Gat Out of Hell - , a kind of DLC-ish thing for Saints Row... I played this game for like the third time through this weekend

(heh looking at some notes maybe it was the only game I played all the way through in 2017 as well?) It's like $4 on Steam or PS4 store and is just such a good side story. Light on the "big scenes" but heavy on the generous and fun physics and movement empowerment - and its take on the environment hell is actually pretty funny, a few notches better than GTA 5's sense of parody.

And I love the central image of the player (either Gat in his gang jacket or Kinzie in a tanktop and jeans) with burning angel wings, soaring over and around the metropolitan hellscape...

---

I'm such a hypocrite - like if I'm "heads down" on something I have a hard time not showing my annoyance when someone else asks for my attention for something.

But when I'm on my own and know I should be barrelling through a task, I welcome ANY little distraction and sidequest.

---

On my devblog, thinking back to my earliest training in Scrum: the duck calls, "you suck and that makes me sad", roadkill burgers, and the metaphor of "The Chicken and the Pig"
scenes from arlington/medford and brattleboro vt

---

Conspiracy Theory Rock, the censored SNL TV Funhouse... the biggest threat facing your team, whether you're a game developer or a tech founder or a CEO, is not what you think

Brilliant article on leadership. It's long and gets into the weeds of the games industry, but there is a lot that is true for the whole corporate world.

It touches on one point that is much on my mind: so much of our corporate leadership is "make number go up" (immediately! but then also forever.) Corporations generally have a legal obligation to "increase shareholder value", and in general that's on a per quarter basis. Sustainability and long term viability are afterthoughts at best.

The article points out there's parallels in that and some USA policy decisions in Vietnam:

But when the McNamara discipline is applied too literally, the first step is to measure whatever can be easily measured. The second step is to disregard that which can't easily be measured or given a quantitative value. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. The fo[u]rth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.

But then when you combine that with leaders who view themselves as capable of finessed big picture and aesthetic decisions as, say, Steve Jobs... well, they aren't always looking to the people reporting to them as potential Jony Ives - they want to go on their own guts.

So an organization has to thread the needle between "it only counts if it can be quantified" and "it only counts if it has good 'gut feel' to topmost leadership". I think you do that by building and then trusting the expertise of the people in the middle. Content Warning: Men's Undies.

I think there comes a time in most young men's life when they turn from the underwear of their youth (often from their parents just buying smaller versions of whatever their father wears) to whatever is modern at that point. For me in the early 90s that was a critical pivot from tighty-whities to boxers. Preferably, boxers with playful iconography.

The thing is, I'm worried they're going away. Boxer briefs seem to be taking over, and the selection at the Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic triopoly and other places has been notably worse the past few years.

The thing is even though the goofy designs should make these boxers "more" childish than almost any other alternative, to me all snug undies seem... I dunno, weirdly juvenile or vaguely feminine, even though I understand they flatter a lot of guys in a lot of shapes.

And like, if someone sees an amusing pair of boxers peeking over your jeans, it seems more intentional somehow and less embarrassing then other forms of undies.

Anyway. At least these style of boxers never have the manufacturer's name being on the waistband for advertising purposes. It wasn't great when Calvin Klein did it, and do you really want to be a human billboard for Fruit of the Loom or Haines or whoever?

---

From my devblog - Humane's AI Pin vs the movie Her... also Marques Brownlee with the clapback of the year... You know, reading about the lifetime ban of an NBA player and noting the rise of legalized sports betting... and my inability to "get" the appeal of betting, at all... my philosophy is all about knowing there has to be absolute truth (in this case, the outcome of a sports event, regarded after the fact) but also accepting your uncertainty of that truth - if I'm not 100% sure of something I feel morally compelled to lay out where the uncertainty is. (So I won't say "your keys are on the kitchen table" even if I recently noticed them there since stuff might have changed or my memory have tricked me - I'll say "I think your keys are on the kitchen table")

But recreational sports betting plays in a very different emotional and maybe epistemological space. Either flexing that you're sure you're smarter or luckier than other folks, or wanting to tie in your fate more closely with a favorite team's, or just thrill seeking spiced by real financial consequences. I just don't get it.

(I remember my mom's views on gambling, when some gambler wanted to share his winnings with the church. I don't remember the outcome, but I do remember my mom pointing out either its losing money, or it's gaining money on the backs of others (I think "on the backs of others" more so than a protestant work ethic stance of wanting to link diligence to financial outcomes.)

I suppose I shouldn't be on too much of a moral high horse about it. There's a chance I'd be better off by taking more chances over all, in different aspects of life, rather than always hunting for sure wins and low hanging fruit.

---

the sounds of the 80s..

---

humans are a subspecies of elf known for dying really quickly and being stressed the whole time

---

i really need to start walking around with sets of giant googly eyes.

---

The Monster Manual but it's blatantly written by the monsters:

mimc Mouth perfec t size for put baby in to n\ap! inside very Soft and Comfort baby sleep soundly put baby in Mimic Mouth. Put Baby In Mimic Mouth. no problems ever in mimmic mouth because good Shape and Support for baby neck weak of big baby head. Amimic Mouth yes a place for a baby put baby in mimic mouth can trust mimic for giveing good love to baby. friend mimic

(a few people online pointed out how that photo looks just like a mimic...)