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It was a pretty sweet Christmas. The kids were up at 2:45 AM, which is fine with me, since I have never been able to sleep of Christmas Eve. This was the first year that my daughter was completely in the know about the Santa situation, but it was still pretty exciting and I think we did a good job of surprising her. Happy holidays everyone.

Or, you know, the US will finally become a normal civilization instead the most boring dystopia.

I made chicken jerky in the smokehouse yesterday. Don't worry, Duke and the hens are all fine. This was some unnamed chicken from Kroger. Still, what would they think if they could understand what I was up to? Sunny & Bela are VERY interested. They seem to think they will get most of it. Who am I kidding? They will.

Dolemite Is My Name was indeed quite entertaining, thanks for the recommendation Hurlshot.

Anecdote: During my time in Tashkent/Uzbekistan the local Intercontinental hotel lost its brand name due to bad/shady management decisions. So they had to rename the hotel and opted for... *drumroll*... The Incontinental True story.

Today was my last day visiting my parents on Singer Island for Christmas. The ocean was angry today. The waves were theoretically perfect for boogie boarding and I did catch a couple good ones, but good luck actually making it out far enough to catch the waves at that perfect spot where they break. With the waves bashing me in one direction and the strong undertow pulling me in another, after about 20 minutes I had to get out while I still had enough energy to move. I'm considering filing a lawsuit against the ocean for the ass whoopin it put on me today.

I really don't know. The relationship between a person and God (whomever they acknowledge that to be) is actually extremely personal. A prayer is such a quiet thing. Words only meant for one to hear. It's ironic that such a private and singular connection is inextricably tied with collective activities such as public worship services in churches, temples, mosques, etc. I've managed to become a pretty religious man while eschewing any participation in organized religion. Going to church certainly reinforces faith. Doctrine gives it structure and differentiates on faith from another. But, to my knowledge, God himself has never issued any specific instructions regarding what those faiths or doctrines should be outside of the four eyewitness accounts of Jesus's life. And even then for those to be credible you'd have to acknowledge Jesus's divinity. Certainly something not everyone can do. And those four eyewitness accounts of Jesus's teaching do not exalt any faith over another. If anything they reinforce the idea that the relationship between humans and the divine in entirely personal and singular. When it comes to spiritual needs I think people want to know there is a meaning and purpose in life. That there are reasons why things happen the way they do. Maybe there is. Maybe there isn't. And even if there isn't it does not preclude the existence of God. And even if there is it does not mean it's something we can understand. Attending church services, salat in a mosque, shabbat in a temple, or mass in Rome will certainly make people feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. That might be called a spiritual need. The affirmation you are not alone. It's no too unlike being at a home game for your favorite sports team. I don't know if that makes you closer to God. But, IMO only, no matter what you are doing if you feel closer to God then you are. So I guess my answer is: Is there a meaning in life? Am I alone or part of a greater whole? The only two I can come up with. Edit: Just re-read this. I kind of wandered around it a little. Hope it makes sense.

Hi everyone – just wanted to say hello and give you all some background on why I am posting, which is really just a way to promote homage to this incredible lineage of games. I am a 37 year old accountant living in Canada and I made a life decision whereby I only play video games during the Christmas break between ~20th of December to the first few days in the New Year. Anytime anyone ever asks me about video games, I, without any hesitation, declare the Baldurs Gate series as the best games ever made. When I was in my early 20’s I played Baldurs Gate I & II over and over again. I was always willing to try any other game that claimed to have in-depth storytelling and an immersive experience but nothing ever came close to the experience of playing the BD series. To me it is an expression of how much detail and rich experience can be built into a video game. For a variety of reasons I entirely stopped playing video games entirely sometime in my late 20’s / early thirties and in fact did not touch a video game for at least 7 years. While I was not gaming, I never forgot how much I loved the BG series and in fact I knew the Pillars of Eternity game had been released but I stayed away on purpose, committed to not playing video games. Last Christmas, I found myself with a lot of unexpected time on my hands and decided I finally needed to scratch my “Pillars of Eternity” itch and see what the all stories were about. Would it maintain the amazing BG lineage? I decided to find out and last year, during the Christmas break I installed POE and was AMAZED at how brilliant this game was and what a gift it was for all the folks who were adherents to the BG experience. I played thought most, but not all, of POE I last year and just 3 days ago, now that Christmas Break has started, installed POE II. Cheers everyone – these games have something to them that cannot be replicated.

I don't see a problem with calling the new Xbox an Xbox since that's just what I'm going to call it anyways

Of course. Because the best game ever made obviously is FTL.

Alright, I think that makes it 4 for 4 on happy viewers. This might be the closest thing we've ever had had to a consensus on the forum! Dolemite is the name and all you forum lurkers know the the game!

I don't really agree with people saying Jaskier is perfect (which I see all over the place). In the books he has a more insightful, serious side, and is a good verbal sparring partner for Geralt. In the show he's rather simple, and is usually just reduced to comic relief.

I love it too! I've always loved that theme song, so I get that nostalgia happiness aswell ^^ Which headset do you have?

BeatSaber is one hell of a workout. I like a custom Mortal Kombat one I got, it gets me pumped.

It's like some sort of existential horror. Person in a catsuit is eating people in roachsuits. One person takes of takes of her catsuit to reveal she had another catsuit with clothes underneath. What does it mean? What does it all mean?!

We might have a doubly demented warlord on our hands. One who conquered the entire continent of the incontinent. I was thinking about aniport. Sounds like any port, as in, any port in a storm. But I cannot turn it into a good pun

Saw The Irishman. Didn't realize it had a historical placing prior. Solid film, the whole 3.5 hours of runtime was filled with meaningful plot. One of the better long dramas I've seen in a minute.

It's pretty cool, there is a way to superimpose avatars ontop of your body; That said, you need to put tracking markers on your legs and hips if I remember correctly. The further you swing your controllers, the higher score you get. There is a really bad stage made for the Doom 2016, one guy played it through and hit 1217/1217 notes and got a C-rating, it's impossible to do anything but play though the wirsts instead of the elbows though so that's probably the best score anyone can get. I've been playing it on "campaign" mode lately, and there is a stage that blocks me from going forward since I have to swing a total of about 600metres, one of my SteamVR lighthouses died (Steam fails me again, go figure) so it doesn't track properly, which is annoying as hell since I only lack something like 50 metres on average from finishing.

Well I live in Calgary which is in Alberta and in fact the reputation around here is the same as you have heard...i.e. they are legendary but I have never had one. I hope you can find a legit one - enjoy!

I'm intrigued by the method of filming/superimposing the VR game + player. Much more interesting than just seeing the VR graphics itself. I want to beatsaber to My Sharona! It's cool too how while the movements everyone does are similar different people can have different movement styles. Like this guy with all his major arm twirling and drumming. And when the music turned to that meme girl-swinging-onion song at around 1:50, I lol'd.

I really love the baldurs gate games but I wouldn't ever call them the best games ever made. Tetris probably holds that title even though I'm not a huge fan of it. Unrelated question you said you're Canadian. How good are montreal smoked meat sandwiches? I'm actually planning a trip to go purely to try them.

I would strongly recommend you also give Pathfinder: Kingmaker a try. Feel free to set the kingdom management side-game part of it on 'auto' if that's not your thing.

Thanks for the help, that mod was exactly what i needed.

Okay, I am a big fat liar hypocrite. My buddy was rewatching all the Star Wars in preparation of this pile of crap coming out, and I somehow managed to convince him that watching the Holiday Special was integral for bridging the gap between A New Hope and Empire. Unfortunately, he made it a requirement that I had to sit through it with him. Suffice to say, Star Wars has always been a total sham. What an uncomfortable viewing experience. (e): Here's some images from it that I took for all of you: Yes, that is Boba Fett riding a dinosaur. Yes, he really did debut in the Holiday Special.

Well, there is no evidence to show that substantial amount of players won’t buy games on Epic. Games released there still sell really well, and with secured cash upfront and a better cut, it makes for a better business move overall.

is that ok?

Just wanted to share a few portraits i'm using. Thanks to some of the community for helping me out with them.

https://twitter.com/wifeclipse/status/1209164762115969025 Please don't fix this. Edit: COWARDS. They took the tweet down. Here's another wonderfully horrifying Cats scene: