brucoe

1 hour ago, BloodyHell said:

Thursdays episode had an incredible ending. I really like where this season is going. It's a very nice course correct after S1. I'm also very much looking forward to Strange New Worlds.

 

Discovery really never clicked with me. Nothing about it really felt like Star Trek, except for their mirror universe episodes. I hated what the federation became, and the whole rebuilding what was lost trope. I'm giving Season 4 a shot, four episodes in, and it's definitely a better show than it was before. I do like the characters. Burnham is a far better character than she was in S1&2. I always loved Saru. Tilly has grown on me. I really wish we'd see more about Detmer and Owosekun, and what their stories are. 

The show has been hitting on all cylinders this season, and it's made me proud to say that I'm a Star Trek fan again. Discovery just hasn't done it for me (and I finished season four). For me, the problem with Discovery is that the crew is just filler. Practically every solution has to be handled by Burnham, and then when they get to the point of solving something, it usually involves a long, over-melodramatic arc that takes forever to get through as we're all sitting at home watching them be all touchy feely and just wishing they'd conclude like normal people do and not spend four hours of close-ups where they cry and babble about how much they love each other. And I'm fine with all of Kurtzman's woke garbage; I just want it to move on and get to the stuff that makes Star Trek be Star Trek.

Picard, on the other hand, is pushing the story along at a speed that makes you happy to be along for the ride, and all along they add tons of fan service content that you can easily miss (like revisiting the punk from Star Trek The Voyage Home in a fan service cameo that actually brings a smile and doesn't bog down the story). What's funny is that in season one, I hated Rios (the ship pilot/captain). In season two, he rocks and it's hard to believe it's the same character. And narratively, they're doing a great job of red herrings, where they seem to be moving in one specific direction only for us to find out that that's not where they're going. I'm four episodes in, and I'm actually anxious to see where they story takes us.

27 minutes ago, b_m_b_m_b_m said:

 what the hell is a flag officer?

Usually, a naval officer above the rank of captain.

9 hours ago, 69los said:

 

During the Gulf War, we used to camp out near enemy positions and wait to see which tents were visited most often. Then we'd follow the communication cords they laid out and then in the middle of the night hit the tents that were centrally located. Took out the command and control structure constantly throughout the conflict. Without secure communication equipment, targeting the command structure is easy as long as the opforce is quick and maneuverable. From what I understand, Russian infrastructure is very similar with crappy communication. Fortunately, for the Ukrainians, they don't even need good commo equipment like the US had in that war; they just have to know how to find the lines being used by the Russians.

I just watched it, and I'm sort of on the fence with it right now. The biggest beef I have is

1 minute ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

This is allegedly his "house":

 

Wow, he's my neighbor. I live right down the road, in that van...um...down by the river.

25 minutes ago, Fizzzzle said:

Are they saying he's dead or in hiding or something?

He's on vacation with Clarence Thomas.

I need to start using this tactic to "pay" all of my bills. I think I'll start it at Burger King tonight.

19 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Well, the important thing is that she lived long enough to nearly transform into Londo from Babylon 5, cheers Mads!

 

So who inherits Mr. Mordon?

3 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

The Geneva Convention protocols have become something to point fingers at other nations, but merely a suggestion when it comes to one's own military.

8 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

Cruz yelled at airport staff in Montana because he was going to miss his flight to DC to ask this nonsense. He was delayed by a day and still got to ask it.

What the hell was he doing in Montana? Did he miss his connection to Cancun?

So I'm a bit confused at how they're going to handle this. I use my Netflix subscription on a number of different devices (my home, my home computer, my office computer, my phone, etc.). Are all of those considered "loaning" out my Netflix subscription to others that they want to charge more for? If so, I'll probably cancel it for good, as I am not a fan of being overcharged for a service that really should be one specific price.

3 hours ago, ort said:

Spiderman No Way Home Spoilers

 

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His appearance in Spiderman was completely shoehorned in and unnecessary as anything but fan service. It's clear that they are going to be doing

something with the character. They didn't put him in there for no reason.

 

Strangely enough, that scene was one of my favorite from the movie. It's amazing how you can do so much with so little.

My real worry is that Russia will become so frustrated with its lack of success in Ukraine that Putin (who I don't think is acting with a full set of marbles these days) will order nuclear, biological and chemical warfare as appropriate alternatives to solve the mess he's caused. And yes, I did say nuclear. And then it only takes a first stupid decision to initiate a tit for tat process that leads to inevitable destruction for everyone. I really don't think we're dealing with rational decisions being made these days (from practically every side). I mean, we have American politicians calling for a no fly zone (and shooting down Russian planes) as some type of political maneuver to be able to complain about Biden during future elections for not doing enough.

53 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

How many of them are just a bear on a bicycle in a cardboard box painted like a tank?

Wait! That's not what an actual tank is?

The big question is whether we gain or lose an hour for the rest of eternity.

8 hours ago, HardAct said:

REMEMBER: you can always, ALWAYS respect you skill points and devotion points for almost nothing {Only while in Veteran / normal that is, in elite it costs much more}, as long as you hoard like I do and sell everything you'll always have plenty of cash. This can has no penalty for changing your mind other than bits but that's plentiful trust me, so experiment all the time, that's the fun. I honestly completely beat the game on Veteran without any help, not once. It wasn't even that hard. When I jumped to Elite though, I had to look. My guy was AWESOME in Veteran and couldn't even beat a mini boss to at all, it was depressing! Biggest tip: It's not all about DPS, it's about Resistances even more so on harder difficulties. Poison is a monster at the very beginning OMG! I never bought a piece of gear from vender either. I did not like how it seemed like I had to hold on to some pieces for so long never finding a better piece in 30 lvls or so, but's it a game of chance at its core! This game is as complicated as you want to make it. I suggest that you play on NORMAL but Veteran! It's a better challenge and you level up much quicker. The jump from Vet to elite is a huge slap kick in the face and bullet in the head, followed buy getting run over! Trust me II was shocked! I'm level 77, from 50 you will lvl muck slower, only 2 skill points per lvl up. Get the DLC if you like the game it's cheap and adds a ton to the game, I'm digging this game a lot.

 

I also restarted 4 times settled on Demolitionist and Occultist and it's great. Elite lvl is all about Resistances, have them you live, don't you die it's that simple. I also have to admit that I read some guide help stuff on the reddit forum and OMG it helped. I didn't really understand what things did, and it was very help ful. I respected a few things and what a help. I did not module my character to someone's else's I just needed help on what exactly things do, they're not that understandable buy the definitions alone. lastly, my got the stuff the blacksmith can do is what has overwhelmed me so much, the things that you make with all the little seemingly worthless stuff you find is mindboggling to me. later on you'll be able to buy stuff from venders that is awesome to have on your gear. Running Normal/Veteran I only found 9 Unique / purples but in Elite there are many more, but you die oh so much more too...lol I love this game so much I haven't touched Elden Ring or Diablo II Resurrected at all! Figure stuff out by yourself is half the fun, but I have to admit once I looked up my class skills and how they work together I better understood a lot. ENJOY MAN, GOOD STUFF!

 

Also on Steam: HardAct

I've been playing as a Ritualist lately, and that's turned out to be my favorite skill so far. The necromancer abilities are awesome, and even at level 22, it's pretty fun. Who would have thought I'd have so much fun as a necromancer with a high powered rifle? Unfortunately, I can't play for a few days because I have to record a dozen videos for my online course I'm teaching that starts next Monday.

On 3/9/2022 at 12:15 AM, HardAct said:

 

 

   After progressing through the game your given the opportunity to completely completely or partially respec your characture!! Its a nice option. You cant rechoose your disciplines but you can take out as many lvl points you want. It costs money but money is never a problem at least to me. I have 1 characture now that's lvl 72. You can even take iut the tree points. It's kinda a big deal and let's you try out many combinations and I appreciate it. 

 

  I'm a little taken aback by how much I like it. I just bought Diablo 2: remaster PC and Elden Ring series x too! It's really good and I'm getting ready to start extreme difficulty!

 

  Very much recommend the 2 DLC packs for like 14 bucks. I may be wrong on price. Theres a ton of shit to do in all in just one play through of normal (also recommend normal veteran to start, much better drops than just normal. You get very very few purple legendary drops as it is, this will up your chances if even just a little bit!) You can easily drop over 120+ hours in just one playthrough on a new characture in N/Veteran difficulty.

 

   If you have it on Steam we could do some multi player some time? Bounce tips by each other. Also with the Forgotten Gods Dlc you get the Crucible. It's super handy to run a new characture through it for a few levels to boost your characture with some quick deviation points and some quick levels points. It's worth the gear you get trust me! You get some sweet starting gear to start with making normal veteran much easier in the beginning.

 

  I have a great link to how to use crucible on a new starting characture if you want.

Okay, I've been playing the crap out of this game (Grim Dawn) since we last spoke, and I'm really enjoying it. Part of my problem is I'm an alt-a-holic and keep restarting. Right now, I'm playing a ritualist, which as I keep playing more classes, I keep finding "oh, that's the right class for me" and then find another one that seems even better. The funny thing is I haven't even scratched the surface of this game as my highest level is like level 24, but it's just a lot of fun. Again, thanks for the recommendation. And once I feel I've really figured out the deepness of this game, I may take you up on multi player (I'm playing on Steam).

3 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

 

Yeah it's crazy to see people coming in from all over the world. I think Ukraine said something like 20,000+ foreign fighters so far from militaries around the world. There were reports from the UK in the last few days of a number of active soldiers going AWOL, suspected of traveling to Poland to enter Ukraine. Some special forces from Korea also volunteered. 

If I was younger and in better shape (health-wise), I'd probably volunteer. There are a lot of former military people I suspect that are just looking for a noble cause to feel useful again.

29 minutes ago, silentbob said:

Take down their fucking Twitter account for spreading fake news. If the American president could be removed, why not here with these assholes,

Keep in mind, it took 4 years of constant lies for them to finally shut him down.

The US has practically been built on the concept of earmarks and pork. The moment they tried to eliminate it, it was evident that all future legislation in Congress was going to suffer (unless you're an advocate for only a miniscule of legislation passing each session). The problem with earmarks is that a lot of foolish sounding legislation gets slipped into the bills, but the positive is that the important stuff actually gets passed. So, we'll end up with a few million being spent trying to figure out whether or not fish actually smile (an actual earmark that was passed) just so that what needs to be done gets done instead of tied up in endless fights between random members of Congress.

It wasn't a perfect system, but it was the system we created. Not always does throwing out the bad part of a system result in great results, as we've discovered with situations where one or two members of Congress can make sure that absolutely nothing gets done. Of course, if you're one of those "don't do anything and that's great" people, then everything's working as planned.

45 minutes ago, Jwheel86 said:

 

That's the anti anti air missile variant, it homes in on radar dishes.

And due to some fluke, random kindergarten complexes.

15 minutes ago, PaladinSolo said:

 

The Avengers did more damage to their airport than the Russians did, and the Avengers were only trying to kill each other. The Russians were trying to kill the airport.

2 hours ago, PaladinSolo said:

Does Ukraine even have another 23 pilots to fly the MiG 29s?  or are some Polish pilots going on "holiday" to lovely Ukraine?

 

I'm going to be flying one for them. I may not have a lot of combat flight experience, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once.

41 minutes ago, Nokra said:

When I moved back to the States I also had to furnish an apartment basically from scratch. Even going with the Ikea option for pretty much everything, I think I spent nearly $2k. I feel you bro. 

When I moved back to the states from South Korea a few years back, I had practically everything I owned with me, so I liquidated everything and left SO MUCH STUFF in my apartment in Korea that I just abandoned. I came back to the San Francisco Bay Area with two suitcases and had literally nothing. Five years later, I had an entire house filled with stuff (junk). I don't understand how I keep doing that.

6 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

 

The only way disarmament happens now is if the Russian state collapses, or a coup occurs and the new bosses are hippies. 

Well, there's always the off-chance they might just launch everything, and then disarmament happens pretty damn fast. Just not the way people would prefer.