majestic

Out government just removed the COVID-19 quarantine in favor of mandating FFP2 masks if you're infected, have no symptoms and want to leave home. Technically that means you're allowed to sit in a pub as long as you wear a mask, but you're not allowed to drink anything. Bet you the owners are going to be as happy about someone sitting there with a mask on as every other guest. Not entirely against dropping the quarantine, but as always, the implemented solution has... rather curious peculiarities. The change was made primarily to get symptomless infected back into the workforce in some way.

Surly there must be a curriculum for that ?

https://screenrant.com/mass-effect-3-everyone-dies-kill-squadmates-renegade/

Played and finished The Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown. The remastered version, I mean. Even with the revamped character progression and the added option the game runs a little too long and overstays its welcome at the end. It became much more enjoyable after I stopped bravely facing every enemy I ran across and just ran from fights tha would be too long drawn out or flat out annoying, like having multiple groups of spellcasters at high ranges. Why bother, just run, the next fight is just around the corner anyway. All in all, for an almost fourty years old game, that was pretty good. Well, with the added quality of life from the remastered version. I'd be much less positive if I had to draw my own maps. While modern gaming sure feels like it has lost a certain charm (and perhaps it just doesn't feel like it), some things are best left in the past - although I'm willing to admit that might be just a matter of having much less spare time. Drawing dungeon maps was a nice part of the immersion back when Eye of the Beholder was new, but after a hard day's work, I'm not really in the mood to fight monsters and the game. Not sure if I want to immediately continue on to BT2.

Caught up on The Boys. Expectations can really make a major difference in enjoyment. Based on earlier comments I expected season two to be not really great and season three to be fantastic, and found it was the other way around for me. Season three managed a very impressive feat: It feels like the writers crammed everything but the kitchen sink of contemporary issues into it, but it still feels like it is running on a treadmill for most of its runtime. Dunno. Didn't like Kimiko's musical interludes, nor Black Noir's cartoons, also didn't like Seth Rogen's cameo and I'm not sure what I expected from Herogasm, but certainly not the tame little episode that it actually ended up being. Soldier Boy was mostly meh, as was the resolution at the end of the season. Hughie and Starlight have a conflict is also really getting old, as is the on and off infighting with Butcher. Guess my opinion would be better if I hadn't binged seasons two and three back to back. It just makes it way too obvious how everything stays just the same in just the right way to keep on churning out seasons. Not entirely sure if that's the fault of the comics as I don't know them. So no commentary on the adaptation. The pacing problem might be there too, I don't know.

Well, ditch the cripple and get it over with. Actually, that clip should be enough of a demonstration, anyway.

Strike Witches, episode 2: I don't think I'm going to make a post every time I watch one of these episodes. Basically, what's currently shaping up to be a bit of a mindless but otherwise at least not terrible sci-fi alternate reality magical girl show is severely undermined by all the weird crotch shots. They don't even have the decency to stop it when Yoshika is crying at her father's grave. Well, not like I didn't know before, right? After some of the Nanoha stuff, all I can say is: Well, at least they're not nine. What a wonderful hobby I got here.

People who like Alien: Resurrection would ditch a cripple.

I once watched anime on behest of another, to serve the people of this thread in person. I found only chaos and insane stalker girls. Dead whispers. For twenty-four episodes I was confused. No more. I have gathered the will to watch under no name but my own. To champion the withered trhead and correct this blighted world. Beg that I succeed. For I have seen the future of anime, and it was empty! That said, inorder to stop myself from trying whatever kooky Isekai you guys want to watch, I instead watched: ストライクウィッチーズ (Strike Witches), episode 1 So, basically, this is an alternate reality magical girl show where instead of World War 2, an alien invasion happened in 1939, and the militaries of the world came together to create the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, colloquially known as Strike Witches, to fight the alien invaders. It is set apart from other sci-fi magical girl shows (read that as Nanoha, mostly, because there aren't that many of them, far as I know) by not having transformation sequences with nudity, instead the girls grow cat ears and a tail when using magic. That said, there's... very weird fanservice. Well, some is fairly regular, like girls in swimwear in the first episode (always a good sign, I guess), but uniforms of any sort apparently have neither skirts nor pants. The girls are basically wearing a shirt and some underwear, and as logically follows, there's a heavy focus on awkward crotch shots. Most of the time, I at least 'get' the fanservice. I don't particularily enjoy it, and it's often embarrassing, but at least I understand why it is there. This here? No idea how that's supposed to be appealing. So, for no reason what-so-ever, three quarters of the cast aren't wearing pants or skirts. I have no idea why. At least it doesn't have an super stupid slapstick to accompany it. Yet. Yeah, I basically have no excuse for this. There's any number of things I could have continued to watch but didn't. Not particularily in the mood or able to watch Texhnolyze at the moment. That's going way over my head right now, what with everything being a buzz. Currently alone at the office, my sleeping has been spotty and my weekend was filled with one giant social gathering, i.e. my wife and I invited friends and family to finally celebrate our wedding. That was, funnily enough, three years ago, but with the lockdowns it was more or less impossible until now. It's not all bad, because outside of the silly fanservice stuff this looks like it's the sort of goofy, mindless action shlock I can watch while being brain-afk.

The second one bothers me the most for some reason. It's just wrong. The others, uh, not so much. Where are the shiny spots on the faces?

The mining mini-game in ME2 brings out my inner child. I just keep wasting probes on Uranus and laugh at EDI's increasingly annoyed replies.

Unlike KP, I think self-harm is preferable to watching Alien Resurrection. I watched the film at the theater. They had what they called a 'quadruple feature' midnight premiere of the film, showing Alien, Aliens and Alien³ back to back before Alien: Resurrection at midnight. The evening was quite the experience. It's incredible how much your butt will start to hurt even in the most comfortable of seats after nine hours of sitting and staring at a screen. Of course I failed to learn from the experience and repeated the same mistake with Lord of the Rings later. That was one movie less, but even more runtime. Still remember that the cinema chain had a couples' special at the time, two large soft drinks and a bucket of popcorn. I went there with a friend, and he didn't want any popcorn, but the special was cheaper than two regular sized soft drinks and separate popcorn, so we went and bought the special. Priceless look from the clerk lady. Kinda looked like she was afraid of catching the gay. Yeah, maybe not everything was better in the 90ies. That's the sort of thing that would have been hurtful if we had been an actual couple. Anyway, evening came as close to a complete bust as possible. Watching the four films back to back just shows you how much the series became gradually worse for the wear. While I'd agree that Alien³ isn't as bad as it is made out to be, watching it almost directly after Alien is not ideal. I even dozed off in the middle of watching it, which is really odd when I normally can't even sleep with the TV on.

It is, except worse in every way, and Ripley is an alien/human hybrid for whatever reason. If you thought she overacted in Aliens, you're in for a treat in Resurrection.

Make sure to try the Imoen romance mod for BG2.

When we make jam, which is pretty much every year simply because we have a lot more fresh fruit and berries than we can eat, we just puree everything, then cook it with only a 1:2 ratio of fruit puree to sugar. The result is a very smooth jam that is easily spread on whatever you want it, with an incredible aroma and taste and a lot less cloying sweetness than the store-bought stuff. I just googled pictures of seedless raspberry jam, and that stuff looks like jelly good. Ugh. No thanks. It also most certainly doesn't get goopy, like, at all. There's just not enough added sugar in it. Well, maybe after a couple of years, but a little stirring will fix that. Needless to say, I also don't want chunks of fruit in my jam. That's just not my, uhm, jam. I know people who like that sort of stuff, but there's no accounting for taste, or something.

Getting back to politics, there's fun stuff going down in Italy. The cynic in me wants to call this the first of many dominoes falling the other way.

That looks so terrible, yikes. Eh, she also gave Komi another chocolate, one shaped like her naked body and yelled "LICK YOUR FAVORITE PART OF ME!" at Komi for everyone to hear. If anyone doesn't know by now, they're willfully obtuse. Jasper's on Neptune! Technically, Sailor Moon had a softball episode. Hey don't look at me, I don't know the difference. I'm sure there are some, but it both looks like someone's batting a thrown ball, a lot of people are just standing around and the games take ages and nothing much happens. Now for a more serious reply, the Steven Universe episode had more character development as it advanced and closed off a certain chapter in Garnet's, well, life, while the Sailor Moon one is mostly pure hilarity. Well, Usagi does catch a ball in the end, but that's nowhere near the same. My quality is pretty bad, but please, click me! Najimi is, like @KP wants Blue Velvet already said, pretty much there to serve as an impetus for Komi and Tadano to leave their comfort zone. The biggest problem is that the show never does anything worthwhile with that, as everything that feels like character and relationship development doesn't spring from their antics, but from Komi and Tadano being in der comfort zone and edging out of it. Just the two of them. Najimi is just there for the "plot" of Komi wanting to find one hundred friends. Tadano's sister, who is only in the show for like one and a half episodes, does more for that than Najimi, who is in pretty much everything. Aside from that, yeah, Najimi is a bit of a Minako style character. Except not really good. Like everything else in Komi can't communicate. Voice acting from hell rounds it off (particularily Najimi). Like nails on chalkboard style. Ugh.

Dimash Kudaibergen is a singularily gifted vocalist cursed with an excruciatingly annoying fandom fandumb.

Well, color me orange and call me Sunkist. Apparently there is a higher power.

Pretty sure he got banned for insulting Hurlshot.

Qistina was certainly more 'real' than ComradeMageSonicYellow117.

For now. I hear there's an Orcish horde under the command of Vladolf Putler just waiting to change that.