Docwagon

Short answer: Black WIdow.

Ok, this is hard. The book warns that deliberate practice is 'not inherently enjoyable' and its right. Its boring and its tough to maintain concentration and not just start going through the motions. I resorted to talking to myself, sort of coaching myself out loud. I've broken my presentation down into the following components: 1) Draw: breaking the retention holster open, assuming strong hand grip, and pulling pistol. 2) Catch: meeting the gun with my support hand on the upswing. 3) Ring (the doorbell): finishing upswing, pushing gun onto target 4) Press: begin trigger press I practiced at about 5 yards in front of a full length mirror, using my reflection as a target. All draws are from my regular EDC holster with the retention strap secured. After about 10 minutes I noticed my mind wandering. That's when I developed the 4 steps above and started talking to myself, saying each component out loud and evaluating how the presentation was going at that point. I slowed down and did not rush for speed. I did each motion very deliberately, probably taking 5-6 seconds for a complete draw stroke and really paid attention to the little fundamentals, making sure my dominant hand wasn't too tight, sight alignment, catching the trigger at the correct place, etc. After maybe 50 deliberate draws (approximate, I didn't count, just did what felt right) I'd do 4-5 for speed, trying to go just a little faster each time. Then on my last "fast" one I'd look and see what I was wrong, and then focus heavily on that component the next set of deliberate draws. I really hope I can keep this up. I think its going to make a big difference if I can. However, it is going to take a lot of self control and sustained motivation as it is *not* inherently enjoyable and is also hard work, mentally. I sweated through my t-shirt while doing it, and the physical component is very limited. The book warns that even top tier performers (like olympic level performers) can only maintain concentration for 1-1.5 hours tops. They may train on components 3 hours a day, but will do it in one hour blocks, with the time between on pure physical conditioning and the like that require less mental involvement. Results of first day: Baseline: After 2 minutes of presentation practice so I'm not comparing cold to warm: Beginning of Day 1: Best time 2.42 (average 2.50) End of Day 1: Best time 2.12 (average 2.22)

I'm reviving this thread a bit. First off, I want to post an interesting video on presentation (aka draw stroke): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URLTraSQvmE Next I want to talk about an experiment I'm going to do. I recently read "Talent is Overrated...." which introduced me to the concept of deliberate practice. http://www.amazon.com/Talent-Overrated-Separates-World-Class-Performers/dp/1591842948 The simplest explanation is breaking down a task into its components, practicing each component based on which is currently holding your performance back, practicing the whole skill, evaluating, then going back to component practice.There's a bit more to it, of course, such as seeking out experts and comparing your techniques and results with theirs, metacognition, etc. I immediately began to wonder how I could apply this two things I always want to get better at. Interviewing and shooting. Since this is the firearms thread, you can figure which I'll be talking about. So, this week, I'm practicing nothing but the draw to the point where I touch the trigger. No dry firing, no real shooting, nothing but presentation drills. I'll let you know how it goes.

The small magazine size is the limiting factor, and since there's no way to increase it (other than playing a character class that boosts magazine capacity) you're stuck with it. Once you get to Gold or above where DPS becomes a lot more important, the waiting to recharge can be a bother. If you overheat it, you're gonna have a bad time. It does excel at applying ammo powers, and its very high DPS. The only thing I found annoying about it is that it has a limited range after which the beam just disappears, which seems dumb for a sniper rifle.

C'mon down to Tootsie's and have yourself a beer.

http://kalence.drupalgardens.com/me3-builder#60!1B84515!!!CEDE3 With glitch, add top option on poison strike and either top 3 or bottom 3 in fitness, depending on how you want to play. Biotic focus acts like the stim packs for the Turian havoc, you can hit it to refill your biotic barrier.

I'll take your word for it, I don't know enough to spot the differences. Any year of that body style is fine by me.

Heh, chimney is a nice touch.

I prefer a mobility build. Poison stuff and then dash through the walls, poison that stuff, then dash through the walls. She makes a great medic that way, too, as you can kite stuff away from the downed guy and then dash back through walls to revive.

Found this link on Fark. I assume its a regular skit on his show, but am not sure. Regardless, found this funny:

I may throw it back in soon. The Cabal was one of my favorites when I quit playing. If you utilize the skill point glitch and max her out in every skill, she's fun, effective, and reasonably survivable without being too easy to play.

If #2 was done in real paint on canvas, I'd want it. The texture is awesome.

The second one is awesome.

After he serve his time for theft, will he be turned over for extradition by the International Fashion Police for that shirt and hat?

....

Perhaps I misunderstood the arguments against the ME3 ending, but I thought the complaint was none of the decisions you made UP TO THE FINAL DECISION mattered since you got the same 3 options at the end regardless of what you did. My argument was that what you decided DID matter, it just didn't affect the end result of the war. As in all of those decisions were pointless. To me that's like saying that what one commander did that saved or destroyed some lives is negated because the decision was made to drop an atomic bomb. Shepherd just happens to be the guy who gets to make all those little decisions, but also gets to be the guy who decides if the a-bomb is dropped or not. The decisions leading up to that don't affect if he has an a-bomb to drop or not, but don't make the decisions irrelevant, only irrelevant to the outcome of the war. Anyway, in the end its likely a product of different experiences. I liked TLUS, but not as much as I liked Skyrim, and it doesn't hold any appeal to me to replay the campaign. I don't watch movies a second time very often either, though.

The game didn't fall flat, like I said, I enjoyed it. It was just distracting and annoying with the things I mentioned. Maybe its like watching The Hunt for Red October with a guy who served on submarines. Even if he likes the movie, he gets distracted because ladders aren't where they should be, Navy guys are wearing incorrect uniforms, buttons and levers are missing or doing different things, etc. Things that break the immersion for him, but have no affect on the rest of us. (Note: personal experience, don't see the fucking Hunt for Red October with a guy who spent 16 years on nuclear submarines). Its one reason I don't watch Army movies. When someone salutes an NCO, when officers where garrison rank in the field (shiny vs drab), when someone uses the wrong nomenclature, it breaks the immersion for me. Don't even get me started on how demolitions is handled by Hollywood. Fucking timers and cut the red wire? Gah. I fully understand its a plot device, just like some of my issues with TLUS, but it distracts me from the story because I know better. However, those are limited to a fairly select group of people with expertise. I think most folks would guess that ripping a hole in your intestines would lead to death. The improper way of getting him off of it, ok, select group of people. Knowing releasing poo into your blood stream = real bad, most people who stop and think about it. The ladders and planks thing serves one purpose. A cheap and easy way to stretch out game play. If you spend 30 minutes playing chutes and ladders, that's 30 minutes of real game play that doesn't have to be written, voice acted, and coded. That equals money. Let's compare how you view TLUS ending vs ME3 ending. To me ME3 ending was fine, because one lone commander doesn't generally shift the entire course of a war. Your decisions in ME3 matter on the microlevel. If you get your crew killed, if you save certain civilians, if some people get the supplies they need. That's realistic. The war effort doesn't hinge on if one squad lives or dies, but a battalion commander's decisions can be what makes the difference to that particular squad. In TLUS, you don't get to make any decisions, the game makes them for you. Your decisions have the chance to potentially dramatically alter society, not just a war but humanity's survival, because you hold the only key known to be possible to make a vaccine from. The game could easily have been written to let you win, to reason with the doctors, to find another group, whatever, and maintained the relationship building. Instead you get what you got. Futility.

I finished the Last of Us yesterday. Overall, I liked the story. The voice acting and animation is good. The scene were the giraffes bring Ellie out of her shellshock is one of my favorite scenes from any video game anywhere. You really feel emotionally invested in her at that point, and you're rooting for her to break out of it and return to her former chipper self. The giraffe thing, and they way its presented, is top shelf. However a few things degrade the story, IMO. I can suspend disbelief for the whole "shit ton of apex predators with a dwindling prey source still seem to be doing just fine and multiplying" thing common with zombie themed games. I can suspend disbelief when guards routinely act like Star Trek Red Shirts and wander down dark alleys by themselves to investigate the sound of a bottle breaking, and promptly forget they were in a firefight if they survive. I can suspend disbelief that there's always a handy ladder or plank right where you need one, and that you never bother to remove them to keep your enemies from having an easy way to follow you. I can sort of suspend disbelief when you kill someone and can't take their gear (the guy who was just walking around with a shotgun apparently has no shotgun or ammunition once you kill him). I can't suspect disbelief of "no fucking way" moments in the story line in a game that's primarily about the story. 1) When Joel falls on the rebar and it goes through his abdomen. That's pretty fucking hard to suspect disbelief on. One, the way they get him off would have torn him up even more. With as many blood vessels as he'd have torn, he'd have blood out really fast. That's why EMT's are trained to cut the rebar off and leave it in the body to block the blood vessels up, its not removed until the person is in surgery. With all the bacteria released into his bloodstream from his digestive tract being punctured (no way that missed his intestines), no way in fuck a single injection of penicillin is counteracting that. Then there's the fact de passes out, falls off a horse, and his only help is someone who isn't strong enough to get him back on a horse, yet somehow manages to get him to another neighborhood, while he's bleeding out, and apparently sews him up so good his internal organs are working just fine. He should have punctured a thigh if they wanted heavy but survivable blood loss, hampered mobility, and a survivable infection setting in. 2) Going to the hospital, its apparent you're gearing up for a big fight. There are more supplies available than anywhere else in the game. It ruins the surprise of having to continue to fight. Arriving and having to run what your brung, or only gaining the supplies after the fighting starts, would have preserved the surprise much better. 3) Oh, bullshit. They have to kill her instead of just taking cultures? That's not only stupid, that's ridiculous. You're going to kill the one source of new samples that you have? In a world where refrigeration relies on generators and whatever gas you can find in tanks of abandoned cars that are years old? I get its a plot device to make a moral conflict (one that, like every other choice in the game is made for you since you are playing a movie, not an RPG), but that's just too damn dumb to feel real. 4) Oh, bullshit, "they stopped looking for a cure?" How about "they got the cultures they needed, and we left" How's that going to play out for the relationship with the word inevitably gets back? So really, everything you did was for nothing. Actually, it was for worse than nothing. More scientists/doctors who understand the underlying principals of making a vaccine are dead. One more band of survivors is decimated and stripped of its leader, and for what? That's incredibly unsatisfying. I can get futility in the real world, I like to "win" in video games.

Its one of the side affects of capitalism without restraints. There is little incentive to be socially responsible or pay attention to marginal costs that you do not have to pay (ie clean up fees for a river you've dumped your waste into or the cost of importing water for an area once you've drained the natural water sources) as long as your profiting. If you really want to shake your head, the ogallala aquifer as a water source is being drained much faster than it can refill and is expected to be completely dry within the century, perhaps as early as 20 years from now. One of the primary users are cotton farmers in Texas, who receive farm bill subsidies to the tune of $3 billion a yer. There is essentially no domestic market for cotton, on the textile plants have went overseas. Who buys the cotton? China. Yup, you are paying $3 billion in taxes and ruining one of the largest natural aquifers in the country (and when its dry, wheat production in the former dust bowl area will collapse again and about 2.5 million people will need to find a new source of drinking water) so that China can have their cotton cheaper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer

Hol-ee Fuck.

Apparently they started cuttind down the trees as early as the 1940's once the price of wheat went back up and the Ogalla underground water reservoir was tapped, with resulting dusters occurring again in the '50s and '60s. Areas that maintained a soil conservation corps plan held together, the unbridled farmers watched their land turn to dust again. I finished the book this morning, its a short read, but well worth it.