aphoenix's recent activity
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
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Comment on TV Tuesdays Free Talk in ~tv
aphoenix LinkThe Series 21 Cast for Taskmaster has been announced. Behind a spoiler in case any one doesn't want to read Amy Gledhill - a great English comedian, if you watch WILTY or Cats does Countdown,...The Series 21 Cast for Taskmaster has been announced.
Behind a spoiler in case any one doesn't want to read
Amy Gledhill - a great English comedian, if you watch WILTY or Cats does Countdown, you've likely seen her, and she has a great set that you may have seen from Just for Laughs or Edinburgh Fringe.
Armando Iannucci - a Scottish satirist and writer, in my opinion an absolute incredible "get" for Taskmaster. He has created several shows including Veep, Avenue 5, Alan Partridge, and more, and also wrote and directed In The Loop and Death of Stalin.
Joanna Page - a Welsh actress probably most notable as Stacey in Gavin & Stacey and maybe as a presenter on Loose Women. She's also been in lots of popular movies, like Love Actually.
Joel Dommett - English comedian / actor, also relatively known on panel shows and such in Britain.
Kumail Nanjiani - Pakistani comedian / actor who has been in a lot, but is probably most notably known in recent memory for getting super jacked and being in a Marvel movie that didn't do well. He's super funny though, and another incredible addition to the cast.
Looks like it's going to be a pretty great Series 21.
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Comment on The Muppet Show | Teaser trailer in ~tv
aphoenix LinkI am wildly excited about this. I like Seth Rogen a lot as a producer of things, and this looks like it's just picking up where the Muppets left off. They are perhaps my favorite franchise, and I...I am wildly excited about this. I like Seth Rogen a lot as a producer of things, and this looks like it's just picking up where the Muppets left off. They are perhaps my favorite franchise, and I still love watching the old Muppet Show.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentI think we are looking at things with a fundamental difference. For you, it seems important to find individuals who hold a double standard, people who think differently about men and women and who...- Exemplary
I think we are looking at things with a fundamental difference.
For you, it seems important to find individuals who hold a double standard, people who think differently about men and women and who express those specific differences in a way that is individually and obviously sexist. I understand that, but I think it is relatively uninteresting to find an individual or organisation that is sexist or otherwise prejudiced; it is unfortunately always easy to find such.
For me, I think it is more of interest to look at the zeitgeist of how media and society have a tendency to speak or report about women in politics, because that goes to systemic issues of sexism. I understand that you are making a claim that this is uninteresting because it can be entirely different individuals expressing their opinions, but I think it's wrong to dismiss things like this.
However, if you want examples of specific people who are individually sexist, then just find the closest person over the age of 70. They are statistically likely to praise a man for being brash and outspoken, and to find a woman to be unpleasant and pushy. They are statistically likely to say an old white man is strong and a young black woman is uppity. But I don't think "sexist people exist" is much of an interesting thing to point out. I think it's much more interesting and important to examine the gestalt of how media portrays and reports on women in politics.
Edit: I think that this is one of those times where "agree to disagree" is pretty acceptable by the way, so I'm not trying to make sure you accept my point, or change your mind and say that my way is the one true way to think about things. I also want to acknowledge that looking for specific individuals or media outlets that have bias is important as well, and I see the value in looking at things in that way.
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Comment on I feel that Destin (SmarterEveryDay on Youtube) is straying from the path in ~talk
aphoenix Link ParentI'm not a believer, but the sentiment that one must turn off one's brain to have a belief in a religion is a rough one for me to swallow. There are a lot of very thoughtful and brilliant people...I'm not saying you shouldn't believe, if that's what makes you feel better, but I do feel that you have to turn off your brain at some point to believe...
I'm not a believer, but the sentiment that one must turn off one's brain to have a belief in a religion is a rough one for me to swallow. There are a lot of very thoughtful and brilliant people who have belief in something, and I do not think it requires turning off any part of one's brain to have belief. That "I'm smarter than you" feel of atheism is one of the big things that make people dislike atheists.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix Link ParentI like @DefinitelyNotAFae's example of Crockett, because Crockett does get pretty constantly talked about for being "uppity" on social media (I have chosen a charged term) whereas Newsom (and...I like @DefinitelyNotAFae's example of Crockett, because Crockett does get pretty constantly talked about for being "uppity" on social media (I have chosen a charged term) whereas Newsom (and Trump) both are generally lauded for their social media presences. Similarly, AOC is often called "brash" and "unlikeable" whereas a man would be called "bold".
And yet, people stand by that instead of examining why they think Crockett is uppity and Trump is bold.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix Link ParentI would love to see Stacey Abrams make it, but I think her loss to Kemp has rendered her relatively unlikely as a candidate for the presidency of the US (much less of the whole dang earth much to...I would love to see Stacey Abrams make it, but I think her loss to Kemp has rendered her relatively unlikely as a candidate for the presidency of the US (much less of the whole dang earth much to our own detriment) but Crockett and AOC both give me hope and make me feel that things are possible. AOC especially with her rallies with Bernie.
Of course I am saying this as a Canadian, mostly just worried about the downstairs neighbour with all the nukes and all the crazy, hoping that things turn out well.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix Link ParentYeah, I just looked her up and she's 79 which is old. Not as old as the men who have been running the country, though, and she doesn't act or feel as old as the last two presidents, and I could...Yeah, I just looked her up and she's 79 which is old. Not as old as the men who have been running the country, though, and she doesn't act or feel as old as the last two presidents, and I could see her being effective, timely, and appopriate for the next 20 years, whereas Trump and Biden are both near their death beds.
Even though she's physically old, she's not feeble.
This has been excused (or even admired) with many men, and specifically the last two presidents.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix Link ParentAlexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Lee, Tammy Duckworth, Stacey Abrams, Gretchen Whitmer, Jasmine Crockett, Amy Clobuchar. Any one of these women could be a good, maybe great,...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Lee, Tammy Duckworth, Stacey Abrams, Gretchen Whitmer, Jasmine Crockett, Amy Clobuchar. Any one of these women could be a good, maybe great, president. I have doubts about ever seeing it in my lifetime, and I'm not that old.
I've omitted Harris since she already lost once, which is anathema to the party, and Michelle Obama who has stated she won't run, and a number of other great women politicians because they are ineligible to run.
Every single thing I've seen people say they don't like about one of these women is something that is excused or admired in men.
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Comment on Jon Stewart is our only hope in ~society
aphoenix LinkThis is one of the most American posts I've read in a while. Please, please, please stop electing people based on how much you like the TV shows they were in and how you feel when they talk good,...This is one of the most American posts I've read in a while.
Please, please, please stop electing people based on how much you like the TV shows they were in and how you feel when they talk good, and instead read the policies that they put out and what they are going to do for the country.
Kamala Harris was a great candidate with a good platform. If she fumbled her words a few times enough to make a supercut of word salad, please consider that she's given literally thousands of hours of press conferences, and they cherry picked 20 bad minutes. She is an articulate and actually quite compelling speaker, and I say that as someone who recently heard her speak on her book tour.
Vote for policy not personality. Picking Jon Stewart is an absolutely horrendous joke of an idea. He is not a politician, he would be wildly ineffective, and he doesn't know what to do.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentKeys sent, my apologies for the dealy, I was screen free for a few days for Christmas. Enjoy!Keys sent, my apologies for the dealy, I was screen free for a few days for Christmas. Enjoy!
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentKey sent, my apologies for the delay, I was screen free for Christmas day and boxing day. Enjoy!Key sent, my apologies for the delay, I was screen free for Christmas day and boxing day. Enjoy!
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentI was holding off, but since nobody else has claimed it I would be happy to take the game off your hands to gift to one of my kids. I have the game, but can't play it with them right now, so we...I was holding off, but since nobody else has claimed it I would be happy to take the game off your hands to gift to one of my kids. I have the game, but can't play it with them right now, so we have never really tried it out.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
aphoenix LinkI have been playing The Outer Wilds. It is very good, I think in my top 3 that I've played this year, with a minor quibble. I'm not going to say much about the story or anything, because I think...I have been playing The Outer Wilds. It is very good, I think in my top 3 that I've played this year, with a minor quibble. I'm not going to say much about the story or anything, because I think it's actually best to know very little about it when you play, but there is a very minor story spoiler that is required for me to talk about one thing, so this is all behind a spoiler tag. Be warned, this is an exceptionally minor spoiler, to the point that I am very confident that anyone could read this, then play the game, then not feel that I have really spoiled much of anything because it has almost nothing to do with the story at all, but I experienced the game blind and you can too by not clicking on this.
Minor spoilers for The Outer Wilds
So the game is an exploration game where you are an alien doing alien exploration in a tiny solar system. Right at the beginning one of the first things that you do, before you get in your spaceship and explore, is come across what is effectively a training mission; you have a little model ship that you can practice flying on. It is presented as a sort of "learn before you do it for real" opportunity.
I could not for the life of me fly the model ship. I went off course, I toppled and went into water, I could not move it in the right direction. I fiddled with it for a bit and then I just put the game aside. If I couldn't even fly the easy mode tutorial, or if the tutorial wasn't actually a good faith tutorial, did I even want to play? No, not really. So I put it down and went back to another comfort game.
That didn't quite sit well with me, because I had read more than one comment on Tildes talking about how the game was great, and I generally trust the overall opinions of people here, so I gave it another shot the next day. I tried out flying the model again and still couldn't really do it, but I finished the other pre-flight checks, and decided I'd go and crash my big ship. I got the launch codes, got in the ship, blasted off and had zero problems with the controls. They're intuitive and easy, and the autopilot generally works.
It wasn't what I was expecting at all, and it, even now, left me feeling sour about that specific issue. I found some comments and watched a bit of a documentary, and it seems it was a specific design choice to make getting in the "real" ship feel big and scary, and holy smokes do I ever disagree with that as a design choice. Introductions should be introductory, they should not ever encourage people to put the game down. If it wasn't for other people having told me that the game was great, I would have bounced off this introduction and not played it at all.
Other than this one issue, it is a delightful game.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentOh, sorry, I did give that to @under, I just read from the bottom up. But I sent Amanda the Adventurer.Oh, sorry, I did give that to @under, I just read from the bottom up. But I sent Amanda the Adventurer.
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentEvil West was requested about an hour earlier, my apologies. But I have sent you Jagged Alliance 3. Enjoy!Evil West was requested about an hour earlier, my apologies. But I have sent you Jagged Alliance 3. Enjoy!
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
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Comment on Tildes Game Giveaway: Holiday 2025 in ~games
I have been playing The Baby In Yellow which I have to say is easily the best Cosmic Lovecraftian Horror Babysitting Simulator that I've ever played. I don't always try to get 100% on the achievements in a game, but I did manage to do so with this one. It's not a lengthy game - steam tells me I've played 9 hours and at least a couple of those I just had the game paused while making dinner - but it was a pretty fun. Really not much more to say about it; actually I think "Cosmic Lovecrafting Horror Babysitting Simulator" is probably the only 5 words I need to perfectly encapsulate the sort of game it is, and every other word I've put here is a waste.