I completely disagree.

If you don’t like the new episodes of the Simpsons then stop watching. This whole open letter is the author crying that the Simpsons isn’t as good as it used to be and that they don’t enjoy it anymore. They’re honest enough to point out that some people do enjoy it. Yes, are there fewer people that enjoy the show now than used to. Yes, the best seasons and the “golden age” are over. But honestly if you don’t enjoy the show just stop watching.

I like The Simpsons. I like the newer seasons. I laugh at the newer episodes.

The issue, historically, has been access.

When it first launched you needed an Apple device to watch. Some folks may have bought an Apple TV, which is what Apple wanted, but that’s not a big audience. I know people watch things on their phone, but not 30 minute episodes. You could watch it on a computer, but if you’ve got a nice big TV it’s not happening. Yes I know you can hook things up to your TV, but it’s another point against it.

Over the years they’ve added apps to Roku and Chromecast has shifted to Google TV which is also app based (and worse, but I digress). However some of this relies on people upgrading their devices and people aren’t going to upgrade just for Apple TV.

So you can call it a 5+ year service, but really it’s only been available for 1-2 years.

But now that you’re outside the Apple bubble you’re competing against Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO, etc.

Disney+ & (to a slightly lesser extent) HBO have figured this streaming market out. Every week these services offer me something new to watch. Disney+ has a weekly release of Daredevil, and by next week I’m watching Andor. HBO has a weekly release of White Lotus and two weeks later I’m watching The Last of Us.

If they can keep at it I’m sure they’re get to where they want to be. But it’s a long journey ahead and they’re really just getting started.

Ah, so this is what MC meant. I’ve enjoyed my time here.

I would but I don’t have the inside knowledge. For all I know the director made exactly what they intended and that was apparently terrible. Maybe they cut scenes, maybe they added unnecessary scenes, maybe there was push from the studio.

Ultimately a film is what the director creates. If the writing wasn’t good it’s up to them to figure something out how to improve it. If the producers try and force changes it’s up to the director to either make them fit or convince them otherwise.

Obviously you pick your battles and a film is a collaborative project, but the director is the captain, they guide the ship, they guide the film.

Yeah I wasn’t even going to touch on that. AFAIK he was just a “regular dude” when this film came out. But chances are he was just hiding it. If the DCEU didn’t die I suspect the future of these films and the lead actor would be a huge problem.

That sounds absolutely plausible.

The film also has the most egregious bit of product placement I’ve ever seen in the film, which I have to imagine is a push from the studios/finance.

For those who haven’t seen the film, the film deals with gods and other mythical creatures. One of those creatures is a unicorn. One of the characters, a young girl, loves unicorns. However these unicorns are less friendly horses and more fantasy war machines. Luckily they can be tamed by “ambrosia” aka “nectar of the gods”. So when the unicorns appear and begin to attack everyone, good or bad, the little girl tames them using… SKITTLES. And I swear a character even says “Taste the Rainbow”. Basically Skittles save the day and defeat the bad guy in the film. They are core to the story.

At the time of its release the first Shazam film was solid and generally fit in the “good” section of the DCEU.

However by the time Shazam 2 came out it was bad and generally fit in the “bad” section of the DCEU.

I don’t think Shazam 2 was poorly directed, but the story didn’t work at all and was ultimately a mess. So with that, it’s difficult to blame anyone other than the director.

I’m glad Sandberg is taking another swing at something big because they seem like a nice person and I think they can do a good job.

Two days?

A friend worked at a company with a one-man IT crew aka “the friend”. Technically they worked part time, but occasionally had to come in and fix things that broke overnight. So they were “always” on call, but things mostly ran smoothly and unless it was super important it could wait until business hours/the next working day. Basically computers working was useful, but not a requirement for this company.

Anyway I was looking for a job, friend convinced the owner they needed help, so the job was mine, no interview needed.

So day one I get a look around, get a jist of how things work, get accounts setup, get HR-type stuff setup, take long business lunch and talk shop.

Day two, meet the owner and eventually the conversation turns to, “So let me know which days each of you are covering.” As in a single 30 hour per week job for one person, is now two 15 hour per week jobs for two people.

Needless to say my friend was mortified. Obviously I wasn’t going to screw them over, so I quit. I found a job shortly after that was way better and my friend got a small (although not nearly enough) pay bump. So guess it worked out.

I do agree it makes a very public attachment to Trump. However she was already nicknamed “Lady Trump” so she was already pretty attached.

Either way we agree that the pardon is a terrible act and the crime, which should not have been pardoned, was also a terrible act.

That’s my point, unless he is aware of additional crimes Trump has nothing on this woman. She was convicted of a crime, it happened, that doesn’t go away. What goes away is the punishment.

Additionally the pardon power is absolute, even Trump knows that as he’s been bitching about being unable to do anything after Biden preemptively pardoned a handful of people.

Now if you could uncover some type of quid pro quo for this pardon that would be a new crime and you could get both of them on that (possibly). Although I’m think technically Trump could sell pardons and that would be legal. It would be abhorrent. It would be unethical. But it would legal. (Although hopefully he would be impeached, but that’s also a separate process.)

Trump gave her a pardon, how is she fucked if he goes away?

Now looking at her past she’s done plenty of other terrible things, and after this she’ll likely continue to do terrible things. So it won’t be long until she needs another pardon for a new crime (or the uncovering of an existing crime).

She was also already a Trump loyalist.

So this is less a “bribe” and more a “reward”.

I’ll probably keep using the standard Closed Captioning because I don’t want to miss out on great musical captioning like, “Ancient Lamentation Music”, but great to see the different options exist.

Knoppix. I didn’t see it listed yet so I had to chime in.

I saw it and was confused that computers could run something that wasn’t Windows and wasn’t Mac. Then I was handed a Knoppix LiveCD and suddenly MY computer was Linux. Absolutely blew my mind.

I then explored Mandrake (now Mandrivia?) for a while but it never really stuck.

A few years later Ubuntu was handing out LivdCDs to everyone running Warty Warthog and soon after window managers started to use Beryl (?) which let you have a fancy cube desktop. Absolutely pointless but that’s how it all started.

Nathan Fielder is absolutely ridiculous and I’m so glad he has HBO money.

If you’ve never watched “The Rehearsal” I highly suggest giving season 1 a watch or any episodes/clips of “Nathan For You”.

His humor is dry so I understand it might not be for everyone, but it’s important to look at what he’s doing and thinking about the ridiculousness of it all.

Cinta & Vel.

I don’t expect the show to do flashbacks (although we got them with Cassian in season 1), but I have to wonder how they first met.

It’s obvious Vel would give up on the whole rebellion right now if she and Cinta could settle down somewhere. Conversely it’s clear that Cinta can give up Vel in order to advance the rebellion even a little bit.

Was Vel a “spoiled rich kid” who picked up the rebellion “for fun” and found Cinta, and now that she’s found love wants to get out?

Did she find Cinta first? But lose her to the rebellion? Did Cinta use Vel and her money/connections to further the rebellion?

So many characters in this show seem reluctant to be rebels. Luthen is 100% in. His assistant is likely 100% in. Cinta is 100% in. Is Cassian? Is going back for Bix and friends a weakness or a strength?

I’ll do something similar.

What headphones do you use on your Switch? Or on an airplane? Or a regional bus?

How is the experience switching from your phone, to your laptop, to your tablet, to your Steam Deck?

I think that’s a pretty great summary. When it comes to unnecessary/years later sequels most are just garbage. I think Matrix 4 is still bad, but I have to give it credit for trying something interesting. It doesn’t work ultimately, but it tried something.

Pike. The old one.

It’s the chair.

Having not seen any promos the animated but was great! It was short so I can totally see how if you were anticipating it, it just sorta happens for a moment and then it’s on to the larger fourth wall break.

from this Doctor so far.

Because otherwise it’s Blink.