a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
Vox_R's comments
activity:
Vox_R  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, overturning the Sixth Circuit Court.

I can see where he's coming from on that extent, but at the same time, you could view it as a sort of escalation.

Someone brought it before a court, and the court said "such and such verdict". To those seeking that verdict, things made sense. To those who disagreed, it did not. So, they exercised their freedoms and pushed further.

It eventually lands at the feet of the Supreme Court. It's clear, when it has reached that point, that the opinions of 320 million Americans are difficult to sort through when it comes down to constitutional interpretation, so we're trusting our final "escalation point" to interpret it for us, because "Well, we can't agree on this. What do you say?"

And then they pass their verdict.

This didn't remove the rights of 320 million Americans; on the contrary, there are those who exercised them to reach this particular point.

Then again, in a contrary vein, when the question is really "do we treat these other humans like we treat us humans?" and there were people saying no we obviously shouldn't because reasons... well, we're just glad the Supreme Court is there.

Vox_R  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, overturning the Sixth Circuit Court.

The betrayal of family thing was something I had to go through about six years ago, but have since gotten over. Though I'll never really get over that huge feeling of disappointment weighing on my gut that someone I once respected so highly---my father---could be so desperately close-minded.

The horrible person aspect? It's because my first inclination after many heated debates with most of the members of my family was to gloat. Six years of trying to show them that this was the right path, I feel like I deserve some "I told you so!" time, but doesn't change that it kinda turns me into an ass.

Vox_R  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, overturning the Sixth Circuit Court.

Sorry, I completely misspoke there.

I, personally, am dancing around the office. I have good friends that are affected by this decision, and I'm beyond ecstatic for them. This is a huge step in the right direction to treating humans like humans regardless of [insert descriptor here].

The entirety of my family, however, are diehard Mormons and see this as some sign of the end times. What I'm thinking is the same thing as am_Unition: "Ha ha, fuckers. Separate your church and state."

Vox_R  ·  3197 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, overturning the Sixth Circuit Court.

Mine here, too. And I'm thinking the same thing.

I'm fairly certain that makes me a horrible person.

Vox_R  ·  3208 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: “Just be yourself” is cruel, fraudulent advice to give young people - Salon.com

You know, I don't really think that it is. I'm only speaking for my own personal experiences when it comes to this particular phrase, but at the end of the day, "just be yourself" is fantastic advice, if it's actually taught in a meaningful way.

We have to teach our kids as they grow up what "yourself" actually means. Instead of carving out what we think it means, we should be giving the kids the tools and knowledge they need to be able to define that. And when they end up on a path that seems "different" to our ideals for them, we should intervene only if it's a path that will be dangerous for them. That's what we do as parents, right? Guide and protect?

I grew up in a home where "yourself" was defined for you; we were a strict Mormon family, so a great deal of my path was already regimented. But when I got out of the Mormon church and met my wife, the phrase "just be yourself" meant so much more, and was immensely freeing. "What is this 'myself'?" I'd thought. "How do I define it?" And then she helped me explore and discover who I felt that I was, and what made sense to me.

As such, I want to raise my kids in a manner that keeps them curious and exploratory. Teach them to research so that when they have a question or someone poses a new concept, they have the tools to figure out what that concept is to them, and formulate their own opinions. The question I want them to ask more than anything in the world is "why?". Then, with all the information in hand, they can answer it themselves.

"Just be yourself" is cruel and fraudulent only if the parents and influential figures in a child's life has set them up such that "yourself" is "how you're supposed to act according to me", and not something that was genuinely fostered by the child, with gentle mentorship from their parents.

Vox_R  ·  3211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Oculus announces a new VR input solution

Which is great, honestly! I'm really excited to see how that rolls out! I guess the best way to sum up my concerns is I'm afraid with their current design, the controller's going to fall on the wayside as a "gimmick", rather than a peripheral people want to include in their game, or implement if their game already exists (quite unlike the Rift, which devs seem excited to provide support for).

Vox_R  ·  3211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Oculus announces a new VR input solution

I think the idea of what they're trying to do, controllers that are detectable in 3D space, is a great idea. We've seen great success with the Wiimote for such things, and even the PS4 has done pretty well on that front.

However, I'm really not certain they're doing it properly. In general, the controller looks ridiculous, and has a severe lack of any sort of input control. Two joysticks, four face buttons, and two triggers? In this more modern age of gaming, that just doesn't feel adequate when you have peripherals like a HOTAS, the present day controllers on consoles, or even a mouse and keyboard. Games will have to be designed specifically with that controller in mind, and a great deal of actions are going to have to be mapped to motions for it to work, and the motions are going to have to be really, really tight and clean so that the user doesn't accidentally fumble it.

If they did something closer to the way the Wiimote works now, with it's various selection of easy-to-reach buttons, I think it would be a lot easier to adapt the controller to games that already work now, rather than only functioning with games that will be released in the future, with the Rift in mind.

Vox_R  ·  3211 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What keyboard do you have?

I've got a cheapo little keyboard right now, because every time I try to get a much fancier keyboard, my kids ruin it within three months.

Eventually when I move into a bigger place where I can have my own space and the kids have their own computer, I'll go all out and get mechanical. I DO have a Logitech G13, though, and can hardly game without it.

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What is the meaning behind your user name?

And here I thought yours was some subtle hint of "the new newb" as in "the most recent greenie".

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What are you working on today?

Currently writing down design ideas for what will either (hopefully) be a spiritual successor to Battletech, or a "remake" of sorts of Mechwarrior 2: Mercs, through Unreal Engine 4.

I knew a little bit of C, and my absolute favorite thing is figuring out how things work. When they made UE4 free and gave the source, it was the perfect excuse to do two things: learn more programming, and learn more about games.

I'm so stoked!

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What is the difference between feed, global and chatter on Hubski?

    plus posts that have been badged.

Oh! That explains it! I was so confused, because they said there was no default content, yet here were a bunch of links and tags on my feed...

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What is the meaning behind your user name?

I've had long usernames in the past, and some other silly ones, and wanted one that was easy to say over voice comms when playing games.

Some fun letter mashing eventually revealed "Vox", which, from my research, means "Voice". The R initially didn't mean anything, but I like to think it would be short for "Reason".

So, Voice of Reason! Hopefully, if this goes according to plan...

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Steam's Anuall Summer Sale has Begun!

I came prepared this time for the Sale; bought $40 worth of Steam cash and put twenty each in my wife's and my account. And we'll stick with that.

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Overwatch Tracer Gameplay

I won't lie; when I was initially looking at Tracer, I was concerned by how quickly she burned through her clips and how seemingly little damage she did overall, but this gameplay video really puts all those fears to rest. Her movement is just insane, which lets her really appear anywhere!

Granted, this also means that I'll have a difficult time playing her; she'd probably make me flatout dizzy.

I do love the personalities they put into this game, though.

Vox_R  ·  3212 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: PSA: Welcome to Hubski, Redditors.

    3) Tags are not subreddits. A post can be a part of three different tags, while subreddits are exclusive (but prone to duplication/crossposting - crossposting is not a thing on Hubski). Further, tags have no moderators. Further, nothing has moderators.

This is... you know, I could get used to this!

Hubski's certainly not what I'm used to, but it's very... refreshing. And I quite like that! Thank you for the tips and warm welcome!