Bartimaeus

I really felt like DeS and DS1 were the ideal length. Certainly long enough to be a grand adventure, but not so long that I get halfway through the game before I'm completely exhausted and desperately want it to be over like I did with DS3 and its DLC. Whenever/if I play Elden Ring, I can't see the size of the game feeling good to me.

I noticed his mentor thanking Hitomi for saving him without her having ever said anything to him, which would imply Van talked her up in private at least, . On a side-note, I'm refusing to consider this to be isekai until completely proven otherwise. Just because the Gaea is an inexplicably existing planet in the shadow of the moon or whatever (all of which is horribly out of scale in the same way it is in Outer Wilds) doesn't mean this is an isekai anime, okay? Yeah, animals learning weird behaviors from not having their parents around or other unfortunate circumstances can be an experience - having had two rescue dogs, a rescue cat, and finally a cat that was taken away from her mother within like the first few days of her life (this is the last one still around, and no, that was certainly not my decision!) has been proof enough of that.

The poster actually appears in the movie itself: Pandora's Box (1929). German silent films are sort of like delving into an alien culture that inexplicably decided to take up film-making. I mean, that might be all silent films, but I've only seen two, and they were both German, so obviously I can only generalize about the German ones. Anyways, from what I could tell, the gist of the movie is that women, especially those of a certain variety, are the root of all evil in the world. What particular variety of women would that be? Well...I'll let you, the viewer that did not watch the film, guess.

"Merle" is indeed pronounced "Earl" with an M in both of the English dubs, which I had to hear. I've otherwise been listening to the Japanese dub. Also, did this general dude really just say...that even if the dragon were to rip off the prince's [redacted], he wouldn't run away? Didn't think I'd ever hear something like that in a shoujo(?), that's for sure, . Although, I guess by the time I saw about the third or fourth guy bleed out of his eyes when the demons attacked, I probably should've realized that it would be difficult to qualify this show as simply being a "shoujo". Poor dude was crowned king and literally minutes later, his entire city was destroyed - rough first day of his reign, I'd say. Catgirl was okay in the first episode, which is good enough for now...there's room to grow, certainly. Indeed, the second episode as a whole wasn't as much fun as the first, but it was still solid enough, and that's fine. Guess I'm watching Escaflowne. The thing about action is that...you need something more than just itself to entice me with it. Whether it's our characters learning to work together, one of the characters involved being emotionally motivated to fight for a good reason, or the fight being actually plot-important to some degree beyond just rote "fight happens here because the script says it does"...you know, it just has to be something. I will even accept action if just the way it looks is cool, because yeah, looking cool is a form of mental engagement...of course, what kind of action looks cool to me is evidently very different from what looks cool to other people, particularly because I especially value the weight of action, which is very difficult to capture. Anyways, if you can hit at least one or preferably multiple areas of properly framing and motivating action, action will usually sit pretty good in my eyes - something like Asuka's fight with the Mass Production Evas hits pretty much every single box I can even vaguely imagine, which is probably why that sequence literally brings tears to my eyes. I'll try not to make comparisons to Evangelion over the course of the show, . My old lady cat is probably in the final stages of her life, and up until recently, she's always been kind of the opposite of that. Standoffish, flighty from any kind of movement or contact, and very solitary. Now in her old age, she's suddenly become super clingy, she constantly wants to lay on and be pet by people, and she whines a ton for no particular reason when used to not ever. Yes, I've been feeling the "HEY I'M HERE TOO" factor of the cat owner life lately, .

Nanami is probably the most disturbed character in Revolutionary Girl (and that's saying something, because there are a whole lot of very disturbed people in that show), with a whole "I will literally drown kittens to monopolize my brother's love" complex (no really, that happened)...and even she eventually took a step back before she went over the precipice and adjusted her behavior before it truly went critical. Thing is, the framing of the show makes it pretty clear she's a messed up fruit basket of a person from the very beginning, which is why the show remains watchable even with that going on. If, on the other hand, a show were to have such elements and not make it clear that it's super weird/gross/wrong, well...that'd be a much more difficult sell, that's for sure.

Escaflowne, episode 1. The aesthetic of this show is a bit strange - feels very in between eras to me. Parts of it look almost Evangelion-esque, but others...not so much. Some weird combination of the early 2000s/very late 90s and Utena that confuses my brain. The most recent remastered BDs are quite fine looking in terms of detail, and I went to go check Amazon for a comparison, since I'm pretty sure majestic mentioned that he started watching it on Amazon, but it's not available here in the states on Amazon. The dragon was one of the more odd looking things I've seen crawl out of an anime - not that it looked bad, not at all, but more like a different team of animators animated it in its own distinct style from the rest of the show. Outside of the aesthetic, the animation is also fairly impressive...well, suffice to say, I certainly can't really complain about how the show looks. The music also works better than I expected given that I listened to that soundtrack of it when we were previously talking about the music. Well, except for the outro music, . I'll take Utena's "Truth", Evangelion's "Fly Me to the Moon", or literally any of Sailor Moon's outros compared to that, thanks. But enough about all that - how's the actual show? Well, the same moron that recommended Lady Asuka also recommended this, so you know, it went about as expected. Wait...no, it seems like somebody got something mixed up here, because that was a pretty great first episode in most every respect I can think of. I had to go back and check to see who exactly recommended this to me (context for people that aren't majestic: I went and asked some people who I thought might have good ideas on pre-2000s shoujo recommendations in the context of finishing Cardcaptor, and Escaflowne was one of them along with a pile of other stuff, hence why it was something we were vaguely aware of before majestic actually tried it), and it turns out, I made an error. The person that recommended Escaflowne was a different person entirely - they recommended just Escaflowne, Sailor Moon, Ojamajo Doremi, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and Gokinjo Monogatari. They overlooked that I had already said I'd watched Sailor Moon, but I'll forgive them for seemingly getting at least one of their other recommendations right. Also, I'm pretty curious to see what my impression of the catgirl will be - the initial look at her in the intro, where she appears for just a moment, shows her solemnly contemplating the stars from the window of a room, and okay, wow, I'm already on board with the catgirl because of that little piece of framing. Guess we'll see when she appears proper.

Mai, episode 32. This is the "final" episode, so to speak - there are technically six episodes left, but they are not, as of yet, subbed...however, it seems as though the latest episode released somewhat recently, so I don't see any reason to expect that it won't be finished. On the other hand, it might be a year based on the current rate of progress, so I guess I'll just have to wait a bit. Episode 32 was an interesting one to end on, as it was about an unfortunate misunderstanding leading to Mai accidentally getting seen nude by her...older brother figure/best friend/semi-crush (it's complicated because she's both Mai, a twelve year old girl, and Emi, a sixteen year old girl...and he's close to both of them but in different ways). The audience doesn't see anything, and it's certainly not for laughs, because it takes the entire episode for Mai to forgive the poor boy, and it really was not his fault whatsoever that it happened in the first place. It was kind of interesting as a counterpoint to shows like Magic User's Club where embarrassing nudity or other ecchi moments would just be ignored or forgotten almost immediately after they happen, because the entirety of this episode was taken up with him trying to make it up to her, her struggling to get over the embarrassment, and really just how things could get back to normal after something like that happening. It was especially confusing for him because he doesn't know that Mai and Emi are the same person, and he gets the cold shoulder from both of them without a clear way to appease either, . Overall, it was a good but not great shoujo show. There were a few episodes that were great, but there were also a few episodes that were somewhat more mediocre, but mostly the show was just...good. Better than Eriko, but not as good as Miyu by my estimation. And now, I have to decide whether to one, try Escaflowne; two, continue Ririka; three, start Serial Experiments Lain (which I've been meaning to get back to for a while now); or four, watch Hideaki Anno's crazy looking shoujo. I suppose I should probably try Escaflowne first, seeing as majestic is currently watching it...

That's what I don't like the thought of either, especially because it doesn't really seem particularly likely that the EU will let them in given the complications of letting them join, although I could be wrong. I'm not really sure what the ideal outcome here is - well, besides Ukraine just straight up magically winning and throwing Russia out of its territory and Russia inexplicably not escalating any further.

Did you say...Big the Big? Somehow, he doesn't look as big as his name would imply.

Brandolini's Law: The DailyMail is tabloid and has a stupendously terrible track record - it is no surprise nobody else wants to even read it, much less try to determine whether the particular article's contents have any connection to reality. Fool me once, shame on you...and so on.

I could be wrong, but I don't think majestic is suddenly finding enjoyment in all the things that he normally despises (e.g. fan service, lowbrow humor, overly tropey writing et al.) insomuch as the show in question is walking a line that makes its elements actually justifiably work...in direct contrast to so many other shows that have similar elements, where they are instead employed in a much more pained and/or pathetic manner. Sold.

I'm sure you would feel the same way about RT, . (e): Oops, it quoted Malcador instead of kanisatha...well, that happened for a pretty obvious reason, actually.

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, currently unknown cause (they were apparently scheduled to perform an hour before his sudden death).

I like the deal for the Chiefs as well (the value of which is a little better than what the Packers got for Davante Adams, which is surprising to me given that the Packers had very little leverage given that whole situation), but the Chiefs don't have anyone in waiting that can really be even 75% of what he gave them, which is why I would say it's a year too early. Still, Mahomes' career with the Chiefs figures to be long and he'll be able to weather situations like this, so "one year too early" is infinitely superior to "one year too late"...whereas the Dolphins are presumably hoping Tua looks like a better version of the guy we saw win 8 out of his last 9 games the previous season to be able to take advantage of that rookie contract. He's getting too old for a team that's had a losing record the last 4 years with no real prospect of changing it in the near future (especially repeatedly going 7-9/10 like they have been...), and they seemed to have prioritized sending him where he wanted to go rather than trying to max out compensation.

It's probably a year too early for the Chiefs to get rid of him, but better that than a year too late.

I said the "True Moonies", not the general fandom. The True Moonies, of course, are a secret sect of Sailor Moon fans who...um, well, they're the fine cultured folks that...well, you know what I mean! (...Yes, someone made a partial backup of the Sailor Moon Says channel.)

Whenever I re-watch Sailor Moon, which will eventually happen, I'm not certain whether I want to re-watch the Viz dub, try the Japanese, or become one with the True Moonies by watching the original English. It will be quite the dilemma to decide when the time comes. On one hand, that's gratitude for you; on the other, I'm sure Cobra was acting like a moron. ...Again, I've never actually heard Cobra talk, but I just get the feeling from the perpetual 'not particularly intelligent' look on his face that I have a pretty good idea of what his personality is like, . Gesundheit. Pearl would've been a great name, thank you very much. "Purrrrrrl" where they draw out the first syllable every time they say it, not so much.

Yeah, so that wasn't how I expected that post to end. I was gearing up to write my monthly "why the hell do you keep trying to watch shows that you should obviously leave to someone else that doesn't have your particular OCD, good lord - don't you have enough endless trash on your plate?". Please tell me that this "Merle" doesn't pronounce her name as "Earl" with an M. Also, please tell me that the show looks a lot better on the streaming service (Amazon?) you're watching it on than those screenshots you presumably pulled from Google, because I've seen screenshots of the BDs previously, and I know they looked a lot nicer than that. This was not the one I was going to link because it's obviously not a key frame, but the visual combined with the subtitle was hilarious and it got the point across.

Some months ago, I gave the first episode like ten minutes of my time before I said "maybe next year". Don't know if that one will ever work out for me, though. Weird, I'm not sure then. Maybe she's just a firebug and this is her way of harmlessly acting out.

Does anyone know what the heck Mai's mom is doing with this...whatever it is? Mai came home from school and her mom was sitting with this broom next to this burning pile of leaves or whatever literally in the middle of the street, and Mai didn't seem to take any notice of it, but I have no idea what she's doing or what this is supposed to be. To me, it looks like she swept up some leaves and set it on fire...but, uh, why?

I don't understand quantum mechanics, so I'm obviously not going to address it from that angle although it seems there's a pretty serious argument for it just there, but for me, the entire issue starts from the moment of conception. You are a package of genetic material that you had no will in deciding, genetic material that plays a huge deterministic role in many of your earliest base traits, which then set the tone for your development. Speaking of your development, it is shaped by environments and other people you have little to no control over until you are an adult - and what little power you do have in said environments you are still simply a walking, talking underveloped manifestation of your genetic material and its environmental influences, with virtually no ability to intelligently make conscious changes. Finally, at some point, you are an adult and gain some measure of independence...by which time the vast majority of your personality, mannerisms, thinking processes, behaviors et al. have already been by and large decided as a result of your childhood, and the changes that occur to them after that are generally not the result of any "decisions" you will make, but rather a variety of chance environmental interactions that you will or will not pursue or be receptive towards dependent upon...what, exactly? I didn't decide my personality or the environment I was in that made it so one idea would heavily appeal to me while another wouldn't - I am a slave to my "natural" inclinations that I never had a hand in deciding. Sure, I can force myself to do something that I would not naturally be inclined to do, but the very act of doing that simply to resist my nature is some part of my nature and another distinct inclination to do something different in of itself. Once I start thinking about "what makes one person naturally have the ability to be self-aware and be able to 'choose' to do something contrary to their nature while another cannot", my head starts to hurt and existentialism dread starts to set in again. Ultimately, I agree with rjshae, though - it really doesn't matter in terms of actually living out our lives, and while I think determinism really does make the most sense, I would not use it to excuse anyone's behaviors, thoughts, or actions. Bad music aside, boy howdy indeed if that's the case - I do not want to watch her early videos if this is "much better".

I know it shouldn't really matter for an attempt at a heartfelt message (assuming that's actually the idea and it's not really a deliberate attempt at psyops...note the keyword "deliberate" before any of y'all start @ing me), but it gives the message such a...phony manufactured feel to the entire video the moment I noticed it, which was roughly the second time it happened...and then it kept happening, repeatedly. I know you're not as young and beautiful as you used to be, but really, it's O.K. to just have the camera be on your face the entire time when delivering this kind of message.

I got through the first video and half of the second before I decided that this lady was a terrible writer for and presenter of her ideas - assuming the idea of her videos is to make your layperson convert to her way of thinking...and I think I support her positions. The amount of samey, repetitive sentences that are also enunciated in the exact same way over and over combined with rapidly switching between low level analogies and high level concepts that she doesn't even slightly try to explain further combined with the generally haughty "you better believe what I'm saying because you're literally completely wrong otherwise" mannerisms pretty much guarantees that nobody that doesn't already agree with her is going to spend more than a minute or two watching these videos, . Not the best bit of persuasive writing/speaking that I've heard, that's for sure...and I've been pretty skeptical of the idea of free will most of my entire life, .

He was my governor for some years, and the impression I always got from him was that...he was kind of all over the place? Definitely not just your average party hack - there was stuff he clearly deeply cared about and would reach across party lines for to try to make progress on, and stuff he changed his mind on that didn't fit with the rest of his party as his tenure continued. His administration was pretty terrible for the economy IIRC, though...and there was the matter of his, erm, "indiscretions". ...Was it just me that was inordinately bothered by the multiple camera angles cutting back and forth like it was on a timer in this video?

I think when a few of us (myself, majestic, and KP) all watched it fairly close to each other a while back, we pretty much agreed with you re: "how has literally nobody heard of [this thing that everybody knows about]", and that the ending wasn't necessarily the strongest narrative-wise, but was strong thematically. It can be tough to do both, especially for something like this - endings are hard even in the best of circumstances. Great show, but certainly not perfect by any means.