#diane gaming

[dspacefear]

Hypnospace Outlaw is probably my favorite fictionalized internet. This is, partially, because it is genuinely just an entire fictional corner of the late-90s web in all its Web 1.0 glory, rendered in incredible detail. But maybe more importantly, it's filled with genuine love for most of the people it portrays, from confused old people to edgy teenagers getting in online slapfights to super-nerds mad enough at The Man to build their own system (as much as you can when you're still on The Man's servers, because of the scope of the game).

It would be so easy for a game about alternate universe Geocities to be extremely mean-spirited. And Hypnospace can make its characters into jokes, at times, but it doesn't feel like there's serious disdain for these people (with a few notable and IMO deserved exceptions), and especially not for their real life counterparts. They can be silly because people are silly sometimes, and even characters that seem silly at first often have a genuine side you can find with a little reading. Carl is a boomer and his page is badly made, but he clearly loved his wife dearly and misses her every day. All of these people are part of a community that brought a lot of joy to the world, enough for people decades later to go hunting for rare hardware models to try to archive it.

It's so common for online comedy, especially about the internet, to be mean. To view its subjects as essentially a pack of morons that we'd all be better off without. Hypnospace portrays a lot of people that usually get that treatment and it goes out of its way to humanize them.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

A new boat! - Dian Parkinson, The Price is Right (1986)

[stnaf-vn]

.❤️🔵🌸 NEW CHARACTER SHEETS ❤️🔵🌸. (repost because I messed up a Z's and Diane's sheet, oops-)

.❤️🔵🌸 OC TEMPLATE ❤️🔵🌸.

[lakesparkles]

Part 2 of this crossover

They're so different but they have the same energy to me.

[petermorwood]

Potato Crisps / Chips on Tasting History

So we've just watched Max's latest...

...and I was grinning a bit because I posted about Dr Kitchiner's 1817 (non-US, definitely non-Saratoga) crisps / chips recipe a month ago.

That image was from an American edition of his book; I've found a pic from the original - NB that these slices are floured before frying.

For reference, here's a two-penny piece from about 1797; the coin would still be current 20 years later:

...and here's how thick the potatoes should be sliced. That's 4mm, which is 2mm less than "a quarter of an inch" (6.25mm).

The slices will get even thinner as their moisture evaporates during frying, and, given the nature of recipes, potatoes cooked this way are probably even older than 1817 and Kitchiner's is just the first appearance found so far in print.

*****

The first recipe for "Game Chips" (an accompaniment to grouse, pheasant etc.) appeared, per the Wikipedia link, in a 1903 book published by famous chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935):

"Chip potatoes - these are potatoes cut into thin slices; this is usually done with a special plane. (A mandoline.) They are put in cold water for 10 minutes; then drained, dried in a cloth and fried until very crunchy. They are served hot or cold and generally accompany game roasted in the English style."

However, per Escoffier's Wikipedia page, much of his work was based on that of Anton Carême (1783-1833), whose dates are squarely coincident with Dr Kitchiner's Potato Slices.

Given the amount of cookery to-and-fro between England and France after the Napoleonic wars were over, it's impossible to say who first came up with the idea of potato crisps.

The French loved dainties - "un petit quelquechose", a little something - which the English pronounced and dismissed as "kickshaws", something over-fussy yet insubstantial. Yet those same English also loved roasting things with their appropriate accompaniments.

(I'm writing this just over a week after Christmas, and have been well reminded that the phrase "Roast (turkey / goose / beef) With All The Trimmings" is still in common 21st-century use.)

If those roasted things were game birds, only those above a certain level in society would be eating them, so it's not unreasonable to assume a rich-person game bird would attract fussy, time-consuming rich-person trimmings like, okay, Game Chips.

One thing's for sure, Potato Crisps - and Game Chips too, so hard luck, Escoffier - are almost certainly older than even Tasting History could prove.

*****

BTW, they also existed at a time when "English Food Was Bland" is more fake history.

Sauces put out on the table in fancy bottles had fancy labels ("bottle tickets") showing what was in them, and the contents were often far from bland.

Quin sauce was anchovy-based, hot and pungent.

Harvey's was a spicy sauce similar to Worcestershire, ketchup was probably mushroom and also spicy; the other two need no elaboration.

AFAIK the two crescent-shaped ones in the next pics are deliberate imitations of an officer's rank-gorget.

Finally a generic Not-Bland label that would go on any number of modern bottles (antique silver, yours for £250)...

*****

And after all of the above, I could do Very Bad Things to a packet of Tayto Cheese 'n' Onion. A packet?

Why stop at a packet when A Pack takes less time to say?

After all, It Is Written that:

"Reading One Book Is Like Eating One Potato Crisp Chip."

And also that Nothing Exceeds Like Excess...

[casualavocados]

I'm worried that I only saw what I wanted to see. / What can I do to make you believe me?

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 10 / Ep. 12

[blugnettabutterflies]

TW for CC spoilers, specifically Blaze of Glory

Also Tw for blood

So with @anxietyfluffy we did a Collab!! This came out of a conversation we had around Mouthwash, to the Ivan the Terrible and His Son painting, and this happened! This was amazing to do!

Fluffy did sketch and lineart, I did the color and shading!

Diane you have to let your son go.

[thebugpaint]

ya'll fw my mouthwashing oc?

here have some doodle of them

[starrysharks]

got some chara designs for a little death game oc project that i kinda want to develop further so why not post some chara designs from it ?!?!!?!?

[dionysusismydaddy]

Dionysus in Various Depictions

[furrylibrarian]

Making a Foxgirl poll for Foxgirl Friday, please vote for your favorite Foxgirl

I’m not familiar with all of these Foxgirls but I have at least heard of each of them

[dspacefear]

You may know Robot Alchemic Drive from that funny youtube video with the girl who eats bread and water soup. It's quite funny. However, I gave the game an actual try and it is nuts in a very good way.

Firstly, you control each limb on your mech individually. The shoulder buttons step your legs forward and back. To walk, you have to alternate the shoulder buttons. The control sticks move your left and right arm (make specific motions with them to throw various punches), the D-pad tilts your upper body, and the face buttons perform special functions. This is a control scheme I've never seen before. It sounds like a joke about how you'd make an awkward-controlling mech game.

There's a second catch. You have to also control your player character, who is outside of the mech. This ain't your dad's Gundam, this is some old-school remote control Super Robot anime. The select button switches between the character and the mech, and when you're controlling the mech, the camera is fixed to the point where your character is standing. Try to find a good balance between getting a view and your own personal safety. Don't stand in the road, you might get hit by a car.

This game is nuts and I look forward to playing more of it.

[djkerr]

Guilty or Not Guilty with Christine Baranski, Audra McDonald, and Michael Sheen

🎥 cred @goodfight_cbs via Twitter/X

[stnaf-vn]

Workin' on redesigns and new character sheets

lil wip

[xzymy]

another normal day with them💞

[buzziightqueer]

thinking about that interview where diane neal basically said casey is a virgin up until JUST before she started at svu