I am an independent director and producer who likes to ride his motorcycle in dusty places.
We swap between two movies each year.
Even years it is A LION IN WINTER, an amazing film with insanely quotable dialogue. (EDIT: Why? On “star power” alone, this movie is outrageously cast.)
Odd years it is A CHRISTMAS STORY, which is equally quotable (perhaps more so). (EDIT: Why? Because so many things in this film ring true to my own childhood - having to have last-minute dinner at a Chinese restaurant because of a disaster, for example, or begging for a b-b-gun…)
Soap: a bar of unscented oatmeal-based soap
For deodorant: I have had very good experience with “Thai stone” style salt-based deodorants. These work simply by making your skin inhospitable to odor-causing bacteria while not causing you irritations. You need to apply it liberally (after slightly wetting the stone, I just count out 8 strokes under each arm), but a single stone will last you … a very long time … and it does really work for a whole day. It has no scent, per se, so you will just smell like you smell without the sulfurous bad smells caused by BO bacteria.
Or so I gather…
I have been, up until very recently, a “Thanksgiving Traditionalist”, in that I loudly proclaimed that one should muck around with the traditional basics.
But last year, I changed my tune. We had a dinner based around Stanley Tucci’s timpano instead of turkey (yes, the famous timpano from the movie BIG NIGHT). That was a big success.
This year, because I have some very dear friends who are vegetarians and who kind of slink away when anyone discusses Thanksgiving traditional dishes, I wanted to make dinner with their needs/desires squarely in mind, so I am doing a completely vegetarian menu. I generally despise “meat analogues”, so no, we’re not having tofurkey. So, here’s the menu:
I am probably forgetting something. Guests are bring desserts and wine (one is a L3 sommelier, never disappoints).
I waited until CP 2.0 to play it. I can wait for SF 2.0 to play it. I am not a unicorn in this regard.
I just finished my CP2077 (first) play-thru. I had no fore-knowledge of game or outcomes. When I play RPGs, I abide by a strict “choices matter - there are no mulligans”, in that I won’t fish reloaded saves for “better” outcomes. If I make a bad choice, I live with it.
About a week before I finished, I was having dinner with some friends who had played it already and they were probing me to see how I think the game would end. I said, matter of factly, “Oh, I think my V is doomed, like Arthur [RDR2] was doomed.”
And if there was a magic happy ending in Phantom Liberty, as there seemed there might be because Sol pointedly asked V twice “Are you sure you don’t want it?”, my V had given it to Songbird.
When I came to the pinch at climax where Jonny presents you with your options and you have to pick what to do, I probably sat on that dialog wheel for 15 minutes. I’d vacillate between the options presented and listen and watch carefully how Jonny reacted and think things through. I had played a V who was never comfortable with the loss of his autonomy and desired, more than anything, to live his own life his own way. This V was also sort of a mensch, too, inclined to empathy and sympathy. He had pity for Jonny’s situation. After much contemplation, V reached out to Panam - I would say almost desperately as it seemed the only path that really gave V any hope - and events ensued and they arrived at what I called “The Sunset Ending” (which I considered a great success).
I felt I had arrived at a very satisfactory conclusion for this V and I really have no desire (in a good way!) to play CP more - the story was over, if bittersweet.
The feeling of completeness matched reaching the Sunrise Ending in RDR2, which kinda devastated me.
Just finished CP myself yesterday, with a 9 hour push through the “final day”. I had previously in my run rejected the (possible) helpful offer at the end of Phantom Liberty to find my own solution to my problem and, after spending far too much time debating over a single dialog choice, I settled on one that lead to a satisfactory, if bitter-sweet, conclusion.
The sense of finality was quite profound and pleasing. I have no wish to play my V anymore, as I think their story is done. While this means I may never revisit NC again (which makes me a little sad), I can live with that. I guess I can look forward to CP: Boston in 10 years :-).
Same, my friend and I gave up on Baldur’s Gate and will let the developer “finish” tweaking it. I like what Larian tries to do in its games, but I really, really despise the need to mash the quick save button after anything representing even minor progress because you might stumble into TPK combat while exploring. This happened to us in Divinity and when we got a whiff of the same in BG3, we wrinkled our noses and left the game.
I subsequently went on to play CP2077 v2.0 and really enjoyed myself, which I just “finished” yesterday with a satisfactory, bitter-sweet ending.
And here I am deliberately working my way though Origins->Odyssey->Valhalla so that I can completely ignore Starfield for a while until the hype train settles down and some bugs are fixed :-). I keep my eye on NMS (I was a Day 1ish player) but I feel it is soooo wide and soooo shallow it would just bore me to tears now.
Really enjoying Valhalla…
Yes. We just had a scoop of homemade coconut sorbet tonight, super simple to make:
Bring the water and sugar to a boil, lower the heat to medium, and let it simmer for 10 minutes to make a simple syrup. Let the syrup cool to room temperature, then mix all the ingredients together in a blender briefly, then pour into your ice cream maker and freeze. Set the sorbet into the freezer for at least 2 hours to finish the freezing.
If you can’t find coconut cream, you can just use 2 cans of full fat coconut milk, but it will be icier.
#1.
Don’t you just know it?! I work in media and I have pitched commercial projects to business executives many times only to see them completely choke on the costs. They say things like “Can’t we just film the commercial on an iPhone, I see that on YouTube all the time?” FFS. I’ll be like “Sure, we can. What’s your budget for that? You realize I still have to pay the cameraman, the makeup artist, the writer, the producer, the director, the gaffer, and the talent. Do you want music with that, too? Oh, you want a Credence Clearwater Revival song in the background? That’ll cost you.”
I’ll pull out some sheets explaining what they see on YT that they think is so cheap… I mean, sure, it’s less expensive than other options, but crew and talent gotta eat and pay bills, too.
People have no idea…
To be fair, Wheel of Time may be one of those garbage in, garbage out scenarios.
Panzanella comes immediately to mind, as does gazpacho and Thai stuffed cucumber soup.
While the oats (steel cut) are cooking, a take a cup of frozen mixed berries out of the freezer, put them in a small pot, add 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 tablespoon of water, bring to a boil, and make a quick compote (or very slack jam). This goes on top of the oatmeal (2 people).
Though I only speak a minuscule smatter of Italian - and none is necessary to enjoy these videos - I really like anything with Giorgione in it, for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q5i5C35ISE
OR even better
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WLMm08P-u8&t=9s
Just dive down this wonderful rabbit hole.
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While there is cross-pollination between macOS and iOS Macs are general purpose computers. And while it is true you cannot, like most PCs, crack open and customize a Mac and that to date most games are developed for PCs and not Macs as a side-effect of this (game development and hardware/graphics card development are incestuous), Macs are extremely capable computers that can meet demanding needs.
I have used Macs and PCs all my life. At this very moment I am playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in full pretty mode on a PC while my Mac in the other room renders a film and I type this message in an iPhone. I prefer using my Mac over the PC for most things - and certainly the Mac is where my bread is buttered - my PC is a fancy launcher for Steam.
Without being impolite, it sounds like you looked at the Mac, but didn’t bother to actually use it for anything practical, tasks at which it excels.
Although I delight when I hear Keith David in Mass Effect or any game, I can reach farther back in time memory: Keith David will always be this wonderful man to me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN8Z7y_QcwE (slightly spoilers)
Counter-point. I have used Maps over the past 8-ish years exclusively on three thousands-of-miles cross-country (US) excursions on my motorcycle, I use it to locate unpaved/off-beaten path roads to take, and I use it regularly as my local way finder and when I am in unfamiliar cities. Not once has it lead me astray…
Don’t you mean: Statistically speaking, you will die.
When looking for my last vehicle, I still needed a midsize very-light-duty truck for my business (film production), I drove the Chevy midsize truck (Colorado?) first on my checklist of trucks to drive. It was a piece of garbage (and this made me sad because I was [trying to be] open to finding an excellent US-made midsize truck). The sales guy was super-enthusiastic, of course, to the point of pushy obnoxiousness. When he asked me “HOW GREAT IS THIS TRUCK???!!!??” I was like “I wouldn’t complain if someone gave one to me, but I have other trucks to test.”
After test driving four other competitors, I ended up with Honda Ridgeline (which beat out my second favorite from Toyota), that I have now had for 4+ years and absolutely love it - it is a great midsize+ truck. It’s kind of a unicorn in Texas (so many Fords and Dodges), but I saw a ton of them in Arizona and other Western states. Great vehicle, and it has CarPlay. Sadly, it’s in the shop at the moment (I, uh, backed into a bollard, cough) and my rental is a brand-new Dodge Charger which drives like a lead brick on wheels compared to the Ridgeline. Interior finish isn’t bad though…and the UI, while not CarPlay, is polished).