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He shouldn't have called him Californian, I don't know what he expected...

He's running for re-election in Australia this month...

Thats a beautiful lawn youve got there. 👍

I think it is not much of a coincidence that he 'disappeared' after he called Hurlshot a Californian pedophile not worth explaining himself to. I'll bet you dollars to donuts that he got beaten by the ban hammer for that. Maybe he'll eventually be back as SonicComrade or YellowMage117, who knows.

Well, guess that depends on what was trickling down.

It's even better when they honor German soldiers as well as German tanks (bonus for upside-down flag):

Ghost in the Shell (1995). In January of 2018, I watched my very first anime film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and it would be followed up with a number of other Ghibli films over the next few months. Wedged between those Ghibli films however, was Ghost in the Shell, a film I'd heard called a classic for many years yet had never had much of an inclination to try until then. Fifteen minutes into the film, I was getting a bit tired of this damned lady's gross naked butt/chest being repeatedly shoved into my face every couple of minutes without there being enough in the way of character or thematic justification for it...which combined with the number of action sequences, I was beginning to remember why I had never much cared for anime. I continued to soldier on through the film and most of that stopped after the initial deluge, and instead suffered through characters that were...monotone, flat, and going on and on about some sort of too-big-for-its-britches theme-heavy narrative that just wasn't connecting for me - I must have just about lost the plot completely by the time I was halfway through the film. I got to the end of the film and it just kind of awkwardly ends in a strange sequence of events that doesn't really feel much like a proper ending, and...well, I didn't hate the film, but I just didn't like it - it didn't help that I was listening to the English dub of the film, which isn't bad, but isn't good either...I was still several years off of watching Cardcaptor Sakura by this time, the show instrumental for finally acclimating me to Japanese voice-acting to a degree. I still dislike the direction of a lot of voice-acting, of course, but it's now an issue that really applies equally to both Japanese and English dubs for anime, and so I'm able to listen to quality, non-caricaturized Japanese dubs. I always thought that I'd maybe return to Ghost in the Shell one day - I adored the soundtrack, and I've always had a love for androids and artificial intelligence ever since I was a kid and read through a number of fictional android-related books. Watching something a second time allows you to focus more on what a film like Ghost in the Shell actually is, instead of what you think it might or should be - you don't generally strain yourself trying to figure something out on a second watch like you might on the first, and that can change your perspective on it. Anyways, all that's to say, I had an impulse to re-watch Ghost in the Shell early this morning, so I did. This time, I was able to actually follow the plot and themes to their conclusions, I was not hampered by a mediocre English dub, and having also sat through a number of other much worse works since the first time I watched the movie, I can say Ghost in the Shell is...good. It's good, if a little frustrating at times: it all makes sense and it doesn't feel like the film implodes because of over-extending itself or trying to make its ideas or scale much bigger than they really are (hello Akira!), which I appreciate...and I was even touched by a few particular moments and themes throughout the film, which was important to me for something dealing with sentient life and artificiality - issues I've mused over many times myself. Plus, I just liked the main characters more with their Japanese performances over the English. Overall, it wasn't a bad idea to re-watch it, and I apologize to @Sarex for calling it very mediocre - it's definitely better than that, even if it still doesn't quite rise to the level of great to me. It's...probably earned a place in my media library as a result of this re-watch.

Only if there is a corpse. No cadaver, no money, comrade. And according to russian war ministry there are only 1351 dead.

Really happy with the lack of announcements today. Entire family breathed a sigh of relief, even the pro-Russia ones.

Truth told, I really don't want inXile to make a Fallout game. That said, Fallout "New Vegas 2" from anyone else but Obsidian would just be a crappy attempt to cash in on the hype around it. Either Obsidian makes a new Fallout game, or they can just **** off with that idea for all I care.

Article on the long-term strategic ramifications in Europe from the war: https://www.19fortyfive.com/2022/05/russias-invasion-of-ukraine-is-transforming-europe/ Article on the failure of Russian airpower in the war: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/russian-military-air-force-failure-ukraine/629803/ Some more interesting tidbits on Finland, Sweden, and NATO membership [incl. some good observations on the tremendous value Finland brings to NATO, a big part of why I like Finland in NATO ]: https://www.rferl.org/a/finland-sweden-nato-membership-explainer-russia-ukraine/31841209.html

Long drawn out work day. Half crashing out. Needed to call the phone engineers out, because while the phone line is good, nothing actually rings when someone calls the landline. I'd run through all the possibilities in the house, so looks like it's a power issue at the phone junction box doohickie. Apparently a handful of houses in the area have called in with similar issues. Still, on other matters I primed and painted my armour carrier.. 😁 (It was that bright orange-yellow ToughMaster Tool Carrier) And slapped a basic Imperial Stencil on it. Now I've got something safer and secure to transport cosplay armour on the train to London MCM comic-con at the end of the month. Also found out I got accepted as a volunteer steward, so I'll be experiencing the con from that side of thing as well for the first time. Also picked up some assorted tools and dyes for leatherworking. I need to sketch some time out to start experimenting and figuring out how to do stuff....

Based on what I know you like, it's difficult for me to recommend it to you. If something is not to your taste, it's not to your taste, and that's not going to change no matter how many people claim it's a "great" or "classic" work - I would know, I am certainly chief among those who contemptuously dismiss widely and strongly held opinions when they run contrary to what I plainly see before me, . If I didn't have a soft spot for the particular subject material, I probably would not have returned to it. Good music, animation, and atmosphere wouldn't change the fact that the film is an oddball mix of heavy violence and very slow philosophical meandering, which doesn't really seem like your thing. It really depends on the specific work for me. I guess there's a difference between "I hated this", "this unfortunately simply doesn't interest/appeal to me", and "this just didn't work for me". The last group is the group I'm most likely to give another shot at some point, whereas I'm not likely to ever give the first kind another try ever again...and the second will probably take my interests changing before I would ever consider it.

@religousnutters.

This was a very good (if long) read: What did Medieval peasants know As I written here a hundred time I get annoyed when actual history is subverted or outright misrepresented for modern political ends. The "dark ages" following the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the beginning of the "high Middle Ages" period are good fodder for that because there is very little in the way of preserved history or writing. Also I've had a subscription to The Atlantic about 10 years ago and let it lapse. But it seems like they have upped their game in the past decade and are doing some interesting writing again. I may have to buy back in.

No

@Mamoulian War: D'oh. Here's an interesting thing: you would sort of think that this kind of stuff was done with at least some amount of subtlety and care. But it's not. It's once again in the great tradition of editing Kirill's watch from the picture but neglecting to edit the reflection of the watch on the table. It's so amateurish that it's actually quite hard to believe. Hmm. I just saw a video of a Russian column of tanks getting severely beaten. One of the tanks had its top seriously blown off, I suppose it reached an altitude of 100+ meters, high enough to start a Special Airborne Operation. Dang that was brutal. I'm sure anyone can find this video if they want to. The Ukrainians appear to have better weapons now.

Speaking of compensations, some parents of sailors which died on Moskva, have allegedly complained, that they are not getting anything, because officially Moskva was not part of Special Military Operations, it was just swimming around Black Sea. I'll try to dig out the source from week ago. And a friend linked me a few interesting propaganda gem pieces from May the 9th 🤦‍♂️

This was my first time using the blender for hollandaise and can highly recommend it. I went a little overboard and made bacon wrapped filet mignon topped with a bone marrow and black garlic butter. Served with mashed potatoes and a red wine gravy. I got bored.

Ah, Witcher1! My poor laptop wasn't able to run it, but it was my freshman year at Uni and a good colleague of mine and a fellow gamer was kind enough to lend me his machine. I would borrow it once per week around 10 PM, when he was done with his homework and I would meet him during breakfast in the morning and hand the laptop back after entire night of gaming. That's how I finished my first run of it. Good times.

Pick up a quest item that makes a tough boss spawn. Realize boss is way too hard for you at this level. Decide to stash the item until you get 10 levels. Make a post about it here. Go to bed. Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Fire up the game. Enter the dungeon. Get attacked by boss. Realize you forgot to stash the quest item...

True confession time: I've never watched the Ghost in the Shell anime, because I thought the manga was terrible. After reading Ghost in the Shell, I was basically left with the general impression that I wished Shirow had worked on Part V of Appleseed instead. YMMV. Also the anime was recommended highly by the same people who highly recommended The Wings of Honnêamise, so that tended to be a high dis-recommendation in my book.

@Bartimaeus It's like that for me too. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for something and it hits me in a completely wrong way, then on another rewatch something clicks for me. The only thing is that it's pretty rare for me to give something another go, it's usually by accident where I see some scene or read some comment that will make me reconsider (a la bubbles, which I am yet to give another shot).

I wouldn't trust this (heck, if Putin said it's two o'clock I'd check my watch), although I'd wager that at least somebody is going to get something. Let us keep in mind that Putin has stressed how conscripts would not be used in battle, although they definitely have been used.

Just a footnote, Crunchyroll is up and rolling again (ta dah!). Looks like Sony owns the Crunchyroll/Funimation merger and operates it as Crunchyroll

Definitely.

I need to mix it up a bit, I still have the link(s) your shared 👍 That one is over twenty episodes of "serious" drama, so I need some easy to digest stuff on both sides of it... Edit: Skeleton knight isn't complete yet, so I think I'll just watch a handful episodes of Dropkick on my Devil Dash (second series) first, the switch to 'Your Lie in April' (Dropkick doesn't really bear binge watching, as fun as it is)

My fond memory of The Witcher is that I was gifted it by a friend on Steam, I played about 3 hours of it, realized I hated almost literally every single aspect of the game (whether it was gameplay, characters, storytelling, whatever), and proceeded to feel terrible that a friend gifted me a game that I loathed. That was the beginning and end of my Witcher experiences.

For the neck: Bone Setter's Torc - if you feel you need more (self)healing Claim and Refusal - if you're comfortable with your health and want more damage Strand of Favor - helps the duration of your buffs (especially Unbending Trunk later) Charm of Bones - helps with duration/radius For the feet: Footprints of Ahu Taka - +2dex and more (self)healing is always good Rakhan Field Boots - are always nice (however they could be more useful for Eder for easy backstabs at the begining of the fights) Boots of the Stone - +1dex and resistance to might afflictions Boots of the White - resistance to dex afflictions For belts: Belt of Magran's Chosen/Sash of Judgment - for more damage The Undying Burden - more health/fortitude are good and the insta heal for emergencies (but not very useful for a no rest run) The Maker's Own Power - +1might/+1 crush AR is always good to have and the death healing works as a safety net (but not very useful for a no rest run) Girdle of Eoten Constitution - more health/fortitude For rings I would consider Voidward and Ring of Greater Regeneration/Ring of Prosperity's Fortune/Ring of Clenched Muscle. The KWF/troubadour is best played as a melee tank/support (Exalted Endurance + Ancient Memory + Aefyllath.../Old Siec...) and my optimal equipment for that would be: Magnera's Chain, Lethandria's Devotion, Sasha's Singing Scimitar, Blackened Plate Helm/Champion's Helm, Charm of Bones, Hylea's Talons, Chameleon's Touch, Ring of Minor Protection, Cloak of Greater Deflection, Boots of the Stone, Belt of Magran's Chosen. If you want to stand in the back you can replace your items with Dragon's Dowry + Ring of the Marksman + Ring of Focused Flame + Acina's Tricorn and use Sure-Handed Ila chant for steady ranged dps.

Yeah, even as someone who was not particularly surprised we got no announcements it was certainly still a case of no news is good news. War declarations or mobilisation up the stakes and make a quick (and at least relatively low destruction) resolution a lot less likely.

I actually found the W1 swamp fine, on replay. The key is to be able to minimise the number of times you go there, and hence the respawning, which of course you don't know how to do first time around. But if you're only going there 3 (?) times it's a lot more palatable than going there maybe a dozen times. But, any level which is as obnoxious as the swamp on a first play through is by definition poorly designed. You shouldn't have to metagame quests and the like to make it acceptable, and swarms of annoying potentially 0xp monsters respawning is nothing more than bad makework, really.

My wife said to me that maybe it's just her toxic masculinity talking but she doesn't like how dirty players nowadays flop, act, and jump into people and back in her day dirty players might actually hurt you, no acting involved. I told her that while I generally agree, it sounds exactly something an old person would say. She hit me, I flopped.

There's a lot to love about Witcher 1, like the nudie cards you got for sexing up various women and Zoltan being the best, but the combat... *fart noise* There's no weight or feedback to it, you just pick the right combat stance, which is super obvious, then you play a rhythym game that's mostly disconnected from the enemies on the screen. The bigger issue is the ****ing swamp though, that's the reason I only ever finished the game once. I tried replaying the game twice, got to the swamp both times, tried to talk myself into pushing through it because there's stuff I really like after that, gave up both times after the swamp had destroyed my will to continue. **** that swamp.

Watched 'A silent voice'. A beautiful story, where I would say the media used for delivery is less important than the story and it just happened to be an anime. I believe it could have been a live action movie or a novel and it would still have been a beautiful story... After that, I do need something more light hearted. Easy laughs and scantily clad girls I think... Skeleton Knight in Another World looks like fun.

Something similar happened to me once, my wife fell and I took her to the doctor and everyone kept giving me weird looks. I was so worried about her that I didn't fully realize the situation until they wanted to speak with her alone and that's when reality finally set in.

I hope we get a toggle for this

The Antichrist is in a primary election, somewhere.

It's almost like they aren't white.

Wticher 1 was the best. Playing Crowns and Pawns, so far seems okay for a modern adventure game, at least the puzzles aren't too simplistic. Apparently from reviews, I will learn a lot about Lithuania from this game, so that's cool and helps justify the $20.

Timespinner.

My own lack of focus, probably. I finish a side gig and oh look what's that cyberpsycho icon there, hey what's that shootout in the alley there, oh a ripper I haven't visited before... you get the idea. I'm not actively trying to 100% the game, it's just that it's hard for me to stick to the main missions and ignore all the stuff that the game throws in my face all the time while trying to get from A to B. I don't always use the QT terminals so that's a factor too. While I would have liked more resources devoted to a bigger, better main plot, I understand how all the side stuff is necessary because the map is huge and would be pretty empty otherwise. It still is to a degree.

Obstinance is part of our charm! Actually in the wonderful world of engineering all measurements are metric.