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McDonald’s is ending operations in Russia and will be selling all of its approx 850 locations there to a local buyer. The decision to end 32 years of business in the country comes after McDonald’s temporarily closed its Russian restaurants in March 2022, which was due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company’s CEO Chris Kempczinski reportedly wrote a message to employees, suppliers, and franchises, explaining that they can’t ignore the ‘humanitarian crisis’ going on.   ‘This is a complicated issue that's without precedent and with profound consequences,’ Kempczinski said. ‘But it is impossible to ignore the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. And it is impossible to imagine the Golden Arches representing the same hope and promise that led us to enter the Russian market 32 years ago.’   McDonald’s is considered an iconic brand in Russia and a symbol of post-Cold War capitalism in its borders. Paul Musgrave, an assistant political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said, ‘When McDonald's moved into the Soviet Union, it was part of a message of opening up and building trust and cooperation between Russia and the West. And now those avenues have all been closed off … And we're kind of standing in, symbolically at least, a new era of division between Russia and much of the rest of the world.’

Feliz Cumpleaños fam

We have Paramount+ for a very short period since my wife took a free trial and forgot to cancel it before it took a payment out....so I figured I'd go ahead and watch the Halo TV series.  I am now on the infamous episode where Chief not only loses his virginity but loses it to the enemy.  Knowing the full context leading up to this moment...yeah I can see how halo fans could be pretty upset at this.  I do talk about some spoiler stuff so if you're interested in all at giving the show a fair shot some day then don't read after this paragraph.  Long story short, action sequences great, show is overall ok, questionable story beats.
 
Random thoughts and impressions:
 
There is an interesting series here because it's clear that the people who make the show are somewhat familiar with the IP (which honestly I can't tell if it's truly them in hindsight or if it's just 343i telling them "no this has to be this way") because Chief's armor looks great, the HUD in the helmet and the sound effects from the guns are straight from the series, and the show has no qualms at all with being bloody and brutal when action sequences kick in.   Bodies explode, bullets land in heads, people get vaporized, etc.  CG can look spotty at times but there's a lot of CG and digital stuff going on in this show...I can see why this shit is so expensive per episode.  They also do a pretty good job making the Chief and the other Spartans look good and imposing.
 
Halsey is sociopathic bitch in this show.  I know she's responsible for the Spartan program and the UNSC have done some questionable to downright morally wrong things especially in regards to the Spartan program but they made it so that she has absolutely no remorse over any and all actions and she's quick to fuck over anyone she deems to be in her way.  I don't know if Halsey is like this in the games but she is not a character to be liked in this show.
 
I like the side story of the runaway spartan Soren.  Kwan Ha was annoyingly reckless (you have a whole ass bounty on your head on a hostile planet and you're yelling...smh)  but Soren being there made it better.
 
There are just some questionable choices and an unbelievable personality sway and I say this as someone who has limited knowledge of Halo and it's lore.  Cortana being plugged directly into the the brain is an interesting choice but in the process of making that change they didn't even bother to change Chief's headpiece so he still has the part in the back go plug the A.I. but...but no A.I. chip.  I  heard Chief removes his helmet but I didn't think it'd happen in the first episode...and they seem to be obsessed at time with taking it off repeatedly and it's just weird to me seeing Chief walking around without his helmet.  It's a minor thing but I'm not sure if it's just due to the writing of this chief (which I'll talk about in a second) or the actor just not wanting to be under a helmet all the time (Some actors have big problem about having their face obscured from what I understand cause they want to make sure that they're seen).  Them pushing Chief to have "feelings" is also an interesting angle.  Chief in the games is a fairly stoic, no nonsense, man of few words, "Put me in coach and I'll get shit done" type of character but from what I understand he's not really a "machine" and that gets explored in some of the later games but not this hard.  And they try to make this such a forefront thing that they try to make it so you'll accept him having sex with the human covenant member but I'm not buying it at all.  Yeah they tried to give them a connection in the story to have them be "special" but it feels like they put the minimum amount of time into their relationship before jumping each others bones.  They really didn't need to force this into the story at that juncture....if they absolutely had to do it they could have attempted this later but I'm not buying it for either character at this point in the story.  There are a surprising amount naked cheeks in this show...I was not prepared for the amount of rear nudity in this show about Halo.  I guessing this might by one of the reason AngryJoe calls him Master Cheeks.  I may have to actually listen to his rants on this show lol.
 
So yeah I understand why fans are not really happy with this show.  This is going to be a pretty hard sell to fans but I can see people who are not familiar with the lore probably getting some enjoyment out it but I don't know if this show is going to bring more people into the IP at this point which one of the most important jobs an adaptation has.
 

man, this DLC for Kingdoms of Amalur is definitely end-game material here.  As overpowered as my character was in the main game... every enemy I've run across in the new areas tends to be way stronger and have tons more health... all their names are in red, meaning they are at least 4 or more levels above me. (currently I'm level 31; "Zuul" is a sorcerer; I'm about 5 levels away from having enough points for the "Archmage" destiny.) Occasionally some of the big guys have purple names which I think is just 1 step below red.....haha normal enemies are taking so long and so much effort to kill it's like they may as well be considered a "boss" character.  
 
Now I've finally made it through this very long prison area, but there's a large demonic creature some dudes summoned....I'll have to level up and come back because there's just no way.  One of the fireballs it shoots is enough to take my health down from full to about 15%....and I have no healing potions....and no "Fate" potions either; those are some game-changers right there since they give you a full bar of fate so you can just go right into that godlike "Reckoning" mode.  I had 2 earlier; I should've saved those since it was obvious there was going to be a true boss at the end of this prison area.
 
edit---it's quite unfortunate that it appears the DLC will never come to the Switch version.  I've heard no news about that so far.

One thing I'm loving about Elden Ring is how much it awards me for wondering around aimlessly. I found some ruins, fought some pumpkin head madman and found a witch who can teach me sorceries. Though things got weird when I found that same witch in another ruin but this time she's being tortured. Looks like she got pinned to the wall with crystals being embedded in her hands. Not sure if this is a quest line. 
 
I raid a fort, killed everyone in it including a regular enemy that felt like a boss. In the other side of map I find Kenneth yelling for help asking me to clear his fort. If there's one thing I love doing is completing quests without realizing it. He said he would knight but when I return to the fort he's unable to because everything done to shit.

Patton Oswalt’s Marvel Series ‘MODOK’ Canceled After One Season
 

 
Patton Oswalt’s Marvel stop-motion animation series MODOK has been canceled after a single, 10-episode season by streamer Hulu as the Marvel TV scene continues to contract and rearrange.
  The series, which debuted in May of last year, featured Oswalt as the voice of Marvel Comics villain M.O.D.O.K., which stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, Variety reported. Oswalt is also credited as the series creator, executive producer, and writer for all but one episode.
 
Oswalt brought in some heavy hitters as guest voices in the project, including Jon Hamm, Whoopi Goldberg, and Nathan Fillion. The series also had several high-profile comedians and actors as recurring cast members, including Melissa Fumero, Aimee Garcia, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Ben Schwartz, Beck Bennett, Jon Daly, and Sam Richardson.
“This was born out of our love for Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who created M.O.D.O.K., and we wanted to honor that while still finding a comedic slant on the character and his world,” Oswalt’s co-producer Jordan Blum said at New York’s Comic Con in 2020. “What are the mundane moments of trying to run an evil organization? Or how does a giant floating toilet relate to his rebellious children or his wife?”
The passion project failed to thrive, even with Marvel name recognition and Oswalt’s insider cred in the comic book industry (he has written for top brands such as DC Comics since the early 2000s). And even more, the comedian’s consistent left-wing virtue signaling failed to translate into robust viewership.

I honestly thought about this when watching the last ep of Moon Knight. 

A new symbiote saga is on the horizon. 'Free Comic Book Day: Spider-Man/Venom' revealed a glimpse into Venom's next chapter.
 

 

I'll admit I'm disappointed I didn't get Tom Cruise Superior Iron Man but I still loved the movie all the same. The movie was alot of thing to different people but it definitely wasn't boring, we can all agree on that

Yeah but.....

Alot of ppl didn't seem to like Dr Strange MoM (interesting acronym considering the movie lol), but it's in my top 10 marvel movies.
 
Even with its flaws and clichés, I found it fun and quite action packed. Also, I found alot of villains from this phase to be lackluster, thankfully this movie didn't suffer from that at all. I give it an 8.0, just a few points shy of the upper tier 
 
Anyway, Where yall ranking it so far? 

Those weren't the cheeks on Rachel McAdams I was looking at fam 👀

Watched the Hawkeye finale finally.
 
 

Saw No Way Home again.  My general thoughts on the movie remain the same 
 

This is the last 🤘 Metal Monday of the year 🤘 let's fucking goooooooo!
 

Weak aside - no place for those our struggle
Leaves behind
Our Lord won¹t tolerate those whom through
Attrition fall
  We must dominate !
  With iron through our veins and a will made so elite
Hunting for our daily bread and the sinister close in sight
Hunger always drives the beast and the women fall prey
  We must dominate !   WE MUST DOMINAAAAAAAAAAATERGH!!! 🤘😡🤘   Leading all the wanderers to certain fate
Another victim reviled
I¹m staring at you through the eyes of the wolf
Tell me who is going to save you now !
  Animal sense ever alert
Praise be to the father-war
As a servant I am serving myself and I bathe in anticipation
Unless you taste it you could never know
All the power our Lord bestow
With a bow and a kiss profane
Be a victor or be a victim  
We must dominate !

Listen, if you got HBO Max, watch Matrix there, don't waste money. Spend it on Spiderman instead, cuz that Matrix movie was kinda sus 🤣