Haha, get fucked.

— Sent from my iPhone

Sure, Jan.

I’ve dumped FF for Zen and Waterfox.

Zen’s only downside is that it can’t play some DRM media like some sports websites. Waterfox can, so I use it for that.

I wonder if Waterfox allows this. It’s MOSTLY Firefox but without going down the AI trash route.

My Windows 10 PC’s only function at this point is to play FFXIV in my living room, so I’m not super worried about viruses or anything.

But maybe eventually I’ll switch to Linux on that box and do that weird set-up to get FFXIV running there.

“Hello?”

“Hey Dave…wait what’s that noise?”

“Oh that’s my washer and dryer going.”

“Can you move to the other room? I can’t hear you very well.”

“No, the call is on my washer.”

“WHAT?”

I think last night I hit HR38 or so, so I have played it about 40 hours.

And I will start by saying this my first Monster Hunter. I have zero old baggage or knowledge coming in (other than trying Rise for maybe an hour because it was free on PSN+ and that not clicking at all).

Performance: I fortunately have a 120hz VRR OLED, so the 40fps mode on my PS5 is pretty solid. It feels good. No, I will not be taking questions from PC zealots at this time - though I do feel bad for you guys that it sounds like there are some issues there they need to resolve. On console it’s pretty solid.

The game: I’m really enjoying it. Like I said, I don’t have any prior experience really coming in, so it’s all new to me. And after what felt like climbing a sheer cliffside of learning curve to understand how to just play the game, I’m vibing with most all of it now. It was really hard to adjust my brain to think that Square is NOT the attack button, but rather Circle and Triangle. But once that clicked finally, I’m Charge Blading and Bug Lancing all over the place. It’s fun.

I’ve read some complaints here and there about the wound system, but I like it. I like doing cool moves in the middle of a fight for big damage.

The worst part of the game is playing with others. Once you get it working it’s fun to play with friends. But just getting to that point is awful. I’m reminded of that meme of the three dragon heads where the two, serious ones on the left are the graphics and gameplay, and the derpy one on the right is multiplayer. I shouldn’t have to look up online how to do what I’d assume is a simple thing: play with my friends. No one knows what a lobby is versus a link party versus an environment link party versus a squad…It’s all too much shit up front to learn and untangle. It took my brothers and I about an hour to set up a game the first time we tried. It’s madness.

But overall, I’m still enjoying this game. I don’t care that it’s “easier” like I hear from some people. It’s fun. My sword and shield turns into a chainsaw. I’m having a good time.

I’ve never used TikTok other than seeing some posts a friend might share in a group chat. But I don’t think it’s for me.

I’ve tried Loops, and maybe the “swipe down for a new video of someone saying/doing something dumb” just isn’t my cup of tea. I dunno.

“But the algorithm knows what you like!” someone will say. I don’t want algorithms anymore, to be honest.

Hah, I JUST had a conversation with my boss about whether or not I was using the “new” outlook or the “old” outlook.

He’s apparently using the “old” outlook because there’s a toggle switch in the upper right of his window that says “try the new outlook!” and I don’t have that, meaning…I guess I’m using the “new” outlook?

Who knows at this point. It’s all trash.

You are right. I just checked out gimp.org, and…IS there a single image of the software on that site?

If they want new users, asking them to blindly download software without even a look or maybe a video of new features is not it.

Yeah, every time I have ever tried Gimp, attempting to do anything felt like someone had purposefully been contrarian and made every operation work in the hardest and most confusing way.

And someone may say, “well, you just have to learn it!” OK, sure. Or I can use something that makes much more sense from the jump like Affinity Photo. (Yes, I know you have to pay for it, but it’s worth it. Yes, I know not everyone has the money to do so.)

Your brain is a muscle, you have to use it.

It’s frustrating because “the consumer” doesn’t want manuals, yet car makers add all these things that keep people from paying attention to the road making it - in my opinion - too easy to get distracted. I like that I can’t hold my phone in my hand and drive because I need to shift.

Last summer I was in Ireland, and I was peeking in a few cars on parked on the side of the road just out of curiosity. Almost every one was a manual, it seemed like. It’s not that we COULDN’T have fun, manual cars here. But Americans are lazy.

I got in right before Subaru went that way and ended up with the best of both worlds: a touchscreen for CarPlay and knobs for…everything else. I still have knobs for the radio if need be.

Plus it’s a six speed manual (Crosstrek).

I get a flyer from the dealership every other week asking if I want to “upgrade.” Sorry, fellas, nothing you have is an upgrade to me. You can’t get a manual gearbox here any more.

Imagine using a Meta product. Woof.

As I understand it, these changes don’t affect browsers that use FF as a base, so Zen Browser might not be affected.

I’ve been trying it out this week, and it’s good. And can still use all the FF extensions.

https://zen-browser.app/

I have a friends Discord I set up a year before Covid, and for about a year only 3 people used it, mainly to play some games together.

But when Covid hit, it obviously gained some traction. And now it’s THE place I interact with friends since I’ve long ditched the likes of Facebook.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not to possibly set up a Mastodon server for friends. The hardest part would be convincing people to use it. But it could just be like our little shared space that could still interact with the wider world. It’d be kinda cool to have a Local feed be just people you know in real life.

Now that it has been three years, while I’d like to have one, I feel like I’ll just wait until whatever the next version is - even if that means waiting another year or so.

I don’t need one, particularly, and I don’t want to be caught at the tail end of this hardware.

If the students aren’t wholly writing their own essays from start to finish then what’s the point?

“Become?”

🌎🧑‍🚀🔫👨‍🚀