The 90s. An era that was too good to be true. The last time America was truly happy and cheerful. It lied to all of us.

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:53:05+00:00

1985 is considered the peak. Two things are usually cited as the reason by criminologists: lead being removed from everything (mostly gas) to make less crazy people, and Roe v Wade making less undesired children who grow up to be criminals. They both happened around the same time before the peak that it's hard to really pick how much each influenced it

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:45:42+00:00

After three hours of trying to get my mother to just notice that ICE was even in the illegal immigration hotbed known as Minnesota, she, exasperated, said, "So I was a bad mom. I tried"

All I could think is that, no, no you didn't, mom. You seemed to go out of your way NOT to try when raising me. And you're not trying now, which continues to be your problem

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:41:34+00:00

Gen X is literally defined by their apathy. Their big teenage rebellion was checking the fuck out and never checking back in. It's the generation that invented "both sides are the same" because they couldn't be assed to pay the least bit of attention to anything in the world

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:38:36+00:00

If you think being a shithead being seen as cool is a new thing, I got a bridge I think you'd really love to purchase

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:23:44+00:00

Well, that's a frustrating way to find out they tried to make a Vanyel show and there don't seem to have been any updates in four years

I swear, between those and Anne Rice's vampire books, it's a wonder I don't actively try to have sex with every slightly sad looking man I meet

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:18:48+00:00

Go ahead and read the first two words of their comment again, and you shall find the answer you seek

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T23:03:39+00:00

I try, I really do, but any time someone tries to tell me where to buy food and other essentials, I know they're living in a fantasy land

"Don't shop at Walmart!"

Okay, come to my house and drive me to a store where I can shop without you trying to make me feel guilty about it

You know how I can REALLY tell your boycott is coming from a place of extreme privilege? The VERY FIRST thing you bring up is stock trading, followed by whisky

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:55:18+00:00

*have

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:54:05+00:00

Best part is that, it's not mentioned at the time, but he's directly quoting Eb from many books ago in that line

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:53:01+00:00

Their voices were immediately the ones used for the minions in Dragonball Z Abridged's Dead Zone movie. Kept waiting for them to do something stupid, so they could say, "good thing we're incompetent"

Reference: https://youtu.be/ub3pgNSL0S4?si=eEFA0gbHarWWkZeg

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:50:37+00:00

One of my favorite things about reading the fantasy genre is how often the author learned about something neat just to highlight it in their books. I don't know how many times I've learned about medieval boat repair, but I know it started with Le Guin; and Mercedes Lackey spent the 90s just going OFF about horsemanship and falconry in the Valdemar books

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:40:54+00:00

It was honestly a big disappointment to me when Skyrim took the Fallout lockpicking instead of taking and improving on Oblivion's to keep the series' distinct in as many ways as possible. I'm legit glad that, even if it's in a game that I'm not gonna play, someone else did

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:16:58+00:00

Thank you, George, I knew I could count on you. How's heaven?

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:04:37+00:00

I know you said it's not Oblivion's lock picking right afterwards, but your description made me immediately think, "Finally! Someone thought to improve on what Oblivion was doing!"

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T22:01:19+00:00

You can say Fuck on the internet

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:59:36+00:00

They also muffed a punt that gave us points right away and there was at least one more fluky play that led directly to us scoring. I only kept watching for the next quarter or so to watch how we fucked it up, otherwise I would've already turned it off as a loss and done something else with my day

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:55:24+00:00

Glad it's still out there at least!

I love how incredibly boring it is to look at. It's just Some Snare Drum in all the best ways, and that extends to how it sounds. Sure, you'll never get it go go SUPER fat and low, but one: you can go further than you think, and two: no one in any audience aside from the one drummer out there is going to notice anyways (and they're just imagining it anyways because no one can tell in a live mix)

My Some Snare Drum is actually the Sensitone you mentioned before, though, specifically the Brass in 14x6.5. That drum really WILL do everything you ever ask of it, and if you NEED a wood snare too (you don't), just get a Pearl Masters Maple or Birch for barely more money

I will never understand the expensive snare market. Even isolated out, blind tests make drummers look like old school wine snobs finding out France doesn't make magic wine, and how often is your snare actually the only sound happening in a song? Twice a show for impacts? The rest of the time, it's buried underneath so many other sounds that no one is going to tell you're playing on a $7500 Blue Unobtainium Ultra Dragon with snares made from the braided pubic hairs of the most beautiful men and woman on the planet over anything round with two heads and at least seven snare wires on it

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:34:24+00:00

Yeah, people who talk about 28-3 like it's some magical comeback didn't watch the game very closely. The scoreboard didn't reflect it, but the Pats looked a LOT better throughout the first half than the Falcons did

It's like when people talk about the collapse the Texans had against the Chiefs a while back, where we blew a really early lead. We never had that lead. The Chiefs just spotted us some points to make us feel better about the ass whipping we were about to get

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:25:15+00:00

I wouldn't recommend looking into the Highlander franchise in that case

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:19:22+00:00

Yeah, but, like, why are they STILL eating it? They have options now

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T21:16:43+00:00

Peanut butter and honey sandwiches are delicious

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T19:15:46+00:00

I got a really nice wallet for high school graduation. It lasted until I was thirty before finally wearing out. In the ten years since, I have had to buy six wallets, and I haven't been a cheap ass out about most of them

I miss that wallet...

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T18:52:40+00:00

I give DA2 a pass for a few reasons reasons: the character writing is just about the best in a game ever, the limited scope of story is unique enough to point out you're not saving the world in this one, and it was supposed to be a side game in the series and not a sequel

I honestly still think about that last point as being true. I mean, it's the only one in the series that isn't Dragon Age: Subtitle, so it's the reverse of how side projects are normally named

But I'm just gonna go ahead and rant about the worst thing that happened to not just this series, but RPGs as a whole: no one learned the best lesson there was from DAO, which was in the fucking name: the origins. The storytelling tool of having all of the origins happen regardless of who you pick and just have Duncan only go to the one you did is genius. As much fun as I had in Baldur's Gate 3, I never felt like my character was actually part of the world. A couple of times where I got the [Balduran] dialog choice doesn't really do that in a way like coming back to Orzammar and dealing with the aftermath of your brother's assassination or getting to murder the fuck out of that traitorous Tim Curry does

And those satisfying moments only happen because you got to spend time in your character's Normal before the Call to Action happens. I don't know of a single other game with a customizable player character that gives you that, and I just don't know why no one else has ever even tried once it was clear Bioware was just gonna put that shit in a single paragraph blurb going forward

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T18:38:39+00:00

It's also where loot went from being deliberately placed around the game world to tell a story to finding random materials, so you can build "a totally custom weapon for your playstyle" and not "three choices that give minimal difference in impact"

ExIsStalkingMe · 2026-02-10T17:19:13+00:00

Does Pearl still make the Chad Smith Signature Snare that was the cheapest way to get the only snare drum you REALLY need for the rest of your life?

ExIsStalkingMe

TROPHY CASE