FredEffinChopin

https://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/anti-obama-march-organizer-fatally-shoots-right-wing-militant-buddy-in-drunken-dispute-over-gun/ Also: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/01/14/bernie-sanders-raises-millions-off-hillary-clinton-attack/78787484/ I also love how whenever Trump and Cruz move two points towards or away from each other, there are four articles about it on each news site, but when Quinnipiac shows the democratic frontrunner losing ground for the first time in Iowa and NH, not as many sites are discussing the polls for a few days.

So this happened in Destiny a couple of nights ago. It's probably more appropriate for the Destiny thread, but it's such a musical journey that I decided to throw it in here. Plus I'm already receiving notifications for this thread

They're track pads, but they can also be pressed like buttons. The left one has a cross groove imprinted onto it to make it usable as a control pad as well. At first I would have said that it's a complete failure at that, but I've warmed up to it a little bit, and now I'd say it's somewhat of a failure. It's accurate enough that you can keep the action very close to the center without hitting the wrong direction, and seems like it would be perfectly functional for menu navigation. I don't know that I would want to play an old school platformer with it though. I just got it yesterday. Now that I'm actually holding one, I have to say that the shape of it is a bit curious. Instead of fitting the contours of a hand where the handles stick out, the bottom of the handles sort of jut upward, creating a gap between the hand and the thumbtip, which may be the point of it. It does seem to leave your thumbs in a position where the tips of them, rather than the flats, lay on the touchpads, which is more suited to touchpad/mouse use. Whatever the reason, it feels awkward. It might just require an adjustment though. What's harder to adjust to is the shoulder button location. The simplest way I can describe it is to say that the shape of the controller situates my hand in such a way that to reach up from the shoulder buttons to the triggers forces me to angle my index fingers in the opposite direction from which my hand is positioned. It's not comfortable at all. A person who plays with 4 fingers on the shoulders/triggers shouldn't be effected by it nearly as much, but that position seems to sacrifice a lot of the comfortable feel of the rear grip(?) buttons. Still though, it seems perfectly doable if that's your style. I love the shoulders. They have two levels of depression, the first one taking up almost all of the triggers' range. Once you get to the bottom you can continue to press it down for a click, signalling the second level. The depth of it seems a bit shallow compared to the DS4, but not by that much. Another neat thing is that the touchpads and analog stick provide haptic feedback. When using the right touchpad as a mouse in Windows (and when I played Civ5 for a bit), there is a slight roll underneath your fingertips as you use the touchpad, which seems to work to provide a sense of certainty as to the (for lack of a better word) distance of your movement. It almost reminds me of using a scroll wheel that you're familiar with. While it took me a while to realize it, the analog stick was also giving a little nudge back as I navigated the big picture mode menu. I doubt it's going to do anything in any games at this point, but it's there. Perhaps it can or will be able to be programmed into game profiles by users. I haven't looked into it at all. On that note, the brief look I took into the interface for programming the controller and saving/downloading profiles seemed pretty friendly. There are a few templates you can choose from right off the bat, and you can spring off of those to customize new profiles. Everything seems pretty quickly accessible, and you can change things up on the fly as you're running a game. I doubt that many games have this ready yet, but when I checked a suggested profile for Civ5, there was one already there, and I'd say it was very well mapped. The going was a bit clumsy at first, but I got more used to it in the short time I played, and it seems like a decent way to play the game. I'll need more time on it, and a game that is much farther in to really get a feel for how viable of an option it is for that one though. Borderlands 2 was the FPS I tried out, and that was a bit of a clusterfuck. Using a touchpad (with my thumb tip) where I've only ever used analogs or mice requires a huge adjustment. It did seem like you can aim really accurately with that touchpad though, once you get used to it. Like a mouse though, you have to reset your position on it once you move too far in one direction, which is another extremely awkward thing to get used to. Not that I expected any different (this test was mostly out of curiosity), but this controller has no place replacing games that are designed to work with PS360 controllers anyway, which is fine, as it wasn't made with that in mind. I will say that I love having the rear buttons though, as they let you do more without having to take your fingers off the right touchpad, so you can keep aiming while you jump or reload. I'm telling you, this thing should have been modular. Anyway, I just wanted to share my first impressions. I've been on Destiny for the past week or so, but I hope to get some good time in with this new controller this weekend.

It's good to see that you don't need to be a blockbuster success with cliche-ridden, hooded douchebags posing all over the place to get a sequel. Sometimes. Nier was one of the coolest neglected games of last gen, and I'm really glad to see that enough people agreed to warrant this title. The game's visual aesthetic seems to have made the transition to this generation beautifully, and the gameplay seems to be largely intact and with some enhancements. In other words, as far as trailers go I'd say this is about as encouraging of a trailer as I could possibly hope for. I was surprised to see the protagonist wielding dual Odachi, but it's been some time since I played Nier, and maybe there were some sort of Japanese (or more broadly/vaguely Asian) quality to the decor that I just don't remember. Automata seems not to be terribly far into development though, so they may even be placeholders. Either way, they look pretty badass.

It's not, but it seems that a whole lot of people thought the same thing. I wouldn't recognize the actor if she walked by me right now, so it's not something I would have noticed.

I haven't been this excited for a game in a while. I'm glad to see Kara wasn't just a tech demo.

I don't know if anyone else was waiting on the official universal remote, but I just got my hands on mine today, and it's pretty functional. The auto search mode to configure non-PS4 devices seemed to get hung up at the tail end of the process every time, despite seeming to successfully speak to the devices, so I had to plug in codes like a caveman. I suspect it's the remote, and not the devices. A couple of observations: The remote gives you the option to set the volume buttons to "punch through" and control a specific device, whichever device you have the controller set to control at that moment. What they didn't think to do with this remote is set the "input" button to punch through as well. The PS3 official universal remote did have that functionality, and it's annoying to have lost that. The input button layout is also inferior, sharing the "green" button right in the middle of the remote, as opposed to being near the device and power buttons at the top. There are 3 programmable buttons: red, blue, and yellow. I haven't had to use them, as the defaults for the codes I settled on seem to cover all the important things. I can't really speak for how well it learns from other remotes. The idea of raised buttons around the guide circle was doubtless intended to make it more navigable without looking, but so far for me I would say that it does the opposite, making it feel closer to a clump of buttons than a directional circle. Also in terms of orientation, there is no groove in the back, which I always like having on remotes. It's a bit harder to distinguish where your hand is on the face of a remote without it. The only real improvement over the PS3 remote, and it's pretty huge: It controls cable boxes. Not so much a huge win for this controller as it was a glaring omission from the old one, but it's good that it was addressed. That is all. Good remote, though not as well thought-out in areas as the last. *edit - Oh yeah, and the device buttons are tiny, and don't light up like the ones on the PS3 remote. Aside from not lighting up, they're also very dark-colored, and so are a bit harder to see in dim light.

Still one of my favorite tunes EVER.

The past 3-4 weeks have been unreal for me. I lost one of my oldest and closest friends when he was hit by a car while he was drunkenly stumbling around in Queens, and less than two weeks later I lost my mother, who passed away while she was in California waiting for a lung transplant. I was just preparing a post for Scott's (my friend) Facebook page, most of which originally was intended to be delivered as a speech at his funeral. I realized the day before his funeral though, that I wasn't able to talk about him much without breaking down, and would not be able to deliver any kind of speech. The reason I'm here is that a song kept occurring to me as I have been dwelling on his life the past few weeks, and while I'm going to post it on his page, I thought it might be worth sharing here as well, even though I may have already done so in the past. It's a beautiful song. The words of the first sentence of the first verse are reportedly written on Chapin's tombstone, and they're equally appropriate for him as they are for Scott, though for opposite reasons. Or perhaps they're more similar than I give Scott credit for. Accomplishments and value are difficult things to measure, and even viewing them comparatively does little to help one try to place them somewhere on a scale. Scott had done so little with himself in the last decade that it would be fair to say that he undid progress that he had made on his own up to that point in life. Not only had his alcoholism become a crippling factor in his ability to function in most ways, but it had pushed away many of his closest friends and family members. At his funeral though the outpouring of grief, love, and support demonstrated that, difficult as he became, nobody ever forgot who he was before that, or what made him special to so many of us. Of course some of the enabling ******* (use your imagination) who occupied much of his time in later life were there, but so were people who neither of us had seen since the 90s, and who were still deeply effected by the loss. Troubled as his life became, Scott had earned a great deal of respect, affection, and even love from those whose lives he had been a part of, and he left an impression that will last long, long time after his life. I'll spare you some of the details that I really want to share right now, and leave them for those who knew and loved him to read at their leisure. I hope someone here appreciates the tune. There is a strong faith-based message contained in it, but more than simple faith, the song is largely concerned with how we use it when we do find it in this life, and the tragedy of inaction and unfulfilled potential, both for the individual and for the world. Rest in peace, Scott Diaz. You are and will continue to be dearly missed by everyone who knew you.

My reading for class today ended up being pretty relevant. The cases all involved marriages whose validity was being challenged in one way or another. One of them, Accounts Management, Inc. v. Litchfield, involved a marriage which was not properly processed between the solemnization agent (minister) and the county clerk. Not exactly analogous, but it essentially amounted to a marriage that the couple entered into on the assumption of validity, but that due to a administrative error, was being challenged. While this case involves a marriage that was not recorded as opposed to one that doesn't bear the clerk's signature, it still seems very relevant. While there was some conflict in the South Dakota statute that was being relied upon, some of the things taken into consideration by the court were: - (The big one named where the holding was written, at the beginning) "...we construe our licensing statutes to favor validation of marriages even when a statutory formality is overlooked..." - There were only two states at the time (1998) that provided that noncompliance with licensing requirements will render a marriage invalid. - The statute that requires the solemnization agent to file with the register of deeds does not involve the couple at all; and so the question of its validity is based purely on the actions of the state, and not of the couple. - There was no question of fact regarding the couple's status as a couple. It's just one case, and the facts aren't the same, but the notes that follow it in the textbook solidify the idea of clerical intervention not being a sufficient basis on which to void a marriage. I'll quote the book here while abbreviating the case names. Pardon (what I see as) the grammatical error in the first sentence: "The question sometimes arises whether a marriage that is solemnized without a license, or pursuant to a defective license, is valid. Many cases uphold the validity of such marriages. E.g. Carabetta; Denton. See also NY Dom. Rel. L. § 25. But see Moran (holding a marriage invalid where a ceremony was conducted without license; Estate of DePasse (refusing to recognize deathbed marriage ceremony performed without a license); Becker (religious ceremony did not give rise to valid marriage where couple made a deliberate choice not to obtain a marriage license). The fact that a marriage is solemnized by a person not authorized to do so does not invalidate the marriage if either or both parties are not aware of the disqualification." DePasse, Moran, and Becker, the exceptions named, all involve marriages without licenses. It seems that in the case of license defect, anyone in Kentucky with a license given out this week should have solid grounds on which they can support the validity of their licenses, and in turn their marriages. I'm just a student though, so pardon me if there is something I missed. My professor seemed less willing than I was to come down on one side of a prediction when she headed me off by bringing this up in the context of Davis at the start of class today, but they (professors) often are reluctant to do so, which is understandable. Side note: This isn't the only coincidence as far as law school goes. The day that Davis was found to be in contempt of court and ordered to jail, the assigned reading for that same class included Obergefell, this summer's case that held that state bans on same-sex marriage were unconstitutional. Also I was in ConLaw over the summer when Obergefell was decided. So while beginning law school at my ripe age has its disadvantages, there are some things about the timing that are working out favorably.

But the point is now even if she receives financial support it doesn't get her out of jail, whereas it would cover her fines. That may be the point if you're primarily concerned with her punishment. I'm personally not all that interested in seeing her punished, I feel like the most important thing was to get the licenses issued to everyone who is trying to marry. I was agreeing with you and presumably the judge about the pointlessness of a fine in that quote, but pointing out that that fear is still valid, even with her in jail. The important difference is that she can't effect the office from jail, not that she's able to dodge any of her imposed penalties. At this point I don't care about adding fuel to that false narrative, because it's one of those things that's already so divorced from reality that it's only effective within the echo chamber. The only people who would be convinced by this "evidence" are the people who already believe it anyway. That false narrative and ones like it are the exact reason that this issue exists the way it does today, as well as the reason it will persist as one, and so I think it's actually very important to acknowledge how it's played into. I'm not saying we should cater to every such narrative out there to the point of absurdity, but I think it should be considered when deciding how to handle this situation, as those delusional points of view have done more than create some awkward discussions. I want to go back to this, because I'm not sure what you mean by it. It means Christians are supposed to be pacifists too... It means you should be able to insert her religion into that meme without changing its point. In this case it would have been to the point of futility. Even in the situation you described, the current state of affairs in regards to the distribution of licenses could be held in a similar state to its current one for quite a while, to the point where a similar result would have to have been reached anyway, which I think is why she is in jail today. To that point, as I said earlier, I think the decision makes sense. I just generally don't like seeing people in jail, and I think that it's regrettable from the standpoint of the motivating rhetoric behind her supporters that the move will give them a platform from which they can play the victim.

Even if she couldn't cover them, the fines could be coercive at best, and would not ensure that the office would start producing the licenses that it is supposed to. But yeah, she would definitely have received financial support. I think she still will though, and much more than she would have to cover a fine. That's part of the problem I have with it in this incident though, that I don't think she wants out. This is the best possible thing that could have happened to fuel the fire on the topic, and to support the false narrative that Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs.

What's funny is that that meme should work equally well with Davis' religion as it does for Quakers. She's only been a Christian for a few years too. She could start worshiping trees in another few, and decide that she won't be facilitating the acquisition of any pieces of paper at all. It's great that the licenses are finally being distributed, and I get that there is no other way to enforce this, but I'm not really happy about the fact that she is in jail. Not only does it make her a martyr and likely strengthen the resolve of her and her supporters significantly, and not only will it likely make her a fuckload of crowdfunding $, but I've been increasingly unenthusiastic about the use of incarceration where it isn't absolutely necessary in recent years. It is true though, that even in my ideal world, incarceration is still a warranted last resort when someone positively refuses to stop committing certain, less serious crimes, and this certainly approaches that realm. I just wish there were were some other mechanism to regulate the office more directly than the person. Perhaps a way for her to be impeached by trial if found to be in neglect or refusal to perform her duties. Just something else. It is what it is though, and she IS in contempt, so... here we go. I sense that this is about to get hotter before it cools off. @Thursday Don't worry, that was before she was a Christian. Now she knows better, and she's been forgiven. That doesn't explain why she hasn't been scrutinizing other applications to see if they are divorcees, but hey what can you do. The fact that anyone can offer any excuse to explain that disconnect of ideological devotion is impressive enough for me.

I'm watching the decidedly (by Fox) miscellaneous and irrelevant candidates go at it right now. I came in a little late, but nothing unexpected or terribly interesting has happened to this point. There are times I have to remind myself that they aren't looking forward to running against Obama.

- Are you interested? Yup - What Platform are you on? PS4 -When can you do this? My schedule can be erratic, which is a problem. I know I'm not the best candidate because of this for that reason. After the 14th I will have a lot of free time for two weeks though, and should be available at most times with enough advance notice. -Format? w/e

I just played solo from 4:11 (game time), when the second of my two teammates ditched at the sight of a second goal to our one. This would be a much cooler post if I ended up winning it at the end. I came painfully close to doing it several times throughout the game, both before and after overtime. The last 1:11 of standard play (beginning after my game-tying goal; 4:50 on the youtube video) is particularly brutal for me on the re-watch. I also wish I could say that I played amazingly, and that that is the reason that I put up such a great fight with those odds, but I think I just played less badly than the other three. I definitely had some strong moments there, but also several blown opportunities, and a few of my defensive blunders were saved only by even clumsier play by the blues. Oh well. *edit* I wish that video title didn't look so suggestive. *edit* *editagain!* Holy effin shit, and check the last 5 seconds of standard play!!!! COME ON!!!!!!

The losing streak I'm on is almost unbelievable. Maybe not streak, as there has been an occasional win, but the past couple of days... I don't know. I feel bad, like I'm bringing it on people. I had two back-to-back losses of 7-0. Complete downer. Not to try to make excuses, but this game has a huge problem with people bailing if a goal is scored early. I find it kind of surprising, as these games can turn kind of quick, and if one team can score 1-4 goals in the first minute, then another can do it in the last minute. It's so annoying, because then it leaves me in a 2-on-3 situation, and down one goal. I wouldn't mind if it didn't happen almost consistently.

Reagan works in mysterious ways. You just need to give his policies a chance to set in.

About fucking time someone came out with a universal remote. It looks like a nice one. I'm all over this thing. Just one more step towards making the PS4 as good as the PS3. *jab*

I've taken my nicotine level down to the lowest that places offer, which usually is .3-.6 mg... It's weird, because I used to see the amount represented as %, as in volume. Maybe they still are, and they're just leaving the "%" out. The way it's often written makes it seem as if the amount isn't scaling with the quantity of liquid in the bottle though, and is just a set amount. Anyway, I would suggest that when/if she's settled on a flavor she likes, she try that same flavor in two different strengths to see how low it can get while still being satisfying. I've yet to try liquid without any nicotine at all, but that's coming soon. I prefer keeping it low though, so I can choose to vape heavily if I want to without having to worry about encountering a "nicotine rush". So it sounds like she's using cartomizers, which should resemble these: If she is, and if she's buying them pre-filled, the first thing I would suggest is that she get a hold of blanks and juice separately, and refill them herself. It's much cheaper that way, not difficult or time consuming, and it opens up many more options for juice. I'm not sure which battery she's using, and I guess that would be the first step towards figuring out which cartomizers to buy. The threads (the part that screws that cartomizer onto the battery) generally come in two types, 808 and 510, but there are most likely some brands out there that are totally proprietary. Let me know, and I'll be happy to give you my $.02 on which direction to go for a new cartomizer, or even battery if she feels like she wants a totally new setup. Or let me know if I've misunderstood the configuration, or the problem of them not-lasting long being one of them being pre-filled.

@MBM I'm glad it worked out! I understand the tabletop jobs are usually reliable, but I hear the handhelds are hit or miss. Good to hear that that one was hit. @danielpholt Is it only the "juice" you're interested in, or hardware as well? I've done some moderate hardware experimentation, and found less variation in quality than I expected. An older battery just died today, coincidentally, so I'm looking for something new (and inexpensive) to try out as well. If it's just juice, two of my favorites are both from virginvapor.com. One is (now) called Romancing the Strawberry, and the other Kona Coffee Milkshake. The former seems a little bit weaker in the flavor department since it was renamed, but I've only bought one bottle since then, and it could be a fluke. I'm still very happy with that bottle though. It aims for more of an actual strawberry flavor, rather the kind of jollyrancher thing that some other strawberry flavors out there have. The Kona is one of the more pleasant, sweet coffee flavors I've tried. There are strong coffee flavors out there, but they're not up my alley. I've had decent experiences with others on the site as well, and some negative ones as well (the banana nut thing was a disaster). They used to customize the shit out of their juice, from the PG/VG blend, to the nicotine level, to flavor strength, and even custom flavor blends. They cut that out though, and I think all their juices are now 100% VG as well. I suspect that the move towards uniformity has something to do with quality control while serving a greater amount of customers, but that's pure speculation. SmokelessImage's 555 is a good one as far as tobacco flavors go, though I wouldn't say it tastes that much like tobacco. Most tobacco flavors don't though, imo. They also have a good banana nut flavor. *edit* Oh, and I like Halo & SmokelessImage's Freedom Juice flavors. Another tobacco flavor. Dirty... in a good way.

Boom. *edit* - Wrong quote, that was supposed to be the one where you enlightened me as to the meaning of the orange icons. I'm just too lazy to completely fix it now. The thing with the stat tracking is a bug, evidently. It's supposed to be getting taken care of with a patch this week. Again. Boom. It's hard to articulate very accurately, but this game seems to capture the essence of soccer/football more than any soccer video game could ever hope to. It's one thing to control individual players as they run, deal with some overall team strategy, and press x at the right time to kick while maybe aiming for a corner. Clumsily interacting with this giant ball using automobiles though, really puts the player in a position that forces them to interact with it on a much more intimate level. Fighting for rebounds (pardon me if the terminology I'm borrowing from other sports doesn't fit, as I'm a soccer noob), shooting goals, setting up plays (often times the familiar cross-style setup that is common in soccer, to boot), and even controlling the ball all require close attention to timing, speed/angle-approach, and the players around you. I suppose a soccer video game could focus on the minutia of interacting with the ball while putting the (video game) player in control of a single (virtual) player, but I think it would turn people off to have to work that hard at it while CPU players run around the field and play normally. Oddly enough, this unlikely combination of Twisted Metal and soccer really provide a great backdrop for this sort of simulation of soccer that is, arguably at least, much less superficial than than your typical video game representation of a sport. Like I said, it's hard to articulate...

The Steam app for Android got a handsome new update. It looks much more in-line with the aesthetic of the OS now. I haven't gotten to play with it too much, but it looks good so far.

Yeah, I verified it last night, there are definitely differences. I busted out "Merc" for the first time, and it definitely doesn't turn nearly as sharply as other vehicles do. I can also verify that "wins" means something different to the creators of this game than it meant where I grew up. I racked up several ranked wins with the Merc last night, and it's still sitting at 0.