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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 6th, 2023

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  • I got COVID after taking all precautions because my father didn’t wear a mask and took it home. I was sick for a month. I only left my bed to use the bathroom or eat. I literally slept the rest of the time. I probably should have gone to the hospital because I could hardly stay awake even just to eat. I remember waking up one day, and just knowing that I was recovering.

    Recovery was hell. I couldn’t taste, or smell anything. I had awful flu like symptoms. I was lethargic and I could hardly walk. It took two weeks to feel functional, and for three months my sense of taste was completely fucked.



  • The game gets kinda meta on itself. This is mild spoilers: There’s a greater overall plot that gets progressed by a looping simpler plot. The idea is that, you are instructed by a narrator to go to a cabin in the woods and slay the princess inside. The choices you make cause this plot to repeat with a twist. When the simple plot loops its influenced by what you did on the prior iteration of the simple plot. Each of these loops is actually you advancing down a branching story path, and you need enough of these branches completed to complete the greater overall plot.

    Its sort of like the Stanley Parable, where you can defy the narrator, or go along with his demands. The fun is getting a reaction out of the narrator or any of the other characters by your actions or dialogue choices, and seeing the story change based on what you choose. However its still a visual novel, so its a lot of listening to dialogue.


  • Cartel torture and execution video. I tried typing up what I remembered of it, but even omitting half the details left me with a very gruesome and disturbing story. I’ll just say that the casual nature of the men doing the torture was the most disturbing part. They laughed and took turns as they drank beer. They made other victims watch while having demented smiles across their faces. They delighted in the screams. I suppose not understanding Spanish was a blessing for a curious child.



  • Steam itself works fine on Linux. I don’t think I have a single game in my library that doesn’t work. I’m using Arch (btw) and I’ve found that for my use case (internet browsing and video games) that I haven’t had any major issues.

    The two issues I do have are:

    • If I go too long without updating then package dependencies get screwed and its a headache to fix. -Downloaded applications need the console to allow them to be run. (This is just a single command I have sticky noted to my monitor.)

    I still have my Windows install (dual boot) as a just in case backup, but its been months since I’ve used it.




  • Asthma. People expect you to have dramatic TV style throat closing episodes where you turn blue grabing your throat as you gasp and gag. For me, an episode is just sudden onset hypoxia. I’ll feel my lungs get tight, but because I’m still getting some air it can be hard to tell I’m suffocating, especially if I’m distracted. When it happens, I have about 3 - 5 minutes to catch it. If I fail to catch it, I’ll quickly lose balance, struggle to speak, I’ll be unable to think, and finally my vision darkens to a dot, and then I black out. I can appear fine, and then out faster than anyone expects.

    Once I get a puff, I’m fine in 10 seconds (minus some shaking from the medication.)



  • Electric cars being charged by fossil fuels still have major advantages. Those who make generators are incentivized to get as many joules of energy per gallon of fuel. Diesel generators can have some efficiency adaptations that vehicle engines wont often have, such as being designed to run at a fixed speed. Your average car owner wont care about efficiency as much as getting from point A to point B, so the already low efficiency of combustion engines is probably lower on average than what could be theoretically achievable just due to people not maintaining their vehicles. Electric vehicles do not idle, and starting an electric vehicle does not cost extra power. Additionally, stop and go traffic leads to far less loss of energy in cities for anyone driving an electric vehicle.

    While I would prefer renewable power for electric vehicles, electric cars can still use fossil fuel power more efficiently than internal combustion engines can.

    I’d still prefer electric trains however.




  • I don’t talk about products unless they’re really good. I only say anything about the stuff that’s impressively good because I think good products should be rewarded. The steam deck is okay ergonomically, I’ve had hours long sessions and no issues. The screen is big enough to avoid eye strain while keeping it portable. The screen does a great job, and I haven’t seen any flickers or tearing. The screen also responds to touch. The thumbsticks are great quality, with good snap back, and no deadzone. The shoulder buttons aren’t mushy, and respond well. The dpad is unremarkable, but works well. The ABXY buttons are maybe slightly soft, but I haven’t lost any inputs. There’s a trackpad like square that is like a high DPI mouse, and has haptic response to touch.

    The software is the real star. Its set it and forget it. Everything is easy to setup. Most games work, and all games in the store show their compatibility. Some games that aren’t supported still work fine regardless. As a bonus, the desktop mode also works well for acting as a normal PC with a good software “store” (most things are free).

    But the best part is that you can be in the middle of a cutscene, and hit the power button. The deck can usually pick right up from where it left off. Add also the fact that the steam UI can be opened from anywhere so you can rebind controls on the fly. Extra buttons are available on the back for those games that need it, you just need to bind them once.