Bartimaeus

Were you already a fan, or did you just become one?

I liked a number of the little micro-narratives in DS1, DeS, and BB...I mean, I didn't give a crap about them in DS2 and DS3, but that's because I didn't give a crap about those games in general. I'm not sure if that proves your point or not. I haven't touched Elden Ring, so I can't say anything about it really, except that I hope its quality of quests is at least higher than Breath of the Wild's.

I keep trying, but nobody's picking up the phone... I'm even willin' to sign over my soul and everything. Does anyone have any tips? ...Oh no, is it because I'm not a magical girl? Okay, if I just get an otherworldly entity to change me into...aw, crap: is this one of those "you have to be a magical girl to become a magical girl" situations? Life's such a crock of crap, I tells ya. Yeah, well, he also gave Maison Ikkoku a 9/10, so the guy's a moron. Or maybe just old. I guess there's a lot worse than liking 1986 shonens, particularly if you watched it when you were young-ish... He was talking purely about the manga, not the anime, so who knows - I guess you'll knows when/if you read the manga, .

Some lady I came across recently on YouTube recently who does long-ish form content on all matters related to death ("Let's Visit the Churches Made of Human Skulls"). She calls her subscribers "deathlings": I guess I'm now a deathling. She mixes humor and interesting information in a way that reminds me a lot of Lindsay Ellis, who is now retired from the YouTube game on account of social media being cancer.

I didn't realize "bone chapels" (aka charnel houses) like this actually existed: I honestly thought this was just made up for that one Planescape: Torment bones guy.

I didn't think "guro" meant erotic, just gore/grotesque. I haven't actually typed "anime guro meaning" into Google, and I'm not going to, but that was my impression. This particular poster, funnily, is actually...uh, believe it or not, literally the only person I know of from that website that has even a lick of sense: I remember them because of that stupid avatar, and because of the amount of times I've seen them comment on something that I've watched and I've thought "man, this guy really is the only other semi-sane person on this entire website", . Case in point, they have NGE as one of their highest rated shows but didn't even bother to watch the Rebuilds, or if they did, they did not rate them. They're also fans of various old shoujo series series like Ririka SOS, Sailor Moon, and Devilman Lady, so avatar notwithstanding, I can't complain too much about their judgement...

A mildly spoilery post I read about the series: Doesn't seem to be my sort of thing from everything I've heard about it, really, .

I think you're overlooking something: I demand more dumb Trixie faces!

Although it would've been a bunch of dysfunctional fun to see a 218-217 House (Democrat or Republican, either way), it looks like it's going to be 220-215 Republican. Truly an injustice.

I'm sure it's a fine show. Except for the fact that it made me want to decapitate the main character within the first minute of watching it, and seeing the rest of the episode only made me want to slowly draw and quarter him instead. Could be the greatest show or movie of all time, if I hate the main character and can't connect with them when I'm supposed to, it's not going to be enjoyable. Call it an issue of appeal more than anything else, since they clearly weren't trying to appeal to me with that bozo. @majestic I was wondering if you were going to give Amentep an earful for daring to post that, particularly without the context of having seen the show himself. Although I should admit that I almost nitpicked the same thing about the first ten or so episodes not even having Chibi-Usa...but the thing is, I did restrain myself. Luckily, I had you to pick up the slack, . Personally, I saw the show as an adult first and didn't have an issue with Chibi-Usa and liked her outside of SuperS, but most everyone and everything is wrong in SuperS, so I'm not going to hold it against her personally even though she and her pegasus problem are definitely the absolute worst part of that season. So unless Scrappy Doo is actually magically much better as an adult (and that would be very difficult to believe), the comparison really just doesn't fit for me.

Scappy Doo was just an awful joke character that was constantly getting in the way and being annoying for comic relief...but Chibi-Usa becomes a protagonist where much of the story is told exclusively from her perspective with a big focus on the way she feels. If you hate Chibi-Usa, this is probably much worse than just being the joke character, .

I'm just glad we won't have to much hear or see Mitch McConnell. Now there is a guy that I could do the rest of my life without ever thinking about again. Having the Georgia seat is important for another reason as well: the 2024 senatorial elections will defend 2018's results, and that was a blue wave year in a large way, so it is likely that one or multiple of those seats will flip. In particular... 1. Sinema's seat in Arizona (who may be primaried out anyways) 2. Jon Tester in Montana 3. Jacky Rosen in Nevada 4. Sherrod Brown in Ohio 5. Joe Manchin in West Virginia ...are probably all the most vulnerable seats, especially IMO Tester and Manchin (both of these guys are kind of unicorns for continuing to win their seats). There doesn't look to be even a single seat in 2024 that Democrats could realistically expand their majority with - maybe Indiana and Tennessee, but I'd say both are long shots. (e): One other positive from this election has been that the cries against "fraud" and democracy have been way less compared to two years ago. Seems like a lot of the conservative anger has instead been directed towards Trump and other leaders not named Ron DeSantis; DeSantis and Trump look to be the presumed heavyweights for the 2024 presidential election, assuming Trump is still a free man by that point. DeSantis winning that battle could certainly be...interesting, what with the cultish fervor Trump inspires. On a completely separate note, via ballot initiative, it looks like Connecticut will implement early voting, Nevada will implement open primaries and ranked choice voting, and Michigan will implement early voting.

As mentioned a few days ago, it was expected that the Nevada senatorial race would go Democrats' way, and it now has, with networks starting to officially project Catherine Cortez Masto as the winner and for Democrats to retain control of the Senate before the Georgia run-off. The House is still too close to call, although Republicans have an advantage.

Edgerunners: Yeah, I watched one episode and was like "this protagonist is the absolute worst and I hope he dies in a fire but I'm never going to find out because I can't keep watching". I'm guessing that I wouldn't have been particularly pleased watching the rest.

A truly lovely story. Based on his body of work, I have a feeling that I wouldn't be nearly so keen on a Tarantino A Clockwork Orange, . I guess I cheated, since I did have subtitles enabled. I thought most of them were relatively clear thanks to the context of their usage, but...reading them so that you know that what you're hearing is correct certainly helps a lot. 2001: A Space Odyssey is probably next in line for Kubrick films I have to watch...

Oh, see, I was of the complete opposite bent. Going into it, I didn't know it was going to be so ludicrously British, or in fact even British at all, and there is something about the British style of very seriously acting out the most patently absurd satire that appeals to my senses in a way that attempts by most others really just can't quite capture for me. It's no doubt due to my somewhat greater than average childhood exposure of British television/cinema and literature - thank you very much, mother. At least she didn't curse me with any kind of appreciation for British music as well, that would've been a step too far. That makes it twice Kubrick has surprised me, what with this and The Shining. I liked this more than The Shining, but I truly expected to loathe The Shining going into it, so coming out of it with any kind of positive impression has to be considered a win.

A Clockwork Orange (1971). Well, I put off watching it for a very long time, but I finally did. It is a marvellously constructed film, with the way all of it thematically loops back in on itself to tie everything together so perfectly. Thanks to that, it goes from being a film I probably should've rightfully hated (if it were handled by a lesser filmmaker) to a film that I did end up enjoying, which I did not expect.

Tell a better joke next time, sucka.

Even if it wasn't, I'd just like to make it clear that my ire is really reserved for those who poke their noses into everything and believe themselves knowledgeable about all of it whilst only armed with a woefully inadequate surface level of understanding. It is perfectly normal to be ignorant of the million different subjects in which you do not claim any substantive/authoritative expertise over (there's only so much time in life to learn the fine details!), but way too many are wholly incapable of knowing that they don't know enough and have an inexplicable sense of pride about it when they painfully come to face with it. Don't be that guy, nobody likes that guy...and you're just going to keep proverbially urinating yourself when you get into discussions with people who actually know their stuff, and that's embarrassing for everyone involved. (e): And on the subject of elections, it sounds like Democrats have good reason to believe the Nevada senatorial race will go their way; if Arizona is won as well, it would make the Georgia race redundant for control of the Senate. And it looks very possible Republicans will only win the House by the slimmest of margins, possibly literally right at the exact mark for control.

Without personal reason to be invested and care, any knowledge I could have of said elections would undoubtedly lead to the same shallow "understanding" that results in ignorant and oft annoying jerk-ass comments like we see about American elections from both too many voters here at home and ye poorly informed foreigners, foreigners who understandably couldn't ever even begin to grasp the issues at play without actually living here...and that's with American elections evidently being covered to an unhealthy degree in at least the anglosphere. It's already a serious undertaking to be at least a little knowledgeable about American elections to the point of being able to talk about them, and I try to be aware of when I don't know enough before I open my mouth about something, so I will graciously leave the Canadian elections to the Canadians and the German elections to the Germans. Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and remove all doubt and all that.

Polarized and desensitized at the same time. The new normal is being constantly pushed past its limits... Yeah, I don't know the first thing about Canadian or German elections, their parties, their lawmaking processes, or really much anything else...but that kind of takes care of itself, because I also wouldn't try to comment on them in any substantive way. But if Lexx meant long-term, that makes a lot more sense and it's a lot more difficult for me to say "no, that for sure won't happen".

The U.S. has a lot of cyclical features to its elections that have been studied and talked about ad nauseum. One of them is that the president's party always loses the midterms, and right now, these results are being looked at as a bit of a defeat of Republicans because of how weak they are for them. No, it's not the resounding triumph over the fascist/conspiracy/hate-spreading elements that most of us would like, but it's certainly not all bad either. More generally, the U.S. is fully in the throes of social, politic, cultural, and economic divides that are currently cleaving our nation in two...or maybe more like three or four. There's not going to be an instant fix for all of it, and in fact, I'd say it's a lot more likely to get worse before it gets better because none of the actual problems can or will be fixed by a collection of mostly ineffectual, time-biding, focusing-on-the-wrong-things politicians, which is just going to drive further and further extreme division as everything continues to get worse. But...time does have a way of working these things out. For example, global warming may well cause Florida to collapse straight down into the seabed within the next generation or two, and what an uplifting effect that would have on the U.S. and the world in general, .

In order to pass bills through Congress, one must have the following: 1. A simple majority (50% + 1) of votes in the House of Representatives vote aye on the bill. 2a. A filibuster-proof majority (60/100) in the Senate vote aye on the bill, or... 2b. The controlling party eliminate the filibuster or at least agree to carve out an exception so that the vote is exempt from the filibuster, and have a simple majority (51 or 50 + Vice President) vote aye. 3a. A president that signs the bill into law, or... 3b. A president that vetoes the bill that is then overridden with 2/3rds of both the Senate and the House voting aye on the bill. In other words, with a split Congress or even with a Congress where both chambers are controlled by the opposition, you can therefore expect Congress to do what it's best at in terms of legislation: nothing. Now, I know that American elections are overblown on the world stage, and that's nobody's fault but our own, but let's not get crazy here, okay?

It should be noted that at least with U.S. standard keyboard layout, holding down CTRL while pressing enter immediately posts your post; I know this is because I never click the "Submit Reply" button. Don't know if it's helpful information at all. (Also, SHIFT+Enter does single line returns instead of the weird double line returns that became the standard when the forum software """upgraded"""" several years back, if you need them for some reason.)