Leaderboard

When it's not just mad skillz, it's mad skillz in heels...

1800 year old Greek-Egyptian family medallion: Thought the art style was pretty rad in comparison to a lot of ancient art.

Managed to squeeze an episode of JoJo's in (my nephew always spends the weekends here, so there you go, can't watch JoJo's while he's around). So instead we ended up watching Whisper of the Heart (1995), which @Bartimaeus mentioned just recently. Netflix apparently got the rights to Studio Ghibli films at some point (except for Grave of the Fireflies, which isn't available), and I figured with a script by Miyazaki and a director that isn't Takahata we'd be fairly safe from the soul crushing trauma that Takahata is so fond of. Turns out I was only half right. I've seen some of Kondō's prior work (as animation director and character designer). He worked for Nippon Animation for a while, like Takahata and Miyazaki. Almost everything that was part of the 70ies and 80ies World Masterpiece Theater series aired here while I was a kid with enough time to spend watching TV all day long. Just recently I have made my peace with how modern animation looks, or at least I thought I did. I said that Madoka looks fantastic, and it does, really. It makes good use of modern technology in a way that enhances the storytelling and while the character looks take some time to get used to (for me, anyway), they were part of that. Looking at both Perfect Blue and Whisper of the Heart, well, how can I possibly sit here and not comment on how much better traditional 2D animation looks? Anyway, I'm not sure I need to say much about the film's plot. It is very honest and plays the coming of age and young romance archetypes as straight as they come, the story is simple (not to be confused with bad here, for the love of god) and very focused in scope... and it is told almost perfectly. Typical for much of Miyazaki's work is a certain, let's say, type of ending that isn't up there with the quality of the rest, although this is probably one of the better ones. It's heartwarming and fun, looks gorgeous and while the runtime initially seems a little long, it never feels like it. So what's with only being half right?

My hats off to anybody who can keep up a steady exercise regimen. What Hurlshot does is just amazing. Not just for his age but any age. When I was in the service I was in excellent physical condition. But that kind of comes along with being in the service. Particularly the branch I was in. But I still exercise regularly until I hit my 40s. Then that kind of tapered off. Then I was in a car accident a little over 10 years ago and that was the end of that. Nowadays if you see me running you better turn and run too because there’s probably something large, furry, and predatory chasing me. my weight is still good though. I gave up booze off while back. And other than garden vegetables I eat very little in the way of carbs. I stay away from the white carbs like potatoes and white bread.

[german_lesson] If you mean "Fingerfertigkeit" - that's not considered to be a clunky word (for us). It's rel. common and distinguishes the dexterity of your fingers from the dexterity of your body. There's no literal translation that I know of (Finger = finger, Fertigkeit = skill or proficiency). So you can totally include it into your German studies. Using it to translate "nimble" is wrong though. Unless it's "nimble-fingered" of course. If I had to translate general Dexterity to German I would say "Geschicklichkeit". Although that already slightly leans towards fine motor skills. The old word "Gewandtheit" would fit better but you would confuse younger people with its use I guess. Translating quick, nimble and swift into German with that a sense of escalation like quick < nimble < swift is very difficult imo because they are either synonyms or more used with to different parts of the body. It depends a lot on the context. But you could use "schnell" (= fast) for every one of them. So maybe the German mod uses "schnell" (which generally isn't a very precise translation of the world nimble) because it fit better into the ascending tiers of the dex inspirations. Usually I would translate nimble with "behände" (old), "beweglich" or "flink". Those old words like "Gewandtheit" or "behände" may sound funny to younger audiences, bit I think they work very well in fantasy and/or historical games. Last year I discovered that my youngest sister in law never heard about the old German word "Kleinod" (biju, small gem) and I was baffled. But then I realized she never read any fantasy or historical novels... German has a smaller vocabulary than English (I think a third only?). So often you end up with a lot of English words with slightly different meanings that would all be translated to the same German word. The most popular example is the word "schlagen" I think. Hitting, striking, pummeling, punching, battering, slapping, bashing, whacking and so on: it's all "schlagen". We Germans make up for that with the excessive use of composites ("Faustschlag" - punch) or funny expressions. Ohrfeige (ear + fig) = slap (in the face) [/german_lesson]

HD was, as always, trolling and it's absolutely obvious if you have any background in the subject; there was no bait to take because his 'pro China' stance is entirely predicated on getting knee jerk responses for his own amusement. The beauty about it is that he also manages to troll in such a way that anyone who is actually pro China gets riled too- and probably ends up admitting to all sorts of crappy stuff that actually did happen while trying to correct the inaccuracies. That too is obvious, if you have any background in the subject. Kills the 'beauty' of it a bit to explain, but... it wasn't a Xinjiang uprising, 20 million didn't die (that's the estimate for those displaced), 20 million couldn't have died in a Xinjiang uprising in the 19th century because it's very cold and very arid and the population was almost entirely nomadic herders; its current pop is only 25 million after massive settlement programs. It also wasn't instigated by the British, who at the time were busy propping up the Qing against the aforementioned Heavenly Kingdom. Apart from the last, pretty basic stuff really if most people's knowledge of Xinjiang wasn't #stopkony2012 tier slacktivism; and even the last might beg the question of how the Brits were instigating anything several thousand km away from their bases, up against the Russian border. But if you explain how it's wrong you end up explaining that China actually 'only' murdered around 4 million muslims and depopulated two states (neither Xinjiang, and both predominantly Han Chinese; the Xinjiang depopulation actually came a century earlier) prior to what is currently happening in Xinjiang now. So on one hand you potentially catch a bunch of knee jerking sinophobe gwailos taking everything at face value, on the other you potentially get wumao admitting to China slaughtering millions previously to correct the erroneous 20 million claim. Win win.

we were one o' the three most hated people on our track team. surprising were not 'cause we were an a-hole. however, we were a football guy who ran track, and curiously we were extreme susceptible to shin splints. tried special shoes. used arcane applications o' heat, cold and compression. built up our core to ridiculous degree. *shrug* track coach said we should lose weight, but we would need gain the pounds right back for summer football practice, so that were not gonna happen. we were fast enough in 50 indoor, 100 and 200 that we were granted privileges. coach let us be on the team and functional contribute only for the meets. 'course while everybody else were on long team runs, Gromnir were doing sprints or weight training and when the team made it back to campus drenched in sweat and exhausted, we could see the murderdeathkill in their eyes. nowadays, we do bike rides five or six days a week in the am, but we only run when chased. we can respect folks who do distance runs, but anything over 400m is kinda outta the question for us. HA! Good Fun!

Streamed games mean you can't make mods for them, so I will never touch em.

If When Stadia gets abandoned later this year, it will be the least surprising thing ever. When Stadia was announced, pretty much everybody said "it's destined to fail." Cloud gaming may happen successfully one day, but that day is not today. The internet infrastructure has to be there first and the latency problem needs to be solved, or at least reduced a lot more than it has been so far. You can't put the cart before the horse.

Going to head for a long run today, likely half-marathon distance. Then hang with peeps around the firepit this evening. Of, and finish the most recent Planetary Report! https://www.planetary.org/planetary-report

As an aside, I was hoping a Kaiju Squirrel would come for the giant acorn in the background.

The British upper class are all undead, so it may very well be.

Got my second shot today and so far, so good. No headache or fatigue. If I die, Ill see you all on the flipside. If I dont, I guess Ill be back later.

*Edit* I apologize I intended for this post to go in the Feedback and Suggestions category. Perhaps a moderator can move it? - Thanks. I came back to grounded after a few weeks away. I immediately noticed some great changes, however I feel that the dangerous insects are too plentiful now. It's getting hard to venture out anywhere without running into trouble, and while I understand that may be by design, it makes it more difficult to enjoy other important aspects, such as exploring, base building, resource gathering, etc. My suggestions based on a few hours with update 0.9... 1) Decrease spider frequency (but increase their ability to pursue on elevated terrain and make them more territorial - This would A) solve the problem of a person just being able to range attack them to death, and B) make the spiders more realistic and exciting. For example, if a spider becomes aggro'd on you, it can reach most elevations that you would have considered safe, this means that getting a few ranged shots in would be beneficial, but you are still vulnerable. The impossibility of climbing out of reach could be balanced by making the spiders pursue less over distance and stay within their territory, allowing the player to glide away to more safety. To fully dispatch the spider, it would require either several attempts at such a strategy, or eventually requiring close combat.) 2) Aggravated Mosquitos pursue way too far a distance - they chase you halfway across the map it feels like... seems a little imbalanced. 3) Digging for grubs but finding larva was a great idea, but is imbalanced. I found 6 larva versus 2 grubs in a recent session. It should be the other way around IMHO. 4) Speeding up Aphids was a great way to increase the importance of ranged attacks, however I feel like Weevils are too few in number and are always being pursued by ants, which makes it necessary to run halfway across the map trying to kill one (which often results in encountering dangerous insects when you weren't in the mood for that kind of experience). 5) The water/hunger rebalance is better, but water is lost a little too quickly, and hunger not quite fast enough. 6) Photo mode is awesome, but even with the camera speed controls we have, the camera moves waaaay too slow. That's all I can think of right now. Thanks again for putting so much effort into a great game!

That explains it. It's okay though, I have it on blu ray. My attempts to troll others into thinking it is a cute kid's film kind of failed so far, but I'll keep trying. Someone will bite, eventually!

23 small ceramic figurines were found in a circular position inside a Mayan Kings Tomb. They were created around 600-650 C.E. https://unframed.lacma.org/2017/09/21/archaeology-el-ú-waka’-maya-ritual-resurrection-scene-broader-perspective

Dose 2 / Day 2: Ive been waiting all day for the other shoe to drop and...I feel fine. I even took my temperature just to see whats up and it was perfectly in range. Actually, my arm doesnt even hurt as much the first shot. Weird. I feel like Ive dodged a bullet. My wife got her second shot today so well see how she feels tomorrow. That makes the entire Gfted clan fully dosed up.

Stardust Crusaders is one hell of a ride you'll want to stick with, so I'd wait to clear out the other stuff on your list before starting it.

Because other cipher powers are better.

Today is Cheese fondue day so its a good day of course, as usual I use my fondue book and cheese books to add an additional cheese to the traditional fondue recipe that in 85 % of cheese fondue recipes has to involve 2 of the following cheeses :Emmenthal, Gruyere and Appenzaller Today I am using Gruyere and Emmenthal and adding Gorgonzola....and its works adding a blue cheese normally so I will see how it is with Gorgonzola today

Those crafty entrepreneurs.... "The first bottles of an "artisanal spirit" made using apples grown near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant have been seized by Ukrainian authorities. The Chernobyl Spirit Company said 1,500 bottles of Atomik alcoholic drink were confiscated on 19 March and taken to the Kyiv Prosecutor's office. Officers took the shipment from a truck at a distillery in the Carpathians." https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57011695 "They are now awaiting the outcome of an investigation by the Ukrainian security services but say they have "no idea" why the shipment, which was destined for the UK, was seized." Oh come on, could have been fun watching a bunch of Britons running around at night, glowing in the dark Now I feel like playing Fallout again

FF is a curse, you get damaged (about 13 per tick on that character i think) every tick, if you have enough resolve you get damaged once (35 resolve on that character), after the curse expires you get healed by the wound generating mechanism (on hostile effect expiring), this character heals 50-53 health per expiring hostile effect... (20 because he had only 20 damage)

"Krankenwagen" is a nice example of a compound word -- which English doesn't use all that much. (Languages where you can build your own compound words essentially have an infinite vocabulary, if you count each compound word as a separate word.) One particularly interesting feature of the English language is the fact that no matter what language nouns come from, many adjectives referring to those same nouns come from Latin (or at least a totally different language). Think about it. We have teeth, but things relating to teeth are dental. We've got skin, but skin problems are dermal. We've got fingers and toes, and things referring to both of them are carpopedal. And so on, for quite some time. Some of these adjectives are really quite rare, not the kinds of things that 99% of native speakers know at all. For example, if something resembles or pertains to a peac o c k, it's pavonine. You don't see that word very often. [Edit: ha! had to put some spaces in that bird word, apparently it's very naughty!]

Right. And Old Englisch is basically a German dialect (Saxon). When I read Ivanhoe for the first time (when I was in school) I really understood how Saxon and French got fused together. Especially the example with swine and pork I will never forget. That leads to a lot bigger vocabulary where such synomyms are used in slightly different contexts (swine for the living animal, pork for the meat etc.). That makes translating stuff like swine/pig/pork/boar (it's all "Schwein") or quick, nimble and swift into meaningful different German terms difficult. We also use a lot of French, Greek and Latin words (even Italian etc.) - yet we have a lot less words. Of course colloquial English doesn't make use of its whole vocabulary - it's more obvious when reading than it is when talking - but still. Also... I think besides the origin of the English language (that led to more words) it's also the usage of composites or compound words on the German side that leads to less words in comparison. Because you can "invent" new words so easily to describe something - by simply stitching two or more words together - there is no need for new terms. Like... we usually don't use the word "Ambulanz" (ambulance) although we have it - we prefer to use "Krankenwagen" (krank = sick, wagen = car). But that's no scientific research of mine or something. Just a quick theory I made up while I briefly studied German philology (~25 years ago) but that still sounds reasonable to me.

we played blind side flanker... and prop. at Cal we added enough weight to play fullback (sorta) on the football team, and then we quit. were easier to quit the team than the extra 25-30lbs. that said, as a sometimes prop, we know what waddling looks like. HA! Good Fun!

Grommie, I was never a track person - played rugby for about 15 years. The running comes from my time in the forces. Quick the smoking, kept the running ... well more like waddling

Also RIP to Obama's dog, Bo. Cancer at 12.

For those who want their ME extras... Mass Effect Legendary Edition - Bonus Content download

Well, I updated Win10 (PITA, pffft) ... but I have no visual frame of reference for this game - since I never played it for more than 20 minutes or something - so I have no idea if it looks "better" or not. I feel like some darker early intro bits it looked more washed out than before (black levels). Other times it looks perfectly fine. Dunno. I have it basically "maxed/Ultra" but with DLSS on Quality for 4k/50-60fps. Without DLSS/native-4k, it's around 30-40fps. Basically, like Cyberpunk was (for me), 4k/DLSS etc. performance wise, maybe a bit better than CP. ...if I can make myself play farther I'll try to get some shots of something more lighting/RT heavy, if I can figure out what's supposed to be different.

Gamers are easily soothed with hype... I think the only way to fail as a game dev studio is to be unable to generate hype. : >

I found one ladybug! Lol. Was glitching out under a plant but I found one lol!

Same here. Plenty of ladybugs, zero fireflies. They're just gone.

were a personal choice by tom. can't even blame on bad cgi. HA! Good Fun!