dr. b

Forgot to reply to this bit earlier I will never find baseball boring, but I think the game - especially in the later innings - has gotten painfully slow. Sometimes it feels like there is absolutely no flow/rhythm to the game. There are some things that have a big impact on overall game time that will be hard to change, like TV commercial breaks probably aren't going anywhere, but they can do things with the rules to encourage a better flow to the game. The 3 batter minimum rule has helped a bit I think, but what gets me the most is slow pitchers. I hate watching guys that take so much time between pitches. It's truly awful. The worst is when you've got a slow pitcher who has a habit of stepping off the mound, and a guy at the plate who wants to step out of the box after every pitch. MLB still isn't doing enough to cut down on that stuff. I now realize how lucky I was as Blue Jays fan for so many years, they had some really fast workers (Halladay, Dickey, Buehrle). Buehrle especially. He didn't waste time and almost never shook off the catcher. His philosophy was that he wasn't the game caller, the catcher was, so he'd just do his best to execute every pitch that was called. You love to see it.

I'm enjoying the setting change, don't want them to go back to the farm right away.

The best sale for the Crash trilogy that I can recall on the eShop was 50% off. Regular price is $54.99. 50% isn't a big enough discount you entice me. I'd pay $15 plus tax for this game. It'll happen someday in a publisher's sale.

I was a PSX guy but I can't recall if I ever played Spyro... I definitely never owned it, but I don't remember renting it or playing it at the vault either. (My local Microplay store was located in what used to be a bank branch, so they converted the old vault into a game room with a big screen and all of the consoles available at the time, so you could rent the room + games with your friends for an hour at a time and play games in there -- it was a blast) I've had the Crash trilogy on my wishlist forever now, but the price still hasn't gone low enough for me to pull the trigger on it for a nostalgia trip. Unlike Spyro, I did own and love Crash, so it would be fun to play again for the right price. Maybe I'll throw that Spyro collection on the ol' wishlist too...

Contra Anniversary Collection is on sale right now so I cashed in the meager amount of gold points that I had on my account and got this game for like $2. Downloading now. It's going to be a Contra filled weekend!

I tend to disagree on your first point. In many cases it's a very simple decision for the manager when the pitcher's spot is coming around in the lineup.

Great to have Jujutsu Kaisen back in the rotation after a short beak. Gojou kills me Back Arrow has still got my attention, I think it's gonna be a fun show. Protect Scard not so much. I'll give it another week but I still find it rather dull.

I prefer a DH to watching pitchers hit because hardly any pitchers seem to take batting even remotely seriously. Ideally pitchers would hit and actually try to be kinda good at it. Roles in the game are so specialized now though that it's hard for a pitcher to focus on anything other than pitching. Lots of guys on the mound look like they could barely field a ground ball cleanly, forget about swinging a bat...

Wake me up when it's the conference finals Seriously tho: the Leafs won their first game. I only know this because Leafs chatter is inescapable round here. I guess I hope they have a good season, but that team killed any fandom left in me a long time ago. Last time I got back into watching hockey I decided to watch and cheer for the Jets instead. By now I don't really know who any of the players are anymore. The Canucks got a decent team this year?

You gotta be on my security clearance level to know this secret. Or maybe gralic will just PM it to you

I was just reading an article on The Athletic re: the universal DH and Jayson Stark presents an interesting idea: That's a really interesting concept that could help to restore the importance of starting pitchers in today's game. It's hard to say though if this rule would have the best interest of starting pitchers in mind. More innings and more pitches can be harmful to a pitcher's arm with the way the game is played these days with 100 mph fastballs and max effort style pitching. The proposed rule obviously incentivizes leaving a starter in as long as possible I kinda like the idea though.

I checked out the first episode of Project Scard last night. I'm not in love with the art style even though in some ways the visuals are nice. The characters seemed very bland though. There are some interesting ideas in this show, but the ways it's all presented came across as rather uninteresting to me. I'll give it another try next week and see what happens.

Stray Dogs Wan! #1 -- 11 minute episodes so I might watch a bit more, but it was not very amusing. I did lol pretty hard re: Dazai's suicide locker though Wonder Egg Priority #1 -- I'm still not entirely sure what the heck I just watched, but I'm intrigued enough to watch a couple more episodes. It's a very pretty looking show. Weird but pretty dark premise

The explanation was just renovations and building improvements. I didn't bother asking for specifics. Rent is quite a bit higher in Canada, at least in Southern Ontario. I can only dream of rent as low as the numbers you and Mera'din mentioned

Yeah the first episode of Kemono Jihen was pretty good. It had an almost cinematic quality to it. I especially liked the feel/atmosphere of the first half of the episode. The second half of the episode got a little darker than I was anticipating. Hopefully the series doesn't get too heavy like that. I'm adding it to my queue and will keep up with it at least a couple more weeks to see how it goes.

Are you streaming on Twitch?

I noticed both of those on Funi last night, might check them out tonight. I'm not sure if I'm up for an isekai this season unless it's really good, but it doesn't hurt to check out one episode. Kemono Jihen might be a winner though

SnK #64 Everything I've read online says the final season will be 16 episodes, but... there's lots left to happen yet. I hope the final episodes don't feel rushed. Or maybe that number 16 is wrong? I dunno.

SK?? #1 -- Kinda ridiculous, seems like it won't be very good. But I'll give it another chance because there was some good music, a bit of decent skateboarding action, and one of the main characters is Canadian

I haven't done this in a while! 1) Taiko no Tatsujin Rhythmic Adventure Pack #1 This was originally a 3DS game (Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jik? Daib?ken). Story Mode was a fun romp through space-time. A simple RPG. You go through different eras, do Taiko battles and catch monsters. The final boss was actually pretty tough. Great fun. I haven't cleared every song in Taiko Mode, but some songs just plain aren't fun to play / listen to. I don't need to 100% it. Soon I will move along to the second Rhythmic Adventure game.

Found out today that my rent is going up by approx. $25 / month on May 1st. Every year like clockwork I get a notice in January that rent will be going up in May. It's never been a major amount, usually an extra $20-30 / month. I thought this year would be an exception because rents are supposed to be frozen in the province of Ontario right now... but there is a loophole that allows landlords to still increase rent to cover costs of building renovations and improvements. $25 / month ain't going to break the bank so there's no sense in arguing it with the management company, but it's kind of a shitty thing to do to people right now.

Here's hoping she doesn't turn into a crocodile or grow a beard Seriously though, that's cool. I don't think I know anybody up here who's had the vaccine. I don't really have any friends or relatives that are at the front of the line for it.

Back Arrow #1 -- Looks like it could be pretty fun. Briheights are nifty. I haven't watched a mecha show in a while so I'll stick with it. Horimiya #1 -- A mixed bag but enough to keep me interested for another week. Hoping for more of the lighthearted / funny / random stuff and less of the somewhat cringe-y teenage romance stuff.

Still a little early to call it yet, but they're looking pretty good right now!

First episodes of SK? and Horimiya are coming up this weekend, I think they'll both be going live on Funi sometime Saturday morning. Gonna check them out after the kids are in bed tomorrow night