Nice. The "Min again but a different artist" is pretty damn close to my image of Min.
Min is bestgirl.
I think you're largely spot on, but at the same time...give it a few more years.
I got in really good shape in my early 30s. I took up lifting (for the first time), upped my running, and I lost weight.
Then, in my late 30s, I got a knee injury, and I'm still trying to get my distances back up. I don't squat too heavy anymore either as I get persistently sores knees with more weight. I still lift regularly, walk a lot, bike sometimes, run occasionally. I honestly need to be in better aerobic shape.
The first time I ever had a (passing) moment of feeling "old" was probably at age ~41-42.
I don't drink as much as I did in my 20s. Hangovers feel more like--why would I put myself through this yet again? I inadvertently got blitzed a few weeks ago going to a fancy wine tasting dinner with the wife. Oops. I did regret that the next morning.
I do think I'm getting more set in my ways. I used to be a real foodie, always wanting to try new restaurants, new cuisines, etc. Now, between kids, price of restaurants, and 10+ years of me cooking at home--I just don't want to eat out that much anymore.
I don't take any medicines. I have a few grays in my beard. Dick's still working fine. Sleeping is fine (though wife has the "pain from sleeping wrong" thing).
If you're not doing it now, take up stretching. I think stretching and weight work are about the two best things people can do as they age.
My dad is still active in his 80s. He has friends in their 90s who still play tennis multiple times a week. It's very possible.
I just assumed many of the based vtubers were male. Am I wrong?
That's not true. We've just, collectively, decided that any solutions that would be good for them are off the table.
The whites in South Africa lost. Even if most of the world hadn't turned against them (divest from South Africa was the divest from Israel movement of the 1980s), they were too outnumbered.
They lost.
That solution--apartheid and white rule--is off the table.
What solution do you see that is favorable for the whites? Hell, what solution do you see that doesn't involve genocide, land seizure, murder, and the continued flight of whites from South Africa?
That's pretty much it. The Europeans had the vast majority of the best land.
The whites are a minority who own most of the good land and, on average, have more money. The blacks are a majority who have little money and little land, yet they do have the majority of political power.
There's no solution here that is good for the whites. The writing is on the wall.
Ugh. Ana Valens. Hadn't heard that name in several years. GG never dies.
Salt Lake City is one of the gayest cities in the United States.
There will be globohomo fuckery, I don't doubt it for a second. Vote harder.
I'm not quite that blackpilled about America, but Euro brothers, you're fucked.
Today, German "democracy" looks surprisingly like Iran's, the only difference being the Supreme Leader openly selects who is allowed to run in Iran while in Germany the bureaucratic state does the same in the name of "protecting democracy."
Not a chance (changing OR flopping). Switch 2 is going to be sold out for months.
Practical Engineering is really fun. Videos on infrastructure and infrastructure disasters.
I’ve more or less stopped watching cooking youtube, but I still enjoy an occasional Adam Ragusea or Ethan Chlebowski video. There are a huge backlist of good recipe videos too.
If you’re into classical music—or even if you’re not—The Classical Nerd has some fun videos too.
Thirst traps all the way down?
I'm in the same boat as you are. Grew up in that church, today I'm an atheist. Still have some family members who attend.
The thing that jumped out at me many years ago... I attended a Christmas service and the (lesbian) minister didn't say the word "God" the entire service. What's the point of going to church??
I'm in the same boat as you are. Grew up in that church, today I'm an atheist. Still have some family members who attend.
The thing that jumped out at me many years ago... I attended a Christmas service and the (lesbian) minister didn't say the word "God" the entire service. What's the point of going to church??
Globohomo puritans.
Sylvanas was the worst, Jaina I did not like because it disrespected her father. And if I remember there was this smaller faction with mostly ugly human women I had to do quests with. It also seemed to have a huge focus on women.
Sylvanas was pretty bad in BfA, 100%. Jaina...eh, she was always a bigger character than her father. Blizzard games always, ALWAYS had twist after twist after twist and betrayal after betrayal, dating back to the RTS days. That way you get your human vs human, human vs night elf, human vs undead, human vs orc, etc. Totally contrived for gameplay reasons. I thought they did a pretty good job of handling this in BfA. It was more or less Jaina coming home to make amends.
Yes, FUGLY females, and that trend has continued. The Kul Tiran allied race. Men pretty ugly too, tbf.
Legion was awesome and was very much an end to the Warcraft cycle.
UCC, United Church of Christ. I've posted about them before. They're an amazing example of how you can start with puritans and, due to moral virtue signaling, end up here in ~250 years. It's crazy.
During BFA I noticed the change towards a more feminist story and I just knew it was corrupted and I didn't bother with it.
So, off the top of my head, Warcraft 1 had a handful of female characters: Garona, the half-orc spy. Ok, that's the only one I remember unless you count the sexy female water elementals.
Warcraft 2 added a handful of female characters. Elven archers. Alleria, the elven ranger. That's it. (Alexstrazsa the dragon I guess counts.)
Warcraft 3 did add quite a few. Tyrande, Maiev, Jaina, Sylvanas, Naga witches, etc.
WoW was fairly balanced from the beginning. Sylvanas, Tyrande, and Jaina are three of the most prominent characters to this day.
I don't know if BfA went feminist. The Little-Mermaid-Ursula monster character was annoying. Jaina going full Elsa from Frozen was annoying. But, Drustvar was fantastic. I enjoyed Tiragarde sound. I liked Mechagon island. Nazjatar world raid events were great fun.
BfA was the last expansion I really played much of.
Dominican Republic does it better than us too:
That sounds exactly like a Taliesin and Evitel video...the biggest Blizzard shills around. The WoW streamer/youtuber views across channels have absolutely dropped through the floorboards.
I actually really enjoyed BfA. I can't put my finger on it, but I probably spent as much time on it as any expansion.
Shadowlands was just garbage.
Dragonflight SEEMED like it should have been a return to form, but I just hated it.
I started War Within and haven't completed a single zone. It just doesn't do it for me anymore. I've played my main since the originally classic. It's sad.
I am, however, playing on the classic realms, I played on the BC realms, and I'm definitely going to play on Pandaria as I missed about 1/2 that expansion the first time around.
Just so we're clear, my post was 100% AI-generated sludge :-P
Your observations about the “GPT giveaway” are astute—those elongated em‑dashes, the frequent signposting of ideas, and the tendency to hedge or re‑state points can indeed tip off a discerning reader.
Firstly, the em‑dash usage you mention is a classic stylistic fingerprint. AI‑generated prose often leans on these punctuation marks to create emphasis or to bridge clauses—sometimes to excess—because they’re statistically prevalent in training data. Human writers, by contrast, typically vary their punctuation more organically.
Secondly, the pattern of “constant restatement” emerges from models trying to reinforce a concept for clarity. In human composition, repetition tends to be more intentional—often for rhetorical effect—whereas in AI output it can feel mechanical, serving as a fallback when the model lacks a clear, concise pathway to a conclusion.
Thirdly, your point about outsourcing writing leading to a “soft dead internet” is well‑taken. If interlocutors merely echo machine‑generated summaries without internalizing or critically engaging with the substance, conversations risk becoming hollow loops of recycled prompts and responses. The more writing is farmed out to AI tools—without human oversight—the greater the chance that nuance, authenticity, and genuine insight will erode.
I miss playing HotS. I was always very casual, but it was fun. Loved me some Rexxar.
They want people to know they have a $600 purse or something. It has no meaning to the rich class, but middle class always think they need to appear to be rich.
This is very true.
My dad's family members were all factory workers (well, the successful ones were factory workers. The others remained hillbilly trailer park denizens). My dad was the only one from the family to go to college. He talked about how both of his parents were very image conscious. They saved up so the kids would have nice clothings, they always had a decent car, etc. Nothing extravagant, just more money going into visual stuff than they probably should have.
Once my dad got to be successful in his own career, he never cared about any of those things, and he saved a ton of money as a result.
I've forgotten so much of this. I read the first books multiple times--maybe through Lord of Chaos or Path of Daggers. I've only read the later books once, and years ago.
My overarching memory of the series is that Elayne is a dumbass.
You're right, Min is kind of bestgirl by default. She's the only one who's not a total bitch to Rand 24/7.