LadyCrimson

I spent the first half wondering if book one would ever get interesting/less dry - it did "get pretty good" eventually but then I had to wait for a sequel. So I was going to wait until they were all out before reading ... bought the second book 3 years later, put it on the shelf and kept waiting. At this point, I no longer care/can't be bothered. I keep waiting for the announcement he's died before finishing and someone else will finish it.

^ That's why I like electric ovens (gas ranges are fine). Broiling a steak a few inches away from the heat element coil makes a tasty steak in no time (flip it over once or twice). ...but maybe some gas ovens have this kind of capability these days, I have no idea. Although I think I'd still prefer the way the coil caramelizes fat/meat vs. gas oven flame, if gas BBQ's are any indication (there's this gas flavor...). I'd like a gas-range/electric oven combo some day - but they're pretty expensive, whether in a "single unit" or installed separately, and it's not a priority. ...never liked pan-fried steak. Except maybe when camping and it's over a fire in a cast iron pan, and because everything is better when you're utterly starving camping.

Ghost of War, Netflix, film. Hmm...went in expecting WW2 haunted house horror film. Which it was, for most of the movie. I'm not sure what i thought of it. Overall it's ok, I didn't FFWD anyway - altho if you're used to a few jump scares, not scary at all, more of a psychological thriller perhaps - but there's a strong performance by Kyle Gainer as the sniper. Brenton Thwates (who was pretty good in Signal) didn't have much to do. When the twist started it wasn't unpredictable but my interest perked up quite a bit for reasons, and then ... one of those few cases where even as a B movie it might've been better served with maybe 10-15 more minutes with a bit more expansion on certain things. So one of those "could've been pretty good" things. But at the risk of a conceptual spoiler, if you hate type of endings, you won't like this movie. For such people, there, I saved you some time.

^ I watched the first season of GoT, because I read the first book, and enjoyed it enough in that regard. Watched one or two episodes of the 2nd season, rapidly lost interest and am unlikely to ever watch the rest at this point. Which is pretty much what happened with the books as well. I think hubby watched two seasons. :)

Note to self: Don't go to a theater with majestic. Probably like most people, I only remember the catch phrases/memes, because they're short and have placed emphasis. Or the only reason I might remember names is because someone is always shouting them in the movies. Sarah! Where is Sarah? I have to see Sarah Connor! Sarah! John! Where is John? John! Call John.

Oh I'll remember game stuff - but that's in the vein of (me) repeating something 100x. When one spends 300, 500, 1000, 3000 hours playing a game, you're going to remember things. But if I was watching a game trailer or game review that spoiled something, I wouldn't remember it at all. Edit: and I generally don't watch a movie more than a few times, these days often not even twice. Back when, there were some early utter favorite films I rewatched up to 6 of 10 times on VHS (ah, VHS), but that's now extremely rare even if I liked something a lot.

I have the most iron-clad spoiler-protection ever available - poor memory retention/recall for anything that isn't repeated (by ME) 100x in a short period of time. Used to know this guy who, months after seeing a movie, could stand in our living room and still quote entire scenes between characters nearly word for word. This was before the internet, mind you. Most of the time, months later I couldn't even tell you what most of the characters names are, let alone much of anything outside of main plot points.

Binge watched (well, mostly) (Netflix) Bridgerton 8 episode series. It's basically an alternative (eg, inclusive) period romance-drama. Not typically my thing, tbh, but was curious about it. The first half was pretty great - classy, visually sumptuous, often low-key absurdly amusing - y'know, more that drier type of drama style, not the US rom-com sort. But then the latter half started to feel more modern soap-opera, with lots of boring and overlong bed scenes and side plots that for me were not very interesting or amusing. I started FFWDing here and there. Still, worth it, for the first half. Also, admittedly, Regé-Jean Page was very easy on the eyes.

After learning how to switch audio languages for Cyberpunk thru Steam settings, I thought it might work for Death Stranding too. But then I discovered that DS seems to now include many more languages in the in-game menu to begin with. When did that happen, one of the patches I presume - most definitely couldn't do that before, it was the first thing I checked when I bought it on PC (couldn't change it on console originally either). But whatever...it means that finally I can play Death Stranding with Kenjiro Tsuda's voice instead of Norman Reedus' voice! Now I have a new motivation/reason to actually play again and finish the game on PC. ::happydance::

I discovered how to change the audio language away from English. Sadly it doesn't seem you can have a list of all language options at once, in-game. Have to change actual game language properties by r-clicking on game in Steam menu. Then that means initially the entire menu text interface is in the chosen language - so I had to use Google Translate to find out what Japanese lettering = "English" to make interface/subtitles readable for me. :P But now I can make a male V play thru and have Japanese audio. Can still switch to English for my female V saves (just not any other language w/out doing whole thing over again). Only issue is every time you restart, the interface/menu reverts back to non-English. You can either remember which "position" the language selector should be in (2nd from left for English for me) and change it back each time, or start game as Admin. from the actual game folder .exe file vs. Steam's menu. Although the latter might disable achievements, I hear.

I definitely find her VA one of the better aspects of the game, character wise. Every time I watch videos or streams with the male V, I just can't take that VA's interpretation. He's not horrible, but it's so ... dull.

I woke up very early this morning, got up, shuffled around the house, said "it's cold," shuffled back to bed, and went back to sleep. I woke up early this afternoon ...

Healthy New Year everyone.

If I still had access to SyFy, I would watch this for Alan Tudyk alone. Although I'm sure SyFy will cancel it after one season.

Well, I'm not a parent, but I suppose one could look at it as an opportunity for discussion, like teaching/preparing re: death and terrible circumstances. That film is depressing, sad/traumatic, etc. but it's not a rah-rah violence as entertainment, at least. Or something. As to animation in general - hey, it's a "cartoon," must be ok for kids, right? I saw some of the weirdest animation stuff on PBS as a kid, with my parents watching. Books can be similar. My mother loved that I loved to read, that she hardly paid attention to *what* I was reading. So here you are, 8-9 years old, reading every horror/fantasy/samurai action anthology and novel, full of sex, descriptive violence, vengeance - my mom never looked at/checked my books - but I could only watch Little House on the Prairie and Popeye was "bad" for the casual violence.

The game is like a "very old person driver" meme simulator, so I won't miss those turns. Brake, accelerate, brake, herky jerk, 20mph everywhere, baby!

The main reason I prefer being on foot in most open-world (at least for a 1st run) is because I can't stand getting in/out, on/off, whatever riding option there is, 5000000000 times every time I want to look at/pick something up. Because I must find/pick up EVERYTHING. Ooo, shiny! The motorcycle is ok tho - at least it doesn't control like a tank in a grease-pit. I'll have to try the flying bike fun. Will photomode still work during?

But that's where DLSS starts to look ... especially blurry, for lack of a better word ... to the point it doesn't meet my personal "graphics clarity" meter. Quality or even Balanced mode (as far as I'm willing to go) isn't enough to get Cyberpunk to be 4k/60fps even with dropping some things down to Medium. And yes I mean with RT off. Too much DLSS affects screenshots as well - that petroleum jelly lens look. Ick. Not that I mind too much not having a constant 60fps - altho that really depends on the game. Some games "feel" fine at stable 30-45 far as I'm concerned, while others do not.

Just depends on how many others like Cyberpunk and Control there might be in the next year (or two, if I don't get any 30xx) - and I mean without having ray-tracing enabled - and ofc whether I have any actual interest in such games. The typical measuring stick. 1440 would be a lot easier to deal with - I just can't go back.

How come I have not had any of these great oopsies? I want hilarity too ... I suppose it might help if I actually drove more (not to mention played more). I'm still a prefer traveling on-foot type.

Much as I miss having a cat, I think at this point it's pretty doubtful I'd get another one until/if we aren't living in this tiny box house - at least with how we've divided up the room usage. Our previous house was larger and better suited to pet separation issues: I'm somewhat allergic to cats, with mild nose and welts/hives from prolonged contact. It's not super severe but that means closed bedroom doors, changing/washing clothes mega-frequently and other things like that - I'm not young and energetic anymore. ...although, soon as we had/have a bigger house,I might suddenly go back to adopting every stray cat I come across, playing games on the couch with my hair all up-floofy while constantly sneezing and welts all over my face.... never can tell what I'm going to do.

As a "layperson" I have three criteria: I can play games the way I want/mixture of settings I want, the hardware doesn't have a big risk of catching on fire, and it won't increase electric bill by $200 just to have it idle. GPU stuff is changing so fast/seems so up in the air it makes the whole "wait or buy" syndrome far worse than usual, especially re: 4k/60 gaming and especially with the cost of gpu's these days. I mean, maybe only a year between 4xxx and 5xxx? I know, that's just far flung guesswork now, but ... maybe I'll just quit gaming for a few years.

I can't imagine 40xx being released before mid-late 2022. Dec.2021 seems like it'd more something the ... 3090ti? A new 3580MegaNukeTI? https://www.tweaktown.com/news/76967/nvidias-next-gen-ad102-gpu-rtx-4090-twice-as-fast-the-3090/index.html

I meant to post this earlier but forgot: What ray tracing lighting/shadows can do in this game when it works (and it did look like that in my game, essentially): And yet, sometimes ... I dunno, I don't think it's supposed to look like this ... I don't think it worked well when it was daylight outside maybe? Did that happen to anyone else, if you were using RT? It's no biggie, just funny/curious.