@ganymede Oh for sure. However:
New York hospitalizations rise 12% in a day.
Omicron cases pass US peak compared to Delta - "So far, 12 states have had at least a 10% increase in COVID hospitalizations this past week, according to U.S. Health and Human Services data. Overall, the country has seen a 2% increase in hospitalizations."
@ganymede said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
I think this is a good sign. If the virus is mutating so that it is more contagious, that's bad; but if these later variants continue to become less lethal, that might mean that it is returning to a common-variety cold again by mutation.
Not quite. The problem is that a much more contagious virus will result in many more hospitalizations especially among the unvaccinated.
The problem with that is of course if you need an ICU for any reason other than Covid-19 you are fucked. Car accident? Fucked. Heart attack? Fucked. All of those beds will have gone to those preventable people who flock to the hospitals when they do get sick.
Some early data regarding the Omicron variant.
@derp I pretty guarantee you spent more time thinking about that explanation than the showrunners did.
***=Let's protect non-book readers!***
It's stuff like this that reminds me of how quick, and far, Game of Thrones fell. It had spent 5-6 seasons of being pretty loyal to the material that it followed as the more or less number 1 show on television. It acquired a massive following, merchandise, re-watch parties. Then its showrunners infamously wanted to (and I quote here) 'subvert expectations'. Well, they did! And it died the quickest death I've ever seen a cultural phenomenon like that within a few episodes. It's barely even brought up any more other than as a cautionary tale.
It's quite possible authors like George Martin - or Robert Jordan - told a pretty good story. I wish those who adopt them actually showed more respect for it rather than try to 'fix it'.
@derp said in The Wheel of Time:
I mean, I get that you have STRONG OPINIONS for reasons, but I think I am going to to with Hard Disagree that any work transferred between mediums has to be absolutely chained to the original, especially when the original had both aged poorly and been met with so much criticism of the content in it.
But I never said the work needs to be chained to the original. I do think any changes need to be tied to the change of mediums, however.
For example it's perfectly legitimate to greatly simplify the 'mechanics' of channeling since you can't fit that much exposition into a TV series without making it boring. It's also reasonable to amalgamate characters, trim some plotlines that don't advance the plot, etc. All of that is expected, even celebrated in other successful adaptations; Lord of the Rings (once again!) did a great job of it.
On the other hand I do think if content creators think they can tell a better story than someone else's then that's what they should do. If they have the talent to do it then it will stand on its own merit.
A bit of spoiler-free stuff from me. And folks... I have Strong Opinions about this series since I played in the setting for a long time. Please tell me if I'm ranting too much or detracting from anyone's ability to enjoy the show.
Anyway, in terms of 'what happened in the books'... the fandom was there first. The novels were there first. I believe showrunners who have stories to tell should do so - but under their own label, so that they stand or fall on their own merit.
The strong feeling I get from watching this show is that the people in charge didn't like the Wheel of Time. They wanted to borrow the upsides of an existing fan base and then go off to do their own thing - which is disingenuous at best. It's one thing to adopt a body of work to fit a different medium and another to essentially do one's own thing completely.
It's even written itself into a corner because of its own affiliations. In the interview the showrunner gave he said that because they already signed the actors for Moiraine and Lan (the former of whom happens to have a producer credit) they have to use them even though their role diminishes a lot after the first book. But this was never a tale about Moiraine, dammit. She's not its protagonist, they are supporting characters. The folks from Edmond's Field are the protagonists.
This is not an adaptation. It's expensive fan fiction, and not very good at that. I am sorry but this Judkins guy is no Robert Jordan. Worse, if it fails, the message it will send is that the Wheel of Time was unsuited to be a TV series, not that this person tried to do his own thing with it.
(Moved it to the right thread!)
Now that Christmas is behind us I feel I can rant a bit.
But first a couple of disclaimers: I honestly hope other people enjoyed the show more than I did - as I really wanted to. And also, although not adhering to the books' plot is one of the reasons I disliked it, it was far from the biggest one.
So to get into it:
***=Spoiler-filled grumblings***
I really wanted to like The Matrix Resurrections. But I am not sure it was even better than the original sequels. 
The season finale was garbage.
What a steaming pile of shit. It boggles my mind. What the actual hell.
Well, looks like we're heading towards another lockdown.
Meh. Go introverts! Shame though, I was looking forward to doing Christmas-y stuff with the extended family. Still, better to keep each other alive than, y'know, not.
Absolutely terribly implemented system in Ontario for Covid-19 booster shot scheduling.
For starters there should be one centralized location you sign up for with your health card. Then it would be up to the system to notify you where to go and when to be vaccinated.
On top of it pharmacy web sites are getting hammered by tens of thousands of users, and almost all use a calendar UI where you need to individually click on dates to 'check' if there are open appointments. Not only does that generate millions of extra clicks - each of them making a separate call - but it's counter-intuitive. Why show dates without available appointments at all? Just let us queue up for the closest appointment, then they can notify us when there is one.
For the start of the pandemic I could excuse the lack of proper infrastructure and tooling, but they had almost two years to design something more usable and scalable.
@caryatid We only had a couple of scenes years ago when we ran into each other on some random MU* and I still remember those fondly.
You're a lot of fun to be around! Have a splendid time Out There.
@wizz said in The Wheel of Time:
@arkandel said in The Wheel of Time:
One thing I don't yet trust the series to do yet is showcase politics and the Great Game. So far they haven't been able to create much of a three-dimensional world at all; compare it to Westeros in the first season and this is very, very shallow. Even the dynamics between the Ajahs are underwhelming up to now.
I don't mean this as a personal attack but like, it really doesn't surprise me that the first season plot has been so stitched together and rushed because I imagine the fan pressure to get to the popular parts of the setting and plot in the series after so many years in production limbo must be just like overwhelmingly insane.
Sure, but why would this sound like a personal attack? 
@runescryer said in The Wheel of Time:
Also, I'm thinking that Matt didn't join them because the plan for the series is for him to go off and start his booty call storyline in Season 2. Not sure how he's going to get his spear and medallion if that's the case.
My theory is it's due to whatever happened with Mat's actor.
I simply think he wasn't available to shoot episode 7 (or 8?) at all.
I, too, have a question.
***=NSFW content***
@derp said in Health and Wealth and GrownUp Stuff:
I don't even mind this part. I don't mind never quite feeling off the clock because I also know that, at the end of the day, I'm expected to produce eight hours of work. And if that means that I'm never off the clock, I get to do it at whatever pace I damn well please.
Due to my role this means I am always checking the second monitor for inbound messages on our corporate communication tool. Am I playing Magic? Chatting on Discord? Just YouTube? It doesn't matter - every few minutes I look at Slack to see if anything is going on.
And there sometimes is. Sure I could ignore it and let it go to the on-call, but if it's serious enough it will come back to me anyway... later. Engaging for half an hour at 8pm means not being in a meeting with multiple Directors and VPs the next day, for longer than that, going over the RCA.
To be honest this works for me (to the extent that it does) for a simple reason: I don't have kids. I can't imagine doing this if I had responsibilities I can't simply get out at a moment's notice.