Slay the Spire 2

Mar. 17th, 2026 11:04 pm
sineala: Mac laptop whose Apple logo has no bite (Young Wizards reference); text reads "my other Mac is a manual" (Young Wizards: My Other Mac)
[personal profile] sineala
I have slightly more brain now and maybe enough energy to post more? Let's find out. I'm sure you've missed me posting about random video games.

Anyway, Slay the Spire 2, the sequel to my most favorite roguelike deckbuilder Slay the Spire came out in Early Access two weeks ago, and is apparently stunningly popular -- it had 500,000 concurrent players its first weekend, beating basically everything else on Steam at the time, which no one was really expecting from, you know, an indie card game.

I haven't played it enough to give a full review, because even in EA there is a lot more content -- there are five characters, two of which are brand new, all of which have new cards, and there are all sorts of new mechanics and events I haven't discovered yet. So far I have now beaten what exists of the game with four of the five characters and I know I haven't seen anywhere near everything yet. I think it's currently balanced harder than the original game, but the subreddit is full of people saying it is way too easy, so I guess we will see what happens when the balance patches start coming out.

But the really cool thing about this game is the multiplayer, which we only found out existed in a trailer that they released, like, two weeks before the actual game. It has co-op with up to four players! I only have one friend who plays this game, as far as I know -- [personal profile] gelishan, who actually introduced me to the original game -- and we played a game of it the other night, and I have to say that co-op is absolutely the most fun way to experience the game. It helps to be on voice chat, so you can coordinate things like "if you have anything inflicting Vulnerable, please play that first" or "do you need this Strength Potion" or whatever, but I guess theoretically you could play it in silence and just deal with the fact that everyone is playing their turns simultaneously.

Anyway, that is clearly the way this game has always been meant to be played and I need to do this again at some point. I don't know that I would recommend the game in its current state to people who haven't played the original, just because it is already a hard game and it helps to have some idea of how three of the five characters play, if you're going to play it by yourself. But if you are playing multiplayer, I think you can just go for it and you and your friends can take turns carrying each other through the game.

So, yeah, that's what I've been up to, as I slowly regain some brain. Slaying the Spire anew!

quick hello-I'm-alive post

Mar. 17th, 2026 10:41 pm
asakiyume: (feathers on the line)
[personal profile] asakiyume
It's been more than a week since I posted! Part of that's just life being busy; part is that [personal profile] osprey_archer is here!

Today we went to Bright Water Bog, swung on a swing, ate some cranberries, and saw ice forming. It was sunny, but a cold wind was blowing, and a few flurries of snow came down.



(We also went to the Smith College Botanical Gardens, but this is a drive-by post! So there's only the one photo.)

(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 05:28 pm
lycomingst: (Default)
[personal profile] lycomingst
Today was the first day I went to the store without wearing a jacket. The trees are agog with Spring. The ants have returned from wherever they were wintering.

Daily Check-In

Mar. 17th, 2026 05:59 pm
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
[personal profile] starwatcher posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, March 17, to midnight on Wednesday, March 18. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #34381 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 17

How are you doing?

I am OK.
9 (52.9%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
8 (47.1%)

I could use some help.
0 (0.0%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
6 (35.3%)

One other person.
8 (47.1%)

More than one other person.
3 (17.6%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 

some good things

Mar. 17th, 2026 11:22 pm
kaberett: Trans symbol with Swiss Army knife tools at other positions around the central circle. (Default)
[personal profile] kaberett
  1. Allotment salad!
  2. Got Things Into The Ground (as well as out of it); I am as ever running massively behind but the weather was lovely and touching soil remains very good.
  3. It was warm enough to have the back door open for a bit.
  4. I am really, really enjoying the self-indulgent Very Expensive Lebkuchen I got from SousChef in the January sale. They make an excellent supper.
  5. Bloods taken today do include a full blood count; alas no ferritin (that's scheduled for... May? April?) but I do get a sneaky extra update on how my estimated haemoglobin is doing.
  6. libgourou continues to Work. I remain very pleased about this.

Pondering Life's Little Annoyances...

Mar. 17th, 2026 05:22 pm
shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
1. Came home, did the exercises. general state of health )

2. Oh as an aside on PT and knee/hip/leg issues? The ballerina in the Sinner's number at the Oscars - who did a split with one leg up in the air and other bent beneath her? She had hip replacement surgery about three months prior.

"Just weeks before the Oscars, Copeland had undergone hip replacement surgery to address various injuries from her decorated ballet career, including bone spurs and cartilage loss. Despite this, she was determined to be a part of the Sinners performance, which allowed her to step back on pointe and join the celebration of the film's success, including Michael B. Jordan's Oscar win for Best Actor."

In December 2025, Copeland underwent hip replacement surgery.
On March 16, 2026, Copeland appeared on stage during the Oscars performance of "I Lied To You" from Sinners."

https://nationaltoday.com/us/ca/los-angeles/news/2026/03/17/misty-copeland-joins-sinners-oscars-performance-after-hip-surgery/

3. Commute is irritating me - Read more... )

4. Work is also irritating me. Read more... )

5. Is this journaling or venting, I can't tell? Well at least it's mostly under a cut?

6. Stumbled upon the Florence + The Machine Song that references Buffy S6, finally. [Take that Christopher Golden (who told Charisma Carpenter in her podcast that he disliked S6 and thought the characters were Out of Character or OTT (?) - which probably explains why I found his Buffy novels unreadable and never bothered with them (I tried them in the book stores and gave up)) and all the other naysayers. (What can I say? Except that the Buffy fandom is a contentious and fractious one. Most are, actually. People rarely agree on anything - even the things they love - so this is hardly surprising? ) ]

The song is entitled "This Old Religion" - and I'd not really listened to it before today. I actually love it - it's a good song.
This Old Religion )

Here's the lyric:
Read more... )

6. Regarding Buffy - apparently they not only filmed the pilot, they even reworked the script when Hulu wasn't satisfied with it, and made the show more adult and more centered on the character of Buffy.

I'm fascinated with this - because it shows how impossible it is to get good television shows on the air. Crap is easy. But a good television show is really hard to put out there - you have to get around the network. And sci-fantasy is really hard because it is so expensive to produce. Why? They are looking for a sure-thing, so go by market analysis and logarithms and statistical data. Demographics. They used to do focus groups - and select a group to view something.

The way Hulu handled the Buffy revival and dealt with the creators involved - reminds me of my own experiences with the publishing industry Read more... )

And Gellar's comment about the executive at Hulu who disliked Buffy and bragged about never watching it - makes me want to drop my Hulu subscription. (I won't - I watch too much on it at the moment.)Read more... ) The problem with our society is too many of the wrong people have all the power. That said? I like the New Mayor of NYC so far - he's coming across as a genuinely kind human being and proactive in his efforts to help all New Yorkers.

Chloe Zhao is less angry than Gellar - but Zhao has had different experiences having her hopes dashed and struggling with the corporate animal. (Zhao has had more luck than Gellar overall.) Read more... )

I know most of the folks who stumble across this - couldn't care less about the Buffy revival or Buffy. Depressing that. I miss the Buffy fandom. But alas, it scampered elsewhere. Mostly on Tumblr, Ticktock, Bluesky, Twitter, and Facebook. And that's not the fandom that I miss. I miss the one that analyzed the show, discussed things to death, and on occasion, not often, wrote fanfic.

7. I've joined then left a private group site on FB. "What to Do in NY" - I finally jumped out of. I decided its a tourist group site that exists solely to annoy the heck out of New Yorker's. (It's painful at times living in a highly frequented Tourist destination.) People would post, and all of the NY Residents on the site, myself included, would be compelled to state - no, no, you idiot, don't do that. Or yes, that's fine, stop worrying. Or for heaven's sake - if you are that concerned, just stay home, NY will eat you alive.

examples of what not to ask - well if you don't want to annoy New Yorkers )
So, I finally gave up and left.

HR - Oscars and parties

Mar. 17th, 2026 08:52 pm
ruric: (Default)
[personal profile] ruric
Apparently having been supremely indifferent to men's fashion for my entire life I now have a burning interest in it?

I may have been glued to Threads for a while watching the pictures come through from the Oscars and pre- post- parties on Sunday and into the wee small hours of Monday morning.

I'm blaming these fools...



Click to embiggen.

There's also a hilarious video that goes with pic 2 on JR's instagram - last slide in that post - which makes me snort/giggle every time I watch it because of the awkwardness of it all.

I would like to flop tonight but I need to tick off some tasks from my endless "Do ALL The Things" list for sorting out my flat/life. Alas it is already 9:15pm. Wonder how much I can achieve in an hour/90 minutes?

What can I possibly bribe myself with as a reward if I'm a good girl and get shit done?

Circling back to this guy...

Mar. 17th, 2026 03:53 pm
kiya: (feri)
[personal profile] kiya

Watcher



They say angels
Are genderless
But he refused to come
Unarmed:

He tore an eye
From his feathered wing
And opened its color
To paint his lids

He had not been shaped
To have
A blade
So he made one.

His hands opened
With gifts:

These are your weapons,
Use them.
Become strong
And beautiful.
sovay: (Morell: quizzical)
[personal profile] sovay
For Saint Patrick's Day, I had a foreign body removed from my eye and was immunologically shot in the shoulder. Who needs booze?

(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 03:05 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
DEAR HARRIETTE: I've recently gone sober for health reasons, and it wasn't an easy decision, especially because my social life has always involved going out for drinks, celebrating with cocktails and bonding over happy hour. When my friends and I went out last weekend, they were pressuring me to drink. I ordered a mocktail, and almost immediately, my friends started to laugh and said that it would be fine to just have one drink. This surprised me because I never thought that my friends would try to force me to do something that would actively have a negative effect on my health. It made me feel unsupported and, frankly, disrespected. At the same time, I don't want to lose my friendships or isolate myself socially just because I'm choosing not to drink. Now I'm anxious about future outings. I don't want every dinner or celebration to turn into a debate about my personal choices. How should I talk to my friends about setting boundaries without making things awkward? -- Sober

Read more... )

Things to Like

Mar. 17th, 2026 02:01 pm
yourlibrarian: MerlinOverShoulder-ninneve (MERL-MerlinOverShoulder-ninneve)
[personal profile] yourlibrarian
1) Whoa, the changes at Tumblr have meant a flood of people signing up for accounts at Pillowfort. I just went through a feed four times longer than usual.

2) We've watched four episodes of Starfleet Academy and are both pleasantly surprised by it. I confess I haven't been very enthused by the new crop of shows. In fact my favorite season was one that it seems most viewers didn't care for, which was S1 of Discovery. Read more... )

3) Looks like it isn't just late night shows that are winding to a close but talk shows and entertainment news. I can see why podcasts would be far cheaper to make and competing with the audience, but I do wonder if most can put out episodes as consistently as is done with larger productions. (I note, for example, that Access Hollywood has four hosts).

4) Not being a reader of Outlander, I had no idea there was a separate Lord John Grey series. A spinoff based on the books sounds great, and you'd think with the success of Heated Rivalry (it was a Jeopardy question this week!) that the timing would be perfect. Granted, a period piece with a large cast would be significantly more expensive, but it also has a built in audience via its linked TV show and books.

5) Watched Zootopia 2 and enjoyed it. I particularly liked how they worked in references to favorite things from the first film without having it slow down or detract from the story in progress. For us this was wolves starting a howl, and the appearance of the sloth. There were lots of little in-jokes (such as the Hulu menu) and things moved along quite well, with fun new characters to meet.

Poll #34380 Kudos Footer-562
This poll is anonymous.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

Want to leave a Kudos?

View Answers

Kudos!
10 (100.0%)



(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 01:51 pm
conuly: (Default)
[personal profile] conuly posting in [community profile] agonyaunt
Dear Eric: My husband and his ex-wife have 50/50 custody of their 15-year-old son. I despise this child. He is completely useless, rude, disrespectful, selfish, ungrateful and lazy. All he does is stare at his computer screen. I have carefully planned my entire life schedule around his schedule, to avoid being at the house on the days he is there for my husband's 50 percent custody.

My husband has just told me that his ex-wife is moving to another state far away and that he is going to take full custody of his son. This means the child I despise so much is now going to be living with me at my house full time, every single day, and there's nothing I can do about it. My husband refuses to let his son move away with his ex. How do I manage this?

– Fed Up


Read more... )

(no subject)

Mar. 17th, 2026 11:05 am
greghousesgf: (pic#17098462)
[personal profile] greghousesgf
I want to go to my favorite Irish pub today but I can't because I'm on meds where I'm not supposed to have any alcohol. What I'm more upset about is I don't intend to miss my friend's party on Sunday but the buses are fucked up all over Oakland that day because of the damn marathon. I don't know how I'm supposed to get to the Bart station to get into SF to get to my friend's house. It's too far to walk with my arthritis. I talked to a few people who work for the bus company and they didn't know anything about it. Fucking jocks. Think the world revolves around them.

Round 185 Theme Poll

Mar. 17th, 2026 09:38 am
runpunkrun: combat boot, pizza, camo pants = punk  (punk rock girl)
[personal profile] runpunkrun posting in [community profile] fancake
April will be a Flashback round where we revisit a classic theme from the early years of the comm.

Poll #34378 round 185 theme poll
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 62

Pick the next theme of fancake:

Arranged Marriage
30 (48.4%)

Forced Proximity
15 (24.2%)

Threesome
17 (27.4%)

My nemesis appears

Mar. 17th, 2026 09:29 am
dorchadas: (Princess Peach Smash Wielding Toad)
[personal profile] dorchadas
Evidence of his foul presence:

2026-13-16 - Evidence of my bird nemesis

Or perhaps I should say...fowl presence?

A pigeon has decided that it wants to just hang out near our back door, in the rafters of the roof above our back stairwell. It's not nesting there, as far as I can tell, since there's no nest in our planting pots nor up on the rafters. It's just found its favorite spot and sits up there often, and of course, wherever a bird habitually sits, the ground below becomes a toilet. There's a ton of bird poop all over our back stairwell now and it's too cold for me to easily go out and clean it up.

I've taken to using a paintroller poll to just periodically go out and poke the pigeon when it's sitting up there in the hope that if I make staying near our door too annoying, it'll give up and hang out somewhere else. Watch this space to see if that happens.

fun with errors

Mar. 17th, 2026 11:22 am
julian: Picture of the sign for Julian Street. (Default)
[personal profile] julian
There's this Utah murder case I just found out about, with this woman who killed her husband with Fentanyl, who then wrote a children's book on grief and loss called "Are You With Me?"

I tried looking this up on Amazon, and presumably the listing's been taken down due to the, you know, murder parts, so the first result in the search currently leads to another author's book...

There Are Moms Way Worse Than You.

No, no, I don't... quite think so.

( Are You With Me? looks syrupy but perfectly fine. Meanwhile, There Are Moms Way Worse Than You looks quite fun.)

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