Posts made by Arkandel

@Ganymede said in RL things I love:

I ain't old, bitches, but I am angry.

That's your secret, you're always angry and old.

@Lain said in Good TV:

Also the way he crumpled and begged like a bitch seemed way out of character.

We don't know that - he'd been made of teflon for so long with nothing sticking on him that he was never in a live-or-die situation before. By the time trouble went near him he had either already ensured he had won or he was ready to bail.

Also the crying part might have been a ploy.

But hey, at least Arya has his face now so maybe we haven't seen the last of the actor, who really is great.

GoT Season 7 Finale SPOIIIILERS.

... Still here?

Did anyone else get annoyed at the kangaroo court they had for Littlefinger in there? There was no evidence, no chance for the accused to prepare himself or even to know he'd be on trial, just a quick 2-minute recitation of the accusations and then an execution! He didn't get to ask for trial by combat or to negotiate taking the Black.

Worse? No one even passed the sentence, and if Sansa implied it then she certainly didn't swing the sword. Arya just went "eeh, I've heard enough STABSTAB". That's as much a Stark thing as wearing fur!

The issue is with stores like Best Buy or Walmart there's very little variety, especially for tech products; they have what they have. So for example I wanted to buy a gaming mouse a couple of years ago and they had like... 3. That's it, in a huge specialised store... three options.

Then I went to Amazon, where I have a Prime account anyway, and there are hundreds of models to pick from, easy to return if I don't like them, with user reviews so I can make meaningful comparisons on the spot, and they're quite likely cheaper.

So, screw it. Local little stores are probably still ideal but if not and you got to pick a big chain then at least go with the best one. Ironically that's not Best Buy.

Here's a question though... how important are the non-essentials for you before you'll like a book less or even more?

For instance stuff like... having an appropriately gendered protagonist (not necessarily the hero) in there to identify with, or starting to ship characters in non-romance novels then getting more/less into it based on whether it goes the way you want. That kind of thing, how much does it influence you?

@Kanye-Qwest I read the first four books. There's no denying the guy is talented, that his characters are intriguing and complex or that the overall plot is deep and ambitious.

But it was also a fucking chore to read, and that's coming from someone who loves 'purple' writing... because damn, it was taking me so long to go through these novels. Especially during my commute at 7:30 am the thought of starting the next one was starting to depress me, so I stopped.

It was also a matter of not having any favorite characters though. Just because they're interesting it doesn't mean I root for or care what happens to them.

@Tempest I miss WoT after all this time. No idea if I'd still feel the same way if I actually started playing again though or if it's just nostalgia, but I'd play the hell out of an Aiel or Warder again at least for a while.

I tried to rewatch Friends since I really loved it when it was out and then on a prior mid-2000s rewatch it held up pretty well... but this time not as much. Although prime Jennifer Aniston, damn, I didn't find myself laughing.

I read my unicorn post yesterday on reddit and I thought it was worth bringing up here. So this was about Game of Thrones:

"I've been a viewer since S1E1 aired but this isn't getting any better. Between generic bland characters (don't get me started) D&D's nonsense writing and GRRM's own brand of long winded pretentious fantasy, bad sensationalist acting and iffy SFX I have the lowest expectations for the show's final season. It's a shame, I hoped it'd meet my expectations and it's only been consistently failing them."

I don't know where to begin! This person has been watching a show for years even though he dislikes the script, the original material that script was based on, the characters and the actors bringing it to the screen and even the special effects... but they are going to watch the next season too, just so they can whine about it as well.

It happens in games too (how many times have you ran into people who hate nWoD MU* but/because they've been playing for years) but how worked up we get about entertainment we don't like, rather than simply to accept not everything is made to cater to our sometimes very specific requirements never ceases to amaze me.

@Cupcake What's funny is that I've seen it both ways... both indignant overly smug ASoIaF nerds raging about how the season is ruining things with too much exposition ("do they REALLY need to hand-feed us that intel about Rhaegar??") and completely casual viewers having zero clue about anything but the broadest strokes ("that smuggler is Jon's dad, right?") who, yes, need to have things explained to them somehow.

But I guess the bloggers with the clickbait titles rehashing reddit posts need to make a living somehow.

@Bobotron You are not dragging me into a popularity versus creative integrity debate sire. Nice try but I'm onto you.

@Lithium Speaking of which, why the hell isn't a Matrix MU* a thing?

@Wizz Thankfully climate change denial in the interest of short term political benefits belongs solely to the domain of fantasy fiction!

@Faceless Well, the narrative is pretty much leading there. When the plotline is "we need dragonglass weapons to fight the army of snow zombies led by a 12,000 year old lich king" it's just not very useful to be the guy who whispers into the right ears. I get that.

But I can still miss it.

Could be fun! Especially if historical accuracy standards aren't very highly upheld. Did the 20s have radio? Talking pictures? I don't remember!

@Ghost said in RL Anger:

In short? Way to make it about yourselves and not support of the team, assholes. Claiming support of a sports team does not automatically entitle you to support for every last drip of your political endeavors.

Especially in Europe it always is about the fans (or whatever the fans want a rivalry to be) than the team. I mean what is a 'team spirit' anyway? What 'ideals' does Manchester United represent that are different in any way than Liverpool's? But they'll happily go meet their rivals in a street and beat the living shit out of each other.

It's 100% about them.

You also see it in professional sports but in different ways. Kevin Durant leaves OKC - fuck that traitor! Derrick Rose destroys his knees on-court playing for the Bulls and his performance diminishes - get that bum outta here! Isiah Thomas gets traded against his consent from Boston and some fans are burning his jersey!

Fans are assholes.

@Faceless What I miss is political subtlety. Don't get me wrong, I really loved the season so far because they get to play with all those toys Martin has given one by one - and I could really not care less about nitpicking of the "how fast do ravens fly??" variety - but it's more about wide brush strokes and big battles than backroom dealing, clever betrayals and outmaneuvering.

In that environment though some of ASoIaF's greatest characters like Varys or Littlefinger really don't have much to do. Even Tywin would have found it tricky to thrive without focusing on him more as a military than a political figure.

Oh doublepost! It also means Bronn has got to end up north in the next season no matter what since he can't have scenes with Cersei. He needs to be where the rest of the cast is.

All this stuff must be fun/notfun in show business since they're (apparently, at least that's my understanding) a pretty incestuous community in terms of people hooking up with each other.

So for this one to be an issue big enough to end up getting explicitly written down in contracts somewhere you know it's gotta have been baaad.

@Lain Go tomorrow! Three days is nuthin'.