Badfinger

What's downtime?

I very much enjoy casters who are willing to be constructively critical. I want analysis. I come to sports and games for competition, but also for strategy. I strongly dislike the "two pros yelling" experience, and also the dismissive caster experience. They're the ones who will just proclaim the game to be over after a critical point with no followup. I'm a layman, it doesn't look over to me! Can you offer some insight to back up your bold proclamation 18 minutes into a game?

Oh man I forgot it still said Epic Megagames on that intro. So adorable.

I thought UT3 was really good. Nothing's ever going to recapture UT '99 or the first time you played Bombing Run, but it was a good game. It just never generated a good enough audience. Even years later, I played so many weird UT mods and mutators. That mod community is something this generation never had. I am excited, more UT please. What a good intro.

Ayesee is awesome (if you happen to be reading this, you are awesome). What a great guest, you guys. Where do I go to watch matches that he casts, exclusively? I know it was mentioned, but someone point me in the right direction please? He kept me in the International, basically. I suffer through the 8 megabyte/27 minute updates to keep Dota 2 installed just because the spectator client is SO GOOD. Hat trick is a hockey reference in North America. While I am sympathetic to your point, he is an American casting to an English-speaking audience, which is more likely to be Americanized. Using those references as touchstones is authentic because it's him and what he knows. There was no such thing as soccer or cricket in the 90s in WV (or the vast majority of America). Regarding nicknames, I'm honestly surprised how diverse and unique the handles of professional gamers across all spectrums are. All of us have probably have played plenty of rounds with xXSilkenGokuXx or *GameDerivativeJokeName*, but that seems to generally not penetrate the highest levels of competition (at least not their official handles). I just get mad when my name is taken. I had it all to myself for almost 10 years and now I never get it anymore. Guess I'm just too popular.

I got to the part in SR3 that Giant Bomb went apeshit over, where you para drop onto the top of a high rise to "Power", and it was pretty neat for 45 seconds. Then the rest of the mission was a really goddamn mediocre 3rd person shooting sequence. The gameplay didn't hold up for me over the first few hours to want to keep going, and it wasn't ~crazy hilarious~ enough for me to sustain that.

I totally get non-isolated resistance training. Bodyweight workouts or free weight workouts make tons of sense. I read the link, and then the related link about quitting crossfit, and I don't get the "laugh at people doing curls" thing. Free weights are not isolated. They are targeting specific body areas sure, but so are pushups, situps, squats, etc. The thing about doing either too much weight and needing to be spotted or working completely on machines is that part of the free weight workout is using other muscle groups to stabilize you while you do the exercise and machines DO remove that. Doing bicep curls or bar curls still uses all the muscle groups any other exercise that targets upper arms would use, though.

I was reading up on Crossfit after talking about fitness-y things with someone recently. Crossfit appears to be insane things for crazy people. No, Crossfit, my tiny gym does not have Olympic rings nor do I have the capacity to make them for my home. I cannot do pushups upside-down. If anyone here does Crossfit, please confirm you are crazy.

I don't get the fervor over Nutella. It tastes good, which is true of many things. I guess the illusion of it being made out of nuts means people allow themselves to eat it for breakfast?

I have been making these all week. They are really, really good. http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/ultra-smashed-cheeseburger-recipe-food-lab.html It's a crazy combo of incredibly fast and easy with delicious. I am like a medium/medium rare steak and burger guy and it doesn't even matter that these are basically cooked through because they're so juicy still. I've never had a "smashed" burger before, but they're great. They drip like crazy even if you rest them, and your house will smell like burger for hours (forever) but SO good.

All people should see this and know this.

I've had MLB.tv for 3-4 years now and it's awesome. The blackouts due to being in-market suck, but it sounds like that's not an issue for you. They will pro-rate the price throughout the season as they go. You'll still be paying "full price" for the time left, but if you jumped in in August you aren't paying the price you pay in March. It also turns out that you can have up to 5 IP addresses logged in per account, so I've paid $25 to share it with 4 other people. Are you a Something Awful forum member? There's an active thread for people looking to put together groups that I can point you towards if you are. You can fall asleep to the wonderful tones of Vin Scully.

People not into LOMAs are now the weird ones. It is the most popular video game genre in the world.

"artisanal" "best" "Obama"

For clarity, the part that made me post the uncomfortable comment was when Chris said he had an announcement to make, and when it was about the daily challenge Sean was the most disgusted I've heard in weeks.

Why is time spent in a game wasted? Is all time spent on certain games wasted? All time spent on types of games? All time on all games?

The dual glee and disdain with which Sean dumps on Spelunky and all related chat has wildly overtaken Spelunky chat by multiple magnitudes as something I don't look forward to hearing on the cast. I know you guys are coworkers and friends, and thus I don't know if there many laughs about Spelunky put-downs while the audio's not recording, nor imaging there's any real or lingering tension, but it's starting to feel weird and out of place and sort of bitter on the podcast.

My liege. http://www.infinitelooper.com/?v=5ywsQG4kFVA&p=n

it's just neat that the games and the books and the comics all "counted" because it feels like everyone had a stake in making a fun fictional thing. I guess my feeling is if it's a silly point to argue that it doesn't matter that it no longer counts, it's silly enough there's no need to say it doesn't count.

Luke Skywalker as a bad person is an even worse plot arc than watching Anakin Skywalker grow up. He's had 30 years in the public consciousness as one of the ultimate movie Good Guys. I honestly don't know precisely? But, changing things is changing them and it rubs people the wrong way. What if Big Bird didn't exist? That would probably make a bunch of grown ups mad but it doesn't "matter" because all the Big Bird is still in Sesame Street.

Nathan Drake Simon Belmont

This is not a steak seasoning (I wouldn't use it on a steak), but 2 parts brown sugar, 2 parts paprika, 1 part salt, and pepper to taste (black, red, cayenne) makes food taste EXACTLY like barbecue potato chips. It's pretty uncanny. Especially baked chicken thighs. I generally stay really simple with seasoning, but I do sometimes make sauces to put on steaks.

Boo this man! Boo him. It was real fiction. I loved the X-Wing books, but man having gone back to them after adulthood made me realize they're... not for adults. The characters all have the same thought patterns and the writing is so stilted. It makes me sort of sad. The Aaron Allston books were still funny, though.

Steaks are almost exclusively about the application of high heat! You're not going to get a good maillard reaction crust from cooking slowly. Are you talking like an entire cow shoulder or something? Even the coolest part of my grill would turn any sirloin to dust in less than 20 minutes. The thing about the sous vide steak is you are supposed to sear the outsides after they hit temperature so it looks and tastes like "real" steak. Oven steak: Set oven to 500 degrees, with cast iron skillet inside Season 1-1.5" thick steak with salt and pepper, after coating with cooking oil (steak should be room temperature) Turn your range up to as high as it will go, put the skillet on your burner for another 2-3 minutes after the oven hits temperature Steak into the pan, don't move it for 1 minute. Move directly to the oven for 2 minutes Flip, cook 2 more minutes Remove and rest for 3-5 minutes. That should be about medium rare. Add an additional minute per turn per level of doneness. If making well done steak, transfer from skillet directly to garbage I'm pretty sure I got this from Alton Brown? A lot of my cooking methods I think of as just the way I do them came from him. ______ I have a small scale I got for measuring food in conjunction with portioning to lose weight and I really like it. I heartily recommend. I don't bake much, but baking by weight is so much less of a guessing game in a discipline where you need a lot of precision.

I am pretty lustful for a sous vide machine, but I'm not going to pretend it's a practical dream. I have never had a toaster oven in my domicile, but I like them. I don't think you can go too wrong on a toaster oven? At the absolute worst you can heat and toast things!