State of Play: USA aligns with Russia?

It's now day 1103 of the Russia's two day special operation in Ukraine. While the battle rages on there it seems Russia is making some gains outside that theater, seemingly with the help of relatively newly re-elected USA president Donald Trump. In just around two months of his second time in office the USA has held "Peace Talks" with Russia without Ukrainian participation and decided to halt aid going to Ukraine after President Trump publicly clashed with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.

On top of this his high tariffs on Canada, Mexico (he also renamed their gulf) and China as well as sanctions relief for Russia some speculate he's building "the bridge" to trade primarily with the Russians in the future. This has sparked more than a few interesting comments of "Trump is a Russian agent" and "Congrats to Russia on winning the cold war". I suppose we will see if and how this changes the battle field but one thing's for sure: Putin must be pretty happy right now.

Busy September

Between working on "my own" TTRPG (in quotes because there's lots of external source inspiration) and actual work which is kicking my butt I've been a bit slack in posting. Hopefully that changes soon.

In the meantime you can try play around and make your own 6 second AI generated video for free! The site is Chinese but it can work with an English prompts. Tech advances are wild man. I'm also keen to see the remote machine guns Ukraine is developing (also, they've counter invaded Russia). Now gamers can really get into the fight? Curious to see if it will be stationary sentries or mobile with tracks or legs.

Then of course there's good old low tech sabotage and subterfuge, to do things like getting your enemies communication devices to just explode. That's pretty impressive too.

Floppy Knights FIST The Falconeer Rawmen

A triple F from Epic (F for Failure)!

Floppy Knights

This turn based card strategy game with cutesy art is a mishmash of things that hurt my head. It starts out where you need to fight goblin bandits meddling with antennas by using your strap on computer (oh my) to create holographic flora based forces and send them forth into battle? And make no mistake battling is the only thing you can do as you are set on a railroad of them from the get go. Not recommended.

FIST - Forged in Shadow Torch

In anthropomorphic China, you are one of the oppressed masses - an angry bunny with a robot arm who must traverse this side scrolling and platforming game to beat up the bad guys to earn enough currency to unlock more skills to better traverse and platform previously passed routes. This leads to one of my most hated game designs... back tracking. I know that's just a me thing, it really killed what otherwise was a decent if somewhat dated game. Cool graphics though!

The Falconeer

On an ocean world, mankind is stuck in towns clinging to rocks save for being able to travel on the back of giant eagles and dragons with lightning guns (and also via ocean ships and flying ships, just don't ask where the wood comes from)! So yes - this is basically a flying simulator with some story attached and while the controls take some getting used to there are some cool ideas like flying into a storm to recharge weapons and diving into the water to cool down but the game play loop isn't great as most objectives are go here, fight stuff there and then repeat. Might still be something for flight sim enthusiasts but for everyone else, skip it.

Final Bonus: Rawmen: Food Fighter Arena - it doesn't start with "F", but it has a terribly long load time followed by failing to even start the tutorial so I'm not wasting any time with this trash.

August 2024: Countries clash... in the Olympics!

We're more than half way through the games now but prior to the start Israeli athletes had been threatened a repeat of Munich. Israel's response was to take out some of the leaders of their known enemies and just get on with it. Meanwhile in the USA someone had tried to off Trump who is running for President again, but it was current President Biden who pulled out from running for his second term, finally understanding that he might be too old.

That shooter wasn't Olympics worthy unlike this pair (Kim Yeji and Yusuf Dikec).

Not all is well in the Olympics though with complaints ranging from uncomfortable beds to the Seine river (used for some swimming events) being so dirty its causing athletes to fall sick. Russian troops in Ukraine know all about bad water as they have a shortage of it, resorting to drinking whatever they can find. To be fair they might be dying too quickly to care about it anyway, but are still gaining ground regardless. On the water itself it's still humorous that the Russian navy is getting sunk by a country without one.

Some of this is made possible by drones. These things can do everything it seems, from spying on Olympic soccer training to killing helicopters. The UK has recognized the threat at has made an anti-drone laser system (which probably doesn't work well in fog, snow or rain but neither would flying drones). The crafty Ukranians solution is just to shotgun them from an old Yak-52. On a random tangent, I checked if someone made a laser to kill mosquitos and the answer is yes, but it currently isn't practical. Damn.

Meanwhile more bad news for Ukraine as Hungary is upset Ukraine is blocking their oil (despite them blocking aid to Ukraine for over two years) and NATO has also deemed Ukraine too corrupt to join them. Perhaps Russia's joint venture with China to establish a moon base, possibly in Mare Tranquillitatis Pit if they can claim it first, might take some heat off? With the ISS being retired in a few years that would be a pretty big achievement.

Not sure how China plans to bank roll this given their current financial troubles, but maybe it involves assimilating the Tibetans? They've still got around 10 years to work it out anyway. Not sure the way Thailand is handling their finance would be the answer. They're simply handing out digital money to citizens!

Dragonheir: Sailing Away

[Part of the Cursed story line.] 

Getting to season two for this game is a unique process where people who have "finished" all the content of season one at the allotted time are whisked away into a new server and are rewarded currencies based on how well the did in their previous season (and there are apparently four seasons of this now). 

While you keep all your RNGesus picked companions, all of them and your main character are back to level one with no gear so that you can grind up once more not only by doing the new stuff which involves saving an island of elves from some frisky sahaugin merlings but also by returning to the mainland to grind previously cleared combat zones which now feature different (and much harder) challenges. The elemental pairs also rotate to keep you on your toes which means my main party changed to be Fire Main / Horrus / Journ / Ripekas / and Estella for some heals.

The actual season one end boss is an illithid dragon?

The restarting thing is a bit annoying but could have been ok if the leveling back up was done better or differently (which I believe is something they mentioned in their road map). Not that it matters though as the game just issued a "Termination of Service for the US Region" for sometime in September, furthering angering the players who have paid real money on the game (already angry since the pay to win stuff they bought doesn't carry over to this season). This supposedly ties into USA's ban of Tiktok, as the company that owns Tiktok just bought Dragonheir and have a dispute with some US laws. I guess its best to bury this one now

Piracy in the Age of AI

I'm very late (as per usual) compared to others talking about the feats AI can achieve these days, but given that I've now got a chatGPT level spam comment on one of my posts its a good time to get into it. Sure, making essays and stories might be one thing but what impresses me most is chatGPT is able to handle stuff like "make an HTML webpage with a form that lists these countries as a radio set, have character fields for name, email and comment and a submit button" and it will generate the code for you. I wouldn't be surprised if it could handle heavier programmatic requests either!

Then of course there's the AI art side of things where you just type in what you want to see and it makes it for you. For this one I'm using Night Cafe which has some excellent free to use capabilities (but pay for an expanded range of options). It certainly feels like cheating when you get an amazing artwork in under five minutes. This side of things still has obvious limitations especially when it comes to fingers or some requests like: "a spider wearing boxing gloves" which almost without fail produces some form of friendly neighborhood Spiderman. What I want to know is... are these almost-instant codes and artworks plagiarism and piracy? Should be no but also... yes? Regardless, I might start using some of these AI pics on this site just for laughs.

Speaking of actual sea faring piracy, the Chinese coast guard are keeping that alive when they harass Philippine soldiers at sea with swords and axes. Keep in mind both sides have firearms but I assume to keep things from escalating they just stick with medieval level weaponry. This practice isn't just for their ocean forces either as modern Chinese soldiers armed with spears testing their borders with India.

May 2024: War... War never changes.

It's day 827 of Russia's two day special operation to take Ukraine and while they are gaining ground slowly through sheer numbers, a few countries have finally given the green light for Ukraine to use their weapons into Russian territory. That's a strange handicap to have originally been placed on the clear under dog, but lets see if this shifts the momentum into Ukraine's favor.  

Meanwhile in the Middle East, Egypt had warned it might withdraw from its mediator position in the (so far failed) Gaza ceasefire negotiations because of recent doubts that "offend" them. These doubts are mainly center around getting caught red handed mediating in bad faith, secretly changing terms before handing them to Hamas after Israel had already agreed and signed to it. Not sure how the parties involved feel but I for one would say "good riddance" as it's clearly pointless to put your trust in these lying snakes in the first place.

Now Israel is taking out some serious revenge to the tune of around 35K dead Palestinians so far for the instigating October 7 Hamas raid which killed around 1.2K people (for comparisons sake 9/11 killed around 3K with a 3.6M retaliation). It's clear where the loyalties of some folks in Mexico are, burning down the Israeli embassy in Mexico City right as they are being hit by a water shortage.

Worth noting Hamas are now singing their old song (on replay apparently) of "we're willing to negotiate as long as Israel completely stops fighting". Israel would be stupid to accept that and let them regroup, given the Hamas charter  (#4) explicitly states:

“Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…. There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad”

Next it's over to China where they've developed some pretty cool gun toting automatons, but somehow they're still not as scary as the drones that can simply drop grenades on you. Then we have North Korea, trying to stay relevant by sending in explosive balloons of literal shit to South Korea. Are they trying to say all their septic tanks are full and are in dire need of help? Or simply that they're just full of shit?

3 Body Problem (Season 1) and Fallout (Season 1)

Sci-Fi gets weird(er).

3 Body Problem (Season 1)

Half of this series focuses on a poorly treated woman in China during the 1960's while the other half focuses on a group of friends who all happen to be super smart science types in the modern age right when the Earth's leading scientists start going crazy and either start killing themselves or stop working. I do like that as the mystery reveals itself there are more problems to solve, but this was all up quite high on the level of strangeness for me - and my tolerance for strange is pretty high! With few exceptions the general level of special effects seem "cheap" and I also felt that hopping between the 1960's segment and modern age was freaking annoying and would have much rather they just mostly focused on one or the other per episode. That didn't stop us from finishing the season though, and will probably watch Season 2 whenever it rolls out.

Fallout (Season 1)

Based on the excellent game series this currently single season show focuses on a vault dweller (played by Ella Purnell) who makes her way out into the wasteland and encounters a lot of the terrible and funny stuff all the players have to deal with. Ok that's not entirely true, there are actually three people the story follows but the vault dweller is the centrifical force that ties the narrative together. Excellent props and set design (though some reused places) and a good deal of gory violence get the thumbs up from me, but the story is... let's just say its like the game plots where things just happen right? "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every damned time" rings very true. :P

The Days and Sly Dynasty Warriors

Disaster in Japan, Romance in China, and Rocky in the USA

The Days

This one season series is a dramatization of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident which could have laid waste to a third of Japan's land mass. When compared to the Chernobyl series this certainly feels like it had less budget and isn't as tight - especially with a few too many slow motion shots and an opening twenty(?) minutes that everyone can safely skip through (just watch the Earthquake then speed up till you get to the Tsunami). Outside of those two issues, this is actually quite decent and you really get a sense of dread with the hardships these people faced or are still facing.

The plot includes politicians and inept big wigs trying to save face while the poor workers at the site keep trying so hard to win each step forward only to get pushed down a flight of stairs as a reward. Only recommended if that is your sort of thing, want to know more about the Fukushima incident, or enjoyed the Chernobyl series (just lower expectations a bit).

Dynasty Warriors (2021)

Right in the opening text it says this movie is based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms story AND video games which gives you fair warning about how its going to go - and the opening army battle scene sets the tone with "the three heroes" Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu saving the incredibly fat womanizer Dong Zhuo from the Yellow Turban rebellion and their Yellow Turban sorcerer / necromancer leader via wire-fu and ridiculous effects to Chinese Synth metal which are right at home in the Dynasty Warriors game series. This happens for every and any fight scene.

While that's enough for an interactive game a movie needs more plot and isn't it lucky the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is pretty popular? To that end, it is kinda confusing why they decided to go off and butcher it a bit by introducing the god-forged weapons which was either a way to excuse their insane powers (which they had prior to receiving the weapons) or to switch POV to Cao Cao who is equally important to the over all story. The biggest problem though? This whole movie only covers the setup for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. All the interesting stuff is forming and starting to get interesting and then they end (at the battle of Hulao Pass for those wondering) which feels like this needs a sequel or a remake. Probably both.

Sly

There are a growing number documentaries on celebrities it seems and this is Sylvester Stallone's one. Unlike Beckham's series, this is a movie which primarily focuses on Stallone's script writing, acting, and clashes with his dad who really sounds like a piece of work. It's interesting to hear how he injected parts of his own life throughout the Rocky series and his rise to fame but ultimately its just ok. Not saying Beckham's a more interesting guy, but his media certainly makes for better viewing. Recommended only for Sylvester Stallone fans.

Green Snake and New Gods: Nezha Reborn

A pair of animated Chinese films made by Light Chaser Animation.

Green Snake

After she gets banished to a sort of violent modern day purgatory by a powerful monk, Verta the green snake demon must find a way to escape without her powers, beat said monk and free her sister Blanca the white snake demon who was trapped by the same monk. Yeah, I kinda like that the monk is just insanely powerful. It also means Verta can look like a good looking human female for the entire film. Smooth animation that seems to be filled with non-stop action makes this a really awesome movie, but the story dips heavily into Chinese mythology so if you aren't so familiar with reincarnation and the like it might feel a bit jarring at places but otherwise its pretty cool. There is a lot of fighting and a decent amount of death!

Side note, the other name for this movie is "White Snake 2" because there is a White Snake film that happens first which I wasn't aware of before watching this. Do you need to watch that first? Maybe, because the opening here really felt like it was dropping you right into it - but after the first 10 minutes the entire setting changes anyway. Didn't bother me. Not as much as not being able to find White Snake with English subs or dubs anyway. Well, I'm getting side tracked. As far as Green Snake goes, I can definitely recommend it.

New Gods: Nezha Reborn

Set in a future being affected by a massive drought the protagonist is a motorcycle racer / courier / smuggler who can't help but mess with the most powerful clan that controls all the water in the region. When blows are eventually exchanged it turns out the clan big shots are actually supernatural beings, as is the protagonist who is a reincarnation of a very violent (but also powerful) child. Fantastic animation once again with the odd "ancient beings in a modern setting" vibe going and a decent if predictable story though with slightly less action bits and more talky bits. Does that make it better? Not really, which is surprising. Note that it is quite violent and probably not really suited for younger audiences, like the scene where a helpless cat is killed. That happens twice. All up I preferred Green Snake.

Decluttering Day 8: A no longer non-stick frying pan, and a second smaller one that was my wife's very first frying pan.

Tower of Fantasy: Tower of Music

[Part of my Tower of Fantasy journal]

With the cult dealt with I have some time off which I spend at Mirroria where I moonlight as a bodyguard for a young DJ who in turn moonlights as an animal rescuer. I also go on patrol with a rookie cop which eventually leads to her in a coma. LOL. Fortunately the two previous comatose victims, Ruby and her mom, are now fully awake and since Ruby's birthday is fast approaching Lin asks that I help her assemble a band and act as their manager for a surprise performance for the kid. Members include the most unlikely of choices (wasn't I in the middle of chasing one of them?) but after a low effort quest line the performance is actually pretty cool.

Afterwards I bid farewell to the crew for its back to Innars for me, and actually back down to the active volcano where the abyssal rift remains open. Scanners sent in detect a new land that it bridges to and I'm sent to investigate, popping out in Domain 9 which basically is China - if China was made of islands floating in midair. I help the inhabitants here fight the gray entities too, which they refer to as "the Darkness", and it looks like this set is led by some strange, flute playing lady.

Magical floating leaves can support the motorbike so it must be safe!

Most of the darkness is sealed up in an underground vault but the Domain 9 master reveals the power that keeps it that way is dwindling quickly. In preparation for the coming war they have begun research and development of combat capabilities for Smart Servants - AI Companions of the cute chibi variety you can bring around with you. And that unfortunately is where I leave Tower of Fantasy for now at level 51 as I've consumed all the main storylines. Maybe I'll revisit again in a year or so. :)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom

Going for another wild adventure!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Following the previous movie (and their Christmas high jinks), Starlord (Chris Pratt) and his crew have to shake off the rust and spring into action to save one of their own. This is top notch Marvel again, showing off a big budget with CGI, a good and funny script (though somewhat dark in places) with character growth and many cool fights. I really liked it - highly recommended!

Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom

When a Chinese princess arrives at the indomitable village in Gaul to ask for help against traitorous governor, it's up to the usual duo of Asterix and Obelix to go to her aid. While the comically styled effects are fine, the script is a strange one to say the least. It's nice that there is tension and resolution between the two protagonists and that there is decent wire-work combat involved (because China) but there are lots of stupid level jokes and most of the build up either goes nowhere. Much like Quantumania not a lot changes between the beginning and the end so... not recommended.

Bioshock Infinity: Columbian Baptism

[Part of the Wasted Land story]

 

These guys are the best part of the early game.

Being launched from a lighthouse into the city of Columbia floating on the clouds caught Booker by surprise, but if that's what it took to do the job of getting the girl to clear his debt so be it. Mingling with the crowds during some sort of festival, his status as an outsider is discovered which puts him at violent odds against the local police force and "firemen", who actually start fires in this place. Luckily their guns aren't too different from those on the ground and he uses a machine gun to cut down all opposition while making his way toward a giant statue of an angel which ironically is also the prison of his target - a young lady named Elizabeth.

While she is hesitant to trust him, she has no qualms about getting out of there via a nearby airship. Alas, on board is also a most zealous nun (most of the populace are zealots believing in their local "prophet") who self detonates and sends Booker and Liz into the man made floating sea below. They somehow survive this and the armed forces that pursue them soon after with Booker needing to get creative with a shotgun since he lost his previous weapon in the crash, but the girl is unhappy to be with a murderer so she blindsides Booker and knocks him out to make her escape alone.

Booker awakes as a hostage of the Vox, the rebellious faction group of non-white Americans who are used and treated like slaves. Due to his appearance he is given a chance to "buy" a stolen airship from them, in exchange he just needs to get them a whole bunch of weapons from their Chinese gunsmith contact in Finktown. En route, Booker encounters a monstrous cyborg "Handyman" but escapes thanks to Elizabeth's intervention. She might not like him, but she admits that she will need his help to escape as there's a giant metal bird that keeps preventing her in doing so.

November 2022: NATO weighs in with words

With the war starting to spill out of the set boundaries "Defending Ukraine is defending democracy," says NATO and while the little country is finding ways to continue with power shortages as winter approaches, Zelenskyy has had more visitors in the form of Sean Penn and David Letterman while his forces continue to push East, capturing Kherson - the only regional capital Russia captured after invading in February. Here's an animated map.

Meanwhile Russia, whose economy is now truly in recession and dubbed a terrorist state by NATO, is aptly proving redditor Rhinomeat correct in his statement that "You cannot use logic or reason to dislodge someone from a position that they used neither logic nor reason to maneuver themselves into."

They are blessing their guns and vehicles to slay the Ukranian devils and are relying on ally North Korea to provide winter uniforms. Their other ally, Iran, has supposedly suffered some military losses too however they are currently busy beating up women at home and finding workarounds to their own laws which state they can't execute virgins. Lastly India has opted to continue to buy Russian oil, which in itself is a show of support for the Russians, right beside China who are currently experiencing their own riots.

These are more to do with the continued COVID lock downs though, which include being locked in theme parks, taxis and burning buildings. Regardless, their future war preparations continue as they have begun cloning drones being used in Ukraine and Russia. Just another reason for their rival the USA to not support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons while strong arming others to say the same. Global Second Amendment anyone?

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October 2022: Day 250 of the war

The Ukrainian "advance" (to reclaim territory) continues, inspiring the people of Kherson, a city captured early on by the Russians, to no longer accept their rubles. To be fair, it might just be because rubles are not worth much these days with all the sanctions.

Their opponent, President Putin, has had an explosive birthday month for after being angered by the Crimea bridge explosion on/near his birthday, his forces conducted a retaliation bombardment that took down a third of the Ukranian power facilities in two days. They also have an interesting method of recouping their lost people by sending captured Ukranian kids to be adopted by Russians, some of whom publicly stating said kids should be drowned and/or burned alive.

The Russians have also found allies in Belarus and Iran, the latter of which is doing some serious multitasking by killing protestors with religious fashion police. They're also making strides for an alliance with North Korea, who are busy shooting missiles over Japan for the shits and giggles.

In true Crouching Tiger or Hidden Dragon style, China continues to bide its time as Xi Jinping secured his third term in power. Is it worrying that they might have "police" stations worldwide where they can drag you in and beat you up? Maybe?

Germans have proven indifference is just as effective as beatings though, as these not so smart scientists discovered when they protested for climate change. They were simply left in the sticky situation they got themselves in and were proven to be the hypocritical morons they actually are.

Finally, at 50 days, the shortest serving UK PM has finished her low% speed run successfully crashing their economy. Good job?

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September 2022: COVIDED

Well, it finally happened: I got Covid for around a week this month. Itchy throat, headaches, lots of flem with sudden, violent coughing and blocked sinuses that made it hard to breathe. Not fun at all. Ultimately only ended up taking 2 days off though, being able to work from home the rest of the time.

Being sick doesn't stop the world from carrying on though: Queen Elizabeth II died, and Russia's conflict with Ukraine continues with Putin ordering a mobilization while also increasing the penalties for desertion or refusing to serve. In what looks like desperation, Russia is trying to "legally" annex the parts they currently control. This is most likely in response to Ukraine's counter offensive which is best viewed in this "200 days animated" tweet (its the big blue chunk towards the end of the animation).

Meanwhile China's scored a win with an agreement to buy Russian gas at a 50% discount. According to the Russians, the USA is to blame for the whole gas shortage in Europe. I wonder if they'll also get the blame for the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage leaks? Private talks between those two nations is currently focused on a different issue though: that of avoiding the use of nuclear weapons.

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July 2022: Day 158 of the war

It's been another month of battle and thanks to constant ammo depot explosions near the front and reports of "scoring own goals", Russia needed a brief operational pause this month to steady their supply while simultaneously recruiting (more) felons to boost their ranks and up their war crimes. This possibly also includes quitting from the International Space Station. Maybe they need their cosmonauts in the fight too?

Their ally, Belarus, is also saber rattling against their Polish neighbors while providing Russia with an airfield close to Ukraine's borders while "neutral" party China, who enjoy dictating terms to religions and the USA, has just sent troops and equipment to Russia for some military olympics? That's a real thing and not an "oh, now Russians have new Chinese arsenal/reinforcements"? Cool, I'd watch that if it was televised.

Meanwhile Ukraine is still playing host to international leaders while using any means, including Tindr, to defend their land but they still have time to make funny stamps. They did lose an ally in Boris Johnson who resigned as the UK PM this month, but at least he went out with a "hasta la vista, baby" and not just via an overseas email or by fatal, home-crafted shotgun shot.

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Warframe: Nezha and Wukong

A pair of Chinese themed warframes available from the Tenno lab.

Nezha

Fire is the main theme for Nezha, who can leave a trail of stat cleansing flames for allies or just actual fire for enemies wherever he walks, throw a flaming Frisbee that he can teleport to or spin it around to be near invulnerable for a few seconds and lastly he can impale an area of enemies onto spears, because Nezha clearly loves to BBQ. His passive of being able to slide faster and farther on all that BBQ oil just emphasizes this (or ok I just like BBQ and it has nothing to do with it).

But his is a slow cooking BBQ, unlike the Ember who if I recall correctly is all "fireball" and "meteor swarm". In fact, he basically felt like a more flame oriented and slightly better Excalibur to me where he wasn't bad at anything, and quite speedy and tanky (probably very tanky if geared right).

Wukong

Based on the Monkey King, this frame's passive is that the first five times it should die/go into bleed out, it simply doesn't. He can also summon an exalted staff, turn into a cloud which lets him fly invisibly while being immortal and status cleansed for a few seconds (but you can spam it, even in mid air), defy all damage (again being immune) by simply taking all the hits and then returning them in an AoE attack, and my favorite: summon a celestial twin which is basically like a free and super active specter who will use range if you are on melee and vice versa.  

An excellent frame if you have good weapons, especially since you can summon a specter on top of using the celestial twin. I heavily used this for doing the Index mission sections in the Glast Gambit quest armed with a Zarr and Sydon and had a really hard time letting it go due to frame slot constraints. At least I don't need to grind for the blueprints if I want it back.

June 2022: Switching Addictions

China has been busy. Not only have they been building a new aircraft carrier and rewriting the history of Hong Kong, they are also publicly supporting Russia who are continuing arduous combat against Ukraine while claiming NATO has started World War III.

While nothing much has changed there, regular readers might have noticed the drop off of posting frequency on this blog. I think it's a mix of being tired, lazy, and far too addicted to Warframe which has consumed most of my free time this month. It's even been holding me back from playing a bunch of new games!

Honestly though, it's kinda felt nice not having to post everyday. Maybe I just traded one addiction for another? It does make this "Most Viewed Posts" (of the month) a bit silly though, as its now just the top three out of ten?

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April 2022: Day 65 of the war

Or in Russian, it would be Day 65 of the special operation. There are now laws in which saying what the government doesn't want to hear or agree with a crime worth 15 years in prison. For similar reasons they've sent a wikipedia a hefty fine for spreading misinformation.

After losing a war ship, a few more tanks, being chased by drones, and being poisoned by locals, Russian forces were redeployed from attacking Kyiv to partake in a major offensive at Donbas to the East which includes the long besieged city of Mariupol. They have also started deploying dolphins, because that's apparently a thing that the USA does as well?

That's an artsy destroyed tank turret.

With the supposed default of the Ruble coming soon (speculated May 4th), Vladimir Putin has announced that the Russian lunar program will continue. Perhaps that's an additional reason why Russia is cutting the gas supply to both Poland and Bulgaria. To quote reddit: "Russia can't get enough fuel to drive a few hours to Kiev. Moon is a bit further".

Less people using Russian gas is exactly what the outnumbered Ukraine wants though, who are going hard on their propaganda with an excellent writing team - though sometimes a single picture can be pretty moving too. Support continues to flow for them from overseas, with Britain's Boris Johnson visiting Zelenskyy in Kyiv, USA's Joe Biden labeling Russia's action as genocide, France's Emmanuel Macron boosting weapons supplies for Ukraine after winning a second term of presidency over a pro-Russian opponent, hackers continuing to do their thing against Russia, and chef Jose Andres providing food to those he can reach.

It's also funny that Germany's Green party is saying the German government isn't being aggressive enough arming Ukraine. Again quoted from reddit: "Green party: Fuck it you know what would reduce emissions? BURNING MOSCOW *heavy metal riff*"

While I've been impressed at the use of drones in the theater of war, China is using them a different way - using mounted speakers to instruct the people locked down in Shanghai due to COVID to comply with the restrictions and "control the soul's desire for freedom". Sounds like another step towards a dark cyberpunk future! Actually, how is Hong Kong doing? Oh. Not great.

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