Germinating hallucinated seeds - R30 Issue #19

I finished Disco Elysium. The Estonian-made adventure game consumed my entire weekend, and then it was done. But can it ever be done? There are so many character traits you can choose, skills you can level up, that you barely get a glimpse of all the possible narrative strands.

At least on the first playthrough. I mean, I could play it again. But… eh. There were some things I didn’t like. For example, at one point I needed a Rhetorics check to advance the main storyline, but had only one skill point allocated in the Socratic discipline. In this case, you would do side quests until you level up and get another skil point. But the problem was that the only side quests I had left required me to do a skill check that also proved to be impossible. I had created the perfect cop character for this crime noir story: a completely useless one.

Hey, at least they can’t blame me for not playing it real! Long story short, I found some quests tucked away somewhere and was able to advance and solve the murder. But it was very good. Good characters, good writing, great art, and the music… to be honest I turned off sounds and played my own, as I usually do. The voice acting was great, but I realised I didn’t want to read everything at a slow pace, so off it went.

But it’s not all sunshine and roses. When it comes to the development of the game itself. People Make Games uploaded an extensive two and a half hour investigation into the making of one of the best video games of all time (#32). I don’t know what Slant is, but Wikipedia said it’s one of the best video games of all time, and linked that article. So, heh. Anyway, the vibes at ZA/UM, the dev studio responsible for DE, were as conflicted as the mind of the game’s protagonist. Art imitates Life imitates Art. Funny that a commercially succesful game about anti-capitalistic sentiments gets brought down by money, power struggles, and lies.

What else happened this week? Spring is coming. And so did my chili plants. Instead of germinating my own seeds, I opted for starter plants from a local gardener. Ancho Poblano, Sugar Rush Stripey, and 7Pot Bubblegum Yellow. We’ll see how it goes. If you haven’t stocked up on young plants or started germinating yet, there’s still time. Doesn’t have to be chili. How about weed? If you live in Europe, I recommend Dutch Passion from the Netherlands. Fast delivery, and not as expensive as Sensi Seeds. But they’re also pretty good.

In terms of 2025 bodyweight goals I’ve started lifting weights again. After 6 months of doing nothing. I got fat and bloated from eating crap, but now the battle for the beach bod is on! No more crap, just iron. And huge gains, of course. I’m trying a Push-Pull-Leg split with 3-4 units per week. I’ll try not to be dogmatic about it, and mix in exercises based on feel. Cookie-cutter shit usually leads to burnout.

In terms of educational material, I looked at another Schopenhauer video on Youtube. Here it is, but it is in German. Interesting guy, very incel-ish but also curious about Far Eastern philosophy.

As you probably know by now, there was a massive security breach at 4chan. The data dump contains .gov e-mail addresses, apparently. But does it still matter? The fascists are in charge, can’t accuse them of shitposting in /pol/, 4chan’s alt-right message board. You can, but it’ll likely just get a shrug in return.

I collected a deluge of AI stories I’m almost too lazy to share: How to poison pill music files to sabotage any AI training (yeah), The Little Mermaid starring Danny DeVito (barf), scammers using fake AI students to get financial aid funds (sad), Hacked Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons imitate Zuck and Musk (no thanks), Sex Chatbots leak explicit messages to the public (yuk), Malware based on hallucinated code libraries (hilarious), Silicon Valley startup wants to build robo-armies (oorah), and lastly AI haters build tarpits to trap and trick AI scrapers (sticky).

And that’s it for this week, gotta get back to lifting weights and getting swole.

Leftovers: Switzerland’s new passport design, Reject Hatred. Embrace Violence street art, Mathematicians crack problem to unite three physics theories

References:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium__The_Final_Cut/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Elysium?useskin=vector
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGIGA8taN-M
https://www.slantmagazine.com/games/the-100-best-video-games-of-all-time/
https://www.botanicalinterests.com/products/ancho-poblano-heirloom-chile-pepper-seeds
https://peppergeek.com/sugar-rush-stripey-pepper/
https://thehippyseedcompany.com/product/yellow-bubblegum/
https://dutch-passion.com/
https://sensiseeds.com/
https://www.aston.ac.uk/sport/news/tips/fitness-exercise/push-pull-legs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K21go6VHXUc
https://www.wired.com/story/2025-4chan-hack-admin-leak/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYm2d9bmEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGsBdprqOus
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2025/04/14/as-bot-students-continue-to-flood-in-community-colleges-struggle-to-respond/
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/technology/2025/04/12/silicon-valley-crosswalk-buttons-apparently-hacked-to-imitate-musk-zuckerberg-voices/
https://www.wired.com/story/sex-fantasy-chatbots-are-leaking-explicit-messages-every-minute/
https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2025/04/12/ai_code_suggestions_sabotage_supply_chain/
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/16/scout-ai-military-autonomous-fury
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/01/ai-haters-build-tarpits-to-trap-and-trick-ai-scrapers-that-ignore-robots-txt/
https://www.yankodesign.com/2025/03/18/switzerlands-new-passport-is-so-stunning-it-belongs-in-a-museum/
https://todon.eu/@RadicalGraffiti/114342655031229289
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/lofty-math-problem-called-hilberts-sixth-closer-to-being-solved/