I've never participated in a protest, but living in the bay area, I run into my fair share. There's always protests in Oakland and Berkeley even when there isn't anything going on, but they've gotten a whole lot worse with the whole Michael Brown protests.

Personal feelings about the Michael Brown case aside, the whole protests have frankly been really annoying. The protestors have blocked off various highways before, making commutes a nightmare.

The only protests I actually like are the ones complaining about tuition costs. While I think the people protesting are essentially just whining, I generally get the day off because the professors cancel classes because of the protests.

While there isn't a ton to do in the area itself, this soundtrack combined with the view was something else.

Porn star Mercedes Carrera tells it like it is.

Jason Momoa in his Aquaman costume.

The alphabet technically follows the "I before E except after C" rule.

Shenmue brought an expectation for me that jujitsu had a lot of strikes on top of the throw oriented combat. Looking at jujitsu displays, that's not the case. It's mostly about throwing and grabs. I would like strikes too, but no jujitsu school I've found has an large number of strikes. In fact, I think jujitsu - and further, other japanese martial arts - just don't look appealing, which is surprising because the fighting style Ryo uses really appeals to me. I realize it's a game, but I was really interesting in doing something similar.

Old school Jiujitsu incorporated strikes into it, given that it originally came from the battlefield. The reason why the Hazuki style doesn't resemble jiujitsu is because it isn't jiujitsu. It's mainly a mix of various techniques of whatever looks visually appealing. As for Japanese martial arts not looking visually appealing, that's mainly because Japanese martial arts are pretty spartan in nature and are focused on maximum efficiency and no wasted movement.

Some of Ryo's throws like the uchimata, seoi nage(the basic B throw), and the tomoe nage (I don't remember the in-game name, but whatever the default <-B throw is) are straight out of modern Judo. The arm break throw looks like it comes from classic jiujitsu. The Swallow Flip resembles a classic Wing Chun move, though other kung fu styles practice it. I think there was a throw that looked like it came from Aikido, but it's been awhile since I last played and I could be remembering that wrong.

The striking techniques could have come from a number of styles, since many striking styles share the same techniques and only have minor differences in execution. Moves like the Mantis Chop and Iron Palm could come from various kung fu disciplines. The basic punches and kicks most likely come from karate and the more fancy acrobatic kicks are probably from Tae Kwon Do. The kata that Ryo showed Hanhui was definitely karate-based IMO.

The fight between Iwao and Lan Di isn't realistic at all and looks like something out of a Shaw Brothers film. However, if we wanted complete realism from Shenmue, we wouldn't have duck races.

I think the hazuki style mixes multiple disciplines. I'm no expert but it seems like it has a bit of everything.
Canonically, Iwao probably mixed in stuff he learned from various kung fu styles during his trips to China.

Kenny wrote: It's hard as FUCK to find David Lynch coffee around here locally.

You'll probably see some in 25 years.

PSN has a crazy $1 sale going on right now.
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/03/ ... s-under-1/

Tokyo Jungle is 90 cents. Gravity Rush is 81 cents. Wild Arms 1 & 2 are 96 cents.

Also a few Megaman X, Dino Crisis, and other PS1 games all for under 1 dollar.

Assassin's Creed Liberation HD.

It's fun, but there are parts that remind you it was a handheld port and not developed for consoles.

I also like how all the French people in a French colony have French accents, but all the French people in France (Unity) have British accents.

How did Ubisoft fuck that up?

How to get Ryo's Hair
Step 1: Have your father murdered in front of you

You must be referring to Waypool.

Deadpool himself is a good character with some surprisingly deep stories and characterization (relatively speaking for a character like Deadpool).

However, Daniel Way did a run where he turned Deadpool into a fourth-wall breaking/meta humor, lol randum character. Of course this is the version that exploded into popularity and propelled Deadpool into the public eye. Comic nerds get mad that the worst version of the character is the popular one that's starred in video games, movies, etc. Then again, comic nerds get mad about any adaptation that goes into the mainstream.

I can tell you're definitely 15 years old.

found my super old ass laptop that has 1gb of ram to get me through til my life isn't shit

woo
You should look into Puppy Linux. It's basically a very very small Linux distro with low system requirements and the ability to run from RAM. This allows it to make even older computers run relatively fast. I've been using it on my 2003 desktop with zero hardware upgrades and I've been happy with its performance.

The trailer leaked. Hope this link is still up.

http://a.pomf.se/mozoup.mp4

I haven't watched the leaks, but I did see a scene of Barry the Bold fighting. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but I was pretty disappointed.

He did alright. Killed a bunch mooks but got blindsided by the ring leader before Grey Worm got the guy. It shows that he has some skill, but it doesn't display the mastery Barristan actually has. In the books, you can really see all his experience and skill at play.

I read a fan justification that stated Barristan wasn't actually that skilled and was a product of hype and advertising, which is more of Game of Thrones subverting classic tropes. I really think that's giving D&D too much credit though. They just fucked up IMO, since Barristan is objectively the first or second best fighter (toss up between him and Arthur Dayne) in the books.

http://i.imgur.com/Zcki7Ha.jpg
I must have not been in the right mood when I first played, since I put it down after 1 or 2 missions. Having picked it up again recently after a year or so of not playing, I played through the whole campaign in a few days. Crazy fun from Platinum as usual. I only wish it had local multiplayer.

To play the Devil's Advocate, here's Deadshot's original appearance.

Smith's costume looks a lot like the Deadshot costume in the Gotham Knights short films, at least to me.

Elizabeth Olsen

Do depressed 15 year olds still listen to Evanescence and blog on their livejournal? Try that.

David Lynch is back.

A month after David Lynch pulled out of Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival, the director and network confirmed on Friday that Lynch was back for good.

And the news gets better: Nevins also revealed that the Twin Peaks revival will be bigger than first announced. “David will direct the whole thing which will total more than the originally announced nine hours,” the executive said.

Lynch was excited about the good news as well.

Dear Twitter Friends, the rumors are not what they seem ….. It is !!! Happening again. #TwinPeaks returns on @SHO_Network

— David Lynch (@DAVID_LYNCH) May 16, 2015
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/05/15/david-lynch-returns-twin-peaks-reboot

I still blame 1990's sitcoms for making me reverse-racist against black people. Growing up on shows like The Cosby Show, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Family Matters, I came to associate black people as being very nice and well-mannered. Now, whenever I meet someone black, I have this perception in the back of my mind that they are going to be a nice person -- especially if they're middle-aged and wear striped sweaters.

On a related note, has anyone noticed that Family Matters is a pretty good representation of what all the black protests have been about? It shows a strong family unit. It has minority cops patrolling their own hometown. Despite some characters being criminal delinquents, they're not necessarily bad people and can be rehabilitated.

Instead of all the hashtags like #blacklivesmatter, they could sum up everything with #familymatters

My vote is for Revelations. It had the most balanced gameplay out of all of them I've played (latest one I've completed is Black Flag).

I re-played Assassin's Creed 2 not too long ago and the controls were a bit too precise. You could be running along a railing and accidentally move the joystick just a tad too diagonal and Ezio would decide make a side leap several stories down. Later games were too imprecise with their freerunning. You don't know how many times I was chasing after a guy as Edward and instead of leaping across to the next building, he would gently float down to a nearby stump on the ground.

The combat was also better IMO. It was still simple, but not dumbed down like later games. It also had enough variety and difficulty to make it fun but without making it overly complex.

OL covered all the story aspects.

^
I agree, I just know too many lawyers to say something is the definitive anything.

If you're a feminist who's fighting for basic human rights for women in ass-backwards countries that don't have them, or you're fighting against a serious problem like domestic violence, then you have my respect.

If you keep talking about the debunked wage gap myth, put "trigger" before anything you write, and use the word "rape" describe things outside the legal definition (that guy looked at me funny--he totally raped me), then you probably have a gender studies degree, a keyboard, and too much time on your hands.

This is Malaya Joya. She ran a clinic and school for girls back when that could get you killed by the Taliban. She later went on to speak out against former warlords joining Parliament. She's had many death threats and attacks on her person.

http://i.imgur.com/ITVhH4R.jpg

This is Melody Hensley. She claims she got PTSD from cyber-bullying. She says her PTSD is on the same level as war veterans.

http://i.imgur.com/d3CXjwa.jpg

One of these women is a feminist. The other is a "social justice warrior" feminist. Can you guess which one is which?

Calshot, I don't know who Melody Hensley is or anything about her, but trivializing someone else's pain and suffering is a completely dickish thing to do. Calling anyone a "social justice warrior" also makes you comes across as a complete tool, I'm sorry, it just has that effect, so I hope you are aware and don't ever say it in the real world. What does it even mean? I've honestly never seen that expression used by anyone else except unjustifiably angry videogame forum members.


Did you actually read the claim? Hensley said that she'd got post-traumatic stress disorder from reading mean things about her on Twitter. She compared her experience of reading mean things on Twitter is comparable to what war veterans with PTSD face. Do you really think the levels of suffering are anywhere close to the same level?

And in what world has the wage gap been "debunked"? It's well reported by any reputable source that in both your country and mine, there is a very real wage gap.

I don't care about stuff like page 3, or about the word "cunt" (as it's not gender specific anymore), but pretending that sexism doesn't exist in our societies and is only relegated to "ass backwards counties" is an exercise in willful ignorance.
It's so well-reported that you didn't bother to leave any sources eh? Well here's a few sources pointing out why the wage gap isn't as heinous as it is often reported as.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/gender_pay_gap_the_familiar_line_that_women_make_77_cents_to_every_man_s.html
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/01/no-women-don-t-make-less-money-than-men.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-hoff-sommers/wage-gap_b_2073804.html

The whole "women makes 77 cents on the dollar for every dollar that a man makes" only applies when you're comparing the annual wages of a man to the annual wages to a woman. That assumption fails to take into account so many variables, like the different occupations men and women tend to have, education, the different hours, etc.

When you make an apples-to-apples comparison with everything being equal, the gap between wages is only about 4 to 7 cents. So there is a wage gap, but it's not anywhere near as much an injustice as it is reported. The gap itself can be potentially explained by things like women's choices of career and education. Sure, sexism may play a part of it, but it's not the primary factor.

And did I ever say sexism doesn't exist in our societies? Nope. Another assumption.

She shops at Gamestop.

Nope.

Age is a gigantic factor. It's rare to see an athlete competing at the highest levels in their late 30s-early 40s. Iwao is practically ancient at 46. With age, your speed and reflexes diminish to the point where you might still see a shot coming that you could've avoided in your prime, but can't now because your body just can't move like it used to.

Iwao is still a league better than the average person, but at the highest level, any tiny detail can make the difference. Iwao being past his prime is a ginormous disadvantage, and when you couple that with the fact that Lan Di is better skilled, younger, presumably has less accumulated damage from training over the years, and is trying to kill Iwao...

And that's why Iwao was outclassed.

There's also the classic kung fu movie explanation: Lan Di's kung fu was better than Iwao's.

Kenny wrote: Or jerk off while running.

Totally normal to feel horny and let loose. Everyone needs to see it.

Feminists have a term for that. It's called drive-by rape.

I will say the random battles are a drag though. I usually have no problem with random battles, but good god, they were probably more frequent in Skies than in anything else I've played. That's how I remember it at least.
That's because they were. It was a common complaint back in the day and they toned down the random battles for the Gamecube port.

but it's completely laughable some claim to give a shit!
The Dojo wasn't always this bustling board with hundreds of people logged in. For many years, the Dojo was just 20-30 active members. It may seem silly to you, but it's actually possible to foster friendships over the internet. People on this board have met in real life. People have helped chip in for forum members who are down on their luck financial wise and medical expenses for people who can't cover themselves.

On a different board that was even smaller than the Dojo--we're talking maybe 10-15 active members on a good day--a longtime member of the forum died. I never met the guy. Never talked to him outside of the forum. I, along with pretty much every member of the board, chipped in for the guy's funeral expenses. It wasn't out of obligation or just being polite. It was because a friend had passed on.

So how about you make like a Nazi and goosestep on out of here?

Serial Experiments Lain.

I remember watching it on PBS back in the late 90s-early 2000s, but I was a bit too young to really get what I was watching. I just re-watched it as an adult, and it holds up quite well.

I think the female cast of Twin Peaks is up there. I don't remember a bad-looking women on the show. With the exception of Lara Flynn Boyle, they all have aged pretty well too.

http://i.imgur.com/Adcay1K.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uC3Osj4.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/MBtCoii.jpg

Stealth Inc 2 is free on the Humble Store until the 31st.

I've found that adding Amiga to the Foe list has improved the quality of dojo browsing. You just have to have the discipline to not peek.

^
I did.

It makes it easier to trigger certain weather-related events, like the Nozomi/bullies thing after it snows (or something like that).

I had a lot of fun with Skyrim and I have something like 250 hours in it.

However, I think Skyrim has taken a few backwards leaps compared to earlier entries. While Skyrim is definitely bigger and better on a technical scale (gameplay mechanics, graphics, etc.), it is sorely lacking in comparison in customization and story.

Here's an example.

Morrowind Weapons Skills:
Spear
Axe
Blunt Weapon
Short Blade
Long Blade
Hand-to-Hand
Marksman

Skyrim Weapon Skills:
One-handed
Two-handed
Archery


Skyrim's "single player MMO" stylings are a blessing and curse. While it does add a ton of quests and activities, there's not much heart in it. There are a lot of cookie cutter quests of "go find this/kill this person at x dungeon" and activities like "cut all this wood or pick these crops" that really seem to artificially add time.

This more of a subjective complaint, but I would also say there's less freedom overall. Sure, there's a bigger world and more dungeons, which is what most people think when they think freedom. In the olden days, you could kill anyone, unlock any door, explore a dungeon any way you wanted, etc. Sometimes it would break the main quest line, sometimes it lead to alternative story paths. In Oblivion and Skyrim, NPCs are essential, there are unpickable doors, dungeons can only be completed one way, etc.

There's also Bethesda's lackluster patching that happens with every single one of their games. The large number of bugs is to be expected in a huge game, but that excuse only takes you so far when it takes unofficial community patches to eliminate all the bugs the devs didn't bother getting around to.

While it deserves a lot of praise, I think it's a tad overrated in that regard.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/65/56/d7/6556d7fe06d219bc07271ed126bb979d.jpg
I don't get why feminists hate Barbie.

Barbie's always been employed. She's had one steady boyfriend for most of her life. She's been the president, multiple branches of the armed services, various medical professions, a few different STEM jobs, and has been both a firefighter and a police officer in the public service sector. Those are all careers that feminists have complained about the lack of female representation.

Why isn't she a good feminist role model? Because she's pretty? Because a toy doesn't have realistic proportions?

Yes, people should just be happy we live in a "free world" that has black sites on citizens, where you can get shot, arrested, or killed for doing nothing because of the color of your skin, and where people whose natural response is killing you because you simply exist. Pretty much every "outrage" thing you're seeing now is the result of decades of inaction, and in the case of Police treatment of Black Americans, a literally century long relationship.

That's a gigantic blanket statement. Yeah, there are major problems with police, but to dumb it down to "police shoot innocent people for the color of their skin" doesn't do the problem justice.

Watched the first episode of Parasite on Toonami.
Parasyte was really good. I watched all of it a few months ago. Keep watching it.

I just finished cour 2 of Durararax2. Not quite as crazy as before, but still good and they're ramping up. The only upside to the mini-seasons is that I only have to wait until January for what is presumably the final cour to come out, though I'd prefer they all come out in one long season.