Category: Geekery

  • Warframe: Sobek It Hurts

    I haven’t been playing Warframe all that heavily lately, mostly just doing Nightwave dailies to progress that reward track and leveling up weapons for mastery. Along the way I’ve slowly accumulated items called “Riven Slivers” which can be turned in to receive something called a “Riven Mod.” That’s basically a mystery mod (item which enhances a warframe, weapon, or other piece of equipment) with randomized stats (usually a mix of some positive and one very negative) that is locked to a given named weapon (any variant thereof).

    Earlier this month I got a Riven Mod, and once I revealed its assigned weapon, I was kind of annoyed: It’s for the Sobek, the “normal” version of which is a kind of middling shotgun. I already have a stack of shotguns in my arsenal, do I need another? Probably not, I decided.

    Then I noticed this was my 2nd Sobek Riven Mod. Huh. (Mind you, one cannot equip more than one Riven Mod on a weapon. So having two is just pointless… maybe. Kind of. Put a pin in that.)

    Immediately afterward during my next mission in the Saturn system, a Kuva Larvling showed up (as they do) and the weapon it offered me if I chose to make that Larvling into a full Lich was…

    … yeah, the Kuva Sobek. I guess the game absolutely wanted me to add a Sobek to my inventory. So I went ahead and kicked off the Lich hunting process, more out of a fit of pique than anything else, if I’m honest. But hey, mastery progress is mastery progress, a weapon’s a weapon. It’s all good, baby!

    Warframe video game screenshot: Progress indicator for trying to figure out which Requiem Mods will unlock the final mission for the Kuva Lich process. What this current status reveals is that the leftmost Mods are correct for a position somewhere, but not the first position, either of them.

    Let the game of interplanetary Mastermind begin!

    (more…)
  • Satisfactory: So You Want A Huge Nuclear Power Plant

    For some reason, when I got to the point of wanting to replace some of my early power plants (coal, maybe some regular-fuel) with nuclear power, I decided to build the biggest plant I’ve ever made in the game, solo or multiplayer. This is my “1.0” save, started when the game officially left Early Access last autumn.

    I ran the numbers and decided that 4 uranium fuel rods per minute feeding 20 power generators was exactly the right number to aim for.

    Satisfactory video game screenshot: Side view of a large power plant bordered on both sides by train stations, the foreground station being surrounded by water pipes leading to water reservoirs on the floor above. To the far left is a row of refineries.

    What the hell was I thinking?

    Please allow me to offer some advice if you want to follow in my virtual footsteps. I made some mistakes; perhaps my hubris will be partly absolved if I can help others avoid them.

    (more…)
  • Murderbot, The Prestige TV Show

    It takes a lot to convince me to fork out for adding a streaming service to the roster nowadays, considering I long ago cut D+ and whatever they’re calling HBO’s service this week out of the budget. Especially when the service in question is tied to the “fruit logo” financial ecosystem.

    But dagnabbit, I really love the Murderbot series of novels & novellas from Martha Wells. And everything I read & watched about the upcoming show convinced me to give it a try.

    Am I happy with my purchase? Oh, goodness yes.

    (more…)
  • Spring Anime 2025: A Mixed Bag of Nuts

    I’m keeping up with a handful of shows this season, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm ranging from “I can’t wait for the next episode” to “well, I might as well see how this reaches a conclusion.” With a month and some-odd left to go in most of these show’s runs, it’s time for some thoughts.

    (Note that I’m leaving out the long-running, continuing Apothecary Diaries, which remains one of the finest shows of this decade and looks destined for all-time-classic status. We love Maomao in this household.)

    Still image from the anime, "Rock Is A Lady's Modesty," featuring one of the lead characters (Lilisa) rocking out on a guitar in a school classroom, standing next to a hefty-sized amplifier.

    Let’s get into specifics.

    (more…)
  • Random Bits: Mid-May 2025

    I haven’t had enough to say about any specific thing to flesh out an entire post… though I suppose I could go back to my pre-Twitter use of this site to simply post very short status updates and minor thoughts… maybe. We’ll see. In the meantime, here are a few tidbits from my recent life:

    (more…)
  • State of Play: May 2025

    It’s been a little bit since the last one of these. So, what am I playing lately? Here’s a hint:

    Last Epoch video game screenshot: A mage and a weird floating three-armed minion hanging around in a dungeon.

    I mean, I also play some other games. Let’s catch up.

    (more…)