject the initial biases and bull**** their human creators input into them. But that's unfortunately a rather long way off, and very likely well after I'm dead and gone. Very sad.

The only people that AI should replace are CEOs and politicians.

and a Festivus for the rest of us!

Happy Holidays!

I did buy and install extra two 8GB sticks, adding my total RAM to 32. I am kinda glad I did it now.

There are ppl who still think the army, even the country, will revolt when the order comes to invade Canada.

People have been telling me this for about 30 years, I shall not relent!

Actually, that's very apropos, because this past summer... I'm funny about musicals: either they're they're great and wonderful...or they're the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole life. I do like my musicals to be more on the diegetic side broadly speaking, and Cabaret is one of the very few 100% diegetic musical movies that I know of, which makes its musical numbers quite lovely (albeit completely insane) to me. Combine that with the lead being loosely based off of Louise Brooks and it's difficult not to automatically like it. It's unfortunate that I don't have any of the two or three quotes from her book as a signature that I had for years right now... I might have to bring them back for the occasion. I've seen Louise Brooks' "A Girl in Every Port", "Beggars of Life", "Diary of a Lost Girl", "God's Gift to Women", "It's the Old Army Game", "Miss Europe", "Now We're in the Air", "Pandora's Box", "The Canary Murder Case", "The Show Off", and "Windy Riley Goes Hollywood", and despite the fact that most of them are somewhere between bad and terrible (with the major exceptions of the German Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl, and to a much lesser extent the American Beggars of Life and French Miss Europe which are alright and at least kind of interesting), they are not terrible because of Louise Brooks and I would love to uncover more of her lost, forgotten, and probably awful movies. I know there are more out there, but they can unfortunately be quite difficult to get a hold of by way of either legal or illegal means. Not that I'm like...some kind of Louise Brooks turbonerd or superfan or anything... It's always a toss-up whether I want to zoom out and get proper framing of the face with the drawback of being too small...or to just get memey with it. I chose memey this time, but I might change my mind later.

good news: scary tibetan death mask bartimaeus is finally gone bad news: back on that louise brooks crap again tangent: i hate circle avatars, they're so much harder to get right compared to square avatars, LC's avatar accurately captures how I feel trying to make circle avatars

#####-Kennedy Center says it plans to sue jazz musician who canceled Christmas performance over ##### name change Yeah, because we all know how much a legal threat encourages the arts. Perhaps Mr. Redd could follow Marshawn Lynch's example, "I'm just here so I don't get fined."

Playing BG3 in small spurts. Exploring the first map and getting ready to go to the goblin fort. The game hasn't grabbed me so far, but the combat is not tedious in TB.

Essence Interrupter of course - for the shock damage and the range mostly. Amaliorra or Eccea Arcane Blaster are also viable but require a penetration buff and you have to be closer to Dorudugan...

I have finished the available content in Death Trash. The pace improved significantly in the Perished City area. It was a positive experience overall and I look forward to the full version.

history is difficult. in the south, the united daughters of the confederacy were successful in their efforts to promote the lost cause narrative which established that the civil war weren't about slavery so much as state's rights. https://time.com/5013943/john-kelly-civil-war-textbooks/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/costs-confederacy-special-report-180970731/ even so, in high school, Gromnir were taught that slavery were a profound evil and that it were shameful it persisted so long after the founding o' the republic. that so many generations o' enslaved had needed to suffer and that the pernicious practice were entrenched in our culture to such a degree that a bloody civil war were needed to end it were a source o' national shame and regret... which in part is why the maga folks is so torqued 'bout woke education. later, at university, we discovered that most o' the founders were educated men who viewed slavery as morally repugnant but they nevertheless went along with the 3/5ths compromise 'cause the economic and political costs o' ending slavery were seen as too high. most founders believed slavery were already on its proverbial last legs in any event, but they lacked the courage to drive a stake into slavery's putrefying heart. educated men, who no doubt saw themselves as just and moral, nevertheless knowing made a deal to prolong a practice they viewed as vile, which is maybe not so surprising as more than a couple o' those educated founders were personal relying on slave labor to maintain their expansive farms. contrary to what we were taught in high school, the founders weren't simple men o' their time, ignorant o' slavery's evil. they knew what they were doing. they knew it were wrong. they did it anyways. 'course eli whitney's cotton gin fundamental changed the economics o' southern agriculture almost overnight, which not surprising changed the politics o' slavery as well. as an aside, even today most is taught that the US civil war were an insular fight 'tween northern and southern states... is right there in the name, no? civil war. the thing is, the confederacy's goals for slavery were a bit more grand as they envisioned an agricultural slave empire which included further conquest in latin america. even less well known is how some forms o' chattel slavery and debt peonage persisted in the US long after the 13th Amendment was ratified... heck, long after juneteenth. https://www.pbs.org/video/slavery-another-name-slavery-video/ btw, even though debt peonage were finally ended as the US entered ww2, the final debt slave were not emancipated until 1963. furthermore, as difficult as it might be to believe, we ain't genuine ended slavery in the US. we mentioned the 13th Amendment, yes? section 1. neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. section 2. congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. kinda a big exception, no? oh, and our recollection is that brazil were literal the last nation in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery, so... as we said, history is difficult. HA! Good Fun!

The part about the German gold bar serial numbers brought to mind Bilbo Baggins. All that precious gold just sitting around... "After All, Why Not? Why Shouldn't I Keep It?"

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to everyone

Merry Xmas everyone!

cthulhu and ghatanothoa got nothing on the south park guys for instilling outrage and horror amongst the faithful. warning: am personal able to see the humor, but am also able to understand the outrage the song inspires in "good" christians. you have been warned. nevertheless, in spite o' our descent into sacrilege, am genuine wishing a merry christmas and happy holidays to all. HA! Good Fun!

With the trends, it is Arcanum II - an online multiplayer survival crafting souls-like.

Enshrouded: Ok, I've been cursed with something called Hemotoxin for hours (RT) that never wears off. Drains health and blocks mana regen. There was no apparent way to get rid of it once I realized it wasn't going away. So I just dealt with it, because EZ settings made it a little annoying but not major. Then I got around to getting more NPC's into my base and one could craft a remedy, but it requires a resource found in another slightly higher level biome of which I had zero notion of where to travel to get there. I finally googled it. What poor design for a new player (allowing that curse to take place so early, in "starter biome", before one may have found/gotten that NPC or multiple biomes). Made my way there, just got into it, then died exploring a POI, and game put me half way across my known map because the only "load if you die" becaon I'd seen/encountered was ages ago in a different POI. I have two tower-FT locations found, neither anywhere near where I was. You can use base-altars as FT (place, delete later) but it's a hinky travel workaround with limits. On one hand, rationally it really isn't that bad. On the other hand, between that and all the curse stuff, I semi-rage quit. Also, not liking the storage options or crafting station/options stuff too much (No Man's Sky is better on both fronts imo). And the combat is still terrible. I'd guess once I have everything unlocked I'd enjoy it more in the sandbox fashion but getting there - maybe later. I get why it's popular, mind. Just a little too MMO or whatever for me perhaps. Time to try 7 Days 2.5.

I spent $60 on a pair (smaller, larger) of "titanium" food cutting boards, because they were on "sale" (Amazon). And popular. They're metal on one side, some solid "wheat grass" material on the other. Probably a fool parting with their money, but I've been meaning to get something besides the plastics I've always bought/used for years - because these days every time I use a plastic one, I'm thinking about how I'm probably scraping plastic bits into my food. Probably too late for me in that regard, my generation tended to love plastic/non-stick everything haha, but eh. Maybe at least non-plastic ones will make the daily thought go away. Or I'll start wondering if I'm scraping metal into my food. And no, I don't like wood cutting boards.

Well, BG3 spend 5ish? years in EA, so it checks out. Good luck with Act2. My 1st playthrough stopped there, I slogged through it in 2nd playthrough, and two consequent attempts stopped in act2 as well. I don't think you need to do all of its content to progress, and I wonder if my completionist mindset works against me in that act. It is soooo big, and narratively rather static.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. However, separating art from the artist works when the artist no longer benefits from the royalties*. Rowling still does and is actively using her fortune to cause harm, regardless of how popular the IP is. When it is 6 feet underground and the fund set up specifically to finance transphobic lawsuits is dismantled, then sure. *excluding the financial aspect/from the cultural point of view, I'd say if you can experience the work in isolation from the author's biography and understand it fully.

YouTube recently recommended me and apparently about a million other people this 18 year old Christmas x Lovecraft song. Okay. Nice. Yeah, it's a lot better than random AI slop, I guess. Merry Christmas, everyone!

How many Republicans does it take to change a lightbulb? None. Trump will just declare that the lightbulb has been replaced, and everyone's applauding in utter darkness.

Enshrouded: for some reason I thought this was an online/MP-co-op focused survival/exploration/building and questing game, - also, early access - so I've ignored it. Then learned recently it can be Offline/SP. Then I learned you can customize difficulty/combat options a fair bit - including a setting where maybe 90% of enemies would ignore you until you attack first - or the usual reduce enemy damage/health while increasing player health/dmg etc. It was on a bit of a sale, bought it. So far it seems ok - the exploration/world aspect seems fun. Seems to be one of those games where it'd take quite a while to figure out how all the crafting, building works. Might even need a wiki for finer points, game doesn't really explain much re: certain things, learn as you play. Not saying it's complex, just a bit confusing here and there. Combat has dodge/parry but overall also seems to be more akin to general rpg then "souls like". Like, I made a 1st wand that has a ranged attack and so far (on my ez-cozy settings anyway) I've only had to spam its attack like it's Path of Exile. Building in the new-game start is a bit confusing/awkward but also would scratch the obsessive-brain tendencies if that's one's thing. At some point one needs npc villagers and workers to upgrade one's base/s. Or something. Tame pets (?), farm, all of that. Anyway - I made a first small base/did stuff in starter area and it was good enough I'll press forward. My main interest was the exploration/building factors.

It will go completely unnoticed. As that's what TES has been ever since.

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays!

Merry holidays and happy Christmas, everybody!

Wish you all a wonderful holiday season!

On AI use, sorry but I am hardcore in the opposite direction from most of you. Given my strong negative views of (most) humans (nature, capability, behavior), I can't wait for highly evolved AI systems to replace humans. I especially can't wait for AI systems to replace humans as drivers given the basic inability of most humans to properly operate an automobile.

I'm sorry but everyone is doing it now, even if they say they don't. It's more honest of them mentioning it than just going "nooooo, we would neeever use ai!!1" while the truth is that their devs sure as **** are using ai to some extend.

I have finished Atlas Fallen on the highest difficulty in NG+. The interesting part is that the tools available (the weapon upgrades, new armour sets, and the more powerful Essence Stones) effectively offset it - while the bosses could 1-shoot me, I also was almost instantly and constantly at high Momentum (which additionally meant higher damage to me) and able to use the Shatter attacks with a lot of i-frames repeatedly. The longer battles were somewhat challenging, especially as the screen was getting more "noise" (from the weapon particles to the number of opponents), but, overall, it was easier than the first playthrough. The only issue is one of the randomly appearing battles with various modifiers. The foes to be faced vary, but the reward progression is static and carries over between the NG cycles. The thing there is that it is not hard to get hit once and the battle despawns after that. I assume, if I reloaded, the same battle would have been accessible at the same spot, but I have not tried. The regular random battles have an auto-save nearby and the main story ones can be restarted from the start of the encounter which is incredibly convenient. I am satisfied with the experience and might try replaying it in a few years. On a random note, the NG+ armour sets look much better than the NG ones. They are more detailed and more fitting.