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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • Reporting back, just finished watching the movie.

    I’ll start by saying I like horror movies in general, but not really the torture stuff like Saw or The Collection and things like that, hence why I’ve seen Saw 1, 2, and maybe 5 and that’s it.

    I do enjoy the basic premise where he only goes after people that have it coming as far as movie victims go, and that he gives them a bit of a chance to survive, especially if they would just stop being assholes for a minute.

    This movie felt like what I remember if the early saw movies. I think watching the TS version may have helped a little, reducing the video quality to make it feel even more vintage, but it was fine for my viewing given my overall interest level.

    I could recognize the main cast of characters, but even if I didn’t, it fills you in on all you need to know, so it can definitely stand on its own.

    The traps did all seem pretty original ish. Since there’s nothing new plot wise here, it’s still you have X minutes to free yourself painfully or you die. As far as are these things you could make yourself from Home Depot parts, maybe one or 2 of them, but they’re still a bit out there, but better than I remember some stuff being in other movies.

    Overall, I think if you enjoy this type of movie you should give it a shot. If you don’t like them at all, it’s not going to win you over. It still made be feel queasy and uncomfortable in a not pleasant way. I feel the traps are still pretty unfair and sadistic and are more revengey than teachy, but that’s just me. But if you like the originals and fell off the series somewhere, you can watch this no problem.





  • Congress Set to Avert Government Shutdown as House Measure Passes

    Compromise keeps government funded until mid-November, while omitting Ukraine and border provisions

    The House passed a measure Saturday to extend government funding through mid-November. It includes $16 billion in disaster relief.

    WASHINGTON—Congress was on the verge of averting a government shutdown Saturday, after the House passed a measure with broad bipartisan support to extend funding through mid-November and sent the matter to the Senate.

    White House officials said President Biden supports the measure and will sign it as soon as possible. The surprise breakthrough upended expectations that Congress was too divided to pass anything in time to keep the government from partially shutting down at 12:01 a.m. Sunday. But a delay in the Senate in quickly taking up the measure late Saturday raised the possibility of more twists in the drama.

    The House voted 335-91 for the funding measure, which includes $16 billion in disaster relief but omits aid for Ukraine. It also excludes border-security measures sought by Republicans. The margin exceeded the two-thirds majority needed to clear the bill through the House, which considered the legislation under special procedures requiring a supermajority of votes. All but one Democrat voted in favor of the measure, while nearly half of Republicans voted against it.

    “It’s easy to be a conservative that wants to do nothing,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) said after the House vote. “But I believe America wants to find the conservative that can make government work efficiently, effectively and accountable.”

    In reaching for a compromise, Republicans argued that the party had exhausted its options after dissident conservatives derailed an earlier plan, and said that the only choice now was to pass a bill extending funding at 2023’s $1.6 trillion annual rate through Nov. 17. That squares with major components of the approach being taken in the Senate, except that the Senate version includes an emergency $6 billion for Ukraine.

    Some Democrats had worked to rally their members against the legislation, arguing against omitting aid for Ukraine and saying that Republicans had pulled a fast one by advancing a bill that they said would enable a pay raise for members of Congress. But Republicans moved to fix the cost-of-living increase matter and questioned why Democrats would be willing to shut down their own government in the name of supporting Ukraine.

    The move to advance the legislation marked a major turnabout for McCarthy, who had spent months trying to appease a dissident flank that rejected his every offer. McCarthy advanced spending bills that at a net $1.471 trillion for fiscal 2024 were widely seen by Democrats as breaking his debt deal with President Biden. McCarthy then revised his approach, offering to advance bills with even steeper cuts while also saying that any stopgap measure must simultaneously provide for new restrictions on migrants. They rejected that as well.

    “I have tried for eight months,” McCarthy told reporters. “It took me a long time to finally get the appropriations bills on the floor; they were delaying. I tried yesterday with the most conservative stopgap funding bill you could find,” he said. “I couldn’t get 218 Republicans.”

    McCarthy dismissed opposition from conservatives who have threatened to oust him as speaker. “If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room,” he said after the vote.

    White House officials and some Democratic lawmakers cast the vote as a victory, noting that the bill excluded the deep spending cuts that conservative House Republicans were pushing, reductions that would have slashed budgets for a range of domestic programs.

    Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the lone House Democrat to vote against the short-term measure, said it was because the bill didn’t include funding for Ukraine. “Putin is celebrating,” he told CNN. “We got 45 days to fix it.”

    Headed into the possible shutdown Sunday, federal government agencies have been alerting employees and laying out plans to bring nonessential government programs to a halt. Roughly 1.5 million civilian government workers wouldn’t be paid during a shutdown, while 800,000 employees deemed essential would continue working, according to the White House budget office. That number could change if a shutdown dragged on.

    Just getting to the vote Saturday contained hours of drama. The House was stuck in a suspended state after House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D., Mass.) made a motion to adjourn, saying that Democrats needed time to read the bill because “we have serious trust issues.”

    Republicans said that Democrats were stalling to give the Senate time to clear the last big roadblock to passing its own stopgap measure—a bid to give that version the best chance at being enacted into law.

    “If we win this vote, this is the bill that will be signed into law,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) “If they can delay this until after the Senate vote, the Senate vote is going to become law. This is what this is all about. It’s nothing about them wanting to read it.”

    In the Senate, Democratic leaders instructed the sergeant at arms to round up absent senators so that they could speed up a pivotal vote. Republicans said that Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building earlier Saturday, which Republicans said was his attempt to stall the vote in the House. His spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. And Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.), moving to delay the vote, stood up on the House floor to speak.

    “Strap in because this may take a while,” Jeffries said, taking advantage of a special privilege available only to leaders, known as the “magic minute,” to bust through normal restrictions on lawmaker speeches. Normally, lawmakers would have to stay within their party’s remaining debate time—which for Democrats had been six minutes.

    House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tried to delay the House vote to give the Senate’s stopgap measure an edge.

    Critics of a short-term deal said McCarthy gave in too easily.

    “Total capitulation,” said Rep. Bob Good (R., Va.), who has indicated he would be open to supporting an effort to oust McCarthy as speaker. “He has failed to do anything that he’s promised to do, including passing a bill that got every Democrat vote. Every Democrat vote!”

    President Biden had declined to meet with McCarthy, urging the speaker to stick to the budget deal both parties agreed to earlier this year. The agreement set top-line spending levels for the coming fiscal years. The White House has excoriated House Republicans for bringing the government to the brink of a shutdown, warning of wide-ranging fallout.

    Most routine federal food-safety inspections would cease in a shutdown, national parks would close, new small-business loan applications wouldn’t be processed and a supplemental nutrition program for women and children would run out of funding within days. Smithsonian Institution museums could close after Oct. 7. Many essential services—like the mail and the delivery of Social Security checks—would continue.

    Federal agencies, with White House guidance, are required to figure out what operations can continue under an 1884 law called the Antideficiency Act that says it is illegal for the U.S. government to spend more money than Congress granted for that fiscal year. That law grants exceptions for safety and property protection. Presidents have taken differing approaches to national parks during prior shutdowns.


  • WSJ Article

    This article seemed to have done better details about the drama going on in all this. Here are some tidbits since it’s paywalled. Give me a minute and I’ll get the white thing for anyone interested, because to hell with NewsCorp.

    The House voted 335-91 for the funding measure, which includes $16 billion in disaster relief but omits aid for Ukraine. It also excludes border-security measures sought by Republicans.

    Republicans argued that the party had exhausted its options after dissident conservatives derailed an earlier plan, and said that the only choice now was to pass a bill extending funding at 2023’s $1.6 trillion annual rate through Nov. 17. That squares with major components of the approach being taken in the Senate, except that the Senate version includes an emergency $6 billion for Ukraine.

    Some Democrats had worked to rally their members against the legislation, arguing against omitting aid for Ukraine and saying that Republicans had pulled a fast one by advancing a bill that they said would enable a pay raise for members of Congress. But Republicans moved to fix the cost-of-living increase matter and questioned why Democrats would be willing to shut down their own government in the name of supporting Ukraine.

    Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, the lone House Democrat to vote against the short-term measure, said it was because the bill didn’t include funding for Ukraine. “Putin is celebrating,” he told CNN. “We got 45 days to fix it.”

    “If we win this vote, this is the bill that will be signed into law,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) “If they can delay this until after the Senate vote, the Senate vote is going to become law. This is what this is all about. It’s nothing about them wanting to read it.”


  • I had a long reply written out, but then it got erased. 😓

    I can’t think of anything else it reminds me of, since we haven’t really gotten to the actual plot yet. It’s say watch episode 9, and see if you like that. It gives a sense of the silliness and seriousness we’ve seen so far without killing any previous set up jokes or finishing a fight, but it does have jokes and fights. If you like that episode, start from the beginning and give it a bit to get up to speed.

    If you watched Gintama, I know you have the patience to give a show time to figure out what direction it’s going to go.


  • Helck had been fun for me. Went in blind, and at first thought it was too goofy and random, but the world grew on me once we started to learn about the actual antagonists. Huge fan of Piwi.

    Zom 100 I also went into blind. It has really connected with me as in going through a bunch of negative life changes right now, so it’s helping me keep focus on doing things that make me happy. Plus the show is really good!.

    Devil is a Part Timer I’m not fully caught up on, but the latest part has been much better than the previous one.

    I plan to check out Murder Farce and Link Click at some point too.


  • Very valid points. I forgot WordPad existed and I use Notepad way more than I’ve ever used WordPad. But many people still havent really used computers much in depth beyond specific things they’ve been shown.

    I know I could just use Google Docs or throw LibreOffice in there, but many people now in retirement age have still managed to dodge learning much about computers.

    If you deliver a new computer that can’t type a letter, send an email, and play YouTube out of the box, that seems like a fail. And I feel many that won’t know what do do without something like WordPad also may not have an Internet connection, nor should they have to if they just need a presentable looking doc.


  • Zom has been such a huge hit for me. I have been taking it kinda personal. I’m losing my job at the end of the month, and after 3 years of working from home and having so much if my life back under my control, the thought of even 3 days in office, let alone 5, is crushing me on to of all the other bad news I’ve been getting lately. I really feel for what the MC is going through.

    I had watched S1 of JJK, and I read a decent bit ahead in the manga, but MHA and CSM gave me what I liked from JJK and did it better, so I dropped it completely.

    Just checked out the trailer for Murder Farce since some others mentioned that too. That looks pretty interesting to say the least. This thread has gotten me so many new things to watch


  • Yes, the color effects instead of outright gore I think are more dramatic. My brain is expecting the red, but the bright bold colors add a bit of surprise to the moment. It’s a very creative show and has been a positive surprise for me when I want exciting much from many shows this season.



  • Aww, I tried to keep it really vague in case anyone hadn’t seen it. Most of what I said is set up in the first episode though. This show doesn’t hold back in the savage parts though, even though so far it’s mainly about him trying to have fun. There is a good bit of stuff you probably haven’t seen before to look forward to!




  • I just actually read that Helck thread. It seems I haven’t been seeing them because I have bots blocked. I’m torn turning it off, but there’s so many posts with no talking.

    I had expected Helck to be like I Quit Heroing, but it started more like the arena scene from Thor: Ragnarok. Even the fights so far have been relatively comedic with things like the shield guy that needs constant snacks and people calling Vermilion cutesy things and she gets all mad. The last episodes finally started hinting at dark things though. I’d like the plot to get deeper, but I really like a lot of the fun interactions. I also love Piwi, especially when he plays dumb like he was a regular bird.

    The reactions to the spiders and wolves are one of my favorite gags in Farming Life. I like when the spider just waves hello to the people cowering in fear and then she just goes off and eats potatoes. The drunken slime is also fun. I’d party with that guy.

    I read a bit of the wiki and it seems MC just guess around knocking everyone up, so I’m torn continuing watching the show. I like all the girls and animals, MC is just so bland though. He doesn’t have any struggles. He doesn’t seem to care much for anyone in particular. He didn’t even sweat fighting any monsters so far. If they ditched him and just had fantasy Yuru Camp in the forest, I think I’d prefer that.