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Read Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s speech unveiling a sweeping new anti-corruption bill

We need more people like Elizabeth Warren. People who actually care about their country, the environment, and the needs of others instead of their own personal gain.

Is it 2020 yet?

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This +∞

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The characters I want to see in Dragon Ball FighterZ most

Here are future characters I'd like to see for this excellent game (in order):

Kid Goku (with Flying Nimbus and Power Pole abilities)

Emperor Pilaf + Mei & Shu (in a robot)

Master Roshi (Max Power – although I will also accept Jackie Chun)

Vegito (Super Saiyan 2 and/or Super Saiyan Blue)

Broly

King Piccolo + Tambourine & Cymbal

Dabura

Gogeta

King Kai + Gregory & Bubbles

King Cold

Pan (GT)

Lord Slug

Super Garlic Jr.

.

Additionally here are some costume variants of current characters I'd like to see (several of which are already available as lobby characters): normal Goku, normal Vegeta, Majin Vegeta (Super Saiyan 2), first form Frieza, cyborg Frieza, gold Frieza, normal future Trunks (Dragon Ball Super), Piccolo with cape and hat, imperfect Cell, police officer Krillin, Krillin with hair, original outfit Yamcha (Dragon Ball), and baseball uniform Yamcha.

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My 2017: Top Albums

Here are my top 50 albums that I listened to in 2017 according to last.fm:

Danny Brown — Atrocity Exhibition

Open Mike Eagle — Brick Body Kids Still Daydream

Run the Jewels — Run the Jewels 3

Metallica — Master of Puppets

Volbeat — Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies

Stevie Wonder — Hotter Than July

Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly

Joey Bada$$ — ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

Mastodon — Emperor of Sand

Kendrick Lamar — DAMN.

Danny Brown — XXX

Thundercat — Drunk

HAIM — Something to Tell You

Metallica — Garage, Inc.

Metallica — S&M

Phantogram — Three

Beyoncé — Lemonade

Childish Gambino — "Awaken, My Love!"

Open Mike Eagle — Hella Personal Film Festival

Open Mike Eagle — A Special Episode - EP

Vangelis — Blade Runner Trilogy

Kendrick Lamar — Section.80

Common — Be

Big Wreck — Grace Street

Metallica — Hardwired... To Self-Destruct

Rapsody — Laila’s Wisdom

Metallica — Load

David Bowie — Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976)

Journey — Greatest Hits

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers — Greatest Hits

Pearl Jam — Ten

Michael Jackson — The Essential Michael Jackson

Allan Holdsworth — The Man Who Changed Guitar Forever!

Avenged Sevenfold — The Stage

Stevie Wonder — Songs in the Key of Life

Dream Theater — Awake

Anthrax — For All Kings

Metallica — Metallica

Queen — Queen 40 Limited Edition Collector's Box Set

Big K.R.I.T. — 4eva Is a Mighty Long Time

J Dilla — J Dilla's Delights, Vol. 1

Kate Bush — The Sensual World

OutKast — Big Boi & Dre Present: OutKast

Mariah Carey — Greatest Hits

Volbeat — Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie

A Tribe Called Quest — We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service

Metallica — 2017/06/07 Denver, CO

Hiatus Kaiyote — Choose Your Weapon

FINAL FANTASY XV: Original Soundtrack

Marvin Gaye — I Want You

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My 2017: Top Songs

Here are my top 50 tracks that I listened to in 2017 according to last.fm:

Danny Brown — Ain't it Funny

Danny Brown — White Lines

Volbeat — Pearl Hart

Stevie Wonder — All I Do

Run the Jewels — Talk to Me

Run the Jewels — Stay Gold

Danny Brown — Pneumonia

Open Mike Eagle — Ziggy Starfish (Anxiety Raps) [feat. Gold Panda]

Run the Jewels — Legend Has It

Killer Mike — R.A.P. Music

Open Mike Eagle — 95 Radios

Open Mike Eagle — (How Could Anybody) Feel At Home

P.O.S. — Faded

Open Mike Eagle — Hymnal

Danny Brown — Really Doe

Mastodon — Steambreather

Kendrick Lamar — HiiiPower

Joey Bada$$ — Devastated

Danny Brown — Golddust

Childish Gambino — Me and Your Mama

Phantogram — Calling All

Kendrick Lamar — i

Volbeat — My Body

Kendrick Lamar — Fuck Your Ethnicity

Open Mike Eagle — Legendary Iron Hood

Childish Gambino — Redbone

Kendrick Lamar — The Blacker the Berry

Kendrick Lamar — Alright

Open Mike Eagle — Brick Body Complex

Open Mike Eagle — Dark Comedy Late Show

Open Mike Eagle — Daydreaming In The Projects

Big Wreck — Ghosts

Open Mike Eagle — Happy Wasteland Day

Open Mike Eagle feat. Sammus — Hymnal

Stevie Wonder — Rocket Love

Rainbow — Stargazer

Randy Newman — Baltimore

Kate Bush — Cloudbusting

Beyoncé — Formation

Metallica — Hardwired

Prince — If I Was Your Girlfriend

Metallica — The Prince

Phantogram — 16 Years

OutKast — B.O.B.

Volbeat — Lola Montez

Kendrick Lamar — LOYALTY. FEAT. RIHANNA.

Danny Brown — When It Rain

Big Boi — All Night

2Pac — Ambitionz az a Ridah

Danny Brown — Dance In The Water

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My 2017: Top Artists

Here are my top 50 artists that I listened to in 2017 according to last.fm:

Metallica

Danny Brown

Queen

Open Mike Eagle

Kendrick Lamar

Stevie Wonder

Run the Jewels

Volbeat

Nobuo Uematsu

David Bowie

OutKast

Mastodon

Joey Bada$$

Prince

J Dilla

Dream Theater

Kate Bush

Phantogram

Soundgarden

Journey

A Tribe Called Quest

Big Wreck

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

HAIM

Thundercat

Randy Newman

Marvin Gaye

2Pac

Avenged Sevenfold

JAY-Z

Anthrax

Childish Gambino

The Smashing Pumpkins

Megadeth

Deftones

Common

Tears for Fears

Vangelis

Allan Holdsworth

Danny Elfman

Kanye West

Pantera

Beyoncé

Pearl Jam

Rapsody

AC/DC

Devin Townsend Project

John Williams

Oddisee

Big K.R.I.T.

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We need better social networks

I have long given up on Facebook and Twitter (and Google+) for a litany of reasons. I think these services have too much power and they abuse it daily. If I were to ever join a social network again, it would need to satisfy the following criteria in order for me to consider using it. Heck, I'd even be willing to pay for it.

1) No ads or gathering and selling of user information of any kind.

2) Only people can join. No brands or corporations or anything else that's not a real person may join.

3) Give the users control over who can see their content and who can interact with them. Tags should also be implemented for filtering out content you don't want to see (#politics for instance).

4) The service must take harassment and hate speech reports seriously and give users tools to identify bad actors.

5) No user content or information of any kind should show up in search results on Google, etcetera.

6) Cancelling/deleting/suspending an account should be easy for the user.

7) Security and privacy need to be priorities.

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My impressions of Netflix’s Castlevania

I just watched the first two episodes of Netflix’s new Castlevania miniseries.

At first, I was intrigued. The stuff with Dracula and his wife at the beginning of the first episode I thought was setting up the series for something pretty cool. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the sense of foreboding.

However, it all went downhill as soon as the scenery shifted to a bar. All the sudden, “fuck” and “shit” became the most used words and we’re introduced to Trevor Belmont the uncaring drunk who proceeds to fight three bar patrons to some unnervingly jaunty music.

Then the second episode has Trevor loafing about the city, picking a fight with some priests (and whipping out an eyeball), and then begrudgingly agreeing to go find some other priest’s daughter. And that’s the end of episode two, which greatly concerned me as there are only two episodes left and the show has already spent a bunch of time on nothing of consequence.

So my impressions of the show started off strong, but quickly changed.

For one, I don’t like that a show based on a children’s video game features so much cussing and such gruesome violence (the eyeball made me wince). This is another instance of the modern pop culture trend of taking something that was originally made for children (or at least those eight and up) and making it edgy, dark, and violent instead (see also: Michael Bay’s Transformers, Zack Snyder’s Superman). It just doesn’t fit into the Castlevania series’ history of being an all ages game; Castlevania was never meant to be an answer to HBO’s Spawn series.

I guess I’ll finish up the series since there’s only two episodes left, but I just don’t jive with this show and I don’t think it does justice to the Castlevania name. I also miss the iconic music and seeing a bevy of different kinds of monsters (so far the series only has Dracula and some cat/gargoyle things).

Unfortunately, it looks like this series is heading toward the #FucKonami pile which is a damn shame.

Edit: I finished the first the other two episodes and my opinion hasn’t changed a bunch. There’s some promise, but elements that sour the experience like the dialogue, the pacing, and the unlikable protagonist. It’s not terrible by any means, but it certainly doesn’t feel a whole lot like Castlevania. Oh well. At least that intro with Dracula was kinda cool.

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E3 2017

While this show has been predictably underwhelming, there are some games I'm excited about. Some that I'm cautiously optimistic about. And a bunch that I don't care about that won't be mentioned. I'm not going to rate the different press conferences. Everybody had games. I like games and will play some of these new games. In alphabetical order: Beyond Good and Evil 2 I've only played a bit of the first game, but I know it's made a favorable impression on people. This reveal was unexpected; as were the superfluous f-bombs that flowed from the mouths of pigs and monkeys. I'm surprised that the art style is realistic now and I'm hoping the game isn't reliant on cussing. Because this was just a CG trailer, I'm not expecting to see the actual game for at least two more years. Cuphead Even though I've read that Cuphead aims to be brutally hard on purpose (which makes me not want to play it), I can't help but love the art style of Cuphead. I've always liked the look of those old cartoons from the 1930s and 40s that you'd see on Pee Wee's Playhouse during the King of Cartoons segments. I just hope that I end up enjoying playing the game as much as looking at it. Destiny 2 I wasn't expecting to be interested in this game at all given that I don't care one iota about the first game, but from the recent reveal that was hosted by Luke Smith, I've come around. The way they've talked about how people who prefer single player experiences will still be able to enjoy all of the content of the game with no real commitment to online clans and whatnot was like a message specifically for me. The news that it would be on PC pushed me over the edge. Dragon Ball Fighter Z This game looks fun even though I'm not a Dragon Ball Z guy (I like the OG Dragon Ball cartoon a lot and the first season of Z, but I find the rest of the franchise to be pretty dumb). The art style is on point, but all of the recent DBZ games have nailed Akira Toriyama's art style with beautiful cel shaded models. If it plays like a Capcom fighting game (and maybe has a half speed mode), then I think I might pick this one up. God of War (2018) I like the new direction God of War is going in. I think "mature" is an apt descriptor in terms of story, tone, and gameplay. I thought the PS2 franchise was just OK, but this looks far better and like it won't have any eye rolling moments that involve pushing a button to have an orgy. Horizon Zero Dawn DLC: The Frozen Wilds I've got a copy of the vanilla game just waiting to be played as soon as I get a PS4 this holiday season. So sure, I'm interested in new terrain and content for a game that already looks badass. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle I guess this is kind of Final Fantasy Tactics with Mario and Minions, er, Rabbids? I don't care for them Rabbids, but this could potentially be fun. (Also weird to see Mario with a gun... the guy can throw fireballs, hammers, and boomerangs you know.) Marvel VS Capcom Infinite I don't know about story mode for this game... I'm also not seeing any X-Men or Dr. Doom and that makes me nervous. I hope this game doesn't end up like Street Fighter V; I hope it's strong out of the gate, but Capcom doesn't inspire hope. Maybe in several years this game will be everything I want it to be, but at launch things are already looking sketchy. Metroid Prime 4 and Metroid: Samus Returns OK, OK, OK... Please, please, please be good! (Thanks for listening, Nintendo!) Moss Mouse Guard maybe? I'm cautious about this being a VR game and am wondering if this will be a better story than a game, but the trailer was a nice little breath of fresh air. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom I think the first Ni No Kuni was underrated and Ni No Kuni 2 is coming out at a time where I could really use something that's kind and goodhearted. With the second game coming to PC, I'm hoping that the first game also makes its way there. Ori and the Will of the Wisps I've yet to play Ori 1, but that doesn't leave me any less intrigued by Ori 2. I love Super Metroid-style games (such as Axiom Verge) and the Ori games look marvelous. Pokemon (Switch, 2018) Nothing is known except that we should "please look forward to it". I have lots of big dreams for a new Pokemon game. Will those dreams come to fruition? Probably not. But here are my hopes: it contains the entire world of Pokemon (not just one set of islands), it revamps and simplifies the various stat systems (goodbye IVs!), breeding and trading are as easy as X/Y and OR/AS, Pokemon Bank integration, minimal forced tutorials, have only one version of the game, and have Pokemon retain all learned moves but have it so that they can only equip four moves at a time from their list of moves. Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania Forces is basically a sequel to Sonic Generations which I actually quite enjoyed (until the later levels which paid homage to newer Sonic games). Sonic Mania is the much hyped game that takes all its cues from the classic Sega Genesis Sonic games. I'm stunned that there are not one but two new Sonic games that I'm looking forward to. Will wonders ever cease? South Park: The Fractured But Whole I enjoyed Stick of Truth a lot and even though I don't think Obsidian is behind this new game, it seems like it will be very similar. Spider-Man (Insomniac Games, 2018) This game looks spectacular -- amazing even! (Excelsior!) This game basically looks like the Batman Arkham games through the brighter, more vibrant lens of Spider-Man as brought to you by the guys who have gave us Ratchet and Clank. This has the potential to be not just the best Spider-Man game ever but maybe even one of the best super hero games. If I get to face off against a bunch of Spidey's classic foes and there's a good story to it, then from the looks of things I'll be pretty happy. Super Lucky's Tale Sure, I'll support playing new platformers that aren't Mario. The style for this one intrigues me. Even if it turns out to be a B level Rare wannabe, that's still more interesting to me than more games with guns and zombies. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy I'm still confused about this one. Is this DLC for Uncharted 4 or a whole new $60 game? At any rate, I love Uncharted and I'm cool with playing characters that aren't Nathan Drake for a change. So those are the games from this E3 that I'm interested in. I'll wrap up by talking a bit about Nintendo. I wish that Super Mario Odyssey wasn't so... weird. I'm sure it's the number one complaint that the different art styles are incongruous. I also don't like that hat. And I especially don't like the Super Mario Sunshine vibes I'm getting (Sunshine being my least favorite Mario game of all time). Odyssey comes off more like the direct to DVD version of Mario; it just feels tremendously off and like it doesn't have the Mario A Team behind it. I wish that Metroid: Samus Returns used 2D sprites. The ugly 3D already looks worse than AM2R, but I guess I can't look a gift horse in the mouth. Yoshi and Kirby... are pleasant but toothless. I wish they were a little more engaging and less sedate. I want a platformer with a challenge and depth more along the lines of the original Yoshi's Island or Donkey Kong Country 2. Trust me, young children can handle that level of challenge. I don't care anything about ARMS or Splatoon or Pokken... Breath of the Wild DLC was underwhelming. I was hoping for a quest to make weapons unbreakable (because fuck weapon degradation) or some new dungeons or regions. Happy E3, everybody!

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Backwards Compatibility is pretty important to me, no matter what the numbers say.

In a perfect world, I would have just one console that played all of my games both new and old. Barring that, I’d still like to have as few boxes plugged into my TV as possible. I don’t really want to hang on to old hardware, so having a console that can play new games and old games is perfect and reduces clutter.

And if nothing else, it helps preserve old games. The industry sadly doesn’t care much about its history and it has been thanks to piracy and collectors that history is being preserved.

Great games aren’t disposable; they’re not immediately forgotten about because something newer has come along. Great games are ones that you want to replay over and over like Super Mario World or A Link to the Past. Being assured that I will always have access to those games that I bought would be a tremendous relief and a big selling point whenever I set out to purchase a new console. After all, I’d be willing to spend more money on games if I had a guarantee that my copy wouldn’t become invalid once a new console comes out.

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It still doesn’t sound like Valve has any good ideas on how to turn the tides of trash that have infested Steam. Going forward it doesn’t sound like the service will be improving, and that still leaves five years worth of asset flips, clones, survival games, early access scams, and games about ogling anime girls that need to be eradicated from the store. Or at least let the user filter them out, dammit! Last I checked, there’s no way to hide all Greenlight games -- even with a browser extension like Enhanced Steam.

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Tax the rich, feed the poor, until there are no poor no more

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Game of the Year 2017: A Link to the Past Randomizer

Forget Breath of the Wild; the best game I've played all year is the A Link to the Past Randomizer. It's incredible how much life there still is in this game and how addicting that feeling is when you're about to open a chest and hoping that it's something good. It's really made me appreciate ALttP on a new level. This game is somehow even more brilliant than when it came out.

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I'm hoping the Wikipedia entry on persons prosecuted for treason in this country grows tremendously.

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Devin Townsend Fishman Fluence Pickup Review

I purchased a new guitar in February (a Schecter KM6 MKII) and had it installed with Devin Townsend’s signature Fishman Fluence pickups and a rechargeable battery pack. After more than three months with this guitar, I can say with authority that these are my favorite pickups I have ever tried.

I’ve been playing guitar for 18 years and although I’ve come across pickups that I love (Seymour Duncan’s JB/59 set and their Nazgul/Sentient set) and others that I don’t care for (DiMarzio’s Illuminators, generic stock pickups), I’ve always felt a little confined with the sonic pallette I could play with. While coil taps help increase the range of available tones, they also introduce things like hum.

After seeing a number of videos, articles, and forum posts on Fishman’s new Fluence technology, I figured that I’d give them a shot in my new belly fiddle. They sounded like the solution I’ve been looking for with features like multiple voicings and less noise.

It looks like it solved some problems for Devin Townsend too whose signature set offers him a guitar that is suitable for all the different projects he’s involved in from metal to rock to ambient. While I wouldn’t say that Devin is an artist whose tone I am trying to ape (nothing against it), his rational and taste seemed compatible with my own so I figured that his pickups were worth a shot.

With the DT set, I can get pretty much all the tonal variety out of my guitar that I require. With two three-way switches (a pickup selector and a voice selector), I have nine different tones to play with. Voice 1 is Devin’s high gain sound which I’m fairly certain was modeled after EMG pickups. Voice 2 is lower output and sounds more like classic passive humbuckers. The third voice is the coil tapped version of Voice 2 and has a definite Fender Telecaster vibe.

I love these pickups! It really does feel like I have three guitars in one. The single coil sound is also way, way quieter than traditional single coils or tapped/split humbuckers. They’re noiseless in the middle pickup position, but they do have a tiny bit of noise in the neck or bridge positions, but I really don’t notice it unless I’m monitoring through headphones.

My only real criticism might be that there is a lot of treble with the voice 2 humbucker bridge pickup. You have to be a little careful or else it could be piercing (one of the few times I wished my guitar had a tone knob!). However, once tamed, it is a great sound. In fact, I find myself using voice 2 more now – especially for cleans – since I find voice 1 more suited to heavy riffing.

I suppose the only other thing to point out is that these are active pickups and require a battery. I opted to route my guitar and have Fishman’s rechargable battery pack put in. Their marketing says you can get 100 hours off a charge, and I have found that claim to be true. It’s also nice that you can charge it with a regular phone charging cable instead of needing some proprietary solution. At any rate, it’s far more convenient than using 9 volt batteries.

I will definitely be trying to put Fishman Fluence pickups into my future guitars. As a matter of fact, I’ve been thinking about getting a MIM Fender Strat and modding it with two Fishman single coils and a Classic humbucker. I’m also interested in hearing the Killswitch Engage and Tosin Abasi sets. Fishman has made a fan out of me and I would recommend their pickups to everybody.

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I want Nintendo and PlayStation soundtracks on Spotify

The title should pretty much say it all. I would love to be able to listen to soundtracks ranging from Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong Country, Metroid, Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, EarthBound, Legend of Mana, Mega Man, and Tales of Phantasia on Spotify and other streaming services. I've been playing a lot of A Link to the Past randomizers and the soundtrack never gets old. And because it bears mentioning every time I mention Spotify: Spotify, please add a five star rating system and smart playlists!

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I agree with this article 100%. Capcom’s business model is terrible.