I am enjoying the hell out of Annalee Newitz's new novel The Terraformers.
The literal world building is incredible (with nods to Kim Stanley Robinson), and they made me care more about a moose's autonomy than I ever thought I would
Give them a follow at @annaleen to see if they are doing an event near you (and cuz they are great generally)
Return to Alflynd: Hyperspace Corridor
Five years ago, I'd have been jumping straight for Alflynd - taking the crystal to the mages at the Academy , eager to help my people.
I wasn't that person anymore.
I needed to think about what to do, what would benefit me the most. I needed to talk to someone I trusted.
Return to Alflynd: Apostate Interior
Incredibly, even on the Apostate, as long as I was near the crystal, I had some level of magic - My body was the only thing that contained the necessary nanites, so I couldn't affect the environment, but I could perform simple spells on myself. If it worked the same for others, it would be incredibly valuable on Alflynd.
Return to Alflynd: Self Reflection
I'd been the best mage in the academy, off-world for the first time as a graduation gift, when the accident took my arm. If I'd been home, it would have been trivial to heal it with magic, but I was systems away. The doctors made the call, and my right arm was replaced with cold steel. I lived, but there was no point in going home - I was sure that part of my life was dead.
I'm a #brooklyn native, who works full time in the media space as an #Enterprisearchitect , which means I like exploring how things work together, and the people who use the tools we #sysadmin work so hard on.
Sigh I have been watching episodes of The Ark Season 1 on Peacock. The vibe feels like mid-90's TV, mid-priced. Not silly enough to emulate the original BSG, not smart enough or dark enough to be BSG the reboot. Not principled enough for a Star Trek series. Not busy enough for Lost in Space. I think the cute geniuses are getting on my nerves. It all feels very glossy. Hmm. Still watching it though. Like drinking a Budweiser. 😜 Gross, but sometimes all you have.
Return to Alflynd: The Ascent
There was no questioning - The crystal wanted me to take it. It knew me, down to an atomic level, and had chosen me. The only question was, for what?
Without magic, getting out of there might have been tricky - but with my power restored to me, it was barely an inconvenience.
#Ingenuity may have difficulties waking up in the morning and accumulating enough power in its batteries for a 180m #Flight51. High temperatures in the last 10 days averaged -23.5°C with the lowest high at -30.5°C.
Much of the energy accumulated is spent for keeping the electronics warm during daylight, while at night, with temperatures around -80°C, the heli is unable to stay warm and falls into a coma.
My own interests here are mostly fun things like #Puns#Scifi#Etymology and #BadJokes but I’m also interested in connecting with other fans of Doctor Who and generally being #Silly
Dystopias in #SciFi are important because they help humanity foresee present or future dangers, e.g.:
1984/Orwell
Fahrenheit 451/Bradbury
The Handmaid’s Tale/Atwood
Brave New World/Huxley
The Complete Robot/Asimov
Lord of the Flies/Golding
Second Variety/Dick
Minority Report/Dick
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [Blade Runner]/Dick
Installed Star Citizen on the newly rebuilt PC. Will be interesting to see how the new hardware runs it, comparatively. It's the most hardware intensive game I've ever encountered.
90GB install complete...
(I've been playing it here and there for a few years. It is breathtaking visually, but limited and quite buggy. I enjoy slipping in every few months for a few hours.)
this prints really well as a poster/art print/sticker. It should print very well at large sizes for things like scarves. You know you want that shower curtain. Or the comforter.
I'm not one for "New Year's resolutions", but I am one for overly ambitious projects.
For 2023, Project365 is "One New Game Per Day".
Given that I have 634 unplayed games in my Steam account and {mumble} unredeemed bundle Steam keys, there's a reason my unplayed collection is tagged "Pile of Shame".
I'll pin this to my profile, and give a brief summary here each day (or x, if I miss x days due to work or stuff).
I'll play 15-30 minutes of (at least) one new game I've never played before (or played less than 15 minutes of). I'll give every game at least 15 minutes, even if I hate every minute of it.
I'm also open to suggestions; if you reply to this thread with a game, I'll schedule it, or tell you what I thought of it.
One of the things that's come up is that I have a bunch of games that I've played once, and not touched again.
Apr 12, 2023 - Day 102 - NewPlay Review
Total NewPlays: 109
Game: Subterrain
Platform: Steam PC
Release Date: Jan 21, 2016
Library Date: Apr 9, 2018
Unplayed: 1829d (5y3d)
Playtime: 73m
Subterrain is a top-down sci-fi horror survival game.
Apparently.
You play an imprisoned scientist who has to break out of his cell, and finds that the entire prison, and apparently, base on Mars has been overrun by zombies, maybe. Based on some flavour text, on something I picked up.
It's moody & atmospheric, and I spent 73 minutes exploring all of the nooks and crannies of the prison, waiting for something to happen.
There's next to zero guidance, and you need to discover your way forward, which is why I explored every nook and cranny; all the while collecting things until I hit my carry limit. There's a recycle-and-build system in there somewhere, but by the time I got close to it, I'd had enough.
The game itself is well designed, and the sound design kept me thinking that something was just about to happen... but no. I killed two zombies in the first two levels.
There's a hint of something interesting in there, but it's buried under so much drudgery, that for a moment I questioned why I'm doing these reviews at all.
Ultimately Subterrain felt like style without substance, and I'm genuinely disappointed; it feels like I wasted 73 minutes of my life that I didn't enjoy, and won't get back. It's just:
Marla had been a gifted child. She graduated at age 13, got her master's degree at 15 and wrote an already groundbreaking piece as her PhD Thesis when she was 20. That was in the year 2089. ...
The following weeks brought inflation of knowledge. The probes on the surface of Rana 3 worked perfectly. The translator AI learned the new languages within a week. In the same week, the crew gathered geographical and sociological data. After that, the working teams augmented their observations with statements from the aliens. ...
The safe was a different beast. It couldn't be cracked with programming skills. That was the task of B055, the Operator. Hugo did not only know most of the security systems by heart, he also had an intuition for the situation and he had a bespoke toolkit from R00t. So he went to work. ...