So Taylor Swift's re-recording of 1989 is finally out.

It's incredible.

1989 was the album that turned me into a Taylor Swift fan. While folklore and Evermore have surpassed 1989 as my favorite Taylor Swift works, 1989 is still a masterpiece of a pop album, and the new recording is absolutely stellar.

The "From the Vault" tracks are pretty decent, too.

Also, the Eras Tours movie was really freaking cool. I couldn't snag tickets to an actual show, and seeing that movie in a theater was a pretty decent replacement (and will likely contribute to convincing me to spend an irresponsible amount of money to go to a show next time she tours).

Anyway, how have you all been?

So Taylor Swift's re-recording of 1989 is finally out.

It's incredible.

1989 was the album that turned me into a Taylor Swift fan. While folklore and Evermore have surpassed 1989 as my favorite Taylor Swift works, 1989 is still a masterpiece of a pop album, and the new recording is absolutely stellar.

The "From the Vault" tracks are pretty decent, too.

Also, the Eras Tours movie was really freaking cool. I couldn't snag tickets to an actual show, and seeing that movie in a theater was a pretty decent replacement (and will likely contribute to convincing me to spend an irresponsible amount of money to go to a show next time she tours).

Anyway, how have you all been?

Still here (sometimes), still playing Destiny! :)

(Also enjoying 1989. And missing playing with you.)

Anyway, how have you all been?

Busy. Both of my side gigs are turning into almost full time gigs. No time to even turn on my xbox. I'm shooting fireworks shows pretty much every weekend. Shot a wedding last night with a $1million+ total budget. Will shoot another 2 coming up, plus a Veterans Day show. Working with a drone company to do a drone/pyro show for NYE. And then my little souvenir stand of laser cut items in Nashville got noticed and I'm making a ton of stuff for the Bluebird Cafe. So when I'm not prepping pyro in the evenings I am making keychains by the 100s.

If you're even in Nashville I can show you one of Taylor Swift's houses. I don't know if she's ever there because I don't really keep up with her. I crossed paths with her in a store 15 years ago and that's about it.

Shot a wedding last night with a $1million+ total budget.

You know they say the more you spend on the wedding, the more likely the marriage is to fail.

Still here (sometimes), Still playing Destiny (more than any other games)

(Not part of the Swift wave, but I've spent the Summer trying and largely failing not to get further sucked into a rabbit hole of TWICE fandom)

And missing playing with you.

Me too. I can’t say with absolute certainty that I’ll never play Destiny again, but I certainly haven’t felt the draw to so. Maybe The Final Shape will change that.

Titanfall 2 has become my fulltime replacement of Overwatch. Whenever I feel I just want to jump on and shoot some shit, turn the brain off and pew pew, I'm playing Titanfall 2... which got a minor update recently. No Titanfall 3, but for a 7 year old game, it's right cool. My favorite mode, "Frontier Defense" got two "new" maps, so I'm right happy about that.

I jump on to Destiny 2 in a very scatter shot fashion now. The stuff I find fun, and always have found fun, is still fun. I play for that. And the stuff I don't care about, I just don't. Apparently there is bunch of story stuff that had happened which requires... I don't know. Probably some hoops or something, and... I just don't care. I'm DONE with the majority of "chase" nonsense. I've got more than enough, and I'm happy. ...That said, would like to get my hands on that "Ice Scout" exotic that came about last season. Eh. Now that I think of it, new Exotics are probably the only thing I feel are even worth chasing at this point, more or less.

Oh... and I'm writing a book. Really. And that's all I can say on this. In the unlikely event this thing... which feels like it has the potential to be right good, actually turns out to be as I feel it could be, where everything happens with just the right timing with the publishers and all that jazz, oh man this thing could be something. Yet even so, I will not be advertising it here, which I would prefer. If it's good, it will sell, and I don't really want it any other way.

But, I get far far ahead of my self. I still have years potentially in the making, provided I and it survive everything else. I've never done this before, is my speed Steven King or George R. R. Martin? No clue, essentially since I know that my time shall be captured by other things as time moves on. What those things would be are a guess, but are still very real possibilities. And good ones too.

Oh, but I ramble, but of course I do. At this point, it's part of the charm!

So anyway, as it's me, here is a totally random video that clearly has no relevance to anything. Ta ta! :D

Shot a wedding last night with a $1million+ total budget.

You know they say the more you spend on the wedding, the more likely the marriage is to fail.

I had one booked 2 years ago that was a $2 million budget. We were going to do the show on a platform anchored in the Cumberland River behind the venue. They spent a million then called it off and I guess broke up. I was going to make as much as a city show for that gig.

That same planner booked me last year at the same venue for another river show. It was only a half million wedding. I had to ride out two rough thunderstorms in the river before and after, and watched thousands of dollars worth of flowers get blown into the river as they were setting up for pictures. My assistant fished them out and took them to his wife.

I like a couple of Taylor Swift songs, but remain neutral on her larger significance.

As far as Destiny goes, I've been playing a lot less as life has changed quite a bit for me in the past year. Wednesday night raids are still a priority, but anything else is gravy. I'm trying to keep up with the story missions, but I'm pretty far behind on collecting exotics and haven't touched Trials in a long time. I still like the occasional challenge when I can, was messing around with a solo Master Lost Sector yesterday that I couldn't quite pull off. Would love to do some more Dungeons, but scheduling is hard.

Still enjoy playing, but my dedication to the game and the community has taken a hit.

- No text -

So Taylor Swift's re-recording of 1989 is finally out.

It's incredible.

1989 was the album that turned me into a Taylor Swift fan. While folklore and Evermore have surpassed 1989 as my favorite Taylor Swift works, 1989 is still a masterpiece of a pop album, and the new recording is absolutely stellar.

The "From the Vault" tracks are pretty decent, too.

Also, the Eras Tours movie was really freaking cool. I couldn't snag tickets to an actual show, and seeing that movie in a theater was a pretty decent replacement (and will likely contribute to convincing me to spend an irresponsible amount of money to go to a show next time she tours).

Anyway, how have you all been?

I've gone deep down an Analogue rabbit hole and now have a glow in the dark green Analogue Pocket and my SuperNT. Replaying Chrono Trigger and FF1 has been a hoot.

I've also gotten back into Magic mostly through MTG: Arena, but also through doing drafts with my family.

I've dabbled in Starfield, Baldur's Gate, and have gone hard into Gran Tourismo 7 because I got a PSVR2 for my birthday and it's been amazing.

Just tried The Finals open beta and it just made me want Marathon more, and now I'm seeing the layoffs news and damn that puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I play through the story each season of Destiny, revel in how much I love it, but just am interested in EVERYTHING else I have going on.

As I'm eyeing all the A24 collector's edition 4k's I've bought I'm beginning to realize I MAY just be a film buff.

I also grew a moustache so I could be:
Ted Lasso (w/ Rebecca)

Or Goose/Rooster

Or Angry Big Bird

The OG:

Oh I also got a playdate and I've been playing around with the sdk, may drop another version of my archer game.

Oh and my two girls are doing great, they're little goblins, but they're great.

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Super excited to see what forgers get up to

Back in the ole haunt

I've been out work since May because of the WGA and SAG strikes.

Now, SAG appears to be in the end of their negotiations (we hope), but fortunately I just got on a project that has SAG waivers (they are basically agreeing to all of the terms right now, and so SAG will let actors work on such productions).

I really want to make it clear that I'm not upset at the WGA or SAG at all. I'm upset at the AMPTP, who waited over 100 days to talk to the writers - who could have given them the deal the got day one, instead of dragging this out and hurting everyone. It turns out, the writers could last longer than the shareholders of the AMPTP member companies.

So proud of everyone for staying unified and getting what they deserve.

- No text -

Yes, but life is hard generally, yes?--especially if your fun hobby causes you to lose sight of things that are more important. (I'm not going to speculate about squid's non-gaming life, but I suspect we're both focusing on more important things, different though they may be given our respective timelines.) l've long thought of this community in general as a kind of an additional family, as important to me as people I know in my day-to-day life. Although I still care deeply about many people here, let's just say my thinking has shifted, and part of that is no longer believing that keeping up with the newest Bungie game is the best use of my increasingly precious free time. Don't read too much into that last phrase--time is probably a bit more precious to me, simply because on average, I've got less of it than many here. And every second counts. [Queue Taylor Swift's "Love Story"]

So Taylor Swift's re-recording of 1989 is finally out.

It's incredible.

1989 was the album that turned me into a Taylor Swift fan. While folklore and Evermore have surpassed 1989 as my favorite Taylor Swift works, 1989 is still a masterpiece of a pop album, and the new recording is absolutely stellar.

The "From the Vault" tracks are pretty decent, too.

Also, the Eras Tours movie was really freaking cool. I couldn't snag tickets to an actual show, and seeing that movie in a theater was a pretty decent replacement (and will likely contribute to convincing me to spend an irresponsible amount of money to go to a show next time she tours).

Anyway, how have you all been?

I've gone deep down an Analogue rabbit hole and now have a glow in the dark green Analogue Pocket and my SuperNT. Replaying Chrono Trigger and FF1 has been a hoot.

I've also gotten back into Magic mostly through MTG: Arena, but also through doing drafts with my family.

I've dabbled in Starfield, Baldur's Gate, and have gone hard into Gran Tourismo 7 because I got a PSVR2 for my birthday and it's been amazing.

Just tried The Finals open beta and it just made me want Marathon more, and now I'm seeing the layoffs news and damn that puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I play through the story each season of Destiny, revel in how much I love it, but just am interested in EVERYTHING else I have going on.

As I'm eyeing all the A24 collector's edition 4k's I've bought I'm beginning to realize I MAY just be a film buff.

I also grew a moustache so I could be:
Ted Lasso (w/ Rebecca)

Or Goose/Rooster

I applaud your dedication to things of the past: legacy games, physical media, mustaches.

Speaking of physical media. Still mourning the end of Netflix's DVD business. I'm mad at them for not selecting me, an early customer, for their final mailing (your top ten discs for you to keep forever), but so it goes. More worried about what the end of that era portends for discs.

Let's talk about film sometime. Was excited to hear that Disney is releasing Andor on 4k in a steelbook. Finally, Star Wars for grown-ups. Did not see that coming.

Glad to hear that you and your family are doing well.

Kerm

Didn’t I just see recently that Best Buy is no longer going to sell physical movies? I genuinely wonder how that industry is doing. It seemed, at a glance, safer than video games. There’s a noticeable difference in quality when you have a disc versus streaming, whereas with a video game it all gets installed and runs the same no matter how you bought it. uh

So Taylor Swift's re-recording of 1989 is finally out.

It's incredible.

1989 was the album that turned me into a Taylor Swift fan. While folklore and Evermore have surpassed 1989 as my favorite Taylor Swift works, 1989 is still a masterpiece of a pop album, and the new recording is absolutely stellar.

The "From the Vault" tracks are pretty decent, too.

Also, the Eras Tours movie was really freaking cool. I couldn't snag tickets to an actual show, and seeing that movie in a theater was a pretty decent replacement (and will likely contribute to convincing me to spend an irresponsible amount of money to go to a show next time she tours).

Anyway, how have you all been?

I've gone deep down an Analogue rabbit hole and now have a glow in the dark green Analogue Pocket and my SuperNT. Replaying Chrono Trigger and FF1 has been a hoot.

I've also gotten back into Magic mostly through MTG: Arena, but also through doing drafts with my family.

I've dabbled in Starfield, Baldur's Gate, and have gone hard into Gran Tourismo 7 because I got a PSVR2 for my birthday and it's been amazing.

Just tried The Finals open beta and it just made me want Marathon more, and now I'm seeing the layoffs news and damn that puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I play through the story each season of Destiny, revel in how much I love it, but just am interested in EVERYTHING else I have going on.

As I'm eyeing all the A24 collector's edition 4k's I've bought I'm beginning to realize I MAY just be a film buff.

I also grew a moustache so I could be:
Ted Lasso (w/ Rebecca)

Or Goose/Rooster

I applaud your dedication to things of the past: legacy games, physical media, mustaches.

Speaking of physical media. Still mourning the end of Netflix's DVD business. I'm mad at them for not selecting me, an early customer, for their final mailing (your top ten discs for you to keep forever), but so it goes. More worried about what the end of that era portends for discs.

Let's talk about film sometime. Was excited to hear that Disney is releasing Andor on 4k in a steelbook. Finally, Star Wars for grown-ups. Did not see that coming.

Glad to hear that you and your family are doing well.

Kerm

Great to hear from ya mate. Oh my gosh, I would LEAP to secure a 4k copy of Andor!!!

And yeah I'm weirdly deep into physical media for movies and mostly digital for games. I see being able to use my OG SNES carts in my SuperNT as a novelty, not the primary value of the machine.

Didn’t I just see recently that Best Buy is no longer going to sell physical movies? I genuinely wonder how that industry is doing. It seemed, at a glance, safer than video games. There’s a noticeable difference in quality when you have a disc versus streaming, whereas with a video game it all gets installed and runs the same no matter how you bought it. uh

That'd be a bummer, it's where I get a lot of my physical movies.

And yeah I'm all in on the noticeable difference of discs vs streaming. There's also the fact that digital videos are more impermanent than video games which have a better track record of sticking around. Scrambled to buy a dvd of over the garden wall when it left Max.

I applaud your dedication to things of the past: legacy games, physical media, mustaches.

We should all gather somewhere nice (like a park or something) and yell at the clouds together sometime soon.

I'm not even being sarcastic. The death of legacy content delivery has been very sad for me to watch. I think it's a net negative for everyone in the long run. Just look at how the streaming model has decimated the entertainment industry. Now that the "Golden Age of Television" is pretty much over, the consumers will begin to understand that the business model has been utterly shot to hell. Do not expect those subscription price increases to stop any time soon!

So welcome to the club. You're all here among the deranged elders now -- right beside me.

I applaud your dedication to things of the past: legacy games, physical media, mustaches.

We should all gather somewhere nice (like a park or something) and yell at the clouds together sometime soon.

I'm not even being sarcastic. The death of legacy content delivery has been very sad for me to watch. I think it's a net negative for everyone in the long run. Just look at how the streaming model has decimated the entertainment industry. Now that the "Golden Age of Television" is pretty much over, the consumers will begin to understand that the business model has been utterly shot to hell. Do not expect those subscription price increases to stop any time soon!

So welcome to the club. You're all here among the deranged elders now -- right beside me.

[Looks over at cabinet holding ~1000 LPs] Um, yep.

This is long, but I think he nails it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQF82Kj-v0E

Didn’t I just see recently that Best Buy is no longer going to sell physical movies? I genuinely wonder how that industry is doing. It seemed, at a glance, safer than video games. There’s a noticeable difference in quality when you have a disc versus streaming, whereas with a video game it all gets installed and runs the same no matter how you bought it. uh

That'd be a bummer, it's where I get a lot of my physical movies.

Maybe Target, too. :(

Didn’t I just see recently that Best Buy is no longer going to sell physical movies? I genuinely wonder how that industry is doing. It seemed, at a glance, safer than video games. There’s a noticeable difference in quality when you have a disc versus streaming, whereas with a video game it all gets installed and runs the same no matter how you bought it. uh

The truth is:

1. People don't care too much about the difference in quality.
2. People don't have very many movies they want to watch again and again.

Streaming is good enough for most people, and honestly I completely understand.

Of course, this is a problem for us. A significant portion of our pensions were funded by tape/DVD sales and rentals. All dried up now. And of course, the companies don't want to pay us every time someone streams a movie.

I'm not even being sarcastic. The death of legacy content delivery has been very sad for me to watch. I think it's a net negative for everyone in the long run. Just look at how the streaming model has decimated the entertainment industry. Now that the "Golden Age of Television" is pretty much over, the consumers will begin to understand that the business model has been utterly shot to hell. Do not expect those subscription price increases to stop any time soon!

I think it will adjust.

I've heard that people inside Netflix were talking, regarding movies like Extraction 2. Released on their platform, it doesn't really gain them anything. They aren't getting any more subscribers. But if they put it out in a movie theater? They'd pull in at least 50 million easy. There's the possibility that Netflix might not debut their movies on their platform anymore, but rather theatrically.

Likewise, everyone is realizing that spending 200 million dollars on 8 episodes of a fucking TV show isn't sustainable.

It was an experiment, and it's going to correct. I'm optimistic a new equilibrium will be found.

I'm not even being sarcastic. The death of legacy content delivery has been very sad for me to watch. I think it's a net negative for everyone in the long run. Just look at how the streaming model has decimated the entertainment industry. Now that the "Golden Age of Television" is pretty much over, the consumers will begin to understand that the business model has been utterly shot to hell. Do not expect those subscription price increases to stop any time soon!

I think it will adjust.

I've heard that people inside Netflix were talking, regarding movies like Extraction 2. Released on their platform, it doesn't really gain them anything. They aren't getting any more subscribers. But if they put it out in a movie theater? They'd pull in at least 50 million easy. There's the possibility that Netflix might not debut their movies on their platform anymore, but rather theatrically.

They've already inched in that direction.

Likewise, everyone is realizing that spending 200 million dollars on 8 episodes of a fucking TV show isn't sustainable.

It was an experiment, and it's going to correct. I'm optimistic a new equilibrium will be found.

I'm somewhat optimistic, too. There are good signs, like Oppie/Barbie. I'm interested in what you think about the YouTube video I posted earlier, especially the last 20 minutes or so, when he outlines what he thinks needs to happen.

I'm somewhat optimistic, too. There are good signs, like Oppie/Barbie. I'm interested in what you think about the YouTube video I posted earlier, especially the last 20 minutes or so, when he outlines what he thinks needs to happen.

I’ll tell ya when YouTube stops blocking adblockers. Right now only my really old computer seems to be immune to their anti Adblock scripts.

I'm somewhat optimistic, too. There are good signs, like Oppie/Barbie. I'm interested in what you think about the YouTube video I posted earlier, especially the last 20 minutes or so, when he outlines what he thinks needs to happen.

I’ll tell ya when YouTube stops blocking adblockers. Right now only my really old computer seems to be immune to their anti Adblock scripts.

Fair enough, but I am interested in whether you agree with his prescriptions.