Well we figured out where to look for it, and it is definitely the sky. We tried looking the last place we left it, and then we looked all around the basement from top to bottom. Yup, we can say with confidence folks, Planet X is hiding somewhere above us.
Train your dog with a wait command before going through doors, big dogs that try to barge their way past you out of excitement to get out the door are sort of cute but also incredibly annoying it can honestly hurt someone who is frail.
If it is a young dog you trust and you are raising them, touch their paws lots. Pick their paws up and shake em like a hand, don’t be rough but just handle their paws so they become comfortable with humans handling them as dogs can be really nervous about this and it makes it extremely hard to inspect your dogs paws for a cut that is making them limp or something.
similarly if you are raising a dog and it is too small to hurt you, when you feed your dog hang out next to their dish, put your face near theirs (ONLY with a dog you trust), give them pets, make your dog used to the fact that humans might come near their food but that humans won’t take away their food so they don’t need to be defensive.
the more dog time you give your dog (where you do dog stuff with your dog) the more human time your dog will give you (where you both do human stuff and behave according to human norms). Going on walks, throwing the ball, rough housing, all of these things give your dog the mental stimulation they need to relax and behave
a good dog park where your dog can socialize with lots of different dogs and learn their doggy language is not only a fantastic way to get your dog exercise it gives your dog the opportunity to practice interacting with other dogs.
periodically (gently) surprise your dog by nabbing their tail and giving a tiny tug, or poking them a bit on their rump when they aren’t looking. BE GENTLE and always transition to pets and praise after the initial surprise moment for your dog. If you have a large dog and some kid gets loose and runs up behind it and yanks your dogs tail for no reason and entirely takes your dog off guard, your dog will be used to this kind of bullshit and simply be surprised it is a tiny human annoying them rather than a full grown one. This can be a really dangerous moment if you have a huge dog like a german shepherd, because even if the dog isn’t normally aggressive towards kids, if the dog isn’t already well used to its owner frequently low leveling annoying it with boops, it might react in fear and self defense. If you extract enjoyment out of mildly annoying your dog for the goofs sometimes, you know tease them in a loving way…, they just aren’t going to react in fear and self defense when they are surprised by a human coming out of nowhere and abruptly surprising them.
if you are raising a dog and you can figure out a way for your dog to meet cats, it can be helpful so that they don’t meet one in a situation you need them to behave and they go “WAIT WHAT IS THAT”. Same thing with human kids and babies.
going away for the weekend and leaving your dog with a friend or someone else’s care is actually a really good thing for dogs that tend to get super attached to their owners (german shepherds are a classic example) as it stretches their mind a little bit encouraging them not to see their owners as the only thing in the universe, it gives them experience trying to relax without needing their One Human.
get a collar that helps with walking better than a normal collar that just chokes out dogs when they pull, if you get the right collar/harness it will feel like you are walking an entirely different dog
big dogs can absolutely learn how to “be mouthy” while also being incredibly gentle even though they have a mouth full of knives that can crunch through bone. Remember, dogs will carry puppies by their scruff. Dogs like humans have to learn the language of play, and they have to learn when they are being too rough with their mouth when they play with you. Many people train their big dogs to NEVER be mouthy which is understandable but if you know what you are doing your dog can absolutely learn how to play wrestle with you on the ground with their big scary mouth “chomping” (extremely gently) on your arm and both of you going at it having fun and being careful not to hurt each other. A dog can also be easily trained to get the signal for “ok playtime is over now, let’s wind down this energy” or “this is not the correct social situation to go nuts and want to play”. I tend to use the loose command “gentle” with my dogs, and I say it with a calming intonation. I have found practicing playing with a dog and then giving the command/signal that playtime is over is extremely effective over time at getting dogs to learn to become aware when they can be crazy tornadoes of chaos and when they need to chill the fuck out. If you do this right, your dog won’t ever play too rough with anybody because they aren’t going to be getting the right body language signals from those people that now is supposed to be playtime and they are invited to play,
all dogs love it when you scratch just above their tail on their rump, it is like a cheat code for making a dog stop worrying about who you are as a stranger
have friends over to normalize humans coming in your house, if you don’t your dog can easily fall into the habit of barking like a maniac every time friends come over and it can be scary and disorienting for guests
the way you keep your dog from barking way too much (and jumping up on people) is literally just making the commitment to be more patient than your dog in making sure to always give feedback to your dog when they do those things (whatever your training style is).
take your dog for dumb trips in the car to the store and back sometimes, definitely try to make it fun for them (and definitely don’t leave them in your car in the sun when it is hot for really any amount of time) but your dog will likely enjoy the stimulation of all the sights even if it is just a boring car trip and assuming you don’t have to go in wherever you are going for too long they will see it as a fun adventure. This helps train your dog to be chill about car rights and not loose their damn mind every time you are actually going on an adventure with them.
if you have a big dog it is worth getting them used to being picked up in a bear hug occasionally as this can make dogs really nervous if they aren’t used to it and you don’t want to try to make them used to it in an emergency where they can’t walk or you need to lift them onto something. Make sure to support their rib cage (and back legs if possible) when you lift.
Dogs are like people in that most of them want a job, they want something they can do for the pack that they are good at. Understand dog tricks from this perspective, you are giving your dog a job that they can do that gets them praise from you and other people and stimulates their brain.
You know what destroys people’s productivity in the longterm? A sustained period of crisis and overwork.
It’s not nice to beat yourself up like that, a shower should be a place to unwind not judge yourself.
Wow hell yeah thank you so much! I love mods but I really don’t have much fun manually putting modpacks together as I am after a coherent experience that is roughly balanced and fun, so I REALLY appreciate seeing an example of a collected list of mods that someone who plays the game frequently in co-op might use! Thank you. Now I just have to buy the damn game lol
Do you specifically not recommend sharing colonists but instead having a two base kind of setup?
What mods do you think make the choices you make in moment to moment gameplay more fun and interesting?
Do you have any recommendations for playing as a new player with a friend who is a new player using the co-op mod. I know that isn’t the ideal way to do it, but I don’t mind steep learning curves so much especially when it is for games that are meant to be played for years and years like Rimworld.
Going Medieval looks interesting!
I have still never played Rimworld, I keep meaning to buy it and get around to playing it. I feel like playing it co-op would be a blast.
It is a bit hard to find info on some of the units and mechanics but the underlying game is just so damn tight and the turn based combat is nail biting, so it is worth pushing through that annoyance.
If you end up liking it but find it confusing feel free to reach out with questions, I have played a good bit of it.
whispers in your ear
“Eador Genesis New Horizons”
http://eador.com/B2/viewtopic.php?t=4724
Its like HOM 3 but the campaign focuses on many short games played over a meta campaign where you gain the ability to build new buildings and units based on the “shards” you conquer (each “shard” is its own separate run through of a short HOM3 type game). There are “local lords” that will fight for control of the shard but the real problem is when other gods similar to yourself also try to stake a claim on a shard and you have to battle them.
Eador Genesis is HARD af, but the New Horizons mod has been in development for years and it has grown the game into an extremely tight, challenging experience that you really ought to check out if you like HOM 3. The graphics are also wonderfully old school pixelated and simple like HOM 3’s are.
I haven’t really messed around with city builders, though I did have a blast playing Zeus and Poseidon.
What are y’all’s favorite city builders?
^ Not in terms of how many mods there are or raw Numbers Of Things in the game but in the actual depth and fun to the decisions you are making in moment to moment gameplay.
I did like anno 1800 but the whole “let’s imagine the colonization of the Caribbean as fun and just pretend slavery wasn’t absolutely integral to the European relationship with the Caribbean” just feels… idk if problematic is the word but it just feels odd. It’s like watching a movie that has the aesthetics and music of a classic slasher horror movie film but it is a comedy film with no violence and the whole time you are watching the movie you keep wondering why the movie was made to precisely echo the aesthetics of a graphic horror movie (the main character wallks around dressed up like Jason Voorhees and always has a machete but he is just a pretty nice guy looking for romance). At the end you are confused and unsettled that the movie never addressed or rationalized being filmed exactly like a horror movie while never straying from being a comedy.
I would definitely buy a video game recommended by a cat, I bet cats would be really be into action roguelikes and platformers and they would get me a good rec.
A social network/online community can either be significantly profitable or healthy for its users. Pick one
How can they be international standards if they don’t include Microsoft? Doesn’t Microsoft and all its employees count as part of this global international world? See, Microsoft is the victim here.
edit /s /s /s /s /s /s
This is the sexiest thing Germany has done since that German couple that drives the Porsche in Super Troopers.
Thank you for your service
Do you think going to medical school destroys someone’s artistic abilities?
I imagine it certainly tries to select for people who aren’t artistic and instead heavily favors minds that are good at memorizing vast amounts of information and following rules, but no of course not. What destroys the capacity of medical professionals to make good educational or therapeutic games is the system they are operating under, the system that got them their degree, and enforces the structures of how they must operate in a medical system providing medical care.
The system is absolutely, categorically incapable of actually valuing what artists bring to the table and the more an artistic endeavor gets involved with this system the more it will have its innards scooped out and it’s soul crushed.
If we want video games for mental health, keep the medical system as far away as possible. The video game industry is already a dumpster fire it doesn’t need more people coming into the industry to call the shots who don’t have any expertise in creating art.
If video games are only art, they cannot treat clinical depression.
Wow…
This is the same boring argument people make about music theory being so incredibly important to making music that impacts people and yet music theory can only attempt to describe why something worked, it can never provide blueprints for inspiring art that actually changes people.
This is ultimately the problem with scientific thinking applied to art, science can only ever value what it can measure and the first thing any artist will tell you about making art is that literally every part of the process matters to the end product. Scientists, going into this process with the objective of creating something that will create a specific measurable effect are always going to butcher the whole thing, because they aren’t trained to listen to their subconscious and intuition in the design of subtle elements that don’t seem relevant to the metrics that matter.
And seriously…. are you honestly making the claim that art made for arts sake cannot help patients treat their clinical depression? Hahahahahaha just ask all the depressed healthcare professionals being brutally exploited and ground down by a for-profit healthcare system what they do after work to help recover their mental health, they binge tv shows made by artists (or play video games :) ).
And you really think that non-medical professionals are just as good at treating mental health problems than medical professionals?
No I am claiming medical professionals and ESPECIALLY the medical industry in all its incredible dysfunction is laughably equipped to create video games that will meaningfully impact people in any fashion.
Video games are art, you need artists to make them. I am ok with medical professionals being consulted but the way that expertise is valued in modern capitalism you know the artists are going to end up being steamrolled by an inherent bias towards STEM thinking even when the scientists are completely out of their wheelhouse trying to make an interactive work of art.
I am not anti-science and I would never tell someone with depression to just stop feeling sorry for themselves. I have been hurt way too much from the other side to ever want to do that.
Hey, I agree with the sentiment but sex work is a respectable job unlike being a crooked as shit congress person ruining the future of countless people :)
Also being a slut is a respectable job too, the world runs on sluts like me.