JonCole

Cara also said that a big part of the reason why she's getting into making games is so she can talk about games with more authority. I don't think she's necessarily planning on getting back to journalism/games writing any time soon, but the possibility of coming back to it is in her mind once she has a more complete perspective.

I'd be really curious to know what you considered a spoiler in what I said. With the divergent path of the show from the books, literally anything at this point is speculation and if I implied any knowledge of future events of the show I'd hope it'd be taken as conjecture and not spoiler. Nonetheless, apologies if you feel I ruined anything for you. It really was not my intention in the least.

Oh, I thought you still didn't have an exotic. Ignore what I was saying! I went on Bungie.net to actually look at your gear, your exotic is way better than the one on offer so no worries there. I'd run the Weekly Strike, then use the coins you get to get an Exotic Shard and ascend your Ruin Wings. That'd get you a quick 6 light (34->40) and probably a level. Then you'd want to upgrade your helmet or your chest piece (chest piece would get you less light, but would be cheaper in terms of marks). In other news I hit level 34! Got extremely lucky with my Trials of Osiris run with Vasari, got 9 wins so I got all the possible loot (minus the loot chest you apparently get if you get 9 wins/0 losses). Managed to really luck out and get two Etheric Light, as well as the chest piece you get if you get at least 5 wins. I'm SO STOKED.

I should be home in 1.5 hours or so, I'd be happy to ToO with you. I don't know if I'm hardcore, but I have a Striker specced Titan at L32 and my KDR is like 1.54. Also, to Zeus - if No Backup Plans holds any interest to you, we could probably run the level 30 Strike prior to the raid for strange coins if that'd be enough to bag you that exotic from Xur. It's not a particularly great one for end-game content, but could work for a Strength-Defender build. Also also, if you have any leftover ascendant materials/strange coins you can trade them to Speaker/Xur for Motes of Light and risk an Exotic Helmet Engram from Xur.

Badfinger's app recommendation seems solid, I used an app called "Daily Yoga" for a little while and liked it well enough (though you would have to pay for modules of it). As far as more free videos, I subscribed to this channel a while ago and it was pretty good the few times I used it - https://www.youtube.com/user/DrMelissaWest

If you have the strange coins for it, grab a couple exotic shards and you'll bring that TLW up to speed in no time. If you have any exotic armor pieces, upgrading them with shards is also a good way to level really fast. Each shard is 7 coins from Xur, or you get one for every exotic you dismantle. I actually picked up the bounty for Super Good Advice but I already had one, so I went ahead and broke down my old gun for the shard.

Doesn't the Fatebringer (and maybe some of the others?) only drop on Hard Mode? I could be mistaken in this. I would definitely want that stuff, but my collection of weapons is so threadbare right now that practically any legendaries or exotics are benefiting me quite a bit let alone some of the better/best ones in their particular class.

I frequent this site quite a bit to have fairly economical cooking - http://www.budgetbytes.com/ I don't track my budget as closely as she does and I'm sure I end up spending more because I don't buy spices in bulk and the most convenient store for me is relatively expensive, but I think I'm able to achieve sub-$3/meal pretty often nonetheless.

Fair enough, I just feel like exercise is one of those things that you really benefit most from diversifying what you do. Yoga absolutely can be pretty intense and build strength/endurance, but if your goal is being a healthy person I'd posit that it's better to do a little bit of yoga/stretching, a little bit of strength, a little bit of endurance, and a little bit of cardio. I do understand the sentiment of people who just hate running so they've resolved to never do cardio or they only like yoga so they become yoga savants who practice every style of yoga out there, but I just can't imagine that it's the most efficient way to general health. I should also say that I was being lazy with my characterization of yoga. I do feel like there is ramp up, but form becomes a lot more important when doing more intensive yoga. I've done some pretty decent damage to myself trying to do more advanced poses without someone to monitor me and I really felt like I benefited quite a bit when I was actually taking a yoga class when doing anything more than the basics.

Yoga daily or pretty frequently is sure to be good for you, but yoga is really only flexibility/foundational training. It gets you limber, feeling better, more prepared for exercise, etc but there's not much ramp up to it. Of course, you can become a yoga master and do headstands all day but you're going to hit a ceiling in terms of benefits to your overall health. The next step would be some kind of strength or endurance training. You can easily do bodyweight exercises at home and there are tons of easy-to-follow, unintimidating books that cover the topic. I'm sure searching "bodyweight exercise" will give you a good idea of what I'm talking about, it's just stuff that you can do at home with minimal equipment. Pretty easy to get into versus going outside or to a gym.

I don't know if I'd characterize it as renaming instant breakfast because the goal of Soylent is total meal replacement rather than a single meal (as one wouldn't get a full range of nutrients from three meals of instant breakfast mixes per day). But maybe to answer your actual question, yes they've named a meal replacement drink Soylent. Is $3 a meal really that cheap? I'm sure I average more because I don't pay close attention to budgeting for cooking, but I imagine it's easier to do cheaper and not have to drink slop for every meal. To me the only benefits of Soylent are convenience and novelty.

Something I've been thinking about since HoW came out - is VoG really worth doing? I've only done it a few times myself so I don't have much of the gear and such from it, but it seems like the immediate benefits of PoE, ToO and the Nightfall are way more efficient with time and effort than the raid. Also, are we talking about the level 30 VoG? I think there's even less reason to do the normal mode version but it might be necessary if people haven't gotten any post HoW gear to level quickly. Granted, I'd still be willing to run VoG if only for shards/energy so I can farm motes of light + general fun factor, just wondered if I was the only one with some reservations.

Prison of Elders is PVE horde and Trials of Osiris is PVP. Both can bag you LL42 armor, so it's best to do both if you can bear it. Also, you should be running the daily Crucible at least once a day for Passage Coins which can artificially boost your Trials of Osiris numbers to give you better rewards.

Just added my times. I have a ton of stuff I want need to do this weekend, including PoE, ToO, Weekly, and Nightfall so please don't hesitate to contact me if I'm on PSN and you're available for any of this.

All I have to say is that Puzzle and Dragons would be perfect for a commute. No opinions on the other things.

I probably could have said it better, yeah.

My first thought is that if you feel like your life is no particularly fulfilling where you are, you're not having an immense amount of luck with dating, and one of your dreams in life is to live in Japan again, absolutely do it. Realistically, the job won't last forever and chances are you'd find yourself back in the States. I think Japan is probably a really good place at making you feel like you're alone, but I suspect that there's something about being in an out-group that could make it possible (maybe easier?) to find fellow white people to socialize with, though probably less frequently just because of math. I think you only get so many chances to do something you've been dreaming about for years, take them when you have the opportunity. Plus, Japan is fucking awesome and worst case scenario you're stuck in a country where you can get delicious onigiri at any convenience store, you can take an extremely efficient train system to places that are nerd paradise, you're in a place with deep and amazing history, and changing your life in a major way might just shake things up so that you might end up better off when it's all done.

Good job Zeus, that's pretty impressive. Good luck with Rage, that game is like 20 hours of my life I wish I could get back.

Re: GOT S05E06 - Also, this GOT "recap" is pretty hilarious (spoilers I guess) - http://captainofalltheships.tumblr.com/post/119331006022/chrys-watches-got-season-5-episode-6

HoW leveling (putting this half so I remember as well as anyone else's benefit) - Etheric light can be obtained by running Nightfall missions and Prison of Elders Seems like Etheric Light is a guaranteed drop from 34+ PoE once a week Use Etheric Light to upgrade your armor before weapons, as increasing your light level ultimately improves both attack and defense If all of your armor is 36 light, you'll be level 33. If all of your armor is 42 light, you'll be level 34. Best/fastest route to 34 is using Exotic Shard to ascend Exotic Armor piece to 42, beat lv 32 PoE for Armor Core to trade to Variks for another 42 light piece, beat the Nightfall or L34 PoE for an Etheric Light to upgrade a 36L legendary to 42, run Trials of Osiris on the weekend to get the fourth level 42 armor piece.

Is that acceptable PSN social behavior? I didn't really know of that function of parties, just the practical one of literally making a room to talk in. So if I was looking for a fireteam to do a strike or something, it might be a good idea to start a party and people might just jump in?

Ah, good to know. That said, I've been brushing up on both mark caps since I've started playing again. I wish they would raise it just a little, particularly since they seem to be giving out marks for everything in PvE. Does anyone want to run the Trials of Osiris this weekend? I really want to get the new armor sets. I think I'm pretty competent, carried a handful of Salvage/Skirmish games to victory last night.

I'd just recommend getting one with a timer, unless you're absolutely sure that big cuts of meat will be your only medium. There are tons of slow cooker soup or stew recipes that necessitate a long but not too long (think 4 hours or so) cooking time that benefit from a delayed start from when I leave in the morning for work. Some people do a thing where if it takes 3 hours on high, they put it at 6 hours on low but I haven't had a particularly great experience with that method and some recipes even take a few hours on low.

Is it just me or did they really crank up the drop rate yesterday? I got like 6 legendary drops and I took part in a few Crucible matches where practically every person got either a legendary (or two!) or an exotic. I wonder if my perception is just skewed because something significant is happening, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they baited the hook a little for people coming back to the game.

Well this is already pretty exciting, just hit light level 31 purely buying armor from the NPC with Vanguard marks I had lying around. I also used Crucible marks to buy a new Scout Rifle from Dead Orbit and tried out the new gunsmithing feature. I burned 10 motes of light, but I ended up getting perks that reduce recoil significantly and make headshots blow dudes up (like Praedyth's Revenge). I'm so stoked!