syntheticgerbil

I must have missed Ned's scribble. Was it in the four pages at the end? Hmmm... I guess my big thing with the research camp and the fence is that Delilah said it shouldn't be there and she had no notification of any kind that there was research taking place there. It would seem strange to me that Delilah wouldn't be informed if she were the boss, but I guess that's less strange than a man building a huge chain link fence and weird devices all by himself. EDIT: Also I just remembered, does anything happen if you take the other supply boxes? I was in the process of picking one up and was trying to throw it around but the game skipped to next day.

Yeah I had a lot of frame rate drops as well, but I think it happens less as the game goes on? Maybe I just really got used to it but it seemed most noticeable at the beginning and only seemed to happen otherwise if I was moving the camera around quickly. I am not sure if I was supposed to be able to pick up all those God the soundtrack for this is great, amazing job Chris Remo!

Well that ate up my night from start to finish. Some parts of this game had my heart racing so I had to keep going despite a need for better time management. That's what I get for starting. I might have to play it again eventually to see what other dialogue options were but I definitely did not show Delilah romantic interest but it seems eventually the game may have pushed it that way because later Henry calls her sweetheart? Does that always happen? I also need to play through again because I didn't realize Henry was writing every day and you could read them every morning until the second day. Mostly because you can't pick them up and I have to get really close to my TV to see what they say. I also thought maybe Henry and Delilah had a rendezvous that I had no control over because of what Henry wrote on the night after the fire on his desk and Delilah being drunk, that maybe they met up, but it's possible he just meant they talked on the walkie-talkies all night, that would make the most sense. I was convinced right until the end that Ned did not carry out this whole thing on his own, but I guess he did. Seems like a very elaborate ruse to put up so that someone doesn't find his dead son. I am not sure how he could build a chain link fence that large all by himself or set up all of that equipment. Plus I thought maybe Delilah's suspicious phone call in the beginning had something to do with it. Also I guess that was Delilah talking to someone else on a walkie talkie and not a phone though since the phone line was cut. I am also going to guess Ned is actually the one who cut the phone line and wrote the letter from the teen girls. Also if he wrote a note to the rangers doing the controlled burn wouldn't they want to know who this supposed doctor they were talking to was on about? Also I am curious if I got all the letters from those guys who left them to eachother in the supply boxes. I swear I only ended up with 3 or 4 and I reread them to see if it had anything to do with the Wapiti area, since it's mentioned that one of them "overdid" something there. Maybe I did miss a bunch of stuff part of a larger story? I guess besides all of these details, I am not sure why if Ned wanted to stay out there the rest of his life as a hermit why he did not bury his son's body or hide it. Seems like a much easier way to take care of it instead of leaving threatening tapes or creating red herrings. Oh well, mostly story questions, really like the banter and atmopshere, plus all the lonely feelings of it. I have never been camping alone, but it feels lonely already with just one other person, and scary to boot. The game really tapped into that for me. I also made sure the turtle went with Henry at the, was a nice touch. Was the only way to pick up the turtle to go into the area at the beginning that seemed completely optional or does it appear in other places? Also you guys realize because this game takes place in both the universe of The Last of Us (University of Eastern Colorado) and Gone Home (Greenbriar book) that now Nathan Drake might become a Big Daddy someday? I guess that's what is going to happen in Uncharted 4. Old Drake journeys to a lost city in the ocean to decide if he wants to murder little girls or not but then remembers he just likes treasure and the value of friendship.

Oh oops, I thought today was the 9th, nevermind.

I didn't realize this was out so soon. It's released the same day on PS4 right? I can't seem to find a link for the game to purchase online so I can have it downloaded when I get home. Is it not out on Playstation yet? I can't seem to find a different release date. Maybe it's just available in the store on the console. Hmmm.

I figured, I just meant I am also not impressed with their more recent output.

I finished this a couple of days ago and I really enjoyed most of everything up until episode 5. I thought I was going to despise this dialogue because I heard so many bad things about it, but it doesn't really come off as forced to me the way Juno does. It seems to be fitting of the handful of teens I've come across the past two years. Meme speak, dorky phrases, and nerd obsessions all are about par for the course. The "hella" thing is annoying but it seems true to life to adopt some dumb slang just for fun and it's not like Chloe is unaware of it (or the writers) as it is mentioned a few times in a joking manner. I don't know if you've ever watched any teen dramas like Skins (the better one, UK at least) or Degrassi (mostly bad) then this is all about par for the course with dialogue, but I'd rate it pretty high up there. If anything maybe sometimes Max felt way more adult past her years in terms of emotional intelligence than I personally think she should be, but who knows, I'm sure it's not unheard of. Ashly Burch did a great job as Chloe, although her little girl Chloe voice was terrible. At least there's only a handful of lines there. Otherwise her performance is a big part of me getting on board with her, plus I feel like I see a lot of teen me in her. I'm also glad to play one of these new fangled choice cinematic adventure games with actual puzzles that are often clever, even though they are easy, and no cheesy quick time events in sight. I wish more games were somewhat down to earth like this, I've liked shades of this idea since way back in the time of Willy Beamish, one of my favorite games in childhood. Unlike many people, I was completely on board with I was really into the time travel puzzles since I'm the kind to rewind and want to see all the choices, since I played Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us a couple of times just to see what happens. I like being able to choose my options and just to play with the game and learn more about the characters through different avenues. It also helps you decide if you want to like them, since I generally wanted Max to be jerks to bullies and authority figures unconditionally but some characters did win me over. I found the solution to the pipe bomb puzzle in the school to be pretty clever as well as using rewind to enhance your stealth in the pool area. Some of the licensed music choices were amazing, although I wish they would have picked a better Bright Eyes song. The licensed music otherwise really enhanced a few moments for me. It's a shame episode 5 played out the way it did, it kind of killed a game I would have loved to just sort of good. Either way though, I had a good time overall and I'm definitely going to play it again to see what happens when I make all of the alternate choices and how it impacts later episodes. Also I saw at the end there were a few different ways to solve puzzles so I am going to see what I was missing there too. Very cool. Although

Man sounds like I shouldn't drag my wife to Hail Caeser then. I liked True Grit, but I agree, Burn After Reading and on left me cold, and I have dragged my wife to every single release since No Country (somehow missed True Grit in theatres). She liked True Grit, but the others after No Country weren't the most enjoyable watches. Also started Better Call Saul, what is up with this intro that abruptly ends?!

Remember when Youtube was good?

Haha that must be why some receipts have the recommended tip at the bottom for reference!

I guess I don't understand why if they are breaking the law and not bumping you to minimum wage on nights like your $13 4 hour shift you wouldn't report them? Or stay working for a restaurant running an illegal operation? The thing with Favor is the tips go to me, the driver. I pretty much make bad money though, they bump you up to $9/hr if you aren't making over that, plus I gotta pay for my gas. The math just doesn't work out in anyone's favor. (I don't think it works out in Favor's favor because if they give me a job where I am taking 50 minutes to deliver ice cream from a specific place across town they make way less for something that takes longer and is melted and shitty anyway.) But I'm gonna keep it until I'm done with school because the hours are just when I feel like it, so no pressure, plus gas is cheap for now. That said it's just to go orders, often wait staff isn't even handling those but there's still a frown with Favor. A lot of other drivers tell me they never wear the shirt, but I refuse to do that. It reduces the likelihood of me being towed or ticketed in a commercial zone if they know I'm a commercial driver and some restaurants do charge a fee on top of orders for Favor drivers to give to staff, but if they don't know you are with Favor they don't add that fee. But I think a lot of restaurants will not put that fee because it adds yet another fee on potential customers ($5 per use plus tipping the driver). Plus since I'm not rude I don't think they realize getting restaurant orders are the worst, because they take longer and therefore mean less profit since the goal is two favors an hour to get better pay. Plus they gotta get mad. Taco Bells or beer from a gas station are the best orders. A friend who works at a food truck told me I should take out a lot of ones to give to people when doing this job so they won't hate me, because he hates Favor drivers, but seriously I can't afford that just so people won't get all pissy, but I guess it's up to the two schools of thought on tipping for to go orders. I'm not even sure you should tip on food trucks, at least in the classic configuration for cheapo food targeted at blue collar workers, but it's usually the yuppie more-expensive-than-a-restaurant-ones I never go to that want the tip filled out. I'd rather go to a restaurant with someone, pay less, get waited on, then tip for that. Well really I'd rather wait staff just get paid a flat wage like some restaurants have started doing. Then they have no reason to be mad or judgmental.

Whoa I've heard from a lot of people who aren't wait staff that black people don't tip, (I know great people, yeah) but I never knew it whether or not to take it seriously as a thing that wait staff generally thought...

Oh yeah, the only reason I ever have to pay for the program is I always have contract work I have to fill out and type in all the deductions for. If I had straight W2s I guess it would be free every year for me. I have bad tax advice, sorry.

I haven't been to an AMC for maybe 8 years now, but it seems pretty much the worst chain. The only reason I did go when I lived in Houston (I'm pretty sure there are no AMCs in Austin) is because they had the automated ticket machine where I could buy a cheap child's ticket to any movie rated R or not and no employee ever said anything when tearing it. That said I often experienced things where I had to tell someone to tell the projectionist the aspect ratio is fucked or the sound is too quiet. They seemed to have a major issue cutting off subtitles for foreign movies. You get what you pay for I suppose.

I didn't know AMC even did dinner theatres. I'm not a big fan of that kind of set up anyway, it's usually cheaper and tastes better to eat out before or after. Plus it's actually way noiser because you are listening to 50 other people chewing and gulping when the movie has a quiet part, it's really weird. But Alamo sometimes has exclusive movies I want to see, and they used to way more, so that's the only place to go.

Oh right, I use Turbo Tax or H&R Block, depending on what is cheaper for that year, so it's automated for me. I imagine if you do taxes yourself it is probably more of a hassle.

It might just be Austin. I ranted about it probably for eight paragraphs in another thread but it boils down to the overpriced food absolutely sucks, it's expensive, they mostly moved all of their theaters to big budget Marvel movies, and you always have to buy tickets in advance to even see anything worth seeing which you pay a fee on the website for, which is ridiculous. I've had to actually go to Regal branches more often in the last few years who seem to be better at getting limited releases in this city or Alamo is quickly purging a their movie screens to make room for the next Marvel thing. They still want to act like they are the same business they were a decade ago, but they totally aren't. I guess it's one of the big pillars in this city, but meh.

Wait staff workers whine so much, I'm so sick of it. Everyone I've ever met who works as a waiter just complains all the time about their job and seems so indignant about whatever, tips or how busy it is. They always do the smokescreen where they pretend they make $2.13 an hour when they are still guaranteed minimum wage at least by federal law. But the secret is they are usually making over minimum wage by a few bucks if not way more. I'm sure there are many other waiters who don't complain so much who I have never met, though so there's that. The reason this is coming up is I've been working at Favor for 4 weeks. You pick up mostly take out, usually restaurants or food trucks and they are always mad that Favor does not tip as part of the service. The tips from the customer goes to the driver (also this job really doesn't pay past the minimum, the math involved sucks, but whatever). All waitstaff know this so when they see Favor drivers come up they get all pissy and rude. Like they can't just act like human beings. Also food truck dudes that look stoned get all mad too. I like the orders where I pick up fast food since there's no attitude. It's the worst part of the job dealing with these people. I don't even like tipping for take out anyway, but whatever. Austin is really entitled though, people put tip jars at gas stations and video stores here. I actually complained to Chuy's (even though I probably shouldn't have) because this person turned her smile to a frown when she noticed my Favor shirt, then suddenly she would not acknowledge me even though I was saying thank you and then just kind of gave me the receipt to sign and disappeared so I had to find someone to give it to. Basically I told the manager that I have eaten at Chuy's a lot in life and the staff should not forget that I'm a customer when I'm not on the job and I do tip then. But man, I really hate seeing the seedy way restaurant workers act now and a lot of places are just going on my shit list of where not to eat. Some places are really nice and realize I'm just doing my job or will give me something extra so that's cool. The food trucks where it's obviously the older owner are very appreciative of the extra business, it's usually just the scraggly hipsters who work there part time who get all pissy. It's not all bad. Also apologies I know we've argued about this before, but it's been bugging me.

Nah I mostly dislike it too. It's way too overhyped in Austin.

I don't know how much you make for a year, but I think that's all dealt with in your taxes, so you shouldn't have to call? I barely make shit so the fee was waved for me last year.

Well good luck out there, I'm glad you are okay and able to get back to things eventually! Get well!

Hmm, was this serious? If so I wish you the best!

Perhaps I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure the question asker about the Toby Fox ban was referring more to fan art selling tons of prints at comic cons or maybe places like Society 6 or Etsy rather than people just selling merch because it's not available anywhere else. There's a big culture of people who consider it "fair use" to draw whatever character in their style and resell prints because that's what sells, not original works. It's an easy way to profit off the popularity of someone elses work and it happens so often it's really hard to go after them much like Bill Watterson. Large companies have a much stronger arm to stop this, like a big Batman purge on Society 6 a while back, but indie creators are usually demonized or are powerless if they don't like this sort of thing. Personally this thing bugs me, but it was a major shit storm last we talked about this in whatever thread. I hear some cons have started cracking down on this, but I don't know, I don't really go to cons. You definitely can no longer sell prints of copyrighted work on Deviant Art anymore. Some people do sell a great amount of prints the more popular an artist is so there is that to think about. It's also easier than ever to just get these printed by third party companies who really don't give a fuck about copyright law until a megacorporation says something. But looking around on various comments about Toby Fox's wants here, I see a lot of people have just went ahead and respected his wishes. I think that's probably the most important thing here, as some creators are okay with it and some aren't. I really wish fan artists would just look up what the creator feels about this ahead of time or e-mail them directly as usually indie types are good at answering mail. I remember a case where Steve Purcell seemed pretty upset on his Facebook by one of those fly by night 24 hour t-shirt sale sites where people submit tons of copyrighted work, with someone's basic rip off of the cover of the first Surfin' the Highway book rendering the characters with Mad Max garb. Can't really put in a take down notice by the time the shirts are done selling in that case. I suppose Sam and Max is not really indie but Steve Purcell does own the copyright. Also I know Mike Mignola is big on cracking down on Hellboy prints, especially because he's big on selling prints from his webstore himself and he also owns the copyright. He does however allow one on one commissions with one print or painting sold or whatever. Looking up Toby Fox, his policy is actually exactly the same.

Bleh, that article made me upset. Texas is bullshit. People want to make grand political gestures here but never seem to stop and think about how it impacts the people around them.

Haha, wonderful.