JonCole

I get the impression that the Xbox One sales boost is fairly inexplicable, no major releases that would favor XBO over PS4, no new bundles, nothing of that nature. I guess it's just an anomaly or a lagging indicator of something?

Advanced meat pulling technique - put it in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, run on medium for a few minutes. Not really necessary for pork, but good for stuff like chicken breasts. Really good tip with the broiler, would totally be good for making some crispy elements that are missing when you make pulled pork in a slow cooker.

More lore galore - Traveler is a Dyson Sphere There is a 5th, yet-unseen race of bad guys Rasputin, his connections to Marathon/Halo, possible connections to Vex (read the comments) If it's not obvious by now, I just wish I was home already playing HoW despite the fact that it's probably day 1 broken and there are probably server issues.

What do you mean by "going into other darkness zones off the mission path"? Do you mean non-public/instanced areas or something? I'm trying to think of what an example of such an area would be along the route to Omnigul in the last strike. One thing that I've noticed since getting back into this game and poking around wikis and Reddit is how much lore stuff people glean from Grimoire entries and item descriptions. It's kinda weird, because people do the exact same thing for Bloodborne and I think that game gets a lot of praise for having a level of storytelling that requires you to observe the environment and dig deep into seemingly innocuous text. I imagine that Destiny doesn't get the same treatment because 1) the grimoires are out of the context of the game and 2) the setting is modern/future, so people aren't really looking for detailed, intricate design to the degree they would in a medieval-ish setting with ornate statues and such. It's a shame, because despite doing almost the same thing as Bloodborne the game gets brushed aside when it comes to story. Anyways, this is the Reddit thread that got me thinking about this stuff - http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/36ekrt/hidden_lore_of_the_hive/

Yeah, I've build up a stash of about 40 engrams ready to be decrypted as soon as possible. That'll be fun. Also ran the Nightfall last night with spork, which was super fun. That was the first time I actually completed a Nightfall strike, which is pretty remarkable considering how long the game has been out. I'd definitely be down to do that any time, particularly now that I remember that there is a Dark Below bounty for it that I never complete plus I have the Pocket Infinity exotic bounty that has been sitting in my bounty box for months now. Not to mention the XP bonus from running it, which was really nice. I had two Vanguard commendations sitting around which I popped right after for about half a rank of Vanguard at once. Not too shabby.

They're electric. They're designed to supply constant, relatively efficient, low heat for a long time. They usually have a big ceramic dish to retain heat fairly well. It's kinda hard to get the amount of liquid in a slow cooker wrong unless you put none in there. Basically it has a lot to do with how much you want it to fall apart. For something like pulled pork, you're usually just fine with a cup of stock or something in the bottom to get the steam going and as not to overcook that particular side of the meat. Pulled pork is a particularly easy slow cooker thing, all you do is put in some sliced onions and garlic, a cup of stock, whatever seasoning you like (for me it's usually cumin, chili powder, maybe some brown sugar or barbecue sauce), plus a 5 lb pork shoulder and let it go for about 8 hours.

Oh yes, liners are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Yeah, Leigh Alexander was saying something to the effect of "I don't she's saying that there's a literal dress code" to which he responded "then she shouldn't have said those exact words in the title!" He's arguing with a position that nobody in reality would actually espouse. Also, I don't think it's especially cynical of a writer to say something in a headline that's not literally true that gets people to read the article for greater context. As far as clickbait titles go, that one barely qualifies.

I was gleaning it in real-time just a little while ago from Twitter. If I wasn't at work I'd put together a Storify or something, but Jonathan Blow was one of the loudest developers talking about it and it's all pretty fresh in his feed. He was talking with a few other indie devs that I didn't recognize right off the bat, save for Tommy Refenes of SMB fame.

The video-game industry has a dress code – driven by a lack of diversity Predictably, a bunch of white male developers have taken offense to this article that says the standard plaid shirt + denim jeans uniform worn by many developers is inherently exclusionary of women. Also, Jonathan Blow literally cannot get past the fact that the title of the article is "accusing the games industry of something that it isn't" because the industry literally doesn't have a dress code. Another day, another pile of patriarchy garbage.

The Wirecutter/Sweethome has been pretty well covered here, but I'll mention it again wrt to the imminent slow cooker and blender purchases. Unfortunately, their pick for slow cooker is only in stock for third-party, expensive sellers but the one you chose looks to be in the same product line as their runner-up choice so it's all good. I think that buying one with a timer and digital heat settings is a good idea. I actually just picked up the budget pick in their blender guide. I've made shakes and smoothies in it already and I like it quite a bit. I've tried out a few cheap blenders before (which are just definitively bad, don't buy anything in the $30ish range) and I've tried my Dad's Vitamix (which is pretty amazing). I'd say that the Kitchenaid actually holds up fairly well to the Vitamix all things considered, with a really powerful pulse, a solid/heavy base, an easy to clean pitcher, and no trouble blending a ton of frozen fruit and ice with no big chunks left intact. I definitely think that this is a kitchen appliance that's worth investing in if you want one, just to ensure quality.

Jake is very inspirational to me. I really liked Fullmetal Alchemist. Probably the most notable thing about it is that I felt that characters actually developed over time for good reasons, which is something I'm not quite used to with anime. It was a good thing to attach myself to while watching it, because at times the plot felt a bit uneven and hard to follow. I particularly felt that the back and forth on the morality of - This is not to say that I thought the plot was necessarily bad or disappointing, just that it was hard to follow and ultimately not that valuable to my enjoyment of the series as a whole. Also better than what other anime I've watched is how well FMA managed to wrap up character arcs. Save for a few notable but not "important" characters who were kinda forgotten in the climactic ending, most everyone actually got to see some kind of satisfying resolution to the respective paths they chose. I mean, I really wish that - But I guess we don't always get what we want. I'm sorely wanting more of the series to watch, so I'm going to see about finding Shamballa to get a bit more closure.

Just finished watching Fullmetal Alchemist for the first time. It's probably been talked to death here as it's one of those must-see kinda things, but I just have two questions. Is it worth watching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood? I understand that it's just a reworked version of the anime more closely following the manga, but I super enjoyed the original anime so I'm kinda interested. Probably wouldn't watch it immediately, but wondering if it should be on my radar. Second question, is it worth watching any or both of the sequel full-length features? The first one seems pretty hard to find on blu-ray (like $100 used on Amazon!!!) so I wonder if it's worth tracking down.

He went on a date that seemed promising, it went well, but then the whole thing didn't turn out well in the end. At least that's how I'm reading it.

The Starbreeze game? Oh man, that sounds super interesting if so. Sad I missed it, really loved the single-player.

There is just so much to unpack there. It just seems like you have a personal beef with Arthur and can't look past that. Just he's a hardass boss and one of his employees is female doesn't mean that it's proof positive that he's some hypocritical woman hater. You still haven't done anything to convince me that watching a show that may not have the POC ratio that you find reasonable means that he's not allowed to be critical of something not having enough POC. Furthermore, I'm sure that any number of "real feminists" that you can find also watch Game of Thrones. As far as drawing a lot of "tits and ass", there are any number of examples of artists who paint with a sexual brush who are absolutely feminist. One of my favorite artists, Irene Koh, is obviously, notably, almost belligerently feminist yet she has an NSFW page on her site with stuff that isn't blatantly empowering for women. Notable feminist writer Gail Simone's biggest and most notable recent franchise is Red Sonja, which has covers like this yet she manages to write Sonja with care and respect. My point in this being, just because you draw "T&A" doesn't mean anything in and of itself. Frankly, this kind of stuff just seems like free association that suggests everything and means nothing. Not only that, but to simultaneously say that you "pass on shit that really sucks" + "to each his own" at the same time as suggesting that Bayonetta 2 isn't problematic in any way is frankly pretty hilarious.

I don't really think it's relevant. Arthur isn't reviewing Game of Thrones for Polygon, nor did he damn The Witcher 3 with a poor review resulting in a low score because he seemed to enjoy it. It's okay to like problematic things, it's just important to think about those problems.

God, I'm really starting to hate Adrian Chmielarz. He just couldn't help himself in criticisng Polygon's review of The Witcher 3, written by Arthur Gies who has beef with Adrian but whom Adrian assures us he isn't biased towards. Basically he says that Arthur writes a good review, but couldn't help himself in spewing his SJW agenda by pointing out that the game has no POC and that it has some female-unfriendly creative decisions. Adrian points out that POC exist in the Witcher universe, but their lack of inclusion isn't a problem because... he deems it so? I guess the absence of POC and the major problem with them being a lack of representation just have nothing to do with each other. His second issue is even more stupid, here's an excerpt - He's so fucking stupid that he can't square the fact that a game could have a world that is misogynistic but the game isn't inherently misogynistic and instead disconcerting and problematic. He just ignores the fact that Arthur is blatantly making a very clear attempt to communicate that he doesn't believe the developer to be misogynistic, instead that the developer hasn't taken much care in representing women well despite the women in the game having some element of depth. I'm so infuriated that apparently all women are entitled to are strong characters, forget that those characters aren't actually treated with the same respect that male characters receive. Sorry for the language, I just needed to vent about this thing.

I'm doing some financial stuff and thinking about canceling Gamefly, at least until I manage my backlog a bit more. That said, I decided to take a look at my backlog for just what I've accumulated this year. Barring anything that I got free via PS+ or extremely cheap in PSN sales (like, <$5 stuff that I was buying more for library reasons than anything else), my backlog is OUT OF CONTROL. Definitely going to cancel Gamefly.

I need to run the Weekly again so I can finish both an exotic weapon quest and the Dark Below quest for beating it. So, either way I'd be up for joining in if you see me. I don't think they've said anything about making Nightfall quests easier or harder, only that they were going to uncouple them from the weekly so that there are two different weekly strikes per week so that non-DLC people still have something to do.

Yeah... well if you ever see me playing Saturday/Sunday mornings (which I guess would be afternoons) hit me up, that's probably the only time it'd ever work. In other news, Destiny just put out a pre-House of Wolves patch - 1.2.0 : The one to pre-load House of Wolves Destiny Expansion II will change the way we all play and upgrade our characters. Before the release of the House of Wolves, we’re deploying new code that will impact the player experience. Weapons Fixed an issue in which Vex Mythoclast was not respawning with primary ammunition Fixed an issue with the Hive Disruptor perk, which now appears in the Black Hammer perk set again Fixed an issue in which the Phantom Gift and White Nail perks would become interrupted when non-precision damage occurred from other perks Bonus damage from other perks (e.g., Explosive Rounds, Hive Disruptor) no longer interrupts the count Three precision hits within the time window will trigger the intended refund bonus Fixed an issue in which the Hive Disruptor perk did not work correctly with sustained damage events (auto rifles, pulse, etc.) Oracle Disruptor perk now triggers more often Hive Disruptor perk now triggers more often, but does less damage per event PVP Salvage: Moved the first Relic to more consistently appear in a centralized position on the map Fixed an issue that caused players to wait an excessively long time to respawn Tower Faction reward packages will no longer produce Shards The Speaker will now exchange Ascendant and Radiant Materials for Glimmer and Motes of Light Xûr will now exchange Strange Coins for Motes of Light Commendations are no longer required to purchase gear Commendations can now be converted to receive +250 gains in Vanguard, Crucible, or Faction reputation Note: Etheric Light will not be made available for ascending gear until the release of House of Wolves User Interface Vendor Interaction Panel has been updated to support Quest chains Vendor Interaction Panel now has better animations and fewer popping issues Number of buffs that can be displayed on the Character screen has been increased Inventory item stacks that have reached their highest possible count will now display gold numbers along with an alert in the tooltip that maximum quantities have been acquired Audio Added improved feedback for players who take damage from energy weapons Companion Fixed an issue in which the Mercury Grimoire card was not being awarded Retroactively awarded the Mercury Grimoire card to players who have found the "Mercury Memory Fragment" Dead Ghost Vendor items, damage types, and perks will now be visible on Bungie.net and the Mobile App Technical Addressed a crash on Xbox One that was induced when too many explosions/projectiles were generated Fixed an issue that affected the network quality user interface Indicators will no longer display persistently bad ("red") quality after a user's connection recovers from a temporary quality issue The quality indicators should now always correctly reflect a user's live connection quality *Addendum We have discovered that Legendary Engrams will drop in 1.2.0 that the Cryptarchs will not recognize Hold on to all newly-acquired purple Engrams until May 19th to benefit from their upgraded decryption skillset

This probably won't last long, but you can get a refurbished Crucial 128GB SSD for $30 + tax - http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/fcct128m4ssd1 Dead!

Does anyone regularly complete the Weekly Nightfall Strikes? With all the talk about the raid, I'm actually a bit more interested in the strikes considering the guaranteed 1/3 shot at an Exotic, possible Strange Coin rewards, and the exp/rep buff you get from completing it. I'm about to hit level 30, so if anyone is interested in running Nightfall strikes let me know.

I liked Apple Cider's writeup on it - http://www.applecidermage.com/2015/05/13/jem-and-the-holograms-trailer-magic-and-glitter-exit-stage-right/