Lurker > wpot

Revelation34 posted...

I meant it literally since $500 is a lot of money.

That's the whole point: there are people who are truly bad enough with money that they will use funds that they should be spending on, say, food for long shot odds like this. Those people are probably going to struggle in life more or less regardless, yes, but the government should be able to provide some sort of safeguard against the 'attractive nuisance' lottery they are creating with them in mind.

Yes. No ethical problems winning, although once you have all of that money there are ethical ways to use it (and not).

Regarding whether it should exist...frankly, I think it would be fine if people were prevented from owning more than a small number of tickets. Do I think it's wrong for a state to offer someone an (unrealistic, sure) chance to dream of winning for $2? Nah. Do I think it's wrong for a state to offer someone who's otherwise struggling to get by an opportunity to spend $500 on tickets? Yes, that's not cool.

I went to the 20 year as I still live close. It wasn't terribly interesting: only a couple of the people I would have been interested to see were there and they frankly weren't as interesting as I'd hoped. Plus I still see my friends from back then often enough.

My wife is from the same high school class and she didn't go. Only time I've chosen to be social and she didn't, I believe. :)

sodium-chloride posted...

John Wick?

Yeah, straight-up-the-middle kill bad guys movies still work: they can't deviate far from "get the bad guys".

There have always been politics and messages, but they weren't so polarized. There was room for more messaging between the camps, and blockbustery movies had a lot more room to be fun without pissing off half of the population.

Theseadays you basically need some inane Marvel/Disney stuff if you want to do pure fun: anything more than that is risky. The new Top Gun did an amazing job pleasing both sides but you could feel their extreme caution: we can't become too warmongering, but we can't appear too "woke" either.

Soo....I dunno. Several genres aren't much affected (horror, some types of comedies, etc) but I think it's fair to say that the number of topics that filmmakers are willing to take on in what they would like to be a general-interest movie has declined dramatically.

I mean, it's good if viewed as a kid's story and I have warm fuzzies for the game overall. But even my 5th grader was embarrassed to play the clown/I want mother parts: I couldn't recommend that to a group of (presumed) adults here without saying so.

I suspect the series ended in part because they weren't resonating with their intended (young) audience as much as intended and were instead pulling in older gamers - they couldn't figure out what they were - but that's just speculation.

Well, I'm more familiar with the second. The storyline shoots for such a low age group it's...pretty cringe, honestly. That said, if you can overlook that (and there isn't much storyline) it has some classic RPG chicken-soup type gameplay. It's a hack and slash dungeon crawler with simple controls, although there's occasionally some challenge to it. It has some classic town building, fishing, and invention minigames. My favorite is probably the golf minigame you can play after completing the levels: it's fairly well-designed and a decent challenge after you figure it out. And as mentioned the weapon growth mechanic is kind of interesting.

I just replayed it randomly recently.

Not that I'm aware of. But props for mentioning DC2. :)

Who knows what adventures theyll have between now and the time the show becomes unprofitable?

Looks like they just took a first step and suspended him. Odds he plays another game with them? Ill say 60%. Probable, given how hard it would be to trade himbut this might be the end. All he knows how to do is double down so hell do something to aggravate further.

Hot take: Star Ocean 6 actually kind of reminds me of Super Mario Odyssey given the 'coin' collecting, floating thing that flies around at your command, and random wandering around the world.

...is that what a hot take is? :)

I like Durant, but I'd be happy to watch the Nets burn all year for enabling Irving as long as they have. Plus the whole superteam thing just turns me off in the first place and I'm happy to see one fail. Build a team that makes sense and looks good playing together. Stop throwing stars in a hat in some random location and pretending it would mean a whole lot to the people living there if they happen to win.

We Didn't Start the Fire? :)

BigOlePappy posted...

In regards to remake, are you talking about REmake or REmake 2?

Mostly 1, kinda 2, kinda don't know anymore. :)

My usual side: the boring one. There isn't a great definition for what a "remake" is. To that end FF7R was mostly going over the same territory as before (usually very closely with only padding added) and they titled it "remake" so it's technically a remake. Even with the new ending it's technically still the same conflict still resolving between the same characters. I didn't find it interesting to argue the semantics much longer than that.

That said, it's a flawed remake: they broke the only rule there is and changed some major stuff. As a person expecting a remake I found that unwelcome (and dumb) although I largely enjoyed the game outside of everything Whisper-related.

I expect they'll largely follow the plot beats of the OG moving forward...for a while, anyways. So it will become a more and more flawed "remake" moving forward until it's another metaphysically-ambiguous anything-can-happen-for-any-reason Kingdom Hearts/Marvel-esce entertainment product. SE has hinted this well enough by dropping "Remake" from the title.

What's IN the box?

I had one of these that never healed after I bit it 10 times or whatever and stayed in the side of my mouth for 6 months. My dentist noticed it and made me get it checked out to see if it was cancerous. A doc shot it up with novocain and cut it off in what must have been the lamest surgery ever. It wasn't cancerous.

Nah. If we were going to be contacted by intelligent aliens odds are we would have seen something previously in human history. Alternatively, I don't see us as being terribly close to finding anything from our own searches other than maybe seeing a faraway planet with 'organic signatures' or maybe finding a microorganism on Europa/etc.

But sure, preparedness.

BigOlePappy posted...

I have a 17 page topic about the RE1 Remake that I commented in like 3 times. It turned into a big war about whether the second REmake is actually a remake or a reimagining. Some people started stalking others to talk smack about them.....it got really crazy. Funny thing is that I pretty much forgot I made that thread.

I may or may not have commented in that one a couple times. If so that's all I had energy for (and as long as it took to establish that I was right, of course). :)

Start a topic about whether FF7 Remake is really a remake or not. That's fun.

Yeah, heck if I remember. Maybe Pitfall on the Atari. Or something like Pacman or Caterpillar at an arcade. I played all of those pretty early.

I had maybe 25-30 kids come to the door in eight groups or so. I got rid of 75% of the candy I bought: that was about as expected.

I would argue that looks more like a steamroller than what Tom is using. :)

But either way that looks a heck of a lot better than my experience dragging the stupid thing around by hand.

Dikitain posted...

My neighbor across the street from me uses one every spring, but not a hand one, a riding one

...a steamroller?

You're a Canadian, right? Aren't March and much of April just a sloppy mess? Or do you just perceive winter lasting through April? Orr...are you a 'coastal' Canadian? :)

Here in MN it's frozen/cold through February. In March we get a lot of snow, but there start to be melt days mixed in so it's icy/sloppy/nasty snow. Then in April it's just muddy/sloppy/worthless. In late April there's a chance of doing something active outside, but I wouldn't count on it.

adjl posted...

I liked winter a lot better when it just meant playing in the snow and not just having to shovel it.

True that. Or worry about frost heave.

And if you live somewhere with significant snow you probably don't like spring, as it's a long sloppy mess where you can do, if anything, even less outside than in winter.

Summer is fine, but it has to be fall. Hasn't changed.

Like the Allies in WW2 (in reference to Germany and USSR): let them fight each other to the death and stay far away from either.

Neither, really.

But between the two, two nicely-cooked patties rather than an unpredictable thick one.

Did they do something new, or do you mean from the 2012 movie?

I've used one (at my father's initiative back in high school)...they're pretty dumb, really. If you want to smash down anything other than the wimpiest of mole hills they aren't going to work well. They are not a solution to frost heave.

The opposite of aeration.

Dunno. It's a tough time for this one. The traditional things that gave peoples' lives meaning are dissolving pretty quickly: religion, national pride, ethnic/tribe pride, community groups, simple pride in work. Heck, even the value of friends is low (particularly as a dude who doesn't use social media): I have friends I consider good, but it's hard to get together and there isn't much to do anyways. And the slow but steady/obvious decline of society casts a further pall over everything.

I'd like to say that simply having a family does wonders, but if you can't really figure out what you're hoping for your kids...it's no panacea.

I've been to a counselor and told her I more or less had this issue. She said "good news, you aren't depressed (i.e. we can't drug you) you just have to find some things to enjoy." So I took up mountain biking. Now things are pointless but I mountain bike.

*shrug*

AltOmega2 posted...

Jan 6th was a joke

Republicans think everything they're doing is a joke.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/opinion/trump-big-lie-big-joke.html

The question is when they are going to wake up and realize it's not funny: before or after we have an authoritarian. I'm betting strongly on the latter.

Dark_Spiret posted...

At a point its going to involve having to get rid of the amendment all together to proceed.

A functioning society should clarify it, yes, but as I said we missed our chance. We're no longer functioning on that level.

We're stuck with an amendment that says something to effect of "armed militias are allowed" and we have to fight about what that means in the context of all non-militia-related gun issues. And broadly allowing armed militias probably isn't a good idea in the first place.

Dark_Spiret posted...

with that so would many other things technically too of which many people on the right are also against

I'm having a little trouble following, but you are correct to point out that the 2nd amendment is talking about militias and not hunting. You're also correct to point out that the text ambiguously allows "arms" (at least I think that's what you're saying) which would have required interpretation even back in 1791. It's unlikely the idea was ever to allow private citizens to own military frigates, for example.

In today's world it absolutely requires interpretation. It's silly to think a private citizen could own an nuclear or chemical weapon, but in theory the 2nd amendment allows that just as much as it would a gun. Point being: absolutism makes no sense and a line must be drawn. Everyone agrees hunting is allowed, even if the right likes to pretend the left opposes it. Everyone agrees nuclear weapons aren't allowed.

I would debate where the line is, but frankly the US missed its chance to clarify this (should have done so around the Civil War). Now that guns are everywhere anyways...what difference does it make? We are going to have to learn why this is a bad idea the hard way (and why reality matters more than an awfully-written, 200-yr-old sentence).

Sigh.

She outdoes herself by saying increasingly dumb and incendiary things. The left hates her more. The right is fueled almost completely by hate for the the left. The right empowers her more. Reality and the future are irrelevant.

The stupidest, most self-destructive cycle ever.

zebatov posted...

Do you support the ban of all knives?

Do you not realize you are personifying the hysteria of the right here? The left has never proposed banning all guns. The left has no issues with hunting whatsoever. The left proposes restricting guns with high-capacity magazines/etc that are designed for military-esce purposes, and the right is strenuously objecting. Why object to that if true sporting guns are left completely alone? Why object to functional background checks?

Yi_Long posted...

I think that has more to do with some kind of honor code where you dont want to be a nuisance or failure to those around you

I think there's something important here. The question is whether the citizens of a country feel it has a purpose to exist and whether those who live there are proud to be a part of it. Asian counties, so far as I can tell from outside, appear to have more of this. They are proud of their countries (and - yes - ethnicities, given high degrees of homogeneity) and feel shame if they don't live up to their perceived responsibilities. There are downsides to this (suicides) but great upsides (sense of purpose and togetherness) as well.

The US used to have much more of this back when we were proud to be the free world, the melting pot (of Europeans, anyway), the arsenal of democracy, the savior (WWI-II era) of Europe, the world's lone superpower, and - yes - a country with more ethnic homogeneity. THIS is why Trump was succeeding with "Make America Great Again", even if neither he nor his followers really understood exactly why that sounded appealing to them. THIS is why the left is not succeeding very well with their messages that effectively shame the US for past actions or focus on the rights of individuals (even if morally correct) over societal accomplishments. If the point is to let everyone do what they want that basically means they have no obligations to the country, and if nobody has any obligations to the country then the country is unlikely to be effective (or have a purpose in the first place). The left is usually morally correct and I vote for them (the 'purpose' that the right would add to US society appears as if it would be terrible) but left does not appear to recognize this problem at all. They have an existential problem.

^ I don't disagree that's stupid.

Because all people like to do is get worked up by the most extreme positions taken by the side they don't identify with and they ignore the boring folks in the middle. Reason #313 we're doomed.

Love Thursdays: the bulk of the week is over...and in my case I have every other Friday off, so it might be the start of the weekend.

SirPikachu posted...

January 6th was an actually mostly peaceful protest unlike the MULTIPLE literal fiery riots from BLM

Can you even IMAGINE what the Republican reaction would have been if BLM protesters pushed into the Capitol, smashed stuff up, caused Congress to flee, and caused that much injury?. Can you imagine?? I kind of doubt you can. The right would have exploded a million times worse than Democrats did for Jan 6.

Biden is a mediocre President. He is not an inspiring leader who provides good direction for the country. I kind of doubt he could have accomplished a lot more than he has policy-wise in this environment, but the job is to provide meaning/direction to the country in addition to policy. BUT he believes in democracy. His opponent did not. That should be a 100%, no-questions-asked obvious choice. Unfortunately it's not, so we are slowly sliding towards authoritarianism and we are eventually going to have to learn the lessons of WW2 (it's really important not to allow authoritarians who divide people and praise military action to steal power) the hard way all over again. History repeats...because idiots don't remember it.

BigOlePappy posted...

Who should drink martinis and shoot counter spies next?

The problem is he doesn't do this much anymore: the movies dump on him for his simple good vs evil world view and he spends a lot of time feeling regret/pain for various reasons. Eh. I say revert to the old-style popcorn flick and make a more adult version of a "fun" Marvel movie. Might not be so hard to find a villain now that Putin has gone meglomanical route.

As for an actor...heck if I know.

Yuck.

That said I just had a Swiss Roll for the first time in years yesterday, so who am I to talk?

Just be glad there aren't a bunch of kids dressed as Trump walking around.

Or maybe there are, I dunno.

Yellow posted...

You can't just stage a violent coop and expect to run for president again like nothing ever happened... unless the government is totally ineffective

Sadly, I think the commission is going to charge him...and subsequently prove that the government is totally ineffective by failing to convict or otherwise enacting no real penalty. Or maybe they'll know that they would only be proving their own ineffectiveness and not charge him.

He certainly SHOULD be barred from office via one of several mechanisms.

Yellow posted...

Better than that, he's an elite.

Or, even more to the point, if someone is rich, is willing to play dirty, and has a significant following they are untouchable. To use Trump's phrase, yes, he could shoot someone in the street and probably get away with it so long as his base doesn't desert him. Truly. He would make up some justification and you'd get a hung jury at best.

Maybe the clerk should have locked the door instead of filming the bear.

Cheese, sometimes, but you missed the most important choice: salsa or hot sauce on top.

I think most states have some areas where I could find like-minded people and laws are probably less important to me than things to do. The coasts generally have things going on, if nothing else, and mountains are nice. Sooo...

North Dakota/Iowa. I live in MN and I'm still not completely certain if they exist or not. Minnesota weather without Minnesota cities or lakes/etc. After 43 years as a neighbor I still can't think of any reason to go/live there. Nebraska is a (very small) step above with a couple minor cities of note. Kansas is at least a little warmer.

Alabama/Mississippi. The Gulf Shore is a little interesting. Otherwise...I can't think of any reason to go/live there.

Oklahoma. A warmer but more conservative Iowa.

Well, it applied to me as well. :)