Title: Liminal Life Spaces Created: 2023-04-06 Author: zlg Have you ever been at a place in your life where everything's in flux, things can go this way or that, and each day feels simultaneously dreadful and exciting? In some groups, the idea of *liminal spaces* -- parking lots, waiting rooms, foyers in large homes, etc. -- are attractive. I'm not sure what the appeal is for people in these liminal spaces -- they tend to be enjoyed most when they are empty and it's night time -- but I totally feel like my life is in one. Let's count the facets. # Classic Gaming with Friends My friend and I have maintained contact despite the distance. We play games a few times a week. We spent the past year or so playing through classics that I've played with others. Among some of the best times are *Super Mario Kart*, which I wasn't expecting. --- When I was a kid, I played Super Mario Kart with my brother. We didn't do much in the way of standard VS play, but we did Battle Mode some. Since we were kids, we ended up arguing about the other brother's playstyle, until we agreed to only use green shells, because "it requires more honor". Real men fire green shells, I guess. Cringey and silly, but we were kids! Eventually, we both got pretty good at aiming green shells. We eventually got tired of the game since both of us would get a little too into it and get pissed by the end of the night. --- My friend and I got into Super Mario Kart because we were looking for games to play together now that we're physically apart. Since I added him to my Switch Online and he pitched in to get the Expansion Pack, and we both grew up with games from this era, playing Switch online together was an easy choice. Super Mario Kart's battle mode is actually good. Sure, the controls are a bit jank, the levels aren't as great as they could be, but you have a lot more control over the kart and your items than you think. My friend and I would pull off the craziest shots, dodges, and drive-bys. The best level is the water level, because of the strategic complexity and plenty of options for cover. It's crazy how much time we've spent on that game, just slamming each other with shells, bananas, and stars. We got to the point where we started calling it Shell-nanigans. Between the two of us, we have well over 100 clips of our best Super Mario Kart moments, and some day I'll put together a montage of it. We tried moving on to *Mario Kart 64*, but ironically, the battle mode doesn't hold up as well. I *LOVE* the Block Fort level, but the controls and mechanics of the game are straight jank. I love the tracks, too, but the actual racing is worse than I remembered it. I'm grateful that Nintendo is remaking these levels as the series continues. We also did what I call "D20 Multiplayer". It allows you to play a single player game with another person, with an element of surprise to prevent the more skilled players from hogging play time. The general idea is, you roll to see who starts first; the higher number plays. Then, depending on the game, you set the rules on when to roll, when to swap, or when to chance a swap. Here's an example: In *Banjo-Kazooie*, dying resets your 'live' progress in a level, back to what it was when you first entered, minus any Jiggies and Mumbo Tokens you've found. When my friend and I played through, we agreed to swap-off on death or when a world is completed. This works because it's a natural break in the gameplay. On the levels where we wanted to give the other player a chance, or it was a dumb death, we let them do a savings throw or just continue. The point is to facilitate swapping in a way that feels natural and fair, so the rules need to be somewhat flexible on a per-game basis. My friend and I ended up playing through a decent amount classic games. Each of them was a different experience, playing with someone new. I might write about them individually some time. # Anime I'm not huge into anime, but a week ago or so, Ash's final episode as the main character of the Pokémon anime aired in Japan. The final competition he won in his last season -- before the 11-episode finale miniseries -- was exhilirating and I was beside myself as I watched through Pokémon Journeys. "This kid's gonna do it, isn't he? Are they gonna let him win, finally?" And yes, OH yes did he win. I've never seen battle choreography so good in Pokémon! Though, as usual, Pikachu is practically a walking deus ex machina. Though the end of Ash's journey was a little bit less than I was expecting, I feel that it more importantly *suited his character*. As much as I wanted to see Ho-oh, or maybe see Ash catch a legendary or meet up with his dad, I'm very satisfied with the almost Ghibli-like end for our plucky and stubborn Pokémon trainer. In a way, seeing Ash fulfill his dream when he used to be an utter nublet that tried to Thundershock an *Onix* is somewhat inspiring. In any case, it's a bittersweet ending to Pokémon for me. I haven't played the games since *HeartGold* and *SoulSilver*, which means I've been out of the fandom for more generations than I was in it. I'm no longer the target audience, and the new games don't capture me. # Gaming Alone Last year, I finished up Box Pusher for the DSi, using Sokoban solvers and a lot of data entry. It took 6 months, and I haven't touched a puzzle game since! I haven't beaten any games since Box Pusher, sadly, but I have been steadily plodding through *Dark Souls* on the PS3. I only need one more Lord Soul and I can go to the end of the game! I got curious about how quickly I could beat Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and managed to beat it in under 8 hours with 3 hearts, 1 bottle, and no upgrades. Kind of proud of that speedrun despite the mistakes I made. It's kinda weird to plug this on Gopher, but I started a Twitch channel to see if I could find other people that like the games that I do, and broadcast some programming/nerd stuff. [1] I also stream with my friend sometimes. or have nights where I play Smash Ultimate with viewers. I'm not terribly social or bubbly, but I think there are a handful of people that like the chill atmosphere I try to have. I'm not sure if it will go anywhere -- and I have no expectations for it to -- but it's making it easier to find people who like what I play. On that note, I would like to solicit the greater Zaibatsu and Pubnix community: which ActivityPub server would be best to join for sundogs or gamer/programmer/self-hoster types? I have self-hosted Pleroma in the past, but I found that I was still mostly reliant on other instances to build a network for my feed to be of any use, so I'll try joining one. # Life and Work I started having wrist issues from my job, they recommended I talk to Labor & Industries, and then fired me two weeks later. I'm going through the L&I process right now, but it's just lovely when people intentionally try to fuck you after causing you injury on the job. This *totally* builds trust or respect for other people... So that also makes it hard to look for work, because I'm not at 100%. I am available for hire and open to just about any computing job so long as it doesn't involve customer service. I'm done with agriculture and production jobs. If you know a firm looking for someone eager to prove their technical worth, hit me up. # Programming On the other hand, my partner and I are getting more time together, and I'm learning more modern CSS3 and some Javascript to put together some web apps/games to prove I can learn and apply something. I wish we had flexbox and grid back in the 90s! I want to do some cool stuff with databases, a Markdown-to-Gopherpage Pelican generator (so my website and gopher can have identical content, i.e. single point of authorship), and C/SDL in the future. Motivation, focus, and self esteem are my blockers, like usual, but maybe I'll do them. The JS skills are also going into an interactive game atlas idea I have. That'll be the real portfolio piece. --- Part of what brought me to my editor tonight was a random moment I had in Discord. I put a silly `cat /etc/motd` into chat, and randomly thought "I wonder if there's like a motd site", and BOOM, it does exist! Albeit broken at the moment, it's actually a(n old) part of SDF! [2] That reminded me of my Zaibatsu account, which led to reflecting on my Internet interactions over the years. The healthiest online interactions I've had, on either side of the screen, were right here on Gopherspace or a pubnix BBS. I think that says a lot about the community that Solderpunk, Logout, and the rest of us have put together. Coming to this realization is making it easier to fight the urge to visit Reddit every day, just to have something to read. Sometimes it's better not knowing the horrors going on in the world, at least for a day or two. Those things really only matter when you can do something about them, when it comes down to it. In addition, a lot of posts and comments on places like Reddit are straight up fabricated, stolen comments, or generative text by ChatGPT or other language models. If you can wade past that to find the humans, a good chunk are just there to piss people off and get their lols. The stuff I find here is just more authentic and real. People don't get outraged for their hit of adrenaline or righteousness in the comment section. I feel like I can type something like what I'm writing now, and the 40 posts prior to this one, without a torrent of (outward) judgment and rejection over disagreement. That's why I continue to come back, even sporadically. This is the only place on the Internet -- aside from my own server -- that I can BE real and FIND real. That has value, even if it isn't monetary. Here's hoping I get to the next destination safely. It would be nice to have calm in my life again. -z [1]: https://twitch.tv/zelibertinegamer [2]: https://motd.org