In better news, Trump has appointed negative1 to head the Federal Witness Protection Program. We attempted to contact Team Vitale to see how they felt about the new leadership, but they did not answer their phone, and their listed address appeared to be a burnt-down building.
I’ll show myself out.
I’m sick of the Russian hacking conspiracy. Let’s instead focus on the real problems, like the GOP taking away people’s healthcare, or gutting environmental policy, or the executive branch trying to destroy free speech.
All equally valid concerns, but if you think they aren’t trying to pull this crap in other countries’ elections, and won’t try messing with ours again in 2020, I have some lovely Florida swampland you might be interested in.
Let’s not forget that our own Government has done the same thing to other countries trying to promote Democracy.
We’ve hacked other nation’s elections and secretly recorded blackmail videos of candidates? 😉
These things have a long shelf life. What we did to Iran in the 50’s still shapes our relationship not only with Iran, but the whole Middle East. And what we did wasn’t really that much less sophisticated than propaganda and pee tapes, although it clearly wasn’t identical. Same thing for any of the countries where we’ve done something similar. The fact that we can be on good behavior for a few years really doesn’t change that. They don’t see it as something Eisenhower did to them and he’s long gone–they see it as something the US did to them, and the US is still very much around to blame for the fallout. And yes, there is quite a lot of fallout still around today from a 60-year-old coup.
I imagine the relationship between NATO countries and Russia is now changed in a similar fashion. We’ll be dealing with Trump fallout long after Putin’s dead and buried.
EDIT: I guess I should clarify that it’s not like NATO and Russia got along great before. However, now within the domestic politics of NATO countries, people can now blame domestic issues on Russia with some credibility. That’s basically how Cuba worked for decades–Stuff is bad? Blame the US embargo. Which wasn’t a complete and nuanced answer, but it was true enough to work. Now NATO countries will likely do this with Russia. No health care? Blame Russia (not me, the poor hoodwinked Senator who voted for it, blame Russia!). The fact that there’s truth behind it doesn’t mean it’s a good development.
Anyone know what sort of delay is on the AHCA that passed the House today (I know nobody’s read the whole thing–just that part)? I’m assuming the tax cuts for the wealthy would be more-or-less immediate, but they hold off on the insurance cuts until after the 2018 midterms. I could see the delay getting stretched past 2020 though, so there’d be not as much of a visible downside until after the next round of redistricting.
You shouldn’t feel like you have to date a girl to prove you’re not gay. But you also shouldn’t feel like you can’t date a girl because you also like guys. Point being, don’t worry about gay, straight, don’t worry about how people perceive you, focus on your feelings - do you like the girl and would you want to be in a relationship with her? A simple question, and your answer (and only yours) will tell you everything you need to know.
A much better and less hard-ass answer than mine, thanks. Frankly coffee’s probably got a lot of feelings going on right now so sorting them out isn’t going to be exactly easy.
But think to yourself: what are the things you like most about this development? That she likes you? That she makes the thought of Thanksgiving with the parents and significant other a whole lot less complicated? That the long distance takes some of the physical pressure off? These are “hmm” answers.
Or is it that you like her? This is a “yay” answer. Unfortunately you may have a mix that changes with your mood. That’s normal. Welcome to hormone city–population you.
I seriously love that painting. 😃
I tried not to, but it’s impossible.
Lets at least wait until 9:41 PM EST 😉
https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2006-05-03-star-wars_x.htm
And then until May 25 😃
Nah, let’s freeze ourselves till 2077
And then we have to battle a bunch of evolved otters for the last surviving copy of the OOT? 😉
Thank you SilverWook for making this image topical!
If you go back several pages you can find a post about me meeting a really nice girl at a camp I went to. It’s long and I don’t feel like quoting it. Anyway, we’ve been texting each other for a few weeks now and a couple nights ago she admitted that she really likes me. It shook me up a bit… a lot. We live about two hours apart, but she seems interested in a long distance relationship, but do those ever work out? Are those “real?” This is all very new to me.
Okay, end of childish nonsense post.
Long distance relationships can work, and well. They can also fail spectacularly. In other words, they’re a lot like close-distance relationships, except totally different 😉
However, something in the back of my mind is urging me to admonish you, “You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.” Lots of gay men find girlfriends, get married, raise families, and then… well, I’m just saying. Be a little surer of yourself than you sounded a few pages back, cause “avoiding the issue” isn’t really an option–it’s more like “delaying the issue and increasing the stakes”.
He’s just a little grabby! He’s still good, he’s still good!
Did you intend for us to read that in Jarvanka voice? Because I totally did.
Same thing with the crowd size and popular vote obsessions. It’s not the crowd size or vote totals per se that matter, it’s the fact that Presidents that engage in loud, heated months-long feuds with reality end up with credibility problems. The fact that a shocking proportion of a Republican primary debate was devoted to disputing the reputed size of Trump’s penis was not an outlier. This is the current state of politics–and now we have added “wiretapp” to our lexicon to describe such divorced-from-fact disputes, and a healthy and growing stable of websites devoted to keeping those disputes alive and inventing new ones.
The Ocean-Filled Earth Gang never quits.
Technically it’s not an ocean, but science doesn’t quit, it just slows down when you cut its funding.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25723-massive-ocean-discovered-towards-earths-core/
The Round-Earth Posse rides again.
http://www.wnd.com/2017/04/did-extortion-17-cover-up-sink-rep-chaffetz/
Something I read today. My heart sank thinking this is actually true.
wnd.com: It’s safe to say it’s not.
You’ll probably get more detailed and correct info here:
http://originaltrilogy.com/discussion/How-Tos-and-Technical-Discussions/id/12
But the basics are: TSMuxerGUI can create a BD-compliant file structure from an MKV, and ImgBurn can make a BD-compliant disc from a file structure. How much more complexity you want to add on top of that is up to you. TSMuxerGUI creates an auto-playing menuless BD that repeats when done. I like that (except the repeating part, which is fixable), but if you like menus then you have a lot more work ahead of you.
As for disc art, my only suggestion is for God’s sake do not use those printable adhesive labels. Use real printable discs or a sharpie. Those adhesive labels can lose their adhesion in a warm environment (such as inside a piece of electronics), and then gum up the inside of said electronics. Not super likely, but way more likely than having the man come down on your for downloading a fan edit 😉
What about case art? This sounds more complicated than I thought. Maybe I should just skip the menu.
I think skipping the menu saves a lot of work, and you don’t honestly lose that much in the process. Again, this is better suited to the technical HOWTO section, but case art can be tricky because much of the default image printing programs (the Windows image viewer) don’t pay any attention to the size the image is supposed to be, and size is really important for case art. There should be free software out there to do it, or Photoshop if you happen to have that lying around 😉
Supposedly, h_h got access to Pro DPL decoder software for the latest DeEd’s. So ROTJ 2.5 may sound better (or not).
So, zombie Andrew Jackson could have stopped the Civil War before it started?
I think it goes without saying that the Civil War would not have happened if the US had elected an unapologetic slaveowner instead of a moderate abolitionist. I don’t think that was even thought through well enough to qualify as a dog whistle.
I’m still not sure if this is straight-up OCD; for it to simply manifest itself for No reason when I’m almost 30 just makes no sense to me.
This is a pretty new and still-controversial diagnosis, but have you asked about PANDAS? The “P” is for “pediatric” meaning for children, but it does describe the sudden onset of OCD where none was present before. Maybe there’s an adult equivalent? Again, fair warning, it’s a brand-spanking-new diagnosis and hasn’t even had enough time to differentiate itself from the pseudoscience-of-the-week (and it may well end up being a dead end upon further review), so you’re likely to get a raised eyebrow at the very least for even discussing this. Still, others have reported the sudden onset of OCD behaviors, regardless of the cause.
The downside of new diagnoses is that the therapies are even less proven, if they exist at all.
I’m curious what festivities you are all planning for Loyalty Day? I’m looking forward to the parade, and have my notebook ready for the dear leader’s field guidance.
I am planning to peer in my neighbor’s window to confirm that they are adequately celebratory, and report them if they show signs of disloyalty. I am so glad we finally got rid of all of the Communist connotations associated with May Day.
^ Reported
Ooh, recursion! Excellent work, friend citizen.
I’m curious what festivities you are all planning for Loyalty Day? I’m looking forward to the parade, and have my notebook ready for the dear leader’s field guidance.
I am planning to peer in my neighbor’s window to confirm that they are adequately celebratory, and report them if they show signs of disloyalty. I am so glad we finally got rid of all of the Communist connotations associated with May Day.
You’ll probably get more detailed and correct info here:
http://originaltrilogy.com/discussion/How-Tos-and-Technical-Discussions/id/12
But the basics are: TSMuxerGUI can create a BD-compliant file structure from an MKV, and ImgBurn can make a BD-compliant disc from a file structure. How much more complexity you want to add on top of that is up to you. TSMuxerGUI creates an auto-playing menuless BD that repeats when done. I like that (except the repeating part, which is fixable), but if you like menus then you have a lot more work ahead of you.
As for disc art, my only suggestion is for God’s sake do not use those printable adhesive labels. Use real printable discs or a sharpie. Those adhesive labels can lose their adhesion in a warm environment (such as inside a piece of electronics), and then gum up the inside of said electronics. Not super likely, but way more likely than having the man come down on your for downloading a fan edit 😉
Vile? Maybe just honest. There’s some harsh but accurate criticism out there.
To be fair, I don’t actually know this Matt Dillahunty person from a hole in the ground. But if your description of “anti-Catholic” was accurate, vile works fine for me. This is probably Religion or Politics forum stuff, but I’m atheist myself and it pisses me off to no end that Dawkins and his crowd think being technically correct gives them the right to be complete assholes to the rest of the world. It’s like they feel atheism is a Get Out of Decency Free card. But I may have been reading too much into what you were reading from this other guy.
VPN’s are just a technology to allow secure communication over insecure networks. They’re used all the time for regular corporate communications. However, in addition to protecting your data from prying eyes, they also allow you to make your Internet connections appear to come from the VPN endpoint rather than from your PC. As such, they are used to get unfettered Internet access under repressive regimes, bypass country restrictions on services like Netflix, and hide/unblock torrent activity. So the tech is legal and widely available. The usage? No idea, probably varies.
You need (usually free) VPN client software on your PC, and some (probably not free) VPN endpoint on the other side willing to accept communication from your machine. I’ve never done this for recreational purposes, so I know the technical concepts but honestly don’t know what the options are. The truly paranoid might hop over multiple VPNs to better hide their location. The even truly paranoider might wonder why those people on he other end of their VPN are being so nice about encrypting their traffic for them, and if they happen to be a front company for some three-letter agency who could just read their unencrypted data before encrypting it. The question of who exactly you’re trusting with your data in the process of hiding that data from people you don’t trust can get pretty knotty. A secure system can often be compromised intentionally or unintentionally by a poor implementation choice that would probably be invisible to a non-expert. So enjoy your sense of security, it’s probably real. But possibly not.
Also, you’ll be fine downloading Harmy’s stuff, as everyone here has said. And 720p actually pretty well captures the available detail in the official Blu-rays, so 1080p won’t be a huge step up unless there’s another source with more detail than the Blu-rays. ESB (2.0) and Jedi (2.5) are both damn near perfect already. Star Wars is… really good with a few warts (get 2.7). What are you waiting for?
Elizabeth Warren is a moron? First time I’ve ever heard that.
There’s a school of thought that all socialists are morons. Go to any Ayn Rand convention. But don’t drink the Kool-Aid.
I never knew Elizabeth Warren was American Indian? I know she’s a moron but why give her so much credit by associating her with a well known historical figure?
Because making fun of Native Americans never gets old, and never loses votes you weren’t planning to get anyway. Besides, even your hypothetical non-racist observer won’t necessarily know that there’s a long recurring theme of “prove you’re a real Indian” in Native American history, so they won’t see this as part of a larger problem, just a one-off for Warren. Documenting your Nativeness must be as simple as a trip to the DMV, right? *sigh*
Luckily for her, Warren pretty much has a lock on Sanders supporters due to their policy similarities.
EDIT: Whoops, forgot about the HA Goodman faction. But they were never for Sanders in the first place, so they’re certain to hate Warren.
I was reading up on the Legacy 4K Scan and I’m wondering why Lucasfilm is so afraid of it. They let Despecialized and Silver Screen have free reign. Hundreds of copies sold on ebay. But Verta was told point blank if it gets out, they will go after him.
Mike is doing everything above board–this was an intentional strategic choice of his from the beginning, and it has aggravated a lot of people here (“The best Star Wars preservation you’ll never, ever see!”). He would not be able to get the (unspecified) help from industry professionals if he could not assure them that his preservation will be 100% within the law. As such, he’ll “release” it when the copyright holder permits him to do it, or when the copyright expires. And not a moment sooner. The “threats” are in many ways redundant – the project is built on trust, and Mike would piss off a lot of litigious people by changing his plans now, not just Disney.
Harmy operates on the “no profit, no foul, buy the Blu-rays” principle, which has so far worked. But it’s not as legally sound as Mike’s project. And Silver Screen? Jeeze, -1 has changed his name at least twice and pretended to move to Ecuador (okay, I made that last one up). He’s clearly worried. I’d say needlessly, but nevertheless, he has engaged in an incredibly long and ineffective campaign of covering his tracks.
Disney’s light touch in this respect probably has more to do with the Streisand Effect and pissing off their customers than legal opinion. They aren’t any more hard-ass on Mike than anyone else–they just have a door they can knock on in his case. In fact, he knocked on theirs.
I’m deliberately going back to it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but it’s like some sort of compulsion. I “forgot” my phone all day at work today, and when I came home, I ran to it and ran to this particularly nasty new one that bothers the most yet. Something must be wrong with me 😦. I was barely able to get out of bed this morning.
My completely uninformed take: You get a fight-or-flight (adrenaline or somesuch) rush when you encounter someone being truly vile like that. But by just reading some screed on your phone, you just get the hormonal rush without any real danger to your person. IMO it’s like watching a horror movie. You don’t actually like murder but OMG did you see that disembowelment?!? You may not actually consciously enjoy the feeling–in fact you may consciously hate it–but your body/subconscious may crave the hormonal stimulation derived from it nevertheless.
As for solutions: all I see are OCD medication and substitution. OCD medication sounds like it’s already being worked on (lots of trial and error I’m afraid), but you could try substitution. Find something else that gives you the same rush. Honestly I’d try lots of exercise first–if you can manage to get your hormonal fix via runner’s highs (or swimming or biking or whatnot), that’s way better on you emotionally and physically than these hateful screeds.
EDIT: I guess I should also mention that many people with OCD self-medicate with enormous amounts of stimulants (“A Plague of Tics” by David Sedaris comes to mind–his “cure” was chain smoking). It’s not really the recommended path, but if you just gave up coffee and/or cigarettes and now your OCD is acting up, well… That said, depending on the person caffeine and nicotine may not be strong enough stimulants, and then you have other reasons you should avoid the self-medication path (expensive/illegal/dangerous take your pick).
As for “something must be wrong with me”, I hope you can get to the point where this can be something you manage and channel, and not something you hate. Not to tie our situations too tightly together, but I did subtitle Star Wars in 38 languages, 36 of which are complete gibberish to me. It was definitely not done entirely out of the kindness of my own heart. By all reasonable measures, something must be wrong with me too. But I’ve reached a place in my life where I’m cool with that, and I hope you can reach a similar place yourself.