Bartimaeus

Is that the one where he's like...a Wild West bandit king that starts taking over everybody's bodies while Worf and...aw heck, who was it? Crusher? Or was it the empath lady I dislike whose name I never remember? Anyways, while Worf and one of those two try to sort it out? That is a funner episode...but boy, the number of "let's just conjure up a wacky scenario via the holodeck" episodes there are is way too many.

I still don't like her voice there, but it's actually less painful than the other stuff I listened to. Unfortunately, the music is even less to my tastes, so it doesn't really matter. Also, genuine growling stuff is always a no-go no matter whom it is, . Not sure, but recommended it many times I have been. Does it say more about me that people somehow think I'd magically like it...or more about the people I associate with that they somehow keep recommending it to me? https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/f8unyoxb5vpspgt/uojLuUtksI.mp4 So here's a little secret of mine...I hate long notes like this. She does it every single note she draws out here in this song and the next, it's unbearable. Up, down, up, down, up, down - clean notes, please! But besides those painful long notes, yes, her voice is much more bearable than the other lady in terms of texture, . Floor Jansen or whatever her face is provides a good contrast here, particularly in the opera video you posted of her - her voice is perhaps more unpleasant, but she can hold those long notes just about perfectly. Drats! As for the song you missed because of strange YouTube shenanigans (it still works fine for me, and no, I'm not the uploader, : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7sqftq8pp7mop2r/White Light.flac I imagine it will be the one you like the least based on what you've described as preferring in voices...but I could listen to this lady all day. It's a bloody great freaking thing I heard her sing Gollum's Song in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers first, then listened to her latest album at the time (Tookah) second, because if I had accidentally listened to Jungle Drum as her first non-LotR song, I'm not sure I would've listened to a second. I should've known better, of course, because single songs are invariably the worst song of any given album, and Jungle Drum is no exception. Way ahead of you, pal! Also, I have no clue who is whom (though I'm passingly familiar with Within Temptation, I have no real knowledge of what they actually sound like, especially since it's been years and years since I heard a song from them), but I definitely liked the second lady a lot better, slightly nasally voice and all, . I mean...to be fair, somebody decided on stinking Usagi being queen at some point!

Seems like him not playing kiiinda portended things for the Serbian national team, . Serbia was a host country too...

Is this show predominantly...sci-fi stuff? That is to say, does it being sci-fi dominate everything this show is about, like plots, themes, action, character dynamics, etc. I'm preeetty sure she's a voice problem. Such a harsh edge to her voice along with this weird undercurrent of breathiness...I checked out about 5 different songs from her, which is not really much but also that's not much less than how many she has on her YouTube channel, but I didn't like any of them, not even Ave Maria which I usually love, . Then I figured out she was from Nightwish, and I was like...oh, yeah, that tracks. Been recommended them like 6 or 7 times by different people throughout the past ten years or so, and I don't think so. In case you're at all curious, here are...five of my favorite female vocalists - just female to make it simple. Feel free to hate them immediately, exit out from listening to them, and then feel embarrassed on my behalf, etc., :

Well, you can never say never...but I'm officially saying it: never, . If I had to guess, it's a few different components. There's probably just a good percentage of singing voice textures that I do not like to begin with, further compounded by singing in specific tones/notes I don't like, and again by certain accents/inflections...and most importantly, what is valued vs. what is not must have changed over time. The fact that I can enjoyably listen to a good amount of 80s j-pop (as well as a decent amount of 90s j-pop) and yet as soon as we get into the 2000s and most certainly anything beyond that tells me there are probably era-specific traits and tendencies in how vocalists were expected/trained to sing that have changed over time and which I can no longer agree with. The same can apply to elsewhere - modern American pop and rock are death, but pre-70s and 60s stuff I suddenly start liking a bit more and can listen to. Even stuff I explicitly don't like...such as the Beatles and stuff from around that era, I usually never have a reaction to anything from that era like I do for something from Love Live or American country/pop, etc. - at worst, it's usually a "meh, this is mediocre/I don't care for this" kind of reaction. Maybe I just like simpler voices that stay within a very certain range? I'm not sure, . There's a site called Radio Garden where you can tune in to like literally (tens of?) thousands of different radio stations across the globe, and I sometimes use it just to listen to something random, and I surprise myself sometimes with what I find perfectly fine acceptable - 1920s jazz, 50s rock and roll, random formative electronic stuff from like the 70s and 80s, ancient-sounding folk stuff both American and Mexican, Native American powwow music...all that stuff's usually fine with me, but then I get into genres and eras within them and it's like literally everything is just the worst, . P.S. Pft, cellophane is perfectly fine - it's paper, particularly stuff like napkins or kleenexes, that's death, .

Wow! I almost clawed out both my eyes and ears watching that - a rare two-for-one, thanks! Unfortunately, I do believe this confirms that I won't be watching Love Live! any time soon...well, ever, actually, .

man, screw fireworks

Just for today: (...RIP Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Isles, et al.)

Maybe I'm crazy, but it almost seems like the Bucks were way less dysfunctional the two games Giannis was out... Maybe not really worth considering, though - I similarly remember that the games Davante Adams was out for the Packers the two past NFL seasons (6 games), the Packers' offense looked bizarrely amazing and better than ever without him - might just be a matter of shaking things up and trying new things, or the opposing team not being prepared against a new-look kind of team, or players knowing they absolutely have to step up and play their absolute best (and rising to the occasion) in order for them to win, I'm not sure. It's just weird that all of the role players and guys that have been struggling all playoffs (mainly Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez) have looked like real guys again all of a sudden.

Bucks are the first team to ever win both the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference - surprised that didn't happen already. Cool. I have no idea who're going to win the Finals.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (1993), episode 3, some quick bulletin points: Wacky episode, was good. I can only assume I'm liking this a lot more because Satoshi Kon had a big hand in writing it, . I did see some different kinds of angles and some nice complex movements in the trailer, but I'm the pickiest bastard alive about aesthetic so it kind of all goes to waste on me since all the anime art styles I like are overwhelmingly from the 80s and 90s (and unfortunately I have less than zero appreciation for 3D stuff), . Just a note: an average Sakura episode is still great, . Based on what you and the consensus on my movie site says re: how much better the second movie is vs. the first movie, the second movie should be roughly my favorite or second favorite movie of all time at worst - let's see how that turns out!

I completely forgot that lady existed up until you just mentioned her. Whoops. Haven't watched any of the new Evangelion stuff, didn't really plan on doing so unless someone gave me a good reason. I have no idea what the reception towards them has even been thus far.

Got halfway through that one myself. Was neat, but I had kind of suddenly come to the realization that I just wasn't into the narrative, and for a narrative-driven game (albeit with puzzles and environments better than your typical walking simulator), it just doesn't make sense to keep playing, so I never picked it up again, .

Sorry, I actually only know the one true temperature scale, Kelvin. 15 C is actually 288 Kelvin, . That definitely tracks with Meiling's terrible weakness to cold!

Sakura in Hong Kong: The Movie*! Fun fact: the English dub of this movie did the Sailor Moon English dub thing and replaced all of the music with new trash. What's up with animes doing that? Happened in Dragon Ball as well and that U.S. score is...well, it could be worse, but it could also be a lot better. ...No, I didn't watch the English dub, but I did switch to it for a few seconds and had to switch immediately back. I happened to catch Tomoyo's voice during the few seconds I had switched and she may as well have been a completely different character because I didn't know who the heck that was, but that was not Tomoyo. I'm very sensitive to voices (...and everything else), don't you know? Mega...no, giga-spoiler: I did it!

Portal to hell opened in the Gulf of Mexico earlier today:

Got about two minutes into the Sakura movie, realized I have the wrong subtitles that are overly literal that I didn't really like the writing of, . I could just deal, but I've waited this long, I can wait until I can fix it tomorrow. So I'm going to just watch another Jojo's or two instead. Sorry majestic, . That's fair. Wish I could love it, wish I could love a great many deal of things actually, but we all have our tastes and sensibilities that make certain things more or less likely to work than others... Yeah, I get that hyper-awake thing as well. It's such a "funny" thing to be able to be exhausted all day to the point where I could fall asleep just about anywhere if only I could sit or lay down for a moment...then actually getting through the day (or at least most of it), deciding it's time to go to bed, and then realizing I can't because my sleepometer is completely off and now I'm going to be wide awake for at least the next few hours. Rinse and repeat the next day, and the next day... Once in a blue moon, I'll be hit with a sudden wave of fatigue and sleepiness at an actually appropriate time and I will literally just drop everything I'm doing or was supposed to do and immediately go to sleep right then and there just to be able to take advantage of it. It's a good life. Get well soon; should hopefully wear off by whatever's your tomorrow. Funnily, one of the very few things I like in abundance from just the genre/style seems to be a lot of 80s and early/mid-90s j-pop. It's like literally the only thing I can think of where I can listen to other people's playlists of random stuff and be like "yeah, I like most of this". And that's not a new development - I've known that for a number of years, and I've never understood why that of all things, especially seeing as it's not like I ever listened to anything Japanese growing up. Something about the types of voices used during that era combined with mostly fun, pleasant, easy-listening instrumentals... Someone who knows their stuff about voices should do a real quick analysis of my favorite vocalists so I can better understand what I like, .

I wish there was like...some sort of AI system that could analyze vocalists for timbre, tones, inflections, accents, etc., and be able to come up with other vocalists you like depending on what ones you already know you like. A number of people have recommended so many different artists to me over the years, and only exactly one have I ever genuinely liked...though there have been a number of "yeah, I guess they're okay"s - i.e. tolerable but not something I'd probably deliberately choose to listen to. It is the crappiest feeling having someone take the time and thought to think of you and what they think you like and dislike in order to determine a recommendation only to hear the vocalist and and be all "I'm so sorry, but I just can't listen to this". That's all to say that that lady is sadly not even one of those "they're ok" situations - I hate her voice and I am sorry, . When you like Malon the midi instrument from Ocarina of Time better than 99% of actual vocalists, you know you have some pretty serious brain problem situations. I wish I was more knowledgeable about voices so that I could like...more accurately understand and break down their different components and determine the exact parts of them that are causing me to either like or dislike them. That'd be very helpful...but at the same time, actually trying to gain the knowledge and experience to do that would probably drive me utterly mad in the process, . Music doesn't really work for me for relaxing - even music that I like that is supposed to be soothing and relaxing hypes me up instead, so that's just a total lost cause. As for nerve pain...yeah, it can be difficult. Like I said, it's better than it used to be, but there are still nights where I know that it's going to be one of THOSE days, and I'm better off served by not trying to sleep at all until I'm so brain-dead that I'll fall asleep within a minute or two of sitting or laying down. Sometimes, I really wish there were more like 25 or 26 hours in a day so I could just do that every day...sadly, I'm pretty sure that would do a number on everyone else! Yeah, but to be fair, I read Hitchhiker's when I was in 5th 6th grade (upon reflection, I realized it must've been a little bit older, because I was into Harry Turtledove stuff when I was in 5th grade and I'm pretty sure I didn't read Hitchhiker's that same year but rather the year after) and I first watched Holy Grail when I was literally about 6 or 7 (my mom was real good with those totally age-appropriate movies ...), so really only Weird Al stands out as something of an exception as something I liked and got into when I was a bit older, .

It was, actually: @Sleeping problems: Have you tried like...a fan or equivalent or something? Preferably something a little larger so that its hum is more deep or at least neutral compared to high-pitched small ones?

It's unbelievable that THEY let this guy run both Star Trek and Star Wars straight into the ground directly into the abyss. Isn't just the fact that they obviously have worked together for a while and have used their individual strengths to make it through thick and thin good enough of an explanation for why some people could easily be friends despite their differences? Gosh...what a freaking hack fraud. Those are bigger details than probably the kind of absolute garbage majestic and I are thinking of - more like the utter insanity such as the "woodoo hide" crap I linked in the image. Or any other completely inane details at the same level of stuff you'd find in RedLetterMedia's "TOP TEN THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT DARTH VADER'S SUIT!". Who writes this crap? Man, is that what that is? It's perfectly okay to have characters that already have established history and friendships and such while letting the viewer figure out the dynamics through context clues and clearer explanations when necessary...

Part of why it's easier for me to start a new series I have no investment on as opposed to continuing Sakura - my brain is the bad right now, and it's difficult to give it the attention it needs/deserves. As I always say, if you don't have a consistent, logical, and interesting explanation for something, it's almost always better to never answer it. And why bother explain such incredibly irrelevant details about such terrible nothings when you could be focusing on actual characters, plots, and themes instead? Yep, just like that - you super duper got it, Star Wars. I get that as well, makes it utterly futile to try to sleep before I know my body/brain is ready to. But not only do I have severe difficulties falling asleep, once I get into a "cycle" of not sleeping well, I can't stay asleep either. That's what's currently happening right now - taking a couple of hours to fall asleep, then waking up after only being asleep for 1-3 hours and not being able to go back to sleep. Between chronic pain and chronic sleeping problems (and by the way, the former has a definite tendency of making the latter worse, although thankfully it's not quite as bad as it used to be), I'm probably gonna get dementia so young!

The only thing I know about Lil' Wayne is that he's a Packers fan, as I've once or twice seen his incredibly bizarre person at Packers-related events, .

Cardcaptor Sakura!

Pat Bev appears to agree with you, . As for me, I haven't been following basketball long enough (only the past 5 years or so) to know why I should hate CP3...please give me the basic deets so I can join you and then be mad when the Suns win the Super Basketbowl, .