Keyrock

Delete pls. I meant to edit my post, not quote it.

No issues with quests so far, as far as I can tell, but I'm pretty certain I'm nowhere near as far into the game as @Hurlshortthus I haven't completed nearly as many. I had a 2 for 1 special where in one sector I both rescued Claudette and intercepted a diamond shipment. Some good money that diamond shipment, I wouldn't mind intercepting another one. If nothing else, I'm more than set for the next time my mercs' pay comes due, which is still a few days away. I'm slowly making my way toward the diamond mine in the northwest corner. Hopefully I'll be strong enough to take it when I get there.

How did I not know about this earlier?

I recently got my Pathfinder 2e core rulebook in the mail and I'm slowly sifting through the 640 pages to see how it has changed. It seems like most of the streamlining is for the better. I like complexity and options as much as the next guy, but 1e can get quite overwhelming. I think I like 2e better than 1e; too early to say if I like it better than D&D 5e. I suppose it's all speculation until I put it into action. As for Pillars, I finished the first game and I liked it well enough at first, but that faded over time and about 2/3 of the way through, around the time I encountered the 857th filler battle, I really really wanted to quit. I was so worn out but I forced myself to finish the game. As for Deadfire, by all rights it should have been a game I enjoyed more than the first, but it just didn't hold my interest. I don't know if I even got halfway through it.

We've seen from the Twitter Files and a recent interview with Mark Zuckerberg that US government agencies were putting pressure on social media companies to remove content that in Zuck's own words turned out to be worthy of debate or true. Many individuals that proposed the lab leak theory for the origin of the Covid pandemic were slandered, demonized, and in some cases deplatformed (hence why there is currently a lawsuit, Missouri vs Biden, against a slew of government agencies). The lab leak theory since has not only gained traction, it's considered to be the most likely scenario by many, including the FBI. There is currently a bill proposed in legislation called the RESTRICT Act that's been dubbed the Patriot Act 2.0. In its current iteration it would give the Secretary of Commerce the power to block or withhold finances of any tech product that's even partially owned by a "foreign adversary". Given the multinational nature of tech companies these days, that could be almost any company (it's up to them who's a "foreign adversary"). In theory, the bill does include exclusions that are meant to keep free information flowing, but it would be a dangerous step down a slippery slope.

OpenMW 0.48 released The most notable addition is shiny new post processing effects.

Some of my most memorable characters in D&D were very flawed, granted this was p&p D&D where a good DM can (and did) alter things on the fly to make spectacular failure fun and interesting and not a game over screen. I realize that within the limitations of a vidya game it's much more difficult for the devs to account for and make failing interesting.

This was likely a limitation of the Infinity Engine, but it used to drive me crazy when a cutscene would play and my party would just stand there frozen in place (well, their idle animations would play, but I couldn't move them) while Sarevok or whoever would walk onto the screen, give a lengthy speech, do something horrible, and walk off, all while my party are standing 40 yards away like idiots. Sometimes the devs would at least put something there that could conceivably block me from getting to the villain while they are doing villainous things, like a chasm, never mind that I could shoot arrows across a chasm, but at least it's something. However there were times where there was nothing in between me and the villain and my dumbass party just stood there and did nothing. They had enough time to where they could have made sandwiches, eaten said sandwiches, cleaned up after themselves, and still had plenty of time to intervene, but instead they just stood there like idiots. Anyway, please tell me that Larian did away with that in BG3.

This refugee camp assault was the most smooth battle I've pulled off so far. I took zero damage. I had Blood sneak up on a goon and kill him with a thrown knife to the schlong. Another goon noticed the dead body but not before Blood got into hiding, so the enemies were alerted but didn't know where any of my mercs were. They all funneled toward the dead body where one by one they all got shot in the family jewels, largely by Dethwish from up high, but everybody got in on the junk destruction. This guy has his priorities straight.

I'm getting ready to assault the refugee camp and Dr. Q wants me to kill every enemy in the sector with shots to the schlong. You know what, doc, just for you I'm going to make it happen.

I took advantage of an unusually cool July morning to hike up to King's Pinnacle in Crowder's Mountain State Park.

Disagree. If I had no other choice I would put a sticker of a cutesy anime magical girl with sparkles and cherry blossoms over the demon dog to make the card less embarrassing.

Somehow, not an Asylum film.

Regardless of what you think of RFK, the assault on free speech, not just in Murica but in many countries around the globe, over the past few years should be alarming. It's an attack on democracy itself because without free speech you cannot have democracy. Here's the whole hearing:

I gave the FAL to my created merc Dethwish and he is now a murder machine. I gave him the perk that gives him an accuracy bonus from high ground, plus I have a longer barrel on the FAL that increases range to sniper distance and gives an accuracy boost, a scope that gives me a 3 levels of aim for free if I take a shot as my first action in a turn, a heavy stock that gives bonus accuracy with 3+ levels of aim, and a bipod that greatly boosts accuracy when prone. So long as there's a good high vantage point on the map, I can put him up there and he's got pretty much laser accuracy from there. Then it's just a matter of using the rest of the team to lure the poor suckers into his kill zone. I almost feel sorry for them.

Don't sell yourself short. You forgot ambassador of freedom and sex symbol. I know you're just trying to be modest, which is admirable, but facts are facts.

I rewatched some Mr. Show episodes not too long ago and it absolutely holds up. Three Times One Minus One is still one of my all-time favorite skits. "It's like I'm sayin', my man Pootie T is from the street, he gots to be able to walk across the street." "I ain't got no flyin' shoes."

You're right, they should have made a 50 round drum mag standard... /hides

I love the destructibility in this game. I was fighting some chumps in a dilapidated mansion and the raid leader was on the second floor. I threw a grenade at him which blew up the floor and caused him to fall, taking more damage. Somehow the guy survived both a grenade blast and the fall (he must have eaten his Wheaties that morning) but he was now also trapped in the corner of the house behind rubble. I took this opportunity to mop up all the other goons while he was effectively neutralized, then dropped another grenade on him to put him out of his misery. Good times. Edit: Holy ****, I found a FN FAL! This makes me so happy. My only gripe is that it doesn't have the Rhodesian FAL camo paint job. A modder needs to get on that $#!+ like yesterday. Of course, then I'll also need another mod for the character portrait and model so that I can rock the shorts in proper Rhodesian style. Edit 2: I used up most of my parts to modify the bejesus out of my FAL. Worth! It's on like neckbone!

Salted is fine, at least it's not glazed with a bunch of sugar, but I follow the teachings of the late great Ol' Dirty Bastard:

I've been on a nuts kick (phrasing). Not cajun flavored or honey roasted or any type of roasted or even salted. Just raw nuts. Currently I'm eating macadamia nuts. They're quite delicious all on their own.

When I did the island fort assault I snuck in through a minefield. With no explosives experts in my crew let's just say I engaged in extensive save scumming to get through it with all my limbs intact.