I can’t remember the name of the book now, but in high school we read a ‘true’ story of child abuse. I’m sure it was edited to both tone down and turn up certain elements, but it was pretty much a brutal shock to people who are mostly from decent families that love them. Whether the kids were rich, poor, or middle class in my school, just about everyone there could at least return home to parents that didn’t commit those horrors.

I remember the diapers, the exposure to the elements, and the way the other children were pitted against the abused kid, and honestly? It was the emotional abuse that was the worst to read.

Hades and Isaac are surprising. They’re both old enough that I would have thought they wouldn’t be flush with players right now. The fallout stuff makes sense, given its fanbase and the show’s influence. I wonder if I should go back and try to 100% either of them now…

You’d be amazed how many people learn the hard way that they first need to head to a separate store to buy a gas container, then head to the gas station. Most places could care less about keeping a container on premises because it is both a rare situation these days, and storage is at a premium in most stores. If you saw the back room or manager’s office, you would see the floor-to-ceiling stacks of inventory (usually drinks or tobacco products).

I tried a while ago to get SC2 working, but didn’t have luck. Are there any tricks to it these days?

I love the little aside about the rust. Some journalists still have fun.

Remove the historic paintings during renovation, at least. Surely it would be possible to rig up some sort of sprinkler system as well. Firefighter access to the roof may be difficult once the fire is blazing, but maybe some mitigation systems could be installed before the blowtorches and welders come out.

Good god, there are still people who believe in phrenology!

Think of the children!

I’ll believe they’re thinking of the children when they use that phrase to make laws that agree with the environmental groups and governing bodies.

Jesus, my friend cycles between mechanical efficiency and sexual orientations like a clown in a stripper juggling show. Now I know why!

I think that’s what bothers me. From the picture, you can tell the lady is wearing an outfit. The gloves, the hat, the boots, the scarf; they are all pulled together. From the back, it looks like the guy’s coat is not as striking and coordinated. Maybe it’s just the orange/cream shoes, blue socks, and khaki pants rolled up, maybe it’s because the picture is from the back, but it looks like he’s wearing a bathrobe while she’s wearing a coat.

Iain M Banks was making transgender the norm before some current republican politicians were born. I can’t help but think that some of my ease with accepting them came from his amazing writing about a culture that could be anything they want, from child to adult, male to female, furry to electrons whizzing in hyperspace.

He was beautiful in his descriptions of food. I saved some of the pictures that came out of his recipe book.

Jesus, that dude shaped a lot of peoples worlds. I honestly don’t know if I was scared of the drain at the bottom of the public pool because of him, because I know that I didn’t read his short story until I was in college, but I wonder if it had already started spreading around in the secret and sly ways of the school hallways, before text messages were ever imagined.

That one put me in fear every time I walked into a room in my house for weeks. I would always be looking above the door and to the sides, just in case a spider was on the wall ready to pounce. ugh!

No, and yes. You can start a brand new account on the first day of a league and be at par with everyone else. The vast majority of the game is accessible with no demands on you aside from time and skill. Every purchase you make is cosmetic only, simply changing the way some spells look or giving you a pet that follows you around and looks cool while doing nothing extra.

The one exception? Stash tabs. Tabs that specialize in holding certain items for you in your stash. Tabs that let you sell items to others with greater ease. It has gotten to the point where if you want to be best of the best, you should probably have the extra tabs. Why? Because at the endgame, you’ll need to start trading for items that make your build sing, or simply eke out the extra 15% damage that multiplies with other sources to make your dps soar into the millions, because PoE is all about finding something that you can push past where it was supposed to stop being good. Without those stash tabs, making cool items or easily trading with others is much more difficult.

Now, how much would it cost you to be ‘competitive’ with tabs? Probably $10 at most. For a game that I’ve played for over a decade and probably 1000-2000 hours at this point, I think the <$100 bucks I’ve thrown their way is worth it. I have friends who love the game and likely have 3k+ hours in it, and they’ve only spent $150 or so. I think that’s pretty reasonable for that much enjoyment.

That was a strange path my mind took as I read the title, thinking it was a satire piece about competitors trying to sneak in cheats… Like, the “Anti-Cheat Police Department” couldn’t be anything but a laughingstock.

I used to help people apply, and it was hellacious when there was animosity from one parent due to a divorce. It could really fuck things up for the poor kids.

For the AC/DC part, I usually try to tell people it’s like a water wheel that’s been inserted into the hose of water. DC is it spinning one way constantly, while AC is it spinning back and forth. The wheel is turning pretty much the whole time (again, we can try to not be super specific with the way we do phases with AC), and thus you can use it to do stuff on AC or DC.

A shooter might be hard, but I think you could make ORION: Prelude fit. It’s a little old now, but still fun. You get to shoot dinosaurs and run around big maps.

Other games that I’d recommend: Avorion (build your own spaceships and fight and befriend the galaxy) It’s not technically a shooter, but depending on whether you pick out lasers, electric tasers, machine guns, or rail guns, there is definitely some aspects of moving to avoid enemy fire while plunking them down. [but don’t be like me and just make lots of borg cubes… because cubes are the best!]

Ark: survival evolved (tame dinosaurs and fight the map)

Elden Ring with seamless Coop mod (up to 6 players at once)

War Thunder for plane sim, World of Warships for good ship battles

Valheim is also capable of being extremely frustrating, so I’d recommend one of the mods that removes the skill penalty loss when dying. It might not be necessary, but dad knows the kids’ temperaments better than me.