Effluent of the mind

Tue 28 Sep 2021 14:54 BST

Clive Lewis for Labour Leader… or George Monbiot for Prime Minister!

Tue 21 Sep 2021 10:20 BST

Current state of mind - in shock at EVERYTHING. Current state of play - Escaping to Pathfinder Kingmaker, chaotic good, striving to build a better version of the Stolen Lands. Ridding the planet of the Xenomorph threat, in a colonial marines Aliens Fire Team. Avoiding the shoulder mounted plasma discharger of a Predator on a Hunt Showdown. Gearing up to read Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series (the comics first). My computing and media distractions being a very much needed escape, right now.

Tue 21 Sep 2021 10:13 BST

There is too much to say about the shifting landscape on Universal Credit downgrade, National Insurance increase and now energy price hikes or energy company bailouts at the taxpayers expense. All of which are massaged in the press to have good optics for you average joe, but all of which are going to hit the poorest most vulnerable people hardest. Haven’t they suffered enough?

Tue 21 Sep 2021 10:07 BST

I’m of the mind that the reduction in transatlantic flight because of COVID was a moment in time to reforge how we look at its impact on the global climate catastrophe and we shape our future with flights to reflect the change needed. But once again, it seems we’re opening up transatlantic flight to meet the modern travel appetite and the profit machine that is the modern travel industry - which contradicts our shallow words of support for a greener safer future. Money and neoliberal freedoms speak louder than planetary disaster and human extinction.

Tue 21 Sep 2021 09:53 BST

It feels like this country has deluded itself into believing we don’t have an active COVID crisis that is still happening at ridiculously high infection rates (30k) and deaths (1k) per week. It feels like there are acceptable levels of death we can afford to pay, to keep the usual financial wheels turning.

Tue 21 Sep 2021 07:44 BST

moving my effluent of the mind - drek - into the main post archive - it will always be the top post.

Mon 20 Sep 2021 18:52 BST

Trying to massage the blop system to also process my drek file

Thu 05 Aug 2021 15:24 BST

I reluctantly toil all day on Microsoft Windows - a platform devoid of any joy or morals, then I spend my nights avidly toiling in my favourite virtual worlds, leaving very little playtime available for my linux expeditions and my gemini mindstreams.. I’m going to have to balance my time better and give myself over to the joyful labyrinthine exploration that is linux!

Fri 28 May 2021 22:26 BST

knee deep into Mass Effect at the moment, now ploughing through 3. I’d forgotten just how much this Space Opera RPG resonates with me. This is quite clearly my jam. After finishing ME1, I remember the wanting and the aching for more… I bought an iPhone 3GS for the hope that the terrible mobile game Mass Effect Galaxy gave me for more in the series. Well we’re well into a time when Mass Effect has become frowned upon (ala Andromeda), but honestly ME1 still has the original sauce I fell in love with all those years ago, and I’m appreciating 2 and 3 a little more even though they were dumbed down towards a more action orientated audience.. (chasing the shooter bucks).

Sun 16 May 2021 17:48 BST

I have really enjoyed the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, guzzled Mass Effect 1 (my favourite) in about 18 hours play, and I’m so glad I did - the fresh lick of paint did wonders for my nostalgia tinted veiwpoint. Now onto Mass Effect 2. After that, I’m almost certain I’d be up for a Dragon Age Origins remaster.

Wed 28 Apr 2021 13:07 BST

struggling to update my gemini agate server to 3.0.2 on my little dietpi.. :(

Wed 28 Apr 2021 10:05 BST

If you like superhero games and you were a fan of the Freedom Force series, then you might want to check out the Sentinels of Freedom game on PC or Xbox, its an indie but slightly more modern take and you can craft your own hero in the campaign. / https://www.sentinelsoffreedomgame.com

Mon 26 Apr 2021 14:55 BST

hells bobbins, I am a mere mortal being mesmerised by the awk/sed wizardry uoou/drew conjurs on a regular basis. Kudos to uoou Sir!

Mon 26 Apr 2021 14:44 BST

Been off the grid of late, trying to cobble together an ‘MeMOir’ (an MMO Memoir …. ahem), listing out the MMO’s I’ve been involved with over the last two decades, but pouring over foggy memories of MMO experiences is harder than you think, especially when I’ve played so many and the ones I played for years on end have quite a few tales to tell. I’m going to have to split this up into a more manageable set of musings

Thu 15 Apr 2021 08:44 BST

Disney style, I’m a Jungle Book kind of a guy, although you know Tron happened and then The Emporers New Groove - so ‘Bring it on’.

Fri 09 Apr 2021 15:19 BST

I chuffing love Outriders, it marries the MMO-like progression of the Destiny-a-like with absolutely balls-out visceral skill-gun combo action. The combat design hits the sweet spot between balls out gunnery and tactical use of movement, positioning and your skills and mod enhancements. The demo went well. The release game is shonky and bugged to feck. The authentication login servers are b0rked on all platforms. The cross-play doesn’t work. The 2 player co-op works well enough, at times. But the 3 player co-op is janky and at least one player usually has network issues. The worst thing is it crashes fairly regularly. On all platforms. Is it me, or are console games these days always fecked up crash-a-thons, because the last 6 months or so almost every biggish release has been balls. They get em out, get em sold, but they’re quite clearly not QA checked.. it’s really disappointing.

Thu 01 Apr 2021 10:31 BST

I am so pleased I managed to get Shadow Empire running on my linux box (by running some protontricks script for 4 hours, and converting image tiles into RGB) it is a complex 4X/RPG/Wargame hybrid that manages to take on the procgen world building of Dwarf Fortress; the RPG politics and relationships of Crusader Kings II; the strategic shenanigens of 4X genre (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) and the full scope of an operational wargame with logistical planning using resources, supply, movement through battlefield, R&R, encirclements, tech tree exploitation of enemy units and the environment. It’s a long term of project of acclimatisation, understanding and discovery.

Thu 01 Apr 2021 10:23 BST

oh, its April 1st, well just to clarify, my last comment about Gemini, WASN’T a joke! And now perhaps this statement seems like it could be the REAL joke? It’s not! And neither is that one. Ah can’t we just skip over this pranksters half day of mirth, where no-one believes anyone and get to the real subject of just enjoying Gemini and plain text?

Thu 01 Apr 2021 10:21 BST

to echo HexDSL’s latest video, his Gemini check-in, I think Gemini is such a useful way to explore other people’s efforts at communication, in a pure sense, without any nefarious activity in between content load and read. I like Gemini so much, it is now the source for my web presence, converting gmi to minimal html.

Sun 21 Mar 2021 19:04 GMT

I’ve finally fixed my wallpaper changing scripts under SpectrWM. The problem being FEH was bombing out when run in my bash script under cron. It seems cron doesn’t have access to the X Server when it runs FEH, so I had to prepend Display=:0 before the FEH command. Now my cron job works and my cyberpunk wallpapers shift regularly. I’m a happy man again - staring at the constantly shifting walls of cyber art

Sun 21 Mar 2021 18:59 GMT

knee deep in revisiting older games on this gen of console, I’m guessing its because the new BIG games released always seemed to be a) lacking b) busted or c) monetised to the max. Anyways I’m back sniffing around the likes of Strange Brigade, Titanfall 2, The Outer Worlds, State of Decay 2..

Sun 14 Mar 2021 18:37 GMT

I’ve become fascinated with Sumo wrestling of late, stumbled onto it via NHK World Japan channel, and the March tournament starts today in Tokyo. 15 days of highlights watching the intense but short bouts where these weighty men challenge each other with their strength, momentum and leverage, knocking the other off balance and out of the ring. Exciting stuff.

Sun 14 Mar 2021 18:31 GMT

watchdogs:legion online mode feels a little light on content, you have a small map, with 9 solo missions, 1 co-op location where you can run a playlist of 3 or 4 co-op missions, which all have very similar structure, get in, hack a few things, kill some men and drones, get out and drive something somewhere away. Then you have to very bare bones spiderbot arena, where you can fight a deathmatch of bots, picking up heals or weapon types from boxes dotted around the very small arenas. Legion was released 5 months ago, without online mode. Now we have this bare bones offering and its not tied to your single player game in anyway. So you start afresh. You can co-op in the small map, but not really do anything together other than mess about. It feels terribly lacking. But at the moment, this game is the biggest cyberpunk (ish) game we have.. bah

Thu 11 Mar 2021 09:28 GMT

there also seems to be a trend of pushing titles out unfinished, roadmapped with promises, but ultimately the consoles have never crashed so hard and so often these days. grab the release hype pre-order exclusive money and we’ll patch in the fixes necessary laters. Or we’ll abandon the game, once we’ve milked sales.

Thu 11 Mar 2021 09:25 GMT

I think the floodgates opening, coupled with the bastardisation of all bigger titles including live service, heavy monetisation, version fragmentation, battle passing, tri-annual seasons, withdrawing and gatekeeping previously purchased content, limited events and a rainbox of virtual currencies and lootboxes - console gaming has become a minefield of exploitation and your enthusiasm is eroded permenantly.

Thu 11 Mar 2021 09:19 GMT

the last gen console stores seem to be filling up with utter trash games, I suppose if it worked for Steam it might eek a bit more money out of captive audience on the platform, till they shell out and find a next gen box to play on

Sun 07 Mar 2021 23:01 GMT

ssh from arcolinux into mxlinux running amfora and drek is my new way of couch surfing and commenting…

Sun 07 Mar 2021 16:21 GMT

Currently appreciating the undervalued and overlooked ARPG Shadows Awakening, instant party member swapping, adventuring world with corporeal characters and shadowrealm traversal with the devourer, actions in one world affect the other. Puzzles galore. Interesting skill sets and custom builds. Fully voiced characters also with Tom Baker! Top stuff

Sun 07 Mar 2021 16:13 GMT

March 7th through to March 13th boycotting Amazon in solidarity with the workers trying to unionise against all odds. No orders. No Kindle. No Prime. #boycottamazon

Tue 02 Mar 2021 15:12 GMT

self hosting my gemini capsule on a raspberry pi running dietpi, really pleased with it

Sun 28 Feb 2021 19:03 GMT

diddling around with agate on a raspberry pi now…

Sun 28 Feb 2021 16:28 GMT

must remember NOT to edit the drek.gmi file in a moment of outrage and insert a carriage return into the stream of conciousness..

Thu 25 Feb 2021 23:59 GMT

Theres a sense of peace, when you find yourself, nibbling west country farmhouse chedder off orkney island oatcakes, watching slow panning Mars panoramic landscapes from high def rover cams, to soothing ambient music, streamed live through surveillance capitalist Youtube app on your smart TV in the twilight of the evening. Considering your innate love for the Universe and you were born before we had expeditions to the moon. The sheer majesty of our progress overwhelms me. I lose myself in another planet’s landscape

Tue 23 Feb 2021 09:30 GMT

So, you buy a game on release, they try to sell you a season pass, years later they do a sale, where the game is discounted heavily, including the season pass (all maps and DLC content collected together), but if you bought the title originally the discounted bundle is NOT available to you. ONLY the season pass at its original price is available! First buyers support the game at full price and then are purposefully EXCLUDED from any further discounts on additional content - comercially hand-cuffed to paying full price forever. This is so wrong. So unfair.

Sun 21 Feb 2021 18:27 GMT

Sakura Wars on PS4 is theatre logistics and show management, explore your performers personalities, backstories and aspirations, join them in Mech vs Demon combat under the Flower Division banner protecting Tokyo! CGI and anime cutscenes blended together really well. Also, play a soothing game of the Flower cards (hanafuda) in Koi Koi wars! Arts, Mechs and Floral strength. All bases covered.

Sat 20 Feb 2021 07:48 GMT

I’m a tulip kind of a guy.

Fri 19 Feb 2021 17:52 GMT

As per usual, one DRPG (Labyrinth of Refrain) and some enthusiasm leads into curiosity about other DRPGs and suddenly I have game saves in Demon Gaze II, The Lost Child, Bards Tale IV, Vaporum and Operancia. _shrug I’m terrible Muriel!

Thu 18 Feb 2021 18:17 GMT

Turn Based Lovers site has a first gameplay look at Ultimate ADOM (Ancient Domains of Mystery) roguelike - its looking really good

Mon 15 Feb 2021 14:16 GMT

I think this slurry of immediate thought, is now also part if my expanding exocortex. Fed direct from the command line into my easily digested geminispace.

Mon 15 Feb 2021 14:14 GMT

even before evernote and beyond it to joplin and finally resting on emacs and orgmode, I’ve been trying to get a useful & self documenting record of my real & digital life into an exocortex. Human cognition expanded and enhanced by tech, but constructed and configured under my control, my will for my needs

Mon 15 Feb 2021 14:00 GMT

theres something cool about manifesting your immediate thoughts into pure unadulterated text, collected on your own gemini server without judgement

Sun 14 Feb 2021 17:38 GMT

I found a new passion of mine today, watching ‘bird feeding tables’ LIVE on the tubes, mainline your love for our avian wildlife across the globe - I saw a red cardinal, goldfinch and a blue jay

Sun 14 Feb 2021 17:05 GMT

I’m a sucker for DRPGs, so I reinstalled Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk and have been exploring the spooky dungeons with my fighting puppets.

Sat 13 Feb 2021 20:38 GMT

I can buy into the resleeving, but there was something about Altered Carbon Season 2 that left me wanting more Season 1 cyberpunk

Mon 08 Feb 2021 11:00 GMT

You can keep your social media, but if I didn’t have access to DeltaChat or Mastodon I’d be a wreck by now.

Sun 07 Feb 2021 18:31 GMT

Drek is Shadowrun cyberpunk slang for crap. It seemed to appropriate to tag my mental effluent with this moniker.

Fri 05 Feb 2021 14:56 GMT

Whichever of these pipe dreams comes first - functioning exciting Cyberpunk 2077 gameworld or PS5 availability without price gouging, will make me pine for the other even more

Fri 05 Feb 2021 10:41 GMT

I need to return to the following to finish them off, preacher s4, altered carbon s2, mr robot, handmaids tale, star trek disco very s3, fargo, dead set…

Fri 05 Feb 2021 06:55 GMT

Interestingly, I noticed Cultist Simulator the card based time management cthulu-esque procedurally generated spook-a-thon was on the Switch store, a lot of esoteric PC indie titles are hitting the Switch as first console

Thu 04 Feb 2021 18:59 GMT

Revisiting Astral Chain on Switch, oh boy does it do justice to the Cyberpunk Anime vibe.

Thu 04 Feb 2021 16:45 GMT

Playing the Werewolf: The Apocalypse game on console, whilst transformed action is pacey enough - it feels a little sluggish on moves and light on bite - however the silent stealthy Lupus form feels just right.

Thu 04 Feb 2021 15:58 GMT

I’m currently a giddy little kipper, it’s like I’ve birthed my very own short attention span social media feed and only I can post to it!

Thu 04 Feb 2021 15:53 GMT

Ok, gotta crack on… Kristall is not a bad Gemini client, once I’ve configured it for monospaced hegemony to make it look like Amfora.

Thu 04 Feb 2021 15:48 GMT

Theres nowt better than toking on a builders strength cuppa, listening to old Celldweller trax and coding up more Gemini gubbins..

Thu 04 Feb 2021 15:45 GMT

Thanks to uoou/drew for his scripting aid to capture and immortalise this deckers unfiltered mind drek!