Soli-ticked off!

There are two word games I play on my phone all the time, many years now. And so when one advertised another game, I thought I'd at least check it out.

Wordscapes Solitaire is a game where you have letters (represented as cards) and as you use them more cards/letters are revealed, so you need to spell things to get points. There are coins and words and all sorts of things to collect. So far, decent enough.

However, as you might guess, there are ads. But not to worry, you can pay to disable them. You pay $20 to switch them off. For 30 days. ... Ain't no game gonna be that worth it, and this is a puzzle word app!

And it plays ads during the game, fine, annoying, but something that happens... expect when the ad has played, interacting with the screen in any way takes you to the store for what the ad is selling... which means you can't switch the screen off to go back to the game! I had to kill the app so I could restart it so I could continue playing.

When it happened for a second time... that's when I hit uninstall.

[END]

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Puzzle Mechanic - NO!

There's a puzzle mechanic in a point and click game I've seen twice now in two recent games, and no sir, I don't like it.

Behold this image:

(Image from this video.)

The part of the puzzle you are dealing with is in the green box. The other knight (and sometimes spears) come at you, either high, middle, or low, and you need to block appropriately.

How do you block? By the buttons in the red box. How do you press the buttons? By mousing over and clicking.

This wouldn't be so bad if you could actually press buttons on your keyboard, but nope, you need to move the cursor. And you aren't looking where the cursor is, because you are reacting to what is happening on the right.

If I had dedicated buttons, or is what just one option (for high or low, click or hold to change) then fine, I could concentrate on the green. But when I have to make sure I don't overshoot moving to the other button in time, sod off!

(It can become a long memory sequence of "high, middle, low, low, high,..." etc, but it's a long sequence, and I can't remember that long.)

Don't make this a new trend in puzzles, games!

[END]

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Future Hype

Person "Hey this person is in this movie!"

Me "Cool, when's it out?"

Person "Over a year from now."

Me "...sigh"

I am so over the constant hype that some movie companies feel they have to keep going to stay relevant. Yes, those two are the big obvious ones, but if I cared more about games, they would definitely be thrown under this bus too.

Just knowing "this is coming a long way way" is just... too far away. I can't care that long, and I won't remember that long. And given the state of companies, it's just as likely the thing will change and that hype moment will no longer exist anyway.

Tell me when the movie is coming out about the hype, and I'll get hyped then. Telling me "this is great... and you can see it in a week!" is more likely to get me interested and engaged than going "is that finally happening? huh, forgot all about that."

I wouldn't say I'm hype-poised, but I'm definitely hype-fatigued.

[END]

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Games for Streaming only

I like games. Even horror games. But we are seeing a slew of particular kinds of horror games. Co-op horror games.

Now, that might not sound terrible, but they all have a common secondary characteristic... your avatar looks stupid and can do stupid things.

There is only one reason for that... to amuse viewers in streaming, baby!

Which brings us to so many "horror" games that are just there for the jump scares which are just there for the views, and when there aren't jump scares, people can act stupid, for the views!

So the game is all about the streaming experience, not the game experience.

Sod off.

[END]

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Short, and yet...

I like games I can just zen out to, your Powerwashers, your Viscera Cleanup Detail, so I picked up WereCleaner and decided to see if it was that kind of game.

You are a cleaner, yes, but you are also a werewolf, and if someone sees you, you kill them! ... and then have to clean up the bodies (continued employment!). The cleaning is basic, spray water, vacuum trash, and bag animals. But...

It's isometric. Just something about isometric controls just straight up annoys me. I just want to go up or left, not hold down up&left! And the screen is really close up. When a big mechanic is "avoid people" (No Kill is an extra challenge per level), you need to be able to see when people are close, but you can't. Just all of a sudden someone walks in on you, and you kill and have to deal with the body. I got things to do, I would avoid them, but it is more luck than design.

The levels are short, just go to a few places, and clean up, so you can race through it quite quickly. And given the number of stars is based on how quick you are, speed is important. But then we hit the last level. At least, I assume it is the last level. I gave it several tries, but failed constantly, to the point where I'm thinking if you succeed, it will be more luck than anything else.

So I gave it a go, clocked some cheevos more or less incidentally, and... uninstalled it without finishing. And short of this blog post, I plan no more thoughts on it. Well, maybe watch an LP to see the ending, but no interest in playing it myself.

[END]

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See these Eggs NOW!!!

See something about this?

These are all "easter eggs" videos. Understandable because it's current, so got to get those clicks. (Note: I haven't clicked.)

But... these came out right after the movie launched... so how did they have the time to find and detail all those easter eggs? Sit through several screenings straight away?

And if they have images (I haven't checked, because, as I said, I haven't watched), where did they get images from? Camera pointed at the screen? Some have done that (I saw an "Ending explained!" video). That feels... wrong. Or they got a hold of the actual film file somehow, which is... how? One big channel might, but not all of these.

This is a need for clicks, but I disbelieve all this was done above board. But... they need the clicks!

[END]

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The MCU Issue

Talking about Marvel and their issues with trying to get their MCU happening...

A problem, to me, is that we have this media (tv and movies) trying to ape their source, which is... I dunno, 100 comics a month pumping out new stories? Half of which are Spiderman, 2/3rds are X-Men and the rest are everything else.

At least when they are just doing one property, eg XMen or Blade, they were contained and didn't need to worry about the larger universe. But now they want to have interconnectivity across everything, and just aren't getting there.

As much as the problem was "putting out too much" in many ways they weren't putting out enough. You need lots of stories happening if you want to capture the heroes by themselves as well as crossing over, and frankly if they really wanted to, Disney could have several movies and shows in production if they wanted to, but the other side is that costs, a hell of a lot more than comics do, so they can't go down that route.

You end up with as much as an MCU is a good idea in theory, you just can't keep the supply up to meet the demand of what people want. (Which is quality of stories as well as quantity of stories.)

[END]

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Just Cause 3: The Onliniest Game Evah!!!11!

Then there is the worst part of this game. It has a CONSTANT need to be online. Like whenever you boot the game up, it logs onto the servers. And when the servers are busy, it disconnects, and then insists on asking if you want to try logging in again. No matter what you are doing. Ultimately, you might decide to go into OffLine mode, but as soon as you something, such as look at the map, boom, it's reconnecting again. And why? So it can tell me that "puppygod22 did something better than you". I Don't Care! And this also brings home the point of "what if the servers go down?" Fortunately, there is offline mode, but it will still likely keep trying to connect. I don't fancy facing that day.

Still, I did about everything. 47 hours in all. There are various challenges I can't be bothered to do, so I'm definitely not getting all the achievements here. Still, I did a lot, but now I need to do something else.

Until Just Cause 4...

[END]

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Oggle this

The new DND OGL is causing trouble for lots of people, but now it's personal! By which I mean my friends have been told to stop working on paying projects until they can work out what this all means.

And I've seen a fair few takes on this from actual lawyers. Although, they often make it clear that they are not lawyers for this specific topic, which makes their opinions just that, opinions. Now, they might be educated opinions, but since they might miss some nuance or intricacy, they are just opinions (and if watching Legal Eagle has taught me anything it's that It Depends, and fine points of law are important). Additionally, they don't want to be help responsible for giving out actual legal advice that people act on, so opinion it will stay.

I've seen speculation that big players like Critical Role etc will be given nicer contracts that mean they can still produce their stuff without issue, because WOTC would be fools to restrict the big content makers. While I can see that being the case, it would be nice if the big players did also stand with the indies and not produce content.. but they need to make paychecks too, so while nice, I can also see them taking the nice contract if they are offered. (And as I say, speculation, so no-one one knows yet.)

This is one of them developing situations. I reckon something big will happen to resolve this, but what and when, I'm not holding my breath for.

[END]

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Convergance

I complained about Marvel, so I should complain about DC. The basic premise of Convergence is "What if we did a low rent Crisis at home?"

Brainiac evolves and gets Telos to gather Gothams and Metropolises from across the different timelines, and then the heroes are forced to fight each other. In the mean time, a group of hero variants that no-one cares about deals with Telos and another chap whose name I can't recall but turns out to be another villain for them to fight.

As you might be tell, I wasn't too impressed with it. It was just an excuse to bring back previous continuities of heroes that various writers liked and play with them a bit. Aside from the main story line, all the tie ins were two parters, which were usually Part One: We've been here a year, and Part Two: We fight someone else. (Somehow, for the year, all the heroes had their powers removed, unless they didn't.)

At least with Crisis, they change the way the universe goes, resetting the continuity and what not. But with this, it is just mashing things together, and since none of the universes really are impacted in any significant way, it doesn't matter in the slightest who wins and who loses. Let alone I couldn't remember half of them, and the other half weren't distinctive, that revisiting them didn't feel special.

This was aggressively advertised in comics leading up to it.. and during it, it aggressively advertised the next thing. So it was just a brief stop on some larger map for selling comics, and doesn't matter if you pay attention to it or not.

[END]

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Disney pinned

This is part rant/part technical support. [UPDATE: NOPE, STILL NOT WORKING!!!]

I subscribe to DisneyPlus. Yep, I give the Big Mouse money. Shocking, I know. All of us are already under its sway it'll be quicker to list people who aren't either supporting or employed by them. But I get DisneyPlus, and watch all them episodes. (And because I'm me, yes at two-speed.)

But recently I hit a problem. Latest episodes of Willow and National Treasure would not play. Like I get the Disney Plus logo but... nothing. Episode did nothing. And yet, I could watch other things, like the X-Men animated series, so it's not a blanket thing.

And, more oddly, the episodes do play in the separate app. I watch in Chrome, mainly 'cos I didn't think of the app, but then I wouldn't be able to change speed (enable that function, people!).

I did eventually work out how to get it to work. I won't say I solved it, because this shouldn't be a thing, and yet...

Because DisneyPlus incorporates Starz, it had adult material, so you can a) set the level of material you can see, and b) put on parental controls, which is basically a four digit pin, to stop the kiddies viewing it. I recently had a pin, but disabled it because... it's just me here, why should I need a pin and have to enter in whenever I go there. The hell? No, I'm lazy! Removed!

...as you can probably guess, when I reinstated the pin, I could watch the episodes! Somehow, DisneyPlus thought I shouldn't be watching the episodes or something unless I could prove I could enter a four digit number???

So yes, I can now watch the episodes at whatever speed I want, but I'm back to being annoyed by the pin. Clearly this is the worst problem anyone has ever faced!

[END]

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Secret Dumpire

Secret Empire was a big Marvel comic project, where Steve Rogers/Captain America became an agent of Hydra due to a sentient cosmic cube named Kobik (don't ask: COMICS!) being swayed by the Red Skull's ideas and changing the past of Steve to always being Hydra.

This is a Big Idea(tm), where you go "what if the big good guy was in fact one of the big bad guys?" But the big problem with this idea is... everyone knows what's going on. Every other hero knows that Kobik changed Steve and he is now Stevil (this is an in-canon name for him). There are a few heroes that side with Stevil (either mercenaries, or a small handful of otherwise corrupted heroes), but it is essentially Stevil versus everyone else.

(I'm going to ignore the fact that changing the past would have changed everyone's interactions with Steve, so they wouldn't know that Kobik due it, but, again, COMICS!)

What would have been more interesting is that if Kobik changed other heroes to also be on the side of Hydra. Make it an actual battle where several heroes do believe in the ideals of Hydra that Stevil espouses, so there is an actual discussion of ideas.

But that way lies the concept of Civil War (of which there are two). Only this one would have a better reason for happening and a clearer view of which side is actually right (and there actually being a right side). BOOM! Civil War roasted!

As it stands: One person, who is essentially an obvious villain, versus all the heroes. It wasn't really going to be that exciting to play out, was it?

[END]

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Science Versus

Urban Fantasy is becoming a bigger genre at the moment, with the basic underlying premise of "there is magic around, but only a few people know about it"... and there is also another rider that is variably emphasised "and science can't deal with it". Which is currently catching me in the mood of pissing me off.

The magic is seen as something special, so come enter this special world that only a few people know about. Become one of a special ones. [Yes, this is can be seen as a metaphor for teens becoming aware of more of the world, but this isn't just teen focused.]

The problem I have is that if it's so pervasive then every day people should be encountering it. I don't care if it is rare, it is still a phenomena happening in the world. And yet, it really feels like "haha! here's this special thing that science doesn't know about, because Up Yours Science, you can't deal with this!"

But no, science is an approach, and any "magic" is as open to that approach of testing and hypothesis as anything else. Nope, magic is special that science doesn't know about, only an exclusive few people do... be one of the exclusive special few!

Now, if you do treat is as pervasive, then yeah, you are dealing with a rather different world state that "our world + secret stuff," but that would be more realistic to how such a world would operate.

And now I'll go a further step in my rant: before it was the case that religion was the dominant way of thinking, with science slowly discovering things. Religion was squeezed into "God of the Gaps", but science closed those gaps. However, people still want something out there that isn't science... and so magic! Science doesn't know about magic! And so, in the desire for supernatural, we have magic and such, taking over the religion-space that science doesn't deal with.

You can say "it's dangerous to interact with magic" and "magic corrupts electronics" (see The Peter Grant series and the Laundry Case Files), but you are still dealing with "magic has a tangible effect," and the scientific approach is still applicable. The Peter Grant series does try to address a scientific approach, but hampered by the small fact that there isn't actual magic so Ben Aaronovitch needs to develop a whole new set up to deal with it.

[END]

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Stress Cruise

I had credits to use that were going to expire, so I got myself a wee cruise that went from Auckland (Sunday) to Sydney (Thursday). It did not go well.

Sunday: Flew up to Auckland, had a seat near the front of the plane, but there are delays. Shouldn't be terrible, I have a little time lag allowed for. As we finally land and I dash through the terminal... I see my booked bus leave. Yay! Taxi time, so that's a fun extra charge.

That night on the cruise ship, they already ask "how do you plan to leave (on Thursday?)" The transfer option, which I want, and a booked the flight through the cruise service so I was kinda expecting to give that to me, is only available for flights after mine leaves... So after asking about this at the desk the next morning, I end up with independent leave. I only have a carry on bag, so I should be able to be away by 7am (local time, 9am my time), plenty of time for a taxi. I book with one of the two Sydney cab companies (???) named Silver Cabs.

Tuesday: I find out my departure group. Which is as they call my luggage group, and is at 7.20am. The first transfer group is 7.25. The hell? I could have gone for transfer anyway! After a not great night thinking about this, I talk to the desk. Can't change to a transfer group, and that is indeed the earliest I can get off. As was told to me on a form they had printed out... which means they must have known on Sunday when they asked me if I wanted to leave early!!! I contact the taxi company and change it to 7.30.

Thursday: Finally ready to leave... and time ticks on past 7.20. At 7.45 I get called from Qantas and told that flight is overbooked and I am on Air New Zealand instead, but I am still on the ship. Er, do I know check in closes at 8.20? And the airport is around 30-45 minutes away from the harbour...

7.55am I am finally out and at the taxi stand... and there is no sign of a taxi for me. I grab a Silver Cab taxi (I think it was the other one) and head to the airport... and get there at 8.20am! Fortunately, after dashing to the correct desk, I am able to indeed check in. Barely in time.

Which leaves the security screening. At the scanning station, there are about a dozen queues... the one I am assigned to, I think they bring all the weird trays to from other queues! It takes so long to get through, so much time with bins jumping our ones.

Fortunately, the actual plane is a little late leaving, but get there by the skin of my teeth.

Short version... I should have stayed home.

[END]

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Still Just Cause 2 Hate Things

More complaining. Why am I still playing the game then? Because I actually like the story and the events, I just don't like some of the actual gameplay elements.

Back to the map, it still sucks. I have learnt some aspects of it, so I can track down pick up items (if I'm close), but that still doesn't help hunting down that last 5% item the base/city/place is wanting you to get to make it 100%. Oh, and there are collectables, 100 for each of the three factions, and only now do I realise the blue marks on the map are indicating them. I say "now" because I have checked them before (the yellow marks are places to visit) but nothing showed up before. Maybe I didn't have the collectibles activated yet? But now there are 300 collectables and so much map to clear up... if I care. If I'm in the area, maybe, but otherwise I doubt I'll go that far (he says before his neurosis kick in).

The vehicles also suck, and they are what you need to get around the place and do races. However, unless you upgrade them, as soon as you hit anything (another vehicle, some bit of geometry) you can be sent flying. And upgrading them isn't that straight forward, some are already upgraded, some aren't. And if you upgrade something and pay to get it delivered... I hope you don't want to hold onto it because you can lose it just as easily.

So is there anything I like? The hacking/hijacking mini game isn't bad, actually. These are QTEs from the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. For hijacking, it's a three button sequence. For hacking, it's around 10. Enter the numbers in time, and you are done. If you don't... the hijacking isn't bad, you just pick up where you were, but for the hacking you need to restart. But hey, it's easy enough that it's fun. And I hijack A LOT. A lot of helicopters get sent for me, and they explode me a lot. (Reminder, I am cheating and have infinite health, which is very useful as I can't even tell where the damn thing is before its shot me up.)

All this, and I've sunk over 20 hours into this already. And the story missions are just waiting for me. I've filled up so much of the bars just farting around completing places that I can now just hop from story mission to story mission... but maybe I'll check out that place first, and do that race of there before...

[END]

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I have Just Cause 2 hate the map

Having playing Far Cry series, I thought I would continue with that feeling by playing the Just Cause games. JC1 was... very much the old graphics of the time. And game play was basically "get to the checkpoint". I played a few hours, but gave it up.

Bringing me to JC2. So far, I need to expand the various fractions so I can get to the guy, which involves going around the map and dealing with the bases. At each point, there are weapon etc upgrade parts to collect, and some times things to destroy, which go toward the completion. Once 100%, the base is done.

However... and this is where I start complaining about the map. For a start: you can't place markers on the map. So if I want to get somewhere, I am constantly bringing up the map to make sure I am on track. And then when I am at the base, for parts if you get close you see a marker, but otherwise... no idea where anything is. No idea even what counts as the area of the base so I don't know how far I need to look. And people don't show up on the map either, so I don't know where people are until I get shot. This is NOT GOOD gameplay.

And so I am playing... but I have a God Mode cheat on. Hey, it's my game, I can play how I want. But me not getting killed while I have no awareness is how I can deal with the deficiencies of needing to wander around trying to find things. Which means I'm going to play this game more, but definitely on my terms.

(And there are other things I don't like, but again, God Mode gives a lot of forgiveness.)

[END]

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Crying not very Far

Far Cry 6 was free this weekend, so as I've played all the others, yeah, give it a go. Don't really feel like paying for it at the moment though, and no doubt I'll be able to get it for really cheap in a year, which might be the way to go.

I only played it for a short time to get to where I could co-op, but already I can tell you: it's more of the exact same. You liked Far Cry 4 and 5? Or 5 and New Dawn? Expect to do exactly the same thing here. You are actually a bad ass that is reluctantly drawn into a battle against an enemy force. We have installations to take out, lots of collectibles to find, and side missions...

However, I had one big small problem. The only way I could get the game to run was to shut down everything else on my computer. And even then, it wanted to play in a lower resolution that my monitor does. Even on the low end, this pegs out my computer. So... that's all I'm playing for now anyway.

Which is a general thing I'm facing. There are lots of new games coming out, from (yes, although it has issues) Cyberpunk 2077 to Ghostwire Tokyo to Far Cry 6 that I would like to play, but my computer can't handle it. Usually I upgrade when there's a new version of Windows to move to, so while Win11 has now come out, it's not really that prevelent yet.

And there are some parts of my computer I like. Mainly the drives, and I upgrade my power supply so I know that's good... all I really need is a new CPU and a new Graphics card ("all", ha!), but then I'll likely need a new motherboard, and maybe new memory, and would then need to reinstall everything.

I have to upgrade at some point. I do want to put it off for a while (lots of other things taking my money at the moment), so I'll stick to some older games (some of which aren't that old). [As long as no new Tomb Raider games come out.] It's not like I don't have enough games in my Steam Library or other places...

[END]

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Shadow of the HELL NO

I've played a lot of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. I enjoy it. I've played on Normal, Hard (on New Game+), and Easy... because you can't start another New Game+ from a New Game+ save, you need a normal game save, and it auto fills the three slots you have with the latest saves.

Fine, I did it for a third time so I could Very Difficult on New Game+. NG+ keeps all your skills you got and upgrade weapons (once the weapon is unlocked in game). Great. I've also now even done the first DLC (The Forge). And if there was a time to do Very Difficult, now is the time as I know where everything is.

So, a couple of things about Very Difficult. You don't auto-heal in combat. Survival Instincts don't work. And you can only save at Base Camps. Again, fine. I know where everything is, so this just means I need to be able to do large sections of the game at a time.

So start it up, doing the first bit, get into the first section of the game. Jump about, do puzzles, even do one of the Missions. Get the dagger. And then do a combat section. Where I die. Okay, great, I'll tackle it a different way next time.

Except when it starts up (which takes longer to restart after a death than normal)... I'm back at the beginning of the level. Not only does it not save between base camps, it doesn't even Checkpoint! And nothing I've collected or done (such as the missions) are remembered! And guess where the first base camp is? Hint, after the combat and after more jumping in which it is very easy to die.

OH HELL NO.

Not saving, so I have to do sections of the game at once, fine. But no checkpointing along the way, when the game has those little bugs that can kill you, not to mention one hit kills... way to kill any interest in playing the game Squeenix...

[END]

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Progress Backwards

It's not just that we need to have the latest gadget, we also need to keep up with the latest version of software as well as hardware.

Currently I need to use a meter, and want to pull the readings onto my computer. I got the software from the site, and even had the buy the not cheap (but not that expensive either) proprietary cord to connect to my PC. However... I install the software, but it's not recognising the meter. Which, as far as I can tell, is because it isn't installing the right driver. And then it turns out that the driver, and indeed the actual software, isn't actually available for Windows 10. But, of course, because Microsoft, I'm on Windows 10. So... how actually do I do this?
(Actually, just remembered, I have a netbook I haven't updated. As long as I can stop that updating to 10, I could use that... okay, that's my next battle lined up.)

Other fun, at work, our phones. We used to have actual phones that sat on our desks. The internet for the computers went through them, so if the phone plug accidentally fell out, down when the connection. That wasn't too bad.
But now we have "soft phones", which is software on the computer (Skype basically) with USB headsets. Which means that unless you are logged in, you can't use the phone. Imagine for a moment that you have problems logging in... how exactly do we call for support then? (That hasn't happened yet, but I feel it's about to.) Then there is the fun of calls not always registering for me to get, assuming I can get to my headset in time anyway, which is only about 75% successful. And one time I was on a call, but the system insisted on telling me I had a (different) incoming call I couldn't do anything about.

Good to know technology is "helping".

[END]

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Easy Buzzfeed Article

First step, go back several decades.

Second, pick some random "big thing" from that time.

Third, pick some actors from that thing, and get shots of them in their classic poses/outfits.

Fourth, get photos of them from the current day. (So it helps if they are still alive.)

Put them side by side, and set up one page per set with a billion ads from other places.

Title it "You Won't Believe What [Character name] Looks Like Now!"

Publish.

????

Profit.

[END]

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