Bartimaeus

The Vast of Night (2019). I super don't know how I feel about his one. The style of it, with its insane long takes where you just have a girl working an old phoneline switchboard for literally like ten minutes straight without interruption trying to figure out what's going on in her town stressed me the hell out (in a good way - also, holy crap, what a scene that was!)...and the dialogue and characters and scenes were all nice and well-done. Really, the big problem with it is that the film is exactly what it portrays itself as being, there aren't really any twists, and it leans a bit too heavily on its style without doing something new. Even saying that, I really rather enjoyed it. Difficult one for me to really nail down my feelings on. (e): RLM originally recommended this in the summer of 2020 (aka CY 0 aka Coronavirus Year 0) as basically being a very well-done "non-movie movie" that's totally built on atmosphere. So take that as you will. I seem to have seen a few of these now, between Jeanne Dielman and The Assistant...and I seem to like or at least appreciate them.

Yes, it was the example of "embarrassing shows for embarrassing people" that I could come up with off the top of my head. Now, I didn't really know too much about it at the time, but my prognostication for determining what shows are about had a pretty good feeling, and I think that's mostly but not entirely borne out. If nothing else, something a little more positive came out of it in K-On, . Though I think it really depends on how you get to "average". Love Live! seems to be a mix of "hey, some actually genuinely good parts...aaaaand some actually genuinely bad parts, but mostly just kind of average/mediocre". There are other shows that are very good for the most part but do a few certain important things so horribly wrong that it brings the entire show down to sort of just an average "meh" by souring you on the whole thing...and then there are other shows that are below that but still not exactly bad but do a few certain things just right that make you like them more than you perhaps should but still are kind of average on the whole. Lots of different ways to get to an average score, and being consistently mediocre is probably the worst thing you can do because you can't tell if it's ever going to get better while you're watching it but it's not bad enough you necessarily want to pre-emptively drop it. As for the show as a whole...what a shame, but not really, because I never wanted to see their horrifying faces anyways and this just 100% confirms I won't if you can't even come up with a small recommendation. Seriously, their faces are frightening, .

Nadia, episode 31. It was pretty good and feels the most like the original show - characters felt like they made sense, they were properly motivated, the stuff that happened felt like it mattered, animation was good again. So a good continuation for episode 30 which had actually finally been a decent episode. ...Okay, with that said, episodes 32 and 33 were top-tier disasters of the highest sort. I can't even...holy crap. SuperS is probably the closest thing to what this feels like, but somehow it feels even worse than that, because for as much as SuperS made me discontent with the show and sometimes even mad at even my favorite characters (like that singing episode where Minako was a huge dink to Makoto), never did I want the characters to just die. I thought those other six episodes were bad, but this was truly next-level awful. It was bad enough I actually left in the middle of the episode to go get some headphones so I could play some music over the episode and just read the subtitles only. Worst thing is, what happens in these episodes is...it's really difficult to encapsulate why it feels so wrong and awful. It's like none of the characters are themselves but instead were replaced by some really strange and flanderized caricatures that feels like some really gosh-awful fanfiction, combined with episode plots that are totally and utterly irrelevant to and disconnected from anything and everything, bad animation that would be forgivable if it was just a scene or two but just keeps up the entire episode. And why is everyone always constantly yelling at each other in these episodes? Filler episodes have never been a problem with me in shows, often just the contrary, but the filler episodes in the second half of this show have felt like they occur in an entirely different universe from the non-filler episodes.

I think Amentep skims through this thread, but also I don't think he cares what people post as long as what's posted doesn't go strongly against the spirit of the rules.

I messed up, I meant to say "Packers and Cowboys", not "Packers and Vikings". Vikings are most definitely not a shoo-in, though I do think they have a chance. Late night posting, .

Yeah, Irenicus can just go ahead and have my soul.

NFC North and NFC East both look pretty bad, though I think the Vikings will recover somewhat - they're better than their record indicates (and I actually put my money where my mouth was in saying that, as I actually made the incredibly foolish decision to pick the Vikings to beat the Seahawks this week in my pick-em this past week, which I almost changed about five or six times...but apparently I was onto something, because they pretty soundly beat the Seahawks). Think the Vikings and the Packers are just about shoo-ins for the playoffs if for no other reason than both teams having the guy.

Dope practical effect from "Sh! The Octopus" (1937). Apparently achieved with the help of being in black and white - makeup that wouldn't look any different than normal in black and white under a certain light and then you change the lighting mid-scene so that the makeup will show up. (e): lightning -> lighting

Packers @ 49ers Sunday Night Football gave me football cancer, I'm pretty sure. That was some atrocious garbage. Between phantom roughing the passer, phantom defensive pass interferences, calling a trip on a defensive player when they're sacking the QB, Davante Adams getting knocked out on an extremely obvious spearing with no penalty called, missing an obvious grounding that gifted them seven points...what an absolute disaster. Guess I should be happy that Rodgers pulled some vintage Rodgers witchcraft and still managed to win the game starting the final drive with 37 seconds and no timeouts, but my gosh. Also can't believe our defensive line AND offensive line controlled most of the game, when: 1. The 49ers have had steller offensive line play the past couple of weeks with some star talent; 2. The Packers are starting two rookies on offensive line and were missing both their HoF LT (Bakhtiari) and their elite LG that was filling in for LT at an elite level (Jenkins) while starting some literal nobody named Yoshi at LT; 3. Packers' DL have been somewhere between bad and atrocious this year as well as last year; 4. 49ers' DL is one of the strongest in the game. None of that makes any sense to me at all, but I'm glad we won.

And for being made by Madhouse, it doesn't even look all that good. ...I mean, it looks a lot better than most of the crap that came out around that time, but still, . I'll keep you updated on Nadia. I need to watch the next episode of Sakura something fierce (and Devil Lady), but a busier than average week prevented that...and I won't have time today, either. MAYBE TOMORROW.

Deltarune 2. Will I ever get tired of Toby Fox and his ridiculous Undertale shtick? Almost certainly not, because this stupid crap is great.

Another episode of Nadia, another episode that is primarily characters just yelling at each other over dumb stuff. However, unlike the previous episodes, this one felt like it was actually written by some of the people that made earlier episodes, because instead of being dreadfully boring and annoying, there was actually some fun and enjoyment in it. Not only that, but the episode's animation looked like it was made by the original animation team. The next episode...GASP, actually had something materially happen in regards to the plot, even if it only was at the last couple of minutes of the episode and the episode ended on a cliffhanger. Incredible. Could've really done without the 6 or so utterly worthless episodes in between, but maybe we're finally at the end of the tunnel here. Maybe. Maybe after I've finished Sakura and need something totally different yet slightly familiar, . Just kidding, I'm never watching K-On, I already told you that. And if I ever write any posts to the contrary at some point in the future, you can rest assured that they're lies told by my evil doppelganger. However, my evil doppelganger isn't so bad, really, so you should continue to converse with him.

I actually took a screenshot of this. Sure, there's more context...but the context just makes it a little more applicable in regards to Love Live! and the people who showed up to that concert, . So...in other words, skip Love Live!, watch K-On, right? (e): Stupid link re-directs because it's some piece of crap website. Fixed.

Probably nothing too crazy like that - plus, it wasn't the right shape, it was too long and thin. Which I still think is odd, because all of the really hot peppers do generally look more like reapers or ghosts, i.e. thicker and shorter. Don't know what it was, maybe just a mutant of some normally-not-that-hot variety - that occasionally happens. I love the taste of jalapenos, but 99% of them are somewhere between "literally not spicy at all" and "a little spicy". Except once every blue moon, maybe one out of every couple hundred or so (I eat peppers on/with pretty much everything, though like I said, nothing too extreme), I get one that's somehow hotter than your average habanero, and it's always bit of a shock, especially since I use weaker peppers more plentifully (and sometimes more directly) than hotter ones...for obvious reasons. So I don't know for sure what that was or what happened, but that unknown pepper was really freaking hot. Let me clarify: I think habaneros are very hot. But...they're not like, in the realm of "this will make you have a seizure or throw up if you try to eat one when you're not that into spicy foods" like something crazy (e.g. a reaper) would, and for someone who eats spicy food pretty much every day, they're hot but they're not going to kill me. So relatively speaking, habaneros aren't that hot, . I've been eating spicy food since I was a kid because my parents loved spicy food, which is presumably why I'm a bit more resistant both on both tongue and digestive tract levels. However, my stomach still feels like a volcano even though I ate hours ago, so that's not great.

Had some kind of pepper (vegetable or whatever, not the spice) that just about killed me inside some fried corn quesadillas. Knew I was in for a bad time when I popped a tiny shred of it into my mouth and instantly started sweating and my gums started to tingle, and never mind my tongue. I could barely stand or see, and apparently I was deathly pale. Don't know what it was, because I got it from a friend of a friend that grows a bunch of different ones and it wasn't one I recognized (long and thin, which is weird, because the hottest peppers are usually more bulbous in appearance). A bit hotter than how hot I normally go, which is usually just habaneros. My digestive system isn't normally sensitive at all to hot stuff, but I have a feeling I might be feeling that one later on.

Oh yeah, she just sounds so cool, relatable, and likeable. Possibly the very worst kind of sugary snack. Yeah, honestly, the one SuperS episode probably look better than that episode did. It was really bad.

Silly little cartoon, but made me really consider the idea that solar power is really the only thing that can actually grant you power autonomy on a long-term basis. Everything else, 99.99% of people are dependent on corporations' (or governments') infrastructure and logistical capabilities and having those entities keeping that entire system running. While solar power may still require acquiring and getting the actual tech up and running, it's really the only thing your average home-owning person can do to make themselves less dependent on that system. Where it makes sense and where local governments don't try to restrict it, of course. Couldn't help but think back to @Guard Dog and his previously mentioned use of solar power, and it was like, yeah, okay, I kind of get it now.

Episode 27 of Nadia. This episode's animation looks like it was made by the same people who made that one really strange-looking episode of Sailor Moon SuperS - looked positively wack. Not even the main characters looked like themselves - looked like fan animation...or worse. (what is this, an upscaled DVD source?) I mean, wow...that, uh, none of that's right. These aren't even in between frames or anything - these are the key frames that the show kept pausing on! But...contrarily, finally, the episode was a bit less annoying and our characters had more to do than just yell and scream at each other over trivialities (even though it was still total filler that wasn't particularly interesting), so at least there's that. And then the 28th episode was like 1/3rd clip show, 1/3rd filler, 1/3rd...mind-numbing nothingness. Good gosh, why did they bother to continue the show after the first arc ended? If nothing else, the animation and fidelity got better although it still feels and looks like it was made by a different (and significantly worse) team from the first arc. I'm just so bored and annoyed out of my mind watching this, please let this end as soon as possible. It's like every episode is a bottle episode where characters are just...talking at each other while doing absolutely nothing: shot, reverse shot, shot, reverse shot, repeat 1 second animation loop ten times in a row, repeat frame, more uninteresting and repetitive dialogue. Gah, it's so bad! I hate to say it, but Utena was better than this - at least it was weird and fascinating and had the illusion of things continuing to move along most of the time. This...doesn't: it's not visually interesting, the characters are flanderized and either boring or annoying, and absolutely nothing is happening in the plot or world or with the characters in any meaningful way. This is an advanced level of nothing is happening. If the first arc was about...a 7.5/10, this is more like a 3/10, and that might be generous. I am greatly displeased.

Gosh danged forums ate my post and I didn't save a copy and it didn't save a draft. Unfortunately, the opposite happens: even like tums amplifies it. Usually, the solution is stuff like habaneros, jalapenos, grapefruit... No, I don't know why. Maybe my stomach acids are too base instead of too acidic? I'm not sure. See, maybe what I have is worse in short bursts, but I can do stuff to prevent it from happening - seems like you have the worse deal overall by a bit. Speaking of snicker cakes, I think chocolate is what triggered the last two "acid suffocations" I had, so that's definitely something I avoid before bed. Yuck at your story! Good thing I've never liked (pink) lasagna anyways, .

Nope, it was definitely the spice stuff, because I doubled down and had more to make sure and that was a bad decision. Still don't really know why. There's not even anything weird in the ingredients. I have had an endoscopic exam, although not for that purpose. Presumably, if they had found something like that, they woulda mentioned something, but I don't know for sure, . Anyways, I'm perfectly fine as long as I don't eat stuff I shouldn't, so I think I'll be okay...I think.

Yeah, I know the feeling: I have to be careful not to eat certain things too close before bed, because whatever the flap thingy on your stomach that keeps it closed at the top always has been very weak for me*, I've had a number of times over the years waking up literally suffocating in my own stomach acid. Haven't experienced the real fun of acid reflux until it's directly in your mouth, up your nose, and in your lungs - "tasting" your stomach acid through your nose is a sensation indeed, . ...But the good thing is as long as I don't eat dumb, then it completely averts the problem entirely, so at least there is that. Anyways, hope you get better, all of that sounds miserable. Cardcaptor Sakura: The Gang Gets Walkie-Talkies.

Sorry, been too busy to watch anything over the last few days, maybe get to it sometime later today. Everything is terrible and everything will continue to be terrible. Seeing that crowd lose it when Chibi-Usa did the infinite iframe backdash over and over while being hit over and over and not a single one landing was pretty hilarious. Good watch, .

If only I had read the manga before watching the show - the show would've looked utterly brilliant in every way in comparison. Or wait, if I had read all of the manga first, that would've required that I liked the manga and how it handled everything, and therefore I would've thought the show did everything wrong. Alternatively, if I had stuck with the manga while not liking it, then I probably would've never tried the show to begin with! What a catch-22, . But yes, some retroactive appreciation... It's tough to balance between character comedy and character drama*, isn't it? So often, shows go too hard one way without enough of the other...and that's assuming they do either well from the get-go. Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Steven Universe...these are the ones that did it right for me by and large. Steven Universe and Sailor Moon have their warts, of course, but they got the key balance that made them work and forgive whatever flaws they had. That's why they're special! (...To me.) Romance isn't the end of the world...um, if it's done right and not completely annoyingly or stupidly or fanservice-ingly... Yeah, I guess that's the problem, isn't it? Not just the attention, but also the time. They let that entire thing wax and wane and fester and heal over five entire seasons. That was some serious planning that not a lot of shows can afford to take a chance on...and well, what happened with Lars and Lapis is literally exactly why. Sigh. I mean, not that I ever loved Lars to begin with, but I had literally just finally truly fallen in love with Lapis with her appearance on the moon after having struggled a bit with her the entire show and then the entire thing just...cosmically farts out of existence. SIGH.