Bartimaeus

I've already seen jokes on the main reddit thread for the teaser about "woodoo hide" and "Emperor Palpatine Surgical Reconstruction Center" and "Palpatine's behind it all!".

A couple of months ago, I finally sat down and properly watched the Lion King for the first time since it came out (not having been the biggest fan of it then). It was...kind of mediocre? Not as bad as I was expecting or remembered, but I still just don't care for it. Surprisingly, I also liked Timon and Pumbaa (I really disliked them when I first watched it, but it's been many years and I've grown as a movie-watcher since - properly executed comic relief characters shouldn't necessarily be anathema, especially ones that add value to themes and character/story arcs and are just generally likeable characters), and I also kind of liked Scar as a performer. I think the main problem was Simba being an arrogant dumb dumb for the first half of the film, then switching to full out cowardice for most of the rest, and then driving it home with the almost always dumb "I'm the rightful heir" plot device finally making him "turn into the perfect man after which he does everything perfectly without error". When a film's meaningful screen time is about 95% the protagonist, the protagonist should ideally be likeable, and Simba was the opposite for me, and that's really how it began and ended.

Yeah, see the hidden image at the bottom of my post. Yes, Gronk did retire for real.

Tom Brady is retiring.

Yeah, I don't think George Lucas really understood that circa 1999.

Michael Avenatti arrested for alleged $20 million extortion scheme against Nike, embezzling client's money, defrauding bank: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/25/michael-avenatti-to-be-charged-with-wire-and-bank-fraud.html Y'all remember when this piece of work was considering running for president?

Based on the Attorney General's summarization, that does seem to be the case. From his statement, the general idea appears to be that there is insufficient evidence for the "collusion" charge (whatever that would actually be legally), and that because the "collusion" charge cannot be proven, it is also difficult to realistically pursue an obstruction of justice charge resulting from it, no matter what Trump's done that explicitly looks like exactly that. If there's not enough evidence, there's not enough evidence. So...vote in a year and a half. It does beg the question of why Trump has been acting so insanely guilty over the past two years (all starting with begging for Comey's loyalty and to close any investigation into him, then firing him when he refused and publicly explaining that it was because of "the Russia thing"). Hoping we get some explanation of that here sooner or later.

I'm nearly movie illiterate in terms of classic film, but that being Shere Khan makes so much sense. The second he opened up his mouth in All About Eve, I immediately laughed and remarked to the other person I was watching with about him having the most absurdly pompous, condescending voice.

All About Eve (1950). Knew absolutely nothing about this one going into it, besides that it was well-reviewed. I very much liked it.

Mueller's report has been filed. (e): and smjjames beat me by seconds. Brutal, .

They need 270 electoral votes for it to go into force, they're at 181 now (89 to go) with 158 others in various stages of pending (some of them with a realistic path, some of them not...for the time being). That's the thing about once it goes through for a state - they only need one election that gives a state trifecta at worst (i.e. with zero Republican support) for it to go through, and once it's through, the Republicans will need a state trifecta to overturn it (well, once again, assuming zero Democratic support). Right now, Delaware (3) and New Mexico (5) are awaiting governor's signature and likely to be approved soon. After that...a few other states seem likely to jump on board sooner or later (like Oregon and Michigan), but yeah, it'll still be a while before it happens, if ever.

It's theoretically supposed to benefit Democrats, but I am curious to see how that actually works in practice. There's a lot of disenfranchised people on both sides that are either taken for granted or simply ignored in the presidential race because of the electoral college. It makes me wonder how a popular vote election will affect the margins in places like California when people - on both sides - realize that their vote will actually affect the vote totals, which then have an effect on who's elected. Interesting thing about this National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is that it's not *that* easy to overturn once enacted, so when - if - it ever comes to be, it could seriously change the reality of our elections for a time to come. To overturn in any given state effectively requires a state trifecta, so if the Democrats find that it actually ends up harming them instead of helping, they could find it very difficult to overturn it in all but the bluest of states, and then a few red trifecta states could jump in and reinforce it, effectively taking their place and reinstating it. It's hard to see us going back to the electoral college once it passes that threshold. Will be very interesting to see how that affects national politics if it comes to be. I'm more interested in ranked choice voting to actually introduce the possibility of third parties, but that's almost certainly even farther off than this compact (and I assume it all has to be state-enacted - think states are guaranteed the right to hold their own elections how they want, right?).

And on that note... Guard Dog, how do you feel about (the mostly Democrat-led) effort to eliminate the electoral college in favor of using the popular vote to elect the president instead?

I'm a Windows 7 user.

For me, the difference is that from Steam's perspective, there is no such thing as "Steam exclusives". Steam does not offer exclusivity deals: Valve is perfectly fine with publishers also selling their games on GOG, Humble Bundle, their own service, the Microsoft Store, etc. In cases where a game is "exclusive" to Steam, it just means the publisher is crappy and hasn't bothered pursuing other avenues, and that's, quite frankly, not Valve's/Steam's fault, but rather the publishers' - yell at them all you like for it. Hard me to direct much ire at Steam outside of recognizing the fact that Steam is the most dominant distributor on a number of levels. With exclusivity deals on the EGS, the blame falls pretty squarely on both the distributor for offering such deals as well as the publisher for accepting them. A big screw-you to both parties involved here. I assume Obsidian wasn't a part of the decision. It took me long enough to get used to Steam, I am not allowing another garbanzo beans app be constantly up and running on my PC unless they make a really compelling argument, of which the EGS has done the exact opposite from a consumer perspective (quite contrary it seems from a publisher/developer view based on these exclusivity deals becoming more and more common...but that does not affect me and therefore does not serve as a compelling argument). So...2020. I am perfectly fine with people not wanting to play a game if it's a Steam exclusive. Personally, I've grown to hate Steam more and more over the years (I think it peaked around 2009-2011), so I barely buy anything on there, either. It's still an option for games that are only there because of publisher decision, though.

Read as: The Other Outer Worlds has been delayed to 2020. (e): lol, Other Worlds, I can't even type.

Doesn't seem difficult at all to me, . Song of the Sea (2014). Solid. Beautiful artwork, good voice-acting, setting, and music. Story and character writing was adequate. It fell apart in the last half hour much in the same Spirited Away did for me (character motivations being poorly conveyed leading to hollow/uninspired beats, subversions, and turnabouts, multiple story climaxes occurring in rapid succession, things starting to feel like they're just "happening" with little reason for me to care or understand why), but still solid. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016). Interesting art style, but a totally uninspired first half of the movie and a protagonist I hated made me turn this off halfway through.

Well, if you consider him coming in last year as his "backup" phase (as he only started because of Winston being suspended) and then this as his "get paid" phase, it still sort of works. Dolphins probably hope he'll suck next year, as otherwise they'll be stuck with a mid-tier pick as they have been year after year after year (proof: 2007 was the last time they finished worse than 6-10).

Dolphins sign Ryan Fitzpatrick. The cycle continues! His eighth team that he'll start for - wonder how many he'll get to by the end of his career?

I liked that they waited only minutes until after his sentencing was complete to smash him with 16 more indictments.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised at the safety market this year compared to last. Some really crazy contracts for safeties this year, am pretty happy with 9 million a year for a young, injury-free good player vs. some of the other contracts (Landon Collins and Earl Thomas for 14 million each? Yikes...for different reasons). Most likely, given that all of our safeties were absolute junk the past year (including Clinton-Dix who we had traded to the Redskins, and whom I've noticed many Redskins fans complaining about and saying he's pretty bad since), we'll probably end up drafting someone as well. Happy to take away a defensive starter from the now formidable-looking Bears as well.

Packers sign a whole slew of guys. Makes the return of Clay Matthews and Randall Cobb pretty unlikely, and Nick Perry was jettisoned as well. Feels like a little bit of an end of an era. There's a history of signing a bunch of free agents at the same time not working out, guess we'll wait and see.

Speaking of liars, the amount of times the White House has leaked that "the Mueller report is about to be turned in" is infuriating - almost as infuriating as the media taking it and running with it again and again like it were gospel each time when the White House has repeatedly shown to be composed of a not insignificant amount of compulsive liars. On the subject of impeachment, Nancy Pelosi says, "Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country. And he’s just not worth it." In other words, until the Republican base starts to turn on him, there's little to no chance of even trying impeachment. That's probably for the best, though I do wish his base had already turned on him given his reprehensible personal conduct thus far, but c'est la vie.

Exactly how I approach reviewers. I enjoy listening to RedLetterMedia, but for the most part, our interests don't coincide even a little. That doesn't even mean that I think the things they like are garbage (I think they're often, though perhaps not always, on the money), but we by and large simply don't watch the same sort of stuff, so taking their recommendations at face value is silly when I'm not interested in whatever umpteenth Marvel movie they're mildly recommending. When they review something a little different from their usual tastes that's more to my tastes (e.g. a thriller such as Thoroughbreds, or a horror movie like the Witch) and strongly recommend it on a number of grounds that sound good/interesting to me, I take a much stronger interest in that recommendation and am much more likely to watch it. The reviewer is just as important as the thing being reviewed...probably more, actually. The problem is finding reviewers who you enjoy listening to/reading as well as can trust to be consistent and have a foundation for how they formulate their opinions (which will in turn help you approach their reviews and how to take them). There are a lot of hack frauds out there, and it can be difficult to find your very own diamond in the rough.

Less than what his lawyers asked for. White collar crime continues to pay for the fines and punishment you receive when you actually get caught...and never mind all those who don't get caught.