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Mmmmm... best lunch, leftover Mexican meatballs in mole sauce with roasted onions and bell peppers over lime infused rice w/ a bit of cilantro; and a brownie.

I swear these are the best brownies I've ever had.

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Better check to see what was put in the brownie...

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Saudi official threatens to kill UN investigator if she doesn't stop her investigation into the Kashoggi murder.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/23/top-saudi-official-issued-death-threat-against-uns-khashoggi-investigator

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gosh that's a surprise from the Saudis

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A scene from a Tarantino film

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Apparently Tarantino was actually the one who choked out Diane Kruger in Inglourious Basterds, and again with Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

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The scene where Hans Lada - who shows that he speaks Italian - makes the three inept Americans masquerading as Italian filmmakers repeatedly say their cover names.

[Brad Pitt:] "GORR LOH MEE".

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My favorite one to study is the early scene in Pulp Fiction with Jules and Vincent discussing Big Macs, foot massages, TV pilots, etc. It's such a masterclass in how to shoot an all-dialogue scene that is ostensibly about nothing but somehow feels meaningful and propulsive. Watch it and notice how Tarantino changes something about the camera placement or editing whenever the subject of the conversation changes; he's signaling visually when you as the audience are meant to move on as the characters do.

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“Let's get into character" is such a great way to pivot from banal conversation to hitmen/thugs.

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The Spahn Ranch scene in ...Hollywood was chilling.

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I thought that movie was very good and until the last 5 minutes or so, not obviously Tarantino. I am not really a fan of his other films other than Django.

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It seemed very unconventional for Tarantino. It had an ominous sense of dread like you'd find in a horror movie. And it especially stood out in contrast to the rest of the preceding hour or two.

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Agreed. Very odd and almost nauseating in a way.

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that one where the guy kills a bunch of people with lots of fake blood splattering around

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oh you

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I am not a Tarantino expert - I've seen Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglorious Basterds, and Django Unchained. The appeal of the latter two was that the people who get it in the end all deserved it, which is a cunning way to get people to lighten up about the graphic violence. It certainly worked on me.

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Django and IB are 100% revenge porn fantasy, and fantastic in execution if it.

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Inglourious Basterds actually reminds me of a quote from a game developer who is famous for the Wolfenstein series. They basically said Nazis are the perfect villain in most interactive mediums because you can do anything you want to them and nobody will care.

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Would you give a guy a foot massage? -- Pulp Fiction

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Lots of good ones.

The four-way Mexican standoff in Reservoir Dogs.

Christoph Waltz's brilliant performance in the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds.

The entire House of Blue Leaves showdown in Kill Bill Vol. 1.

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Kill Bill Vol 2 - The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei

an excellent flask back scene which explains how she is able to escape being buried alive in the coffin.

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He hates Caucasians, despises Americans and has nothing but contempt for women...

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Bjorn flies his drone into Mordor

https://twitter.com/BSteinbekk/status/1374005243390869508

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That drone and camera have some impressive heat tolerance after surviving that flight over the active vent.

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Yeah, any kind of biotech company does have more scrutiny to deliver actual scientific results. I am not sure how I feel about the quantum computing start-ups because they are about as far away as these fast medical diagnostic tech but you also do not need to really pop open the hood for FDA, etc.

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Holy crap. Unfortunately all too common with high flying start-ups. However, if investors can cash out in an IPO or acquisition they tend to look the other way at minor misuse of funds. Just the way it goes...

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Tuna in oil

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I never did a taste test but just assumed that the ones in oil will taste better. To be honest, I have bought both (though I would go for the one in oil) and never found enough difference when I was eating to say "never again".

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it doesnt taste different really, its a texture difference. Fish in slime is disgusting

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nope. Water or death

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I like Tuna in Water better. Not as oily, obviously. I don't have it that often, but I do buy the white tuna from Costco, not the regular tuna.

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I like Tuna in oil better.

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as a college student i switched from oil to water for your everyday grocery store tuna

but now the only tuna we end up having (very rarely) would be Italian tuna in a can or jar with oil. makes for an excellent simple dinner either in a salad or just on bread.

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Alien

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I watched Alien for the first time the day after watching Aliens on opening day with my friends. I had never heard of Alien before. I think that's why I like Aliens better than Alien, because I saw it first.

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Really, they are both great films.

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Yes but as Terence said, they're different genres.

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Agreed

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Aliens is an action movie. Alien is a horror movie.

Also, didn't it seem weird it was referring to events that happened "before" the film?

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Yeah a little bit. I guess they told me it was a sequel so it made more sense at the time. But I guess it's been about 35 years since Aliens came out.

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M.A.S.K.

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I had 4-5 M.A.S.K toys growing up. It was the show that's a combination of GI Joe and Transformers. Of course, I tried to rewatch it at some point in the past decade and it has not aged well, like most '80s cartoons.

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When you get older you realize that all of those 80s cartoons were basically just toy commercials.

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By the way, apparently, M.A.S.K came out in 85-86 in the US. I think there was a 3-4 years delay before it got to Taiwan. I definitely was playing with those toys around age 6-8 rather than 3.

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The Community parody of G.I. Joe was hysterical. You should check that out if you haven't seen it, season 5

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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My Twitter feed went into racist hysteria after the Boulder shooter was identified as having a Middle Eastern name.

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You know, I was surprised to note that the Atlanta murders were the first mass shooting in the US - now the Boulder shootings reminded me of The Black Swan (IIRC).

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@Looks like life is finally returning to normal in the US@

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This aged poorly... NRA flexing that they helped strike down a AR-15 ban in Boulder CO ten days before shooting

https://twitter.com/NRA/status/1371885468950917124?s=19

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And the shooter bought his AR-15 6 days ago. It's a direct result.

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oh dear

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Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) forgets his own state history

https://twitter.com/JamesFallows/status/1374187580980228097

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Reminder: Louis DeJoy is still the Postmaster General

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/politics/louis-dejoy-postal-service-changes-ten-year-plan/index.html

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this motherfucker I tell you what

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The USPS was never intended to turn a profit. It's a public good, not a for-profit company.

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Ex-Governor Sexual Assault (R-MO) wants to become Senator Sexual Assault

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/22/greitens-announces-missouri-senate-run-477545

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As a Democrat, I approve this move.

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when he says he wants to steal your girl you should lock all the doors

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Shaka, when the walls fell. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

https://www.wmur.com/article/fencing-around-capitol-comes-down-more-than-2-months-after-riots/35895412

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I forgot about that STNG episode

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one of my favorites

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Definitely one of the best. Maybe one of the most quintessentially "Trek" plots on TNG? Someone stuck on a strange world, has to solve a problem by understanding the local culture and/or defeating a monster, meanwhile the remaining crew on the ship is also trying to solve the problem after losing contact.

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fReEdOm!!! Arkansas follows in Wisconsin's & Texas' footsteps to require playing the National Anthem before every school-sanctioned sporting event.

https://twitter.com/AGRutledge/status/1374054364579573765

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this seems like a plan to ensure the internet is supplied with fresh butchery of the national anthem on a regular basis

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Sydney Powell tries the Tucker Carlson defense -- a regular human would not realistically believe what she saiys.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/trump-lawyer-sidney-powell-dominion-lawsuit

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Maybe she can start a gofundme page...

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Today in Covid 19

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eHarmony survey reports 45% of men having sex more frequently during Covid, while 29% of women report more frequent sex. Wait. What?

https://www.eharmony.com/happiness-index-2021/

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Men having sex with each other is a thing, though I don't think eHarmony traditionally represents them very well (or any group that isn't white and straight)

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Also, women having lots of sex with different partners?

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I got my email from the Contra Costa health website saying I could create an account and schedule my appt. Of course I start it and it doesn't complete. Now when I go back it just has Our Servers are experience high volume. Please try later.

Why not get your servers running better before lowering the age from 65 to 50.

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Looks like it may be working, just really really slowly.

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I blame Twist

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Punch him.

Appt made. Sat at 1030 at Contra Costa college. I figure that's better than nursing homes/health clinics.

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everyone at a nursing home is presumably already vaccinated

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True. I think one of the potential places my mom could've gone was a nursing home. At that one they said they did it not in the main nursing home but in a extra employee trailer or something like that. Which I guess makes sense since you don't want potentially infected people in the main nursing home.

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Just back from my first shot. As much as I hate needles I didn't faint or cry so I'm calling it win win.

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Guy accidentally nails philosophic rule

https://twitter.com/waltermasterson/status/1374029684242063368

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Other College

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There's also curbside pickup for contactless pickups and "bellhops"— masked employees stationed outside taking customers' orders on digital tablets. Up to 1,000 bellhops will be hired by the summer, Taco Bell said.

So they're using the Chick Fil-a model.

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Next time I'm in Palo Alto I'll pick up a chalupa or $5 nacho box. Plus I hear the degrees are handed over via a drive through kiosk.

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Ordinarily I don't care much about how the rest of the Pac-12 does, but I'm really enjoying the whuppins the Pac-12 is putting on these teams this year.

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Yes!

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SC's win also guarantees that the Pac-12 will get at least one team in the Elite Eight.

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I agree!

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that was child abuse. Someone arrest USC

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to be fair "arrest USC" is a pretty consistent response among the rest of the Pac12

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I guess Andy Enfield, poached from a small Florida university, is turning out to be a pretty good coach - though USC's talent is obvious.

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an 8 year overnight success I suppose (I was startled that it had been that long, but I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the basketball team)

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It's interesting how much patience they had with his tenure, and how well it paid off. I wonder if they think Helton is a similar project rofl.

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That's a long time. He was only making 135k at his old gig.

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Cal

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UC Berkeley announces that the South East Asian Library's integration with Doe & Main stacks has been cancelled.

https://news.lib.berkeley.edu/sseal

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Uh oh. Patrick Hisatake tweeted a since-deleted post that was something along the lines of "everything is in God's plan. Then this post. This is not a good look and I hope he fully recovers. Also Kuony Deng is not in pads.

https://twitter.com/CoachHeyward/status/1374086011131633664/photo/1

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I hope the coaches were just resting starters to avoid chance of injury in the scrimmage. I noticed Damien Moore didn't play plus Brown only had two carries. We'll have enough injuries to deal with once the actual season starts, unfortunately.

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Deng has been dinged up for most of the last half of spring ball

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Pac 12 10-1 in March Madness absolute chaos, what a statement made by the conference of champions, UCLA playing the best but Oregon has the highest floor to go the distance in my opinion

Oregon State should lose to Loyola Chicago, that combination of Cameron Krutwig and Lucas Williamson will just be too much for Ethan Thompson to overcome (especially with that tenacious Loyola team defense). Also pay Porter Moser whatever he wants to coach Cal, give him the keys to the city for all that I care.

UCLA I think can beat Alabama, a true 50/50 game for me. I value Nate Oats as a coach a definite riser among the ranks but the way Mick Cronin meticulously operates with the team defense(albeit not as good as it usually is in the system) and the balanced scoring approach with Juzang, Jaquez, Bernard, Campbell, and Riley mixed with the possession pace opposed to the run and gun with Bama, they truly have a chance with the momentum they have.

USC and Oregon really is a clash of styles, USC could really abuse them in the paint and on the glass as opposed to Oregon who can run them out of the gym and shoot the 3 so well. USC decimated them in LA last time so that's fresh in my mind but who knows, Dana Altman is criminally underrated in March. At least the PAC 12 is guaranteed one team in the Elite 8.

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Bill Walton must be in heaven right now.

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we know he's screaming the conference of champions somewhere

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waltonwithafatone.gif

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Does he do tournament games? He should be assigned to all Pac-12 games in the tourney.

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He does not.

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Yeah, he works for ESPN and not CBS/Turner.

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Bama is en fuego right now. If UCLA wins then I would consider that a pretty major upset

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Roll Tide

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I dunno....Spread is 6, bet against UCLA at your own risk...Jaquez & Juzang are playing at an all Tournament level & Cronin will have them ready. Should be a great game...

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I don't bet, but I do dislike UCLA!

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Mick Cronin has his team rolling, them and Oregon State have 2018 Loyola style momentum betting against either is a dangerous game.

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