Hat988

RTS or FPS I played both competitively for a short time each, not professionally, but I have the concepts of what to learn and improve on. I also enjoy those genres. Fighting games I have very little idea about, but they certainly look fun enough to learn if I have the hours.

I was doing a little trolling on the TF2 area of the Steam Powered User Forums one day and found a topic created by a user named 'hat'. As you may be aware, hats are a major part of TF2. Some of the replies were just asking how the OP got such a vaunted username. It seemed that nobody had bothered to try to register it, thinking it must have already been taken. Anyway, that was amusing enough for me and I needed a name for IntenseDebate on EqD. The 988 is because Hat was taken already.

I removed the habit by having the browser auto-clear history every time it closes and not save tabs. If there is something I still would want to look at I bookmark it. Now... I have a lot of bookmarks. At least it is easier to scroll through the bookmarks manager and use folders instead of looking at the tiny tab previews.

It's hard to find the right posture to read a heavy book like an encyclopedia or long paperback. Holding it up becomes distracting over time with the weight, but hunching over a table isn't good either. I'd like one of those drafting tables with the angled surface.

I recently watched Knights of Sidonia. It had some interesting concepts, but the series did not really involve me until the very last episode which had a nice character moment. There was a small number of memorable characters I was interested in following, but they suddenly reached a stasis of development fairly quickly. The action sequences seemed to be too frequent to consider other aspects of the world or story, except in season 2 where much of it became a simple love triangle story (in space!!) There were also some huge calamities that spanned an episode and were never mentioned again, with no evidence that they happened--this includes some character deaths. The main character experienced some challenges at first, but after a while he started coasting on his prodigious ability that was only semi-explained as genetic. The series was kept together by episodic cliffhangers. An interesting enough watch not to regret my time, but I wouldn't recommend it. I read it is an adaptation of a manga, so maybe that is told better. I did enjoy the animation style.

A couple of series I watched (can't remember the second) had a short clip show at the start of each episode showing what was going to happen. I guess it is meant to be a teaser, but I consider it more a spoiler. Many detective or thriller series are brainless to watch because there is always a handy line of dialogue to keep the audience up to speed. Before moving to stop someone, there has be "we can't let him do that!" so I, as a viewer, can nod and be informed of the goal instead of already knowing what it must be from paying attention. A good series that avoids this hand-holding is Foyle's War. Thirdly, the idea that a character is only important to enough to grieve (when they die) if they are romantically involved with a protagonist. So just before their dramatic death, they have to kiss, because otherwise we just wouldn't care!

For a while I was reading the comments on every video I watched and I noticed a lot of them sound the same. That's OK, people have similar thoughts on similar topics. Then I encounter a comment that I have certainly read before. It has a whole life story to it (it isn't a meme copy-pasted). It seems authentic the first time it is read but when I see it months later on a different video, and this phenomenon happens at least three times with different comments and commenters, I lose trust that the whole section isn't just bots angling to persuade me.

I would feel obligated to watch if I paid for a service instead of once-off for discs to keep.

I usually like to play as someone who gets right in the middle, causes havoc and disappears. Skyrim: two handed sword and heavy armour, FPS: SMG and movement perks, Skullgirls: Ms. Fortune. Even in RTS games I like to roll tanks through the opponent's supply lines and rally points. Games that are particularly good for this playstyle are Dishonored, Severed Steel, Metal Gear Rising. (Outdated now: CoD4.)

Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! for the NES.

Olaf from Frozen. Chibi-Usa from Sailor Moon Crystal. Those two I wouldn't say are my favourite shows/movies but I got some value of out of them at least. In my favourites there are no annoying characters. I thought they cast well for such a role.

I enjoyed The Matrix 4. A lot of people were expecting it to return to the core of what makes The Matrix great. That's a part of the story: the characters also search for a return to some kind of archetypal existence they 'know' is inside of them or in a dream somewhere and it isn't as simple as going back to what worked. In a sense, the movie was always going to bomb. If it was New! Matrix then it would have competed with the original and probably been redundant. It already had sequels of middling popularity, so making a much later 'Maverick' would have been difficult. I also liked how the characters were so invested in talking about reality and the essence of things while 'Neo' was making the most progress in silent desperation and by tuning them out. I guess some reviewers didn't like the level of intelligence of those conversations; it wasn't really about how much mental gigahertz they were pushing but how far off track they were and will continue to be, possibly because the issue of existence isn't existential to them. Anyway, I'm the only one I've seen that was interested in it. I'll put that on my watch list!

Discord has more features, but not all additions are for the overall better. While Discord records more of the history, I always liked the live join-in aspect of IRC. Chats are more ephemeral which better mimics traditional conversation. It creates the experience of being there rather than merely being online. Discord feels more like a noticeboard. I also liked the simplicity of IRC's interface. You can run it on any pretty much any computer or phone with negligible CPU and network load. Using a web embed or a heavily customised client was up to you. Discord is heavy and cluttered for what it does, especially the web embed version. Avatars, bots, and lots of pictures wear out as a novelty and distract from the main function of chatting. I get how easy it is to post a video, but you can't rickroll anyone with the previews. If I go to a website like Bronystate, I can't enter a non-binding username and simply join the chat anymore. I have to sign-up for a Discord account. Ease of use for a drop-in theatre was one of my favourite aspects of that site. Discord does have voice chat and easy room management. The UI is modern with drag and drop features, and is easy to use. It's a pretty good program they've made. Still, when I want a live text chat room I prefer IRC because it does this singular function better. (For voice chat, I prefer Teamspeak. I think its voice quality is better and, again, lack of extraneous visual flair and features.) Do you have an opinion?