Nachimir

Thanks, I'd never got around to investigating his music deeply, but I've been meaning to because of his incredible remix of Kate Bush:

Then we agree on some level

I don't know much about barefoot running, but if you do it in conventional shoes they'll make a bigger difference than you think. I used to get a lot of running injuries, and found out it was because I was running in shoes that gave too much support. When I swapped them for something else, I could run a lot further and stopped fucking up my legs and feet. A running shop will give good advice, but you can determine most things yourself by reading up on supination and over-pronation, doing a wet footprint test, and looking at the wear patterns on other shoes you own.

When someone asks this seriously, that's when I want to destroy everything and maybe even rip my own penis off. It is a weird and arbitrary hurdle that people put in each others way.

I think you all might have misunderstood the word conversate, but whatevs it's not cool anymore.

Fuck yeah

I understand what you mean, but there's a difference between finding that exciting (plus pretty much everything clyde said), and being snooty or deriving self-worth from it. The latter are usually what people meant when I first heard them using the word*, and you're right, those attitudes are horrible. Their equally horrible and superficial corollary is losing interest as soon as other people share it. Excitement about discovery is a different thing though. Edit: That latter thing seemed to me what clyde was describing. When I first listened to Night Vale Radio, it had been going for maybe a year. It probably had a lot of listeners already, but not enough that anyone from a single friend group I'm in, or forum I'm on, had mentioned it once. Getting to spread that to people and introduce them to something so good was really satisfying. * While it used to indicate these sorts of attitude, now when I hear people using the term hipster it's usually just on aesthetic grounds because someone is wearing a certain type of clothing or in a certain place. It's a weird and bankrupt definition, and so knee-jerk I'm not sure how anyone feels confident in their use of it. How many hipsters does it take to change a light bulb?

It's a continuously moving target. I've been in several different social circles who define members of the others as hipsters, but not themselves, and are in turn defined that way by others. It's become a nothing word to me, as snarling and simultaneously pointless as someone who can be bothered to comment "meh" on something. It's a word used to castigate the young and the different when it can't be done on the basis of class or subculture. On that basis, I generally like hipsters because fuck conservatism

Thing I find interesting about this: trance music I've not liked much because I thought it sounded simple suddenly sounds like cool traditional folk music, and I could see a room full of people who hate trance having a really good dance to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN_cCS5U0lk

There are quite a few cutscenes IIRC. I don't generally like cutscenes, but some of Valkyria Chronicles' are really good. Man, it's weird to read back up and see how much I struggled with this at first. The latter parts of the game were so good I only remember enjoying it.

It's probably talking about Jake because that's the most obvious joke to do with this.

Thought that might be where those spikes came from I thought I was going to miss the haunted house, and had to scrimp. Lego are still selling it online and in their UK stores. There are some other big sets I've missed in the past, and it makes me sad the only option seems to be paying triple the money on ebay now

That sort of linear motion only trains a very specific kind of strength too. Free weights build better muscles for more varied movement.

One day, I want to have enough spare time to study Lego and design cool stuff with it. I think I could happily retire with a load of it. For now, I buy a big set and a small set about once a year. Most recently that's Monster Fighters stuff, which are some of the best sets I've built: The hearse has a really nice build, where the last steps put the wheels on and jack it up at the back. I thought it looked kind of clunky and awkward in pictures, but the model itself is brilliantly built and proportioned. You can tell the designers tried to punctuate it with other stuff as much as they could, but the Haunted House has some long repetitive sections of building while you're making the walls. Still though, it's excellent and has some gorgeous detailing inside and out. It's also huge and took me three evenings to build. Both sets underlined to me how Lego designers don't just try to make cool looking models, but design them in such a way that they're fun to build: not too repetitive, and sometimes surprising and suddenly recognisable things emerge from the blocks of abstract shapes you're slowly building up. I'm sad they seemed to discontinue Monster Fighters so quickly. If you disregard the heroes, it's kind of Lego for weirdos. Hotrods and monsters seems like a halfway thing between the polarised goodies/baddies licenses there are so many of, and the blank slate most Lego used to be. I probably also love monster fighters because I grew up surrounded by people who'd disapprove.

Since they're just being manipulated by a field, I'm not sure they really qualify as robots. They're more like actuators for an invisible robot made of computer brain and magnetic fields.

*belly laugh* Oh man, I'm so sorry to read this Miffy. I'd advise saving and taking some time out as soon as you can. I know a teacher in a similar, but permanent, position who had to take time off for stress. Like him, with hindsight you possibly won't want to give up on teaching, but I hope you can find a way through these next ten weeks. Do your friends and girlfriend know the extent of the situation? It sucks so hard that your administration's first stop isn't just, you know, supporting you.

You awaken, pinned into a lightweight yet immovable carbon exo-skeleton.

Whoah, those are all excellent and fascinating. Thanks Thrik

Yeah, I guess so. There's a lot of cultural staging and expectation around that first date. Personally I've learned to deal quite well with it, though I probably couldn't if I was developing strong feelings rather than just attraction. The idea that there are more people out there is a crucial part of that, and whenever I've felt like there aren't, it's meant I'm either living in the wrong place or not doing enough to meet new people. I didn't used to deal with this stuff well in my early twenties, when I had a head full of bullshit like ladder theory, but now I think more like this.

Kind of related to all the dating talk and me thinking humans are weird in the Life thread:

I've thought about this a little since I've been dating again. There are some people I've been on dates with who I'd be glad to have as friends, but the idea of relationship/sex having been on the table at all seems to forbid it due the awkwardness of one person maybe feeling something the other doesn't, and nobody feeling like they can state the unvarnished truth without becoming immensely vulnerable or feeling like a monster. We are such fucking weird creatures.

I remember the PC version running fine, though I had a weird rig with a notoriously unstable GPU. It had problems with loads of games, yet somehow ran BG&E and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. without many hiccups. I would love a game that combined Jade's photojournalism with an X-COM style world map and transport. Leads could go to anything from sudden events to long term situations waiting to be documented.

"The graph says the exact opposite of what we want it to!" "Exact opposite?"

I just saw it made it past the goal: Congrats, JetGetters guys! I hope there's incredibly slow paced sequel revolving around sitting in armchairs for hours at a time, called KetGetters.