I started reading: A Declaration of the Rights of Magicians by H. G. Parry.
Picked up the book at one of those free drop offs at a local cafe, and I’ve been enjoying it so far.
I love Darn Tough socks. They processed my warranty, gave me a code for my two old pairs (that lasted for about 5 years), and I’m paying exactly $0. Shipping is free too. And don’t get me started on how good these socks are!
Yesterday we finished watching season two of Severance, and it got me so angry. I was fuming. I had to go for a walk and leave poor Nat with the takeout containers to clean (I did apologize and say he can just put it in a bag, but the shock I gave him was a different story)
Why was I so angry? To explain that I need to explain more than a decade of my lifestyle and the impact it had on my life in light of what is considered to be normal or usual, which is what I suspect the show’s target audience is.
Don’t get me wrong, the show itself is great, the story is good, and my anger wasn’t really directed at the story or the characters in it; it was mostly directed at its creators and the mindset. And from there it escalated to the whole “what’s wrong with the world,” and me barking at clouds again.
The good thing that came out of it, besides the nice walk, was to start a new lifestyle category on my blog and see how it goes. The trick is to know what not to include under “lifestyle,” because I have a tendency to use “life” as an overall category for everything that doesn’t fit anywhere else.
So while I’m not 100% sure what it will be yet, it’s there, with its own dedicated RSS feed and all (I need to explain the feeds of my blogs a bit better for you RSS folks out there).
I’m wondering what some good books about China? History, Culture, Finance, Politics, Military… Looking for a “bird’s eye view” book that is not too dry. 📚
Thinking about organizing my RSS stuff
I should improve my RSS organization, and I’m wondering where to start - it’s quite a mess.
An interesting piece from Mike Elgan:
Why Mexican cartels are fighting in Ukraine
https://machinesociety.ai/p/why-mexican-cartels-are-fighting
When I went to the bookstore and picked up Dawn by Octavia E. Butler 📚, I didn’t know who she was, or, more likely, I forgot. I was looking for something a bit sci-fi after my previous semi-scientific Owl book. Dawn, which I saw was about a dystopian future involving aliens from the book cover, seemed intriguing.
Well… I was wrong. Every episode seems to be like a dialogue between the main character and one of her alien abdoctors, and they are all pretty much the same. I get that there’s a point to be made here, perhaps, but it got old fast. I’m learning to appreciate books that invite me to read them and dread those that I put away in favor of my RSS feeds.
I’m knee deep in my RSS feeds and found out about the Emacs Carnival for 2025.
What I love about this is that the topic is writing experience, so the focus is not about elisp snippets and coding shenanigans. Instead, people tell their stories about how their writing got them into Emacs and why. Looks like I have some reading to do.
Denote with a different root directory on Linux only
A workaround to create a private note-taking folder for Denote on a Linux desktop only, while avoiding syncing with my Mac.
Currently reading: Dawn by Octavia E. Butler 📚
I’m giving this book another week or so before I give up.
Just posted my review of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.
Linux geeks who love management games, RPGs, and tactical X-Com like games, you’ve got to give it a try!
Finished reading: What an Owl Knows by Jennifer Ackerman 📚
This was a slow read. I’m not always in the mood to “read” the Discovery Channel. Ackerman is a generous writer. She obvioulsy loves owls, as do I, and her book takes us all around the world learning about them - as well the people who work with them.
Today, I met the goal I set for myself when I returned from vacation: running all the way up the street. My street has a pretty steep slope, but it’s short. It made for a good goal. Achievement unlocked 💪
Compromising with Outlook pains
I knew that I must use Outlook for work, but now I have a better understanding why. After some research, I tuned Outlook to be somewhat less annoying. Hopefully.
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint (2025) - ★★★★½
It’s been a while since I talked about a game here, and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a good reason to get back in the habit. Hopefully.
There is a lot going on in this game and a lot to like. It’s a bit hard to compare it to other games, but I can start by saying it’s a sophisticated X-Com turn-based tactic squad game with a deep story and base management on the next level. But it’s much more than that. Take each system you know from X-Com and bring it up to the next level, and then you’ll start to get the idea.
You’re in charge of a group of mercenaries in a futuristic, dystopian Cyberpunk Boston. Your goal is to pick up missions from different contacts and get paid so you can pay the bills. This game being story-focused, there are main-story missions, and there are characters with interesting stories that develop as the game goes on, depending on the choices you make.
In combat, it’s a detailed turn-based game with many mechanics determining what you can do and how. These mechanics are based on Cyberpunk the TRPG (the latest version is Cyberpunk Red), so there’s a lot to take in. Action points determine how far you can move and what actions you can do, but certain kinds of movements (sneaking) are slower, and the overall amount is affected by the character’s reaction attribute. Likewise, the character’s strength affects the amount of recoil after they shoot (to stabilize the weapon), which in turn affects the percentage to hit, as well as weapon modifications (yep, they have those), and certain traits the character has, which are special skills, separate from attributes. The game engine in combat is improved from X-Com, too: grenades can bounce off surfaces, the angle your character is facing affects the amount of cover they have, and enemies have a radius of seeing and hearing you, depending on how stealthy and quiet you are. And there’s much more (did I forget to mention there are classes in this game, and the ability to multi-class? Oh well, I need to post this at some point).
The combat might be the main highlight, but for me, the developing story is just as fun. Your characters talk to each other in on-screen dialog, and you get to choose the answers to certain questions. They form relationships with each other, which affect the gameplay as well, depending on the missions you play. Each character is unique and brings their own additional missions, choices, enemies, and allies. They have their own general background where, as they talk about their past with the others, you get to choose what exactly happened to them, where, and when. You can also change characters' looks and add notes about them as well.
Meanwhile, the story has the depths and details of a rich TRPG campaign, because Tresebrothers, the makers of the game, have been playing a homebrew version of the aforementioned Cyberpunk Red for over a decade. Many choices you make count, and some are irreversible. You need to keep track of the complicated political landscape as different employers try to con you while the guy who operates on you for cyber implants (yet another thing I didn’t get into - yes, you have those) might have a brother who got lost somewhere and will ask you to help in exchange of a favor, because favors are an important additional currency in this game. Loyalty is a factor, and an employee who likes you is more likely to pay you more for your missions and give you special equipment - but at the cost of others disliking you, and some squad members will refuse to go on missions for someone they hate, for example. All of this is managed by the game’s “DM” which builds missions and stories for you as the game goes. It’s a bit like Rimworld’s storyteller, if you’re familiar.
There’s still more to this game I haven’t talked about. The base building is similar to X-Com, but yet again, on the next level. You need to manage power and cooling, among other things, to be able to build certain facilities, which open up even more possibilities. For example, in my still early game, it’s indicated I could build certain weapons and mods in my own base instead of trading in the underworld, but I don’t have the right place for that yet. My “face,” the squadmate who is a special class who takes care of the missions, can have their own operation room, which might bring in different kinds of missions and options that I don’t know about yet. Even the way the power is laid out is not as simple as just running wires; some rooms get more power than others, etc.
Oh, and did I tell you there’s hacking too, which is its own form of a minigame… OK, I’ve got to stop somewhere.
This game makes me miss my own DnD games and makes me want to pick up Cyberpunk Red (I got the rulebook a year ago or so) and try to play some. There are few games that are this detailed and complex, and none that I know that combine it all with tactics, base building, and of course, the beautiful dystopian cyberpunk theme. If you’re into RPGS/TRPG, or if you liked Cyberpunk 2077 and want some more of that world, or if you’re thirsty for a good X-Com-like game, or if you like complex systems and want something challenging, or all of the above… check this game out. It’s very much worth it at its non-premium price tag.
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint (2025) - ★★★★½
It’s been a while since I talked about a game here, and Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a good reason to get back in the habit. Hopefully.
There is a lot going on in this game and a lot to like. It’s a bit hard to compare it to other games, but I can start by saying it’s a sophisticated X-Com turn-based tactic squad game with a deep story and base management on the next level. But it’s much more than that. Take each system you know from X-Com and bring it up to the next level, and then you’ll start to get the idea.
You’re in charge of a group of mercenaries in a futuristic, dystopian Cyberpunk Boston. Your goal is to pick up missions from different contacts and get paid so you can pay the bills. This game being story-focused, there are main-story missions, and there are characters with interesting stories that develop as the game goes on, depending on the choices you make.
In combat, it’s a detailed turn-based game with many mechanics determining what you can do and how. These mechanics are based on Cyberpunk the TRPG (the latest version is Cyberpunk Red), so there’s a lot to take in. Action points determine how far you can move and what actions you can do, but certain kinds of movements (sneaking) are slower, and the overall amount is affected by the character’s reaction attribute. Likewise, the character’s strength affects the amount of recoil after they shoot (to stabilize the weapon), which in turn affects the percentage to hit, as well as weapon modifications (yep, they have those), and certain traits the character has, which are special skills, separate from attributes. The game engine in combat is improved from X-Com, too: grenades can bounce off surfaces, the angle your character is facing affects the amount of cover they have, and enemies have a radius of seeing and hearing you, depending on how stealthy and quiet you are. And there’s much more (did I forget to mention there are classes in this game, and the ability to multi-class? Oh well, I need to post this at some point).
The combat might be the main highlight, but for me, the developing story is just as fun. Your characters talk to each other in on-screen dialog, and you get to choose the answers to certain questions. They form relationships with each other, which affect the gameplay as well, depending on the missions you play. Each character is unique and brings their own additional missions, choices, enemies, and allies. They have their own general background where, as they talk about their past with the others, you get to choose what exactly happened to them, where, and when. You can also change characters' looks and add notes about them as well.
Meanwhile, the story has the depths and details of a rich TRPG campaign, because Tresebrothers, the makers of the game, have been playing a homebrew version of the aforementioned Cyberpunk Red for over a decade. Many choices you make count, and some are irreversible. You need to keep track of the complicated political landscape as different employers try to con you while the guy who operates on you for cyber implants (yet another thing I didn’t get into - yes, you have those) might have a brother who got lost somewhere and will ask you to help in exchange of a favor, because favors are an important additional currency in this game. Loyalty is a factor, and an employee who likes you is more likely to pay you more for your missions and give you special equipment - but at the cost of others disliking you, and some squad members will refuse to go on missions for someone they hate, for example. All of this is managed by the game’s “DM” which builds missions and stories for you as the game goes. It’s a bit like Rimworld’s storyteller, if you’re familiar.
There’s still more to this game I haven’t talked about. The base building is similar to X-Com, but yet again, on the next level. You need to manage power and cooling, among other things, to be able to build certain facilities, which open up even more possibilities. For example, in my still early game, it’s indicated I could build certain weapons and mods in my own base instead of trading in the underworld, but I don’t have the right place for that yet. My “face,” the squadmate who is a special class who takes care of the missions, can have their own operation room, which might bring in different kinds of missions and options that I don’t know about yet. Even the way the power is laid out is not as simple as just running wires; some rooms get more power than others, etc.
Oh, and did I tell you there’s hacking too, which is its own form of a minigame… OK, I’ve got to stop somewhere.
This game makes me miss my own DnD games and makes me want to pick up Cyberpunk Red (I got the rulebook a year ago or so) and try to play some. There are few games that are this detailed and complex, and none that I know that combine it all with tactics, base building, and of course, the beautiful dystopian cyberpunk theme. If you’re into RPGS/TRPG, or if you liked Cyberpunk 2077 and want some more of that world, or if you’re thirsty for a good X-Com-like game, or if you like complex systems and want something challenging, or all of the above… check this game out. It’s very much worth it at its non-premium price tag.
A year ago today, The CrowdStrike’s outage… stroke. We were affected too. Fun time it was not
At Least 750 US Hospitals Faced Disruptions During Last Year’s CrowdStrike Outage, Study Finds wired.com
at minimum 759 hospitals in the US appear to have experienced network disruption of some kind on that day.
In Emacs, when you press M-y, you can go through all the recent text snippets that are stored in your kill ring (aka “clipboard” in modern-day programs) via yank-pop. In two seconds, I found what I needed from yesterday, and I’m ready to go.
Emacs is just like that, once you learn to use it. Two seconds, you get what you need (for me, usually in org-mode), and you move on with your life. Everything is tailored to fit you, the user. That’s what happens when a bunch of productivity geeks sit together and build a program.
Sure, not all (and even most) programs that are open source end the same way, but Emacs is unique. It’s a shining example of what happens when different people have different needs and are provided with open tools to answer those needs. I’m not a Lisp coder, but I know that when I need to change something or tweak it, I can, and I have all the help documentation and a community behind me to help achieve what I need.
Just another day
In a rather genius moment, I scheduled a meeting to review an intake form with the crew at 13:00 today, when I had a doctor’s appointment at 14:45 (travel time is approximately 40 minutes) that I had forgotten about.
The meeting, of course, took longer than planned, which meant I had to rush and take a Lyft instead of the subway. I got there on time, even though we got stuck behind a truck that was backing into a construction site. I love me some car horn symphony and yelling.
I did manage to get to the doctor on time, and decided to walk back to West Side through Central Park, which was nice, besides the heat. Heavy and humid, it was especially punishing when I couldn’t find shade.
On the train back home, I realized the ride was a bit longer than it should have been, and the station numbers seemed off. Turns out I forgot I was on the D train and kept riding it into the Bronx instead of getting off on time and switching.
Got some time to chill at home with a cool shower and a nap, and now I’m about to watch X-Files with NK. So, you know, not everything is annoying; some things are still nice.
A pretty general and expected review of Macs from the perspective of Windows users. What I like is Linus’ conclusion: at the end of the day, it’s not about the OS as much as it’s about the OS getting out of the way of the apps you use.