Bartimaeus

It's pretty 'incredible' that they couldn't find more uses for that in the series. Then again, the show mostly didn't give a crap about the functional applicability of their powers in the first place, as they mostly just used whatever was the latest they had "unlocked"...with just a few exceptions. I was thinking Makoto could be possible as well...but really thinking about it made me reconsider: it would probably be significantly easier for somebody white to have some kind of resemblance to Makoto than someone Japanese.

Federally, it's 6-2 for House seats in Wisconsin...but what I've heard is that the real filth is in the state legislative, where Republicans very nearly have a "can override the governor"-proof supermajority (but not quite - enjoy your annoying Democrat governor, attorney general, and secretary of state), which wouldn't seem to make a lot of sense with the vote distribution, but I have not personally dove into it to actually confirm it. Yeah, for reasons mentioned before, I'm not super inclined to make any big conclusions about this election, because 2018 looked like such a vehement rejection of the entirety of Trumpism, and then two years later, he was millimeters away from being re-elected...time will tell.

I don't have any strong feelings either way, to be honest. What is a different Democrat that can win the nomination (i.e. not a progressive firebrand like Bernie Sanders) going to accomplish that Biden isn't/hasn't tried to? I'd like for him to be a touch more progressive as well as forceful in his pursuit of a few particular issues, but the way he has played his very limited hand has been competent, he himself has generally stayed out of the limelight (thank the merciful stars), the government has been dumpster fire-free...given that a Democrat-controlled Congress to this point hasn't really supported much in the way of progressive initiatives or reforms already, is there really even a point? Maybe, I don't know, but he doesn't really seem like he's been "the issue", so to speak.

Yeah, I would've been very gladly wrong if Boebert had lost. And there were a few seats lost by about half a percentage point that some thought had a chance of going the other way...alas.

More severe gerrymandering from redistricting in a few states (and in a few cases, courts saying they're illegal but allowing them to use them anyways because of the "well, it's too close to the election to change it now" excuse or whatever) combined with bad Florida and New York turnout plus a few other just genuinely really close calls did Democrats in for the House. Warnock will probably take Georgia and make a 51-49 Democrat Senate, but in two years they'll probably lose a seat or two while we re-elect Joe Biden with who knows what happening to the House, and so nothing too much will happen on a federal level for probably the next six years...but at least the government won't be proverbially completely on fire, I suppose.

In other news not related to the eternal (and always deserved) mocking of one particular Obsidian forums resident (additionally recommended and appreciated by yours truly), House Republicans officially have 220 seats, likely to climb up to 221 after professional glue-sniffer Lauren Boebert escapes with her "safe" Republican district by just a few hundred votes. ...I only provide an update because I said it would be 220, while @Pidesco said it would be 219 or less and that we should bet on it. Sadly, I did not take him up on it, although I should've given that I was pretty confident it was going to be at least 220.

I'm sorry, I had to fix that, that was just too low quality and worse (unforgivably!), it didn't loop correctly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/9eecebmwncfq8ap/mpc-hc64_KeJS1skIML.mp4 I had to go find and re-watch this scene. I imagine it's probably difficult for some people in here to believe that this, too, is technically anime. Also, she looks slightly less insane seeing the full frame: Charlie Brown-looking lady...

what is this person like, what

That description immediately called to mind the first episode of season 4 Stranger Things for me - the dynamic between Chrissy the cheerleader and Eddie. That little bit of normal, humanizing, silly character stuff was probably the most fun I had in that season, and then we immediately banished it away right after in favor of same old monster mash trash with the usual suspects when wotsitsface* caved her face in and Eddie had to go into hiding for half of the season. Mm, no - you had me, and then ya lost me. *No, I don't remember what the monster was called, and who gives a crap?

Haven't seen much out of Love to suggest that he could ever be the guy (even though he hasn't had much public opportunity), and the fact that the coaching/front office did the opposite of what they did with Favre pretty much cements that he's a bust to me: you wouldn't keep paying Rodgers 50 million a year at the very tail-end of his career if you really felt like you already had the guy in waiting. But regarding the void year...to my knowledge, the extension he signed this past off-season got rid of the void year stuff, so his contract is real until he retires (well, assuming he retires by 2026).

I hope it was a kind of reverse and that the main character became a zombie and actually ate her pancreas, that's the only way that would possibly make it better.

The Packers can lose maybe one more game for the rest of the season and still make it, and that's not certain, particularly given we already lost to the Commanders who are currently sitting two (effectively three) games above us...with the Giants and Cowboys being even higher for the other two wildcard spots (whoa, the entire NFC East may well make the playoffs...though I think the 49ers will challenge the Commanders for the last one, particularly with them still yet to play each other). Luckily, with the margin being somewhere between zero and maybe one games to lose for the rest of the season, the Packers still have to play @Eagles, Bears, Rams, @Dolphins, Vikings (who we've already lost to), and Lions (who we've already lost to). Should be easy!

Uh, why are you giving him ideas?

Yeah, see, I only read like 15-20% of it, and all I really saw to that point was that A. she was sick, and B. he was pathetic. Somehow, even though I don't think I've ever actually finished reading or watching a story that plays out like this, I recognize the signs for it pretty much every time and immediately nope out. These kinds of dramas so clearly telegraph what they are about and practically everything they're going to do within roughly the first five to ten minutes, and I just...nah. Structurally speaking, I like to see characters with unique personalities, traits, and mannerisms behaving at their normal baseline so that I can rightly determine how interesting/likeable/relatable/empathizable they are before you start to cut them down and dump all their crap on me - if you don't give me an opportunity or reason to like or care about the characters in the first place, there's simply no reason to be affected by them. But other people that aren't me are clearly better at getting what stuff like that was going for even in the absence of normal characterization stuff, so I guess it's not as big of a problem for the rest of y'all as it is for me...which, I'm not going to lie, simultaneously makes me both mad and a little envious, .

This terrible Packers team doing the same old same old to the Cowboys and then the Cowboys immediately crapping all over the entire city of Minneapolis the next week does bring a tear to my eye: it's so beautiful. The vast majority of NFL teams are always much closer to each other than one would usually think, even when you look at ridiculous lopsided affairs like that 40-3 game - I don't know if they'd win, but I do feel pretty certain that if the Vikings and Cowboys played again next week, it'd be a lot closer than that.

I thought it would be horror-related as well, and when I glanced at it, I was thinking "okay, this could be interesting - the art style looks like all the other modern trash stuff that I hate, but who knows, maybe this is a Doki Doki Literature Club type situation, I might be able to jive with that...but wait, why would she recommend this to non-anime fans, that would seem to be pretty niche". Uh, no, no, it's exactly what it appears to be. Whoops. Yeah, I almost universally hate stuff that overtly feels like it's stroking the male ego, even stuff that should otherwise appeal to me (e.g. Princess Mononoke - though that obviously approaches it from a completely different angle compared to something like I Want to Eat Your Pancreas). It often causes me to immediately deconstruct it: "So the most completely a/pathetic guy with zero friends and social skills magically becomes close to HOT POPULAR GIRL...who randomly gloms onto him because she needs him due to her being terminally ill and inexplicably not having any other outlets because of asinine reasons that are quickly glossed over and which would never practically apply to any normal functioning person in real life, thereby giving him an opportunity that he doesn't really deserve to help him grow to be a better and more capable person over the course of the story completely at her expense as she declines in health - her entire existence and subsequent doom in the story ultimately proving to just make him better while providing some cheap sadness near the end." I only read like 15-20% of it, but that's probably more or less accurate in broad strokes, right? I hate it, just can't do it. In this case, it was a long time friend of mine who is a married, adult woman that recommended it to me, so that doesn't really track...but on the other hand, I've known her since we were teenagers and she was a pretty instrumental part of making it so I never investigated anime to any great degree because everything contemporary I saw that she and most other anime/manga fans were interested in always looked mindbreakingly terrible to me, so, you know, it's ultimately pretty fitting, .

At the end? Except for the baby, what about the beginning...and the middle? That was completely intolerable, .

I've listened to it like ten times. It's the worst thing I've ever heard, but it's also the best, and that matters more. I hope you listened to enough of it so you could hear her making the literal pig oinking sounds. The world was made a better place with its absence, .

A good friend of mine recommended the manga of I Want to Eat Your Pancreas to me, and against my better judgement, I read the first two books. Now, I'm not a moron, I knew within about the first two pages that it obviously wasn't for me, but I decided to give it a more than fair shake, since this friend hadn't recommended anything to me in a very long time. Well, okay, the reason she doesn't ever recommend anything to me is because we never, ever see eye to eye on anything, and she thought this might be an exception, as she felt it had general appeal for people who don't like anime. Sadly, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is the epitome of the "soft piano drama" that I have so often maniacally ranted and raved about, so that's pretty unfortunate that I despised every page that I read of it. Strongly recommended for Sarex though, as it seems like something that could genuinely be up his alley.

Oh no, luckily, it has that as well. Random system I found with aforementioned Sakura card: Uh...thoughts and prayers?

How about even 'better', the Sakura line of GPUs by Yeston: NOPE! Don't think you could pay me to have that in my PC...well, unless you wanna get crazy with the offer, anyways.

Le Devilman Lady spoilers:

Devilman Lady, episode 23. Jun returns to the home that she grew up in, which her grandparents currently occupy. They talk about life in the city and how she's ready to return to a more traditional life after all that silly rough and tumble devil business, and share memories over sake. Gee, Jun, I wonder why? Well, all's well that ends well: the end! Okay, now I've seen the last three episodes. So the thing about Devilman is, the main story/premise stuff is largely arbitrary nonsense that doesn't really hold up to any kind of inspection in my opinion, particularly with regards to why anyone ever does anything that they do. In conclusion, I do not recommend this show to KP, because I think he'd largely find it too slow and boring, too shoujo-like for the most part, which from what I gather was not really how it was in the manga. The main plot moves glacially slow, the action stuff is pretty weak, and it doesn't really get close to reaching the same heights of insanity that even the old OVA stuff did...and never mind Devilman Crybaby. It's a "maybe" to majestic because he might appreciate the oddball blend of soft demonic horror with shoujo elements like I did which made it worth watching overall, but I can't say for sure.

So...you're recommending that I don't watch it. I think the thing that bothers me the most from watching the trailer is the wigs. They're really terrible wigs, and like...just let them have their normal hair, .