I don’t know about you all, but here, it’s been the coldest and wettest spring that I can remember. I still need to have the heat on at this point here.
In local news, this is the summer of football retardation..
In OTHER local news…
Continuing on local news, this is definitely an argument.
I don’t generally jump for remasters or remakes, but I will say that I am very interested in this one (although I played a lot more of the second, the third was hot garbage).
Speaking of old games, originally I was going to bitch, but I agree with the complaints.
Ok, Lego are getting really cool, and people have way too much time on their hands.
“Jorgen, what the hell did you order from Amazon last night?“
Biden may have cancer, but did you know that Orange Man, is in fact, Bad?
Maybe it’s just me, but I kind of feel like an immigration court is an appropriate place to find ICE agents.
If you want a vision of the future, imagine Clippy offering his assistance to you forever.
This link is for Juris Imprudent.
Allow me to step on Mexican Sharpshooter’s toes for a bit with this link.
Maybe spend a couple of years, hanging around fringe message boards, hanging Gadsden flags, and melt it down into home cast bars?
‘Member this guy?
For the drink this week, as we move into summer (supposedly), I’ll introduce you to a gimmick drink. This is a drink that isn’t designed to taste good, it isn’t designed, to blend well, it’s designed to look pretty and show off a bartender’s skill
The Pousse Cafe
- 1 part Blue Curacao
- 1 part Malibu coconut rum
- 1 part Campari
If you look, you’ll see we’ve got bitter (Campari), strong (rum), and sweet (curacao), so technically, this can be called a cocktail. The Pousse Cafe is a bartender’s trick drink, to make it requires nothing more than steady hands, and knowing the specific gravity and color of different spirits. The point is to make a series of layers, keeping them separate to provide a striking visual (and mediocre flavor at best). You may have the feeling that I’m not a big fan of these drinks, and you’d be right. If there was a wheel of cocktails, this is the exact opposite of my preference. This is form over function, appearance over ability, visual over flavor. It’s a mechanical, soulless, hollow drink. But people should know how to make it, and it is a useful skill in other areas (such as making Black and Tans or Half and Halfs). Get a clean chilled clear glass (tall shot glasses, Collins glasses, or Nick and Noras are traditional, you want narrow and tall over wide and squat), pour in the Blue Curacao (SG 1.10). Now, using a barspoon and the side of the glass, carefully pour a layer of Campari (SG 1.06) on top of the Blue Curacao. After that is settled, put a layer of Malibu (SG 1.04) on top. At the end you’ll have a ‘Merican drink for a ‘Merican holiday. A white (OK, clear), red, and blue layered drink. If you want to really get ‘Merican, you can put a float of overproofed rum (SG 0.94) on top and light it with a sparkler.
With that out of the way, I hope everyone has the long weekend they want, and has at least something better than a Pousse Cafe to drink over the weekend.
I tried to play some old Sierra games. My jam was Space Quest and Kings Quest. Dark Souls ain’t got nothing on them.
We have a break of nice weather so down to the river we go tonight for drinks and music.
Hero’s Quest was the best, as you could carry your character into the next games. It was possible if you did things just right, to have access to every skill (including magic), and still be able to become a Paladin in the second game.
QFG was great fun.
The little bitch who wrote the article did bring up the Gabriel Knight series, which might have been the peak of point-and-click story gaming…
EvilSheldon:
That’s right, Sierra got sued by the board game company that released the board game Hero’s Quest (for which they did release a video game adaptation of, so an actual good lawsuit IMO). It did ruin the fun of most of the games being %noun% Quest.
If there’s one thing that nearly everyone learned from Leisure Suit Larry and Police Quest was the art of save scumming (for the slot machine/poker game respectively).
So, so true. Space Quest, too, for the slot machine in the space cantina…
QFG IV was buggy. I think GoG has a fan patched version that fixes the bugs.
I had the Sierra version and never finished it because of the bugs. Shame because it was a good series.
Corey Cole sometimes posts on the CRPG Addict blog and the Adventure Gamer blog. Core Cole said the QFG IV problems were in part due to Sierra management cutting QA budgets.
I think King’s Quest VI or so was the only one I played… it was fun enough, but I quickly was much more into X-Wing and TIE Fighter. Those could use some remasters as long as they left the game mechanics and story completely alone… (they kinda run in the GOG versions… but the controls are more than a little wonky). Of course… my reflexes I think suck from when I was younger… so I’d probably get my butt handed to me trying to play TIE Fighter these days.
It is odd… other than DCS World — I don’t think there really is a good combat flight sim anymore than I know of… and DCS World is too realistic these days… from what I’ve seen — you really need to be a trained USAF pilot just to work the blooming cockpits…
Anyway… rambling mode off… back to skimming links…
Seems we all took that progression path. I remember moving into the X-Wing/TIE fighter games too. Worst part of Sierra games? Losing the manual and not being able to answer the anti-piracy questions about what word is on page 45, paragraph 2, word 6.
OBE:
I’ll stand apart and say I wasn’t a big fan of the X-Wing/TIE fighter games. I much preferred Wing Commander and Freespace for my space shooters. Now the Dark Forces/Jedi Academy games, those were my jam.
I loved X-Wing. It was just complicated enough, and you could just keep playing it. I also like Silent Service II at the time, for the same reasons.
What about Leisure Suit Larry?
Silent Service….fun stuff. We were also big into Apache Gunship (I think that was the name) and I got all my smarts from Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Back when educational games were dog shit.
MicroProse F-19 Stealth Fighter, Gunship, M1 Tank Platoon
I liked Silent Service II so much I hunted down a copy of the book they used as a source, “Silent Victory” by Clay Blair Jr. I was only able to find the first volume, not the second. But that book was fantastic.
For naval sims Harpoon, Red Storm Rising, Silent Service
I actually blame Wing Commander: Privateer for a great deal of my libertarian-ness.
And who can resist this line from the demo loop?
Unnamed Hero, addressing the surviving space pirate of the three who just tried to bounce his ship: “I don’t mind that you tried to kill me. But defending myself against punks like you is getting expensive.”
Unnamed Hero: “And I’m on a budget.”
Missiles away
Leisure Suit Larry.
“Better wear a rubber dude”
Crossed my mind immediately.
Where’s Tonio’s Nerds sign.
I played Space Quest IV – and one of the Leisure Suit Larrys – during a college break at my older brother’s house but otherwise very little from that era. I did not own a computer until much later. I have a much greater recall of the C64 era.
Not Nikki? Man… that’s just the worst.
Nikki would’ve dug Guy.
the NFL’s actions and the dissemination of slanderous statements have caused severe emotional distress and trauma.
A superfan’s love is different than that of a square.
GTFO. She sounds poor.
Just a mere year ago that would have been framed as a Mexican immigrant from Ohio.
Migrant birthing person.
So they just need to delay long enough for her to have her kid who gets birthright citizenship (because that’s still not decided and probably isn’t going to be in OMB’s favor anyway) and then she’s the “mother of a US citizen who should get to stay here due to family ties!”, right?
It really is something how they go to such great lengths and expense for these people, meanwhile 66% of people want the deportations to continue.
Nope. She can take her kids with her or leave them with someone here. Her arse goes back to Mexico.
I would say that her bundle of cells/unborn child would probably be a really good test case for the argument about the “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause.
Oh Neph, that’s an awesome thought – bundle her out of the country and the kid gets squirted out in Mexico and then hear the complaints about how the child was conceived here, and that establishes its claim to citizenship of course from the people that would otherwise deny any right to a clump of cells.
She already has a “US citizen” child to use for that purpose.
Apparently if you discuss nihilism, you become a proponent of it. JFC, it’s like Otto from a Fish Called Wanda has become the model for journalism.
Anything to frame a story ji
Further, there is no such thing as a single male in Twentynine Palms, that isn’t either a Misguided Child of Uncle Sam, a former Marine, or someone involved in drugs.
Asshole!!…
I remember people talking about his meth addled idiocy and this weirdness… but never watched the stupid show or cared about the various crap…
Man who tried to sell $6.4M gold toilet stolen from English country house spared jail
Clearly Trump is involved somehow.
It was a great toilet seat. The best. Made even better by the caress of my soft buttocks. Everyone says so.
Well someone’s been reading ahead to the next The Hat and the Hair….
You know what they say — “A fool and his gold are soon pyrite”
“Ohio mother”. If she’s here illegally, she’s not Ohio mother. I lived for several years in Europe, mostly not legally. My son was even born there. If I had been deported it wouldn’t have even made the news, and I certainly wouldn’t have been referred to as Bratislava Father.
Yeah, I have never heard the left complain that no European country has “birthright citizenship”.
Cool. News roundup from the last year : https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Nh5NN7X6icc
We could just post that as the links every day.:
Just thought of a way to improve citizenship by birth…a combo of land and blood.
You have birthright citizenship if you meet at least 2 of the following 3 conditions:
1. Your mother is a US citizen.
2. Your father is a US citizen.
3. You are born in the United States or one of its territories.
If condition 1 and 3 are met, 2 doesn’t matter. But if one of 1 or 3 isn’t met, 2 will need to be tested for.
So who would be excluded? Children of two non-citizens and Barrack Obama (if he was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii).
Thats a solution. We don’t offer solutions in the United States. We offer opportunities for NGOs and/or politicians
USMNT hit hardest.
OFFS soccer “nationalities” are so ridiculous. You can go back several generations to claim a nation for yourself, if it will have you.
Not sure you’re criteria is wrong, but not sure it’s right either.
My son was born in Okinawa, and his mom is Okinawan so he wouldn’t qualify.
We moved to America when he was a year old, he had dual citizenship at the time.
When he turned 18, he chose American citizenship.
With one out of the three, it should be an easy naturalization process. Only downside for your son would be he couldn’t be President.
Funny how Japan makes you choose.
Although they don’t really enforce penalties it if you don’t officially renounce it.
Unless you’ve pissed them off. And Carlos Ghosn got a taste of just how shitty the justice system there can be.
How about unless one of your parents is a citizen you go through the naturalization process. Period.
“Can every side lose?”
That sounds rather nihilistic.
I’ve seen the left bitching about AI in games before. You know, because they care about artistes so very much. 🙄
I learned something really important in those early 90s…let your girlfriend win or don’t introduce her to the video game you are playing. Myself and brothers strung across the attic crawl space serial cable so we could do local games of Warcraft III. She wanted to join and I immediately sent 50 dragons to destroy her.
The girlfriend saw me playing a version of Civilization, and picked it up and was playing it as well. One time she saw there was multiplayer, and asked if we could play together. I said, “We can, but we shouldn’t.”
She persisted, and then was very upset when our civs encountered each other, and I was at least a couple tech tiers up, and promptly started capturing her workers, and surrounding her cities with military units. She now listens when I say that us playing against each other would not be a good idea.
lol
This general concept applies to a lot of different hobbies.
Back when I was paddling whitewater in the 90’s, a decked canoe was called a ‘C boat’. A tandem decked canoe was a ‘C2’. A tandem decked canoe paddled by a married couple was called a ‘D-I-V-O-R-C-E boat’.
I was just talking to my manager, and he thinks the 90’s were the peak for video games. I don’t play much now but I did then, so I had to agree.
We used to play network games after hours at work (and sometimes at lunch, and sometimes during work hours). Our favorites were Quake 3 and Starcraft.
Nah. I could make a case for the early 2000’s myself for much the same reason but even then I have to admit that games in general are probably better than ever.
Old games mostly suck ass and are not fun to play anymore – and the older they are, the more of all of that.
I have finally fixed my new keyboard, but lost one of the shfit key caps. I have spare keycaps, but they don’t match. I also had to reflow the solder joins on the down arrow key.
At the moment the keyboard works. Out of the two months I’ve had it it’s been in working order for maybe two weeks, if that.
If it weren’t so comfortable for typing I’d give up on it.
I bought one of these a few years back: https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/NEW_M
Probably better than the originals. I love this keyboard.
I have one. It’s the main desk keyboard. It’s not a good lap keyboard.
Deja vu? You’ve had this problem for a bit, unless I’m imagining it.
Biggest thought? Um. I’ve never been so attached to a keyboard. You use enough caps to need ‘spares!?’ You *solder* it for repairs? Damn. In your spare time. I’ve never pondered further than if It’s either broken or not. Or ‘wounded.’ We are very different people.
Onward, and I wish you the best of luck. May the keys fall as you desire.
This desperate parsing of place and identity (Ohio mother!) caused this old joke to pop into my head:
Ride a hundred horses and nobody calls you a cowboy. Fuck one sheep…
And they call ewe a ram?
Can’t pull the wool over your eyes.
Apropos of nothing-
I watched an old Hammer horror film last night called The Gorgon. It was actually pretty good.
LOL 🤡
Accuse your enemies of doing what you are doing then muddy the waters until no one can figure out what is going on.
What kind of people does Ohman spend his time with that he thinks any sentient creature would buy that load of shit?
Don’t underestimate the effects of TDS. [And I think we really need to pronounce that as tedious.]
Other San Franciscans? The guy has probably not encountered an opposiing viewpoint in decades.
“Don’t underestimate the effects of TDS. [And I think we really need to pronounce that as tedious.]”
BOOM. I strongly approve. Will steal.
Beware
Artificial intelligence is evolving faster than our ability to understand its consequences. As it continues to evolve, the spread of misinformation will accelerate at an unprecedented pace, posing serious risks to public trust, safety, and reputation. And while not a comprehensive solution, public relations professionals can help serve as a bulwark.
Crisis PR—the field focused upon managing reputational fallout—is about to become a frontline defense in a war most people have not yet seen coming.
While the internet has enhanced our lives in many ways and brought people together across the globe, it has also provided platforms a place to separate us. While unlimited and instant access to information has been a huge leap forward, AI-generated content threatens to flood our feeds with misinformation. Increasingly, we are entering an era where people, companies, and institutions of all types will need help not just telling their stories, but separating truth from fiction in defense of their reputations.
A single false image, fabricated recording, or scandal invented and amplified by bots will be able to dismantle a person’s livelihood and future in a matter of minutes. That’s the dark side of AI-enabled misinformation: the power to ruin someone based on nothing more than a computer-generated narrative or image.
I could be wrong, But this sounds like a sales pitch from an “image consultant”.
I think they said the same thing about Photoshop at one time. But how long as “photographic proof” been a thing? Less than 100 years? We’ll just get to a point where everyone just assumes every photograph is fake. Oh well.
every photo is fake
Before 150 years ago we just had drawings and paintings, and somehow we survived that.
Kinnath-Your apple trees made it through without a frost?
Have you sprayed yet?
Some of my transplants from last year are not doing well this year. I had to replace 3 nursery trees, they were doing well for a couple years and then last year
ran out of gas and dead this spring.
We had no problems with frost. It warmed up early. March was mild.
But it stayed cool. Lows in the 40s and 50s right up to this week. We had one short week of temps in the 80s. But that was it.
The early blooming trees (typically mid April) bloomed the first week of May. It doesn’t look like the late blooming trees bloomed at all.
They are all growing like weeds now. I need to get out and prune them.
The future belongs to AI, but that does not have to herald the end of fact. Now, more than ever in our history, there will be a burning need for people who fight for truth and decency. I am confident that crisis PR practitioners will rise to the moment. In the age of AI, reputation protection and crisis communication will no longer be optional, but essential.
Evan Nierman is the founder and CEO of Red Banyan, a global crisis PR firm, and author of Amazon bestsellers The Cancel Culture Curse and Crisis Averted.
Under every tree. Behind every rock.
Biden on a bad day is exponentially superior to President Donald Trump’s on his best.
At what?
Selling pardons.
Being a puppet.
On the temporary blocking of the action against Harvard and foreign students . . . . what is temporary?
I have not seen how long the injunction was issued for. Is it just until a hearing can be scheduled?
Hearing and or trial. Harvard will try to drag it out as long as possible assuming they don’t settle all the other issues with FedGov.
Hopefully the action is blocked permanently. This decision by the Trump Administration is arbitrary and capricious. I’m glad we have the judicial branch of government just for cases like this. I don’t recall that Trump campaigned on the issue of deporting foreigners who are in the country absolutely legally but he and his people don’t like them.
I need to file an amendment for my permit and there are NO INSTRUCTIONS. Not on the form not on the website. None. In fact the website contradicts itself.
Which is it, mail it or bring it in person?
Some of these fields are cryptically labelled, what information goes in them?
I hate this state.
They don’t want you to have a gun.
Is there a sign that reads ‘Beware of the leopard’ ?
Apparently you dont get the message. You are not allowed to defend yourself. Your life means nothing.
Every single gun law, regulation, prohibition, license or special tax is an infringement. Despite me using those words none of those are legitimate. Every single one of them is a crime committed by the state.
“This motion is not just about one player; it represents a broader fight against racial discrimination and the abuse of power within one of the most influential sports leagues in the world.”
A black QB was the top pick in the draft this year, so how do they get racial discrimination from Shedeur sliding to round 5?
“Racism is like ketchup to the left. They put it on anything they dont like.”
I have no idea what the politics of those people are like but I can hazard a guess. That or an awful lot of people like ketchup.
This year we’re picking a white QB. I know, I know, last year we went with the black guy and he kicked ass and won division and beyond and the crowds really turned out to see him pick defenses apart. Nonetheless we’re going with a guy from a community college ’cause we can get him cheaper and he’s white.
The argument was that the #1 pick was willing to “act white” to impress the scouts and Sanders was just “being himself”.
There were kaepernick comparisons.
re: Dawn of War. Just started to play it again. Still a good game. Helps a guy stay awake and stick to a semblance of a sleep schedule.
Where did everyone go?
Huh, playing clips on TV now of Comey claiming he didnt arrange the seashells. Also he claims it is so clever and someone with artistic flair had to do that. The thing about corrupt dullards like himself is that they have no idea how transparent their mendacity is and they are accustomed to not being called out on it.
Apparently calling for the murder of the president is a crime that the secret service takes seriously….at least now they do.
Cubs were down by four against the Reds and weren’t looking sharp. “Well, there’s still a third of the game left. Hrm.” And *now* the Cubs explode. PCA is fucking special. He’s likely the most exciting player right now. Damn, he’s quick, and his power is shocking for his build. Hit a two-run Homer and we took the lead off another, a grand slam, where the bases were filled in all sorts of interesting, fun ways. The game ain’t over yet, so no celebrating yet, but damn. And the Reds have something brewin’… must focus. My viewing energy radiates positive energy through the Chicago bench. (They need it right now, honestly.)
PCA’s akin to Javier Baez when he was good with Chicago. I’m also pleased he’s having an odd resurgence in Detroit after having a few remarkably bad years. I really wish we hadn’t gotten rid of Kyle Schwarber. He’s still damn good in his odd way. He *also* went to Indiana University, coincidentally enough.
This was not supposed to go here.
I was gonna say something about Comey knowing how to arrange the shells, always leaving three, but he has no idea what they’re for or how to use them. I suppose I’ve said it now.
I still need to have the heat on at this point here.
#metoo
Get used to it because the game will kill you in so, so many ways: touching any single pixel of a root monster whose branches form a difficult maze;
That drove me up a wall! And I too liked Sierra games despite their flaws.