Sometimes I make video games

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Cake day: July 26th, 2023

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  • The friggin’ dogs in Resident Evil.

    I have a kind of funny story about that. I was too young to be playing RE when it came out, but that didn’t stop me from sneaking it out of my dad’s collection of grownup games to try it anyway.

    So there’s this well known jump scare, probably in the first fifteen minutes as you say where you’re running down a hallway and suddenly some dogs jump through these glass windows. I screamed, fumbled the controller, and was eaten by dogs. Might have been the first jump scare of my life.

    So I hadn’t hit a save point, so you have to start the game over. So I decide to just leave the mansion through the front door instead of going out that way. And you get a cutscene where a dog jumps through the door and you have to wrestle it away.

    I still haven’t played the game since.

    But my wife and I are a big fan of the series, so eventually we decided to marathon them on the condition that she plays RE1. She’s playing the remake and goes into the room where the dogs jump through the windows and I’m holding my breath waiting for it to happen. Only it doesn’t.

    So I’m a little disappointed, but I figure it’s a remake so maybe they’re switching things up a bit and going to put the jump scare somewhere else in the mansion.

    Sooner or later you have to backtrack through that corridor though, and on like the third time going through this “safe” corridor the dogs jump through the window. She screams, fumbles the controller, and is eaten by dogs.

    Seven-year-old me was vindicated that my adult wife also got punked and I’m not alone.




  • The kill command allows you to specify which type of kill signal you want to send. -9 sends signal 9 or SIGKILL, and we’re sending it to pid 1.

    That would force kill systemd, which I just have to assume will send your computer to a crashing halt.

    The echo command is writing "c" to a file at /proc/sysrq-trigger which I don’t really know how it works but this suggests you’ll “crash the system without first unmounting file systems or syncing disks attached to the system.”

    I haven’t installed fuck so I’m not sure how that works





  • Well, I’m not a psychologist, so I suppose my interpretation might not be correct - the irony mounts.

    But from the graphs you shared, it looks to me like the only people who underestimated themselves were the top performers. And from what I know firsthand with imposter syndrome, a competent person underestimates themselves.

    I used hyperbole for effect, so I don’t think that if you believe you have zero competence in something because you actually have zero competence means that you’re secretly good at something. If you know nothing about plumbing, don’t try to install a toilet.

    But if you’re working in the software factory then you don’t actually have zero competence, you probably have formal education and some experience. Having that feeling that you might not be good enough is a sign that you’re on the right track.


  • I felt like that early in my career. I used to think that being a rockstar developer was a good thing, and I’d be happy to describe myself as one.

    The thing is, a lot of rockstars are really just churning out heaps of unmaintainable code. They think they have a high degree of proficiency, they’re confident in their competence, but there’s a disconnect between what they think and what they produce.

    It can be a sign of personal improvement to question yourself when you think you’re doing great. We owe it to ourselves to ask ourselves critically if we can be doing better. Because if we don’t, and we just assume we’re awesome, then we’ll happily churn out sub-awesome cruft.

    The insidious thing is that self-criticism leads to self-doubt, and imposter syndrome can be quite paralyzing. But if you learn to control your criticism instead of allowing your criticism to control you, you can achieve higher heights than rockstardom.



  • Based on what I know of Imposter Syndrome and the Dunning-Kruger effect, it seems you’re at your most competent when you feel like you’re at your least.

    So if you’re feeling badly because you feel like you don’t know enough to do your job, take some time to remind yourself that other people who appear to be confident have no idea what they’re doing.

    It’s fake-it-till-you-make-it all the way down.


  • I don’t know if I’d call selling plasma a scam, but it doesn’t really feel like a good thing either. I know people on a fixed income where this is one of the only ways they can make some extra cash, so I understand why people would do it.

    Like, sure, you get money for your fluids that you’ll replenish naturally and that has its appeal. But for a lot of people it’s a slippery slope argument about what parts of your body you should be able to sell.

    If you’re economically depressed (the system is working as intended) then you might be tempted to start selling organs. Would you accept five figures for a kindey or cornea? Would you sell your heart or liver for six?

    You might even be able to argue that it’s a noble sacrifice to give your life to secure your family’s comfort. But there’s something to be said about being forced into that position in the first place.






  • BougieBirdie@lemmy.blahaj.zonetome_irl@lemmy.worldme_irl
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    13 days ago

    When I feel like nothing’s going my way I try to cheat my brain to get a win.

    I pick a low stakes task that I need to do but can’t possibly fail. Folding laundry, putting away the dishes, cleaning my inbox, whatever. Let’s say it’s folding the laundry because I hate folding the laundry and it is my Sisyphean struggle to never finish folding all the laundry.

    I try to make a game out of it. Whistle each time I match a pair of socks, do a little fist bump when I hang up a dress. Something that feels fun and celebrates the fact that there’s a little bit less laundry to do with each item folded.

    Then, when I’m all finished (or I just can’t take any more laundry), I take a moment to reflect on all the laundry I have dealt with. The whole is made up of lots of individual pieces, and each one is one less thing I have to deal with. I allow myself to feel good about what I have accomplished - especially on days that I didn’t finish everything.

    We can’t always control it when life throws us a curve ball. But sometimes we’ve got to make our own wins. And if we don’t celebrate the wins we have, well then nothing is going right.



  • My great grandmother grew up rough during the depression and lived near enough you could fish for lobster.

    Her family would bury the lobster shells instead of putting them in the trash because they were ashamed the trash collectors might see they were eating sea bugs.

    She still definitely enjoyed lobster. When it was in season it was tradition to have a family reunion for lobster dinner, and she boiled a mean sea bug. But she never could fathom even going to a restaurant to order a lobster - and that some people thought it was fancy would make her head explode