YouTube Obsession
In the era of Tosh.0 I wasn’t watching a lot of TV. I also just thought it was just another Talk Soup or Attack of the Show and I just don’t like the format of those types of shows1. Was Tosh.0 like those other sows? I’ll literally never know.
Anyway, I’ve really fallen in love with Daniel Tosh’s YouTube show, the aptly named, Tosh Show. He interviews a plumber, sommelier, AV guy and a music teacher among other people that usually don’t get invited on a comedian’s podcast.
Are they great interviews? That’s debatable but they are fun. Recently, one of the questions for an airline pilot: “Do you really know what all those buttons do?” Which is such a simple question that I don’t think Barbra Walters would have asked but I want to know. These are literally questions you would ask if you met a pilot at bar, and that’s the charm of these interviews.
And Daniel Tosh is hilarious.
Reading
Folks, I hate to say it but, 2026 is year of the Pope. Spike Lee in a Pope Leo XIV jersey at the NBA finals only confirms what we all know to be true.
And listen, Pope praise is big big boomer energy no doubt, but you gotta admit his papal encyclical letter on AI is fire.
Today, however, the main drivers of development are private, often transnational, parties that are endowed with resources and the capacity to intervene that surpass those of many Governments. Technological power thus takes on an unprecedented, predominantly “private” aspect, which makes it even more challenging to discern, govern and direct such power toward the common good….
In order to answer these questions and discern how to navigate responsibly the era of AI, I would like to bring to mind two scenes from the Bible: the construction of the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:1-9) and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem (cf. Neh 2–6). The story of Babel appears in the Book of Genesis, at the origins of humanity, immediately after the genealogies of Noah’s sons. After settling in a plain in the land of Shinar, the people decided to build a city and a tower “with its top in the heavens” (Gen 11:4). Fearing being scattered across the earth, they sought to guarantee stability and power for themselves, and above all to “make a name” for themselves. It was an impressive feat: a single language, a single technology, a single direction. However, the project concealed a profound danger. It was a project conceived without reference to God, supported by a uniformity that eliminated diversity and that chose homogenization over communion. When a city is built on pride and the claim to self-sufficiency, communication breaks down, languages are confused and people no longer understand each other. The result is not unity, but dispersion. Babel thus reveals the limits of any effort that, however grandiose, arises from self-affirmation, sacrifices human dignity for efficiency and aspires to reach heaven without God’s blessing.
The pope is basically equating AI to the tower of babel. For those unfamiliar the old testament God destroyed the tower because it was not godly or useful to mankind. Woah. The fucking pope just said AI is worthy of being struck down by God if it remains a net harm on humanity. Love it.
While visiting with my parents a few weeks back both boomers -a prime demographic for naive AI promotion- and both life-long Catholics, they both have open distain for AI after the Pope’s declaration. Granted my parents are practically luddites and tiny demographic. Though it does give me hope.
But I’ve never read an encyclical letter before and I found it very interesting. And in it he directly quotes another letter from Pope Leo XIII2 from 1891called RERUM NOVARUM (Of New Things). The letter mainly addresses the church’s responsibility to speak on social issues more specifically in the case of this letter: Class and Labor. I was kind of blown away because it is so obvious that most practicing Catholics (my parents included) have never read this. It’s basically an indictment on upper class wealth hoarding and the mistreatment of the lower classes.
To be clear, I have no abundance of love for the Catholic church. It’s a very flawed human institution. But also a powerful one. So when the Pope speaks on these issues, people listen. So I’m mainly glad that he’s right on AI.
Playing
I was living in a house with 5 roommates back when the original Left 4 Dead came out on the 360. For a period of time it took over my household and the singular 360. I was still resistant to twin stick FPSs at the time and I had a debilitating drinking habit so I didn’t play much. In the years afterward I was always looking for that game that could scratch that co-op horde shooter itch for me.
In 2015 Fatshark released the first Vermintide and though it was very popular I never quite vibed with the medieval fantasy horror of the old world Warhammer properties. But lo’ in 2022 Fatshark revealed that they would be doing a Warhammer 40k take on the horde shooter: Darktide.
I played the original PC release of Darktide back in 2022 but a couple things made me fall off pretty quickly. First, my ineptitude with mouse and keyboard FPS controls: I just could not adapt to the fast paced gameplay. Secondly, it was, almost universally, regarded as incomplete at launch. The levels were badly designed, level progression was confusing and though beautiful, it was very unstable.
Recently, Darktide became free on PS+ and I hopped in to give it a try. And damn, after 3 years of optimization and improvements, they have a fun game going here.
First thing I noticed is that the levels, though intricate, are much easier to navigate. In my streams, its become embarrassingly obvious that I am the reason climbable ledges in games have yellow paint. So for me to say that these levels are challenging but not frustrating is high praise. And, as a 40k fanboy, I have to say the atmosphere of the levels and the writing is dark, oppressive and horrifying. It’s perfect.
The leveling system is so easy to understand. I play matches, my character levels up, I win matches I level up more. There is a simple skill tree for every class and it has clear language for what each upgrade does3.
Also, it’s fun as hell. Trying out new abilities, hacking away at chaos cultists while bleak 40k lore exposition unfolds about me. It’s great. Also, there’s only one hub world, clearly marked campaign missions, huge incentives to re-play missions and lively community that (though I mute everyone) has been easy and fun to play with.
Each class has hundreds of community created builds.
Oh and the the music is bomb af…
This is going to take over my main shooter slot for a while.
Other Notables
** CRAZY choice for bathroom art…fucking fabric art….insane.
** A very good boy…
1 This partly why I can never watch a full episode of Majority Report. There’s always some dudes off screen just scream laughing and it annoys the hell out of me.
2 It’s not confusing at all!
3 There were times in Destiny 2 where I would give up on perusing an upgrade or weapon because the game just refused to use simple language to explain what I needed to do next or put a goddamn quest marker on a map.
