Trying my best and Hoping we all make it o7

  • 5 Posts
  • 272 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: March 23rd, 2022

help-circle



  • Just about finished up playing Assassin’s Creed Mirage, was waiting for it to come out on Steam. Have definitely enjoyed it a lot, was nice to play a new AC game thats closer to the originals in style, as I like the stealth gameplay. They did a super good job recreating 8th century Baghdad, clearly a lot of care went into it. I love little details how like if you go to the market area you can hear foreign traders speaking their own languages. The attention to detail in the city is really good and the place feels very alive. It makes me really want to see them do another game in this style focused on maybe 2nd century Rome, as I still have yet to see a game properly tackle recreating Rome at the height of its wealth and power. If anyone can do that justice its this team as they nailed Baghdad.

    As much as I enjoyed the game it also made me realize that I kind of like the more sprawling RPG direction games like Odyssey and Valhalla took. It makes me excited for the new Japan AC next year. Ubisoft gets shit on a lot for good reason but I really like the open world games they make, I have a lot of fun with them.

    I didnt watch The Game Awards but I saw some of the announcements, definitely interested in the new Turok and Okami games. Nothing else really stuck out for me, Witcher 4 looks cool of course but for whatever reason I’ve always bounced off of the Witcher games, tried all 3 at various points and have never been able to enjoy them. Maybe this one will be different who knows.

    2024 I actually played a lot of games, probably more than I should have. None of them were games released recently really but I had an absolute blast replaying Fable Anniversary and Zelda Wind Waker HD this year. Also played through Dark Souls remastered for the first time this year, extremely good remaster of a great game. I also played 2 and 3 again this year but after playing them all in quick succession I think DS1 is my favorite. Such tight level design and atmosphere, and the game suits my preferred playstyle of hiding behind a shield and smacking people with a mace.


  • I am also limited in my understanding but I think there is a lot of animosity towards Assad government in Syria and also other places such as Lebanon and Gaza due to his perceived and verifiable inaction assisting the resistance. Other specific reasons for animosity I’m not knowledgeable enough to speak on but I’m aware they exist so it isn’t unsurprising to hear that some or many Syrian people are happy that he is gone.

    I think, and really I am trying to grapple with stuff and learn about things as well so I’m not too sure, but I think biggest issue with Assad gov being toppled is that firstly and most importantly it will once again bring great instability and surely violence to the Syrian people, but will also greatly reduce the capacity for Hezbollah to be resupplied who I understand are in a pretty critical state after hot war with the Zionists. In addition to that you have factors such as Russian footholds in the region being compromised which I’m sure will be abused by US/zionist forces in ways I have not yet thought of.

    It remains to be seen what HTS does and how things play out with the other factions but I do not see any way that this is a good thing. I find it hard to believe that HTS are not aligned with the americans/zionists, but hopefully at least they are reasonable with the Syrian people and as few suffer as possible.





  • I like to think that your analysis of the situation is the case but I’m becoming increasingly doubtful about the commitment of BRICS nations to overthrow the special privilege of the US Dollar. From my perspective too many of the parties involved rely on USD trade for their wealth and status. It seems to me like too many players in this alliance are economically bound by USD and are not interested at least right now in trading off short term material gains for potential bigger gains in the future by subverting USD trade.

    It appears to me that the gains in multipolar non USD trade have been offset by the US Fed play to raise interest rates to suck dollars into treasury assets and then flood them back out into periphery economies since 2022 or so. I still have much to learn about MMT and economics in general but I’m certainly not as optimistic now about dedollarization now as I was 2-3 years ago.

    That being said I think the overall trend of periphery economies orienting around China is right, and I think it will come down to that nations economic policy as the driving factor of whether or not BRICS can succeed in their stated objectives and tear down the USD dominated global economy.



  • Really good analysis here, I have more to say about this but just based off of your analysis I sadly think that the third option is the most likely. To me deployment of NATO troops seems like a way for the west to freeze the conflict as is and come back to it in a few years. As it stands Russia is making consistent gains in the Ukraine and I think your assessment of their unwillingness to directly strike NATO assets is correct, so to me the deployment of “peace keepers” seems like NATOs best bet to halt things at the current line of engagement. This seems possible to me considering the rhetoric this week especially from Zelinsky himself about possibly negotiating on the basis of Russia controlling territories that have had referendums with a plan to retake them in the future.



  • Great post, I feel the same way all of the time. People twice my age will reminisce about their primary school teachers and other stuff from being that age, and I’m not even quite 30 yet but I basically don’t remember a single thing from that time of my life other than the most vague non-concrete type of stuff.

    I forget almost all of my friends from back then, all the people I knew and things I did. Even stuff when I was a teenager that was only 10-15 years ago I really do not remember well. My parents especially I don’t recall having much of a relationship with as a child but I don’t think it was that bad or anything, I just literally don’t remember. My entire relationship with them is based on my experience with them as adults in my mind, they could easily just be some of my other older friends or something I met through work in the last decade.

    I often feel bad about not remembering stuff mostly in a jealous sort of way. A specific example is with football/soccer. I know for a fact that I religiously watched every match my team played in say 2010 for example, but my recollection of it is mostly vibes based sprinkled with a handful of acute memories. I’m envious of people much older than me who can recall such a laundry list of specifics about menial stuff like that. This is true in basic every field of my life but sports seems like the most obvious example.

    There are whole more recent years I basically don’t have a single concrete memory of but I’m going to attribute that more to my lifestyle at the time. I’ve always felt like I have no memories though so I’m glad to hear others have had the same concern. Honestly, I’ve always gotten the sense throughout my whole life, even when I was a child and didn’t have tools to analyze or self reflect, that I’m not really participating in the world or “life” and that I’m just watching it happen around me. Perhaps that has something to do with my lack of memories.


  • There is a Free Mason community center type building about two blocks down my street. They usually just seem to rent out the space for normal events, I even once had a work holiday party in the basement there. They are apparently legit Free Masons though, its a pretty prime piece of real estate they have too and its impossible to find out exactly who owns it. I’ve never properly met someone who is a part of it but it’s definitely an odd bit. They advertise it here as a “men’s club” sort of thing but I’d be very curious to know what type of person is involved there and what they do. Very little info on their website, and have never come across any of them in the community.

    Definitely join if you can, just for the bit even.


  • Fortunately my friends and family members don’t need it explained to them because we’re all leftists, but outside of the hardcore Ukro nationalist types I find that almost no one where I am has a strong opinion on the conflict other than a) people should stop dying and b) we should stop sending our money to them. I’ve found it pretty easy to suggest to them that Russia has legitimate reason to start this war and that media has mislead them, and we can usually agree that ending it as as soon as possible is best course of action.

    For the nationalist sorts I just avoid all discussion of it lol you will never break through to someone who is able to hold contradictions like that in their mind seemingly without issue.



  • Was looking into options here in my city in Canada recently to take a Manadarin class. Specifically I was looking for beginner courses aimed specifically at english speakers, and was surprised at how limited the options were. Then I remembered that several years ago the government went on a racist tirade where they shut down most of the Confucius Institutes in the country for frivolous (racist) reasons. Very disappointing as most of the current options seem to be more aimed at Chinese diaspora who have a background from home but need to practice. I tried before a Mandarin class that was more similar to this when I used to be in uni and struggled heavily as one of the only non ethnic Chinese people in the course. From what I recall the Confucius Institute used to offer classes geared towards adult anglos similar to the way Alliance Française does, but now that option just seems to be gone. Truly this country sucks.