You so absolutely nailed my feelings on it. I was really excited for BZ and it fell pretty flat for me. The extra time out of the water just felt so forced and unnatural to me. I was moderately excited by the big ice worm until I actually played and just found it to be a nuisance. I couldn’t get finished with the ice shelf soon enough.

Also, why is everything so much smaller in BZ? It’s THE OCEAN. It’s supposed to be huge. If anything it should be bigger than the first game. Anyways I agree I hope they learned.

Try the Password Game.

I’m a huge DRG fan but wasn’t interested in Survivor because that’s not the type of game I usually play. A friend bought it for me so I felt obligated to try and it and holy heck it is so much more fun than I thought it would be. It is my go-to game when I’m on my Steamdeck.

Meanwhile, Kim’s US publisher, Disney, is continuing to support Dreamslinger‘s rollout in American bookstores while organising a “belated” in-person tour towards the end of the year, “with the hope that the landscape has shifted somewhat by then”.

American here, I think the idea that things here will have shifted in any sort of positive way by the end of this year is a staggering level of optimism.

I was let down by the Rogue Core trailer. It seems like all of the creature design has heavily swung toward horror genre instead of big silly bugs the first game had so many of. It’s not terrible just not what I was hoping for.

This was an interesting read, thank you for sharing. I’m not sure that I find the advice completely applicable to the threats I perceive though. She is describing a situation of open warfare and siege. Our family has tried to prepare a bit for upcoming unrest but I don’t think we foresee it as open siege on a city. In the USA, military might is so advanced that I think any sort of siege/operation is likely to be catastrophic and quick.

The scenario I think is more likely is a more extreme version of the mass supply chain disruptions we experienced during Covid. Longer periods where multiple items just aren’t available. In such a situation it would be good to have extra rice and beans on hand to get you through gaps in availability. Also feel like I should mention that you can get a cheap bidet that you can install yourself from hardware stores for like $100 USD - in case toilet paper disappears again.

Every country in the world needs all the other countries more than all of the other countries need it. There’s just no real leverage, because we’re all interconnected; you can snip one country out, and it’ll slightly hurt everyone, but it’ll *wreck* the country that was snipped out.

This is just such an absolutely perfect summary. I wish we could American politicians to speak this clearly to explain why this is such a bad idea.

It was that big of a deal. I was in my early 20s and the event was devastating for multiple reasons. We didn’t understand what exactly was happening or why. Suddenly the country was being attacked in spectacular fashion at multiple locations simultaneously (it wasn’t just New York, it was also Washington, DC, then another flight that the passengers fought back so it didn’t reach the terrorists’ destination).

Whoever did this had planned super well and knew how to get us. We didn’t know who or why, what was going to happen next? Would bombs start blowing up in major cities? Was this a chaotic prelude to an invasion by another military? No option seemed impossible in those early hours as we watched the carnage live.

they take a hard left and blame minorities somehow

Or a hard right, maybe?

I’m working on that. I have little previous experience with Linux and self hosting but I’m slowly making progress. I now have switched my gaming PC over to Linux almost full time. I know I can switch to Jellyfin for video streaming but it’s been a lower priority to figure out compared with other services I’m trying to understand how to self host.

Definitely true. I’ve been putting off an upgrade of my NAS because they have randomly decided to completely remove the video streaming software that came with it when I bought it. So infuriating.

Recently one of my opposite numbers, a columnist up in Vancouver, B.C., announced that he couldn’t take America anymore. He broke up with us.

“Goodbye, America,” wrote longtime Sun columnist Pete McMartin.

“Goodbye Bellingham, Seattle and Portland — how I’ll miss my Cascadian cousins with our shared Pacific sensibilities.”

“What was once so close has never been so far.”

McMartin, channeling the bitter mood of betrayal in Canada right now, said the heedless U.S. president is forcing all Canadians to make a choice — between being “vassals or enemies.”

“I’m choosing the latter,” he announced.

“So, goodbye America, it’s been nice knowing you, but I don’t know you anymore. I’ve reached that point in our relationship where any admiration I have had for you has been replaced by a new, angry resolve, which is: I won’t consort with the enemy.”

Ouch. The enemy? What can I say to that in return?

The awkward reality is I don’t know what to say to Canadians at this juncture in our shared history. On the Peace Arch at Blaine between our two countries, the inscription reads “Children of a Common Mother.” This feels then like the world’s biggest family breakup — with us as the cause.

Would it help, Canadians, if an American said he was embarrassed for America right now?

Would it count for anything if I pointed out that we were as blindsided as you by Donald Trump’s suggestion of annexing your country, and making it the 51st state? That he didn’t bring up his weird Canada animus until after he’d won the election?

No, that probably won’t help. The bitter truth is we knew Trump was impetuous. We knew he loves to bully his allies more than his enemies — witness how he relishes humiliating, say, GOP senators. And we knew he would act out the Ugly American shtick on the world stage. We elected him anyway.

Still, picking on … Canada? I think I speak for more than a few Americans when I say that the only people more baffled by this sudden choice of enemies than you, Canadians, was us.

So for what it’s worth, Canada, let me say that I admire how you’re rallying to our threat.

I loved how you mocked the idea of Trump requesting Canadian troops on the border by instead posting hockey sticks in the snow with googly eyes on them.

I love how everybody’s wearing “Canada is not for sale” hats.

I smiled at how a British Columbia coffee house has started a movement to change the name of the espresso drink “Americano” to “Canadiano.” Quiet acts of resolve matter, even silly ones.

I also like that there’s now a weekly protestoutside the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, with signs like “Stop Him, Americans” and “Toque off, Trump.” And I endorse how your sports fans are lustily booing our national anthem. Atypical for you supposedly polite Canadians — but exactly what the times demand.

All this makes me envious, Canada. You’re behaving as we ought to be.

That we’re not protesting or booing right along with you blameless Canadians was the most wounding part of Mr. McMartin’s breakup note.

“Goodbye to my American friends,” he wrote.

“Your silence and the silence of all Americans in response to this aggression leaves me disheartened. That silence speaks volumes. I — we — have heard you loud and clear how little our friendship as a country means to you.”

How can I explain this quiescence? I cannot.

I could report to you that people here are exhausted. I have readers in Seattle who write to me daily saying they no longer read the news, because they can’t take it anymore. It’s their way, I guess, of also saying goodbye.

I could tell you that some people here still regard Trump as a buffoonish cartoon figure not to be taken seriously. He won’t really try to annex Canada, they blithely say.

Or I could try to convince you that we’re only hibernating. That you just have to be patient, Canadians, as the old America you once knew, the one that famously does the right thing only after exhausting all other options, is about to burst onto the scene.

But I can’t honestly sell any of that right now. You got it right in your breakup note. You called us quiet cowards, which hurts because it’s true. We kicked up a million times more fuss when a transgender celebrity drank a Bud Light, or when they asked us to wear masks, than we are right now that our bonkers boss is threatening to economically crush, and then imperialistically occupy, our closest ally and friend.

As one Canadian wrote in response to McMartin’s goodbye:

“The United States is not what I once thought it was. Their true character — or lack of — is in clear view. I can think of excuses, but in the end, Americans had a choice, and this is the one they made.”

What can one say to that?

I have a friend in Canada who insists the main difference between Canadians and Americans is the apology. Canadians apologize two or three times before breakfast, he says, while you Americans won’t do it even after you’ve, say, invaded the wrong country.

So that’s what I got, Canadians. It’s bound to be small solace. It won’t end the tariffs or the takeover madness. It won’t “stop him.” But it’s the only thing I have from the heart to communicate that there are some down here who not only hear you, Canada, but who stand with you.

Which is to say: I’m sorry.

I think you’re falling into the trap of making a good faith argument when the people pushing to destroy encryption are not.

I think you will find, Mr. West, that it is not so easy to unring the bell. If you are truthfully NOT a Nazi then I would say you have a long road of public actions fighting Nazis convincingly if you wish to be believed.

I felt your comment in my bones.

Alright, how do you explain this?

Or they pass a law mandating withholding.

That was my first thought too then I looked at the first frame again and I was thinking maybe she was trying to shower with him. He rejected her in order to take care of their child’s needs - which made him even more desirable to her.

PST is a big place with a lot of variation. I have lived in CA & WA and found that in both things are way more chill than out east. However the biggest disadvantage of this is when you try to hire tradespeople to fix things at your home. Both states I’ve had lots of bad experiences with people who couldn’t give a shit. I know this can happen anywhere but I’m talking about a larger tend I’ve observed after living both places. Out west I’ve really struggled with finding someone to do a good job fixing anything at my home so I ended up learning to do a lot more stuff than I wanted just to get it done halfway decently.

I feel attacked.