Nate O.

R.E.M.'s Monster is the most "used stuff" album ever. This is not a criticism.

It's a me problem, to be clear. But we are conditioned by the sort of music we grew up with, and I did NOT grow up with much music that emphasized rhythm and beat.

Years ago, one of my struggles in getting into hip-hop was that I was used to picking out melody and traditional verse-chorus-verse structures over rhythm. I'm a little better now but it still requires a lot of focus to get into it. N'Dour (and a lot of world music) has the same challenge for me.

I wouldn't presume to be ultra-familiar with N'Dour's work, but the couple of years I lived in Senegal gave me an affinity for his work. Whenever I hear him I'm like the Leo DiCaprio meme, pointing at it.

It's hard to raise the discourse in any field these days, let alone one with such a firehose of mediocrity as board gaming. You are fighting the good fight, hang in there!

This is an endlessly wonderful thread.

Anything involving Milhouse is very popular with my kids. "Everything's comin' up Milhouse" is a common quote for us, and the sequence below is one of our favorites.

Souveniiirrrs, noooovelties, parrrrty trrricks...

This actually sounds delicious. how did it turn out?

Slay the Spire 2 - Early Access Trailer YouTube video by Mega Crit

Arrives on March 5 in Early Access, and it includes MULTIPLAYER.

Buying this game will be the last thing I get done in 2026.

Seems extremely on-brand for our present time to condense a time of reflection and humility to be as brief as humanly possibly.

A photo of an ice cream machine with a sign reading, "Anything is possible with ice cream." Beneath that is a hand lettered sign reading, "No ice cream".

2026 basically

First new TMBG album in five years (!) so I'm pretty excited.

I can't own too many games like this, but I think everyone needs a few games that completely fill the table with chits, boards, and cards. It's like how everyone has a few 3+ hour movies that they love.

It's extremely okay, not hilarious or anything but it's got potential. I was baffled that there was only a single episode.

What's the best ever name for a baseball player, and why is it Rollie Fingers?

My son’s HS did this last year, very funny show.

My favorite one I've heard (though never used myself) is "I don't negotiate with terrorists."

I don't remember precisely. I think the losing team just outride loses?

Kind of strange, but I think I was picking up on what it was doing. It'd be way better with more people, and I'd definitely need to play again.

The BG Stats app. I started tracking my plays this year.

I have not, but I think I liked CDP. It was not ideal, I feel like it would have been better with 5, but we only had 3.

Games played in January 2026. Lots of two player games, including those that play more.

So I have no use for nationalism, fascism, or oppression. The kingdom where my allegiance lies has no need of them, and the immigrant, oppressed, and poor is my brother, just as they are with Christ.

That hope, that the kingdoms of this world and the wicked people who run them will one day receive justice, is really what sustains me day to day. Psalm 20:7 is not a hypothetical to me.

I'm an ordained minister, and while I don't like piling on other Christians, I do feel like it's important to point out that there is so, so much support in Scripture for standing against oppressive empires and arrogant rulers. It is basically the point of the books of prophecy and the Revelation.

I have never finished Fallout 2, but I far prefer old school Fallout to the new stuff. I do find them weirdly opaque in places but they are still great.

(I'm also rewatching The Wire, and that show is the exception that proves the rule. Each season is very much one huge story, but it is far more complex than anything that could be done in a movie. Its novelistic approach provides a much richer story, because it requires 12-13 hours to tell it.)

In contrast many modern shows seem to start with a plot that would be suitable for a 2-hour movie, then stretch it out over 6+ hours. Disney+ is especially bad about this, Andor being the exception.

Lots of shows used to do this. Shows like Battlestar Galactica and Lost both were heavily serialized, but they would pursue certain plot lines for a few episodes, offer some low-level resolution, then move to something else. Breaking Bad did the same thing, especially early on.