It’s a bittersweet congratulations, but congratulations nonetheless. The reason I went no contact with my mom is more personal than political, but I know it isn’t easy.

Only water when the soil is dry at least an inch deep. When you do water, water thoroughly, until water is freely coming from the drainage holes in the bottom. An optional way to water thoroughly is to let the plant pot stand in a tray of water for half an hourish (I use an inch or so of water). This is called “bottom up watering”

Make sure that any pot you use has drainage holes. A common mistake beginners make is to plant directly into decorative pots that have no drainage holes. This is bad because when the soil doesn’t have enough chance to dry out between waterings, it leads to root rot. You can still use a pretty pot if you want, just make sure that you have an inner pot with drainage holes that you can take out of the exterior pot when it’s watering time. (The decorative exterior pots can be useful for causing things to tip over less).

Finally, don’t assume that succulents or cacti will be happy in bright, direct sun. They can still get scorched.

I can understand your points about why the ending didn’t land with you, but personally I found the ending super emotionally resonant.

One of my favourite aspects of the game is how insignificant you are in the setting; this isn’t a story where you can be a big hero and change anything of real note — Revachol (and Martinaise especially) is haunted by its past. Communism is a part of that past, and so discovering the killer’s identity felt like a logical consequence of the world in a way, even if it was super out of left field.

I agree with you about the yuck about the weird sexual fixation the shooter had, but I liked what that did for his character and the story. Like sure, he’s a vehement communist, but he’s also a deserter who is an asshole even if you’re playing as a communist. It also seems like Evrart knew of his existence and even used him to do a political assassination previously. I like how this makes the world feel messy and fundamentally human. Ideological questions are important, but we can’t have grand debates about capitalism Vs communism without reckoning with the messy reality of the humans who are advocating for those ideologies. The deserter became fucked up because he has been tremendously socially isolated, and he lived that way because he lived in a time when they were lining up Communists against the wall to execute them. He is a toxic loser, and in that way, he represents a tragic culmination of the fucked up world of the game.

Along similar lines, I liked that characters like Klaasje didn’t end up being related to the mystery of the killer. Her lack of greater narrative significance helped me to appreciate the nuances of her character, rather than her just seeming like a plot prop. For example, the weird relationship she has with Lely is hella fucked up: she knows that he has killed and raped civilians. She knows he is a piece of shit, but also, she seems to see herself in that light too. If she is disgusted by him, then sleeping with him may feel like a sort of “punishment”, or self harm. That’s speculation, but certainly it seems like their relationship was pretty toxic. I think she does say something about how they deserved each other. Part of her depression seems to be linked to the lack of her significance in the world. After all, she had pissed off some people enough that she was having to hide out in a shit hole like Martinaise, a place that the world had forgotten. It seems pretty likely that she was a spy that was working for some corrupt people, and those people probably would be anti-union, and that feels significant, even if this is only true in a far more general manner than what you were speaking about. Ultimately, the true conflict of the game is one that transcends the murder of one mercenary, or the striking of one union, or the escape of one corporate spy. It’s the question of “the world is fucked — what do we do about it?”. Klaasje is burnt out and hopeless because she doesn’t have an answer to that question beyond striving for her own survival. Klaasje doesn’t matter to the story, and she knows it.

“Who knows - maybe both Harry and Kim hallucinated.”

Kim took a photo of the phasmid in my play through. Did that not happen in yours?

Regarding the prospect of explaining the phasmid’s existence, I think it’s possible. It could just be a large insectoid creature that secretes hallucinogenic pheromones, and the conversation that Harry has with it could be hallucinated, even if the phasmid isn’t. But also, when considering the phasmid, we should remember that the pale is an established part of the metaphysics of the world, and that entroponetics is a field of scientific study in the world of Disco Elysium. That is to say that it may be scientifically explainable in world. I enjoy the ambiguity around it though. I share your disappointment at not seeing the cryptozoologists reactions to the photo, but also I suspect that I would have been more disappointed had I been indulged here, if the scene hadn’t been as satisfying as how it would’ve gone in my head. The phasmid is a weird as hell element, but for me, it ties up many of the themes in the game, like the idea that there isn’t a Plot to the world, and that “reality” is just a dizzying network of connections between people, places and ideas. Like, the notion that the phasmid’s hallucinogenic pheromones may have contributed to the deserter’s cognitive decline and psychosexual fixation on Klaasje is utterly absurd, but somehow (for me, at least), it doesn’t feel contrived — the absurdism is the point.

Regarding the final conversation with your colleagues, I found that a satisfying conclusion, but that may be because it felt like an appropriate ending for my Harry. It was a bit of an anticlimax, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. After all, the world is still fucked, and even if you’ve played Harry as someone who is on a path to recovery, any hope in the ending is bittersweet. I like the vibe of the thought cabinet perk from going sober:

“Congrats – you’re sober. It will take a while for your body to remember how to metabolize anything that isn’t sugar from alcohol, so you’re going to be pretty ravenous soon. Eat plenty. You can expect your coordination and balance to improve in a couple of weeks. In two months, you might start sleeping like a normal person. Full recovery will take years, though. It’ll be depressing. And it’ll be boring. Don’t expect any further rewards or handclaps. This is how normal people are all the time.”

I haven’t struggled with alcoholism myself, but this framing of recovery was something I resonated with. Sometimes, I find myself feeling wistful for times when I was more severely depressed and grappling with suicidal feelings, because back then, I thought of it like a grand battle between life and death. Well I chose life, and the hardest part is that I need to keep choosing life each day (and also that “choosing life” mostly entails mundane tasks like dragging myself out of bed each day (especially when I don’t want to)). It’s an odd feeling: distinctly hollow, and yet there is a small seed of hope that has the potential to grow to fill that empty space.

Harry’s ending feels similar to my own, in that it isn’t an ending. Some things can improve, like how Kim going to work at the 41st precinct is definitely a positive thing for Harry, and showing Lena the phasmid would undoubtedly buoy his mood. And hell, maybe it’ll be positive if Harry returns to work, but doesn’t lead the squad anymore — maybe it’ll be less pressure. But despite these concrete improvements, it’s not enough to negate the gargantuan effort it is to exist in the world as a fucked up person (especially in a job that puts Harry right up against the world’s suffering). In my ending, Jean Vicquemare seems glad that Harry’s achievements will mean they probably won’t have to fire him, but that too is bittersweet because he’s also someone who is fucked up in his own way. I wish that we got a “better” ending, because I want the story to end in a nice, resolved manner for these characters, but that wouldn’t be realistic. In a sense, my frustration and wistfulness is the core theme of the ending, and if I let myself sit with those emotions a while, I find them giving way to a tentative hope. Similarly, right now, I feel frustrated at the arduous task of needing to get up and make food (I am emotionally tired, and it feels excessive that we have to do this every day), and I am hurting due to chronic illness and I wish that things were different because this isn’t fair. If I let myself feel all that though, I remember that I am here because I chose to be. It’s bloody difficult, and there’s so much awfulness in the world that makes me feel small, but there is so much good that I care about that gives me strength on the hard days. I’m never going to change the world, or be anyone of note really, but by focussing on what is worth fighting for, I can be a part of something larger than myself. For me, the ending of Disco Elysium captures this complex blob of emotions.

Thanks for this perspective. I cringed so hard at the part about the guy with the PhD being listened to over you, because I know so many dumbasses with PhDs.

This made me laugh a lot. Well executed

I’ve not listened to that episode, but I remember that when I first learned about Robert Maxwell’s legacy, I was astounded by also unsurprised (because it made a lot of things make sense in hindsight). As an ex-academic, I’m especially pissed off.

“Actually i think the effort they are making is cool. It goes well beyond piracy and I think is a good idea esp in face of the world rn.”

I agree. I remember recently their blog had a post about how shadow libraries are more important now than they’ve ever been, and it made a compelling case. I started reading that piece expecting some thin justification about breaking the law (like a guy I knew who argued that it was ethical for him to deal drugs because the stuff he sold was super pure so it was basically harm reduction. It’s not that I disagreed with that point per se, but rather that I knew it was just bullshit he told himself so he felt ethically okay doing the only job that was viable for him). In the case of Anna’s Archive though, I was quite quickly won over by their arguments about the societal importance of the service (I was already won over on the individual benefit side of things)

It’s an especially bad site because it also has links to other external naughty services, like Z-library.

Heck yeah. Rock on

I’d imagine salt would make it taste worse for the same reasons why salt makes food taste better, but this is just me being facetious

Whilst not open source, I appreciate that the notes are locally stored in straightforward markdown. I no longer use Obsidian, but I appreciated how there was next to no platform lock-in (the only snag I experienced in moving to a different note taking approach was a couple of plugins that gave additional features. But that’s easy to avoid if portability of data is important)

I’m inclined to agree. I hate AI, and I especially hate artists and other creatives being shafted, but I’m increasingly doubtful that copyright is an effective way to ensure that they get their fair share (whether we’re talking about AI or otherwise).

I don’t use Mastodon, but I wonder if you can follow the link to a Lemmy community from your Mastodon client, or search it from within Mastodon. Given that you found this post somehow, it makes sense to test using this community, so here’s a link to try: https://lemmy.world/c/news

My local library has a digital piano and headphones, which I think is very cool. I had a partner with a piano and since we split, I’ve missed having the opportunity to play. It’s a very cool idea.

I’ve been working at getting better at being mediocre at things. So far, it’s been a source of positive growth, but I do find it ironic how even when it comes to this, I feel compelled to frame it to myself as improving at a thing

Ironically, this kind of self censorship (which is not always in response to platforms actually censoring words or topics) actually makes it harder for people to use filters to proactively manage their information intake

"I wonder how many people have paid real money for patterns whose outcomes are not as advertised. "

Many, it seems, especially with crochet amigurumi

“Constellation prize” is a funny title for this comic. I love it.

A random non-cop is probably going to have better de-escalation skills than a cop too

Doesn’t it only work if you then return to a lower altitude? I wonder how long the benefits last for.

Now that I think about it, I don’t actually know how this even works. Well I know what I’m going to go read about next.

Edit: My findings:

• At high altitude, cardiac output (the overall rate of blood pumped by the heart) increases, largely due to increased heart rate. This increased heart rate reduces as one acclimatises to high altitude (though I’m unsure of if it returns to baseline. It appears to be complex, and at least somewhat differing person by person. These individual differences may explain why some people experience health problems at high altitude, beyond the initial ill feelings caused from first arriving somewhere that’s high altitude)

• The stroke volume (volume of blood pumped by each beat of the heart) is lower at high altitudes. This does improve as one acclimatises, but not entirely. This seems to be affected by blood pressure stuff, such as reduced plasma volume at high altitude. It seems to be complex enough that we don’t fully understand how the various regulatory stuff works.

• Most of the acclimatisation occurs by increasing the number of red blood cells in the blood. The hormone erythropoietin, which usually exists at a low level in non-hypoxic conditions, stimulates the production of new red blood cells. At high altitude, the level of erythropoietin in the blood rises to around 1000 times its baseline level. Increased production of red blood cells happens for a few weeks, by which point, there is enough to make up for lower oxygen levels at high altitude.

• When returning to low altitude, it appears that the changes back to the baseline happen over a similar timeline.

Tangential fun fact: a red blood cell has a lifetime of around 4 months. A single red blood cell travels around 400 miles before it is old enough to be recycled by the body.