Sometimes I make video games

Itch.io

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 26th, 2023

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  • You seem like somebody who might have an answer for me:

    A streaming service that I’m using lists the spoken language of the show, and I’ve often seen Spanish, Espanol, and Castilian listed. What’s the difference between Espanol and Castilian - is it like a regional dialect? Also I’m probably misinformed, but I always thought that Espanol was the English word for Spanish, which makes it seem odd that the service would list both Espanol and Spanish separately.

    * Walter, this isn’t a guy who wrote the Magna Carta, this is a guy…





  • There’s a few ways to interpret this question.

    ‘Smooth’ and 'Chunky might refer to the size of the leaf. More processing often means cutting the tea leaves into smaller pieces, but you can also get whole leaves.

    ‘Smooth’ tea might be tea with no added ingredients. ‘Chunky’ tea could be tea that has fruits, nuts, or other infusions included.

    ‘Smooth’ tea might refer to teabags, while ‘Chunky’ could be steeping loose. ‘Chunky’ tea may also be the practice of not removing the leaves before consuming.

    ‘Smooth’ might refer to powdered tea like matcha - although if we are talking about matcha then the preparation involves whisking away clumps. In which case the ‘smooth’ matcha tea can be prepared with only a light stir to be served ‘chunky’ style.

    ‘Smooth’ might refer to a less bitter flavour. ‘Chunky’ might refer to a stronger flavour, particularly if the infusion is somehow exotic.

    The most fun interpretation is that this a joke, in which case I like mine to be smooth, but a little chewy




  • I agree that it’s healthy to be able to disconnect from the news.

    I also think that current events are going to get real bad, real fast, real soon. Then again I’m part of a minority that has some of the most vile rhetoric thrown at them, so that probably colours my opinion a smidge.

    I hope you get to vote in the next cycle. I also hope that everyone starts doing something for their community beyond showing up to vote once every four years. The world’s not going to change for the better otherwise.




  • Depends on the article.

    If it’s something I have a genuine interest in, then heck yeah, I read the article. I like me some long-form discussion, so if it’s a high quality article then I need to read it in order to make a high quality comment.

    If it’s about politics it requires more nuance. I’m not going to stay quiet about things that do have the potential to affect me, the people I care about, and humans in general. I’m also not going to go out of my way to consume a ton of propaganda. That’s when the pithy jokes come in, usually with a goal of calling out misinformation or general assholery.

    By and large, the vast majority of headlines are bait. You’re not going to get a clear picture of what’s going on from a loaded title anyway, and it’s alarming how often people make the opposite inference from the headline compared to the body of the article. I suppose it’s human nature to look for easy answers, but if you only look at the summary then you’re allowing other people to form your opinion for you. Those people always have an agenda.

    In this political climate, the news is probably going to make the average reader angry. If it does that means it’s working - either because they’re consuming hateful propaganda or because they’re being agitated against the evils of the establishment. This is by design: you can garner more clicks from angry, frightened people, and they’re usually easier to control that way.

    I agree that you can’t take on the burdens of the world as an individual. But ignoring problems that have no will to resolve themselves only allows those issues to perpetuate themselves. Something about evil succeeding when good people do nothing.


  • I can confirm that it’s not, I haven’t tried WoD yet.

    I do recall there being a similar mechanic in at least one version of Call of Cthulhu. Among all your character stats you also had a Credit Rating. I think it was left a little bit vague about how to implement it, but a successful check basically meant that you convinced the target you were good for your debt.

    I got the impression that it was supposed to be more about your social credit and your ability to convince people of your honourable reputation, but I definitely used it to buy a car once.


  • I’m afraid I don’t remember the name of the system or else I’d link the rules, but I do remember playing a game where I really liked what they did with inventory and currency.

    Basically, the game divorced the rules from the settings’ currency entirely. So if you’re into homebrew, that means it works equally well with gold, credit chips, reputation, bottle caps, and seashells

    When you defeated a monster, finished a quest, or found hidden treasure, you would acquire LOOT. Get ten LOOT and you level up at the end of the adventure.

    Instead of writing down and purchasing all of your basic equipment, you would have a certain number of GEAR points. If you found you were in a situation where you needed some item, you could mark off one of your GEAR to retroactively have brought that item with you.

    I liked it because it sped up play and was super newbie friendly. You no longer run into a situation where a career adventurer plum forgot to buy torches before spelunking. It also meant you didn’t have to roll a check for each item in the dragon’s hoard to see if you could afford to feed your hirelings.

    If that system sounds familiar to anyone, please let me know. I wouldn’t mind taking it for a spin again





  • I wasn’t aware my mediocrity was on display. 😅

    Honestly, I liked the professor. When he had time to teach something he was clearly interested in, he did a great job of connecting. He didn’t get to teach us OOP though because there was a staffing emergency. The person we did get normally taught Hardware, so he was basically just reading aloud the textbook. Poor guy.

    And you’re right, the professor did let us know that there was going to be a change of requirements partway through. But it wouldn’t be a good lesson if he told us what was going to change, although he did give some examples from previous times he’d taught the course.

    A lot of people got burned when the change came. For my part I thought I did pretty okay, the refactor didn’t go perfectly but it was better than if I hadn’t been prepared. But I’ve also written a bunch of really gross objects that served no purpose just because they might change later. As anything is, it’s all about finding that happy medium


  • I was a little curious myself, so I found an article about it.

    I admit that I don’t know exactly how a freezer works, but my impression is that the cold temperatures not only make it more difficult for the freezer to run, but apparently regardless of if it’s running they can damage the insulation.

    So I suppose that even if you do disconnect the power, the damage to the insulation will cause more work for the compressor, which will increase its energy costs and cause more strain for the part.

    Knowing that, if it was me, I’d probably bring the freezer in for the winter. Although I suppose if you want to keep your food on your balcony you could swap the freezer for any insulated cooler. The winter is pretty long here though, so I guess I’d just find a more permanent home for the freezer if I could



  • I have a friend who pulled their kid out of public school largely because of posters like this.

    The clincher was when they were going over some material about classroom / playground behaviour and bad feelings. They colour coded the feelings, like Blue is Sad and Red is Angry. Yellow was Wiggly, which described most fidgeting behaviours.

    Teachers were telling kids that if you had any of the bad feelings you had to quietly sit by yourself until you’re feeling better.

    My friend has ADHD and took exception to the idea that being fidgety was a ‘bad’ feeling. And in general, none of these are ultimately bad feelings to have. I mean, nobody really wants to be sad or angry, but telling children they’re bad for having feelings is fucked up no matter how you slice it.

    I admit that if a child is disruptively angry, then a timeout is warranted. We have the same rule for adults, and if you can’t control your temper then you need to cool off before you can be civil again. But telling kids that they can’t hang out with their friends if they’re feeling sad or fidgety is just cruel and pointless. It has potential to cause a lot of harm to a child’s development for the sake of ‘classroom discipline’