Bjorn

I did kinda go on a major deep dive on the mechanics on this when I was playing it. I really need to get into the expansions. I haven't paid much attention to the details of the patches, so I don't know if they changed anything. But the important thing a few months ago wasn't Adaptability so much as Agility. Adaptability and Attunement both raise Agility, but Adaptability raises it a lot more. The important breakpoints are 100 and 105 Agility, there's no value to raising it higher than that, but both of those points result much better rolls. @Griddlelol, I appreciate your criticisms, and even agree with you on some of them. Have you been doing an PvP? What sealed the deal for me on loving DS2 was how much better all the online play works. Having a bit of fun in co-op, dueling in various locations, finding a fight club, all that is so much better. The variety of builds that can excel in PvP is also pretty incredible. From seems to be patching and balancing more frequently as well to try and stomp out crazy overpowered things that get discovered.

It was really painless to set up over USB, I haven't actually tried Bluetooth yet. I just wanted to play with it a bit last night, but was super tired, and decided against adding the extra layer of making sure the Bluetooth worked as well. Neither ME3 nor Torchlight 2 natively support controllers at all, I was just using Xpadder to map keyboard keys to it (Xpadder sees it as a 360 controller with the drivers I linked to). So there was no possible conflict with the mouse. For games that only allow one input method, that would obviously be a problem, but there's likely a work around to get around that (like I know I've just stripped out all the mappings for a controller in game before and setup Xpadder because the in-game mappings were somehow screwy).

I got in the PS3 Nav controller today. I very briefly messed around with it late this evening, played a single match of ME3 MP and a bit of Torchlight 2. I like it, a lot! It's very comfortable and well designed. In a third person shooter like ME3, it feels superior to using a keyboard. In something like Torchlight, it wasn't necessarily more functional (pretty much equivalent to KB), but is so much more comfortable to make it a no brainer. I easily see it replacing my keyboard for most KB/M games. I didn't do a ton of research on drivers or software. I just grabbed this to try, which makes windows see PS3 controllers as a 360 pad (including seeing the Nav as just a regular controller). This makes it super easy to use with Xpadder.

I had one for awhile, it was an improvement, but not significantly. Basically a functional gimmick. Unfortunately that controller broke quite quickly (the left shoulder failed after just a few months), and I wasn't impressed enough to buy another one.

We've actually taken care of that as much as possible through other legal means (power of attorney, medical power of attorney, etc), and we've taken additional legal measures to protect one another on top of that. It's not perfect, but most conceivable contingencies are covered. Taxes are a non-issue, as we'd file separately even if we were married (the structure of our income is such that it's better that way). I was pretty flip with my earlier response, but it is something we've actually given a lot of thought and consideration. Non-serious comment! So Mington, are the traditional goofy dances in the UK that only appear at weddings? Besides whatever fabulous walk down the aisle you do.

So besides smoking ribs, I've spent all day baking my first ever super fancy themed cake. I've been convinced this was going to be a disaster the whole time. Never used fondant before, never made custom decorations (bought the flowers, but made the towers and the gate), have only baked a handful of cakes in my life. But I'm super happy with how it turned out! My wife always wanted a princess castle cake as a little kid, but never got one. But you're never too old for a fancy princess castle cake. The last shot is right after she saw it (she's on the right, daughter's on the left).

So I refer to my wife sometimes around here. Funny story, we aren't actually married. I proposed 10 years ago, we built a house together, raised her daughter, created a business. Kinda forgot about the whole wedding part of it. Whoops! At some point it became a lot easier for us to use husband and wife though, as the family started giving us shit for still calling each other fiance after about 7 years of being engaged. We actually talk about having a super casual beach wedding, but never get around to planning anything.

I've always wanted to join the Masons (and have both friends and family who are members), but I'm not willing to fake a belief in the Architect of the Universe to do it.

Never mind, I was dum. I have a garden shed I can use if I just clean some stuff out of it. Still going to get everything smoked today.

I've been using the same avatar for like 8 years on most places. I'd confuse myself if I changed now.

You're welcome! Let me know how it turns out. And it's raining here, it's supposed to rain all day. And I don't have a good covered area to smoke under. This is annoying. I don't have to smoke the ribs a day early, but it makes the bbq a lot more enjoyable for me when I don't have worry about cooking as much during it.

Dry rub recipe is spoilered. It makes a pretty fair amount, I just did a dozen racks of ribs and still have plenty left over. I spray them with apple juice a couple of times during the smoking practice. Then when I bake them to finish them, I wrap them in foil, spray them with apple juice again and rub some brown sugar on them. The result is that they almost have their own sauce on them thanks to the caramelized sugar and rub. Some people still add sauce, but a lot don't.

Grudging. For some reason, grudging is the word stuck in my head after reading that. Also, he's still a total shithead for needing to get in a final dig in the last line.

I shouldn't actually complain too much, I do have a great group of friends. I just need to prioritize seeing them more and not let inertia keep me rooted at home when I don't need to be.

It's good to see them take a hardline stance on his finally. The new rules apply to all NFL employees, not just players. So it applies as equally to a star quarterback as it does an assistant coach. And one would presume office personnel as well, given how it is worded. The lifetime ban can be appealed after one year. It's automatically applied upon conviction or a guilty plea, but may also be applied in other cases at Goodell's discretion.

Thanks for linking that, it is the most powerful thing I've read since Ferguson started. Edited to add: I wish I had something intelligent to say about it. I don't.

FWIW, I'd pretty much hang with about anyone one these boards. I actually have a pretty good sized group of local friends that I don't see nearly as much as I would like. We bought a house in the country a few years ago, so it's about an hour+ roundtrip to see anyone (or for anyone to come see us). We love our little house in the sticks, but it wreaked an unexpected amount of havoc on our social lives, particularly for me. I've felt increasingly socially withdrawn the longer we're out here, as I work from home, so I can literally go days or a full week without seeing someone other than my wife (and kid, since she's been home on summer break) unless I make myself go to town. But increasingly I finish up work, and just don't feel like I've got the energy to go do anything. Blargh. I've also been trying to talk myself into taking a break from the Internet, other than what I need to do for work, and perhaps a break from gaming in general. A lot of that is related to the above sense of isolation, and knowing that I use the Internet as an easy out for not going and doing things I enjoy, because it's so much less effort to just sit down at my PC.

Nah, no big secret. A good friend just combined two dry rub recipes he found online, because he wasn't satisfied with either alone, made some changes, gave it to me and I've made some adjustments to it. We both hand out our versions of it whenever someone asks.

Yeah, I make my own out of a bunch of spices. I think I have it saved somewhere in an email, I'll see if I can find it and post it later, can't look at this very moment.

I'm not much of a cook, but I do smoke up some good bbq. Just prepped a dozen racks of ribs to smoke tomorrow. Sit in a dry rub overnight, smoke on Friday, finish baking them on Saturday with a re-application of rub and brown sugar. A fair amount of work for just the meat portion, but so, so good when done.

This isn't the exact quote on the 'cast, but it's the general idea, said in reference to reacting to the awful shit people have said about Sarkeesian and Quinn: "Don't do that, because you don't say these things about another human being. What if that ended up on CNN?" I understand that feeling. But the problem is that we see this shit all the time, and sometimes it doesn't even register. All the racist shit said by people, some of them elected officials or professional media personalities, about Ferguson. Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a slut for testifying in front of Congress. The litany of gay hate from all sorts of public people. The insane and violent language used around talking about abortion. Sometimes they catch shit for it, but it usually doesn't have a big impact on anybody. Of course people on the Internet are going to act this way, we've been teaching them its fine for years.

It used to be funny to me, but it's become increasingly horrifying, because that is why you can't engage them on any level, because they are either naturally or willfully blind and ignorant to their own behavior and methods. Their goal is not discussion, it is destruction. Early in the Ferguson thread, Merus linked to this piece about the Confederate/Tea Party mindset. That's obviously about politics, and the history and politics of racism in this country, but I think you can see that same attitude and methodology at work in multiple groups, including the people who are so angry and resentful about gaming changing in the slightest.

A 19-year-old (according to YouTube info) secretly recorded coming out to his family, at which point they lecture him about the bible, "choice", physically assault him, scream at him and call him slurs. It's really hard to watch/listen to, but important to, particularly if you aren't someone who would ever have to even imagine this kind of family abuse.

Sowwy I actually think golfer might be the better comparison in some ways. The people I know who are seriously into golf are like gamers. They are active in forums, predominantly associate with other golfers, think about golf when they aren't golfing, and are highly, and often irrationally, resistant to change. They claim that things like tradition are why women and minorities shouldn't be in their clubs. They oppose moves by courses that attempt to diversify. My preferred local course, which is dirt cheap compared to all the other courses in the area, recently attempted to add another revenue stream by building a foot golf course in parallel with existing holes and on unused land on the course. Foot golf is a soccer/golf hybrid. They either need to bring in more revenue, or raise prices. Raising prices may drive customers to other courses, as it won't be as cheap, resulting in the course closing anyways. And yet people are complaining about it.

@Blambo, I understand what you're saying, but from my perspective, that sensation never entirely goes away. I think much of a person's life is actually fluidly shifting between an assortment of both personal and group identities over time. Often it is invisible to us but sometimes that process gets shoved to the forefront, particularly during times of change. I'm pushing 40, and still feel this way sometimes, especially during transitionary periods. The most recent for me was just two years ago, when our kid went to college and we became empty nesters. You wouldn't think that would kick off a period identity crisis for two people in a healthy, many years long established relationship. And yet it did, and the result was both of us finding new parts of our personal identities that were, in many ways, only allowed to express themselves because we were free of the day-to-day responsibilities of raising a kid in the house. Obviously we're still parents, that doesn't change, but the time and energy devoted to it was allowed to be redirected. Not sure if that makes any sense. At any rate, I think it's valuable to be reflective, both about past identities and current (whether your own or how people identify you), but to not overly dwell on it.