A twelve-year old song that I wrote in Cincinnati. I don't believe it was ever played live, which is a shame, since it's a nice little acoustic ballad. For this arrangement, I just went with my new Fender acoustic, my cheap Jaguar bass run through my Epiphone Blues Custom, and a simple drum loop made in Reason. Sort of weird, but poetic lyrics give the tune some of my special "character." I like this song. I hope someone else does too.
Morning
Coffee
Computer
Kids on couch
TV blaring
Are we awake
Or will the process
Ever begin?
...
Spring Break
The boys still get up
At 6:30,
Harrison sneaking downstairs
To peruse his electronics.
Theo still asks every morn
If he is going to school today.
This cycle repeats
A little piece I threw together while playing with my stratocaster. Does it evoke the feel of spring? I thought it does, but hey, what do I know?
My gaming attention has been pretty fragmented lately. I've divided my time between three titles, and here's what I think about them so far.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty--I enjoyed Cyberpunk enough to finally purchase the Phantom Liberty expansion. It starts off pretty hot--you break into Dogtown, an isolated part of Night City controlled by Barghest, a paramilitary group led by Kurt Hansen, after an enigmatic netrunner named Songbird begs you for help and promises a cure to V's fatal Keanu Reeves problem. Soon Airforce One crashes and you have to help the President of the New United States escape. It's all very reminiscent of Escape from New York and the graphical spectacle is impressive. The game cools its heels after rescuing the President, and V is soon embroiled in a spy caper involving Idris Elba and the game switches gears to more of a James Bond style romp. It's all pretty cool, but there are a lot of cutscenes, and despite them being beautifully rendered, you'll find yourself absorbing a lot of story rather than mowing down cyber-psychos. When you do some shooting, it's pretty fun. I used the Sandevistan to slow down time, along with cloaking from the new Relic skilltree to obliterate enemies with my shotgun, or double dashed through the air to finish off Barghest soldiers with my katana that can deflect bullets. You have quite a lot of options if you're willing to spend the points. Be prepared for a pretty long journey. I think I'm only about a third of the way through the story after about ten hours.
When I first played Cyberpunk, I did it on a RX 5700xt Radeon. With my RTX 3080, I can finally use DLSS and ray-tracing. Cyberpunk even has a path-tracing mode (actual realistic ray-tracing with multiple light bounces!) although it's barely playable on anything but a high-end card. I definitely noticed the reflections, while the shadows are a fairly minor upgrade. As for ray-traced lighting, it just looks different, if you even notice it. Path-tracing does look amazing, but I have to bump DLSS down to Balanced, which looks a bit low-res, and then I'm only averaging about 30 to 40 frames per second. Just my two-cents, but ray-tracing is a pretty minor upgrade unless you're going all in with path-tracing.
Some screens:
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun--A boomer shooter with satisfying gunplay, somewhat confusing level design, and a strange difficulty curve that usually finds the game too easy, with some hard spikes every now and then when you run out of health and armor. I'm about a third of the way through this one, and I find it pretty comparable to Prodeus. It's best played in spurts. The pixelated look of the game is pretty cool, but there are shader compilation stutters from time to time, a given since this is an Unreal Engine game. Worth blitzing through if you're on Game Pass. I liked Dark Forces a bit more.
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Helldivers 2--I'm not as apeshit about this game as the rest of the internet. That being said, it is really fun to play with your friends. A Starship Troopers simulator, Helldivers finds you assaulting various alien worlds either full of giant bugs or terminator robots, coordinating with your four man squad to complete various objectives. What Helldivers does really well is simulate the carnage of warfare. You can call in various types of airstrikes, which are required to take out the harder enemies, such as chargers or bile titans, and the various types of unlockables, including defensive deployables like Tesla towers, really give the game a different feel than other co-op titles. I would say it's a tad buggy, however. I haven't had any trouble getting into a game, but the developers had to struggle to add servers, since they underestimated how big a hit the game was going to be. Definitely check out if you have some good gaming buddies.
After about a month of doing a bodybuilding routine, I've realized that I lose interest in weightlifting if I'm not focusing on increasing my strength. I gained a bit of muscle in my arms and back, however, and I'm about five pounds lighter than I was before. Here's to hitting heavy PRs again, albeit with a four day routine instead of the six day routine I was doing before. Recovery is usually an issue.
FunkyMonkey asks "So Haley has dropped out and Trump is the GOP's nominee. How fucked are we?"
Dave: We're as fucked as we want to be.
Arnold: The power is with the people. Will enough normies come to the realization that a second Trump presidency will essentially be the end of the American experiment? I dunno. Wait a sec, I gotta watch a Tik-Tok video.
Dave: You're conflating the two. Our attention span and the rise of fascism.
Arnold: It's a complex issue. Our media apparatus, focused on profits, is not designed to combat someone like Trump. These motherfuckers literally learned nothing. At least they're covering his metal degeneration. But there's a reason why nobody is aware of all the landmark legislation that Biden has passed. It's gotten very little coverage.
Dave: Trump good for ratings.
Arnold: That's the thinking of the bigwigs. And the American press loves to play the "We're unbiased and obligated to give fair coverage to both sides." Well, what if one side is constantly lying? What if one side is trying to flood the airwaves with bullshit? Just look at the coverage of the failed immigration bill that Trump had his lackeys in congress veto, even though it was a good deal for the GOP. "Congress fails to pass immigration bill, will it hurt Democrats in November?"
Dave: I think Biden's hurting more because of the high price of housing and years of inflation.
Arnold: America's doing way better than most countries post-pandemic. Our myopic view gives us little perspective.
Dave: Really, this 2024 match-up was inevitable.
Arnold: The GOP base was never going to abandon Trump. But the Justice Department could've moved a lot sooner, and maybe some of these trials would be finished.
Dave: Merrick Garland was a mistake.
Arnold: Possibly the biggest of Biden's Presidency. Nevertheless, there's no reason to abandon hope. There's almost an entire year left before the election.
Dave: Like George Micheal said, you gotta have faith.
Arnold: Still, mentally prepare yourselves. I have a hard time trusting the American people.
...
GentleGym asks "What are the biggest differences between training for hypertrophy and training for strength?"
Dave: Volume. Rep-range. Movement selection.
Arnold: You can powerbuild and try to have both. But after moving to a more bodybuilding-oriented style, I realize that hypertrophy training is just as hard, if not harder, than powerlifting. I hate doing multiple sets of twelve reps on the squat or bench press. Even if I'm using weights that I would've laughed at when I was powerlifting, by the end of the workout, I'm drained, both physically and mentally.
Dave: But the recovery cost is less when bodybuilding.
Arnold: That's true. My elbows aren't as inflamed. And my energy levels have improved.
Dave: Getting big arms and shoulders is the shit, though.
Arnold: Very true. Let them elbows come forward during curls and triceps movements, and reap the results.
...
BillyTheShit asks "Are you guys playing Helldivers 2 with the rest of the internet?"
Dave: I play with my boys.
Arnold: I'm not as taken with the game as most people seem to be. It's a great Starship Troopers simulation. The co-op elements are great fun. But I really only play it when my friends are online.
Dave: Why the hell doesn't it have DLSS upscaling?
Arnold: It was a Playstation port. Be happy that it runs as well as it does.
Dave: Calling in a huge explosion is fun, though.
Arnold: I'm only level 9 and all my buddies are like 30 to 50. They get all the good shit.
Dave: Worth 40 bucks if you have a couple of friends to play with. I dunno about chumming with randos.
RedditUser1324 asks "WTF am I even doing? I spend all my time consuming vapid content on social media platforms while my own creative...
