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18 posts total
JP

i have never in my life heard turkish delight referred to as "Narnia Cubes" but this is probably what i'm calling em from now on

photo from a display case at a shop called Aegean Delights in the Castro in San Francisco: two large bowls of completely normal looking turkish delight, labeled "Narnia Vanilla" and "Rose Narnia Cubes" respectively
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Nicky🦨✌️

@jplebreton i think we should adopt this new name because i can’t stand the loukoum-turkish delight debate. 😂

contrasocial

@jplebreton

This is how I know of Turkish Delight and it took me well into adulthood to ever try it, all the intervening time believing it was this delicious thing.

I mean this with the utmost respect to the Turkish people, but Turkish Delight is deeply disappointing.

Margret Kuarell

@jplebreton because naming it after an evangelical fever dream is better than naming it after an actual country?

JP

every tech worker out there whose "i donate to democrats" CEO is taking off his mask today to muhaha and show his true class solidarity: the thing that would ruin his life the most is for you to help unionize your workplace. do it for the very real benefits to you and your comrades, or do it out of spite, or any combination of either. but it's time, now (overdue, in fact!). tech must become the next major labor battleground. & for those who've already been in the struggle for years: thank you.

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I. E. LaBailey

@jplebreton@mastodon.social
And if a new administration comes in and tries to fire you for it, you just look all that more awesome!

JP

I brought over one of my recent bots from cohost: follow @lands for a random Magic the Gathering "basic land" card once a day.
I don't actually know much about MtG and last played 25 years ago but I've always dug the art, and the minimalist, frequently relaxing vibes of the basic lands. Enjoy!

Ron Gilbert 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

@jplebreton @lands My only time playing MtG was with a group at work that were really good players and they destroyed me. I'd love to find an in-person group closer to my skill level.

JP

I don't know anything about this instance or its community, but I like this section of its About page. It feels like a human being talking about what they're willing to do for other humans.
The way corporate platforms communicate (or fail to) has really skewed our understandings of what kinds of relationships we get into with them. Human communication like this feels like it's recalibrating that a bit, to something better and more like a future I'd like to live in.
artistalley.space/about

Will this shut down?
Nothing lasts forever, and this server will shut down one day. It's my goal for this to not happen for a long time. I am planning to run this server for a minimum of 5 years (through 2027), and almost certainly far longer. When this server shuts down, I will provide at least 3 months of notice and will keep all export tools available to help people transition to a new server.
That said, I am human and life happens to everyone. What kind of events might cause these plans to change?
* If I become physically disabled (or obviously if I die) and am unable to physically use a computer
* If I am hit by sudden and extreme personal financial hardship
* If the server becomes overrun with bots, spam, abusive content, harassment, etc
* If the server becomes extensively disconnected from the rest of the network
* If the server becomes too expensive to run
* If the server usage drops to near zero
However, I will do my best to ensure that these scenarios only happen as a last resort.
JP

LOL, looks like I'm getting some new followers due to twitter making terrible UX changes again.
Welcome! In case they're interesting, here are two of my ongoing mastodon-exclusive threads:
No Man's Sky visual travelogue, going since summer 2018: mastodon.social/@jplebreton/10
My trip through Doomworld's 100 Most Memorable Maps, currently paused at #65: mastodon.social/@jplebreton/10

JP

In case anyone cares, here are two open source fonts I use on any desktop computer that lets me customize fonts:
Inter, a variable width sans serif: rsms.me/inter
Iosevka, which has several flavors including a nice monospace I use anytime I'm reading or writing code: typeof.net/Iosevka

JP

matrix.org/blog/2020/12/18/int This was unexpected... a masto/twitter-like service cobbled from the Matrix framework. Diversity of approaches seems good, and this is coming from outside the ActivityPub-based sphere. Very curious as to what the social consequences of a mainstreamed version of "reputation feeds" would be.

JP

Cycle Knight (1986) box art awareness/appreciation thread

Videogame box art with a painting depicting a helmeted motorcycle rider, wielding a sword, facing down a giant dragon. Logotype is a medieval style font. Red border with Artworx publisher name in one corner, and "for the Atari" in the other.
JP

Just released "Works of the Masters", a deluxe edition of Master Levels of Doom II:
jp.itch.io/deluxe-master-level
Classic and lesser-known work from the best mappers id Software could find in 1995, now playable in complete episodes. I'm just the curator here. [bows reverently]

JP

1980s microcomputer history is full of companies that started strong but blundered and died off. A lot of these stories manifest as canceled products, like the Commodore 65: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodor
It would have been a very Apple IIGS-like last hurrah for their 8-bit line, with advanced graphics modes and a GUI. The possibilities of these kinds of generation-ending machines are always kind of tantalizing to me, like a venerable system's final boss form. The Coolest C64 Possible, never to be.

Boot screen for a prototype C65, showing 80 column text, a blue background, a nice rainbow, and some of the usual Commodore boot screen prompt text.
Darius Kazemi

@jplebreton finally, 65-bit computing for the masses

JP

Concept-wise and in the size and pace of its engagements, Monster Hunter Ltd. Parts 1 & 2 (#073) is more like a big budget game than most of what I've played on this list so far - STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl specifically comes to mind. A detailed real world setting twisted into uncanny horror, built with a high level of polish and an exceptional eye for texturing. Towards the end, you encounter one of the scariest things I've ever seen in a Doom level.

Impressive factory foundry area with all kinds of dingy, corroded surfaces. Some kinda big smelting thing pouring metal (lava?) into a crucible.
Looking out across a ravaged city from a balcony beneath a starry sky. Nearby, a cutout of a man looking through a camera, which is never explained.
JP

Spooky Sunken Ship (#075) from "Doom: The Golden Souls 2", a ridiculously charming ZDoom extravaganza that drops basic Doom action into a heavily Mario-influenced world of coins, jumping, monsters with cartoony behaviors, and a beautiful SMB3-style overworld map. This level dials down the mod's characteristic happy tone and uses some Super Metroid music to create a gloomy, mazelike exploration experience. Yet another fine example of Doom modding's aesthetic range.

Sunken ship hallway with portholes looking out into gloomy green ocean.
Bright, colorful overworld with a water area, a desert island, a forested plateau with waterfall. Tuba-like blunderbuss weapon being wielded by the player.
Another gloomy pirate ship interior with a cute skull n crossbones on the floor.
JP

I collected together Doomworld's Top 100 Most Memorable Maps and started playing through the list, from #100: doomwiki.org/wiki/Top_100_Most
This is a bit of an undertaking, and I've played somewhere between 10-25% of them already, but it'll be good for filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge, and food for my level design brain of course.

JP

WAD Wednesday starting in about 30 minutes, at 7pm PST: twitch.tv/jplebreton

JP

me, every time i hear about a really good 'food'

clipping from JoJolion volume 8. Josuke, a young man in a sailor hat, is saying "I have to find out 'what' that 'food' is." the idiosyncratic use of single quotes appears throughout.
JP

Finally decided that since black hole roulette no longer works, 120k LY from the Galactic Hub is close enough to say "F it, road trip it is". First refueling stop was an uncharted blue star with a planet called simply "Peggy", that was classified as a "Vile Anomaly". Constant pinkish rain and some moderately curious stripey creatures, but I don't see what's so vile about it. Onward...

No Man's Sky screenshot: an exotic pink world
No Man's Sky screenshot: a planet called Peggy, from space, the cockpit of my ship
JP

Only about 20k LY left to the Hub - this has gone far quicker than expected!
I use The Porcelain Grasshopper for long trips like this, an A-class Explorer that gets about 1090 LY per warp * 20 warps on a full tank.
Along the way, it's the quietest places that compel me to linger a moment. A brilliant purple system, uncharted and undiscovered til today, with a single, massive, dreary planet. Just me and a few scissor-tailed birds that remind me of Texas.

NMS screenshot: purple star system from space
NMS screenshot: planetside in the previous image system
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