Bartimaeus

I think the "director" of that game said he next wanted to make a movie, so uh, yeah. Of course, his "directing style" (for his games at least) has been just awkward Japanesey overacting and melodrama that will make for an equally ridiculous movie. But I guess some people like that.

Sister's fever finally broke after about 10-12 days of having it. She's a smoker and said it's been some of the worst few weeks of her life. Maybe this will finally get her to quit...probably not, . Just in case anybody didn't know...smoking is a severe comorbidity for coronavirus, young people included.

Yeah, but neither will we. (e): I think I meant to have an "and" instead of a "but" there. Whoops.

Yeah, seems like a bit of a hail mary. Arians has already retired once and probably doesn't want to deal with raising a new QB, plus the Buccaneers' roster is pretty good right now and probably won't be in a few years (if their drafting history and ability to keep players there is anything to go by, anyways). NFC South is a tough division and Brady isn't getting any younger, though, so it kind of seems like a plan made for just the next 1-2 years in hopes of getting a SB - which hey, if your team wasn't going anywhere fast to begin with may not be the worst idea.

I can only read "tugged her braid" and "smoothed her skirt" and "folded her arms beneath her breasts" (or whatever that phrase was) so many times before I lose my mind, and Nynaeve was the biggest offender for repetitive and pained writing, and it didn't help she was an otherwise unpleasant character for a number of books...and then, on top of that, she started mostly appearing alongside Elayne for a good stretch there as well, so the two started getting mentally paired for me. And Elayne is like...the epitome of the book telling me over and over how smart, strong, wise, clever, and powerful a character is, but every time I'm actually reading her parts in the books, she's just coming across as a childish and petulant dimwit. ...I also started reading these books when I was like 10 years old, so it's quite possible my sympathies, favorites, and least favorites would change with a fresh reading - though the last book didn't come out *that* long ago, the first one did, and initial impressions can last a long time (especially if you're not doing anything to fight them). @Maedhros Dang it, you're probably absolutely right about Mat. That would really suck, because he was always the "let's have a break from the 'serious' story stuff and do some lighter-hearted and fun but still plot-meaningful adventure stuff". Count me out if they flanderize Mat from the start...

None of them match what I had in my head, but that's to be expected - though Rand and Moiraine are probably the closest to doing so. My two favorite characters for most of the series were Mat and Egwene, and I especially don't like the choice for Mat upon a glance. The lady cast for Egwene seems like she might work. Nynaeve was the most horrifically annoying character not named Elayne in the actual books, so I can't say I particularly care. Maybe they'll go a totally different direction for her character and make her not an awful chore to listen to, . Think I got halfway through the series before I started skimming their parts because I couldn't take them anymore...

If you die from coronavirus, you won't be scared or depressed anymore, so there's really no need to be too upset about all of this. Probably. Happy Friday!

Sir, sir, Prime Minister! Will you be authorizing the entry of any coronavirus refugees to Absurdistan this upcoming week? The world is growing increasingly desperate and Absurdistan is literally infinitely vast...wouldn't it be morally unjustifiable to let anyone else unnecessarily die from this crisis if you can do something to prevent it?

?

He's previously stated that he's okay with murder as long as it's not someone he cares about. He's not exactly known to be high on the empathy scale. My friend at the MN hospital just said they were told today that they are to turn away any sick coming from nursing homes - i.e. let them die. Italy started implementing similar protocols a couple of weeks ago, I guess supplies are already in such critical condition that they're pre-emptively doing it. If the crisis ends up being even worse than expected, I imagine the age cut-off will start getting more and more severe. (e): And his rationalization is "lmao I got a girl I guess you must not if you have empathy for other people". Definitely not pathetic at all.

What's terrible is she's the type that can't really cook at home and loves to shop. She'll probably be okay - probably - but I wonder how many people she'll have infected from running around town every day over the past few weeks with little regard for other people's safety. Makes me wonder places like Florida with high senior populations and little to no regard for public safety yet (because it's not yet "serious enough") will turn out...my guess is "not good". I've seen some people make comparisons to the mayor who refused to close the beaches in Jaws...

Rich says he won't do Star Trek: Discovery season 3, but I'll bet he'll have forgotten that by the time it comes out.

Looks like the virus likely just hit where I lived. Have a friend at the local hospital, and it went from literally one patient last night (they've been trying to keep it empty and pre-emptively sending all but critical cases home to try to reduce the spread - hospitals have been a common vector for its spread in other countries) to all but one room filled tonight with people who are having respiratory failure. First night, and virtually already at maximum capacity... Additionally, my older sister (who lives more southern) has been sick and running a fever for like...a week now? - tested for a variety of things including influenza A and B, and all negative...but they're not allowed (or don't have the resources?) for testing for coronavirus in all but the most critical cases, so they told her to quarantine herself and act like she has it...because she probably does.

Yeah, Guard Dog posted it a couple of days ago. It won't make a huge difference unless it's sustained (which, uh, depending on how bad this gets, it might be...), but it is neat nonetheless. The fishies will grow strong while we grow weak..

Might be a tough sell right now with all that's going on...ya'd think people would welcome a distraction, but I'm just not really particularly feeling it either...

Speaking of...

There have been a number of cases of incompetent leaders (both big and small) throughout history where, upon suddenly being faced with an honest-to-God crisis, that leader(s) had a coming-to-Jesus moment where they actually started taking things seriously and at least started to attempt to do what was right and best for those who they were responsible for. I feel supremely confident that Trump is not one of those people, but I am happy to be proven wrong, and if that's the case, he'll get deserved praise by the end of this.

I wanted a hazmat suit even before this pandemic. It'd just be a cool thing to own!

It seems so rare that the people actually responsible for a giant, unnecessary ****up with untold and unneeded suffering for everyone lower in the foodchain actually personally suffer for their actions (or inaction - Trump's done a lot of both so far). Trump's a notorious germaphobe, though - he's probably washing his hands hourly...or minutely. Even so, I'm not sure I necessarily want Trump to come down with coronavirus...at least he's scared of the virus and has personal reason to eventually really start taking it seriously (and is at least taking steps now...), as opposed to Mike "Pray-It-Away" Pence. ...Also would have to imagine the country would descend into absolute madness if Trump was seriously incapacitated or worse, so I don't really want that to happen either. (e): I would also like to claim that "basic human empathy" comes into play at some point during my thought process, but I'm pretty sure Trump has all but burned every last vestige of that, so I'm just going to be thankful that there are rational reasons for not wanting him to get coronavirus.

You can always use more basmati rice!

In this order: Whisper of the Heart...Only Yesterday, My Neighbor Totoro....Grave of the Fireflies, Howl's Moving Castle...Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind...Pom Poko, Porco Rosso. Everything else besides Earthsea and Arrietty (...and Ponyo and Marnie to a lesser extent) I enjoyed, but wouldn't necessarily say were favorites.

There are so many varieties of white, brown, and black rice that it's difficult for me to even establish what I like. The main rice variety I use is basmati white rice, which you can obviously turn into yellow or fried rice (and I very often do both), and as of late, I've also been mixing in some variety of thai black rice. I tend to stay away from jasmine (another very popular variant) as well as short grain rices in general, and I usually can't take most brown rices for texture reasons (gritty rice, bleck!). Years back, I used to use an expensive Japanese ricecooker...and then I learned the "secret" of good stovetop-cooked rice which creates such vastly superior rice to ricecooker rice that I'm disgusted with myself that I ever put up with any kind of ricecooker rice. It is a little more work, but you do get much more control over how the rice actually turns out. (e): The couple of kinds of black rice I've had have been a bit oddball in my experience. Very wet and soft, but they take in flavor like no kind of white rice I've ever had can. That's why I like mixing it in with white, to get the best of both worlds so to speak - black will do the heavy-lifting in terms of (absorbing) flavor, while the basmati's texture and consistency will take care of the rest. (e): Words. I grew up with an Asian-cooking mom, so rice is kind of a big deal to me: my diet will legitimately be in trouble if I can't get a hold of any (especially troublesome for me because I can't really eat bread for health reasons!). Right now, I have about 40 pounds worth left, but that's only a few months' worth at best. Hopefully that'll be enough until more gets in stock...I'll be keeping my eyes peeled, since currently everything local is gone and everything online is either gone or 3rd party price-gouged crap. That might be more than enough, or...it might not be, depending on how long the crisis lasts.

I cook and eat rice almost every day! No more rice means no more Bartimaeus,