Can confirm, just bought a top of the line 2022 Leaf with 33k miles on it. All the bells and whistles of a new $40k car, even warranty, and thanks to the used EV credit, got it under $15k.

It just makes so much more sense. Even if it’s not the ideal car due to the aging CHADEMO standard and lack of battery cooling, the low cost of ownership and many nice features make it a great stepping stone until the market sorts itself out.

People always said COBRA is too expensive but I had no clue how bad it could possibly be. Turns out, $1200 a month for the cheapest option for a married couple in my case. And I didn’t get that information in spite of repeated asking for months before I left, until I was nearly out the door.

This compared to the marketplace plans starting around $600, similarly decent plans to my work one in the realm of $800 and the APTC covering almost all of that cost if I’m not making too much money self-employed. COBRA is a joke.

Star Wars is an awkward example because it’s already pretty well tainted itself with mediocre films.

But yes, unironically I would actively stop looking for the shreds of good among the carnage that is the once-beloved franchise if I knew its creator, whose name is still tied to it and who financially benefits at least from the propagation of successful entries under that IP, would be just a little bit more able to get their awful views out there thanks to that success.

Carbrain caveman hates lefties? I’m shocked~

You take care of that part later, I guess. The whole point of the shower orange IMO is to go primal on it and tear it open and chow down without concern for mess or eating it efficiently. Leaving the peel to pick up afterwards probably just gives the rest of your shower a nice citrus aroma.

For whatever reason, when I hear KOSA, it conjures up SOPA and PIPA. Feels like it’s been so long since any of these came up but I guess existential-level threats to internet content and privacy never fully die~

Yeah, the framing is cutting off/hiding most of the bird.

Honestly? I think they should be more disposable. You can do stuff like sell, butcher, overwork or fuse away your Pals (all of which are rather deliberate on the player’s part), but I genuinely think if there was some threat of permadeath or having them stolen by the Syndicate baddies if you get sloppy, it would give the adventure a greater sense of threat/risk. People seek out Nuzlocke rules for a reason, and currently I find the options for dropping your items and Pals on death don’t really make compelling gameplay sense (you just walk back and get them).

Setting/story-wise, Palworld supports that kind of thing so I figure it’s most likely coming as an option eventually. The game is on track for some interesting things, and as half-baked as parts might seem now, it’s already fairly fun. Definitely an addictive formula.

It’s worth waiting to see where they take it if the journey and developing those bonds with the creatures are a big part of the draw for you. I doubt you’ll get compelling turn based combat at any point, though.

Start savin’!

Also, buy used. Same thing with gas cars, let someone else eat that depreciation and don’t contribute to the environmental impact of a whole new vehicle being made if you can get by with used.

Title gore?

I’m convinced that your average hardline “Roguelike means strictly ‘like Rogue’” player would even leave Mystery Dungeon games off the list. It’s such a useless genre definition if you can only point to a handful of games that would even meet its criteria.

Ultimately it’s a term that has long exceeded its original use case. Maybe to some it feels like calling certain modern shooters “Doom clones” again, but it’s just not generally useful as terminology if the only games it “should” define are reskins of Rogue.

Genuinely, people are shitting on it because it sells itself on a meme, is made by a dev with shady history, and likely has its creature designs aided strongly by an AI model trained on Pokemon.

With all that in mind, it punches WAY above its weight class. There’s shockingly little jank for an early access game this massive (it legitimately feels like a complete game worth paying for right now), the designs look super derivative but they’re nearly as well executed as the original Pokemon that inspired them so I’m still falling in love with everything I see, and the uniquely dark way they handle the subject matter gives it some sense of danger to the journey without getting in the way of critter companionship people seek out in a Pokemon game. I honestly can’t find much to fault at all. And any concerns that it won’t get future updates to smooth out rough edges, add more options and content are nuts, IMO. With the momentum this game has going, no chance the dev pulls out before making good on promises.

I wouldn’t say that anything Palworld is doing is groundbreaking on its own. Most critters feel like Pokemon parts and colors reassembled into new combinations. Exploration is a jankier clone of BOTW. The environment is way nicer looking and more interesting than anything from the last few Pokemon games but that’s hardly a high bar. Survival mechanics are uninspired. Base mechanics and managing active pals are pretty similar to Cult of the Lamb. But the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

I’m rooting for Smite 2! Very different perspective from League, but if it’s successful at fixing some of the ancient jank of Smite’s current decade-old engine, I think it’s one to keep an eye on as an alternative. It’s different enough to not feel like a pale imitation while translating a lot of that core game flow.

I’d reach out to grab my smartphone only to realize there’s now two of them on my desk. I’m about to have a very bad day~

I can assure you, this is not about people wanting to take down the 15M subscriber titan. (though undoubtedly some haters are just jumping on the opportunity, I don’t think that’s the majority) For many of us fans, we have been seeing this coming for a while, or those who are blindsided feel utterly betrayed after such a long time watching LTT religiously. It’s always been possible to ignore the awkward moments in videos or write off the bad behavior as just an “on-screen persona” thing. There’s a clear problem with company culture at LTT, and these things usually come out in this way, with victims waiting for the right moment. Presuming innocence on his part means presuming lies on the part of the victims, and that doesn’t sit right with me. I wouldn’t necessarily take it 100% at face value truth but there’s no doubt something majorly wrong going on in that office.

As a fan, I want to see transparency and a healthy working environment behind the videos. Linus’ response wasn’t just underwhelming, it was a complete betrayal. Even before I knew about the nasty working conditions, the simple back and forth between GN and Linus was enough to put a massive crack in the LTT facade. I didn’t need someone to confirm the working conditions were bad, to make an educated guess at how the guy totally unwilling to spend “up to” $500 man-hours more on a video to ensure it’s done right probably isn’t running a fair system of work.

Lately there’s been this weird undertone of discomfort in Linus’ videos, and I think I now understand why. He does a great job appearing to be a decent and relatable guy who’s just being mean for a gag, but it’s becoming more clear that’s not a bit. His relationship with the people he appears with on camera only seems to work because there’s a back and forth in their quips and insults. Whenever he’s on with someone who’s not a staple of the channel, there’s this sense that he’s untouchable, that he can dish it out but grounds for pushback are shaky at best. Communication overall seems to suck, and there’s never not a Disappointed Linus moment when he’s involved in a project. You can really feel the unnecessary stress he’s piling onto the situation, and if it’s that obvious on-camera, how bad is it when nobody else is around? Or for the employees who feel like a bit of a squeaky wheel? It’s been clear for a long time that Linus is a cheapskate (he openly complains about relatively acceptable prices for the silly stuff he’s doing in videos pretty often) but for some reason in the back of my mind I thought maybe he wasn’t so stingy as a boss, where it counts. Wouldn’t bet on it now.

For someone who’s even a little bit out of place at LMG, I can 100% see how Linus has built a toxic work culture. It should speak volumes that nearly everyone, when given a chance to speak without Linus’ final say on the video, expresses much the same criticism toward his hustle culture. They don’t have the time they need to do good work, I don’t get the sense that they have a supportive and creative environment conducive to enjoying the process, and the output is clearly suffering.

Linus’ initial response dropped the ball harder than anything he’s dropped in his storied career of dropping things. But even if his response was heartening, the further reports of toxic culture and fanbase are enough for me to keep my distance. I’m going to miss their flavor of “tech nerd fun” videos, but the “Linus is a bad guy” Pandora’s box is open, and it’s going to take a lot of goodwill before I can just enjoy their videos again. Sad to see another titan of Youtube let it all go to his head, but this just goes to show that success doesn’t make a man better, it just makes him more powerful.

All I ever see around crypto is this vague notion that it could someday be acknowledged and used widely as real money is. But so could bottle caps. I don’t see the mechanism for how it realistically happens. It’s no less a moonshot than it was 3 years ago, IMO.

Just because a lot of people are buying into crypto doesn’t make the underlying inefficiencies in its design (depending on the coin) disappear and make way for common usage. As it stands now, cryptocurrencies are basically glorified ponzi schemes. The people nonstop defending them deserve to be treated with constant skepticism because they have skin in the game and know there’s nothing preventing them from losing it all. It’s in their best interest to believe in it and spread that belief.

It’s like the CEO of Reddit editing users’ comments. Once you’ve opened this can of worms, you can’t exactly close it again.

Outside of expected circumstances like long-term inactivity or having snuck an inappropriate username past automatic censors, being forced to forfeit your handle is simply unspeakable on social media platforms. Your identity can be straight-up stolen, or altered, without forewarning, for any reason, and you have no recourse at all. And the guy deciding who gets screwed over like this is a rich, entitled right-wing monster who blatantly hurts others if he~~ thinks it might align with his politics somehow~~ wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and you’re today’s punching bag, frankly.

100%, gotta be a car lobby thing. If dealerships provide an important service, then put it in the market’s hands and let people decide if that service is worth paying for.

Around here (western-ish USA), EVs are mostly $50k+ SUVs and aren’t super high in demand, and dealers are dropping pretty big discounts. But it’s just starting to put them into affordable territory for me (at least, where I’ve set my expectations) and upcoming models are promising to compete comfortably within my budget so I’m hoping preorders are a decent means to get lined up for what may end up being some very highly in demand new models in a price tier that’s not seen much competition.

I’m hoping it prevents a painfully long wait if these prove to be the go-to new standard everyone’s lining up for once they’re getting previews/reviews. If not, shouldn’t be too painful to get my deposit back if I go another route. I’m hopeful this lets me keep my options open, even if it’s keeping some of my money tied up for now. It syncs up well enough with my strategy of waiting and I can keep an eye out on the market to see if something better comes along in the meantime.