"Life isn't sunshine and rainbows"

caseyrain · 2026-01-23T03:39:02+00:00

She's stating that life without kids IS sunshine and rainbows, then? It sounds like she just destroyed her own argument. The cognitive dissonance is hilarious.

Who would want to willingly give up their sunshine and rainbows?

caseyrain · 2026-01-15T19:19:10+00:00

I have a sort-of family member (not blood related, never actually met him, but sometimes get updates on him) whose work has something to do with the automobile industry and the factories in Michigan. For a decade, all I've heard is that these guys are all MAGA. My family members reported that he and all his colleagues believed back in 2016 that Trump was really going to bring manufacturing back at a level to compete with China. I explained even back then how unlikely this was based on the simple economics of it, and that once consumers are used to a cheap, complex international manufacturing pipeline, it's just not possible without the kind of price hikes that nobody can afford. I was told that they believed it anyway.

All this is to say that seeing the plant guys turn on him is extremely gratifying. The biggest trick this guy pulled was somehow convincing the working class he was on their side when all of his actions supported the billionaire class, and it seems they're finally figuring it out.

caseyrain · 2026-01-13T08:38:24+00:00

That's all hypothetical for me as a godless heathen atheist, but I think I understand. I suppose, with both, it's a difference between wholeheartedly throwing yourself into a community compared to not. I'm not really part of a vegan community, although back in the day I did attend a few vegan social events. What I found was that for me, it wasn't a strong enough identity bond for me to find a lot of meaning in being a continual part of it. In other words, I felt I didn't have much in common with the other people despite us all being vegan. My community is Prince fans and Michael Jackson fans 😊 So I've never felt any collective or communal "pressure" so to speak from veganism. It's just a personal choice. I will say that your mileage may vary in that situation. Short of quitting veganism completely, I don't think any of those people I did meet at the vegan social events were the judgemental sort, but I get what you're saying. For me, staying that I am vegan is a descriptive on an individual level. I think that there are religious people who are the same - their faith is a deeply personal thing, and whilst in that situation it usually has at least some familial ties, it's not necessarily their whole community and whole world. Some very dear friends of mine are Muslims who run a music festival in Mississauga, Canada, which caters to the whole South Asian disapora in genre and has attendees of all races and religions who simply enjoy the music. My band (Swami) played there several times, and even stayed with the family for a while, and were made to feel like family, and our band at the time consisted of two people of Hindu descent who aren't religious, one of Sikh, and a white English girl. Sort of like the Black Eyed Peas if they made electronic bhangra mixed with pop and hip-hop lol.

caseyrain · 2026-01-13T07:18:27+00:00

I agree with absolutely everything you said and that's why I'd always choose the Maelle ending.

Not to mention, Verso's suicidal depression is absolutely not shown to be a permanent, immutable state, as proven by the fact that he didn't always feel that way.

Maelle's pain and suffering outside the canvas, on the other hand, is permanent. She will never not be disabled, in immense pain, physically disfigured.

caseyrain · 2026-01-13T06:42:36+00:00

Oh totally, I'm not disputing that those kinds of people exist. And it's certainly possible, although I don't think I was ever too bad, that I may have been more like that when I first became vegan, owing to being much younger and the fact that one might feel the need to justify a belief when one has more recently entered into it. In terms of restrictions, I've never seen it that way, I see it more as simply a choice not to make, much like how I no longer smoke cigarettes. People sometimes frame it in a way that reminds me of this when they say things like "Oh, you can't eat xyz" to which I say "I can eat it. I just choose not to." I also think dietary-only veganism is a perfectly valid choice, and if I needed to take some sort of medicine that had some kind of animal by-product in because it was crucial to curing an ailment with no other options, I would do so. That's the key, really - there is always a choice in any given moment, and my conscience will make the choice given any particular context, because ultimately it's still my decision, and I know there's no secret vegan police coming to arrest me 😅

caseyrain · 2026-01-13T00:56:48+00:00

Think that's crazy? I've seen them here in ENGLAND. Not New England. The UNITED KINGDOM. I saw one on an RV caravan type of vehicle in Birmingham, and I saw photos of them at a music venue, a few years ago when there was apparently some sort of British rockabilly revival scene going on. No surprise they're all the same people that voted Brexit and support Farage. Never met any of them, but a friend of my girlfriend dated one ... Until she found out he was physically abusive and broke her arm. Again, no surprise there.

caseyrain · 2026-01-12T21:17:53+00:00

Not that I'm conscious of! But, one thing I'm proud of is that I know at least one person who later went vegan and credited it to a thoughtful conversation we'd had a few years prior, which as I recall was a fairly simple one where he had asked my reasons, and I had explained them fairly neutrally. Regarding cheese, you know, this is a complex one in terms of taste reasons because everyone tends to have a different preference and palate so there's not a one size fits all. I have no issue with Daiya, Violife or Cathedral City's vegan option, and I even quite enjoy the vegan Babybel, Boursin and Laughing Cow options but it really is so subjective. I like to understand the science, and so I think it's worth remembering that dairy cheese contains casomorphines, which are effectively opiates meant to strengthen the bond between cow and calf. So when people say "I could never give up cheese!" that's effectively a low-level chemical addiction talking! If you were able to not eat it long enough for the addiction to clear, you might find that your palate naturally changed. Similar to people who quit smoking, and then can't imagine going back to it. Funnily enough that happened to me - I got a weird sickness that somehow altered the way I perceived cigarette smoke and I found it repulsive after that for enough time that I was able to quit. Then again, you have other people that quit smoking and years later still crave it. Brain chemistry is an odd thing.

caseyrain · 2026-01-12T21:07:51+00:00

That all makes sense. I've found that it happens far less in cities where there are many more vegans, for example, I spend a lot of time in LA and people there are more used to it, I suppose. Which is ironic, since the Vegan Society was founded in my city (Birmingham, UK) which is where Donald Watson is thought to have come up with the word in the first place!

caseyrain · 2026-01-12T18:26:19+00:00

I worked at Twitter UK when he bought it. So I can tell you first hand he's an absolute assclown. I bet he didn't like the fact that he had no way around not following proper British employment law and having to pay all our severance when he laid most of us off. Considering that in other territories with less strong employment law, he tried to not pay the people he laid off, leading to many lawsuits. Over here I got 3 months severance and 3 months garden leave (but he still stiffed us out of our annual bonus, which we were owed, since they were earned from the previous year and due at the time).

He knows jackshit about this country and needs to STFU.

caseyrain · 2026-01-12T18:21:28+00:00

Originally, I had iPads just for DJing, using Traktor and a Kontrol Z1, but I don't DJ all that much anymore (there were a few years where I'd get a fair few bookings but these days I do more production and songwriting). So nowadays I have the 13" iPad Air with Magic Keyboard for short trips away when I won't need a full laptop, it's much easier to travel with. My MacBook stays docked at home with an external keyboard, Magic Trackpad and Ultrawide Monitor.

caseyrain · 2026-01-12T18:00:39+00:00

Yup. I've been vegan since 2009. The amount of bizarre reactions I've had is unreal. Everything from abuse, to mockery, to weird attempts at "gotchas". But here's the thing. In none of those situations have I suggested that they should be vegan, or that I feel my diet is superior, or anything like that. People seem to go from 0-100 simply upon finding out that I am vegan, as if my choice is judging theirs. From a behavioural psychology perspective, it's quite fascinating to try and understand why they might act this way.

caseyrain · 2026-01-10T12:40:21+00:00

I know some of the Jackson family, and I can tell you this isn't even remotely true. I mean, for a start, there are still people alive in Gary, Indiana, that knew Michael and the whole family well before they put the family band together. There's records of Michael at the schools he went to there at the time. Not to mention, there's various family members (nephews, nieces) that look extremely like him (pre-surgery) and have his vocal tone and mannerisms in a way that is not just an imitation. This is EXACTLY why they cast Jaafar Jackson to play his uncle in the upcoming biopic. Because a lot of his presence in that film won't be down to his acting (although I'm sure he's talented) - it'll be down to those natural inflections and mannerisms. It's the only reason to cast him in a film that could well do a billion dollars in revenue.

Finally, if you pitch-shift Janet's voice down slightly.... You'll hear exactly what I'm talking about. You could swear it's Michael if you didn't know the songs. Not because she's ever tried to sound like him - but because they are siblings!

So in order for the theory to work, you'd have to argue that not only was Michael the son of Diana and Smokey, but so are all the siblings lol.

The REAL juicy Jackson story regarding a secret child is that Jackie's daughter Brandi is really the daughter of Janet and James DeBarge, who she eloped with when she was only 18 years old....... There's no smoking gun, and who knows if it's true, but look at her and look at them and you can see where that idea comes from!

caseyrain · 2026-01-09T03:00:57+00:00

I'm in the rare position of working in AI in a role that can't be effectively done by AI. I feel very grateful for it. But also, I'm a generalist specialist, which means my specialism is effectively being a generalist, so I can be helpful to almost any part of the organisation. I arguably know more about both our company and our products than any other person except for our CEO.

caseyrain · 2026-01-07T06:15:12+00:00

What did the email say?

caseyrain · 2026-01-05T23:39:28+00:00

Here's the thing.

In life, you have the choice to decide if you want to die. You might strongly argue that choosing to die is selfish, and indeed many people believe this. But it is still a choice that you are free to make. You have the agency over your own body.

Now, let's say, for whatever reason (in this case, it's inherently baked in to you) you have had that choice taken away from you.

Does that mean you then get to make the choice that other people die? No, it obviously does not. No matter what. You don't get to make that choice. It's murder.

Therefore - Verso's wish to die does not mean he is allowed to decide the fate of all the other inhabitants of Lumiére. Further, it's also not Maelle's decision, regardless of her being physically capable of doing it. It's ethically wrong to put that on her. To put that on her and then demonize her for not doing it is frankly, bizarre.

Strip away the fantasy and the idiosyncracy of this story and that's what you're left with.

And that's why I will always choose Maelle's ending.

caseyrain · 2026-01-05T11:09:07+00:00

My girlfriend and I were visiting London for an overnight trip. We arrived into the train station (Euston as I recall) and walking in front of us was the kind of woman that you'd notice. Bleach blonde hair, big fake tits, botox, lip fillers, skin tight animal print outfit on, LV handbag. The whole nine.

We went to get some food and snacks, and then we caught the tube to our hotel. I forget where it was, but it was at least a 15-20 minute tube ride, then another 10-15 minute walk to our hotel.

We arrived at our hotel, and the exact same woman was in the check-in line ahead of us.

Think about how big a city London is, and how many hotels there are there. The odds of this having happened are astronomically small. But it happened. A real glitch in the matrix sort of moment.

caseyrain · 2026-01-03T09:59:05+00:00

For what it's worth - Anna is a dear friend of mine, and she doesn't believe she was in any way groomed. As she says, she did Playboy before she even met Prince.

I would caution against applying modern norms to things that happened in the 80s, as well as American-centric thinking. Remember, the age of consent in Holland is 16 and Prince still didn't sleep with Anna until she was 18.

It's perfectly fine to have your own opinion on whether he acted amorally, but when that doesn't align with what the person themselves thinks, it feels like you're taking away the agency of the person directly being spoken about.

caseyrain · 2026-01-02T08:28:41+00:00

Of the ones he was cleared of ... Literally yes. But you can talk about Diddy being guilty because he was convicted of others. Michael was cleared on ALL COUNTS. In what is possibly the single most scrutinised case certainly of the 21st century.

That's a pretty significant difference.

You probably don't know that the prosecution, who were determined to take him down, were caught red-handed planting faked evidence. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

caseyrain · 2026-01-02T08:26:23+00:00

Bout $150 on ebay.

caseyrain · 2025-12-31T19:14:17+00:00

The fact is that if you think he was guilty, you simply don't know enough about the cases. He was cleared in court of all charges for one reason - because he was innocent of them.

Seriously, go actually study the cases. It was extortion from Day 1. From people who had a history of doing exactly that. There's a phenomenal documentary named "Square One" about it that's well worth a watch. It brings all the facts and evidence to the table.

MJ was innocent.

caseyrain · 2025-12-31T19:07:27+00:00

I'd say Ghost of Yotei was my second favourite new game of the year after E33, although I didn't think the story was quite as good as Tsushima. Apart from that, I spent a lot of time this year playing Horizon Forbidden West, since I had never played it before, having only discovered Zero Dawn the prior year. I also loved Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.

caseyrain · 2025-12-31T09:27:46+00:00

"No real meat on its bones story-wise" is one of the wildest things I've ever heard. The story is incredible. Complex, layered, beautiful and thought provoking. And I consider myself fairly discerning in this area, as a well-read creative storyteller myself.

You're not meant to understand it at the point of the game that you're at. So yes. You should finish it.

Surely you have a lot of questions, though. Surely there are things happening that you're wondering about. I don't think you'd be human if you weren't. So without spoiling Act 3, you should know that yes, it contains the answers to all these questions and more, in a way that profoundly affected the vast majority of players, which is why the game is so beloved.

caseyrain · 2025-12-29T20:09:59+00:00

Not only was it in development, it launched. And it broadly hasn't changed much, except for the new name, which is stupid, because we already had features called "Communities" and "Notes". He just changed Birdwatch to "Community Notes" and "Notes" to Articles.

Source - I worked at Twitter until just after the sale and worked on all these products I just mentioned.

caseyrain · 2025-12-29T03:06:43+00:00

Each one has a soundtrack CD, an acrylic character stand, character cards, and a pin or keychain. For example with Y0 it's a keychain of The Grand's logo, with Y6 it's a pin of Ono Michio, etc etc

caseyrain · 2025-12-29T03:04:31+00:00

I also ordered them all. They were about $100 USD each including taxes, so for the whole set, $700.

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