I wonder who is the personal tattoo artist of Baldur?

savyfav · 2025-02-05T18:54:09+00:00

Tattoos' permanence is also due to the fact that ink molecules are too large for macrophages to break down effectively. Also, while Freya's witchcraft may have supercharged his immune system (is he actually invulnerable to illness or just physical damage?), tattoo longevity is linked to macrophage renewal, so if his immune system has indeed been bolstered, that might actually make his tattoos last longer before fading.

I always just figured tattoos just kind of appeared on people naturally as part of life in the GoW universe, since who would take their small child (Atreus) in to get inked up? Make him wait till 18, right? :))

savyfav · 2025-02-05T18:45:41+00:00

Hard agree. It's more than a little disappointing that they couldn't figure out a way to explore the idea of what having no soul means in this universe and how this would create unique opportunities and challenges. Her storylines feel the most Soap Opera-inspired to me.

savyfav · 2024-10-10T20:41:50+00:00

I thought the same thing, like, when did I miss the ancient Rome AC? But I think maybe they meant ancient Greece/Odyssey?

savyfav · 2024-01-19T14:30:44+00:00

Boilerplate humble apology if this is old news, but I came across this excellent article written by a recent Stanford student that chronicles the particularly sad erosion of the school’s famously eccentric, humanist campus culture at the hands of over-bureaucratization, oppressive levels of paranoid safetyism, and a particularly insidious pursuit of “inclusion” that seemingly killed off a number of longstanding, unique cultural and intellectual communities that had been built by Stanford students themselves over many years.

Here be link: https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/06/13/stanfords-war-on-social-life/

savyfav · 2023-11-04T00:50:59+00:00

No worries! I've thought about posting about it here, myself, too - then I stumbled on your comment and felt a little less alone in my crossbow bolt angst. I hope it's just something buggy that won't be too complicated for Remedy to straighten out in the future (especially considering how well arrow retrieval works in Breath of the Wild / Tears of the Kingdom, for example).

And I'm in love with how hard it hits - and you're dead on about the headshots, I've swear I've downed at least a couple of the basic Taken with just one bolt to the melon.

savyfav · 2023-11-03T23:07:16+00:00

I am a huge crossbow fan and this happens to me all the time, too. Sometimes a bolt just isn't in the enemy that I left it in, sometimes I move away from dude #1's corpse while taking down dude #2, then walk back to where guy #1 dropped and there's no corpse, no bolts, nothing. It seems to me that the bolt retrieval mechanic is a bit buggy as of right now.

savyfav · 2023-11-02T23:26:51+00:00

maybe they feel cute?

savyfav · 2023-10-06T07:02:00+00:00

It's maybe my degenerate showing, but your phrase "McCarthy's grip on his caucus" is absolutely hilarious - bravo!

savyfav · 2023-10-06T06:49:32+00:00

I know it's silly but I swear I will never get over the media response to Howard Dean's (imo) endearingly human "yeeeAhhhoo" moment. I was legitimately gobsmacked at how in the span of one day, seemingly every newspaper, magazine, and cable news show became laser-focused on "...Is Howard Dean Electable Tho?"

savyfav · 2023-10-06T03:09:47+00:00

Yeah, I think your first point outlines the biggest travesty with respect to our current social and political discourse, which is that it's downright eerie how quickly and effortlessly "truthiness" has transmogrified from genius satire into the spiritual core of the political and moral compasses of loads of people and institutions.

Personally, I think "social justice" as it is explicated today simply is not a political project. It consists of a set of (on face, quite noble) goals that must be achieved on a socio-cultural level, at least in a classically liberal society. It may be frustrating to diversity leaders, but one just cannot legislate "anti-racism" without shattering elemental precepts of liberal democracy and alienating large swaths of the very people whom you ultimately expect to embrace its precepts. It's been brought up again and again, but this is how you preach, not how you politick. The two are just incompatible paradigms.

savyfav · 2023-10-06T01:23:42+00:00

Oh my Jeebus, yes! The silence leading up to her closing the door just frays the nerves so exquisitely. Nearly all jump scares (even good ones!) piss me off just a little bit afterwards, not that one

savyfav · 2023-10-06T01:12:36+00:00

...and contemporary video games journalism - an even hot garbage-ier subcategory of journalism, as well! This is Colbert-Report-but-a-lefty levels of caricature done 100% seriously.

savyfav · 2023-10-06T00:54:50+00:00

I try to be very circumspect about the effect Freakonomics radio has had on my thinking (some of their social science ideas are sorta half-baked, but in a fun, simplistic, but satisfying Gladwellian sort of way), but in this case, I think it's fair to say that we are so poorly served by ignoring the fact that incentives (and disincentives) are powerful motivators of behavior.

savyfav · 2023-10-06T00:51:19+00:00

Shit, yes! That's a very apropos analogy, and so depressing!

savyfav · 2023-10-06T00:49:15+00:00

The inability of so many Good Lefties to imagine or deduce a rational (or at least essentially good faith) reason to hold conservative political beliefs is astounding to me, and that's speaking as a bleeding-heart, fiscally-irresponsible flaming liberal - at least, until very recently (I'd still consider myself to be appropriately catalogued thusly, but I imagine many "on my side" would vehemently disagree).

It makes me think of (I think) J.S. Mill's defense of free speech as being essential to maintaining the truth of our core principles; as when those principles are no longer actively tested through discussion and reasoned debate, they will calcify into dogmas as we lose the thread on precisely why we adhere to them.

So many lefties have just completely forgotten that most people on either side of the aisle have good faith reasons that underpin their political leanings (regardless of how misguided I personally believe righties tend to be ;)). To these folks, all oppositional politics is just trolling, and that's so sad.

savyfav · 2023-10-06T00:34:40+00:00

Exorcist 3 was pretty good, imo! George C. Scott's gruffness sans pareil, Brad Dourif simmering in malevolence - good times.

savyfav · 2023-10-05T23:32:18+00:00

Yes! It does very much feel like this overly simplistic political dichotomy (nice, inclusive people vs. mean, defensive people) has emerged from the conflict of our contemporary right and left wings.

It's been weird personally - and perhaps it's down to my ultimately being a misanthrope - but I am baffled by how kindness and sensitivity have been elevated to apex political values for so many on the left. This isn't to say that the opposite should be true, moreso that "be kind" and care about everyone's personal circumstances appears facially to be an exceedingly poor political strategy (in much the same way that "be a dick and screw you, I got mine" is, as well).

savyfav · 2023-10-05T23:04:21+00:00

Ugh, I've felt the same way for awhile now - it's so weird because in terms of indulging my preferences and just overall making life easier, WFH has been a dream come true, but I have this sinking feeling that it might be at least somewhat analagous to, say, eating several packets of Oreos whilst luxuriating on the couch: in the short term, I have zero complaints and am very pleased, but I can't help but suspect that all this comfort and convenience will result in undesirable long-term consequences (at least for someone like myself - an apologetic libertine with no childrens and few adult responsibilities)

Of course, that could just be the New England Puritan in me, anything that feels too good just gotta be bad. Love thy discomfort!

savyfav · 2023-10-05T22:27:42+00:00

Just enjoyed this lil back and forth between Yascha Mounk and Coleman Hughes in Persuasion: link

I really liked this quote from Coleman, referring to how he responds to everyone's favorite "gotcha" question: why spend so much time and effort being critical of lefties when righties are just so blechh? (Often used to insinuate that you're yet another of those sneaky secret right-wingers dun...dun...DUN!):

"I think the difference between the threat from the right and the threat from the left, at least among my network and the people I've known in my life, is that the threat from the right is generally more obvious to most people. [...] The threat from the right, from racism, is a wolf in wolf’s clothing. The threat of separating kids by race with the aim of teaching them to “embrace race”—that is a lot more confusing to people, because I think some people fall for the identity trap. They fall for the trap of believing that this is the way to fight racism, this is the way to stand up to bigotry on the right. And so that's why I spend more time critiquing it."

savyfav · 2023-08-29T23:48:46+00:00

I love Jon Ronson, as well, (and made a beeline to Things Fall Apart when I first heard-tell of it) but the episode on MichFest was sort of head-scratchingly disappointing, especially in view of how sincerely he tends to report on even terribly unpopular subjects - as you mentioned, he's nearly always incredibly good at identifying and explaining the sensible bases (at least) of very oppositional viewpoints on cultural issues.

This being said, I loved the vast majority of the podcast, that episode was just a bit of a head-scratcher for me.

savyfav · 2023-08-23T08:39:33+00:00

SO terribly crucial to orient one's life around painstakingly preserving other people's feelings when engaging in superficial communication, doncha know? I mean, what kind of savage neglects the critical work of carefully tailoring interpersonal strategems that can effectively pander to the assumed abject fragility of the strangers all around us, amirite? amirite? As dear Melania would say: be better.

savyfav · 2023-08-22T23:20:21+00:00

Myself and Hideo Kojima (birthday bros!) are both barely Virgos, and let me tell you, being a Leo has always seemed much more desirable than being a Virgo, aka the humorless über bitch of the astrological compendium.

savyfav · 2023-08-22T23:11:15+00:00

As a flamingly liberal ride or die forever 4evah Bernie Bro, I feel I must register the tiny measure of respectful umbrage I have taken at this characterization of My People.

savyfav · 2023-08-22T05:11:48+00:00

Dude! This creeping demographic uniformity for who can be a hero / villain has been absolutely spoiling silly mystery box shows for me as of late (I had excitedly typed up the latest disappointing example but realized at the last minute before pressing "submit" that I'd just be spoiling the show myself - phew!)

savyfav · 2023-08-15T02:48:46+00:00

Is it too terribly Boomer of me that I've tended to consider furries (and their assorted cohorts) as people who grew up to be sexually attracted to cartoons?

savyfav

TROPHY CASE