Nuclear-Spearman: Huuuun, where’s my atl-atl?!?

Honey: I put it away! Don’t you think about running off doing no nuclear-do!

As we got to that middle part, I was hoping it was going to turn into a neat critique of the idea of slaving yourself to a job to survive. Just really turning the screws on the idea that 18 year old kids should be planning for a career so they can “thrive” and then… that’s the sum total of life’s goals. No adventures, no exploring of the self; simply a job and maybe kids. Then it just became a straight faced sad ending.

I believe it. There once was a time, that may or may not be a memory, where the bartender would serve you if you could walk up to the bar and order. You also needed money, but a bit of bartering with scrounged flotsam from the quay could cover costs.

Damn you and your mouth-watering memory inducers!

Yes, but if you listen to the ‘reviews’ now, all you’re getting is the regurgitated product description compared to the product description of the other contenders. Except instead of the two sentences that were the original description, you get a five sentence opening about the topic, Somewhere between 12-15 sentences about the product that don’t add anything relevant (repeat)^ (for each product), and then a conclusion that’s random, arbitrary, and probably influenced by money.

At least with the older models I can see real information if I can find real reviews. If I have to extrapolate from there to today, I’m still better off.

It’s because these are two idiots trying to sound smart. I have used pre-2015 searches, because sometime between 2009-2016 is when SEO in general started being used. The AI generation just kicked it into high gear. Stuff before 2015 at least appears to offer information that isn’t just reworded lists of advertisements.

I tried a while ago to get SC2 working, but didn’t have luck. Are there any tricks to it these days?

Aye, the first time a blue jay tore the head off of a smaller bird in its nest was a real head turner for me.

I love the little aside about the rust. Some journalists still have fun.

Good god, there are still people who believe in phrenology!

Jesus, my friend cycles between mechanical efficiency and sexual orientations like a clown in a stripper juggling show. Now I know why!

I personally like the peters because it looks like North america is a fat baby dragon.

Oof. I had to do that for a bit when I borked my wrist. It was probably foolish and stupid, but work isn’t going to pay me for not coming in. :(

Look, if a raccoon can get down my esophagus to the sphincter, he’s welcome to the acid bath.

No, and yes. You can start a brand new account on the first day of a league and be at par with everyone else. The vast majority of the game is accessible with no demands on you aside from time and skill. Every purchase you make is cosmetic only, simply changing the way some spells look or giving you a pet that follows you around and looks cool while doing nothing extra.

The one exception? Stash tabs. Tabs that specialize in holding certain items for you in your stash. Tabs that let you sell items to others with greater ease. It has gotten to the point where if you want to be best of the best, you should probably have the extra tabs. Why? Because at the endgame, you’ll need to start trading for items that make your build sing, or simply eke out the extra 15% damage that multiplies with other sources to make your dps soar into the millions, because PoE is all about finding something that you can push past where it was supposed to stop being good. Without those stash tabs, making cool items or easily trading with others is much more difficult.

Now, how much would it cost you to be ‘competitive’ with tabs? Probably $10 at most. For a game that I’ve played for over a decade and probably 1000-2000 hours at this point, I think the <$100 bucks I’ve thrown their way is worth it. I have friends who love the game and likely have 3k+ hours in it, and they’ve only spent $150 or so. I think that’s pretty reasonable for that much enjoyment.

My favoured form is a moderately athletic slightly be-tummied greying spinster.

That sounds like it might drive me obsessively insane, btw.

That was a strange path my mind took as I read the title, thinking it was a satire piece about competitors trying to sneak in cheats… Like, the “Anti-Cheat Police Department” couldn’t be anything but a laughingstock.

I know they do here in the USA. A family friend finally moved from the field to the anchor position in a decent sized city (not even a top-50 metropolitan population) and was making nearly 7 figures. I would bet the giant areas (LA, NYC, Houston, Miami, Chicago, etc) must be raking it in.

Of course, you could probably attenuate that salary a bit because of how the job market has been moving in the last three decades, so take these numbers as less accurate than the back of the napkin numbers. We might be in shit stall territory.

For the AC/DC part, I usually try to tell people it’s like a water wheel that’s been inserted into the hose of water. DC is it spinning one way constantly, while AC is it spinning back and forth. The wheel is turning pretty much the whole time (again, we can try to not be super specific with the way we do phases with AC), and thus you can use it to do stuff on AC or DC.

No, it was a thing. The skit had them marrying, living together, and ended with one dying, and the other jumping out of the wheelchair while pointing at the dead one and screaming, “gay!”