Erunion

Rogue One borrowed heavily from WWII and I loved it. Seriously - the Polish resistance fighters ambushing a nazi convoy in an occupied city. Can't trust anyone because the Gestapo are after the resistance leader. Fragmented Allies, trying to work together to stop a terrible threat. And then the Dieppe landings; a military disaster where the entire force was wiped out/captured, but the information gathered led to a brilliant victory some time later. More than anything, this was a Star Wars movie about what it's like to be in a war and be losing. It felt like a real war in a way that no other Star Wars movie had. Especially at the end; the brutal ground battle where normal, average people (with faces, and personalities, not cookie cutter clones or droids) did heroic, brave things and died doing them. I'm not talking about the heroes, or their friends, I'm talking about the random soldier, clearly terrified, seeing something that needs to be done and yelling 'I'll do it' before being shot down. I'm talking about the tough rebel fighter, who only has a handful of lines, but clearly shows in his expressions and actions that he has done awful things for a cause he believes in; and is willing to die for that cause. This is movie was fantastic. Other, good notes: characters worked well, droid was charming and leads were believable. I really liked that they didn't spend too much time showing all the characters backgrounds: got the feel that 'these are people with lives, loves and motivations - you are watching the end of their lives' (a touch that's very WWII movie-esque. It allows the people to fill in their own backgrounds and identify with the people, makes them very believable). Off notes: what was Leia doing attached to the capital ship in a fleet engagement? And then for them to brazenly say hours later that theirs is a consular ship on a diplomatic mission? Should have been hovering in short-comm range but out of the battle, and have the capital ship beam the info to her, or send it on a pod. Tarkin face was reasonable, but not great. Borderline of the uncanny valley - almost out, but not quite.

@Oversleep - none of us are ever truly the same after having grasped a glimpse of the glorious Mok. In other, random news, I had a brief moment of panic while waiting to have my blood drawn (almost certainly for the vampires, but hopefully they can taste it for any diseases) as they were serving #84 I thought I was given #960...... it it was only then that I realized that I in fact had #096

@harambe - love is real. It can be wonderful or extremely painful. Often both. But don't think of yourself as super unlucky; maybe you just haven't found the right person yet and thus are saving yourself the pain of loving the wrong person and getting your heart broken

@Kaymyth - thanks for the clarification on the sidetrack. It makes sense! A bit more sidetrack under spoilers

People are people. Gender is a social construct that has no bearing on reality, nor on how you should treat people (this is, of course, assuming gender to be a mode of behaviours as apposed to physiological sex). Frankly, I don't see much point in identifying as any gender, whether new gender spectrum or old gender binary, as it is and should be completely irrelevant to life. Physiological sex matters in terms of sexual attraction, propagation of the species, and in some religious practices. Gender doesn't matter at all. What does that mean? Treat them like your friend. Treat them as if they're normal - because they are. Everyone is different, and gender is a box used to describe certain behaviours. It's not really a relevant, important thing. Semi-relevant Sidetrack in spoilers

@Deliiiiiightful - just drink go with @Mestiv's advice too; get a bottle of water and set it out beside you so it becomes comfortably room temperature. Drink when thirsty. Tea is good, but caffeine dehydrates. I recommend tea (or better yet, hot cocoa) as a warm drink, with a bottle of water beside so you can stay hydrated. Eat a good amount of food, preferably warm - calories keep you toasty ! But yeah, I spent 2.5 hours shovelling snow this morning. In a t-shirt (Snow pants and gloves too - but I got too hot and had to take my coat, scarf and toque off). So apparently I'm turning into a real Canadian (for the record, I live in the mildest part of Canada where it rarely snows in the winter. This winter has been unusually cold and snowy)

That's not too bad then - practically spring weather! Go for blankets and sweaters then. And warm fuzzy socks.

This is where sweaters, scarves and warm blankets come in handy. Trust me, I'm a Canadian. (How cold is it anyway?)

...... Centigrade or Fahrenheit? Because we use Centigrade up here - Fahrenheit can be fairly confusing for us Canucks. But yes, welcome to the cold and the snow (I say as I live in the warmest, mildest part of the country).

Everyone has many faces. At work I am extremely professional, controlled and engaging, as well as seeming very outgoing (normally I'm more introverted, but at work I'm in my element and talking to people is what I'm paid to do). Once at work I spent the afternoon/evening in charge and on top of things, when my dog who I'd loved dearly had died that morning. No one knew except my boss (whose office I went to briefly to have a short breakdown, chat and a hug). Everyone else thought I was just having a normal day. At my university I tend to present myself (partly intentional, partly unintentional) as a bit more outgoing than I feel I usually am; I act self-confident and comfortable. At my church I tend to be a bit quieter and in the back, but that's because it's a small church I haven't been going to for too long, and most of the people are either 5 years older than me or 5 years younger (plus I'm usually running the tech stuff). Around friends and family? Lord knows how I act. I rarely think about it. A ridiculius amount of puns though. Like, so many. In one thing I can echo @Kaymyth - I think faster than I talk, and often catch my self stuttering/stammering as my brain rushes ahead of my mouth. I can be very articulate in speech, but I tend to be more so in text because the medium draws a greater degree of precision and control out of me. So me online - more precise, less punny.

So I just finished the Witcher 3 (Wild Hunt, Heart of Stone, and Blood and Wine). It was fantastic. Yes, it was pretty, the gameplay was fun/etc., but what made it so good was the characters (and story, and plot, but mostly the people). They are absolutely brilliant. The story just gave me so many feels for these brilliantly real characters (spoiler alert) So anyway, I fully intend to dive into the books the games are based off of; because even if the translated prose doesn't work for me, I suspect the characters will still click. Am I right to think so? Are they as good as I hope they'll be?

I'm close, but with luck a combination of the Rockies and fresh pacific air might save me And humans have survived worse anyhow (probably.... Depends how bad the volcano goes)

You could almost say we're incorrigible.

Don't be so defeatist! We've weathered the Cold War, two world wars, disease after disease, natural disasters, and catastrophic climate change. We'll outlast our current problems too Humans: no matter how hard you beat us down, we always get back up again.

Sounds like you need a /hug Feel for you dude.

Glad to help, and I'm glad it helped!

@Dubisx You've read Tolkien, right? Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings? If you haven't, go do that. The prose is older, but its beautiful. I've also still never seen a world as solidly built as Middle Earth was (although Sanderson's are rad, Sanderson hasn't created multiple complete languages...). So yeah. Go read it. Now. Then come back to me (and say my land is best). After that, I recommend the Wheel of Time. It's a 15 book epic journey (if you include the prequel) but, well, I've read the first 12 books... a lot of times, the 13th book... 5 times I think? Maybe 6? The 14th book 3-4 times, and the last one twice. I've only read the last one twice because ending that series is physically painful for me (it's a great ending, but as I was one of those who theorized and lived this series for half of my life, it hurts to see something I've loved so much come to an end.) The last three books are all written by Brandon Sanderson too, so it'll be familiar territory! I also recommend ASOIAF, but only if you're ok with adult themes and content. Lightbringer series is enjoyable and well written (which reminds me, I need to read the 4th book which just came out), although it's not to the level of excellence of the three series above, it is fast paced and easier to read. Hunger Games is a solid story. I really enjoyed the portrayal of the horrors of war, complexity of society, and effects of PTSD that were given in the third book - felt those serious topics were unusually well done for a series aimed at teens. Obviously, you should have read Harry Potter by now. If not, go do that (but after the Lord of the Rings). Books are much deeper than the movies too (surprise surprise!) Also, don't neglect classic Science Fiction! Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Frank Herbert - these (and others) are excellent authors who've done some brilliant, thought provoking work. Some of it is more dated (especially stuff written before the 60s by Asimov/Bradbury), but it's still well worth reading!

@Nashan'Elin - first off: are your feelings romantic, or platonic? Because strong platonic feelings are a thing; and they're an important, healthy thing, but they're a thing that is massively underappreciated/undervalued in our society and not talked about nearly enough. (Nerd Tangent - the Lord of the Rings is all about super strong platonic relationships; Frodo/Sam, Merry/Pippin, Legolas/Gimli/etc. For this reason, I was super annoyed by all the people shipping Frodo and Sam when the movies came out. They fundamentally missed the point, that Platonic love is a big, important thing in peoples lives, and it's something that Tolkien did extremely well. Which makes sense for a man who came up with most of Middle Earth while fighting in the trenches of WWI and watching most of his friends die beside him. Point of tangent: Are your feelings more like the feelings Frodo and Sam had for each other, or is there clearly a sexual component to your attraction?) Secondly - if the attraction is romantic (which I think it is from what you're saying), would you feel comfortable having a homosexual relationship? (Do you have any religious/moral concerns with respect to homosexuality?) Is this a thing that you are OK with, or are you more comfortable with heterosexual relationships? If the latter is true, are you/have you been attracted to potential heterosexual partners in the past? Thirdly - if the attraction is romantic and you're fine with that, how much of an issue would this be for your society? Would your friends and family be fine with it, or would they be uncomfortable with it, or would they be outright against it? Fourthly - if there are issues with friends/family/society, what is your socio-economic position? How old are you? Are you still in highschool? Are you reliant on others who may have issues? These are important questions you should probably start thinking through. If you don't feel comfortable posting it here, feel free to PM me. If you don't feel comfortable PMing me, then treat that list of questions like an English assignment; work through the answers for yourself so you come to an understanding of your situation.

... Hard not to like the Trans-Siberian orchestras Christmas stuff though! At least their 'Christmas Eve/Sarajevo' is suitably epic and Christmas-ey! Try encouraging that!

@bleeder College/University, in my final year now.

Plate. I'm a martial artist. I've been fighting half of my life, and have trained with various weapons (including swords). As such, I can say this with the authority of experience. No matter how good you are, no matter how long you train, something can always go wrong. It only takes one mistake, one missed nights sleep, one slip on a rock, to end a legend. Armour that can stop almost anything? That means you can make mistakes, you can screw up, and you can still survive. You can slip and fall on a rock, and not die. I'd pick plate in a heartbeat. It wouldn't even take 10. Obviously, in this world, or if I weren't stuck in an army, the flexibility of the blade would be better. And if I could become a proto-radiant with stormlight to heal speed and strengthen, and a blade that molded to my whims? That would clearly be superior.

As a student who's taken this course (not with you): you can blame a mixture of panic, forgetfulness, and previous bad teaching. Because a LOT of students are trained to expect tricks on tests. Because they're given tricks. Add to that, when you're in exam mode, have barely slept, and are desperate, and suddenly you're asked to use a theorem and you completely and totally blank.You forget everything about that theorem, or how to apply it to the problem. And you desperately try to figure out a way around it. I've been in both of those situations as a student. Conversely, the fact that you actually tell the students which theorems to use on an exam? That you don't give impossible exams? Your foolish students don't know how much of a gift you are, and that they're squandering. That is so, so, so nice of you. For reference, when I took Calc 3, there were 300 of us writing the final exam. The exam was out of 180 marks. I'm fairly confident that not one of us finished that exam in the three hours we were given. The class average on the final (worth 50% of our grade) was 40. Not 40%. 40/180. That's 22%. A 300 person class had that as their final exam average. I'm still bitter about that exam, two or three years later. (For the record, I got 67/180 on the exam, which was curved so harshly it ended up giving me a decent overall grade on the course despite having been horribly sick and bombing both midterms).

/hug I'm sitting here after working, with one more exam left to write. And I'm just so storming tired. Do not want to study. Do not want to be awake. Do not want to get sick (I'm getting sick). Want to play Witcher 3 and/or sleep. But here I am trying to study (and failing, and ending up on 17th shard). Feeling worn out. /blargh (At least the snow is pretty! When I have time to look. And am not currently shoveling the bedeviled stuff).

...... You ever read Cloud Atlas? (Just noticed, not the only one to think of that @Ookla the Sunrise Watcher) Classical music = awesomesauce. Absolutely love the classics.

The torching of both Alexandria and of Baghdad - two of the grafter historical tragedies of learning Stupid library burning jerks.