brucoe

I recently got into Destiny 2. Keep in mind, I've owned it since it was released, played it for about an hour the first time, and then I shelved it. Then Bungie pushed it from Battle.net to Steam, and because I'm a completionist, I moved my account over, and of course, didn't play it. Then, bored out of my mind because I had just finished writing my latest novel, I was looking for a game to play, got bogged down in the boredom of Star Trek Online, and then out of the blue just noticed the game in my Steam folder and said, "why not?" So, I bought up all the expansions, the matching set of buttons, flashing key chain, and some service that said "we'll also massage your grandma". So, I bought everything, and I started to play.

Okay, simple things: I like the game. Took forever to get somewhat used to it, as I'm not a shooter type of player. But literally a week and a half later, I'm having daily fun.

So, here are a couple of questions, and observations:

1. I hate pvp. With a passion. Maybe it's my PTSD from being pk'd in Ultima Online back in 1970 (or whenever that was), but I just hate pvp. I don't like killing the avatars of real people either. It's zero fun to me. So, this is probably one of my biggest negatives towards the game because a LOT of the content appears to be geared around activities that are basically pvp (crucible, gambit, and so much more).

2. I'm at about 1010 skill right now, and I have zero idea how to increase further. It was going up really fast before, but it's stuck now, mostly.

3. I don't have a clan, which I suspect would help a lot of things, because the game is really frustrating as just a solo player. I don't even know how to successfully find one. I got sent an invite once by someone, but there were like 3 people in his clan, and that was about as bad as just playing solo. Do WE have a clan built up in the game and active? If so, send me an invite (I'm little_sarbonn in the game; yeah, quite a surprise for a name, huh?).

4. Part of me is thinking I'm just touching the surface of this genre of games, so if you know of any others out there that are action-oriented and with a huge player base, and it's fun, please let me know. Basically, something like Destiny 2 with very limited (or non-existent) pvp, would be great. The game actually reminds me a lot of Defiance, but with a lot more territory to traverse, and a much larger player base. The recent re-launch of Defiance is a travesty of what the previous game was, kind of like the enhancement we got from the New Game Experience in Star Wars Galaxies. Devs can sometimes be really, really good at destroying what made a game actually good.

Anyway, thanks for the one person who might have got through this wall of text. And as a result of being the ONLY survivor, you will be rewarded the special ANKH OF CLARITY, which will be provided by Bethesda's Technical Support in their usual timely fashion.

1 hour ago, Emperor Diocletian II said:

@brucoe - great video, but if you're open to some "constructive criticism", I'd have to say that I kinda lost the "through line" for the video's theme about halfway through it.  You did recover it a bit in the last third, but it slipped again towards the end.

 

Do you script or outline these before you record?  If not, it's something that you should consider at least at a high-level as that will maintain thematic consistency throughout and be able to present a stronger, more powerful argument.

Thank you. Good comments. It makes complete sense because I didn't script it but just kind of put the video together as a quick response to what was going on, and to be honest, I kind of regret that I didn't take more time to script the whole thing out. But it was one of those things I really felt like I wanted to get off my chest.

I really appreciate the comments. It will probably help on the next video I do.

Right now, I'm really frustrated, and yeah, I know, no one cares. I live in Texas, and for a short period of time it seemed like things might just start turning around, mainly because everyone was doing what needed to be done, even if it really, really sucked having to stay in all the time and avoid other people. And then the Neanderthal decided he needed to open the country sooner rather than later, and of course, Texas being  a red state had to buy into the nonsense.

Now, our Coronavirus numbers are starting to increase, and will probably overwhelm the system by the time they're done with it. All so they could allow people to get haircuts, hang out at the beaches and splash around in water parks. Thanks, Texas. When I die, someone please take my ashes and dump them on our governor's head and thank him for his service.

Here's my take on where we are going forward, mainly because I love sharing my opinion in a world where no one ever listens to me anyway.

10 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

 

He walked out, made the statement, and left without questions.

He planned to mike drop but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Much like the rest of disconnected America, one of my largest concerns during all of this is the plethora of bystanders who are just going about their own lives, yet get affected by this sort of thing, just because they're in the middle of it when it happens, and neither the people protesting or the people who are protected from the protesters, are under any type of safety umbrella. I remember this during the Rodney King riots while I was living in San Francisco. I commiserated with a lot of the people who were protesting, but at the same time, when I had to return home from work (the whole thing erupted in the middle of the day while I was at work), I literally had no way of getting home and ended up stranded on the streets waiting for a bus that never showed up while the streets were practically deserted aside from wandering vehicles of marauders actually looking for potential victims to actually assault (which they did). I got lucky and ducked my way around obstacles (it was like walking through a post-battle war zone, which I had actually done in my lifetime already for real), and talk about some PTSD moments there.

After all this was over, I remember liberal voices actually stating that those "innocent bystanders" deserved everything they got because they're part of the system, as if some Marxist academic approach forgives the fact that society had pretty much just collapsed in the middle of a metropolitan US city over something that happened in Los Angeles.

So, academically, I understand how all of this happens and is justified in all avenues, but at the same time I don't think anyone really wants to have any of these moments happen. I hate racism more than you can possibly imagine, but I can't do anything about it either. Sure, I can school people around me when I see the behavior, but I don't live in communities where that sort of behavior is prevalent, which means when these sorts of things erupt, they usually happen and flow right  over all sorts of communities that are equally supportive but powerless to make a difference. It's like saying that I'm responsible for all of the stupid shit that Trump does because I live in a country that somehow managed to put him into the presidency, even though I never would have and never will vote for someone that moronic. It's that same wort of academic response to "you're part of your institution" and thus, responsible for the ramifications of your system that drive me nuts.

I've been writing about racism for years in so many different mediums. I've taught about it and how to counter it in numerous college institutions, but when it comes down to it, this sort of shit just keeps happening in this country because statistically, we suck horribly and no, we're not getting any better. Some of us are, but the numbers that make the difference (and keep in mind, it only takes one or two to really spoil the whole apple cart) continue to be the shitheads that they've always been. And we reward them because we're so good at overlooking their problems until those problems emerge at a level that causes some cop to choke a man to death, or some arbitrary citizen to murder another person on the streets because "I was defending myself" from imagined threats.

Anyway, as you can guess, this has been kind of bothering me a bit, and I'll go back to my cave now.

Okay, this isn't a request to watch my Youtube format. You don't even have to look at my page in order to address the question. But here goes:

For a number of years, I've had a Youtube channel that kind of focused on a bunch of different topics (started off on gaming, then turned to politics, and then turned to techniques on becoming a better writer). It's kind of gone all over the place. For about a year or so, I just sort of abandoned it because it never gained much traction (it actually had more than I thought it did cause I didn't understand the Youtube ecosystem back then), and it just grew cobwebs.

Then, recently because of the whole Coronavirus thing, I had to put all of my educational content online. This required me to tape all of my lectures and then put them on Youtube where I could link them for my classes so they would have content. Strangely enough, I had started teaching political science again (even though I'm actually officially a communications instructor...having the doctorate in political science forced me into having to pick up political science courses, and those happened to be the ones I was teaching when the virus took hold...just a strange coincidence). So, that caused me to start opening up my channel again. And I started posting a lot of content.

Well, this got me to starting to play with my content again, and I've now focused a bit on creative writing again (although also forced to focus on politics because I still have to develop content for my classes).

So, after that word salad, my question: I'm trying to figure out what to do with this channel going forward, because after all of this recording, I've actually started to really enjoy making videos again. I made two very recent ones (aside from lecture material) on creative writing, and I just found that the creative process is telling me to just keep doing more. Which begs the question: What should I start focusing my content on being going forward?

Writing process is something I love to discuss, but at the same time it gets really tedious to keep going over that kind of information. Part of me wants to g into political discourse, but then again, I really don't want to alienate any listeners, which is something I have to seriously avoid doing when actually teaching college courses. Can't exactly become a die-hard Republican or Democrat when that starts to affect students who begin to start to see all sorts of shadows in practically every lesson, even if none were intended.

But the audience is growing. The channel originally had about 100 subscribers, which is funny because most of the Youtube how'to's on developing your channel all seem to have the subject of "How to Grow Your Channel to Your First 100 Subscribers", so we're already past that. It has 121 as of today, as a few people have joined over the last few days.

So, the question, going back to that again, is if you were somewhat in the same boat, which direction would go with your channel?

For those interested, and like I said, this isn't designed to be a "look at my site" thing, but more for background, the site is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCncbB4jWz0QEuAAvqtHRSwQ

At least I think that links to it.

I see it used a lot, but that's mainly because I follow a lot of Youtube sites that are generally political in nature, which automatically starts pushing out right-leaning types of content. Therefore, this stuff starts to bunch up really fast, even if you aren't really looking for it.

I also follow a bunch of content on Twitch, and whenever the gamers there start to get all hot and bothered about the girls getting more attention than the guys, they start going down the "those guys are simps" route and then start pointing out virtue signalling and all sorts of other claimed behavior. It does start to get really annoying to read, especially when it comes out of nowhere.

It's like the other meme that has gotten out of hand now that the media has found it and has started to run it, and we are all familiar with it: Calling women "Karen". Basically "simps" and "Karen" are lazy approaches to making arguments about things that aren't really being defended in the first place. I got called a simp the other day because someone attacked a friend of mine online  for something completely uncalled for. But because my friend was a woman, this immediately became this person's argument, mainly because he had no actual defense against someone who knows how to actually argue in real time and is willing to do it.

I bought the Switch back when they all became extremely difficult to get (all models). I bought it at Sam's Club online, and the purchase went quite smoothly. I wanted the console version, not the lite, but it's what it is. They still haven't become easily obtainable, so all I have is the Lite.

I bought it specifically to play Animal Crossing, and it was cute, but I really couldn't get into it. And when I found celebrities signing into it and "visiting" islands of regular players, something just turned me off of the whole thing. I HATE when celebrities involve themselves in a game. I don't hate that they play it, but that the media makes a huge deal that some politician or movie star plays a game that real people play. I sometimes just want to throw the device into a wall whenever I hear crap like that. Don't even know why it bothers me.

Having said that, I haven't really played Animal Crossing since the first day I started it. It just sits on my kitchen table charging most of the time as I go into my office and continue working on my next novel.

Keep in mind, the "libel" laws in this country have been interpreted by justices who weren't originally appointed by Trump. This may be the moment that Kavanaugh becomes completely significant to history.

On 2/22/2020 at 1:37 PM, Keyser_Soze said:

Stop going to reddit. Problem solved!

It's all over Youtube now, too. There are some seriously relationship-challenged people out there that justify their frustrations by just being angry at whatever they will never have.

They're trying too hard.

5 hours ago, Jason said:

 

Every time we see a picture of Weinstein for the next thousand years, it should just be a photo of his walker.

On 1/13/2020 at 3:49 PM, SaysWho? said:

 

I remember @brucoe once talked about up-sizing fast food sodas, where they tell you, "Do you want the larger size for only 10 cents more?" And he said, "But really, they're asking if you want X amount more sugar for 10 cents more and we view that as a deal."

 

I never thought about it the same way again after that post.

Yeah, and I still think about that every time faced with the same situation, although it's been well over a year or so since I've stepped into a fast food restaurant. My physique has changed SO MUCH for the better since those days.

I'm a day late, but wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm in the process of moving (literally across the hall to a larger apartment), but just wanted to stop in and say hi to all.

On 9/16/2019 at 8:14 PM, MarSolo said:

 

After that report of him spending all morning in his pajamas watching television leaked, I'm convinced he does now too.

Oh, come on. I can't stand the guy, but if I was President, I'd spend half the day in pajamas, too, knowing that NO ONE could tell me I couldn't, except perhaps my wife, Shania Twain.

On 9/13/2019 at 9:52 PM, ort said:

Hey, I’m right there with you. I buy everything on amazon. I just don’t feel good about it.

I'm the same way. Exactly.

On 9/14/2019 at 4:06 PM, Mr.Vic20 said:

Poor Bolton, he just missed his chance! 

I suspect it was all part of Bolton's New World Order plan. Once he was removed from office, his minions would begin the "plan".

I'm part of a program that is supposed to lead directly to forgiveness after ten years. I'm expecting absolutely nothing from our government. They'll go back on their word and then have a bunch of people armed with think tanks blame me for taking so much debt and wasting my life working in crappy education when I should have been out doing something productive, like making lots of money.

A few decades ago, San Francisco was definitely on its way to becoming a non-vehicle city, and it was doing it so well. Right around the Frank Jordan era of governace, they totally screwed that up, and slowly you had to rely on vehicles more and more. At the same time, they totally screwed up MUNI to where it was no longer feasible to use it as dedicated transportation unless you were poor or just lucky enough to live in an area that was only on routes, and if you were someone living in the East Bay (or now in the south bay), they made it completely ridiculous to use BART by raising the price for BART to astronomical levels, so that you'd find it so much more convenient (and inexpensive) to just drive.

That's why we're failing in so many cities. Even the progressive cities allow themselves one mayoral period of stupidity and then every mayor after that just build on it, even if they're progressives themselves (thanks Willie Brown).

43 minutes ago, Jwheel86 said:

Tornado touched down in my county on the barrier island. 

Wow, it hit Alabama pretty hard.

In my opinion, part of the problem is that lack of education of general drivers about school buses. Sure, it's on the test they take (if that question gets used), but I remember reading about the majority of people who take the written test, and so many people are so extremely close to failing that test that I'm pretty sure they're just taking the test without reading the book, and if they weren't taught about school buses when first learning to drive, they probably never learned it and don't care enough to educate themselves.

There are so many crazy people in this country that you're basically throwing dice every time you deal with another person after an accident. A real part of the problem is that when an accident happens, adrenaline is flowing, so otherwise normal people suddenly become fight-or-flight enhanced, which can lead to all sorts of unexpected conclusions. Fortunately, other than a few near misses over the years, I've not been in an accident where I was driving, I understand that circumstances could change, so I'm always worried I'm going to have an altercation with some crazed moron who most likely caused the accident in the first place.

5 minutes ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

Polling disagrees with you. It's clearly looking like a Warren-Sanders-Biden three-way primary race, with Harris and Buttigieg far behind at this point. That could change in the next few months, but we're only 14 months away from the general election now. We could get Biden, and that worries me, but having two progressives as the other two frontrunners in this race should give you hope and Biden's numbers continue to waver and in some polls continue to drop.

 

AND EVERYONE VOTE IN THIS DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY WHEN THE TIME COMES PLEASE

I'm predicting either Biden/Harris or Biden/Beto for the Dem side. I'm not saying I want any of those, but it's what I'm predicting. And I've only been wrong once. And that was just when I predicted Shania Twain wanted to go out with me. Ended up with Taylor Swift instead.

2 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

This was never the case, and this belief comes from a complete whitewash of our own history, let alone how we approached the world around us.

I said it was a belief, not a reality. But you see, believing you are a good person can often frame how you actually do things in your normal day. And that can't be all bad.