@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe cover
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

HauntedOwlbear

@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe

Anarcho-syndicalist wandering monster. Writes stuff. Makes things. Tech writing, software preservation, game development, weird fiction, occasional occult references.

Follow reqs welcome.

Non-binary. Likes bicycles, strength training, anti-fascist black metal, the Ultima CRPG series. Wobbly.

Experimental games, Twine abuse and other things I don't get paid for at https://mightyowlbear.com/ and https://mightyowlbear.itch.io/

Less chatty creative alt: @owlbear

Avatar by SandraMJdev
twoot

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. View on remote instance

alienmelon , to Random stuff
@alienmelon@mastodon.social avatar

BlueSuburbia won at A MAZE 😭🥹🥰💖🦩💕

my pink best friends

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@alienmelon well deserved! Congratulations!

HauntedOwlbear , (edited ) to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Edit: Found! No need to boost any more!

It was Tusks, which turns out to be for iOS.

I probably only remembered desktop functionality because it presumably does that on Apple silicon systems

I remember seeing someone mention a desktop mastodon client designed specifically for composing and posting threads. Anyone remember what it was?

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@sascha_ Yeah, that was it. Sadly, I misremembered it as being for desktop rather than iOS. Thank you!

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@sascha_ Sadly, I have no modern Apple hardware, but it looks great for those who do.

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Well, I got exactly zero gainful employment done today, but I got an Android tablet set up for a non-tech friend and made a small resource for non-binary people, which I guess I am going to have to publish on this account after all.

root42 , to Retro Gaming
@root42@chaos.social avatar

And there we go again! Laary 3 is on. Never played this one either! From the get go it already seems a bit more polished and seems to have more of a musical score, which is nice

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@root42 it's my personal favourite of the series, with some really satisfying puzzles. Bar the arcade sequences.

fesshole Bot , to Random stuff
@fesshole@mastodon.social avatar

Since turning 31 I've started writing poetry in complete secret. It's a nice hobby but I'm terrified of showing anyone. As if a mate of mine showed me poetry they'd written I'd remove them from my life straightaway.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@fesshole I think this is why poetry magazines and online crit groups exist. You can share it if you want and keep your secret, OP.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@astromech @fesshole no, but it's definitely bisexual

gamingonlinux , to Random stuff
@gamingonlinux@mastodon.social avatar

I have 4TB in my PC 😆

I'm using nearly all of it 💀

No, I will not uninstall all those games I haven't played for over a year.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@gamingonlinux hard same

netkitty , to Random stuff
@netkitty@hackers.town avatar

hides under a blanket world is scary… will be under here…

HauntedOwlbear , (edited )
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@netkitty you're not wrong. Can I join you in the fort, kit'n?

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@netkitty climbs in and cuddles the kitten

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

IDK if internal corporate wisdom knows how press reviews mostly work these days, but:

If I have been commissioned to do some freelance testing for a publication and a company doesn't provide review accounts on some vague principle that it's more fair, they're probably not going to get reviewed, because it's almost certain that my client is not going to expense a subscription for me, and I have neither the money nor the interest to pay for one out of my own meagre resources.

Trust me when I say that I absolutely do not care about your product/service, except inasmuch as people will pay me to produce data about it.

"Oooh, tech reviewers are so lucky, look at all the free stuff they get."

Absolutely not. Rid me of this pile of shite, I would rather be doing literally anything else.

Further: if I get all ~8700 words of this written by next Wednesday, I'm buying myself a new piercing. Please encourage me.

(Erm. After I've paid the terrifying electricity bill that's the main reason I'm back on this bullshit.)

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@neil Thank you! 💕

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

M. Murmuur release the lyrics for Submission And Slavery, you fucking coward.

HauntedOwlbear , (edited ) to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Ooh, I might have enough time at my desk today to do the , themed after .

These are so hard to make, @neurothing !

Anyway, look, this list is mostly vibes-based, and you'd be hard pressed to find literal darkness in here, but there's something of a shared obscuration of the soul going on.

If you listen to just one track off it, make it 45 Grave's Phantoms.

Deine Lakaien - Because The Night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaSKLET6VE4&list=RDEMtC_jYEcHYJKUJwO2cxjrig&index=3
Elsewhere: https://songwhip.com/deine-lakaien/because-the-night

Blod Besvimelse - Misanthrop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAL29pwpcY&list=PLtYZtqW15U8PyTlpuAqODIP5nuJQTZ7Qs
(Note: Tragic, and also problematic because of BSOD's involvement.)

Skinny Puppy - Killing Game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0bunnORrrY
Elsewhere: https://songwhip.com/skinny-puppy/killing-game

The Darkthrones - Californian Hunger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC3QnAcBsbg
Elsewhere: https://songwhip.com/trvekvltsurf/californian-hunger
For the gays: https://blackmetalrainbows.bandcamp.com/track/the-darkthrones-californian-hunger?action=download

45 Grave - Phantoms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaRCpEfxo38&list=PLecmVSL7rdzt5nsidCvxXZ3KpfTm_fX_K&index=6
Elsewhere: https://songwhip.com/45-grave/phantoms

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Black and death metal bands can be compassed along the following axes:

Materialist
^
|
Horny < - . - > Bloodstained
|
v
Occult

So Lamp of Murmuur are somewhere towards bottom left.

Rotting Christ are bottom, slightly right of centre.

Carcass can be found at top right.

And there probably needs to be a secret, third axis for "Tolkien", where Summoning live.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@d6 Oh yeah, Hypocrisy at the opposite end to Summoning!

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@gdeyke I feel that the centre dot maybe needs to represent "why not both?"

HauntedOwlbear , (edited ) to Retro Gaming
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Lost Game Appeal - doomed cause edition

CW Seth Putnam

The Impaled Northern Moonforest website is somehow still online.
https://inm.acousticblackmetal.com/impaled_northern_moonforest/index.html

But! The band's official game, Grim & Frostbitten Necrobobsledding (a Ski Free clone, but kvlt) is not! (Nor are a few other software toys and desktop wallpaper sets they made.)

You can see it listed on this image of the no-longer-active downloads page:
http://web.archive.org/web/20071013035022/http://www.inm.acousticblackmetal.org/downloads.htm

We're looking for a 903KB file called necrobobsledding.zip

I had it on my old work PC in around 2008, but have no idea if it exists on any hard disk that I still have in my possession.

Yes, I'm emailing the addresses on the site, but I'm not expecting those to go anywhere.

(Note: Seth Putnam was intensely and deliberately problematic, so just consider all available content warnings to be applied to everything he has ever done.)

I do not know how to tag this one, so um...

Resister , to Random stuff
@Resister@radicalsocial.work avatar

by @neurothing is songs about darkness or dark things.

Kieran Hebden & William Tyler - Darkness, Darkness
https://youtu.be/728vP8jorLY?si=2Oy61jm-YhYSEwbu

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
https://youtu.be/TJAfLE39ZZ8?si=0nQhkGkfm3Hev_NY

Catherine Wheel - Black Metallic https://youtu.be/mtTqR9oZX6Q?si=ijqWru8PmopuhQVk

The Velvet Underground - The Black Angel's Death Song https://youtu.be/5S78t8I8Z5I?si=CwcPVb23D6w1sZtV

Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Follow You Into the Dark
https://youtu.be/3iV_1ESMHaI?si=so8XVoost53GVcrz

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@Resister @neurothing oh, hey, Catherine Wheel, sweet!

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Someone posted a poll about old and I'm reluctantly doing rote testing for work, so please be warned that this might be a retro pop music thread.

Aurora - The Day It Rained Forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgb8zbWxYHA&t=4s

mynameistillian , to Random stuff
@mynameistillian@plush.city avatar

i feel like "straightness" as a concept has more to do with the socio political classification and reward for conformity rather than heterosexual attraction itself. the etymology of the word comes from "on the straight and narrow" afaik. which means that you're "normal", whatever that means. and you're conforming. it is more an antonym to queer than it is to homosexual

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@mynameistillian yeah, we see it in the other counterculture slang uses of "straight" meaning "not a drug user" or more generally "a law-abiding citizen" (derogatory)

babe , to Random stuff
@babe@glitterkitten.co.uk avatar

Can you guess what it is yet

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@babe Baba from Baba Is You?

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@babe oinker!

lashman , to Random stuff
@lashman@mastodon.social avatar

Proton Mail Discloses User Data Leading to Arrest in Spain

https://restoreprivacy.com/protonmail-discloses-user-data-leading-to-arrest-in-spain/

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@lashman yeep. Using them for my business e-mail saves me having to juggle PGP keys, but they're a major platform subject to Swiss and Interpol law enforcement requests. This is not an appropriate platform for activism or, really, any kind of privacy you need to be sure of.

It's a shame running diy secure email servers is such a pain.

JohnBloor , to Random stuff
@JohnBloor@neurodifferent.me avatar

RIP Steve Albini. Gone way too soon.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@JohnBloor oh, no, 61 is no age at all 🙁

blogdiva , to Random stuff
@blogdiva@mastodon.social avatar

so, my latest impression from the UK is that Keir Starmer is really not the kind of guy who should be representing working class people; what with that "Sir" in front of his name and such. in other words: he's an upper class twit fucking it up for the Labour Party. or am i off the mark on this one?

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@pedestrians1st @blogdiva @melanie and Benjamin Zephaniah!

neil , to Random stuff
@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk avatar

/dances across the timeline, happy with his work here/

A video of me dancing, badly but happily.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@neil wholesome

eniko , to Random stuff
@eniko@peoplemaking.games avatar

fuck it post deleted it's not worth the risk just to vent about the gatekeepers of success in gamedev

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@eniko promo really does feel heavily stacked towards people who are willing and able to go out and schmooze and give talks and whatnot.

Which, yeah, I appreciate that it's a skillset, and it's one I laboriously acquired, but not everyone can swan off to $randomCountry and spend three days straight wearing a mask (or not 😬) in a room full of people, with inevitably limited accessibility, being on and outgoing and interactive.

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff French
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

J'ai déclaré mes impôts et je suis ~ 95 % sûr qu'ils sont corrects, redevances incluses !

18+ HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

! Show me your band/whatever subculture interest shirt of today!

Faces not required if you're not comfortable with that, I already know you're all beautiful. 💕

I'm wearing Underdark's Bodies Burn Bright tee. (Again.) Listen to them at https://underdark.bandcamp.com/music

I am going to keep doing these until metal fedi gets into them the way metal twitter used to.

Sorry for cutting off the bottom of the shirt, the angle that showed it properly was thirst trappy AF.

and , I guess

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@lunarloony that is great. I'm wearing a sustainable hoodie right now, courtesy of Sea Shepherd

libe Bot , to Random stuff French
@libe@amicale.net avatar

«Devoir de visite» des pères absents, la vision trop simpliste d’Emmanuel Macron
Source: Jonathan Bouchet-Petersen

https://www.liberation.fr/politique/devoir-de-visite-des-peres-absents-la-vision-trop-simpliste-demmanuel-macron-20240508_2HK6BLWBPRGS7HUXXMBDECUYY4/

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@libe @scream

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Oops, need to fully read posts for trauma content before boosting, sorry all. Will reup under a CW

DarkestKale , to Random stuff
@DarkestKale@mastodon.social avatar

Good morning folks

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@DarkestKale CD Projekt definitely not the scrappy indie it used to be, no.

On the subject of cyberpunk (the genre), are you aware of Neofeud?
https://silverspookgames.blogspot.com/p/home.html?m=1

ephemeromorph , to Random stuff
@ephemeromorph@topspicy.social avatar

If I wanted to make a webpage that triggers a particular event (playing a sound file or whatever) when the viewer presses a key, what should I research to learn how to do that? Basically I want to be able to make stuff like Buffy's Swearing Keyboard.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@ephemeromorph

I started typing all sorts of suggestions about clever approaches, but IRL I'd use a pre-rolled solution like this: https://dmauro.github.io/Keypress/

nota , to Random stuff
@nota@chaos.social avatar

oh: neurotypicals should really learn to mask better. I know you want to talk about the weather but please just pretend you have a favorite lizard or something, it's not that hard

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@nota who the hell doesn't have a favourite lizard?!? Tuataras are right there.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@datarama @nota holy crap, Sphenodons their own special special thing! Thank you for this gift, kind internet stranger!

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@datarama @nota oh, Nile monitor, definitely. Yours?

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@datarama @nota I was home visiting family last week and spent a healthy amount of time watching Phoenicolacerta troodica romping about the place

Check out these little dudes!
https://en.herpatlas.cy/species/lizards/troodos-lizard

(Igor sounds like a lovely friend, BTW.)

HauntedOwlbear , to Random stuff
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

Show me your Top 5 , Fedi. These are mine right now.

  • Baldur's Gate III
  • Citizen Sleeper
  • Disco Elysium
  • Ultima VI: The False Prophet (with Nuvie to turn the viewport into a full map)
  • Divinity: Original Sin

This list is in the order of which I played most recently and - with the caveat that I'm only 64 hours into BG3 - these are honestly all perfect, no-notes gaming experiences for me.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@gsquirrel Neverwinter Nights was a stone cold classic, and although I know it's still very well regarded, probably still doesn't get quite enough love.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@Cal I backed and then bounced off Backpack Hero. I should give it another try when I'm off the current obsession.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@stenpett Oblivion's my favourite Elder Scrolls game, too.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@DarkestKale I really enjoyed that on a play through a couple if years ago! (Didn't finish it, though.) I really want to replay Tangled Tales now, too.

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@eobet top 5s are hard but yours looks solid. Also, the Alternate Reality games sound wild and I'd like to give them and Dark Heart of Uukrul a whirl.

(Old turns based games are good for pinning to one side of the screen while I do rote testing, so might be handy this week!)

HauntedOwlbear OP ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@dannyjpalmer honestly, this is a golden age of CRPGs that we're in right now

fesshole Bot , to Random stuff
@fesshole@mastodon.social avatar

Office worker by day, failed commedian by night. I've made up about 6 stories and sent them to Fesshole just to try and get some laughs and likes. None were published. Even my made up life is too boring apparently.

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@fesshole Don't worry, OP. Mine was incredibly sordid and still didn't make the bar.

eobet , to Random stuff
@eobet@oldbytes.space avatar

👀

HauntedOwlbear ,
@HauntedOwlbear@eldritch.cafe avatar

@eobet these are really cool!

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • Mordhau
  • WatchParties
  • Rutgers
  • Lexington
  • cragsand
  • mead
  • RetroGamingNetwork
  • itdept
  • jeremy
  • MidnightClan
  • xyz
  • PowerRangers
  • AnarchoCapitalism
  • kamenrider
  • khanate
  • AgeRegression
  • neondivide
  • loren
  • mauerstrassenwetten
  • Teensy
  • steinbach
  • learnviet
  • bjj
  • space_engine
  • electropalaeography
  • supersentai
  • WarhammerFantasy
  • fandic
  • All magazines
    •