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these are so cute

Podcast will be up tomorrow! Not feeling so well today.

Spoiler your posts!!

Money is pretty easy to get too, as long as you do your side quests and sell off whatever equipment/armor you don't need -- and I'm a very generous player (I give away all my money to beggars). The TSLRCM is pretty much mandatory to enjoy KotOR II, it gets a lot more philosophical and looks way deeper into morality than KotOR I (which is rather shallow). That's not for everyone and it took me time to realize what a gem it is, but if you're feeling let down by it, definitely give it a go with the TSLRCM. It adds a shitload.

I actually really love most all the characters in KotOR II, it's a strong group in both games but you're able to get more into backstories with KotOR II. They're all sort of misfits and each one has been broken, in some way, by the Mandalorian Wars; it's fascinating to see them come together and the group dynamics (imo) are much stronger than KotOR I. Kreia is one of the most important characters in video game and Star Wars history, Atton has a great backstory, Bao-Dur is awesome, and the leading ladies are really strong too (Visas, Mira, and Brianna). I loathe Mical, though. Plus HK-47 is way funnier in KotOR II (his Bastila impression? omg).

I'm partial to dual-wielding in KotOR I and dual-bladed in KotOR II but that's mostly for player character headcanons than stat reasons. You can get abilities that minimize the hit for dual-wielding and dual-bladed lightsabers are just badass.

Thanks! @cstar and @Stardust helped with this one, I was having trouble. I don't think anything will top "Disney Gettin' Busy in 2015," though.

Fiction by The xx

Fiction, when we're not together;
Mistaken for a vision, something of my own creation.
Come real love, why do I refuse you?
'Cause if my fear's right, I risk to lose you,
And if I just might wake up alone,
Bring on the night.

Fiction, when we're not together;
Mistaken for a vision, something of my own creation.
Any certainties, how am I to tell?
I know your face all too well, still I wake up alone.

this album is unreal holy ****

Whatever this is from, it looks like a lovechild of Prince Robot and The Stalk from Saga. I'd link a pic of the latter but her design is not exactly appropriate, lol.

Are you filling in the blocks of color above the lineart, then changing their layer mode to something to let the lineart show through? That's what it looks like by the hat -- I've found the best way to color is to put the lineart layer above all the rest, set it to Multiply, then color underneath it. It makes everything look a bit more consistent and helps to preserve the shading on the original scan.

it's hard enough finding one person interested in me

In a broad sense, polyamory is great if it's your steez and you should totally go for it. On a personal level, I'm way too jealous and possessive a person to ever do anything but strict monogamy.

I'M HERE

They're not tough games at all. Even the highest difficulty is pretty easy, to the point where people have released mods to make it harder. They do require you to actively examine your play style and level and class your character accordingly, but if you don't want to do that you should probably just stay away from RPGs in general. KotOR II is interesting too because it adds the different lightsaber forms, which you can swap between in battle, but you can also just leave it in Shii-Cho the whole time and you'll do fine.

First of all, don't level up your characters as soon as you get enough experience. Leveling up your character will restore your health, so it can be useful to save them for battle and use them rather than wasting Med Pacs or Force Points. Secondly, compose your party well; you're going to waste your level up points if you're trying to make just your player character proficient in every single skill possible. Pay attention to class skills and compose your party so that you have the basics covered -- I was usually served well by taking Bastila with me (mostly because she's my girl but also as a support role since she's got massive Force abilities, good at healing, and decent Awareness) and Mission (Security, Stealth, and Demolitions). Obviously Bastila can use her lightsaber but keep Mission on a blaster since she's low on health. I tend to go a Scout/Counselor build for my player character with that party composition, since that gives me useful class skills and I'm a nice blend of Force powers and offensive abilities. Put all your damn points into Persuade, too, it'll save you a lot of time. Leveling things like Constitution etc. (I think they call them Attributes?) is pretty easy, like give Mission Dexterity to help her with demolitions, upgrade your Strength, Bastila's Constitution, etc. KotOR II is even easier because you can make everyone a Jedi and Jedi are OP in these games.

For combat, leave the setting active where it pauses after every turn -- that way, you can give orders out individually to your party, and keep track of everyone's health. Use your queue wisely, don't just slap Flurry on there six hundred times and expect to do well. Unlocking abilities isn't difficult either, just specialize your characters accordingly -- if you're playing light side, don't use dark side powers, don't bother giving Mission melee abilities if you're keeping a blaster in her hands, etc. Don't ever use auto-level up either. If you can't beat the game at level 20, you're doing something wrong.

The mood and emotion behind a song are often what attracts me to it, and how that is reflected in the parts of the whole. I have some definite turn-offs when it comes to music, but it's a lot more abstract when it comes to musical turn-ons, I guess. I want a unique sound, something that pulls at me, draws me in, tells some kind of story -- explicitly or implicitly. I'm not picky about vocals, either, really. If anything I prefer the natural (if less technically correct) singers to the ones who hit all the notes exactly right. I consider Joanna Newsom one of my favorite vocalists (and all-around artists), and she often squeaks while singing -- and because many of her songs are first-take recordings, those appear on the albums. To pull just one example, around 55 seconds into Cosmia (fair warning that the video has a bunch of pictures of bugs and moths, so if that squicks you out go ahead and tab out). Somehow it makes the song more genuine.

At the end of the day, though, I'm a reader. I'm a sucker for a well-written song, lyrically. Prime example would be Bright Eyes -- vocally, Connor Oberst isn't much, at least in his earlier albums, and a lot of his songs come down to just him and a guitar -- which has its place and isn't necessarily inferior, of course, but some are still extremely compelling because he's a great lyricist. Waste of Paint is one of my favorite Bright Eyes song almost entirely for the lyrics.

An open circle is used for second-level items in a list, like so:

• First level
  • Second level

A second level list item works as such in HTML:

HTML:

<ul>
    <li>First level</i>
    <ul>
        <li>Second level</li>
    </ul>
</ul>

And the page automatically renders the items in the second ul -- the list within the list -- as open circles (or whatever you have second level lists icons set as).

The bbcode tabs are actually an unordered list. Here's a simplified example of the parsed HTML behind the tabs:

HTML:

<ul class="tabs mainTabs Tabs">
    <li class="bbTab active"><a href="#tab_1" class="active">This is a tab</a></li>
    <li class="bbTab"><a href="#tab_2">This is another tab</a></li>
    <li class="bbTab"><a href="#tab_3">And another</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="tabsContent" id="tabContainer_#">
    <li id="tab_1" class="bbTabContent">Content in first tab</li>
    <li id="tab_2" class="bbTabContent">Content in second tab</li>
    <li id="tab_3" class="bbTabContent">Content in third tab</li>
</ul>

So by putting a list within a tab, you're effectively putting a list within a list, and therefore creating second-level list items.

sure sounds good

It's been there for a while now, I just forgot to update this thread -- but we now have this properly implemented. Head on over to the Member List and you'll see a 'Premium Members' tab now. It lists all Premiums, sorted by their message count (so those with the most messages are at the top, and those who have only just passed 1000 are towards the bottom). Further, this displays only Premiums, not staff -- we have our own tab, after all. ;)

Yeah, that's something I was trying to get at -- it seems like a lot of the people who watch the Oscars aren't doing it exactly to support the film industry. They're doing it for the red carpet show and the amusing host and the little shows they put on during it. I mean, you hear very little about anything but the best actor and actress nominees most years (and best picture). And don't get me started on all the Leo D jokes.

It's just this weird, sensationalized event that every year seems to have less and less to do with the actual movies, but more a product of our celebrity culture.

That's interesting -- do you think, perhaps, that you've just gotten so used to the Oscars (and Hollywood) being incredibly white that you've sort of become desensitized to it? Not trying to accuse or anything, just interested. And since I know you're super into movies, do you ever make your own list of winners for the year?

This is really a serious issue I have with the Oscars too. Animation is looked down upon as just children's films, which we all know isn't true, and it's especially puzzling when you compare the box office success of animation films compared to non-animated. Yeah, it's because kids and families go to see them, but that still deserves to be recognized and it doesn't mean it's inherently a lesser medium. Are animated movies even allowed to be nominated for Best Picture?

I could talk a lot about my problems with Frozen, but despite my whining I don't think it's a bad movie necessarily -- part of why I'm so grumpy about it is just the complete oversaturation of it and (imo) overblown reaction to it. For the movie itself, well, I can pull out some tumblr posts that nail down a lot of the issues with it (and expand on my own), but even with those things, it's still not a bad movie. It's an okay movie, imo; by Disney standards to call something 'okay' is pretty rare for me. Therefore, compared to how I regard most other Disney movies & my expectation for Disney movies, something being just okay is kinda bad, but I digress. All that said, we can't ignore the enormous popularity and commercial success of Frozen. I'd be really interested to know why kids have gone so gaga over it, actually! Like what is it about Frozen that just completely captured them? Maybe we should do a Frozen podcast some time, ha. I'm sure @Calxiyn will play Frozen defense squad.

It definitely didn't deserve the win last year, not because of how good it was or wasn't, but the ballots like you said were frankly despicable. The Lego Movie being snubbed is symptomatic of the complete apathy the Academy has for animation and kids' movies, too. It's really upsetting.

Holy **** this. It's frankly a crime that Andy Serkis hasn't received anything. I don't remember who I was talking to about this or where (it could have been on the podcast lol), but I can't wait for them to either allow mocap into best actor/actress nominees or create a separate category for it.

This goes back to what I was saying with animation but it seems like the default is just "Best Animated Movie? Oh, we'll just give it to whatever Disney put out this year."

As I'm sure was expected, I'm really not intending on ever seeing the movie. Here's a great post on the subject, by the way. I know that approaches "geez Misty, think for yourself" territory, but for me it's a matter of principal & I don't want to support something like this. Oh, and here's the Patton Oswalt essay I referenced: http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page=spew&id=167

Right!? I was so confused when they all were telling me JLaw was a thing pre-Hunger Games. I did some googling and discovered she was nominated for Best Actress for Winter's Bone in 2010 but I still don't think she was a household name or anything. She was cute in Like Crazy, though (but my heart ultimately goes out to Felicity Jones in it).

Oh definitely! I don't mean to say that it's impossible to relate to a character because they don't exactly match yourself, only that the representation of certain people in the media is seriously lacking. And, speaking from experience, it can be incredibly powerful to find a character that you relate with -- whether that's through simple personality or something like race, gender, disability, sexuality, etc.

Exactly what I'd like to see! Where the character isn't written as their disability or their race or whatever, but like you say, a character who happens to be disabled.

Frozen is definitely powerful as an allegory for disability and/or mental illness. I would maybe like to see a more explicit portrayal (like How to Train Your Dragon!) but I respect Frozen for it.

Well it's definitely not my place to say what people should and should not be getting upset about, considering I'm white and I'm not disabled.

I've not seen the movie but I'm sure Leto did a great job with it, that's part of being a good actor -- but imo, these things have a lot of power when they're portrayed by a person who matches whatever the role calls for, and that creates an opportunity for those people to break into the industry (because, let's face it, there's not a heck of a lot of opportunity for trans women in Hollywood). The best and most obvious example would be Laverne Cox in Orange is the New Black. When casting for the role of Sophia, Jenji Kohan insisted that they cast an actual trans woman, and I'm so pleased the role went to Laverne Cox. The episode focusing on her transition (and those that follow) plays with such a real authenticity and has made a trans woman somewhat of a household name -- not to mention that her OITNB fame has gotten Laverne Cox on a number of talk shows and other notice (Time magazine!) which does wonders for trans awareness.

I tried to get at this with Pocahontas, by saying you're not a bad person for liking something problematic as long as you acknowledge the problematic aspects. I think you're taking the right approach. The problem is people like Roman Polanski being given sort of a clean slate by a lot of Hollywood because he's made good movies. The thing is, nobody and nothing is completely unproblematic. That doesn't mean we're not allowed to like anything, that'd be ludicrous. But we do have to be aware of those problematic things and not pretend they never happened (which you're not doing obviously).

I'm glad! I was a little worried, ha. Sorry if I gave you a hard time! It's totally okay to argue with me on the podcast everyone, I like it.

People have pulled out similar defenses with 12 Years a Slave last year, like "oh hollywood isn't racist look at all the awards 12 years a slave got"
which........ is not how it works ..........................

Yes!

And Pacific Rim is so important to me on many levels but Mako and Stacker's relationship is huge. Huge. A terminally ill black man raising a Japanese girl? And he's clearly celebrating her culture, since Mako obviously has a connection to it -- I mean hell, the two seem to naturally speak Japanese to one another. And Pacific Rim being set in the not-so-distant future is really special to me too and fits so well with the overall hopefulness of the movie: that this future is one that includes all different sorts of people in such a wonderful and positive way and omg I might have to watch Pacific Rim tonight. It's like Star Trek, in that way -- it's imagining a future where a black woman will serve on the bridge of the Enterprise and be one of the most important people there. That's the sort of future I want to see.

And so did the podcast! Which is okay since that was really the focus of the uproar over the Oscars this year, but we can -- and will -- talk a lot about other sorts of representation too.

oh god don't even get me started

Distinguishing between genres has always been a rather arbitrary science to me. What is rock? Is there any definitive criteria a song must meet to be considered rock? For that matter, is there any kind of definitive listing of genres? I understand there's a science to it, but that doesn't really make sense to me, a listener, who doesn't know much of the form or formula of a song, only how it sounds -- and I represent most people listening to music in that way. To me, 'rock music' doesn't mean much of anything. I have a feeling for what some of its subgenres sound like, and many of those are very much alive -- indie rock, hard rock, alt rock, punk rock, are all far from dead.

It sounds to me like the same people who invented the phrase are the ones crying about it, which seems like more of a reaction to the changes in what's popular. The late 90s and onwards have seen a massive shift towards pop, hip-hop, R&B, rap, and electronic over guitars and drums in terms of popularity. Nirvana isn't the coolest group in America any more; the music industry's tour de force is Beyoncé, a pop/R&B artist (mainly). What's 'popular' is extremely mutable and right now it so happens that rock isn't, really. But to deem the genre "dead" completely ignores all this really cool music being released under the rock banner, and sounds to me like middle-aged man pain over the world moving on from classic rock.