It constantly makes me smile, whether it’s being smart, the actors are giving perfectly calibrated performances, or the action suddenly goes wham-bam VATS over the top.
3 eps in. Happy.
If you're not holding your nose when voting for someone, you're in trouble. The two go hand-in-hand. Be suspicious of any politician who seems so good you don't feel the urge to hold your nose when you cast your vote for them.
I have been, up until very recently, a "Thanksgiving Traditionalist", in that I loudly proclaimed that one should muck around with the traditional basics.
But last year, I changed my tune. We had a dinner based around Stanley Tucci's timpano instead of turkey (yes, the famous timpano from the movie BIG NIGHT). That was a big success.
This year, because I have some very dear friends who are vegetarians and who kind of slink away when anyone discusses Thanksgiving traditional dishes, I wanted to make dinner with their needs/desires squarely in mind, so I am doing a completely vegetarian menu. I generally despise "meat analogues", so no, we're not having tofurkey. So, here's the menu:
- velouté de châitagnes (chestnut soup)
- Spanish tortilla (the potato dish, not the Mexican flatbread)
- my grandmother's green bean casserole (very unique, not-what-you-expect, nod to tradition)
- roasted root vegetables (catch-all, probably rutabagas, turnips, parsnips, etc...)
- Jacque Pepin's "easy" corn soufflé
- a massive onion-mushroom tarte tatin as the centerpiece (onions, mushrooms, gorgonzola, walnuts, butter, pastry crust)
- fresh homemade pickles (various)
- fresh homemade bread (baguettes, sourdough boules, etc)
- risalamande (Scandinavian rice pudding)
I am probably forgetting something. Guests are bring desserts and wine (one is a L3 sommelier, never disappoints).
I waited until CP 2.0 to play it. I can wait for SF 2.0 to play it. I am not a unicorn in this regard.
Steel-cut oatmeal is super-easy, set-and-forget (1 cup water, 1/4 steel-cut oats, pinch of salt, Bring water to boil, stir in oats, salt, lower to bare simmer, uncovered 30 minutes, flavor as desired, eat).
But that can get boring. For something a little more exciting, super-nutritious, and almost zero-prep, do a sort of Norwegian-style open-face cracker (no, you don't need "the tubes", but if you can find them, knock yourself out). For this I take a tin of fish (usually smoked salmon or trout, but sardines, mackerel, or even tuna would work fine), a piece of cracking toast or a Scandy flatbread cracker (Wasa, knekkebrod), and some kind of "schmear" (a thin spread of cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, or - my favorite - Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel Yogurt Dip/Spread). I can get all these ingredients both cheaply and well-made at Trader Joe's (TJ Smoked Salmon in a tin, TJ Norwegian seeded flatbread, and the aforementioned dip). For a little additional oomph toss on tomato or cucumber slices.
I just finished my CP2077 (first) play-thru. I had no fore-knowledge of game or outcomes. When I play RPGs, I abide by a strict "choices matter - there are no mulligans", in that I won't fish reloaded saves for "better" outcomes. If I make a bad choice, I live with it.
About a week before I finished, I was having dinner with some friends who had played it already and they were probing me to see how I think the game would end. I said, matter of factly, "Oh, I think my V is doomed, like Arthur [RDR2] was doomed."
And if there was a magic happy ending in Phantom Liberty, as there seemed there might be because Sol pointedly asked V twice "Are you sure you don't want it?", my V had given it to Songbird.
When I came to the pinch at climax where Jonny presents you with your options and you have to pick what to do, I probably sat on that dialog wheel for 15 minutes. I'd vacillate between the options presented and listen and watch carefully how Jonny reacted and think things through. I had played a V who was never comfortable with the loss of his autonomy and desired, more than anything, to live his own life his own way. This V was also sort of a mensch, too, inclined to empathy and sympathy. He had pity for Jonny's situation. After much contemplation, V reached out to Panam - I would say almost desperately as it seemed the only path that really gave V any hope - and events ensued and they arrived at what I called "The Sunset Ending" (which I considered a great success).
I felt I had arrived at a very satisfactory conclusion for this V and I really have no desire (in a good way!) to play CP more - the story was over, if bittersweet.
The feeling of completeness matched reaching the Sunrise Ending in RDR2, which kinda devastated me.
And here I am deliberately working my way though Origins->Odyssey->Valhalla so that I can completely ignore Starfield for a while until the hype train settles down and some bugs are fixed :-). I keep my eye on NMS (I was a Day 1ish player) but I feel it is soooo wide and soooo shallow it would just bore me to tears now.
Really enjoying Valhalla...
I also don't "believe" in Skyrim modding, at least in terms of mods that fundamentally alter the game.
However, I do make exceptions for eye-candy and bug-fixing mods. Perhaps start there.
Don't you mean: Statistically speaking, you will die.
I have a sneaking suspicion that at least in some US states this would be problematic with local health departments. I do not know, but it seems these departments might look askance at Joe Schmo handing an un-verifiably “clean” container into the food service area and hands of the workers.