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It really ties the thread together.

I love that thumb pic xD

I find out the darkness of the web so I can stop you from straying there. It is the cross I bear for my friends. Also, that's what duckduckgo is for.

Only the ones strong enough to climb the fence deserve to survive. God created America to test the faithful. Ya hya chouhada

Geniuses in IT decide to remotely uninstall "old" versions of .NET and JREs. Only problem is that those are needed for development. So today is restoring Eclipse and VS environments, yay. Upgrading VS projects' .NET versions is also exciting, for some reason VS decides to auto modify service files by....deleting the contents.

The first mass extinction on Earth, which wiped out almost all life was when oxygen started building up everywhere, aka the 'The Great Oxidation Event' (caused by the "invention" of photosynthesis by primitive organisms). Happened about 2.5 billion years ago. Ironically, because life survived, species adapted to live in oxygen rich atmospheres to the point where humans can't survive today without the very stuff that is killing us /nerd

More thoughts on Swansong: At its core this plays like The Council; you walk around, collect information by overhearing conversations, examining items, making deductions (if you have the necessary skill), etc. Occasionally you will get into a confrontation, this takes the place of combat in this game. A confrontation is usually a test of will and cunning between characters. You can use skills and disciplines but so can they. You can focus a skill to increase chance of success, but so can they. Using skills and disciplines is not necessarily the key to victory, I have won confrontations by using regular dialogue options where I had the choice to use a skill and/or discipline. Willpower seems easier to manage than hunger, but that comes down to me using auspex quite a bit. I'm trying to avoid feeding if I can help it. Even if I could manage to lure a human to a secluded location, feeding still raises suspicion (more if you do it out in the open). I'm not sure what happens when suspicion gets too high, but I bet it's not good. Leysha is my favorite of the 3 protagonists so far. Her relationship with Halsey, her daughter, is really touching. I'm going to be super bummed out if anything happens to either of them. Given how suboptimal this first playthrough has been, there's a real possibility of just that. Edit: I've been going sort of jack of all trades with my protagonists. It's becoming clear that this is probably a mistake on my part, but I'll stick with it for this first playthrough to get the feel of how useful the skills and disciplines are.

I like the look of this newly announced game. I am both a Wuxia fan, and a fan of 2D-HD style graphics. It seems to ape Octopath Traveler very much in the visual department. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1876890/Codename_Wandering_Sword/

Ugh, what, no. LOOKS BEFORE STATS! (or chr. class/skill...) Dunno if it was a "mistake" but at least I'm adorable!

They already forced in Kherson city to use Rubles. According to official statement full Ukrainian counteroffensive will start after enough conscripts get sufficient training, which is currently rumored between end of july and start of september. Not to mention, that Ukraine is already amassing a lot of units near Kherson Oblast border for a week or two already. And that partisans are working diligently as well. Last report I've seen was a hefty bomb which injured head of regional occupation at Enerhodar city (The one with the one of the biggest nuclear power plants in Europe).

So we can all agree, Alpha Protocol was an educational game.

I learned that killing your boss can be a good thing.

I have been enjoying this base building update, i have ran into a few issues and have an idea for one that i think would be a quality of Life improvement, iv been facing a re-occurring problem with the factions and i think it would be solved if we had a faction UI or something like that, Where you can make a Progress bar or Something for the different faction types so you could see which ones are reacting to you, i know they have the little icon pop up on your screen but i would like to have a solid Ui state or something in order to track it, since i havent been able to receive some of the pop ups. followed by complete destruction of my base lol. idk just a thought.

Maybe, I barely paid attention to little Picard's little family drama scene. In that case I'll take the comments back and apply them to something else that was pretty stupid in the show, there's plenty of it.

Yep. There was a certain amount of disbelief among the film industry here that Tom Cruise actually flew the helicopter in the one they shot in NZ (Fallout?) because it was... not exactly safe and exactly the sort of thing you'd expect to be CGI or at least a stunt double for all of it. Say what you like about Tom Cruise, but he's certainly no coward and commits fully to his films. Rogue One's protagonists suffered badly from Joss Whedon Ensemble Syndrome. Good thing the rest of the movie was decent, and they had a better than decent main antagonist with some actually memorable lines (plus Tarkin and Vader were good too, for that matter). Don't really blame them for doing a series via the one Disney era movie that fans (nearly) unanimously like or at least tolerate though. Overall, I'd prefer a Disney+ series on Mads Mikkelson's farming tips instead of Andor.

I just try to avoid Tom Cruise movies Honestly, I try to avoid all movies with scientologists as leads. I'm normally pretty good at separating the art from the artist but **** scientology.

Well or listen to the cops.

as is usual, a whole lotta folks is making claims based on imperfect info. after actual reading the links provided in this thread, it sounds as if the cops did engage the shooter immediate, at which time at least two cops were injured. that said, am admitted curious 'bout the time delay before somebody obtained a key for the door to the room where the shooter barricade himself. is also a whole lotta not info 'bout the cops s'posed evacuating their own kids. details? none provided in this thread. that said, am having no issue whatsoever if cops evacuated kids from the school and simultaneous prevented rando parents from trying to enter the school. a whole lotta angry and frightened parents (texas parents some o' whom likely were armed as well) running 'round the school were not gonna improve the situation. no doubt the longer the cops stood around looking impotent, the angrier parents became, and the more difficult it became to control the situation, but preventing parents from acting on the "just rush in" impulse does not seem unreasonable. the timeline is curious and am gonna want info as to why it took so long to gain access to the room where the shooter were barricaded, but most other complaints we has seen thus far appear to be based on complete unsubstantiated sources not actual contained in the links, or is conjured rage which reflects all too obvious biases. btw, cops is not paid heroes. they ain't even soldiers. you people watch too much tv. first job for most o' these cops is to get home safe to family. safety o' self and fellow cops is actual priority number one. the internet, which never lies, tells us the average yearly pay for texas cops is $53k. how much heroism is you folks paying for with $53k a year? you don't like the reality? then nationalize cops and turn 'em into a military force as 'posed to civilian. @Guard Dog would have issues, but then you could order the cops to be heroes. problem solved, right? HA! Good Fun! ps am not sure what a "freighted parent" is, so we corrected.

Also it's a bit bewildering to see the same people that have been crying about teachers brainwashing kids with CRT or SEL are now like "Teachers should have guns!" You trust me with a weapon but not a textbook. If only pointing out hypocrisy had any effect on hypocrites.

Yesterday, there was confirmation of T-62 echelon arriving in Melitopol and there are already some T-62 tanks with custom made improvements in Polohy (both Zaporizhie Oblast)

And that is OK, Ukraine is thankfully not as stupid as Russia to send to offensive untrained troops... As I have said, they are training mobilised troops, and will attack only, when they train them enough to be not a cannon fodder like most of the LNR and DNR forces, which have even officially complained about the forced mobilization and very low training provided by proxies... And people are then wondering, why even the most optimistic pro-russian military bloggers are now bitching about how failed this "operation" is, due to extremely high Russian casualties...

From what I've heard Robert was established as being away at boarding school during the childhood flashbacks in Picard. Which could make sense, as I seem to recall per TNG he was like 8 years older than Picard, if memory serves me.

Effing A

Finished Picard Season 2 last night. It was pretty good. Some things annoyed me. 2024 was a bit more advanced than it will be. 2024 Guinan showed no reaction to the mention of the Borg which was off. But I thought the actress who played her. besides being smoking hot, did a great job capturing the character. Plus all the other annoyances of time travel plots. Don't get me started. And didn't Picard have a brother? Where the hell was he during all the childhood flashbacks? And WTF happened to Picard's dog? Never saw him again. You know what? I don't think I liked it at all!

yes or race is for some other reason relevant for the story

Buffalo shooter published manifesto where he told that he will go shoot black people because they are black. Uvalde Shooter and victims were latino and from same neighborhood and shooter didn't publish manifesto, but send someone messages in facebook where he told that he will shoot his grandmother and then go to shoot people in elementary school

Not really, these buffs have pretty short durations and you will have a hard time to keep them up (also casting can be easily be interrupted in melee). Melee builds, in general, are simple to play and maybe don't have much variety, but they also require tactics and careful planning to overcome harder battles. If you look for more melee variety you should play a Forbidden Fist - many different play styles and unlimited resources.

Fixed that for you.

As languages, Finnish and Estonian are very close to each other. Fun historical fact: Estonians tend to speak Finnish, because quite a lot of Finnish TV has been available in Estonia even in the Soviet times, and the languages are close enough so that you can pick the other up from TV if you know one of them. The converse is not true: Finns don't tend to speak Estonian, because Estonian TV has not been regarded as interesting in Finland. Estonia "drifted further away" from Finland during the Soviet era, and there was some strain in the relationships after Estonia's independence, because Finland wasn't always very helpful politically / diplomatically and because Finnish tourists tended to regard Tallinn as a place where they could go and buy extremely cheap booze (and you'll know the consequences...). The war in Ukraine has certainly brought the nations closer to each other. Arvo Pärt is interesting: his "trick" is very simple and he tends to repeat it over and over again, but his best works are still good indeed. Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten, link above, is a good example: it's a hauntingly beautiful piece.

Mentally, I feel pretty good. But I would die a thousand deaths without air conditioning.* *hyperbole

Beam spells seem to have one more quirk in addition to their duration not being alterable. At least for Ectopsychic Echo, Farcasting does not affect its cast range.

Something neat about Full Attacks is that ranged weapons take the longer range of the two (or is it the range of your main hand weapon?). So in most circumstances you want to take Open Choke on the Xefa blunderbuss if you're using it on a rogue/monk. Just put a pistol/wand/whatever in your main hand and the blunderbuss in your offhand. No need to get up close and personal to spam Stunning Surge.

Coronavirus vaccines may not prevent many symptoms of long covid, study suggests - The Washington Post Ruh Roh.

gave up on the no/low carb effort? am nevertheless applauding the prospective career change, but only if you get the filling-to-dough ratio better than the average pork bun vendor. aside: recent have been using powdered gelatin with some frequency. https://smile.amazon.com/Knox-Unflavored-Gelatin-1-lb/dp/B001UOW7D8/ref=sr_1_5?c=ts&keywords=Gelatins&qid=1653493096&s=grocery&sr=1-5&ts_id=6492316011 we ordinarily have at least a gallon o' homemade beef and chicken stock in the freezer, with liquid amounts in the fridge, but pre/during/post easter we did a whole lotta large group prep and we somehow managed to run out our stock and we have not replenished our reserves... so, am using better than bullion for a bit, which is actual a solid substitute for reals. whatever flavours am missing by using better than bullion we may always perk up with appropriate seasoning, but the one thing even the best store bought stocks tend to be short o' is the the gelatin. the powdered and unflavoured gelatin, in small quantities, ain't so much added by us as a thickening agent but rather to provide depth. HA! Good Fun!

Yah I really enjoyed getting killed every night on a new game because a wolf spider would patrol past the initial field station just before I went to bed. I had to spend all day making a tower 5 stories tall just to be absolutely sure they wouldn't bite me in the ass. So far so good, but still, a little hot for a start location.

So anyway I was looking onto taking G to Spain for her Birthday. I hadn't told her yet, she mentioned once a while ago she wanted to see Europe, Portugal & Spain in particular. I was 100% up for that. I've never been anywhere in Europe myself and I can speak Spanish passably well from working in Mexico. But I'm going to keep that one in my pocket until next year. Now she wants to visit Canada. It's literally three hours north of us but she's never had time to go. I suggested going to the Stampede in Calgary in July. Well take a week and explore southern Alberta and Calgary and come back through the Dakota's. She's very excited. I think is sounds like fun. The only place in Canada I've ever been is Toronto. And that was just for work.

I'd honestly much rather Obsidian made an Alpha Protocol sequel (Sigma Protocol?) rather than NV2. Granted, SEGA owns the IP, but it's not like Microsoft is hurting for money and SEGA probably wouldn't ask for an arm and a leg, given that they're not doing anything with the IP and probably never will.

So, two people left to identify

I like the idea of raids, but I feel it should be something players can opt into, rather than required to turn off via customized settings. On steam discussions, I see people worried about achievements / customized settings, feeling that their forced to do the raids & also players that have built a kingdom, only to have it destroyed & feeling that it's all been for nothing. I normally opt to play in custom settings, and the raids aren't a bother for me, but I do sympathize with my fellow players.

I live by the oak tree and have had multiple wolf spiders somehow magically get through my walls and attack me. I’m lucky that I’m already far in the game and can defend myself and repair my home but to new users, it would be game breakingly annoying to die while you’re meant to be safe. I also had build gates by the oak tree entrances to keep the spiders contained for easy killing/harvesting but they somehow get through those as well now. I also have a bunch of red ants spawn or get through the walls and start getting into my stuff, eating my food. Weevils and aphids also somehow get in and I built a section of my home upon the rocks by the pond, so I didn’t need to build a floor in that building really but there are grubs somehow going through the rock? I can see their trail going across the floor lol

It doesn’t make sense that bugs would be smart enough to get annoyed and retaliate but you wouldn’t be able to facilitate a friendship and tame them. Plus, there is no way to AVOID killing them. You can with red ants by equipping the red ant armor, but that doesn’t work with other bugs. So, unless they add in the armors to make those bugs neutral to you(bees are meant to be but they decide to attack me when I’m walking on the picnic table??), then they will always be angry at you when you need to go into their lairs/areas for resources. Or simply to harvest the bugs for resources themselves with no way to appease them afterwards. Is there a cool down?? It’s not a good feature. I also have a million weevils running around outside, which is harmless but looks really strange. I kill all I see and the next day there are just as many.

Ok, apparently 80 of those full-auto archers is maybe ... 70-75 too many. A million units didn't even get close. But...I laughed like a loon. $17 well spent. Gotta try 5 on a hill against 2 million Chuck Norris'....or maybe custom-make a still powerful but not god-tier archer unit.

I had steamed pork buns with spinach, they were delicious, on account of being pork buns. I should retire from trucking and become a pork bun street vendor. I'm not sure how viable that would be financially but I would be enriching people's lives by giving them pork buns.

I like this one better: