Thanks, this was a fun read.

I do think the GBA and DS Castlevanias (since I’ve been replaying them lately) have distinct/unique gameplay mechanics - the most impactful of which involve collecting souls/etc from enemies to junction in new abilities - but until I replayed them I would have said the same thing. I started my replays of them by picking them at random because I couldn’t remember anything except “that was pretty good!”

I deduce that the one nerbal has now become a priceless commodity since the last person using currency now has cornered the nerbal market.

They’ll ride in, but it won’t be to save us. It’ll be only exactly to the extent they can buy up the bankrupt economy. It’s the post-Soviet Russian collapse wealth privatisation scenario.

Probably the idea was that people aren’t familiar with it and wouldn’t have approved a general election ballot measure when RCV was voted on, so they did the “lower stakes” elections to get everyone comfortable with it first.

My understanding is ranked choice only applies to NYC primary and special elections. General elections are not ranked choice, which I believe the final mayoral to be.

So choosing the “I didn’t get control of the city so I’m going to be a spoiler candidate” option, I see. Real leader material.

It goes to show even Republicans don’t understand how Trump came to have so much power.

To recap: He appeared and said things that were universally condemned since the beginning. The point of that wasn’t to win over voters, it was to increase name recognition to the point that everyone knew and was talking about Trump in national media. After that, Trump had a direct line to voters and could exploit that relationship directly without the national media.

Right now, they are giving Mamdani national name recognition. This is fantastic. If they keep this up, he’ll have a direct line to voters just the same.

And maybe, just maybe, once they know who he is, some sizable part of the population will actually vote for [checks notes] health care, increased pay, increased protections, taxing the rich.

Don’t worry, I’m sure the FTC will investigate this obvious and pernicious false labeling bait-and-switch scheme!

I switched to Rust Desk after I got repeatedly flagged for commercial use of Team Viewer and access disabled. I was doing nothing of the sort, but it happened after I accessed my personal computer on my personal phone while at work. They must have IP address checks that are extremely aggressive.

I followed their process to “verify” I was non-commercial, which was invasive and insulting, and then was flagged again.

Rust Desk works great, no problems, never using Team Viewer again.

I mean, I fully expect them to settle and that’s depressing, but so far they haven’t. The article is paywalled, but it looks like this is what a mediator has proposed, that’s all.

Republicans’ pitch has always been: Government doesn’t work. Elect us and we’ll prove it.

I’m like, “Is this what normal people in 2025 watch?” I feel like an alien on earth, except the planet changed and not me.

Tried this on a private window, and yes, that’s what it looks like. Thought I’d click on Shorts and let the first 3 seconds of the opening auto-play video play. Then back to the home page and wow, full of absolute trash.

Quote for reference:

Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told Fox News’ America’s Newsroom: “He’s been impeached twice, and now he’s still our president as well now too. It’s not going anywhere, and I don’t think that’s helpful. I think if you throw that term around that actually diminishes the severity of what impeachment is really reserved for.”

You know what else diminishes the severity of impeachment? Not impeaching impeachable conduct.

I actually don’t think he’s manifesting it, I think he’s narcissistically deluded and thinks if he says it then the sheer power of the U.S. Presidency (owned and subjugated to Donald J. Trump) will force them to stop. And then when they don’t, he’s pretty much having a mental break.

“Benjamin, STOP!”

All very good points.

He keeps trying. He seems to think that can be done by just putting his thumb on the system prompt, and then we end up with obvious nonsense like that South African white genocide preoccupation. It’s fortunate the Musk isn’t smart enough to figure out how to do it subtly.

It’s strange, because to certain groups of people, “botox and cheek filler face” is the standard of beauty. To me, I can only see it as someone intentionally putting their face into an uncanny valley.

I spent months tweaking a retropie image and basically learning all the Linux config file issues and arcane knowledge to adapt retropie’s outdated Emulationstation fork.

… And then I built the next system with Batocera and wow, night and day. Save state UX and configs that work right out of the box, clean interface theme options, customization galore without needing a keyboard. I just wish Ruckage’s SNES Classic theme worked on it.