Lurker > MartinFF7

Congratulations!

Get her to post in the "Black Friday Haul" topic, quite the pickup...

davidponte posted...

Turns out Hutchinson is still bad.

Fallback position of "Keefe unbeaten when Andersen starts"

literally never heard of Mac and Cheese as a Thanksgiving staple before these topics. Just really feels like the odd item out? Is it a regional or cultural thing I've been missing?

Classic Crawford got a head start on getting pulled.

Here's a fun question for a team with a back-to-back: if your goalie gets pulled less than halfway through the game, who do you start tomorrow? What if Crawford is pulled at the end of the 1st period and Lehner plays the next two? Do you start Lehner again 24 hours later or go back to a (relatively fresher, lol) Crawford?

MartinFF7 posted...

i wasn't sure what to expect when I started watching the show - I've never been a huge SW fan like some of my friends - but I am seriously digging it. Feels like each episode is better than the last and I'm liking the direction they're going.

Also still looking forward to BILL BURR!!

Reupped for another week on both counts...

So good, and call me a sucker but I really believed for a minute that Baby Yoda would be left behind, and it made me sad because it really is the cutest damn thing ever. Even though I knew all along there's no way they could stay there since the trackers are still active, it doesn't make sense. How do they disable that damn tracker anyways....

Also when I heard Gina Carano was in, I thought it'd be for more than 1 episode. Which means we probably only get 1 ep of Bill Burr...

Not in Canada, or at least my research hasn't turned up any... best I could get would be New Switch + Breath of the Wild bundle for $30 off.

Our Black Friday still can't compare to stateside, we've always had our best discounts on Boxing Day so yeah, may just gamble and wait for Dec 26 to see if there's anything better.

GuessMyUserName posted...

I actually had no idea there even was a new switch (aside from the Switch Lite) but huh

Neither did I, until I came across an article about the bundle pointing that out, and then this article backed it up (so since July apparently): https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/17/20697601/nintendo-switch-new-model-battery-life-improvements

Are you excited though, this is the only way I'd ever play Xenoblade...

Anyone with a Switch, I need your honest opinions:

they're running this bundle of Switch + Mariokart 8 for the price of, well, a Switch. So that's $80 Cdn off I guess. Looking like a strong impulse buy candidate since there are a couple of other Switch games I can see myself wanting to play in the future (i.e. Xenoblade Definitive Edition)

But apparently the version of the Switch in the bundle is the older one with the weaker (2.5 - 6.5 hrs) battery life vs. the newer (4.5 - 9 hrs). I guess the question is, does the extra 2 - 2.5 hours of battery life really matter, to save $80?

I'm thinking about my situation and I'm not on the go that often, but it still feels like such a difference I wouldn't want to miss out on... ah, I probably wouldn't even have time to play it in December, I might just wait for Boxing Day.

And there's still half the game left... good lord.

Yet somehow, Andreas Athanasiou - the reigning minus champion (by a fair margin) - is one of the few players still at +/- of 0 for the game despite 5 even strength goals.

in b4 Guerin trades whatever picks and prospects he has left at the trade deadline to go "all in" for a playoff run

Thank you stingers, I feel better knowing all is right with the Babe Brawl world, lol (even if she bounced one of mine!)

So Bill Peters is the "hold my beer" guy for Mike Babcock now, I guess.

20 minutes ago there were claims he's been fired but now there's other reports saying a determination on his job hasn't been made yet.

Does he dodge the axe, somehow? Do we even make that a bet?

literally loling

Did I call it or what

I just want it noted for the record that I don't like the low Angie Layton placement.

I didn't participate when the call went out since I didn't feel confident to accurately rate a good chunk of contestants, I mean it's been so many years for most of those seasons, figured I'd leave it for the super fans and experts... but I never forgot Angie. And her cookies, I mean love of cookies.

Also surprised Alina Wilson's name hasn't dropped yet and very much expecting it soon, though I remember she had another superfan around here so hopefully his rating is keeping her afloat...!

Considering his other noms, figure it's either:

(1) Law of averages finally balancing things out; or

(2) He had a totally different Katie Bell in mind (like the Kaleena Marie situation) and you chose the wrong Katie, lol

...unexpected result. Vyvan had great pics today too!

I guess Katie's Bells were just too much, damn.

4-16

Bossman_Coolguy posted...

i love working job

Is this sarcasm or did things change since the darker days.

Also like how this outlasted the other SMFFFC topics... going to keep this going till next July?

Certainly until March 2020 for DARK NATION (if it's in the remake)

Jesus, the absolute cruelty. What an asshole.

And apparently it was Mitch Marner, and apparently he admitted to it, and possibly did it in Detroit too.

https://twitter.com/twolinepass/status/1199046947132321792

Edit: Marner confirmed, https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/video/marner-on-babcock-s-controversial-motivational-tactic-it-s-just-surprising~1837771

Fight
DeathChicken vs. Johnbobb
IhatethisCPU vs. redrocket
abstain
banananor vs. Wicklebee

Pitch
DeathChicken vs. Johnbobb
IhatethisCPU vs. redrocket
abstain
banananor vs. Wicklebee

I mean there's a difference between material changes (like ... Omni-Beast) and intangible changes like, people working together, isn't there?

If my pitch establishes a sane Vulcan (or if my team used X-Men #1 Vulcan who's totally normal), and somebody makes a fight argument about Vulcan being a madman peepeepoopoohead, I mean...

I'll edit that out of my commentary in any case.

Fight
Shaduln vs. NBIceman
Snake vs. Mega Mana
Scare vs. Lopen
MegaManX vs. Eddv

Pitch
Shaduln vs. NBIceman
Snake vs. Mega Mana
Scare vs. Lopen
MegaManX vs. Eddv

Brotherhood of Righteous Mutants fight-takes:

Since the pitch established this is a functional team that works together well, and with the fate of the Earth at stake so everyone is motivated to win, let's talk about what really matters, the powers.

Vanisher is the hidden gem and I see two major tactical advantages he brings in this fight.

(1) Vanisher has the ability to transport not just himself, but groups of people. While he's usually just teleporting himself + teammates who are expecting to be teleported, there have been instances (eg the escape from Necrosha, X-Force Vol 3 #24) where he teleports people without their knowledge. So, if he can teleport people involuntarily with him, he can shift members of X-Treme to opportune areas of the battlefield for the Brotherhood to take advantage/have the numbers.

I should also note another aspect of his power, quote:

The Vanisher possesses an instinctual extrasensory ability that prevents him from materializing all or part of his body within a solid object. The Vanisher can teleport to any place within his teleportational range, whether he had seen it or not, without danger of harming himself.

Since the fight is taking place on a livable moon, if there isn't a limited "battlefield" they're restricted to, he can theoretically split up some or all of the opposing team miles apart from one another & the Brotherhood could attack and finish them off individually. And he doesn't need to have "seen" the area before teleporting there, he can just do it.

(2) Vanisher/Elixir as a natural tag team to exploit Elixir's offensive ability, the death touch. Just touching someone for a few seconds is enough to kill them, even if they have enhanced durability or regenerative powers. The main problem in a 6v6 battle is how to get Elixir into place to get his "touch" in; in this case, either Vanisher brings in Elixir to get his touch directly, or per item (1), teleports out a member of X-Treme wherein Elixir can touch them as soon as the teleport is done. As added insurance, Joseph (or X-Man if he's freed up) can "hold" the victim in place using their powers for the few seconds it takes for Elixir to kill the person (again, all this is assuming item (1) doesn't take effect as I envisioned, where pretty much every battle would be a 5v1 battle)

As a side note, Vanisher also appears to be able to teleport repeatedly without issue (in X-Force Vol 3 #8 he teleports 4 times in quick succession, despite being injured) so jumping back and forth isn't an issue for him.

So the appeal of "crowd control" in the battle + being able to rapidly move Elixir in for the kill (or move others to Elixir) makes them a potent combo. Elixir, of course, also has healing power in case anyone gets a shot in, and is able to self-regenerate almost instantly too (per Uncanny X-Men Annual Vol 4 #1, with bonus shot of Elixir dominating M: https://imgur.com/a/6pS8I7x). And he has resurrection powers but let's not worry about those.

Cyclops's powers on Vulcan go like this: https://i.imgur.com/aNLrdp3.png and while Mimic does bring a rather significant power set, I would still place Vulcan's absolute power superiority above him.

Prof X/X-Man and Phoebe Cuckoo/M are the natural tele-pairoffs. X-Man is more powerful and would win that battle, and I'd argue Phoebe also has more advanced telepathic powers, but if it devolves to an actual fight then Diamond form vs. Penance is basically a standstill too, Brotherhood eventually gaining the numerical advantage and the win.

But I'd still lean on Vanisher controlling the pieces on the board to enable tactical advantages in the battle.

Okay I just need 1 of 4 different guys to get one penalty in the remaining games to flip the category in my favour.

....okay 2 of the 4 have gotten no PIMs in the past 8 games and the only other ones in the past 8 were Bertuzzi (one penalty two games ago) and Nurse (6 PIMs in one game... 6 games ago)

I hope for an errant slash or hook nevertheless!

scarletspeed7 posted...

X-Treme loses the name game here like crazy, but man, there is way too much happening in this pitch for the Brotherhood. I can see this title will be extremely wordy and constantly trying to "do things" without ever really lingering on themes or moments. There's a huge amount of rewriting X-Men's status quo happening here, and I just can't get on board with it. And I still see no interesting stakes here. X-Man is literally killing a universe of people to just come aboard this fly-by-night operation? Joseph exists why? X-Treme wins because the weight of the Brotherhood pitch just crushes itself.

In my defence, and no more pitch defences from me after this, I'm sure Eddv's will be rough too...

If I keep things high-level like last week, it opens up for comments on "why is this person here, why would that person do that, why would they work together". So I felt compelled to set things up - explaining character motivations, at least trying to realistically explain how/why they are working together successfully, and establishing "Sane Vulcan". The "wordiness" is literally just setting up the first two issues of the series and the core concept that follows.

In this series, X-Man leaving the "Age" doesn't destroy it, which isn't something I felt needed to be explained in the pitch. It might be a retcon but the one quote I can find alluding to its destruction is when he says "If you destroy this world you destroy me with it", but that doesn't mean his leaving has the same effect?

But if it does and we stick with that, then we roll with this: X-Man has already established his caring about the the people of Earth, the real Earth, and while his "Age" may be "real" it's still fundamentally a dream filled with constructs. Isn't it implied in the end that he and Age Magneto recreate it from scratch? So if Earth was in danger he would value it more and make the (heartwrenching? dramatic?) decision to sacrifice the "Age" to try and help save 616 Earth. If there's no scenario where X-Man can/would leave his reality, I'm kind of in an unwinnable position here?

Speaking of unwinnable positions, enjoyed the combination of this Joseph comment and "Why is Joseph even here?" in last round's, and look forward to variations on that the next 5 rounds, lol. I explained why he's there, even if it's somewhat "random", the team is as random as any RPG party that teams up to save the world with some characters on the team having closer connections/relationships than others. Someone who has magnetic powers is a significant threat to a species as technologically-focused as the Shi'ar so he's got great relevancy on the team.

From a meta perspective, I can try trading him away but if he's already set up as being a toxic "Pitch" property who would take him? And if I did I certainly wouldn't get comparable "Fight" in return. And if I retool the pitch to make his being on the team more relevant, it takes more words.

I think there's interesting stakes in Earth being under occupation, the series' focus on a team of resistance fighters figuring out how to take back control against insurmountable odds - for the first, lengthy major arc. Once they do then we get into broader stuff and the series goes in a different direction but couldn't push my luck more than I already have on this pitch.

"Rewriting the status quo" is a 100% legit argument and that's the problem with both my pitches, they almost only work in a vaccuum, like pretending there aren't other Marvel comics out there. Big status breaking. I probably need a concept that fits in a shared world with other comic titles so it doesn't revolve around the Earth getting taken over, but that idea hasn't come to me yet...

Now we're talking

Still hope you bought the new PS4 release rather than digging out the old CDs! High speed mode is especially great in that game...

MZero11 posted...

big mistake

lol classic MZero...

On the plus side:

-4 of those 5 were on the road (just the Ottawa loss at home)
-4 of those 5 were 1 goal games (until today's blowout)
-Blowout is probably because of Bernier?
-Mantha and Bertuzzi are keeping up the gangbusters performance from the latter half of last season into this season

On the down side I see Mantha was apparently injured... not great (for my team), great (for the lottery)

WickIebee posted...

On mine, Snake and Prof specifically didn't pick in fight because of seeing a bit of evenly matched.

Oh yeah, I didn't even consider abstain-due-to-closeness as an option... fair enough!

Completely agree with the first point, but the bar's not like sitting at a table/booth. In hindsight I forgot all about the bar as being an option there, hmm... maybe next time.

The second point... we will agree to disagree!

....who's to blame for making the Fight and Pitch votals not add up? 2 off on Wickle/Chichi too, geez... funny how they ended in dual shutouts in that match too, nice.

Yeah movies alone is pretty good

But I still can't go to restaurants alone. When SHRIMPFEST was ending and I couldn't find anybody up for going with me the last day it was on, I just couldn't do it...

Instead I ordered the "endless shrimp takeout" option online and picked it up, it only gives you 2 regular and 2 refill shrimp portions. A fraction of the true endless experience.

They tasted like ashes in my mouth.

Let me add on to the scarlet question list:

(1) Deadline for pitch changes for next round?

(2) No issue with completely different pitches, or is the "core" concept required to stay intact with only tweaks allowed?

(3) Clarification on rule 6 for trades, which was originally posted as such:

scarletspeed7 posted...

If the trade comes in after week 3, two sit-outs. If it comes after week 6, 1 sit-out. Week 9 or 10, none.

But with the default min sit-out number changing from 3 to 2 after that was posted (and weeks 9 and 10 not existing...), need an update on that

Think it's fascinating that Jonathan Libby's already out and Wanda Shirk hasn't shown yet despite being in similar non-contestant situations.

I still remember the absolute cringeworthy "singing" on the boat...

Final Fantasy 9

the new release of the game on PSN, rather than my old discs that were packed away

ertyu...

Yeah but Magneto's not in his lineup for this fight, so...

It's a gripping tale, he wants to see if there's a resolution

I mean, I don't want this to end on a cliffhanger either!

Ah, I figured Vyvan would kill it.

I was hoping the new nominees (Cindy and Jeanine) would be up before Derrion? Any chance you could bump them up the queue Vlado? All my superior babe nominees always crashing against each other...

Hey, don't thank me until it works out...! And ideally the summoned Wigs or Steiner will have other possible solutions. Always glad to help when it comes to Excel though.

Oh wow. Yeah I got nothing, that's messed up.

The only thing I can think, when I was dealing with a file that was doing weird things that I couldn't fix, was literally starting over. Fresh workbook, add in the old data (paste special values), formulas and formatting so it all looks the same. I think I had to do that a few times in Excel but it was mostly a Word problem.

I tried googling and there were some comments that it's a corrupt file issue...

Okay this is one thing that somebody said here: https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/ie/en-US/bbda28fa-51b2-4d25-9256-29c10a64c7d5/excel-2007-changes-cell-formats-by-itself-at-random

Click on cell styles in the Home ribbon.
Right click on "Normal"
Click Modify
Click Format
Change format to General

This worked for me.

And more than a few posts saying that solved the issue for them.... but if "cell styles" is just what Format Cells was called back in that version then it's probably not a real solution? I forget all the past Excel iterations. My googling also turned up people saying that had the same problem even when starting from scratch but I like to think it wasn't fully from scratch and they copied-over whatever the old problem was to their new version...

Excel 2007... https://i.imgur.com/caUt8mL.gif

Hmmm.... is the issue that you're taking numbers from somewhere else and pasting them in but they're pasting as dates instead of their native format? Even though you've already done "Format Cells" to be a non-date format?

Or is it that you got these numbers and they look normal/properly formatted but for whatever reason (after you make an edit, or close & open the file) they're suddenly changing to date format?

i wasn't sure what to expect when I started watching the show - I've never been a huge SW fan like some of my friends - but I am seriously digging it. Feels like each episode is better than the last and I'm liking the direction they're going.

Also still looking forward to BILL BURR!!

Not feeling the Browns? I dug up my document where I was planning for future weeks and had them slotted in here, yikes... and had Steelers and Lions as the two backup picks, funnily enough.

What happened to FF9 ertyu

Where's FF9

Do they really want to make the playoffs, though? I mean, Crawford's still starting half your games... ;)

Gotta commit to the tank!

Fight
redrocket vs. banananor
Wicklebee vs. ChichiriMuyo
abstain
Johnbobb vs. IhatethisCPU

Pitch
redrocket vs. banananor
Wicklebee vs. ChichiriMuyo
abstain
Johnbobb vs. IhatethisCPU

Fight
Mega Mana vs. MegamanX
Eddv vs. Scare
Lopen vs. Shaduln
NBIceman vs. Snake

Pitch
Mega Mana vs. MegamanX
Eddv vs. Scare
Lopen vs. Shaduln
NBIceman vs. Snake

Eddv posted...

Martin's project requires like 8 issues of people giving it a chance for this to be a successful title. It's gonna take that long to get all the moving pieces into place. But Cyclops as a drawing card REALLY only gets you so far. It just has to go so far beyond pitch

You (and Lopen) are both right, of course. I was planning to get really elaborate, that's my own hubris, which fell apart with the pitch length limit. Would've been safer to go with standard characters in a standard series but always like to try something different.

Though I will also say, I wasn't thinking of (theoretical) commercial viability, the pitch criteria was just for "better series" after all. And now I'm thinking of all those great tv series cancelled too soon because nobody watched them, yeah... that would probably be how it ends up.

Ah, for some reason I thought it was a rule that he wouldn't be owed any remaining part of the contract if another team hired him, but on further analysis guess that's not the case...

Ehhhh Colliton's barely into his second season, surely he gets some more leeway...

Ah I just saw his name trending on twitter, no surprises.

https://twitter.com/reporterchris/status/1197697093114220545

https://twitter.com/dirtbag_daddi/status/1197706774108880896

https://twitter.com/IanGraph/status/1197706611327930369

so good!

Only - literally the only - downside of Babcock being fired is that it may have been 2 games too soon since I have the Coyotes & Avs goalies in my pool.

And there's no way I can start Kuemper tonight... feel like the Leafs are due to win this game with their new coach. Would've been a gimme win in the Babcock era, not anymore...

(Now watch Kuemper pull another shutout just to spite me)

Because the ending's different? I was referring to the "played straight" at the end, rather than it culminating in Everyone vs. Vulcan. It still starts the same way - secret plan behind the public face of the team, gradually getting people on board, moving chess pieces into place. I think there's some interest in that journey and the development of characters along the way but maybe that's just me, fair enough.

Eddv posted...

But, and call me crazy, you shouldn't want you book to be building to a dramatic everyone vs Vulcan shitfest but since that's where you're taking things anyway, why not beast, the massive disparity in power is actually somewhat compelling.

Yeah, this is where I needed to word my pitch better, I waited until the last minute since I wanted to read all those issues & my walls of text didn't capture the change sufficiently and everything's probably come across more malevolent than it should be. My book is played totally straight, everyone on the team agrees with Vulcan's assessment in the end and it goes full-on authoritarian in the "ends justifies the means" kind of way. That's what the "Righteous" really represents, in the team name.

But the starting premise is Vulcan isn't straight-up madman evil anymore, he's a more, uh, developed person in this story. More learned and introspective than the mania he previously descended into. Or the joke they brought him back as in X-Men #1 recently.

The key difference is he (stick with me here) values and appreciates life now, and wants to protect it. But if there's one constant that he's noticed, whether in Shi'ar or Earth history, is that conflict among intelligent species, both inter- and intra-, is constant throughout history. Typically a fight for resources, or fear of the different. So he comes to the conclusion that the only way to truly have peace between mutants and humanity, is to force it on them; and it's not just the humans and mutants on earth that deserve it, fundamentally all life in the galaxy does... they'll just start with Earth.

Vulcan wants to rule not because he's power hungry, but much like his hero Julius Caesar, he sees himself as the only capable leader for the people, and to improve their way of life (historians plz no rebuff, just roll with this). Cyclops does totally buy into the "Lawful Neutral" assessment which is where he comes on board. X-Man is exactly the same way, so when scarlet asked "Why wouldn't X-Man just wash his hands of this immediately?", it's because he's already on board with protecting life and making the world a better place. Couple of pics I hung on to: https://imgur.com/a/pywlgyl

And so he's on board (and Gaia would have the same heaven/hell assessment after her own Earthly travels)

I assume there's no rule against "Vulcan isn't an evil madman" being part of my pitch so will try to establish that more clearly! Especially now that I know the max pitch length I can achieve based on the other posted pitches...

In the end I tried to craft a team that could work on both 'Fight' and 'Pitch' fronts and if both fail then so be it, no regrets. But when I hear "Vulcan for Sabretooth", I think that's a bit too Pitch-y for me...!