araquen

Queen ’39

https://youtu.be/kE8kGMfXaFU

"In the year of ’39

Came a ship in from the blue

The Volunteers came home that day, and they bring good news

Of a world so newly born

Though their hearts so heavily weight

For the Earth is old and grey

Little darling, we’ll away but my love this cannot be

For so many years are gone

Though I’m older but a year

Your mother’s eyes from your eyes cry to me”

The reality of deep space travel.

Oddly, this happened to my mother, with her cat (always indoors). He “love bit” and “cromched” hard. My mother didn’t think much of it. She’s had cats for decades and had been bitten and scratched without incident. Cats are furry murder machines, and being lovingly lacerated is just what you sign up for as a cat parent.

Well, her hand swelled up something fierce, and she almost lost her hand. She had never gone through anything like that, but her cat never bit her again. It was just a weird, one-off.

The takeaway is: whenever your skin is cut deeper than a scratch, have it checked out. The cat is not the problem, any more than a rusty nail is. Rather your skin is a barrier, and when it is breeched, you risk infection. This is why such care is taken to minimize exposure in advance of surgery (and why you follow surgery prep to the letter).

Yeah. I was fine with Blizzard, since they had always developed natively for the Mac. I have to say that I was surprised to find that SE at least tried with their Wine port of FFXIV, and pleasantly surprised when they actually updated to the M chip.

That said, it is huge that Apple licensed the source code of Crossover from Codeweavers. I believe that the end result is basically going to be a game-specific “Rosetta for Windows” in which PC games will run seamlessly on a Mac (like FFXIV does), probably needing only an installer. And last I heard, MS was in talks with Apple regarding whatever gaming platform MS has - and it would absolutely be in MS best interested to tout “our platform [whatever this platform is, I am not deeply versed in the gaming scene] runs on Macs, so we’re not a monopoly."

Very true, but Microsoft doesn’t need any of them. And none of them are going to take a “demotion” to be a working executive - to off they toddle to ruin different companies (which is the life of Board members, flitting from Board to Board like human STDs in a pre-penicillin orgy). And Microsoft is big enough to put layers between their own disease and Blizzard - more like Vivaldi. Blizzard will be a small fish in a big pond, and that’s fine. Their best expansions (per many) were made when Blizzard wasn’t in a Board’s crosshairs.

Normally, I would not be happy about this, but this is the exception. Even as a Mac gamer (and please don’t at me - I have had decades of sass coming from the PC community. Let me enjoy my platform. I get what I need) this is a win. Activision was always poison for Blizzard. At the bare minimum, Microsoft will enforce corporate HR standards - may not be awesome standards, but it’s a lot better than Activision turning a blind eye. And it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to support native Mac development where it exists (and while I don’t see Blizzard ramping up their Mac dev team to previous (if meager) levels, I expect that the games I enjoy will continue to work fine on my machine, which is a modest ask.

I mean, if Microsoft bent over backwards to prop up Apple in those dark days (and you could have concussed me with a feather when Gates announced MS was investing in Apple IIRC on stage during an Apple keynote) they’ll support other platforms.

Should all gaming fall under several big umbrellas? No. But getting the Activision Board and C-suite out of the “day to day” of studio development can’t hurt.

Frankly, I enjoyed WoW more when there was that “freedom” to do what you wanted with the specs and not have the theory police breathing down your neck. The game felt much more imaginative. Once I found out the only way a class worked was by going down a specific path, I was incredibly disappointed. Specs never felt fun to me after that. It always felt like the developers didn’t have time to complete the design and lobbed the ball over the fence to the player to “code in” the last pieces - since even from Vanilla there was really only “one way” to do it (according to the theory police).

When I first started playing WoW in 2006,I always wanted to play Balance (as it was the only caster option for Night Elves), but I thought that the point of the druid was to shape shift. So I had this janky hybrid build with the goal of collecting all the shape shifting appearances. I also thought that back then Blizzard was converting agility to spell power, because that was the only explanation for the lack of intellect leather. I though I had to only wear leather, but always believed that the gameplay was to cast until I ran out of mana, then switch to feral, and to bear if I needed additional armor and then back to casting when my mana bar recovered or if I needed to heal myself.

I leveled to 40+ with this funky build. Eventually a guild member was helping me on a quest and asked me if my build was “purposeful” because it was a garbage build. That’s when I learned about how specs work. He offered to make a dedicated set, but needed to know what spec. I told him I always wanted balance, and so he made me my Big Voodoo set, which lasted me until well into Outlands.

My go-tos. Granted, they’re largely city builders, but my main jam is WoW, so city builders “tickles” different part of my brain - my downtime when I need a break from the MMORPG space.

Planetbase - A survival/sim/city builder. Guide a group of space settlers trying to establish a base on a remote planet. Grow food, collect energy, mine resources, survive disasters and build a self-sufficient colony in a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Dawn of Man Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.

The Pale Beyond You didn’t ask to lead this expedition, but here you are. Stuck in the ice, Captain missing, miles from civilisation. Someone has to take charge. Manage your meagre resources, balance safety and morale, make the hard calls, and head in the only direction you can - through The Pale Beyond.

Kingdoms and Castles Kingdoms and Castles is a city-building simulation game about growing a kingdom from a tiny hamlet to a sprawling city and imposing castle. Make trade agreements, alliance, and war with neighboring AI controlled kingdoms. Each villager and resource is individually simulated.

The Wandering Village The Wandering Village is a city-building simulation game on the back of a giant, wandering creature. Build your settlement and form a symbiotic relationship with the colossus. Will you survive together in this hostile, yet beautiful post-apocalyptic world, contaminated by poisonous plants?

Homewind Home Wind is a minimalist, relaxing and cozy city builder about creating large settlements based on proximity tactics. All for free!

Capitol shaved off a few songs off the Parlephone equivalent of earlier albums and then released additional albums. https://ultimateclassicrock.com/beatles-us-uk-album-guide/

Right before CDs became huge, Capitol destroyed their Beatles masters, so the first Beatle CDs were Parlephone, which may be what most of the younger generations are used to.

The Red and Blue albums are awesome, especially since they contain songs you can’t find on their main albums — especially when you only had access to the reduced content Capitol record releases.

Sgt. Pepper is incredible, and for decades I considered it the “gold standard.” But I always found myself re-playing Revolver. But Pepper remains the reference album for “that album a band puts out that is the epitome of the band’s output.” No album since Pepper was as good - though some of The Beatles best songs are post-Pepper.

The amazing thing about The Beatles is that their catalog is a diverse collection of numerous different pop and rock sensibilities, like they just could not pick a direction, but hit on nearly every form of pop and rock they could think of, then immediately got bored and moved on to something else.

For folks discovering The Beatles for the first time, I always recommend listening in chronological order, simply because their musical evolution is really their defining characteristic - many bands found a voice and then did deep-dives (thus defining the later genres of rock that The Beatles maybe lightly touched on before moving on). The Beatles refused to be constrained, and I think that’s why we are talking about them some 50 years later.

My favorite is The Beatles Revolver.

Revolver is, IMO, the best transitional album - the songs are all approachable, yet remain experimental. The execution is polished.

While many will say that Sgt Pepper is the Beatles’ best album, over the years I found myself leaning more toward Revolver. Pepper is a great concept album, but there are only a few memorable songs. Most people have heard the majority of Revolver at some point in their life.

So if I were to pick one album that represented the Beatles at their height as a pop music band, it would be Revolver.

I miss:

r/abrathatfits - those folks took it to 11 for helping people find the best fitting bras - no matter your shape, size or orientation.

r/makeupaddiction - as someone who constantly feels like they’re putting on greasepaint and not makeup, the sub was great for helping people get their cosmetics game on

r/skincareaddiction. - a great sub for anyone struggling with skin issues

r/haircarescience - another great sub to help people with all their hair struggles

r/loseit, r/cico, r/1200isplenty, and the more discrete offshoots - great for helping me structure dietary goals.

r/hysterectomy, r/diabetes - because support groups matter (and I didn’t find the Hystersisters very supportive when I first went there, years ago).

r/volumeeating, r/eatcheaply and healthfully - lovely food “hacks”

r/criticalrole (I do hope that we regenerate with Lemmy.world as I believe there is a community of Critters there).

r/aquariums - I used to have an aquarium when I was younger. I always wanted one as an adult, but I have to suffice by living vicariously through other enthusiasts.

r/superbowls - because: owls and because it’s fun to watch the American football enthusiasts get “lost" in January.

There are others (I subscribed to almost 250 subreddits), but I can’t remember them off-hand.

I’ve seen “communities,” and my personal conceit is that “like” communities (communities with the same, similar, or synergistic subject matter) are “cohorts” so you don’t have to type “multi-communities”

IIRC, Apple licensed Codeweaver’s source and is extending it privately. My take is that this code, along with Game Mode is basically “Rosetta” for Windows, optimized for games. That would mean that you would launch a windows game on an M-chip Mac and it would launch without having to kick off an emulation mode. Folks playing FFXIV on Mac would have the feel.

I do think that PC devs will need to do something, I don’t think executables will work. Rather Apple is subsidizing the investment that the consumer and the developer needs to invoke to have a more prolific gaming experience.