Bartimaeus

Rhetorical questions are a lot easier than...well, that show has gone on for way too long to be able to make any kind of real sense of what's happening no matter how detailed you get with your descriptions, .

I hate 17 games, and I hate 7 post-season teams. 16 and 6 was so much more mathematically pleasing, plus it used to be that two teams got a bye, now the #1 seed has an overwhelming advantage compared to all the other teams when #1 seeds were already representing their conference at too high of a rate...ergh. NFC is very top-heavy this season, although this week did some pretty serious damage to that with the Packers (lmao), Rams, Cowboys, and Saints (double lmao) all losing.

I do believe the Falcons are, shockingly, the seventh seed right now.

...then Harlock... ...then Crusher Joe... Here we see the three necessary stages of turning from ridiculous monster to upstanding young man, . ...Well, Crusher Joe isn't entirely upstanding himself, but he sure looks the part. Although Space Adventure Cobra wouldn't necessarily be my ideal representative for ye olde anime art, it just means you have good sense and taste, . The more pertinent question is how far are you planning to go, methinks, .

Packers got demolished even worse against the Buccaneers last regular season, and the Packers QB still won MVP. Good times.

I love the imagery of Nausicaa, and the themes are good. The plot and dialogue...are alright, I guess. Always felt like it was a film that had some...odd scene timing that makes a lot of scenes feel a bit unnatural, plus some general pacing and character issues/deficiencies that you don't really find in other classic Ghibli films. Strangely, I like it a lot more than Laputa, but I think Laputa is probably the better-constructed film.

Yeah, my QB decided not to show up today too, it happens. Something about horse paste being better than vaccines, I guess. (e): Er...wow, you weren't kidding, .

I gots too much other stuff to watch to spend my time on mediocre magical girl animes! ...I mean, unless it's a really good mediocre magical girl anime, that is! Tell me...the characters, how do you feel about them? Are you particularly fond of anyone, does a single character even compare to Sakura or Sailor Moon characters?

That was the idea, yes. And you're right, it's not just Guard Dog, either - I have seen and personally heard that old "they're the same" line what feels like literally a thousand times over the past ~5 years, a rallying cry for that "ah, **** it" attitude that is so dangerously prevalent in this country. I won't lie, I think Democrats are by and large incompetent at best or self-serving status quo maintainers at worst who either lack the ability or will to actually meaningfully accomplish anything half-decent for anyone, and that really sucks for the literal tens of millions of people in this country that are stuck in terrible dead-end situations without the time, energy, resources, and/or opportunity to realistically be able to make any positive changes, while the majority of our politicians just yuck it up. I don't want to support almost nothing changing, but that's the awful choice I find myself desperately clinging to in the face of the alternative that we have seen. And if you really think filling up every single government position with the most cartoonishly incompetent and awful people for each job is still perfectly well and good after the absolute circus that we were forced to endure where almost every institution, tradition, and value that we as people were supposed to hold dear was brutally violated over a period of four years capped off by our president provoking an illegal takeover of our capitol while simultaneously filling up both our courts and the Pentagon with hacks all in a increasingly pathetic attempt to cling to power...ay, karamba - I don't even know what to say to you. Did he need to have actually succeeded for people to have finally noticed that things are not just "same old politics"? No, I will not - cannot - see both sides as "being the same" until at least the worst of that rot is cut off, crushed, and finally burned for what it is. When and if that happens, I will be more content to let that old "they're the same" line slide. Rome wasn't built in a day...but it also didn't fall in a day, either - these things take their toll.

Unless something big directly changes or happens in our ever so small personal universes, nothing is really worth worrying about. Both sides are the same. There's nothing you can do about any of it, so why worry? Both sides are the same. Just kick back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks - it's not like any of this matters! Both sides are the same. Only worry about yourself and your own. Both sides are the same. Do and say anything no matter how reprehensible it may be as long as it's legal and they're paying you for it - it's not as though you have any personal responsibility for your actions. Both sides are the same. They are all corrupt anyways, why support or believe in anyone or anything at all? Both sides are the same. I'll fight, maim, and possibly kill anyone who infringes on me. Both sides are the same. The entire country was going to collapse sooner or later anyways. Both sides are the same. How in the world did things get so bad, where did we go so wrong? Both sides are the same. They are all the same! Both sides are the same. Well, what they did may have direct consequences for you, but it doesn't really matter to me, so... Both sides are the same. Both sides are the same. Both sides are the same.

Lmao, whoops, I SORT OF knew that. I say "sort of" because I did know Nadeshiko was Sakura's mom, but I had no idea what Tomoyo's mom's name was. As has been proved numerous times now, I am the bad with names...especially Japanese ones. Well, if someone's said Tomoyo's name without the "-chan" or some other honorific before now, it was probably a long while ago and I didn't notice. Silly Japanese. I mean, sure, but I'd also watch...you know, Sailor Moon, if it were good. I think it's the "if it were good" that's the problem here, .

It's like the best attack in the entire series...in terms of name and theme anyways. I'm otherwise fond of the Love Me Chain, of course. Roger that regarding the weird/weaker Sakura episode.

DEAD SCREAM. Sakura, episode 62:

My i7-4770k lasted about six years, which is probably pretty close to how long this new 5800x will last me as well. Still, competition's good for both prices and driving these companies forward. I shudder to think of where we'd be right now if AMD had continued to languish after Bulldozer and Intel was still going "ha ha ha, 4 cores and 8 threads is good enough for anybody and everybody...unless you'd like to spend $700 on our terrible extreme series models?". Temperatures are getting kind of crazy, though - that's definitely been a trend as of the last ~5 years. I can cool my 5800x with a ~$60 air cooler just well enough, but if we ever come to a day where all the higher-end CPUs require water-cooling in order to get even baseline performance, that'll be exactly when I stop getting the higher-end CPUs. Maybe we'll have better cooling technology that doesn't involve water by then, though...

Wow, you saying this brought back a sudden rush of memories from when I was...~13 years old and was swimming out on a California beach and didn't realize I had gotten sucked out way past what was safe. I only noticed because I had been out there for a while and realized I was quite exhausted and turned around back to the shore and saw just how far away I was. My mom told me later that she had been screaming at the top of her lungs to come back, but I hadn't heard her because I was too far away. Maybe the closest I ever got to dying (or at least being aware that I was going to), although perhaps I would've been rescued...I'm not sure. I remember it feeling like it was impossible to stay afloat, and just a kind of utterly complete exhaustion when I finally got back. Don't recommend. Still happily went back later, although I was definitely a lot more hyper-aware of where I was from then on.

That's the thing that's wild to me - he could've left it at a few sentences about being allergic and it wouldn't have been great, but we all could've moved on without too much controversy even if people still doubted it. Instead, he was super-ultra-mega-uber-mondo-defensive and went on a full anti-vaxxer rant for like 20 minutes while the entire world was watching. I had to turn off the video while I was watching it live because of how embarrassing it was. Meanwhile, Pat McAfee was sitting there in a sort of stunned silence while the insanity just continued to crap out of Rodgers' mouth and he couldn't stop Rodgers from self-immolating. Just so unnecessary and gross.

And it got worse. Do I even still want to watch the Packers? ...Good lord.

Aaron Rodgers got on the Pat McAfee show just now to explain his side of the story, and basically opened up with "I'm allergic to an ingredient that's present in both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and the CDC literally says not to get the vaccine if you are allergic to them...and at the time of consideration, my only other option was the Johnson and Johnson shot, which was in the process of being pulled for some potentially dangerous side effects". I wish that he had stopped talking there, because while that explanation may not have been even close to anywhere "great", it would've at least left me with a better feeling than where it lead to, which was "cancel culture", "**** the protocols", "my good friend Joe Rogan", "if the vaccine's so great, why are you worried about me, bro", et cetera. What an unmitigated disaster.

As you said, the reality of the story was that he actually lived and essentially wrote the story as an apology...and maybe confession? His childish pride combined with the heavy guilt no doubt creates the unusual characters and story. Interesting that Takahata specifically stated that he wanted to "dispel" the idea that characters like Seita and Setsuko were somehow "more noble" than normal people of the modern age. Even in desperate times, people still make plenty of stupid and life-altering/ending errors of their own making. I had thought about it more, and more came to the conclusion that animation is a wildly varied medium in of itself - some animation would definitely be closer to comics/manga, but other animation would be closer to live action, so it kinda just depends. Regardless, between all the different moving parts involved (changing medium, direction, actors, music, style, what you to decide to keep or cut, all of it - adaptations/remakes of all kinds (books, comics/manga, movies, television, games, it doesn't matter) are inherently unlikely to satisfy those that loved the original. Those that do that are also attract new fans are unicorns. As for live action that successfully made a good adaptation from animated... Uh, I have absolutely nothing. Yeah, but what about being angrier than [the character known as] Black Lady?

I despise college ball, but I keep up with it to see what teams are doing well, as it impacts the NFL. The tiny speck of interest I had went like dust in the wind as soon as I saw the CFP Committee release its rankings. Combined with every else wrong with it, it's a joke of a "competitive" sport.

Him actually looking alright but then getting hurt is the even worse outcome here. J-E-T-S.

Yeah, actually, the more I look at these power efficiency numbers, the more I am underwhelmed. Being the performance king by 5-10% will be enough to get people to at least start buying them again for gaming, since that's usually what desktop gamers care the most about, but when I see the 12900k having literally almost twice the power draw of the 5950x when actually stressed, I am not so pleased.

For sure. I always love it when I watch a great new movie with nobody I recognize - they are forever their characters for me, that's how I remember them. Furthermore, I am oddly way more attached to specific voice actors than I am to actors - it is so incredibly rare that I would ever go "yay" at the thought of a specific actor being in something, whereas literally just that happens all the time in animation with voice actors. While I am ludicrously picky about art and animation styles, the entire medium is just much more my thing than live action for a lot of reasons, so live action remakes will always be...a very difficult translation for me.

Power efficiency still looks kind of booty, but it's progress. If they can't get the efficiency crown for now, at least they can get the top performance crown.