benignintervention

New hbomberguy??

Oops, time to fire up zomboid again

I had no idea, it just keeps getting better

I always plug Scavenger’s Reign. It’s a a sci fi survival show about a set of people who get stranded on an alien planet animated kind of like a graphic novel. The creators used a bunch of nature documentaries as inspiration to create a truly alien and interdependent ecosystem, but the theme tells you everything you need to know about the tone.

Also, animated sci fi comedy, The Venture Bros

If you’re cooking with peppers remember to wash your hands BEFORE you touch your junk.

Or, I am both proud and ashamed to say, you can douse that fire with heavy cream.

Fallen Order is a decent game. Not a super immersive story in my opinion but overall it’s good, if a little railroaded. It kind of feels more like a disney production than a fleshed out game. I don’t remember being intimidated by anything for very long and mostly found certain enemies kind of annoying to fight. Although the Vader sequence at the end is simply great. Survivor in my personal opinion is much superior. The story is more engaging, the enemies vary more, the bosses are more dynamic, and they expanded just the right mechanics. They really figured out how to get you to choose your battles and it scales well with upgrades (although I did choose to fight until I beat a rancor at the very beginning that was clearly meant for mid to late game). It plays a lot like Stellar Blade if you tone down the anime stuff and tighten the combat to a looser Sekiro.

If you don’t mind skipping some story, you can go into Survivor and then treat Fallen Order like a prequel. And if story is a big factor for you, it’s worth just powering though.

Personally, i lack executive function and self discipline. I used to read 3 or 4 books a month and write for a minimum amount of time every day, which usually went much longer. I have one published short from my time in college, then i graduated and started working. What focus and motivation I had evaporated with my free time as I now had to balance a dozen competing priorities. I still regularly have new ideas for plots, scenes, characters, and beats, but ten years later I’m between jobs and so burnt out I’d rather just sleep, game, and hang out with my dog. I’ve justified a lot of it to myself by saying “I need to experience more” before i can do whatever story justice, which is just an excuse. I only need to practice more. I’m certainly trying to start it up again.

But fuck, man, I’m so tired lol

Oh yeah, 100%! It also lands a little differently through the show, sometimes despairing, sometimes regretful, and even with a flicker of hope. Absolutely recommend if you’d like a sci-fi survival story that feels like a dark graphic novel. The writing is top notch

You should check out Scavenger’s Reign! The intro music only becomes more haunting and fitting as you learn more about the story. I never skipped it and i typically don’t like title sequences

Edit: Intro link

Octavia Butler has an essay that makes the same key point as Stephen King: read and write. It’s the same as any other skill. If you’re a musician, you listen to music and play your instrument. If you want to draw, you watch people draw, observe their process, and you draw. If you’re a welder, you watch people weld, study the process, and you weld.

Storytelling, however, is very broad. You see it on tv, in movies, in books, and you practice in daily conversation. There are loads of books and videos discussing different aspects of storytelling structure, form, and best practices. The Great Courses even has a lecture series on storytelling. But the best thing you can do is read and write. And ask for feedback.

Seveneves kind of touches on rebuilding although it skips decades and centuries. Lucifer’s Hammer deals with the aftermath of a global disaster and includes some rebuilding… kind of. Alas, Babylon explores a post-nuclear world. None of them are particularly optimistic except Seveneves (in a way), but it also doesn’t explore rebuilding in a lot of detail. Since you’re already reading Octavia Butler, you can try Lilith’s Brood, but it won’t be anything like rebuilding the modern world. Asimov’s Foundation series is about rebuilding at a galactic scale but I’m not sure they aged particularly well.

If you’re interested in building specifically you can try Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars.

In addition: Children of Time might scratch the itch in a way since it’s about the development of a sentient species. I think the sequel explores more building, but i haven’t read it yet and the reviews are kind of mixed

That’s endorsement enough for me

Guess i should finally watch that. I’ve been putting it off but it’s been referenced a lot recently and seems like it might be relevant

And a couple that aren’t really reactions but I use them anyway:

When they announced new star wars like 10 years ago I really hoped for a Kyle Katarn story. Seeing what they’ve done though I’m glad they left him alone

Catching strays

Watch videos and read some articles about it. There are different edge angles for different use cases, but you’ll generally aim for 20-25°. For things like razors and kitchen knives you’ll want a straight grind/edge and for more heavy use knives a slightly beveled edge is okay. Low grit is for large corrections like burrs and blunt spots. Those kinds of corrections will take a lot of time and you’ll want to look for uniformity before moving to higher grits for a sharper edge and eventually polish. Highly recommend starting with an angle tool and going slowly with a knife you don’t really care about. Work on keeping your angle and pressure consistent and don’t press down very hard. If you apply too much pressure you’ll damage both the edge and stone, especially for softer (higher grit) stones. Check your work regularly to make sure the edge is consistent, you’ll see it pretty clearly under a light. It takes practice. I’ve been freehand sharpening for about 20 years and I still mess up sometimes.

My biggest tip is regular maintenance! I clean and do a few passes on 3000 grit with my kitchen knife every time I use it and it’s been my sharpest knife for 10 years. And clean your stone! Residual steel will build up, making the stone less effective and also risking damage to the edge.

“is it web scale?”

There’s some debate on this! Most movie dialogue is designed to convey the impression of conversation, but this is naturally unrealistic. People stutter and start over and get distracted in normal conversation much like you described, which can become very burdensome on the screen. Like when your boss won’t get to the point in the standup. Overly precise dialogue is equally burdensome and often fails to maintain attention (see: the Time 1776 AI videos). A lot of the discussion around how best to balance those natural pauses and disruptions around the otherwise “eloquent” speech in movies to best convey a characterization.

I’m sure others out there can point to legitimate sources, but I’m not super read up on it