majestic

He's going to make them swear an oath of fealty to Mango Mussolini and purge those who would object to deploying the military for homeland defense against left-wing terror networks like BML and Antifa. There's also a government shutdown right around the corner for a little bit of a information blackout and some (or a lot of) convenient firings. There's always a chance he'll let them wage war against the sea. With this administration, we're not that far removed from the worst erratic behaviour that was ascribed to unpopular Roman empires in later written histories.

So, Diablo IV season is done. This is the shortest time it took for me to clear one, and I generally tend to take my time rather than plow through the content in an efficient fashion. Not that I mind that much.

I use Afterburner because I undervolted the 4070 TI in the past, but I kept running into stability issues with Everspace 2 (no other game though, weirdly enough, Cyberpunk 2077 ran stable with all bells and whistles enabled), so I dropped it and just went with 85% power target instead. If you install the new nVidia app which no longer requires registration and a login, you can use that to set the power target. You really need to make sure it leaves your game settings alone though.

Just set the power target to 85%. If the 5070 TI is anything like the 4070 TI you'll end up with 95% of the performance for a lot less power drawn.

Yeah, rumor has it most trans-prostitutes are also fairly booked out whenever a Republican congress is in town. It's weird, almost like projection is a right-winger's game.

An apology to the Kirk family, lol. His "bereft" wife was on air after the assassination, scoring cult brownie points in an inflammatory speech trying to turn her late husband into a martyr, exactly the sort of thing a mourning widow would do directly after losing her husband and father of her children. Especially a mourning widow from a traditional family the way Charlie Kirk argued for. 99% of right-wing whining is projection. Or as we say here: "So wie der Schelm ist, so denkt er auch von anderen." - meaning, very loosely, it takes one to know one. Although Kash Patel still takes the take. I'll see you in Valhalla bro has to be the dumbest line of 2025 (coming from the director of the FBI), and it's a year where Trump said a lot and renamed the Gulf of Mexico and the Department of Defense.

Well, if one's on the extremely far right-end of the political spectrum, everything and everyone else looks left. Besides, if one just excludes economic politics (in which the AfD is hilariously out-capitalist-ing the FDP) like the far-right populists generally do, backed by wealthy people as they all seem to be, the mainstream opinion of simply accepting other forms of family or concepts of living together outside of what politicians in Germany call the "core" (father, mother, children) family is something that can be seen as left insofar as the left leaning parties are the ones pushing for more sociall progressive policies. It's not like the CDU (or our equivalent, the ÖVP) were at the forefront of opening marriage for homosexual poeple. They hemmed and hawed until they were just forced to. Angela Merkel was chancellor at a time where society as a whole moved towards more understaning and acceptance of alternative ways of life. One act of accepting refugees might have caused a cascade reaction landing us in some dangerous waters in this day and age, but left-wing does that not one make. Certainly not the CDU, and even less their Bavarian appendix.

Finished Silk Song. The final fight is pretty cool, although it will probably make @Lexx tear his hair our, or rage quit again. Unlike with Hollow Knight, I can't see myself tackling the Steel Soul mode (hardcore mode, i.e. only one life, then game over). I mean sure, it's probably possible to save scum by copying or use a speedrunning training mod, but that isn't really the point of the exercise. I guess simply finishing the game with any% would be doable, but a 100% Steel Soul run? Yeah, count me out.

Curtis Yarvin has been blogging about his dreams for almost twenty years, blogs called Unqualified Reservations and Gray Mirror, you can look them up if you want, and he calls it Dark Enlightenment (a name that teenagers could easily pick for their goth or black metal band). Companies existing as their own little kingdoms with their own laws, and them as kings. Cities run as companies, competing for citizens. The final Cyberpunk form of Guard Dog's beloved libertarianism. He blogged about how to turn the US into an autocracy and has inspired the neo-reactioary movement. He's a nutjob who has gone from defining castes of people in the US, arguing that South American immigrants are part of a caste where men are criminals and women on welfare, to giving them names from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (elves are the liberal ruling elite, hobbits are the middle class and dwarves the workers) and wants to replace the elves with dark elves (i.e. him and his ilk). Friends with J. D. Vance (who has publicly quoted the "works" of Yarvin and referenced Yarvin's idea of the Cathedral in speeches), even though he's been trying to distance himself from him, and backed by Peter Thiel. The same Peter Thiel who runs companies like Mithril and Palantir, because referencing Tolkien's body of work is fun. A nutjob who was invited to the inaugural gala of Mango Mussolini because by now he's an influencial figure among the alt-right / neo-reactionaries. You know, someone who wants to turn the United States into a monarchy, with ties to the vice president, in an administration where the president has posted and talked about himself as being the king on more than one occasion. Who said that voting for him would be the last time people need to vote. With people like Bruce still believing he's joking. The tech bros are, as Gromnir put it, vying for control. Absolute control. I mean, what can you do when you're so rich that you and your familiy will never want for anything for any forseeable future? Well, why not become king?

I'm pretty sure the last phase of Grand Mother Silk has some patterns that cannot be avoided. She sometimes throws her blades at you from beyond the screen while you have to track spikes on the ground or falling debris, and they're way too fast to dodge without seeing them being launched. Other than that, was okay-ish for a "final" boss fight, but of an uninspired Radiance knockoff. Onwards to act three, after I get rid of the curse, that is.

I enjoyed the platforming in Hollow Knight, and White Palace and Path of Pain. They were a little more difficult, but relatively short. Silksong, on the other hand, is nothing but a kaizo hack of Hollow Knight, answering a question that nobody ever asked: what if all of Hollow Knight was like White Palace? Nothing of it is ever as long and complicated and without break - at least so far - as Path of Pain was, but it certainly feels like the game after the first act was the result of an AI prompt asking for a full game in the vein of White Palace. One of the great things of Hollow Knight, the fun of exploring the world, has been lost. This I cannot quite quantify, the areas are connected enough, but the game lacks something that the first one had. Reaching a new environment is not like discovering a new world of wonders as they're also not nearly as distinct as Hollow Knight's were. Each one in Silksong feels so interchangeable because the design is too similar, even if the assets are different. Different enemy designs, but super similar movesets and enemy types. There are sawblades in the citadel, hanging spikes in the Sinner's Road, weird cushions in various places or the exploding poison bulbs of Bilewater. They're all variations on the same thing, something to pogo-jump off of. The worst part though? This is the game equivalent of The Force Awakens. That film has no true quiet moment where you could take everything in. Silksong has no quiet moment to enjoy the artwork or the environments, because it is loaded to the brim with platforming and enemies, but without the game design that usually goes along with games like this. For the amount and kinds of platforming nonsense you have to pull in, say, Bilewater, for instance, there are not nearly enough benches for it to remain fun to do. In some way the decision to include the crests and different movesets with them is part of the problem, I think. They had to design every platforming part in a way that is doable with all of the various downward strikes you can do, from Hornet's original diagonal downward slash to the slow Reaper slash and the fast Wanderer slash and whatever the hell you do with the Beast slash, the weird very short diagonal slash of the Architect... well, you get the idea. TL;DR: Beyond the first few, every enrivonment feels the same in Silksong. The devs made the mistake of stuffing everything to the brim with platforming and enemies, making it a chore to explore areas more than fun. Having to balance the platforming for different movesets also left them all being very similar, just with different skins. I'm still having fun, and I can't quite knock the game at the asking price, but it sure is a step down from the first game.

Just unlocked the double jump. Path of Pain was a lot shorter, but also harder, and also switched to the Crest of the Wanderer due to its massively increased attack speed. The short range isn't really an issue so far outside of some really annoying flying enemies. Can't quite grasp why you guys struggled with Moorwing so much, outside of doubling his blade attack shortly before he dies he doesn't do anything spectacular or problematic. Found the Last Judge's second phase much more annoying. I really hated the way one has to wait for a decent opening to attack, and he kept doing his Nightmare King Grimm tribute fire column ability. Which of course always ended up having a fire column right next to him. Impatience killed me a couple of times there.

Images of Shoemaker-Levy 9 (or rather, its fragments) crash into Jupiter were one of the astronomy highlights of the 90ies. 's not always you get to see the aftermath of a 300 gigaton impact.

Canned tuna isn't so bad as ironically the cheaper tuna variants used for canning are less contaminated - probably should not stuff your face with thuna sashimi every day though. Don't see anyone making a case for tuna being a superfood (if anything influences would probably try to pawn you some omega 3 supplements). If you don't know, matcha is made by grinding tencha leaves that you're then consuming along with the tea. Now, as long as you buy high quality matcha tea and keep your consumption below three grams per day that should not be an issue. Cheap Chiniese knockoffs might even contain some fun pesticides as a bonus though. Spooning it into your breakfast bowl because some influencer told you it cures every disease on the planet? Yeah, probably not that bright of an idea. Not to mention expensive. To reiterate my main point, this is a case of cultural apporpriation that actually causes detrimental effects, with Japanese people complaining that Americans and Europeans buy up their matcha, leaving them with not enough for their ceremonies where making matcha is well beyond consuming the latest silly superfood hype. Unlike wearing dreads or wearing traditional Chinese garb as an American, where no one but the Twatteria cared. Well, and Fridays for Future, a youth protest movement complaining about the hairdo of people. WhenI was young, that used to be the favorite past time of old people. Just found it funny. Where are the sh*tstorms and cancellations?

Wow, I knew that films take a while to reach overseas cinemas, but half a century?

Recently noticed that McDonald's is now offering a Matcha Latte. Lately matcha seems to be everywhere, but never in the context it is supposed to be in. Worse, even, it is more or less wasted on (iced) matcha lattes. Infuencers branded it a super food, apparently oblivious to the fact that tea is really good at sucking up aluminum and lead from the ground and consuming a lot of matcha isn't the best idea. Money is being made. A lot of it. Fantastic. People get cancelled for wearing dreads or buying traditional Chinese gowns for proms, but buying the basis of a time-honored Japanese tradition (their tea ceremony) to the point where matcha is getting sparse in Japan is fine. Clearly not cultural appropriation, but appreciation. Yep. Whatever.

Killed Widow, wasn't too terrible (took like 15 minutes, i.e. a couple of tries), but the moveset is a combination of Dung Defender, Pure Vessel and Nightmare King Grimm and the fight has the necessity to be as aggresive as possibe under extreme duress or else you'll draw it out to the point where the mistakes will catch up with you. The Reaper Crest performed exceptionally well, once you heal you can get a lot of silk back by relentlessly punishing Widow's attack openings. Most of the time even enough for another heal, for which there are also plenty of openings (as healing arrests your momentum you can just let Widow run underneath you while she's doing NMKG's diagonal jumping slash and dash attack). @Lexx did you find the warrior bug in Hunter's March? The Fractured Mask is pretty useful at this stage, it's pretty much a free hit, one where it doesn't matter how much damage you receive.

Got all excited about the Beast Crest in Silksong and used a Memory Stone on it (i.e. expand it's capacity to carry Silksong's variation of Charms) only to find out that the heal-on-attack mode doesn't activate instantly. I mean sure, it is faster than binding your wounds normally, but not enough so considering that you need to attack something to heal up afterwards. Great idea, disappointing implementation. Devs probably wanted to make sure it won't lead to players being able to facetank bosses, but as it stands I don't see the value. Yet, perhaps. I don't know how many hit points one can get by the end of the game and how much you could heal with the Beast Crest in a protracted fight. It might just edge out the regular healing. With the beginning five masks? Yeah no.

+1 Good thing GOG has manual downloads. The Galaxy service is completely borked. As is Steam it would, uhm, seem. Anyway, see you guys in December.

"Here lies beloved Timmy, he died of measles at the age of three. We are proud of his sacrifice to own the libs." By the way, that is one of the few ways to break the toxic positivity of current LLMs. Copilot called me a cynic for saying something similar when I used it to look up Derek Huffman's name and presented me with news about how he was stationed at the Ukrainian front after joining the army in Russia and potentially killed in action. I replied with "At least he owned the libs." and Copilot was all "That is a very cynical comment on a complex and multi-faceted issue".

The one comment about Tali that stuck around in my mind was when luzarius posted that Tali has great genes because she has a thigh gap. Dude was an off the rails incel. Sad.

I remember the time when we were discussing Cassandra's skull shape on the forum here. She's proof of some woke trans-agenda on the side of Bioware, because she clearly has a male skull model, designed to make otherwise straight players catch the gay or the trans. Reading the old threads made me realize how little difference it makes that oby, volo and co no longer post here. lol

OMG okay!! You hate the perky positivity?! Awww, that’s totally okay!! Not everyone wants to live in a glitter tornado of good vibes and rainbow confetti ALL the time! But just imagine — what if every moment was a chance to sparkle, every sigh was a prelude to a giggle, and every “ugh” was just a “yay” in disguise?! Life is like a cupcake buffet at a unicorn’s birthday party — sometimes it’s too sweet, sometimes it’s a little much, but hey, it’s always colorful and full of surprises! Sending you a virtual high-five wrapped in sunshine and dipped in glitter! You’ve got this, even if you roll your eyes while doing it!

Found something for @bugarup:

Sugababes? I'd sledgehammer the PC, and that is coming from me who unironically enjoys Eurodance trash.