Blarghagh

Its easy to say that when you aren't the target of bigotry or abuse. "Just ignore it " isn't a viable solution to dealing with most cases of bigotry Actually on the internet it is, you just log off. How is that ignoring? That is actively running away from. Logging off is not running away. When a troll posts something, it's for a reaction. If you give them that, then your are encouraging them to continue. If you ignore them they will seek greener posters. Of course some people need to feel as though they 'won' the discussion and can't leave it alone, more power to them. But essentially it's a waste of time. Ignoring is continued presence without acknowledgement. You continue your discussion, your video game, your web presence in spite of these trolls and do not acknowledge them. That would be ignoring. Logging off is leaving because of a troll. Leaving because of a troll is a reaction, which you have just given them and will encourage them to continue as you have just said reactions will because you have just given them the power to chase people away. Someone leaving has never stopped a troll. Even if ignoring is the best thing to do, which I highly doubt, this is not it. This is, without a shred of doubt, fleeing. EDIT: Hah, quote tunnel!

I thought one of the definitions of ignoring something was, in essence, that you're running away from a problem. Someone calls you a name, and you don't respond to them. That's ignoring. Someone calls you a name, and you leave because of it. That's running away.

Not that I'm complaining, but I'm a bit concerned at the sheer amount of pictures you're posting. How big IS your spank bank?

Its easy to say that when you aren't the target of bigotry or abuse. "Just ignore it " isn't a viable solution to dealing with most cases of bigotry Actually on the internet it is, you just log off. How is that ignoring? That is actively running away from.

Blizzard Entertainment is not Activision Blizzard the holding company, which is the company being bled here. Activision Blizzard owns Blizzard, but they also own massive franchises like Call of Duty. Yes, it will likely create reprecussions for Blizzard Entertainment, but they'll probably be minimal because Activision Blizzard has the cash on hand. It's not Blizzard paying for this, and Activision Blizzard on a whole is still in a strong position in the game industry so they'll recover, even if this takes up a large amount of their reserves and investments.

Allison Stokke can vault my pole anytime.

I'm getting the idea this universe is starting to get too big, though. I hope it doesn't branch out into series of comic books and shows that affect the main cinematic series. I hate homework for movies. Too late, it already happened a few years ago. Not to mention, S.H.I.E.L.D. has appeared in various comic books for decades. The key phrase I used here is how much it affects the main cinematic universe, not the branching out. I'm fine with them adding a bunch of crap on the side, as long as I'm not required to know about it to understand the films. Also, big duh. I know what S.H.I.E.L.D. is. If I hadn't read the comics before, I'd still know it because of the disastrous Hasselhoff flick. Everyone knows who S.H.I.E.L.D. is. Again, I meant specifically to the cinematic canon. But the main drawback of the comic universe is how overcomplicated and large it is. I dislike having to follow five other series of comics just to be able to follow the one I like - I hated having to read ten different X-Men related comics just so I could understand what was going on in Cable & Deadpool. This translates to movie universe as well. I'm fine with the occassional side story, but as far as I'm concerned this new show better be self-contained because if it's ****, I don't want to have to watch it as a homework assignment for the movies.

I'm getting the idea this universe is starting to get too big, though. I hope it doesn't branch out into series of comic books and shows that affect the main cinematic series. I hate homework for movies.

I'd say Atheism is a very strong belief - belief that there are no gods. Non belief would be agnosticism, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, this thread is highly lacking in worship for the holy flying spaghetti monsters, so I take my leave from this unholy place. *flies away*

But what about video games? Energy drink and nights in the dark, brooding over why women won't love you? WHAT ABOUT OUR PARENTS BASEMENT!?

Plastic spatulas are where it's at. Nothing livens up a party than melting your cooking implements by accident. If you leave them on a grill too long, they might even explode. I'm sure the gun lovers appreciate that.

Anyone else entertained by what just happened here? Anyway, I've never heard of that movie either. Doesn't matter. Let's posit, hypothetically, that 90% of all films is pirated. Now I'm going to painfully exaggerate this, but let's say: If 90% of a blockbuster's views are pirated, that still gives them a couple million. If 90% of an indie flicks' views are pirated, that means only about ten people actually paid for it. Obviously this is the most hyperbole version of events there is, but indie films have a much smaller viewer base in the first place. Piracy, even at the same rate, hurts indie filmmakers far more than big studios. Okay lets say a blockbuster cost $150 million. Lets say a indie film cost $150,000. Lets say that based on movie ticket prices, it can be shown that the "people" behind the films get $10 a ticket. Lets follow the common wisdom that a blockbuster has to make 2.5 times the money it cost to make to make a profit (because of advertising, prints, shipping). Lets say the indie film has to make 1.5 its cost to cover advertising, prints, festivals. So Blockbuster needs $375,000,000 and indie needs $225,000. Blockbuster must sell 37,500,000 tickets worldwide; indie needs 22,500. Lets say 1 million people see the Blockbuster and 1 hundred thousand see the indie. 90% are pirates. So there are 100,000 paying Blockbuster customers and 10,000 Indie customers. The "people" behind the blockbuster are $374,000,000 in the red. "People" behind the indies are $125,000 in the red. I don't think either "win". Except that number of people to see a blockbuster is painfully ridiculous to describe the number of people who see blockbusters yet accurate when describing independent films. Even terrible bombs don't reach those numbers, whereas indie films do often fail in the manner described. Even Dredd, the most recent true bomb, did not do that awfully and that wasn't even close to true blockbuster status. As stated before, blockbusters will find an audience simply by availability. People will go to theaters, find DVDs at their local target. People who are not internet savvy will see it in some other way. Yet the availability of independent films is far less, taking far more effort to locate than it does to download. Leading to Wals' point: People will pay for blockbusters, whereas indie films just get pirated. It's why After Earth is already turning a profit whereas even the best reviewed independent films of the year hemmorage cash by making back an eight of their budgets i.e. Disconnect.

Anyone else entertained by what just happened here? Anyway, I've never heard of that movie either. Doesn't matter. Let's posit, hypothetically, that 90% of all films is pirated. Now I'm going to painfully exaggerate this, but let's say: If 90% of a blockbuster's views are pirated, that still gives them a couple million. If 90% of an indie flicks' views are pirated, that means only about ten people actually paid for it. Obviously this is the most hyperbole version of events there is, but indie films have a much smaller viewer base in the first place. Piracy, even at the same rate, hurts indie filmmakers far more than big studios.

That's neither here nor there. Blockbusters play in every cinema and DVDs go to every retailer. Who is going to through the trouble of locating a rarer indie flick if you can just type in the words online and copies practically throw themselves at you? Not as big a problem as it used to be with services like Netflix to pick up the slack, however.

I think the main reason the internet is united against Scientology is because they tried to stop free speech on the internet. If anything, SOPA proved that this is the one thing that the internet holds sacred. That and cats.

V for Vendetta masks? Does no one know Guy Fawkes? Anyway, bad article, good fight. Scientology is dangerous, using neurolinguistic programming to shanghai people into becoming free labour under inhuman conditions. The entire purpose of this supposed church is to funnel money towards the leaders.

I hear you, I couldn't properly sit for 5 weeks after watching Prometheus. Oh lord how this movie made me rage. I'm usually not that critical of movies but everything in that was insulting, from it's hints at space jesus to the creature always described as the perfect killing machine having been spawned by sheer coincidence. Why distance yourself from the Alien vs Predator bull if you start using the exact same plot points? Why have a random zombie attack in your movie if you're never going to bring it up again? Why does every character in this film make slasher horror characters look smart? Why? WHY?

The Croods and Dark Shadows. The Croods was fun and quirky, the storytelling was a bit heavy handed but it sufficed and the movie was easily carried by its odd sense of humor and the fun creature designs. Also, hearing Nicholas Cage overact is every bit as entertaining as seeing him. Dark Shadows was not so good. The pacing was completely off, had a serious case of mood whiplash between the serious bits and the parody bits, was bogged down by completely unneccesary subplots that went nowhere, had a major case of deus ex machina (that it even insulted the audience for by literally saying "psh, don't make a big deal out of it" and Johnny Depp was unusually horrid as yet another role where he plays Johnny Depp the white-faced weirdo instead of actually playing a character.

Why can't I ever post anything worth posting in this thread that's good news? My girlfriend missed her period last week and then got extremely sick this weekend. Turned out she was pregnant and it was ectopic. Thankfully the sickness seems to have been her body fixing it by itself, but we gotta pay attention and get some additional blood tests done later in the week. If it gets any worse, they might have to remove one of her Fallopian tubes. : /

That's what I was using. Still no dice. 503 errors every time.

I'm not even able to browse the damn thing.

I set aside a small amount as a maximum for this Steam sale. >_>

Saw a flick called 50/50 that I thought was going to be a comedy but was a surprisingly heartfelt and powerful story about cancer. With comedy. Recommend it.