| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
When I'd get into a fight with my Type A personality supervisor, I'd call out the next day. Personality conflicts, yelling, screaming, and chainsaws were not the best combination.
Extreme lower back pain.
(Extreme lower) Back
Pain in my....
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
i think chainsaws could add a great deal of nuance and subtlety to the current situation . . . .
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
When I'd get into a fight with my Type A personality supervisor, I'd call out the next day. Personality conflicts, yelling, screaming, and chainsaws were not the best combination.
Extreme lower back pain.
(Extreme lower) Back
Pain in my....
It depends on who has the chain saw.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
It depends on who has the chain saw.When I'd get into a fight with my Type A personality supervisor, I'd call out the next day. Personality conflicts, yelling, screaming, and chainsaws were not the best combination.
Extreme lower back pain.
(Extreme lower) Back
Pain in my....
Ash Williams.
He also has a boomstick.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It depends on who has the chain saw.
Usually multiple people, so it looks cool when they clang and spark off of each other, but then its a royal pain to sharpen them up afterwards...
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Anyone who says "Go big or go home" to me clearly underestimates my desire to go home. It is my only goal in life.
i literally laughed aloud, gran. absolutely LOVE IT, and totally agree!
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Yeah, the classic manager question: "Where would you like to be in 5 years?"
My honest answer is, "Comfortably retired."
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And this is what you get for being a medical facility that gives honest answers: There's a new urgent care clinic on San Pablo where GothBard, Impus Minor, and I all got our COVID tests done. All of us were incredibly impressed that both the doctor and nurse practitioner were willing to give us honest answers to all of our questions. None of this, "Well, there are so many variables that I really don't want to say," but instead, "In most cases this is how it proceeds, so unless anything's out of the usual this is what you should expect."
Impus Major's temperature is STILL wonky (woke up at 98.7°F so he had some friends over for 7.5 hours, and at the end of it was at 100.8°F), so in spite of the fact that I know he's going to test positive for COVID, I'm sending him in for the consultation part.
We get honest answers from a trained professional.
The clinic gets $160 for 15 minutes' work.
Win-win.
i think chainsaws could add a great deal of nuance and subtlety to the current situation . . . .
He's not properly braced for the plunge cut at the end but otherwise...
Thats going to result in so. Much. Filing...
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
i think chainsaws could add a great deal of nuance and subtlety to the current situation . . . .He's not properly braced for the plunge cut at the end but otherwise...
Thats going to result in so. Much. Filing...
That scene is entirely too unrealistic! There's no way in hell ONE chainsaw starts on the first pull, much less two. Especially when they're brand new like that and haven't been properly swore at yet.
That's as far as I got.
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The Algorithm: Hi, Limey! Would you like to know about some exciting new Products and Services?
L. Longears: Well, one can't very well do without Products and Services, so go ahead, I suppose.
TA: Oh, raptures! Well, do you have sweaty balls?
LL: Mind your own business!!
TA: I reckon you do, so how about these bamboo underpants?
LL: No. I don't want to be followed around by hungry panda bears.
TA: MAN PILLS, for when Tiny Limey needs a little help to stand to attention? Muscle Porridge Drinks, for those whose life needs to be made even more joyless than it already us?
LL: No and No.
TA (Rather put out): Oh. Oh. Picky, aren't we?
How about SMASHING the right to abortion on demand? Perhaps you'd be interested in the gurglings of some grifty Transphobe with a beard like flock wallpaper? Why not buy this book showing how Atheism destroys civilisation, or perhaps you may wish to join this repulsive political party headed by one of the cheesiest anti-vax right-wing bellends in all England?
LL: You have one job - one! - and you're utterly crap at it, aren't you?
| 8 people marked this as a favorite. |
After 9 days of illness and another 8 days of seesawing temperatures, I finally sent Impus Major into the "good" clinic.
(1) He tested negative for COVID on their machine.
(2) In spite of this, the doctor is of the opinion that he did indeed have COVID because everything about his symptoms lines up too perfectly for it to have been anything else.
(3) He is NOT contagious, and is safe to go on our trip.
(4) The temperature spikes are explained by his body having killed "90% of the COVID in your system" and the immune system occasionally finding residual pockets. So it's a good sign, it can last a good long while, but it just means your immune system is on super-high alert while purging the last of the COVID from your body.
(5) And yes, this super-alert, super-aggravated reaction is exactly what's going to make him more COVID-resistant than any of us for the next few months at least.
Hallelujah! I knew I liked that place.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
The cat sits on the lap for exactly 18 minutes. If you remove the cat after 17 minutes, the timer resets
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's curious how different game designers approach different game tropes, and how some of them work well and some of them are downright terrible (see Far Cry 5).
We're back to playing Final Fantasy XIV (much to Hi's delight), and over the course of a week of play we saw two such implementations in short order.
Trope: The hero must lose to the BBEG so that they can go on a quest to become stronger.
Danger: While you can get away with almost anything here early game, once the player has gotten through the main game and three expansion packs, they're pretty much world-saving titans expected to curb-stomp any bad guy stupid enough to get in their way. It defies belief that the protagonist has taken on emperors, demigods, and world-ending apocalypses, then gets beaten up by some random military dude because "he's more experienced".
Done Well: In the first fight, BBEG you killed in a previous expansion is back from the grave, so you're going to put him away again. (Not a spoiler, since it's in the very first cut scene.) In the middle of the fight, as you're beating the tar out of him, you're distracted by an effect that's been an ongoing theme in the game since the start, he nearly chops off your head, and you barely escape with your life. BBEG, having seen your weakness, is now too tough for you to handle and your quest is to learn to block him from exploiting that weakness. All solid story, and you don't feel like a feeb for losing.
Done Poorly: In the second fight, you're fighting a random general. In fact, every single one of us was winning the fight handily. Cue a cut scene where suddenly by deus et machina he wins, trounces you and all your friends, and by deus et machina II you're whisked away before he kills you.
It's really, really stupid.
Player agency is what makes games fun. Even Cookie Clicker makes you click to create cookies. "I need the player to lose here to further the plot," isn't always a terrible idea. But you have to be really, REALLY careful about the way you implement it.
And too many game designers aren't.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Another really odd takeaway: FFXIV has one of the best-implemented crafting systems of any game I've ever played, and it's a fantastic way to generate huge amounts of wealth for yourself or your guild...
...because apparently most players would rather fight than craft.
So Hi is a "crafting mentor" in the game, and frequently encounters 25-member guilds without a crafter among them, and they offer to pay him for his services.
We have a 4-member guild with two top-level crafters. Shiro and GothBard are so used to saying, "Hey, Hi! Nobody! We need one of these! Can you make us one?" that the idea of an entire guild without a crafter is alien to them.
For me, the crafting is far more fun than the combat. It fundamentally appeals to the obsessive compulsive in me. Choose the item. Put its components into the spreadsheet. Add all the subcomponents. And the subsubcomponents. Look up where every single one can be found on the map. Then spend a pleasant 30 minutes mining or harvesting or purchasing the components, build two of the requested items, give one to the requestor, and sell the other. All viscerally satisfying to my particular playstyle.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Unhappy critic: "Fanart isn't real ART!"
Me (for the sake of the joke): "Do we need to have a conversation about the Renaissance's relationship to the Bible?"
gran gets cookies.
Another really odd takeaway: FFXIV has one of the best-implemented crafting systems of any game I've ever played, and it's a fantastic way to generate huge amounts of wealth for yourself or your guild...
...because apparently most players would rather fight than craft.So Hi is a "crafting mentor" in the game, and frequently encounters 25-member guilds without a crafter among them, and they offer to pay him for his services.
We have a 4-member guild with two top-level crafters. Shiro and GothBard are so used to saying, "Hey, Hi! Nobody! We need one of these! Can you make us one?" that the idea of an entire guild without a crafter is alien to them.
For me, the crafting is far more fun than the combat. It fundamentally appeals to the obsessive compulsive in me. Choose the item. Put its components into the spreadsheet. Add all the subcomponents. And the subsubcomponents. Look up where every single one can be found on the map. Then spend a pleasant 30 minutes mining or harvesting or purchasing the components, build two of the requested items, give one to the requestor, and sell the other. All viscerally satisfying to my particular playstyle.
I love crafting systems in games (when they're done well) and this gives me happy emotions. I plan on getting into FFXIV once I'm done with my current all-consuming NWN project.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake part one is pretty good.
Not on the same level as 14 (or so I've heard) but still pretty fun. Especially when you come across one of the scenes from the original game.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
I love crafting systems in games (when they're done well) and this gives me happy emotions. I plan on getting into FFXIV once I'm done with my current all-consuming NWN project.
If you do start playing and you want to join an incredibly low-key yet ridiculously wealthy guild, let me know.
How wealthy are we? Player housing can only be bought through in-game currency (which you can't get for real-world cash -- you HAVE to earn it in-game). The biggest mansions cost 110 million gil and are beyond the means of most 25-person guilds.
We have one in the best part of the best town because before I quit I'd dropped an extra 100 million in the vault for Hi to use as he saw fit.
And he's kept that guild hall running for the last 2.5 years in spite of everyone in the guild having moved on.
I can't tell you what a feeling it was to come back years later and find my room all in order and ready for my return.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I love crafting systems in games (when they're done well) and this gives me happy emotions. I plan on getting into FFXIV once I'm done with my current all-consuming NWN project.If you do start playing and you want to join an incredibly low-key yet ridiculously wealthy guild, let me know.
How wealthy are we? Player housing can only be bought through in-game currency (which you can't get for real-world cash -- you HAVE to earn it in-game). The biggest mansions cost 110 million gil and are beyond the means of most 25-person guilds.
We have one in the best part of the best town because before I quit I'd dropped an extra 100 million in the vault for Hi to use as he saw fit.
And he's kept that guild hall running for the last 2.5 years in spite of everyone in the guild having moved on.
I can't tell you what a feeling it was to come back years later and find my room all in order and ready for my return.
Hi is awesome.
He gets cookies, too.
Happy Friday, John!
|
Final Fantasy 7 Remake part one is pretty good.
Not on the same level as 14 (or so I've heard) but still pretty fun. Especially when you come across one of the scenes from the original game.
FF7R is, IMO, a monumental achievement in terms of a company taking a legendary property from their past and not only staying true to it but also evolving it for modern game design. I didn't play Interlude as I bought it on release day and thoroughly enjoyed the experience from front to back. I first picked up the game when it initially launched for the original Playstation as a wee impressionable adolescent and to this day I'm not sure there are ANY fictional properties in the form of video games that influenced me and my tastes more. I was VERY impressed with the fact that in my eyes SE didn't screw it up because it would have been SOOO easy to just chug out some garbage and make a quick buck, but they very much did not do that.
The changes they made to the story, though often bemoaned by staunch originalist gamers, were not only compelling to me, but they actually make a TON of narritive sense while touching ever so lightly on the expectations they had those original purists would have. It's NOT the same exact game, nor is the story going to unfold in the same manner and it turned out great.
My only real issue, ironically enough, related to the very first mission which was released as a demo and then left untouched in the initial release, minor frustrating camera angles when using Barret during the tutorial section. It's like it was made prior to the various last-minute polish passes and they just decided it wasn't worth going back through that segment for whatever reason and after this, the game does a MUCH better job of handling the in-combat camera for all of the characters.
I don't own a PS5 and do not currently have a good enough computer to play things much more complex than a middle-of-the-road graphics set version of TF2 but I expect that to probably change sometime between now and whenever the next part releases on PC. I can't wait for the Golden Saucer section!
Feh.
The series ended at 6 for me.
That said X-2 was fun. But it needed more Lulu.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Feh.
The series ended at 6 for me.
That said X-2 was fun. But it needed more Lulu.
I am in FFXIV right now dressed like Lulu.
Or at least my toon is.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
Feh.
The series ended at 6 for me.
That said X-2 was fun. But it needed more Lulu.
I am in FFXIV right now dressed like Lulu.
Or at least my toon is.
Great. Now I can't unsee mental images of you in GothBard's cosplay dress. Oddly similar to Robert Preston in the final scene of Victor Victoria, really.
This is not what I needed in my brain before coffee.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Should be an interesting morning.
Yet again I reserved a minivan at a rental car company. Yet again they claimed they had one. This time I went ahead and paid in full a month in advance.
I fully expect that when I get to the airport (I even had to make the reservation at the airport 40 minutes from my house just to get a minivan), they're going to tell me they don't have any minivans, and I'll have to accept a Chevy Suburban instead.
Never again.
Shiro and I have already agreed that if they don't produce a minivan I'll cancel the reservation, demand a full refund with no penalties (a Suburban is NOT equivalent to a minivan if you've ever driven both), and threaten them with small claims court if they refuse.
I'm hoping I drive home in a minivan. (Hope for the best.)
I'm expecting to have an exciting time at the counter and to ride home with the kids in the Prius. (Plan for the worst.)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
And what really strikes me is how corporations have exploited the "Karen" theme to try to force you to accept their unacceptable behavior.
I prepaid over $1500 a month in advance to get a minivan, NOT an SUV.
If I were a betting man, I'd lay the odds at 90%+ they're going to try to foist an SUV on me.
And yet if I complain and insist on a refund instead of accepting a fundamentally different vehicle, I'm a Karen.
Do Not Like.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
And what really strikes me is how corporations have exploited the "Karen" theme to try to force you to accept their unacceptable behavior.
I prepaid over $1500 a month in advance to get a minivan, NOT an SUV.
If I were a betting man, I'd lay the odds at 90%+ they're going to try to foist an SUV on me.And yet if I complain and insist on a refund instead of accepting a fundamentally different vehicle, I'm a Karen.
Do Not Like.
That's when I smile apologetically, express my dismay at being a bother, but explain that the SUV does not meet my car rental needs.
I once returned a rental car to exchange it, saying, "It's not really an automobile so much as a series of interconnected blind spots, and I don't feel safe in it." (It was that Chrysler thing a few years back that was supposed to evoke a 1930s aesthetic but failed.) Since I only had the rental car in the first place because I had just been in a bad accident which hadn't been my fault, they tried to pretend to be understanding.
Should be an interesting morning.
Yet again I reserved a minivan at a rental car company. Yet again they claimed they had one. This time I went ahead and paid in full a month in advance.
I fully expect that when I get to the airport (I even had to make the reservation at the airport 40 minutes from my house just to get a minivan), they're going to tell me they don't have any minivans, and I'll have to accept a Chevy Suburban instead.
Never again.
Shiro and I have already agreed that if they don't produce a minivan I'll cancel the reservation, demand a full refund with no penalties (a Suburban is NOT equivalent to a minivan if you've ever driven both), and threaten them with small claims court if they refuse.
I'm hoping I drive home in a minivan. (Hope for the best.)
I'm expecting to have an exciting time at the counter and to ride home with the kids in the Prius. (Plan for the worst.)
On one of my business trips I tried to get a compact car. Didn't care if it was a sedan or a hatch, I just wanted something around the size of a Focus/Civic/Corolla/Sentry. They gave me a Dodge minivan. On another trip they gave me a Jetta. Got a Maxima once. Honestly, there was only one trip where they gave me what I reserved.
So obviously the key to a chance of getting what you want is to reserve a compact car.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Feh.
The series ended at 6 for me.
That said X-2 was fun. But it needed more Lulu.
I am in FFXIV right now dressed like Lulu.
Or at least my toon is.
How does one dress like a print-on-demand bookstore, pray?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Lulu.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
On one of my business trips I tried to get a compact car. Didn't care if it was a sedan or a hatch, I just wanted something around the size of a Focus/Civic/Corolla/Sentry. They gave me a Dodge minivan. On another trip they gave me a Jetta. Got a Maxima once. Honestly, there was only one trip where they gave me what I reserved.
So obviously the key to a chance of getting what you want is to reserve a compact car.
I remember reserving a subcompact and getting a full-sized sedan. They acted like they were doing me SUCH a favor to force me to drive a boat through the neighborhood.
And apparently, paying a month in advance works. On the one hand, it was a 70-minute wait to get my car. On the other, I got exactly the car I reserved, and I even got one in black. (GothBard is pleased.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
On one of my business trips I tried to get a compact car. Didn't care if it was a sedan or a hatch, I just wanted something around the size of a Focus/Civic/Corolla/Sentry. They gave me a Dodge minivan. On another trip they gave me a Jetta. Got a Maxima once. Honestly, there was only one trip where they gave me what I reserved.
So obviously the key to a chance of getting what you want is to reserve a compact car.
I remember reserving a subcompact and getting a full-sized sedan. They acted like they were doing me SUCH a favor to force me to drive a boat through the neighborhood.
And apparently, paying a month in advance works. On the one hand, it was a 70-minute wait to get my car. On the other, I got exactly the car I reserved, and I even got one in black. (GothBard is pleased.)
Black or not, it's still a minivan.
Hence, this musical offering.| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
The Drift Crashers AP is pretty stupid. Not only is the whole "you find yourself trapped in hell" shtick they hyped as the beginning of the AP not the beginning of the AP, it's only one encounter and then voila! You're out of hell! And then, they stick you in opposite world for the rest of adventure where you get to fight evil versions of yourself.
If that isn't enough they also apparently shove some alternate timeline by b%@$&&$@ in there.
I am so sick of alternate timelines.
Which all sounds like the perfect adventure for Nobodyshome because that's all stuff he loves in an adventure.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Drift Crashers AP is pretty stupid. Not only is the whole "you find yourself trapped in hell" shtick they hyped as the beginning of the AP not the beginning of the AP, it's only one encounter and then voila! You're out of hell! And then, they stick you in opposite world for the rest of adventure where you get to fight evil versions of yourself.
If that isn't enough they also apparently shove some alternate timeline by b~~!!*$$ in there.
I am so sick of alternate timelines.
Which all sounds like the perfect adventure for Nobodyshome because that's all stuff he loves in an adventure.
Woof. Kinda harsh. It does feel like a bait and switch in that a lot of the 3 AP's revolve around
...at the last minute we switched out our character complement from 2 Stewards, an Iomedaen K-o-G, and a Hellknight to keep the Iomedaen and Hellknight, but mix in a Desnan Paladin-type and a CN character from my completely non-canonical Realm of the Mech Lords (it's exactly what it sounds like). The Iomedaen and the Hellknight will be continuing on from Drift Crashers to Drift Hackers where we've bumped the Stewards to, but I was like "This Desnan Paladin character would be heartbroken if she didn't get to go to Cynosure herself".
Still, I was happy to see lots of Devils in the Alien Archive.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The Drift Crashers AP is pretty stupid. Not only is the whole "you find yourself trapped in hell" shtick they hyped as the beginning of the AP not the beginning of the AP, it's only one encounter and then voila! You're out of hell! And then, they stick you in opposite world for the rest of adventure where you get to fight evil versions of yourself.
If that isn't enough they also apparently shove some alternate timeline by b~~!!*$$ in there.
I am so sick of alternate timelines.
Which all sounds like the perfect adventure for Nobodyshome because that's all stuff he loves in an adventure.
Woof. Kinda harsh. It does feel like a bait and switch in that a lot of the 3 AP's revolve around ** spoiler omitted **
...at the last minute we switched out our character complement from 2 Stewards, an Iomedaen K-o-G, and a Hellknight to keep the Iomedaen and Hellknight, but mix in a Desnan Paladin-type and a CN character from my completely non-canonical Realm of the Mech Lords (it's exactly what it sounds like). The Iomedaen and the Hellknight will be continuing on from Drift Crashers to Drift Hackers where we've bumped the Stewards to, but I was like "This Desnan Paladin character would be heartbroken if she didn't get to go to Cynosure herself".
Still, I was happy to see lots of Devils in the Alien Archive.
It was a bit harsh, but it's been a long week and the whole drift crisis feels like a big to do about nothing after all the hype. I agree I liked the alien archive and the extended look at planar scions.
I've always hated time travel stories (except for rare occasions) and everyone has been doing parallel universe plots for the last three years so I'm kind of sick of it. Plus paizo's adventure writers have been all too enthusiastic lately to pit parties against mirror versions of themselves, which is NEVER as fun as it sounds in your head (I have a daughter who is just like me and it's no fun arguing with her).
Obviously, ymmv, and I still love Paizo I'm just not a fan of this month's releases.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Feh.
The series ended at 6 for me.
That said X-2 was fun. But it needed more Lulu.
I am in FFXIV right now dressed like Lulu.
Or at least my toon is.
Don't tease me this way, daddy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I defeated Godrick the Grafted, on only my third try! Spirit Jellyfish soaked up a lot of damage this day!!
My first time I tried using the Grafted Sword I got from what's his face but the fact that it's basically the Iron Throne on a sword hilt meant my swings left me open on the follow through so while it did a phenomenal amount of damage I'd only got him down to half his life by the time I'd died, so I used the Wolf hound blade (or whatever it's called, it's basically a giant falchion that lets you teleport on the follow up attack) I got from this other optional boss.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Fantasy Monster: Cadaverous Capon
After I decided to write it. I discovered that chicken legs that I was supposed to eat got smelly.
No dinner for me today.