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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • Thanks for linking those. I can tell you that most people that know English as a first language have very little to no knowledge about the history between Poland and Ukraine. Like many things in the international world, it’s very complicated. But now I understand it a little better. I would agree that Poland is under no obligation to support a government that can’t seem to separate it’s independence from fascist leaders of the past, which does raise questions about the direction of the future. Yes, Ukraine needs to be free. They need an the help they can get. But what if they win, and fascism takes hold?

    I mean, look at how the US is falling to fascism. People aren’t careful enough.









  • I play FFXIV. I’ll break it down by expansions, but it’s the one that didn’t follow the general downwards trend so much.

    1.0 - trash. They couldn’t figure out how to work together. One guy spends forever making the best looking water wheel ever, in the background, that you never interact with. It’s too graphically intensive, and flows the wrong way from the water. It doesn’t match the building it’s attached to. Meanwhile, they forget to add roads towards main cities. It’s an unplayable mess. It’s literally unplayable, as they killed it off to replace it with:

    2.0, A Realm Reborn - they really fixed it under one guy’s leadership. It’s playable, and works. It’s outdated somewhat today, but has a lot of moral grey areas and twists. There’s a lot of running around and time wasting, which was common back then.

    Heavenward - they made a great story. It’s one of the best expansions. Streamlined and faster. No needless “talk to 5 villagers” quests like previously.

    Stormblood - not as great. There’s a lot of setup they use later. The world building is really great, though. Some of the best looking areas.

    Shadowbringers - the best expansion they’ve ever made. Perfectly balanced world building and characters, and story. This is peak FF, with the best music as well. Probably because they can ditch much of the old A Realm Reborn story.

    Endwalker - ties it all together. The story leads up to “death is inevitable for everything that has ever lived, so just die now” kind of depression hopelessness that you wonder how they’ll get out of it. Well, because it’s Japanese and FF, it’s the power of friendship that saves the day. But, this really feels like the culmination of everything they’ve learned in the previous expansions.

    Dawntrail - this is the downward slide. They force you into a role to support someone for ruler that is almost slapstick bad. Characters don’t make logical choices. The theme is all over the place and can’t decide what it wants to be. Many people say to stop at endwalker, but we’ll see how the next expansion goes, which is years away.

    There’s plenty to say about the game otherwise, but the general thought is that they’re gradually cutting corners, taking longer, and under delivering as they’re stretched too thin. They’re feeling the same pressure everyone else in the world is - not enough money. Which is crazy, because FFXIV is THE game keeping Square Enix alive.







  • He tries to run, but you slow-walk towards him, chanting “poop!” with every step. His pants are heavy, and blood starts to show through his jeans. “I’ll cut your guts out!” he helplessly bluffs. Soon, he crumples up and screams as his guts start emptying into the street; his denim is no longer able to hold the carnage. You see him lying dead at your feet.

    You turn back towards the United Healthcare headquarters, and resume your march.

    Now, it is finally time to see at what point explosive diarrhea is covered…




  • They kind of have to, I suspect. But it won’t work. They’ll see things go bad, put in their sound bite as “we need to do something about ___!” And the average American won’t see it, and instead be inundated with right wing “Democrats are screwing it all up!” And not think of the logic that the Democratic party can’t do anything. And they’ll vote Republican again.

    Democrats need to get better at media.