LadyCrimson

Well, they added the Photo Mode to the console/PS4 version of Death Stranding due to demand (was only going to be on PC I guess?). It's decent like most in-game photo modes now, but per usual, it's not even close to Ansel re: camera freedom and the like. Plus image quality is still ... current console (hoping next gen will really up the ante re: in-unit taken screenshots/videos). But you can change the expressions on Sam and change BB's pose in the pod, along with the typical filters.

Daniel Radcliffe has had an ... interesting ... career since Potter ... and I admire him for it.

What? LOL omg. I have no idea what's going on in Picard show but that write-up of the finale had me in stitches. Sounds horrible.

Here's hoping she recovers.

It's been long enough you can surf YT all day and find all kinds of Corona parodies. This guy is like the hilariously try-hard goofy dad you wish you had. His altered lyrics are on point tho.

^ People have been wondering about the "death" of theater film viewing for a long time now. This could be it. :P

He's sweet. As the top video commentator mentioned tho, should've changed it to Sweet Quarantine.

Bit of language in both.

Bwahahahaaaa......I'm finally responsible! That is so me the past few years.

I tried to watch someone on Twitch play Doom Eternal and it was moving/spinning so fast even as a viewer I couldn't tell what was going on. I don't know how people can play action at such "speeds." :D

Hubby's still sick, coughing a lot etc. but I believe it's just a regular cold. Never know tho. I don't feel sick but I am sniffling more - but it's almost Spring and I have bad allergies. Can't tell. *shrug* At any rate hubby's not in a state of needing any doctor care - I just haven't been able to hug him for days. We've been largely staying in separate rooms all week. We're both over 50, with no known conditions but we're not paragons of great health and habits either. We're lucky we have no general financial worries at least - one just hunkers down and whatever will be will be. I wonder if Comcast can keep up with increasing bandwidth use tho, as people work and stream more and more from home etc They've been rather flaky for some days - hubby's client workers are all complaining re: connectivity ups and downs and he's all "it's not our stuff, complain to your ISP's...." If you don't hear from me for a while, the 'net probably went down. Ha. Ha.

Trump is a buffoon. Is he still calling it the "Chinese virus?" I've read some articles re: racism starting here and there (San Francisco). People afraid and wanting to blame something and Asian's noticing an uptick in attitudes on that. It's sad.

Yes, good points re: available health care/resources as well as high transmission. I honestly think it's too late to do much containing in a real sense - where the lockdowns are going to be mostly helpful re: slowing the rate of cases to lessen the impact on health care resources (to not flood/hit all at once etc). Time may prove me wrong re: containment but eh, that's what I think at the moment. ==================== Unrelated: According to sci-fi, we're the true disease, anyway.

My hope is the world takes the risk of a global pandemic (a much worse one than this I mean) more seriously. By that I mean the masses, not just scientists. (EDIT : but I do think it's unlikely over the long run...) I've never liked shaking hands willy nilly, or touching keypads everyone else has touched one after another in a store line, because I don't want to even get a cold. And I always gave people who had obvious bad flu's and came to work the stinkeye. I don't like being sick, no matter how mild. Perhaps "the masses" can learn to practice more social distancing at all times, not just in a current panic, to help prevent spread of future "things" without losing the actual social events, if that makes sense. As always it's difficult to figure out what's reasonable vs. trampling of individual rights, for some things (travel stuff, for example). Sigh. Never any true good solutions it feels like.

@ Gorgon - True enough, but we're still not even sure what the actual average infection fatality rate *is*. What you're largely seeing now in scary headlines is case fatality rates, which is a different thing. An article I read said that once S. Korea started to do some exhaustive testing, which indicated large numbers infected with hardly any symptoms etc, their figure was dropping to far below 1% (this was a week or two ago however). I think it's going to end up closer to that 1% overall however. Maybe. http://theconversation.com/the-coronavirus-looks-less-deadly-than-first-reported-but-its-definitely-not-just-a-flu-133526 ...still significantly more deadly than the "regular" flu tho.

^ Regardless of the situation, panic and fear-mongering is never productive, especially on global scale. People have to keep things in perspective. A 1-4% death rate could certainly be significant and tragic globally in the historically short term (infrastructure loads, economy, social/life impact and changes) but it's not the extinction of the human race. It's not the Black Plague or even small pox before vaccine eradication. I think some people watch too many movies.

Went to the store to check the state of things here. Still no toilet paper or basically any paper products. No butter, eggs, or bread/rolls (outside of some Wonder....) Still a lot of empty shelves here and here for common dry or canned goods. New plastic sheet "barriers" erected on counters between cashier and customer to prevent spit spread. Signs for separate "ppl at higher risk" shopping hours and quantity restrictions on certain things. But hardly anyone inside/no crowds, so that was good. Seemed like there was a fair amount of produce (fruit/veggies) but I didn't look closely. Candy is not deemed essential, I can live on Snickers right? Packed with peanuts! Jokes aside, we're fine on food (even if most of it is simple/convenience food). We have maybe 7-10 days of TP left. Not sure where to go to find more, I think it's going to be out everywhere for a while. We have a lot of leaves raked up in the backyard, can always use those. I was surprised "feminine products" were not sold out. If I still had to deal with that all the time (I'm not in total menopause but it's a super rare occurrence) I'd want those stocked up even over toilet paper.

^ I loved Portman as the kid in Leon/The Professional but haven't found her to be all that compelling in her adult roles that much. Don't dislike her tho, she's decent enough most of the time, just not as good (or it's her chosen roles) as I thought she was going to end up being. "1917" (rented) - interesting WW1 film. Largely two characters with brief famous cameos here and there. The one-shot gimmick works well for most of the movie (it's more like two-shots) because of the trenches and such. Some surreal cinematic moments. Not what I'd call a masterpiece but a pretty good watch. "The Platform" (Netflix, subtitled) - what a trippy horror/social/human nature commentary film. It's very violent/gory in spots, make no mistake, for anyone sensitive to such, but it feels more like a stage play at times. Themes of greed and gluttony vs enough for all, rich vs. poor symbolism in a horrific situational setting. Very strange yet compelling.

Don't get me wrong, I loved most of the game/play overall. Just story is weird and and there being literally a film trilogy worth of cutscenes and even more in exposition/lore (all of which was on a Nolan's Batman type of drama over-seriousness) is a bit much. It wore me out/just made me want it to be over. If the dev/director makes a movie I'd be pretty curious about it. Can't say if I'd like a movie by him, but I'd be curious.

Pushed on to Episode 11, which I think is the last "combat" section and the rest is wrapup/cutscenes. I get the feeling the dev wanted to make a movie, not a game. The plot might've made a better movie, actually, where you don't have hours of open world sandbox interfering. Some of the non-open world Episodes are very short, btw. A single 15-30min. objective and once done episode done etc. The game did make me interested in Mads Mikkelsen's other work (films), since imo his is the best character arc in the game. They could have eliminated the other guy and I wouldn't have missed him. Couldn't get into Bionic Women's chr or Norman's too much - supposed to have this big sibling bond of some sort but I didn't feel it. In movie terms you'd say they had no chemistry. There is at least one minor side-character in the story where apparently not making enough of his "requested" deliveries before a certain point/endgame has a consequence, that was interesting/unexpected. Maybe there are others. There's tons of busy-work I didn't finish (all Premium cargo runs, best ranks system, hidden history-item hunting, more) but I think over 200 hours is enough on this one for a while.

^ I've been "bored" enough of regular gaming where VR is starting to tempt me, just for something different. Although I'd be more interested in immersive walking sims or environment emulators vs. VR shooters or whatnot. I'd like to get lost in a VR rainforest or something, can you do that. But I doubt I'll actually do it ... since knowing me I'd want the most ludicrously expensive VR gear setup, then I'd try a few games, complain no one makes the type of VR I want, and never touch it again. ==================================== I reached Episode/chapt. 10 of Death Stranding. If what you end up liking most about the game is the open world/exploration and delivery route/speed challenges etc., which could take 40-100+ hours, after the very end of Episode 8 that all largely goes out the window (until you reach post-game for finish-up). I'm not exactly sure what I'm getting in these latter chapters/events - a lot of nightmare imagery and mind-you-know-whats. I've heard the last few hours is mostly movie cutscenes/endless endings and it's hard to get excited about it combined with a few clunky, almost hilarious combat moments, paired with super-serious exposition. Way too much talking-heads. I could just youtube it. One of those games where I could play the first half to 2/3 of it two or three more times over a few years but I'd likely always skip finishing it. Worth the $35ish I paid for and absolutely a beautiful, interesting game for the most part but ... anyway, the PC version's announced photo-mode would be tempting, but I'll wait for it to be $35 on Steam too.

Finished "Doctor Sleep." Offhand I'd give it a B- for its genre. A bit above average for its type but that's it. I remained unimpressed with the "shining vampires", they were a weak threat as setup, although the actress playing the leader was good/fun to watch, chewing scenery. I didn't like the ending all that much either. The film doesn't make me want to rush out and read the book. I probably liked it better than Kubrick's Shining tho. Edit: I also saw the recent version of Pet Semetary. Better than that older one by a tad, but still pretty lackluster. Didn't mind the switchup. C-. John Lithgow was fun.

@ Gromnir - I seem to find a game once every 2-3 years that I'll sink a lot of time into over some months but overall I turn games on then turn them off. I spent most of last year buying and trying several games and almost all of them I spent no more than 4-5 hours in. These days even if I like/respect a game, most of the time I'm usually not in the mood to be persistent, or to learn the mechanics well enough to become "good." And I do still shower if I'm active, have to go somewhere, or whatever ... just not every day at the same time like clockwork. It's like making the bed ... just going to get messy again, sometimes can't be bothered.