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WhiningCoil

Ghost of Quokka's Future

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joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
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WhiningCoil


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Ghost of Quokka's Future

				
				
				

				

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					joined 2022 September 04 23:24:47 UTC
				


				
					

					
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				Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Buddy, you are in for such a treat.  If you are serious about anything from the last 30 years, you are in for a firehose of fun you can scarcely imagine.


But first, install Linux Mint, or CachyOS, or whatever your preferred form of Linux is.  Microsoft Windows is over, and your computing experience will be much more pleasant (not to mention faster and more responsive) with any of the popular Linux distros.  They all run windows games virtually out of the box these days.


Since everyone else is focusing on new trash from the last 10 years, let me offer a broader prespective.


    

  • StarCraft (1998) - I still think this might have one of the most finely honed RTS campaigns of all time.  Just flawless.
    • 

  • Quake 2 (1997) - I consider this the peak of a form of shooter that died for a long time post Half-Life.  It's all about rule of cool in the level design, and enemy attack patterns you can actually anticipate and dodge.  Fun weapons too.
    • 

  • Might & Magic VI (1998) - Possibly the best Might & Magic ever.  First one that didn't constrain movement to a grid, massive open world, tons of quests and loot, so many fun ways you can upgrade your characters, including quests for advanced classes.  Might & Magic VII is better in some ways, some people liked that you got a castle.  I never cared for the fact that the story put you on a deadline.
    • 

  • Half-Life (1998) - The FPS that completely redefined how FPS were made.  Environmental story telling at it's best, and IMHO better than it's sequel.
    • 

  • Baldur's Gate (1998) - I replayed this a few years ago and absolutely adored it.  A relatively low power AD&D powered RPG.  It's a tight 10-20 hour experience with a little bit of everything you could possibly want in an RPG.  See Icewind Dale if you want more of a dungeon crawl experience, and Planescape Torment if you lean more story and role play heavy.
    • 

  • Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns (2001) - My love for this game is inexplicable.  Just a very unique take on an RTS.  Kind of a left field pick I will admit.
    • 

  • Max Payne (2001) - The game that invented bullet time!  And more or less set in stone the way Remedy Entertainment made games and told stories from this point on.  If you like it, you'll probably like everything else Remedy made (Max Payne 2, Alan Wake, Control, etc)
    • 

  • Morrowind (2002) - Another possible high water mark for the Elder Scrolls games.  Massive, and alien, open world.  No level scaling in the world.  Hits are determined by stats and not timing or player skill like later games.  Probably the last pure RPG in the series before Oblivion moved it more in an action direction.
    • 

  • Arx Fatalis (2002) - A dungeon crawl RPG in the spirit of Ultima Underworld.  Just you, an underground labyrinth, and whatever you can scrounge along the way.  I never actually beat it now that I think about it.
    • 

  • Tron 2.0 (2003) - Probably a better sequel to the original movie than what we actually got.  I remember really enjoying it, but it's been forever since I last played it.  Another left field pick.
    • 

  • Painkiller (2004) - The first FPS where bunny hopping wasn't just a thing you could do, but actively required to handle the raw quantity of enemies, as well as get to certain areas.  Fucking love it.  Can't speak to the sequels though.
    • 

  • Darwinia (2005) - An indie game before indie games were really a thing.  It changed a lot over the years.  I still have an old CD-ROM copy with gesture controls and all sorts of nonsense, since that was hip at the time.  I think if you get it now of GOG or something it has more traditional controls.  Sort of an RTS?  Sort of a god game?  You'll see.
    • 

  • Titan Quest (2006) - Do you like action RPGs?  Probably one of the last best ones.  Then THQ went out of business and they all formed a new game studio and made Grim Dawn, which is also pretty damned good.
    • 

  • Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (2004) - I always found the campaigns for this game underwhelming, but the Dark Crusade expansion had a really fun campaign mode for all the playable factions.  Something like 8 of them I think?  It got a little out of control.
    • 

  • Sid Meier's Railroad (2006) - I never liked train games.  Maybe this isn't even a very good train game for the people that really love train games.  But it worked for me.
    • 

  • Legend of Grimrock (2012) - An old school grid based, real time dungeon crawler RPG, in the style of Dungeon Master.  Strongly recommend.
    • 



That's probably enough for now.  Have fun.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean, I'm not touching it.  All the promotional material looks awful, and the interviews I hear about are all the usual subversive plattitudes about undermining the original meaning of the work.  I know there probably aren't many Odyssey stans since schools no longer teach western civilization, but I doubt there are enough anti-fans either who are willing to pay to see the original story ruined/subverted.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Regional?




It's a good guess.  Trying to date in Northern Virginia, I exclusively encountered women like this.  And this was back in the mid to late 00's, doesn't even touch the hellscape that is modern day swiping, instagram and yaslighting.  Not one single woman I dated (until I met my future wife) seemed to have any concept of the value of the dollar.  Even the morbidly obese ones had notions of how luxurious life would be when they "got their second income" which was a terrifying way of referring to a future husband they hadn't even met yet.  One woman, on the first date, threw out as an ice breaker that she'd already picked out a $25,000 ring and any man who deserved her would afford it.  I called it at one date with her.  She called me utterly baffled and crying that I wasn't interested.  I dated a woman for under a year that had racked up hundreds of thousands of debt, with the belief that is what you are supposed to do when you are young to have fun, and then you/your husband pays it off when you get old.  I never dated anyone (until I met my future wife) that didn't have thousands in credit card debt in their early to mid 20's.  It was buttfucking insane.  To say nothing of how little any of them brought to the table.


Now, that's not to say I never met sane, well adjusted women.  Just never dating.  They were always in a long term relationship with a highschool or college sweetheart.  Relationships which despite being rocky at times, everyone is kind of a selfish prick in their 20's, were genuine and sincere and sweet and loving.  All their friends always tried to pry them apart with stories of how "toxic" so and so was, and how fun dating was.  They often left the friend group and it's extreme neurotic dating habits and expectations to save their relationships.  I hope it worked out for them.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


And while you had a number of people gushing about how she had such a spate of cool hobbies and whatnot, not one person seemed to follow my train of thought and go 'Wait a minute, she looks to be in her mid-twenties and most of that are obscenely expensive hobbies with a horrendous amount of time investment! Where the holy hell is she getting both the money and the time to do all this at her age!?'




If I recall that clip which went viral, every male contestant was thinking that because nobody picked her.  All her quirk chungus hobbies read as so obviously high maintenance that every single man on the show noped out.  And you know you fucked up when men desperate enough to go on a dating show nope out.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
At this point we'd probably need to anex Canada and genocide the "natives".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for July 17, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I've never seen it this bad where I am.  Usually its just a haze that knocks 10-20٪ off my solar panel efficiency.  Today it smells like burnt rubber and the smog reminds me of my visit to Beijing.  And this is down in the far exurbs of the DC metro area.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Mostly its a sign the husband forgot to block social media sites on the router, as is his patriarchal responsibility.


All that shit is a social contagion and not a sign of anything except gas lighting.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm almost afraid to jinx myself, because I have such a good thing going, but I'm eternally grateful my wife and I made it through so many trials and tribulations.  We survived losing jobs, lockdowns, health issues, values drift, relocating.  Then the usual things like having kids, buying a house, etc.  I truly don't know what I'd be doing with my life without her and the life we've built together.


All that said, somehow, I'm making 50% more in take home pay than my last job, and yet with a stay at home mom and two kids, my budget is stretched thinner than it's ever been stretched before.  I heard some random anecdote/joke on a woodworking channel.  Dude knew some guy who had 6 kids, and he asks how he can afford so many.  Guy says "Well 6 kids costs the same as 3 kids".  Dude just goes "WTF?!" and guy responds "No matter how many kids you have, they cost everything".  And that's about right.  No matter how much money you make, there always seems to be something the kids "need", or in many cases need.  Like being kept out of public schools run by fucking machines.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You also have to consider that boomers were insane.


I was listening to some older female comedian talk about her experiences going to a school that underwent busing during integration.  And the raw facts of it were a wave of violence was imported into her otherwise peaceful school, and she and many of the other white kids spent the next few years getting the shit kicked out of them.  But her parents, teachers, and most of the other adults turned a blind eye towards it for "the cause".  And she ends on a positive note about becoming more ghetto herself and getting along with her abusers by her senior year.  The story is supposed to be some feelgood bit of "See, we can all get along" that, in my eyes, did not remotely tell the story she was trying to tell.


Most boomers fed their kids to the jungle, outcomes be damned.  A brave few protested, and they've gone down as history's villains.  So now the rest of us have to pay thousands per child on private education that has no obligation to accept antisocial behavior, "desperate impact" be damned.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You know, if it's all the same, I'd rather not say.  It's not a weird one, I just have conflicted feelings about turning my entire persona here into "WhiningCoil's newb experiences at church" or the like.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st. Nearly at the halfway mark.




I quit pornography as part of my new religious commitments around the same time.


I was not expecting how difficult it would be to go from cumming once or twice a day to once a week when the kid is finally in bed at a reasonable how and my wife isn't too tired.  I was also not expecting to be wondering what fresh fetishes hentai artist might be coming up with, or where certain story lines ended up going.  I was not expecting how hard it would be to delete my stash of 20+ years, despite the fact that ostensibly I'm never going to touch it again.


When I was reading Introduction to Devout Life, the chapters on attachment to sin hit like a ton of bricks.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-07-11
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Well, I know its a bad way of thinking about it, but its "house money" now.  I've already recouped my investment, saved for taxes, and rotated it into a mutual fund.  And like I said, I still think the CEO is going to sell the company.  So maybe the buyout price has more upside.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-07-11
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I'm terrible at picking entry prices.  I just kept loading up after Pat Gelsinger was back in as CEO because I thought someone would realize Intel is an indispensable American company with Taiwan off the coast of an increasingly belligerent China.  I believed in his vision for Intel and the turn around of their foundries.  I bought from $60 when he first got in, and loaded up pretty heavily down in the 20's and 30's too.


I no longer have that thesis for Intel.  I'm almost certain the new CEO is a hatchet man, who's only brought in to generate some headlines and goose the share price ahead of pieces of the company, or the entire company, being sold off for the best price they can manage.  I cannot imagine after all the layoffs and devastated morale that the company still has the institutional knowledge to capitalize on the tepid fruits of Pat Gelsinger's plans anymore.  So I took some profit where I could, protected my original investment, and I'm curious to see where the rest goes.  Maybe Intel will get sold to Nvidia, or the US Government, or who knows who, at $160/share or something.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread - 2026-07-11
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I finally sold some of my INTC holdings a while ago at 136/share up from about a 37/share cost basis.  Sold off about 1/3rd of my stake and decided to let the rest ride.  That's worked out pretty well.


Finally cut MSFT loose too.  This latest round of layoffs with H1B applications just makes clear the looters at the top are wholy dedicated to converting the entire market cap into H1B's.  Product quality be damned.  I was holding on for a while since line kept going up, but I'm out now.  Still walked away up 100%.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Wellness Wednesday for July 8, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
My wife had our baby boy on Monday.  Kid came too fast for the epidural, so she had him au naturel.  Which was how she wanted to have him, but labor is hard and she changed her mind.  Baby decided to keep her honest, and speedran the birth canal instead.  By the time the anesthesiologist was in the room, baby was a knuckle away from crowning.  So my wife got to learn she's way tougher than she thought she was.  I'm really proud of her.


Can I just say, I fucking hate doctors scaring the fuck out of us over every little thing?  First was a fetal scan where the MFM made it sound like my baby had a bad heart and would need emergency surgery and/or die.  Then a fetal cardio walked it way back and made it clear that what was being seen had a more than likely chance of resolving itself after birth.  Which it did.  Then that same MFM kept riding my wife's ass to induce or cut the baby out ASAP because of some bullshit about how every day of a geriatric pregnancy increases the chance of still birth.  Even 5 days before the kid was born, that MFM was telling my wife there was a 1/1000 chance of stillbirth from where we were.


Mind you, all the stats were perfectly normal.  Minus the ambiguous heart scan that resolved itself.


Even now after the first appointment, the family doctor was riding our ass that the baby wasn't peeing enough.  He'd only last peed at 4 am and it was 11 am at the time.  Then he peed in the office, and she was still all "Well, you need to call me and let me know he's peed again before I leave the office or I'll be very worried."  This was after she remarked that he looked perfectly healthy, vitals all perfect, good color, nothing concerning about his appearance.


Just... why are doctors like this?  My wife's neurotic enough without doctors making her believe every normal variance is a sign that her baby is going to die.


Shit even got to me in that span between crowning and crying.  All my posturing that everything was going to be ok, that the MFM was just an asshole, began to crumble and I wondered if my optimism was leading my family into life changing tragedy.  It may have only lasted 5 seconds, it may have been a minute or two.  I honestly can't say.  But hearing him cry for the first time was the most relieved I can ever recall feeling.  The baby cried, I cried, and I turned to my wife and she was crying.


Later that night in recovery, I rocked him in my arms and told him about his big sister, the cats and dog that are excited to see him, how funny it is to watch chickens run, and how much better the world now is with him in it.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think what gets me about this story isn't the rape allegation, but the fact that after everything else only a rape allegation matters.  He made the right mouth sounds, so he got a pass on all sorts of other behavior.


It's a shame Democrats threw out their Christian upbringing.  Otherwise Platner would be able to say he found God and it's all good now.  Since it's a given that literally every single human being seeking public office is a monster in human looking flesh, they really need to come up with some sort of secular redemptive act.  I'm not sure donating to the ADL is cutting it anymore.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of July 6, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Imho, outside of a very rare few, the best way to get laid in your 40s is to have gotten married and grown old together in your 20s or 30s.  In my 20s I had a fun string of girlfriends I had nonstop sex with.  Including my future wife!  But I can scarcely imagine that having kept up with aging, peers all settling down without me, career monopolizing more of my time, etc.  Plus every time I creampie my 40 year old wife she still looks 25 to me.  Beat that.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I mean, asian diseases ravaged Europe for centuries, we dont hold China morally culpable for the black death.


Second, without the benefit of hindsight there was little way of knowing who's diseases would be worse for who on first contact.


That said, smallpox is gone, and syphilis is still going strong, so maybe notch one for new world diseases.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yeah, I would prefer the lie I was sold about people emigrating here and learning our language, our history, our morals and customs.


But that isn't happening.  Not even remotely.  We just have random third world colonies committing tax fraud, welfare fraud and immigration fraud on an industrial scale, and we just let it happen.  I would enormously prefer an actual war instead of rolling over and letting the third world steal everything that isn't bolted down.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


If you want to say only this version of Americans could have done everything its not a claim thats well backed up by evidence if you don't know why.




You know, this is the same argument I saw in a random youtube video ages ago, about why North America is an OP starting position for a civilization.  They made all the usual arguments about natural resources, fertility of the soil, and a few I'd never heard before about how especially navigable America's waterways and coasts are.


Except there were people here before the land was conquered and turned in The United States, and they didn't do any of that shit.  In fact, there were many, many unique peoples here, and none of them did any of that shit.


So excuse me if I don't entirely buy the argument that anybody living in America would have been as great as The United States.  History shows there were, and they weren't.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes.


Less flippantly, do I need an explanation for gravity to prove it's effects?  Are 250 years of history not enough?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


The United States is an exceptional country and no American should take for granted the lottery of life that they won merely by being born in that country.




I hate this.  I want to find whoever coined this "lucky to be born a X" meme and torture them in the most luxurious way I can possibly imagine.


There is no lottery to being born in America, any more than there is a lottery for a TSMC foundry to produce silicon chips as opposed to burittos.  Americans conquered this land, established it's institutions, and then fucked.  They fucked a lot.  And they made more Americans as surely as Indians make more Indians, or Africans make more Africans.


The mistake of America is believing anyone else could possibly achieve this.  It's resulted in 100 years of global misadventures trying to spread "Americanism" and failing every single damned time when 3rd worldism just drags it back down to the lowest common denominator.  And it's going to fail even harder when it tries to make Americans domestically out of another billion third worlders.


You are killing the America you love so much.  We'd all be better off admiring it from afar.  At least then there would still be something left to admire.  I wept during the festivities today with the certainty that America won't exist in another 50 years.  I recognize nothing of the country I was born into only 40 years ago already.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I think MW5, Clans and Mercs, are likely to be the last, best MW games I'll see in my lifetime.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 15, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I repeat the quote by their defense minister




For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn!




Even taking everything you said at face value, does that quote not seem completely insane?  I'd expect some diplomatic concerns about pacifying a restive region, not bragging about committing a second genocide.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 19, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I have one mission left in Mechwarrior 5 Clans; Wolves of Tukayyid.  The most recent unlock was something i'd never seen or heard of before called a Bane-1, which has ten UAC-2's.  The clans fucking autocannon mogged a King Crab.  So anyways, that's been fun.  I also unlocked a Bane-2 which I think had 4 UAC-10's?  Fucking madness.


I think I mentioned it before, but the Wolves of Tukayyid expansion is fairly underwhelming.  I mean the missions are alright I guess.  Tukayyid is exciting for lore nerds, but the lack of variety in the scenery hurts IMHO.  They throw in a lot of classic characters if you read the novels.  Phelan, Ranna, Vlad, Ulric and the Black Widow feature prominently in the cutscenes.  All two of them it feels like.  I hear sales of Clans and it's DLC have been underwhelming, and it shows in how they've cut corners in the production of this DLC with far less cutscenes and story generally.  Still, the gameplay is there, so I'm not unhappy with it.