@kit wow I certainly can’t relate to that in any way whatsoever

I should write a story about an alienated person forsaking their humanity and going through hell to commune with an eldritch horror in an effort to feel seen and heard by the only thing they feel they can understand in the face of a world that refuses to understand them

not an allegory or anything

it does so enjoy its shadow while wearing its headphones

I’ve been thinking a lot about Tolkien.

It is often remarked that a central thesis of his books is that evil provides the means of its own defeat. Sauron crafted the One Ring that killed him, Shelob impaled herself of Sam’s blade, Smaug exposed his belly to Bilbo and let him see the weak point.

I think it is less often commented on that the corollary to that is that good must still act to use those weaknesses. The Ring did not cast itself into the fires of Mt Doom but was brought by the Hobbits. Shelob was only able to impale herself because Sam kept his arm strong and held it out. The black arrow still needed to be shot into Smaug’s belly.

And a final point that I don’t see often enough is that Tolkien clearly believes good only loses if it surrenders to hopelessness. Denethor’s suicide driven by fear would have broken Minas Tirith if not for the Fellowship, Frodo would have fallen to despair if Sam had not been there to carry him, if Bilbo had seen the shot as hopeless then he never could have warned of the weak spot.

But because in those cases someone provided hope, good triumphed.

I don’t know. I’ve just been thinking about that a lot lately for some.

Bad Apple over SSH:

ssh badapple@ansi.rya.nc

I'll add subtitles (thanks @foone) in a bit.

Draculo is now streaming!! Come and join the fun!!!

Doom: Hideous Destructor Co-op !! (EVENTIDE.wad)

#retro #gaming #foss #linux #games #streaming #videogames #owncast

https://secret.draculo.net

slightly ominous mailer from the Red Cross

Shamelessly stolen. I'm not sure I have ADHD but I surely have terrible burnout. I don't think I talk to anyone who'd say they didn't.

Anyway, I find myself naturally doing pretty much all of these things. I'm really trying to simplify my life, and being okay with just doing that "one thing" per day.

reddit is so fun sometimes you just get the weirdest posts. i love r/dataisbeautiful because it always has some whack ass shit like this.

#shitpost

@tempest yeah omg that’s very fair. I probably can’t evaluate them fairly because I see linear non-environmental storytelling as a frustrating distraction in games 95% of the time lol. but that’s the impression that I get too

I’m not even sure if AAA interactive movie shooters could be considered oversaturated, though I am extremely not the target audience for interactive movie games

#HideousDestructor should have been a genre-defining mod and I can’t believe people are still saying in 2025 “shooters are so oversaturated” and “there’s no room to innovate with shooters” while completely ignoring this masterwork of a game

there might be no room to innovate with multiplayer PvP SBMM hypersweaty competitive shooters, and those are extremely oversaturated, but don’t conflate that with all shooters ever (indie pixel art boomer shooters are oversaturated too but also I wish more of them would take after Doom 1 and 2 more in their design instead of trying to be as “fast-paced” as possible :/)

Quick message to all fediverse newcomers:

Moderation in the fediverse is done by humans. There are no bots that shadowban you based on detecting certain keywords. This has some important consequences:

1. If you see a rule-breaking post, click the “report” button and write a report. The actual living, breathing creatures who run your instance will review the report.

The location of the report button varies depending on your client/app software: it’s usually near “reply” or “boost.”

1. The text you write in a report matters, because it will be read by an actual person. The mods are not just counting the number of reports.

2. If you’re talking about a sensitive topic like suicide, you should not bleep it out like “sui-de”. You won’t be banned for typing the actual word out. You should instead use a content warning for your post to warn your readers.

#FediTips

Welcome to the Fediverse! Do you trust these two sharks more to keep your social media alive than a silicon valley CEO? Then this is your site!