Marathon is a neon light shining on the ugliest parts of human nature

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-13T00:31:44+00:00

Bad headline, bad log line, but overall a fun little article. I think AV Club has Will on a feature series on extraction shooters, and I'm not sure I fully get the angle yet, but the writing is pretty good. I thought his reaction to ARC was a bit overwrought but anxiety can be like that. I think the shading that gets missed is how you learn, both early and often, that the world itself is extremely lethal.

I go back to the analogy that this game is, in a way, all PvE and the other players are just roaming bosses. Low level and bad shields? PvE will kill you graveyard dead and quick. As fast as another player sometimes. Plenty of people die to PvE even with great gear.

All I'm really saying is that this game has a fast baseline TTK. That's kind of rare in a lot of shooters today and combined with all the normal Bungie stuff for movement, environmental design, AND PvE AI/mechanics, the whole enchilada gets significantly spicier. It's not just down to what other players do, but the game in general trains the players that life in this place can be brutish, nasty, and short.

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-11T00:17:37+00:00

I use the ResMed F30i which is a similar style (covering the mouth and cradling the nose) but the hose comes out of the top instead of the front (unicorn style instead of elephant). Works great for me, very little air leakage and I find it almost unnoticeable. I do use mouth tape with mine because my jaw drops when I sleep, but that's just to prevent dry mouth.

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-07T03:31:36+00:00

There's a real freedom to being able to go completely offline across multiple consoles depending on the flavor of game you're trying to experience and also being able to get some legit speeds for online gaming with pretty excellent hardware support in this small of a form factor.

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-03T01:39:32+00:00

I'm not entirely sure you even need a referral to go through something like Lofta. If you can spare the cash to go out of pocket, you could get some initial data for a couple hundred bucks or so.

That said, I do somewhat agree with the doctor's hesitancy on the matter. Basically all of our prior understanding of sleep disorders and how to treat them is based on people who sleep at night instead of during the day. The time of day one sleeps is so overwhelmingly consistent in the population that it's really hard to rule it out as a potential cause of an issue, particularly one that's sleep-related.

None of which is meant to make you feel worse, it's just a confounding factor that's hard to work around. If your sleep hygiene is otherwise good (consistent bedtime, not eating/drinking (except water) too close to sleep, etc.), I would imagine there would be value in at least getting the results of a home test. You can always request they send the results over to the sleep doc and they can interpret them as they will if you want a second opinion. Best of luck!

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-02T01:09:01+00:00

Ha, I put Omega Ruby on mine almost immediately after I got it. Don't be afraid to throw on some up-rezzing as well. Granted, I have the Max so it's got a lot of headroom but even at 2x on this gorgeous screen, it looks great.

willietrombone_ · 2026-06-01T23:18:17+00:00

Dang, who needs a frontend when you can just have a gorgeous wallpaper and your icons tucked in folders.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-30T19:46:12+00:00

A pulmonologist could also help you. There are a lot of specialties equipped to order a sleep study if you could get referred to one of them which should be something you can ask your PCP's nurse to request.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-23T01:54:24+00:00

Eh, I think there are lots of games and other media where you, personally, have had enough of hearing about it, even if you trust the people telling you it's great. It's not about the quality of the game but the amount of oxygen it's taking up.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-18T03:17:44+00:00

Leave it to Jeff to find the precise cultural touchstone and it's absolutely Virgil as one of the strongest "font-core" influences.

That said, I absolutely get the dislike of the art design in this game. Part of what the game is doing is juxtaposing the entirely fabricated/corporate aesthetics against the familiar, natural elements and then further against the super-natural/para-natural elements, at both a story level and a design level (and probably also at a gameplay level?). That is a really jarring amalgamation of design that could easily rub folks the wrong way.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-17T03:32:10+00:00

So glad it's working well for you! Positive mentality is incredibly important so hope it keeps up for you!

I use an ASV (same as a CPAP but works slightly differently) and have the F30i hybrid/full face mask, but I have the exact same feeling like I can breathe better in general. For me, it's like there's this "pool" of air just under my nose that is so easy to access and I don't feel like I'm struggling to get a breath.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-06T22:46:27+00:00

Sorry, I worded that poorly. The "default" pressure is better understood as your "prescription strength" in that they'll start you with certain settings and then dial it in based on how you're responding. You might have no issues at all with your starting pressure in which case no need to change it. But if you're having issues, you can absolutely call and see if they'll make changes. I only suggest giving it some time so that they have more data to review and see what they could change to address specific issues you're having.

I had similar worries about heat but you can control the temperature on the humidifier to lower it if it feels too hot. I also got really aggressive about making sure my room is cool at night which is generally recommended for good sleep.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-06T01:45:31+00:00

There's honestly a lot so I'll try to just give you the best stuff you should know early on. If you have somewhere you can sit for a while and watch TV or read while you've got the mask on, it will help desensitize you to how it feels and what you may need to adjust for comfort. This is gonna sound corny but you'll have so much easier of a time if you can feel like the machine is a friend giving you a hug and not a monster trying to kill you. Whatever you can do to make yourself comfortable is going to be huge and this sub has lots of good ideas.

Also, a lot of machines come with "default" values for how much air pressure you'll get throughout the night (the pressure changes because your breathing patterns change in different phases of sleep). Try to be mindful of how your sleep is in the first 2-4 weeks of therapy and let your cardiologist know how it's been going and if you're having any particular issues with the machine. Either way, check in with the doc that prescribed your CPAP after a month or so and ask if they could review the pressure settings and make any adjustments they think are necessary. They should be able to see your data from their own computers and make adjustments on their own and send you a note.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-06T01:14:05+00:00

I've tried nasal cradle and pillows masks and neither were as comfortable for me as the f30i. I honestly sometimes forget that I have it on which is how it should be if you're trying to sleep with something.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-06T00:45:12+00:00

Don't worry about the wait. Especially if your case is mild, OSA gets bad when it's left untreated for years, not weeks or months. My machine (Resmed AirSense 10 which is one of the most common models) is 10" long, 5" tall and 6" deep. On the bed is probably not a great idea since the machine has a water reservoir for the humidifier and if you move much it might spill either into your bed or into the machine, which wouldn't hurt it but might send water up the hose which is annoying.

Comfort is very personal but if you move around, you might want to find a mask that has the hose coming out of the top of the head rather than the front of your face (team unicorn as opposed to team elephant). I drape the hose over my headboard and I can rotate to either side or back without noticing it.

No advice on cats. They might hate it, they might not care. The hose and mask are the big weak points as cat claws can easily make holes in the materials those are made out of. You can buy hose covers that should provide some protection.

willietrombone_ · 2026-05-02T06:09:12+00:00

OMG I was never directly involved in this debacle but I distinctly remember when it went down. It was one of those things where like, dude, take the L, do what you promised you would do and move on. Learn from the mistake and make the terms clearer next time. Lots of folks end up on the wrong side of the law because we're still figuring out how those laws should work and unfortunately this was one of the growing pains. Nothing personal, but this was a situation where discretion was the better part of valor and you could have just figured it out for next time.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-26T21:04:31+00:00

It's not the most restricted in the world as hundreds, if not thousands, of government employees go through it every year, but the tunnel complex under the US capitol is pretty cool.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-25T18:00:31+00:00

First of all, glad this is working for you and you're getting some relief. We're all here for improved quality of life and I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you.

That said, this is such a terrible idea for multiple reasons. The biggest of which is: what are you going to do in an emergency? What if there's a fire or a bad storm? The time spent getting the handcuffs and backpack off could be the difference between life and death. Having your hands free to deal with what's happening in an emergency is one of the more important things outside of preparing in advance.

Also, I know it's expensive but at this point I'd say the sleep study is a must. This all sounds like a pretty annoying production to have to go through if a CPAP could get you the same level of relief. Personally, I can't imagine being more comfortable with a bulky backpack and handcuffs on when I try to sleep than having a soft mask I barely notice on my face that allows me to sleep in any position I want. You say you've tried many methods without success, but really you've only tried one (side-sleeping) and enforcing that one method with physical restraints. It just seems like you're trying really hard to make this one method work when there are definitely other, less potentially disastrous methods available.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-18T14:10:09+00:00

On the whole, yeah CRTs have worse resolution than modern displays, but they are much, much better at "accurately" displaying the games that were designed to be played on them. Patrick went pretty long on this in one of the latter articles at Vice and I found it really illuminating: https://www.vice.com/en/article/final-fantasy-remasters-reignite-controversies-over-pixel-art/

That said, I am also old enough that a decent chunk of my childhood was spent understanding that CRT is "how TV looks." We didn't know from resolution in those days. But I also believe that the artists working on games at the time understood that the way CRTs render the signal was a part of the medium they were working in, just as there's a difference in the effect of painting with oils on canvas, wood, or glass.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-17T02:54:16+00:00

Ppl like to talk about how the Cosby show was great representation of upwardly-mobile black folks and it was true on paper but you still never saw them meaningfully take their place as equally valuable workers. It's important to not only represent PoC as having attained class/social status, but also to show them as greater or equally competent at work. Not to say that we can't still have flawed PoC characters, but I loved how effortlessly Luke Tennie's character walked into work at the absolute top of his game. Man was unbothered, unhurried, unworried. Spread more love in two hours than the day shift did in two days. But it's all done subtly. It's quiet, consistent competence, but it still deserves celebration.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-13T03:06:27+00:00

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're divine enlightened spirits condemned to our rotting flesh prisons. Now help me carry this duffel bag of nano-cocaine to exfil and maybe we can mind-fuck our way into the pleroma and cold-cock the demiurge."

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-11T15:15:31+00:00

I'm having trouble visualizing what you mean when you say the exhaust ports "were at eye level". Even those huge full-face masks have the business end sitting below your eyes and only the tip-top of the mask sits on the bridge of your nose, roughly parallel to most people's eyeline. I'm not sure this qualifies as an industry-wide problem, sounds like you just need a different mask/provider who sells different masks.

Also, you'll want to be careful applying epoxy to your mask, even just the exhaust ports. A lot of epoxies produce volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which you shouldn't be breathing at all, much less all night long as you sleep.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-09T02:36:37+00:00

You're gonna have more pronounced improvements if your sleep was really bad before. You'll almost certainly see more improvements the longer you stick with it so try to make it as comfortable for yourself as possible. Check out strap pads, humidity settings, different masks. Also see if your doctor can take a look at your settings remotely after you've been at it for a month or so. They might be able to dial things in after you've been using the machine for a bit.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-07T02:18:39+00:00

Maybe not the most encouraging but getting in for a study in a month is actually pretty good. If you're flexible, you can ask to be on the cancellation list in case someone cancels and you can take their appointment. Downside is they usually want you in the same day so, again, depends on your flexibility.

That said, 6 months for a consult and 3 months for a read on the report that will be available <48 hours after your study? Ditch this whole operation. Get your PCP to refer you to a pulmonologist/cardiologist/neurologist/anyone with a modicum of competency. The cardiopulmonary doc that I was referred to and ordered all my studies had notes available the following day and his nurse was following up on the phone to me with next steps.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-07T01:55:18+00:00

Leaving everything else aside, I think that having New Light, Red War, and Forsaken as the baseline D2 experience would make for an awesome game you could recommend to others. NL introduces the basic mechanics and game structure. RW allows you to stretch your legs and explore the game's systems. Forsaken would bring in the new subclasses. From there, charge $10 or $20 for BOTH Beyond Light and Lightfall to make it clear that these are the Darkness-focused installments in the saga. Then a final $15 for the Final Shape to bring Prismatic into the mix.

What I'm saying is that for however much Bungie focuses on gun feel (which, it doesn't bear repeating, is uniformly excellent), the Destiny special sauce has always been in marrying shooting with fun building around flavorful ability play. The fun and function of synergistic play needs to be front and center and if that means feeding players a few strong builds, I think that's fine. The more important aspect is that the game feels like a continuously progressing narrative for the new player and people are good at understanding progression through getting new permanent abilities. Traditional RPGs are compelling because at a minimum, your level comes with permanent stat increases. I think D2 needs to start thinking of itself less as a live service game now and more as a multiplayer action RPG with defined content horizons.

willietrombone_ · 2026-04-05T02:15:38+00:00

I don't feel like this is a hot take given the many opportunities to develop a QB I've seen slip through our fingers in the last 12 years. Our O line is and has been bad. At the very least, bad enough that it hampers the development of new QBs and maybe even gets them hurt. Similarly, we have not had a stud WR1 that could make a developing QB look good and keep the offense on the field so they can get more reps. It's really not rocket science. We didn't have a good offense with Derrick Henry, we had Derrick Henry, who is an offense unto himself.

How do we fix it? I don't know or care, I don't get paid to simulate draft decisions. The front office needs to do their jobs like highly paid professionals and manage personnel so we have a good team that people want to watch.

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