I wouldn’t be surprised!

Years ago I worked for a healthcare IT company that had its developers, IT administrators, and help desk all reporting to the CTO. The CTO was an MD with a computer science degree from a prestigious university.

I was in a different department entirely but I was invited to a presentation he was giving and came to the conference room a bit early. I walked in to him in a full panic trying to connect his laptop to the projector. I plugged in the HMDI and hit Win + P and he reacted like I had just defused a bomb. Really made it hard to take seriously his five year strategic plan for all of our IT projects.

A year later he took extended leave to travel internationally and came back to work with a full perm and added the word “tree” to his last name. He lasted about 6 more weeks before he announced he was leaving. He is now the CIO of a large university.

Any of the 4x/grand strategy type games (e.g., Crusader Kings, Hearts of Iron, Civilization). I don’t really enjoy the menu management of some of those games and the density of information and mechanics is anxiety inducing. However the emergent narrative those games provide really interests me so watching someone else play is the best way to access what I enjoy about those games.

FFT is a game I have played through 3+ times with probably 1,000+ total playtime and I’ve played all the games you mention. I recommended FFT to a friend a few years ago and watched him play through the first couple missions and it’s easy to forget the difficulty curve of that game if you haven’t played an older style TRPG. A lot of the mechanics aren’t really explained well (stat growth for example), there’s permadeath, a few instances of possible softlocking, and a bunch of really obscure requirements to access some of the content and recruit some of the characters.

I think it suffers from sequel syndrome where the newer TRPGs have better quality of life aspects to them. That said there are rumors of a remake that maybe will address some of that.

I never tried that one but I did play the The Textorcist: The Story of Ray Bibbia and it was not bad. I swear I am not a typing game enthusiast but it is weird there are two zombie typing games.

I always wanted Mario Teaches Typing.

Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.

That’s what always happened since no one had the courage to just throw it away.

Oh yeah, it wouldn’t fit the prompt but it’s a banger of a song is all.

Mute City is amazing but Big Blue is just so good.

I just replayed ALttP again using the Randomizer mod where it changes the location of all the items while making sure the game can be completed. The score of that game is incredible.

A few from my grandfather and father which aren’t unique to them but aren’t universal:

1. “red as a smacked ass” or just “smacked ass” - referring to someone who is embarrassed so their face is flushed or generally just a fool
2. “Born on Wednesday looking both ways for the weekend” - someone with a lazy eye
3. “Scissor grinder” - aggravating person, or someone who inserts themselves into other’s business. Ostensibly referring to a person who travels offering sharpening services because they come by unannounced and make a lot of noise in the street.

Related, but not a saying, we had a family tradition at Easter where my grandparents/parents would put all the egg dyes together and dye a final egg a murky brown. That egg was given to the kid with the worst behavior over the last year. It was called the “pissmuckle” egg. There was no discussion after you got it either or any punishment, it was just a censure.

The two songs that I remember being awestruck by were:

1. Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time on the N64, and
2. Cosmo Canyon from FF7 on the PS1

The Mafia/Werewolf social deduction type games can be played without any equipment if someone knows the rules well enough. Alternatively you can use the free companion app that is meant for the One Night Werewolf version guides you through it.

deleted by creator

I’ll add an experience I had in the inverse.

Friend of mine who works in film and has a great appreciation for interesting movies recommended me the movie Barbarian. He was talking about the major plot points but only got about 20% of the way through before saying there was a twist and I stopped him because it sounded interesting. I downloaded it on my tablet and promptly forgot about it.

About a year later I was on a flight and decided to give it a shot. At exactly 21% of the way through the movie the plot shifts and becomes exactly the type of movie you should not be watching on a flight surrounded by coworkers. I was too engrossed to register that, watched the whole thing, then had the pleasure of explaining to my pearl clutching coworkers what it was.

Great movie by the way.

Just listened to it and god she is amazing. Great recommendation!

If you want to hear a surf rock instrumental cover that is actually phenomenal check out The Surfrajettes. Also amazing name.

I can’t make you love me by Bonnie Raitt

On my 8th birthday my dad took a couple friends and I out to dinner and we stopped to buy a video game. My friends and I were arguing about what to get and my dad came by a couple times to get us to hurry up. Finally he said we had to make a decision and ushered us up to the cashier.

As soon as the cashier started to talk a truck off the highway that was above the store crashed through the side wall of the shop with enough speed to hit through every aisle and collapse all the shelving to the back as well as ripping down the ceiling. The guy was covered in blood and slumped over the wheel. No one was hurt in the store luckily, but we all would have been killed if we argued any longer in that aisle. My dad just got us into the car and we drove home. Afterward my dad would just downplay it whenever I would bring it up.