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I kinda liked Handy Smurf.Y'know, if it weren't such an obvious Smurfstorm, I'd feel like Crunchyroll was trying to rip me off:
- In November of 2020 they told me they were merging with VRV, so I needed a VRV subscription. I went ahead and followed their instructions
- This month we couldn't get past episode 130 of the dubbed One Piece (possibly the only anime series in history where the dub is better than the sub, but then you find out that the writer himself hand-picked all the American voice actors, so it suddenly makes sense), so I subscribed to Funimation
- I started getting news of Funimation merging with Crunchyroll and found that Crunchyroll has an independent site again and I thought, "Wait a minute! Why am I paying for this VRV thing?"And the history is very, very stupid.
That's not clever businesspeople trying to bilk consumers out of every last penny; that's small-time shops stabbing each other in the back repeatedly over licensing fees, leaving consumers lost, dizzy, and frustrated.
Fortunately, I'm in a position where I really don't care. I'll pay the extra $8/month to keep both memberships until they figure out what the heck they're doing. But wow... what a mess!
EDIT: YESSS! Smurfette! The only hot Smurf!
Who doesn't like a Handy Smurf!
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What them hands do, smurf?
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You need hands to hold smurfone you care for
You need hands to show that you're smurfcere
When you fear nobody wants to know you
You need hands to brush away the tears
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About to go home. Good night, everyone. And have a good weekend.
Have a good weekend, John. Be well.
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Got home from the Neil Gaiman reading downtown, which was lovely (he read a few of my favorite short stories, two poems (including the one he wrote for Neal Adams), and shared a number of charming personal anecdotes, but no signing).
And now I'm starting to restore all of my data from our NAS to my repaired and upgraded laptop, after two weeks of having it out of commission. It is now ridiculously fast. Really glad I ran all the backups when it started dying so I didn't lose anything.
But it has Windows 10 now, which is going to take some getting used to. So far I'm just going through and disabling all the things.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Y'know, if it weren't such an obvious Smurfstorm, I'd feel like Crunchyroll was trying to rip me off:
- In November of 2020 they told me they were merging with VRV, so I needed a VRV subscription. I went ahead and followed their instructions
- This month we couldn't get past episode 130 of the dubbed One Piece (possibly the only anime series in history where the dub is better than the sub
Impossible.
, but then you find out that the writer himself hand-picked all the American voice actors, so it suddenly makes sense),
Hrmph... if it's with the creators blessing...
so I subscribed to Funimation
- I started getting news of Funimation merging with Crunchyroll and found that Crunchyroll has an independent site again and I thought, "Wait a minute! Why am I paying for this VRV thing?"And the history is very, very stupid.
That's not clever businesspeople trying to bilk consumers out of every last penny; that's small-time shops stabbing each other in the back repeatedly over licensing fees, leaving consumers lost, dizzy, and frustrated.
Fortunately, I'm in a position where I really don't care. I'll pay the extra $8/month to keep both memberships until they figure out what the heck they're doing. But wow... what a mess!
EDIT: YESSS! Smurfette! The only hot Smurf!
if(and that's a big if) my sources are correct, Crunchyroll + VRV was their attempt to take on Funimation(who uses all sorts of shady licensing nonsense and has earned the ire of fans). Funimation then pulled a WWE.
Meanwhile, VIZ sits in a corner, whistling Dixie and reminding everyone they have Naruto/Boruto(which they ain't letting go of) and true classics like Ranma 1/2 and a whooooooooole lot of merchandise sales which keeps them from being eaten.
Live long enough, you see everything twice.
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Beast in Black posted about the concert on their Instagram account...
...and if you zoom in on the picture there in the front row on the right you can see GothBard (in the mask) and Impus Major (in the leather and black cowboy hat), just to the left of the Guy in Blue.
The photo is not sharp enough, does GothBard have a skull-mask?
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Anyone else has problem downloading their files from Paizo website?
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The photo is not sharp enough, does GothBard have a skull-mask?Beast in Black posted about the concert on their Instagram account...
...and if you zoom in on the picture there in the front row on the right you can see GothBard (in the mask) and Impus Major (in the leather and black cowboy hat), just to the left of the Guy in Blue.
Yep. Weird. GothBard edited it to highlight herself and Impus Major, but the link isn't working today.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
if(and that's a big if) my sources are correct, Crunchyroll + VRV was their attempt to take on Funimation(who uses all sorts of shady licensing nonsense and has earned the ire of fans). Funimation then pulled a WWE.
OK. I'm old. What does "pulling a WWE" mean?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yep. Weird. GothBard edited it to highlight herself and Impus Major, but the link isn't working today.The photo is not sharp enough, does GothBard have a skull-mask?Beast in Black posted about the concert on their Instagram account...
...and if you zoom in on the picture there in the front row on the right you can see GothBard (in the mask) and Impus Major (in the leather and black cowboy hat), just to the left of the Guy in Blue.
It worked when I first quoted it. Not worked it when you mentioned it (or at least demanded that I log into instagram... NOPE), and now it works again. No idea why. Someone messed up visibility settings for a time would be my guess.
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So during a meeting on Friday, WW asked his Irish coworkers if there was anything he should read or study to prepare for his week at the company HQ in Derry this summer.
They told him to watch Derry Girls.
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So during a meeting on Friday, WW asked his Irish coworkers if there was anything he should read or study to prepare for his week at the company HQ in Derry this summer.
They told him to watch Derry Girls.
He should also listen to some U2 if he hasn't already.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
if(and that's a big if) my sources are correct, Crunchyroll + VRV was their attempt to take on Funimation(who uses all sorts of shady licensing nonsense and has earned the ire of fans). Funimation then pulled a WWE.OK. I'm old. What does "pulling a WWE" mean?
Perching high up in a corner of the room and as soon as someone enters *bam!* Elbow tackle to the face!
Or just waiting until their back is turned and give them a good wallop with a a folding chair.
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
Tiny T-Rex for his Christmas list had put a Switch on his list.
But, we were trying to save money in case it didn't snow as much this winter (which is good because it did not) and we had gotten a PS 5 the previous April. And then for his birthday list he had scratched out "new bike" (he has been riding his older sister's old bike) and wrote instead "a Switch".
However, his birthday isn't until July, and he is a super nice kid and a genuinely good person and he puts up with a lot of crap with Crookshanks going through teenage angst all that comes with that and since I put in a ton of overtime the previous couple of weeks I used the extra money for that and got him a Switch and the new Kirby game to start him out.
After I got the order pickup confirmation I asked if he wanted to go with to pick something up from the store and then when the lady brought the order bag she was on one side and Tiny T-Rex on the other side so he couldn't see what was in the bag I just casually handed it to him and said "Alright, let's go!" He had the biggest grin on his face the entire drive home and kept looking in the bag and smiling even bigger.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Tiny T-Rex for his Christmas list had put a Switch on his list.
But, we were trying to save money in case it didn't snow as much this winter (which is good because it did not) and we had gotten a PS 5 the previous April. And then for his birthday list he had scratched out "new bike" (he has been riding his older sister's old bike) and wrote instead "a Switch".
However, his birthday isn't until July, and he is a super nice kid and a genuinely good person and he puts up with a lot of crap with Crookshanks going through teenage angst all that comes with that and since I put in a ton of overtime the previous couple of weeks I used the extra money for that and got him a Switch and the new Kirby game to start him out.
After I got the order pickup confirmation I asked if he wanted to go with to pick something up from the store and then when the lady brought the order bag she was on one side and Tiny T-Rex on the other side so he couldn't see what was in the bag I just casually handed it to him and said "Alright, let's go!" He had the biggest grin on his face the entire drive home and kept looking in the bag and smiling even bigger.
I love this.
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Fantasy Monster: Watchful Lantern
Another monster inspired by Rogue Legacy 2.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
if(and that's a big if) my sources are correct, Crunchyroll + VRV was their attempt to take on Funimation(who uses all sorts of shady licensing nonsense and has earned the ire of fans). Funimation then pulled a WWE.OK. I'm old. What does "pulling a WWE" mean?Perching high up in a corner of the room and as soon as someone enters *bam!* Elbow tackle to the face!
Or just waiting until their back is turned and give them a good wallop with a a folding chair.
memories.
So many memories.
The late 90s early 2000s were a very interesting time to be on the professional side of anime.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Tiny T-Rex for his Christmas list had put a Switch on his list.
But, we were trying to save money in case it didn't snow as much this winter (which is good because it did not) and we had gotten a PS 5 the previous April. And then for his birthday list he had scratched out "new bike" (he has been riding his older sister's old bike) and wrote instead "a Switch".
However, his birthday isn't until July, and he is a super nice kid and a genuinely good person and he puts up with a lot of crap with Crookshanks going through teenage angst all that comes with that and since I put in a ton of overtime the previous couple of weeks I used the extra money for that and got him a Switch and the new Kirby game to start him out.
After I got the order pickup confirmation I asked if he wanted to go with to pick something up from the store and then when the lady brought the order bag she was on one side and Tiny T-Rex on the other side so he couldn't see what was in the bag I just casually handed it to him and said "Alright, let's go!" He had the biggest grin on his face the entire drive home and kept looking in the bag and smiling even bigger.
GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!
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Good morning, John!
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GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!No! He needs "Mega Luigi Non-Binary Siblings Penultimate Blockbuster Round-Robin Tournament Donnybrook 4: Time-Space Ninja-Wizards Duel Across Generational Digital Pocket Beasts, Featuring Cunning Stunt Performers. The Link to the Future." It is the greatest Switch game ever!!!
That's a lot of words used to just say "Smash".
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Never heard of it.That's a lot of words used to just say "Smash".GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!No! He needs "Mega Luigi Non-Binary Siblings Penultimate Blockbuster Round-Robin Tournament Donnybrook 4: Time-Space Ninja-Wizards Duel Across Generational Digital Pocket Beasts, Featuring Cunning Stunt Performers. The Link to the Future." It is the greatest Switch game ever!!!
Super Smash Bros. It's a Switch game.
I know this because it's next on the list of games to get.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Is that anything like "Fortnights at Tachanky-Kang's Burgerama: Deluxe Edition. Now with moar special SWAS!"?Never heard of it.That's a lot of words used to just say "Smash".GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!No! He needs "Mega Luigi Non-Binary Siblings Penultimate Blockbuster Round-Robin Tournament Donnybrook 4: Time-Space Ninja-Wizards Duel Across Generational Digital Pocket Beasts, Featuring Cunning Stunt Performers. The Link to the Future." It is the greatest Switch game ever!!!Super Smash Bros. It's a Switch game.
I know this because it's next on the list of games to get.
Exactly the same, virtually indistinguishable from each other.
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Exactly the same, virtually indistinguishable from each other.Is that anything like "Fortnights at Tachanky-Kang's Burgerama: Deluxe Edition. Now with moar special SWAS!"?Never heard of it.That's a lot of words used to just say "Smash".GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!No! He needs "Mega Luigi Non-Binary Siblings Penultimate Blockbuster Round-Robin Tournament Donnybrook 4: Time-Space Ninja-Wizards Duel Across Generational Digital Pocket Beasts, Featuring Cunning Stunt Performers. The Link to the Future." It is the greatest Switch game ever!!!Super Smash Bros. It's a Switch game.
I know this because it's next on the list of games to get.
I miss burgertime.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well, this semester's DVC instructors taught me something: Never admit when you're doing something flexible.
As I've mentioned, I'm Lawful. I consider a syllabus a contract between student and professor that neither one can break. So I hated the, "70% C, 80% B, 90% A" scale with a passion because I couldn't possibly claim to be SO good at grading that an 89.4% would be a B+ and a 90.0% would be an A-. In my syllabus I told students that a 90% or higher would always get an A, but I'd be looking for "natural breaks" in the grades to split the As and Bs, so it was possible for the As to go lower than 90%, but they'd never drop below 80%.
Yep. Got a formal complaint filed against me for having a "confusing" grading system and had to go back to "90%'s an A, 80%'s a B," etc. My system was more generous, but of course the kid at 85% wants that A no matter what. (Of course, it was a "D" student who complained, but anyway...)
Impus Major's physics instructor is taking the approach of ignoring his syllabus. It says that a 68% is a D, but if he gives a student a C at 68% they're not going to file a complaint to get their grade reduced.
His debate instructor is going one better: He gave Impus Major 20 points of extra credit for "improvement over the semester" to bring his grade from a B to an A, all within the letter of the law of his syllabus.
Lesson learned: Don't be Lawful.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Well, this semester's DVC instructors taught me something: Never admit when you're doing something flexible.
As I've mentioned, I'm Lawful. I consider a syllabus a contract between student and professor that neither one can break. So I hated the, "70% C, 80% B, 90% A" scale with a passion because I couldn't possibly claim to be SO good at grading that an 89.4% would be a B+ and a 90.0% would be an A-. In my syllabus I told students that a 90% or higher would always get an A, but I'd be looking for "natural breaks" in the grades to split the As and Bs, so it was possible for the As to go lower than 90%, but they'd never drop below 80%.
Yep. Got a formal complaint filed against me for having a "confusing" grading system and had to go back to "90%'s an A, 80%'s a B," etc. My system was more generous, but of course the kid at 85% wants that A no matter what. (Of course, it was a "D" student who complained, but anyway...)
Impus Major's physics instructor is taking the approach of ignoring his syllabus. It says that a 68% is a D, but if he gives a student a C at 68% they're not going to file a complaint to get their grade reduced.
His debate instructor is going one better: He gave Impus Major 20 points of extra credit for "improvement over the semester" to bring his grade from a B to an A, all within the letter of the law of his syllabus.Lesson learned: Don't be Lawful.
Lawful is often awful.
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Never heard of it.That's a lot of words used to just say "Smash".GET HIM SUPER ROBOT WARS T, X, V and 30!!!!!No! He needs "Mega Luigi Non-Binary Siblings Penultimate Blockbuster Round-Robin Tournament Donnybrook 4: Time-Space Ninja-Wizards Duel Across Generational Digital Pocket Beasts, Featuring Cunning Stunt Performers. The Link to the Future." It is the greatest Switch game ever!!!Super Smash Bros. It's a Switch game.
I know this because it's next on the list of games to get.
Is that anything like "Fortnights at Tachanky-Kang's Burgerama: Deluxe Edition. Now with moar special SWAS!"?
That was rather disappointing follow-up to 'Sprangly-Dangly's Omelette Observatory', I felt.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
We had a fun session today, ended in a near disaster when the last roll of the session (Infinity RPG, roll two or more d20 as low as possible on each die) was 20, 20, 18, 17, and 17 (or something like that) when we needed a single 14 or less...
Thankfully, the character whose roll that was had a talent that allowed rerolling single die, and the reroll scored a success.
Still, it was a marginal success and two complications.
The player rolling noted that it was almost certainly her worst roll while playing with our GM ever.
We managed to flee the solar system through a wormhole just as the wormhole was destabilized by us sabotaging the wormhole-stabilizer and destroying or at least damaging enormous fleet of aliens preparing to invade human space but we ended going... God* knows where.
*my character is a warrior priest of the new Teutonic Order in the service of the Catholic Church, so it's his literal opinion
And we had to sacrifice Michelle, my pilot geist (Lesser AI assistants that are ubiquitous in Infinity) as she drove the weapon that destabilized the wormhole. She will be back, I made sure to back her up before mission, but I won't get her before we manage to return where her backup remains stored.
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Five walls are finished and only one left! After that, who knows, maybe I'll build another wall (I've been building walls exclusively so far this year).
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Hello, everyone!
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Hello, everyone!
Hello, John Tac!
Do any of y'all have a good resource for a collection of intentionally crappy low-level adventurer prompts?
Not even really adventures - like, I'm talking really bottom-tier "this really isn't that important, but it's difficult and unpleasant enough that people want to hire others" stuff. We're talking the basic sorts of "quests" you see in a stereotypical starting town of an isekai.
"There were important quests, but they're all done, now." type things.
Quests I’ve run (in the background) so far:
— slay the swamp witch (hag)
— slay an oversized swamp boar causing problems
Things I’ve come up with or a few folk I chatted with did:
— gather crocodile pelts (good condition only)
— collect thirteen turkeys (should it be more?)
— find a missing kid (common occurrence; typically the kid turns out fine)
— resolve an unpleasant outbreak of stirges and mosquitoes
— move bee hives from newly sinking area to newly firmer area. High strength needed.
— get the sea hag to stop streaking (it's not a sea hag; it's just an old woman in the village everyone calls 'the sea hag')
— find the noble's ring (it was supposed to be at the swamp witch's layer; yeah, the layer is an exploded ruin of tons of petrified burned wood, but still)
— oversized catfish turning over canoes (though not big enough to eat anyone)
— find a lost shipment of copper ingots and/or alchemical supplies leaching into local area and causing problems
— clear out a recently discovered foul-smelling area with lots of bog bodies and give them proper burial rites
— idiot actually used a ship nearby; shipwreck had valuable thing that needs retrieval
— Gather about sixty Swamp Rose plants. These beautiful pink-and-white-bloom lilies grow in sort-of inaccessible places such as high up on trees, in underwater caverns, and so on.
Things for later:
— find out why the pigs have gone missing/find the missing sheep ()
— find the missing adventurer (went missing on an alligator quest)
It’s supposed to be busywork that isn’t too hard for low graders, something locals would still be willing to pay for, and give the feeling the “big quests” have already been completed.
The scenario is not needed, but just in case you want it:
The swamp is a long sliver running north and south that is bordered by multiple nations, but most especially two specific nations who are broadly competitors and cultural rivals (though not explicitly enemies). For many reasons, passage through the swamp is desirable to get at the nation on the other side - but it is extremely tricky at best, and is dangerous and potentially deadly most of the time.
The settlement is ruled by a self-styled duke, and he does have an impressive mansion and amount of money, but its more appropriately a large village than anything else (not even a small town). The folk are very hardy and often capable of doing their own minor 'adventuring' - hard to be a fisherman in a chaos swamp that occasionally randomly spawns evil deathfish at you without at least some personal skill in survival and/or combat - but they're not actually adventurers. But also most of the things they post on the duke-mandated adventuring board is just the kind of stuff they don't want to (or don't know how to) handle, or would rather shove the risk on outsiders.
()
If you have a list to such low-level
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Tiny T-Rex for his Christmas list had put a Switch on his list.
But, we were trying to save money in case it didn't snow as much this winter (which is good because it did not) and we had gotten a PS 5 the previous April. And then for his birthday list he had scratched out "new bike" (he has been riding his older sister's old bike) and wrote instead "a Switch".
However, his birthday isn't until July, and he is a super nice kid and a genuinely good person and he puts up with a lot of crap with Crookshanks going through teenage angst all that comes with that and since I put in a ton of overtime the previous couple of weeks I used the extra money for that and got him a Switch and the new Kirby game to start him out.
After I got the order pickup confirmation I asked if he wanted to go with to pick something up from the store and then when the lady brought the order bag she was on one side and Tiny T-Rex on the other side so he couldn't see what was in the bag I just casually handed it to him and said "Alright, let's go!" He had the biggest grin on his face the entire drive home and kept looking in the bag and smiling even bigger.
So glad, my friend! <3
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Do any of y'all have a good resource for a collection of intentionally crappy low-level adventurer prompts?
Not even really adventures - like, I'm talking really bottom-tier "this really isn't that important, but it's difficult and unpleasant enough that people want to hire others" stuff. We're talking the basic sorts of "quests" you see in a stereotypical starting town of an isekai.
"There were important quests, but they're all done, now." type things.
Quests I’ve run (in the background) so far:
— slay the swamp witch (hag)
— slay an oversized swamp boar causing problemsThings I’ve come up with or a few folk I chatted with did:
— gather crocodile pelts (good condition only)
— collect thirteen turkeys (should it be more?)
— find a missing kid (common occurrence; typically the kid turns out fine)
— resolve an unpleasant outbreak of stirges and mosquitoes
— move bee hives from newly sinking area to newly firmer area. High strength needed.
— get the sea hag to stop streaking (it's not a sea hag; it's just an old woman in the village everyone calls 'the sea hag')
— find the noble's ring (it was supposed to be at the swamp witch's layer; yeah, the layer is an exploded ruin of tons of petrified burned wood, but still)
— oversized catfish turning over canoes (though not big enough to eat anyone)
— find a lost shipment of copper ingots and/or alchemical supplies leaching into local area and causing problems
— clear out a recently discovered foul-smelling area with lots of bog bodies and give them proper burial rites
— idiot actually used a ship nearby; shipwreck had valuable thing that needs retrieval
— Gather about sixty Swamp Rose plants. These beautiful pink-and-white-bloom lilies grow in sort-of inaccessible places such as high up on trees, in underwater caverns, and so on.Things for later:
— find out why the pigs have gone missing/find the missing sheep...
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yet Another Issue Of, "Why Raising Kids In A Possession-Obsessed Society Is Hard":
For a film project, Impus Minor and a couple of his friends are taking $1000 worth of backpacking gear (four sleeping bags, a backpack, and hiking boots) and venturing around Albany Hill. As I think I've mentioned, Albany doesn't even make the "top 100 safest places to live in California" not because of violent crime, but because of a staggering amount of property crime.
So I made it clear to the kids: Don't leave the gear alone, not even in the car. It will get stolen.
Last night Impus Major was driving one of the kids home, so Impus Minor and the other kid were standing by the stuff. And a dark humanoid shape came out of the bushes and moved towards them. They backed away. The person kept following them. They turned out their lights and spread out so they couldn't both be cornered at once. The person kept following them. They finally went through the gate to leave the area and the pursuit stopped.
Honestly, given Albany's makeup, it was probably a homeless person, more likely than not with a mental illness, and more likely than not they just wanted to either talk to the kids or scare them off. Mission accomplished.
But once Impus Major got there and they retrieved the gear, Impus Minor came home, described the event to me, and asked honestly, "Are you OK that we left the stuff where he could get it?"
Er, duh!
I had to provide the classic, "Nothing you own is worth your life," lecture, and differentiate between, "Don't leave the stuff lying around where it might get stolen," and, "Don't let an aggressive individual who might cause you harm steal it."
Replacing gear is easy. Replacing people is impossible.
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New guy (noticing me grabbing the case for the laser out of the trailer): Yesterday, don't you go humping that laser, now!
Me: I guess it's time you learn about the birds, bees, and lasers!