Appreciations of the day

[Dracos]

Seems we've all been quiet on the grateful front.  Mmm that happens sometimes.

[Kaldrak]

I am genuinely grateful for my ability to put words on a page and get my crazy thoughts out of my head in a fashion that isn't horribly embarrassing (most of the time).

Does that count? :P

[Dracos]

Yes. :3

[Rukatin]

The New Doom. DOOOOOOOOOOOOOM.

[DY]

Headed off to New York tonight for a nice little vacation + wedding, should be fun!

[Yuthirin]

"Hearthstone appreciation": ShowHide

Got Ragnaros the Lightlord on my eight card pack of the new expansion. Such a fun legendary, even if it drove some 'lore' fans nuts. Actually that might make it better. ^_^

I don't know if he's unable to heal himself or just bad luck though. Keeps healing my hero and once healed another minion, but never himself. And he's gone off at least seven times when it's just him and me that are damaged so it feels unlikely that he missed himself every time. Could still be bad luck.

Given he exclaims "LIVE, INSECT!" whenever he heals, he may not want to target himself due to that. ^_^

Also, fought a C'thun deck. And goddamn, I mean a freaking C'thun deck.

Wanted to punch the other player so bad because he was playing pretty much every single c'thun support card and got it up to 34/34 and gave it taunt. Did he craft the cards or did he actually have enough gold for that?

If that thing came out, I was dead. I think I need to craft a silence minion or keeper of uldaman to deal with c'thun in the future.

Thankfully, managed to beat him before his C'thun came out. That was so satisfying since he'd gotten me down to 2 HP and Ragnaros healed me all the way back to 30 the turn before he conceded since he had no cards in hand, I had lethal, and the only thing that would save him was either some board clear or C'thun (who'd probably be a board clear). That win completed the quest that gave me 5 new card packs too, so extra satisfying. ^_^

On the blah side? From 22 card packs, I've gotten 7 tentacles of N'zoth and 3 squirming tentacles. Also a Forbidden Ritual. As expected of the tentacle expansion.

More Hearthstone: ShowHide

I'm very impressed with the new expansion. Hunter is fun again, and midrange Paladin is great. If you're focusing on Paladin, you may want to consider swapping in some control. Nothing breaks hearts faster than Equality + Consecration.

[Kaldrak]

Got my blood tested last week and apparently my lead levels are normal. That's a load off my mind, assuming I can trust the lab results, anyway.

[Anastasia]

Got my blood tested last week and apparently my lead levels are normal. That's a load off my mind, assuming I can trust the lab results, anyway.

Awesome, glad to hear it. Could always shell for another lab to do it if you want to be dead certain.

[KLSymph]

I translated two volumes of manga in five days, huzzah.

[Anastasia]

The cost of my contacts are going to be much less than anticipated. Yay, since contacts are medically required for me.

[Rukatin]

Happy father's day everyone. Be sure to give your dads a hug.

[Yuthirin]

Today is the summer solstice. Today at least one news source outside of Arizona reported that rare temperatures in the 110+ (43.3C) range up to 120F (48.8C) are likely to occur over the course of this week.

Meanwhile, those of us who actually live here are laughing and happy it's not 130F (54.4C), but we all agree that it's only a matter of time. The rest of the nation seems to do this every year, and it's always great.

[Arakawa]

I had many learning experiences this year, and some of them were actually pleasant.

[Merc]

Went to the Distant Worlds (Final Fantasy) symphony concert yesterday. Very nice, and the choir group for the Houston Symphony was pretty great. Always glad to see video game themed concerts here in Houston.

Also, downtown Houston is amazing/absurd for Pokemon Go. Just driving to the symphony and leaving (I was in the passenger seat, not driving and playing!), I went from having around 50 pokeballs to 200, my backpack maxed out and I had to dump shit out, I saw pokemon everywhere, including new types that I never seem where I live (I 'only' caught 9 new types). It felt like there was an average of 2-3 pokestops per block, and one of those was often lured. Also I went up two trainer levels.

It's absurd how much easier Pokemon Go is for downtown city players compared to those in rural areas.

[Kaldrak]

Just watched Star Trek Beyond.

I have to say, I was really impressed with this movie. Though I liked the previous two in the reboot series, (the first much more than the second) they lacked some indiscernible quality that made them feel like real Star Trek movies. Instead, my friend and I have somewhat affectionately dubbed the reboot series as "Star Trek TURBO!"

A Star Trek Turbo entry is simply not complete without the following elements:
Boom! Kapow! EXPLOSIONAROMA LENS FLAAAAAAARRRREEEE! Captain reckless to the maximus, James T Kirk presiding as he leads more and more and more of his nameless, faceless crew to their inevitable deaths. WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Thankfully, not too much of that this time around, though there was still quite a lot of action, with much of it being pretty over the top. The pacing is better, the characters feel much more like the originals than in the previous installments, and the movie actually gives you time to breathe in between the action sequences, allowing for niggling little things like character development to happen, rather than almost nonstop ADHD actionorama. They also very wisely brought back several musical themes from the original series and started things off with an actual captain's log entry. I have to admit that I was grinning a lot during the beginning of the movie and I have to hand it to Simon Pegg for writing a good script.

Very enjoyable movie. Felt much more Star Trek than the previous two, despite the lack of Leonard Nimoy.