Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

I’ve been playing the Ratchet & Clank series since the first one came bundled in the PS2 my family bought in the early 2000s. It is one of those random constants in my life, because I’m not usually much of a fan of the genre, but I have played and completed every mainline R&C game that has come out, and have collected physical copies of most of them, and do thoroughly enjoy them all. Even the 2016 game-based-on-movie-based-on-game remake/reboot. There’s a certain charm to them, and while the biting humor of the original PS2 series has gone away, it still has a whimsical fun to it the series where you’re a small furry creature ripping the galaxy a new one with a massive variety of absurd (and absurdly fun) weaponry.

Rift Apart was the literal reason I bought a PS5, and having now played it through three times, I have to say it was totally worth it. I will need some more time to let the honeymoon phase of it to fade to decide where I put it among my favorites, but I’m guessing probably solid second favorite R&C game. I put way too much time + nostalgia into Going Commando for it to ever really lose its spot as my all time favorite.

The visuals for Rift Apart are absolutely jaw dropping. This is one of the most next-gen games I’ve seen, and I really, really hope they remake the old games at some point to look like this. The combat is fantastic, as usual, and the weapons all look and feel great. My only gripe with the weapons and combat is this game’s RYNO is probably the weakest one of the series. As fun as it is to open rifts and drop a giant monster onto an enemy, the damage is lackluster.

4th of July, QotD

4th of July, QotD

I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. — I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. — Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. ~John Adams

Sibiliss, the Medusa Pirate Queen

Sibiliss, the Medusa Pirate Queen

artwork done by Yohlemons

I realized I never posted this commission I had made of Sibiliss back from the D&D campaign, which needed to be remedied immediately because I absolutely love it. I loved the concept of the character, a Medusa Sorceress turned Queen of the Pirates, and I feel she went over exceptionally well with the players as well. They did wind up working for her after all, despite my original intention for her to be a villain.

Science, Abortion, and a Pro-Life stance

Science, Abortion, and a Pro-Life stance

Snagged from a social media site.


“Scientifically speaking, a distinct human life exists from conception onward. Life, because it meets the biological criteria for life; human, because it contains the human genome and is at the beginning of a human lifecycle; distinct, because its genome is different from the mother’s and (barring accidents, disease, or malice) it will continue to exist even after its mother’s death.

Suggesting that natural miscarriage is the same as abortion is like suggesting that no-fault accidental deaths are the same as murder.

Suggesting that contraception is the same as abortion is like suggesting that parts of something are equal to the whole of something: Give separate sperm and eggs as much time, shelter, and nutrients as you want, even inside a woman’s womb, and they will continue neither to be human (they don’t have the full human genome) nor fully developed into a human. Separate sperm and eggs are not at the beginning of a human lifecycle. The human lifecycle begins when sperm and egg come together and are fertilized.

Suggesting that pro-lifers are anti-life because they don’t agree with specific policy positions is serious doublethink. First, because it’s completely consistent for pro-lifers to be extremely generous to groups for unwed mothers and women with distressed pregnancies — and they are — as well as to believe that the government will waste their money if it’s taxed from them and put into welfare programs. Second, because they focus on what happens after people are born and thus discount the distinct human lives that are taken before they’re born. It’s like saying that slavery is okay, while also maintaining that one can’t be anti-slavery if one doesn’t support their specific chosen list of welfare programs for freed slaves.”

Personal Update 4-18-2021

Personal Update 4-18-2021

I sprained my back last Sunday, and had to visit the doctor to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious like a spinal issue or something. Got sent to get an x-ray, was given some strong meds, and told to stay flat in bed for a couple days. I’m feeling much better now, aside from some slight soreness, and I’ll probably begin some limited exercise next week. Unfortunately I had planned on moving a bunch of stuff around the house and reorganizing things, and all that is going to have to wait.

Related to the planned reorganizing we had a company come out and grab a few things we don’t want anymore, namely a corner desk and barstools to donate to charity, and another company is moving the upright piano to a friend’s house today.

While bedridden, I spent a lot of time on my phone, and found a game that I think will finally replace Final Fantasy Brave Exvius as the gacha of choice: AFK Arena. Easy to get heroes, an absolutely absurd amount of content, and simple to learn, difficult to master mechanics. Also, you can play multiple games on the same account, using their server system so you’re never put in a “you cannot play this game for the rest of the day because you hit a wall” like most gacha games I’ve played.

I’ve also got a solid Latin curriculum for self-learning going, with Familia Romana and Wheelock’s Latin. I’m trying to use Dowling’s method, which requires a lot of rote memorization of Noun Declensions, but I think that kind of thing is necessary for my learning style.

I’m on the fence about trying to get a short story done for a fantasy short story contest that has a due date of the end of the month. I learned of it a bit late, and I’m not sure I can have something ready and polished in time. We’ll see.

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 2

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 2

This is the second day of my visit to Grand Junction, Colorado, and my hike through the Colorado National Monument. Today, I had crepes at the Dream Cafe. They were light, but filling. Perfect way to start the day on a long hike.

Very strawberry. Very filling.

I chose to do the full route of the Monument Canyon Trail, which is 6 miles one way. I started on the east side and hiked in, but did not do the steep climb up to the road at the very end because I am woefully out of shape as it is and that probably would have done me in in terms of actually making it all the way back in any reasonable amount of time.

This trail is one of the most well known trails in the Park, because it has two iconic natural rock sculptures: Independence Monument and the Kissing Couple, and you walk right up to them. Below is the picture gallery for this hike. Of the two days, this was my favorite, and it was topped off by being able to see some longhorn sheep up close. I still need to figure out a way of getting that video uploaded here.


Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 1

Hiking the Colorado National Monument, Day 1

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Grand Junction, Colorado and then hiking around the Colorado National Monument for a couple days while my wife got a tattoo done.

I hiked the No-Throughfare trail, and the Devil’s Kitchen trail the first day, and then the entirety of the Monument Trail and back the next. I started the day at the Dream Cafe, with the largest pancakes I’ve ever seen. They were absolutely phenomenal, and the perfect thing for a long day hiking.

I mean, look at the size of those pancakes.

I encountered maybe a half dozen people on the trail the entire time, and the weather was crystal clear with highs around 60 degrees. It was absolutely perfect, and I got to see the park the way it was meant to be seen. The only sounds were the sounds of footsteps, wind, and wildlife. I hiked as far back into No-Throughfare as I could, but wound up stopping after the trail stopped being maintained. I simply didn’t have the footwear or desire to boulder somewhat dangerously a hundred or so feet in the air. So I turned around and did the Devil’s Kitchen hike, and hung out around the rocks for a while enjoying the view. Below are the pictures of the hike. I took some videos and panorama shots but I’ll have to figure a better way of uploading them to the site. I about crashed this site uploading all these…

A Thought on Government Run Systems

A Thought on Government Run Systems

I ran across a couple of posts on reddit I felt needed to be combined and shared. The post was discussing what constitutes ‘success’ in a socialized system like healthcare, and the article was this one.

“Success is determined by the existence of the system. Some post hoc measure can be found later as a justification. If it wasn’t access, they would find something else. Cost or satisfaction (in that one poll twenty years ago) or jobs provided or… it doesn’t really matter.

To people who support them, it is self-evident that government programs are good.And those who benefit from the system sink their tendrils in very deep. As soon as such a system comes into being, its purpose becomes its own survival and growth.

Teachers are heroes. They’re underpaid. Police officers, firefighters, librarians, mailmen, and on and on it goes. How often do we hear it? Somehow being employed by the state makes one a hero. Accepting a paycheck from the king makes one a selfless martyr. But it’s never enough. The king, stingy as he is, never pays these thankless servants their due.

Unlike private industry, which must serve its customers or risk losing them, these parasites are engaged in an unending propaganda war with those they claim to serve. They gain, not by the creation of wealth or the quality of their efforts, but by extending their tendrils into the minds of those they must subdue, for it is only the weakness of their host that they desire, so that they might corrupt it and feast upon it.

Theirs is not the mutualistic symbiosis of private industry, where both parties benefit. Rather, they take on the appearance of an ally, having evolved the coloration and stripes of kin, so that they might gain entrance and devour the unsuspecting.”

So You’re Suddenly Interested in Online Security and Censorship

So You’re Suddenly Interested in Online Security and Censorship

Join the club. It’s surprisingly easy and here are some steps to take if you want to dip your toes into the water but don’t want to get too deep into it.

1.) Ditch Twitter. Ditch Facebook after you’ve managed to convince everyone you care about to also ditch it. But if you really cared about not being disappeared from the internet: Mewe, Gab, Mastodon, and Diaspora are really better options. Mewe just has that friendly, easy to use interface that I really like. I am very suspicious about Parler.

2.) Get a VPN. nordVPN or ProtonVPN. I like ProtonVPN because it bundles with Protonmail, and I have used nordVPN before and really liked it. Once you have it, freaking use it.

3.) Speaking of Protonmail, get a different email address that is not associated with google, microsoft, yahoo, or other major tech conglomerate. Preferably one that focuses on privacy and security. Hence, my move to Protonmail. If you own an internet domain you can associate it with that too if you want to get fancy (most email services allow this btw).

4.) Get Firefox, Brave, or other browser built around security and privacy. Do not use IE/Edge/Chrome. Then get adblock and tracking disabling extensions for them like Ublock Origin for that additional protection.

5.) Get Signal. Seriously. Unless you actually like third parties being able to read your text messages. Telegram also works but isn’t open source. I have them both, Telegram’s groups are amazing.

6.) Don’t upload anything to ‘the cloud’ you don’t want other people to see, unless it’s a secure cloud storage. The Proton people are working on that, but it’s still in beta. I trust google and microsoft as far as I can throw them. No Google Drive, no One Drive.

7.) Ditch Google Play store (if you’re an Apple user: rofl) and use F-Droid (for open source software, which tends to be more privacy and security focused) or Aptoid (just beware what you install. It’s old school internet over there).

8.) And finally if you’re really serious about things. Get Linux. If you’re new with the whole not using Windows or Mac thing, get Ubuntu. But there’s a linux out there that fits every kind of computer knowledge capability.