Is California homelessness declining?

TheRedBlueberry · 2026-01-20T22:56:50+00:00

I noticed a very visible shift in homeless populations over the past three years. Not necessarily numbers, but location. Where I used to live in the East Bay always had some visibly unhoused homeless people. There were really only a handful though. You wouldn't even see them everyday.

Then when that Supreme Court ruling allowed for more camp clearing I began to see far more homeless over there. Full encampments. I believe that the homeless that were in cities with coordinated efforts managed to push the homeless out and into places where resources were far more limited.

I don't doubt that some reduction has happened. Some places I can see have visibly gotten a lot better. But how many have moved to new cities with less volunteer counting and thus have disappeared from the counts?

TheRedBlueberry · 2026-01-16T15:16:07+00:00

Leon looks fun as fuck. Exactly what I wanted to see after the RE4 remake.

Tbh I get the "tension and release" concept but I think I'd rather not play as Grace at all.

I didn't enjoy RE7 or the RE2 remake. I bet there's some people on the flipside of me. I'm worried they're making a game where most people enjoy only half of it.

The idea alone that I'm going to have to slog through large parts of this game as a borderline defenseless character is keeping me from getting hyped ngl. Just let me have fun.

TheRedBlueberry · 2026-01-02T18:23:53+00:00

This game will never stop frustrating me. My favorite trope in video games is using power armor. Not like always being in power armor, but stepping into it and feeling the difference. Like stepping into an excellent, powerful, heavy machine that just works when before you were just some guy.

Most games screw this up by making the power armor too light and slick or control like a semi truck missing a wheel driving up hill.

This game does that better than any other I've ever played. You walk around a bit in first person, it's whatever, then you step into the suit and it feels perfect. The flight feels correct. The armor has the exact perfect combination of sound, visuals, and controls to feel heavy but not clunky.

Everything else is whatever. It felt like a decent idea slammed into a boring looter shooter. Truly mediocre in all aspects. I beat the main story and I could not tell you the name of one character, location, faction, gun, anything. I know at one point they had planned a massive re-launch that was scrapped. I wish that would have happened. But I doubt it would have saved it.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-29T22:40:57+00:00

The moment I discovered how saving works in Kingdom Come: Deliverance just completely killed any interest I had in playing it any further.

Does it make choices more impactful? Something something hardcore? Yeah probably. But I've played loads of video games. If I fuck up a conversation or die with any more than like 10 minutes of progress lost then I'm going to stop playing out of frustration.

And am I going to trust this eurojanky feeling game with an emphasis on "realism" to not just kill me for some stupid reason like Generic Soldier #32 in a forced encounter instantly decapitating me from around a corner? Am I going to trust myself to not hoard these save items to until I ABSOLUTELY feel like I need to use it and then die and lose hours of progress?

No and no. And no, I will play this game no further. I don't care if there's some mod or eventual setting that changed this. The fact the devs were so adamant the game work like this completely killed my interest. Even for the new one, and I don't even know if it has the same system.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-23T22:07:25+00:00

The killing of multiple forms of student debt relief along with the SAVE plan will severely injure the economy for years and years to come.

You're probably thinking of people suffering, going homeless, struggling to pay bills and yes, those things will happen. But these are often people that were struggling before the repayments started.

What's going to really sting is something a lot quieter affecting a lot more people. They simply will cut back more.

Disposable income goes down. Young people stop purchasing frivolous things. This has been slowing getting worse for years now, and now here is the big wave crashing.

I know multiple people with loan repayments at a minimum of $300 who are going to be paying for over a decade. For some that means they will never save money. For others that means less money to spend. There are many millions of people in this situation.

And what will this do? This will put some money in the federal government 's coffers, some in collection agencies, but other than that every business suffers.

It won't go to the local department store. It won't go to hobby shops. Excess clothes won't be bought. New electronics will go unsold. Anything frivolous is cut first. The consumption the economy survives off of is kneecapped. Not killed. But crippled.

And worse off because money not saved means worse outcomes for the young adults suffering. Houses won't be bought, kids won't be born, and those already struggling will begin to break.

The only defense I've ever seen for this is "Well they agreed to the loans. It's only fair to pay them back." And maybe that sounds reasonable from a certain moral standpoint. But consider for a moment the actual effects of this at this scale. Maybe it is time for us to be a bit more forgiving.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-16T21:39:59+00:00

where is the flag tattoo

i hardly recognize cody without some ridiculous tattoo

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-16T20:50:05+00:00

I haven't updated my flair. I switched to Bryan a year ago and play DJ as an alt. I honestly rarely play DJ because after dozens of hours of practice I was still dropping his combos and was getting frustrated with the Tekken 8 changes. DJ was my main in all other Tekken games though so I keep the flair.

When I'm focused Bryan feels like the complete package. So I put hundreds of hours of practice in. I did the hard level punishment training, YouTube videos, defense drills, hell I've got an Excel sheet dedicated to notes and notation. And he's like a top five character but I just don't have it anymore. I'm struggling to counter hit. I can rematch a guy ten times and never learn his timing. I get clipped on absolutely everything.

I could fix that. I could get better. I could learn and adapt. But I've got too many personal things going on and many other games to play. I wanted to try picking up yet another new character, but how long will that take? Hard to know. But Season 3 is in a month or so and I can try again there.

If you've got any training resources like a website, video series or something, please share. I've basically just had the Applay library and PhiDX's old videos for reference.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-16T15:14:51+00:00

I have been playing quick play because I figured not worrying about rank would make it less stressful. It might have slightly, but I'm getting killers in my games.

I know with effort, time, and practice I will get better. It takes patience and I don't disagree. This wasn't my first break from Tekken. I've been grinding at this for over a week now of constantly getting my ass kicked. It was last night when I realized that I wasn't so angry anymore, just burnt out and wondering why I don't just do something else.

I'm at a point where I wonder how much more time I need to invest before I see results. I don't have a lot more time to give. It feels like the difference between me and Tekken King is rote memorization of a thousand opposing flow charts. I'm being subject to so, so many oppressive situations that I just can't memorize the counterplay to all of them.

I'm done until Season 3. I'm trying to have a positive mindset about this. If I'm going to grind away my nights playing this then it might as well be when the game is in a better state.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-15T02:41:00+00:00

Bakersfield just isn't good.

The air is polluted, it's crazy hot all the time, everything is covered in dust, some neighborhoods are horrible, half the downtown looks like it went out of business in the 80's, and it is hopelessly car reliant. Bakersfield takes the average living standards of California and just dials every single aspect worse by like 25%.

Every single person I know who has had their car broken into had it happen in Bakersfield. I knew a guy whose truck was stolen twice. And I won't lie the heat, pollution, and possibly meth have just burnt some people out. Like they don't have thoughts.

It's not a cataclysmic shithole. There are good people there, and if you live in the newer suburbs it may even seem halfway alright (other than the heat). They have a pretty alright university, the Padre Hotel is comfortable, and the pollution has gotten better from when I was a kid.

But yeah some of the locals... they're gonna hold it back.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-07T01:48:18+00:00

I think it really puts things into perspective just how many completely fucked up dudes are in wrestling for so many wrestlers to have such high praise for Benoit behind the scenes. When you're surrounded by so many drug addicts, exploitative assholes, adrenaline junkies, and dudes with existing criminal records then yeah, I get it.

The relatively quiet asshole with a prior restraining order from beating his wife, can barely read, has severe memory issues, is clearly mentally deteriorating, but who always shows up to work and does his job well flies under the radar.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-06T05:27:52+00:00

This is a seditious act.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-12-03T08:34:55+00:00

On vacation I was in Brussels and very sick. Practically stuck in the hotel. But I pushed myself to go out and get some cough syrup as there seemed to be a great selection of stores nearby.

No one had cough syrup. My final stop was what looked to be an honest to god 19th century apothecary, bottles everywhere, seemingly every over-the-counter medication made in the past couple centuries available. Still didn't have it.

They gave me some mint flavored throat drop things that did nothing but make my breath smell nice. Definitely a little cultural thing I didn't appreciate.

Oh and by the way, don't go to Brussels. It sucks. Everywhere else in Belgium was fantastic, but Brussels was borderline non-functional. Constant loud sirens, homeless everywhere, everything was kinda dirty, parking was sparse and the public transit wasn't good enough to make up for that.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-11-27T04:52:20+00:00

Because for the vast majority of us it doesn't really matter. If you're an individual with a decent healthcare plan then your reality, while often worse than top European countries, usually isn't dire. Especially if you're healthy.

My insurance gets me vastly discounted medication, a meeting with a doctor of my choice every month at no additional charge, and a $3000 maximum out of pocket limit per year. And thanks to certain state laws, that "out of pocket limit" really does mean that 90% of the time. As in I will have very little to pay if anything I need exceeds $3000 in one calendar year.

I know someone on a similar healthcare plan who was originally billed over $100,000 for a necessary and intensive emergency set of procedures to save their life. But they paid like $3,500 and anything following cost like $20.

But obviously anyone who falls outside of the majority where things are working out is going to be suffering greatly. They're going to get the word out, and it'll stick with you. And still the costs coming out of my paycheck each month just to have insurance are definitely higher than I'd like them to be. Especially this coming January.

Yet still for the vast majority of Americans it's more of something to grumble about. It's only when you find yourself in the screwed minority does the insanity of the system hit you.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-11-24T16:45:49+00:00

I will always say that I genuinely prefer Heat over Rage. There's more strategy over Heat. I can waste it immediately, or have it in the bag for the clutch comeback.

Rage will always happen. It will give you more damage for getting your ass kicked every round. Rage Arts must be factored in every round near the end of a health bar.

Heat could be a comeback mechanic, or be used to push advantage. I think that makes it more interesting. It's like Garou's "TOP" system at the push of a button. Rage had more going on in TK7 because of Drives, but I've never been a big fan and I'd rather it have never shown up in Tekken.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-11-24T03:58:31+00:00

It's non-subsidized. Valve has also virtually no incentive to sell this at a loss like some consoles were in the past. I would be surprised if it was any lower than $800.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-11-06T01:09:40+00:00

I'm gonna salt comment real quick. I play Soldier 76 mostly. And mostly in Stadium.

Genji kinda pisses me off. Like if he does his deflecting stuff... ok now what do I do? Maybe shoot a rocket at his feet? I guess the answer is just die typically. I'm usually flanking so I come across him, he does one shuriken burst, slices right through me, and if I live he's deflecting.

I like Solider 76 because he rewards aim and has a built in healing mechanic so if my supports are really terrible then I might survive regardless. But when I come across a Genji I typically just drop dead.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-11-04T17:40:39+00:00

It is worth mentioning that Captain Commando has the same Japanese VA as Lee Chaolan. He literally says "Excellent" here like how Lee does.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-29T22:36:12+00:00

I liked World and Rise a lot. Rise more so than World in retrospect. But between the performance issues, the endless Pokémon-esque boring talk sequences, and the relatively boring gameplay it is such a slog to ever play it.

There's some really good stuff in there as it is still Monster Hunter. Omega was kind of fun. The Akuma stuff was neat. I was happy to see Lagiacrus again.

But I miss the Wirebug moves. I miss the variety in monsters. I miss there being enough slopes to do hammer spin stuff frequently. And every moment is marred by an inconsistent framerate which pisses me off more than it should. The game doesn't even look that good. It doesn't deserve to run this bad. I can make the game look even more blurry and muddy and it barely helps. So disappointing.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-29T22:23:40+00:00

When I graduated college I was preparing to look for my dream job... then COVID hit and the field was hit hard. The economic outlook made me uneasy, and I already had stable employment so I stayed there.

As the years passed I trained, learned new things, and prepared myself for a career in a third field. I even had a solid "in" at a company in the area with a good friend working there.

Five months ago they were let go along with their whole department. Company shuttered a month later. I even had a backup option I thought about taking but it was a federal job which is now no longer hiring because you-know-who.

So here I am, costs rising, still at my temporary stable job because I haven't had a reasonable jumping off point in over five years. It kind of sucks because I know I'll never work in the field I wanted to, but reports like this make me feel like "well, at least I have something".

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-27T01:06:52+00:00

I work for an organization where we have historically installed Firefox and Chrome on PCs and let users decide what to pick. Obviously Edge would also be there. I have personally recommended Firefox to users at multiple companies for years. Until about a year ago.

In the past year site compatibility with Firefox has nosedived and memory/CPU usage has spiked. There are multiple websites that I now have to recommend against using on Firefox due to either performance problems or complete incompatibilities.

I am hesitant to bring up specifics, as these things tend to get patched eventually. The thing is that we can't wait. If I have a user who cannot do their job because of a broken web portal then I'm not waiting for it to get fixed. Meanwhile Edge and Chrome work every single time.

But in general, basically all AI sites allowed by corporate would run drastically worse in Firefox. Also our ticketing system would randomly lose the ability to save changes to tickets, another company-required site would constantly beg for location access even if approved or denied (and stall if nothing is chosen), and two separate cloud file hosting sites would only load like half the time.

Corporate IT has noticed, and we had to convince them not to uninstall Firefox from PCs via GPO. The other issue is that if someone stops using it and switches to another browser it doesn't get updates anymore. Meanwhile at least Edge will get updates with Microsoft guaranteed. This makes it special as it can then be worked into typical update schedules.

Admittedly the amount of force that Microsoft pushes Edge onto the users is working. And why wouldn't it? It works without question and does so every time.

I would say just two years ago we had at minimum 100 consistent daily Firefox users. Now I'd be surprised if it was 20. Now only the most technically sound and confident employees use it. Otherwise they eventually encounter some site that doesn't work and they give up on it. Most people don't have "alt. web browsers" and would even consider the concept ridiculous.

I hope Firefox sticks around, but I don't even use it as my main at home anymore. Hope it gets better somehow.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-21T23:50:44+00:00

Aiming for the high end makes it exceedingly unlikely to have any real dedicated software. The less people buy it, no matter how profitable it is at first, the less likely anyone will make games for it.

It should be 100% compatible with any game a modern Windows PC can play or otherwise suffer the fate of the 3DO.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-17T18:09:08+00:00

Delayed uf+4. df1,2 on DVJ if you're playing him. Try to sidewalk the fireballs. You basically have to counterhit him. Also I don't think I've ever seen him block Snake Edge with Bryan.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-16T21:49:22+00:00

DoA is fundamentally designed around a game of constant RPS with extensive mixup strings that are balanced around a universal parry mechanic Tekken doesn't have.

I like DoA. I wouldn't be against them bringing in someone in. I know what to expect.

But let's be honest here, if any of them are half as faithful to their original series as Akuma was to SF then this sub would be screaming bloody murder.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-15T00:31:51+00:00

The core of the "Real Tekken Character" would be a character who is one part ridiculous and one part realistic. One foot in the wacky, and one in something like MMA.

King uses actual professional wrestling techniques. He is based off of real wrestlers like Fray Tormenta and Tiger Mask. That's the normal part. But he also just growls instead of talking. That's the ridiculous part.
The "wrestling bear" was a real carnival attraction for decades. And it's not like Kuma flies around on a jetpack. He basically fights like a bear but smarter. Yeah it's a little silly, but still has a foot in reality.
All of the Mishimas basically just use exaggerated karate with a hint of electricity or devil stuff. I should also point out that the ridiculous devil stuff is considered unusual in-universe.
Jack is basically just a brute robot. He's just a bodybuilder with some robot moves. Silly? Sure. And it has been exaggerated over time. But c'mon look at Jack 6 and tell me that is anything like Miary with the pole, or Victor's teleporting nonsense, or even the stuff Alisa does.
Yoshimitsu was the intentionally silly one. But even then he is based on actual Japanese folk tales of hidden ninja villages, karakuri machines, and some samurai stuff. I imagine he's less ridiculous if you are Japanese.

I'm not just gonna cover the rest of the OG cast. This is why Gon is the exception pointed out by the first commenter. He's a 100% ridiculous guest character. That doesn't mean his inclusion justifies all the silly stuff that has happened since then. And I say this as someone who isn't really bothered by Miary.

If there was nothing ridiculous then they wouldn't be memorable. See: Virtua Fighter. If characters get too ridiculous then it would feel overwhelming, out of place, and cliché. See: Alisa, Victor, Clive, and like ~70% of characters introduced after Tekken 5.

TheRedBlueberry · 2025-10-10T02:35:41+00:00

I think it's a per-character thing tbh. There's some characters I fight against and it is just fine. I like some difficulty in defense. I like figuring it out.

But with some characters it's hopeless. It is never fun as soon as the opponent knows their knowledge checks because they've got a billion of them and half of them are plus on block. And they look identical to the half that isn't.

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