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Anybody have a metal coat hanger?

I grilled a small pork chop and made a salad for dinner last night. I also made one of these. Oh my God was it good.

I really don't know what you mean

I finished building a deck in the backyard. I spent a couple months trying to harvest pallets for wood, but I finally broke down and bought a couple hundred dollars worth of 8-foot pieces. I blew the budget a bit, but still ended up keeping the project around $350.

That deck is looking great! Very nice work sir.

practice is when you perform the same action over and over in order to reach the same result in a more efficient manner.

Sidenote. I'm actually a bit annoyed that they made them into comic reliefs (like with Gimli). Many don't know that in the books Merry is very bright. He knows about Bilbo's ring before Frodo does, and he cleverly orchestrates Frodo's escape from the Shire. He's definitely the most "street smart" and worldly of the Hobbits. (sorry for off-topic)

Last night I had a steak and decided to do something different to create a sauce that I always see being done on the Food Network on DSTV I cooked the steak in a frying pan and once it was done I poured away the excess fatty oils but kept some stock and " burnt bits " in the pan. I then mixed corn-flour with some water and poured that in. That created, as expected, a delicious and robust steak sauce like a bought stock sauce but this was natural and fresh. I then mixed in that a good quality, store bought cheese and mushroom sauce which created this scrumptious hybrid cheese and steak sauce which I used with the steak and potatoes for dinner And it was really tasty

Well, it is all because of reaching the wider audience. There are still some players, who bend over under the hard difficulty of Eastern European games. The soap is here for them, to ease their pain

Sautéed zucchini and bell peppers with hot sauce. It's good for losing weight I guess.

I am commander Shepard and this is my favourite soap on the Citadel.

In contrast to InsaneCommander, I'm glad you wrote all of that out because now it means I don't have to watch it...which is just as well, since I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been for me anyways, . Do *you* think I'd like it, @majestic? Paranoia Agent, episode 1: Very strange, a little (intentionally) uncomfortable at parts, good. Not really sure where it's going, but presumably there will be ideas and themes that will emerge more strongly. Satoshi Kon makes weird stuff, more news at 11.

I just hope you read the part about this being slow paced and with very little action. The war is just the backdrop. It's mostly her writing and interacting with clients and experiencing the vagaries of life. Joy, sadness and loss.

I didn't read everything because you sold it to me in the first paragraphs. I'll try to watch it while I go through Legend of Galactic Heroes.

Curious, everyone else who I know watched Attack on Titan pretty much raved about it. I guess that puts it in a bit of a backburner now. Not that I wouldn't have enough else to watch. Speaking of watching something else. On a whim I started Violet Evergarden, and ended up binging the 13 episodes. There's a special and one of two movies on Netflix too, which I plan on watching soon. Netflix recommended that when it came out, I just kind of avoided it. For... reasons (for those who have followed this thread for a while, that should become clear when I talk about it, for everyone else... well, sucks to be you ). I'd link the trailer, but it is terrible. It's on Netflix anyway for everyone who wants to watch it. The English dub also seems to be a bit on the bad side, but that might just be my first impression. Say hello to the titular character, Violet: I'm a shot from the closing credits, which were never - not ever, not ONCE - skipped by this viewer. This is a first, he does add. Well... Violet is a low functioning autist incapable of expressing, dealing with or understanding any sort of emotion. One of these things is a joke that obviously refers to @Bartimaeus' reaction to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the others are pretty much what the show is about. The anime is set in a world with the technological development level of our late 19th to early 20th century, with the primary exception being Violet's anachronistic mechanical replacement limbs*, having lost both her arms in the final battle of a conflict similar to WW1. They're a metaphor more than a plot point, or rather, when they do become a plot point they're directly related to Violet's development as a character and human. As such, it's okay to accept that she has fully working replacement limbs for some reason while others limp about or need crutches to deal with their injuries. Found as an almost feral orphan, with a penchant for violence, Violet was raised and trained as a child solider by the army and assigned to Major Gilbert Bougainvillea, the first person to treat her as human, not a weapon to be unleashed on the enemy. Years later, both being severely wounded in the battle that ended the war, Major Bougainvillea tells her to live and be free, that she's more than a tool for him, and that he loves her. Words that are completely meaningless for Violet, who not only doesn't understand what love is, but also has known nothing but following the orders of others. Violet wakes up in a hospital. The war is over, and Major Bougainvillea reported as missing in action. Lt. Colonel Hodgins arrives and offers her a job at his newly founded postal company in an effort to help with his friend's final wish for Violet. He does not tell her about the Major being missing in action. Being both physically and emotionally marred by years of war, she now struggles with being integrated into society. Honest to the point of being hurtfully blunt, incapable of reading or expressing emotions and lacking any subtlety, she eventually takes up a job as Auto Memory Doll (which in the Japanese original is called Automatic Note Doll, which sounds slightly less ridiculous, the German translation is AKORA, which translates as autonomous correspondence assistant, which is the best of the bunch, in my opinion), a sort of ghost- or copywriter people most often, but not exclusively, commission to write letters, either because they are illiterate or lack the eloquence to truly express what they feel. Little by little, Violet, through having to express emotions of and for others in letters, learns to reconnect with her lost humanity and come to terms with the horrors of war and the scars they have left. For the most part, even though Violet is the main character, what makes this unique is that her story is told mostly through the lens of her clients, their reactions to her, their observations and interactions and the way she's trying to fulfill their wishes. More often than not, people truly liken her to the doll in her job description. In her most hapless of moments, Violet sometimes pulls on her cheecks to simulate a smile that she otherwise can't do. It ends up being what this thread was called for the longest of whiles, an emotional roller coster. Her first commission is a disaster where she completely misunderstands what her client wants from her (a client who wants a loveletter written in which she's playing hard to get, and Violent ends up writing "I have no true feelings for you, and you're not sincere enough in your efforts." to him - a very literal interpretation of what the client told Violet to write). The absolute highlight of the anime is an episode where Violet visits a family where she's been booked for a week to write several letters for... Her mechanical arms mirror her character growth. They're cumbersome and need ajustment at first. They're a visual metaphor for the wounds she sustained, and eventually culminate in being used to well and truly put the war behind her (and, by extension, the nations involved). The soundtrack is fantastic, especially the song of the closing credits. I guess the copyright holders are going hard after clips from the show, because the closing credits aren't available on YouTube to show them. This is the song: The animation is really good for the most part. There are some parts that look a bit, well, uncanny, especially when the camera pans over landscapes, and some of the movements feel wrong. There's a bit of what I mean in the opening credits: Still, for anime made in 2018, this is positively gorgeous. What else can I say? It very quickly earned the distinction of getting a thumbs up on Netflix too. Well done (for the record, Madoka did not get one - really)! Also, don't expect much action or fast pacing. There is some action, of course, particularily in the flashbacks to the war and the show's finale, but most of the time the pacing is on the slower side. It gives itself and the watcher enough time to breathe in and process what's happening. *Contrary to what you might think from the trailer, or other people might think, Violet is not a robot. She's a human with mechanical limbs, even if her character arc is really similar to robots or androids learning what emotions are.

Burgers for lunch with grilled onions and grilled jalapenos. I was curious which would be better so I did fresh jalapenos and also pickled ones and pickled won according to everyone.

@Hurlshotthat's brilliant: well done!

"I got somethin' to say! It's better to burn out than fade away."

Okay good to know you arent betraying the principle of hardcore games entirely , I was worried but I feel much better now Because if games from East European developers start trying to pander to SJW and liberal agendas then we have no chance ...no chance for future entertaining and sustainable gaming that we all enjoy

That's kind of inaccurate, since ISI and Al Nusra never operated together- Al Nusra was literally ISI's wing in Syria so if you were ISI in Syria you were by definition JaN; Jabhat al Nusra == the Support Front (of ISI to Syria). I know why it's put like that in the timeline since they split relatively soon after, but at that time there was literally no difference. (The conspiracy theory with respect to CIA == ISIS is a classic 'interesting series of facts' conspiracy theory. All three ISI(S) leaders were captured by the US at various points and released- both Baghdadis and the current leader- indeed most of ISIS' leadership full stop was at some point in US custody and released. ISI(S)'s brand of Islam was closest to that of Saudi Arabia and much of its financial support came from there, and KSA is a noted US ally. Capture and release is an excellent way to recruit assets and get them into an organisation. Of course, that interesting series of facts doesn't really mean much at all, practically, like most interesting series of facts. The big regional irony is having the US claim that Assad deliberately 'poisoned' the moderate rebels in Syria by releasing radicals like Zahran Alloush and his brother from its jails, when the US released all three ISIS leaders- and the Alloush's release was demanded by Saudi Arabia, who went on to provide them with massive support)

Surviving Mars free on Humble Bundle for the next few days, you just need to sign up for their newsletter.

As spoiler free as can be, the first four episodes were pretty much an introduction to the world and characters, then starting with 5 they go into a massive battle against sexless nude people, and an episode or two after is taken up mostly by a flashback to flesh out a character we'd been seeing for the entire show but who didn't talk much. If you've ever watched Penny Dreadful, it was like the seasonal exposition dump for Vanessa Ives but without Eva Green's acting to support it.

More AoT, the battle begins only to be interrupted by character backgrounds. I'm not sure what to think, the zip line jumping is really hard to follow and I couldn't really tell you much about the characters, but I guess the action can be pretty fun. Unfortunately it gets interrupted frequently at this point and I'm having a hard time caring about the characters so far. I may end up going for Legend of Galatic Heroes or rewatching Golden Wind instead.

I completely forgot E3 was on. Sounds like someone's got marketing written all over him. Shepard Soap - You'll bang, OK ?

Ok, I finally got around to watching Invincible. Never heard of/read the comic etc. The first episode went like this: "Kinda bored ... haha kinda funny ... kinda bored ... kinda funny ... sigh/bored ... HOLY COW WTF?!" Overall the whole series: 75% slightly bored (especially a couple subplots), 25% of holy cow. For my burnt-out tv and superhero mentality these days ... not too bad, show, not too bad. At least it's mostly memorable.

Basic news out of the Koch Media stream so far: Koch Media decided that Koch Media isn't a sexy label, so they now will publish games under the label Prime Matter. New Pain Killer announced. Kingdom Come Deliverance brings out a physical version of the dice game that is played in the game. They also are going to sell Kingdom Come Deliverance soap. Dolmen is described as a Lovecraft meets Giger hardcore RPG soulslike. (I think in obsidian forum talk that translates at: a game @Mamoulian Warwill play, enjoy though not being all that good at) Koch couldn't teach their community person to pronounce the company name. King's Bounty 2 release 24. August.

I like the humour in Dungeon of Naheulbeuk. It's an acquired taste for sure, but luckily for me, I acquired it. Sadly, it doesn't have a built in screenshot action key, so I have to find something better. Maybe that built in feature in Windows 10 can do the job of taking shots during conversations and combat. As far as combat goes, it's quite well made. Easy to learn and hard to master. I think my next skill point investment in the party ogre is going to be 'Advanced Murderhoboing' "This spell was originally invented as a way to enforcing social distancing during pandemics. Nobody wants to shake hands when it leaves both parties bleeding and screaming in pain" Porn Scroll... "to access its content you have to confirm your age" (it's a junk item, no pictures in it)

Those can't possibly be real, can they?

I haven't felt any compulsion to pledge my undying loyalty to Bill Gates yet, but I figure they're just waiting for maximum adoption before turning the microchips on.

I'm trying Solasta since it's on Game Pass and the project is interesting in few points. Mechanics are very well implemented with a lot of versatility in encounters and I didn't encounter any big bugs which is refreshing. What is a novelty and somewhat a milestone in RPG games is that it's fully voiced and responsive to each character and yet you create your whole party. So it's possible to make a game that doesn't rely on set protagonist or mute main character and also gives freedom in creating a character or a party of characters.

https://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/125085-solasta-crown-of-the-magister-review.html Here is a good review from GameBanshee, its mostly positive

A Little Laughing Gas Can Help Treat Depression, Small Study Finds Who'd have guessed that? I can't imagine.

PS2? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I owned an Atari 2600. Also, my friend had a ColecoVision. Edit: I owned a copy of the infamous E.T. It was terrible, but there were plenty of games on the 2600 just as crap. Missile Command was awesome, though. Defender was pretty good too.

US has bought and will donate 500 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine worldwide. Youre welcome, world.

obligatory explanation scene for above as always: