EponymousBosh

Gaia Online still exists??

I use SpiralLinux (basically Debian with some tweaks). I like it a lot! If you want to stay in the Debian/*buntu lineage, consider it.

It might be another food allergy as well. I have skin reactions to dairy, and it took me years to figure it out because a) it's a slow reaction (6ish hours after I eat it), and b) I also assumed it was something my skin was coming into contact with

And in keeping with the OP, I also still eat dairy from time to time. Not a severe reaction, it won't become a severe reaction, and there's still no good replacement for actual cheese, dammit. (Daiya is close enough...sometimes...)

When Brood X happened, I think one of my cats thought I was responsible for the cicadas. They kept bonking against our windows and she'd look at them, then look at me and meow. I tried explaining but I don't think she understood :(

I don't think you're entirely wrong, but to me, the difference is that a good homage can stand apart as its own Thing, whereas something that's derivative has to lean hard on the the tropes and trappings of the original in order to be anything at all.

Example: Stardew Valley vs a bunch of really mid/mediocre farming life sims it shares a genre with. SV is deliberately an homage to the Harvest Moon/Song of Seasons series and is upfront about it. But you can still pick up SV and have a great time with it, because it's a well-designed and complete game on its own, regardless of whether you even know HM/SoS exists. Whereas with the copycats, the big selling point is "it's just like [Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley]!" There's not enough actual substance for these games to stand on their own.

Obviously, "quality" is a subjective measurement and all, but I think that's where I would draw the line between an "homage" and "derivative."

Boooooooo.

[clicks upvote arrow]

Back when I was a kid, The Simpsons was a really good show

Half of them probably were jaded (ex-)New Yorkers

How is "bro" toxic...? I can see how someone who isn't a dude objecting to being called one, but that's not an issue with the word itself

The "sticker" is actually an off-cut from a laptop skin from my other laptop (which also runs Linux, and also has a sticker over its Windows key :P), so it's held up pretty well

I'm petty enough to put stickers over mine.

Fuck dude it sure is