Yeah, I tried Black Flag a while back—because I’d heard good things—but just couldn’t be bothered with all the busy work. I did really enjoy Mafia 3, The Witcher 3, RDR2; I’m not anti-side quest by any means. I think I need a more compelling story, and that’s never been AC’s strong point (based on ~3 AC games I’ve picked up and quickly dropped over the years).

People are saying it. Many great people.

Someone call Tom Bombadil!

I think 75% is far too generous an estimate, tbh. Every policy I’ve acquired through the ACA-mandated marketplace has been garbage, right from the start. For-profit health care is evil, and the ACA just served to further entrench this evil in our lives. It did some marginal good, and I’m certainly not advocating for its repeal in favor of ‘concepts of a plan’. But 75%? I can’t get on board with that.

This is something I do, so I’ll take a crack at it—though, bear in mind, it might be total bullshit.

It’s a defense mechanism. Many popular things are—in my estimation—objectively terrible. Every time something utterly devoid of merit (and often actively detrimental to the public good) is generally agreed to be a popular sensation, the connection I feel to my fellow human beings takes a hit.

I want to believe in people—in society. But I’m clearly a judgmental sob. So maybe by avoiding the popular things, I’m trying not to further my own alienation.

The headline is a little ambiguous, but he didn’t give in; they relaxed the dress code.

Top 12 by play time. Definitely wouldn’t have guessed some of these were up there. I’ll often leave a game running while doing something else, which skews the results. I’ll have to check what gog galaxy says later.

Can we rule out some kind of transporter accident? Has anyone checked to see if his beard comes off?

I listen to ‘I Ain’t Marching Anymore’ pretty frequently, but am not familiar with most of his catalogue. I’ll check it out!

I think a lot of folks are still out there downvotin’ as if the election were still up for grabs. It’s true that both sides supported genocide. The democrats utterly failed to even pretend to be willing to do the right thing, and we’ll all suffer for it.

I’ve literally never heard a single person refer to these 4 boxes, so I must take issue with your assertion that people are fond of doing it. You’re also seemingly discounting innumerable factors, like the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on distracting and deceiving people into both voting against their best interests, and not voting at all.

In short, your default response is a reductive and unhelpful platitude. Not trying to be a jerk (it just comes naturally). Best of luck.

Lots of NPR affiliate stations air great shows, but their nationally syndicated programming rigorously fellates the wealthy, and staunchly defends the status quo.

I don’t attribute a lot of positive things to social media, but I will give it credit for turning me around on spiders. Arachnophobia scared the crap out of me as a kid. For years afterward, I’d never sit down on a toilet without first getting down on my hands and knees to make sure there weren’t any spiders lurking underneath the bowl. Thanks to years of spiderbro memes, now I generally view them as comrades.

It was noticeably quieter this year in my neighborhood. I blame the election and the unseasonably warm weather.

I think you’re right. But it’s also apparently true that there exists a critical mass of uninformed fucking dipshits flibbertigibbets, who could be swayed by this kind of thing. The true believers are unreachable, but so much political theatre is directed at that segment of the population that just can’t be bothered to assemble more than one or two data points at a time.

I’ve never visited Asheville, but I know it by reputation as the Austin of NC—a liberal enclave. Is that inaccurate? If not, that doesn’t seem to signify anything.

I’m sure that’ll work, provided there aren’t any meddlesome kids about!

I’ve just reinstalled Grim Dawn, having last played it some years ago, and am currently working my way through Act 2. I don’t frequently play ARPG’s, but I’ll try a new one when I get it in a bundle or somesuch. Mostly, they don’t hold my interest. Grim Dawn, vanilla and unmodded (I assume there’s some kind of modding scene; haven’t looked yet) still manages to scratch that itch for me. At some point I’ll pick up the DLC. Right now I just want to find something good enough to replace this crazy caster 2h sword I’m using, so that I can bring Albrecht’s Aether Ray back into the rotation!

I really appreciate this take. It’s good-hearted and makes good sense. I’ll try to remember it going forward, when cynicism overwhelms.

Thanks for the write-up! Am also ex-11B, and this really takes me back. A lot of things I don’t miss about the army. Having a new officer come in and make some shitty changes, seemingly just to stroke their ego and put a bullet on their OER—that’s definitely on the list.