wolfshadowheart

Other notable runner ups: Fixing LED light strips that separate from their adhesive, holding guitar nuts in place well enough for daily use but still mallet-able to remove it, and of course for gluing ones enemies eyelids shut

Power, Domain Name (if using a standard paid one instead of the cheaper route), VPN are the 3 that I pay for that I feel are the bare minimum.

I pay for a domain that’s $12, but you could easily get the $1 ones for the same purposes. I pay for a static and service VPN with Windscribe, which comes out to be like $35+$89 respectively. So that’s already $136 a year excluding the cost of power. I could cut that cost easily, but I use them for more than just my selfhosting so I feel like it’s a fair price for what I get out of it.

Hm so it is, I could have sworn that Temu was around before 2022

I think Temu has been around a bit longer, Wish just got more popular during Covid

I think there’s a wide spread. I’d say that there’s westerns like Brokeback Mountain and Dances With Wolves, where the suspense is more from the dire circumstances and grit that they have to work through in order to survive – few times are their lives gravely endangered. Similarly, there’s the Clint Eastwood westerns where you don’t really expect anything to be happening to that main character, yet they’re still well received. The “True Grit” style Western – someone to protect while you rough it through the hard life.

And then there’s the westerns you’re talking about, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, nearly Magnificent Seven style western where the characters present an archetype and have a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall.

The Mandalorian is more like a Western of the Week TV show where you have the drama of the grit, an undercurrent of hope that’s played off the main characters hardships.

Idk. Din being invincible in the show is seemingly irrelevant to me, and not even supported in the content of the show. The first two seasons definitely have space Western episodes though, even if they might not be the more typical main character on the verge of death style ones.

Eh. I think characters dying as the only stakes is weak writing anyway. If I were using that as a judgement, all of Star Wars is terrible, especially the Clone Wars. Obviously, that’s not the case. Besides, clearly the armor rating is meaningless given the events of the S2 finale – clearly the armor isn’t protecting him from impacts what with his head injury.

We if look to Ming Na Wen’s character I’d even argue that being hit by blasters in New Star Wars is just an opportunity to visit the medic anyway, so Din wearing beskar doesn’t really remove any of the suspense for me.

Maybe he was worried that Luke would go down the same path his father would, so he kept things vague. That was always my take on Old Ben – he wasn’t really guiding Luke to do anything, it was the Force. “Luke, your father was actually a dangerous madman who slew younglings. In fact, is the right hand man, that academy you were joining? It’s Space Fascism, so definitely don’t go and join it to be with your father.” lol

On the topic of the other two – Personally, I liked Kenobi. It has some sillier bits, but nothing IMO that isn’t easily explained (as an example, there’s a scene where young Leia is chased by mercenaries and she kinda dunks on them. People hate it. I think it was a clear example of her Force Sensitivity, so I don’t mind it at all.) Its main shortcoming for me was the villains could have been better and Reva was a bit predictable. I didn’t think she was as bad as the Internet did.

Ahsoka… I wanted to like. It had a lot of potential, most of my issues were that it seemed like they were filming a video game, but since we’re not playing Ahsoka we end up just watching her interact with things we have no meaning for. Other than that, it was decent save for what they did to Sabine, which was just a disgrace to her character. Sabine was disappointing, over and over again. Overall, I think it has been my least favorite of the Star Wars shows as it has had the most visible quirks and awkward shots.

As a continuation of that story it’s pretty decent and I’m excited for S2. But as a continuation of that story, the characters were not as strong as I felt they could have been. Time passed and people change, that’s fine. This wasn’t quite that though.

The mystery is part of the character. He also gets plenty of plot, it’s just not shoved in our faces from the get go. The Mandalorian is one of the best space westerns we’ve gotten in a long time.

Sorry

I think that’s a really key point - back in the days of the PS2 to 360 era, it was all about Xx_Graphics_xX and there were so many 30fps games that dipped to 15 at times, making “30FPS” feel worse than it was.

That said, 30FPS can still be rough. IMO Dragons Dogma 2 running at 30 on the PS5 is pretty rough. Even excluding dips, but it has them. But the game Heroes Hour on the Steam Deck running at 30 is perfectly fine. Similarly, setting Red Dead 2 to get a consistent 30 is fine too.

Consistency is huge, for sure!

There’s a good theory that Beskar has some properties that draw bolts to it. Makes sense

It reminds me of that bit from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia where Dennis is talking about Hollywood movies.

I mean, it used to be only, like, the hard-line conservatives, like the pearl-clutching types, were the only ones that were overly vocal and extreme in their policing of sexuality. But now you got this, like, liberal wave of moral authority sweeping the nation. You know, it’s nuts. I mean, think about it. If the conservatives had always run Hollywood, movies would have sucked. You know what I mean? The art would have suffered. So I guess the question we’re asking is how will art fare under the oppressive thumb of this new liberal Hollywood moral PC elite?

It’s just so silly and yet so accurate. Whether it’s social values, politics or even just the opinion of AI and it’s capabilities vs. it’s potential vs. how people actually use it, there’s this pervading idea that restrictions en masse are a viable solution. I feel almost the opposite, like to some extent the oversaturation of it intrinsically lowers the negative reception of it. Prohibition philosophy - when it’s not allowed people will work even harder to use it in those ways, when it’s not only allowed but widely used and even encouraged, people just inherently care less over time.

We’re at a point right now where we are getting some pretty poor quality oversaturation of AI content and the tool alone is what is being blamed, to the point where copyright is being touted as this saving grace despite it consistently having been used against us smaller artists when corporate money is involved. Copyright isn’t promoting small artists, rarely has, nor is it preventing AI, but it’s somehow suddenly meant to ensure that the art you uploaded isn’t reproduced? That seems not only unlikely, but like it’s a scapegoat for a larger issue. Generative art isn’t a problem because Ms. Jane working two 40-hour jobs uses it to make art featuring existing characters. That circumstance was and never will be a problem because Jane very likely would never have the money to commission an artist in the first place. What Jane makes is 100% irrelevant, so long as she’s not claiming it as her original creation and trying to sell it - beyond that? I don’t think anyone should care or fault her, because she is doing the amount of art that her circumstances allow her.

What I absolutely agree is an issue is businesses and corporations using AI, cutting staff further overworking employees that remain. However, that Secret Invasion intro that seemed likely AI generated? I can’t in good faith try to argue “they should be tried for infringement” but I can fully support the fact that they should have hired an artist who would at least try to better use the tools at their disposal. I can simultaneously feel that the fact that Deforum may have been used is absolutely awesome, while also being annoyed and frustrated that they didn’t utilize artists who deserve it.

There is a very large difference between Ms. Jane making AI images, even movies, and any corporate product - or that AI generated rat for the science journal. For the former, it is something that IMO is fully necessary in order for Jane to be able to enjoy the experience of a creative process under the bullshit system we’ve worked out. The latter is a completely unnecessary replacement used to cut costs. And yet, for neither does the concept of infringement actually matter that much, because copyright isn’t the fundamental issue of AI, it’s just the one people are latching on to. Without realizing that the likelihood of copyright laws helping someone like us is nil. Especially since there’s probably an overlap of people who laugh at NFT’s and pirate files because bits of data aren’t a physical commodity that runs out, but a generative Imaging tool that does it is… Too far?

I think AI’s issues are separate from what I’ve mentioned here. What people blame AI for is something else entirely. AI is still just the tool that speeds up the process. We have the concept of safeguards utilized as signs, barriers, and nets, so that if someone wants to use a bridge for the wrong purpose there are some measures in place to prevent them. We don’t blame bridges for what the person is trying to do - we recognize that there is some reasonable level of safeguard and beyond that we just have to trust the person to do the right thing. And when it does show to be a pervasive issue, even still there is pretty much a bare minimum done - add another layer and a net and call it a day - instead of focusing on maybe why people in society are so inclined to jump.

The issue is always us. Yes AI makes evils job easier, like so many tools have. But trying to safeguard AI to the point of non-existence is just absurd from every angle, given that the bad stuff is likely going to happen in abundance regardless. I don’t particularly see AI as the evil so much as the humans creating the meaningless AI generated articles.

I just want people to be able to compete if they use cannabis. But you’re right that it would likely devolve lol

Cool read through! I personally don’t think I’d add clicky buttons to my devices since playing at night in bed is a big one for me, but I do like the idea of modding the Steam Deck!

Also gotta love modded Melee on Deck!

Oh I’ve seen it, I actually like quite a number of bad movies. They have a certain charm about them.

This? There’s a total of 4 hours that we weren’t given - for part one. Characters are setup as a focus then literally never seem again. The overaggressive use of slowmo in all but one fight scene, the complete inconsistency of anything at all whatsoever, from the use of slowmo, camera angles, costuming, accents, weapons & sfx, aliens, character motivations, literally everything. It’s all meaningless and it just exists solely because it can. I’m generally supportive of do what you can when you can and why not, it’s fun. This was… Not fun.

The only merits this movie has are a couple of decent monologues that posit some philosophy. It is completely devoid of meaning and intent, gives no original takes from its “inspiration” down to straight up stealing scenes from SW and Seven Samurai. And then the movie just sort of ends after the most predictable event and the heroes literally rode off into the sunset.

Some movies are bad, be it on purpose or just as a consequence. Many times these bad movies can still have some merit, be it a certain charm or aspect that makes it particularly humorous.

What makes this movie so, so awful is the fact that it’s not trying to be bad. It’s fully ernest in how it presents itself as a science fiction film. Z.S. had full control and still couldn’t make cohesive narrative in 2.5 hours and we have a 4 hour version on the way. For part one!!! For fucks sake!

I have never felt such disdain for something. I finished it because I was watching it with a friend. At a certain point I just needed to confirm it legitimately was that bad.

There are many, many terrible movies that are far, far better than Rebel Moon. Made by people far less prolific than someone like Z.S.

FWIW - I liked the Z.S. J.L. because it’s self indulgent for a reason. This?

It legitimately was the worst movie I’ve ever seen

I don’t go as hard as other members of the community, I just want to have the parts in case of an issue. I have my key caps, switches, and tools all in the same Ziploc bag (not loose though, each are separate just consolidated).

I keep the bag with my PC parts box

Should discussion posts be labeled other?

If only. It was completely taken over by the empire. Darth Vader’s throne is built on Mustafar and the planet was used as a mass grave for the dead from the Great Jedi Purge, as well as serving as the location in which Inquisitors were created, specifically taking force sensitive infants and training them there. It was also used to replace the cloning facility lost on Kamino. A bit after all this Vader is given the planet and connects with a Sith Ghost who helps him build a temple to harness the unique force energies from Mustafar to (edit) try (end edit) bring Padme back to life.

Most of this happens in the Darth Vader comics, however Mustafar does show up again in an arc of Rebels.

(I know this is just meme I just thought it was interesting that there was a fair amount of importance for Mustafar and was used surprisingly well for canon development. We just didn’t get to see any of it in animation/live action)

When Anakin lost to Obi-Wan hadn’t he already descended into Darth Vader?