Bartimaeus

I'd take surreal painting over what I've got! That one dream makes me feel like I temporarily unlocked some part of my brain that I immediately lost the key for after I woke up, never to be found again...

Well, for me, I can't mentally picture even like the faces of people (friends, family, whatever) I've seen a thousand times. I know what they look like, I have specific feelings associated with them that tell me what they mean to me, but I cannot mentally picture them. Even in dreams, what I see is extremely hazy and almost...shadowy? Like a great dark fog that I can't really see through covers everything and all I get are vague outlines of things. I still know what things are because I'm associating thoughts and feelings with what I'm perceiving them to be, but the image itself is barely there. The one lucid dream I had, which I cannot even come close to properly recollecting because of my absolutely lousy ability to mentally image (and so I'm more working with a memory of a memory of a memory), was the first time in my life I ever realized how incredibly vivid dreams and maybe even the ability to consciously mentally image can be for some people. Wish I had it all the time, . (e): To be in a dream and see reality be truly made in your mind as if it were real life...greater than real life even (or so I thought when I experienced that dream - again, memory of a memory now), was such an incredibly unique experience.

Legitimately thought it'd never happen. ...Of course, what happens next is even more important than simply ousting him.

I'm jealous. I usually have only a handful of dreams annually, and they're almost always super weak (outside of exactly one lucid dream that felt more vivid and real than actual real life). I can only assume the fact that I suffer from moderate aphantasia has something to do with my lack of dreams. It's especially terrible because I love the few dreams that I have, even nightmares. I always say that objectively speaking, aesthetic shouldn't impact how writing, dialogue, and characters are conveyed and one's reactions towards them...but for some reason, it does. Hope Clear Card doesn't end up being completely terrible like Sailor Moon Crystal, .

It seems so! And yes, knowing that she has the power to crush him like a little ant should help moderate her feelings. Maybe, . Episode 31 and 32, more great episodes.

CCS, episode 30:

Speaking of gun control... https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/06/02/deputy-involved-shooting-reported-in-volusia-county/ 1. 14 year-old girl and 12 year-old boy that are foster kids run away from home for a few hours. 2. Boy is diabetic and will die without regular insulin. 3. Decide to break into someone else's home and find AK-47, shotgun, and handgun and a pile of ammunition just sitting out. 4. They go HAM and open fire against police while verbally threatening to kill them. 5. Backup is called, a shootout ensues and the older girl is shot twice, including once in the chest, survives - miraculously, no-one killed during any of the action. 6. Apparently, police have been called for matters relating to the specific foster home ("Florida United Methodist Children’s Home") 289 times over the past year. Somewhat predictably, it all happened in Florida.

Drivers licenses could honestly use a similar mechanism. It's just so tough to meaningfully implement it in a way that people will ever respond to in a responsible/positive manner (especially in the growing idiotocracy that is the U.S.) as opposed to just seeing it as a series of hoops they have to pass so they can continue being idiots every other day but the one they're being trained not to. It's easy enough to train a monkey...but in this case, you're trusting that the monkey will remain consistent to their training without any kind of supervision for years at a time and hoping that they won't deliberately decide to get themselves bit and go completely rabid in the interim.

also, you're the one that just vaguely said "how about some gun control now" with zero context for your statement given

Yeah, I'm pretty ambivalent on the subject of gun control (well, more like split and torn on it rather than simply ambivalent), but if we made something that can be dangerous if improperly used illegal every time some idiot who lacked either intelligent thought or training, we would not be able to drive cars, ride bicycles, use blades sharper than butter knives... I wish there was some magical solution for preventing both the untrained and genuine morons from using any of these things, but no-one has yet to come up with any kind of solution...especially in a country that has more guns (and cars?) than citizens.

Trust me, it's not my first choice by any means - I'm just doing my best to tolerate it and appreciate the funnier bits, of which there were increasingly less as the season went on. I wonder if I would like the Ranma show a little more, at least for shonen...

lmao, sort of, but uh, trust me, Rei's grandpa is *way* more likable than...whatever his name is. I watched the entire first season of this show, which is like 10 hours, over the past few weeks, and I don't know the main character's name. I know the other guy's name, Kuwabara, but not the main character. YUSUKE, I had to look it up, and it's kind of shocking I forgot given that it's said literally like a thousand times over the course of the first season. Anyways, yeah, Rei's grandpa would've been a way better protagonist, since at least he's not so terribly whiny and angsty literally 99.9% of the time like Yusuke is...buuut it would've necessitated that the show be less serious and more funny, which, hey, it could've benefited from as well, .

How often has it happened that the two conference champions are both eliminated in the first round of the next year, I wonder? I haven't followed basketball for long enough to know whether that's common at all or not...

Hope it plays a lot better than the Wii version. Got through the first dungeon and said "welp I'm never playing that ever again". Terrible controls, terrible puzzles, terrible characters, terrible aesthetic, terrible game. ...Although if gameplay had been good, I probably would've learned to like the characters and aesthetic more. The number of times I was grossed out by inexplicable close-up chest and crotch shots of our main characters (often while they were in the middle of trying to talk!) in that show says otherwise...but I guess I haven't watched enough (well, basically any) modern anime to see how they compare. I just really have no patience for such nonsense, . Speaking of, in one the last episodes of S1 of Yu Yu Hakusho...

Just finished the first season, and it didn't have any tournament stuff, although honestly, even though that's true, the last ten episodes or so were just villain after villain after villain, .@KP the meanie zucchini Are seasons after 1 really just all tournament crap? Don't you be bad-mouthing Navi! If you'd ever played Skyward Sword, you would know how lucky we got with Navi compared to the abomination that is Fi! Speaking of Mami, the name "Mami" is extremely unfortunate when speaking in English - it's very uncomfortable to be hearing characters saying "mommy" to refer to her, .

Some quick research shows that this person is actually likely not a bot, but probably an old member from the Interplay forums, since the name "bloggyelf" appears as credited on some ancient Infinity Engine-related guides. More specifically, they're credited as being "the best of the best naysayer" by one Jarno Mikola, who is an absolute ******** ******** ***** ******** in the Infinity Engine community, so I can only assume that this means bloggyelf is actually good people...but I don't know for sure, . (e): Luckily, he's not a member here, so it is not against the rules to call him what he is, .

That seems really annoying. I've got a whole system worked out for watching wherever I want on whatever device that makes things relatively hassle-free, but I know how it is...

I got 30 seconds into episode 30 some hours ago, then had to pause and haven't yet been able to resume. Does that count for anything? If I'm thinking of the correct sound, that "hoee" reminds me a lot of the same sound that a few different characters in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker make whenever they're shouting out a greeting. I don't really mind Xiaolong vs. Shaoran either way, but my preferred subtitles use "Xiaolong", so that's kind of what I think of him as. Although I sometimes try to follow the actual sounds of what characters say out-loud, and I swear the way Meiling says his name is different from the way Sakura et al. say his name...but I might be imagining it. Speaking of my subtitles, I've also noted for a while that they seem to cut out a lot of superfluous words compared to the fan-subs I checked out, which only contributes to me preferring them. It's not entirely faithful, but there have been many times where I can literally hear characters referring to each other by name, and my subtitles will make no note of it at all, instead going for a more concise and more natural re-writing of whatever they were trying to say. I'm okay with that - the comparisons I've done with the fan-subs were painful, and didn't seem to contribute any additional understanding, humor, or enjoyment from being too literal (in fact, quite the opposite). ...But it is a little odd at times for what I am understanding that I am hearing to not be reflected in what I am reading. CCS, episode 30:

Not going to lie, I never really saw the appeal of camcorders until this show bashed my brains in with Tomoyo eternally and adoringly smiling from behind one... Modern anime art is in such a sad state, .

It occurs to me that I have literally no idea how watching NBA games works in terms of channels/networks/locality because I have never legitimately watched an NBA game even once. I know how it all works for football with the main Fox/CBS split and then NBC for SNF and ESPN for MNF (for the most part), and I can and usually do watch the first three of those legally (meanwhile I would not watch ESPN legally even if I could, which I thankfully cannot), but I don't have the first clue for basketball - never even tried to figure it out, just started streaming whatever I want online from the very beginning. From what I can tell...games appear to be on TNT, ABC, ESPN, and then something called NBA TV? There doesn't seem to be much sense for what's on what...

why do animes do this every time they come back from the dead; will children not be able to empathize with characters if they don't recognize THINGS? elsa and anna didn't have cellphones in Frozen, but that didn't seem to be an issue for Disney making a gazillion dollars on it

I don't think I would've guessed that the only team to sweep in the first round would've been the Bucks against the defending East champions Heat of all teams, but here we are. Strangely, in the Hawks-Clippers series, only the away team has won so far - wonder if that has ever happened for an entire series?

I've only seen 28 and 29, but they were absolutely less interesting. Why, though? Hm...hm, hm - I'd say it comes down to characters. Xialong is not Tomoyo or Sakura, but he's mostly a net-positive in the capacity that he is used. Mieling is...a work in progress but surprisingly doesn't really usually actively detract even when she's being Meiling (they've made her juuust sympathetic enough that I don't hate her and she's usually good for a few laughs and facepalms per episode without it lingering for too long at any one time), but now this other lady to add onto things? Feels like too much attention has been split between too many things - too many cooks in the kitchen, as it were. Speaking of, the cooking episode should've been prime material for some fun Sakura and Tomoyo shenanigans and interactions, but we didn't really get that - it was much more focused on other things, like Meiling being a complete screw-up, and the small bit we got was most perfunctory (i.e. short and necessary for explaining the plot). I'm presuming that Xialong will be around for the long haul, but I'm not sure that I can expect the same of Meiling or this other lady - and right now, I like the new lady the least given how much of a flat deadbeat kind of character she is among a bunch of other much colorful characters. The only thing she would have going for her is that's she's mYstEriOuS, but as is usual for me, that simply does not entice me any, . Hoping that she is not here for too long... Hey, you do you, but as a non-German, as someone who didn't grow up with that, as someone who has no appreciation for that particular style of music...it's a tough sell, a reaaal tough sell, . Also, I maintain that we should destroy all the shippers...or rather the shippers who shamelessly talk about it in public. If you can keep your shipping to yourself, then I can tolerate you, . (e): I had thought that scene between Toya and whatsherface seemed familiar, but I had forgotten when/where it happened and why it was important!

@majestic Ironically, there was that one horrible video I posted where Chibi-Usa was flying with Pegasus that actually had a kind of okay love song (ugh), but I tried every song on those soundtracks - it wasn't on there. So presumably there was even more that didn't make it. One day, I'll watch the entire series in the original dub and I'll be sure to send you the very best songs, . I tried your song and no joke, I audibly groaned and facepalmed upon hearing literally the very first few words. Usagi screaming "OH MY GOD!" is basically me whenever I'm subjected to the German Sailor Moon music stuff, . I actually prefer the original instrumental for Moonlight Legend in terms of actual instruments (simpler and cleaner, IMO), but yes, in terms of engineering/quality, the Moon Lips version is better. I have literally not even the foggiest idea what you're talking about, I haven't figured out anything lmao (and that's okay, better even!)