My hot take on the sequels is that the first one was a decent start, and they screwed up the whole plot from there. It had some issues mainly in dropping subplots, probably because what was intended to be followed up wasn’t thanks to different plots and directors.

The prequels should have started with the Clone Wars, covering more of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship, with an occasional flashback to the earlier Anakin to fill in his past. Being a fan from the early years, I didn’t like the prequels that much initially, but the story grew on me after watching them a few more times later along with fan commentary over the years. What I do still think they suffer from is making Anakin’s fall too sudden, and if we got a better sense of how much he and Obi-Wan were brothers in spirit, the eventual fall would mean more. There would also be more room to develop the friction he observes with the Jedi Council, maybe even take things to a new level in why they don’t let him progress. I guess I basically see TPM as a wasted first part to better establish his character.

Using the upvote button to agree isn’t a problem, but it’s more of a problem to use the downvote as a disagree if you’re actually engaging with the person to debate the topic since it in theory lowers the visibility of the original post and your own commentary.

I always liked the idea of having a “recommend post” button, and let the better stuff with more recommendations and replies rise to the top naturally. It also avoids the weird feeling in clicking an upvote/agree/like to a topic that you want to discuss but is negative.

1974 movie “Phase IV”.

Some of that didn’t age well. Did you read it? I’m curious what you think Trump had to do with this? Aside from stamping his name on things, which is what he does.

You’re right, I can’t think of anything worthwhile he’s done. So why expect anything now?

I haven’t seen the show yet, but the hard stop at technology does make sense. It’s one part of Paul’s vision, to break out of the stagnation that humanity has put themselves in. I can’t say if the timing of that makes sense with canon sources, but from my understanding things were already slowed in progress and set in stone by the time of the Butlerian Jihad. Spice was a thing, it just wasn’t centered for space travel until the loss of AI.

I think the loss of human progress is a very common theme in these long range scifi stories. Star Wars, Dune, Foundation (both before and after the fall), Warhammer, even the Bladerunner/Alien universe.

So we’re catching up to Black Mirror.

What’s worse is when the top is your self image, that you imagine others see, and the bottom being picture or mirror or whatever that shows the reality.

One of my measures of how good a manager is would be how they come into a room. A good manager (I’ve had a few) will come in and silently assess how things are running (because they’ve already looked up info themselves) or ask specific questions that show they understand the state of things and are there to help if needed.

Pull the “how are things looking” crap, and the rating drops quickly. And the funny thing is, the ones who do that didn’t actually want to hear the bad news I will eagerly pull up to drown them in. The look on their faces is worth it.

Basically, I can glean how much a manager knows about an operation by what first comes out of their mouth, and way too often it’s not much that’s useful.

Don’t look up.

“Bananas have always cost $10, Michael.”

“Nobody knew trade was this complex.” - Trump

I’m pretty sure he said that last time.

Yep, and the important thing about keeping a Democrat governor is their veto power against one of the worst state congresses ever. I actually haven’t looked into what changed at that level, but I don’t have much hope that the GOP stranglehold was broken.

Living paycheck to paycheck, limited if any sick time to take. Not a great excuse, I agree the common sense thing is to contain and recover, but that doesn’t help with the bills or keep the job. Blame the system, not the people in it.

There’s C-Span videos online of him doing interviews before he became a US senator, and it’s interesting how the problems then are still relatable now. We’ve gotten better at kicking cans down roads and blaming each other instead of tackling the issues head on.

In this throwaway, instant satisfaction society? It’s all about the price point. And the marketing.

The profit on torches is the rebuy for more. You don’t need to sink a lot in material, it just has to burn bright enough to sell.

Every vote is important.

“My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” - David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Nvidia Riva TNT, because the onboard graphics were only going to play EverQuest (beta) and Rogue Squadron like a painful slideshow, if at all.