High five back at you, my friend.

As a gaymo, I’m just gonna say both of them are 1000000000000% percent hotter in this photo than in real life. AIRump got some biggass arms and bear-like belly, and Elmo barely look like actual Elmo because he has an actual human body shape.

You got to lick it before you kick it.

I’m an owner of a rescue dog with behavioral problems, and I am fortunate to say that the only person my dog has ever bitten after I adopter her is me. It takes a lot of work and effort, and I am absolutely certain she would bite other people under the right circumstances. Problem is, most dog owners are not like me.

Granted my rescue dog is a small Chihuahua mix, so at worse, she might break skin on your finger or heels and leave a small scar.

Very different circumstances than if she were a big dog.

The Super Nintendo Metroid game was/is my favorite, but I’ll admit I haven’t play most of the Metroid games, so I’m not a good judge.

The NES game was a ton of fun, but I felt and feel like the SNES game was just all of that and then some, if that makes sense to others.

I played one of the 3D Metroid games (the one on the Wii). It was fun, I enjoyed what I played. But it did not scratch the same itch, if that makes sense. In fact, I don’t think I even played that game to completion.

Here’s my purely capitalistic problem with Amazon:

A decade+ ago, I realized that major brands were using the site as their outlet store. I’d buy a pack of socks, and they’d be hideously deformed. I’d buy a few pants for work, one pair would be too small, one too large, and one would fit just right. I’m not fucking Goldilocks.

The final straw for me was when my coffee maker broke. I ordered a new one via same day shipping, which at the time had a minimum order of something like $50. The coffee maker did not cost quite enough, so I added something random to the order so that my same day shipping would be free. Ultimately, the coffee maker arrived late (i.e. not the same day) and the decanter was broken.

When I contacted Amazon about the issue, the agent said they could reship, but they wouldn’t send it same day so for that specific item it was going to take 3 - 5 days to arrive. They also tried to hassle me with a straight up return, telling me I had to take it to a UPS store, which at the time was 30+ minutes away.

Ultimately, I pulled a Karen and told them to cancel my Amazon Prime, which they did. Only problem is, I was 2 or 3 months into the year long subscription and assumed I’d get a pro-rated refund. I did not. When I got back in touch with customer service, they told me that Amazon adds up the value of the “free” shipping I received, the rental value of the movies and shows I watched on Prime, and the value of all the other services included with Prime and if that total exceeds the remaining value of the Prime subscription, then no refund.

They basically stole almost a year of Prime from me with no recourse.

Scum company. I got a lot of hate for saying this back in those days. But at least now, a decade+ later, people are finally starting to wake up. Not everyone, obviously. But at least I don’t get hateful responses and DMs quite as much as I used to.

I’m bookmarking this link so I can read it when I have the time. Having said that, it should be clear that I haven’t read the article, yet.

For me personally, 80’s and 90’s 2D Metroid and Castlevania games were fun, but for me, something transcendental happened with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I’m 100% certain that I am incapable of truly putting it into words, but I’m sure a myriad of people have done it, and done it far better than I ever could. I bought the game on a whim because I enjoyed Castlevania 3 on the NES so much. Other than fighting games, 2D games were basically blasé for 90’s 32-bit systems like the original PlayStation. Truthfully, I’m having a hard time recalling at the moment why I decided to buy the game. But I’m absolutely 10010% sure it was a good idea and I’m honestly thankful to my teenage self for that decision.

Modern Metroidvanias are fun, too. Truth be told, I gave up on Hollow Knight. I’m a patient, older gamer, so maybe that comes into play. But it eventually got to a point where it simply wasn’t fun anymore. I was confused about what I needed to do next and I wasn’t making any progress in the game. And then I had to set it aside for almost a year. When I tried to return, my memory had faded to the point where I really struggled to play it and make progress. That made me immensely sad. Once I realized that, I simply set it aside.

On the other hand, I played all the Nintendo DS Castlevania Metroidvania games back in the day and even still own the original cartridges. Via Steam, I also played the Gameboy Advanced Castlevanias. They are so much fun for me. So much fun that I purchased the Dominus collection on Steam, which is essentially all the DS games that I already own.

I also played Bloodstained: ROTN. I know there’s a lot of criticism about the game, but I’ll be honest, I loved every freakin’ minute of it. I wasn’t a huge fan of the graphics, but the game play was exactly what I needed at the time and I don’t regret that purchase one bit.

And to finalize things, nice to meet other Metroidvania lovers. We might not all agree on the nitty-gritty details, but it’s still neat to hear from others. Back in the 90s when I was absolutely in love with SOTN despite the fact that everybody else was hating on it entirely because it’s a “2D platformer”, it was hard to imagine that ~30 years later there would be entire communities of people who love these types of games.

I appreciate you for acknowledging it.

For sure! I’d love to switch to solar (or any alternative carbon-friendly / carbon-neutral energy source) entirely and specifically for the perceived environmental benefits. But I’m also not in a financial position where I can do it when it happens to cost so much more than traditional means. If I had been fortunate enough, like my neighbor, to have been in the position to make the plunge 10 - 15 years ago, it would make perfect sense. But with all the government subsidies being cut, the power company drastically reducing what they pay for the excess energy, and the cost of batteries plus associated equipment being so high, it’s pushing solar back into the territory of being unaffordable for a lot of people. Really sad in so many ways. And yet, I’m still trying to figure out how I might make it work.

I noticed that you didn’t bother to answer or either acknowledge my question, which makes me think you’re just being a troll. I would actually feel bad if you were legitimately upset by anything I said, for the record, but your responses leave me feeling like you’re just poking for an emotional response.

I’m not certain, either. I think some people are ignorant enough that they would take my statement as a personal insult, which it is absolutely not, in any way shape or form.

It is not a character flaw for someone to not have enough money to handle unpredictable expenses. But it is naive and/or ignorant to consider yourself in “good financial position” if you’re not in good enough shape to afford necessary transportation related expenses like car repairs or acquiring a new vehicle when the old one dies.

While I anticipated snark and/or sarcasm as a response, I feel that it’s totally unwarranted. I’m of the opinion that the amount of money I make is irrelevant here, so I would only ask: Why do you feel that’s relevant?

My statement is not a value judgement on anybody that can’t afford a car repair, so if that’s how you are interpreting what I said, that’s more of a reflection on yourself than on me.

I don’t recall the exact timeline, but about 10 - 15 years ago my neighbor got a bunch of solar panels installed. Between state and federal funding, almost 2/3rds of the cost was subsidized. On top of that, the local power company pays 1-to-1 for the energy she produces during the day because she is grandfathered in. Her power bill maxes out at something like $30.

I was strongly considering getting solar panels for my house in recent history. The power company no longer pays 1-to-1 for new installations, they only pay approximately 30%. So if they charge 18 cents per kilowatt hour, they’d only credit me 6 cents. On top of this, the state I live in no longer offers tax incentives, so the only thing I had going for me was the federal incentives. Even at that, it wasn’t worth it from a purely economic standpoint when I did the calculations.

The icing on the cake is that when the power goes out, you still lose power even if you have solar panels. The only way around that in my part of the world is to go completely off grid, buy a bunch of extremely expensive equipment and batteries, or to have someone do an illegal connection.

So, we came to conclusion that solar wasn’t really affordable for us. The monthly payments on the loan were going to be about 20% higher than our current electric bill and by our calculations, it was going to take about 17 - 20 years to break even. And that’s only if the equipment lasts that long, which is a gamble given our weather that includes hurricanes, tornadoes, and so on.

I’d offer up myself but I’m already happily taken.

I watched the sequel with a heavy beer buzz on new years eve so I could probably watch it again and it would be like a second sequel because I can’t really say I remember much about the first time I watched it.

Might as well.

I mean, Rotten dot com and related sites were around pretty early on and for quite a good while, so I’m not sure I’m totally on board with the premise.

Not trying to be mean or snarky, but if car trouble is enough to put your “good financial position” in jeopardy, then I’m not sure I agree with you that you’re in a “good” financial position.

I mean, given all the plane disasters happening as of late in the USA and its soon to be territories, I’d say 2025 is lined up to be the year it actually starts literally raining men.

Are you single? I’ve got eligible male and female friends of all sexual persuasions that I’d love to introduce you to.