#plus its like 2% higher res now

[comicbookddr]

remake of an old picmix edit

she's still the girl next door <3

[covid-safer-hotties]

Letter: School in the time of COVID-19 - Published Sept 5, 2024

The Editor:

We can disagree on many things, but all of us should be able to agree on this simple fact:

"Sick children can’t learn, sick teachers can’t teach." - Amanda Hu, community advocate

Once again children and youth in B.C. are returning to school during a COVID surge.

Needless to say what will follow is predictable. Sadly, it was preventable, had we prioritized the rights of children to life, health, safety and education and child development during an ongoing pandemic.

Make no mistake, the emergency phase may be over, but COVID-19 is not.

B.C. preschool and school children, their families and teachers will yet again be infected with COVID-19 this fall. That is, unless they were recently infected, or they are part of the minority of families who continue to use all available layers of protection to avoid a (re)infection.

Last year in B.C., updated COVID-19 vaccines became available only after Thanksgiving.

By then, infections had already peaked. This year again, unless things change, the newest COVID-19 vaccines will likely only be available too late for many B.C. school children, their families and their teachers.

B.C. is not alone. The other provinces and territories are also failing children with schools restarting when the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is high and yet another more contagious sub variant, KP.3.1.1, is spreading freely.

However, If you are in B.C., you’d be hard pressed to find up to date COVID-19 information.

As of May 2, the BCCDC declared the respiratory virus season over and switched its COVID-19 Situation Report from weekly to monthly. It’s as if someone thought limiting data in the summer would make COVID-19 disappear, or perhaps help it become seasonal.

Thankfully, the Government of Canada has continued to report Respiratory virus trends. As shown in the graph below, unlike RSV and Influenza, SARS-CoV-2 does not stop spreading with the arrival of summer (surveillance week 25). Maybe your family has already learned this.

pic

Image of Percentage of tests positive for Canada side by side with BC (Fig.4)

The reported laboratory test positivity rate as of Aug. 24 was 17.9 per cent in B.C., same as last year when school reopened. This number is an under estimation of the true level of infections in B.C. communities given testing is restricted to healthcare settings (EDs, hospitals and congregate settings outbreaks) while community rapid tests results are not being recorded.

By comparison, BCCDC’s last reported COVID-19 Situation Report is from July 27, 2024, too long ago to be of much use to parents and teachers. The next one is out today, Sept. 5, after B.C. schools’ resume. It’s really difficult to manage one’s risk of COVID-19 without any timely and easily accessible data.

Thanks to Dr. Tara Moriarty, an infectious disease researcher and associate professor at the University of Toronto, faculty of Dentistry, the Canadian COVID-19 Forecast for Aug. 31 to Sept. 13, 2024, now confirms that B.C. is in the severe category, with estimates of about one in every 27 people infected or roughly 196,900 - 224,800 infections this week.

This is higher than the national COVID-19 forecast and represents the highest hazard level of any Canadian province and territory during this time period. As B.C. schools restart, this translates to likely one person infected in a class of 26 students plus a teacher.

This is a rinse and repeat of last fall and the ones prior during this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. How long can we keep on re-infecting school children and teachers?

Again, we can disagree on many things but all of us should be able to agree on this simple fact:

"Sick children can’t learn and sick teachers can’t teach." - Amanda Hu

There is another way. It involves cleaning the air that our children and their educators share and breathe. The accumulated evidence is there, “respiratory viruses” are breathed in.

Worth reminding that even though SARS-CoV-2’s enters via the respiratory tract, it is a vascular virus that can impact every organ system of the body, and its effects can last well after the acute phase of the illness is over. This is true for adults, adolescents and children, though the presenting symptoms may differ.

This school restart should have been different.

In April, the BC Green Caucus introduced the Clean Air Act. A private member bill, it “proposes that both indoor and outdoor environments be monitored and regulated for air quality, especially in places frequented by vulnerable groups such as children, students, and the elderly.”

This bill addresses pollution, wildfire smoke and infectious aerosols. It passed first reading, but when the second reading will occur is anyone’s guess.

In late May, the Healthy Environment and Climate Change (HECC) team of VCH Public Health co-produced with Fraser Health a guidance document on Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality for Schools and Childcare Facilities.

It marks a significant departure from prior BC public health COVID-19 recommendations and states, “Many respiratory infections are transmitted through the air from a person infected with a virus or bacteria. Ventilation and air filtration may help to reduce transmission of respiratory infections, particularly in crowded, poorly ventilated spaces.”

Many of B.C.’s schools are” crowded and poorly ventilated spaces”, especially the portables and schools without any mechanical HVAC.

In June, at the Educational Facility Managers Association BC’s Annual Conference, Stephen McNichols, the engineer on the Ventilation Technical Advisory Panel for the Ministry of Education and Child Care, presented the latest ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) Standard 241, Control of Infectious Aerosols.

This standard was issued by ASHRAE in June 2023 to establish equivalent clean airflow requirements to reduce the risk of disease transmission through exposure to infectious aerosols in buildings and spaces (e.g. schools, hospitals, residential homes) during an epidemic or in a pandemic like COVID-19.

Then in early August, the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care updated its HVAC guidance to school districts and included ASHRAE’s Standard 241.

These slow steps towards addressing clean air in schools and in childcare facilities gave me hope that this year, B.C. schools restart would actually look different.

Unfortunately, so far none of these new guidances have translated into any meaningful improvements to the indoor air quality in B.C. schools.

Until today, Suzy Mah, a Vancouver School Board Trustee, was herself unaware of the new VCH/FH guidance on Ventilation and Indoor Air Quality in Schools and Childcare Facilities. Meanwhile the pandemic continues, and parents still have no idea what is the quality of the air in their school children’s classroom.

History will not be “kind” to the adults charged with keeping kids healthy and learning in school in the time of COVID-19.

- Lyne Filiatrault, retired B.C. emergency physician

[sollucets]

rowan’s gmmtv2024 report:

hi everyone im back from my interview (i dont know yet but i’m hopeful, cross your fingers for me) and im supposed to take a nap before work but i have to yell a bit first you understand

(positives)

1. pluto……. oh my GOD

you guys dont get it i was Really into midnight museum june. i tried my best to watch a lot of things i really didnt like just for namtan tipnaree. i like her So Lots. and namtanfilm i just fully….. had no idea. absolutely none. but it works!! i love it!!! the plot is bonkers (your dead(?) twin was the girlfriend of a now-blind girl that you're lying to now?) and under normal circumstances i wouldnt be interested but namtanfilm Killed this trailer and i also know im going to have Bad second couple syndrome re: whatevers going on with ciize. i love ciize so much.

this was so so soooo good n unexpected . girls kissing onscreen at My gmmtv announcement? :') plus their bathtub scene & that princesses moment.. yeah. that fucks

2. my golden blood

photo proof of me going mildly ballistic about the rumors last week. i did indeed say a few unholy things shortly after this. and to have it be a VAMPIRE BL? gods save us all im going to be so annoying. i was a twilight kid you know it im going to shovel this into my face with abandon

im so down for vampire au fanfic main character princess gawin honestly. wanted by supernatural creatures for his sexy special blood! bridal carried! blood on his university top!!!! i love it i love it i love it

is this objectively a tad embarrassing? yes. are the special effects painfully cheesy? yes. do i care? no 💜

3. peaceful property

this was just so fun to watch the trailer :’) i really love the found family vibes i was getting plus the over the top ghost shenanigans. i’m a casual tay tawan enjoyer & i do really love jan (alex&nim / newjan in warp effect were very fun to me). the trailer felt very warm n fun and bright, so im down. im into it

4. the trainee

we are in “sure i’ll watch that” territory now instead of extreme excitement but i thought this trailer was really fun & cute. i love view, obviously, so the amount of screentime her character got was good for me, and im 👀👀 about those girls. and offgun’s relationship seemed really fun & genuine :’) this seems nice! dont let me down!

5. wandee goodday

i think this looks fun! its a higher heat but still silly, which suits, and it appears to have fake dating which is a weakness trope of mine. also this is one of my bingo squares (adult non-office bl) so yes absolutely ill watch this. thank you p’golf but Please can we get podd Something this time

(mixed feelings)

6. kidnap

i have notably dissonant emotions about ohm pawat (lets not get into it) but i do actually enjoy this kind of forced proximity plotline even if i fear what theyll do with the opening kidnapper/kidnapee relationship. i feel… Something…. about this? yes. something is being felt. there is hope for me here, maybe, perhaps. really though if they want to keep him they should give ohm a smiley role again someday. it feels like everything ive seen him in since bb is all…. violence generational trauma death etc (for the worse imo)

7. gemfourth kiekoi

i think they can do it and it’ll be cute... gemfourth suit aoki and iida well. its just…. i dont know, i have an instinctive ‘noooo’ reaction to this remake. i like kiekoi soso much and i worry a lot. it does not have the exact charm for me.

also for me i wanted something a little different out of gemfourth. they have the range. but again, i do think theyll do well enough with this? so i'm mostly just being..... idk. :<

8. we are

i will at the very least attend e1! but this is too many couples for me if im honest, and they dont seem to be gunning to do anything super interesting. i do love aouboom & i like pondphuwin a lot (i Love pond’s hair in this trailer btw bless) but …. im not invested enough to make it interesting on its own. and [pouty baby voice] i wanted aouboom leads

(negative but ill try to be brief)

9. ossan’s love (the most negative of them all. look away. im so sorry earthmix i love you)

you guys are going to give earth pirapat a fucking complex before he even turns 30. he BETTER be playing haruta (i know hes not). this is just so silly!!! gmmtv doesnt deserve to have this one! this is not right for so many reasons but the most important is that they have no actual correctly aged men. no no no i am so so opposed. and theres not even a trailer 😰 you guys cut that shit out

10. ploy’s yearbook

looks…okay, its giving 55:15 a little bit, but the filmjoong adopted siblings romance threw me so violently that i doubt ill even consider touching it. absolutely not, you guys. gmmtv failing to be normal about siblings yet again! even though i like several of these actresses a lot i really.. i cant do it. also..... is earth a high schooler or is he forty.,, i feel like they're gaslighting us somehow. pairing him with namtan will not improve this situation for me you can't get out of it so easy

(miscellaneous extra commentary no one asked for)

11. only boo (?)

this looks cute? but not in a way where ill watch it unless i have nothing else going on. also unless im mistaken... was that milkbook??? innovation. love it

12. high school frenemies

those boys should be being gay about it instead of whatever shit they're actually doing. very nearly gayer than some of the bl trailers. i do not like this kind of genre thing but viewjune are there so ill still at least consider it.

13. summer nights

incredible how little i can care about something so fast. i'm not like, seethingly angry or anything but it's incredible, truly, how fast any trace of interest dropped away

i dont have anything else to say about the trailers! i will not be addressing the music here as it pains me in many ways.

finally, the personal elephant in the room: no firstkhaotung at all :< you guys know what i am, so obviously i indulged in a little dramatics about it this morning but i do understand. there's a part two that we've now been thoroughly assured they'll be present in, and also they have a show that's actively airing right now, so i'm not too worried. i did sort of expect a minor role for one or both of them at the very least though? but if they actually get a break out of this i'll be happy. please rest boys

(also khaotung on school rangers is, objectively, hilarious. sorry baby they're gonna make you do tasks)

okay! that's all! perhaps nobody wanted to know this

[thewhizzyhead]

before I sleep, here is my definitive ranking on all the NPMD songs and some rambles on why I placed them there - also the ranking is based on how much I vibe with them (music production and lyricism have different rankings)

1. Hatchet Town (aka the hatchetfield trilogy theme song like this tune perfectly encapsulates the chaos Hatchetfield has to go through with every Starkid project pos-2018 and I love it - kinda wish it was a number that is more integrated with the plot with the kids tho BUT I REALLY DID LIKE that this melody was quite prominent in the other songs too)

2. High School is Killing Me (I've watched many teen centered musicals and believe me when I say that this song is one of, if not, the best introduction numbers out there for this genre - also it's a really great opening hook for a show)

3. Nerdy Prudes Must Die (FUCKING AMAZING HONESTLY - amazing way to REALLY re-establish a villain back from the dead and to establish the main theme for the nerds here: "I'm Not A Loser" (tho i fucking wish that motif was used a bit more))

4. Just For Once (everyone cheer for Lauren Lopez flexing not just her high tier soprano skills, but also how amazing of a fucking actor she can be like the concept of this song is quite layered and to pull it off both comedically and emphatically takes great lyrical and acting prowess)

5. The Summoning (a well-anticipated onstage introduction to all 5 of the LiB that balances out befuddling neon-entertainment with genuine fucking menace)

7. Cool As I Think I Am Reprise (A FUCKING GENIUS REPRISE I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH HOW COOL I FIND THEM RECONTEXTUALIZING THE OG SONG AND IF I LOVED YOU TO FIT THE SITUATION AND BOTH OF THE CHARACTERS GROWTH. LIKE IN TERMS OF THEMATIC IMPLICATIONS WITH CHARQCTER DEVELOPMENT, THIS SONG AND ITS SCENE WOULD BE THE TOP)

6. If I Loved You (I think this song could be a bit more honestly like I know how much Starkid has explored Steph and Pete's relationship in their other projects and I was really hoping that they would have it more portrayed here - however the song is a bop nonetheless and it matches neatly with their themes and the harmonies are top tier. I placed this higher than the next just due to my personal bias like I really do like the song)

8. Dirty Dudes Must Die (A GREAT TWIST THAT MAKES ME WANT ANOTHER MUSICAL ABOUT GRACE CHASITY'S DERANGED SELF - also the new context of the song Grace is reprising here makes her a villain even scarier than MAX of all people but that's just me)

9. Literal Monster (A very catchy beat and well structured song that provides a good introduction to a jock-bully with the god complex. also kinda foreshadowing to nerdy prudes must die)

10. Cool As I Think I Am (the instrumentation reminded me of Dear Evan Hansen ngl fjsjd but it really does sound like an I-Want song from a teen-musical which is of course what they are going for - it sounds very nice and earnest though and I loved how it was utilised in the reprise. However I still fucking wish that the I'm Not A Loser motif was used more)

11. Dirty Girl (look I'm sorry for ranking this quite low on the list but like there is no fucking way I'm using this as bait to lure other people in like they'd be scared away I'm sorry fjdjs BUT I love how Will and Angela perform this though like top tier starkid performances ever - its not just what I would listen to on repeat personally jgjdjs)

12. Go Go Nighthawks! (This one gets plus points because of FUCK YOU CLIVESDALE GO GET FUCKED. otherwise its nice and cheery and perfectly shows how happy everyone is without Max but um I kinda wish it could be a bit more especially in terms of showing how happy the other nerds are now that Max is gone but that's just me)

13. Bully The Bully + Bury The Bully (Look I couldn't decide which was better like they both are the same melodies so like gjxjs these two are cute though and I liked seeing the 5 kids bonding in Bully The Bully since we don't get that many scenes with them)

14. The Best Of You (the pop-punk happy number is a staple of teen-centered musicals and it does really sound nice - just isn't that much of a standout compared to the others.)

[malvenor]

alright, i'll give you benefit of the doubt. i'd like to hear exactly what's wrong with my breakdown if you dont mind! i say this with genuine interest in what you have to say, and curiosity, no malice at all. but i do think that if you're gonna say "everything in this is wrong," you'd do well to explain just what is so wrong, or at least just one example. just saying something is wrong without providing explanation also serves to make one look silly! ...hopefully i dont sound pretentious saying that.

i knooooooow i said i didnt wanna argue. i still don't, honestly. but well, debate is ok.

i do also want to give myself just a little defense and say that my post is a casual person's criticisms, rather than a huge big one meant to be taken seriously. emotions are in there, dyeing my commentary unsightly colors at times. not the biggest defense, but hey, its there.

so yeah, all that wordy preamble to say: yes, i'm probably wrong. in the interest of self-improvement, i'd like to know why!

I expected no response and got a genuinely respectful one! Sorry if I sounded snippy - plenty of things I like get a lot of odd and unfounded criticism, and it's very easy for little things to get under my skin. I can give a bit-by-bit breakdown, for sure! And I get that it's from a casual perspective, but such a lengthy review even from a casual perspective should have a tad more than the first third of the release version of a game completed, y'know?

Ahem, anyways! Preamble out of the way, and with all due respect (which is a fair amount thanks to your stellar attitude!), here are my nits and my picks:

Less a correction and more a tip for anyone who read that post: You can re-access the tutorial at any time by going back to Selva Oscura, the game's prologue chapter, under the same menu where you access the Cantos. I recommend everyone do this anyways because you can collect some Lunacy just for visiting the map.

Next bit, I actually half-agree with. Yes, Limbus Company has a stubborn and poorly-explained learning curve, and it is less immediately intuitive than Library of Ruina. It is, however, also an intrinsically less complicated game than Library of Ruina. Having a base understanding of "when my side's numbers are higher, I win more often" will be learned quickly, and the fight against Ebony Queen's Apple will tell you the rest you need to know (since I believe this to be the game's only halfway decent tutorial). However, I will also point out that the intuitiveness is the only part of the previous two game's learning experiences that were actually good: LC and LoR also had pretty fuckin' bad tutorials.

From a casual perspective, the ins and outs of exactly how clash values are calculated are wholly unnecessary, but the basics are pretty plainly laid out, I find. It gives you a big number that will always be the starting number, a smaller number with a plus sign, and 1~5 little symbols that the game calls coins next to those. I feel like most people pretty easily grasp that when the coins flip heads, signified by the glow, they add their value to the big number. Even if this isn't understood by the player immediately as that, it becomes more obvious once you get to, again, Ebony Queen. I'll admit, this is more subjective, but it still stuck out as something people tend to grasp pretty quickly, especially former Ruina players.

aha okay yeah that's fair. the game does not, in fact, inform you how to upgrade your units.

However! It does not take two cantos to unlock Luxcavations. Now I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you dropped the game before that update, but a few weeks after launch they removed thread and exp from the Mirror Dungeons and added grindable micro-stages for them instead. EXP Lux is unlocked I believe around stage 1-10, an upgraded version around 2-18 (?), and Thread Lux after clearing Canto 2, where you also unlock Mirror Dungeons, which is where you get Lunacy and BP Exp. So, while that may have very briefly been true, this has been cleared up and fixed!

Defense skills are probably the only truly well-explained thing in the Prologue tutorial, so I'm sorry to say that this one was purely a personal issue on your part. While the circumstances of their use are not made immediately clear, that's less an issue of the explanation and more an issue of the game's balance, a discussion to be had that is far outside the scope of this post.

Nitpick among nitpicks, dungeons do not have a different combat system! Normal battles still occur within them, and starting in Canto 4 the Focus Battle system (reminiscent of Ruina's battle system) will also occur on overworld stages on occasion! Just a matter of "not quite as cut and dry as immediately laid out"

Ah, the classic victim of the tutorial and it's vague misrepresentation of the purpose of Resonance. This will have multiple parts, so starting off with the most understandable misunderstanding: Resonance does not, in fact, increase the damage you deal. Weird, right? It increases the Offense Level of skills in the chain, which is a small but extremely important distinction, since Offense Level can also affect Clash Power. Is this ever explained? Fuck no. Not your fault, just a bad tutorialization moment again.

While this is not made immediately obvious to the player, Sin does carry more weight to the battle system than you may think! First and foremost, adding a second layer of resistance really highlights how powerful the game's multiplicative damage scaling can really be, and allows some units to still be useful even if their primary damage type is resisted by the enemies.

It's not just that, though! Even on release, the sins did sort of have their own little niches like you described in your post, but you didn't quite make it far enough or get a large enough roster to really notice the patterns. The most obvious example of this is the difference between Envy (purple) and Gluttony (green). Envy is basically the plain and simple damage color, associated with multiple "nuke" skills, as well as being the primary color for Charge, which is Damage: The Archetype. Gluttony, on the other hand, lacks "nukes" altogether and is often used as a technical, status and self-healing type Sin, and also has a fair bit of Paralyze for some reason? Regardless, there's identity with each Sin, which I think is cool!

There is, because Limbus sort of fails at gacha-ing, still an odd sense of progression in Limbus! Not only are the LCB Sinners automatically upgraded as you finish the initial batch of Cantos, but the feeling of getting bigger, better, stronger options comes from not only expanding your roster, but the feeling of more complex teambuilding and additional gameplay mechanics through gameplay-story integration. Eventually we even get new story-locked toys to play with! There's also the micro-progression in Dungeons (including Mirror Dungeons, arguably especially so) but even on a grander scale, there is a nice sense of it. Less so than Ruina, of course, no denying that, but they go out of their way to make it still feel good to play through.

I will not be touching upon the story comment because you already included that edit. Yes, anon is right, it does give you the tools you need to understand what is present.

Some more subjective things, but I tried to tackle them in as objective a manner as possible. But as we are all experiencing art here, there will inevitably be these subjective matters to discuss! Many of these things weren't your fault either as they were added later in updates to the game, but such things are to be expected in live service titles.

To circle back to the original point, sometimes you just have to sit back and wonder if what you're saying will hold water, and if you happen to know enough to speak at length. I'm sorry you had a negative experience with the game to start, and I am morally obligated to not recommend gachas to people in general if they don't wish to play them, so I'll not be asking for your return. I just like clearing things up!

I hope this was informative, and I thank you for reading!

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Re-Reviews- Witness

Welcome to the second of Cadybear’s RE-Reviews! In Re-Reviews, I of course reassess my original opinion of a story I’ve recently replayed. Maybe my opinion has changed, or maybe it still holds up and I have further thoughts. 

Today I will be re-reviewing Witness, the twenty-fourth review I’ve done. The last time I played this story was 3 years ago, in May 2021. I last reviewed it in March 2024, putting it on the Rotting Flesh Tier with a 2 stars out of 10 rating. As of my most recent replay however, I can comfortably put it on the Bronze Tier at 5 stars out of possible 10.

HahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhhahahahahahhahahahhahhahahhaahahhahahahahahhaahahahahahahhahaaaahahhahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhhahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahaAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA what were you smokiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggg PB

Yeah, I never thought I’d end up re-ranking Witness higher, albeit only from the 2-Star “Annoying” ranking to the 5-star “Mixed Bag” ranking. Maybe it’s because newer books like Surrender, FCL, UT, and TBB are so ungodly awful that I’ve just become desensitized to Witness’s level of bullshit now, but this book honestly isn’t too bad. It got plenty of groans and eyerolls from me for sure, but it didn’t actively piss me off or even deeply annoy me this time around. 

But, y’know, there is still a reason I started this review the same way I started the original review. 

So why doesn’t this book irritate me anymore? Well, quite simply, it does do a few things right. 

Let’s start with the MC. She… actually isn’t too awful, at least not nearly as much as I remember. Although the story does give us a pretty standard normative trope of MC having to be constantly protected by LI, they don’t force her into complete helplessness, and some dialogue choices even allow us to challenge Cassian’s protectiveness. I do like that we get a fair amount of options for how MC behaves in certain situations, something that is slightly misrepresented in my original review. Maybe she can act more level-headed, or maybe she can be too nerve-wracked from the trauma of witnessing a murder. This is something I want to see more of for MCs with trauma. 

And although she does complain by default quite often, some of it is understandable. I mean, if you’ve just witnessed a murder, and then had to be put under witness protection with some very strict restrictions on what activities you can and can’t do, and enter an entirely new life being constantly on the run and constantly having to watch your back… I imagine that would get pretty frustrating pretty fast, no matter who you are. 

I’d say this book’s bigger strengths, however, are in the non-romance and non-sexy aspects– similarly to Wolf Bride. The general conflict with the O'Connells, Finn, etc. didn’t wow me, but it was pretty solid. Plus, this book has a lovely atmosphere with its visuals and the locations like Nantucket beach and Ireland countryside that we get to go to. It does have a very peaceful and calm vibe to it, and while I don’t mind the usual urban and royal settings in most Choices stories that tend to be busier, this one’s settings are a refreshing and unique change of pace. 

Unfortunately, this book shoots itself in the foot when it comes to a lot of these acceptable aspects. 

The most glaring of the problems boils down to, well, the one that everyone has brought up before: the excessive diamond options. The tiered diamond options is an interesting feature that they advertise at the start of the book, but they completely butchered it by paywalling the most ridiculous shit. Like, literally just, the most basic of things… dodging a taser gun, having an honest discussion about Cassian’s protectiveness, accepting help from Cassian during a fight/escape, taking action to help Cassian during a fight/escape, expressing fear and vulnerability about MC and Cassian’s situation, or even– most infamously of course– just eating any breakfast! 

Like I get diamond-walling eating breakfast with Cassian, but they also have to diamond-wall grabbing a waffle to go? Just why???? Like, I like having options for our MC to have healthy communication with their LI and to express fear and vulnerability. I don’t like that they are paywalled this frequently! How PB thought it was a good idea to paywall this many of the options for our MC’s behaviors and character is just… beyond cringe. 

Other Choices stories certainly aren’t immune to paywalling survival tactics or even ridiculous mundane things, but those moments were incredibly rare. This one is just like 

“Oh no, you have to take a piss, but there’s no way you can make it to the bathroom! What do you do? 18 diamonds: Have Cassian carry you to the toilet. 12 diamonds: Relieve yourself in the bushes. Free option: Pee your pants.” 

“Oh no, you just took a very messy and nasty shit! What do you do? 18 diamonds: Thoroughly cleanse your ass with the bidet. 12 diamonds: Simply wipe your ass clean. Free option: Say I don’t like wiping,” 

“Cassian accidentally farted and the sound and stench gave away your hiding spot to the O'Connells, and you’ve only just barely managed to escape from them! What do you do? 16 diamonds: Talk things out with Cassian. Free option: Get angry and kick him in the balls for not controlling his Ass Gas to keep you safe.” 

“Aisling is about to stab you! What do you do? 16 diamonds: Dodge it! Free option: Freeze in terror and just die I guess. Existence is pain anyways.”

And the thing is, this is a really, really easy problem to solve. This is why I think Witness could have easily been a decent-tier story. Think about it. Most of the books I put in the Rotting Flesh and PooPoo tiers are ones that need full-on plot reworkings. TNA 3, TBB, MTFL, Surrender, UT, FCL… they all had storylines that were just done horribly.

Witness’s plot, on the other hand, is one that actually isn’t too atrocious in a vacuum. It isn’t rotten in its beliefs or spirit, it isn’t too artificial in its romance aspect, it isn’t seriously glorifying toxic behaviors or being hypocritical about toxic behaviors. Maybe at the very most it can be nearing MTFL levels of melodramatic, and MC can… sometimes be a spoiled brat? But that’s about it. It’s otherwise an average story. 

The problem with Witness is that it was given poor direction in its premium choices. It gets really distracting and makes it hard to take the story seriously at best, and it feels borderline manipulative at worst. Which is incredibly bad, but it’s also incredibly easy to rework, and most of the story would still be pretty intact after said reworking. This story does rely on having 5 premium options per chapter… but it doesn’t need to. 

A lot of the times where they give us those premium Choices where there’s an 18 diamond one, a 12 diamond one, and a free one… well, just make the twelve-diamond one a free choice. You can have one option that’s premium and gets you a scene with Cassian, but then two others that are free and give you more choice. If you don’t want your MC to be in the mood for breakfast, you can have that… but if you want them to at least eat something, you should be able to have that too without having to pay diamonds.

A lot of the other premium choices, such as: dodging a taser gun vs staring in shock, helping Cassian vs letting your memories overwhelm you, or grabbing hold of Cassian vs panicking and missing his hand… just make them timed Choices instead! That’s how easy it is.  

The book does have plenty of other problems as well, granted they’re maybe not quite as glaring. For one, I of course still find it very pointlessly genderlocked. While the standard normative trope of (female) MC having to be protected by (male) LI isn’t too overbearing as I mentioned before, it still would have been neat to have an option to play as a male MC in this particular situation. I’m pretty damn sure this isn’t something only women could experience, this story does not need MC to be a woman in order to work. And honestly, we need more media that shows it’s okay for men to want protection and express vulnerability. (But sure, muh few female-lead vidya games I guess. I mean, men just have sooooo many video games out there that allow the male leads to be protected or express fear and vulnerability amirite?) 

However, while the general romance dynamic isn’t quite as overbearingly normative as I remembered… the sexy writing absolutely is. You could play a drinking game with the number of times the narration blubbers over “the curves of your waist”... or “your breasts”, or any glorification of how “wonderfully hourglass feminine” the MC’s body is, and I barely even spent diamonds! (Disclaimer: Do not do this drinking game, you will die). Meanwhile all the sexy writing about Cassian is just about how oh-so-masculine-muscular he is, because that’s the only way men’s bodies are allowed to be sexy. I mean there is one scene where MC can check out Cassian’s ass that I did like, but they don’t really fixate on it as much as they do his muscles. 

To be fair, though, that is a problem with Choices books in general rather than Witness specifically, but it was significantly more overbearing in Witness. Also, I realllllyyyyy don’t like them straight-up guilt tripping me into choosing the premium bikini over the brown one-piece. “Har dee har, must be sexy because woman, woman not being sexy is bad”. 

It was also very hard for me to buy MC falling for Cassian, at least in the first volume of the story. I know they’ve kind of set up this MC as someone who is inexperienced with romantic feelings due to an aversion to commitment, but her and Cassian being able to say “I love you” to one another after only a month of knowing each other under witsec protection just doesn’t feel earned. PB if you’re gonna make the MC have a more pre-set personality and character arc, at least commit to it. 

I have mixed feelings about MC getting angry over Cassian’s proposal too, something else that a lot of people have memed the story for. I get the MC being scared since they’re establishing her as someone who initially is not interested in a committed relationship, but I do think having the reaction options only be angry ones just… didn’t feel right. 

Also, this is a smaller thing, but the reuse of certain soundtracks. They frequently use soundtracks from books like ILS, HSS, and ATV, books which I found to be of much higher quality. So it alway hurts when they use those tracks in such a mid-ass book like Witness. But also the fact that the tracks feel way too melodramatic for the scenes they use them from. Like why are you playing the emotional ATV tracks when Cassian and MC are having an emotional moment??? Their moments are not emotional enough for that. 

So in the end, this is a book that is pretty mid-level, but easily didn’t have to be. Honestly, I think if they didn’t paywall the most mundane of tasks or having healthy communication, this book wouldn’t be so infamous, and I’d probably rank it at 6 or maybe even (and that’s a hard “maybe”) 7. 

[anyways-wonderwall]

Eurovision Special!

It's my favorite time of year, Eurovision time! Every year I make a post talking about my five favorite songs from the year and generally talk about what I thought of the whole competition.

Uhh here's the thing though, this year SUCKED. Like I have been following Eurovision for six years and there has never been a more mid year in my experience. There were literally only 5 songs I liked, which while it made writing this really easy, is terrible given I usually playlist around 10 songs each year. I don't know what was happening but the countries dropped the ball on picking entries and the jury decided that only boring songs were allowed to do well. I cannot express how disappointed I was this year. (I just realized in my last post I wrote "Eurovision is getting too good, and what comes up must come down sometime" and unfortunately I was right)

Anyways, if you haven't read my last two Eurovision posts (which you can find here and here) I give each song a score from 1-10 in four categories: singer, song, catchiness, and performance. While technically a perfect score is a 40, there are available bonus points based on whether it isn't in English, it makes me laugh really hard, embodies Eurovision, etc. Each song also gets a fun little note so I can remember what it sounded like. Listen it's really hard to keep track of 37 songs.

Without further ado, here are the only good songs in Eurovision 2023:

5. Lithuania - Stay by Monika Linkytė

Score: 28/40

Notes: chutoh aahh tootoh

Final Ranking: 11th

I was really on the fence about including this one since it didn't really grab me at first, and in all honesty its not that great or unique and I kind of wrote it off as your standard Eurovision song.

But then as the days went on, I found the chorus - ‘Čiūto Tūto’ haunting me. I have never had more fun than dancing along with the chorus and there has not been a day I haven't sung this song. I'm re-listening to it now and honestly, I'm fine never listening to it again, but it has changed my life.

4. Austria - Who the Hell is Edgar? by Teya & Salena

Score: 30/40

Notes: Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe

Final Ranking: 15th

Now this is why I listen to Eurovision. I come here for camp nonsense and this year Austria delivered. A feminist song about being possessed by Edgar Allan Poe?? Perfection. The song itself is really catchy, the singers are incredibly fun and charismatic, and the music video is just such a great time. I am really sad this song didn't place higher, especially since a lot of people were praising it. You deserved more girls!

(although edgar allan poe was actually very pro-slavery so they should be canceled /j)

3. Malta - Dance (Our Own Party) by The Busker

Score: 30/40

Notes: Perfect sax part

Final Ranking: didn't make it to the grand finale >:(

As the comment suggests, the strength of this song is the killer sax riffs (riffs multiple!! they just kept delivering!). The song as a whole is a super fun time, with a fun message and a goofy music video, once again things that I look for when I listen to Eurovision songs. Plus they're from Malta! A micronation represented by people actually from there! I feel like that alone deserves bonus points (I mean Malta only has half a million people, less than Wyoming).

2. Portugal - Ai Coração by Mimicat

Score: 38/40

Notes: Cabaret flamenco

Final Ranking: 23rd

This song reminds me a lot of Fanfare Ciocarlia in the best way. Its quick, full of brass, and makes me want to dance. It's also all in Portuguese and the live performance was absolutely mesmerizing. I don't know exactly what this genre is called, but I'm such a fan. Give me fast-paced music and some brass and I'm in love.

Finland - Cha Cha Cha by Käärijä

Score: 39/40

Notes: Why did the bridge keep going

Final Ranking: 2nd

C'mon, did you really think that I would put any other song at number one? This song hooks you from the beginning, has an aggressively European synth riff, nonsense Finnish lyrics, an inexplicable heavy metal chorus, this song is absolutely wonderful and one of the best to come from Eurovision. This song clearly stands out from all the others, and is the only one that I know of that made its way into international Tiktok. I mean if my roommate knows a Eurovision song without my involvement that means that it has some cultural power.

Unfortunately, I don't think this song is perfect. The bridge kind of ruins the momentum of the song by steering it into generic pop and for some reason they keep that overtone for the rest of the song. They were so close to committing to the bit, then they weirdly tried to make it sound normal. That aside, this is clearly the best song of this year and I am convinced that they rigged it.

I think the only songs I actually liked enough to keep listening to in my daily life are the last two, which is pretty bad for a Eurovision year. I just hope they do something good next year in stupid Sweden.

(and my least favorites this year were Georgia and Greece, really bringing down the letter "G." Luckily Germany brought a great song to make up for those two.)

[pathfinderunlocked]

Unicorn Vampire Worm - CR3 Vermin

A monster based on one of the terrible monster designs from the original Wild ARMs.

Artwork is an in-game screenshot from Wild ARMs 1, copyright Media.Vision.

Here’s a slightly higher-res image of one of its palette swaps, from a worse angle.

Wild ARMs is one of the first video game RPGs with 3D enemies, and the enemies look really bad.  My impression is that someone had designed a worm enemy named Larva that looked like a giant caterpillar with a tail spine, but decided it was too boring, so they gave it spiky hair.  Then they decided it was still too boring, so they gave it a unicorn horn.  Then they decided it was still too boring, so they gave it a face with vampire teeth.

Anyway, unicorn vampire worms travel with members of their hive, and instinctively work together.  They don’t necessarily stay within sight of each other at all times, but if you find one by itself in a room or outdoors, there are probably ten or twenty more within a couple minutes of crawling distance.

If you want to support this blog, now there’s an easy way to do so through my Ko-Fi page!  https://ko-fi.com/lockez  

Unicorn Vampire Worm - CR 3

This three foot long, spiky-haired, spine-tailed worm has a mean-looking face with long fangs extending from its mouth, and a brightly colored horn with a little pom-pom on the end.  It looks like it was created by either a very drunk wizard or a horrible series of magical accidents.

XP 800 N Small vermin Init +2 Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0

DEFENSE

AC 15, touch 13, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +2 natural, +1 size) hp 33 (6d8+6) Fort +6, Ref +4, Will +2 Immune mind-affecting effects

OFFENSE

Speed 20 ft. Melee bite +6 (1d4+3 plus blood suck), sting +6 (1d3+3 plus poison) Special Attacks blood suck, healing horn (3d6, 1/day), poison, poison stream

STATISTICS

Str 17, Dex 15, Con 13, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 2 Base Atk +4; CMB +6; CMD 18 (cannot be tripped)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1d2 Dex; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Poison Stream (Ex) As a standard action usable every 1d4 rounds, a unicorn vampire worm can spray poison from its mouth in a 15-foot line. Any creature caught in this area must succeed at a DC 15 Reflex save or be exposed to the unicorn vampire worm’s poison. The save DC is Dexterity-based.

Blood Suck (Ex) When a unicorn vampire worm deals damage with its bite attack, it recovers an equal amount of hit points.

Healing Horn (Sp) A unicorn vampire worm can heal a creature of its choosing as a standard action by touching its horn to a target.

It may use this ability once per day, and heals 1d6 hit points per 2 HD it possesses.  It cannot heal itself in this way.

[leopoldainter]

Some uploads

All edits

2 hours in upload Botha

N'eve leave a filwnge loose and rachelgreen all out of sight of stage camera one

SSIDSthe name of the wifi's name what who knows how suddenly babies die it could have last been seen sleeping with pillow or cat artichoke so much hate throw it out oh no Hercules you have this corner for gardening.

My friend was shot, by police, once.

That's the truth.

Uphill

Both sides

So office use of msmagic as prohibited by excuse

Well also when she can re re remi, loose pocket change im doing this chest poopin thing with someone cashier

You are not trying to refresh this as much as we want this refreshed right the deepest of Nows. It goes that way some t

tiles

Plus an Easter season testicle remember how that looked at the top we can't keep telling you hang on I do know what im doing here's topamgA

Do barrier reef

Do bother both'em

Yeah, I hear they got government funded spin class for those people

Those people, they're in a sewer of all places, they get free shit.

All the time

The BBC would like to provide with further information on the partridge scenario from Some future center Ef Buh pu no that's mandarin duck. We have many partners and sources. Neither are predefined by supersonic power grubs of clande .motes were put into disuse by showing are arches are handled out by the walls up close

Those ladders away say other ways up.

Your full upw

Yes I said ignore the canary, can you open with the wrong side if it's already canceled. No I was not in Futurama. Phone wise or spatial. The cochlea is shell. That's not receiving your out of line now

Singing the wrong words one after the others how we sound so to geth jfk is his name.txs um just kid with kittens streams love tap baby what'd had that baby cat

Ow when you put her in that one instead of common day s if may fly the vaginas not the problem

Not the problem we ve got f8ve eagles bangen around by ohr honey well let's get some bass

No

It's you

Yeah

No it's dial

Ok

Okay it's fine

Hell yeah thats fine its math.

Math makes the time square

Primitives are back we are gonna make it with wax fang

No freaking way he was that fast. What was he reaching for how many times. Not your problem find safer tree no not that

But something in side more...away from dungeon. Towards ...

the place she shows back in before something that was made inside find out how to get back in from the place sealed by people sized door even at the place where the doors aren't to a safer outdoors landing its finches place. A close callers yelling fence stripper instructions my name is basically not worth spelling with these wackers

Why waste a use with the space bar if it wax thank you your telling testing the teeth of star li e and that's property so music sTicKis to and that's seven things a scale. Not related. I used i as a test I don't think it's a working dialog just a gif

You clicked on Yes or something

I purposely moved my hand when I realized that would have been a problem I haven't had noticed. John, Hammond spared no expense.

He's Hammond. Shake him He's got to know stuff

His sticks amber

Her?

Couldn't be, no it's mosquito to m some one drank too much before testing the toxicity of extinct tea leaves. I don't not believe it can you tell your not holding the script or what.

She asked for gloves, she must have had the plan for the two hands to be in use

One takes off the one that goes in

Why didn't anyone say something that's not what written

A lot of animals poop and we have found alot of rakes to mistakes do make for shimalayan mess messes more of the small bush with out the leF sized pro tip tool. This species of him or Constru ction work jeepers creepers I'm not getting out to get on the roof, I'm just gonna hang to the ground from the hood and then touch an ankle came pop pop

TikToking

Yes sounds puzzling after I said no just ignore both of there fathers aren't here still.

Try holding it higher.

Wow

Yeah higher now I can actually type like chips walkn didn't take out the under of table to ice skate by outsider

Suckers it's an auction house all inside and the outside not the paper but the tape that's between it and the gold.

All we want is to know what he is taking g the time to say forcefully enough to make us act so suspicious and why wouldn't we another thing that turned out to work way better than doing what we were supposed to why do they get think up all the good actions todo. Total lack of responsibility. Some kind of other Tumblr with postings are oure set it other tumblrs so he want some guys to think he is somewhat interested in seeing the next gay st some time but not that last one ever ever again

Like

Common

Who else

Does (Y) thu.mb

Crowds chanting

Titanic:of course I know what ice fishing is keeps diamonds where they belong on chain

Her face is not asian

Her eyes are not asian

There's e wtit yeah I cae ts.mudhe wait smudges dot white while we try that ofte oftenef often times wr hear how the left has tried to force a dem or rebel to a take turns talking indoors facing a camera see how Jack's not looking right either. I put my knife an sigh o face ans stillhüser aineheis3r Busch is in amstil Amsterdam i did get it on a Heineken once, I did have it go through the spirit checker. Unopened no problem don't bother.

No mission available that is too much toothpaste you got to the cap completely off then squeeze some of the parts of the message down till you get those rail comments saying how there there for a reason something moved them and this time it's not people catching on fire on purpose as suggest by the literal with match causing the altar flames to start on murder from the rest of our points of view. Unless there really isn't a person and there just homeless and on fire because that's life

Thats what this is about.

But why point that L outs pin kes yohrsor insane somewhere else. ElsVador. I ha ePe Hawaiin super up toss to fYe Dunaway heading that way screaming they're scrwam the damn song. I know what was playing The day the wed this shit.

No francine he was an ethnomusicologist we were only sure that there was bubblebath rest assured I told him the corrections outside the theatre

They left for pancakes. You're ever had breakfast wi5h geologist

What's tasty up in chin

She's not like she's sniffing I know the nips from the licks

Ok look at it at best you happen to notice the eyelashes

Thats not hairless that's mexican

They are horrible spies they never really share their end. They sweat it out. Like us

What's that sound it makes getting closer. Some like honk or beep

LaTrgo Montreal doubledouble

Made thr same mes in mine

We are required bilabong to demand such information as is law in these provisions excuse being to king fix so.sing

Then you unplugged the phone

It's children services

Look it's just bills

Hoada Sorkin

That's the staircase from the aristocats

A

Court

Action

Parent seeks refuge. Test. Fail. Immediately

Walk by say you spent the night up, by what against the electric box with the inner bard In ten A

One million

D3tolife line is it mi tut: is that your Same Hand

Yeh you bet it was that good

Who doesn't what's the show it keeps going I'm headed for the.

Hot Seat!

Violence meet THX

That waswhat I was saying was so good. But she does her shiver her way and I saw that was her. Way through one of the phones by my night stand.

That is what ahit sort of sounds.like wow I'm so much voila I'm so much h less sure I was I'm so

More of both are

-G.Simpson

We have another saying we had work done, but after the operation Charlie hedo

So unload a few rounds off there to show ours as theatrical

Previously on

Space Barn, thems Ritchey roads saying here I go

Whose Johnny

Where does this ends what's said by a number of pointed toes on both feet by the bird misplacing itself as ATTICUS dues not typed but inspires no screaming this spaces safest house for Finches Lansing vlose enough. Don't stop for recover that's what's the blamed for many deaths this street is Mardi Gras. Grave Terror on Tiranic reel 9

That one says there's more than this one place where they say which dies first from this point. Nows the titanic the ride away to thre six were pulled from the ice clothes water SIX of two many faces looking back at ghem a lighter gun Twn Torch cells trick ended tried and Tre ii the feel the auru tu nuigh takes time to say vir with polite but it's pots ro imagine thus is u begone

For resting please write:

That's what you

Do

But anchorage Alaska and ExxonMobil comobila don't quite do it like it does its thang

No it's for music

No headphones are for music my headset smooths lift napcap placed unhurled by the placard

Marge isn't here was here

Then just imagine it was on purpose but a picture of ziploc bag of cigarette beuts

[jonathankatwhatever]

(Added in transfer from Notes: this is mind blowing and glowing.)

30 August 2023 and I’m trying something different: my ipad is on the footstool. Maybe I can get a different perspective on what I type. There’s this nagging self-doubt today, a cloudy mood tinted down, enveloping without great substance, and so infusing a negative cast. One benefit of this footstool thing is I am now fully contracting my front core inward as I type. Never been able to do that before, to lean back with the balance necessary to contract evenly with alternation being in the checksum, in the parity ad thus along the Boundary asserted by the contraction, which I moved into my glutes, and now pulling inward as the contraction passes to the other side at that foldover spot. I can hold this. It requires relaxing the breath and thus the spine. Then fully contracting up into a true bridge. Nice. Huge release.

So we can teach people the concept of a release, and how they can recover their selves, both their physical and intangible selves, as they connect to the movement potential in their bodies, and as they understand that movement potential … and here it gets difficult because I want to say that movement potential unlocks feeling better about yourself, both physically and mentally, that you will establish or re-establish the connection between your mind and your body.

A release matches your physical and mental selves to an ideal which exists independent of you. That ideal fits to you without any judgement. I know that wasn’t clear, but this is new to me. The ideal fits to you because a Pathway exists which relates you at any point in your existence to you as you are now to you as you might have been. All the different you’s arrange a Boundary, a concept that has much greater depth than I realized (and I was looking for depth, so it’s tricky), and that enables pairings like the good version and the bad version of you.

The way I see this is very blunt and I have to get into this. I see an image of you splintered and arrayed on the other side of the xK plane in yK, meaning there’s a screen between us and you’re the other half-plane and yet another reason why the imaginary unit circle is 2Pi circumference because that’s the representation of this Boundary form into D-structure, meaning the End plus a 1Segment in CR of D1 and more specifically D1-2 because CR is non-specific but we then locate points like -1, 1, i and -i. That sentence took on a life of its own. It looks completely correct.

To continue, you split into good and bad, but then the distinction narrows as the image selected opposite me, the one I see when I look through the mirror at you, becomes the being which can create these images, who knows the meaning of an oath. Which makes it not a choice of good on one shoulder, bad on the other, but a question of which image you actually prefer, and that to me is the one in which the negative leads to the positive. That isn’t a loop like at the level of an electric circuit or a logical loop, though those express this. No, this is that the new negative arises as work to reach the next positive, so the count is forward, and not only as a counted loop.

The resolution of this is in the gs modular counting forms we describe. That’s the key to understanding the Gödelian issues: we generated functions as constructions of gs in D-structure. That enables us to talk about effective Pathways. Or like above, the Triangular of you to you ideal to ideals related to that ideal, etc., connecting to ideals for larger classes, etc., all this means there are Pathways which you can explore to connect to higher ideals, which relate to higher ideals, etc., all as they fit to you. It’s Pathway of work, out of all the Pathways that connect you to every form of higher ideal.

This is an intense experience. In my head, as I’m doing this, I’m able to adopt the most generalized female perspective I’ve yet seen, and that makes me almost infinitely more comfortable in my own skin. That gets more of the conception or theory even of gender identity. The labels are correct, though perhaps a bit confusing because we have a double use for M as man and male. Perhaps a shift of one to n, as in man and nale or nail, because that pinning in the I//I of gs(n) and gs(m) is the core concept because that is fundamental Injection. You can see the idea of inserting DNA into a cell containing other DNA. And thus gender identity is fundamentally about the side you’re on. And that immediately creates a 1-0Segmenting which allows us to populate this aspect of the larger HC with all the prior expressions of 1-0Segmenting. Example is the Between Pathways generate pairings, and these are forms of alternation, which opens up tools like Cantor pairings so we can visualize the orthogonality of the relations and thus of the space created.

Example of space created would be the basic 1 step over that way first, then this way generates an orthogonal 5Square, and that 5Square extends infinitely over each layer, literally over every single count, because each count is also a step this way, step that way, and this means the entire space is Infused with 5Square. And thus 10 Square. And now try to imagine these stacks of 5Square orthogonal spaces jammed together and turned around in CR. This is hard to say, but that means the counts in LayerView, in quadrants, in fCM and SBE, occur within 5 and 10 dimensional spaces.

I need a bit of courage to say this, but that’s what we need. We exist in D3-4//D4-3 space. That requires D5 space because that enables Recombinance within the closure D5 brings to D4. Think of it using D1+CR: D4 stretches down to D3, to its upper edge, and thus up to the inner edge of D5, which means D5 is the Boundary, and thus Recombinance occurs on or approaching the inner edge of D5.

That may be the deepest vision of the inner edge of a Boundary I’ve seen yet. It was lovely: all the potential within D4 connecting up to what is then Incomprehensible at D5. And thus the angle to D10, that it occurs over the szK, as a composite rather than an opposite hand: helping hands combine to make Triangular with the being at the other end of the arms, and thus to the beings when a hand is from 2. This expands to more than 2 within each 1.

This came to me because, bluntly, I saw SBE3+1 suddenly appear and thus fitting with D10. I want to see this better. I think I just got it, but it’s slippery. SBE3 translates into D10, nothing more needed because Attachment occurs in exactly the way described in the last paragraph: to the inner edge, which is the +1 in the form needed so it can be 0 or 1 depending on the higher D-structure needs, counts, etc. And that translation maps back to the grid. So what we have here is not a failure to communicate but a bridge which connects the form of projected grid to the form of a 5Square or other nSquare, which is the world of ideal shapes and Recombinant forms.

Seeing how these relate is magical because, for example, this gives life to the 0-1-0 conception. Take renormalization one more time. We’ve described how the gap is crossed, and now we have the motive for that: there is an I//I process in the construction of gs which actively exchanges information that maps and translates between and among the various representations and forms which generate. That is huge. I’d rank it near the top of realizations. This is the unification door. It’s no longer that we can relate all these forms to the same basic toolbox. Now it’s that we generate the forms and we generate why they connect and we generate why they operate.

This began at top because I realized my oldest obsessions are about seeing it. I needed to see the toilet swirl before I can remember. I needed to see what was wrong with my hand. I needed to see in my head not to be lied to because then my head fills with worse thoughts with constraints removed.

I need a break. This has been astonishingly productive. I hope that’s because you’re nearer to me in every sense of the word.

[asoulofatlantis]

We should really have gotten Alisa and Elie giving “the glare” to Lloyd and Rean at the same time. It is such a damn missed opportunity for a good laugh and to make those two quirm XD

(In case you think I’ve kind of gone astray from the original intend of this re-play, I did not! I just decided that I do not always have to mention why something I mention makes the game worth replaying or not replaying. In this case, its noticing the missed out potential the friendship between Elie and Alisa has. But I believe you can get that yourself.)

Crow being forced on you in a chapter about rescuing Towa. Always nice. (Towa IS part of Rean harem and it is hinted multiple times in CS4 that Crows relationship with Vita was deeper than expected. HOWEVER you can not help but notice the game also making sure you see the strong bond between Towa and Crow. And sure enough, in Kuro 2, when Towa joins us in Calvard, Crow is not very far away...)

I do wonder if the other girls (if you take them along, since Alisa is one of the optional characters) have the same reaction than Alisa, especially given how she is more the jealous type then most of the other girls.

You would be surprised how often those two manage a Link-Attack. This is all fun and games while we get this link event, but it gets frustrating really quickly after the breakup when we get the akward-one and those two still keep getting Link-Attacks like crazy XD Shipping-Pain is hard and real I tell you ^^’

This one is awkward too, but on a very weird level XD

Awwwww.

Honestly? This explanation likely came because some people were wondering how the Ironbloods could best the SSS, Yin and Arios despite their combined strength and so Falcom had to come up with a convenient explanation á la the usual “the curse did it!”. BUT I NEVER questioned how the Ironblood managed to make operation Birdcage work to begin with. We know that Claire and Lechter are gifted (plus Lechter does know all the people in question to some extent and was surely able to predict most of their movements in advents. Rufus too, is as we all know, a genius when it comes to plotting evil schemes.  I was pretty sure they lured the SSS and Friends into Michelam via a dirty trick and then managed to hold them there with yet another dirty trick. Something as easy as threatening the safety of people they care about or the like of dirty tricks like that. So I don’t know if I like that they brought up that explanation or felt the need to explain it at all. It makes the ironbloods look cheap in comparison to the Crossbell-Heroes and given how we are still struggling with just one of those ironbloods despite the fact that we have far higher numbers AND special powers in our team (two Awakeners, Reans Ogre-Powers to boost, a Witch and a freaking Dominion...) it makes us look even cheaper. The SSS (Yin and Arios aside) barely started out half a year before class7 and they have been on the run for around two years now and you are telling me, they are still stronger than Rean?

Rean is by far Claires biggest weakness, meaning those words did hurt her A LOT. But it makes you wonder how she could even as much as think as she could get away with her suicidal thoughts when he stood right in front of her. She should know him better then that and she should also have known that she would falter if he stands Infront of her.

Claire is very hated in the western part of the fandom. I always liked her though. I know how hard it is to put up a front, when you are breaking inside and most of the Cold Steel Saga, this was what Claire had to do. And the fact that she got through it and managed to do what she could for Rean, even when she wasn’t supposed to, only speaks for her being yet another strong female character.

YOU and YOU alone made that promise, hunny. And YOU and YOU alone were responsible for its failure because IT WAS CLEAR AS DAY THAT THIS WAS A PROMISE YOU IDIOT WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO KEEP IN THE FIRST PLACE! Seriosuly! Even if Crow had no died, even if he would have been pardoned for trying to kill Osborne because he did what he could to save Cedric and despite his active role working with the noble alliance, its not like he could have walked out of the infernal castle free as a bee. He would have been taken captive and questioned and it would have taken weeks for him to get out of this mess and he would have hardly made it to graduation AND to top that off, he was still an enemy of Osborne, did you really think Rean, your father would let him run around freely, ready to try to kill him yet again? I doubt, even for an immortal, it was fun getting a shot through the chest.

I guess its time for the breakup... but I am not feeling it today so... lets do it tomorrow XD

[rayeverreviews]

My Personal Chart Review (26/4/23)

this is biased but still anyways

So, this week was a bit of a mess. We had the Beyoncé album bomb fall off slightly, with Tiësto replacing it. The top 5 remains mostly unchanged, with TRUSTFALL down 1 to #5, Can’t Tame Her down 1 to #4, but then we have Flip A Switch. up 15 places to #3 due to the Coi Leray remix, with 10:35 up 21 at #2 thanks to album boost and finally, of course, I Go Dancing at #1 for a 10th week.

Our losers this week were all over the place. Kill Bill slipped 16 down to #18 due to the remix boost falling off, while Before The Night hit #20, Commander slips to #22, AMERICA HAS A PROBLEM dropping to #25, plus Body Better just can’t keep up as it falls 15 to #31. Also, updown hits #34 but will likely rise next week due to the fumble release boost. Meanwhile, Crazy What Love Can Do continues to slide off the 52 week boost to #35, and CUFF IT completely falls off the album boost to #36. If We Ever Broke Up & Whistle both slip 13 places respectively to #42 & #43, Sing It Back & Oh Baby drop 12 to #45 & #46, with Bad Vibe continuing its radio falloff to #47. We then have a few consecutive drops, those being Boy’s a liar Pt. 2 at #51, Dancing In The Dark at #52, All By Myself at #53 and B.O.T.A. (Baddest of Them All) at #54. Then, Red Ruby Da Sleeze slips 11 off the big rise last week to #60, Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) hits #65 and Stay The Night hits #67. Finally, Lost The Breakup & Calm Down take heavy drops to #74 and #75 respectively.

As for our songs exiting the top 75, CHURCH GIRL slips hard off the album boost from #32, Do U Want Me Baby? completely tanks out from #36, Like A River drops out the top 100 altogether from #42 (however it’ll most likely re-enter soon), SUMMER RENAISSANCE is out from #54, Home For My Heart slips to #76 from #57, with The Ocean & Don’t Come Back To Me out from #60 and #61 respectively. Continuing on, About Damn Time is gone from #65, Never Gonna Not Dance again also has continues its radio falloff from #66, with 16 Again underperforms as it exits from #69 and Beyoncé loses PURE/HONEY (#58), ENERGY (#59), THIQUE (#67) and HEATED (#72).

As for our returns, Options continues its radio run at #72, Karma surging in virality to #62, Easy Lover is back in at #50 and the rest are all from Tiësto, those being All Nighter at #23, The Business at #19, Don’t Be Shy at #16, The Motto at #9 and Hot In It at #7. As for the gains, Mary Jane. surges up to #58, AM:PM jumps off the debut to #15 and Lay Low surges 35 places to #10 due to the album boost.

Now, debut time..

#61 Jimin - Like Crazy

So, it’s not often that K-pop has any success on my chart.. let alone from a BTS member. Set Me Free Pt. 2 is absolutely godawful, but this really surprised me. I really really dig this. There’s something about it that I just really like and can’t figure it out, but this has been just under the top 75 for a few weeks now, and it’s gaining fast.

#56 Tiësto ft A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie - Chills (LA Hills)

I don’t know what I was expecting with this tbh, but yeah it’s good enough. Not my favourite from Tiësto but it’s solid, however I doubt it’ll stick around.

#44 Tiësto ft AR/CO - Back Around

I liked this one more than I thought I would. Again it’s a solid track but I don’t see it lasting more than 1 week due to a low replay factor.

#38 Tiësto ft Freya Ridings - Bet My Dollar

3 Tiësto debuts in a row, huh? So, upon original release I thought this was okay. Nothing special, but not awful either, however it’s grown on me a bit since the tracking week begun, hence the higher debut. I like Weekends more than most people, and tbf the whole vibe of this song seems Weekends-like, so that’s probably why. Overall the best new Tiësto track.

#37 Ice Spice ft Nicki Minaj - Princess Diana

This really is Ice Spice’s year it seems. I liked this when it was released, however it didn’t get a high enough replay factor and only made it to #96, however it also grew on me this week and therefore made its way here. Both rappers’ flows compliment the beat extremely well and it’s a song that’ll easily get stuck in your head. Pretty damn good.

#30 FIFTY FIFTY - Cupid (Twin Version)

So, we’ve got two K-Pop debuts this week, with this becoming the highest charting once since Pink Venom. Upon first listen, I just found this average. However, due to one of my friends liking it so much it got to #1, and growing support for it, it ultimately grew on me quite a lot and yeah, this is an absolute bop. 100% worth a listen if you haven’t already.

Well, that concludes this week. Best of the week goes to FIFTY FIFTY with “Cupid (Twin Version)”, whilst Honourable Mention goes to “Princess Diana” by Ice Spice & Nicki Minaj. Next week, expect new entries from the likes of Sudley & piri, Sonny Fodera & an album bomb for my aunt. We love nepotism. 😍

[emailencryption]

eSign and eSecurity Tips to Help Inflation Hedge

Cutting costs while effectively adding superior services is the perfect inflation hedge.

“It’s the economy, stupid!” This phrase gained fame from the political strategist, James Carville, who was trying to describe what voters cared about in 1992. We’re not even going to dip our toe into today’s political maelstrom; however, I could not help but think about the strange economic environment we are in today. Perhaps a more apt statement for today would be, “It’s the inflation, stupid!”

[Register for today’s CEO perspective on what’s new and cool for cybersecurity software — Friday, November 4, 3pm ET. Click here to register.]

Some industry sectors like e-commerce and mortgage re-fi are getting whacked by the Fed’s determination to slow economic demand and boost unemployment via higher interest rates — think of all those mortgage specialists at Wells Fargo reportedly hiding from looming mass layoffs with Wells Fargo re-fi loan volume down 90% this year.

Other sectors are getting crushed due to changing tech landscapes. For example, Apple has nearly singlehandedly wiped out $900 billion in Facebook’s (Meta) value over the last year, when it made it default that Facebook could not track iPhone users sufficiently enough to support Facebook’s digital ad re-targeting ambitions. Meanwhile, other sectors seem to be doing just fine, like cybersecurity.

I sat in a private equity portfolio conference this past week, and each of the businesses that were reliant on in-person events, supply chain, and/or low borrowing rates had either seen drops in their revenue or profits (or both). Worse still, many had to entirely re-invent their businesses.

After a C-level session with my Wharton colleagues, an informal poll left no consensus as to whether we were in a recession or entering one based on today’s amorphous definition of recession and the unprecedented nature of this strange, post-pandemic economy.

So I’d like to now present my insights on today’s economy (limited only to its relation to our Tech Essentials topic of course).

1. Focus on Profits. You are either in an industry that has slowed or is expected to slow. If so, revenue will decrease. Sure, you might be able to raise prices, but you could also look at cutting costs to compensate.

Think of it this way: For every $10K you spend on e-signature software, if you switch to RSign e-signatures, you can put $5K back into your pocket. RSign runs inside Microsoft Outlook, iManage, NetDocuments, Salesforce, Applied, and more. It generally costs less than half that of other major e-sign company services – with no skimping on features, security, or user experience. Plus, RSign is reported by our readers and verified customers to be much friendlier to work with.

And for every user you move to RMail — since it is one install that does it all — you can reduce your costs for other email encryption and file share services. (Try them free now here.)

2. Strained Staffing Brings on Cybercriminal Opportunities (Cybercriminal Bliss). As your staff becomes more strained (perhaps fewer people needing to each do more), targeted cybercriminal activities become more successful. This is true especially for those criminals who aim to induce mis-payments via human error (i.e., sending money to the cybercrook instead of the true intended recipient). You need RMail’s PRE-Crime services now more than ever, and below are some of its key features to combat what techies call Business Email Compromise attacks. (Try free now here.)

RMail’s Email Eavesdropping™ alerts show you in real-time which email accounts are being eavesdropped on, whether it’s the sender, recipient or future forwarded recipient in addition to all the metadata related to the eavesdropping activity. These alerts are packaged clearly for further IT expert analysis and response. Plus, this service can be enabled on any outbound email from any device without need for plugins or changes to other inbound or outbound security gateways.

RMail’s Lookalike Domain™ alerts run inside Microsoft Outlook. These alerts protect against both human error and tricky cybercriminal lures that exploit how the human mind processes information (e.g., using domains that appear to be those of a trusted real estate transaction participant but are, in fact, one letter off).

3. Click on Ten Happy Articles on Your Phone. Ok, so this one is a bit on the lighter, fluffier side, but each article on your phone that you click on generates more articles in the same genre to be emailed or displayed to you. If you click on ten feel good articles, you will enter a circle of positivity. We guarantee you’ll enjoy your weekend more!

As stated, these economic times are unlike any in recent memory, so business uncertainty currently reigns supreme. Whether or not we are technically in a recession is almost academic. Cutting costs while effectively adding superior services will be the inflation hedge what will make you and your company look the exact opposite of stupid.

Please contact us to learn more about RMail and RSign.

[kerlonchips]

Resident evil 3 achievements

#RESIDENT EVIL 3 ACHIEVEMENTS FULL#

You can try a campaign run with multiple achievements together, such as " Sensational Work!", " Minimalist", " I Might Need These Later!" and " Sprinter" which involve completing the game with an S rank, complete the game without opening the item box, complete the game using 1 or fewer recovery items, and completing the game in under 2 hours. Also, during this run, hunt down all of collectibles (Mr. if you start on Standard then finish the game on Nightmare, you'll also receive the Hardcore achievement run. Then work your way up the food chain as difficulties do stack i.e. I recommend starting on Standard just to get the feel and locations of the game.

#RESIDENT EVIL 3 ACHIEVEMENTS FULL#

Step 1: Beating the on Assisted/Standard/Hardcoreĭepending on whether you are a Resident Evil vet, Hardcore may be your cup of joe but a full campaign run on either difficult setting is a must to unlock the harder difficulties. Unlike Resident Evil 2 Remake, this one does not have a Side A/Side B campaign run so getting to Point A to Point B will be rather quick, and once unlocking several key items from the Shop, the harder difficulties will seem WAY too easy after repeat runs. We return to Raccoon City, and, I must say, it is gorgeous-looking with awesome game mechanics to boot. Leaving so soon, Jill? I think not, at least that's what Nemesis' thoughts are. Extra equipment needed: None needed, however buying items from the Shop, which requires you to beat the game once to unlock it, will make the tougher difficulties levels much easier. Unobtainable/glitched achievements: None Does difficulty affect achievements: Yes See individual achievements for more details Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 3 full playthroughs but 4 is recommended with save point weapon kill grinds. Approximate amount of time to 1000 : Likely anywhere from 11-15 hours, depending on which achievements you'd want to combine as well as save points for grinding kills for Shop items. In addition, there’s also the hidden trophies which could add more replay value but no way of knowing that right now.- Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10 or 2/10 once you've unlocked the Infinite Ammo weapons from the Shop To be fair since no trophy mentioned beating the game in this mysterious difficulty i guess it doesn’t count. Not to mention that before PowerPyx had to take down the trophy list, one suggests there may be a higher difficulty than Hardcore. Plus, there’s an argument to be made regarding the infinite weapons DLC in that if they make the challenges too easy then people may not have a reason to buy it. Also, the 2 hours and 30 mins deadline in RE 2 for B scenarios is a little too generous as most people have done it under 2, so they may thought this through and gone for a more challenging time limit. However, the trophy suggesting to beat it in less than 2 hours makes no mention of difficulty which could mean Capcom is allowing this cause it may take longer for the average player in higher difficulties. Good chance you may be right in this being shorter than RE 2 given there are no 2nd scenarios, no mercenaries mode, and like you say only one ending. If you’re interested in the Multiplayer Mode “Resident Evil Resistance”, which has a separate trophy list with its own platinum, check out the Resident Evil Resistance Trophy List. What are your thoughts on the Resident Evil 3 Remake trophy list? Do you like what you see? Are you going for the Platinum? Check out the full Resident Evil 3 Remake Trophy Guide & Roadmap for all solutions. Lastly, do your Hardcore difficulty playthrough. Then do an S-Rank Speedrun without using the item box or healing items. You can do a Normal difficulty playthrough first and get Collectibles along the way. A 2-hour speedrun is also required.īecause the game can be beaten in less than 2 hours all of this shouldn’t be too time-consuming to do. We must also do a playthrough without using the item box or healing items. What stands out is that we must beat the game on hardcore difficulty, finish the story with S-Rank (the highest rating), find all Story Document Collectibles, Safes, Lockers, Locks and get All Weapons. Complete the game without opening the item box.Ĭomplete the game using 1 or fewer recovery items.Ĭomplete the game in under 2 hours of play time.Ī big chunk of the 33 trophies is from story and some simple tutorial tasks that come naturally.

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews- High School Story: Class Act

First of all, I should mention… this series is actually the reason I wasn’t going to include stories where my last playthrough of them was 2-3 years ago. I’ve been having a lot to say about HSS:CA for a long time, but as more time’s been going by, my memory of the playthrough diminishes more and more. As much as I want to go on and on about how disappointing this series was, I worried it might not be a good look to do so when my statements about its events could very well be uninformed. 

But I would still like to discuss how I currently feel about the story, based off of what I do remember from it, plus what I’m picking up from screenshots posted by others. I’ve been writing braindumps about this trilogy for quite a long time. If and when I do eventually get around to replaying this (as with all the other stories that I haven’t touched in forever), it will certainly get a re-review, and we’ll see how well this one’s claims hold up. Will they all still stand? Will there be things I’ll change my mind on? Will there be new things I have to say? Who the fuck knows. 

Now with that out of the way, let’s do this shit.

Welcome to the thirteenth official Cadybear's Reviews post! Today I'll be talking about High School Story: Class Act, which I have ranked on the "Bronze Tier" at 5 stars out of a possible 10. My last and only playthrough of this series was back in April-June 2021.

To put it briefly… this one is such a mixed bag. A kind of disappointing mixed bag. 

Initially, I did fairly enjoy this series. I found the stories alright and the characters interesting, and I was happy to see more of the beloved OG characters even if it was just on the side. It wasn’t as amazing as OG was (no shit), but I still found it decent enough. 

But at the same time, something was always just a bit off about all of it. It took me a while to realize this. I couldn’t quite place my finger on why (or when I think I fully realized this), but eventually… it hit me. 

It had nothing to do with HSS. 

I know, it seems unfair to judge this trilogy in comparison to OG HSS rather than on its own merits, but like… why even bother making it HSS then? If it wanted to be its own thing so bad, then it should have just been made as its own thing. And that’s kind of the main problem with HSS:CA– looking back on it, it entirely feels like it was written as a new different franchise and then had “HSS” stamped onto it to make it seem more appealing to fans of the original iterations. Seriously, you could replace everything HSS that appears in CA with something completely new, and nothing important about it would change. 

I’m noticing that that’s kind of a phenomenon we see when it comes to sub-par spinoffs and installments of a (highly beloved and respected) franchise, such as PPG 2016 and HBO’s Velma. A fairly common critique I’ve seen about both of those infamously hated iterations is that you could easily make them as original shows and you’d lose nothing important about them, and frankly they’d have been much less hated if they were original franchises rather than installments of an already existing beloved franchise. 

HSS:CA is nowhere near as abhorrent as either of those, don’t get me wrong. But regardless of how much of a desecration of the original franchise you consider it to be, it’s the exact same case here. Most of the stuff in HSS:CA either lacks relevance to and/or is a major downgrade from OG HSS. And while these aspects would still keep the series from being in the higher tiers if it was an original series, they’d be far more forgivable or negligible in that case. 

I’ll be honest. HSS:CA is a cute, chill, vanilla slice-of-life high school series at best. And so if it was its own brand new thing? I’d probably rank it in the Silver Tier– which is why there’s a spot that says “HSS:CA (if you pretend it’s not a HSS spinoff)”. But the fact that it’s meant to be a continuation of the HSS franchise kind of gives it some higher standards to hold it to, and it’s hard not to judge it by that. 

And in my opinion? It doesn’t hold a candle to those standards. It’s merely a shadow of its parent iterations, and even that’s an overstatement because a shadow at least has some basic connection to its source object. 

It’s very difficult to go into this one without bursting into a 9 page long essay. To keep this review organized at least, let’s go by each of my 6 points for why OG HSS was great, and see how CA holds in those points as well. It’s gonna be a long one, but I do want to put my opinions into perspective. 

First, the MC. 

They’re not terrible by any means– in a vacuum, they’re an okay MC to play as. I don’t mind playing as an unpopular kid, and their adorakble moments and the Aunt Wendy storyline are pretty cute. 

But again, this is a HSS spinoff. With that in context, CA MC is just so much more stiff than our old MC, and so it’s hard not to feel like they’re a downgrade. A fair amount of people have said that CA MC is better because they’re “more imperfect and realistic to actual teenagers” or “actually have a personality”, but it doesn’t hold much ground in my opinion. As I’ve said probably ad nauseam by this point, OG MC not having a distinct personality worked in their favor because it made them a lot more wildcard in how you could play their character– and that actually does include making them more “imperfect” to some degree. 

I can make my OG MC genuinely mess up in certain areas if I want to, and it can affect certain outcomes for them. If I wanna have my MC be kind of crappy at their extracurricular and make Berry lose the big sports games, or have them be a jerk to the Hearst kids and lose their tryouts spot even if they’re actually good at tryouts themselves, I can have that! And even when you do get all the more successful outcomes for them, they can still feel pretty down-to-earth– they’re just a student who happens to become popular and good at unifying the school, rather than some OP messiah God who’s the great savior of the school and everyone worships the very ground they walk on. Is that still unrealistic? Sure. But who gives a crap? Realistic ≠ better. 

(Also, if you think the OG MC was unrealistically talented and successful… well, not only is that on you as the player, but keep in mind that the MC of HSS Prime was a teenager who founded an entire brand new high school, and the whole game exists entirely around that. I’m pretty sure most people aren’t coming to HSS for complete high school realism. A lot of us already experienced complete high school realism when we went to high school IRL, and it probably sucked for most of us.)

With HSS:CA MC however, we don’t get nearly as many choices to personalize the character or affect the story with this one like we do with OG’s, and the options/outcomes that do exist are few and far between. If you replayed the story with a new name and appearance for MC and all different choices, chances are they’d probably still feel the exact same as the previous version of your MC with the exception of your LI choice. 

And it’s funny– despite that this MC is pushed as the more awkward and flawed of the two, I don’t really recall any parts where we can have them genuinely screw up and face consequences. The most we get is probably the theatre productions in the first and third books, and some options in Book 2 that allow us to keep Rory/Twin’s election standings lower… but that’s about it. None of them really have the same impact or significance as the outcomes you can get with OG. 

This lack of agency with MC’s character can get especially frustrating at certain times, such as how much they agonize over getting their first kiss with Rory in Book 1, or how they’re so passive with assholes like Clint and Natalie and Trevor and Amber. At least moments where they tried to force OG MC into a certain behavior or trait– like wanting to win prom crown, or wanting to matchmake Scott and Julia– were kept very minimal and didn’t push out or upstage their respective choices systems. 

To add insult to injury, the OG MC is still around– but purely as a NPC background character. Which, in my opinion, fundamentally does not work for a flexible blank-slate MC like the OG MC. All it does is create the exact problem that OG HSS was trying to avoid when they wrote off Prime MC as having graduated. To make such a flexible MC that relies on how the player builds their character, into non-playable where they’re just a singular set version outside of their appearance and LI and the player has zero control over them? Especially when the new MC we get is so much more rigid and choice-less? It was very jarring and overall didn’t work, especially not in something like HSS. In fact, I’d even argue that there wasn’t any real justification for switching the MC and cast this time around… but I’ll save that for a later section. 

Second, the new supporting characters.

When it comes to the new main friend group, I actually find them pretty alright. Ajay and Skye are great characters and their storylines are the strongest aspects about this trilogy, and I found the romance route with Ajay to be pretty cute (yes, I am a bit of an Ajay apologist despite my heavy criticism towards the series). Rory isn’t really much more than being “nice and attractive” and is annoyingly forced in Book 1, but other than that, they’re decent. Twin is enjoyable enough, and I did like their subplot with Amber in Book 1. Erin isn’t much more than a nice kid either, but she’s very pleasant and I would have liked her as a LI option for MC. And one thing about this group that I actually consider better than OG’s friend group is that we got a lot more opportunities to spend time just hanging out with them or the LIs.

And the family members of these characters like Ajay’s family, Skye’s family, and Aunt Wendy are interesting too, by virtue of the storylines they’re in. Another thing I do like a bit better than OG is that we get to actually meet all of the LIs’ families and know a bit more about their personal lives. OG’s LIs had great characterization and growth, but I do wish we got to see more of their family lives too. Heck, we never once even meet Caleb’s and Michael’s parents! 

But when it comes to the rest of the in-school community, however? It’s nowhere near as vibrant and grand and interesting as it was in OG. I get that other characters outside of the new MC’s circle of friends are going to be less important because they’re not unifying the school like OG MC was, but everyone outside of the new main friend group is either boring and forgettable and/or an unpleasant one-note dickhead, even the returning OG characters. It wouldn’t be so bad since, obviously, not all characters are going to be pleasant or fleshed out… except for the fact that they’re constantly wanting us to interact with these characters and see them as our friends. 

Like I said in my OG HSS review, I felt like I had actual reasons to care about characters like Julian, Mia, Myra, Frank, Jade, Payton, Kieran, Cameron, etc. They had range and actual purposes in the story, one way or another. Though they obviously weren’t as fleshed out as our LIs and they did have their worse moments, they did feel like actual characters and their presence didn’t bring down the story. They were all characters I could root for. 

On the other hand, I don’t feel any reason to care about Clint, Natalie, Trevor, not even characters like Aiden and Michael. Well, outside of the fact that they’re from the OG trilogy and I’d rather be seeing what they’re up to– but that’s the extent of their appeal in this trilogy. None of them have really done much, if anything, to earn our new MC’s friendship or our interest as players, and all their interactions with MC really do is take up space in the story. 

Even the antagonists were pretty lacking, aside from Skye’s parents. Despite that we get a few more that are less on-the-nose as antagonists than the OG antags tended to be, most of them were incredibly half-baked and felt more like cheap plot devices rather than like actual characters. 

Third, the lack of any activity system. 

Regardless of your opinion on CA, you can tell there was a lot less effort put into it compared to that of OG. This mainly shows with the lack of different route options and potential outcomes for MC like I mentioned before– and most notably of all, is the complete removal of any extracurricular choice system. Those choices were a key feature that made OG so memorable and immersive, allowing variance in our storyline, experience, and even our potential romance paths. CA throws that away entirely for God knows what reason… and unfortunately, there aren’t really a lot of other impactful choice systems in this trilogy that can really make up for it. 

I get they were probably trying to make CA a bit different from OG, but being able to “choose your clique/group/activity” has always been a huge staple of HSS, ever since Prime. Imagine if PB got rid of the nerve score system when making ILB in order to make it “more different” from ILITW. I don’t think anyone would like that. It guts the series of one of the franchise’s biggest defining features and basically cheapens the story as an interactive VN. 

What ILB actually did, of course, is that they changed up the nerve score system a bit: more consequential events spread throughout the story than just the fate trials in one of the last chapters, accounting for a group nerve score, having the characters’ scores start at zero and have to be increased. But it is still a *nerve score system*. I bring this up because CA could have done something similar. I get defaulting our MC to do theatre; that was expected from the “Class Act” part of the title. But in that case, why not adapt the “choose your activity” system to intra-theatre activities?

For example: a bifurcation of theatre jobs, where we can choose between being an actor, director, or techie/set designer (kind of like the MC options in HWU). You could maybe have different ways to customize the production and affect how it turns out based on your activity. And you’d have opportunities for extra interactions/moments with all of the LIs– Rory if you choose to be an actor, Ajay if you choose to be a director, Skye if you choose to be a techie/set designer (in Book 3, anyways). 

Or if not that, then perhaps we could have a choice in the acting parts in the plays. Seriously, I feel so baited by that one scene where we could choose to say which part in the first play we wanted the most. Like, they make this big deal about how MC wants to be the prince/princess so they can get their first kiss with Rory, but really I imagined my MC as someone who would much rather be the witch (and didn’t crush on Rory either way). 

Fourth, the stories. 

Credit where credit is due, the subplots about some of the characters’ personal lives are pretty damn solid and probably one of the few things about the series that actually feels well-executed and fitting to HSS. I’d say the series is at its best when it’s focusing on stuff that doesn’t have to do with in-school drama. Which checks out, because most of the stuff that does take place in the school is lukewarm at best, and… kind of mean-spirited at worst, actually. 

There’s nothing wrong with stories about more vanilla and mundane situations, but here it just guts the heart of HSS. Berry High in CA is not “the high school you’d want to go to” like it was in OG… which is kind of funny when you remember the HSS:CA teaser at the end of OG Book 3, where CA MC can tell Rory that they’re “so so so excited” to go to high school because “you guys have scandals and rivalries and food fights”. I can only imagine how disappointed they must have actually been when they started high school (I mean, that’s what this trilogy is, frankly), especially considering some of the bullshit they’re put through while they’re there. 

No, seriously. I use the term “mean-spirited” to describe some of CA’s in-school conflicts because a lot of the stuff that happens to our new MC is more needlessly cruel than what happens to OG MC. Book 1’s storyline with MC being instantly accused of sabotage and ostracized by the theatre kids for days(?) on end is by far the worst offender, and Book 2’s storyline with MC being pulled in two directions by Twin and Rory with their election campaigns isn’t much better. Book 3 isn’t nearly as bad, but the useless one-note bully hivemind that is the Statton kids do still bring it down. 

And the worst part is, I don’t feel like the characters “get anything” out of it. The characters in OG would often go through a series of pretty awful events too, such as the football game against Statton or literally everything that happened with Isa. But they’d always be able to pick themselves back up and some characters would even grow from these events, so it never felt in bad spirit. Even if you get some of the “lesser” outcomes such as losing the sports games or failing the spirit stick heist, the character development everyone has gone through still holds up. They didn’t succeed, but they tried their best and still got something good out of it, and they can still enjoy their homecoming dance. 

In CA, it feels less about the characters overcoming their obstacles and a lot more like “drama and conflict for the sake of drama that we’re gonna throw at the MC, okay now it’s over with, moving on”. Like, why did MC need to suffer through being ostracized by 95% of the theatre kids or getting pulled between Rory’s and Twin’s campaigns? MC getting to kiss Rory in the play and getting the Greenhouse Ex Machina built to merge Twin and Rory’s campaigns and overtake Lorenzo’s campaign, aren’t nearly enough to amend the unnecessary crap they had to deal with throughout those respective stories.

And sure, some of those events are technically more “realistic” to the average high school experience, but again, that doesn’t make them better written. Need I bring up Prime’s MC again? Realism means fuck all to me if the conflicts are cheap, especially in HSS.

What’s funny about the “realistic” aspect though, is that despite OG being the seemingly more “corny cheesy Disney Channel high school” of the two trilogies, the teenage characters and their conflicts/drama in that one actually felt more natural and believable. There was actual tension building, and context for why characters acted irrational. I didn’t always like what happened, but it was more understandable why band and cheer would start rooting against basketball, or why Jade/Cameron/Kieran would believe MC was the one to sabotage them, or even why the characters would break out into a food fight. Again, the story gives me actual reason to care about these characters. 

A lot of the events in CA felt a lot more lazy to me in comparison, like the only reason the characters act out is because “Har har, teenagers be irrational and messy!”. Which they often tend to be, sure… but characters like Clint and Natalie have no other traits in Book 1 besides being clingy Rory simps, Trevor has no other traits than just being a dickhead, the Statton kids have no other traits in Book 3 than being pretentious assnads. That's all they really have to go by, and it makes the conflicts feel painfully one-dimensional. 

Sometimes an event will just straight up contradict the themes established in OG. Like how a lot of the same characters that were present during Isa’s reign of manipulative behaviors and even participated in taking her down, are also weirdly quick to reject CA MC’s discovery that Lorenzo’s kitten stunt was a sham. I have a lot of problems with Book 2’s main plot, but this is easily the biggest one. There’s teenagers being irrational and messy, and then there’s this 5-year-old hivemind behavior. And I… just couldn’t with that. 

Finally, and probably the most glaring issue of HSS:CA’s lack of relevance to HSS, it does not bridge well with its past source material at all. 

The returning Prime characters may have had smaller roles and their utilizations in OG weren’t all perfect, but overall, they felt very in-their-element and more like an actual part of the story. Their cameos were much more organic, like they were fellow students along with the new characters, and some of them even felt like more mature versions from how they were in Prime. They only really stand out as “the older characters” by being the soon-to-graduate senior class. All of which makes sense because, like I mentioned in my OG HSS review, it’s sort of meant to be “passing down the torch to unify Berry” to the new MC and cast. And that’s about it, it doesn’t need to shove it in your face that these are the characters from the original 2013 mobile game that you may or may not have played before. 

The returning OG characters, on the other hand, are all non-characters, and their cameos only serve as nostalgia bait. I mean, I think they were kind of doomed from the start when they made the OG MC non-playable, but they could have at least tried with the other characters, no? Even in Book 3 where they join the CA gang in the musical and London trip, which should have been leagues more epic than whatever the fuck we actually got. They were just there for the sake of being there, doing nothing more than just tagging along with the CA gang– hell, Maria even straight up admits that when she says she and the other characters are only joining the musical production so they could join MC and Aiden on the London trip.

I’ll admit, those premium scenes where you could spend time with the OG characters were kind of fun. But notice how OG didn’t need obligatory special premium scenes in order to make the Prime characters relevant? Sure, there were some scenes that involved certain Prime characters, but… they had a lot more personality than just “Spend time with the Prime characters!”. The Prime characters’ cameos were more than just “Hey hey look look it’s the characters from Prime!”. 

This kind of makes CA problematic both for returning OG fans and for new fans who haven’t yet played OG, when you really think about it. OG can integrate the Prime characters well but actually stand on its own two feet at the same time, whereas people who play CA before OG are probably going to be like (Patrick Star voice) “Who are you people!?!?” every time they try to push these diamond scenes. 

(And yes, I know I said continuing the OG HSS after the first three books doesn’t have the problem of needing to appeal to new fans. But by virtue of making the continuation a spinoff with a new MC, they kind of did bring that problem onto themselves. No one’s going to be playing the TRH trilogy before they play the TRR trilogy. No one’s going to be playing the two “The Sophomore” books before they play the first four “The Freshman” books, they’re clearly continuations of the previous books involving the same MC and their storyline, just with different titles. HSS:CA clearly has a different MC from the OG one, so there are going to be (and have been) people who play HSS:CA first. Had they made these books a continuation of OG MC’s storyline, this wouldn’t even be an issue.)

And while I did enjoy the new main cast well enough… let’s face it. There wasn’t really any purpose for switching the MCs and casts this time around. Sure, they contrast in that OG MC is more popular and unifies the school while CA MC is more unpopular and sticks with just their theatre family, but that’s not much to go by. The Prime-to-OG switch worked because the Prime writers knew that a Choices iteration of HSS needed to be welcoming both to older fans from Prime AND to newer fans from Choices, given Choices is a completely separate app from the Prime game. It’d be difficult to continue the focus on the Prime MC and their friends without requiring players to have played Prime first, which would be very problematic considering Prime has no in-game features for replaying certain stories or quests.

HSS:CA on the other hand is a more direct continuation of OG HSS, existing on the same app (which does allow you to replay stories or chapters) and taking place the following school year at Berry after the OG HSS timeline. If the spinoff was maybe a few years after the first trilogy, when the OG characters have graduated; or if it was taking place in a different location like Hearst High, then that’d make more sense. Instead, it’s just the next year at Berry High, but this time the focus is on a theatre freshman at Berry and their friends, whose stories pretty much happen in a complete vacuum from everything else that’s happened in HSS canon. It feels very much like PB switched casts with HSS:CA for the same reason that Rick and Morty did Interdimensional Cable II: “We pretty much nailed it the first time”.  

What really puts the nail in the coffin is that the finale was terribly inconclusive and soulless, and did not work as a sendoff to the franchise. Seriously, it’s ID-1-standalone-ending levels of bad and I don’t think that’s talked about enough. And even ID 1’s standalone ending at least had some emotional stakes to it. There’s no emotion in the scenes where you talk to the OG characters– in fact the writers seemed to care so little about the OG characters in this ending (and the trilogy as a whole) that they initially forgot that OG MC, Emma, Caleb, and Michael are actually a year below Aiden and Maria and not in the same grade. 

And as a whole, it just ends on such a weird note– “Yay I finished my first year of high school, what’s next for me” to “And now your time at Berry must come to an end” is such a whiplash that I’m pretty sure it broke my fucking neck. I think rushed book endings like this and ATV’s ending walked so that the rushed endings of 2022-2023 Choices books could run. 

There’s only one major plus of HSS that carried over well to HSS:CA, and that was the lack of smut scenes. Which is kind of expected, honestly. (Though I will say, the writing for CA was, arguably, noticeably more horny this time around… is that just me?)

Of course, CA isn’t without its other redeeming factors, which I have mentioned across each of these points. But the fact that it has these redeeming factors, these ideas that were good in concept but terrible in execution, just makes it all the more tragic as a series and it’s part of why I’m so hard on it. 

See, had CA just been among the ranks of something like PPG 2016 or HBO’s Velma– a straight-up bad trilogy that butchered all the characters and everything about HSS and had no redeeming qualities and was ultimately a stain on the HSS franchise– I’d just have to go “Jesus H. Christ this sucks” and pretend it doesn’t exist.

But in actuality, it has ideas that I would enjoy to see explored as part of the world of HSS– I do genuinely like exploring Berry’s theatre department, and the idea of the OG and CA gangs going to London together. And there is some really good potential for interactions between the two groups, like Emma helping Ajay deal with his parents’ divorce, or the OG gang taking Skye under their wing as Brian’s younger sister. But it ultimately failed to handle those well and just ended up leaving me feeling empty inside. So it’s this weird tug-of-war between “I like you” and “I don’t like you”. 

So I definitely wouldn’t consider CA to be awful, as it does have its share of redeeming qualities. But the thing is, those redeeming qualities are part of why the series left me feeling empty and disappointed, because we could have had something much greater for the HSS franchise. But this trilogy, as it is, probably would have been much better off as a completely new and separate franchise.

[jacksonpiner]

Retroarch ps2

RETROARCH PS2 FULL

RETROARCH PS2 ANDROID

RETROARCH PS2 PC

RETROARCH PS2 PLUS

RETROARCH PS2 PSP

RETROARCH PS2 PC

It can run on several PC operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux), home consoles (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, etc.), handheld consoles (PlayStation Vita, Nintendo 3DS, etc.), on smartphones (Android, iOS, etc.), single-board computers (Raspberry Pi, ODROID, etc.) and even on web browsers by using the Emscripten compiler. RetroArch has been ported to many platforms. Does RetroArch have a PS2 emulator While RetroArch is able to emulate several different consoles, the compatibility for running PS2 games using the PCSX2 core.

RETROARCH PS2 PLUS

RetroArch runs programs converted into dynamic libraries called libretro cores, using several user interfaces such as command-line interface, a few graphical user interfaces (GUI) optimized for gamepads (the most famous one being called XMB, a clone of Sony's XMB), several input, audio and video drivers, plus other sophisticated features like dynamic rate control, audio filters, multi-pass shaders, netplay, gameplay rewinding, cheats, etc. PS2 Retroarch Intellivision Emulation Setup Guide. It is the reference implementation of the libretro API, It is licensed under the GNU GPLv3. It says to put the two BIOS files in the libretro system folder but that doesnt seem to exist and. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.RetroArch is a free, open-source and cross-platform front-end for emulators, game engines, video games, media players and other applications. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. Nintendo DS, PS4, PS3, PS2, GameCube, Wii and Wii U RetroArch, the cross-platform collection of emulators comes to Nintendo Switch furniture vouchers st. As a result, it supports over double the amount of cores (127) as the. I have no experience with emulating games running from disc but I would think its better to run from HDD. If you have the HDD space I would recommend ripping them into.

RETROARCH PS2 ANDROID

If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. NOTE: This version is meant for devices that have Android 8.0 or higher installed. Retroarch is great but the Play PS2 Core for retroarch is currently in the experimental stage. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior.

Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time.

Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content.

In addition to this, you are able to run original game discs (CDs) from RetroArch. Settings are also unified so configuration is done once and for all. It enables you to run classic games on a wide range of computers and consoles through its slick graphical interface.

Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.

There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. It will configure RetroArch, provide gamepad configs for Gamecube, Wii. RetroArch has been ported to the PlayStation2 by fjtrujy, and starting as of version 1.7. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. The PCSX2 bios is required before Best PlayStation 2 ( PS2 ) Emulator : PCSX2.

Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does.

Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. The good news is that progress appears to be good The RetroArch team noted it's getting 'quite usable' and it shouldn't be too much longer until it gets a first. They've had a bounty open to pay someone to do it since 2018, with it currently sat at 915.

RETROARCH PS2 PSP

PSPlay PSP Emulator, Rapid PSP Emulator, PSP Emulator Pro, RetroArch, Rocket PSP Emulator.

RETROARCH PS2 FULL

If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse. It's set to get a lot easier, as the RetroArch team have reported on their work with PCSX2. PCSX2 Emulator Full BIOS - Emulator untuk main game PS2 di.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.