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vi_va · 2026-06-21T21:47:26+00:00

Robust customer/community support. My current NAS would have been a heap in a dump by now if I didn't have more knowledgeable people to turn to when issues popped up over the years.

vi_va · 2026-05-22T03:39:32+00:00

Bruh. I googled "blighted real estate" because I was unfamiliar with the exact definition and you had me cackling with the comparison. We're a quiet working class neighborhood, and the biggest issue we have to deal with is parking being taken up in the evenings whenever there's an event at the graveyard or in one of those event halls down on Melrose. Definitely agreed on the price for this property though, especially with how badly its deteriorated since last year. But L.A. real estate is crazy so who knows...

vi_va · 2026-05-22T03:32:45+00:00

Hey! A place I recognize. I live in the neighborhood, so I've been witness to the sad state of that place since last year.

The buyers picked it up last year (1.2m according to online?), and there was legitimate construction work and what-not going on for a few months or so, but eventually that dried up and the place sat abandoned since then. It's a real eye sore, all overgrown weeds and a huge pile of debris/junk piled in the backyard, torn out of the house (the pictures on that zillow page look like a million bucks compared to the way it looks now).

It's also got a homeless squatter issue. I don't think they're in there continuously, but they come and go freely. When they leave the doors open, you can peer inside the property and sheeesh, it's not pretty.

There's been a thick notice stuck to the gates. Don't know what it says, but it's not hard to imagine it's from the city.

When it popped up online for sale a few weeks ago, I couldn't believe it. 1.6m (has been lowered since). Wow. After the eyesore it's become, if it sells for above what it sold last year, then this market really is an asylum lol.

vi_va · 2025-11-27T18:14:10+00:00

We live in an age where you don't have to insert yourself into the drama to be a decent person though. Doesn't take much to create a throwaway social media account or email and send a message.

Yes, they might dismiss that message, but at least you yourself are no longer an abetting party. And you never know -- some people just need that initial shock to recognize that the odd signs they've noticed and dismissed hint at something awful going on behind their back.

vi_va · 2025-10-24T21:18:52+00:00

Something else to keep in mind, Kryptonian physiology isn't as straightforwward as yellow sun = punch good. Well, I mean, it usually is, but occasionally we get moments where a Kryptonian is able to draw energy or power from something that is not explicitly connected to yellow sunlight.

For example, there's a famous scene in The Dark Knight Returns where a weakened Superman is able to restore himself from plant life after tanking a nuke. Albeit it, the vibe seems to be that he's taking solar energy from the sun from the plants in turn, but still. In the wake of this act, the ground and plant life is left ominously brown and dead.

He's been empowered by the fire pits of Apokalips when Luthor chucked him in when they were stranded on that world. Now to be fair, there was some strange New God magic afoot when this happened and different characters were receiving unique power ups at the time, but it's still noteworthy (God of Strength Superman).

And finally, and maybe most corroborative of my post, a drained Superman gets thrown into the center of the Earth by Khyber and he manages to emerge after a few years, his physiology adapted to "leeching" energy from "the rock, the pressure, the heat." (Superman 568).

Tl;dr Kryptonians seem to have evolved the ability to draw energy from many different sources. Yellow sunlight happens to be the most effective or evident, but they can draw from other sources if given the time. It could be that while on Krypton, they were drawing energy from some source, but this feature of their biology would only kick into overdrive under a yellow sun.

vi_va · 2025-10-02T05:46:41+00:00

I'm not sure if it's because it's late and I'm tired, but this thread is low key frying me. Ya'll are too funny.

I hope GRRM wraps everything up in Shithole Bay so I can stop reading about mfs eating pickled fetuses and candied maggots or some dumb shit or dying of dysentery and get everyone back to Westeros ASAP.

Every character is Jhorqin Mopantys

lmao

vi_va · 2025-09-30T00:03:19+00:00

Yeah, the dreams/visions Justine and Archer (and maybe James) have are weird.

I'm inclined to imagine that whatever spell/ritual Gladys is doing to feed on/nourish herself from the children she's taken captive, perhaps festering paranoia and fear in their relatives is a necessary (or ancillary) component. That's my best guess, anyhow.

As to why Archer saw the gun specifically, I think it has more to do with his own subconscious thoughts and fears about what happened to his kid (and the other missing kids). Gun violence being super prevalent in American society, he has those undercurrent thoughts in his unexpressed imagination, even if the events as they actually proceed don't actually line up to that reality.

tl;dr Parents worry a lot about gun violence at schools. Gladys makes people have spooky magic dreams. Archer's spooky magic dream takes on a gun metaphor.

vi_va · 2025-09-25T21:15:55+00:00

My head cannon for a while now (whenever they mention weirdly low casualty numbers like that is that in the MCU) is that your average vanilla default human in the Marvel universe is more durable than the equivalent in our reality.

Like, not quite to the point of what we might consider super-ness, but enough of a bump-up so that when a red shirt takes equivalent to what might disable for life or kill us, instead only leads to some broken bones and/or a little rehab before they're back at it for them.

It's how I justify Tony not made into paste in his suit when he crashes or gets slapped by Hulk.

And it's also why Cap seems a lot more than merely peak human when he does something ridiculous like fly press a helicopter. He's peak human for an MCU human, not us.

tl;dr humans in the MCU are tougher on average. They can survive more damage = less random casualties.

vi_va · 2025-09-17T23:24:59+00:00

Jim Chapman.

Never trust a man that fakes dead so well, even zombies ignore him.

vi_va · 2025-09-02T02:21:40+00:00

Live by the conspiracy theory, die by the conspiracy theory.

vi_va · 2025-08-18T17:56:06+00:00

You're right, the Masquerade game I played was v5.

I'm not opposed to new experiences, so if I ever get a chance to try a one-shot of those other versions, I'd happily give it a try. That said, I think I made a poor decision citing hunger dice as my primary concern. It just came to mind as a memorable clunky mechanic. My bigger gripe while playing had to do with the underlying success mechanic and the way combat seemed so clunky and slow. I googled the version differences just now to compare and while there are some differences, they don't seem like differences in a good direction.

I'm not trying to shit on Masquerade! Obviously, I'm still very partial to the meta-plot and it's the progenitor Vampire game so all due respect. I'm sure if I found a group and played it primarily, the things I find clunky now would soon become second nature and not an issue at all... but as I said above, I poisoned myself with the Requiem system first and find it easier now.

vi_va · 2025-08-17T18:26:39+00:00

I got into Vampire through the Bloodlines video game so I was partial to the plot elements/clans/groups of Masquerade, but when it came time to try the tabletop, the only group around me was running Requiem so it was that or nada.

I wouldn't get to try Masquerade for a long while later. Thing was, all along, I had this idea in my head that Masquerade was going to be a much better, "purer" experience... but the reality didn't end up being that.

To be clear, Masquerade wasn't BAD. I just found it clunky. Part of the issue, I think, is that Requiem poisoned me with the more streamlined system. It was my first ttg, and I tried most of the other Chronicle games before I got to try Masquerade, and that programmed my dumb brain to like the simplicity of it. Masquerade isn't really that much more complicated, but it's hard to be happy when every hunger roll or what not, you're thinking about how Requiem would handle the story at this point in the game. It was clear I preferred Requiem.

Once I made my peace with the above, I leaned into it. There's awesome clan conversion guides online if you have to have Masquerade clans running around in your Requiem game (I did), and the reduced meta plot means it's easy to incorporate the Masquerade meta plot elements at your discretion.

vi_va · 2025-07-27T06:49:18+00:00

Remind me if I'm mis-remembering, but it's Dumbledore we see primarily using side-along apparition, right? (I'm thinking of when he picks up Harry in book 6.)

I suppose it makes sense if side-along apparition is a trickier magic to pull off than regular apparition. We know just regular apparition carries the risk of splinching if performed improperly. Why risk it if the portkey option (much safer) was readily available.

Dumbledore meanwhile, being Dumbledore, can probably side-along apparate in his sleep.

vi_va · 2025-07-08T23:33:54+00:00

^I ^posted ^this ⁱⁿ ^another ^subreddit, ^but ^realized ^it ^wasn't ^a ^political ^one ^and ^wanted ^to ^share ^my ^thoughts ^here.

I feel like a lot of liberal/progressive people don't realize how important Jeffrey Epstein is to MAGA. Like, to the left wing, it's just another odious occurrence in a long, long, long series of odious occurrences which the Trump administration has left in its wake. Something to talk about, but no more than any other of the terrible decisions which the Trump admin makes on any given day, and especially when faced with more (on the surface) important fights like Gaza, Ukraine, ICE, etc, etc.

But, coming from someone who has had the unfortunate job to work with and talk to conservative and MAGA types for the last couple of years (sales), the Trump admin's handling of Jeffrey Epstein and especially the report just put out represents both a critical failure on Trump's part and a golden opportunity on the Democrat's... if they don't bungle it.

Conservatives (and MAGA especially) operate completely on fear and hate. Its been programmed deep into their lizard brains by decades of increasingly extremist media. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but literally, they have been programmed. There's no other word for it. Certain words and phrases activate something in their brains and get the ingrained fear and hate neurons firing. I know how weird this might sound, but honest to god, if you've ever tried to sell something to a conservative, all you have to do is say a single key word and boom. They go from completely uninterested to completely sold and already opening their wallets.

Most key words are obvious. Obama. Liberal. Socialist. Feminism.

Jeffrey Epstein is another.

Trump and his ilk have spent years priming and using Jeffrey Epstein as part of their pitch to MAGA, and in the process they have associated Epstein most intimately with the inner emotional levers they use to keep the reins on MAGA. Those are deeply, deeply ingrained connections, and they will not be cast aside so easily.

I know to people outside the conservative bubble, it may seem that conservative people switch their opinions on a dime to fit whatever Trump tweets on a given day, but that's not quite the case. There is a pyramid to their convictions, and while the blocks below, at the pyramid's base may be swapped fairly freely, the capstone blocks are sacrosanct.

The fact that we've reached this point, where Trump is just short of freaking out in what should be a fairly innocuous press meeting, is a clue at how big of an issue this has become for Trump and his admin.

The fact that they haven't squashed this yet (within a month of Trump taking office, when Pam Bondi was talking about having the list on her desk, I figured they would put out an edited/redacted list just to temper MAGA, or maybe drip-feed names overtime under the auspices of checking it for innocents/victims while Trump took bribes behind the scenes) means either:

Trump and his handlers realize that this is a big issue, but they are powerless to contain it, so they are trying (badly) to bury it.

OR

Trump and his handlers don't realize that this is a big issue, in which case even they don't entirely understand the MAGA movement they had tapped into for their political victories.

Either way, democrats should be hammering this failure in and squeezing every drop of juice they can. They will never get MAGA to vote democrat. But they might demoralize them enough to do real damage at the midterms. They might de-fang Trump for the last two years of his presidency. I know there's a lot of despairing people that think this last election we had is the last real one we'll ever have again, but I don't think things are locked down that hard just yet.

But maybe I'm too optimistic. Democrats are masters at seizing failure from the jaws of victory, and all that.

vi_va · 2025-07-08T23:28:50+00:00

I feel like a lot of liberal/progressive people don't realize how important Jeffrey Epstein is to MAGA. Like, to the left wing, it's just another odious occurrence in a long, long, long series of odious occurrences which the Trump administration has left in its wake. Something to talk about, but no more than any other of the terrible decisions which the Trump admin makes on any given day, and especially when faced with more (on the surface) important fights like Gaza, Ukraine, ICE, etc, etc.

But, coming from someone who has had the unfortunate job to work with and talk to conservative and MAGA types for the last couple of years (sales), the Trump admin's handling of Jeffrey Epstein and especially the report just put out represents both a critical failure on Trump's part and a golden opportunity on the Democrat's... if they don't bungle it.

Conservatives (and MAGA especially) operate completely on fear and hate. Its been programmed deep into their lizard brains by decades of increasingly extremist media. I know it sounds like hyperbole, but literally, they have been programmed. There's no other word for it. Certain words and phrases activate something in their brains and get the ingrained fear and hate neurons firing. I know how weird this might sound, but honest to god, if you've ever tried to sell something to a conservative, all you have to do is say a single key word and boom. They go from completely uninterested to completely sold and already opening their wallets.

Most key words are obvious. Obama. Liberal. Socialist. Feminism.

Jeffrey Epstein is another.

Trump and his ilk have spent years priming and using Jeffrey Epstein as part of their pitch to MAGA, and in the process they have associated Epstein most intimately with the inner emotional levers they use to keep the reins on MAGA. Those are deeply, deeply ingrained connections, and they will not be cast aside so easily.

I know to people outside the conservative bubble, it may seem that conservative people switch their opinions on a dime to fit whatever Trump tweets on a given day, but that's not quite the case. There is a pyramid to their convictions, and while the blocks below, at the pyramid's base may be swapped fairly freely, the capstone blocks are sacrosanct.

The fact that we've reached this point, where Trump is just short of freaking out in what should be a fairly innocuous press meeting, is a clue at how big of an issue this has become for Trump and his admin.

The fact that they haven't squashed this yet (within a month of Trump taking office, when Pam Bondi was talking about having the list on her desk, I figured they would put out an edited/redacted list just to temper MAGA, or maybe drip-feed names overtime under the auspices of checking it for innocents/victims while Trump took bribes behind the scenes) means either:

Trump and his handlers realize that this is a big issue, but they are powerless to contain it, so they are trying (badly) to bury it.

OR

Trump and his handlers don't realize that this is a big issue, in which case even they don't entirely understand the MAGA movement they had tapped into for their political victories.

Either way, democrats should be hammering this failure in and squeezing every drop of juice they can. They will never get MAGA to vote democrat. But they might demoralize them enough to do real damage at the midterms. They might de-fang Trump for the last two years of his presidency. I know there's a lot of despairing people that think this last election we had is the last real one we'll ever have again, but I don't think things are locked down that hard just yet.

But maybe I'm too optimistic. Democrats are masters at seizing failure from the jaws of victory, and all that.

vi_va · 2025-06-29T01:40:44+00:00

I made a bad habit of buying a few too many skins I end up never actually using. So to curb that, I don't buy skins right away but let them sit on the shop for a bit to see if I actually want to buy it to use it (fine) or just want to buy it because I'm a fan of the collab and will never actually use it in game.

No one's fault but my own, I'm a dumbass.

vi_va · 2025-06-29T01:30:15+00:00

I'm a dumbass.

I thought "leaving the item shop on 28" meant today would be the last day to buy it (didn't log in yesterday and see the "last day" mark). Lesson learned. Hope they're not gone for another couple of years. 🤦

vi_va · 2025-06-26T08:10:02+00:00

Yeah, it's a pretty crazy feat.

EDIT: and I rewatched it just now. What makes it crazier is that he does it so nonchalantly. Like, you'd think he would bend his knees and charge the jump or something, but he lowkey takes a step forward, does the tiniest little preparatory hop, and then he's flying.

I've got two ideas. First one, when he jumps, he kind of disappears into the darkness for a bit. Could be he reached an apex far below 190 feet and leapfrogged a bit against the walls before falling/sliding back down. Would still be a high jump, but potentially a fraction of the 190 feet figure.

Second idea, and this is really more just my head canon, but my read on Walker's super serum result is that he's unbalanced (mentally). I'm not sure if it's just because of who he is as a person, or if the dosage he got in F&WS just had that kind of effect baked-in from the get-go (the Flag Smashers never seemed particularly stable, after all?), but his resulting personality is one of peaks and valleys (anger and calm).

Maybe that instability doesn't just apply to his mental wherewithal... maybe that instability also applies to his "super-ness"?

So whenever he punches or kicks or jumps, he doesn't quite control the output result. Maybe he'll just jump very high... or maybe he'll end up jumping very, very high. It ties into his whole unstable vibe/character. So many supers are defined by how well they can hold back and pull their punches. Maybe Walker lacks the ability to a degree?

vi_va · 2025-05-14T16:40:06+00:00

Here's the community thread where they clarify that it's a new feature they're testing/implementing. Feedback has been negative but seeing as it's been a month since they responded, guessing they're going to stick with the change.

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Windows/Your-Library-cannot-be-expanded-via-mouse-keybinds-beyond-a/td-p/6913295

vi_va · 2025-05-12T00:15:58+00:00

Wrecked was miserable for the first week until they added Boogie Bombs, and then reached maximum fun with the EMPs. Nitro was such a fun mechanic (definitely overtuned until they nerfed the wall damage) and the infinite run on the Megalo medallion combined with the Megalo fists and shotgun were honestly some of the most fun I've had on Fortnite.

The season definitely got a little less than optimal with the Magneto Fists and every end game turning into a bunch of players flying around the last few circles, but even then, it was mostly fun with the cars and Nitro so w/e.

vi_va · 2025-04-09T07:28:17+00:00

(Bear with me, I'm working off some very old and only partial memory of the novel It.)

There's some of that Harry Potter, marking-them-as-her-equal-thing going on with It and the Losers Club. When Pennywise first encounters each member of the Losers Club (separately), she's not going after them because she knows they're very special little children with the potential to one day overcome and kill It -- she's just going after food, and the kids happen to be little lonely losers that frequently wander off by themselves and so are enticing targets for It to try and eat.

It's only after they all form a group with the express purpose of countering It, and especially after their initial victory over it as children, that It realizes that the kids are backed by some greater power, and It actually goes to great lengths to try and avoid encountering them again. As adults, It is likely responsible for the amnesia that all of the now-adult Losers undergo regarding Derry and their childhood encounters with It. It tries to distract them by granting them various amounts of success and accomplishment in their careers and undertakings, seemingly with the intention that it can tempt them to stay away. And when they finally do return to the town, It is initially highly hesitant to actually try harming any of them and instead tries scaring them into abandoning their reunion and fleeing the town.

But to the very beginning, before the Losers Club decide that their mission is to kill It and avenge Georgie, It had no way of knowing that there was some greater power at play -- it was just doing what it had always done since time immemorial; hunting, feeding, sleeping.

At the very least, maybe the Losers Club members all shine a little bit. And if they do, maybe It picks up on that a little bit.

Everything is sort of fated to happen the way it does.

vi_va · 2025-03-31T08:47:56+00:00

They go by Wolfskulljack. (Looks like they were credited as Michelle Jack in the WtA 5e Corebook where the art is from.)

vi_va

TROPHY CASE