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Justin_Case001

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Everything posted by Justin_Case001

  1. Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? When Netflix removes stuff with little warning. Now, don't get me wrong, I still love having Netflix, and I'm not pissed off about them simply removing stuff. I understand that the stuff that's not their own IP is only temporary. They sign a contract to have something they don't own put on there for a specific amount of time, and then it's gone and then something else comes on for awhile. And I know it varies by region. I understand all that. That's how it works. That's fine, and I get that. I'm not complaining about that. What I'm complaining about is specifically the fact that they never give you more than a month warning. That's not much time when it comes to watching big shows. Why can't they give you advanced warning? Y'know, enough time to be able to plan ahead and finish big shows with hundreds of episodes. You can quickly binge something like Last Airbender, but if you get one season into Star Trek DS9 and then you read that it's got a month left, yer f*ckin screwed. You'd have to watch, like, over 5 episodes a day for a month straight. Impossible. And you know what makes it even worse?! Sometimes the expiration date is shown on the description page, and sometimes it isn't! Sometimes it doesn't show until you start playing the thing, and then it pops up briefly in the corner! Other times it shows when you hover of the thumbnail! WHAT THE F*CK?!! They can even be consistent with informing us!! It's BULLSH*T!! I've gotten burned several times. I f*ckin HATE getting invested in a big show and then seeing that it's gonna get yanked. Sometimes I can squeeze it all in, but sometimes I can't. I'd rather not watch a show at all then watch part and then just be left hanging forever. Why can't they just display the expiration date on temporary stuff all the time?! That's how it should be! Anything that's not their own IP should have the expiration date displayed on the description page from the very beginning, giving people the ability to plan, to do the math and decide if they have time to finish it. Why the f*ck can't they do this? Don't try to tell me that they don't know in advance. Of course they f*ckin' know. They know the expiration date before they ever put in on there! How could they not? They have to make a deal and sign a contract to do it! It's not f*ckin' random! Why can't they just let us know??!! This is me every single time I get invested in a show and then they pull the rug out from under me:
  2. Oh yeah, I know. It was kinda meant to be. Yeah, total agreement there. I wish everyone felt that way. Heh, I've already seen that one! And yeah, it is encouraging, but it's nearly impossible for the discouragement from all of the carnage not to outweigh it. I fully realize how our brains are constantly being gamed by violence and outrage in media. I realize that bad news gets more clicks and more attention, and that a grizzly school shooting is extremely emotionally compelling, while at the same time, a bunch of numbers and statistics about how violence has declined over time isn't nearly as provocative. The encouraging statistics don't capture and hold our attention the way images of grieving parents of dead school children does. I realize that in order to function in life, we have to try to keep the bad news in perspective as much as we can, and try to remind ourselves of the logic of the encouraging statistics, but that's much easier said than done. I'm a very empathetic person, and the violence and horror affects me very deeply.
  3. I wrote this about six weeks ago. Just been sitting on it until today. I've been enjoying a show on Netflix called Reign. It's a historical drama about the royal French court in the middle ages. I don't know how much of it is accurate and how much is made up. It's certainly dramatized to be fun, but it's loosely based on real people and events. I'd describe as being like Game of Thrones mixed with a soap opera. It's kinda silly and melodramatic, but it's fun. I like it. But there's something that repeatedly jumps out at me as I watch the show, and that's just what an absolutely brutal world it was. Again, I know the show probably isn't very historically accurate, but I also know that the world definitely was absolutely brutal in those days. It was hell. It was absolute carnage. People are killed right and left on that show for no reason at all. At any minute of any day or night, a posse from an opposing faith could ride into your village and burn it to the ground, or the king's guard could ride into your village and do the exact same thing on the king's orders. People are assassinated right and left, people are imprisoned, beaten, tortured, and killed for talking back to the king, people are killed for believing in the wrong god, or for believing in the right god but not in the exact way as their neighbor, and people are sent off to die in needless, pointless wars of aggression. There was even a scene where a ship of 200 people was blown up in a completely preventable accident, all for basically a publicity stunt, and no one really batted an eye. I mean, they were outraged at first, but by the next day it was more or less forgotten and back to business as usual. I just regularly find myself thinking--how on Earth did anybody live like that?! How did they live amidst such constant, brutal carnage?? How were they okay with that? How did they let it go on for so long? It's just mind-boggling, right? Then I loaded a youtube page and saw the endless videos on the recent Uvalde, Texas school shooting, and the Russia-Ukraine war, and I went, "Oh." Yeah, I was setting up that punch line, in case you couldn't tell. The fact is that we're living in the world of Reign, but with bullets and smartphones instead of swords and parchments. Absolutely nothing has changed except for the technology. We've increased firepower and connected the world with the internet, but we haven't grown up. Nothing has changed. Absolutely f*cking nothing. We're still killing each other for no reason, we're still waging senseless, needless wars of aggression, we're still murdering each other for having a little too much melanin, or for loving someone who others don't think we should love, and we're still slaughtering each other for not worshiping exactly the right god in exactly the right way, but instead of riding into a village on horseback with swords and torches, we're using guns, bombs, and jumbo jets. I often feel like the only thing that's been accomplished in the history of human civilization is that we've just created better, faster, and more efficient ways to kill each other. Will it ever be enough? Will anything ever change? Will it ever get better? I fear not. It seems that this is just what humans are. We can't be any better. We're just murderous, savage beasts, and it fills me so utterly with despair that sometimes I just sit and stare for hours, or lay in my bed and pretend that I'm dead because I can't bear the weight of the world. Why? Why does it have to be like this? This was an extremely depressing, pessimistic entry, and I hope I don't get in trouble for flirting with controversial topics. I'm not debating religion, politics, or guns. I'm not taking sides or arguing any controversial viewpoints, and I'll thank you to do the same. I'm simply wondering why the world has to be an endless blood bath, and if there's anything we can ever do about it.
  4. Oh yeah, kinda forgot about that. I saw all of season 1, and I agree, it's spectacular. It's more Star Trek than Star Trek Discovery or Picard could ever hope to be. It's brilliant. Unfortunately, my family and I don't have Orville+ Prime Video All Access Prime Access 100 Years All Access.www.OrvillePrimeAccess/PrimeVideo or whatever the f*cking Celestia damned streaming service is called. So many Celestia damned f*cking streaming services. We have Netfix and Disney, and we really like those. Don't want to give either of em up, but can't really fit in a third streaming service. My friend regularly swaps streaming services around. He'll sign up for one, watch some stuff on there, cancel it, sign up for another, watch some stuff, cancel it, re-sign up for the first one, back and forth, on and on. It saves money and if he's fine with the hassle then more power to him, but SWEET MERCIFUL F*CK, I'm not gonna go to that much inconvenience. Ugh. So... yeah, no Orville for me anymore. Not right now, anyway.
  5. Hey. Y'know what's starting to grind my gears? Dystopian fiction. The way that the future is depicted in fiction acts as a barometer for how our planet is doing and how humanity feels about our prospects for the future. When I was a kid in the 90's, there was still a good amount of utopian science fiction, like classic Star Trek. People seemed interested in exploring potential futures in which humanity got everything right. My childhood marked the tail end of that era of fiction. Starting in my teenage years, and for my entire adult life, all depictions of the future in fiction have been dystopian--futures in which humanity failed and destroyed the planet, and the few remaining inhabitants had to either flee to another planet if able, or try to survive the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Now, don't get me wrong, I love a good dystopian future story, but they're getting old, man. I've had my fill of futuristic fiction that's nothing but bleak, broken, grim, dark, drab, filthy, grungy, grimy, rusty, hellholes teaming with murderous rapists. Oh my gaaaawd, every one of these dystopian stories features the obligatory band of thugs kidnapping a poor woman and raping her to try to repopulate their f*ckin' sh*t village. I can't take anymore!! And then you've got the zombie apocalypses. I love those, too, but Sweet merciful Celestia, how many of them do we need?! Between movies, shows and games, I've had enough zombie apocalypse for a lifetime! Okay, I know that the outlook for our little blue rock isn't good, but does that mean that every future story has to be nothing but gloom and doom?? Can't we have a nice depiction of the future again? Like classic Trek? Even that new Star Trek Picard fiasco had to go and ruin and dystopify the world. It's like show and filmmakers think that no one will be interested unless it's depressing and apocalyptic. C'mon, dude, a little optimism in sci-fi would be nice!
  6. Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? Distorted, grating audio. I absolutely hate it when I'm watching a youtube fail compilation or similar video, with clip after clip of nice, shiny, HD video and proper sound, and then all of a sudden a grainy, blurry, 144p video clip pops up, and then something loud happens, like a car crashes through a metal gate, or a deer smashes headlong into a metal trashcan, and the audio is grating, distorted, and sounds like someone just got in their car, drove unto the freeway at 70 mph, then opened the door, took a microphone, and just pressed it into the asphalt as hard as they could. I'm always afraid it's going to blow out my f*cking speakers. This is why I always put the volume really low in compilation videos, but sometimes the grating audio is still too loud. That's why I scramble to mute it every time I see 144p video. There are quite a few actual youtubers with proper equipment who, for whatever reason, get into that distorted, grating audio territory when they raise their voices, and it sounds like they're blowing out their mic. PewDiePie is actually one of these. I actually like him, but I can't watch him for this one reason. Ever time he yells, (which he does a lot), the audio distorts. It's awful. The worst offender I can think of is Dani. Really funny guy, and I love his videos, but my f*cking CELESTIA the audio! In addition to the distorted yelling, he's also a fan of inserting sudden, loud memes, jumpscares and the like, all of which have distorted, grating audio. If you're gonna watch his stuff, put the volume at 1%. Seriously. I have a friend who's sort of in "the biz". He's a professional photographer and video editor. He's the guy you call when you want your wedding photographed and recorded and a video of it made. He sort of has a mantra about audio being king. He always says that people will put up with low-rez video all day long if it's the content they really want, but if the audio is bad, they'll click off of that sh*t faster than you can blink. So true.
  7. Sleep is a terrifying demon that I must slay daily. It's supposed to be a pleasant, inviting, comforting thing, but for me sleep is a monster. I've had to work extremely hard for decades to train my brain in mindfulness just to be able to relax it enough to make ends meet and get enough sleep to survive. My brain hates me. Sleep is my lifelong nemesis.
  8. Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? This Paramount+ tv show abomination that they actually have the audacity to call "Halo". I'm an olde school Halo fan from way back. The Bungie-made Halos are some of my favorite games of all time, and one my favorite game stories. Huge fan of the original books as well. A real purist. The fact that this vile, heinous anathema actually bears the name "Halo" is despicable treachery. I'm not going to write an essay dissecting everything that's wrong with it because I simply don't care enough to waste my time. Suffice it to say that the creators of this show obviously didn't read the books, didn't play the games, and don't give a sh*t about either. The similarities between the show and the games/books stop with the name. What I don't understand is why so many companies insist on desecrating beloved franchises like this. Another great example is Disney throwing out 30+ years of expanded Star Wars universe books in order to do whatever the hell they wanted with the sequel trilogy. Why do companies do this?! What's even in it for them?! Do they think it will sell better to completely dismantle, destroy, and burn down all of the established lore of a beloved franchise? I mean... just... WHY??!! Let's play make believe for a moment and suppose that Disney had held true to all the Star Wars books and just based the movies on those. And then let's suppose that they based the Halo show on the books as well. Would that have been such a catastrophe? Or do you suppose that fans would have rejoiced in the faithful, loyal adherence to the source material? I don't think that any franchise in history has ever suffered by being too true to source material. Why do companies think it's a good idea to just throw the source material in a blender? I don't f*cking get it.
  9. I think an investigation like that probably would have been a little... um... boring and tedious for a kid's show... perhaps? But as for me, oh man, I would have loved to see a lengthy, detailed, realistic legal investigation with, like, court hearings 'n' sh*t. That woulda been awesome! Can we just have, like, Law & Order: Equestria please? That's a really good point, and it makes me suspect that grown-up ruler Twi probably disbanded or reformed the EEA.
  10. Oh, wow, Rarity by a landslide in the poll. Didn't really expect that. I thought it'd be a little more even. I dunno, I kinda like Rainbow's the best, actually. I like that wild, uneven look.
  11. I couldn't think of a good title for this one. Y'know what really grinds my gears? When tv characters. particularly cartoon, don't simply speak up to clear up simple misunderstandings. See, that still doesn't really make it very clear. I can only do this through examples. Imagine an episode of a cartoon. The protagonist goes to a comic book convention. She then loses a belonging, and said item is found by someone else, and that someone mistakes said item for a rare collectible (which it isn't), claims it for themselves, then takes it to be auctioned off at the comic book memorabilia auction. The protagonist then goes to the auction and attempts to walk up and retrieve her belonging when the auctioneer stops her and says, "Where do you think yer goin', lil lady?" Before she can get a word in edgewise, the auctioneer says, "Oh, no you don't! You go sit down and bid like everyone else!" Which she does. She sighs, sits down, bids, and buys back her own f*cking belonging with the money she made that day by selling her own merch in her own booth. Yeah, really specific premise, right? In case you didn't figure it out, that was a real premise. I was describing an episode of Littlest Pet Shop. I made some simplifications because otherwise it would have taken too long to describe, but that was essentially the episode. Why the f*ck didn't she stand up for herself, speak up, demand that someone listen, and explain that that item was in fact her property and not a rare mint condition collectible? Because stupid reasons. Here's another. Also a Littlest Pet Shop. In one episode, the protagonist loses her phone, and it's found by some pets that decide to make it the grand prize in their pet racing circuit. The other pets who are the friends of the protagonist get wind of this plot, but instead of just walking up and explaining that the phone belongs to their friend and they need it back, what do they do? Why, they train a pet to race in the circuit so they can win the phone back, of course! What else? Probably the most egregious example I can think of is ye olde Equestria Girls with Twilight's crown. Why didn't Twilight ever walk straight up to Principal Celestia and just say, "Hey, that crown actually belongs to me. It's not the Fall Formal crown. It's mine. Sunset stole it, and I need it back." Oh wait, that's right, she started to in that scene in Celestia's office, and then just stopped for no f*cking reason. Why? So the movie could happen, of course. Better to buy into the Fall Formal bullsh*t and play a f*cking game while risking the safety and security of Equestria instead of just having a two-minute talk and returning to Equestria immediately, right? I know, I know--you could argue how it was all destiny because the events led to the humane six and Sunset being superhero protectors of the human world. That's not the point. You're not listening. The point is, why do characters play these asinine games instead of just being direct. I mean, in the case of EG, I still don't understand why Twilight didn't just smash the case and grab the crown the first night she was in the school and then just run home and smash the mirror from the other side so this can't happen again. 's what I'd do. But I digress. In shows and movies like this, no one ever does the logical thing of just clearing up the misunderstanding with a few simple words. They always play along with the ridiculous game so the story can happen. Now, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy EG or LPS, I'm just saying that there must be a way to write these stories without the need for these glaring, annoying plotholes and contrivances.
  12. Well, you probably didn't realize this, but those are two different things, and two different answers! Most adorable: Twilight Most cuddly: Fluttershy
  13. Interestingly, I actually found the opposite effect with FIM--I don't think I ever lost interest or liking for a character, but as the show went on, I started liking characters that I previously didn't as they got more development, which is a testament to the show's quality.
  14. BAH! HARRUMPH I SAY! I think that the projectile tears have spoiled many a scene which, in my humble opinion, should have been sad, not funny. (And I'm speaking for all cartoons here, not just FIM.) Plus, for me, the projectile tears just never landed as a joke. Never found it funny.
  15. It's for kids first, and all ages second. I.e. they designed it with children in mind as the primary audience, but once that requirement was met, they absolutely made sure it was fun and enjoyable for all ages. I believe Lauren herself said that she intended it to be a show that parents would enjoy with their kids, rather than just watch it out of parental obligation. And obviously, it's chocked full of jokes and references that only older audiences would get, so, yeah.
  16. They see themselves the same way that we see ourselves. I.e. we know that we're animals of a sort as well. We're mammals, too, just smarter than the rest. The ponies have no misconceptions about their species, but they wouldn't lump themselves in with the animal animals that live in the wild, or that they keep as pets. The same goes for all the other sapient, intelligent species in their world.
  17. Hey. Y'know what really grinds my gears? When cartoons characters cry projectile tears. ...Huh, didn't really mean to make a rhyme there. I hate it when cartoon characters are crying and they shoot out massive arcing waterfalls that flood the room and then the other characters go by in a rowboat with raincoats and umbrellas. Now, I'm not at all averse to a slapstick show if that's show's entire foundation such as Rocko's Modern Life, but I'm talking about when they do it in show that takes itself fairly seriously and it ruins a scene that should be emotional. I was never a fan of the waterfall crying in Pony. I never found it to be humorous, and it just makes me not care about why they're upset because it's so silly looking. I much prefer the realistic crying any day of the week.
  18. I mean, I guess if somebody loved high school more than anything in the world, and also happens to be made of money, then okay, sure, I guess. Whatever. But I also hated school, and I don't see the value of class ring at all. Complete waste of money to me. Funny story, though--I actually have a class ring... of sorts. When it was time for people to place their orders for rings, my mom asked me if I wanted one. I said no, and she said she thought I might regret it if I didn't get one. Later that day, when I was walking to class, I found this strange thing on the ground. It was a... well, a ring, but not jewelry. It was... like cardboard. Or something similar. Gray... foam, perhaps? It had some stripped, rainbow colored fabric of some type around the outside. It really didn't look like it was supposed to be pretend jewelry, though. Looked more like some accessory to something else entirely, though I couldn't even venture a guess as to what. But it happened to fit my finger, so I kept it, and I call it my class ring. So, yeah, a piece of gray foam or cardboard with some rainbow fabric on it, that's my class ring. And the funny thing is that it serves the same purpose--it's a memory, and a much more fond and humorous one than spending an unconscionable amount of money in a catalog would have been, so it's perfect. I still have it in a box, almost twenty years later. ...holy f*ckin' sh*t am I old...
  19. Today. And yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that... But none of those days will be as painful as tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that, and the day after that...
  20. I don't care. It's fine. Why wouldn't it be? Not as cute, though. :/
  21. Don't you mean a "cideric"? After all, it's not "alcoholaholic". Captain Grammar, AWAY!!!
  22. Oh, I think she's an excellent designer. I think she's just the tops, man! Like, totally groovy, man! She's, like far out and tubular, man! Totally bitchin', dude! Like, the bee's knees, baby! Seriously, I think that the vast majority of her designs are beautiful. I can't think of any example offhoof of a design that found particularly unattractive. Maybe the outfit for Sapphire Shores with the dolphin center stitch. Wasn't super crazy about that one. Um... oh, I guess her worst design would have to be the hat she wore to meet Maud Pie. That was asinine, but even Rarity came to that conclusion herself. But if you always play it safe and never go too far or make mistakes, then you can't be a very good designer because it means you're never growing and experimenting. Even the best designers in the world can't make a hit every single time.
  23. Absolutely not! No sir! Not allowed! Get out! You see this subforum name?! FIM discussion. No G5 allowed! Okay, just to be clear, in all seriousness, I'm just kidding around. I'm not actually for reals mad. I'm just rattling your cage. But I don't like G5. I have a vendetta against it because of how they destroyed Twilight's legacy and ripped the world apart. I purposely stay out of the G5 forum, and I don't particularly want to see G5 ponies infecting my precious FIM subforum. But, y'know, it's not, like, banned or something. I'm not, like, trying to be a backseat mod or something. I'm mostly joking. Don't take it seriously. But, y'know, seriously, I don't want to see the G5 ponies in here. I mean, don't worry, I'm not mad atcha; I'm just kiddin' around. But seriously...
  24. I say it's a toss up between Sunset Shimmer and grown-up Twi.
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