Building a life and a future history with other people. I'm old enough that I have a fair share of friends and family have passed away, and they live on in the web of my memories, and still shape the course of my life yet to be. I live my life with that in mind, knowing that someday my consciousness will cease, but some positive aspects of my essence will live on and become part of the fabric of a better future. I think just being present and a good person on other people's lives is enough.
I also find a lot of purpose in the creation of physical objects and in sharing all the technical details and instructions for how others can create them. I don't just want to make things, I want those things to become part of our common culture.
I hadn't heard of this show. It's really interesting seeing the similarities and contrasts between these two. On the one hand, it's exactly the same format. On the other hand, Bill Alexander's delivery is so different from Bob Ross, that it seems almost in a different category.
This Hitler dude needs to read some Anne Applebaum!
One of my big takeaways is how good the sprites and graphics are in all of them. I rarely see Sonic brought up in discussions about the best looking 16 bit era games, but I think it's in the top tier. The scrolling backgrounds in particular are a work of art. I'm fortunate enough to be playing these on a CRT TV using original hardware, and it looks so great on that. And not just the mythical "crt makes sprites look good", but also just how smooth and ghosting-free all the scrolling looks. It makes it kind of annoying to go back to playing Sonic Mania on my regular LCD TV, because everything looks so smeared when going fast!
My opinions about each game don't deviate too much from the conventional wisdom. Sonic 1 is definitely the weakest entry, with way too conservative level design. I don't really fault the design team here, as I'm sure they were in the mindset that "this is a platformer, and so we need to follow the design paradigm of other platformers". Sonic 2 is a way better overall game, embracing more crazy fast level design. I also thought it was a lot easier, I was able to get all the way to Metropolis Zone on my first playthrough (which surprised me, but I think Sonic 1 just really honed my skill). I'm currently playing Sonic 3 + Knuckles, and I'm using the Sonic 3 Complete rom to do that. Sonic 3 is a way more ambitious game, with a lot more crazy level gimmicks, and I love the variety in backgrounds and the miniboss transitions. It's definitely my favorite so far, and the one I'm going slowest on to explore and find secrets. My romcart isn't properly saving the game, so I'm just doing it old-skool and leaving my Genesis turned on for days at a time so I can pick up where I left off.
I'm also doing another play-through of Sonic Mania as Knuckles, and I'm appreciating it more than ever. It is the perfect modernization of the classic Sonic series.
(Also goofing around with Sonic CD on my phone. That one has a rad soundtrack, and I do actually like the very abstract and psychedelic artwork).
Working my way through Sonic 3 
Hydrocity Zone Act 2's music goes way harder than any water level has a right to.
I'm very late bloomer Sonic fan out there for whatever reason. My buddy had a Genesis, and some of my earliest memories were of goofing around in Green Hill Zone. I'm not sure why it took me another 33 years to actually try playing them in earnest, but I'm glad I did.
The Disco Elysium successor drama is the REAL sequel
I genuinely want to know if this is a "representative sample", or if these are all just the nieces and nephews of people in the office. If it's the former, then this is doomer material.
Lillian 27, Va., white, digital advertising, voted Trump in 2020
Abortions are legal in Virginia 
In Star Trek Discovery, Cochrane and Musk get specifically compared to each other, and to the Wright Brothers.
A key Senate Committee is about to vote on two bills that would bring back some of the worst patents and empower patent trolls. UPDATE: This vote has been set for this Thursday, November 14, 2024. The Patent Eligibility Restoration Act (PERA), S. 2140, would throw out crucial rules that ban patents ...
Dems using their lame duck session in the Senate to pass some slop for their donors.
On the one hand, this is completely delusional cope.
On the other hand, this is extremely funny.
I feel like Not Just Bikes would be a commie if he wasn't such a settler lib. He has all the critiques.
Even though he's a lib, I think these kinds of urbanism youtubers are a useful pipeline towards leftist thinking. If nothing else, they help break up some of the ossified thinking about what is possible, and promote such radical ideas as "communities are good" and "we can take some collective action to improve our daily life"
This shit's seriously darkI want to host some LAN parties this winter, and am looking for some Free Software Games that would be a fun time. We already play some Counterstrike and StarCraft 2, but I want to expand into some actual Free games. Windows compatibility is a must, MacOS compatibility is desirable!
The two on my radar are:
- Hedgewars, which seems like a strong candidate. We played a ton of Worms 2 in the 90s
- 0 A.D., since we're already fans of RTS games.
But I know there must be some wacky ones out there which would be suitable for 30 minutes of pick up play.
