BarretWallace

True, but Captain America: Civil War did a much better job of it. Tony and Cap had their differences early on but could put them aside to unite against Loki and the Chitauri invasion. Their differences didn't go away, and in fact grew to the point where it pushed them apart in Civil War. I was terribly frightened of splitting up the Avengers that way, but the way they did it felt natural (however painful). Then when Thanos and his minions got twitchy, Cap and Tony (and their respective factions) found it in themselves to unite again. One of my favorite lines: "Do you trust me?" "Yes." In contrast, the Snyderverse showed me characters who were at odds and not heroic more because they were never truly united or heroic in the first place. They also didn't resemble anything I recalled from the comics, especially "Superman" (which kinda hurt because I think Henry Cavill is talented outside a Snyder movie). Argh...that all looks terribly incoherent, but maybe that's just a side effect of looking at Man of Steel and trying to call it a Superman movie.

I'm reminded of the "Come to Australia" song where the chorus includes, "...come to Australia; you might accidentally get killed." I think Australian flora and fauna have it out for each other universally; I'm not sure the human residents are a particular target.

Dogs have owners. Cats have staff.

If I may risk a non-animal pic....

"Ni!"

I think that a lot of people simply won't get it until the virus afflicts (or even kills) someone they know and love. I'm not immune to this...I mean, I'd like to think my family has been cautious, but the prospects of my better half--or the kids!--getting this is terrifying. I hope it never bridges the gap between prospect and reality.

...what you said. "Hit 'em in the wallet" seems to be the only thing many people will even notice these days. I even have close friends--though maybe they are no longer so close as I might think--who have, at best, a highly cavalier attitude toward the virus. They never wear masks, even while out and about. Social distancing? What's that? They put their kid on a plane to fly out east without a second thought. Days after another kid gets home from a country at warning level 3, they are mixing and mingling with the public at large. I have skipped one gathering with them because of these decisions and behaviors, and this weekend will skip another gathering for the same reasons. My heart aches, because these are good people and I don't want any of them sick or dead. I also can't stop them.

But what have the Romans ever done for us, such that their candles should be venerated so many years later? Maybe you could also lob a few Roman candles into my neighborhood to break up the damn late night fireworks. I don't get up at 4 AM (a little after 5 instead), but damn, wish they'd have some consideration for people who have to sleep to live.

What's taters, Precious?

The difference between a roleplaying game and a comic book is that the comic writers have full control over the narrative, while this is...less true in a roleplaying game. In a game, the narrative is subject to the players and an even deadlier foe, the whims of the dice (we all know how the laws of probability warp in proximity to game dice). The West End d6 Star Wars game had their Force Points, and the old Serenity RPG had Plot Points. Both games had cool mechanisms for determining how these points were replenished, always a reflection on how they were used and how the character was played. I never felt like there were enough of those points to power the character through every low the adventure threw at them. For Hero...well, I think it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you develop a system that works for your game and enhances its flavor without robbing it of dramatic potential.

Big moo-lah?

Ice Pilots: NWT

1. Some guys like that bottled beer Some like it in a can Some say a keg's the best beer For a real beer drinking man Everyone has their favourite But on one thing they agree The greatest beer in all the world Is the one you drink for free Free beer free beer That's my favourite brand If I didn't have to buy it It's the best beer in the land Warm flat funky It don't matter to me The greatest beer in this whole world Is the one you buy for me 2. The boys at the bar were betting On whose beer was the best I didn't have a nickel So they chose me to make the test Those fifteen different kinds of beer Were wonderful to me Each one was my favourite brew The beer I drink for free Free beer free beer That's my favourite brand If I didn't have to buy it It's the best beer in the land Warm flat funky It don't matter to me The greatest beer in this whole world Is the one you buy for me 3. Our old pal Nudsie got married He was trying to save some bucks He went out and bought the cheapest beer And boy it really sucked But after you choke that first one down The rest go easily As long as you remember that You're drinking them all for free Free beer free beer That's my favourite brand If I didn't have to buy it It's the best beer in the land Warm flat funky It don't matter to me The greatest beer in this whole world Is the one you buy for me

I'm listening to the rather noisy (but blessedly effective) air handling system in our building at work.

"If you weren't my cousin I'd marry you." "That's never stopped anyone in this family."

https://variety.com/2018/film/news/gary-kurtz-dead-dies-star-wars-1202954316/

The ESB trip to Bespin didn't bother me too much...in part because of a game mechanic quirk from the old West End d6 Star Wars RPG. Most ships larger than fighters had some form of backup hyperdrive. Backups were always hideously slow compared to the main drive, and weren't meant to be used for more than one or two jumps before needing an overhaul, but could help a ship limp to port to effect repairs. I wonder if they came up with that mechanic from that very scene, because it made more sense that way.

Hello all, I keep fairly rigorous backups of my files at home (external hard drive), and am looking for a good cloud-based solution to augment this. I want my ideal cloud service to do two things. Provide an off-site (online) place to backup files exactly as I currently do with the external hard drive. This includes "active" videos (i.e. video files that are part of current projects). Provide an off-site (online) place to archive large files, especially older videos, so I can get them off my hard drive and free up space. Once I'm done with a project, I would like a place to store video and project files for possible future use. Additionally, I would like to digitize my camcorder tapes while this is still possible (and before the tapes degrade). Maybe I will never touch that footage again, but maybe not. Already I use One Drive to store/sync some files, via my Office 365 subscription. It's all right for syncing, but if there's a way to make it do an archive as well, I don't know how. I have Google Docs storage via my Gmail accounts and find it generally easy to use. Neither of these feels quite right when I add in item #2 on the list above. I have done (and will continue to do) some solid research on my own, and figured I'd tap the Hero boards for advice from my more computer-savvy (doesn't take much, I admit) board-mates. I've also done some searching on these boards for similar topics and have not found anything yet. Cheers, BarretWallace

Rey would have been more interesting to me if she had joined forces with Kylo Ren. She went to incredible lengths to find Luke only to be rejected by him, so to find someone actually willing to mentor her...well, it might have been fun. I did crack a grin at a legendary Jedi Master being spooked by an angry Wookiee bashing down his door.

Last-minute sacrifices that are supposed to be tragic and noble, and maybe sometimes are, but that you can see coming a long, LONG way off. Bruce Willis's death in Armageddon jumped out at me in this regard. The odds of death go up about 10,000% if said character has children or other close family, and are 99.9999% certain if the character shows a picture of their kids (this last one can also apply to non-sacrificial death by any throwaway character who shows his/her teammates a picture of their kids and/or talks about them to any great degree). Bruce's death also illustrates how you should never, ever promise to come home to your kids after "this job" is done.

That's why I enjoyed Last Action Hero so much. In and of itself it wasn't a great movie, but it had so much fun poking fun at the action genre that I couldn't help but like it.

Such septic humor. I need to scat away from this discussion.

I was surprisingly fond of the Solo movie on a couple of levels. First, it showed us the underworld of the Star Wars universe instead of another stab at an epic Jedi/Sith or Rebellion/Empire type of story. The characters were more ordinary, sort of like "Firefly meets Star Wars", just trying to make their way in the galaxy. I found the change of pace refreshing, sort of like how I felt after seeing Rogue One. Second, I echo Old Man's opinion of the story: reasonably well written, with no massive plot holes. Third, I had a few nerd moments when the characters dropped little references to the classic Lando Calrissian and Han Solo novels, and when a certain Ewok kinda showed up. It certainly has its flaws and nits to pick, but overall I found it to be an enjoyable popcorn flick, and will probably buy the Blu Ray when it comes out.

'Scuse me while I whip this out.

"Come to Australia; you might accidentally get killed. Blood is sure to be spilled. Your pants will soon be filled."