I think the odds are higher that their trebuchet backfires and demolishes the Kremlin instead.

And Peter would have brought me a strawberry milkshake!

Ironically the helicopter casted as Airwolf did crash, killing all its occupants. 😞

Ah well, we don’t need a moving GIF to see this is the absolute pinnacle of manliness that Mother Russia has to offer.

Absolutely not, as that would mean my company violates my country’s privacy laws. In my field of work there is no valid reason for wearing a body cam.

Rammstein: Feuer frei!

Somehow in my mind he’s still in his early 60’s. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that he’s 80 years old already, guess I’m getting old myself.

I completely agree that sex crimes cannot be tolerated. So, when can we expect those apologies for forcing women and girls into sexual slavery as ‘comfort women’ ? 🤔

Unreal only had a single Automag though, so either you are thinking of Unreal Tournament or you played on a modded server. Some servers did have dual automags (I’ve still got a mod and mutator lying around to get them in single player as well) and dual Automags (Enforcer in Unreal Tournament) did indeed dish out major punishment.

Yes, how could I forget Deus Ex. Incredible story and again such a wonderful soundtrack, not surprising as it was also composed Alexander Brandon, Michiel van den Bos, and Dan Gardopee.

As for Half-Life, that game was also something else. But part of me resents that game a bit because it overshadowed Unreal. 😋

The original Unreal. For me it was a perfect combination of beautiful graphics (back in the days of course) and a soundtrack which complemented and elevated the atmosphere of that game. And the gunplay was nice, with a collection of somewhat unconventional weapons. A relic from a time where developers were not afraid to experiment a bit.

Time to install FreeSpace Open again. 😄 For those who have managed to miss that project: it’s a completely rebuilt engine for FS2. Together with the MediaVPs from The FreeSpace Upgrade Project it makes the game look pretty modern again. Take a look at https://wiki.hard-light.net/index.php/Getting_started if you need instructions.

I believe even there is even a mod available which allows playing the first FreeSpace in FSO.

I tried returning to WoW (Classic) after a 10 year absence, thought I’d try tanking for a change instead of healing. Deadmines, what could go wrong?

Well, one mage managed to not only constantly draw agro from me, he also bumbled into the next group of mobs while the rest was still regaining mana again and again. Looted the box that starts that boss fight with a Tauren while the rest was not ready and wiping the party as a result. After that we all concluded that pressing on wasn’t going to work. Fucking hell, never gotten such a toxic shit load of crap in my chat ever before, he sent me a book’s worth of profanities all because “I sucked at tanking” according to him. Decided then and there that this was not the way how I wanted to spend my free time. When I quit WoW I already noticed that the social aspect was going down the drain, apparently it hasn’t gotten any better during my absence.

Well, that takes ‘required reading’ to a whole new dystopian level. I’m sorry you had to go through that, that’s terrible and I just cannot see any other outcome than forging a severe resentment against reading. Hopefully you’ll one day find the motivation again, but I certainly wouldn’t blame you if you never want to read anything again after going through that.

I read so much in my youth, I could read cover to cover in one go thanks to the power of hyperfocus. Reading was fun and synergised greatly with my ADD-fueled daydreaming.

Unfortunately though high school came along and had to fuck up my intrinsic motivation by force feeding the boomer drivel that ‘everybody should have read in their lives’, and having to write book reports where you’d have to analyse those books to death. Assignments could vary from analysing all the different narrative arcs in the story to the relationship between each main character in the story and even more obscure stuff that I don’t even (want to) remember.

Anyway, this meant reading the ‘classic’ Dutch writers like Reve, Mullisch, Wolkers etc and then analysing a story you didn’t even care about. Fun fact: those writers seem to have an extremely limited repertoire: do you want to read about addiction, WWII, or sex? Ok ok, you had ‘het Gouden Ei’ by Krabbé, on which the movie ‘the Vanishing’ was based. Guess that was a breath of less stale air.

But in the end it sucked the enjoyment I felt when reading from my very soul and replaced it with the feeling that reading books is a chore. At times a slight shimmer of that old spark returns, but never for long. Depending on how often I feel like reading, getting through a book usually takes me months to years these days and rarely captures me like in the past. I’ll never forgive the sadistic bastards who came up with this part of our educational system.

Anyway, sorry for dumping this on you, turned out to be more of a rant than I initially intended. If anybody knows how to convince my brain to consider reading to be fun again, I welcome any insights.

Definitely freeze dried astronaut food.

They took ‘woensdag gehaktdag’ (Wednesday Minced Meat day) a bit too literal. ☹️

The true question would be: “how can your son best serve the company”? He has more years ahead of him that can be spent in servitude than you, so you are already obsolete.

Trolling. I hope.