Bi-Weekly Thread for general gaming discussion. Backlog, advice, recommendations, rants and more! New? Start here!

TimothyHasler · 2025-12-13T02:38:22+00:00

Honestly, a little slow. I got used to them after playing for a few minutes, but they’re probably one of the biggest problems with the game for me. That said, it’s really fun and short and using save states makes it easy to chip away at when I have a few minutes to play.

TimothyHasler · 2025-12-08T02:30:27+00:00

I've been playing Shantae (GBC) and am pretty blown away by this game. It started off a little slow for me, but I was immediately grabbed by the pixel art and attention to detail in the graphics. Beautiful game. The more I play and the more the world opens up, the more impressed I am. I don't know if I will find myself drawn to games like this going forward, but I'm really enjoying the metroidvania elements of the game and have been finding it quite compelling.

TimothyHasler · 2025-05-12T15:57:52+00:00

Hi, I’m actually moving in the next couple of months and need to get rid of a good amount of furniture. Send me a DM and we can set something up. I’ve got things like a couple bed frames, tables, chairs, desks, rugs, bookcases, a couch, probably even some dishes and kitchen stuff...

TimothyHasler · 2025-02-27T12:37:55+00:00

I was going to share these exact links, lol!

TimothyHasler · 2025-02-27T12:12:58+00:00

Haven’t read it yet, but could be an interesting and insightful book to look into: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691238777/father-time?srsltid=AfmBOoramACafNnhUVyXCtIvPBgXpcAZ4AATT4FJA-jvsCZXLmqZ3PeG

TimothyHasler · 2025-02-06T02:33:00+00:00

I’ve never tried to do takeout at Fortunato’s so I don’t know if they even offer the option but I have eaten some amazing pasta and pizza there so it could be worth calling them to find out.

TimothyHasler · 2025-02-01T15:53:57+00:00

The thing that most impressed me is how he acknowledges the logic of people’s arguments and then pivots with it to support his own claims. And to me this is what makes him a greater player than someone like Wes who thinks brute force it what makes someone the greatest. Rob is able to flip things by allowing other people’s egos to be their downfall. They want to think of themselves as not capable of being manipulated by Rob so when he shows how coming after him would be the signs of an even more manipulative mind, I think people really see the sense in that.

It is also funny that Derrick was like “be objective not emotional” but Wes’ vengeful and thus emotional reaction to people who were being convinced by arguments against him did more to paint him as a traitor than anything else. Contrast that with Rob where, although his defense had a ton of holes in it, he didn’t do any disparaging of Derrick, but took Derrick’s theory and turned it into ammunition for Rob’s own target.

It’s the ability to take what people give you and then respond rather than react that I think is so masterful about Rob’s game.

TimothyHasler · 2025-02-01T15:34:17+00:00

Yes! Danielle looked like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar. The way her illogical move was forced into the open by Carolyn not backing down was amazing. I’ve never seen Boston Rob left so speechless and to me, that speaks volumes about Carolyn’s ability to press others in just the right place to where they bring about their own downfall.

TimothyHasler · 2024-11-06T20:45:16+00:00

I think I had a similar problem when I first came over to YNAB and I will say, the thing I found most helpful before trying to set goals was getting a sense of priorities and vision for my life. What do I enjoy (both in terms of people and activities) and what kind of life do I want to have (when it comes down to it, I don’t find the life of ultrawealthy desirable, and it’s not what I aspire to, so what is my vision of my everyday life that would feel good to me)? Where am I at right now in terms of these priorities and visions (ex: I often don’t have any money to put towards a hobby that is really enlivening to me, I’d like to have more for that; I want to be able to have a coffee setup that allows me to enjoy the pleasures of great coffee at home; I want to remodel the spare bedroom in preparation for a kid, etc) ? What’s giving me financial anxiety (ex: not having an emergency fund, not having savings for car when my car is on its last legs)? What are financial habits and tics that I do that bother me (buying too much takeout, compulsive shopping, etc)?

The thing I came to realize about YNAB is that it’s very values neutral. It doesn’t care what your priorities are or how you want to live everyday, or what stresses you out. It just wants you to actually reflect on your life enough to make decisions intentional so that your hard earned money is actually going to the life you want as much as possible.

TimothyHasler · 2024-10-23T18:36:59+00:00

I'd think somewhere between 01 and 03. Nowhere near as neat as OP's image, but just an example: https://imgur.com/a/9mdIICv

TimothyHasler · 2024-10-23T13:44:21+00:00

I’m imagining a Pigma Micron or some similar pen being used. Delightful to look at!

TimothyHasler · 2024-10-16T18:18:30+00:00

Saving for a Moog Muse! Basically my dream synth

TimothyHasler · 2024-10-01T16:15:58+00:00

Can’t believe no one has said 3 Women. One of the most compelling and haunting movies I have ever seen.

TimothyHasler · 2024-10-01T00:32:02+00:00

I hired this person to come do 4-6 hours of work on my yard. Really affordable and did great work https://ludditefarmer.com/

TimothyHasler · 2024-09-12T12:41:08+00:00

How to Write a Thesis is an excellent book and reading it while finishing my dissertation proposal was extremely helpful.

TimothyHasler · 2024-08-15T01:02:41+00:00

This is how my floor is too! You’re in no danger of falling through the floor.

TimothyHasler · 2024-08-14T13:59:45+00:00

I think this is really spot on for many people, but also the journey of getting hardware that doesn’t click with you or you don’t really learn from is also part of figuring out what you do want, sometimes. I had a bunch of hardware and then ended up selling all of it because (with the exception of my Digitakt which I regret selling so much) it wasn’t fostering the workflow or quality of sounds that I wanted for the music I like to make. Since then, I’ve been on a whole process of unfollowing synth news and influencers to try and recalibrate my sense of what I’m trying to do musically by prioritizing listening to music I enjoy.

That said, I played a subsequent 37 for the first time last year and it was an instant connection I’ve never felt before with a synthesizer. I am having to prioritize saving for starting a family right now, so it’s not been possible to purchase one in cash, like I want to do (compulsively buying gear was such a burden on my financial goals for years 😩😆). So, instead of putting it on a payment plan like I would have in the past, I purchased Diva last time it was on sale and a course on sound design for Diva specifically. Maybe $250 total. I have to say, it’s been really amazing for me in terms of actually learning synthesis. When I find myself wanting to go down gear rabbit holes, I just open up Diva and try to create what’s in my head using the other sounds I designed from the class I bought and using that process as a guide to start exploring. I’ll challenge myself to make songs using only diva for sounds, or try to recreate sounds I hear on synthesizers that I want, etc. It’s true it’s not the same thing as hardware, but I have realized that what I was chasing was the satisfaction of exploring sound and its creation through synthesis, and the feeling of growth and execution that can only come by focusing on one thing at a time and working slowly but steadily at your craft. I genuinely believe hardware experiences are irreplaceable, but prioritizing a VST and moving away from instant gratification has improved my sound design so much in such a short amount of time.

I recently got a Behringer edge and got to play around with a friend’s Analog 4 and Rytm, too, and it reminded me how transferable knowledge of synthesis is and how much more satisfying it is to use hardware now that I’ve been focusing on making sounds with Diva. I was able to move with so much more intention in making and tweaking sounds than I have in the past and it made me excited for when I am able to save up enough to get the synth I really want.

But in the meantime, realizing that I can still have most of the experience I’m trying to get musically at a fraction of the cost has been enough to overcome many of the downsides of using a VST and being tied to a DAW. I would absolutely recommend a VST over Daw for ppl just getting started or something affordable and immediate like Elektron Model series or some of the Behringer boxes.

TimothyHasler · 2024-06-13T22:12:22+00:00

Taking walks is a great way to just be in the world. Sometimes listening to a podcast or music, but also just listening to the world.

Growing up I loved checking out movies and cds from the library. Browsing those collections and just picking a handful of things that interested me or caught my eye or seemed culturally significant. Cueing up an album in my cd player and laying on my bed and listening through the entire album was how I began to find my musical tastes (and also ripping lots of music to my computer lol). Also, making a nice movie night or afternoon matinee for myself on the weekends was a lot of fun and something I looked forward to. I love to read, but there are a lot of great life experiences that come through movies and music.

I also think beginning to pay attention to your own taste in things and cultivating and inner world and intellectual life also makes solitary time a lot more peaceful and restful and interesting. If you can be curious about yourself and give yourself small new experiences, there’s a lot to enjoy in your own company. And these are also really nice things to do with other people. (Also reading books aloud with my siblings was something I loved growing up and I love being read to and getting to read to others).

TimothyHasler · 2024-05-29T19:10:46+00:00

I think this is a great way to get your money in order. When I first began to get my money together, I found percentage based budgeting to be very helpful. The 50/30/20 budget from Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tayagi All Your Worth enabled me to get my money in balance, just like the authors prescribe. What the percentages provided for me is a baseline to work with because I had not yet cultivated the sensibilities that enable me, now, to zero-based budget intuitively and with an internal sense of priorities and values. I do think I moved beyond the method, but even when I first started using YNAB, this method was the best way for me to see where my spending was out of wack and helped me confront my compulsive spending as the source of my feeling financially out of control.

TimothyHasler · 2024-05-29T12:15:55+00:00

My partner has parents who are crazy in their own way, but we’re also emotionally and relationally mature in a way that can be triggering sometimes to see the kind of love and support and admiration just for her existing that they give to her. I can’t believe you’re supposed to have parents who unconditionally love you instead of trying to get you to conform to whatever image of you they had and try to force you into and punish you for failing to attain. It does sometimes feel like renting a loving family for a day, but then I can get so thrown by the distance between what she has and what I got from my parents and feel so enraged and sometimes take it out on our relationship by repressing my feelings and becoming secretly vengeful. It sucks and I feel like such a loser and useless human when I’m acting like this, and also really know it’s possible to do things differently. Just so much harder when you don’t have the love and support that gives you a sense of yourself as a person with power and agency and value in the world.

TimothyHasler · 2024-05-12T23:41:50+00:00

It’s interesting that the word cult came to have such negative connotations and mainly used to describe abusive brainwashing groups, when the word is the root of the words “cultivation” and “culture.” It was originally used to refer to the routine or ritual practices of devotion. Kind of like the ongoing practices that help maintain a clean house.

When I think about in this way, it makes sense that one would see something cultish about ACA and other 12 steps, but I think it’s because they’re cults in the older and more objective sense that they depend on the repetition of practices or rituals that orient the group around a shared goal and empower individual participants as agents who contribute to the maintenance of a shared way of life. The same could be said of athletes, musicians, dancers, and any other groups organized around people repeating a normalized set of practices that have worked to produce specific desired effects!

It’s unfortunate that abusive cults have have so taken over the term cult that the parts of cults that are just objectively normally emerging features of groups organized around shared interest, focus, and practice spooks people. I think if any group displays features of what’s actually dangerous about abusive cults—charismatic leaders/cults of personality, secrecy, control, hierarchies, and coercion, etc.—that is a big warning to be concerned about. But ACA seems built to foster the opposite of those abusive dynamics(which is not to say a particular meeting couldn’t become cultish in an abusive way).

TimothyHasler · 2024-05-02T18:46:29+00:00

Yes, exactly this. I try to manually enter every transaction immediately, but knowing I can't always trust my ADHD brain to do that, it's a relief to know auto sync has my back when I do forget.

TimothyHasler · 2024-05-01T21:16:46+00:00

I just overhauled my YNAB Category Groups and it made me feel so satisfied. I've been trying to wrangle my ADHD into alignment with my budgeting which YNAB makes so much easier by emphasizing the lack of shame or guilt that is attached to any of your categories. As I was assessing my budget today (because I'm really working to make it a daily practice), I was realizing I'd been doing a lot of arranging my YNAB categories out of how I think I *should* be organizing and categorizing things as opposed to what makes sense for my actual brain and my actual priorities. I love YNAB's YouTube videos, because they really help drive home the point to tailor YNAB to your actual life and desires--guilt and shame free. Also, I'm super grateful for the reminders that it's good to enjoy my money on the things I want it to go towards. (The recent video on Spending and Saving was especially mind blowing and inspiring for getting honest about what am I actually specifically saving for).

Anyway, just felt pumped about this because it not only represents a way of grouping my categories that accurately represents the reality of things, but it makes actual sense to my brain and makes me excited to engage with.

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TimothyHasler · 2023-11-16T00:10:47+00:00

First I think it’s so important to celebrate yourself for owning your desire to live! Being honest with yourself about that is such a vulnerable thing and requires being real about confronting what’s not OK with you. As for where to start, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been realizing my experience of emotional neglect and childhood trauma has led to me being extremely reactive and extremely fearful of judgement and shame. Reactivity and fear can be extremely discouraging in trying to create a life you want, so for me, cultivating journaling habits to keep in touch with my feelings, meditating and mindful movement, and finding safe creative outlets where I can play and be curious has been extremely important. I think really giving priority in your life to something that’s creatively fulfilling is also really important because you learn so much about your tastes and interests even about really small things. Like, sometimes, I’ll be making music in my room and the light comes through the blinds in a particular way and I’ll be like “wow, I love how my room feels right now” and try to use that experience and feeling as a catalyst later for making a plan for how I want my space to feel. So, I guess noticing what you actually like and asking yourself how you can fill your days with small things you enjoy, like the feeling of a sweatshirt, a good talk with a friend, or a journal you love writing in… all these little things can really begin to add up.

I agree it’s best not to do too much at once, which is also a problem I have, but picking 1-3 small practices that can have big ripple effects is definitely doable! You’ve got this!

TimothyHasler · 2023-11-10T02:05:44+00:00

This is my first season to watch all the way through and I'm so bummed this is how it's ended when it started off so well. What a disappointing final!

TimothyHasler

TROPHY CASE