The end of Red Dead Redemption. Spoilers for a game that's over a decade old, but John's death was a brutal cruelty that stayed with me for a long, long time.

So they're legislating speech and forcing the use of pronouns that make them feel more comfortable. Color me shocked.

And here I am handing out candy to the neighborhood kids while they walk around with huge smiles and laughter.

This whole fucking thing is fucked.

We've discovered the breaking point of paradise. Hope the next sentient species is a little less selfish.

She just means she doesn't give a shit if people think she's biased or corrupt.

They see what they want to see.

For me it wasn't the fire that kept drawing comparisons to Divinity. It was the writing. The opening is beat for beat Divinity tropes and it was off-putting. It took hours more gameplay and character development for that edge to wear down, though it has probably permanently shaded my first playthrough. Perhaps that opening was one of the first things written, and thus the most akin to its predecessor.

Once the game settles in, things feel less Divinity and more Faerun. The fire metaphor is apt though. Things do creep in from time to time to remind you who built this adventure. It's like a signature. I don't always like it, seeing the hand in this case is more jarring because of how sensitive I am towards the setting and gameplay. But the craft is so thoughtful otherwise, it's broken through those barriers for me.

Hey so like, new games come out like every day, dude, so...

History seems to agree. Seventy-five percent of films from the silent era have been lost forever. Television shares a similar fate.

When a new medium is created, it seems we don't put much thought into preservation.

I bought an Ember mug because I thought it was silly. I ended up really liking the temperature control. I don't rush my coffee/tea. Now every sip is as hot as the first one.

The new Ember costs, I think, half again as much as the first iteration. It's a cute gimmick but I certainly wouldn't pay what they're charging now.

I'm in my 40s and dealt with a lot of pain and gum recession because I didn't develop good habits as a kid. Parents, teach your children to floss. Gentle, compassionate dentists are not as easy to find as you might think. Your kids will suffer later in life if you don't emphasize good dental care.

Every time a sequel or a comic book movie lands on its face, someone rewrites an article about franchise/superhero fatigue. And that's been going on for over a decade.

People will show up to watch a good movie. Guardians 3 did really well. Spider-Man is the "same old stuff." This is all cherry picking examples. Movies don't do well when they're bad or the star is unappealing somehow.

Hollywood will stop making these movies when people stop paying to see them.