Stackbabbin' Bumscags

My adventures in chainmaille begins. I've got my first two chains posted here, and will attempt a Byzantine chain tomorrow and hope all goes well.

Here's what I mean about "closed" and "open" rings. The rings on the top left are closed, while the rings on the top right are open. The 3 at the bottom are what's called "raw", they aren't closed nor open, they are as-is out of the bag. This was my first chain, a very basic 2-in-2. Some weaves go by "(Name) X in Y" where X and Y are numbers of rings, in this case, it's that 2 rings are inside 2 rings. I have another pattern I'm going to attempt which'll start off as part of a Half-Persian 3-in-1, so there'll be 3 rings inside 1 ring. And this is my Helm Chain. It's a variation of a standard 2-in-2, but you can see it's got that extra ring in the middle. I couldn't attempt a Helm Chain with my first 2-in-2 chain because I didn't have the right aspect ratio of the two rings I was using. It was fine for that chain, but I couldn't get the black rings to fit over the silver rings in the first chain, so I started this new one. This is my first practice at weaving rings into a chain. My color selection is very limited, I have another set of rings that are light blue, but my color selection will be expanding later. So far the only troubles I've had is starting a new chain, once the chain has been started, it's a rather easy affair, but starting them is a pain in the ass.

We finally decorated our tree, almost 2 days away from Christmas. Hooray for procrastination!

I wanna learn more about the Omnics, for such a major part of the world, there's not much else done with them except for background characters in comics/shorts.

Characters (and people) are generally presumed straight until proven otherwise, you don't need character development to have a character "come out" as straight. The reveal just feels rather oddly placed, and is a very safe option. Don't get me wrong, I want more LGBT characters in video games, it'd be really fuckin' nice to have a bit more representation in a media I have enjoyed for the past decade. I want it done right, though, I want it to be where it's not a big deal or "risk" to make an LGBT character. Part of that is going to happen when we stop making a big stink about sexuality, and part of it is when it stops becoming a major marketing point. A month ago Kotaku had a talk with a two Overwatch designers/artists about LGBT representation in video games, so then Blizzard announces "One of the characters is LGBT! But we're not telling who yet!" I do like how it was just a simple reveal, and not "Look at me, a woman, with my girlfriend sitting on this couch! Now I'm kissing my girlfriend because we're celebrating Christmas!", but it still doesn't sit very well with me, for reasons I'm partially trying to figure out. The biggest reason though, is that it's safe. Lesbian/bisexual women are subject to the "two chicks good, two dudes bad" double standard, so it's "more acceptable" (though the Blizzard forums exploding in nerd rage would suggest otherwise) to have a character be lesbian/bi, especially if she's attractive. It also strikes me as weird to do this kind of reveal now that the game has been out for almost 7 months. Why not have it be part of her introduction? Have a quick scene where she's hugging/kissing her at-the-time SO? I'm glad that Overwatch's diversity now includes sexual orientation, it just feels.. odd.

I kinda wish we'd gotten a bit more character development and story on all of them before going "Oh yeah by the way this person is gay, now back to this awesome story I was telling..." I like how ME3 handled Cortez, even though he didn't get any major amounts of development, it wasn't really hammered in that he's gay when you find out about it, if you even got to that reveal anyway. But this just feels like "LESBIAN SURPRISE! -Rainbows-". I'd have rather them focused more on building up these characters more before any reveals on romantic relationships. Either that or just have it mildly introduced when we were learning about each character in the beginning. Let the shippers and artists have their own headcanon (which they'll continue to do anyway) and keep with the world-building. Don't just have 'em be gay for the sake of inclusivity, or just leave out the romantic relationships altogether, let people (keep) form(ing) their own stuff on them. This also reeks of being a safe choice, with Tracer being the face of the game (she's the only character on the front cover of physical copies), despite the diverse cast of characters, and being the cute lesbian is pretty much the safest way to introduce an LGBT character. I'm not against it, but either fully commit to the deal or just don't do it.

Got to play the Magicka card game today, and it's pretty fun, I must say. It's 1st edition, so it hasn't had any erratas or clarifications yet, like what to do when a Wizard is knocked out but still has a Summoned Creature alive, or a small number of other questions we had, but it's overall a good little game. It'll take around 15-20 minutes to play.

The Magicka card game we backed on Kickstarter has finally arrived. A lot of production delays, but it looks good so far, will try it out soon.

Also note that you can only transfer the 'Mons in Box 1, and every Pokemon in that box will be transferred when you use the Poke Transporter. If any of your Pokemon are ineligible for transport, they'll remain in that box while all others will be transported. Then you'll need to open up the Poke Bank, when you use the Poke Transporter all Pokemon sent to the Bank are placed in the Transport Box, which you'll need to empty before you can use the Transporter again. Any held items will be placed back into your Bag, or deleted if the bag is full. From the Poke Bank, you can then move them to XY/ORAS - and in January, SuMo. Kyurem must be in its base form (Not White Kyurem or Black Kyurem) in order to be transported, eggs cannot be transported, and any Pokemon that evolve via trading will not evolve when transported to the bank or another game.

Hau was goddamned useless, Gladion got okay once he stopped being a dickhole.

Lillie is also fucking adorable. Relevant, mildly spoiler-ish.

Mom's getting me the rings I'll need for Christmas. I sent her a bunch of weaves (what they call the patterns in the chainmail craft) and she's going to pick a few and grab the rings for 'em. IT'S HAPPENING in the near future

So, I've decided that I need a new hobby, something I can do other than playing video games, blasphemies, I know. I wanted something crafty to do, my mom can crochet and cross-stitch, and she's usually working on some project or another, but neither of those particularly interest me all that much. But I remembered that Case made her a chainmail choker once, and that kind of craft seemed to catch my interest. So, sometime around Christmas, I will begin my adventure in making chainmail jewelry. I'm actually pretty excited, and it's my greatest hope that I can make this hobby into something I can get a little money out of. I might consider making a thread to post my creations if people would be interested in seeing them.

Don't forget it had FemShep screaming "I'll kill your dicks!"

Also, Bulletstorm is getting a remaster, and it's got some DLC planned to have Duke Nukem in it. I am confuse.

Thankfully it wasn't some freak illness that got her, she just got old. But I'm still gonna miss her. Pets don't live nearly long enough.

Playing board games. And Patches - my cat - died sometime overnight.

I am currently having a crapton of fun with the Poke Finder and I've only gone to the first picture spot.

Welp. My oldest cat has kidney failure. She was diagnosed with kidney disease last year, and typically you've got at most - in most cases - 2 years once you get the diagnosis. She's not eating much willingly, we've had to force feed her last night and tonight. We got her back from the vet and she's got some weird tick where she's turning right, which causes her to end up going around in circles a lot. She's not hearing or seeing very well, and she likely won't live much longer. Either we'll have to put her down just so she's not suffering, or she'll die soon. Vash - newer cat - is concerned, and we're worried that once she dies he won't eat anymore because he's a very social cat. Chief thinks we're not going to get a second cat, but we'll have to for his sake, and ours. We're generally the most comfortable with 2 cats, if Vash would be alright without another cat, then we'd wait a bit, but if Patches walks away from her food, he walks away at the same time, even if he's still hungry. I've known for some time that she was gonna go soon, it's still not easy. We've had her for 18 years, so she's been with me since I was 5. She's the last of the first 3 cats I've ever owned.

This isn't a game of Civ, life is not a "competition", yet somehow, we've managed to turn it into one. "Nation-states" aren't going to work. We can see it now, the UK is scrambling to pick itself back up after Brexit, Israel and Pakistan have been in an uneasy state for quite some time, and it's highly obvious that our "nation of states" is starting to come apart at the seams. Quite frankly, it's high time to federalize the entire nation, no more "United States of America", just "America". You say that domestic politics is ugly, but politics between two different nations is far uglier. "Acting with prudence" is not the promotion of one group over all others, acting with true prudence would be breaking down the barriers we've put between ourselves, stop thinking in terms of "blacks" and "whites", and cooperate as people. Instead, you only want to put up physical, geographical, and legal barriers, but also reinforce cultural ones. You still voted for him. Regardless, you're set in your willful ignorance, and I'd likely be making greater use of my time by bashing my head into a wall repeatedly. Your ideology has caused immense harm to many people, and will continue to do so until the movement itself dies out. Be on the wrong side of history if you want, I'm tired of this "debate".

You cannot separate them just because of the additional descriptor regarding their legal status. "Illegal Mexican immigrant" "Legal Mexican immigrant", they are still Mexican. Funny thing, that. The European-descent Hispanics ("white Hispanic" as they are called sometimes) are the ones who hold the political power in Mexico. And now the European-descent Hispanics are screwing over the indigenous Hispanics. Which sounds very familiar. White man comes in and kills off majority of indigenous people to start their own nation, United States. White man comes in and takes control over government and starts enforcing legislation on the indigenous people to actively separate and discriminate against them, even giving them weaker education to "prepare them" for their role as the "lesser race", Apartheid. If anything, the "points" you're making all connect to a single conclusion "White people ruin everything they gain control of.", which I can only partially agree (about 4% "agreement") with.

"When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. ... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." Yeah, "doesn't see color".

So, this whole "cultural melting pot" nation that we've been presenting ourselves as for the past, oh I dunno, few decades - probably longer, is all bunk? You act like suddenly America's going to stop being America just because minority groups do have say in how our country operates and the white man isn't allowed to be the "superior" race. You say that, but then you go and support a movement that wants to do just that. So what do I listen to? Your words? Or your actions?