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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 9h

Sorry about that. :-(

But to emphasise - the game had an enjoyable and enthusiastic core! I would try another game by you. And also you were dealing with a thing in our session that was partially beyond your control that I'd be happy to chat about privately.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 9h

I am of an age where I ordered myself new socks on the internet and they turned up and I was like, "Fuck yeah, new socks."

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

When you find yourself on the same side of an issue as NewsCorp you have to ask yourself some serious questions about whether you're being played.

Guardian Australia @australia.theguardian.com · 1d

News Corp Australia chair says social media platforms are ‘true monsters’ and ‘torment our children’

Michael Miller also says media must unite against second ‘big steal’ by tech companies seeking changes to copyright law to access content for free * Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates * Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Social media is to blame for social cohesion issues across the globe, News Corp Australia’s executive chair, Michael Miller, has said, as he calls for media to present a united front against the platforms and AI companies seeking content for free. Miller told the Melbourne Press Club on Wednesday social media was rife with “misinformation, disinformation [and] the rabbit holes [that] they drag you down. Continue reading...

www.theguardian.com

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

That said, the push to deploy it everywhere for purposes that require it to be factually accurate or make decisions is ridiculous. It can't do those things and it's harmful and negligent to pretend it can.
And it may be that the genuinely useful applications never justify the cost of creating it.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

It has been transformative for neurodivergent, vision-impaired and dyslexic folk I know (including myself), and to a lesser extent for those with physical impairments that make keyboards difficult.
Those profitably using it in business are largely just getting on with it and not debating.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

As a final insult, the end credits are, as best as I can tell, over a quarter of an hour long and unskippable.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Protagonist Aiden Pearce is a terrible person in almost every way - a violent, gaslighting, misanthtropic crypto-fascist with very little self-reflection - and the game acknowledges this to an extent, but it's hard not to feel that secretly the game thinks he's cool. Ick.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Has any GTA-like ever had a licensed soundtrack this garbage? It's a hacking game - it should be techno, club, metal and indie, and instead it feels like it's aimed at a 50-year-old Texan Republican. It's a blessing that you're rarely in the cars long enough to hear any of it.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Finished the main campaign Watch Dogs (2014). I have no desire to complete the optional content or play the Bad Blood DLC. It's not the worst GTA-like I've played but the thoroughly unpleasant protagonist, oily and unimaginative storyline, and general tediousness make it hard to recommend.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

I did not need the stress of Soup Frog being missing on top of everything else right now.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

The proto-example is Buster Keaton clearing the train lines while aboard the moving train in "The General" (1926).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaAp...

Buster Keaton - Clearing the railroad ties

YouTube video by Chuck

www.youtube.com

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Discovering today that the fifth Final Destination film was briefly going to be titled 5nal Destination, until, presumably, literally anyone looked at that sequence of letters on a page.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Don't have the confidence to do better, have the confidence to do the same. Those folks aren't grifting, they're producing things they enjoy making that real people genuinely love enough to pay real money for, and that's all that art ever needs to be. It's a hustle, but not a grift.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

This whole thread is a good summary of where the US is realistically at, and why.

Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 2d

I think we are well past the point where future historians look at us and say that civil war could not be averted.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Tom Hiddleston's on the poster - and he's great - but it should be said that Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan are the film's real anchors, and their tremendous performance in the first act makes everything that comes after work as well as it does.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 1d

Film #96 for 2025 is The Life of Chuck (2024), and it kept my eyes wet and my mouth smiling from the opening breath until the credits stopped rolling. So faithful to the novella that it has Nick Offerman narrate giant chunks of Stephen King's text, while effortlessly rising to something greater.

Annalise Basso and Tom Hiddleston prepare to dance in "The Life of Chuck" (2024).

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

CRODBURGLR

A fine name for a child, or a dunsparce.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

One of the things everyone said would happen with age verification turned out to happen almost immediately.

www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...

One of the worst case scenarios for ID age verification is already here, with a Discord breach compromising some users' data

The hackers "did not gain access to Discord directly," but some users' data is still at risk.

www.pcgamer.com

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

Every male lead in a Final Destination film looks like they tried to hire Dave Franco but had to settle for someone with less screen presence.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

At this point, completely divorced from the idea of a plane flight, road trip, or journey of any sort, the title "The Final Destination" has no relationship to the film other than as a euphemism for death. The simplification is entirely in line with the rest of this film.

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

"Read this long essay that seeks to divine objective truths based on my subjective opinion of art that other people are clearly enjoying."

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 2d

Film #95 for 2025 is The Final Destination (2009) aka Final Destination 4. A complete lack of charisma, wildly implausible kills, and a script so lazy as to be contemptuous all combine to make this unambiguously the worst in the franchise. It exists only to support the brief 3D cinema revival.

Bobby Campo and Shantel VanSanten do their best to sell the concept of a "scary escalator" in "The Final Destination" (2009).

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 3d

New Nightmare is a tremendous semi-hidden gem - so weird it's hard to believe it was made even in the weird world of horror. But it's also difficult to talk about without noting how Craven did metatextual horror so much better when paired with a stronger screenwriter for Scream (1996).

Grant Watson @fictionmachine.bsky.social · 3d

Three years after Freddy's Dead, Wes Craven returned with New Nightmare: an unexpected post-modern take on the Nightmare on Elm Street saga.

fictionmachine.com/2025/10/06/r...

REVIEW: Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

Three years after the Elm Street franchise crashed and burned with Freddy’s Dead, creator Wes Craven returned with this unexpected seventh film. It was unexpected because the franchise had se…

fictionmachine.com

Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 3d

As per your review, I confess I have no memory of seeing this episode.

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Greg T @gregt314.bsky.social · 4d

Meg Ryan runs a bookstore that somehow has four full-time staff but only five bookshelves. In the face of stiff competition she makes absolutely no changes to her business and then shrugs and says "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas". It's honestly hard to root for her.