sporky_rat: Garrus, Mass Effect 2 (hurt)
lady sporky rat of the ms holding and sporkington ([personal profile] sporky_rat) wrote2025-07-10 11:00 am

Embodiment requires sacrifice

Stupid little walk for stupid little brain chemicals in stupid heat.

It was either heat or humidity, so heat.

mellowtigger: (Default)
mellowtigger ([personal profile] mellowtigger) wrote2025-07-09 04:56 pm
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yep, it's the job

During our daily stand-up meeting online yesterday, before the meeting got started, our newest addition (still in training) to the team mentioned closing their eyes after work "for just a few seconds" then suddenly it was a few hours later. And they still had no problem getting back to sleep on schedule later.

Some voice (I'm not sure who) in the meeting responded with those 5 magic words that I keep using too. "This job is a lot."

It's not just me being old or inflexible. It's definitely the job that's stressful and tiring.

rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
rydra_wong ([personal profile] rydra_wong) wrote2025-07-08 03:48 pm
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Finished Refunct over the weekend and genuinely cannot rec too highly

Especially while it's at 75% off in the sale, making it 62p:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/406150/Refunct/

For anyone who might want to sample some easy platforming with a very very low entry threshold.

Chill and rather lovely environment (okay, probably depends on you liking brutalist architecture, but still -- there's a day-night cycle! there's sunshine! the water is gorgeous! the music is gentle!) with no time pressure and no penalties for failing a jump hundreds of times (except that, at worst, you fall in the water and have to swim about and haul yourself out again).

N.B. Most reviews describe this as a half-hour game, and there are achievements for speedrunning it in under 8 minutes or under 4 minutes.

It took me over five hours of playtime to beat it, which should be indicative of the co-ordination and skill levels I'm working with here. And yet it did not at any point feel stressful or humiliating for me. It felt like a pleasant, relaxing environment in which to fail repeatedly and experiment.

It started at a level low enough that I could manage it, and then had a really satisfying difficulty curve. If I was stalling on the next objective, I could still run and parkour round the environment purely for fun (and sometimes ended up working out how to pick off the optional achievements in the process).

Towards the very end, I started to think that the last jumps might just flat-out exceed the limits of what I am currently capable of, and it felt like if that did happen, I would still be able to walk away pretty happily having already got way more than 62p's worth of enjoyment out of it.

Will absolutely be playing it again.
rydra_wong: Lee Miller photo showing two women wearing metal fire masks in England during WWII. (Default)
rydra_wong ([personal profile] rydra_wong) wrote2025-07-05 07:02 am
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I am now the proud owner of a secondhand Steam deck! Rec me games!

A whole world of games not playable on Mac has opened up to me, and it's Steam summer sale time!

Please rec me your favourite games, bearing in mind that I have very limited reflexes/co-ordination.

(I'm not completely ruling out games involving them, but the threshold for entry has to be very very low. I am currently enjoying Refunct because it allows me to try some simple platforming in a very chill and pleasant environment with no time pressure and no penalties for taking several hundred tries to get a jump.)
mellowtigger: (Default)
mellowtigger ([personal profile] mellowtigger) wrote2025-07-03 10:40 pm
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feelings are weird

I logged in on my work computer this afternoon long enough to apply for a promotion at my current job, becoming more of a Lead support technician. I was on the proverbial fence for several days. The money would be a few thousand more per year than I make now. Money never hurts, but it's not enough to make a huge difference. Money seems so meaningless these days, and it doesn't go far. I'm not motivated by money anyway, or prestige.

What finally tipped my decision in favor was more consideration of what my supervisor said during our biweekly 1-on-1 meetings this week. They're considering the possibility of creating an A.I. subject expert on our team to coordinate answers we give from across departments to our users. They were curious if I'd be interested, "even though that role usually goes to leads". Subtle. Very subtle. Yes, of course, I'm interested in that. LOL.

I applied to the job. I don't have strong feelings about it, though, which seems weird. I've applied to other jobs in the past that I wanted very much more than this one.

I'm also experiencing an odd emotional state about tomorrow's holiday in the USA. It's not the feelings I usually associate with the day.