BougieBirdie

It’s funny you say that, because I think the cart is what most diehard fans of the first game disliked. It replaces the dungeon crawl. I suppose the Stress system gets a significant rework, but it keeps the spirit of the original

I think it’s a big step forward though

I’m a big fan of Darkest Dungeon, but I’m also a chronic restarter. Building a roster of heroes is fun, but permadeath is so punishing. I have a similar problem in XCOM where you spend so long in a campaign building up your roster, then you lose your ace squad and the whole thing unravels

I really enjoyed Darkest Dungeon 2. There are some radical changes, but it still hits the core vibe and offers a more roguelike experience. Even if I fail my run in spectacular fashion, I’m able to start over on the next one. Far less frustrating than a whole new campaign

This one is completely different from your typical ARPG, but I’m going to recommend Noita.

It’s a 2d game where you play as a wizard off spelunking. The magic system is rad as heck, you find wands with spell slots in them, and spells that you can put in the wands. You can rearrange and combine spells to get some truly bizarre effects

I’ve killed myself in a dozen hilarious ways trying to make the perfect wand. It never gets old

There’s a famous example of one of these bulbs that’s been in operation since 1901

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

Context kind of matters for me, but if I’m screwing any in, it’s both of them.

My monitors are on a swivel bar, and plug into the underside. Those get screwed completely in if the cable has screws. But on the desktop, since it doesn’t really move and I’ve never yanked a cable, they’re usually left loose.

You can be narcissistic and still like cats. It’ll give you both something to bond over.

But for real, there are people who keep their cats on vegan diets because their beliefs are more important than their pets’ health.

There’s also people who insist that you shouldn’t spay/neuter your cat and still let them outside to roam free. That might not technically be narcissistic, but cats have a tremendous negative impact on the ecosystem, and feral cats suffer greatly in the wild.

All that said, I love my fuzzballs. They stay indoors, both for their protection and the local wildlife.

Well your conversation with Lucas has it identify itself as Claude, so I’d be a teensy bit skeptical myself

smh r u fr rn?

Frugal tip: You can get a lot more life out of green onions by setting them in a jar of water. Trim what you need from the ends, and the plant will grow probably 3-4 times before you need to replace it.

Instant noodles, peanut butter, and sriracha. Crack an egg in near the end.

It’s actually pretty close to pad thai, but screams of struggle meal

No problem, can you tell I’m procrastinating? ;)

Gosh, that’s actually a big question and not one that I’m sure anybody could come to a definitive, absolute answer.

Ultimately, I think it depends on an individual’s ethics. Some people believe there’s nothing wrong with hunting because it’s just predation happening in the ecosystem. Some people avoid certain ingredients or produce like palm oil or avocados because of the ecological harm. For some people, it’s eating only locally sourced food to minimize the impact of emissions from the global supply chain.

For many people, it’s a murky line between doing what’s right and doing what’s achievable. And as people get pushed to their limits they might not be able to afford the luxury of choosing what’s good.

For my part, I’m trying to do the best I can. Our grocery budget is quite frugal and we’re getting squeezed. Eating vegetarian is often a financial necessity. My wife craves meat, and I’m not going to argue with her body’s natural impulse. So if there’s a bargain or leftovers, we won’t pass up an opportunity.

The sad thing is, I live in a first world country and I know people who are way less food secure than I am.

Another one that kills me is eggs. I pay a little more for the free-range eggs from a factory farm, but I’m still buying from a factory farm. I have no illusions that the conditions of a factory chicken are good, but at the least they’re not battery-caged, so they must be suffering less. But if we were buying from a local farmer, they’d either be too expensive or not able to keep up with demand. We’d be kind of hard pressed to meet our nutritional needs without eggs, so I have to live with the fact that I’m supporting a factory farm

I’m going to stop procrastinating tomorrow.

But for real, when I was in high school and my first attempt through college, I had a terrible problem with procrastination. Doing homework at the very last minute worked well enough in high school, but at the post-secondary and professional level it doesn’t really cut it.

In my second and successful attempt at college, I made it a policy to just do all my homework right away. That meant working while I ate lunch, using free periods when they were available, and often staying after class. If I had time leftover by completing a lab early, I’d start on my homework then.

In all, it typically cost me an extra hour or two on my day. But in the end, I didn’t have to take any homework home with me. It became routine that I was staying late most days, so it wasn’t a big problem if I did end up late. There was also a very distinct separation between my work and home life, and I think that helped reinforce the behaviour.

This isn’t always a super healthy attitude to take. I burned out pretty hard after graduation. I’ve since learned to relax, but I do struggle with procrastination frequently now.

Never procrastinating isn’t achievable for some people. Nor do I think it should be. You can’t always summon willpower from where there isn’t will. If you struggle with neurodivergence or mental illness, then you probably know exactly what I’m talking about.

I believe to a certain extent it’s healthy to procrastinate. Often, your brain is telling you that you need rest, and it does so through procrastination. However, you can’t procrastinate yourself out of a problem, lest you end up with more severe problems.

If you want to find a healthy way to reduce your procrastination there are a lot of tips out there that might set you up for success. But if something isn’t working for you, it’s okay to be skeptical of it. There’s an entire industry of pop psychology scientific-sounding crap out there. The behavioural sciences are a constantly evolving field, and what was touted as a solution twenty years ago may be out of touch with today’s understanding.

Here’s a few tips that have been helpful to me, and with less eulogizing:

Tip 1 - Minimize

• Think of the smallest part of the task you have to do
• Find a triggering event to remind you to do the task
• Do that smallest part
• Congratulate yourself

Example: I have a sink full of dirty dishes that need to be washed. Whenever I get up for a glass of water, I wash one dish and fist pump.

This one’s great for building habits. The reasoning is that you have a reminder event to prompt you into action, and then you’re giving a positive association to the task. It’s also a good technique for large tasks made up of many small parts. Something is better than nothing, and often times I find that I take on more of the task because I’ve already gotten over the largest hurdle of starting.

Tip 2 - Randomize

• Make a list of the tasks you’re avoiding doing
• Randomly select a task
• Do the task

Example: I have six tasks I’m avoiding, so I write out a list and roll a six-sided die to pick a task.

The reasoning is that when we’re faced with too many options, we freeze up. It can take a surprising amount of mental energy to make a decision, so you’re allowing a system to make the decision for you.

Cop out: if you roll the die and it lands on Wash the Dishes and you have a strong feeling that you would have preferred to have selected Take out Garbage, then go ahead and take out the garbage. We can use randomness as a crutch, but we’re allowed to make our own luck too.

Tip 3 - Prioritize

• Accept that you’re going to procrastinate, even if it’s just a little bit
• Think of a task you could be doing that’s more favourable than the one you’re avoiding
• Do that task while you procrastinate

Example: I have to file my taxes and I’m dreading the paperwork. My floor also needs to be swept. I sweep the floor until I feel I’m ready to tackle my taxes.

This technique is mostly about minimizing the impact of procrastinating. Rather than procrastinating idly, you can procrastinate in a way that’s a little productive. It’s not really a solution to the problem of procrastination, but something is better than nothing.

If you’re struggling with procrastination and as a result have difficulty forming healthy habits, I wholeheartedly recommend Tiny Habits for further reading. I’ve tried a lot of self-help with mixed results, and this one has been the most impactful by far.

I’m not vegan, I’m just trying to eat less meat, but I see this discourse pop up from time to time in vegan communities.

A similar argument is often made regarding what would happen to vegetarians if they learned that plants can feel pain. This is often posed as a hypothetical, but I’ve heard that some studies suggests plants and fungi especially may be aware of when they’re being eaten. Whether or not that equates to pain, I don’t think a consensus has been reached.

But for the sake of argument, let’s say that plants do feel pain while you eat them. If your ethos is to reduce overall suffering in the food chain, then it’s still logical to abstain from meat. Livestock living a vegetarian life eat a lot of plants.

You might alternatively come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as ethical consumption. An extreme position you might take is that the best way to reduce suffering is to remove yourself from the food chain. If you starve yourself, you’ll be consuming less, your greenhouse emissions become zero, and you lessen your impact on social services and infrastructure that is often strained to the breaking point.

Obviously, the solution is not to just kill yourself. But advocating for more ethical consumption seems like a noble cause.

You know, that’s not a bad idea. I only have to make one meal, but I get more variety in my food each day.

I bet it’s easy to get going to, you only need a few friends / family / neighbours to get started

When I learned it, one of the core tenets was that you build a prototype and then iterate off of it. I guess that’s what I’m referring to

Every organization I’ve worked for has a different bastardization of it, so your mileage may vary

Hey, I’m also a software developer, and I dabble in game dev.

You eat an elephant one bite at a time. You’re probably already familiar with Agile, and that’s a good way to organize your project. Start small, get one thing working, and then you can iteratively add features.

If you’re interested in game design, you may want to do some reading on the subject. The Onion model for game design is highly effective. You start with a core feature, finish that feature, then add new layers by adding new features. You complete each feature before you start on the next, and this way you always have a working game. It’s fairly similar to Vertical Slices in Agile development.

As far as choosing an engine, I’ll make it easy for you and just recommend Godot. It’s FOSS and widely used in particular by solo devs. I’ve also dabbled with Unity and Unreal, which will be the other major free (but proprietary) options. Unity has less ramp-up time than Unreal, but it also has a history of screwing with its users. You’re probably familiar with vendor-lock, and that’s what you’ll be getting into if you try either of those.

You may already have the skills to build your own engine. Don’t. You’ll pull your hair out on all the edge cases and abstractions, and an off-the-shelf engine already has that figured out for you.

As far as learning to use the software, I guess that depends on your learning style. There’s books, videos, and official documentation on the web for whatever engine you decide to use. I’d recommend you use the same approach as learning any other new stack or library. For me, that often means going to the documentation’s Getting Started page and just playing around.

As you mentioned, tutorial hell is real. Don’t get me wrong, tutorials are a great way to learn the engine’s features that you aren’t already aware of. But don’t be afraid to go off-script and just play around. Sooner or later you’ll have to make your own sausage anyway.

Since you already know how to code, you’ve got a huge leg up on most beginners. The hardest part about making games is creating assets and scripting features. As far as assets go, you can certainly make them yourself, or you can outsource that work with third-party assets. While you’re learning, I’ll recommend Kenney - they’re highly regarded in the game dev community, and all of their assets are CC0 licensed so you’re free to use them even without attribution.

Good luck!

I have a cat that plays fetch.

It sounds cute, and it is - until he’s bringing you q-tips he dug out of the trash to play with.

If the company admits that the cost of wrongdoing might be worth a billion dollars, and then still engages in a billion dollars worth of wrongdoing, maybe the fine ought to be two billion

Geez, that’s lame. Use an ad blocker