Folger's Extravagant Swatch Thread

Glider pilot here, I rarely leave visual range of the airport. I have had an instance where my radio crapped out during training, I just continued the flight as normal, still making all of the necessary radio calls, and landed. There wasn't much else I could have done at that point since I was already in the middle of the approach. For short VFR flights with absolutely no radio or navigation instruments, if I were in my local area, it would be fairly easy for me to get to where I needed to go by using pilotage (looking at landmarks outside of the airplane to navigate). You should always have up to date paper charts with you in the aircraft, so you can use that along with pilotage and some dead reckoning from your route (that should be marked on paper in the aircraft) to continue navigation and not breach any airspace. As for the lack of communications in a situation like that, it is perfectly acceptable to contact the control tower by cell phone, and alert them that your radio has failed so you can both follow the proper procedures for an event like that.

Hi, retired undertaker here. Where to start? It might have been the guy in a "free candy" style van parked in the second row of the parking lot of a Reno casino. July. He had been there, oh, maybe five days, hard to tell in July. Flies the size of June Bugs blackening the windows. No one, not security, not patrons, no one, noticed him. Kind of looked asleep? Head back, maggots pouring out every orifice, black and swollen. Nothing to see here... His legs? Oh, still contained in his pants but mostly jelly packed around bone. I was so F_ing happy to be on call that fine summer evening. I rolled the stretcher up to the open door, laid out my body bag nice and tidy, unbuckled the seat belt, grabbed him by his belt and shirt and pulled. One big motion. It was like a zombie leaping from the van. Big guy. Did I mention that? Splat. Zip. Shocked faces all around me. I got him in the car and drove off. I dunno, maybe this one isn't as interesting as it is tragic. I mean, someone knew, loved him. It wasn't his fault no one noticed him. Lemme think...

Don’t go too deep too fast LOL I find it awkward when guys straight up ask me about goals for my future or my dreams. They’re the convos you ease into gradually and get deeper slowly. I love talking about travel and plans and sharing stories about that! Best to ask questions specific to her as well - shows you’re paying attention. So rather than say ‘have you travelled much?’ Think back to earlier conversations or what you may have seen on her social media and instead say ‘didn’t you go to x last year?’ Or ‘hey those pics of x were amazing how was it?! I wanna hear all the stories.’

If you don’t know her that well, start by asking questions about the specific situation you’re in then progress from there.

Can use Mental Stigmata instead of Engrammatic Tabletature:

Holmes: It is akin to a Hypnotic State induced not by the pendular swing of a Watch or the quick repeated flash of a Stereo-Opticon but by directly awakening through mementos past dire events in the victims past which forces the Fugue State in his brain.

Kathleen: It is Magick Mr. Holmes

Holmes: It is a Science Miss Watson.

-CAD

So I actually have some trauma concerning Overcooked 2 and new gamers. For a good month or so, it was my job to demo games for the Nintendo Switch at the mall. We had games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Just Dance 2019, Super Mario Party, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee/Pikachu, and Overcooked 2. It was a pretty neat little setup; I'd invite people over to play video games, it didn't cost them anything, and I didn't have to push any sales on anyone, just let the games speak for themselves.

Most of the games were pretty easy to pick up for people who had never touched a video game before (since motion controls are extremely accessible, even if they're fiddly), but Overcooked 2 was the absolute worst. I had people who were attracted to Overcooked 2 because the simple, cutesy graphics made it look like a beginner's video game, and they expected to be able to get into it right away because it's gotta be easy, right? And at the beginning I was thinking "yeah the tutorial level's easy enough for anyone to get into, just chop the lettuce and hand it off to the other players; easy-peasy."

...except I got a lot of people who'd never even looked at a video game console before, let alone play one. So I'd sit there, explaining how to move your character with the joy stick and which buttons did what, and I'd explain what the objectives were, in addition to letting them read the on-screen instructions. I held their hand and spoon-fed them information hoping they'd piece the information together alongside hands-on practice, and they'd just.... not.

They'd sit there looking at the screen expecting their character to move, and I'd say "you have to tilt your joystick in the direction you want to move" and they'd look down at their controller and tilt the joystick. Except now they weren't looking at the screen and they lost track of where they were. So they look back up at the screen but now they weren't touching the joystick again, and I'd gently remind them that they have to use the joystick to move. Then they'd look down and forget what a joystick was. So I'd remind them that they have to tilt the thing with their thumb, and hurrah they're able to move again! So they look back up at the screen and forget to change the direction the joystick is tilted in, so their character keeps moving in the same direction and the player would get frustrated that the character isn't going in the direction they want to go.

...then FINALLY by some miracle they manage to get over to where the lettuce is, so I tell them which button they have to press to take the lettuce out of the crate. they look down at their controller, squint hard at the buttons, take a good solid minute to process what I meant by "right button... no, not the right bumper, the right face button... the one that's right next to your thumb. no, your other thumb, no, not the screenshot button, the one with the right-facing arrow on it... your other right" and FINALLY they'd press the thing. Except by this point they'd forget how to move again and we'd have to do all that again to get them to the cutting board, and to pass their salads off to the drop-off point.

By the time they finished just one salad, they'd been sitting at the demo booth for 15 minutes. And there's the fact that the timer to the end of the round doesn't actually start in the tutorial level until they've completed a salad. So the players would spend all this time and effort to do a single thing, realize the game didn't actually reward them with a fanfare and confetti because the round wasn't over yet and they'd be like "huh. well, okay then." and just leave. So I'd be sitting there hoping they'd want to take a brochure, but of course nobody wanted a brochure because it wasn't a fun experience for them.

I learned very quickly that if someone with zero experience came up to play Overcooked 2, I had to direct them to Super Mario Party because the minigames in that game had motion controls and everyone knows how to shake a controller really hard.

Anyway that's my story about Overcooked 2 and why non-gamers shouldn't start with it.