Christmas was the usual fare: travel, eggs benedict, prime rib, secret Santa, wine.


Kaf got to meet his cousin, Pepperoni.


As usual he was cagey and defensive at first, but once they got to an open field to run together he realized that she's mostly harmless.


We took them to the creek where there were a couple of crossings. Pepper found one that was shallow, but mossy. The end result was not pretty, but everyone came away without permanent damage:



Monique brought Sherman up to the house. Pepper still had the energy to play with him. Kaf kept his distance and tried to vulture some early dinner.


Rob's been doing the Advent of Code challenges, so when he came up we did a couple. They're pretty good and feel like interview questions: a circular linked list, tree deserialization and traversal, and a grid of points with momentums that required a heuristic to solve in reasonable amount of time.


Next was a stop in the Monterey Bay to meet Benjamin and see the rest of the Morelos crew. There was, as usual, a bunch of traffic coming out of the mountains. Not being on a schedule, I took the scenic route of one-lane roads through the redwoods.

The PUBG snow map dropped this week. After a bunch of squad and some solo, I've played the map all of once.

Still, Dino Park is kind of a must-drop even if there wasn't much loot. Got my first frying pan kill there so it will always have a place in my heart.


J and me are mixing a little Far Cry into the predominantly-Divinity gaming. It's more or less what you'd expect, an iteration on the story-driven open world formula with some notable improvements.


We last visited the Nepal-ish country of Kyrat where an eccentric semi-villain was... errr something about revenge and whatnot. Anyway, this one takes place in rural Montana and the baddies are a religious/separatist cult following an iconic villain called The Father.


The game really has fun with the Montana thing.


Settlement liberation is a series mainstay. Scoping out an enemy-occupied territory and deciding how to liberate it with stealth or explosions is good fun. Naturally, the liberated settlements unlock the area and provide places to shop and such.


Weapons are the standard fare. Semis, autos, sniper rifles, explosives. The currency system works pretty well - it doesn't take hours of gameplay to unlock the awesome armaments, but you certainly can't buy them all straightaway.


The standard array of vehicles is available to roam the Montana cuts. While FC4 had only an ultralight for air transportation, this one has helicopters and prop planes. There are also custom vehicles with mounted turrets and rocket pods.


Of course there's plenty of poignant, dark, and sophomoric humor. I chuckled when the intro video showed a phone video taken vertically. The "save the testicle festival" sidequest had us in stitches, even if there's some gruesomeness to it.




Photomode is very much like Horizon, I guess it's a PS4 API or maybe Ubi.


It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand.


We may be closing in on the final chapter of Divinity. It's been a great ride.



I managed to charm my way into another team's teambuilding. I guess Del Mar picked up an LA horse race series.


... also deere races.


"Here is a card that you can use to care for your pet. We'll just stick the monthly fee under the card adhesive."


I had it on good authority that a 144hz monitor would significantly improve my gaming ability. Of course it hasn't, but things look better. Also three monitors is a must for simultaneous coding, internetting, and watching football.


Other than that, big waves and rainy rides juxtaposed with dumplings and gameboy by the fire.

Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.

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