To be clear, this is the app you'd use on a macbook or imac or whatever they call their desktop computers these days. It's not the app for iphone or ipad

To me, Biden seemed certain to lose, while with Kamala it could go either way. In no way is she a worse candidate than Biden. I think we should all be deeply invested in Kamala winning the election. Not because I want to see Trump lose, though I do. Not because I want to see Kamala win, which I don't really. What I want, what I think we all want, is to see Hillary Clinton looking on as another woman becomes the first woman president. Not just that, I want to see Kamala win easily, just to make it clear to Hillary that she, personally, was the problem in 2016. No one thinks Kamala is an impressive candidate, so if her mediocre ass beats Trump with a comfortable margin, it'll more or less settle the argument as to who was responsible for Trump's victory.

To be clear, I haven't lost sight of the fact that a Harris presidency would basically just be the Biden presidency with more awkward laughter. We're not going to get a good president this time around, or maybe ever. I'm aware that I'm doing something similar to the republican rank-and-file who know their candidates won't do anything to help them, but will at least make the people they don't like suffer. We should all be protesting, agitating, and organizing for something better, but with the understanding that organizing is almost certainly not getting us a better candidate this cycle, let's try and find joy where we can. In this case, in schadenfreude.

I got to do this once. I look like the type a prosecutor would probably want on a jury and I wasn't individually asked any questions before being chosen. The case was a non-violent drug offense and it was a wild experience for reasons I won't get into. Once we got in the jury room it pretty much went like:

"Not guilty."

"Why not guilty? It's a pretty clear cut case."

"I don't believe the cops."

"Why don't you believe the cops?"

"I didn't find their testimony credible. It didn't convince me beyond a reasonable doubt."

"What about the body cam footage? Do you believe that?"

"I didn't find it convincing."

"The whole thing is on camera, do you think they faked it all?"

"I suppose that's a possibility. I just haven't seen enough evidence to convict."

"What more evidence could you need?"

"More than this. I'm not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt."

And around and around we went like that. I was the lone holdout. I have to say, the other jurors were pretty cool about it. Eventually we had to tell the judge we couldn't reach a verdict on any of the charges and it was declared a mistrial. Totally worth it.

never thought there would be video of this omg thank you so much

It's especially weird that companies are still like this after seeing the success of a game like Baldurs Gate 3. The runaway hit of the year, and biggest earner on Steam, doesn't even implement the basic Steam DRM. I tried it. The game launches and runs just fine when Steam isn't running at all. It's so messed up how capitalism leads to that (providing good products at fair prices and respecting your audience) being seen as an "unsustainable business model."

Half-Life: Alyx is the game that shows us just how incredible vr can be. And it's the game that ruins you for all other vr games because nothing else is anywhere near as good.

Since you mentioned Myst, Cyan published a vr game called The Last Clockwinder. It's a cozy little game where you solve puzzles using automatons that repeat your own recorded actions. So for example, you record yourself picking up an object and dropping it in a bucket, and then a robot repeats the same actions over and over. Before long you're creating assembly lines of robots that are all interacting with each other, and are all recordings of you. It's easier to understand from watching a trailer. Anyway, it has a cute solarpunk(?) aesthetic, some nice casual queerness, and the kind of corny, earnest performances I remember from the Myst games. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1755100/The_Last_Clockwinder/

Beat Saber is an obvious good option, but before you spend any money on song packs, check out a site like BEATSAVER. Beat Saber can be modded and there are custom song managers you can use, but you don't have to bother with all that if you really don't want to. Downloading the zip file from beatsaver and dropping it into beat saber directory is enough (assuming the custom song didn't require any mods, some of them do). There are so many good songs on there that rival anything officially released.

Also Blade and Sorcery. It's rough around the edges, but the implementation of magic is pretty great. Hurling fireballs, using telekinesis to pick up and throw weapons, objects, and enemies, holding a ball of electricity in one hand and using it to imbue the sword you're holding in your other hand, it's all very fun. Even if it does make me more motion-sick than just about anything I've played in vr.

Fully expecting this to be yet another Rockstar Special, i.e. a technical marvel rendering a painstakingly crafted world, full of boring gameplay, underdeveloped systems, and dull, unlikable characters.

I like the grapefruit seltzer and hate actual grapefruit

The first game is one of my all-time favorite games, absolutely love it, so it's interesting that I never had the slightest interest in the second. I very much doubt I'll ever play it. For me, the ending of the first game is devastating, and is the end of Joel and Ellie's story. We don't need more. We know their lives will continue past the credits, we know the world the characters inhabit will go on, there's more plot that could unfold, but it doesn't need to. We know who these characters are now, we know the rules of their world, and whatever comes next is not going to reveal anything new about Joel and Ellie. We've been given enough that we can fill in the rest of their stories in our minds.

Which is why I didn't need a sequel with these characters. Or any sequel at all really, because as well-drawn as the setting may be, it's just another zombie apocalypse. The story of Ellie and Joel is why it's worth my time to trudge back out into the thousandth video game zombie apocalypse, so a sequel with the same setting and new characters was going to need to be spectacular. From everything I've heard, it sounds like a game that's jaw-dropping on a technical level, but is decidedly inferior to the first. I don't feel any fomo by skipping it. In my mind, it doesn't exist.

My memory of watching that movie is feeling uncomfortable and realizing "oh, these characters are the people I went to college with."

I can absolutely see myself buying a gift like that for a trans guy, not because I think it's a good gift, but because it's such a comically stereotypical Man Hat, and it kinda rocks with how over-the-top tacky it is. It works as both a genuine affirmation and a funny gag gift.