• 4 Posts
  • 19 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 11th, 2023

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  • 100% a public transit enjoyer. I get annoyed with people in my city who complain endlessly about how shitty our bus service is. I’ve been getting the bus daily since childhood, and it used to be so much worse. 15 minute minimum wait, often it just wouldn’t show up, and expensive fares. Now it’s uncommon for me to wait for more than 5 minutes, the fares have reduced, and it’s reliable. The only issue is that the bus gets stuck in traffic because there are twice as many cars on the roads now compared to 25 years ago. So great job drivers, you’ve created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    Most of it comes from people who have next to no experience of using public transit, and will just latch onto any excuse not to use it, when in reality they’re snobs who don’t like to admit that they think getting the bus is below them. It’s not. I used to get the bus into college with one of my lecturers (RIP) who owned a fucking law firm, and it keeps people humble in my experience. I honestly think society would be healthier if people used public transit more.








  • I finally finished Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, after nearly 300 hours. Holy fuck, there is so much video game in that god-damn video game. It just keeps going for so much longer than it needs to. Then on top of that they went and added several new features like raiding, and a roguelike game mode which I enjoyed.

    It’s a mediocre game, but it’s a fun time if you’re like me and just enjoy exploring big maps, collecting items, upgrading gear, etc. I enjoyed the DLC, but I’m not planning on picking up Dawn of Ragnarök because the mythical storyline just doesn’t interest me.





  • XCOM 2012 is my favourite turn based stratedy game, I really like the Long War mod. Saving earth from an alien invasion is such a cool fantasy.

    Assassin’s Creed Odyssey because I love Greek history and mythology, so being able to explore that part of the world is really appealing to me.

    Warhammer 40k Dawn of War. It’s just the best 40k game. I wish Relic would remaster it.

    Sunless Sea. It’s one of my favourite visual novels, and it has RPG elements. The writing is hilarious, and weird. It’s like halfway between Charles Dickens and HP Lovecraft. Pilot a ship around a vast underground sea, fighting monsters and talking to Victorian wierdos.

    Spelunky. I’ve been playing it for 10 years now, and completed it hundreds of times. I’d recommend it a lot.

    STALKER Call of Pripyat. It’s an alternative history first-person shooter set in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl power plant. It’s semi open world, and unlike any other game I’ve played for its story and atmosphere.



  • That’s my dream too, and why I’m actually sort of onboard with Musk’s vision for car metros. The issue is that I’m 100% sure they’d also want to expand surface level car infrastructure to facilitate that network.

    My centrist compromise that I hope will take off in European cities over the next decade is that most two lane city streets will become one lane one way systems with protected bike lanes, pavements and trees taking the space that’s been freed up.




  • The Witcher 3. I’d been following its development since the Witcher 2, and I loved the games and the books. After 5 years of waiting I knew that it wasn’t likely to live up to my expectations, so I prepared myself for disappointment.

    Then it came out, and it was the best RPG I’d played. Some of the Novigrad story lines went on for too long, but that was my only issue with it. I’ve 100% it three times. Best €30 I ever spent. The DLC was somehow even better than the base game. I have no idea how CDPR managed it.


  • I’m not interested in changing people’s minds. I’m in favour of literally telling people to stop driving because the fucking planet is on fire. If that adds 30 minutes to your commute, so be it.

    Meanwhile I live in a city with good public transport, such that it only takes 15 minutes longer to get around, but 95% of people still drive. That absolutely justifies regularly reminding people that acceptable alternatives are available every time they listen to the radio.

    Railing against anything that reminds you of cars is not the path to systematic change.

    Yes it is. That’s why this community exists: to discuss alternatives to car dependency.


  • Why does public transport need to be exactly as quick as driving? I leave myself an extra few minutes to walk to the bus in the morning with no negative consequences compared to driving whatsoever. It’s not the end of the world if getting from A to B takes a little longer. This is exactly the type of dogshit logic that makes it next to impossible to get anyone to do anything differently.


  • No, I’m not over thinking it. I’m just thinking about it. Neither do I think it’s a plot. I work in environmental research, so I think about systemic issues like this quite a bit.

    The reality is that my country has set out to reduce carbon emissions by 51% by 2030, which is an incredibly ambitious target. In order to reach that goal, we need to adopt a Dutch transport model that reduces car dependency significantly. That means that people who drive everywhere need to be told to use active and public transport as an alternative to driving all the time.

    Using state funded media to get that message across every half an hour during traffic reports seems a fairly obvious way of doing so.