Casual Conversation

Branston beans are superior to Heinz beans.

DND is not a good universal game system. It's pretty good at being DND, but that's a particular beast that's mostly about resource management.

You can definitely use it for a game about social intrigue, or horror, or modern day anything, but it's not really good at any of that. Like using a hammer to put screws in, you'll probably get something done, and if you're hanging with your friends you'll probably have a good time. But it's a weird tool to reach for.

Personally, I don't think the core of the rules system is very good at all. Flat probability feels weird. Armor as all-or-nothing is weird. Hit and damage being split into two rolls is slow and weird. In the latest edition, making very few choices about your character often feels bad. Levels are a very coarse unit of growth. The magic system somehow manages to make magic not feel like magic- no wonder, no mystery, it's just safe and standardized. I could go on.

But it's mega popular and people are emotionally invested, so there's not much to be done about it. There are dozens of people playing the thousands of other games out there.

Also a lot of people have never played anything else, so their analysis and defense of it is often lacking. Like if I've only ever played baseball, and never even watched any other sports, I wouldn't feel qualified to talk about bowling. But you get people saying like "no you need to wear cleats that's a universal property of sports" when bowling comes up. Like, not every game has six stats. Not every game has attributes like that at all.

And again, if you're having fun with dnd then that's the primary goal achieved. We don't need to maximize fun and efficiency in all things all times. I just think that it would be a good experience to branch out more, even if it's scary, because that will lead to a richer experience overall.

I personally really dislike icing. Anything it's on I think is ruined. The only thing that's worse is meringue. Hate that stuff.

Spanish food sucks! Although I think I already died in that hill today.

For Linux to be a considerable contender for the average user, they need to make it more simple and like a Windows or Mac os.

I used Windows my whole life pretty much. Switching to Mac for a 5 year period was easy. Switching to Linux was easy. Using it was not. Installing a different distro was easy, using it was not. Rinse and repeat 3 more times and hello windows 11, looks like I'm using spyware. Because it just works.

Touchscreen laptops, and by extension "two-in-one" laptops, are an absolute abomination of a form factor that should not exist.

Don’t debate on things we have little to no expertise/personal experience in. [insert really divisive issue here], I am not [this group of people], [other group of people], and don’t have the legal/medical/[insert other relevant thing] background to comment on this issue.

If you ignore those hot issues, you can focus on the important things that matter in life. Like what’s for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Cubic meters and tonnes suck when you’re talking about numbers bigger than 1000, which is pretty much every time. Just use liters or grams and slap on whatever SI prefix that makes the most sense for the order of magnitude you’re dealing with.

Who wants to see numbers like 7900000000 W, 500000 V or 0.00001 g. Nobody, that’s who! Use SI prefixes to make the numbers easier to read and understand. We’re already doing that in many places. It’s not that hard.

Motorcycles are the best means to go camping.

When you're travelling, you are outside. Open the visor, breathe in the pine wood air. Unlike a car where you're effectively disconnected from your surroundings, you're much more in them. You can also reach much more secluded places, so you can just go to "that spot" and spend the night there. It's almost as good as bicycles or hiking in that regard but unlike those two, you can also cover distances, spontaneously deciding to just hit the road for a day and sleep 1000 km further south the next night.

I will never play a game that needs admin elevation to run, I don't care how good it allegedly is.

I've missed out on playing several games with friends due to this stance. Star Wars: The Old Republic was the first I can remember. Marvel Rivals is the most recent.

Anything more than the bearst hint of icing is not for me, personally.

They only got the Predator's mandibles right in the first movie.

Modern flip phones (e.g. Samsung Fold) are stupid and tacky and will never be as good as previous gen flip phones. Just won't. Sorry not sorry.