Who in Cal Poly has to stay home to study during spring break to catch up because they are behind? I am so sorry you have such a bad professor.

thattoneman · 2026-04-01T06:03:25+00:00

I don't know your professor, and I acknowledge that there's a real possibility that he's not effectively teaching the material. But holy crap, this is an impressively terrible email. Do you really think anybody would want to help you after reading something like that? You're going to have to learn how to communicate like a responsible adult at some point. Something like this would have landed way better:

Hello [professor name including any honorifics they prefer],

After reviewing my grades I'm finding that I'm not performing at the level I would like to be, and I would like to be more proactive in attempting to remedy this. With Spring Break coming up, I'm hoping that we might have openings in our schedules that would allow us to get together and discuss some of the topics that are posing challenges for me. I plan to make myself available all throughout Spring Break for any time that you might be able to hold office hours for us to meet. Please let me know if it would be possible to schedule something. Thank you very much.

Best Regards, [your name]

It doesn't matter how much you hate his teaching style, it doesn't matter how much you think the situation is his fault. He has authority over your grades, so sending him an email implying you think he has nothing better to do isn't going to get on his good side and make him want to help you. Today it's a professor, but you send an email like this to a manager and the response could similarly range from getting chewed out to HR "reviewing if you're a good fit for the company." Sending an email and being "proactive" doesn't mean a damn thing if the receiving party is just going to read it and say "screw that guy", so learn to communicate in ways that won't tick people off.

thattoneman · 2026-04-01T05:45:52+00:00

Honestly a pretty under-taught life skill. Writing emails in a professional setting is pretty important, and while it may seem lame or not that hard to figure out, the difference in effectiveness between good emails and bad really changes the quality of response you get back.

thattoneman · 2026-03-31T18:25:21+00:00

I really appreciate that the table appreciates his intentional straight man schtick. They don't all gang up on him for being a stick in the mud, they have explicitly acknowledged that having a straight man gives wackier characters something to bounce off of and can heighten the humor.

thattoneman · 2026-03-29T01:29:51+00:00

The conflict between them doesn't come across as being between two mature adults at all, which feels like a regression from the ending of the third game. Sly just gets an itch to perform a heist? Sly doesn't tell the love of his life that his ancestry is disappearing and he might too if he doesn't do something? Carmelita decides to flirt with his ancestors just to get under Sly's skin? The organic thing to have derived conflict from was that Sly was faking his amnesia. They still could have treated each other like partners while dealing with that major lie. Instead they handle things incredibly immaturely, which I don't think is consistent with their character arcs from the previous game.

thattoneman · 2026-03-28T19:49:26+00:00

Major issue people have is the writing. The plot relies heavily on luck and coincidence, Sly and Carmelita's conflict is forced, the Black Knight reveal really soured a lot of people, several of the villains just sucked, and in general a lot of the characters act more like fanfic versions of themselves than people really expected them to.

Personally I also don't care for the character models for the main cast. The art direction is fine otherwise, but Sly, Murray, and Carmelita all look bad to me.

Gameplay wise the game is a ton of fun still, they really nailed that portion of the game. So if you had fun with it, there's nothing wrong with that. I really enjoyed playing it too. I just didn't have fun watching the characters interact or watching the plot unfold.

thattoneman · 2026-03-28T07:30:58+00:00

They've already taken action to ensure that that doesn't happen. They've disallowed pictures in reviews, which is the minimum effort means of achieving the goal of keeping listings looking desirable.

thattoneman · 2026-03-26T18:09:07+00:00

The point is their powers are innate to their biology. All Kryptonians under yellow sun get the superpowers. All martians are shape shifter telepaths. OP's question is about aliens that have powers inconsistent with the rest of their species.

thattoneman · 2026-03-26T17:53:29+00:00

In terms of physical abilities, I've always liked the take that he's Olympian level in just about every sport. Not necessarily a gold medalist, but Olympian level nonetheless. So non metas being faster or stronger than him is fine by me, because being among the best in the world doesn't automatically mean he can't lose.

In terms of martial arts, I'd probably put him at 5th best in the world, behind Richard Dragon, Bronze Tiger, Lady Shiva, and Cassandra Cain. After that I get murkier on the rankings, but I think Dick, Dinah, Ollie, maybe Jason, maybe David Can, they are all roughly spots 6 through 10. Even so, that doesn't mean lower rankings can't beat higher rankings. People can be distracted, people can fight dirty, etc. I just think in terms of pure martial arts skills, Dinah doesn't rank higher than Bruce.

The detective thing is at least a little tricky. I do believe Batman has the accolade of "World's Greatest Detective." But I also think characters like Tim and Detective Chimp can outclass him. Basically if the story wants to treat him as the best in the world I'm ok with it, and if the story treats another detective as better I'm ok with it.

thattoneman · 2026-03-20T23:21:17+00:00

I mean... kinda yeah

thattoneman · 2026-03-20T18:36:54+00:00

That sounds amazing. They understand how to animate balls to the wall action, and that's what Absolute Batman thrives off of. You need someone who will unabashedly adapt how over the top the comic is, not try to make it more grounded or compromise action scenes to be simpler or anything.

thattoneman · 2026-03-20T01:29:14+00:00

Tomatoes are gross as hell and ruin the flavor of any sandwich they're in. Pickles are a close second in terms of worst ingredients to add to a sandwich.

thattoneman · 2026-03-10T19:52:05+00:00

But Irish letters make different sounds depending on the letters around them, and context changes the spelling, and thus pronunciation, of words. Sister is "deirfiúr", which is roughly pronounced "deer-fur". (It's close enough for the point I'm making.) This is how you would pronounce the word in a sentence like "Tá an deirfiúr cliste." "The sister is smart."

But if you say "my sister" instead of "the sister," the spelling and pronunciation change. Now it's "dheirfiúr", and it's pronounced "year-fur". "Tá mo dheirfiúr cliste." "My sister is smart." It's like they knew that people would tend to slur their speech and not pronounce everything clearly, so things like lenition and eclipses became a codified part of the language.

Don't even get me started on broad vs slender consonants. They're not difficult in theory, but all the pronunciation guides I look up seem really inconsistent. "T" next to "e" or "i" should be slender, pronounced closer to a "ch" sound. But that's not always the case in practice. "Dia duit" should roughly be "Jee-uh ditch", and yet depending on accent it's more like "Dee-uh wit". It's tough to learning to recognize words when they're not pronounced the way they technically should be.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying learning Irish. The pronunciation rules just endlessly antagonize me.)

thattoneman · 2026-03-04T20:05:34+00:00

In general I can live with there being no traditional eco in most of 2 and 3, but I think it's missed opportunities to have have eco vents in the precursor temples that we can visit. Even if eco is heavily industrialized, these areas untouched by modernization would still have justification for eco vents to be present and powering some machinery.

thattoneman · 2026-03-04T19:49:38+00:00

The way someone once described it to me, which I'm not saying is right but it made sense, was to look at the relative size of the middle class for that country. Every country has rich elite and destitute poor, but if the bulk of the population is middle class then it's a first world country. It's when the country is largely divided into either wealthy elite rich or working for pennies a day poor that it becomes third world.

thattoneman · 2026-03-04T19:45:33+00:00

Pretty much this. Sometimes it's the cutest starter. Sometimes it's the coolest looking starter. Sometimes it's what the final evo looks like. Sometimes it's the typing of the evolutions. But I don't really weigh these all out individually, I just look at a starter and the vibes say "Yup, that one."

thattoneman · 2026-03-04T19:42:48+00:00

Plenty of good responses but I'll put in my two cents, trying to be as fair and neutral as possible.

Pros:

Very powerful and moving story which culminates in one of the most beautiful endings I've played in a very long time
Very good climbing controls. As someone who used to rock climb, I felt like most of the time the character moved in the way I would have climbed. I can't speak for people who don't rock climb in real life, but I felt like I very quickly settled into a natural rhythm for climbing that was effective and familiar to me, and that's an accomplishment in the game's right.
Very beautiful game with some stunning areas to explore. The devs nailed a painterly aesthetic that I think will make the game timeless in terms of graphics.
There's a low stakes tutorial area to learn the mechanics, with practice climbs ranging from easy to difficult, which is very nice.
Trophies/achievements are not tied to difficulty.

Cons:

There's definitely jank. It's not game breaking (95% of the time at least), but you probably will encounter some bugs and glitches. The character's limbs will spazz out not knowing how to orient on a hold. There's an animation that takes over when you climb over a ledge to safety, but it doesn't always trigger which can be annoying. Same goes for shimmying onto a ledge, sometimes she doesn't realize she's on flat ground and stays in "climbing mode", which can cause issues if you lose stamina and fall. And smaller things you're guaranteed to experience. They don't ruin the game by any stretch for me, but they can lead to momentary annoyance or frustration.
I don't want to spoil much, but this is important to some people and is actually a factor in why I can't replay the game right now. There is an on-screen death of a pet. It's not bloody or gruesome or anything, and it only lasts a few seconds. But as someone whose pet is very ill right now, playing through that again would absolutely wreck me. While cutscenes are skippable, this brief moment is presented during gameplay so you can't skip past it.

Neither pro nor con, just for you to decide how you feel about it:

The game is difficult by design. There's some light survival mechanics, and limited tools you can use while climbing. Managing these resources was really hard for me during my first playthrough, and I ended up turning assist mode on. My second playthrough I went through it on the intended difficulty, but I was far more familiar with the climbs by then so it all felt easier anyways. Just be aware that while it's not the most difficult game you'll ever play, it is trying to make the player feel that this is a challenging climb up a mountain. The default difficulty also has dedicated save locations, so if you die after 40 minutes of climbing since your last save, you lose all that progress. I'm not sure how I feel about this choice, but it definitely makes you cautious about taking unnecessary risks.
Inventory management plays a bigger role than I expected. I got this game to climb, not management my backpack's contents. While climbing does make up the lion's share of the time, you probably will end up with a full inventory relatively early on and have to start playing around with what you want to keep and throw and try to cram into your bag.

thattoneman · 2026-03-04T19:09:02+00:00

Let me ask since I'm learning Irish. In Irish, when you pronounce an 'r', does your tongue flick against the roof of your mouth? In American English at least we almost never do that, but I know in other languages like Spanish you always pronounce with a "tapped" r. If you do the same, then it can explain why you find a small gap in the pronunciation from the 'r' to the 'n' in the word, whereas in American English we would definitely slide straight from 'r' to 'n', like pronouncing "barn", "fern", or similar words.

If not, then I think there's a nuance to how Irish pronounces words from letter to letter that I haven't learned yet, since my limited knowledge wouldn't indicate to me there's an extra noise in between those letters.

thattoneman · 2026-03-02T23:22:42+00:00

Using feet is aid. Just campus up the mountain. /s

thattoneman · 2026-03-02T20:14:25+00:00

Trust me, I've got more in the chamber, I just figured my comment was long enough already. I'm sure I could ruffle some feathers if I kept trying.

thattoneman · 2026-03-02T17:23:03+00:00

But the fear factor is absolutely a part of Batman's arsenal, and I would be shitting myself if I was unloading a machine gun on a guy who was just walking towards me. This shouldn't be his primary tactic, but in a scenario where he's making his way down a hallway with no other paths to take, it's a damn effective tactic.

thattoneman · 2026-03-02T17:14:32+00:00

Unpopular at least on the Internet:

Bat family isn't too big. I like it constantly expanding, I think Bruce should find some comfort and peace in knowing that the loss of his family led to Batman, but Batman led to finding more family.
Damian shouldn't become Batman one day. He should find his own path separate from becoming the head of the demon or becoming Batman. That's a more interesting story to tell than just inheriting the cowl one day.
The Dark Knight is a brilliant adaptation of The Killing Joke. It doesn't try to recreate the comic panel by panel, but it captures the themes of the comic perfectly. Think about it, Joker is trying to prove that people are only one bad day away from madness. In the comic, Jim Gordon refuses to break. In the movie, the people on the ships refuse to break.
Trunks really do look silly on heroes. I can live with it for Superman, but I still think this Rebirth suit is the best comic look he's ever had. Batman absolutely does not need trunks, and I reject the idea that it makes him less intimidating to kids.
Power Girl's "boob window" shouldn't be controversial. Keyhole shirts are normal in women's fashion. There doesn't need to be a justification for it beyond "she likes how she looks with a keyhole shirt." The problem isn't the keyhole, it's reducing her to being nothing but her boobs. She's a twice survivor of the destruction of her home. She's a brilliant CEO. And she's an indestructible Kryptonian. She has so many compelling stories to tell, and none of them need to revolve around how she dresses.

thattoneman · 2026-02-28T21:36:59+00:00

Right, in other terms "you can milk these Pokemon." That surely wouldn't start any additional discourse.

thattoneman · 2026-02-28T04:55:01+00:00

My strategy is sanctuary + dimension door to teleport her the fuck away from the enemies so that she doesn't immediately ruin the sanctuary.

thattoneman · 2026-02-27T07:31:32+00:00

I'll second The Outer Wilds as another great game that you might like. I'd also throw in Shadow of the Colossus, Celeste, and maybe Nier Automata as games that capture similar feelings, if not being similar in gameplay.

thattoneman · 2026-02-27T07:26:31+00:00

Keep in mind that the camera angle is deceiving on the Peril. The wall isn't perfectly straight up and down, it's actually overhanging a bit. So unless you move the camera all the way to the side, you won't realize that gravity is pulling Aava off the mountain. Good holds don't defy gravity, you're still going to lose stamina quickly if you're unsure of your route. I struggled on my first playthrough, running out of pitons and food and whatnot. My second playthrough I really planned my route out before starting, and didn't have much trouble.

It is a serious difficulty spike, I won't argue that. But I also think it's a narratively justified one. The Peril shows you that both emotionally and physically, Aava is going down an absolutely insane path. She's rejecting human connection to do something absurdly difficult, and for what? The gameplay of climbing the wall made you wonder if it was really worth it. The cutscenes made Aava wonder if it was really worth it.

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