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Didn't get the tornado warnings (certainly not nearly as bad as Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia got hit), but did have 35+ mph wind gusts and driving rain starting at about 2a.m. On top of that, my idiot neighbor left his garbage cans out and they ended up blowing UP HILL up the street, making a rather colossal racket as they went. On top of that, have had to be in to work early every day this week.
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Ugh...I got only 3 hours of sleep last night thanks to the storms...I can't brain today.
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Quote:Originally Posted by catsi563Superhuman intellect.
Imagaine being able to see things and understand them on a level that makes reed richards and doctor doom look like utter morons.
The capacity to think of ideas that could help humanity is boundless. -
Can't watch it until tonight due to interference from two hockey games and "Justified."
Is there any truth to the rumor that this might be the last season? -
I want the power that if somebody was not telling the truth, I could point at them and yell, "Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!" and their pants would actually catch fire.
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Quote:The scene where the SWAT team was climbing down through the skyline and being turned into monster chow had me in stitches. The guys on the rope seeing what was happening and trying to climb back up were hilarious.Love this movie. The scene where Penelope Ann Miller is simultaneously horrified and disgusted when the Big Nasty Critter licks her is priceless.
Also, I'd actually visited the Field Museum the week before I saw the movie. Spooky! -
Quote:I also love that one, and I would classify it as a guilty pleasure (although, my PARENTS actually like it). The cast seems like they're enjoying themselves WAY too much in that one.Tremors is a great movie. One of my all-time favorite science fiction films, yes, but also one of my all-time favorite flicks. It is a perfect homage to those B-picture monster movies of yesteryear where the small town gets cut off from the outside world... except it's really, really good. Plus funny as hell.
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In no particular order:
Underworld (and the 2nd one) -- the third one was pretty bad, though.
Cabin Boy -- it's utterly fascinating at how bad and unfunny this movie truly, yet I can't stop watching it all the while wonder, "How the hell did this get green lit?"
Independence Day -- probably the greatest bad movie ever
Gus -- old Disney movie about a field goal-kickin' mule. Don Knots and Tim Conway star.
Starship Troopers -- when viewed as a film, it's rather horrible. When viewed as a futuristic satire in the stylings of a Nazi Germany propaganda video, it's brilliant.
Total Recall -- maybe a little too over-the-top in violence, but features some great scenery chewing by Michael Ironside and Ronnie Cox.
Lake Placid -- overgrown alligator and Betty White swearing like a sailor = win!
Transformers -- just admit it, already. This is a bad movie. Is it an enjoyable bad movie? Yes. But it's still a bad movie.
Smokin' Aces -- a critic described the plot as, "Blam blam blam blam blam blam PLOT TWIST blam blam blam." That really does about sum it up.
Daredevil -- well, the Director's Cut, anyway. If only they could have cut out the teeter totter scene.
The Punisher -- the Thomas Jane version. I really liked the source material they drew from (Garth Ennis' and Steve Dillon's "Welcome Back, Frank") and I was able to appreciate what they were trying to do with this movie. Was it great? Hardly. But I liked it.
They Live -- a Carpenter film that probably misses the mark more than his other movies, but it still pretty much works. It's not nearly as good as "The Thing," "Big Trouble In Little China," "In the Mouth of Madness" or "The Prince of Darkness." (The last on that list has not aged well.)
30 Days of Night -- in a sea of twinkly vampires, this was exactly what I wanted to see. It's a pretty merciless vampire tale, and it's really not for the squeamish.
"I" Come In Peace -- Brian Benben! Dolph Lundgren! Aliens that bleed cottage cheese!
Blind Fury -- old Rutger Hauer movie about a blind guy with a ninja sword. Has some cheesy '80s moments in it, but also some good laughs. -
Quote:Strange. My blaster, with tons of AOE attacks, can't seem to get anything other than common and uncommon rewards. Stalker, with no AOE attacks at all, no I-shifts, only alpha slot open...very rare.I can tell you that hitting a lot of stuff, tends to correlate very well for me in earning a rare reward. I haven't kept logs, but I will going forward. I don't doubt what you are saying is what is intended, I just question whether it's actually working out that way.
What the initial post really didn't address was the strange disparity Master Minds seem to be having on the loot tables. Are the effects of pets not being properly counted as part of the barrier to receive a reward? -
I still believe Simonson's run on Thor is the greatest ever from a creative standpoint.
I guess I'm more curious as to the quality of the books themselves. Are they printed on crummy paper? Do they fall apart? Etc.
Some of the older Marvel Masterworks editions, for example, are kind of shoddy in quality, which is unfortunate. And don't even get me started on the DC Showcase line of books.
The Thor Omnibus isn't quite on par in quality with the DC Absolute Editions, for example, but it's far better than most other collected materials. -
Quote:Chris Hemsworth is Australian, I believe. Kind of silly to do this, since I'd worry about the movie being all over the internet before it opens in the U.S., but movies premiering earlier in other places is not entirely uncommon.
Edit 2: BTW... what is the rationale for film opening more than 2 week earlier there? Surely they know that people who are dying to see it will probably find it online in about another 12 hours or so, possibly then choosing not to spend money to see it in the theater... -
Something is definitely out of whack when my blaster, who basically cranks out damage and destruction non-stop (all at Tier 3) only very occasionally gets a rare (and no Very Rares) while my Stalker ran a first BAF (no slots unlocked) and snagged a very rare. I realize some randomness is involved, but...seriously...
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Quote:Master of BAF is definitely much easier than Master of Lambda. I definitely might want to try getting some MoLamba runs together this weekend, but it does seem to require people to be at level 53 (Alpha level shift, Destiny & Lore I-shifts) just so damage can be piled on to Marauder. We were close on that one run we tried, but my blaster was still at 51 (for example) so we ended up using a grenade towards the end just so we could complete the trial.I've recently come back due to finding free time and did my first BAF/Lambda last night on the WS. Fun stuff. I'd love to get in on these, Hew. Warshade is 50+1 and fully IO'd, no other slots unlocked.
Also, that awesome BAF i did last night got me everything but Keep 'em Separated and I'd love that if it's not being too selfish. -
The iXP won't be big on the speed runs (I think I got 10% towards Judgement last night...so 150k), but do enough of these and it will pile up. I don't think I got Lore unlocked until someone convinced Masque to do a farming BAF on one run (I was close when we did that run, but the iXP comes slowly on speed runs).
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Quote:It takes a bit of prep in team set up to make sure things are balanced, and letting which team know which AV they're supposed to be on. (And also making sure you can adapt on the fly to coordinate the simultaneous end for both of them.) People need to pay attention to the health meters better.Def, thats the one where we kill the AVs at their respective spawn points? I have no qualms doing this every time I feel comfortable with the team we have. That could be several extra astrals per BAF multi-run. It for sure is not as difficult as it looks at first glance.... (thumbs up PV for showing the way)
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If you're running any of these tonight, my brute is still in need of the Keep'em Separated badge. Probably very doable even in a speed run. (And it does yield an extra Astral Merit.)
Again, I'd be down for this either way. If I'm not going to get very rares to drop, I need to save up my E-Merits for them. -
I was curious if anyone had purchased any of the Marvel Visionaries TPBs in the past, and if they could tell me if they're of sufficient quality to warrant a purchase. I realize they are softcover books (I'm okay with this) but I don't recall seeing any of them in a bookstore before. It looks like they've published them for Simonson's runs on Thor and Fantastic Four, Peter David's work on Hulk, Byrne's work on Fantastic Four, and a few others.
With the enjoyment I'm getting out of the Thor Omnibus, I thought it might be time to look into these books.
Thanks! -
Quote:Or like how Sam Raimi got complete creative freedom over Spider-Man 3...oh, wait...If the Avengers gets up for a big summer blockbuster and proves to the suits he can play with the big boys, then he'll gain a lot of free rein to do whatever the heck he wants. It's always the way of it; look how Spielberg got to do what he felt like after he proved himself.
Never underestimate the ability of a studio hack to destroy something good.
Yeah, Spielberg has a lot more freedom, but he had the money to set up his own studio with a couple of partners (Dreamworks). James Cameron and George Lucas are kind of in the same boat, but people like them are few and far between. (In fact, those are the only three I can think of where the studios won't mess with them at all.) -
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Quote:Others have touched on this, but Simonson's Thor hearkened more back to the days of the Norse myths more so than the Marvel mythology. While Thor was still clearly bound in the Marvel Universe (Nick Fury shows up in the first few issues, he gets involved in the Mutant Massacre storyline, etc.), Simonson revels in Norse myth throughout his tenure. Did you know Thor has a chariot that can roam the skies and is drawn by two mighty goats? Lee and Kirby didn't. Simonson did. And towards the end of Simonson's run, Ragnarok, the end of the Nine Worlds, looms when Jurmungand appears.Never really read any Thor, but I love the Norse and Icelandic sagas... enough so that I'm tempted to look at this. Wonder if I can "order" this to my local B & N and see if I want it after reading through for awhile. Would definitely have to wait until Christmas or the price to drop to buy it, though.
Anything you all can tell me about these stories in particular that makes them good/great?
Walt's sense of timing is also important. In the first few pages of his work, the word "DOOM" is uttered across the cosmos. Of course, you won't get a payoff for this until Surtur finishes his sword (fired through the molten core of a star) and tries to destroy the Nine Worlds. That's over a year later from Walt laying the seeds to the story arc. You don't get that sort of grand storytelling in modern comics.
And, as others have said, his attention toe the minor characters of Asgard was awesome. I'm currently at a point where Balder is being run through the wringer. But I'm really loving Walt's characterization of Volstagg (the gluttonous comic relief of the Warriors Three). I also know Sif's tale is far from over, and can't wait until she returns to Asgard.
There's not any one thing that makes Thor's Simonson good or great. It's a culmination of lots of things that are good and great that adds up to what could be the greatest work any creator has contributed to any one title. Some creators (like Claremont on X-Men or David on Hulk) may have had longer runs on their respective titles, but Simonson told the epic story he wanted to tell and did it in style. -
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Quote:You just have to remind people to "watch the paths, not the doors" and it typically goes better. And make sure someone from each team (preferably a high damage character) is positioned to act as goalie to hover or watch near the exits. Sitting a blaster in between the S5 and S6 buildings still allows them to blast the path and catch any that make it through the gauntlet.Still see too many people struggling with the "path technique." Seems every run, 3-4 people want to stand outside building 1 (S4). The majority of players should be in between building 2 (S5) and 3 (S6).
EDIT: Oh, and I've seen a team leader or two try to work the odds in their favor by stacking the damage on Team 1, which typically watches the north path. They want the big iXP on a farming team, but it will probably cost you an astral merit as something sneaks through the south path, which lacks ranged damage to chase down errant escapees.