Best posts made by Sparks

@arkandel said in Holiday materialism! Let's talk gifts.:

The Shield is a superior option to other approaches (I don't wanna haul a laptop around, and even very portable computers to run this stuff (Raspberry Pie, etc) will need a bulky wireless device around to control them. nVidia gives a remote and a gamepad if I also want to play Android games on the TV.

It can also play PC games by streaming from your PC via Nvidia's proprietary Gamestream system, or Valve's Android TV Steam Link app, which is one reason I really like it.

@thenomain said in Good TV:

@sockmonkey said in Good TV:

PS: Watch The Good Place; it just keeps getting better and better and I love it

I honestly think seasons 1 and 2 were better, but I haven't seen the latest episode. Things like "Jeremy Bearamy" stand out like Chekov's Gun; if they don't use this I'm going to be disappointed. And there are some sharp turns where it looks like the writers say, "We need to be going over there now."

Derek is a perfect example of this not happening, and the little touches for him are even better.

Oh don't get me wrong, The Good Place has supplanted Pushing Daisies (RIP) and Dead Like Me as my favorite surreal TV series, but season 3 feels like The Last Season And We Know It.

Whaaaat. No. I love The Good Place to pieces, it's arguably one of the best things on TV right now, but I'm sorry... "What the pie-maker did not know was that nothing could ever supplant Pushing Daisies in this viewer's heart." (Said in Jim Dale's voice, of course.)

Contractors who semi-ghost on the project they were hired for, and then abruptly drop a "so I have to leave the area for a prolonged time and have to quit, sorry" note to you with no warning.

The person in question seemed nice enough, but I'm still kind of cheesed over the situation.

@mietze said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

I truly wanted to have to spend probably a couple of hours picking chunks of purple pastel out of my cream colored carpet fibers, before I can pre treat the demon summoning circle that my 4 year old drew on the living room floor.

I mean, the silver lining is that clearly the kid is a prodigy; it's nice to see aspiring young cultists starting their careers early. Just think, by the time they're 7, they'll probably have at least one imp bound as a familiar!

@Misadventure said in RL things I love:

I love Murderbot.

The Murderbot Diaries novellas are wonderful; they make me happy. Most relatable killer robot ever.

(I'm even more happy that they were so successful that her publisher has contracted her to write a full-length Murderbot novel!)

@Aria said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

So @insomniac7809 and I, after almost 11 years together, have finally decided to get hitched. Thus far we have:

First off, congratulations!

And I already have family members complaining about things they don't like. How about you fuck off, Aunt Karen?

There is a tradition in my family that has been kept alive for literally generations: everyone just elopes. My maternal great-great-grandparents eloped, but my maternal great-grandmother was the one who deliberately turned it into a tradition (which isn't really surprising, as she's also the one who got deported from Germany for stealing a ferry and is in fact the source of approximately 90% of all family anecdotes that start with "so, you won't believe this, but..."). My maternal grandparents eloped, as did my great-uncle. My parents eloped. And my brother eloped (though he later got divorced; the marriage didn't really survive his military deployment).

It works surprisingly well.

So in a pinch, remind Aunt Karen that if she doesn't like the way you're planning things, you could always just elope?

@Kanye-Qwest it's on the list, but we have to move all the furniture out to do that, and uuuuugh. Only the "we made this the gating thing we must do before getting a dog again" is keeping us going on prep for that.

It is encouraging a massive decluttering though. Gonna purge almost all my physical books that aren't signed or really old (1890's edition of Burton, first editions of the Oz books, etc.), for instance.

Medications with a lengthy list of possible side effects.

Doubly so if you end up with roughly 80% of that lengthy list.

Quintuple-y so if those side effects include making the original problem way worse. (For instance, an antidepressant should ideally not cause 'increased depression and potential suicidal ideation'.)

Bonus if surprise snow kept the doctor's office closed so you couldn't call and get permission to stop taking said medication.

@Thenomain said in Good or New Movies Review:

So I hear that Captain Marvel is alright.

So, Captain Marvel in her current incarnation is one of my favorite comics characters. And as a diehard member of the Carol Corps?

Higher, Further, Faster, More!

@Ghost said in Good TV:

Though Captain Holt has basically shown me how RPing as a Vulcan could be fun.

@Scissors said in Good TV:

@Sparks said in Good TV:

"Good Hunting" was superb, one of my favorites.

I'm only through about half of the shorts, but so far "Good Hunting" just wouldn't get out of my brain. The story is amazing but the mixing of genre makes it difficult for my brain to process. The best part though? Victorian Steam-Punk Hong Kong would make a kick-ass game setting.

No joke, right? I had the same thought of "Victorian steampunk Hong Kong with hidden magic that's dying out? That would make a brilliant tabletop campaign setting."

@wahoo said in RL things I love:

And I never want to watch it again.

First, congratulations! Is this The Long Dig or something else? (I am, uh, very behind on Twitter things and social media in general.)

Second, I so remember that feeling from my days in the video game industry. More than once we would finally finish a game, ship it, and then be like "Okay, that's done; let's install it and never start that game up again. (Or at least not for the next year or two, unless we have to patch the darn thing.)" To this day, I have still never played the release build of No One Lives Forever.

@Too-Old-For-This said in RL things I love:

Most of the companies I've worked for have trended between business casual and just whatever I feel like. Only one was business professional and man was I glad to get away from that one! The stuffy atmosphere was just UGH.

At one point, I briefly worked in a bank writing in-house data analysis software. I literally sat in an windowless office where we would never see anyone but our co-workers, and yet I was expected to dress as though I was going to be at an international summit. Skirt-suit, fancy shoes, etc.

I did not stay there long.

Where I am now, we can wear whatever the heck we want. One of our senior mechanical engineers—who does a lot of client-facing work—dyes her hair bright neon pink. One of the senior firmware engineers routinely wears rainbow leggings, shorts, and a t-shirt to work, and no one really looks at him twice.

I'm client-facing enough that I still try to dress semi-professionally (jeans and a nice blouse or sweater, nice shoes, etc.) when I know I have face-to-face client meetings. But when I know I don't? Hair back in a sloppy ponytail and wearing jeans, a Star Wars or Captain Marvel shirt (or something equally geeky; I may have a TeeTurtle problem serious enough that I should seek intervention), and sneakers.

So much better than the bank.

@Coin said in Good TV:

Not sure which trope you mean, @Sparks, but none of the ones present, I think, were used in a way that makes me cringe. Everything was so cohesive, augh.

Being vague to avoid spoilers; naming the trope here would give away what happens.

The trope use itself didn't make me cringe, though. The story was well done! It's just the fact that this trope happens often enough that it is a trope in the first place that annoys me.

I am quite certain GRRM has either written himself into a corner somehow and is trying to figure out how to extricate himself, or that his enthusiasm for the series has waned due to how prominent it has become (and how often people joke/complain about his writing speed).

That said, I've been waiting for the third book in one fantasy trilogy for 22 years; supposedly the author is still going to finish it someday, though I'm not sure I'm holding my breath. GRRM still looks fairly fast in comparison.

@Snackness said in Game of Thrones:

@Sparks The Captal's Tower?

Got it in one guess.

@Aria said in Good TV:

And JFC, I am having a major feel. Yes, it was beautifully done. And yes, the character in question asking what they did at the end totally makes sense for them and their mental process. But I am legitimately really upset about it in a "representation matters" kind of way, and not just because of the specific trope @Sparks is referring to.

Yeah. There's the one trope I'm a bit upset about, and then a second representational issue which doesn't match a named trope that I know of but which I'm also a bit upset about. I suspect what you're referencing is the second of my blargh factors.

But god, I have to give them credit for execution. Despite my issues with it, it was beautiful in the most awfully painful way. I'm gonna freaking cry every time I hear that song now, I just know it.

@Aria said in Good TV:

I want to have a conversation about this but don't want to post spoilers to the board.

I think I also need a hug.

I have had a couple of private-message conversations about that finale on here because I have many feels, both narratively and otherwise.

@Thenomain said in Game of Thrones:

No picture of Starbucks' Westeros branch yet? Shame on y'all.

If you insist, here are stills of the Starbucks cup that was left on the table in that Winterfell celebration scene: https://twitter.com/VRonni3/status/1125340705621037057/

(Had the link handy because I'd shared it in the #got channel on my work Slack this morning.)

@Kanye-Qwest said in The ADD/ADHD Thread (cont'd from Peeves):

It is life changing. It hasn't really stopped me from having my executive function problems, but that has to be done with CBT, and I know this. What it DOES is give me the ability to focus, and to feel like I am awake and present in my life. You wouldn't usually think "constant sleepiness" is a symptom of ADHD, but man.

Oh my God yes this. I had no idea my chronic feeling of insufficient sleep was a symptom of ADHD until I started this Adderall trial!

I set out my first dose and set an alarm for an hour before I have to be up. I take it, and go back to sleep until an hour later when my second alarm goes off and it's at peak effect in my bloodstream. I can just hop out of bed and start my day, and I don't even NEED coffee, really. It's amazing.

...I should try it that way. I've been taking it just before catching the bus to work.

@PuppyBreath said in RL Anger:

I caved and put my dream horse, my most valuable asset both monetarily and emotionally, my main motivation for even continuing to exist most days, up for sale. The only person seriously interested in him doesn't want to pay for him.

Augh.

I know a lot of people out there might look at this and be like "pfft, a horse is such a luxury", but as a fellow horse person I feel you on this; the partnership you share with a beloved horse is sometimes one of the best balms for depression and despair. When everything else is dark or seems hopeless, even just being there in the pasture or stall—much less actually tacking up and going for a ride—can be the light you need to keep going.

If I had to sell Debutante, it would break my heart.

You have my sympathies on this one.