Bartimaeus

Deus ex machinas are so hot right now, .

MSRPs for GPUs are rising (ASUS and PNY have already added hundreds of dollars for their new MSRPs, and that's just what I've seen), and apparently Taiwan is going through a severe drought, so shortages and prices are expected to continue to be bad (and possibly get worse) for the foreseeable future.

Hey, I love base 16 (I'm all about powers of 2 - as a mildly OCPD person, they're literally my favorite kinds of numbers!), and I actively use it...not quite daily, but a hell of a lot more than your average person, that's for sure. Base 60, on the other hand...well, that's just the problem, isn't it? You can't fit it into the other hand, it's just too big! This is why the Mayan civilization isn't around anymore, I tell you what.

To be fair, he said that they simply invented numbers, not our specific numerical system. I just read that apparently the Mayans are thought to have invented the very first known numerical system 300 years before the Egyptians...but: 1. It was base 60, and is that really truly a numerical system; 2. It doesn't seem to be corroborated everywhere, so I don't know if that's true. The good news is that the Mayans also did many horrific things, so the point about cancelling still stands.

In fact, they actually toned it down. What the hell, Naoko Takeuchi? What the hell. How dumb would you have to be to have read the original manga, hear her statements about the 'inappropriate liberties' they took in the anime, and not find anything incongruous about it all? Well, apparently not all that dumb, because piles of people seem to agree with her. Also, sorry about mentioning the shiny skin thing! I figured since you've watched a lot of anime, it's probably something you'd seen plenty of times and gotten used to, seeing as how I am nominally a non-anime watcher and feel like I've had the misfortune of seeing that particular shiny skin phenomenon a number of times, and it always immediately makes me think everyone's faces look so much weirder and grosser than they would ever need to be. There have been a few different times someone has sent me an anime clip from something random I'm not familiar with, I've seen the weird skin patches, stopped the video and taken a screenshot, then photoshopped it out and been like, "wow, huh, everyone's faces suddenly got significantly less creepy-looking - why is this a thing again?". Still don't know why.

The transformation you've undergone regarding the manga from now vs. like a couple of months ago has been amazing to see. Hyperbolic here, but it feels like it went from "well, I've heard from people who have read the manga that [bad or problematic element of original Sailor Moon show] was done totally different or wasn't even originally in the manga at all - those show adapters were sometimes just doing their own thing, ya know?" to "almost everything that was ever wrong is actually the manga's fault one way or another". Glorious. Yeah, I do remember you mentioning that, but that's the thing about details: if you don't have a good explanation, it's almost definitely better not to explain it at all. They said over and over that they would stop at nothing to carry out their mission - as far as I know, they probably just used their powers to rob a bank or something so they could buy one. That'd also be a bad explanation, just as "they're really talented...but also still not even out of school" would be - so it's really just better to never say anything about it directly if you don't have something good to use. But of course, if your mind is wandering because the show stinks... Speaking of terrifying animation, is it just me, or does "shiny" skin in anime pretty much always look weird and off-putting? Like in that M screenshot you gave earlier, she's got weird patches of shiny skin (below her eyes, below her mouth) - it's like looking at a lizard person for me, creeps me out. Might be just me and my distaste for anime art styles, though...

I loved Chibi-Usa's introduction, one of the top moments of the show for me, and helped set a good tone for her strange character. But uh, you know, objectively speaking, yeah, it's all pretty bizarre, .

@majestic Yeah, so Hilda season 2 is going pretty good, . Kind of miss the Pretty Guardians, been tempted to start SuperS, but I figure I should watch a few episodes of something I *don't* like first, and Hilda's sadly not that. Maybe I'll try an episode or two of Jojo's or that Thus Spoke Somebody spinoff KP mentioned and probably confirm that I'm just not enough of a weeaboo to enjoy anime at large, even the apparently decent stuff. But what I'm definitely not doing is watching a show that I despise with every last fiber of my being, unlike a certain somebody in this thread. ...Although, wait - I just said that's what I *should* be doing so that I can appreciate SuperS more. Maybe I actually SHOULD watch a few episodes of Crystal first! Okay, fine, just for you @KaineParker, here goes an entire episode of Thus Spoke Theoden of Rohan. Normally, I wouldn't commit to watching an entire episode because I'm such a viscerally negative person that will curl up into a ball and die if I try to sit through something that I hate, but it's only 24 minutes. It can't possibly kill me, even if I hate it with every fiber of my being. Probably. This isn't going to go well, I can just tell by the title card. Hoo boy. Episode 16: At a Confessional. It's the first episode, but okay, I guess it's also the sixteenth episode, whatever that means. It's probably a bad idea to drop straight into a spin-off series like this, but you're the one that recommended it. I had to switch to Japanese audio because the English VAs were very obnoxiously anime, and that's probably the only thing worse than obnoxiously anime Japanese voice acting. Also, I can turn down the volume to like 10% so the only thing I can really hear is the tone of what's being said while reading the subtitles. The episode didn't make me want to die, there were actually some funny parts, dialogue could've been a little tighter at times but it's an anime so what can you do, and the animation and some of the characters at the end of the episode both made me want to die. All in all, not nearly as bad as I expected. Don't think I could watch an entire series like this, but...four episodes might be doable, and then I could start claiming to everybody that I've totally watched Jojo's and please don't question me anything about it because I know absolutely nothing. @majestic So, uh, I don't know if you noticed this or not...but your tone about Crystal has been getting...just a teensy tiny little bit negative as of late. Just something to monitor while you're loving the show. It's easy to start getting hyperfocused on the little things when the rest of the show is so incredibly perfect, so it's a good thing to remind yourself to just enjoy it while it lasts, you know? bro they didn't have time for that in the original show, the hell makes you think they're going to in this one lmao; although now that I think about it, an unnecessary detail that will presumably be poorly handled and unreasonably explained is the exact type of thing that this show would dedicate time to, so you know what, it probably will happen at some point

Hmm. In the new English dub, even when he's insulting her, he seems so much more playful than he does in the old one, so you might be on to something there. His VA is also...just not very good for the first couple of seasons (post-season 2, they pretty much re-do the entire cast because a different company got the rights to dub it - his voice still isn't a great fit beyond season 2, but he does at least come across as a collected gentleman in comparison to this more juvenile initial voice for him; also hence why Usagi sounds like a 45 year old woman trying and failing miserably to impersonate a teenager post-season 2...although that voice actress is hilarious, so it's not all bad). Are there any Harry Potter movies where they *don't* act like moron kids? I mean, really - admittedly, I've only seen the last three exactly once because I thought they were all horrific drags with little redeeming qualities for actual fun value, but still. That's probably why I like the first two best, because they literally *are* silly dumb kids, and the movies feel appropriately silly for that, so they're still fun to me. Then Prisoner of Azkaban comes along and suddenly the universe is all a combination of either borderline grimdark or just really annoying teenage drama stuff (or both!) from then on, and I don't know, it's really just not that fun anymore. I liked Order of the Phoenix a lot more since it immediately followed Goblet of Fire, I guess, which was just...admittedly less grimdark than the following movies, but endless and pointless teen drama that just wouldn't stop. From what I recall, I enjoyed the books more than the movies, but again, I read the majority of them when I was very young, so they might have an undeserved advantage over the movies.

I actually gave a specific edit at the bottom of the spoiler for that third clip, if you want to go back and read it (don't think it was there when you replied to my post), . The only two I fully remember reading are Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, probably because I read the first four in second grade (age ~8) and never re-read them after. I don't have as much of an excuse for Order of the Phoenix since that came out a few years later, but for whatever reason, I don't strongly remember it either (weirdly, I have a better memory of some other stuff that I read during that same time period...oh well, c'est la vie). Funnily, the first two + the Order of the Phoenix movies are the three I remember the most fondly and have thought are the most fun when re-visiting them, but I was presumably a bit younger than you were when they came out, so it's probably not a particularly good or equal vantage point into what's the best.

@majestic Good. I'd like to remind you that the whole reason this happened (me deciding to watch it which made you decide to watch it), happened only because of the fantastic original English dub, including the following clips (please make sure you watch them all in respect for them allowing you to re-watch the show): @HP: Don't worry, both: books first. And I'm sure SMC season 3 will be much better than everything else thus far, .

It's a lot less embarrassing than the only metal I like, which is just...silly, fluffy video game/television stuff from a girl who's not even a metal artist and who doesn't even remotely try to sing like she's doing metal (...which is I guess why I like it, since I can't ever stand metal-ized vocals - I'll take sickly sweet and soft metal, thank you very much). At least those girls are sort of acting like they're doing metal. That and Radio Disney, of course, :

@SMC: I think this is the part where Mike of RLM would say, "Wow, that was worthwhile and completely lived up to my expectations, and definitely DIDN'T make me want to kill myself!" What an unmitigated disaster that all was. I hope this didn't retroactively sour the original show for you at all - that can happen to some people.

@majestic Small general character personality spoiler about Steven Universe (himself) in regards to the two different Sailor Moons:

Thanks for the further information, and I basically agree with everything you said based on what we know. And yeah, maybe Ms. Takeuchi as being vindictive and jealous, maybe she just...wasn't good enough and didn't know what to do, but either way, the results speak between the two mediums speak for themselves. @KaineParker lmao wtf Let's get that a size up, shall we: Oh yeah, that's the stuff. Just how I remember them. I can't believe this isn't a parody. ...And also, I can't believe you didn't have anything to say about episode 28!?

Right, exactly. You can be dark and twisted and for adults, or you can be for and empowering young teen girls. Uh, it's a little difficult to do both at the same time in a way that resembles any sort of consistency or sanity. Just about impossible, really. Majestic said they originally wanted to make a show for Codename: Sailor V, but Naoko convinced them to make a show for a new manga, Sailor Moon, that she was making as they were producing the show, if I'm recalling correctly? That's why there's a lot of 'filler' episodes in the show, as well as entire arcs that don't show up in the manga. Did she pull a fast one on the show-runners and just make crazy stuff that strongly deviated in tone from Codename: Sailor V, hence why they were like "uh yeah, nah, we're going to have to 'adapt' this"? What in the world happened? I (and/or Majestic) am going to eventually read Codename: Sailor V, so I guess I'll figure out if that's just as messed up or not.

Okay, so that's kind of what I feared. So...I believe that if we put all the evidence we've (well, you've) put together thus far, we can pretty safely conclude that Naoko Takeuchi is a weirdo hack fraud incestuous sex pervert that got the break of her lifetime when the original show was greenlit, and happened to get supremely lucky that the writers/adapters for the original show tried to minimize some of this garbage for at least most of the show, and additionally decided to try to adapt the material so it could be...you know, an actual show.

Now that I think about it...Usagi sort of owns and/or is the moon, why the hell doesn't SHE have a magic moon laser? @majestic

Whenever I hear the absolute pants dates from Star Wars, I'll never not think of RLM's "Top Ten Things You Didn't Know About Darth Vader's Suit".

That was a great one. What I wrote about that one a couple of weeks back: @majestic

@LadyCrimson hwinfo64 if you haven't tried it already - it's pretty universally recommended everywhere. The one "issue" with it is that it has literally like a hundred different thing it monitors in a big list, so you have to spend a little time getting used to where to look for each component, or you can just highlight the sensors you don't you'll ever need and then right click and hide them.

Anyone see the CPAC stage design? The odal rune, the official emblem of the American Nationalist Socialist Movement...and a symbol used by Nazi Germany's SS (indeed, it is banned outright in Germany). Gee, it's almost like they're trying to tell us something.