LadyCrimson

Didn't read entire thread but in terms of Minsc/original question: I never disliked Minsc, per se, but I had no use for him in my party, and while sure some of his lines are nostalgia-iconic, I didn't want to listen to him screaming, either. I think I ended up killing him at some point because he was mad at "me" or something. eg, I preferred others in terms of story/chr choices and in combat. Edit: my reference comes largely from BG1, I didn't finish BG2. I did like the picture of Boo.

Is that Diablo in FF? (haha) ...looks like FFXV style (or 7Remake perhaps) except a high fantasy setting vs. semi-"modern" setting. eg the flashy animation ARPG combat. Graphics don't look much better per se, just different style (glossier?). Not particularly interested, looks kind of meh trailer-wise but I do like flashy combat pics so if the PC version has a screenshot mode I might try it someday. Maybe. ...a few other PS5 game announcements made me curious but nothing really stood out for me that much. The whole trailers stream (includes the XV trailer above) (PS5 price reveal: $499US, $399-alldigital version)

*catches up on thread* Trump is a bottomless-well of buffoonery and that's all I have to say about that.

I have an 850wPS, I'd probably be good. Unless the 40xx series needs a 1000w. So likely there will still be a ti or something similar in the future then. Good to know. Also ... man that recent MS Flight Sim must need a future 20900k CPU or something (3080 won't even do it 4k/60).

Btw, I'm not ragging on the 3080. It's a great sounding card. If one hasn't upgraded a gpu for a bit and wants to move to 4k it's a good buy seems like. I'm just coming from the perspective of "have a good gpu for my needs already/skip generation" so I may sound more critical or nitpicky than I intend to, lol. If there's a 3080ti that'd (probably) be the one I'd want if I was buying ... unless the 3090 is the new ti? I'm not clear about that.

When I want to procrastinate/avoid I read/post on forums. Or watch short YT videos etc. Exercise is too much like work. ...that said, staring at the ceiling as avoidance doesn't seem very good, no. In a strange way that often builds more stress. Like Hurl says, there's lots of other ways to waste time and it might help distract your mind out of current, not likely to change soon ruts like that. ...and THAT said, I totally understand. There are some things/times where avoidance is my middle name.

No, I'm aware of that. You don't look at your FPS while standing around town picking your nose with your gun/sword. I go out and combat, run, jump, try a few different areas. Is there a very specific area or bossfight in BL3 that might be the worst fps spot in the game and it might drop to 50 for me? Sure. That wouldn't be "average" tho, either. That's the base 3080 early benches, ofc. I'm sure some of the aftermarket OC versions will be higher/better (for more price tho). I'll be curious what EVGA's FTW versions (or similar) of such are. Edit: I'd also be interested what you'd get with DLSS 2. DLSS1 was dogpoop but DLSS 2 is much better. Using that I can get 80fps ultra in Death Stranding. So that one I might get steady 100fps with a 3080.

^ I durped and forgot 70-ish fps was with V. Fog off, because I hate the way that looks. If I have that on Ultra it drops down a bit over 60 fps. Still more than 47 tho. ...also, for me, DX11 vs. DX12 makes almost zero difference performance-wise. Only thing DX12 did in BL3 was make me wait 15 seconds longer on startup.... Edit: but I sure wouldn't have minded the lower price of the 30xx series.

^ Oh? BL3 is their "second-most demanding game in our suite?" I mean I know it's harsh on lower end gpu's but... I guess EVGA's built-in OC on my FTW 2080ti version is why my fps at Ultra on that game is so much higher than their graph? I get more like 70 even with all-Ultra (nothing disabled), not 47. And I use the same CPU as they're testing with. At any rate, certainly looks like a nice 4k card, especially for the lowered price, although reading that the minimum can still drop a fair bit (at least on all-Ultra) is a bit pfft. Even if the average is 100 doesn't that mean if you tried to cap it at 100, you'd probably still see drops below that? One day they'll have a card (and cpu) that can maintain 120+ without ever dropping below 100, like how I can play at 60 and never have it drop. But by then game dev's will have sucked up the extra leeway and everyone will be talking about 8k/60 and not 4k/100 and ... never mind. Another never ending cycle.

Is that a lap pool in Bruce's photos? Or just a water decoration. I can't tell. I'm glad I bought those air filter things a while back with all these fires. They're selling out on Amazon like mad. I wish I'd bought a couple more but it's better than nothing. Stuck the smaller one in my PC room and have it noisily going full blast. Seems to help a little. By now the poor air is getting to me (allergies/nose, throat, etc) even sitting indoors all the time (not like our home is 100% air sealed) and it's (the air) "just" 180ish here. Can't imagine up in Oregon or any other places where it's 400-500 rated. Hope hubby's sister is ok...

Different topic: I heard about this movie called Rent-A-Pal, because Wil Wheaton is in it. I'll have to rent it. But then looking up the trailer for it on YouTube, I discovered that some years ago someone made a (satirical?) video called Rent A Friend that absolutely has to be an inspiration for the movie. So weird.

...hmm. For me it would be this one.

Borderlands 3 released the 4th DLC, which included another max clvl jump (5 more, to 65). I started to farm xp to level up and then thought about how that would mean farming new guns etc. It's likely they'll raise the cap yet again (even tho they claimed early on they weren't going to raise cap much, and I have a bridge to sell). So screw it. I'm waiting until they make up their minds what the final cap will be. Might be 70, might be 80. Maybe by next Summer. I think I've about had it with (looting) games that like to do level cap increases in frequent but tiny increments over many months as some kind of incentive.

I made a medium sized wok-full of veggies/beef with the intention of putting maybe half or a third of it in the fridge for later. Then I ate it all, instead.

Only a year and a half ago I still had an ancient i7-920 CPU (that still worked overall fine for 1080, really). 4-5 years from now 'net trolls will probably be telling me "lulz a 9900k, what a potato, gtfo." Then maybe a few years after that, for a year or so I'll be top-dog again. Then back to a potato. And round and round she goes ....

All this time and I didn't know Mordecai was actually somewhere in this room, "helping" (I use that term loosely). Want a hug?

Cars have changed too much and us along with it. Also, we have excess money now. And would rather take a nap. ...hubby still likes to do projects, but cars are sometimes like trying to troubleshoot PC's where nothing goes as expected so something that "should" take an hour or so might take all weekend, and he'd rather do other things.

From what I've seen of Discovery/Picard, some of the fan-made episodes of Trek I saw on YouTube were better. They should try hiring some fans or maybe some of the earlier Trek-novel authors as scriptwriters, maybe.

I was talking to someone on Twitch (he's in Texas) and he was saying he originally thought pics he saw must've been photoshopped but nope. I suppose some pics might be slightly saturation or contrast enhanced but not by much. It really is surreal at times, night or day, imo. The moon was so orange the other night it looked like the sun, haha. This fuzzy pic represents the color-glow coming thru the garage door's opaque window pane. This was the sky over our yard at 9:30 this morning. It was a bit more orange and darker, stupid phone camera. Not my picture: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-09-09/amazing-photos-of-deep-orange-skies-snowing-ash-as-fire-smoke-swamps-bay-area

If the Avatar sequels do well, they might (if he had a sudden desire to, ofc, ha) let James Cameron try. Of course then you'd still have to wait 10+ years for him to edit the movies or something and he might die before then.

...in truth I don't have negative or positive expectations from the new Dune. At the least, it looks like it'll be visually pleasant and possibly a good time passer, but I generally consider the novel to be not-filmable (eg I'd rather read the book another 20 times than watch another movie of it - that TV series wasn't terrible tho) hence remain rather neutral about any attempts. At least, until someone pulls a Peter Jackson and manages to make a good-as-you'll-ever-get made-all-at-once film trilogy out of it or something.

From insomnia to soda to vampires and joke tunes. Never change, forum.

Well at least that's better than 500GB...

^ The 5 seconds of combat training scene they showed looked really cheesy with all that blur. Rest looks passable to fairly decent, visuals-wise. Although, maybe it's my age, but the actor playing Paul isn't working for me. It's nice they picked someone who doesn't look 30 (when Paul is supposed to be a teenager), but he has too much of a posh runway fashion-model look to him, or something. Also, stilsuits always look cooler/better in my mind then they do on-screen...

I've been rewatching the first seasons of Bleach anime. That Soul Society rescue-Rukia arc (season 2?) is the best period of that series, imo. Well, if you like action and all the sword/combat mythology of it, anyway. Even most of the silly humor works. Although the over-garrulous, talking-antagonist syndrome is wearying, if still a bit amusing. They decided that a long time ago. And even if it dies down/stops a while, it'd likely that after ten to fifteen years, they'll dust it off and try yet again.