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Somehow in revisiting Resident Evil 2 (2019), I can’t help but think Claire’s route is better. Also that I missed the A-rank score by about 20 minutes.

Of the choice between Leon and Claire: you get largely the same story but many differences. Early portions mirror each other such as the gas station and the fire escape. Some are branching points like penetrating the watch room or the chief’s office. Things also take different paths towards the end with Leon getting embedded in the Umbrella mystery, and Claire in the quest to shave Sherry.

But somehow, I think the scene at the end of the sewer segment captures it best:

Leon’s time is mostly spent being a rookie man of mystery focused on Racoon City. And perhaps nearly getting eaten because he’s more interested in flirting with the pretty girls than fleeing zombies. At best it can lead to Umbrella being exposed but it’s all rather fleeting. But it’s more exploratory than passionate.

Claire’s a mission about Sherry. While there’s much less intrigue without Ada, I feel the focus on the Birkin family makes a far more personal connection. We all know that Racoon City is doomed, ‘cuz that’s just how these things go. Plus let’s be honest: the original game ended with a get to da choppa / nuclear kabluuy kind of end to the Spencer mansion. There’s no way you’re saving Racoon City, and no point in trying. But Sherry—that’s a difference you can make in how the disaster plays out.

There’s also how the two characters are introduced. Leon is driving into the city because things have gone dark, and he’s supposed to be starting work at the police station. Claire shows up headed there in search of her brother, one of the original game’s S.T.A.R.s team protagonists. You could say these kind of metrics largely keep rolling through how their stories diverge.

 So in the end, I reckon the question of which character’s story should you take, is the question: are you curious or do you care? Personally I feel that Claire’s route makes for a better game, and Leon’s for a better novelization.

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Odds are, if I was a decade younger, I’d sit on my arse and catch up on the video games before bed. But since the systematic approach to replacing my blood stream with pure filtered coffee doesn’t really scale, I think it’s time for z’s.

It’s quite possible that my rate of yawning is exceeding the glare rate of dogs accustomed to how early I doze off.

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Passing thought: we’ve increasingly lived in a world of long file names since the 1990s, yet out of convenience: we still tend to create three character file extensions whenever we pull new ones out of thin air.

One almost has to wonder if three is especially magical, or if humanity is that lazy. I would like to think it’s just enough bytes to convey the majority of information, and still appease every lazy git alive. Because no one likes file names, or file extensions the length of a sentence 😣.

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How to Customize the Look of Your Cursor in iPadOS 13.4.

This was something I had hoped would be possible after messing with the new mouse support. The default cursor is rather too damned tiny for my tastes, which I assume is an artifact of designers with 20/10 eyesight or a Mac thing. But it’s waaay smaller than I’d expect, coming from Linux and NT machines.

A little bit of tweaking later, and it’s quite nice 🙂.

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Misty: “I wanted another snack, but all I got was this human chair”


now that she’s laid down: I’m not going to think about whether or not the follow up looks I’m getting could be called pouting, or not. The above photos are close enough, lol

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Things that defy explanation: reading about rationing various countries experienced in WWII, and finding yourself in tears for a moment.

The diary of Tanya Savicheva, a girl of 11, her notes about starvation and deaths of her sister, then grandmother, then brother, then uncle, then another uncle, then mother. The last three notes say “Savichevs died”, “Everyone died” and “Only Tanya is left.” She died of progressive dystrophy shortly after the siege.

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On one hand, I should probably be glad that the dogs like me.

On the other, given I sometimes need to move a comfortable dog in the name of taking a leak, I’m probably going to hell, or where ever those guilty of disturbing a dog’s comfort wind up.

After disturbing the comfort of dog, and a change of venue as I get ready for bed, this is indicative of the stares I’m getting.
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“You gave me half a treat. Where’s the rest, human?”

Which reminds me her stash of bribes, I mean pretzel sticks, needs to be refilled.

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This is how Willow looks when her expression is: “I was comfortable before being glomped on by a human who should have brought treats”.

Or at least, that’s how I imagine she would define my sitting on the bed, and paying attention to them after her nap, but not bringing treats until after (>_>).