Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
PaperclipPerfector
21hr ago
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Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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Notes -
Last week, I recommended "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and JarJarJedi replied "Second this, and despite them addressing a lot of topics that would be classified as "social justice" and "woke", it does not give off the impression of being a woke product. I have very low tolerance for "agenda" productions, and I quite enjoyed it..." What other shows "thread the needle" well?
The legal procedural/political dramedy "The Good Wife" was interesting: It was set in Chicago and the (almost exclusively liberal) characters were always openly cynical about local "Machine Politics," and neither side was portrayed as having the moral high ground. Early episodes included "cross-racial identification" problems by witnesses in a criminal trial, a judge being suspected of racial bias and statistical challenges to the evidence (the big reveal was that it was a "kids for cash" scheme), and multiple instances of lawyers saying they stereotype jurors because it works. Later episodes had the liberal main characters battling progressive ideological excess, like a college that interpreted "diversity of expression" as "privileging expression by 'diverse' students," and the odd principled alliance with a red-tribe cause, like a defense of a Project Veritas stand-in against prior restraint. In examples of the main characters being openly ideological, the show was scrupulous about giving the opposition "their day in court." (Not every episode, but if it was a recurring topic.)
(I've never seen it, but I've read the sequel series does all the wrong things.)
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Here's a legitimately unhinged blog post: 15 fragrances in 5 different collections. I'll group 15 fragrances into 5 collections. These are ways that I'd organize a one, two, three, four, and five fragrance collection. I'm a man so I will be recommending mostly masculine fragrances. I will point out the feminine marketed fragrances if those are not your bag. I'll also only be suggesting fragrances I've tried and like. Further, I won't be double dipping, so I will be suggesting different fragrances in different situations. If I suggest one fragrance for warm weather, it'll generally be interchangeable if the same situation comes up in a later list. These are all my personal picks, so please don't get angry if you hate something I suggest or if your favorite isn't on here. Fragrance is personal and everyone has their own nose. Something I love might remind you of the worst day of your life. Finally, wear whatever you want, but be cognizant of the people around you. SECRETIONS MAGNIFIQUES (IYKYK) might be your favorite fragrance, but no one around you is going to be happy if you wear it in public in 90 degree weather.
Before I start:
Eau Fraiche, Eau de Cologne, Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, and Parfum: Historically, these denoted different oil concentrations that fragrances came in. In fragrance, oils are what make the actual fragrance smell like what they smell like. Eau Fraiche would have 2-3% oil concentration, Eau De Cologne (EDC) would have around 5%, Eau de Toilette (EDT) would have 5-15%, Eau de Parfum (EDP) would have 15-25%, and Parfum would have >25%. These are not hard rules. In fact, in modern days, fragrance companies will use these are names instead of designations of oil concentration. For example, Versace Man Eau Fraiche is an Eau de Toilette concentration despite having "Eau Fraiche" in the name. A general rule of thumb is that as you go up (EDT to EDP) the fragrance will smell deeper, heavier, and more mature.
Notes: These are items that the fragrance should evoke when you smell it. Notes are broken into top, mid, and base. Top When a company releases a fragrance, they will release notes to help you imagine what you're smelling when you spray the fragrance on. Note that these are not necessarily indicative actual ingredients. A fragrance with a "Rose" note may or may not contain actual rose oil. A general rule of thumb is to think of notes as marketing pitches. The company is selling you the image of what you'll smell like. Because of the differences in a human's sense of smell and skin biochemistry, the fragrances you buy may or may not smell like what the notes indicate. This is also why it's important to test on your skin before you buy a fragrance. I'll be using notes from Fragrantica, a website that serves as a database for fragrances.
Opening and dry-down: These are related to notes. The opening is what the fragrances evoke when they're first sprayed on, and the dry-down is what they evoke after a few hours on the skin. These are also not hard rules.
Performance: How easy it a fragrance can be smelled after it's sprayed on. Performance is generally separated into projection, longevity, and sillage. Projection is how far away you can be smelled. Generally, projection is strongest when you first spray it on, and becomes weaker over time. Longevity is how long the fragrance can be smelled for. A fragrance with high longevity can last for a while day, and some are so powerful they can last multiple days. Sillage is a little weirder. Sillage refers to the "scent trail" that you leave when you walk by. Generally, all fragrances perform better in warmer weather, and fragrances designed for warm weather have weaker performance.
I'll try to make my list more beginner friendly. That means I'll lean toward fragrances that are readily available and not extremely expensive. There will be a few exceptions, but I'll point those out. Further, please sample fragrances before buying a full bottle, especially if you're going to be spending hundreds of dollars on a single bottle.
1 Fragrance Collection
If you're only going to wear a single fragrance, you need it to be a generalist. Something that's classy enough to bring to work or an event, but casual enough to wear in a t-shirt and shorts.
Chanel Bleu de Chanel Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Grapefruit Lemon Mint Pink Pepper
Middle Notes: Ginger Nutmeg, Jasmine, Iso E Super
Base Notes: Incense, Vetiver, Cedar, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Labdanum, White Musk
Bleu de Chanel EDT, as the original "Blue" fragrance, serves all of those purposes. Blue fragrances (named after Bleu de Chanel) are fragrances that are clean and versatile, with a generally fruity/citrus opening and a musky or woody dry-down. These are all things that make Bleu De Chanel the perfect fragrance for any situation. The performance is average, but this is a positive. For a generalist fragrance, you generally don't want the fragrance to be incredibly powerful. Although it leans slightly youthful, BDC EDT is a fragrances for all ages and situation. If you're looking for something more mature, the EDP and Parfum are both great choices for every day. They iterate on the formula beautifully. The online consensus is that the EDP is the best in the line, but to my nose, the EDT is superior. There's a reason it innovated its own genre of fragrances.
2 Fragrance Collection
For two fragrances, you can have a little more variety. I'd separate the two into one for warm weather (Spring and Summer) and one for cool weather (Fall and Winter). In general, in warm weather, people like to smell cleaner and lighter. Think citrus, aquatic, and floral. In cold weather, those notes become a lot more muted, so during winter, you'll smell things that are a lot more robust. Think woods, spices, and booze notes.
Hot: Prada L'Homme Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Neroli, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Carrot Seeds
Middle Notes: Iris, Violet, Geranium, Mate
Base Notes: Amber, Cedar, Sandalwood, Patchouli
While it's marketed as masculine, Prada L'Homme is quite feminine. The opening is quite powdery and floral, giving it a very make-upy feel. That being said, the fragrance very nice in warm weather. It's a very classy fragrance that really opens up in the warmer months. Again, performance is average, but that's not a problem in the warmer months. The fragrance is not necessarily groundbreaking, but it's a very nice fragrance in spring and summer. This may be a little feminine for a lot of people, but I'd suggest every man give it a try. It's a real shame that the line seems to have gotten the Old Yeller treatment in favor of the Luna Rosa line.
Cold: Maison Martin Margiela Replica Jazz Club Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Pink Pepper, Neroli, Lemon
Middle Notes: Rum, Java vetiver oil, Clary Sage
Base Notes: Tobacco Leaf, Vanilla Bean, Styrax
I would call this a modern masterpiece. The tobacco, rum, and vanilla come together into something that is very evocative of its namesake, a jazz club. The fragrance is heavy and boozy, but still soft enough to be inviting. Its performance isn't as powerful as a heavy oud or heavy leather fragrance, meaning it's less noticeable in the deep winter, but during fall and a cool winter, Jazz Club serves me very well. This is legitimately one of my favorite cool weather fragrances. I love to smell this on myself. Another great cool weather from the Replica line is By the Fireplace. Personally, I'm less of a fan of it, but the consensus online is that it's neck and neck with Jazz Club within the line.
3 Fragrance Collection
With three fragrances, I'd do the same as before, but with a twist. One for warm, one for cool, and one for special occasions. When you get to 3 fragrances, you don't really need a generalist fragrance anymore, as you'll have one every-day scent for warm and one for cool. So the third fragrance should really be more for special occasions.
Hot: Armani Acqua Di Gio Eau de Parfum (2022)
Top Notes: Sea Notes, Green Mandarin
Middle Notes: Clary Sage, Lavender, Geranium
Base Notes: Mineral notes, Vetiver, Patchouli
This one is a little confusing as Armani has just released a new version of Acqua Di Gio Eau de Parfum in 2025. I haven't smelled that one yet. The 2022 version, however, is a fragrance that I am a huge fan of. While it's technically discontinued, it's still readily available. The fragrance is a more mature version of the original Eau de Toilette, with the florals stripped away and while adding more mineral notes. This fragrance is an example of a warm weather fragrance that performs well in most situations. However, the fragrance being an Acqua Di Gio means that it'll do its best work in in the warmer months. When I spray this on myself, I can get whiffs of it throughout the day, and every time I do, my mouth literally waters from the zesty citruses. Performance is strong. On my skin, this lasts an entire day and after I spray it on in the morning, I've gotten compliments from other people even in the evening. The original Eau de Toilette is the best selling male fragrance in history for very good reason, and the EDP updated it for a more modern audience. I'm sad to see it go and I'll probably get another bottle while it's still available.
Cold: YSL Y Eau de Parfum
Top Notes: Apple, Ginger, Bergamot
Middle Notes: Sage, Juniper Berries, Geranium
Base Notes: Amberwood, Tonka Bean, Cedar, Vetiver, Olibanum
This is another of the Big Three of the "Blue" fragrances. To me, however this is a lot less of a generalist fragrance than the other two. The apple top note gives this fragrance a sweetness that becomes cloying in summer. During spring, fall and winter, however, I think it lets the fragrance a way to cut through the cold air. From there, the tonka bean and woody base notes gives the dry down a heavier feel. To my nose, the fragrance does its best work in Spring and Fall. In Winter, you might need to spray more, but the sweetness helps the fragrance stand out in even cold weather. If you wanted a fragrance with a more stereotypical "Blue" smell, the EDP Intense replaces the apple top note with bergamot, which gives the fragrance a citrussy pop. Overall, Y EDP is sweet and warm while still being clean. Perfect for a cool day.
Special Occasion: Tom Ford Beau De Jour Eau de Parfum
Top Notes: Lavender Extract, Lavender
Middle Notes: Oakmoss, Rosemary, Mint, Basil, Geranium
Base Notes: Patchouli, Amber
In my opinion, this fragrance is what "Classic" smells like. Tom Ford made Beau de Jour specifically as a tribute to the classic aromatic fougeres of old. Classy, sophisticated, and mature, Beau De Jour goes perfectly with a suit or tux. The lavender, oakmoss, and rosemary gives the fragrance the classic masculine fragrance smell while the dry down has a sweetness that makes it less harsh than some other aromatic fougeres. If I had to classify it, it would be a Spring, Fall, and Winter fragrance as it becomes a little heavy in high heat, but for occasions, you'd generally be in air conditioned rooms, meaning the weather matters less. Overall, Beau De Jour is perfect for any formal occasion. I'm a huge, huge fan of this.
4 Fragrance Collection
With four fragrances, you'll have a fragrance for every season. Now, you'll be able to target a specific feel during specific seasons. Here is also where the prices of some of the fragrances that I mention will be creeping up. So far, pretty much everything can be found for ~$200 (Beau De Jour not withstanding), but now I'll be recommending things that are >$300 at full retail. This is why it's so important to sample and test before buying a fragrance. I've spent $300 on something that I haven't smelled before and hated it after smelling it. Don't be like me, especially when you're just starting out. Is it idiotic to spend that much on a fragrance? Yes. Am I an idiot? Also yes. Let's move on.
Spring: Diptyque Philosykos Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Fig
Middle Notes: Fig Leaf
Base Notes: Fig Tree
You might be able to tell from the notes, but this fragrance smells like fig, fig leaf, and fig tree. Fruity, fresh, and light, Philosykos is the perfect spring fragrance to my nose. There's a sweetness from the fig fruit that makes the fragrance really fun. This is another fragrance that leans more unisex than masculine. I've smelled this multiple times on women and it's just as lovely on them as it is on my skin. I really love this on a warmer spring day. Performance is average but on a warmer spring day, it wafts beautifully. Absolutely try this. I cannot recommend this enough.
Summer: Maison Martin Margiela Replica Sailing Day Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Sea Notes, Aldehydes, Coriander, Red Pepper
Middle Notes: Juniper, Iris, Amyl Salicylate, Rose
Base Notes: Seaweed, Ambergris, Cedar, Amberwood
This is a photorealistic ocean scent. As the marketing states, this is supposed to smell like sailing in the open ocean on a sunny day and to my nose, that's exactly what this smells like. Aquatic scents are very popular during summer because they smell light and clean, and this is encapsulates exactly that feeling. Performance is actually above average for summer fragrances, and in high heat, this will radiate off the skin very nicely. Personally, this is neck and neck for my favorite summer fragrance.
Fall: Dolce & Gabbana The One Eau de Parfum
Top Notes: Grapefruit, Coriander, Basil
Middle Notes: Cardamom, Ginger, Orange Blossom
Base Notes: Amber, Tobacco, Cedar
This might be a more controversial pick as traditionally, The One EDP is considered a more of a date night fragrance, but this has served my very well in fall. This fragrance is warm and soft, and it reminds me of a warm cashmere blanket. The fragrance is fresh enough to be used on a warm day, but it's also warm enough for cool weather. Performance is intimate, but that's fine if you spray slightly more. The fragrance is very very appealing, which also makes it great for a first date. This is a fragrance that's very hard to hate.
Winter: Cartier Oud & Santal Parfum
Notes: Sandalwood, Agarwood (Oud), Plum
This is probably the most challenging fragrance I will recommend. In some ways, this is probably the most simplistic fragrance on the list, as you might be able to tell by the note breakdown. On the other hand, to my nose, the fragrance is incredibly elegant, rich, and deep. In the summer, this will be extremely heavy and oppressive, but in the winter, it really comes into its own. This fragrance leans more mature and formal, and can serve you very will in a tuxedo provided you spray lightly. Performance in hot weather is beastly. This will choke people out if you spray too much of it. In cold weather however, this performs beautifully. Like I said, this will be very challenging for a beginner, so please please PLEASE try this before you buy a bottle. If this is something that you like, however, I think it will serve you very well.
5 fragrance collection
Same as before, but with an extra fragrance for special occasions. Some of these picks might be a little controversial, but I really do like these fragrances.
Spring: Essential Parfums Bois Imperial Eau de Parfum
Notes: Akigalawood, Woodsy Notes, Vetiver, Basil, Timur, Ambroxan, Patchouli
Here's another fragrance that doesn't have a full note breakdown. This is a very modern woody fragrance. In fact, to me this smells futuristic. Even though the fragrance focuses a lot on woods, it's not a heavy fragrance like Oud & Santal is. It's quite light for a woody perfume and to me, that's one of the main appeals. Performance on this fragrance is pretty strong, so on a warm day, I'd suggest lighter sprays. This fragrance leans more mature and is very masculine to my nose. On a warm spring day, this evolves into something that is very light and modern. This is a different take on a spring fragrance and I love it.
Summer: Acqua Di Parma Fico di Amalfi Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Grapefruit, Bergamot, Citron, Lemon
Middle Notes: Fig Nectar, Jasmine, Pink Pepper
Base Notes, Fig Tree, Cedar, Benzoin
This one is another fig fragrance, this time focused on the fig tree. Compared to Philosykos, it's a lot less fruity and a lot more green. This fragrance is from the Blu Mediterraneo line, which is Acqua Di Parma's summer focused line. Each fragrance in this line is named after an ingredient from a place. Fico di Amalfi is named after Figs from the town of Amalfi. This fragrance is very personal to me as it's what I wore the first time I went to Korea. In the 95 degree Seoul summer, this fragrance smells absolutely beautiful. Though the performance is average, I would slightly overspray and smell it throughout the day. Every time I smell this it reminds me of that trip. Even without my memory associations, the green notes in the fragrance is beautiful in summer. One of my favorites of all time and very much worth a sample.
Fall: Guy Laroche Drakkar Noir Eau de Toilette
Top Notes: Lavender, Lemon, Bergamot, Rosemary, Mint, Lemon Verbena, Basil, Artemisia
Middle Notes: Juniper, Carnation, Cinnamon, Coriander, Wormwood, Angelica, Jasmine
Base Notes: Oakmoss, Pine Tree Needles, Fir, Leather, Sandalwood, Vetiver, Patchouli, Cedar, Amber, Resins
At this point, Drakkar Noir can be considered a classic fragrance. A true powerhouse in the 80s and 90s, Drakkar Noir is one of the fragrances that has a reputation outside of just the people who are into fragrances. I've never tried a vintage bottle, but the consensus is that Drakkar Noir has been reformulated so that the performance isn't the bomb it was in the 80s and 90s, but the fragrance itself is still pleasant to my nose. A lot of people would say that this fragrance is outdated and played out, I believe that it's gone beyond that. Like Chanel No 5, I think Drakkar Noir is a classic. While there are more than a dozen notes listed in the fragrance, a simple description would be an aromatic fougere with edge. It's not my favorite aromatic fougere, but I find that for whatever reason, I love the way it smells in spring and fall. Not as sweet as Beau de Jour and more edgy, Drakkar Noir is a little too casual to use in formal situations. However, as an everyday wear, I think it definitely holds up.
Winter: Dior Sauvage Elixir
Top Notes: Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Cardamom, Grapefruit
Middle Notes: Lavender
Base Notes: Licorice, Sandalwood, Amber, Patchouli, Haitian Vetiver
Sauvage is another one of those fragrances that has transcended just fragrances, and for very good reason. Today, however, I will be recommending the Elixir. The first thing you'll notice is that compared to the EDT, Elixir is very different. Deep, heavy, and syrupy, there's almost none of the youthfulness of the EDT left. The second thing you'll notice is that the performance on Elixir is nuclear. When I spray this, if I plan on being indoors for a long period of time, I legitimately have to spray in half sprays. I have sprayed this in the morning, gone through a whole day, taken a shower, gone to sleep, woken up, and still smelled it on my skin. The fragrance is very rich, mature, and elegant (if you smell past the absolutely beastly performance), and is perfect for winter weather. The consensus on this fragrance is that it's also a very good fragrance for Middle Eastern market. Whatever your feelings are on the original Sauvage, give this a try. It's quite different and in my opinion, great for winter.
Special occasion: Creed Aventus Eau de Parfum
Top Notes: Bergamot, Black Currant, Apple, Lemon, Pink Pepper
Middle Notes: Pineapple, Patchouli Moroccan Jasmine
Base Notes: Birch Musk Oak Moss Ambroxan Cedarwood
Finally, we have Creed Aventus. Probably the first niche fragrance that has broken into the mainstream, the influence of Creed Aventus cannot be overstated. It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that the modern landscape was changed with the release of this fragrance. Nowadays, however, the fragrance is very much maligned. There are many accusations of reformulation, with people paying up to a thousand dollars for older batches of the fragrance. The house itself also has come under controversy, with many calling into question the marketing history of the house of Creed itself. Creed as a house has even been in a rivalry with Mont Blanc (they've released some great fragrances in their own right). But let's leave that behind us. When I first sprayed Aventus on myself, it opened my eyes. To me, this is what a man should smell like. The fruit on top makes the fragrance instantly appealing while the woodiness in the base gives it an edgy base that just makes the fragrance magnetic. I have a 2021 batch and I've never smelled an older batch (I'm not going to pay $10 per ml for any perfume) but my bottle smells sublime. Performance is below average, but with how powerful the atomizer is, it's not that big of a problem. There's a reason that it's known as "The King of Fragrances" among the enthusiasts and I believe that everyone needs to at least smell Creed Aventus.
Edited for formatting and other mistakes.
I don’t think this unhinged.
Thanks for writing so much about a passion topic for you! As a one-cologne guy, it’s pretty interesting.
Haha thanks. What's your one cologne, if you don't mind me asking.
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So cheap fun - what you do that is budget friendly? One of mine is to take some cheap knife in the 10-20 euro range that is having at least some heat treatment, thin it, sharpen it to the point where you could make a couple of S in a printer paper and and then gift it to somebody. Usually they are pleased. As a bonus there is usually a stream of knives sent your way for sharpening.
Knife sharpening tips? I've watched a few videos and I can get a knife from dull to OK but definitely not youtuber-sharp.
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Can you recommend a sharpening stone/tool that you use?
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Sometimes I try to remember things I used to find funny on the internet. This is one of those times. I need help.
There used to be a really low brow humor website back in the day. It went hard, and crass, and one of the pages I thought was hilarious was Fuck Zombie. There was some page about him running for president, and really having a thing for women in nursing homes because they are so soft. And I'm drawing an absolute blank on where i saw that, what the site might have been, how to look it up on archive.org, anything.
The perils of finding joy on the internet when you were a teen. Unlike a box of old comic books, or a collection of cassette tapes or CDs, a lot of old niche pages on the internet are just gone forever. No going back.
Any chance the artist is this guy? https://www.deviantart.com/the-real-ncomics who previously had a different account https://web.archive.org/web/20111108093000/http://8red7.deviantart.com:80/gallery see reddit account https://old.reddit.com/user/NComics/submitted/?count=50&after=t3_1e8zzl
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Playing the new French turn based RPG Expedition 33 - 5 hours in and it is fantastic. A breath of fresh air while also melancholic from the JRPG perspective.
Last game I played like this was Yakuza (three games ago I believe - so 3-4 years since they cranked out a sequel and pirate sequel that I just don’t have time for) which I finished and feel fondly of.
I must be a sucker for turn based JRPGs.
I was playing this rpgmaker horror game my brother recommended earlier this week, called Look Outside. It is phenomenal, the way the horror is presented is fantastic - it does a really good job of selling that sense of 'I don't want to look into this any deeper than I already have, but I know I have to if I'm going to survive. You play a guy who wakes up in his apartment after a terrible nightmare about the sky, and now he has the urge to go look outside, but he somehow knows he shouldn't. Instead he has to wait for whatever is going on outside to pass, which means keeping himself healthy clean and sane for at least a month without leaving his apartment building.
Basically you explore your apartment building - where people have been looking outside - for food, cleaning supplies and ways to keep yourself entertained (exploring just stresses you out for reasons that are immediately apparent when you start playing). You can of course look outside if you like - there's a window in your bedroom even, but you instantly learn why you shouldn't (in game terms it's an immediate game over) and most of the horror comes from interacting with your neighbours who have, because whatever is going on out there fucks people UP!
For an example, one morning when you go out into the apartment hallway you meet one of your neighbours who is looking for toothpaste. He has additional teeth you see, his baby daughter's crib was in front of a window when the event (remain indoors!) occurred and he doesn't know what it did aside from make her cranky, and wherever she bites new teeth grow, so his arm is growing teeth. The teeth eventually take him over, and you have to either kill him or run away, but after that you can also explore his apartment, where his family lives - his wife, baby daughter, and two-way sons. And let's just say they've all been bitten. That doesn't mean you have to kill them all though - after finding a plastic army man I managed to convince the mass of teeth and flesh and polyps that was the younger son to play with me, and have some fun in his final moments. It still tugs at my heartstrings now, and keep in mind I am jaded as hell.
And yeah the game is full of tragedies like that. I don't think I'm out of line saying it was inspired by the work of Junji Ito and Lovecraft, and equally inspired by the covid lockdowns, and it is a bit less frustrating than the average rpgmaker game, but it still has most of the flaws of that engine - so make sure you backup your saves just in case. But for a game made by a single guy - Francis Coulombe, who I've never heard of - it's a spectacular effort.
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I just saw it recently and can second the recommend. It looks about twice as good as Avowed wanted to be (I imagine).
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Now we have two game threads :o
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WE'RE BACK, BABY!
motte membership numbers crater
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Aww shit, here we go again... I was really starting to hope it doesn't come back, being free of it for a ~week felt great actually
What part of “Don’t forget: You’re here forever” do you not understand?
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The chans will rise again!
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(This is a very tasteless joke. If it's too tasteless - mods, feel free to delete.)
The girlfriend and I are currently watching The People vs. OJ Simpson which, after a slightly shaky and didactic start, really hits its stride around the third or fourth episode. There's a scene in which Marcia Clark and Chris Darden have had a few drinks and are happily slow-dancing together, but then a sad, worried expression passes across her face. I joked that at that moment she was thinking "I'm currently prosecuting the case of a white woman who married a black man who went on to beat and murder her - perhaps I'd better not pursue this". And then I realised that the victim is literally named Nicole Brown. It couldn't have been more on the nose if a gang of 4chan trolls had written it collaboratively.
Kek
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The most narrow-technical prediction win I've ever landed:
My Philadelphia Eagles, coming off a crushing Super Bowl victory over the Chiefs, had the 32nd pick out of 32 first round picks in the NFL draft, held last night.
In every fan discussion, I loudly predicted that there was no way Eagles GM Howie Roseman would pick at 32. He would either trade up to pick up a falling star in the mid 20s, or he would trade out of the first round and pick up an extra pick somewhere else. My reasoning being that 1) In mock drafts you often see a guy who was a consensus top-ten pick drop into the early 20s, but rarely past that; 2) Howie Roseman comes from some kind hyper-trade-oriented Jewish merchant genetic stock or he's sold his soul to Tzeentch or something, but he loves making trades, he's always trading two late round picks to move up five picks in the second and pick up a third next year then trading the future third to pick up two late round picks. He loves moving around; 3) the Eagles have tremendous job security for their staff and a roster without any serious holes, so they're free to do radical things. My logic felt so airtight that I put a bit of money on it among friends.
Well the draft comes around last night, my mom wants to watch it. I watch it with her to keep her company, but to be honest, it was a slog with the Eagles picking so late. And what do the Eagles do, around midnight? They make a trade, just like I predicted!, to move up one spot from 32 to 31, to jump another team and draft Jihaad Campbell, a local South Jersey kid.
I won the bets by the narrowest margin possible, and I look forward to buying the most tasteless off-brand t-shirts imaginable outside the Linc next year.
As much as Steelers fans like to hate on Mike Tomlin, the real object of their ire is late-period Kevin Colbert, who seemingly blew too many drafts for fans to take seriously (never mind that he was the architect of 2 Super Bowl teams). Despite the team's current "woes", one person who fans seem to like is Omar Khan, dubbed the Khan Artist, because he has a similar way of suckering teams into making bad deals. He managed to get the #32 pick in exchange for Chase Claypool, who did shit for the Bears for one season before going to the CFL. He unloaded disgruntled WR Diontae Johnson to the Panthers and got Donte Jackson in return, and while Jackson wasn't particularly loved, he started 15 games and got 5 interceptions. Johnson, meanwhile played for 3 teams in 2024. I was wondering who would come out on top if he and Roseman made a deal, and then I remembered that it already happened.
In March of last year, the Steelers traded disgruntled QB bust (Colbert's last draft!) Kenny Pickett and a 2024 fourth round pick for a 2024 third round pick and two 2025 seventh round picks. I'll discount the seventh rounders, since they're essentially lottery tickets, but he was able to turn Pickett in to Payton Wilson, one of the team's most promising young linebackers. The Eagles, meanwhile, got their backup, and traded the 2024 fourth rounder to Miami for a 2025 third rounder. Miami drafted Jaylen Wright, a third string RB who with some luck might become a second string. So who gets the short end of the stick when Khan and Roseman make a deal? The Dolphins.
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Congrats, I was wondering who would be so important that they'd trade up one place to take them, but Tzeentchian influence makes more sense than anything else!
Howie just can't help himself. He does rt every year, moving from 10 to 9 to get Jalen Carter, and moving up a couple spots to get Kelee Ringo, moving up to get Coop last year. Other front offices were saying anonymously that they just blocked the entire 215 area code on draft night because they weren't going to take any calls from Philadelphia, for fear of "losing" the trade. It's telling that the trade was with KC, arguably the front office with the most security right now outside of Howie.
Howie is a hero right now, but he also has a lot of trades that sort of seem pointless, or trades he arguably lost (Jahan Dotson last year, though you probably don't worry about it after he got three big playoff catches in a championship run). Dude just loves making obscure complicated trades.
Did the fan base feel Dotson was a pointless addition?
I felt they needed to get a quality WR3 even without the stats.
There are three different views of the trade that you see among Eagles fans:
-- The Dotson trade was bad because Dotson didn't put up any numbers and disappeared for long periods of the regular season, even when he was WR1 or WR2 with Smith and Brown injured. Simple as.
-- The Dotson trade was bad because Jalen Hurts never throws to receivers not named Smith or Brown, so putting resources into a WR3 will never pay off. Dotson was never going to put up any numbers to justify the cost so the trade was a bad idea from the start. The Eagles might think they need to go get a WR3, but it's never
-- The Dotson trade was Good, because Dotson had a couple huge receptions in the playoffs, he blocked hard on runs, he had a couple huge picks on big catches by other receivers; and ultimately you don't think about the value of that third round pick ever again after you win a super bowl.
I did think that Dotson had more upside potential than Zacchaeus, as much as I liked the latter, but it's hard to say that the trade paid off when looking at Dotson's stat line. Regardless, I have to agree that it's hard to care too much about Dotson's production or those future picks given that we could just feed Saquon the rock and reap the rewards for game after game. Never thought I'd get to see good old-fashioned NFC East smash mouth football win a ring in today's modern game.
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I suppose it's good to have someone trading across all situations to see more about market prices. Kind of like all the silly lawsuits from history that become important case law today.
The problem for a market-maker in the NFL is that there are very few participants, most are in some degree of professional precarity, and all moves are publicly noted and debated. So very quickly you see situations where teams refuse to take Howie's calls, like Billy Beane in the NFL before him, because they don't want to be the next fool in the Howie mythos.
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Another digital Lent, another report:
What I've read and watched during Lent. My rules were: no social media, peruse unread or unfinished works from my existing collection as much as possible, but new books were OK. I didn't quite follow the rule, but oh well.
As you know, I abstained from every form of social media and algorithmic entertainment during Lent. No Motte, no Reddit, no YT, nothing. I am quite happy with that decision and plan to stay away from them during office hours. Anyway, on to the list. The items are rated from -2 (utter trash) to +2 (universally recommended):
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, +2. I started watching it almost a year ago, but couldn't get myself to finish it because YT is such a low-effort form of entertainment. Finally finished it in a couple of days. It's a seminal work in the "magical girl deconstruction" genre and I won't spoil it for you if you somehow have missed it. The art is distinctive and great, the story is good. Most importantly, it isn't long. It has a story to tell and it tells it with zero filler. That's what I want from any TV series.
Redo of Healer, -1. Someone mentioned it was an HBO-style anime (i.e., T&A, but no genitals) anime, so I obtained it and promptly forgot about it until this Lent. It's a revenge porn story set in a generic Japanese fantasy world: the protagonist is the weakest member of a hero party, is gratuitiously abused by the other members. Before the story starts, he fixes some of his drawbacks, beats the rest of the party to a wish-granting mcguffin and uses it to rewind time and exact his revenge.
Technically, this is an okay premise, but the execution is subpar. "A smart almost-normie with secret knowledge beats superpowered opponents" is a common and popular story, but instead we see the protagonist duplicate and acquire multiple skillsets in the first episode, so the rest of the story is mostly a straight wish fulfilment fantasy with no elaborate scheming or skullduggery.
What about the promised secondary sexual characteristics? The series is surprisingly chaste, preferring to clumsily tell instead of showing even when whatever is happening is within the range it considers acceptable. It's not "hentai with a plot" at all, and there's hentai with better plot out there.
Black Lagoon, 0. I've had in on my NAS since forever, and I'm kinda disappointed. It's just Cowboy Bebop, but worse. It's the same mix of over-the-top characters and A-Team firing skills with moody dialogue, but CB has actual character arcs. The fact that BL was an adaptation of an in-progress manga is partly to blame for that, but there's literally marginal change in Rock and Revy, mostly happening offscreen and shown in the final arc of the second season. The other two crew members might as well not exist. But hey, it turns out I know the girl that worked as their Russian consultant, we hung out at the same IRC channel before it became a meme.
Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door, +1. Okay, I've violated my rule and watched something I'd watched already. I just wanted to compare Black Lagoon against fresher memories. Well, what can I say? My memories were rosier. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack is still the best, the art is still great, your screen will still ooze with coolness, but the movie still has plot holes you can drive an army truck through.
Magical Girl Retires, by Park Seolyeon, -1. After finishing Madoka, I went on TV Tropes in search of more recommendations. I got this book. It's a novelette, so I didn't waste much time on it. It spends a lot of time on exposition and then it's suddenly the story climax and it ends. And it's not really interesting exposition, either, the author is not Ted Chiang. "Magical girls fight mundane crime and have mundane problems like job security and liability insurance" is a take that can be extremely interesting if you explore it, but the book is too short for that. Instead, the main theme is "life in South Korea is a remorseless grindfest and it sucks to lose the rat race", which is not exactly news.
Sailor Nothing, by Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne, +1. Quite surprisingly, it's a very old fanfic, written back in 2000-2002. Its major point of reference is obviously Sailor Moon, down to the matching names of the evil generals, since they didn't have any other magical girl anime in the US back then. Cardcaptor Sakura, maybe, but that's it?
I was also amused by the fact it lacks a lot of modern weebery, probably because people's knowledge of Japan was much more limited then than it is today (the Japanese highschool is probably the second most common modern day setting after the American suburb). There are a few Japanese words snuck in here or there, but there's no honorifics, onee-/onii- siblings, senpai/kohai, no stock Japanese characters. It almost makes you feel nostalgic.
Anyway, the plot is great for a fanfic written in the early aughties. There's a very nice punchy scene close to the very end where Stefan carefully lays down a landmine for the reader and watches the fireworks. The very ending itself is not the best, but it's still better than qntm's Antimemetics.
Extelligence, +2. Got to it from the ACX sidebar. Didn't really care about the guy's big idea about finally making a news site that is about truth, but his stories about growing up in a dysfunctional family are great. I'm happy he's been able to reach escape velocity, but it's a great window into the lives of those we try to self-segregate from.
It's also a great reminder that some people are just born writers. You can imagine yourself sitting down and writing a novel during the next NaNoWriMo, or maybe diligently studying literary theory and practicing until you get good, but there are people who can't imagine themselves not writing, who have been writing since school, because it's the most natural thing to them.
More Bits about Money, +2. There were not that many new articles written since the previous Lent, but this one was great. Why would a bank teller hand out fifty grand in cash, the bulk of their laptop-class customer's savings, without raising an eyebrow? The Motte is probably one of the best-equipped places to guess correctly, but if you can't, read to find out.
Blazing Saddles, by Mel Brooks, 0. I guess I operate on a different frequency than Mel Brooks, but I've never found his movies funny. Maybe the movie was funnier and more original fifty years ago and this is the O.Henry effect in action, but Gene Wilders and Slim Pickens couldn't save this snoozefest.
Samsara, 0. I thought I'd never watched it, but the sense of deja vu was getting stronger and stronger until I realized I had. Anyway, it's a non-narrative movie, a spiritual sequel to Baraka, which you might be familiar with if you've played SMAC. The secret project clips that were not 90's CGI were from there.
Samsara starts like one of these "please buy this 8K TV" movies: exotic locations, exotic people staring too hard, a few shots of very dead people and some scenery gorn to keep you on your toes. Then there's the best part: Chinese assembly lines, factory farms, meat packing plants. I don't know what the authors wanted to say, but I am fucking grateful to these people providing me with cheap protein and disposable consumer goods at incredibly low prices. Also, the chicken harvester is so damn cool. The movie goes downhill from there.
Berserk (1997), rating pending. A delightfully old-school anime I had never gotten around to watching. The opening theme is probably the most discordant I've ever heard: what kind of song do you pick for your grimdark fantasy anime with gallons of blood and a protagonist that is named after the lower digestive tract? Yep, some upbeat Japanese pop punk must be perfect.
I can't rate it because I abandoned it after three episodes, again. Maybe he gets better, but Guts is the kind of character that inspires rants about toxic masculinity.
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, episodes 15-28, 0, +1 for the whole series. When I watched the first 14 episodes in 2008, I was enraptured. I loved the art style, the characters, the plot so much I even read the fan translations of the original novels. And then I somehow forgot about it and completely missed the second season (technically the second half of the first season). Then I grew older, discovered it was out, pirated it and forgot about it. So, how do I find it 13 years later?
Eeeh, it's complicated. The first episode covers one of the most important chapters in the original novels. The next eight cover a filler one. Mild spoilers ahead. It's a time loop chapter. I love time loops. However, I don't quite know what the creators had in mind when they spent eight episodes on a time loop story. In the first episode, we're introduced to the events of the loop. In the second episode, the characters realize they are in a time loop, but fail to break it and everything resets. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh episode have literally the same script: the characters realize they are in a time loop, but fail to break it and everything resets. In the eighth episode, the characters realize they are in a time loop and break it. Why would they make six episodes with the same script?
No matter what it was, it was first and foremost a giant waste of screen time. Eight episodes out of fourteen wasted on an inconsequential storyline. At least I could frame-skip through the filler episodes.
The next five weren't that good either. The first season opened with a movie-in-a-movie episode which hinted that things weren't what they looked like. The second season used five episodes to cover the filming process. It wasn't bad, I prefer the novel-sized stories to the shorter ones, but again, three stories in fourteen episodes?
Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, +1. Okay, I'm a big fan and it's one of the most important novels in the series. No, it won't be enjoyable as a standalone movie. Yes, cel-shaded 3D is still uncanny even if it's the best way to achieve total animation. Thankfully, there's not that much of it. I'm still a bit miffed they never continued the main part of the franchise and instead switched to stuff like...
Disappearance of Nagato Yuki, -2. Another breach of my rules, but when I was upgrading the resolution of the previous two items, I downloaded a pack that contained every spin-off as well. The series is a blatant exploitation of the fans, like modern Star Wars. I dropped it like a hot potato.
Arcane, season 1, +2. I know I'm late to the party, but damn, these Frenchmen know their stuff. The animation is superb. I don't know what Druidic witchcraft they used to convert 3D to 2D, but it no longer feels uncanny. The story is great as well: the first act is just an extended prologue, but the pacing and the beats never let you guess. What's the previous time when such a mundane IP spawned such a great spin-off?
Get your house right, by Krier et al., 0. I have no idea how I have obtained this book. It certainly followed the post by Scott about his love of McMansions. It echoes some of my ideas why McMansions are ugly. But did someone recommend it to be because they'd read my posts? Or do great minds (lol) think alike?
Anyway, the book is about traditional architecture. The author is the architect that designed Poundbury, "Charles' folly", the new town that is not a tract development, and the book is a series of dos and don'ts, mainly aimed at reproducing existing styles.
I want to compare Krier with another non-mainstream architect and another Alexander. Late Christopher Alexander, like Leon Krier, was an outspoken critic of architectural modernism, and both come from greater German cultural sphere, but Krier ended up in Notre Dame, Indiana, the seat of reactionary Catholicism, and Alexander ended up in Berkeley, the seat of West Coast woo woo.
And yet Alexander's projects, even though they are driven by different principles, end up no less traditional than Krier's, whose buildings have this "Courthouse Square" look of a film studio backlot. The book is still useful, it's just that it will help you build a house from the past, with no path towards the harmonious vernacular housing of the future.
Arcane, season 2, +1. Technically, another violation of my self-imposed rules, but the first season was so good I had to finish the show. I have no idea how, but the Frenchmen really screwed the pooch. One reason is probably the GRRM plot disease: you have to keep the main characters together, especially when you have more than a handful. But when you have the two sisters, English Rose, Chad Beefcake, French Cripple, Sexy Negress, her Muscle Mommy, Pomeranian Professor and the Totally Radical Black Guy each do their own thing then by the time you show at least half of them just so the viewers don't forget they exist, the episode is over. The first season managed to keep the bulk of them together and never had to juggle more plots than it could handle, but the second season starts with an October 7th plotline (I refuse to believe it's a coincidence), then abandons it, muddles through several abbreviated plotlines and tries to tie them together with a big dumb battle. I guess the fans of the game really like it when character X finally gets or uses ability Y.
The Foo of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels 6-13, by Nagaru Tanigawa, rated below. Yeah, I decided to finish the ones I didn't read in 2008. In general, the quality of the writing goes downhill. For those who don't know, the novels are about a high school girl that is disappointed with how mundane the world is and tries to live as interesting life as possible. Unbeknownst to her, she's the most powerful thing in the universe and attracts a cast of paranormal beings that all really want her to stay unaware of her powers, plus the narrator, a completely mundane classmate and semi-willing friend of hers. This was a fresh premise back in 2003 and it carried Tanigawa through three novels and a short stories collection, but it's hard to write an original story within the constraints: supernatural stuff must happen, Haruhi Suzumiya must remain unaware of what's happening around her, Yuki Nagato is the only other member of the cast that can handle supernatural phenomena, Kyon does nothing of importance. Anyway, here's my rating, broken down by novel, including the first five I read when it was a more age-appropriate activity for me:
Breaking Bad, rating pending. Yes, I am late to the party. No, I haven't finished it. I guess I'll finish it during the St. Peter's fast. The first two episodes were great.
The book is intended to convey the architectural fundamentals that make good buildings. If you follow the rules in the book, you'll end up with a perfectly nice looking house. The thing is - this is already better than most houses being built today. It's true that the rules in this book will not allow you to produce a masterpiece, but this is entirely missing the point. Most people do not have an architectural masterpiece in them, and are much better off painting by numbers if they want a reasonably nice looking house. The alternative for most people is not "the harmonious vernacular housing of the future", it's yet another fucking ranch house.
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Neat author, I tried getting into his Slayers Trilogy but couldn't really manage to back in the day. Absolutely loved his Neverwinter Nights (2002 version) fantasy comedy module series Penultima. I might have to redownload the game just to replay Pastor of Muppets in particular. Absolute height of comedy for me, age
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This was always my impression of the Endless Eight portion of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya S2. S1 was, IMHO, an absolute masterpiece, and one of the reasons for this was the intentional non-chronological episode order, which made the pacing of the season very good while telling essentially one long story with a bunch of episodic events that take place after that initial one long story but are interspersed in between (this is why I find later releases where they reordered the episode into chronological order to be misguided and worse for it). I haven't seen any other work use non-chronological ordering like this - maybe Hidamari Sketch S1 and the Kara no Kyoukai films do something kinda similar, but not quite the same - and they pulled it off brilliantly. So to follow it up, KyoAni might have felt that they had to do something else clever with chronology and timing, and they ended up doing what they did with Endless Eight.
Which ended up just not working at all. I'd read the light novel before the season was even produced, and I only watched the season long after it had come out, so I both knew what would happen going in and I didn't have to deal with the genuine fan experience of waiting for each "new" episode week by week for 2 months, and even so I found the whole thing pretty painful to watch. A completely pointless exercise and a waste of a lot of talented animators and voice actors.
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Berserk 1997 is more or less the only Berserk adaptation worth watching. I'm trying to remember how much we know about Guts 3 episodes in, and if they had the flashback episode to his childhood yet. He goes through quite a journey over the course of this series, and the manga is one of the few I bother to keep up with for over 20 years now. Other manga series either concluding, or going too far up their own anime asshole to be entertaining anymore. Berserk I can sit down with like an old friend like no time has passed and reread. All that said, if you are the sort of person who views the tropes Guts plays to as "Toxic", so much so that you quit the show, you don't deserve to bask in it's greatness.
I didn't say I was that kind of person, but so far Guts has shown the following range of emotions: anger, sullenness, rage and steadfastly refused to talk to anyone.
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Well, I don't want my only comment in this thread to be about Redo of Healer, so here's some thoughts on something else and a recommendation.
I remember watching this when it came out. The Endless Eight portion was not received well. I'm someone who, like you, got really into the series with the first season and then read all the fan-translated novels. It took the author 4 years to release the first part of Surprise after Dissociation, and by the time it came out I had moved on to other things.
As a recommendation: if you haven't seen Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, I would highly recommend it. The setting is pretty "standard Japanese fantasy", there's an evil demon king terrorizing the world and a hero and his companions go out to kill the demon king. The story of Frieren starts as the hero's party is returning home after killing the demon king. It follows the titular Frieren, an elf mage and member of the hero's party. There's a lot of world building, character examination, and a bit of action here and there.
After hearing a lot of praise about the anime, I read the manga first. I really enjoy the manga, and I think the anime is a very good adaptation.
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Huh, either I'm a bit more squeamish than you (very likely), or the anime is quite a bit different than the manga adaptation (also likely). As an example, in the manga, (if I'm remembering correctly) there is a part of the story where he takes one of his (lesbian) abusers, partially paralyzes her, and sets a bunch cannibal zombie guys on her. I wonder if the anime didn't cover that, or if they didn't depict it as explicitly.
I wouldn't recommend reading/watching it, though.
Yes, the scene where she has to keep the zombies more horny than hungry is in there, it's the show creators that are squeamish. It's one thing when you say, "I don't want to watch that" and avert your eyes and another when they say, "well, no one would want to watch that" and cut away. This only highlights how much of an edgelord the writer was, because when you excise all the grisly bits, the story can no longer shock you and you can plainly see how mediocre it is.
I wonder why it's reportedly so popular with women.
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really nice write up, thanks for the effort. By the way Madoka has a series of Movies from which the last one "Rebellion" is a continuation of sorts for the series and there is a new movie announced to follow the storyline.
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VIDO GAM THRED
I tried The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered for a couple hours last night. It's pretty good. A lot more comprehensive than I anticipated when the "rumor"/leak came out a week earlier; having seen numerous terrible remasters from various companies. I actually like how they handled the (non)marketing and release of this game. Instead of letting (rightly) disgruntled buyers of Starfield poison the discussion about the upcoming next game for months or years, they just worked quietly, then announced and released the game on the very same day.
It runs pretty badly though. I need DLSS Performance mode on my 5090 to get a good framerate in 4k. And there's no HDR for some reason. And the FOV slider doesn't go high enough to undo the eternal shittiness of the Unreal Engine camera. Then there's the incredible blandness of the main quest and the world design, where the 'imperial city' and other towns don't do justice to the lore in the least. And obviously no depth or real choice to the dialogues, ever. No amount of Lumen raytracing can help with those things. Oh well. It's Elder Scrolls. Take the good with the bad.
In any case I intend to have some fun with the game. I picked a Dunmer from Vvardenfell as my character. He's a custom class "battlemage" of sorts. I intend to use blades and destruction magic.
Do any of you have fun character/build/roleplay ideas for how you'll spend your time in Tamriel? What will you be playing over the next week?
Wouldn't mind hearing about builds/ideas/tips for Cyberpunk 2077, btw. I went into CP2077 blind and it's pretty cool. Great graphics. I hope I'll be able to buy property in the game. That dingy building you start out in sucks!
I hope you are jumping everywhere like a good TES player should. I don't think they rebalanced sneak very well when they sped up the movement mechanics - sneaking is still shit when you are low in stealth and you'll easily get spotted, but the extra speed of your character means when you stand behind a column near a rat or the like and tap directions so you move a fraction you build up stealth a lot faster than you used to, so you can easily clear 30 stealth before you have finished the tutorial.
Edit - also I went with my standard TES build since morrowind - Breton race of course (I'm racist), key attributes intelligence and willpower, sign of the atronach (broken as hell in this game) with major skills - blades (short blades previously), alchemy, stealth, destruction, mysticism, armourer and light armour. The class is called a gigolo, naturally.
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Stealth archer was kind of the ultimate build for Skyrim. I played oblivion so long ago, and before the internet was where I went for all gaming info.
Is there an ultimate build for oblivion?
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Knives, knives and more knives.
If you have three punknives, you can throw them all and the first one will return by the time you're ready to throw a fourth (at T5 with some perks, you can do it with two knives instead). They're silent, can be made nonlethal, don't need ammo, and can even attack in melee in a pinch.
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The tutorial dungeon on Master is... certainly an experience, I wonder if the goblin witch is even beatable by non-bretons. The balance is hilariously retarded on this difficulty, I actually struggled against regular rats/goblins until I picked my class and now a basic summon is outputting like 10x my damage. I actually kind of like how gigajuiced the enemies are but I think I need some mod so Conjuration doesn't completely trivialize the game, I like playing summoners.
Netrunner battlemage is the funniest shit I've ever played, stealth archering pales in comparison. It's just weak and clunky enough in the beginning that you have to actually use your brain wrinkles and explore what hacking can do (like distraction or remote detonation), and midgame onwards you can straight murder entire packs with contagious/AOE hacks. Peak l33t h4x0r fantasy, especially with how many ways there are to fuck with enemies (blind, disarm, power word: kys, etc).
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I’ve played it for a few hours until Expedition 33 took over my time.
I’m unsure if I’ll finish it but I decided to play an archer which I’ve never done but it’s FUN.
If it’s just nostalgia talking I’ll only put a few more hours into it so tbd.
Amazing you didn't do a stealth archer like literally every other human. These games poisoned me into picking this archetype in almost EVERY videogame RPG, and most tabletop ones. It's sick, actually.
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Heh, everyone ends up a stealth archer at some point in these games! :) The initial multiple x damage shot is too seductive.
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Last I heard about it, the poor performance is due to the Original engine to the game still being in the background and using the UE 5 for the updating of graphics and what not.
A neat explanation. Too neat. When have UE games ever run well?
well, that was what I heard by hearsay as the reason for the game still being highly moddable. I would assume all the flaws in UE 5 become exacerbated once it has to interact with another game engine jury rigged to it.
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I’ve only seen stuff online, but I’m not a fan of the color changes. The super white marble of the ruins and the general dreamlike quality were important to the aesthetic, because the game is magical, it’s not realistic. The game is dreamlike, the intended playstyle is that you are doing while awake the things you would do in a dream, essentially: walking around, exploring absurd things. Theres a quest within Oblivion that is a microcosm of the game itself: you see an oversaturated painting in a house and enter into the painting. If you add too much detail in nature, too much accuracy, it actually takes you out of the dreamy reverie which is Oblivion (imho)
Should be easy enough to mod.
There's already visual tweaks mods out there to do exactly what's being mentioned here.
Of course if they bury gender labels as a feature they'll be banned from Nexus within minutes, so don't rely on them but...
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Court opinion:
Stephens and Teeter constitute a team of long-haul truck drivers. Generally, while one of them is driving in the front of the truck, the other one is sleeping in the back of the truck.
Since the truck drivers usually drive for long periods without stopping, they often urinate in bottles, leave the bottles on the floor of the truck, and then throw the bottles into the trash at their next stop. Here, however, Stephens is annoyed at Teeter's practices of (1) leaving his bottles of urine on the passenger seat or on the bed rather than on the floor and (2) using spill-prone fast-food drink cups rather than properly-capped bottles for his urine.
At a truck-stop restaurant, Stephens confronts Teeter over this issue. Teeter gets angry at being called out in public. When the two drivers return to their truck, Teeter unveils a knife and stabs Stephens multiple times, inflicting life-threatening injuries.
Teeter is charged with and convicted of multiple crimes, and is sentenced to twenty years in prison (with the possibility of parole after 17 years). The appeals panel affirms.
How do you find these things?
And how are you just gonna glide over the part where Juror 1 apparently threatened Juror 10 hard enough that the defense insisted it was a mistrial?
I have been checking the daily uploads of various courts for multiple years, just for fun.
I think the piss-jug situation is much more interesting than the juror weirdness, personally.
Man, I’d be way more worried about “computer expert, self taught, whose task with the government was going to be digitally erasing people.” But at least he’s “beyond reproach” as a government subcontractor, lol.
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It must take tremendous restraint to avoid the phrase “pissed off” in sharing this story.
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