Seal of Approval

“The winter months are always the most difficult for the pyroshark, so the summer sun gives them plenty of time for the necessary hunt.” — Jerma985

Sealy

TF2’s first major update in six years has finally come out. There are a lot of new maps, and even the new Versus Saxton Hale gamemode which is getting bug fixes.

Out of all the new maps, it seems like everyone’s favorite is Selbyen, a player destruction map that revolves around feeding fish to a cute and chubby seal named Silvia who walks across the map. Personally, I think that the seal really made up for the last six years.

It’s like when the one potted plant at the TF2 office decided it would add some low-poly snakes to Snakewater, but I appreciated that change as well. Just these small quality of life details can do a lot for a game that might as well be complete.

However, I do believe there are some weapons that need balancing. Namely, the Vaccinator medigun which is way too strong in disorganized pubs when combined with a power class like Soldier or Heavy. I really dislike vacc players, but it is part of the game, so I wouldn’t call it unfair, just very cringe.

Fun beach loadouts

There are many fun loadouts to use on Selbyen.

1. Fish scout
2. Pyroshark + detonator
3. Fishcake heavy (33 ref)
4. Crossbow medic
5. Jarate gaming
6. Spycrab + seal mask + pirate hat (seal mask is no longer available, pirate hat from buying a map stamp in Mann Co. Store)

Ducky

A few days ago, my friend told me that my stuffed animal, Ducky, who is based on the Peepz candy, is actually not a duck. I was confused because I’ve always thought of it as a duck shape because it’s very aerodynamic and rubber-ducky-shaped.

As it turns out, Peepz only makes baby chicks, not ducks. This sorta made sense because it is an Easter candy, but it was still shocking.

Musical Memory

In terms of musical talent, most people would say that they don’t have much. However, there is definitely a spectrum for every type of musical skill, even though most people don’t really think about them.

Pitch Perfect

Most people think about a large vocal range or perfect pitch when they think of musical talent. However, this type of skill is very binary because you either have it or you don’t. What’s more important is the ability to actually remember songs.

Remembering Lyrics

A lot of people I know seem to have the ability to remember the entire verse of songs they haven’t listened to in years. I don’t really know how they do it, but I can only do that for songs I practice and listen to for days.

For me, it takes me one night of sleep to actually get a song down. When I hear a song for the first time, it is very hard for me to sing it right away. So, what I plan to do is listen to a bunch of songs I want to sing before bed. That way, my brain can download the melody.

Creativity

Many people get writer’s block when they write essays, and I think a lot of musicians also get that when they write songs. Of course, a lot of people have never tried to create their own song, but I think a lot of people might discover they are actually good at making things up on the spot.

3 Tickets to Oppenheimer

I recently bought tickets to Oppenheimer for me, my sister, and my dad, but later I realized that it was to a movie theatre that was in Ohio, not my state (they are very far). I think the problem was that I just looked up the name of the town that the movie theatre was in (I’ve never been to this theatre), and I didn’t have location tracking turned on. This caused the search engine to just go for a random city with the same name.

It was very stupid, but at least they only cost 25 bucks in total.

Sterma

Ster (formerly STAR_) and Jerma are two pillars of the TF2 community. If we didn’t have them, it would be like if calculus didn’t have Newton and Leibniz. Their content still holds up to this day because they simply had a magical interaction that made every video a classic. I literally reference their videos when I talk to my friend Y to this day.

For example, I saw on Discord that he was listening to Barbie music, I asked him why. He said, “It lowkey slaps.” So, I listened along with my Spotify free trial and it was actually insanely good. He replied with, “TOLD U,” so I said, “Wasn’t even all you,” in reference to “TF2: Jerma is Mad pt. 3” by STAR_.

Recently, they started playing again just because of the new summer update. I think that it’s really nice to see that part of my childhood revive itself, though it might not last long. I still feel like their contributions have been more than enough though.