Badfinger

To clarify, It's not that cheerleaders don't get paid AT ALL. From what I understand it can be awful pay and they are paying out of pocket for tans, professional hair & nails, etc but they do mostly get paid SOMETHING. I believe it's the Bills cheerleaders who got basically no compensation and are considered independent contractors rather than employees. I don't know what the employment agreements are for other teams, but I do know that multiple squads of cheerleaders across the league have filed suits for wage theft. I find that almost more galling, because being paid below minimum wage somehow maintains the illusion to people on the outside that you're a professional and not a volunteer. I missed this news, too. http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/76061588/nfl-cheerleaders-exploitation-lawsuits-for-working-rights-minimum-wage This is a good rundown of how shitty it is.

Update: Welp. Who needs to be happy anyway?

It just occurred to me that depending on when you would have taken out the print ad in the magazine, it may have been near useless to advertise www.idlethumbs.computer and would be better served to put in the IP address. IDLE THUMBS, AOL Keyword: THUMBS

Did anyone become new friends over this nice weekend?

I think they buried the lede on that article. The biggest piece of news is that the project got funded over the weekend, and they suddenly jumped 30k in donations while doing so. It didn't just squeak by the goal. In relative terms it's flown through with ease. vvvv Ahhhh I was looking for that and couldn't remember which Kickstarter tracking website had that daily graph. Even more telling is that it appears to have only 2 backers for the weekend. I wonder how many kickstarters have had negative net funding on 5 separate days and still met their goal.

I don't own it and haven't played it, so I was asking because I am legitimately interested in your informed opinion rather than to stoke an argument. I don't think it's sparked a big debate, since you're worried. I'm glad for the discussion. Yes I could go to the Transistor thread but the perspectives are different here where everyone is trying to condense their thoughts.

The thing that's keeping me from Gen 6 was never gooser, it's the goddamn arc cannon. I really dislike this thing as a titan killer.

Curious if you'd be willing to expand your thoughts on Transistor.

In a direct counter to the last few posts, I've met the most amazing girl. We have been talking for about two months, and went on our first date about a month ago. Due to the fact that she was in the process of moving back to this area after being away and a long vacation, we didn't see each other in person again until yesterday. We spent a good deal of time talking while she was on vacation, developed a friendship and grew close, but you can't truly know about these things until you're back in person. So far, it's really good. I'm happy! Now I just need a job. I have gotten a couple of networking connections in the last few days, so there is potentially some progress there!

As you may or may not know, Michael Sam was the first openly gay college football player to declare for the NFL draft, and he was selected by the Rams (ie: has a legitimate chance to make their roster). Some people (journalists (idiots)) were concerned that the holy sanctum of the sports team group shower had been violated by the introduction of an openly gay man. So have I got an article for you! http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/11169006/nfl-showers-hostile-environment-michael-sam-espn-magazine

I hated this. The interaction was powerful when it was just Nicky with the mom. I was frustrated (as intended) with the dad. I hated the intro and the outro. I think making the player responses idiotic was a terrible decision. It really dulled the message. I didn't find it funny at all. I know this had nothing to do with the actual game content but the horribly loud coffee slurping noises put me on edge and completely took me out of anything I was feeling. I was the enemy before the game even started. I genuinely apologize, because I know there are important things buried in here, but I truly did not like the experience, and not in an empathetic way. I feel like a bad person.

I am the trend breaker and voted for Top Thumbs. Then again, the Giant Bomb shirt I would be most likely to buy is the Flight Club. There is a trend.

I know they are a Seattle-based company, but whenever I hear or read someone going to Starbucks, or "getting [a] Starbucks" I hear it in either a NYC cabbie or Boston accent. This has happened for much longer than the previous pod. Don't know why it is. Ganna get a Stahbocks.

One where I beat TIE Fighter 4 times and can blissfully ignore the 3 useless movies and embrace all the other cool stuff about Star Wars. I don't even know what "all the Star Wars crap" means! They have to introduce you to the game in the first 10 minutes.

KOTOR is a highly lauded and revered game because it's awesome and so is Star Wars. This post for some reason makes me sad that I didn't stick with Icewind Dale. I'm pretty sure I was put off by the graphics because they only supported ((low graphics resolution)) and I was a spoiled baby who needed the beauty of 1024x768.

I probably wouldn't want to be behind a Nintendo Donkey, honestly.

I just watched whatever the 15 minute or so newish gameplay trailer last night. They do have the real camera, right? As in, not a swoopy cinematic 3rd person camera, but a real party camera for real parties with circles around my party and little numbers coming off of them when they're poisoned?

I am so extremely glad I saw this, and Holy Grail, before anyone had gotten to me about how WOW BLAM AMAZING they were. In fact, I recall knowing almost nothing about Spinal Tap going in to it. The line that sticks with me most is not a line most people will parrot back. Dumb throwaway jokes are sometimes the longest lasting. Holy Grail happened during High School, so we were at our most vulnerable to the allure of just parroting back Monty Python quotes for literally years. I think after a couple of weeks we wised up and agreed to a pact wherein we all agreed it was hilarious and also were banned from quoting Holy Grail anymore. I think it's about my 4th or 5th favorite Monty Python property anyway, counting the show as a whole or as seasons. The movie I'd bug people about in that vein is Clue, anyway. Such a good movie. Go watch Clue, you guys. Agreed. At this point, I am probably over 500 hours of television shows people have told me I just "have" to watch. So nothing against your favorite show, friend that is talking to me, but absolutely NEEDING to watch How I Met Your Mother isn't even cracking the top 10 of series probably. I think the only TV show I've purposely (Law and Order does not count) watched more than 3 episodes of in the last 2 years is Doctor Who. I don't evangelize it. I enjoy it, and British people being clever is fun. It makes my friends that tell me I should watch Mad Men angry, because at one point I believe they aired at the same time and thus I was choosing a silly British show for big kids over Serious Television. Man I haven't watched TV on TV in so long. It's the best.

I'm watching the Giant Bomb quick look. This is my exact reaction as well.

I feel like having Danielle as a reliable contributor of new games to talk about has relaxed the close pruning of off topic conversation. Maybe it was just my perception, but for a while it felt like any topic that was straying too far got shepherded. I think the podcast is best as a stream of consciousness, and it's flowed so well this month.

What's bad about Liquid? I've been rooting for them because they were the play in and fuck yeah. I am sad about Mouz because they clearly were ahead in the tiebreaker and threw their ticket to the main event directly into the garbage.

Agreed. I played for 20 minutes or so last night. Aside from not figuring out which controller button (I used a controller please I'm sorry I used a joystick as a kid don't hurt me) fired missiles, I enjoyed it. However, the aesthetic is 100% Wing Commander and long term I prefer the 3D of XWing/TIE Fighter much more.

Oh, I meant like if you have never played Dota before, the compendium would help you level up your Dota Level. You don't unlock all the game modes until level 10-15 something like that. Maybe I'm mistaken? Does only the Compendium level up?

Pardon the poor quality and orientation of these videos. You'll understand why they were hastily shot. I just wish I'd been there when they were.

Eh, I've played thousands of hours of League of Legends. It's not a matter of finding a thing that's like Dota, it's not feeling squashed by Dota's interface. It's my own personal hang up and I'll either deal with it or not deal with it. To this point, I haven't been able to get past it.