Mumble was… fine. My friends actually moved to Discord from Mumble for our MMO stuff but that was primarily because it was easier to invite randos to the chat. That quality makes it almost impossible to break away from atm.

I recall the latency being only a little worse than Discord, but I think that’s because a friend set up the server at his work as a side thing (he also hosted Minecraft and Terraria). It’s not too complex to setup, but your quality will depend a lot on the computer and network you’re running. At least, it did for us, back in the day.

We’ve thought about alternatives to Discord. Old names were Ventrilo and TeamSpeak but they’re just not very modern. Plus, now almost every chat app has voice, too. Just, for features, it’s hard to beat Discord at this… though I’m willing to read the other comments to get for ideas, too. Lol

I should use this as an excuse to finally get a NAS setup. Maybe.

Persona 5 is the problem. I’m tired too and no way I’m willing to micromanage a kids life while taking down bad guys. No no, I’ll snuggle with my steam deck and play Balatro tyvm.

Ironic that Biden brought that up when he called out the tech industrial complex. Americans do not learn.

Well at least he’s saying it. Hopefully that reflects a renewed interest in reform, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

My guess is analysts blame the misinformation campaign run against him and Kamala and are going to try and shift the message, 12 years too late. Hopefully.

Honestly, gamification is good but this is just stupid. Humans respond to gamification for a reason, it can add a sense of accomplishment or help you lay out goals, etc. If you gave that to, say, a non-profit looking to motivate volunteers who clean up the beach or something, it’s a net gain for society.

But this? What accomplishment or goal do you get for eating shitty donuts 500 times? I’d like to meet the man (and it most certainly is a man) who is proud of his 500th Dunkin trip. I’ll buy him a dose of insulin (but only the subsidized stuff).

Oh no, I’ve been up too late and the 700 club started. Time to get the ax.

The loss of Alta Dena might be the biggest bummer for me. My Bohemian uncle lived in an artist commune up there without electricity or plumbing. They had goats and a llama and a ruined building full of bees.

I hope the goats, llama and bees are ok.

You know what sucks is my insurance is going to go up, again, because I have to subsidize these assholes building mansions along the coastal mountain sides. It happened when Malibu burned down, and it’ll happen again, and they will continue to sell property instead of returning it back to nature.

If I have to put up with my concrete jungle South LA place, I don’t want to be lumped in with people with a thousand times more greenery than I get. Yet that’s exactly what insurance companies are going to do. That or outright stop dealing in California as some have done.

It’s a game in my todo list, but pretty low on that list. Actually, speaking to getting closer to that design, you’d think 20XX (and I guess 30XX but I didn’t play) gets even closer. It certainly scratched my MMX itch in an interesting way.

I mean, that’s just alfredo with bacon at that point.

Actually it’s a dry season here, so more likely than you’d think. LA isn’t exactly known for its rain, so instead we just get dryness in winter (unless we’re lucky).

There’s something nice about not having daily rewards or gacha or always online DRM. Just me and my team. I probably wouldn’t do Blue every year, but a healthy return to 90s gaming is refreshing.

Funny, during my break I hijacked my two year old’s tablet to play Pokemon Blue that I snuck on there when we prepped it for our family trip. Initially I just didn’t want her becoming a tablet zombie kid, but I can confirm that playing through Pokemon Blue during the holidays indeed takes you to a happier place.

Ok, ok, I’m fine with paper straws now. Please, no more sausage.

Sounds like the trouble I had to go through to set a VCR clock back in the day. Use the wrong kind of blood and the thing wouldn’t stop blinking even when you unplugged it, nevermind the demons (but we all remember the 90s).

I second this, wife put money to save for kids when they’re older and it over performed by quite a bit. I forget how much since she also sneaks 1k in here and there but an initial 10k plus the bits she added are now 24k after a couple years.

Goes hand in hand with a similar story I heard about a month ago regarding a shortage of pastors. Apparently it’s so bad, quite a few have to lead sermons at multiple churches and many simply skip some weeks. Also less trained people taking up the role, whatever that means anyway.

Honestly, get ratio’d, cultists.

Tee hee.

My worst offender would be the Neptunia games I’ve played (which I genuinely liked for gameplay lol) but honestly, if your gaming family can’t accept you at your Nep, they don’t deserve you at your NepNep.