Actually really loved it. It wasn't even about disappointment/low expectations. It was just on my mind and given some peoples' negative reactions, it really is all about what you take out of the story.

IMO the show isn't about "ending up" with someone. A lot of people are mad mostly because they want a happily ever after but SOME EVENTS were glossed over too quickly, and SOME CHARACTERS "regress." But if you can weigh those title cards "3 years, 6 years, 11 years..." and forget how they showed some things in 5 minutes (I get that it's kind of jarring), that's a long time in these characters' lives and death, as shown, is unpredictable.

I'll say Ted + Robin isn't even a guaranteed "end up together" story, but the fact that there is some measurement of happiness one can gain after tragedy when life inevitably goes on is beautiful to me. Tracy wasn't the end, nor will Robin be, but you learn to appreciate the precious moments and fond memories of the glory years when you can, and when you can't, you try and make more. And that's what I feel is HIMYM's legacy.

Just reading that just made me laugh hard. The show's reached the point where you can tell who is who just by their dialogue and inflections.

Anyway, it's probably one of my favourite shows on now. Some eps don't give off the best first impression, but when you get into, it's just a 22 minute treat to watch every week. I have the biggest damn smile on my face.

I always thought Civ 5 should have a mobile app with the simple hex grid yield icon UI that sends your moves to a dedicated server and keeps you updated so you can play a game with friends leisurely over a week rather than an entire night. Somebody needs to get on this!

There's a game I used to play in high-school called Neptune's Pride. I thought there were some balancing issues with weird starts, but it is like a simpler version of Sins of a Solar Empire. It takes a few hours to build fleets/do research/send ships to stars so you can just check back every so often.

Surface Pro 2 is a nice powerful thing you wouldn't expect. There's lists you can find showing that people have been running stuff like Alan Wake, Alice, League of Legends, Civilization V for myself, on SP1 and 2 (although for the more intensive games on medium or low). That's fine with me since I've got my desktop; I just put the strategy/puzzle games I'd never play on my desktop on my SP2. I've got Hearts of Iron 3/Unity of Command and FTL so far installed (I hear there's going to be touch support soon) as well as Jagged Alliance 2, but I'm having issues getting that to work with Windows 8 overall...

Anyway, love my Surface Pro 2. Can't recommend it enough!

Funny is subjective and it for sure isn't the joke machine BBT is. But if you are invested in the characters, the jokes and punchlines really feel earned.

@theone86: Well okay, that was beautiful, man, but so... are you against pet ownership or not?

@theone86: Depends on how you view the human condition. Aside from your daily news article that makes you say "faith in humanity = lost," I'm a little more optimistic most days. But you said it yourself: human compassion has the ability to extend beyond familiar social units or itself as a species. Lying to ourselves or not (we can't all be saints) we as a whole recognize the need to consider ourselves equal as human beings. Most animals don't. We have the capacity to do greater things than any animal, is what it comes down to for me.

This whole thread I've just been thinking of this scene in Always Sunny where Charlie comes up from the basement after bashing rats (whole generations of 'em) and he wonders if our lives are more valuable than theirs. Dennis replies: "...They are. Our lives definitely are, without a doubt."

@KHAndAnime: First I'll just say, you raise an interesting point that I haven't thought about before (domesticated pets essentially being an industry). Thanks for that.

But my issue with the whole argument is that you're looking at animals through a romanticized view, that they are on par with humans and thus need to be treated equally and given the same rights; ergo freedom. But you're not taking into account the fact that most animals are, in fact, assholes. I saw a video where a chimp tore apart a baby antelope with his bare hands. Or another where a male lion, when taking over a pride, killed all the cubs as his first order of business (not just an isolated incident). We've mostly evolved beyond that, earning the right to govern ourselves and attain a sense of "freedom." Animals wouldn't recognize that; they're not as noble as people think they are. Aside from some exceptions, most animals don't have the ability to be compassionate. That's what makes us uniquely human.

If the argument becomes, but it's their right to just be animals, think hard and remember a right is a social construction. If you want to talk about what's "natural," we really don't have a right to first-world comforts, although that's the dream. Where humans are killing each other for reasons beyond the mental capacity of animals (religion, ethnicity) or even just dying from starvation, that's your status quo isn't it?

Also, families of chimps take wild dogs as pets. They actually do beat them into submission and drag them up and down hills until they become loyal pets. Captivity isn't just a human feature.

@Barbariser: I live in a good neighbourhood and went to an embarrassingly safe high school, and the worst "bullies" were the queen-bee chicks who had a posse. But amazingly they usually went after girls in other popular cliques, not the loners or what have you. Saw a catfight in the hall, and heard a pretty crazy story of someone getting dragged out of her car and getting beat up by another girl.... no real fights on the guy side but they probably took it off school property.

Man I love high school politics. I will say it's getting harder to say if girls or guys are worse just because of social media. Guys are just as capable of acting like bitches behind a wall of text, as we all know.

@DarkLink77: As in presentation + exposition? I really like that they chose to have the Chief finally speak to Cortana during gameplay because it turned it into conversation I could invest in, rather than battle chatter like in 2 and 3. But I will say I didn't really understand or care for the main villain... the only reason I accepted the story was because I listened to a Rooster Teeth spoilercast.

Otherwise I thought 343 handled the adventure well enough. I understood the reasons for doing whatever we were supposed to do and it flowed relatively well.