Lurker > ElatedVenusaur

Stop worrying, Lucy will surely let them kick the football this time. She promised!

pegusus123456 posted...

The bigger issue is that Harry actually became an auror. Read the bit where he decided to become one. It's literally because he can't think of anything else when he's deciding which classes to take in his last two years.

The story makes way, way more sense if he becomes the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. He manages to teach an entire class of students how to do the Patronus Charm which is supposed to be really difficult, advanced magic. And he finds it really satisfying. There's also some nice symmetry where he takes the job Voldemort always wanted and a nice callback to him being the kind of teacher Remus is.

It's pretty depressing that Rowling creates this screwed up world with a screwed up government that was apparently trivially seized by Wizard Hitler, and the best thing she can think of for Harry to do is become a cop.

So glad we're getting back to politics as usual. Nothing bad ever resulted from that...

Conflict posted...

Just bear in mind SMT IV is a fucking pain in the ass at the beginning. One of those games where it starts off hard as hell and progressively gets easier

Yeah, the difficulty curve kind of blows(the game itself doesn't, just to be clear. I love it, in fact). It's partly because it's just way too easy build ideal skill layouts.

I'm fascinated to see what V is going to be like.

I dont think it was a bad idea to prevent Muammar Gaddhafi from overrunning the second-largest city in Libya, particularly when he was pledging brutal retribution.
The problem was backing half a dozen disparate rebel groups in ousting him and being shocked to discover that they all had very different ideas about what a post-Gaddhafi Libya should look like.

Also the worst people tend to get the most foreign backing because theyre easier to buy.

I know there's a Chinese RotK TV show that's supposed to be good and is also on Youtube, apparently.
Cao Cao is awesome in it, is what I hear and what I've seen from clips people have posted.
A Dynasty Warriors movie might just be the silly ridiculousness we need right now though.

I'm glad more attention's being paid to the period now, guess it's a small positive side effect of the growing importance of the Chinese market.

But yeah, HBO could definitely make a great RotK show, but it wouldn't be Dynasty Warriors lol. Dynasty Warriors is inherently over-the-top insane in a way that exceeds the novel, most of the time.

Just one, thankfully.
My cousin's grandfather died of COVID-19. I knew him because he owned beachfront property in Mass that my family spent a week several summers at. Nice guy, stubborn, family was from Lebanon(I don't think he was first-generation though).
He was in his 90s and got it basically at the beginning, so he went quick. Aside from being in his 90s, he was pretty healthy and generally all there, so he could definitely have been around a while longer.

ShyOx posted...

Theyre always saying this about dozens of people a generation since the 80s. NO. Dylan is Dylan.

Yeah, I try not to get into the business of saying Artist A is Generation B's Artist C. It's dumb, lol.

Watermelon is mediocre and can't compete with oranges, stone fruits, and berries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfKwZLyb40k
Sunday Roast took on a lot of meaning due to the pandemic. This is the most recent performance, from her livestream "From Where I'm Standing" earlier this year. Which was great, by the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TISIPNpRuoY
Need a Little Time is great. Particularly love "Shave your head to see how it feels/Emotionally it's not that different/But to the hand it's beautiful/Yeah, to the hand it's beautiful"
Pithy commentary on perspective.

And one last one to drive away all the right people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZZSYDhx0FI

Certainly, it seems there are a lot of people who despise socialists ITT.
I recall a tech quote from Civ IV as I recall many, Nimoy was a legend.
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist. -Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian Archbishop

The reason, of course, is that charity fundamentally maintains the existing social order. But asking why there is poverty challenges it directly. Theres more than enough wealth in society that the rich could remain rich while the poor could be made comfortable, and yet what is happening is that the mega rich are becoming exponentially richer and everyone else struggles more and more.
People with any sort of stake(whether real or imagined) in the way things are would much rather believe the wealthy deserve to be wealthy and the poor deserve to be poor.

Joe Manchin's deal is that he sees the Senate as an exclusive clubhouse where he gets to hang out with his friends. I'm not sure Joe Manchin really understands or cares that what he and his friends do has/may have a massive impact on the lives of Americans. In a sense, he's an oily(coaly?), soulless political operator, but you can buy him out sometimes. His number is probably up come 2024 no matter what he does, which makes everything more galling.

Sinema, apparently, grew up poor and, once she got access to power and prestige, she decided she never wanted to be poor again, no matter the cost. She, by all appearances, consciously chose to sell out to the highest bidders. She would probably get away with it easy, too, if not for the current make-up of the Senate and that she coincidentally happens to be a fundamentally bizarre Senator. She's up in 2024 too, and, if she doesn't survive, I'm sure she'll find a highly-lucrative political afterlife, perhaps at some ghoulish centrist think tank that gives her plenty of opportunities to spout pablum on cable news while cosplaying Jade from Beyond Good and Evil or something that similarly misses the entire point.

Of course, the reality is likely that centrist ghouls like Chris Coons and barely-coherent zombies like Feinstein probably also oppose significant changes to the filibuster behind closed doors, and they use Manchin and Sinema as lightning rods.

I think she's probably the Courtney Barnett of our generation, personally.

apolloooo posted...

I have this interesting moral question. If you can detect a baby being trans in the womb and fix it before birth would you do it? I agree if it was possible to do to an adult, it would be akin to a brainwashing. Ego death like you said. But what if you can do it to a fetus?

Any society which would preferentially alter the brain over the rest of the body is undoubtedly not one anyone would like to live in.

Sackgurl posted...

the filibuster hasn't worked as depicted in that film for more than 50 years

Also it was invented in that form to block civil rights legislation.

The voice acting in the Remaster is surprisingly great. So youre like, Damn, Matador sounds bad ASS and then he melts your party in a few Andalucias Rakukaja fixed that problem handily, as he has Dekunda but not Dekaja.

Chadwick69 posted...

Here's my question, wouldn't it be easier or better on the body to try and fix the imbalance of estrogen/testosterone to match the assigned at birth gender instead of undergoing a very long and complicated body altering procedure?

I'm kinda stupid so maybe this is a dumb question

I know some one else answered, but the problem is that I already have a normal hormone balance for a man. And its making me miserable. Theres simply no reason to believe more T would fix it: it would be like trying to fix a gas fire by pouring more gas on it.

As far as more fundamental ways, like making my brain male somehow, well, that sounds an awful lot like ego death to me. I would just be a fundamentally different person, and that person would have a lot of weird memories(like the experience I detailed earlier in the topic) that they would be completely unable to understand or relate to.
I think the mistake people make (whether intentionally or unintentionally) is believing that the body is biological, but the brain is less so(or that sex/gender identity has a biological basis everywhere but the brain) and is thus somehow less fundamental, when the available evidence suggests the opposite, even from a purely materialistic standpoint. A penis quite literally doesnt know that its male: it knows nothing! It just reacts to whatever hormones it receives, and a clitoris does as well. Fun fact: they start out the same.

kelemvor posted...

I always thought a "congressional staffer" was just some job you take right out of college to get something cool on your resume before going after more lucrative public administration jobs. My first job out of college was like $30K as well.

In other words.... Who cares? Most of them have rich parents anyway.

I mean, you would almost have to have rich parents to live on that little.
Though its weird you apparently think mostly only rich kids being able to work entry-level government jobs is a good thing. Seems like that would be bad!

Also congressional staffs being small and underpaid means congress people often have to rely on outside sources for information and research. Combine that with the fact they spend most of their time fundraising from wealthy donors and you have a part of the puzzle right there...

Ridley- Hes got the killer instinct you want in the hole and there are no rules against flying. Fantastic reach, enjoy getting dunked on.

Waluigi- Dude does nothing but play sports and has legs like springs. He loves competitions, and hell do anything to win.

Eiger- Shes a troll nicknamed for a mountain. Nothings getting by her, and she shoots like a sniper from range.

Maxine Caulfield- No one can figure out how she does it, but she always scores.

Spring Man- Hes literally an ambulatory spring. Theres just no going over him, but hes a little wild, a little undisciplined.

emblem boy posted...

Hmm, so you don't think there's anything "incorrect" about thinking a certain body part is feminine or masculine based in certain characteristics?

Some of that is undoubtedly socially-constructed, but the fact is that women and men typically have certain physical differences. Society generally exaggerates their importance, but I couldnt have legs quite like hers with my current hormone balance. I have more muscle mass, more hair, rougher, oilier skin, different fat distribution, etc. etc. Those differences do matter to me.

Thats without even considering brain chemistry. I remember when I was maybe 13-14 years old, and encountering transness for the first time in a New York Times Magazine article about Calpurnia Adams and the murder of her boyfriend. She described a bit of her experience of transition, that before she started HRT she felt as though she were looking at the world through a dirty filter, and chemical transition cleared it.
A lot of trans people, of all types, speak of a similar experience. Thats not social, thats pure biology.

I can speak definitively only my own experiences, but I certainly don't just want to be a woman in social terms.
Like, not long after I admitted to myself that I was a trans woman, I got together with an old friend and her now ex-husband to watch through the last episodes of Bojack Horseman(great show, btw) and we were all sitting on the couch, and she was wearing a long skirt and I could see her legs, from her knees down to her ankles. She runs and always has; in other words, her legs are fantastic. In that instant, I wished we existed in a reality where it was okay for me to touch them. But I also, simultaneously, wished my legs looked like that: silky soft and smooth. Feminine. I look forward to looking like and being perceived and treated as a woman, even though I know there will be people who misgender me and that women, in general, have it significantly harder.
For me, at least, the physical and social are one and the same. That's not everyone's experience or desire.

Also, I think, in being trans, you realize that there's so much to know about gender, and that you, in fact, know so very little. So I think that's why you seldom see any trans person making any sweeping generalizations. And certainly I would urge people against believing that they understand some one else's experience better than they do themselves.

Create an economic system predicated on ever-growing human misery, and the increasing number of miserable humans will find solace in whatever they can. In our atomized society, thats very often booze.

Man, Ive never had anyone physically assault me, even in customer service. Probably the people that would consider such an outrageous act see me as too far beneath them to bothered with.
Glad youre fine, TC, and this will be nothing but a funny story to tell others.

Extremely healthy discourse in our extremely healthy democracy.

What a tragedy for tennis. Its a shame Osaka was made to feel this was the only reasonable course of action. Were always putting useless traditions and demeaning rituals ahead of actual human beings, and thats a shame.

TheRealDill2K4 posted...

This world sounds miserable and would be the end of humanity.

If this is the best we can do, then we should end. And a decades-long lesbian orgy would certainly be ending on a high note.

Yeah, you really shouldn't underestimate how powerful social norms are. Just because they're socially-constructed doesn't mean they don't bend and shape our social reality. Like, completely.

Its impossible to say, beyond the fact they would probably livestream the (likely brutal) executions of whichever elected officials they had captured.
That would make it harder for Trump to actually succeed, probably. But even that would unleash a torrent of violence and terror that would remain unresolved.

Its ridiculous the way we treat athletes as meat. She has no obligation to do anything she doesnt want to do and Im happy shes taking a stand for herself and others who couldnt afford to do so.

Its ridiculous that people act like we were actually locked down for any appreciable length of time. It took maybe a month or two for restrictions to ease in the places that actually took those precautions.

LOL at acting like mask mandates and social distancing protocols constitute a lockdown.

Its baffling that Sega has apparently just decided not to follow up on it, at all. Especially with the time gap, it would still feel special.
I almost think Sonic Team is jealous of Mania because Forces bombed so hard alongside it.

Quagmire as a sex-addicted libertine was often funny, but straight Quagmire-is-a-serial-rapist jokes werent funny, then or now.

No, nothing is worse than an arbitrary pick your color ending, even with as tedious as humans are special trope is. That ship already sailed in 2.
But you are correct insofar that that still would feel overly-contrived. Why not simply destroy the mass relay network, if thats the case? Its several times more humane than genociding entire interstellar civilizations.

The most important thing to ask is: how do you sleep? Back, side, stomach? Because that is the biggest indicator as to what kind of firmness level you need.
Most sellers will offer free trial periods, but there's generally catches: like you can't return it before 30 days and you need to donate the mattress to get credited with a return.

Ugh, those textures look really weird and kind of random.
Plus, Stu looks weird without stubble.

Ugh, that mini-game is trash and I never found a good guide for it.

How in hell do you stave off despair long enough to do anything?

Bio1590 posted...

lmao that's only 89 votes, who the fuck didn't even vote

https://twitter.com/frankthorp/status/1398314142847717382
Sinema didn't even bother to show up. Apparently, this was less important to her than voting against a $15 minimum wage.

Meritocracy has never really been more than an aspiration. And, of course, it doesn't control for the fact that management is most likely a fundamentally different task than what the person they're promoting was doing before. Like, my manager is a moron who doesn't understand what goes on in his department and who systemically alienates his underlings, but he answers regional's e-mails and is very nice to his immediate bosses, so they always take his side in everything because they see him as this nice, responsive, hard-working man. I find it perfectly believable that he was an excellent cashier and possibly even an okay supervisor, but he's been in his current position for six years now: his predecessor(who was both a lovely person and vastly better at the job) has long since become a store manager.

Basically, any hierarchy is going to fall victim to the Peter principle, because those above do not see(and typically do not consider relevant) the experiences of those more than one level below.

Antifar posted...

Dianne Feinstein, surprise, has not been keeping up
https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1398011558660300800

So glad she didnt retire so someone who understands whats happening could be in her place. Only Dianne Feinstein knows how to get things done!

The people in power now will be dead by the time things get really bad, and have lived their lives believing they might be the last generation. They comforted themselves, in aggregate, by engaging in an orgy of short-sighted greed and tearing down(or trying to) anything that might survive them.

I can tell you that I've always had a bit of difficulty with women, and I *think* it's partially because I really struggle to conceptualize the obvious: they perceive and treat me like a man. I haven't even transitioned: so, like, yeah: duh. But it always bothered me and I lashed out on a few occasions because of it(I've only recently developed this theory) and I'm....not proud of that. Like, women treat women way differently and it makes me jealous. Of course, I don't really want men to be treating me like a woman, 'cause....yeaaaaah...

I was never happy with my body and used to wish I was a girl, but I think being trans and just generally empathetic, I always had a better concept of what women go through living in this world, and I tried to talk myself into being a man as just being easier. Well, it's not if you're fundamentally not a man.
It's been hard managing this process, but I'm out to one lesbian friend and will be out to her other half soon too. If my friends weren't so damned flaky, I would have done more coming out by now. Hormones soon...

AlisLandale posted...

Do we know if Volus are actually fat, or do they just wear fat suits?

I mean hell, they could be tiny little mouse people wearing mech suits.

Arent they native to really high pressure environments or something?
I remember the Elcor live in really high gravity and thats why they do everything slowly.
I dont know enough about biology to say if their physiology makes sense.

As for the Quarian, I feel like perhaps theyre the result of them smashing two races together? And they intentionally chose not to depict a them without suits, even in the Geth museum, with a ridiculous hand-wave about them appearing as you know them or some crap.

No, Im not. But I may actually become capable of happiness soon.

Sounds about white to me.