iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 12m

On one hand it's awesome to see them building more transit. On the other, they need to dig up the Jackson Park golf course and build transit-oriented housing on it.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 6h

The first time I encountered "quaver" in the wild I thought it was a joke.

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Charlie Warzel @cwarzel.bsky.social · 9h

There is a moment at the very very end of Abdul El-Sayed's podcast with Ezra Klein (book recommendation section) where he talks about the idea of "speaking truth to pain" and this will be staying with me for an extremely long time. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/25/o...

But there’s also something about truth to pain. We talk a lot about truth to power, but I think it’s actually a lot harder to speak truth to pain. I say that as someone who went to medical school, realizing that in a lot of our politics right now, we’ve got to get a lot better at speaking truth to pain if we’re going to get through some of these challenges that we have.

What does “truth to pain” mean?

It’s one thing to look power in the eye and say: You’re wrong about this. But there’s a way in which pain is very difficult to reason with. Because when somebody is in their pain, they’re in their trauma. They see that pain, and they may not see what’s causing it.

I remember just very explicitly being in a trauma ward with a gunshot wound patient and watching this big guy with his hand on his gunshot wound. All the folks are trying to pull his hand off his pain, that point of his gunshot wound, this clear vulnerability.

And this emergency room doctor had the presence of mind to be like: Everyone, stop. And she looks him in the eyes, and she’s like: I get that really hurts, and I’m so sorry that you’re here. You don’t want to be here. We don’t want you to be here. But if you don’t let us fix this, you could die. So I’m going to take your hand, and I’m going to move it off, OK? Because I need to get there so that you can live.

She was speaking truth to pain. He understands he’s at the hospital, he needs care, but he also doesn’t want anybody to touch the wound. Which is a natural thing. And I think it is a really great metaphor for how we think about a lot of these challenges we talked about today.

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Authenticity Trip | 200-Proof Games @200proofgames.bsky.social · 20h

People think that dice are the engine for RPGs, because they’re so visible. The d20 is so iconic. We think apocalypse world “runs on 2d6.” It doesn’t. It runs on moves. *Moves* are the resolution engine - the dice are *only* the randomizing agent, which is an important piece but not the heart!

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Authenticity Trip | 200-Proof Games @200proofgames.bsky.social · 20h

Tiered success isn’t the greatest innovation of Apocalypse World. It’s not even the part that makes it work. The moves are what make it work. It’s not a single system of 2d6 with different mechanics, it’s a constellation of subsystems - moves - that just all use 2d6 as their randomizing agent

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Authenticity Trip | 200-Proof Games @200proofgames.bsky.social · 20h

This is the skeleton key to every mid PBTA game and session - people look at the moves and think they’re equivalent to, like, initiative mechanics or something. Like an optional add-on for flavor. No, man, they’re the *whole deal.* Ignore them and everything falls alll the way apart

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Lily Alexandre 🛰️ @lily-is.online · 11h

the girls next to me are looking at body type images and talking about each others' bodies in profound detail

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Girl who likes sports: D+15 -> D+40

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One last time before #FFXIV #Dawntrail officially ends - any other oldhead gamers out there catch this? (It's hard not to see these as an explicit #StarControl2 reference; I've been calling these hunt marks "pkunk" and "yehat" pretty much since the first time I saw them.)

The Dawntrail A-rank hunt mark Yehehetoaua'pyo

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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

you will encounter more opportunities in life to change the batteries on a smoke alarm than you will to run into a burning building and no one gives a shit you changed those batteries but it is still very important and why are you waiting on a burning building, know what i’m saying, it’s a metaphor

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Hannah Vardit @hannahvardit.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

i worry that men think being A Good Guy is dramatically and heroically intervening on behalf of an endangered woman and then being publicly rewarded on a grand scale when actually being A Good Guy is just usually saying, “hey man that’s not funny” or “wow that’s fucked up” and there is no reward

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"It's only 0.18% of players" Third parties are estimating concurrent peaks of 17,500. That's ~32 players with a slur in their name at any time. There are only a couple of hub cities in each faction. What are the odds of never seeing any of those 32 players? v glad Blizzard are banning these turds

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The Japanese porn mahjong guys have more respect for women's bodies than the vast majority of western AAA game devs.

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Mekka Okereke @mekka.mekka-tech.com · 27/09/2026

Football is a dangerous sport, with dangerous rules. Football fans enjoy these barbarous rules, but then when someone gets hurt, they project that barbarism onto the players. 🙂🙃 QB Dante Moore slid late. The Desmond Stephens hit was less than 0.2 seconds after this screenshot. A blink is 0.15s. 👁️

Screenshot of Desman Stephens about to hit Dante Moore.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I can tell the difference between the action time of pressing a face button vs pulling a trigger on the gamepad. I put dodge on the triggers in souls games and attacks on the face buttons, and I have to not only anticipate but also lead every dodge slightly to give my index finger time to move.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Can confirm and also can strongly recommend. Get a godsdamned hobby, folks.

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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Do not carry a cold beverage in their presence. Politely decline any drinks or sweetmeats they may offer. Keep a plain iron nail in your left trouser pocket and a sachet or paper twist of coarse salt in your right shoe. Enter and leave your chair moving clockwise. Follow up with a thank-you note.

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lyndsay @magpie.tips · 26/09/2026

Danielle Smith has lost the mandate of heaven

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Fun fact: you can deactivate your FB account and still use Messenger if you need it to stay in contact with people. (I just did! Deleted my insta years ago, too.)

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This isn't a thread about iced coffee, but it isn't NOT a thread about iced coffee.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A thing my wife and I talk about sometimes is how each generation comes up with its own rules of politeness, and how if you don't at least acknowledge all of the ways that younger generations have found to be kind to each other, that isn't you standing up for tradition it's just you being rude.

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MegueyB 🔜Metatopia @megueyb.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It SHOULD be seen as a failure that modern US society has decided that all adults should work outside the home at least 20 hours a week in order to justify their having food/housing/healthcare, unless there are extreme circumstances. That is the real problem with the numbers, in my opinion.

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The PS1 startup sound as a lesbian @janus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

New: I wrote about the “privacy safeguards” that tech companies are putting on pervert glasses and other consumer surveillance devices, to obscure the fact that these devices violate consent by design My latest in @theverge.com (Gift Link) ⬇️ bit.ly/4dUwffE

bit.ly

Everything is spying on you and there’s no opting out

A new wave of AI-enhanced consumer creep-tech disregards the privacy of everyone but the wearer. The people have had enough.

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skaenite directive @lauragraves.deichator.ar · 24/09/2026

I am Musashi Miyamoto . I am Samanosuke. I am Alan Wake. I am Max Payne. I am Tony Soprano. I am Byleth. I am The Warrior of Light. I am Dante & Vergil. I am gay. I am Bart Simpson. I am Dale Cooper. I am Patrick Jane.

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tranna karenina @einegeniesserin.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

you can become english but you need a GP referral and two reports from independent psychiatrists to determine whether your desire to become english is true and sincere and it must be signed off on by a judge, after which you have a certificate of englishness that will have no binding legal authority

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

It sucks that "being a good, interesting game" isn't the threshold for whether I'll play something anymore (or at the very least, is not sufficient).

Two button meme:
1. Blizzard is a union shop now
2. Microsoft still supports genocide
3. Me, trying to decide whether to try WoW Forever

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Me: they want X but it's gonna be super high-cost and suck can you try to convince them to accept Y instead Me, an hour later: okay I built X it's just a prototype but...

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merritt @merrittk.com · 23/09/2026

going forward you should assume that any video which neatly and cutely supports your views about the world is AI-generated

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Melissa Hall @vrimj.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

It is so hard as a lawyer to say "I have nothing useful or good to offer you" but it is amazing how often that is so good for the client to hear. That they have done what they can, that they can let go even if they haven't gotten the justice they want.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

One piece of advice I give straight women who are frustrated with the men in the dating pool is to date queer men. Men who have dated men are more likely to have had an egalitarian relationship and to understand the need to be appealing to a partner in a way straight men may not.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Cool thread on how #FFXIV will be working inspirations from Norse mythology and culture into the new Evercold expansion.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Quartet continues to have wild-ass storytelling, with a seemingly endless supply of fascists to kill. The battle system is also really growing on me; it's really intuitive and it has taken me almost no time to master swapping out characters for maximum effect

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David Cooper @davidbcooper.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Starting my day making some art.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I don't think Ontario is going stop switching the clocks in time to not fall back this November (though perhaps Western Ontario will be an exception), but I am hopeful that when we go back to DST in spring, it will be the last time I ever have to change a clock that doesn't involve travel.

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Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg @theradr.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

O hey Reminder that in (homophobic) '94 as Dookie was blowing up, Green Day picked queercore Pansy Division to open for them + a lot of venues pressured them to drop them as openers -- Green Day told the venues they wouldn't play if PD didn't - and the venues (mostly? all?) backed down. huh.

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Fiona's Got I.T. @fionasgotit.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

People like to derisively call it "pot hole politics" but yeah, a government using the collective power it wields to materially help the residents is not only cool and good actually, it's also a sure fire way to do the thing politicians love most: Continue to be elected.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

The stuff that Mamdani is doing in NYC isn't revolutionary; he's found relatively inexpensive ways to make people in his community feel cared-for. This is a model of what responsive local government should look like.

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Alice Ruppert 🐴🎮 @malicedafirenze.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Random thought I could probably write a whole essay about some time: the fact that there aren‘t more mainstream Romance video games is such a bizarre failure, like don‘t you people wanna make money? Why not cater to the infamously ever hungry audience of Romance book readers in another medium?

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hey Blizzard, How are you planning to get new players into your new "forever-MMO" without a free trial?

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NPR @npr.org · 17/09/2026

Waterfront homes are collapsing along the coast. Homeowners generally have plenty of warning before their house buckles. So why aren't most houses removed, or at least emptied, before they fall? n.pr/4xwLZN7

n.pr

People's houses are collapsing into the ocean. FEMA gives them no other option

Waterfront homes are collapsing along the coast. Homeowners generally have plenty of warning before their house buckles. So why aren't most houses removed, or at least emptied, before they fall?

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Hey Blizzard, How are you planning to get new players into your new "forever-MMO" without a free trial?

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Post your Bluesky toxicity score! Here's mine:

NFPA 704 diagram
Health: 1 — Slight hazard; may cause irritation
Flammability: 3 — Flash point below 100°F (flammable liquid)
Reactivity: 1 — Normally stable but may react under heat/pressure
Special Hazard: None

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Not for nothing, but I love how any given screenshot of a large number of FFXIV characters is indistinguishable from someone throwing together the casts of seventeen random JRPGs (including mascot characters) in a classic anime group pose.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Gonna have a low toxicity score simply because I suck at posting.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Someone just liked this post in 2026 and, honestly, I think it kinda aged like milk.

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Dana Fried @leftoblique.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In today's dollars, the very first 3dfx Voodoo cards retailed at just under US$700; this is more than ten times that. For comparison, Chrono Trigger (one of the last great games of the 16-bit era) retailed at around US$175 in today's dollars, and had a team up to about 100 over three years.

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