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Topics - Ian

Pages: 1 23 ... 13
1
The Flood / AMA I’m proposing to my GF next month
« on: July 17, 2024, 10:05:20 AM »
One of my major life goals was to be married by 30. I gave myself an extra year because of Covid shutting the world down. Although we probably won’t be financially ready for a wedding by next August, she’s been dropping not-so subtle hints at me and I could at least say I’m engaged before 30.

We’ve only been dating for a year, but next month on our California trip we have a date night planned for the anniversary of us knowing each other for four years.

Please wish me luck.  :)

2
The Flood / The 2023 Box Office
« on: December 04, 2023, 10:57:46 AM »
With the end of the year around the corner, and all big releases (both actual and assumed) having been released, I wanted to look back at what I saw theatrically and how I felt about how they performed and why. And I would like to see what you all felt about these same movies. Unfortunately I never got to see either Barbie or Oppenheimer but I'm glad they both performed successfully and that the year in whole wasn't made up of just laughing stock financial flops. I'm most certainly enjoying The Marvels falling flat on its face.

I will say though that my views on some of the films I saw may have been more softer than I normally would have been considering I went with my GF to see them and she loved them. Either that or I have become less scornful overall but I doubt that is the case.

Godzilla Minus One: I hate to say it, but Yamazaki made a far more compelling and visually impressive film than Anno did with Shin. The character story felt like it complimented Godzilla well instead of just butting heads with Goji like the Legendary films tend to do. With its miniscule budget and performing well financially, this was a huge wake up call to the West with their money-laundering levels of wasteful spending.  10/10

Wish: This movie was bad. Not incredibly bad, or massively bad, just generically bad which I think is worse. The art style was absolutely beautiful...and that's about all I can really say it had going for it. The little Easter Egg references were nice I guess, but I felt they were more put in by committee demand than put in for genuine artistic expression (and on that note, Doc is a really obvious and out of place director self-insert) and it kind of taints the whole point. For a movie that's supposed to celebrate the company's 100th, this is embarrassing. 2/10

Elemental: Ironically, Elemental was a far more sincere and enjoyable film despite it initially being advertised to me as generic Pixar slop. The social commentary and themes actually felt genuine and despite constantly looming over the runtime, it didn't detract from the comedy or other light-hearted moments in the story. It wasn't very visually impressive though and it was kind of generic, but at least it felt like what I said before: sincere/genuine. 8/10

The Little Mermaid: I didn't have an interest in going to see it and I was basically dragged to the theaters because I dragged her to the next movie. I don't care enough about it to review. ?/10 (probably very low)

Shin Kamen Rider: Tokusatsu Kino. I want to give this movie a perfect 10/10 but it suffers from Anno's usual problem of live-action with awkward shots/angles. His style works very well in Anime but it transfers very poorly to live-action. He somehow made it work with Shin Godzilla and it "kind of" worked here, but there were still scenes and entire sequences that suffered cause of it. 9/10

Shin Ultraman: Another movie I wanted to give a perfect score to, but surprisingly this one suffers even more from Anno-syndrome despite not even being directed by him. The entire pacing of the movie is awkward jarring and the movie straight up feels like its ending twice before the actual climax. The story was good, but it feels rushed and that along with the quirky directing choices, I struggled to get behind it. 7/10 (but it should realistically be 6/10)

the Haunted Mansion: I completely forgot this movie existed and that I went to go see it. It definitely felt more genuine to the ride than Eddie Murphy's version, I feel both are trying to accomplish different things with the 2023 version trying to be more faithful while the original trying to be a better film (which I think it is), the story for this one just felt kind of lost until halfway through when the Hatbox Ghost is revealed. But the fact that I straight up forgot I even saw the movie doesn't bode well for how others might feel about the movie. 6/10

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: I know there was a lot of back and forth about this movie leading up to its release. And as someone who has a pretty negative bias towards Nintendo (I just bought an OLED Switch a month ago) I must admit this was a pretty enjoyable movie. The story was simple/generic but not eye-rolling which might seem like a subpar thing to say but I do realize this is a movie for kids first and foremost; the visuals were surprisingly really good, and the performance from the actors were top notch. I don't want to call this movie perfect, I know its a kid's movie but there isn't much for adults to latch onto unless your one of those Gen X Nintendrones who don't believe other video game companies outside of Nintendo exists. But I just can't find anything truly bad yo say about it. 9/10

How was the year for you all at the movies?

3
The Flood / Where in the world has Ian been?
« on: August 22, 2023, 11:08:19 AM »
Please console me.

4
The Flood / Spice & Wolf 2024 Reboot
« on: June 29, 2023, 08:52:03 AM »
Get hype

YouTube

5
The Flood / New Computer
« on: February 07, 2023, 12:18:29 PM »
I haven't touched any of my internal PC components since I built the monstrosity that's currently on my desk SEVEN years ago. In Ian-years that is a very long lifespan for tech hardware. However the storage is starting to become limited, the fans are failing, and the GPU (while being considered high-end at the beginning of 2016) is now incredibly dated and laughably bad by today's standards.

As such I have have taken my tax return that would've just gone into an index fund, and used it instead to completely rebuild the computer with all new internal parts. I am keeping my mouse, keyboard, monitors, and case because there is nothing wrong with any of them and Corsair still doesn't make a mid-tower version of my Corsair 760T and I am very in love with this case design. Below is a list of what I currently have inside compared to what I am waiting to come in the mail.

Original build (2016):
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-SLI DDR3
CPU: Intel i5-4690
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR3 (2x4GB sticks)
GPU: EVGA Geforce GTX 980
PSU: EVGA 850W G2 Supernova
1xSamsung 250GB SSD
2xWD 1TB HDD
OS: Windows 8.1

New build (2023):
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 UD AX DDR4
CPU: Intel i7-12700KF
CPU Cooler: ID-Cooling SE-914-XT
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR4 (2x16GB sticks)
GPU: Gigabyte Geforce RTX 3060 Ti
PSU: Corsair RMX RM750x
1xSamsung 970 2TB m.2 SSD
OS: Windows 10

Please rate and offer suggestions. I will be keeping the HDD trays and eventually getting two very large (10TB+) HDDs for media storage in the somewhat near future.

6
The Flood / "Being poor makes you fat"
« on: December 25, 2022, 09:54:26 PM »
Is a straight up fucking lie. I've lost nearly 15 pounds in the last two and a half months.

Which isn't a bad thing but I do kind of miss the days where I can just order Chinese takeout without fear of any financial turmoil from doing so.

7
The Flood / AMA I broke my straight edge lifestyle
« on: November 08, 2022, 05:36:02 PM »
As some of you might remember, I had a pretty bad situation almost five years ago. I drove out to a liquor store with the intent of buying enough alcohol to make the pain go away. I ultimately decided against it because I had a small moment of clarity and didn't think the situation would improve if I started getting shitfaced drunk.

Fast forward to now and a far worse life event has occurred and I've been trying to build up tolerance so that I inevitably can drink all that pain away. Of course because I've never drank before I've been starting out small, like real small. I had three bottles of Mike's Hard Lemonade a few nights ago, which did....fuck all and I felt nothing.

What would one recommend to in terms of a ladder or rung for moving on to some of the harder stuff?

8
Serious / The Darrel Brooks Trial
« on: October 25, 2022, 09:46:30 AM »
Darrell Brooks faces 76 charges after driving through a Christmas parade of white people, killing six and injuring many more. Wisconsin does not have the death penalty. Trial is scheduled to run through 10/28, beginning at 8:30am each morning.

Previously:
>Brooks chose to fire his public defenders and represent himself
>no understanding of court procedure
>using sovereign citizen websites for legal arguments
>made an uninterrupted 51 minute rant last
>trying any and every strategy in order to tease out a mistrial
>Brooks forfeit his right to testify

Coming up next:
>jury instructions
>closing arguments (inb4 jury nullification shitstorm)
>the (objectively guilty) verdict and sentencing

9
Gaming / Valkyrie Elysium
« on: September 27, 2022, 11:04:47 PM »
"Wretched soul! By Odin's command, you shall be purified!"

I just finished playing the demo and I had an absolute blast. I have it preordered and I'm waiting for it to come in the mail after Florida is done getting slapped in the face by the Atlantic Ocean. Anyone else tried the demo yet?

YouTube

10
The Flood / AMA I MIGHT be interviewing for another promotion
« on: July 05, 2022, 11:52:32 PM »
Nothing is set in stone.

I have already been studying the questions, and these are pretty difficult in comparison to the ones I had to answer for my current position three years ago.

11
The Flood / Shin Ultraman & Shin Kamen Rider
« on: May 16, 2022, 01:22:28 AM »
Will they be as Kino as Shin Godzilla was?

And yes I know Ultraman came out a few days ago.



YouTube

YouTube

12
Gaming / Yugioh Master Duel
« on: February 20, 2022, 12:44:15 AM »
If you run the following the decks against me:

Drytron
Tri-Brigade
Virtual World
Those fucking Bird-lolis

I hope you have some porn with you cause I'm just going to auto-click for my ten minutes before surrendering because you're filthy fucking meta cancer killing this game and you don't deserve an enjoyable victory.

If you run the following decks against me:

Eldlich
Zoodiac
Some variation of Mekk

Know that you're not quite as fucking insufferable as the previous group and I'll still play a match with you but only with the acknowledgement that your decks are insanely overtuned and need a hit with the ban-hammer.

t. A very frustrated Thunder Dragon player.

13
Serious / Excerpts: The Gulag Archipelago
« on: September 28, 2021, 11:20:57 PM »
While reading through the first volume I have found many quotes, stories, and other writings only halfway through this book that I found noteworthy and have further light shined upon them. While I'm sure there's someone, somebody out there that seethes at the existence of this piece of literature (probably the son of some Blue Cap who worked in the Lubyanka), the fact that Putin himself has decreed this essential/compulsory reading in Russian High Schools lends untold amounts of credibility. Regardless, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was not a controversial figure in any circle and I'm sure anybody can take a little piece of what he has to say with them.

My only regret was starting to mark these writings at around page 175. Massive walls of text obviously follows.

On Rights and Doctor Examinations:
Quote
At nine o'clock the morning check-up took place. For a long while beforehand, we could hear especially loud turns of the key and particularly sharp knocks on the doors. Then one of the duty lieutenants for the whole floor would march forward and enter, almost as erect as if he were standing at attention. He would take two steps forward and look sternly at us. We would be on our feet. (We didn't even dare remember that political prisoners were once required to rise.) It was no work at all to count us - he could do it at a glance - but this was a moment for testing our rights. For we did have some rights, after all, although we did not really know them, and it was his job to hide them from us. The whole strength of the Lubyanka training showed itself in a totally machinelike manner: no expression on the face, no inflection, not a superfluous word.

And which of our rights did we know about? A request to have our shoes repaired? An appointment with the doctor. Although if they actually took you to the doctor, you would not be happy about the consequences. There the machinelike Lubyanka manner would be particularly striking. He didn't ask: "What's your trouble?" That would take too many words, and one couldn't pronounce the phrase without any inflection. He would ask curtly: "Troubles?" And if you began to talk at too great length about your ailment, he would cut you off. It was clear anyway. A toothache? Extract it. You could have arsenic. A filling? We don't fill teeth here. (That would have required additional appointments and created a somewhat humane atmosphere.)

The prison doctor was the interrogator's and executioner's right-hand man. The beaten prisoner would come to on the floor only to hear the doctor's voice: "You can continue, the pulse is normal." After a prisoner's five days and nights in a punishment cell the doctor inspects the frozen, naked body and says: "You can continue." If a prisoner is beaten to death, he signs the death certificate: "Cirrhosis of the liver" or "Coronary occlusion." He gets an urgent call to a dying prisoner in a cell and he takes his time. And whoever behaves differently is not kept on in the prison.

On Soviet POW's
Quote
It was already clear to them that the Germans were not the heart of the matter, or at least not the Germans alone; that among the POW's of many nationalities only the Soviets lived like this and died like this. None were worse off than the Soviets. Even the Poles, even the Yugoslavs, existed in far more tolerable conditions; and as for the English and the Norwegians, they were inundated by the International Red Cross with parcels from home. They didn't even bother to line up for German rations. Wherever there were Allied POW camps next door, their prisoners, out of kindness, threw our men handouts over the fence, and our prisoners jumped on these gifts like a pack of dogs on a bone.

The Russians were carrying the whole war on their shoulders - and this was the Russian lot. Why?

Gradually, explanations came in from here and there: it turned out that the U.S.S.R. did not recognize as binding Russia's signature to the Hague Convention on war prisoners. That meant that the U.S.S.R. accepted no obligations at all in the treatment of war prisoners and took no steps for the protection of its own soldiers who had been captured.* The U.S.S.R. did not recognize the International Red Cross. The U.S.S.R. did not recognize its own soldiers of the day before: it did not intend to give them any help as POW's.

*We did not recognize that 1907 Convention until 1955. Incidentally, in his diary for 1915, Melgunov reports rumors that Russia would not led aid go through for its prisoners in Germany and that their living conditions were worse than those of all other Allied prisoners - simply in order to prevent rumors about the good life of war prisoners inducing our soldiers to surrender willingly. there was some sort of continuity of ideas here. (Melgunov, Vospominaniya i Dnevniki, Vol I, PP. 199 and 203.)

On Ideology:
Quote
We would prefer to say that such people cannot exist, that there aren't any. It is permissible to portray evildoers in a story for children, so as to keep the picture simple. But when the great world literature of the past - Shakespeare, Schiller, Dickens - inflates and inflates images of evildoers of the blackest shades, it seems somewhat farcical and clumsy to our contemporary perception. The trouble lies in the way these classic evildoers are pictured. They recognize themselves as evildoers, and they know their souls are black. And they reason: "I cannot live unless I do evil. So I'll set my father against my brother! I'll drink the victim's sufferings until I'm drunk with them!" Iago very precisely identifies his purposes and his motives as being black and born of hate.

But no; that's not the way it is! To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions.

Macbeth's self-justifications were feeble - and his conscience devoured him. Yes, even Iago was a little lamb too.  The imagination and the spiritual strength of Shakespeare's evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology.

Ideology - that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes, so that he won't hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. That was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization; the Nazis, by race; and the Jacobins (early and late), by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations.

Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. This cannot be denied, nor passed over, nor suppressed. How, then, do we dare insist that evildoers do not exist? And who was it that destroyed these millions? Without evildoers there would have been no Archipelago.

There was a rumor going the rounds between 1918 and 1920 that the Petrograd Cheka, headed by Uritsky, and the Odessa Cheka, headed by Deich, did not shoot all those condemned to death but fed of them alive to the animals in the city zoos. I do not know whether this is truth or calumny, or, if there were any such cases, how many there were. But I wouldn't set out to look for proof, either. Following the practice of the bluecaps, I would propose that they prove to us that this was impossible. How else could they get food for the zoos in those famine years? Take it away from the working class? Those enemies were going to die anyway, so why couldn't their deaths support the zoo economy of the Republic and thereby assist our march into the future? Wasn't it expedient?

That is the precise line the Shakespeare evildoer could not cross. But the evildoer with ideology does cross it, and his eyes remain dry and clear.

Physics is aware of phenomena which occur only at threshold magnitudes, which do not exist at all until a certain threshold encoded by the known to nature has been crossed. No matter how intense the yellow light you shine on a lithium sample, it will not emit electrons. But as soon as a weak bluish light begins to glow, it does emit them. (The threshold of the photoelectric effect has been crossed.) You can cool oxygen to 100 degrees below zero Centigrade and exert as much pressure as you want; it does not yield, but remains a gas. But as soon as minus 183 degrees is reached, it liquefies and begins to flow.

Evidently evildoing also has a threshold magnitude. Yes, a human being hesitates and bobs back and forth between good and evil all his life. He slips, falls back, clambers up, repents, things begin to darken again. But just so long as the threshold of evildoing is not crossed, the possibility of returning remains, and he himself is still within the reach of our hope. But when, through the density of evil actions, the result either of their own extreme degree or of the absoluteness of his power, he suddenly crosses that threshold, he has left humanity behind, and without, perhaps, the possibility to return.

14
Serious / Tax The Rich
« on: September 15, 2021, 11:47:11 PM »
YouTube

15
The Flood / Godzilla vs. Kong
« on: April 05, 2021, 11:30:42 PM »
It was kino

16
Serious / The Biden Presidency
« on: January 24, 2021, 04:15:36 PM »
Sooooooooooo

Where's my Biden Bux? I don't care if he sniffs children's hair, just give me my NEET dollars.

17
Serious / The 59th Presidential Inauguration
« on: January 20, 2021, 09:25:13 AM »
YouTube

18
The Flood / The Market Bubble
« on: January 02, 2021, 02:07:29 PM »
I’m taking my $100 meme investment to the moon.

Cya later poorfags!

19
The Flood / Evangelion 3.0+1.11: Thrice Upon A Time, DVD/BD 3/8/23
« on: December 08, 2020, 10:42:03 AM »


>Covid cases surging across Japan
>Japanese journalists come out with sources saying packed cinemas for Demon Slayer's success had no involvement in it
>Khara announces 4D release of 1.11, 2.22, & 3.33 in select theaters leading up to release of Shin
>Adds more theaters because of increased demand
>Covid cases soar even more
>"A-Anno-sama! Please! You have to delay your movie!"
>Anno: "Lol no way fag."
>Khara announces release of Revival (Death(True)2 & End of Eva) in cinemas leading up to Shin also

Anno is going to release this movie after eight years and there's NOTHING anybody can do to stop him.

Next Time Preview at the end of Q:
YouTube

Trailer 1:
YouTube

Trailer 2:
YouTube

Trailer 3:
YouTube


Main theme song for 3.0+1.0 is new Utada Hikaru single "One Last Kiss"

NEW TRAILER 12/24/20:
YouTube


TV spot 1/22/21:
YouTube

20
The Flood / Happy German Reunification Day!
« on: October 03, 2020, 01:29:22 PM »


Soviet sympathizers need not reply.

21
The Flood / Should I sell or keep?
« on: September 15, 2020, 02:53:48 PM »
I was at Target today doing my typical grocery shopping, and they had the 2020 Yugioh Megatins in stock for $20. I had less stuff to buy than I normally do so I went ahead and bought one on an impulse. Here's a picture with the four notable pulls I got.

Spoiler

Witch's Strike and Strength In Unity are pretty cheap despite being pretty good cards so I'll probably incorporate both into my Dark Magician deck since I haven't made any changes to it since I finished my Thunder Dragons & Sky Strikers. The real luck I got was from Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon & Borreload Savage Dragon. Here are their prices on TCGplayer:

Spoiler

If I sold them together and threw in another random staple like a Red Reboot I have laying around, I could sell them for $60 and make $40 off the tin. Red-Eyes would be very powerful in my Dark Magician deck; however the Japanese ban-list came out yesterday and banned Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon but here in NA we got one last week and Red-Eyes didn't get hit and we wont have a new list until December so I have a few months to decide on him. Borreload has no reason to get hit and he'd be kind of useful for my Thunder Dragons but I was hoping more to get Apollousa instead and she's only $10 on TCGplayer.

Even if Red-Eyes gets banned here in NA, he'd still make a pretty nice collectors card and I have more than enough room in my Collectors Binder.

22
The Flood / AMA Lmao I got shadow banned on r/animemes
« on: August 10, 2020, 09:53:00 PM »
I can only guess because I criticized their decision not to undo the ban on the word trap. I wasn't even defending the word, I was just saying that lifting the ban would solve literally all of their problems.

Quote
It's pretty fun how literally the only thing they have to do to make all of this go away is undo the ban and they wont. They wouldn't even need another discussion thread, a vast majority of the shit posting would disappear instantly and they'd stop hemorrhaging subs overnight if they just undid the ban. Every time I refresh the main page the sub number goes down, and it's been going down faster to boot.

Shadow bans are literally the most cowardly thing you can do. The post was in the sticky meta discussion thread so it's not like it was just a random shit post like the literal thousands of other comments that are right now. JFC

23
Serious / Ghislane Maxwell Arrested
« on: July 02, 2020, 03:27:07 PM »
Everything they'll be linked to will all just be coincidences right?

24
The Flood / Hey Verb
« on: June 26, 2020, 06:39:31 PM »
We would've gotten our first look at the reactions of 3.0+1.0 by now.

25
The Flood / It's summer in FL and the AC is out
« on: June 22, 2020, 03:29:55 PM »
Maintenance is swamped and we don't know when they'll be out to repair, it's already been two days.

Send help.

26
The Flood / Big Burger Culture
« on: June 05, 2020, 08:18:21 PM »
Look, look, look, look, LLOOOOKK

YouTube

27
The Flood / Gunpla
« on: June 01, 2020, 01:41:28 PM »
After doing some cleanup in my tiny apartment room to add in some new shelving units (they're "meh") I now have space for ONE (1) (Uno) model kit at the top, but over the years I have gotten my hands on six different kits. All the ones at my mom's place are broken (I'm really bummed about the MG Turn A) so I can't use any I've already built.

Which one should I put together?


28
The Flood / Kyoani arsonist arrested
« on: May 28, 2020, 01:35:23 AM »
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/27/national/crime-legal/police-arrest-suspect-kyoto-animation-arson/#.Xs9a51VKiUk

The man suspected of being responsible for the fire at Kyoto Animation which killed over 30 people is finally in police custody. Kyoani's comment:
Quote
“We have nothing to say to the suspect … Our fellow workers whose lives were lost will never come back and the wounds of our colleagues will never be healed.”

29
The Flood / Learning an instrument
« on: May 25, 2020, 11:55:49 PM »
I'm not sure of it's just a passing interest that will fade with time but I've been giving serious thought about wanting to learn to play the clarinet. Regardless of whether or not I'll go through with it, I'll have to wait until I'm back to work anyways, a good beginner's clarinet starts at around $650. I've never played an instrument before in my life, which is partly what led me to choosing the clarinet over others. I originally thought about the oboe but they are not only significantly more expensive, but supposedly extremely difficult to play. The clarinet came up after some light research and supposedly it's no harder or easier than most instruments.

Has anyone ever played an instrument before? How was it? I'm still figuring out how to start if I do decide to go through with it.

30
The Flood / Today is Goku Day
« on: May 09, 2020, 03:58:52 PM »
Discuss one of the most iconic anime characters of all time.


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