Roderick

Jesus. Take care...

It's just so saddening to see especially the standalone Batman film fall apart. I expect it to be nothing but a giant mess. Guys, just let Affleck do everything he wants, stay the hell away from him and make a specific, non-standard, auteur Batman film. Trust me, Batman can take it. It's what Batman wants.

Coupled with a big party yesterday, DST perhaps is contributing to me feeling super weird and tired. (Probably the party though.) I totally missed the Testfire event because of it. I just came home and switched it on to see if there was one in the evening, but the last one was this afternoon. Shame, but I already tried out Splatoon 2 at the Nintendo shindig and I now just want to play the damn game in its entirety.

There is just... nothing redeeming about that trailer. Except maybe the inadvertent Phoenix Wright title Justice For All making a cameo. Good for a chuckle. Also, with all the stuff going on with Ben Affleck, I can no longer see his version of Batman without thinking that he doesn't really want to be there. Which is a shame, because I like him as Batman. I like this Batman!

I figured something like that. Nasty loop to be stuck in.

I believe the Switch installs next to nothing if you have a game card. It will use some space for save games, of course, and any screenshots that you might take. Good on you for buying the Switch! I heard it was crazy expensive in Finland. eRonin, thanks for your Splatoon 2 tactics. Turns out I probably won't have time to play this weekend since I'll be abroad, but it's good to know for future reference. Hehe, and here I was glad that with the roller I could just look at the ground without being overwhelmed by the map's layout and the chaos of th fight, but apparently that's not the greatest tactic, or something you might want to use in the beginning to get a grip on the game, but then wean off of pretty quickly.

Shame to hear about Chapelle. I thought I might give it a go, but I'll refrain from watching. Instead, I watched Ex Machina and holyyyyyyy fuuuuuuuck. One of those 'quiet movies that sneak up on you and punch you in the gut and make you feel it the day after'. There are multiple moments and elements to this film vying for Most Disturbing and it's hard to decide which one got to me most.

I didn't follow their Splatoon 1 announcements and info drops, but I can imagine it's similar to how Sakurai's team built up Smash Bros Brawl back when. I never played the game, but it was just entertaining to see them tease new characters and reveal choice morsels on how the game would play.

(Loving the Switch feature for shitposting screenshots on Facebook)

It's really shit when your body/mind gangs up on you like that without any warning. Is it a stress-related thing, or more something that depends on your personal level of anxiety?

I'd be very surprised if they didn't up the ante with a singleplayer campaign. I heard nothing but positive notes about it. Nintendo was tight-lipped when I asked them about it during the event, though.

Clarify this for me: did you actually buy three separate protectors, throwing each one away as soon as the application of said protector had failed? Or can you try again with the same one? Because holy shit, that is terrifying. Those things ain't cheap! Binding of Isaac grosses me out a little, but the gameplay is very interesting. It's mainly the poop that disturbs me. Oh and eRonin, I'm likely to try our the Splatoon Testfire Event. I downloaded the game already, so now it's just waiting until next week. I'll probably suck amazingly, I only ever played three rounds of it.

I don't know if everyone has been unhappy. For sure, in the communities I am in Rutte is seen as inherently awful, but I doubt everyone sees it that way. Hell, even I don't see it that way. And yes, there are things I'm not happy with, but there's lots to applaud in the previous four years of government as well. Their resilience, level-headed way of dealing with things, the way they handled tricky situations with MH17 and brokering deals in Europe in the financial en refugee crisis... again, perhaps not to your specific liking or mine, but a far cry from the cataclysmic rule that some (many) people are making it out to be. And they still lost a quarter of their seats in parliament, so it's definitely a punishment in one way or the other.

Update on the Dutch elections: PHEW! No populist revolt in the Netherlands, it seems. Wilders got a much lower amount of votes than predicted and the likely outcome is a mid-right or mid-left coalition. No matter how this unfolds (unless there are elections again in a few months should any coalition be impossible to form), Holland at least seems to have learned a lesson from the US and the UK. There's open debate on television right now how Trump may have actively worked to make a lot of people go 'let's not go down that road, no matter how fed up we might be with current politics'. It doesn't hurt that GroenLinks has become the largest party on the left either, and the amount of seats divided among stern climate change advocates has doubled to nearly a third of parliament. I consider this evening to be a big win and possibly the best we could hope for under the circumstances.

Man, that's a rough situation, twmac. You hope that these things have a way of remaining in your juvenile life - I can perfectly understand the frustration of this shit following you around into adulthood. What a depressing this, seeing people around you die of overdoses and drug-related stupidity. Man. I wonder if this cycle continues in certain neighbourhoods nowadays, or if this was a 80s/90s thing. Yesterday I saw an episode from the first season of Star Trek TNG and it was drug-themed to the point of being a PSA. It felt anachronistic and weird to see it now. Unrelated: today is election day in the Netherlands. It's framed as the next big place where populism might win, after Brexit and Trump, and before elections in France and Germany. Geert Wilders is poised to become the biggest party, but thankfully all the other parties have denounced him as possible coalition partners, so there's no way he'll come into power. Even so, it might be a symbolic victory, which is scary. But there's good news as well: in the last few months there's been incredible energy in the green party GroenLinks (my vote as well), with young upstart Jesse Klaver and his Obama-esque message of hope and climate-friendly change. It probably won't be enough to win big, but it's still an upset to the establishment, who stand to lose a huge amount of seats. Especially the labour party is set to be decimated. Still, that leaves us with the likely event that there's a smattering of parties each with their own little audience and no one with a decisive victory - which is all but necessary to form a coalition and choose who gets to be prime minister. Suffice it to say, this is a pretty exciting and tense moment and I've been feeling tension in my stomach all day.

Chris' twitter account had already alerted me to 'smutty sax' of the Matlock theme, so I was perfectly primed for this episode. As the Poirot discussion began I felt Matlock coming up, and when it arrived it did not disappoint. Please musically describe everything now, Chris. 'Dirty... ass... horns...'

I am both excited and terrified.

Thanks! But boy, this is already causing me anxiety. Is there a service where I can pay a person some money to do this perfectly? Maybe I should just go to my friend's to get it done. I can't handle the pressure!!

That's an expensive trip, considering those tempered glass protectors are what, 15 euros?

Thank you for the write-up, RubixsQube, that's very helpful. I think I'll get one too. Already a little anxious about putting it on without any gaffes, but I'll just have to deal with it. Is a steamy bathroom for real the best atmopheric condition to place the screen? Also, is there an internet place where these things are quality-yet-cheap, for Europe?

Speaking of protection, does anyone here have experience with tempered glass whatchamacallit protector screens? I'm thinking it might be a good idea to gt one for my Switch, since it'll invariable bump up against something. If it isn't the dock's innards, then something else. I'm already noticing that I hesitate to 'switch' to handheld mode since I don't want to risk damaging the screen and that can't be right.

Looking forward to the shots of the book's first paragraph.

I was more upset that they set up the Collector as this super important big character, and then in Guardians of the Galaxy he was nothing, a complete joke, a throwaway side chum. Here's hoping Goldblum at least gets a bigger role.

Hey, thanks! I updated at least one stat for me there. Added everyone in the thread on my Switch, by the way!

I'm going to prove a little too invested in all this lore and shit but... is he the same race as the Collector (played by Benicio Deltoro in earlier films)? Anyway, Goldblum looks fab. Easily the reason to go see this film.