Bartimaeus

Yeah, I see that, his "Death Gaze" ability uses the "Replace Creature" effect, so it's not a normal death effect. However, it does provide a save vs. death with no penalty, which isn't too bad. I can't really remember ever having much trouble with that fight, so I'm not sure what to tell you.

Hm. You didn't have a level 7 priest that could cast Death Ward?

Yeah, I was responding to Guard Dog, who did say that they apparently found his prints on the bag. Theoretically, the perp could've re-used a ziplock bag already in the car for the drugs - about the only explanation I can think of. So...possible, but not exactly what I'd consider probable - I definitely would not send a man to prison for it either way, though, especially seeing the nature of the crime. He could've literally written "(his name)'s ILLEGAL DRUGS" with his social security # on it and I still would say not guilty.

It's probably a reasonable assumption that it's the car owner's, but I'm not going to send anybody to prison for personal use-related drug charges, so jury nullification it is.

Steam machines weren't really a console as much as specialized prebuilt PCs. Wii U works, though - the fact that it's difficult to even remember that it existed is a pretty bad sign in of itself.

Isn't the Xbox One pretty much the consensus worst console this generation, due to having so few exclusives? At least the Switch and PS4 have some.

She was the worst of the lot. Annoying, can't act, and there's something I find a little repulsive about her to boot. No thanks, please shut the door on your way out, .

I can't even get into the trailers at this point, much less the presentations. Most everything starts looking the same after so many years of watching these things...and that's probably why E3 feels like a giant middle finger of a reminder that the current AAA video game industry is just not for me for various reasons. I guess I've got the new Dark Souls game to sort of look forward to, but that's really just more of the same.

I believe Colorado.

With a not as horrid supporting cast, I may have very liked it better. Alas.

I actually thought combat was OP in Penumbra, if anything (in the one that I played anyways, which I think is the first one). Once you land a hit, you could just stunlock enemies. So...the only hit that really matters is the first one. I don't think you're meant to screw around with that enough to figure that out, though.

That's a funny way of looking at it. I can see what you mean...because in the first movie, Thor was basically a total nincompoop with little to no self-awareness, leading to slapstick situations because he's just so buffoonish and apparently does not realize that his behavior is ridiculous. Thor 3, in comparison, felt a little slapstick-y not because the characters were stupid idiots, but rather the opposite: it seemed like they were smarter, more tongue-in-cheek and self-aware. I actually liked and enjoyed Thor's character a little in this movie, which I really, really did not in the first movie. The second movie I can't speak as much about, since I can only vaguely remember it and I can only remember being supremely bored...I THINK the humor was mainly supposed to come from other characters, and Thor himself was much more serious, BUT I could be wrong. Now, it's probably just a part of his character progression throughout the series, which I would agree would probably be fine from a storytelling standpoint if I'm looking at it objectively, but I pretty much freaking hated everyone else in those first two movies (besides maybe Loki), too, which means our main character also being an annoying dummy (1st) or super serious boring (my impression from the 2nd) just makes it so that the movies weren't enjoyable. So this was a nice departure from that.

I actually saw that yesterday, too. I sort of thought the same thing, except that it wasn't totally a negative, because the previous two movies were completely overly-serious snorefests. Though I did think the pacing was really jarring at times, and cut-back-to-pointless-boring-villain-of-the-week every ten minutes or so didn't help. But thank goodness they cut out all the human characters, because they were all absolutely dreadful. I think I might actually hate Natalie Portman - she's such a dead weight in every film I've seen her in with the exception of like Leon. Overall, it wasn't too shabby. It was weird that Thor in this movie is the same character as the previous two, since they weren't terribly alike.

Though it would be amusing to see the U.S. kicked out of the G7, I think the others will collectively weather the storm for the time being. (e): Although based on his recent temper tantrums, it's probably much more likely Trump will decide to simply withdraw from the G7.

I have a strict "separate but equal" policy for my strawberries and jalapenos, .

It's a Japanese animation company very renowned for its writing. Well, their animation, too, but if their writing was bad, nobody would care as much. Yeah, technically, the three I haven't seen are My Neighbor the Yamadas, Tales from Earthsea, and The Wind Rises. I don't expect to care for the former two, while yes, I am interested in the latter, but didn't really expect to write or talk about it. Maybe it'll prove me wrong, though.

Grave of the Fireflies. What a piece of crap...is sort of what I thought when I watched this the first time many years ago when I was younger and utterly abhorred all anime and anything anime-esque. And also it was when I was kind of forced into watching it because of and with somebody else, and in Japanese. Now slightly more mature because of age and having already broadened my horizons by enjoying other Ghibli movies, this second time around was very different. Instead of being unable to enjoy myself, I merely wanted to shoot myself in the face. Just kidding, it was very good - completely different experience, was pretty much like I hadn't seen it. I can see why I hated it the first time I saw it, though - for somebody not at all acquainted with the genre, or pretty much anything Japanese outside of Nintendo games...and being stuck watching a little child cry for a not insignificant amount of the screen time...watching it with somebody else...I can see why I didn't like it. Would not recommend to somebody who hasn't seen any other Ghibli movies - try something more fun like Totoro or Kiki's first. I've also been re-watching some of the others. The biggest change in perception has been Whisper of the Heart, which I initially thought was great, but upon watching it again, discovered that I unfortunately really just absolutely loved it, and it easily became my favorite (and a top 3 favorite film period - it really strikes me how this just seems like a film that was made specifically for me, and that's a really special feeling that I don't think I've ever had about any movie before, which ALMOST catapults it to a rating I've never given any movie before, but which I have decided to remain a little more objective about for the time-being). I must've been like half-asleep when I watched it the first time, since it felt like I was seeing it for the first time again. There were some other slight shifts, but this is basically how the ratings turned out: 9.0: Whisper of the Heart ​8.5: My Neighbor Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle ​8.0: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke ​7.5: Pom Poko, Porco Rosso, From Up on Poppy Hill, Only Yesterday ​7.0: Spirited Away, Laputa: Castle in the Sky ​6.5: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, When Marnie Was There, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya ​ This should be the end of my Ghibli posts, I think. So, finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to this poster of Nausicaa that I kept seeing in a "top 100 movies of all time" list that I initially completely ignored, but began to intrigue me and slowly wore me down enough to give it a shot. You were the real MVP. ​ ​

If you want to be depressed (so this isn't for you, TrueNeutral, ), here's the reddit Suicide Prevention Megathread where you can read thousands of people's stories dealing with suicide (their own attempted and friends and family): https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8pks1u/suicide_prevention_megathread/?sort=confidence

Ooh, I hate it when people do that. Somebody repeatedly asking questions like that (and others such as "what're you doing") within the same day day just feels like code for, "Entertain me!". I usually start giving the worst possible answers - answers that are completely boring, unnecessarily obfuscated, flat-out repeated word-for-word, self-referential, etc. They either will get sick of your answers and will stop asking or improvise something themselves, and in the meanwhile, you have your rote answer. Either way, the problem eventually gets solved. Once in a while, though, you have somebody whom you really just can't shake...and you can unfortunately no longer just be politely passive aggressive about it.

I'd be interested in reading that.

(The last Obsidian game I seriously played was Mask of the Betrayer, although I did at least give PoE a shot.)

My way of dealing with touchy subjects is usually making humorous or pithy observations about them. The number of times I've had people somewhere between faux and real yell at me for making terrible semi-joke-observations about some of my recently dead/suicided family members is probably too many to count. Sorry if that doesn't work for you, .

>it's essentially an admission that they wouldn't have if the book didn't tell them Probably too extreme a way of looking at it. It's probably more from failing to utilize a little empathetic and critical thinking. "I get my morals from the Bible - where do they get theirs?" The easiest way to answer that would be to ask where you would get your morals if you weren't a Christian...which then sort of leads to how you became a Christian to start with. For most people, the answer to the latter is "from being raised that way by my family in my society", and then the answer to the former becomes an obvious and resounding "oh". Though people with the ability to objectively notice patterns in the people they meet and know of (or rather the concrete lack thereof in this case) should eventually observe that there are both garbage and great people from virtually every walk of life, regardless of most any culture, upbringing, or religion. (e): words

Funny isn't the word I'd use, but then me and chronic depression have a very toxic relationship. Didn't know the guy, but every mental illness related suicide is a tragic failure of society. R.I.P. Well, yeah, I didn't mean literally funny. I was speaking a little from experience, after all.

RIP. I was never really comfortable with watching his shows - I always found him just a little off-putting, and he seemed to often have an alcohol problem (e: and from what I'm reading now, he's had substance abuse problems since forever, which unfortunately fits with the feeling I already had). A few people I know that have been following him for forever are going to be devastated, though... Chronic depression is a funny thing, too - most of the time, it might seem bearable, but it only takes one night where you get into your own head just a little too much and there being nobody there to help you or pull you back from the brink, and that can be it.