I always tell myself I’m going to be fully self-aware when I enter the dream tube, but sadly I never remember if that happened or not.

I’ve been paying $25 CAD to support five family accounts and prevent my daughter from seeing ads during her monitored viewing. If that price goes up 30-50%, I’m fucking done. This was an expense I was willing to incur, as YouTube is literally the only media platform my family even uses anymore. Better price than cable and multiple streaming platforms, and (again) I’m paying that for five active accounts.

If anyone knows of a way for me to adblock through my Roku TV so that we can continue watching YouTube on it without a Premium account, I’m all ears. The TV is the only reason I’m not just using uBlock to begin with. I’m really not into the idea of hooking a laptop up via HDMI if I can avoid it. Just feels like a sloppy user experience for anyone else in the household wanting to watch YouTube on TV.

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.

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.

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.

Have we forgotten Revan and Malak’s misuse of the Starforge already?!

Those oldest memories of Minecraft are the most peculiar of them all. I still remember starting with either the last Alpha release, or the earliest Beta release. I had come across a comic (using screenshots from the game) of Steve looking out into the night and seeing a single pair of red eyes in a distant hill. He looks out again and a monster is looking back in (or something like that). Always wanted to find that comic again. Anyway, that was my extent of knowledge going into the game. I knew there was mining, night time, and monsters.

I remember digging a hole into a hillside to survive my first night. There was a single torch placed outside of the hole, and throughout the night I watched various animals gather around the entrance to look in at me. I remember feeling awful, thinking they wanted shelter from the monsters outside, but realized while looking back much later that they were just spawning in my torchlight.

I also recall finding sort of a canyon or mountain pass with lava flowing into it. There was a small doorway or opening on one cliff face, and several flaming poles between it and the other side. It looked like an altar of some sort. This was back when lava/fire burned leaves and left the stumps to burn eternally, but in my inexperience I thought these were pyres placed deliberately by some entity, and began to worry there was truth to the Herobrine myth. Maybe other players were in my world.

Early Minecraft was a trip.

Even in Classic WoW I prefer to run solo. I enjoy the presence of other people in the world and in cities, but I have no interested in becoming involved with them unless we need each other to complete a dungeon.

I also like to imagine joining guilds, but my idea of a guild died twenty years ago with the classic era of MMOs. Now being in a guild just means your immersion is forever ruined because you’re not allowed to play anymore without participating in the giant fuckfest that is the guild Discord server. Fuck Discord.

If I ever go back I should create a guild of casual loners with kids. We all respect each other’s space, provide support as often as we’re able, and stay the fuck off of Discord. You get kicked out of the guild if you even mention it. You have to use code if you want to communicate during a dungeon. “My, how the swallows doth fly…”, and then quietly log on with four companions and never speak a word of it again. Instant officer status if you have a private Ventrilo server.

Damn, dude. A French dip with au jus? That’s way better than my shitty French fry story…

I remember sitting in front of two of my wife’s friends during a movie once, when I was overcome by the smell of McDonald’s fries. One of them had retrieved a box of fries from the other’s purse once the coast was clear.

I imagine he spent the entirety of the ban raging like Dennis Reynolds and counting down the days. “IDIIIOOOTS! IDDDIIIIOOOOTSS!!!”

DEER DIERY

THING ARE RELLY LOOKING UP FOR ONSE

A NUMBER OF PEPLE HAVE STOPD BY TO SEE ME AND TAKE PICHRS FOR THE MEMRIES

MAYBE I WAS RONG ABOUT LIFE

MAYBE I WAS RONG ABOUT PEPLE

I THINK ILL LIVE

• BARE

I don’t know anyone over the age of 9 says “tuna fish”.

Why is that Mexican eating chicken and pasgetti?!

Elll-aeegghhh…

Oof… Thanks for the warning!

How does the camera quality and shutter speed compare to the Pixel on these? I love the color and the style, but am unfamiliar with this brand. I briefly tried to Samsung (🤮) S22 Ultra a few years back, as it was hailed for having the absolute best camera at the time. The shutter speed was absolute garbage and I was deeply unhappy with everything It produced. Not to mention the absurd amount of unnecessary bloatware that I couldn’t remove, and this was on top or the Google services. Brought it back for a measley Pixel 4A and was very pleased. Using a Pixel 7 now and with a launcher it has been a dream.

I’m open to other brands like this, though.

Thank you!