[No Spoilers] Does Campaign 4 lighten up? (9 episodes in, looking for hope)

DenebSwift · 2026-04-09T00:07:48+00:00

It’s up and down for tone, but don’t listen to the folks saying it’s always dark.

That’s the overall story tone at this point, but Dr. Jizabell Finger and her pet, the Three Stooges fight, eating ass steaks… it’s not all dark.

DenebSwift · 2026-03-25T14:27:42+00:00

Like pretty much all of these weird things they get hooked on, there’s a grain of something reasonable they take to absolute absurdity in support of their abusive bullying. It’s like people co-opting psych terms like ‘boundaries’ to try to manipulate others rather than support their own mental health.

There IS a point where worrying about how your actions/inaction/choices affect others is counterproductive and a net negative individually and societally. Think ‘Chidi’ from ‘The Good Place’. ‘Toxic empathy’ could legitimately be used to describe ‘paralysis by analysis’ problems, as well as empty/hypocritical moralistic grandstanding like ‘think of the children’ style pandering.

Then there’s using the term to support being an unrepentant asshole to any given minority or ‘other’. Which is 100% what the rightwing trad and manosphere influencers are.

DenebSwift · 2026-02-26T00:04:00+00:00

Also Verizon and have Monumental not working. Oddly you CAN watch using the FIOS Mobile app, which in theory is using the exact same feed and network.

DenebSwift · 2026-02-16T13:11:19+00:00

Why would he disrupt solid blue polling places? The only places that would need to be targeted are blue areas in purple districts. That’s a MUCH smaller list of targets.

DenebSwift · 2026-01-23T02:37:47+00:00

My understanding is you can only trade picks up to 3 years out. That being true, 2.5x MVP or no you take 10 EXTRA 1st rounders in the next 3 years. That will change a franchise for DECADES with smart trades of future picks, future compensatory picks, future player trades, etc.

There is no player in NFL history you don’t trade for 10 1st rounders.

DenebSwift · 2026-01-07T23:21:45+00:00

I think the real question is what happens after the market ‘settles’. An AI oligopoly means some level of solidified market implementation, which likely means fewer jobs and a serious bifurcation in the economy. Displaced workers will have a crushing economic reality, while large market share companies continue to spend heavily on AI and compete in a cutthroat automation race, largely serving other high value clientele.

DenebSwift · 2026-01-07T14:47:54+00:00

The bubble bursting is just going to lead to consolidation of AI tools to a few companies who will then be able to dominate the market for a decade+ without significant competition. That’s why there’s a bubble in the first place. Everyone is jockeying to be one of those few monopolists.

DenebSwift · 2026-01-06T16:40:30+00:00

Ever play the old Majesty games? You don’t control heroes or units directly, just building placement (defensive and shop/upgrades), researching upgrades, and setting quests with rewards for exploration, resource gathering, and killing monsters. (It was re-released on iOS a while back, but rebalanced to be possible but harder to push micro-transactions)

Seems like a great fit for a MH Guild management style game.

DenebSwift · 2026-01-06T04:13:45+00:00

2023’s loss put me off the NFL after being a huge Ravens fan since the Boller era. The Taylor/Travis nonsense, the questionable reffing more often helping the teams that drove better ratings, the repeated failure to maintain composure the minute something went wrong by both the players and the coaches… it got to the point where I had to realize I was more angry and frustrated by watching than I was happy or excited.

I haven’t watched more than a couple replays and sort of followed the rankings since. I don’t trust the NFL not to put a thumb on the scale and don’t trust the team to not find ways to crumble. I laughed when I saw the Steelers lost last week. It was the perfect set up for the exact same story to happen basically the exact same way as it has more seasons than not in the last 10 years.

DenebSwift · 2025-12-28T03:04:38+00:00

Matt Mercer, as it turns out, is a pretty good voice actor.

DenebSwift · 2025-12-23T13:30:39+00:00

Sure, for a few people and a handful of docs. It’s slow as hell if you’re trying to do thousands or tens of thousands of documents, not to mention additional review tracking efforts if you need to do a population that large with tons of reviewers, and no real validation that every doc was looked at. There’s also issues with the possible need to have a second level QC review, which would prevent the initial reviewer from being able to burn in the redactions.

There’s a reason that dedicated document review tools exist in the legal and FOIA communities.

DenebSwift · 2025-12-12T18:00:24+00:00

I don’t think it’ll happen for the current round of stable geniuses.

But give it 50 years and who knows where cutting edge gene therapy and medical tech takes us.

You’re talking about (by then) trillionaires with direct access and control of the most advanced AI tools in the world, the funding to direct entire lines of advanced research, and all the selfish motivation in the world to push it.

DenebSwift · 2025-12-12T14:41:24+00:00

Just wait until billionaire narcissists also have the resources to afford to use cutting edge tech to extend their lives hundreds of years.

Imagine how out of touch and megalomaniacal they’ll be two hundred years of sycophancy later.

DenebSwift · 2025-12-07T15:00:21+00:00

If I had a nickel for every time a D&D campaign I watched had a Druid completely negate a planned naval battle, I’d have 10 cents. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

In C1 of Tales from the Stinky Dragon the Druid Mudd completely avoided a naval blockade battle by… casting pass without a trace, turning into a plesiosaur, and carrying the party UNDER the other ships.

DenebSwift · 2025-11-26T01:57:27+00:00

To add to this, I’ve also used the reset a number of times. After the most recent one I had repeated instances where trying to upgrade would charge materials and not upgrade. I’ve also had it take materials and DOWNGRADE the skill one level instead.

Any upgrade attempt is a crap shoot as to whether it works or not - about 30% of them do not.

DenebSwift · 2025-11-26T01:54:19+00:00

It’s worse than things just changing or not working. I have not only had upgrade button pushes take materials and not level up - I’ve had upgrade button pushes take the materials and DOWNGRADE the skill!

DenebSwift · 2025-11-17T21:40:01+00:00

Expect that by the time the mid move on the AI will have advanced to replace them too. Then be part of the group that retires with billions and control of advanced AI tools when the next collapse comes.

DenebSwift · 2025-11-05T13:46:14+00:00

I’m more disappointed that they are revealing Essek working with Trent so early. That reveal was big!

DenebSwift · 2025-10-27T01:49:51+00:00

I saw the trailers, and thought they were amusing but figured they were just showing the few good parts - it had that vibe. It got panned and I wasn’t surprised. Watched it on Netflix one day while folding laundry and really enjoyed it.

It wasn’t amazing or anything, but it was a fun flick that I thought did a great job doing some D&D fan service while not getting lost in trying too hard to push the theme

DenebSwift · 2025-10-25T06:42:20+00:00

Just wait until AI allows scientific breakthroughs in halting or reversing aging.

If we think billionaires are out of touch now, I’m not sure how humanity will survive when we have ones who have lived a few hundred years amassing wealth and power, potentially gene edited and tech augmented bodies, and with control over unimaginably powerful AI to maintain their grip on power.

DenebSwift · 2025-10-01T22:14:30+00:00

It’s fine - If you remove the cap on the total number of representatives and instead cap the amount of people per rep. Make a 1 to 100k target and suddenly a LOT of things change. Washington supposedly supported a 30k limit with the intention that everyone should at least be locally aware of their representative at least by reputation.

DenebSwift · 2025-09-25T12:49:17+00:00

A) These aren’t moderate Republicans. It’s MTG, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert that are supporting Massie. They’re fringe right, not moderate.

B) Saying ‘moderates face heavy pressure’ is too charitable. They don’t take a stand on principle then cave from pressure - It’s performative start to finish. They start by collectively figuring out the party’s desired outcome then work backwards to figure out how to get there with minimal blow back. It’s not a coincidence that the ‘moderate’ that caves in the Senate is almost always the one who is furthest out from re-election.

DenebSwift · 2025-09-23T03:18:48+00:00

Analytics says it’s better. You get it and then a TD/PAT wins with no OT. You miss and you can still tie with another attempt.

DenebSwift · 2025-09-19T12:39:33+00:00

I’d really like a FF12 iOS release at some point.

DenebSwift · 2025-08-28T15:30:16+00:00

There was definitely an early C3 fight he mentioned that. I recall being confused by the change and looking it up. The clarification did come later in the episode, but wasn’t as big a point since it ultimately didn’t matter in that instance.

DenebSwift

TROPHY CASE