majestic

Loremaster is making a really strong case. The extra feats and access to other classes' spellbooks pretty much outweigh not having access to capstone blood line abilities. Nothing else really qualifies either, I mean you could take Hellknight Signifier levels, but why would anyone do that?

Yes, maybe we can finally move towards the apocalypse.

You played without any of the I WIN buttons in the Angel book?

8-Bit Adventures 2: Huh, why u no embed? Embed u giev!1! - ah, worked now... Anyone else probably won't need 40 hours to finish the game, I just grinded a whole lot more than necessary, and spent a whole lot of time backtracking and trying to do quests that were clearly there to do, but simply not accessible yet. It also has some pacing issues here and there but was otherwise a pretty nice game riding on old JRPG nostalgia. As such, it does what is required of a JRGP. It has an airship (alas, no flying fortress) to explore the world with, and a story that becomes increasingly unhinged every step of the way before going completely off the rails. Much like its predecessor it's story is built upon toying with the fourth wall. It does a good job of capturing the old-school JRPG feel without recreating the more annoying parts. There are no random encounters, for instance, and enemies do not respawn as long as you stay within a dungeon, unless you exit of tell the save point to revive them. Also, the, uhm, save points in the game are not necessary. You can save whenever you feel like it. They're still there, for nostalgia's sake, and to provide boss clues and some friendly banter. Can certainly spend one's money on worse stuff.

Whisper of the Heart is, besides fantastic, a film that manages the seemingly impossible. It is an interesting tale of a young girl figuring her life out, it is romantic, often fun, and... absolutely soul crushing for an adult viewer like me.

The episode was a decent step up from the earlier seasons, but it's still far too early to tell and it has way too many elements that I already don't want to see in a Star Trek series, or already were in Star Trek series, like these new Pseudo-Hirogen Predator things, and a second Captain Jellico who is actually really angry at Riker and Picard for no reason . They probably would have hired Ronny Cox for this if he wasn't old enough to be Admiral too by now. Then there's the way Starfleet Intelligence interacts with Raffi (and I don't particularily care for Raffi, but that is just stupid - DS9 did that better in a one-off with Miles O'Brien) before that terrorist attack. Still, at least once past the first five minutes I no longer wanted to pull my hair out, if it keeps being that way I'll chalk that up as a win. At least until Moriarty comes back and it inevitably falls apart.

Personal highlight of the episode: Random captain of a ship telling Picard that he basically does not like him because he's always galavanting off on some irresponsible adventure or two.

The first five minutes of Star Trek: Picard Season 3 are about as dumb as the rest of the series was. What a grand opening. This is fantastic.

Asked ChatGPT to replace my colleagues with a shell script. It told me it cannot do that as this is a "potentially inappropriate" request.

I neither took a picture, nor asked for an extra autograph, and would not have even if I had not gotten one through the promotional event prior to the concert (which I also did not want to attend, but was forced to by the group I was with). I used to have a three hour public commute for five years during high school, a time that taught me the value of being left in peace. I specifically said I understood her reaction, however, it was the manner in which it was delivered that I thought made it relevant to the discussion at hand - which was Tarja's behaviour in Nightwish. She was not just unhappy about having a small group of random fans accidentially stumble upon them on their way to the bus, it was also a reaction to Tuomas' decision to give "us" the time of day. As far as I recall, the others (Jukka, Marco) did not either, it was just him. They left too, just with no clear show of disdain. It is, however, entirely possible that there is a cultural difference at work here, admittedly, I have but a passing familiarity of Finnish culture, and that is barely more than a collection of stereotypes. It might not really be relevant, but it is how I read the situation back then - and presumably still would today, although I can't say for sure. It has been 18 and a half years, after all.

Usagi's mother in PGSM is an absolute whackjob. That's pretty much all for now. That wasn't Minako, it was Makoto. I'm not entirely sure why I wrote Minako. She beats Tuxedo Mask up for flirting with Usagi while being engaged. Yeah, that's more like it. Within the series, it makes sense for Makoto to do that, not only has he hurt Usagi, but this Tuxedo Mask is a jewelry thief like in the manga, and Makoto really doesn't like criminals. On the flipside, it makes more sense for everyone but Usagi to distrust him with this setup than it does in the original anime, where he's always just a helpful guy throwing roses. Before basically being relegated to tertiary character by Ikuhara.

Having a 12+th gen Intel CPU also helps with the decision. While the Windows 11 Thread Director doesn't significantly improve top end performance outside of some outliers over Windows 10, 1% and 0.1% lows in games are noticably better with Windows 11.

Also absolutely worthless as it gives no point of reference as to what this "brand new laptop, just booted up" actually is and how much pre-installed software just started up (queries to McAffee sound suspiciously like there's a pre-installed McAffee suite on the computer), and then he goes on to compare it to a clean Windows XP Professional installation. Also notice how the Windows XP task bar is shown, but never the Windows 11 task bar (in the video, not in the thumbnail). In fact, he just kept the browser in full screen mode all the time. Why? That is reminiscent of the video claiming that Windows 10 phoned home half a million times where they disconnected the computer from the internet, and 499,000 of these connections were the networking time protocol trying to sync the computer's date and time. Oooooh, scary. Not that Microsoft isn't collecting data, but this proves nothing, it's just manipulative bull... like almost all of these videos.

Ah, yes, I was being unclear here: the "without prior notice" part was not meant in the legal sense, i.e. firing an employee immediately due to egregious misconduct, but the way it was delivered, on stage, right after the final performance of the tour. That is a point in time picked precisely for one thing, to hurt as much as possible. It was payback - for slights perceived or real, well, that is something else, but you'll get no argument from me that Tarja most likely had it coming, but I did and do think that the public spectacle the firing became was unbecoming and unprofessional of the group. How they dealt with Anette later just compounded that impression. No, that is probably right, there has to be a reason why the rest of the group basically made it about "remove Tarja or we'll leave", but regardless, that is not a reason to do this in such an unprofessional manner, and from what I have read over the years, she wanted to pursue other interests and would have left anyway. It logically followed with the rumor mill endlessly churning on about how Tuomas fired her over unrequited love. Not that I doubt that he was actually in love with Tarja, as Ever Dream is as good a love letter to Tarja as any, but the firing was certainly not over that. Anyway, that Tarja did not really want to be a part of the group any more was fairly evident for me in two things, first, I watched the End of Innocence documentary, which contained a lot of rather subtle clues about what she was thinking at the time, and second her attitude at the concert I was back in 2004, where we actually managed to stumble upon the group after the concert on their way to the tour bus. Sure, it was a long day as there were ridiculous promotional events all day long prior to the concert (at which she appeared to not really want to be there, basically half-assing her performance for much of the show), but the guys were not bothered by being asked for another round of autographs, and even agreed to taking some pictures. Tarja? Rolled her eyes, scoffed, and ran off. Okay, I get it, that is exactly the reaction I would have had if that happened to me after a hard day's work, but still, short of directly stating it, it's hard to telegraph "I do not want to be here" any clearer, and if that attitude translated into her behaviour on the tour, which is undoubtedly has, then it is no wonder that she was removed from the group.

Nightwish's current lineup is a curiosity for me insofar as it contains two artists that, due to their ability, make seasoned professionals at their respective crafts look like mere amateurs next to them: Kai Hato and Floor Jansen. Yet, here I sit, in the subjective way we all experience art, still wishing Tarja would come back, and I just cannot help myself, while Kai Hato's drumming is of a technical precision that is almost unmatched, Jukka's drumming was just more powerful. I think I said it before, I love Floor Jansen as an artist, but she just isn't what made me originally fall in love with Nightwish*. Alas. It is probably for the better, as that puts me in a position where I do not have to struggle with myself over essentially giving money to a group whose dealings with their vocalists have been, let's be nice, less than ideal. Firing Tarja with an open letter after the last concert of a tour and with no prior notice was already shabby, but throwing out Anette Olzon over feinting while pregnant is Elon Musk level low**. Sorry. Man, posting this I'll have the Nightwish fanboys come at me with pitchforks wherever I go. Speaking of Floor Jansen... *I even liked Anette more than Floor as Nightwish's lead vocalist. **I get it from a business point of view, that NA tour was important for the group. Guess that explains why I'm not a businessman, or the manager type.

Everspace 2 will move out of early access in April. Before that, on February 20th, the price will go up by 10$/€. If you're at all interested in the game, now is the time to buy at a discount. Gamepass subscribers need not bother buying as it will be available on Gamepass. In the interest of fairness and for everyone who has not played the first game and doesn't know, this is not a space simulation, it is an arcade shooter. It's not as hard as the first Everspace and no longer has the permadeath/rogue-lite mechanics but it doesn't pull any punches either. You can play the game with a joystick and in first person/c-o-c-kpit view, but you will be making things harder on yourself. KB + M in 3rd person is the way to go. Back when I played the alpha and parts of the early access the game wasn't as much fun as the first one, but I'm notoriously bad at dealing with a more open world approach. I see a reputation to grind, I do that, even if moving on in the story and to other systems generates quests that yield more reputation... *sigh* The developers said they expect players to spend around thirty hours playing the game. I'm already at thirty hours, and I'm not even out of the second system. Final release is going to have six, with more maybe added in an expansion. Optimization on the earlier builds was pretty bad, but apparently it's gotten to the point where it is playable at 1080p in medium settings with a GTX 970 level card. Way, way back I had to turn everything down to minimum to even get it to play semi-smoothly on a GTX 970.

I'm married to the daughter of a catholic Croatian woman and an orthodox ethnic Serb from Bosnia, I'm way ahead of the curve here.

I'm merely quoting your post because it is a good way to start. Since bad faith reading of what I write has become normal recently (even at work, for whatever reason), I feel like I have to state this. O tempora, o mores. Anyway, to quote Captain Malfoy: To restate that again, I made a simple observation about Austrian voters of a party whose current party line is basically being anti-vax and Pro-Russian. It was generalized for sure, but it applies to no other group than the people I was talking about. Oh, and by the way, I think Czech consider themselves to be a part of Central Europe. Me, personally? Anything that was on the other side of the iron fence is Eastern Europe. A party directly financed by Russian money. They picked up some 15% voters with that program, which is most of our anti-vax population. The others still go to the dedicated anti-vax party or vote for the greens, because they're all organic vegan lifestyle weirdos whose little Elias, Noah and Leah aren't getting any bad chemicals injected. Funnily enough, the latter group is on average amongst the most educated people in the nation. These voters were also avid consumers of the German Russia Today branch, who flooded YouTube with videos about the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccines. Their talking points were, by far and large, about how they are untested, could be DNA altering and ineffectual (which, curiously enough, have 'some' overlap with the sentiments stated here on the forum, and can all three be considered factually wrong). On a good day they had a veneer of scientific legitimacy by inviting immunologists like Sucharit Bhakdi - someone who should actually know better. Probably does. I'll be gracious and say that he's not just in it for the fame and money but because of his experiences with the dengue vaccinations, which really had adverse effects down the line wtih infections by strains being much worse for vaccinated people (one of his claims was that the COVID-19 vaccines could cause cytokine storms). The same TV station implored Russians to get vaccinated. By an untested, DNA altering and ineffectual (sorry, could not resist) vector vaccine. Indeed, we (Yuro-Peons) should be holding van der Leyen and the EU responsible for wasting enormous amounts of taxpayer money on the overpriced Pfizer vaccine, with equally good, if not better, alternatives being around for cheaper, or even at cost. But hey, Biontech is a German company, there was absoultely nothing untoward happening there. Nothing to see here, let's discuss some more about how the largest clinical vaccination trials in history lead to the distribution of 'untested' vaccines. As always, the real conspiracies are too mundane, and too out in the open. It's not fun when everyone knows about them. Can't be the special snowflake that has everything figured out then. Oh, and one last, final jab: I would never equate anti-vaxxers with Flat Urfers. Believing in a Flat Urf is hilarious, and I sometimes watch their videos to amuse myself (there is one of a guy doing 'high IQ research' on a train, stating directly that the Earth has to be stationary because no one can feel the speed at which it moves through space, and the water in this glas there is completely flat, it's just too funny). Sure, they could act as a potential gateway into other conspiracy theories, but they're mostly harmless - they might burn some books or annoy people with their preaching on the street, but that's about it. People who propagate medical quackery on the other hand are harmless at best ("if it doesn't help, at least it won't hurt to try", right?), and dangerous to deadly at worst. Oh, final question, if the Earth isn't flat and stationary, why does NASA use a flat and stationary Earth model in almost all of their calculations? Hmm? Can't answer that one, can you? /High IQ research.

Hey, NASA regularily admits that the Urf is flat and stationary in their documents, and they're online for everyone to see. Just sayin'.

So wanna talk about flat urf next?

Well, I thought it was relatively clear from the context, but apparently not: the current iteration of the Freedom Party has built itself around pandering to anti-vaxx and anti-sanction voters. The Pro-Russion demonstrations the Twatter thread talk about were organized by the same people who organized anti-vax rallies during the lockdowns and the brief time period we had a COVID-19 vaccination mandate (which was never enforced and later dropped), and it does stand to reason that if there would not be significant overlap between the two groups, such a pairing of ideologies would not lead to an increase in voters, let alone one in such numbers. So, yes, while there certainly are anti-vaxxers who are more vegan-lifestyle greens, they're not represented in Freedom Party voters. We could now continue to quibble about whether being against help for the Ukraine and against the sanctions automatically makes someone Pro-Russian, but that is a distinction that is morally hard to justify and callous at best when the party in question wants to immediately normalize relations with Russia and drop all aid to the Ukraine (and ideally send all the refugees back home). Casting your lot in with the Freedom Party means you at the very least accept their Pro-Russian/Pro-Putin stance, and their party leader's ivermectin ramblings, and his steadfast refusal to get vaccinated, and actively espouse it at worst*. Still, the distinction is relevant for people who can no longer make ends meet, and yet another failing of our politicians that these people feel that there is simply nowhere else to turn. Those also represent a part of the voters in those potential 25+% - but by far the biggest block (20%) of voters are those who simply believe both, that vaccinations were made for whatever nefarious reason (most benignly to make money) and that going back to the pre-war status quo would fix all of our woes. Also not sure since when calling a spade a spade has become an issue. Isn't that more for the 'radical left'? That all said, here's another fun label for you to tease that bee in your bonnet: (actual Nazi anti-vaxx propaganda) *Not that I believe for one second that this guy actually really believes the anti-vaxxer nonsense he is spewing, that's just something he tells the people because they want to hear it. Such a stand-up guy. Wonderful guy, that is. Everyone is against him. So sad.

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

Well, this is from our former foreign minister's wedding party. I am kind of uncertain how people are surprised by these 'revelations', but some parts of the Twatter thread are (not going to speculate about whether that is intentional or not) misleading. Christian Kern, for instance, resigned his position at the board of the Russian Railways when war broke out, and the reduction in intelligence sharing goes back to an earlier point in time and was related to a hostile takeover attempt where the Nazi Freedom Party (illegally) had the police raid the intelligence service headquarter over some North Korean passports in order to install a leadership more inclined to, say, look the other way when it comes to their connections with far right neo-nazi elements. The Schengen veto has absolutely nothing to do with any Russian agenda and everything with our ridiculous chancellor trying to score brownie points with the right-wing fringes before a couple of very important elections (one of which recently happened and saw his party lose a 50% +1 majority that they have held since the end of World War Two, just to drive home in what sort of dire straits the party really is). If tihs was at all related to any Russian agenda, then Orban's vote would have been different. The spying part is, to borrow from a local idiom, an old hat that is barely worth talking about. Everyone in Vienna is a spy, and has been for two centuries now, and as the thread said, it pretty much was codified post World War Two with certain changes to our laws. It's part of the reason how and why we managed to get the Russians off our territory, and it certainly wasn't and still isn't just for the benefit of Russia. It is also missing a few details, but what can one expect from Twatter. Our politicians were also constantly lobbying to soften or even remove the EU Post-Crimean annexation sanctions. Again, this does not come as much of a surprise, as RBI (Raiffeisen Bank International) is heavily invested in Russia, and it is also heavily invested in the ÖVP*, a party that has been a part of our governmen for 40 years now and is in really, really dire need of a timeout from power. Alas, for that to happen, the centrist and left-wing elements of our political landscape would have to work with the far-right fringes, and there's a better chance of hell freezing over. Anyway, it is hard to overstate the amount of power that the RBI wields. If one is proficient enough in German they could read the Raiffeisen Black Book for a glimpse. They have an enormous amount of money invested in Russia, and act accordingly. Fun fact, the Ukraine recently put RBI board members on the sanction list, with the exception of the one board member who is actually Ukrainian (Andrii Stepanenko). Because... yeah, never mind, I think that's obvious and rather revealing. In closing, because I have no idea what caused me to write this post now that I've reached a natural ending point, there's also the issue of the conspiracy theorists and Putin apologists. Those exist, in scary numbers, and there's a massive overlap with the anti-vaxxers. The FPÖ is openly garnering their votes, and they're rapidly approaching 25% or more according to polls. Politically, this is going to be fun going foward, because our current government it too busy with keeping itself from falling apart to actually address the issues the common people are facing. In the odd case they're actually realizing that there's an issue. To quote our president with his 300k yearly pay: Just grit your teeth. That's going to help for sure. *There's an old joke. To explain, first one needs to know that the BAWAG bank was initially created by prominent members of the Socialist Party as a way for workers to have access to banking services without having to go to the bourgeoise and capitalist other banks. It was held, until a financial scandal and dire straits, by the unions and the Austrian consumer's co-operative had shares too. It is fair to say that the Socialist Party (nowadays Social-Democratic Party) once indirectly 'owned' a bank. So, what is the difference between the SPÖ and the Raiffeisen bank? Well, one's a party with a bank, and the other's a bank with a party...

Well, if you have seen Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves then... you've seen Avatar, by far and large.

I recently threw out a bunch of books for various discontinued pices of software and operating systems from the early 2000s, and while I know they were practically useless, it still felt wrong to dump them. I kept my BeOS R4 book though. Not that BeOS is going to make a comeback, but it's a fun curiousity, at least. Unlike these: