Wandering Around

 Let’s say you’ve got a city where there’s tame white doves everywhere. They’re not pests, they’re regarded as sacred, holy protectors of the city, and the whole city cares for them and feeds them like they’re pets. They’re so tame because it’s a social taboo to hurt or scare one. Nice pretty doves :)

 Then someone points out that even if they’re not seen as pests, doesn’t having a completely unchecked feral pigeon population - that not only isn’t being culled, but actively fed and cared for - mean that there would be bird shit absolutely all over the place?

 A part of you wants to say no, because these are your nice, pretty doves. To explain that there’s a reason why they’re not shitting all over the place, maybe they’re super-intelligent and specifically bred and trained to not shit all over the place. The logistics of how, exactly, could anyone breed and train a flock of feral birds go unaddressed.

 An even worse solution would be to not have those birds, editing them out of the world. No, they spark joy, you can’t just toss them out!

 Now, consider: Yes, yes they would, but the city also has an extensive public sanitation service that’s occupied 90% of the time by cleaning bird shit off of everything. One of the most common last names in the area actually translates to “one who scrapes off dove shit”, and it’s a highly respected occupation. And thanks to the sheer necessity of constantly regularly cleaning everything, the city enjoys a much higher standard of cleanliness, and less public health issues caused by poor public sanitation.

The Augsburg concept has one big pigeon house every 500m in which wild pigeons are fed, protected from weather and have nesting opportunities. Cities doing that have WAY less uncontrolled populations (since they can take out eggs if they feel they need reduce the population), way less shit AND a healthy population since it’s easier for veterinarians to notice and get to sick animals.

So I’d say one can of course still keep your general idea……but there’s also those MASSIVE palace-like pidgeon houses and only the most worthy are allowed to enter and directly interact with the pigeons (feed them, heal them, clean their lodgings). One big entrance for the human servants (priests??) and millions of small holes for the pigeons.

I just about had a fucking heart attack about an hour ago when I read the latest news about my favorite game, Path of Exile.

My art was featured in the latest Community Showcase news article

And I fucking jumped, like I scrolled down going "Oh that's cool, ooo that's really well drawn, oh that's- WHAT"

And I straight up clutched my chest

I have officially, OFFICIALLY been noticed by the developers of my favorite game, and I am honored

I know they want to at least increase "time to death" from 0.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds, as stated from ZiggyD's interview with the PoE2 team.

But if there's significantly fewer insta-deaths I don't even care, I'll just play it and love it!

Right, basically a full restart of the boss fight. That and "if you die in a level, then if you choose to respawn at the level's start or your last checkpoint (instead of letting a party member revive you), you're put into a new instance of the level with a new batch of monsters, but the same physical layout and a preserved mini-map".

But from my experience, PoE1 is like the only game that does it like "if you die to the boss, your progress with the boss is not set back at all; you just run in and continue exactly where you left off". I think Warframe's the only other game I've played that does it like that, with its finite self-revives.

Most games I've played are not that generous. They send you back to the start of the phase you died in, or back to the start of the boss fight.

So I never found it a big deal that PoE2 would do it like many other games do. Especially since it's clear that PoE2 will be balanced with that in mind.

But yeah, I'm really looking forward to PoE2, especially since after the core experience of PoE2 is finished, then the people who worked on it can be be assigned back and forth between PoE1 and PoE2. Also the fact that POE2 has WASD movement should not be overlooked.

I know they want to at least increase "time to death" from 0.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds, as stated from ZiggyD's interview with the PoE2 team.

Sup nerds.

adding that tag here because it's vitally important: Monkey Wrench is truly a labor of love with a tiny crew. no marketing department, no distributor, just two people (one writer, one writer/animator) doing their damnedest to put together a show.

they do hire help for animation, clean-up, music, sound, and voices, but check this—the creators are also the "office" admins. the wrangling of assignment, payment, communication and coordination, the reel reviews and hiring that's usually handled by admin staff in a studio is all handled by Tito and Zeurel themselves. and that's on top of Zeurel doing the bulk of animation and cleanup AND backgrounds and video editing by himself.

YouTube's constant algorithm shenanigans means there isn't a lot of return on these—poor ep 2 was brutalized by it, which means things are in fact looking desperate. Ep 3 is shaping up to be when things really start kicking into gear for the story, but YT tomfoolery means we could lose Monkey Wrench already if not enough eyeballs get on it.

Episode Two

When this episode debuted, I appreciated it for what it was. Bendy as a character is a complete asshole that delights in stirring shit and then feigning innocence, blaming someone else for the shit he does, or leaving it unknown- just with an alibi that he couldn't possibly be the nearest candidate for what he did. Feigning innocence to be a cruel, malicious, selfish piece of shit.

Everybody knows a Bendy. Bendy is that asshole that does bad things, but you get in trouble as the most probable source of an issue in his stead. You take the heat, he steals the cookie and comes back later for another, escaping punishment.

The episode explored how an asshole like Blue would deal with Bendy. Blue is the wrong kind of person to deal with a Bendy. He can out prank him, even be out-malicious. But that's not the point. Bendy's schtick is the more you do that, the more responsibility and blame deflects off of him; ESPECIALLY if it's certifiably true that he's NOT behind the thefts, destructions and pranks. Now you've just proven someone is out to frame him for stuff he hasn't done.

Bendy was a beautiful episode, even if you hate the Bendies of the world. And the most bittersweet part? Bendy never received comeuppance. Because sometimes, the Bendies of the world do not get what's coming to them. And you really need to recognize this. That's just how life is, sometimes.

Knowing that, you know better how to deal with the Bendies, and you had better know how to deal with the Bendies when they cross your path. While the story may leave a bitter or sour taste in your mouth, think of it as character driven. It brought out the worst in Blue for entirely in-character reasons.

“She took the bag that contains the loot” means that she took one of several bags, in particular, the one that happens to contain the loot.

“She took the bag, which contains the loot” means that there’s only one bag you might be referring to, and that the fact that she took it is important because it contains the loot.