Bartimaeus

Princess Kaguya. The first 30-45 minutes I was somewhat bored, but right around the running/dream sequence is where things took a strong shift for the better for me. A weird but good ending.

It didn't help that the two things that seemed interesting - Comey calling the Steele dossier unverified but then apparently using it to justify FISA surveillance (bad), and Steele's apparent extreme bias against Trump (especially bad when combined with the previous point) - turned out to be a lie in the former case, and a half-truth at best in the latter.

Yeah, I think so, because then your new payment rolls over to the next month. They're trying to make people stay subscribed, not only subscribe for one month to get the current crop of games.

You're best off actually contacting Humble themselves if you were already subscribed.

​Fantastic artwork. Fairly mediocre (and sometimes a little off-putting) story and writing, and the gameplay isn't much better than that. It's not a bad game by any means, but I was unfortunately pretty disappointed in it when it came out, .

​they stole that pretty patty from spongebob ​ ​ ​ ​although black is a new and bold (...and disgusting-looking) direction, I'll admit

​I mean, they aren't exactly the same, but they're pretty similar. "Not likeable" in the context of film, especially when referring to what're supposed to be the heroes, is pretty similar (and almost always negative) criticism.

​Asked if Trump has faith in Rosenstein and/or plans to fire him, Trump replied, "You figure that out." Yeah. What a joke.

​...That's it? It's basically just a glorified complaint that Steele was biased against Trump, and it was his information (the infamous dossier) that provided a justification for the FISA surveillance against Carter Page? I mean...alright, sure. Yeah, Steele seems like a real dumb dumb, but it doesn't in any way invalidate all the others findings since then. ...Also, I'm reading elsewhere that Page had already had been being monitored since 2013 2014* for his involvement with some Russian spy ring? And if that's the case, then that blows a huge hole into the "the FBI only started monitoring him because of the Steele dossier" - at best, it would be the deciding factor as to why they continued to monitor him perhaps longer than they initially thought necessary. (e:) Also also, the memo specifically mentioned "information" in the Steele dossier being used to justify continued surveillance - not the dossier itself. That likely means information corroborated from elsewhere - very careful wording there, it seems. Trying to paint Comey as a liar after he said the dossier itself was "salacious and unverified" but then apparently used information that was in it to justify continued monitoring, when in reality, it's more likely he got corroborated info elsewhere that was used instead. ​ ​And we have Paul Ryan out here calling for "cleanses" of the FBI. What a joke. If this is the nonsense used to end the Mueller investigation, I'm not so sure that we live under the rule of law anymore. ​ *​2014, way before the creation of the Steele dossier: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/former-trump-adviser-carter-page-under-fisa-warrant-since-2014-report/article/2630576

Well, if he said that before Trump actually became president, I'd at least give the statement the benefit of the doubt. Yeah, he looked like an incredibly awful candidate by most every objective standard from the beginning, no doubt - but in his own way, he was kind of promising some of the same things Obama had ("change", as it were), and I think it's what a lot of more sensible folk were really hoping he'd actually live up to...and they were, of course, hoping that he wouldn't prove to be as awful and unstable of a person that he had seemed up to that point (...sadly, it's really only gotten worse since). I had several friends that tried to make me understand that's why they were voting for him, anyways, which I sort of accepted...but didn't agree with, as I had more pressing concerns at the time (especially knowing that it was very likely the GOP would have both the House and the Senate on top of it, which is exactly what ended up happening). Right. ​Checks and balances never amount to anything when everyone's in on the scam with each other. If all our politicians suddenly united to call a Constitutional Convention to suspend elections and subsequently declare themselves absolute rulers of the land, the only option we'd have at that point is a violent revolution. Which we'd probably lose due to apathy.

​"-missing string-" especially made me laugh.

Didn't Guard Dog vote libertarian this last election cycle? Can't put the blame on him for Trump - at least he tried to participate in our joke of an election system, unlike...uh...what, 100m+ potential voters? ​ ​Also, we *do* have a pretty good set of checks and balances. They just don't amount for much when two of the three major branches are colluding with each other. I guess our founders didn't account for that possibility. Not that they should've had to (and indeed, trying to probably would've just created flaws elsewhere).

​I haven't seen it, but I think the Red Lettter Media guys described it as Saving Private Ryan in Star Wars, but with a plot you already know the ending to and zero likeable or memorable characters, which, again, totally turned me off from watching it, because I quite frankly don't give a crap about endless boring action sequences, especially not in Star Wars, where they've never been the point or one of its strengths anyhow. If that's what you want to see, though, great - at least it's supposed to be competently directed, unlike a certain set of prequels.

​What smjjames said, on all three lines. If the GOP are going to craft some memo with the apparent intention of discrediting the FBI and the Mueller investigation through talking points (...and continue to edit it after its initial review by Congress), we should at least be able to see the rebuttal. Also as James said, we should also be able to see the original version that was approved by Congress (which we're apparently not going to get to, because Nunes continues to prove that he's just a political hack). ​ ​@Guard Dog above: agreed.

"​The fact that a liberty-hating statist like Trump is so adamant to releasing it reinforces that it MUST not be released." ?

Why didn't they get a PC they *knew* was CPU-limited (think lower-end dual core with like a GTX 1080 or something), and test with that? Might as well test with several RAM speeds while you're at it, too... You had a shot to either kill or confirm this thing, and you wasted it!

It's probably because I'm watching them all within such a short amount of time (the first I saw was Nausicaa about two weeks ago?) that I had a little more muted reaction towards Laputa. It was fun and pleasant and there wasn't really anything particularly bad about it, but I didn't feel it was all too special, either.

I didn't know that about it - that might be it. The dialogue pacing feels very different from the other Ghibli movies I've seen (which I actually kind of like), but on the other hand, it feels like some connecting scenes were missing, leading to characters acting a little...odd at times. Furthermore, the final quarter of the movie was pretty Disney-esque, which I was actually surprised (and a little disappointed) by, as none of the other Ghibli movies I've seen had been. Great first half, but not quite as great second half, I guess. Yeah, that's quite a good way to sum it up for me. It's probably one of my least-favourite Miyazaki films, which is really not saying much since it still is very enjoyable and featuring a number of moments of sheer excellence, not to mention being as creative and visually striking as ever. i can't say I noticed much with regards to the dialogue pace but it's been years since I've seen it myself, and neither did I really feel the ending was too 'Disney', rather that, as you say, the thin connective tissue towards the end made it a feel a bit more jumbled and uneven. So which ones have you seen so far, Bart? Everything just falls neatly and perfectly into place and resolves in a completely ideal manner at the end, even though I wasn't totally sure how we even got to that point. It just didn't feel...earned, I guess, which made it a little dissatisfying. I've seen Nausicaa, Laputa, Only Yesterday, and Kiki's Delivery Service. Right now, I think I'd rank them 1. Howl, 2. Nausicaa, 3. Kiki's, 4. Only Yesterday, 5. Laputa. I've mentioned seeing all of them in this thread so far besides Laputa (which was...in terms of pure enjoyment, maybe was higher than Only Yesterday, but it was much less interesting, which gets it ranked a little lower).

Today, he came out and said the opposite: that he would not resign, and he would in fact publicly contradict and provide a rebuttal to the memo if it's released.

It's funny how the story has changed from, "The FBI helped elect Trump!" (with Comey having a big announcement that they were reopening the Clinton investigation days before the election) to the opposite. Well, regardless, Nunes has apparently been caught editing the memo even further without the consent of the House after the "initial" version was approved. Fortunately for him, that doesn't break any laws - just some Congressional rules (...and it goes without saying that all ethics have been long since thrown out the window, clearly).

I mean, the memo itself will probably be worthless, as it's likely to be just a bunch of talking points. The underlying classified info (whom I believe only Schiff and Gowdy have seen...and Gowdy just announced that he was resigning right after the memo was voted to be released) is what's actually of value...but we won't get that (probably for good reasons, but still). Furthermore, we won't even get the Democrats' rebuttal to the GOP talking points, as they voted down the Dems' own memo that was in response. Smells a bit like partisan hackery.

Ignoring Sonic06's perpetual state of contrarianism, the classics are definitely overrated, but in the sense that they're not really amazing masterpiece films like a lot of Star Wars fans seem to make them to be. They're solid and fairly simple action space operas that have a lot of heart with some meanderings into philosophy and morality. They also have pretty good (and natural) chemistry between the cast, and there's a lot of cool and cleverly used film techniques for the time (a lot of which still stands up today). Funnily enough, the things that make the original series good (good cast, sweet and simple plot that gives way to the cast doing their thing, cool sets and locations and film techniques, etc.), are pretty much all the things that the prequels utterly lacked in every way imaginable, which is why the prequels are braindead CGI and/or laughably choreographed* action snoozefests. For these new sequels...I think they're much more of a mixed bag, which is a massive improvement over the prequels, which is really all it had to be to be "great" by Star Wars standards, I suppose. The 'bar' they had to reach had fallen into the core of the Earth, after all. The first movie was a repeat of a New Hope almost beat for beat (even down to the locations), which was...okay, for a new trilogy that was trying to divorce itself from the prequels, but the second movie was where things were supposed to really take off. They did...sort of. I no longer really care about the characters or where they're going or what will happen with the plot from here on out, which I guess means it wasn't very good in that regard...but at least the action, writing, and locations are still better than the sterile, repetitive nonsense that was the prequels. *The amount of technical skill that went into the choreography in the prequels is no doubt impressive, but the result on screen is...unnatural, silly-looking, and very obviously choreographed to the point of absurdity. If you think Palpatine and Yoda in Episode 3 is a better battle than Vader and Obi-Wan in Episode 4, then we'll almost certainly never see eye-to-eye on what makes a good movie, because for me, it ain't about endless and pointless action sequences with characters you don't give the least amount of crap about. Action sequences, especially what're supposed to feel like important and/or dangerous action sequences, are given importance and meaning when you actually care about the characters involved - at least one of them! - and you're worried about what the outcome will be and what the consequences from that outcome will be. How many of the same crappy action sequences had we seen by the end of Episode 3 in the prequels? I'm not supposed to be watching some mindless action movie with characters who could live or die without me batting an eye - I'm supposed to be watching Star Wars.

I didn't know that about it - that might be it. The dialogue pacing feels very different from the other Ghibli movies I've seen (which I actually kind of like), but on the other hand, it feels like some connecting scenes were missing, leading to characters acting a little...odd at times. Furthermore, the final quarter of the movie was pretty Disney-esque, which I was actually surprised (and a little disappointed) by, as none of the other Ghibli movies I've seen had been. Great first half, but not quite as great second half, I guess.

Howl's Moving Castle. I really thought I wasn't gonna like it for the first five, ten minutes. Cheesy as all heck, a kind of confusing and maybe not as well-defined plot as the other Ghibli movies I've seen so far, and the animation style wasn't really all to my tastes...but it was actually still pretty great even accounting for those problems. I'd put it right up there with Nausicaa or maybe even a little above. It did feel a little more...American-ized than the other Ghibli movies I've seen, but I can't quite put my finger on why. That's not necessarily a negative, but it's not necessarily a positive, either.