For me it’s less about my knowledge vs. theirs, and more about get the fuck away from me and stop trying to make a sale.

They’re like horseflies circling around your head repeatedly, even though you’ve politely shooed them away multiple times. There is a furniture/appliance chain in Canada called The Brick that is hands-down the worst offender for pushy salesmen. I haven’t gone into one in years because every time I do I wind up wanting to scream and hurl an ottoman through the front window.

I firmly believe this is one of the main reasons retail is dying. I’m willing to pay the markup for the convenience of buying a product and having it in-hand today, but when I enter a mall and there are vultures on every corner trying to make small-talk and casually direct me to today’s hot deals, I want nothing to do with it.

Nearly every server is different, but the ones my friends/wife and I always did (10+ years ago) were like role-playing kingdom building maps. Server owner (usually me) would hold the title of King/Sovereign and appoint their friends to specific roles. I would oversee the general development and expansion of the kingdom, as well as decide and manage a system of ore-based currency (or would at least create the mint and appoint someone to running it). Afterward I would introduce and gradually roll out phases of a larger storyline for anyone who cares.

My left and right hand would build/manage the keeps/barracks/military structures, or the government buildings/libraries/cultural centers, etc. These would all be injected with their own lore and staffed by the person in charge of them. Everyone else would receive more minor roles, but typically be given monopolies in certain types of goods or commerce. Maybe Bob wants to be a trapper. Sure, anyone else can legally go and gather leathers and animal parts, but Bob is the only one permitted to sell those items in his shop in the city. Things like that just to try to keep it interesting. When Bob isn’t trapping or trading or being involved with the kingdom, he’s pretty much just playing Minecraft on his homestead.

The idea is to open it up to the public (via applications and careful vetting) and watch people run amock in the simulated medieval economy. We used to have a blast doing it. Especially with mods installed that added skill progression, abilities at milestones and other MMORPG-esque mechanics.

Normal people, however… They just do what they do in single player but occasionally trade, work together, tackle bosses, and show each other their latest creations.

I tried to get into it a number of times, and the three major things that always wear me down are, first and foremost:

The obscene lack of difficulty in overworld content (next to running completely gearless or taking on group content/bosses solo to create an artificial sense of risk or danger). Most enemies are so easy that you never need to maneuver or use your full array of combat abilities. You end up mashing the same two or three hot keys on every single enemy while your HP remains at 99%.

The weird choice of classes and themes that do not accurately reflect what The Elder Scrolls has always been about. Rather than building classes based on my preferred weapon class, skill sets (Sneak, Lockpick, etc.), and magic classes (Alteration, Restoration, etc.), I have to be locked into a holy javelin-chucking warrior of light, a lightning-slinging daedric sorcerer, a fire magic dragon warrior with wings and spikes growing from my back, or some other weirdly themed class that didn’t need to be a core archetype in the Second Era. Like, fuck man… Base classes could have easily been born under the Warrior, Mage, Thief, etc. and then built upon from there.

The absolute clusterfuck of major/DLC quests that start the moment you walk into town or pass an NPC. It feels like navigating a fever dream as a new player, and it’s overwhelming. A thousand tangled threads and no room to breathe. Even the main quest no longer has level requirements at each stage, so the Prophet will bid you goodbye and immediately call out again the moment you leave the cave. It’s an absolute mess.

I could go on, but these are the worst three.

HI, I’M KENNY ROGERS, AND THIS IZ THE PIRANHA BUCKET ON THE DOOR TRICK!

That’s the Fart Monster 2k.

Finally another game the Elder Scrolls Online community can enjoy.

My brother explained skatole to me once, and I remember the balancing act he had to perform to explain that he’s not saying my shit smells good in particular, but that it shares a certain quality with the odor of flowers. . But not a good quality, mind you.

I appreciated the compliment.

It’s crazy to me that people are still watching TV and tuning into things like new episodes of The Simpsons. My wife and I just drove out to Vancouver last week and stayed in a few hotels along the way. Using the TVs at each one (with a living, breathing TV Guide Channel) felt a little surreal. We were supposed to have sex the one night and instead I fell asleep watching the Paralympics.

I fucking love my kid. She’s incredible. And some days I kind of understand where Casey Anthony was coming from. Doesn’t sound so outlandish. But outside of extreme cases, I probably cap out at about a 6.5/10. I feel like that’s pretty good. It’s those 8s and up that get you thinking about Casey Anthony.

(since people are increasingly unable to detect satire, I should probably get ahead of it and specify I don’t actually fantasize about killing my kid)

SO THE SULTAN STAHHTS FUCKIN’ JASMINE, AND JASMINE IS SUCKIN’ ON RAJAH, AND RAJAH IS GETTIN’ FUCKED BY ABU, AND ABU IS JOYYKIN’ OFF ALADDIN, AND ALADDIN IS RUBBIN’ THE LAMP, AND THE LAMP IS SHITTIN’ OUT THE GENIE, AND THE GENIE IS LICKIN’ ON THE MAGIC CAHHPET, THE MAGIC CAHHPET IS ROLLED UP AROUND JAFAR’S LONG, CURLY COCK… AND JAFAR IS SHOVIN’ HIS STAFF UP THE ASS OF THE SULTAN… AND –

Veggie ball is full of pieces of corn, bell pepper, onion, etc. It’s colorful inside and out. Tastes heavily of those things too. The plant-based ball resembles a brown meatball in both appearance and consistency, but made entirely with plant-based ingredients. They’re awesome on a bun with marinara and mozzarella.

It’s actually wild how insecure people get over the subject of veganism. I still browse Facebook as a lifeline back to my friends and family back home, and for some reason my algorithm serves me up pro-meat posts jam packed full of rednecks losing their minds over vegans and making piles of meat and juice their personality. I eat meat myself (albeit in very small quantities compared to before) and I just don’t get the insecurity.

Maybe it’s being married to a lifelong vegetarian that helps, but man, I’ve honestly come to enjoy a lot of meat alternatives. Beyond Burgers/Sausages are great. IKEA’s plant-based balls are too (their veggie balls still suck ass and just taste like bell peppers). Gardein’s supreme chick’n nuggets/fillets and 7-grain tenders are also delicious.

Shit has really come a long way and it’s gotten to where larger portions of meat actually rip my intestines apart and give me disgusting bouts of gas and bloating. Basically just down to the occasional fast food burger, chicken quesadillas and seafood. Meat is still really tasty, but the vegans are right. At this point we’re just eating it because it tastes good. The longer I go without relying on it, the more fucked up the entire industry becomes to me.

Mastodon overwhelmed me. I hopped on the website and had no idea what I was looking at. I didn’t understand federation. I basically had the option of what niche hobby to join on Mastadon and no indication that I would he able to access a broader forum, so I said “Well, this fucking sucks.” and left.

Threads and BlueSky are likely as accessible as making an account and you’re done.

I’ve slowly worked on my wife and now she properly identifies species of local birds unprompted. I’m so proud of her.

My wife (bless her sweet heart) for years thought the song said “outdoor cookin’ starts today”.

Excellent deduction.

Ah, I thought consoles were still rolling with 30. Haven’t owned one in years.

Isn’t 30 the standard on console anyway? Doesn’t seem too bad if they’re getting close. Either way, every time the game is delayed it gives me renewed hope that the developer at least cares about getting it right. And hey, if they fuck it up, the modders will have Anomaly 2 or something similar coming down the pipeline within a year or two.

Removed by mod

I came here from Michigan back in 2017.