"His hands do all the talking..." (08/26/2026)

...playing SWAT 4. So far I can very much understand the hype. In particular I'm really liking how this game, despite ostensibly being an FPS, penalizes you for harming people. I got a 95/100 on one of the missions and I'm pretty sure that was because I had to reluctantly pepper-spray a civilian because they resisted arrest. It's encouraging players to think through problems pacifistically instead of charging in guns-blazing, which I think games that copy the SWAT formula (like Ready or Not! I could go on and on about my problems with that game!!) should pay attention to.

...had an interesting conversation about ElsaGate today. Looking back at it retrospectively I can kind of pinpoint it as one of the biggest factors in how the internet went to shit. Not only was it wretched slop content but it was also incredibly harmful to children. And yet it feels as if it never moved on past 2019. Really, it feels like whenever we as a society are reminded of its existence, we collectively experience a Tommy Westphall-esque moment where we metaphorically stare into our snowglobes and imagine an entirely different world, one where everything is different but nothing has changed...

(...LITERALLY as I was writing that out some weirdo joined my discord server and started trying to hook up with my friends. We had fun screwing with him even though he seemed to have a wide array of NSFW gifs on standby, before banning him due to his "personality" being both tedious and insidious.)

...following up from the last blog post: I am DEFINITELY seeing Django Unchained tomorrow. Because why the hell not? It'll probably be a good time w/ friends. 

...recently listened to: "Thin Black Duke" by Oxbow. An unexplainable joy, really. At times it feels almost theatrical in its arrangement. Eugene S. Robinson recalls David Yow in his tortured-sounding vocal stylings, particularly on "A Gentleman's Gentleman", where he resembles an enraged tweaker swaggering back and forth, gibbering on and on about nothing and yet everything at once, before at last cleaning up into coherency. More rock music needs horns and strings.