Quick someone show this to all the old shrinks who “didn’t want to label” us

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@jjnonken
Quick someone show this to all the old shrinks who “didn’t want to label” us
Been a while since I've posted. I've decided I hate Facebook again and for now I'm letting off steam here.
I said before that I'd deleted my long rant and just stuck to a mini-rant. Well, today I'm posting a long rant. Fair warning: This is a rant.
As far as I can tell, there's no good news about the Borderlands movie. They've changed Commander Knoxx's character to be Atlas's daughter instead of General Knoxx, so I guess she'll be Commander Atlas now. That... doesn't matter. Of all the issues I have with this movie, whose daughter she is is probably the least important. Actually, it's not an issue. Her EXISTENCE is an issue, but not which NPC is her parent. Atlas isn't even an NPC, it's just a gun manufacturer, presumably named after its founder. We never see the founder(s) nor, as far as I can remember, hear any backstory. I'm not sure which problem they were trying to solve by the rename.
First problem: We do have to rescue Lilith, Athena, and one other who I won't mention due to spoilers. I can only think of those three. Lilith tells you to kill her if you can't save her... "Better dead than a damsel." Athena engineers her own rescue; you're just the muscle. So there's kind of a dearth of damsels in this franchise. The movie's premise is that Commander uh... Atlas?... needs to be rescued. So, right. Damsel in distress. Kind of immediately contradicts the lore of Borderlands, who has strong women who generally don't need rescuing.
Second is: why General Knoxx's er, I mean, Atlas's daughter? She's a new character. It's like BORDERLANDS ISN'T CHARACTER-RICH ENOUGH, we have to add more just to get the plot started.
Edit: She still shows credited as Commander Knoxx in my web search, including on IMDB. I saw Atlas in the last article I saw on the movie. It's possible it was simply mistaken. I note parenthetically that Knoxx works for Atlas Corporation, and the DLC he's in is Atlas-heavy. Could just be a mistake. Edit to the edit: The Wikipedia article premise mentions her as Atlas's daughter. But she's named Knoxx. I'm fucking confused; which is she?
Next: They have Kevin Hart playing Roland. Kevin Hart is a comedian. Roland is a serious, somber, straightforward guy who never jokes and never laughs, or even smiles. Any humor that happens in relation to him works because it plays off his sober sincerity.
Roland: Oh good, you're not dead. Lilith: That's his way of saying "Hi". Roland: Sorry. Hi.
Why do they need a stand-up comedian to play Roland? Either Hart is trying to branch out and do some serious acting, or... they're making a comedy.
OK, Cate Blanchett is doing Lilith. I don't know if she's the best choice, but I don't know who else I'd recommend. I guess I'm OK with that.
As for Tannis... I love Jamie Lee Curtis, but she's a scream queen that also does comedies. Tannis isn't FUNNY, she's TRAGIC. Again, there's humor, but it plays off her personality, which is informed by her severe social awkwardness. (She's pretty much coded autistic. I don't know if it's canon.) No doubt the trauma she's suffered has exacerbated any existing personality deficits. Or caused new ones. Can Curtis do a sober Tannis? I mean, play her seriously, not deadpan. I don't know. Again, I don't think she's meant to -- this movie is looking more like a comedy every day. Could be worse, but I'm not sure I'd pick her.
Next, we have Claptrap, who is introduced as "The wise-cracking robot" and played by... Jack Black, a comedic voice actor. Thing is, Claptrap does not crack wise. He's hilarious, but that's because, similarly to Roland and Tannis, the game plays off his naive sincerity. He's funny because he's so serious, but clueless. I haven't memorized every line in the entire franchise enough to instantly recall everything that every claptrap robot has said, but as far as I can remember, Claptrap has told MAYBE three jokes on purpose. One is self-referential, spoken by a claptrap who is supposed to be programming the game: "Borderlands? More like Memelands, am I right?" One is spoken right after a hatch is automatically locked, trapping you in the first map: "I hear that getting eaten by bullymongs isn't such a bad way to go." Was that one a deliberate joke? Don't know, so that's my "maybe." And the third is from a side mission called The Iceman Cometh. It's a moderately silly pun that any 10-year-old would be proud of. When you (as a character) don't react, he then EXPLAINS THE JOKE. When you still don't react, he LECTURES YOU on the nature of humor. TWICE. Naive sincerity, not cracking wise. So again, this suggests the movie being a comedy.
So, we have two of the four vault hunters from the first game, Lilith and Roland. The roles of Mordecai and Brick are interesting, in that THEY AREN'T THERE. Why?
Tiny Tina is. She's a psychotic young teen with a penchant for explosives. She's got a connection to Brick, who -- for some reason -- isn't in the movie. She's not the kind of person who needs a bodyguard -- she's the kind of person against whom YOU need a bodyguard. I only bring this up because... ... Krieg is her bodyguard in the movie. Why? I already mentioned her connection to Brick. Krieg doesn't have a connection to Tina, he has a connection to Maya. I don't know when this movie is supposed to take place in the Borderlands timeline, but if Lilith is retired, it'll be between the first and second. Possibly around the time of the Pre-Sequel. We don't see Krieg until BL2, where he's added as the last playable character after the original four plus Gaige. So the timeline doesn't make sense and Krieg's connection to Tina doesn't make sense and Krieg being Tina's bodyguard doesn't make sense. I don't know anything about the actors, I may look them up and try to watch some of their stuff.
Tina doesn't show in the game until BL2, but there's no reason to think she hasn't been around since Borderlands, we just haven't seen her. (But only after the events of BL:PS, since it's Jack's slag experiments on Tina's parents that kill them and drive her into being a vengeful little psychopath.) But Krieg doesn't show up until he becomes a vault hunter? OTOH until then he was living as a psycho... probably on Pandora. So I suppose the timeline might be OK, technically. I'll give them that one. But I still object to the Tina/Krieg connection.
Gina Gershon as Mad Moxxi: Gina is an attractive woman, doesn't have Moxxi's curves, and she's 61. She's pretty hot-looking but I'm not sure she really fits the character, physically. Can she do Moxxi's va-va-voom? Don't know.
Charles Babalola: I don't know him. I try not to get upset at race lifts; I'm used to Sir Hammerlock being the "great white hunter" stereotype, but I suppose it doesn't hurt anything if he's black. At least he's British. This is a weak protestation at most. EDIT: Several people have pointed out that he's canonically black, which I never noticed. Well, OK then, that one's on me.
Bobby Lee plays Larry. He's another stand-up comedian. There sure are a lot of those for a serious film, eh? Also, who the fuck is Larry?
Ryann Redmond as Ellie: nobody's going to match Ellie's unrealistic proportions, but Ryann seems like a reasonable choice physically; basically, you just need a plus-sized woman who can act. I don't know anything about her acting but I presume she's competent, at least. Ellie is a smartass, so wise-cracking from her is welcome. So how come they cast a stand-up comedian as Roland but a serious actress as Ellie? The cognitive dissonance is making my brain cramp.
And Eli Roth has left the project and declared that he does not want credit for his writing. THAT bodes well.
This is supposed to be canon. Canon my ass. This is a TRAVESTY. EDIT: Somebody said it's not supposed to be canon. I read that it is. I'll try to dig up the reference when I get a minute. EDIT 2: Sorry it took me so long, I was busy procrastinating. Now, in my memory, when the first announced the movie they claimed it would be "true to Borderlands", but of course that's changed. I must have skimmed over the more recent "canon" phrasing, sorry. Apparently it's changed to "canon for the Borderlands Cinematic Universe", which is not the same as canon to the games. To me that's seems a bit disingenuous, considering that as far as I can tell, the Borderlands Cinematic Universe consists of one unfinished movie. (And calling it a "Borderlands Cinematic Universe" also seems a bit conceited since their first -- and so far only -- entry has been in Production Hell for 9 years and hasn't even finished.) So my apologies for getting the "canon" claims wrong, but I'm still unhappy and I think they're making excuses. They've taken an Action Movie script, grabbed some names from the Borderlands franchise, and pretended that the result is a Borderlands movie. They did that with Sly Stallone and the first Judge Dredd movie, remember? (Maybe you don't, but I was a fan of the comics. Fortunately the second movie was much, much better.) This makes me think of Stallone's Judge Dredd. (Also the anime version of the Lensman, but that one's pretty obscure.)
Anyway, I have more, but I think I've said what I need to. I may watch the movie out of morbid curiosity. I'm not going to dislike it out of spite, I'm not that hateful. I'll try to give it a chance. I just don't like the odds.
Overwatch: holding fast
Some time ago, Blizzard issued a temporary ban when a professional Hearthstone player relayed a message of support for the ongoing protests in Hong Kong. (https://www.tumblr.com/jjnonken/188437447160/blizzard-digs-its-heels-in-and-issues-6-month-ban?source=share&ref=jjnonken)
That's when I stopped buying loot crates. Then the whole workplace sexism thing came to light, which included changing McCree's name to Cole Cassidy to get the stink off. Overwatch was always supposed to have a PvE mode with a skill tree and everything. When I announced OW2 it was hoped that would include actual improvements, plus the promised PvE mode. They reduced the team size to 5, removing one of the tanks, which changed the team synergy; did a bunch of ability changes, not all of which I'm used to yet; and abandoned the old Loot Crate system in favor of the Battle Pass system, or buying cosmetics outright. It's a money grab. Used to be that even if you never bought a loot crate, you could grind for Overwatch gelt and loot crate drops, and eventually either get lucky or simply earn enough coins to buy the skin outright. Most of that has been replaced by needing to spend actual RL money for the fancier skins, some costing as much as $40. (You do get some cosmetics for free via grinding.)
There are a bunch of other changes, mostly minor, mostly unpopular.
It's frustrating sometimes. I'll see somebody sporting an absolutely gorgeous Mercy skin, for instance, and regret that I can never get it. I'm sticking to my guns and have not spent a cent on Blizzard since the Hong Kong thing. With one exception: I decided I wanted to change my name, but since I'd already used up my first free name change, I had to spend $10. I did so reluctantly and only because it was the only way to do it.
But I figure I'm still costing Blizzard money with no ROI, since they have to maintain the servers and stuff.
I still love Overwatch despite the negative changes, but I'm not enjoying it as much.
Good job, Blizzard.
The problem with nuclear power plants is that you would want the workers to observe the processes carefully to avoid disaster, however nuclear power plants generate energy by boiling water, so the plant technicians can’t watch what’s happening or the water won’t boil due to the Watchpot Phenomenon. Thankfully scientists have overcome this hurdle in recent decades by squinting so the water thinks their eyes are closed and that it isn’t being watched
I was wondering why I was getting text messages from somebody named “Cassidy” when there was nobody named “Cassidy” in the game...
Well, the text messages start with the username and add the hero name in parentheses. Thus:
Katana (Brigitte): This is a text chat message.
When I looked again I realized that Blizzard had finally changed the hero’s name! I say “finally” though to be fair, it takes a lot of work. They have to change any artwork, prompts, voice lines...
Mei: Hey Cassidy! What time is it? Cassidy: Well, I’d say it’s about... I see what you did there.
It takes some work. Also you want to roll it out with other stuff, like an event. I only just noticed. Now I have to go change my batch files.
It’s a good change, but it’s going to take some getting used to.
Toyota released new details about its upcoming EV.
Ah, Toyota. Finally coming around. They’ve been investing in hybrid and avoiding full EV, but it looks like EV is the direction the world is taking.
Without directly referencing the sexual harassment scandal that has rocked the studio in recent months, Blizzard notes it plans to take time
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
Uh... no? Depends on how you apply it. I’m a bit fuzzy on the exact location of the facility they’re starting from, but if you assume you’re starting from a spot on the other side of the Earth, and assuming I haven’t fucked up the calculations, a steady acceleration of 0.16 gravs (that is, an acceleration equivalent to 16/100ths of the Earth’s gravity) will get you to the other side of the Earth in slightly less than 2 hours. (When I say “steady acceleration” I mean that you increase your speed at .16G for the first half of the trip, then decrease your speed at .16G for the second half of the trip, relative to the ground you’re traveling over). That assumes a lot of things, but my point is that you don’t really need so much velocity that the acceleration to reach that velocity would necessarily harm you.
Now of course if you want to use the energy to reach a suitable velocity instantly, yeah, that would be a bit of a jolt and would require some kind of inertial damping system, which would presumably also require energy to power. But why the fuck would you do that? That’s a lot of power to use just to show off.
Let’s assume that it’s Area 51, which I’m sure was mentioned early on in the story but I wasn’t paying attention. So New York City from Area 51 in Nevada is around 2235 miles, according to Google Maps. Suddenly your acceleration profile is closer to .029G (about 0.28 meters/s). Your top speed would be about 2235 mph with your average being half that, or 1117.5 mph. (Remember that you have a 2-hour travel time.)
The webcomic has the train accelerating almost instantaneously to (presumably) 1117.5 mph. Why? Don’t know. To impress the reader with the alien technology, I’d guess. But to be honest, I’m more impressed that they can safely reach those velocities in the first place. Sucking all the air out of the tunnel, I suppose, and making sure the tracks are absolutely straight and with no measurable flaws would just about about do it. I suppose the tracks could turn somewhat, but it would have to be a long, subtle arc. Also I think it might be a maglev, which reduces the need for the tracks to be flawless. You’d still not want any debris left in the tunnel. Again, I’ve assumed you’ve sucked the air out, so aerodynamics doesn’t come into play, nor will there be any problem picking up debris via slipstream, so as long as the debris is outside the train’s direct path, you’re golden.
If you don’t suck the air out of the tunnel, you’re gonna have some big fucking problems, seeing as how you’re going at mach 1.4 or better.
Right. So. Having the technology to allow you to travel safely at 1.1 kmph doesn’t necessarily mean you have the ability to double that. If we assume that the top speed they can safely travel is in the 1.2kmph range, and that it’s desireable to reach NYC in two hours, and they have the energy to spare and the technology to accelerate to that speed very quickly, then Sure. It makes sense.
But that’s a lot of assumptions.
...I know it’s just a webcomic and the author probably just pulled that out of his ass to make the alien technology look impressive. What can I say? I’m a pedant. But tossing off the “the acceleration would kill us” line without knowing anything about how the thing works just seemed stupid.
Two women separated by over half a century are brought together by an alien-filled conspiracy involving murder, mystery and romance!
So... why, when I see 8, do I keep thinking of Agent N’aaaw?
http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20130517
:)
My latest inspiration for a base, which I’m making on Jaded’s new 16k server. I’ve decided to just go ahead and build it over the road, which actually kind of works out in that it leads to the carports anyway.
I’m sure Jaded won’t mind.
... Seriously, it’s a 16k effing map, there are 268435456 square effing meters of space and this is one of the cities farthest away from the spawn points that I can get. (See the bottom picture. That’s the map preview overlaid with dark circles, the center of each being a spawn point.)
I’d originally picked a spot in the top center, and had considered some stuff SW of center, but I also like the idea that people will be coming from fewer directions. Anyway, Kaligineux and I had built a Killing Corridor and partially converted a small ruins POI (at the top) when I helped a new guy who joined on Horde Night by letting him use the Killing Corridor... after which he, instead of returning to his old place, decided to set up shop in our city.
Yeah, I know we don’t actually own the city. Shut up.
So I explored the map looking for alternates. I picked the very South of the Southeast-most city where there was a lot of clear, flat land, and started building. Meantime I was inspired to create some kind of contemporary or modern or at least modernistic style of home base. What I was thinking about was pretty elaborate, and I couldn’t seem to make what I was thinking turn into actual building, so I went to Plan B, which was simpler but still split-level. When I miscalculated and what I’d done so far (not much, actually) fell down, I left in disgust and ended up picking Plan C, which was this place. I had a few false starts, and ended up flipping it end-for-end (because rebuilding from scratch would have been heartbreaking), but I’m told that it’s managing to capture the spirit of the place.
Jaded has warned me that he’s still likely to run a reset script that would reset those small ruins I tore down to make room, so once I’m finished building this, I’ll be saving it to disk. Also I’m thinking of turning it into a lootable prefab and submitting it to CompoPack. Once I’m finished, ofc. After I’m finished, actually, since I’ll want to do stuff that I wouldn’t want in a house but would make sense for a lootable prefab. Like, ruining some walls and forcing a path through the place.
If you want to see more about the house that’s inspiring this, check out https://www10.aeccafe.com/blogs/arch-showcase/2015/10/29/villa-s-in-bergen-norway-by-saunders-architecture/#jp-carousel-306575
I think I’ll call this “Villa Z”. :)
The top photo is taken from the website linked and is © Bent René Synnevåg.
They might not all be perfect, but they’ve become necessary.
Paywalled, but with free views. More to the article than the title would suggest, though.
Eighteen months of using front-facing cameras has distorted our self-image—and a new study reveals that the effects aren't going away easily
An eighth-grade girl died this morning in Raleigh, Miss., mere hours after testing positive for COVID-19. She had attended classes during the week.
What. The. Fuck. Will. It. Take.
A sweeping AI has become central to how the US handles the opioid crisis. It may only be making the crisis worse.
Pfft. Solving the opioid crisis is easy: stop prescribing opioids. You’ll triple the suicide and overdose numbers practically overnight, but your stats will show that you haven’t been feeding the crisis by overprescribing. Serves them right for, you know, being in pain and shit. Problem solved, and no need to bother with the irritating hassle of looking for the actual cause!
Right?
...Right?