Bartimaeus

Yeah, it's a weird mystery, .

Oh man, look at that sweet URL, I didn't even know that could happen: How the hell is that parsed correctly? It's precisely what he did with Mason Crosby in Green Bay anytime he went through an inexplicably really tough game, and it seemed to work, .

Because he's going to be your kicker next week, and better that he work his woes out and gain his confidence back in the game where you're 20 points ahead than the next where you're probably going to need every single one.

It's been kind of up and down. Faye helped a lot for episodes 3 and 4, in direct contrast to my expectations. Most of my favorite animes (Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Vampire Princess Miyu, Tsukikage Ran) have been primarily episodic in nature, so I don't really have an issue with that for its own sake.

I don't know, usually how it goes with those is I quite like the first season as it builds up its characters and world while setting the stage for what's to come (so yeah, that would fit), then the focus completely shifts gears into the really drab plot-heavy stuff with nary a respite for anything else and it starts becoming difficult to remember what I even liked about the show in the first place. So maybe I would really enjoy the first season which Sarex disliked...but chances are, I'd get halfway through the second before going "eeehhh...maybe later...and by 'later', I mean never".

Parentheses and quotation marks issues appear to be fixed. Yay, thanks!

As I said, the idea seemed good to me...in theory, but the execution felt rushed and kind of lousy - maybe if they had spent the last episode actually setting it up, or made it a two-parter, or...something. Something besides all our characters being grumpy at each other, a rapid-fire series of new characters being introduced, and long/drawn-out exposition dumps about stuff not previously mentioned or...really even on my radar as something to be of any interest at all. Heh, I nearly declared it "Noir-esque", but a ten second reflection later made me realize how much of an imbecile I'd have to be to say that. If Noir's handling of its character and story elements was a 2/10, then this episode score probably around a 5 for me, which is...yeah, it wasn't there, but Noir it is not.

I'd have to have watched Breaking Bad to understand your specific example completely, but I get the idea. I'm still not the type of person to be as affected by it as others, though - especially knowing that there are a number of shows where...I mean, I largely don't care about the plots of shows so long as there's nothing noticeably stupid or wrong with them (i.e. if I'm not explicitly annoyed by them), so if additional seasons primarily focus on that, then it's usually not a good time for me. Steven Universe would be important to me because it resolved long-standing character-driven mysteries and issues that had been hinted at since the very start of the show and they pertained to characters I cared deeply about, whereas...I watched the first season and a half of Better Call Saul and stopped in the middle of it - the first season drew me in with its more lighthearted, character-driven nature, then the second season started going full ANGRY DARK DRAMA and I completely lost interest, . Thoroughbreds and The Witch starring Anya Taylor-Joy are two of my favorite films...but whatever charm was there wore off when I disliked her in The Queen's Gambit and especially The Northman, so I'm kinda eh about her. Still will probably check it out, though. Also, nobody, not even me, has a good grip on my tastes, .

Cowbop Bebop, episode 5. Spike goes and talks to a lady from his past hitherto unmentioned, Faye is stupid and rushes on ahead of everyone else and gets caught, Spike has a non-Mexican standoff with a man from his past hitherto unmentioned who keeps some kind of crow-like bird on his shoulder and uses a katana. It didn't feel well setup and Vicious the crow-katana man was super lame, so I'd put it down as the worst episode so far. Trying to have some kind of character-driven plot isn't a bad idea, but c'mon, let's tighten it up, that just wasn't very good - Faye being a moron was the episode's only saving grace. That camcorder was my favorite character.

Growing up, eating big slabs of meat was never really my thing (I avoided ham, turkey, porchettas, hamburgers...really anything of that nature where you just have large chunks or slices of meat served to you), so that probably enters the equation a bit. I know I've mentioned upon a number of occasions the critical importance of protein, but I'm really more of a...rice and stir-fry kind of guy, where the different elements are flavored and balanced together, like @LadyCrimson said. As an adult now, yeah, I could eat a hamburger if I need to (...minus the bun, my issues with bread notwithstanding), or fry up a whole chicken thigh for myself...but it's still not really my preference. Even if I had a steak I liked, and I'm not certain that I like the cut of meat at all to begin with, it still wouldn't really be what I'd want to go to.

Eh...a huge part of my annoyance with cliffhangers is the fact that they're deliberately trying to rope me in for more - exactly my problem with what I mentioned above with trying to commit to multiple seasons of a show and it just never feeling...done. If I know there's no more, then even if it does end in a cliffhanger, it's not nearly as big of a deal - the work is finished, I can form my own thoughts on where it might've gone if I like or go read some fun fan theories, not nearly as big of a deal. I think it has to be both reeeaaally important to me as well as something where I have difficulty envisioning where it might've gone for me to really get into a fit about it ending like that. If Steven Universe had ended before the mystery surrounding Rose Quartz and the Great Diamond Authority was resolved, yeah, I probably wouldn't have been happy, so that's valid.

I've been intending to watch The Menu. I didn't have much interest, but it seems everyone I know is recommendin' it, so I figure I have to. Yeah, there is something nice knowing it's just a one-shot thing, even if it didn't get completed: no commitment as you said, just enjoy it for what it is, don't have to worry about a bunch more seasons being made and feeling pressured to keep watching it.

Mr. Lovecraft sure had a way with words: The Festival, my discovery courtesy of the game Signalis.

Title.

I'd rather have the lamb, thank you.

Runny eggs is like eating a thick gob of mucus straight out of your disease-ravaged lungs. No. Luckily, well-done steaks isn't a problem for me, since I just don't care for steaks period. Dietary issues aside, I despise snack boxes. A random assortment of worthless garbage-tier junk food made out of chemicals not yet deemed unfit for human consumption - marvelous! Truly, I am the greatest appreciator of this type of delight, . It's the cooking that gives it a texture that isn't just soft and slimy chewiness, .

Mexican ceviche is so good you can even forget to put meat in it entirely and it's still great. I mean, it's basically just big mode salsa at that point, but it is still great. ...I have to be honest though, I have eaten shrimp in ceviche and it is really good. Authentic (i.e. Peruvian) ceviche, on the other hand...I'm not going to touch that one. As for sashimi, I have pretty much zero appreciation for authentic Japanese cuisine as a whole, so I really don't care, . Any time I look at Japanese cuisine, it's always like...please give me any other east Asian cuisine - Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cambodian, Korean, I don't care, just not Japanese please and thank you.

I can't stand eggs that are runny, but I also don't feel like bothering with scrambled eggs, so what I do is basically dump the egg(s) into the pan, immediately crush the yolk so it all flattens out, then flip the entire thing over as soon as the fried side has become solid and do it again on the other side, done. It's very lazy, but it's also very easy and I really don't care as long as the eggs are neither overcooked or runny, so it works for me.

I don't think there's any kind of cooked seafood that I've ever said no to...even scallops and octopus, both of which are admittedly kind of weird. Served raw, on the other hand, such as with sashimi? Nope, never gonna touch the stuff.

It should be illegal to get tired of shrimp; Bubba speaks my language. I wasn't sure if I was familiar with the monkfish or not. I have to tell you, this creature's existence looks incredibly tortured...for everyone else that lays eyes on them.

I've seen this now, O Brother Where Art Thou, and No Country for Old Men. I like Brother, but I really had trouble paying attention to No Country for Old Men and definitely enjoyed Fargo a lot more. Bonus points that I'm actually from Minnesota (...ish, as I grew up half there and half in California) and, well, yeah, it's both painful as well as hilarious.

Fargo (1996) by the Coen Brothers. Kind of a cute, feel-good story - minus all of the neurotic scheming and psychotic killing. But that stuff was pretty good, too.

Yeah, I've always had a thing for being out and about during extreme weather as well. There's just something invigorating about being blasted by the elements, and the fact that usually nobody else is outside during is a bonus as well. I'm less fond of snow and blistering cold than I am rain and lightning, but I still have some measure of fondness even for blizzards...it's just the conditions and work afterwards that suck, .

Mai Mai Miracle (2009). A film set in the 50s about a small town young girl who likes to imagine herself back a thousand years into the past, who makes a new friend at school that she brings with on her adventures. Well, more like the main character stalked her home after school and then invited herself into her house, but at that age, there's not much difference. And after accidentally drinking a few shots of whiskey together and her new friend drunkenly cackling about her mom having died, they're best of friends. No, really. Little chocolates filled with booze that a child might accidentally eat perhaps shouldn't be left around where said child might find them. I would have liked to have watched the movie in Japanese, but the two main characters are voiced by clearly too old voice actresses that have very annoying speaking cadences. They're supposed to be like 8 or 9, but it's more like they're 16 and it really doesn't sound right...I guess I should actually look it up. Okay, yes, 15 and 16 when the film released. To think I once complained about the Japanese voice actresses in CCS not sounding young enough...hmph, at least they could figure out how to do somewhat child-like sounding cadences. But the English is fine-ish, and overall, though the film kind of...wanders off a bit towards the end in a number of ways that I can't really explain without spoiling the entire thing, I did enjoy it. Oh, it's the same director who made This Corner of the World. Apparently, I have another one of his movies that I haven't gotten around to either as well, Princess Arete. Some other time.

My posts still get broken by the quotation-period-space combo: