I primarily use Discord as a one stop shop to play and run dnd campaigns. I first hopped on it around 2017, and its was way better than any other group chat app. Around the pandemic all my groups started playing on it and it became relatively seamless. I joined exactly one streamers discord but that is totally it. In general I wouldn’t expect it to be a good archive, or forum, nor do I expect it to be secure. I use armchord on PC. I started using it before it was enshittified. For what it does, it does it pretty well.

For the record, I have used matrix and Signal. I think both have the issue that a critical mass of my friends don’t use them. I liked Signal a lot when it had SMS support. I used it as a my primary SMS app, and some of my friends had signal as well, so that was cool. now its more like a specialized messenger app, and I fucking hate having yet another one of those on my phone. Matrix encryption keys are giant stumbling blocks to my friends who do give a fuck. I play ttrpgs with some people who could not give a fuck. I would have to set up the server, set up the account, and then I would have have to do the encryption key for them. And like people say, Matrix logs you out every little while. You can turn notifications off and totally forget about it. For my non techy friends, this is literally a bridge too far.

I literally have two friends who think Matrix is cool. No one else even has an account, much less a server. And the support to meet people who have this app is very limited. Cool, but I think it will always be a niche.

is santa an elf?

Yeah, brain plasticity is really fascinating. One of the guys I work with, its the only way to teach him anything. He had a heroin overdose like 15 years ago. He has basically no short term memory, but I’ve been able to get him to retain things via repetition. Mostly repetitive physical tasks, but social media, with advertisers constantly pinging him, has also been a very powerful reminder. He’s big into the EDM scene and he remembers events, both past and future, because social media keeps buzzing him and reminding him. I wish there was a way to harness that power for good.

But obviously, I’ve never seen his brain before.

Based on my neurology classes, I feel like we have some idea what some parts of the brain do. Obviously full on experiments would be unethical, but we can like, observe which neural pathways formed in people with the same life style (so Taxi Drivers have larger and more developed sections focused on navigation). We can observe what happens to people who take the same kinds of damage, and occasionally we get lucky and we can see what happens to people with grievous injuries or rare maladies. Also, we can do experiments on creatures like snails which far less complex brains.

The brain is certainly an interesting a weird black box, but we do have outs to learn some things

I went to my banking account page, where I can make transfers and look at my money. My ad blocker had blocked a GIANT ad in the center of the screen.

Coool

Shemesh is also the hebrew word for sun.

Whats middlemaga sighing for? Is the joke that he thinks Vance is a “schill for da joos” or something?

I really liked Prism, a lot. gen 2 rom hack, with mons and rules from up to six i think. Its not overly hard but it does require you to know what youre doing. And there is a LOT of game.

Not a romhack, but https://pokerogue.net/ has every new pokemon (and was my first exposure to gen 9, honestly)

Oh boy Jill. I was crushed to learn about her transphobia. And also her cringe book.

I stuck with Babish through his expensive weird era because I still felt like I was learning something about cooking, even if i couldnt make his three day Troy pizza casserole or whatever. I still felt like I was becoming a better cook. Recently he switched up his editing style to less voice over, hands only content and more click baity listacles, and more videos where hes messing around in the kitchen. I liked watching the hands only stuff because I could see what he doing, and there wasnt any emphasis on his face, so there less emphasis on his personality, and therefore I felt a little less intimidated as far as trying it myself. The voice overs were also really concise. The end result was also really light weight, and felt like a recipe that didn’t have all the SEO “my grandma taught me how to make this cake before she died” garbage.

Alvin is still making videos in the classic “Babish” style on the Babish channel, and I still watch the vids Andrew puts out in that style, but if i can see his face, I wont even click on the video.

I dream of a world where we are free to create art without having dance for Capital

I think of them when I dream about them facing a firing squad.

I would be generous and interpret that as Leah remembering Bail Organa’s wife (who it must remembered, she thought was her mother until like, an hour before that conversation), or else constructing memories of an ideal woman.

At least, until Obi Wan, but whatever

Your point still stands. She only found out she was adopted like an hour prior.

Leah makes out with Luke.

“Somehow, I’ve always known.”

I honestly cannot believe you forgot about the Skywalker twins.

“I’ve always known.”

Somehow.

I would argue that Jedi deserves everything the prequels get

This is such a weird take. There is 20 years of content on youtube and not just like, unboxing videos or AI generated kid stuff or whatever. Theres family recordings and DIY vids for literally everything, to college courses from like, Yale and Harvard, to vocational videos I use for my job. All of the videos that radicalized me into an Ancom on are youtube. Every song ever recorded, including rare songs like second hand accounts of slave field hymns. Old, obscure movies, especially where the copyright holder doesnt give a fuck, are available for free. Small indie projects, like small groups producing shorts, and small bands making their own music, are on youtube. And yes, millions of hours of people playing video games, or sports high lights, or wrestling high lights, or video essays or whatever, are all on youtube.

The world is the way it is. Do I wish the web was more diversified? I do. Do I wish Alphabet didnt have us over a barrel like this? Of course. But youtube is almost a utility at this point; its like saying dont use the roads bro, eventually they will listen to us and put in light rail tracks. I would love for that to happen but you gotta get to work in the mean time.

Youtube doesn’t pay attention to what ads get approved, or where they get served. Ive heard stories of people getting served two hours full amateur movies as ads, Ive heard of people getting soft core porn served as an ad, to actual scams and crypto pitches. It’s like Facebooks new AI enabled algorithm. There is actual danger, considering children and the elderly get sucked in to youtubes black hole?

No one ever watched “Divergent” come on now