L. Marcus

I just got home from seeing The Boy And The Heron, Hayao Miyazaki's and Studio Ghibli's latest. I suspect this really will be Miyazaki's last, and what a way to bow out! It had an even deeper fairy tale feeling than Spirited Away, and it was even more beautiful than Howl's Moving Castle. Expect a bit of a mind screw. Aaaalmost five out of five marching parakeets.

In Finland, all the boxes are kill boxes.

-- merged --
 
 
I assume one of the snipers got him before he was finished.

Give the man five months of the stuff. He'll come around.

One of the hardest words to pronounce in the Swedish language: västkustskt -- "of or pertaining to the Western coast". Typiskt västkustskt -- "typically westcoastian".

Dave was bragging to his boss one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."
Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "OK, Dave, how about Tom Cruise?"
"No dramas boss, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it." So Dave and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and Tom Cruise shouts,
"Dave! What's happening? Great to see you! Come on in for a beer!"
Although impressed, Dave's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he tells Dave that he thinks him knowing Cruise was just lucky.
"No, no, just name anyone else," Dave says.
"President Obama," his boss quickly retorts.
"Yup," Dave says, "Old buddies, let's fly out to Washington," and off they go.
At the White House, Obama spots Dave on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Dave, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a beer first and catch up."
Well, the boss is very shaken by now but still not totally convinced. After they leave the White House grounds he expresses his doubts to Dave, who again implores him to name anyone else.
"Pope Francis," his boss replies.
"Sure!" says Dave. "I've known the Pope for years." So off they fly to Rome.
Dave and his boss are assembled with the masses at the Vatican's St. Peter's Square when Dave says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." He disappears into the crowd headed towards the Vatican.
Sure enough, half an hour later Dave emerges with the Pope on the balcony, but by the time Dave returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics.
Making his way to his boss' side, Dave asks him, "What happened?"
His boss looks up and says, "It was the final straw... you and the Pope came out on to the balcony and the man next to me said, 'Who the  is that on the balcony with Dave?'

Elsewhere, someone had commented that the original character image (do not view the middle to bottom of the webpage unless you are thoroughly familiar with the lass) reminded them of Princess Victoria of Sweden. Me, being absolutely clueless regarding the reference, looked up the woman in question; sure enough, I now agree. Both Skie and Victoria are nobility...though the former is a sheltered Thief desperate for adventure (I can't speak to the proclivities of the latter ). Given the fact that other portraits from that same CRPG are based on real people, such an inspiration wouldn't be a terribly surprising "revelation", if true.
 
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This seems like a roundabout way for people who support the status quo and believe us to be falling away from it to call themselves strong and their opponents weak, ie. an elaborate ego-stroke. Basically just saying, "Things were bad, then people like me made it better, and we made it so great that now ungrateful people are trying to wreck it because they don't get how great I am and have been at all moments in history. I guess I'm just too awesome for my own good, poor me."
 
People have different ideas of what's authoritarian and what's not, and what's "good times" and what's not, based on their personal ideology, it's not an objective scale by any measure. This perspective of yours has many unspoken assumptions baked into it, both about what constitutes authoritarian societies and what constitutes good versus bad times.

"There is another matter... one I'm reluctant to..."
"Please."
"One of our submarines, an Alfa, was last reported in the area of the Grand Banks. We have not heard from her for some time."
"Andrei... [removes glasses] you've lost another submarine?"

This looks like one of Wile E. Coyote's designs--and looks just as certain to fail.

A remarkable system of exoplanets:
 
‘Shocked and delighted': Astronomers find six planets orbiting in resonance (msn.com)
 
(The BBC story was cringe-inducing. The presenter interviewing the scientist kept calling it a "universe" instead of a "solar system." Aargh!)
 
Dean Shomshak
I was reading about making pharmaceuticals in space back in the 1980s, in books like Stine's The Space Enterprise. Now it's happening for real.
 
https://www.marketplace.org/2023/11/29/low-earth-orbit-open-for-business-varda-space-industries/
 
Dean Shopmshak

*sputters agedly*

Since this first went up, Guidelines have been made official by the admins etc.
 
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Give the man five months of the stuff. He'll come around.

Give the man five months of the stuff. He'll come around.

*brainbroke*

I'm at 39000 as of this morning. Hope to hit the 40000 today or more. Thanksgiving is coming up and that's usually the momentum killer for me because of expectations.