Poll of the Day > GeekHouse of Horror LXXII

(+) Yeah! (+)

Zeus posted...

Oof. Surprised that he'd volunteer some of that information. Usually it seems like if you don't complain about it, they're kinda mum.

If it's straight up structural, like this seems to be, they're better off cutting the check than getting sued by a structure collapsing on an at-risk individual since they'd likely lose the case if they can't force binding arbitration.

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We are a little less than a week away from the launch of the next generation consoles.

Is anyone picking up a Series S/X or a PS5 next week? Or are you Geeks going to wait a few months or years to enter te next generation?

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At least a year or two

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I probably won't have the money for one for awhile.
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I want a PS5 but not enough to wait in line or pay through the nose for one. I'll probably get one when I can find one but I might wait for the inevitable PS5 Pro

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The NaNoWriMo site's interface is so fucking confusing >_> I tried to set it up a new project but it won't let me for this current month's thing, although when I accidentally set up a new goal under the old project it worked fine.

Maybe I'll just set up a new account. However, I'm now 3 days in and only at 1,900 words, which is barely over the 1-day target.

The Wave Master posted...

Is anyone picking up a Series S/X or a PS5 next week? Or are you Geeks going to wait a few months or years to enter te next generation?

I still haven't entered the last generation... well, minus the Switch, which I've used a little bit. I've got maybe 30 ps4 games but my ps4 is still sitting in a box from last Black Friday. It might not even have a ps4 in there, I do not know. I got it from Gamestop so anything is possible.

The Switch is a fucking pain since it never seems to 100% turn off so every few days I have to recharge it despite never using it. (Because I don't play docked for the same reason I don't bother with my ps3, ps4, etc)

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I know everyone is upset over the news.. but it's going to be fine that Sony won't have any day one purchases and just pre-orders for the PS5. I was going to wait anyway as my house needs to be repaired first, but this just saves me a lot of running around next Thursday.

What... did you think I was talking about some other major news happening right now?

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I watched the first season of Black Adder because I love Mr Bean and I have always heard good things.

Gotta say... the season had some decent moments, but didn't really make me lol much. And then it was kinda confusing because everyone died at the end and the second season picks up with different characters with the same names?

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The Wave Master posted...

I know everyone is upset over the news.. but it's going to be fine that Sony won't have any day one purchases and just pre-orders for the PS5.

That's the fucking stupidest thing ever.

The Wave Master posted...

What... did you think I was talking about some other major news happening right now?

Well, it is Guy Fawkes Day...

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I got COVID tested today, came out negative.
So I got me some Taco Bell and some garbage to celebrate.

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shadowsword87 posted...

I got COVID tested today, came out negative.
So I got me some Taco Bell and some garbage to celebrate.

What kind of garbage?
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Oh, some pop, a cheese dip that I can't eat around anyone else, all very clearly bad food that I'm 100% just using this as an excuse to get.

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shadowsword87 posted...

So I got me some Taco Bell and some garbage to celebrate.

Seems a little redundant.

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Zeus posted...

Seems a little redundant.

Taco Bell is for now garbage, then I have future garbage.

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Taco Bell isn't very good anymore except for a few items. Their steak quesadilla is solid, and their cheesey gordita chrunch with extra sauce is good too. The rest of their menu is trash. (Why did they take away the beef and potato burrito?)

Not to sound too much like a food snob, but we have a local chain around here called "Taco Sombrero" that I can get real Mexican food from that taste a hell of a lot better than Diarrhea Smell. However, in a pinch at two in the morning this and Waffle House are the best choices, and if you just want to go straight home and crash, well this is your option.

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Oh, no I completely understand that, there's only a few things I like as well.
There's a grilled cheese burrito that's just come back and a quesadilla that's really choice.

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It's crap and it's overpriced now, too, but it's still kinda enjoyable from time-to-time.

And speaking of overpriced crap, the last time I went to Little Caesar's (a week or two ago), the pizza was hot but definitely not ready. Had to wait 8 minutes for it, which fucked up part of my night. When literally all you promise is "hot and ready," it's ridiculous that you can't fulfill on one of those conditions (and it got cold pretty quick because I ate it at my car since it's not like I could go in anywhere and they didn't offer seating).

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They offer exactly one pizza as just a come-in-anytime.

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shadowsword87 posted...

They offer exactly one pizza as just a come-in-anytime.

They usually have 2-3 around, and a pretty good turnaround. That time they had none. Regardless, their whole promise is built around availability.

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I was cleaning out the garage with Oreon yesterday, and we stumbled upon a "Trapmaster" Yu-Gi-Oh card. The bloody thing was sealed and graded, and had a value of ten bucks. Oreon is now going try to sell it because we don't play Yu-Gi-Oh. I use to play Magic, and his card game expertise begins and ends with Uno.

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That was a pretty common card back in the day

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The Wave Master posted...

I was cleaning out the garage with Oreon yesterday, and we stumbled upon a "Trapmaster" Yu-Gi-Oh card. The bloody thing was sealed and graded, and had a value of ten bucks. Oreon is now going try to sell it because we don't play Yu-Gi-Oh. I use to play Magic, and his card game expertise begins and ends with Uno.

I have a hard time believing it'd actually be worth $10 >_>

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Is it Super Rare or Ultra Rare? Pretty sure it was just a Common whenever I saw it

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Johnny Depp was fired/quit the Fantastic Beast franchise over sexual assault Allegation earlier today.

This whole situation with Amber Heard is ridiculous because; have you ever seen two co-dependent people who literally beat the **** out of each other because they don't know how to do anything else? One starts to get the other going, and you add some alcohol and some pills, and the relationship turns into a damn Prodigy video. (I'm a 90's music kid)

It's neither her fault or his. They just need to stay the hell away from one another. I'm not sure what more court cases and lawsuits will prove, but I don't see her losing her swank Aquaman job in all of this.

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That whole situation is fucking crazy, but Depp is to blame for getting himself into that.

As for me, today I should be about 10k words into that book for NaNo... but I'm not even at 3k. And what I've written isn't great. I might go back through my original notes and so on to try to get a better feel for the thing, or I might just force myself to hit that 50k+ word quota and rewrite afterward. Unlike the other stuff I'd started, I'm not sure I'd ever done a substantial amount of actual writing for this idea; which, of course, was part of the appeal at the time. For whatever reason I wrote a ton of shit for stuff I had intended as *sequels* to this book, though.

And I hadn't thought of it at the time -- because I had forgotten it -- but I could have written that horror-comedy I had been tinkering with, although a lot of it was just puns and jokes about the struggles of a character living (or unliving, as it were) without a head.

My brother will be in the area to visit in a week or two, I'll probably show him that fantasy novel I was working on and just get his thoughts. The writing for that had been turning out well, but then I wound up getting side-tracked. I guess that whole "it's gotta be a habit thing" is on the money. Probably why I've only ever done short stories until now.

When all of this COVID nonsense ends, maybe I'll try to find a local writing group or something... although I guess when it all ends I probably won't have the time again. These days I'm not sure that any of my friends read fantasy and, honestly, a lot of them probably don't read at all (which isn't a judgment call, it's a recognition that books have largely been shunted by tv and film; personally if there's a movie, a tv show, or a book, I'm going with the movie or show almost every time)

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FWIW Zeus, i think the Ferguson Library does some regular writer's workshops, and probably there's something at the Stamford UCONN campus too. maybe even something at that center up at the Museum too. not sure how that works in the time of Covid, but its worth looking into.

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I really, really hated traveling to Stamford. I'd probably try to find something more local.

WhiskeyDisk posted...

not sure how that works in the time of Covid

Well, Blockhead Ned has enacted another wave of lockdowns in response to CT's growing COVID cases so I imagine most things are going to get kinda shut down.

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Ah, I thought you were still in Stamford.

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I was listening to the soundtrack for Disney's Hercules again and I'm surprised by how short it is -- or, at least, the lyrical songs. It seems far, far, far shorter than a lot of other Disney films. Granted, part of that might come down to the fact that they used song for expository purposes (which I frankly liked, since it made those elements more fun).

I know that the movie is rather egregiously panned by critics and reviewers who largely center on how it came to be. It was rather something of a high point when Disney movies were on a very quick, very steep decline.

And, of course, I'm troubled by the fact it's slated to get a live-action adaptation considering that the producers have specifically mentioned moving away from the actual film itself -- something we saw with Mulan and other films. That and there's little chance of Danny DeVito playing Phil again, despite the fact he'd arguably work better now than ever. In fact, given how badly Disney fucked over Mulan, there's a chance Phil won't appear at all.

Granted, Disney taking a piss on Hercules -- as crappy as it is -- doesn't have the same impact as them pissing on other Disney properties, since Hercules generally has so many other takes out there anyway. Even though most Disney properties are based on things in the public domain, they don't seem to get adapted to the same degree as Hercules.

WhiskeyDisk posted...

Ah, I thought you were still in Stamford.

No, I only ever worked in Stamford. I've never been a fan of living in cities.

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Metalsonic66 posted...

I watched the first season of Black Adder because I love Mr Bean and I have always heard good things.

I recommend the World War I season.


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I_Abibde posted...

I recommend the World War I season.

My favorite season is probably season 3. Though my favorite episode of all is the 6th episode of the 1st season (The Black Seal).

It's definitely worth noting that the first season is very different from the ones that follow. I know people who hated the first season but who love the rest of the show.
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I_Abibde posted...

I recommend the World War I season.

I'm planning to watch all the way through

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Alex Trebek died.

I watch Jeopardy every day, and if I don't I let the episodes build up and watch them all over the weekend back to back. I've been doing this for years now, and he will be missed in my household, and hopefully in all of yours too.

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I was watching Shadiversity's interview with Brandon Sanderson, who gave an interesting (but perhaps counterintuitive) piece of advice concerning self-publishing: Namely, that if you plan on self-publishing, you should build up a number of works first then release them in a blitz. The other advantage to this strategy is that it lets you shop things around to traditional publishers.

I kinda see the appeal to that kind of a strategy since if you're doing a series, unless you're a major name you're going to lose interest very quickly one book to the next and only mega-stars like GRRM can get away with long gaps between books.

Conversely, the downside would be that you can't use feeback/reception to necessarily drive the direction of follow-ups and the overall tone of your work if a larger adjustment needs to be made. (ie, you see tons of positive buzz for most things, but then a lot of criticism in one regard, you can take that into consideration)

The Wave Master posted...

I watch Jeopardy every day, and if I don't I let the episodes build up and watch them all over the weekend back to back. I've been doing this for years now, and he will be missed in my household, and hopefully in all of yours too.

How would you watch them back-to-back? I wasn't aware of any streaming service that had them. Oo

Or was just a TiVo or whatever kind of thing?

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Zeus posted...

Namely, that if you plan on self-publishing, you should build up a number of works first then release them in a blitz. The other advantage to this strategy is that it lets you shop things around to traditional publishers. I kinda see the appeal to that kind of a strategy since if you're doing a series, unless you're a major name you're going to lose interest very quickly one book to the next and only mega-stars like GRRM can get away with long gaps between books.

It also has the added advantage of giving publishers what they want most - namely, series. Most publishing houses seem to be completely disinterested in stand-alone genre novels and sort of subtly encourage writers to commit to longer trilogies, or even more open-ended series (which is why you see so many new titles from no-name writers these days that are all "First Book of the Such-and-Such Cycle".

If you come to the table with multiple books already written, you show them that you're capable of producing content beyond a single story, and they can monetize the entire series across multiple books. It's less risk for them.
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Alex Trebek's last episode is going to air Christmas Day. Very fitting and very sad.

Also, I have a DVR. Bank Robber pays for Directv, and I get a DVR and free NFL Sunday Ticket. It's not a bad deal. He gets a place to stay, my house, and I get free satellite television and Internet. (He pays for that too.) So, I record the new Jeopardy episodes and watch them back to back.

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ParanoidObsessive posted...

It also has the added advantage of giving publishers what they want most - namely, series. Most publishing houses seem to be completely disinterested in stand-alone genre novels and sort of subtly encourage writers to commit to longer trilogies, or even more open-ended series (which is why you see so many new titles from no-name writers these days that are all "First Book of the Such-and-Such Cycle".

If you come to the table with multiple books already written, you show them that you're capable of producing content beyond a single story, and they can monetize the entire series across multiple books. It's less risk for them.

As long as the author isn't Patrick Rothfuss. He came to publishers with a completed trilogy but somehow we've been waiting as long for his third book as we have for The Winds of Winter.

The bunny, Oreo Mcflurry, has been sexually assaulting our cat Beerus. The Bunny comes into our bedroom at night, finds Beerus when he's asleep, and gets on top of him, and well... you know. Scarlett and I are asleep, and then wake up to Beerus and Batman fighting and chasing the bunny all over the house.

Therefore, we're going to get the bunny neutered tomorrow, and hopefully that will stop the unwanted sexing from behind.

In gaming related news, Oreon bought an Xbox Series S, 299.99 (The Bluetooth Speaker) and then flipped it to some desperate person for 500 bucks. Now he plans to buy a,Series X for that 500, and flip it for a grand. I'll let you know how this all unfolds

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The Wave Master posted...

Therefore, we're going to get the bunny neutered tomorrow, and hopefully that will stop the unwanted sexing from behind.

Hopefully or... hopfully? >_>
<_<
>_>

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The Wave Master posted...

The bunny, Oreo Mcflurry, has been sexually assaulting our cat Beerus. The Bunny comes into our bedroom at night, finds Beerus when he's asleep, and gets on top of him, and well... you know. Scarlett and I are asleep, and then wake up to Beerus and Batman fighting and chasing the bunny all over the house.

Therefore, we're going to get the bunny neutered tomorrow, and hopefully that will stop the unwanted sexing from behind.

In gaming related news, Oreon bought an Xbox Series S, 299.99 (The Bluetooth Speaker) and then flipped it to some desperate person for 500 bucks. Now he plans to buy a,Series X for that 500, and flip it for a grand. I'll let you know how this all unfolds

That's one hell of a teamup.
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Zeus posted...

Hopefully or... hopfully? >_>
<_<
>_>

http://quotegeek.com/television-quotes/red-dwarf/976/
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I keep forgetting to tell all of you that my Switch actually didn't die. The worthless ass stock charger died, and I plugged in a different charger cable, and it sprung to life. Well, it didn't spring to lie, it took like 5 hours to fully charge, and another 3 hours to fully update all the games, but here we are with a working Switch.

I made the dumb mistake of looking at a 4k, ray tracing, Fidelity mode video of Spider-Man: Miles Morales before the release tomorrow, and then I played a demo of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and I'm normally not a graphical snob, but my eyes hurt. Oh, the game is super fun, but my eyes noticed every issue with the frame rate and textures.

Today I learned a valuable lesson. Play or watch a ps5 game, wash my eyes with bleach, then watch or play a Switch game.

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I'll be getting the PS4 version of Miles Morales and playing in 1080p. I think my body can take it

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Revelation34 posted...

That's one hell of a teamup.

Yeah, I got to name Beerus, and Batman was his original name when we adopted him. My wife gets to name the next animal we get.

In other good news my wife got her original job back. I'm now officially worth more dead than alive again. Something like 100,000 and I keep yelling her to refuse to take me to dialysis if I get out of hand. I'll be dead in a week or two.

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I was watching the He-Man episode with the mechanical horse last night. It was a bit egregious even by the usual product placement standards >_>

Terrible episode, too. The Sorceress revealed her very crappy origin story that did little to explain or demystify Castle Greyskull which she was directed to find by a guy in her village (who looked like Mentor?) and replaced the existing Sorceress so she'd have the power to stop an evil magician (and despite promising to tell the origin of the magician, I'm not sure that was ever really covered either) and a group of aliens who had strongarmed into helping him (who had what looked like the Horde emblem on their armor). So basically you have her going to ask to gain powers from an existing Sorceress who already had powers, already knew about the threat, but was doing nothing about it.

And for some reason, she wanted He-Man to come with her alone (which is why he took that mechanical horse they literally introduced a few minutes earlier rather than Cringer). At the end of the episode, I still wasn't sure why it was so important for him to come alone since Cringer, Orko, and Man-at-Arms tend to be in on all of those secrets. And what she told him wasn't exactly anything significant.

Of course, the worst part is having to hear her talk for a full episode. Her high-pitch, sing-song-y voice is okay in small doses where it's just a little annoying

The highlight of the episode is watching an alien shoot at the Sorceress in hawk form and miss, then the Hawk-Sorceress shoots beams from her eyes and the alien drops the gun and says a raspberry-worthy, "That's not supposed to happen!" It was a hilariously awkward piece of dialogue made even better by the delivery.

The Wave Master posted...

I keep forgetting to tell all of you that my Switch actually didn't die. The worthless ass stock charger died, and I plugged in a different charger cable, and it sprung to life. Well, it didn't spring to lie, it took like 5 hours to fully charge, and another 3 hours to fully update all the games, but here we are with a working Switch.

You mean the charger you got with the system or a cheaper charger you bought elsewhere?

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R.I.P. Alex Trebek, but him and Sean Connery biting it at around the same time is a weird coincidence.

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I_Abibde posted...

R.I.P. Alex Trebek, but him and Sean Connery biting it at around the same time is a weird coincidence.

Again, I'm not sure why people keep saying this. Trebek and Connery had no direct connection, with the only real indirect connection being that both appeared as characters (played by actors) in a series of famous SNL skits. And, because people are always dying, it's not unusual for famous people to die within a week of each other. (And as I'd mentioned either here or in another topic, had James Randi died just a little later, he would have died on Halloween just like Houdini, which would have been something of a weird coincidence (since both were magicians turned debunkers)... but he didn't so we don't have that.)

If you want to talk about weird coincidences, *maybe* you could talk about the fact that both Trebek and Art Fleming -- the original Jeopardy host -- happened to die of prostate cancer because, even thought prostate cancer is a leading cause of death, that's still a little odd.

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Zeus posted...

both appeared as characters (played by actors) in a series of famous SNL skits.

Yes, that's why it's a weird coincidence

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Zeus posted...

I was watching the He-Man episode with the mechanical horse last night. It was a bit egregious even by the usual product placement standards >_>

Terrible episode, too. The Sorceress revealed her very crappy origin story that did little to explain or demystify Castle Greyskull which she was directed to find by a guy in her village (who looked like Mentor?) and replaced the existing Sorceress so she'd have the power to stop an evil magician (and despite promising to tell the origin of the magician, I'm not sure that was ever really covered either) and a group of aliens who had strongarmed into helping him (who had what looked like the Horde emblem on their armor). So basically you have her going to ask to gain powers from an existing Sorceress who already had powers, already knew about the threat, but was doing nothing about it.

And for some reason, she wanted He-Man to come with her alone (which is why he took that mechanical horse they literally introduced a few minutes earlier rather than Cringer). At the end of the episode, I still wasn't sure why it was so important for him to come alone since Cringer, Orko, and Man-at-Arms tend to be in on all of those secrets. And what she told him wasn't exactly anything significant.

Of course, the worst part is having to hear her talk for a full episode. Her high-pitch, sing-song-y voice is okay in small doses where it's just a little annoying

The highlight of the episode is watching an alien shoot at the Sorceress in hawk form and miss, then the Hawk-Sorceress shoots beams from her eyes and the alien drops the gun and says a raspberry-worthy, "That's not supposed to happen!" It was a hilariously awkward piece of dialogue made even better by the delivery.

You mean the charger you got with the system or a cheaper charger you bought elsewhere?

It was a different charger altogether. Not the original one that came with The Switch.


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