Bartimaeus

Yes, but unfortunately, I don't have a workable plan that will kidnap Trump, Biden, and ~99% of current and past (living) Congress members and put them all on an island for the next 8 years...while also subjecting 90% of the rest of the population to some combination of public beatings and forced education in order to effect a totally different voting culture that will stop voting in the same types of politicians that keep working against our interests and getting us into the messes they do. But if you have any ideas on how to do that, I will hear them. The U.S., as a whole, is really just getting exactly the candidates it deserves.

https://www.livescience.com/summer-camp-covid-19-outbreak.html A little under 600 attend Georgian "sleepaway camp" for youths (average age of 12), having tested all attendees (including staff) within twelve days before they arrived. Within 2 weeks of everyone arriving and the camp starting, 260 of the 344 tested were positive for coronavirus. Whoops. ...Bonus points: they were all then sent home to infect their families. Double whoops, . Also: https://www.si.com/college/tmg/tony-barnhart/spanish-flu ...We maybe didn't used to be as collectively foolish as we are now? ...I mean, I wouldn't go to a sports game at all during a pandemic so this still seems a bit foolish to me, but it's better than the numbskulls we have now, I suppose.

Yeah, lots of older games don't have captured mouse and no way to specify it, e.g. Infinity Engine games. Can be annoying.

When arguing (especially to people of opposite bends), it very often helps to actually come across as a person with empathizable points of view and experiences. Which is why, even though I rarely agree with him on many of the hot-button issues that have come up here, I've nary even entertained the thought of putting Guard Dog on the famed and oft-mentioned Bartimaeus Ignore List, while I've instantly put other obvious disingenuous dog****ters (of which we've had a number of over the years, including a few whom, if I took them at face value, I would often agree with) on it after reading literally one post by them. Thumbs up for actual people who post from their unique perspectives based on their life experiences, thumbs down for the other kind. (e): empathizable, not emphasizable

Why bother? You're here to do it for us, .

It was a little more involved than just a plainjane walking simulator...but not by too much. Media that is heavily driven by themes and/or basic feelings or impressions usually bore me to tears, and...well, yeah.

Got a "super meh" from me when I played it last month, but given my very minuscule appreciation for visual storytelling and characterless artsy-fartsy crap, that probably makes sense.

The Constitution, its amendments, every last Congressionally-passed bill, and every last signed executive order are all worthless pieces of paper with no inherent meaning or value - their perceived value comes from the fact that the majority of us have agreed to at least give the appearance of abiding by our combined rule of law, including what those pieces of paper mean as interpreted by our court system. When those who are supposed to enforce a law do not do so in the face of clear and blatant violations of it, they are admitting that the law de facto does not matter or exist. There is a reason why we are where we are in terms of Trump constantly and consistently breaking many of the laws governing his public office - laws have not been enforced, and consequently, they no longer exist for all practical purposes. As Gromnir and Guard Dog would say, this process didn't start with him, it has been waning and waxing over the centuries since the U.S. sprung into existence (same as any other country - there is a constant struggle for power and control every single place where there is power and control to be had, rarely for attempts at noble purposes, most times not), but it has certainly appeared to be a fast and steep descent under him, one that doesn't look to stop or really even slow anytime soon (possibly not even with him being voted out; it's up to those who have the ability to enforce the law to claw back their share of power, a task which the majority of our Congress is simply not terribly interested in because it makes their jobs easier).

Hermain Cain passed away today, after contracting and being unable to recover from coronavirus he caught while at a Trump rally at the end of June. Imagine it must've been an absolutely hellish month. RIP, don't unnecessarily expose yourselves if you don't have to, folks. (e): Might be more appropriate for the coronavirus thread, but he was a presidential candidate and it's somewhat politically related, so eh. (e): Oh yeah, and Trump officially suggests suspending 2020 election. I'm reading scenarios as to what would legally supposed to happen if he actually did, and supposedly, because more Republicans are up for election than Democrats (or more open spots where Democratic governors can appoint temporary Democratic senators), the Senate would automatically turn blue and the pro tempore of the Senate would automatically become president of no elected President, Vice President, or House Speaker, which would be Democratic Patrick Leahy. Okay. That actually happening in the event of a Trump coup seems unlikely, but supposedly it's what's supposed to. More likely, this is probably all just an attempt to delegitimize the election, which would be keeping with how he was acting leading up to the previous election.

Joe Kelly receives 8 game suspension from throwing baseball near cheaters, longer than the cheaters received for cheating to win the World Series. Hmm.

Players have started to opt out of the NFL season, including two good players in that starting Chiefs guard and the starting Patriots guard, as well as Patriots star linebacker Dont'a Hightower. Five Patriots have dropped out already, more than every other team combined so far - I can only assume Belichick must've held a team meeting or something and told them to do it if they wanted to or felt like they needed to, can't imagine why else so many Patriots would all drop out on the same morning. Wondering if any of the old men QBs, like Brady, Rodgers, Brees, Roethlisberger, Rivers, etc. will drop out.

Yeah, I've already accepted sports ain't happening the U.S. this year. Maybe basketball might make it with their attempt at a bubble, but it only takes one...

I can't wait for 2TB SSDs to start becoming cost efficient dollar per gigabyte. I've been purchasing other people 1TB SSDs because they've been very cost-efficient, but I'm waiting on myself for a 2TB. I have 1TB across three drives (500, 250, 250), and it's rather annoying to deal with, and I've run into space limits as it is. Within the next year, perhaps...

I will be surprised, with serious potential for horrified, if the NFL plays past a couple of weeks. The NFL has...one advantage that I can think of compared to the other leagues, and that is that games only happen once a week, which may help identify a team that is infected before it can spread to other teams. Besides that, it has everything that I can think of going against it, including giant roster sizes, constant medical/conditioning staff interaction, full contact, sweating, spitting, yelling, screaming, plenty of stupid players ljust ike the other leagues that will refuse to take it seriously and/or openly peddle anti-information, plenty of old, overweight, ultra-stressed, and don't-get-enough-sleep coaches, shortsighted owners who did not care and did not plan on how to make the season work when they had months to do so, etc. It should be a disaster.

Well, baseball lasted a week before it went to hell. I'm sure football will be fine.

First person shooters (unless they're monstrously slow-paced) are pretty much the only game-type I won't touch with a controller. I can do singleplayer RTSes with a controller using some creative binds (not that it'll be optimal or anything, but it'll at least be playable), but not using a mouse and keyboard for a FPS literally makes me want to kill myself - I'm not kidding at all, there is nothing more depressing and defeating-feeling than trying to play a first person shooter with a controller, it is an abjectly terrible and desolate experience that has made me all but give up the genre entirely.

3 Women (1977). Is there such a thing as "discomfort horror"? That's what this film is. Extremely slow, very meandering, mildly to moderately discomforting almost the whole way through, but somehow pretty darned good. I adored Shelley Duvall from what I saw of her in that one Stanley Kubrick film whose name I should know and could easily look up and which is very famous but which I have now spent a minute thinking about and can't for the life of me remember - it's the Shining, I finally just remembered right as I was just about to say screw it - but anyways, the weird role/sympathies reversals with her and the Carrie girl were incredibly discomforting, though she was brilliant and charming in her way all the way through even so. Also, the ending? Big yikes to that in so many different ways. Good movie.

...You have a SATA2 SSD? Just how old is that thing, and what did you pay for it at the time for its capacity?

How many Golden Age stars are left, I wonder?

I don't remember - does the Steam Controller have timing-based multi-input? e.g. if you hold down, say, left trigger for between 0.01-0.50 seconds, it'll execute one function, while if you hold down for anything past 0.5 (or some other arbitrary range), it'll do a different function? I use that with a program called Xpadder to multibind certain miscellaneous functions in games, and find that it works pretty well - IIRC, Steam Controller has modifiers (holding down one button changes the functions of others) to do a similar sort of thing, but there are different use cases.

I was just looking and noticed it was disappointingly made by him. I thought that was a weird and somewhat out-of-place scene, too - should've happened later when she was really starting to be out of her mind, not when she was just in the beginning stages of suspecting them.

I liked the Steam Controller a lot, except for the fact that I have smaller than average hands and the ergonomics of it are extremely off as a result, and unfortunately it becomes very painful within maybe ten minutes to keep using for my chronically pained hands. Alas.

Rosemary's Baby (1968). I can see why it's considered a classic, lovely film. Just a touch of an underwhelming ending, but besides that, great, especially for 1968 - the way the few action sequences were shot so quickly and precisely while the dialogue between different characters flowed together so well and realistically was very unlike a 1968 movie, and in the latter case, better than many movies today.