jaycifer

@jaycifer@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon wants to live on Super Earth⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I have a lot of thoughts and feelings related to the book because, while there is a lot of garbage in it, the core thesis spelled out at one point in the last third I think is very worthwhile and came at a time in my life (just turned 21 when I first read it) that it helped shape my political views. As another commenter said Heinlein was never very consistent in the politics portrayed in his stories, which I’ve understood as him exploring various views more than wholeheartedly endorsing any one of them.

  First, the garbage. It’s pretty clearly pro military, as the in-book government was established by veterans seizing power and the primary path to having political power (being a voting citizen as opposed to a civilian) is through military service. There’s lip service paid that it’s any kind of civil service (Neil Patrick Harris’s character goes off to a research lab for experimenting in the book), but it’s only a sentence or two. No source on this, but my gut says Heinlein probably wanted to explore the idea more but was hampered by the fact he was writing a space military adventure and needed to focus on that. There’s also a lot of 50’s values espoused for separating genders into different groups and that spanking your kids is good no matter what the “bleeding hearts” might say.

  The biggest difference that bothers me between the book and movie is how soldier lives are valued, best displayed through the tactics humanity uses. In the movie humanity uses almost the same strategy as the bugs. Get a lot of troops, equip them about as cheaply as possible, then send swarms of them to deal with bugs. Mass casualties are a given. The book is one of if not the first example of power armor turning a soldier into almost a one man army. It’s stated at one point that a single soldier is about as effective as 1000 bug drones in combat. This, along with statements from multiple officers throughout the book, shows me that individual soldier lives are actually valued in the book, and that while they are spent they are not wasted the way they are in the movie.

  But for me, the most important takeaway from the book is a lecture given to Johnny Rico during officer school where the instructor lays out why service is required for citizenship. Essentially the goal is to ensure that the only people making decisions on behalf of society (ie politicians and the people that vote them in) are putting the good of that society over their own personal wellbeing. The service citizens go through is meant to weed out selfish people by putting them through difficult experiences where it would be in their best interest to quit rather than continue. While I doubt the book’s system would actually achieve that, I do think that the value of society-serving rather than self-serving voters and politicians is correct and probably the most important thing that a society could achieve (not that I know how to achieve that). It’s the first thing I ask myself when deciding who to vote for now, “does this person actually care about the people they’ll be representing or are they just interested in having power?”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What genre is Towerfall Ascension, and do you have any favorite examples?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  I think I would call it a platform arena fighting game. One similar game I don’t see mentioned is an arcade game called Killer Queen if there’s a cabinet in your area: www.killerqueenarcade.com

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I am an American. I used to be proud of my country. Now it feels like a turd circling the drain. Is there anything going on behind the scene that America is actually doing good in?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  “Usually it’s considered pretty stupid to be proud of things you didn’t have a hand in.” Is it stupid to be proud of a friend when they accomplish something you didn’t help with, just because they are a part of your life and you want to see them succeed? Could that not be extrapolated out to pride in one’s country when it accomplishes something, even if all you directly contributed was your tax money? “Why be proud of where you were born, when it was just random chance?” Because the place I was born creates the circumstances in which I was raised, forming the environment that shapes my values, worldview, and culture. I don’t think I should feel like I deserve credit, but why not have pride in knowing that I have the opportunity to carry on the legacy and work that accomplished pride-worthy things in the past?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Young gamers in Japan may not be forming the same attachment to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest because modern dev cycles are as long as their childhood, users theorize - AUTOMATON WEST⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There were many decades between the proliferation of home phones and cell phones. During that time many people may be away from home and need to contact someone over the phone. Payphones were installed in public places that anyone could use to meet that need. They took change in exchange for minutes using the phone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Closes Canadian Studio After It Unionizes⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for reminding me Assassins Creed Syndicate came out 10 years ago.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ubisoft Closes Canadian Studio After It Unionizes⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I agree, but I think there are enough people who conflate working class with blue collar that making the distinction is justified.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What common American habits do people find quietly annoying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I think a lot of it stems from living in a relatively young, immigration heavy, multicultural country and the little conversations that arise from that.

  At least in the city I grew up and still live in I have met a lot of people who either immigrated or whose parents immigrated from other countries. In high school human geography I learned it takes a couple generations for an immigrant family to fully assimilate into a new culture, so a lot of these first/second generation immigrants still have connections and traditions from their family’s old country. The history of those countries (or at least the regions modern countries occupy) stretch back hundreds to thousands of years. I think many caucasian Americans, often raised to be competitive, want that sense of history when comparing to their own family but American culture has “only” developed over the past 300-400 years. To get an older/deeper sense of heritage they have to ask where their ancestors that immigrated to the US immigrated from, and because a sense of superiority is at least some part of American culture that older heritage has to be better than the other older heritages and therefore something to be loud and proud about. Even if it isn’t actually a big part of one’s life.

  All that to say yes I think you’re right about it being a matter of ethnic distinction, which I think is brought about by the circumstances of US history. I definitely get how it’s annoying.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What common American habits do people find quietly annoying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Potentially annoying American here with a point of clarification: is it annoying just to be interested in one’s heritage, or is it Americans that make that heritage their entire personality?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What common American habits do people find quietly annoying?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, I could care less, but calculating exactly how little I care would take more effort than I care to give.

• What’s up with Myrrh being more prevalent?
  Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩ | ⁨35⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Whats the best use for 75 dollars?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why is having employees and especially why is exploiting employees necessary to define something as capitalism?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Metroid Prime 4 | Review Thread⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Were you around when it released? There was a somewhat small but steady voice online that disliked the weapon degradation, lack of traditional dungeons, the small scale of what dungeons there were, and the clunkiness of the UI.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What game is a guilty pleasure of yours?⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  2-5 times a year I get really into Enlisted. It’s a really grindy free to play game, it feels like 90% of my teammates fail to work toward the objective, and every other round there’s an enemy player that paid for overpowered equipment wiping us out.

  But man, it is a thrill to charge through whizzing bullets to get into the midst of the other team before firing round after round from a lee enfield bolt action. And if I am playing with friends there is constant strategic and tactical chatter that makes it so engaging.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  So am I to assume there was more to the story that didn’t click with you than the optional narrative sub-branch that you chose not to engage with?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What's a recent game you've tried playing that isn't worth the hype?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Out of curiosity, who did you romance, and why?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Valve does not get anywhere near enough criticism': DayZ creator Dean Hall says the 'gambling mechanics' of Valve's monetization strategy 'have absolutely no place' in videogames⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I feel like doing research shouldn’t be an issue for people playing Paradox games, where it takes hours of research in the tooltips just to understand the mechanics.

  That said, my research for new Paradox DLC usually consists of hovering over it in the store, ignoring anything with reviews less than mixed, taking interest in those with positive, and reading the first dozen reviews of the mixed ones, and that works well enough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨"I’m Canceling My Subscription": Xbox Players Call to "Boycott" Game Pass "Hard" Over 50% Price Increase As Microsoft’s Website Crashes from Mass Cancellations⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  That math just isn’t true. I was on and off game pass from 2019-2021, and every time I resubscribed it was in part because they’d offer me 1-3 months for $1 each, and then $10 for the next month or two before I would cancel. During those periods I would play the games I would never go out of my way to buy to try (Forager, Slime Rancher, Donut County) and multiplayer campaigns with my buddy that I knew I’d never play again (Gears of War 5, Journey to the Strange Planet, Wolfenstein Young Blood). It was never going to last, but there was a time where game pass was insanely good value if you did it right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Borderlands 4 Launches To Mostly Negative Steam Reviews Over Performance Issues And Crashing⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Kinda there with you. Just bought the base game, played through it once, ~70% through a hardcore Henry playthrough, and then I’ll wait for all the DLC to get that and do one more playthrough.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Have most people never seen a full starry night sky⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The starry sky is part of why I’m excited for my frat’s annual canoe trip in the backwaters of Minnesota, just outside Nimrod (population 69). The dark skies map linked in other comments shows it as a dark blue, and when there are no clouds it is truly a magical sight.

  Seeing so many stars at once makes me understand why astronomy and constellations were so interesting to ancient peoples. It also makes me a little sad to know that such wonder is hidden behind the glow of the cities I’ve lived in.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon has nothing to do⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  First time I’ve seen the word ignominy. That’s a good one!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  What I believe Wildbus8979 is implying is trying to get the person they responded to to understand is “if cops are this bad outside the US, and US cops are worse, then yes US cops can be that bad.” Could they have clarified or spelled that out more? Sure. Could you have thought out your understanding of their words a little more than your initial reaction that they weren’t discussing the US? Sure.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Day 280 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Great game, I remember really digging the Clayface fight. The little clay enemies went down easy, but there were enough that it felt… mushy(?) getting through them to get at Clayface himself.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is worried about men⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  $50 fro 6pm-2am is cheaper per hour than a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant, and hitting that many bars is easy when they’re all on the same 2-3 block stretch!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon is worried about men⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  You just have to live in the right city with sufficiently high rates of alcoholism! In Fargo, ND you could get a tall 200 lb+ man proper sloshed over an evening downtown across 5-8 bars for $50 or less as recently as 2019. Not as cheap as drinking at home, but enough that most folks without kids working full-time could do it every other weekend.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'm leaving the US for good, anything I should do before I leave?⁩ ⁨⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I hear to find the best BBQ in Texas you need to find a restaurant attached to a rinky-dink gas station.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How much of my sleep debt do I need to pay off?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t remember the source, but I’ve read that, while getting a good night sleep for a couple days feels much better, it takes 9 days of good sleep in a row to recover as much as you can from sleep deprivation. If I recall sleep flushes out chemicals that build up in your brain, they can only build up so much before it’s saturated, and it takes the 9 days to fully catch up on flushing them out.

  It sounds like the biggest thing that would help you is managing your caffeine consumption. I went through caffeine withdrawal a few times before deciding I didn’t like it and setting the following boundaries that have helped. First, no coffee/energy drinks after 12 hours before I want to sleep. So I go to bed at 10pm, I have all my coffee drank before 10am. This gives your body a chance to process most of the caffeine so it affects your sleep less. Second (and the hardest if you’re already used to daily caffeine) I try not to drink caffeine two days in a row. This keeps it from building up in your system, which keeps your tolerance low, which also means it feels like a super power when you do drink caffeine.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Will Firefox die for good if Google is forced to sell off Chrome?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Even if Google stopped paying Mozilla, the organization has enough in savings to operate for several years. That’s plenty of time to cut back on spending and find other revenue sources. My only concern would be that they cut back on Firefox development rather than what I would consider a side project.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alien: Romulus is getting a VHS release⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s probably the format they watched when they were younger, which would be a major contributor to nostalgia. I still keep a VHS player and my parents’ old copies of the pre-special edition Star Wars movies along with Akira and Ghost in the Shell.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Melts our frozen-solid hearts': Frostpunk 2 devs celebrate 350,000 copies sold—covering the production and marketing costs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Maybe some mental mixup with Snowpiercer, which does take place on a train surrounded by snow?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨'Melts our frozen-solid hearts': Frostpunk 2 devs celebrate 350,000 copies sold—covering the production and marketing costs⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩:

  Yes, instead of building individual houses and mines for a few hundred people, you build districts for thousands of people. Instead of heat levels per district, there are five “bad things” that have levels, food, sickness, cold, squalor, and crime. If you don’t produce enough of something like heat from coal/oil the cold level will start to rise to different levels depending on the percentage of the need met (if you make 1/4 the heat demanded, it gets really high). Each level affects other problems, so high levels of cold leads to higher sickness, high levels of sickness reduce the number of available workers, which makes it harder to keep housing districts running, which you need to keep enough shelter or else cold levels rise more.

  There are also multiple ways to solve the issues this causes. If you can’t find or exploit a new source of heat yet, you could build hospitals in housing districts to counteract the increase in sickness and keep that level low, preventing sickness, or you could pass a law like family apprenticeship that increases the percentage of your population that can be used as workers (kids helping their parents) so you can afford more people being sick. You could also shut down some material or food production to save heat demand or workers, but then you need to have big enough stockpiles to survive the deficit, or you might be dealing with hunger from food shortages (which increases sickness by the way) or crime from material goods shortages.

  And the worse things get, the blacker the edges of the screen get as tensions rise, trust falls, and your own hope outside the game wavers, which get’s really intense. But that only makes it all the sweeter when that one district, building, or law you needed finishes and you see that beautiful word while hovering over the problem killing you; “diminishing.”

  I think I went on a bit of a tangent there, but I have really been enjoying my time with the game so far. The one issue I have is the game chugs right now. On an RTX 2080S I have the resolution down to 1080p and framerates still hover around 40. Maybe it’s my CPU