zoop

Argh. That's a bit of a bummer, but in general I favor a few delays over an imperfect release. Pushing things out in a rush rarely tends to work well for anyone.

Unexpected savings permitted the immediate purchase of Breath of the Wild on Wednesday. ... ... ... ... ... I uh... for the most part, haven't actually stopped playing it, for any significant length of time, since then. According to my Daily Log thingy on my WiiU, I've been at it for fifty hours, though that includes pauses for cooking and things of that sort - I'd say my play time is closer to 45 hours. Still utterly irresponsible and insane, to say the least bit. This is my life right now:

Lake, definitely, preferably one in a wooded area, with lots of trees and cool shade. Perfect for camping, swimming, and canoeing. I'm not really too big on beaches, to be honest. I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. I generally prefer quieter areas with fewer people around, to be honest. Pizza every day for a year or hamburgers every day for a year?

I'd recommend Clannad, and the follow-up, After Story, if you're looking for a highschool romance anime with a romantic relationship that isn't left open-ended. It alternates between being exceptionally funny and a bit on the depressing side and has an ending that - if you follow it all the way to the end - is extremely positive.

Nope. If anything, I would say it is worthy of praise.

Maybe give Vivaldi a try? It uses Chrome's rendering engine, so it gets similar performance as compared to Chrome, without all of Google's Googleisms. It's also absurdly customizable, etc. On the topic of it's privacy, "Jon [developer] said the only data Vivaldi collects is usage data - ie: What version do you have installed What platform are you on And that's not personally identifiable. It just provides baseline data as to user numbers. That's it. A couple of their search partners, in order to allow Vivaldi to contract with them, REQUIRE the Speed Dial and default search links to go through their advertising partner gateways on the way to the actual search or company page. This is easily disabled by removing the shortcuts that come pre-installed and installing your own shortcut direct to the destination. Bing and Yahoo, for instance, make Vivaldi use proprietary links. OK. Remove those links and install your own. That's it. The browser itself is not spying on you, and you can eliminate data-harvesting (via persistent cookies on your system) gateways and use your own." Much better alternative than Edge imo.

What kind of noodle are we talking? There's a wide variety, after all.

"My component parts are strange and dysfunctional. Send help."

You're the only person that responds to this thread, it seems like.

I own a WiiU, but we're running a tight budget over here for the next month due to unexpected car maintenance, so I'm stuck waiting as well. It's driving me craaaaaaaazy. I have half a mind to softmod my WiiU and... and... must resist temptations. As for what I AM playing, I dusted off my XBOX360 and Forza 4. Forza 6: Apex on my PC got my racing game urges going again.

Oh gosh... If nothing else, I'd imagine that your way of doing things is far healthier than the alternative... the salt content in those things is incredible. Speaking specifically about noodles, I've heard that, if you can find them at any Asian grocery stores near you, Sun Noodle has ramen kits with noodles that come pretty close to being restaurant quality --- which makes sense, since the company's main source of income is producing ramen noodles for Japanese restaurants. ... I think I read Serious Eats far too much, but dangit. I learn so much.

same tho. I confess to being a large fan of Nongshim Shin Black cup noodle soup, and hating every moment of it --- instant ramen has no business tasting good.

I love Fairlanes. Growing up, my parents drove a '67 Fairlane for the vast majority of my youth... sadly it wasn't in the best condition due to the fact that we were basically dirt poor through that entire period, but it was still a pretty vehicle. It's still around, sitting in my father's back yard... it needs entirely new brakes and a complete overhaul of the interior, but other than that it's fully functional. My father is planning on going all in on restoring it after he retires... if that doesn't happen my wife may steal it from him to do so herself, since she's a bit of a car nut. Meanwhile, in my auto class in high school, I just sort of walked around in circles saying "what is even camshaft" while weeping. Every day. (that said, Top Gear and The Grand Tour are still two of my top tier shows) As for the car currently owned... we've got a 2006 Mini Cooper S. It's a delightfully spry little bastard, and cute as hell to boot. We're planning on painting it pink, because we're idiots. We went with a stick shift because, again, we're idiots. It has a stick shift, which everyone in my family (my wife most of all) loves, while I'm just like... "why?" As for my dream car... I have it, basically. Minis are my favorite type of vehicle by far. Nobody can tell me that they aren't adorable... and it's like riding in a bloody go-kart. What's not to love?

Made up some spaghetti and meatballs last night. Was quite tasty.

This is probably a significant long-shot, but are there any Fallen London fans around these parts? For anyone that might not be aware (possibly everyone), Fallen London is a free to play literary web game that is not entirely dissimilar in concept to an open ended, open world visual novel. The premise is... a little different: In 1861 Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Consort Albert, was on his deathbed... not willing to accept that his time had come, she received assistance from a group of shadowy individuals who offered guarantees that they could save his life, for a small price - control and ownership of London. They held up their end of the bargain, Albert was saved, and collected their reward - London was stolen by a swarm of bats. Those in London fortunate enough to have been at higher elevations found their city suddenly placed in a cavern of impossible size with strange sigils carved all along the top. The city itself was twisted and changed, with strange spired structures now residing in the center. Those who weren't so lucky found themselves underwater, beneath the surface a subterranean saltwater sea. A sunless sea, you might say. Thirty years later, with the terror of the fall long behind it, London continues to exist ... thriving, or perhaps limping, forward in a place lacking as much in natural light as it is natural order - the dead often shrug off their loss of life and patch themselves up, impossible colors are a common sight, mirrors hold more than mundane reflections, cats are often heard trading secrets and gossip, rats tend to be skilled engineers, Hell is a convenient train ride away, the soul trade - both licensed and unlicensed - thrives, and the masters of the bazaar, creatures that are quite plainly not human, manage all aspects of commerce in their newly acquired city, the fifth of such that they've taken ownership of and dragged beneath the surface. You take the role of a new arrival to London, having traveled from the surface through the one passage to and from the Neath that exists. You start with nothing but the clothes on your back, and work your way up through society - becoming an academic, a writer or a poet, an archaeologist uncovering clues from the previous cities that fell, a wrangler of strange beasts, a legendary thief, a crazed madman on a self destructive quest for forbidden knowledge, or even the governor of a colony across the sea. Or all of the above. The game's lore is exhaustive beyond description, and fed to you gradually, making every extra bit of lore you discover all the more tantalizing. Instead of telling a single story in tremendous detail like a visual novel, Fallen London is instead a collection of thousands (if I remember correctly?) of 'storylets' that vary between being brief and stand-alone affairs, to intricate and interwoven tales that slowly take shape over the course of your game, giving players an exceptionally wide world to explore. Players who have tired of traditional stories may also happen upon a uniquely self destructive quest, in which they have the option to sacrifice and betray all that they are, all that they know, and all that they have in a quest for forbidden knowledge and all that fun stuff. Personally, I'm too fond of my character and her accomplishments to see her destroy herself... partially because I don't much feel like starting the game over from scratch. Anyhow... I've probably yammered enough for now. If Fallen London isn't your cup of tea, I'd still recommend its companion game, Sunless Sea, which takes place in the same setting and has some of the most blisteringly creative and creepy settings that I've ever seen in a game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhIk2PqPU3o If it seems like I'm a slobbering fangirl, you'd be entirely correct - few other settings have ever captured my interest and imagination half as much as that of Fallen London. Sunless Sea was my gateway drug, getting me invested and interested in this world and all of its peculiarities. From there, thirsty for more, I moved to the browser game.

Figured Ries could use a break from wallpaper duty.

Saya of Saya No Uta* by far for me. If you happen to bump into her without falling into complete and utter terror, chances are that your perception of reality is warped beyond any and all possible conception. If so, what would otherwise have the appearance of a horrid eldritch abomination may yet appear cute and easy to get along with... as long as you're okay with her position on the food chain, and the fact that the particularities of her life cycle don't bode particularly well for humanity. My number one waifu. * As much as I love Saya No Uta, I can't actually recommend it to anyone because holy fuck, the game is messed up in so many ways.

Ahh, that makes sense. There are some pretty ... odd ... anime out there, so I was just wondering if I had missed something. And yeah, large amounts of IN YOUR FACE fanservice is definitely the main thing that ends up turning me off from a lot of shows.

I can't say that I've ever really noticed this as a frequent thing myself. I've seen plenty of anime that have taken tremendous liberty with portraying Christian imagery and the like, though I see it as not being too different from how Eastern religions have often been portrayed here in the West - people simply borrowing clumsily from cultures that they aren't personally terribly familiar with. I don't think, however, that I've seen many shows that portray God as being evil or malevolent - in fact I'd say that in general, I think most anime tend to be fairly secular in nature. The only show that comes to mind in which core tenants of the Christian faith are portrayed as evil or malevolent is Drifters, to be honest... though, I suppose I could name a few that cast the Catholic Church (the organization, rather than the faith) as being morally questionable. Not sure if that's what y'all mean?

Glad to hear that life should soon be returning to some degree of sanity, in terms of available free time. I hope all goes well with your return, and look forward to seeing you around more frequently.

Also, from my experience this tends to be an unpopular opinion but can I just say that I found L4D2 to be fairly mediocre as compared to the first game? I found the scenarios and general settings to be less interesting, and most of the additions to feel fairly ho-hum. I logged a ton of time in the first game, but most of the time I have logged in L4D2 is due to having left the game running on my PC, alt tabbed, overnight and a decent chunk of the following morning on accident. Any thoughts on L4D2? Even if it's just to tell me that I'm a hack with no taste?

And we can add Company of Heroes to the list. Started playing it several years after dropping it after introducing my SO to it. We're both horrible at the game, but having fun.