Posts made by Testament

CD Project Red's class action lawsuit being brought up against them.

Big oof

@aria For starters, I've never actually sent thank you notes after an interview, the thought has literally never occurred, but in hindsight, that's a really good idea.

Secondly, the fact that they replied to you? Well, I certainly don't think it's bad. At best, they'll appreciate the gesture and remember it when they choose the person for the job. At worst, they simply approved of your professionalism and returned in kind.

I don't really see a drawback here, either way.

@ominous PC version runs just fine, as that's what I've been playing it on.

Sure, there's the odd bug or glitch, random cars suddenly shoot into the air and explode, but I'll take that over the state of the console versions.

Basically, it's not as glitchy as a Bethesda game, but only just.

It's no secret that I've been on the front lines of Covid ever since it arrived. The laboratory I work used to be focused on specifically one test. An inhouse test created for early detection of various cancers. It's basically a fancy way of saying we do a lot PCR(polymerase chain reaction). Which is another fancy way of saying 'we take a little bit of DNA and replicate however many thousands of times until we have enough genetic material to do a quantitative test, one that'll look for specific markers in your DNA and whether or not other markers have(or have not)been activated. Which can lead to cancer. Or if cancer is already active, certain markers will have been either activated or repressed. I could go further into this, but it's not all that important. I hate saying that my company made out like bandits, but that'd be a lie. Holy shit, company stocks are high.

Basically, at the jump, my company started to offer Covid testing based on the same principles with some tweaking to some of test phases that go in how QNS tests find a result that would be considered accurate. That's science that above my paygrade, and the people in R&D aren't always forthcoming with how they do what they do. Needless to say there was tinkering that was going on to detect viral loads in a person's body.

This has made me go through periods of morbid acceptance to how I operated in my job to blind optimism to thinking that I was really making a difference to sheer bitter nihilism that people are idiots as I continued to watch case numbers rise, and the utter cognitive dissonance as I'd hear people say that the virus isn't real, or not that bad, or some other mental safety net meant to keep their precious worldview in line with their altered reality.

I realize it's made me angrier than I'd like to be, angrier than I already am, and if I wasn't already really resentful, I'm likely there now. So my ability to cope, surrounded by it as I am, hasn't been a lot. This has made me snap at people on MUs more often than I like to admit if for no other reason than I felt helpless. It is for that reason, that I came to resolution as to how this had been affecting me, negatively. These were never opinions I voiced, not openly, but the thought was there. Looking at tests results, seeing the number of positives increase, seeing co-workers have to leave work for two weeks because they were exposed, and then some not still not come back yet. There are times where I sit and wonder if I'm really doing any good at all.

And then I wonder how much of me will be left when I get to the other side. Self-depreciating humor tends to be my go-to.

I lost my cat, my best friend to seizures. I had to do what I could for my significant other go through emotional breakdowns from being trapped in one room. No, I don't think many people have had good years. I think I'm glad that I'm still here, typing this.

I am coping, if that is a word for it. YouTube and played through old games that I had never had the time for have helped. Though I have rediscovered my talent for cooking as of late, which has been nice. And picking back up my various skills at mixology and seeing if I can create new cocktails simply because I could. As for RP? My RP circle is literally 5 people. I'm content to keep it that way until I feel like expanding that.

I'm okay. I tell my therapist that.

@wizz said in General Video Game Thread:

As for racism...I mean, they did the best they could with what they had, I think, given the source material. You wanna cringe so hard your head and neck invert into your body? Go read some of the tabletop books like Neo-Tribes, or the original write-up for the Voodoo Boys. Huuuuuuuuge yikes.

I just want to point that Mike Pondsmith, the creator of Cyberpunk, is black. And has talked about the gangs like the Animals and Voodoo Boys. I remember this being a large talking issue about the game a couple years ago, to the point where he had to make a statement on it.

@roz They've needed to for years. Literal years. It took far longer for voice actors to get their own union but they were finally able to do so in the last decade.

@carma said in General Video Game Thread:

I heard it was anti-punk. Contained racist and transphobic subtexts. Things like that.

Not to mention the unfair treatment the workers went through to make the game.

So I don't think I'll support it.

I mean, should include just about every major dev/publisher at that point.

Like Ubisofts rampant sexual harassment via their upper management.

Or EA straight up encouraging uncontrolled online gambling.

Or Activison/Blizzard being against human rights in Taiwan.

Take your pick. No one is exempt.

After beating Cyberpunk, I have many opinions but I can't and won't share them until more people have played through and beaten the game. I am a little let down that it wasn't nearly as long as Witcher 3's main story, but that's really nitpicking.

It's a great game. Really well written side characters. Immersive city, when it's not buggy. And in the end it's everything that I had hoped for.

But.

***Spoiler***

Go hug your pet. That is all.

The good news; the issue with my ear may not be as dire as once thought and I may just need a nasal steroid spray.

The worse news; my old man cat had a stroke last night. It came from out of nowhere as he had been acting normally, though perhaps a bit more lethargic than usual. We got him to the vet ER within ten minutes and we sat in our car for the next three hours.

The vet was optimistic, his blood work came back good, the anti seizure medication he had responded well to, and she told us to head home and she would keep him overnight for observation.

We got a call at 3;30 in the morning. He had more seizures, and had to be incubated. We got back fast that I was able to see him.

It was terrible. He didn't blink, his eyes didn't move, and there didn't seem to be anyone there. I told the vet to end his pain. It was all I could do.

Everything is still raw.. I keep thinking ill find buried under a blanket even though I buried him in my mom's farm at 6am this morning.

I had my buddy for over 16 glorious years. From a stray cat to the most lovable, friendliest cat who never hissed or growled a day in life.

I didnt cry this much when my ex fiance broke up with me. But I've been a mess literally all day.

I just wanted to rant at the sky for taking something so good out of this world.

Countless moves and a handful of breakups, messy or otherwise, but the one constant was the my old man. He was a rock. And I will miss him so much.

Fuck 2020

Puma is doing a shoe collab with Nintendo right now and goddamn are some of the silhouettes just...chef's kiss

Not even sorry about that purchase. Super Mario Sunshine may not of been my favorite Mario game, but I can't pass up that cerulean with the splatter-print mid sole.

Narrative aside, I think my largest issue with DA2 was how dumbed down the combat was. Not that I have a problem with button mashing combat(I don't, I love Streets of Rage 4 on my Switch), but that's not what I expect out of a Dragon Age game. Where Origins was chunky and tactical in that Baldur's Gate(oh my god I love that game so much why can't Baldur's Gate 3 come out of alpha already), and Inquisition tried really hard to be some kind of combination of the two and not exactly hitting the mark(while also not totally missing it either).

I question the narrative direction that DA2 took between in regards to the transition from Act 2 to 3.

But this debate has been trodded down to death. So I have a hard time liking the narrative(because I do like the narrative), yet hating Jennifer Helper's writing.

@GreenFlashlight I actually just got back from seeing my GP. Apparantly she's unsure, but doesn't think it's vascular related.

So I'm being referred to both an ENT and Audiologist.

Fun times.

So fun fact. I'm seeing my doctor today because I might be going deaf from something called an 'ear stroke'.

Told while its not life threatening, I can go completely deaf from it and the first two weeks from the onset of symptoms is the 'golden time' to possibly prevent that reality.

I am unnerved currently.

That's good to hear. I hadn't kept in as good a contact with her as I should've, considering for a long time we spoke on quite regular basis. It did become harder when she made her huge timezone shift, but I tried to check in occasionally.

I'm glad that she's okay(beyond being really busy). Granted, this does make me kick myself for being a bad friend and not checking up more often.

Player is an old friend of mine, we've gone back years. I knew stuff had gotten busy for her with career/life/kids, but I literally haven't heard from her since August.

Just hoping they're doing okay and if anyone else had heard from her.

@il-volpe I actually like this idea. May encourage players to take more risks, knowing that it's likely not the best to get too attached to characters if you do a thirty year time skip once a year.

@SquirrelTalk said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

@Testament I mean.

Some humor wouldn't go amiss.

But I honestly really like the setting and the characters. I'd really want to play either Seras or Alexander Anderson.

@SquirrelTalk only if it was Hellsing Abridged.