Bartimaeus

still don't know what the heck games you guys are ever playing, since none of you ever say (actually not true: some of you do say what you're playing sometimes)

Yeah, it's a steaming pile of trash, as per the Valve/Steam trend over the past 5 years or so.

Some really bad - atrocious, really - games today...Falcons-Bears was good, some games like Raiders-Titans and Cardinals-Lions started out good, but really fell apart in the second half.

That sucks. Hopefully the motherboard is not damaged.

I've had this song in my head for a few days, but couldn't remember what it was or who it was by or even what the lyrics were. Took me a while to figure out.

Yeah...there's more criteria than just "attractive" here, especially if you're applying it to non-human characters that you have little to no capability of being attracted to. Banjo-Kazooie, for example, I think the characters are well-designed and appealing...but I'm certainly not attracted to them. Yooka-Laylee, in comparison, I don't like the designs as much - I don't think a lizard and a bulbous-looking bat are quite as appealing as a goofy bear and breegull. I want characters' designs to be appealing in some manner, not necessarily attractive: sometimes, it means NOT attractive in the traditional sense, and sometimes it does. Depends on the type of character and their personality and such.

Even so, the players did literally vote for the current CBA back in 2011. So while the union may not have been that great at negotiating (looking back at the changes that it enacted, they actually did have some decent progress for what they wanted at the time...but some of them then became self-inflicted wounds to a degree, such as the extremely limited practice time and the rookie wage scale), players did collectively agree to it. The funny thing is, I am pretty sure the commissioner's broad power wasn't even that big of a deal to them at the time - I don't think they expected it to be wielded like it has been, especially when they had their minds on other concerns such as pay and injuries. Now it'll be a big thing that they have to fight to limit next time, which means they'll likely have to concede even more ground to reverse something they probably could've easily nipped in the bud in 2011...

I don't disagree that the union totally failed...but the union only goes as far as its members (the players) want it to, and they collectively decided they'd rather take money now than fight for a better CBA. In other words, the players and their union are the same thing, and so they failed themselves by agreeing to the CBA. If that's the point you're trying to make, well, okay then. Like for most everything else that's wrong with the sport, though, I generally prefer to blame the NFL.

I mean...the NFLPA caved because the players caved. It's not like the NFLPA is some nebulous organization that has its own mind: it's a players' union. It was either cave or shorten/cancel the season...and no surprise, the NFL can suffer not having a season much better than players who only have an average career length of about 3 and a half years can. The NFLPA will never gain much power until the players get serious about actually holding out, which isn't likely to occur (especially given a strong majority appear to have awful financial skills). Sadly, this isn't baseball where players can play for forever and so could afford to lose seasons: the NFL knows this and exploits it to its full capacity. It's not right, but what can they do?

Well, unless the NFL wants to violate court orders that specifically disallow them from suspending Ezekiel Elliot for the duration of the lawsuit as a result of the case, I wouldn't bet on it. Maybe if they felt comfortable taking a gamble on the courts not interpreting the commissioner's exempt list as being a sort of suspension, but I doubt they'll do that.

While this particular judge seems to favor Elliot's side, from what I understand this case isn't that fundamentally different from the Brady case: the NFL makes unforced procedural errors in the trial (or appeal, in this case), and the lower level judge takes issue with it and sides with the player...and then it's appealed to a higher court, who realizes that while the procedural errors were stupid and arguably unfair by the NFL, they ultimately made no material difference in the NFL handing down the suspension, which they have extremely broad authority to give. I would expect EE to play the entirety of this year, but don't be surprised when the NFL ultimately wins this one next season.

I mean, it was obvious there was at least a decent chance when the judge specifically called out the NFL.

I'm hoping the massive problems this will cause down the line will eventually help move us away from using SSNs in the absolutely pants-on-head way we currently do...but realistically, I'm expecting it to just be swept under the rug like every other major security breach.

That's definitely on the more extreme (and non-negotiable) end of the issue, if that's the case.

This doesn't quite fit the thread, but a word of warning to everyone in the U.S.: Equifax, the second biggest credit reporting agency in the U.S., was hacked recently, and exposed private security information and the social security numbers of virtually every credit-owning person in the U.S., so beware of fraudulent charges and identity theft attempts. What can you do to preemptively protect yourself? Not much, because our country is retarded and uses a number we're all given at birth that cannot change and that is handed out like candy between different agencies as well as for job and banking purposes to confirm identification at the "highest" level.

There are varying degrees: for example, some people see the -isms as being a fatal character flaw - the person is irredeemable and not worth interacting with anymore. Alternatively, you could possibly see it as a sad reflection on some of the current problems/differences in and between different parts of society and possibly its (sub)cultures. Instead of immediately cutting that person out of your life and/or treating them like trash because of their views, you could provide a different perspective while backing it up with some sort of reason that appeals to them...so that you might influence their own viewpoint - and if it doesn't do anything, well, you tried. There are also definitely varying "reasons" behind -isms: some fall into the "I have no applicable reasons for my beliefs, and nothing you say is going to change my mind", but a lot of others are more of the "I think there are legitimate issues here with (x)" that a lot of us could probably agree are definitely problems...while making very different conclusions about them, their causes, and the ways to resolve them. You'll probably have an easier time appealing to the latter group with reason than the former, right? Meanwhile, if you yourself remain reasonable, they'll probably have an easier time of being able to bridge the gap in differences of beliefs and respect your viewpoint even when it's contrary to theirs. It's pretty rare that ideologues of any kind are any good at providing a decent discussion - regardless of whether one side is reasonable in their initial assumptions or not. ...I have no idea if any of this is applicable to the thread, because as mentioned before, it is indeed a dumpster fire and I have no wish to go back in. Furthermore, I'm not really one of the "reasonable" types on the internet, but that's mainly because it almost always feels like a total waste of time...but that's more about my own lack of patience and virtue than anything else. I am a little better in real life with these sorts of things, and I'm sure the same probably goes for most people when dealing with people we personally know.

Uh, wow. ...Glad I took Kareem Hunt late in my fantasy league?

Um...hmm. I don't ever visit the game-specific subforums: are they generally a flaming dumpster, or is it just that thread?

Me, I guess, because I can't figure out what this word is supposed to be...

The [.url] code is for making non-URL text link somewhere, like this. The [.img] code is what you were looking for, which just directly displays an image.

Well, technically, it's not necessarily video game-specific, but it's also not P&P-specific.

fixd

I have even more limited knowledge of the style than you (i.e. my opinion here is baseless), but it wasn't quite what I expecting for "ragtime", either. I decided to consult the YouTube comments to see if anyone had any similar thoughts. My only conclusion from opening up all of the comments and quickly scanning (and then searching for "rag") is that YouTube shouldn't have comments on videos that are more than anything besides mildly popular. No pearls of wisdom there, sadly.

Hm, what RPGs allow you to make a 10-year-old twerp as the main character?

Racist! (e: actually, real talk, he doesn't look thaaaaaat much like Mr. Fishburne - then again, I'm not sure if I've ever seen him when he was younger)