Bartimaeus

Forget Singin' in the Rain, we're onto benchmarking in the rain. Bizarrely no musical numbers, though - somewhat disappointing for long term fans of the franchise. (e): While I wouldn't ever buy something as ridiculous as the 7900 XTX, I am curious to see how the rest of the series shakes out. Perhaps it's time to finally upgrade...

I'm not expecting to love it even though I know KP said it was great, purely on the basis that I have not particularly enjoyed the couple of other things I've watched by del Toro. I'll give it a try, but... It's really awful.

As difficult as it is to believe, the Packers still somehow have a route to the playoffs...if they win out. If they win out, it's not *that* unlikely they could make it, but it is pursuant to a few different requirements. I do not believe this will happen for the simple reason that the idea of the Packers winning out is ludicrous and the most unlikely thing to happen out of everything, but: Again, requires the Packers to win out, and they have the Rams, Dolphins, Vikings, and Lions left to play. However, it is a pretty possible path. Give me that little bit of hopium, at least to care enough to keep tuning in, .

Seems to me the only team that has looked consistently good the entire season is the Eagles...and maybe the Chiefs. I've seen too much ugly, inconsistent football from everyone else. Great teams losing games is perfectly normal over a 16...17 game season, but I'm not seeing very many great teams even with that in mind.

Yeah, I've only seen the Home Alones out of that list too...and A Christmas Story which was not on it. Growing up (i.e. 20-15 years ago), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The Matrix, and some other completely non-Christmas-related films were my family's Christmas movies.

Second grade might be a little on the young side, yeah. It's also a pretty heavy movie when you look past all the silliness, particularly with respect to what she and her sister have gone through in their lives. Hopefully someday there'll be some kind of catharsis for all that, buuut probably not right this moment. It helps when there are other things you like that you can focus on so those kinds of issues don't seem quite so pressing or noticeable. I didn't really have that here, though - live action musicals just ain't my thing by and large, so it felt like they were shoving it in my face just about near constantly past the first fifteen minutes or so of the film.

I'm not normally one for demanding that which is old to kowtow to modern sensibilities or anything like that, but man, it was just so uncomfortable. Nightmare Before Christmas is my niece's favorite film as of the past year or so, so I've gotten plenty of that, believe you me...and you know what, Little Shop of Horrors is fine, too - whatever issues I had with it weren't to do with the musical numbers. But...for the most part, I just don't really enjoy unnaturally choreographed live action stuff, be it musicals like Singin' in the Rain or Star Wars prequel lightsabre fights. Something about it kind of acts like a drill into my brain and I just want it to stop. Special shout-outs to Make 'Em Laugh and Beautiful Girl especially for making me want to die; Fit as a Fiddle was my favorite, and that was the very first one, so it was all downhill from there. I thought watching it with my niece would make the film more tolerable because I already had a feeling it wouldn't be for me, but there were the other problems that stopped that from happening.

Definitely do not watch this if you do not like musicals. I can be kind of wishy-washy with them, and it tends to be easier for me to do animated musicals as opposed to live action (...in fact, it may be that the only live action musical I like is The Sound of Music). Singin' in the Rain's musical numbers did not get it right for me at all, as I'd say it was 1/3rd okay, 1/3rd ugh, and 1/3rd concentrated pain. The positive takeaway that I have from this movie is from the main character starting out as a lowly stuntman in Hollywood before becoming a star: my niece loves that kind of silliness. I told her that was actually a real job that people do in order to film some of the crazier stuff you can see "actors" do in movies and TV, and that there's a real talent in learning to avoid getting seriously hurt for it, and she seemed to really like the idea. So at least there was that.

Alright guys, I've never seen Singin' in the Rain (1952) before, and I was trying to watch it with my older niece because she likes musicals and I figured this was a good way to strike it off my list of "top films of all time" "classics" to watch. We got halfway through it before pausing it for unrelated reasons, and it's just...an absolute horror show of sexist trope after sexist trope, and it is physically hurting me to sit through it with her. She's blissfully unaware for the most part and is appropriately laughing at all the silly stuff and I guess that's fine, but like...for those of you who have watched it, is this just a product of its time and that's the way it is, or does it eventually shift gears, or...something? Woof, it is not good.

Using a shield can make a lot of sense if either... A. You're just not that great at reacting quickly or consistently getting your timing windows down. It's okay to not be great at soulslike games and the skills they require - do your best with the tools the game gives you. B. You're facing an enemy whose moveset you either don't know, can't seem to understand, or which has some kind of unusual advantage that makes it difficult to avoid without a shield. If you've played PVP, you should know that B comes into play when you're fighting another player whose weapon you don't really have great familiarity with, particularly if said weapon has quick strikes that are difficult to react in time to (I know, for example in DS1, my most favored weapon the Great/Lifehunt Scythe had the sprinting light attack that was very difficult to effectively counter without a shield because when another player is sprinting straight into you, it can be difficult to read if or when exactly they're going to attack and the scythe's sprinting light attack goes off unusually quickly for a heavy weapon - was always my favorite for scoring quick and cheap hits with virtually no chance of reprisal, particularly because even if it's blocked, the Great/Lifehunt Scythe still builds up bleed out).

Yeah, that's how I felt going into it, particularly knowing Tim Burton was involved. My thinking was "this show is probably going to focus on all the wrong things while ignoring what I like most...I guess I'll give it maybe ten minutes to convince me otherwise - it's a murderous goth girl protagonist, I have to at least give it a try". Uh, oops.

I would agree that the show had some weaknesses. The thing that bothered me the most for like the first half of the show is that...

Still haven't ever played the Bloodborne DLC. Someday, the game will either be on PC or on emulator - I'm willing to wait however long it takes.

Wednesday, the end. Yeah, so it's really like...just a more differenter and lower scale Harry Potter with a little Sherlock Holmes mixed in (the good Sherlock Holmes, not that revolting Martin Freeman and whateverhisface swill). Again, not at all a bad thing, I actually quite enjoyed it, even with all of its goofiness. I pretty famously don't much go for this kind of thing, so it may or may not be saying something that I did in this case, I don't know - your mileage may vary. It's a recommendation from me if it seems like something that could potentially interest you, though.

The human garbage dumpster known as Senator Krysten Sinema has left the Democrat party following Warnock's win in Georgia, .

It was most severe for a few hours in the morning, and it somewhat faded to varying degrees after that. I did drank a pile of magnesium and that seems to have helped. I won't lie, some of it might be psychosomatic; there are a couple of general health issues I particularly don't like and give me anxiety which can magnify the issue, and chest pains are one of those things. Family history of strokes and heart attacks, I suppose...

You are clearly unacquainted with American healthcare: I will just let my nieces collect the life insurance cheque.

Got the flu shot yesterday...fever, headache, and body aches today for the last few hours. Feels like somebody keeps stabbing me right in my heart every 5 minutes or so - it's occasional enough but it also hurts enough that I keep actually yelping out loud every time it happens. Haven't had trouble with flu shots in the past...

It was a long shipping time for me as well - I ordered it the day Keyrock mentioned it, and it arrived yesterday, so that was about two weeks. It also came with like...a hard plastic shell that you can use to encase it. I've heard that you're supposed to cover up controllers when you're not using them, presumably to prevent dust from getting into the internals, but I'm not sure how effective that strategy actually is. But since I did pay a bit for it and it came with it, I have and will probably keep using it...

Here comes a film from the legendary mind of George Lucas from before he was known for Star Wars, a stunning sci-fi masterpiece written and directed by the film-making guru himself that will leave you speechless... THX 1138 (1971): it was ok

It came with a USB cable, but I did not test it to see if it worked - in my experience, wireless controllers often don't work except through the wireless, and the USB port is only there purely to charge. But that is not the case here, as I unplugged my crappy USB Bluetooth adapter (which I already have for my headphones), then plugged it in via the cable, and it immediately worked. Neat.

I bought one because I wanted to try it out, and also because my cache of Xbox One controllers that I bought for $20 each has reached its end and the final one I have has a busted right joystick that makes using it annoying for many games. With regards to the d-pad, I actually hate the new style of d-pad for the Xbox controllers, and this one is more of an old school d-pad, which is what I want. Mind you, I understand WHY Microsoft changed the design of the d-pad, and I'm sure it's good for modern games where it's not used as a main control input, but it's really terrible for retro games. Otherwise, I think I agree with everything you said - I particularly like that you can easily switch input modes and it remembers which system it's paired to (for example, you can have your Switch mode paired to your Switch and your XInput paired to your PC and painlessly switch between them with just a button press), and I like that you can completely disable rumble from the controller itself (actually, this was a bit of a selling point, as I despise rumble and it drives me insane whenever a game has it and there's no way to disable it...I've literally quit playing and uninstalled games purely because of it - this controller allowing me to disable it entirely on the controller itself is great for me). I haven't tested the sticks enough to determine how well they work in comparison to traditional sticks, but they seem like they're fine. If the controller is able to last 2 years without major issue, then it'd be well worth the money, because I am so freaking sick of every Xbox-styled controller I buy breaking in some major way within six months.

The End of Gunbuster. As far as Gainax goes, it probably slots in above Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, but I would say I enjoyed Royal Space Force a bit more, and never mind Neon Genesis Evangelion. It's also a lot shorter than Nadia, which is a good thing, because Nadia should've been half as long as it was (...actually, that legitimately would've massively improved Nadia if all the hours of "yelling at clouds" fluff had been cut, but that's neither here nor there). The mark of a show or movie that I really like is that it's able to make me care and be invested in the action, and that just...didn't really happen here with Gunbuster: for the most part, I wanted the space battles that started to dominate the last few episodes to end so that stuff like Noriko and her best friend Kimiko hanging out could happen more, and there was too much of the former and not enough of the latter. Still, it could've been a lot worse.

Lmao, I feel like I should remember Spritle gut-punching Trixie, but somehow I don't. I'm also starting to become convinced that I need to get a Trixie avatar...or 30, there's so many different 'unique' Trixie faces to choose from, and this is just one episode!

I'm actually not a huge proponent of BG1, something that I've mentioned a number of times on here. I think the game has serious structural issues and the game kind of "ends" with flooding the Iron Throne mines for me because I cannot be arsed to do the whole city of Baldur's Gate song and dance without wanting to immediately just go to the end of the game, and never mind playing sweeper with all the sparse outdoor areas. Still, unfortunately for me, so much better compared to what I've played of PoE, . Maybe chalk it up to being invested to some degree in the world, setting, and story, and having some amount of fondness for the characters.