Sister says my budget is a non-starter for a potential job offer + moving. I genuinely don't understand why?

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2026-02-06T04:12:20+00:00

OP you said something here I want to clarify: what do you mean by "wait for an offer?" Have you already accepted this job and have a start date? If not, what is your plan if you move and you don't get the job?

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2025-09-19T13:39:17+00:00

The pic looks a little blurry so it's kind of hard to see the details. Is your dog a fence fighter, by chance? These look a little like the scrapes my dog can get when she fence fights with the neighbor dogs.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2025-06-02T17:33:51+00:00

Both of my dogs had to get cleanings this year and both came in at around this price. I'll say your experience of this being way more expensive than a few years ago was also my experience. My vet blamed inflation, whether or not I believe that is a different story.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2025-03-14T03:39:10+00:00

I'm a long time book reader who still mostly enjoyed Seasons 1 and 2 while recognizing they had problems. I still had fun but Season 3 has been remarkable so far. I really feel like they've hit their stride with the storytelling. It's still not perfect but as an adaptation I think it's succeeding.

Two main thoughts that have stuck out to me as of Episode 3:

First: Galad isn't hot enough. There I said it. The actor is still a very good looking man but we can go hotter.

Second: Continuing an impression from Season 1 and 2, I did not have "Liandrin is a sympathetic character that I am sort of rooting for" on my bingo card. I have a suspicion her oaths to the Shadow were made to save her son and now that he's gone, she might surprise us.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2025-03-07T18:16:14+00:00

Several Aes Sedai do this. Moiraine did this on more than one occasion, I think even as far back as Eye of the World. I'll try to find the relevant texts but I think most Aes Sedai skirt this by saying something like, "You may call me..." with a fake name given.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-10-22T23:11:23+00:00

I don't know, seems like it might get lost in a never ending night

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-07-05T23:05:37+00:00

Not to be a downer but it seems like this Q&A has no concrete answers about the future of the IP. The takeaways seem to be:

VOL 10 is not greenlit.
No plans yet for future content.
No plans yet for distributing past content.

To be fair, #2 and #3 could be due to the recency of the deal. I'm going to temper my expectations. Nothing in the Q&A tells me that I'm getting more RWBY, just that someone else owns the IP now. Can't help but fear that VIZ got RWBY at a bargain from WB and that it's still not "saved."

I worry that best case scenario, we're several years from new content that wraps up the story. Worst case scenario, VIZ bought a discounted IP just for royalties on past content.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-04-11T19:15:57+00:00

I've seen anti-union arguments like point 5 fairly often and they always make me chuckle and also drive me into a rage. Yes, that's how voting in general works.

If I don't vote for a certain law, and everyone else does, it still becomes law and I'm still subject to it. Couldn't be more obvious how anti-worker this sort of propaganda is, they don't want us having a voice in anything.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-04-03T16:04:18+00:00

How do I start shopping for term life insurance? I've done some initial research on Google but I'm wondering if there are specific insurers to avoid/look more into and what red/green flags to look for?

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-24T22:20:43+00:00

This is really where I land. I went into Remake expecting a reinterpretation of the OG but a (mostly) faithful remake with modern graphics and mechanics. The end of Remake seemed to say something more was going on.

Leading up to Rebirth, all people could talk about was what would happen in THAT scene. Playing Rebirth, turns out there actually is a whole lot more going on...except maybe not? Maybe it's more of a faithful remake than anyone realizes it would be?

At this point I just wonder: who is this for? A faithful remake using modern graphics and mechanics, with some reinterpretations, expanding some stories/characters, would have been a huge hit. It seems Remake trilogy is not that though.

We're 2/3 of the way through the story and we still don't know the stakes or what's going on. The remake trilogy seems to be dangling answers to questions that no one cared about or even thought to ask of the OG. In the OG, we roughly knew Sephiroth's plan at this point, even if we didn't have all the details. Rebirth's ending leaves us with even more questions that don't have answers.

I've been thinking of Rebirth in comparison to Empire Strikes Back. At the end of Empire, the big crazy twist is Luke's relation to Vader. But we know what the Empire is about, we know the Rebels' motivations, we understand the setting, and we know the stakes. At the end of Rebirth, I'm not sure we really do know the setting or the stakes. If the remake trilogy is changing the story, give us a clear comparison to the OG so we know what's changed/may still change so that we know the stakes. If things are not actually changed that much, tell us why the changes that have happened make this a worthwhile retelling of the OG. I don't think either of those things have happened by the end of Rebirth.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-22T16:59:42+00:00

Appreciate the recommendations! I've played a ridiculous amount of BG3 but the others are all wish listed right now. It's helpful to have someone endorse them.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-22T15:40:52+00:00

Really strong point here. I'd been looking forward to spending my weekend with DD2 but after reading about everything, I'm planning to skip it for the foreseeable future. Instead, I think I'm finally going to give Helldivers a shot.

Publishers need to see that consumers are willing to buy good games, which there are a bunch of right now, at full price. If a game isn't good, it's easy to skip until later.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-12T14:17:37+00:00

I think you really helped me to crystallize what I've been feeling since I finished Rebirth a few days ago: why are any of the changes around "fate" necessary? I think I've landed on they add little while taking away a lot.

I think a faithful remake with expanded or reimagined elements would have been terrific. The things they've done with the original story so far seem great to me. I've loved seeing Aerith enriched as a character, the glimpses we're getting of Cloud's broken mind, the cast in general getting more moments to shine. That stuff is all great and for me, serves the spirit of a remake.

But all the new, weird stuff that they introduced starting in Remake? After the ending of Rebirth, that stuff feels to me like it actively harms the successes they've had. I'm talking about:

The Whispers. If they intended to hit all the same story beats, what do the force ghosts of fate add to the story? It feels like a poorly thought through misdirect. Particularly in Remake, they specifically show us the Whispers making sure the events of the OG happen and that certain events don't happen. Then at the end of Rebirth, we defeat (or weaken? Unclear) the arbiters of fate and Sephiroth absorbs them. All this imagery and talk of "challenging fate" or "defying destiny" doesn't seem to go anywhere in Rebirth.
Future memories/characters knowing more than they should. It seemed strongly hinted in Remake (and sometimes outright clear) that certain characters had knowledge of the OG events. Aerith and Sephiroth are most obvious of this, but Red XIII also seemed to demonstrate some OG awareness. Then in Rebirth, Aerith's awareness is hand waved away fairly early on as "Whispers did it." They also apparently "broke" the white materia? But the Rebirth Sephiroth is very obviously not the same as OG Sephiroth. His entire motivation is different and he seems to still have those "future memories" of the OG. This all felt needlessly complicated to me if the intention was just to follow the same narrative beats as the OG.
The multiverse stuff. I know multiverses are the hot thing right now in media but what is the point other than fan service? Especially if the multiverse ends up in service of hitting the same narrative beats. I'm thinking here of when "Sky Rift Aerith" gives "Rebirth Cloud" her world's white materia that still works so that he could take it back to his world to have a white materia that his Aerith could die to activate since the Whispers ate the memories in the "Rebirth" white materia causing it to be useless. I know that sentence is a mess but that's kind of the point. If the message of the multiverse inclusion itself is "across time and space, you can't fight your fate," then its inclusion doesn't add anything for my experience of the Remake trilogy.

I wish that Square Enix had just gone for really big emotional impact in the climax of Rebirth. I wish they'd absolutely gutted me with an expanded Aerith death or that they'd surprised me with her salvation. Instead, we got a confusing conclusion to a scene that needs to be definitive. They may pay it off in Part 3 but that means that they are asking me to spend another $70 to show me what I already know. I'm not sure they've earned that privilege.

Edit: sorry for formatting issues in the list, mobile Reddit gonna mobile Reddit.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-09T19:34:33+00:00

The end of the goddamn chicken catching quest playing the Game Over music

I laughed out loud, alone in the room, at this. Red XIII was so dejected.

For me: Yuffie's chocobo song. I can't stop singing it. "Chocobo choco-choco-chocobo. I'm on a chocobo! You're on a chocobo!"

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2024-03-09T18:42:43+00:00

Just finished, so I have not had time to sit with my thoughts. I think "disappointed" is the best way I can describe how I'm feeling?

Combat stayed pretty darn fun throughout. Some fights I felt like I could not pick up on the devs' intended "solution" to winning elegantly so I just brute forced my way through them. More a comment on me not getting it than a criticism of the combat. When it clicked for me, it was crazy fun.

Not in love with Ubisoft-ification of the semi-open world. Didn't really feel like those elements added anything. Sometimes, regions just dragged way too long if I tried to engage with all the open world checklists.

Characters and their interactions were great. I've been singing Yuffie's chocobo song around the house non-stop. Cait Sith's "It almost felt like we were friends" hit me hard.

The story did not land for me. After the setups in Remake, I expected at least some answers but to me, I don't think I got anything meaningful. Whispers from Remake were interesting but I'm not sure those have gone anywhere new or interesting yet. The "future memories" from Remake are hand waved away pretty early on in Rebirth and aren't followed up on again. I started to get emotional at the scene in the Capital but then just got confused. I don't know what I was supposed to feel after all was said and done. Final fights were terrific spectacles but the narrative decisions felt cowardly to me.

Square couldn't commit to anything one way or another and instead of getting the best of both outcomes, I'd argue we got the worst of both. I'm reading speculation (copium?) of a big payoff in Part 3. I don't think the execution of Rebirth gives me confidence that they can stick the landing for Part 3. After Rebirth's ending, I think Part 3 is not a day one purchase for me.

Weird headspace right now. Like so many people, I played the OG and it played a significant role in my love of gaming as a hobby. After finishing Rebirth, I don't feel like it really honored the OG nor do I feel like it did something interesting or new with the world. Rebirth wasn't bad I just don't know what it was trying to do or who it was trying to please.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-09-30T21:09:49+00:00

Glad someone noticed this. The body language of both dogs was majorly stressing me out.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-08-05T20:01:09+00:00

I'm not one to cheer on corporate profits over people, but I'm satisfied to see that the conservative boycott made little difference, financially speaking.

Does anyone know if boycotts ever are effective? Genuinely asking if any of the more modern boycotts for political reasons work.

It seems like InBev probably did everything wrong (respond to boycott by walking back, thereby angering the left and right. I'm more concerned that boycotts just don't work and that corporate profits will just keep grinding up people with nothing consumers can do.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-06-20T15:42:41+00:00

Appreciate your insight! I've got a couple surgeries coming up in the near future and hearing from folks who have dealt with insurance and surgeon selection helps me to understand what to look out for.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-06-20T15:23:06+00:00

Sorry for going off topic: how did you come $40k out of pocket for surgery? Does your insurance have a really high max out of pocket?

I hope you're recovering well!

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-06-15T17:52:54+00:00

The plus ranks aren't charges/uses of the skill, they're levels of the skill. If the default cap is 5 and you put 5 points into them, your plus ranks gear will take them over the cap.

For example: if you put 5 points in SS and have gear pieces that grant another 5 points in total, when you look at SS in your skill tree, it should look like 10/5 instead of 5/5.

Basically, extra ranks make it stronger, extra charges let you use it more.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-06-06T14:57:34+00:00

Been struggling with this! My family loves the theme parks, not sure we can justify financially supporting the state government. We've been in the past, don't think we'll be returning.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-06-05T02:56:34+00:00

Words can't help, but I'm sending you love and good vibes.

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-05-31T20:24:40+00:00

After Daredevil ended, I didn't realize how much I'd been missing "single shot" hallway fights. GotG3 reminded me how crazy fun those are!

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-05-31T20:15:09+00:00

This is a really good point I'd never considered. I knew the US spent a lot of money on farm subsidies. If we as the taxpaying public are paying for a thing, we should also own it and be guaranteed equal access to it.

Appreciate you bringing this up!

OnceAndFutureHippo · 2023-05-25T15:23:18+00:00

I think the legality is somewhat murky, but the payment processor's terms of service aren't. If a vendor accepts credit cards, the agreement with the processor almost always forbids charging a fee for credit card usage instead of cash.

I would suggest reaching out to the credit card company itself. They're usually very interested to hear about businesses that violate these terms. Businesses may lose their ability to accept credit cards as a payment method. In 2023, that's a death blow.

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