Especially when you have kleinbl00 and thenewgreen getting in touch off Hubski.
You're a friend, not a username. Big difference.
Trying to feel less miserable, mostly. Got over the "militantly bitter" part that caused user-inactivated to appear, so that's a plus.
Five days after my sinuplasty surgery. This spring break has consisted of being hopped up on oxycodine and doing fetch quests for a haunted toilet hand on a sky island. So yeah Skyward Sword is shit but it's the only one I didn't finish. Side note Im not going to be myself but wow I get why people get addicted to pain meds, even though I itch from it oxycodine has put me in my best mood in literal months and I've gotten better sleep now, with it and my nose cut open, than not at all. On that note a sinuplasty is when an ENT sticks a camera up your nose and goes "how the fuck have you even been breathing all this time, lol" and then puts some gloves on and knifes you. Apparently I had no air going through one nostril and barely any going through another. Once they take the splints and stitches out I might be completely devoid of sleep apnea. And if not, it'll still be way easier to not choke on my Cpap, because, you know, air will go through my nasel passages this time around. I just don't get why God had to make a bet with some angels and was just loke "hey guys lol let's make someone that just SHOULDN'T EXIST, ok so sleep apnea, some flat feet. Let's double back and block his nose just as a double measure. Did I hear asthma? Asthma it is. Make him grumpy. All the time. Also allergic to the outside world. Also Edit on behalf of all Muslims I'd like to apologize for the snow in Denver and assure you that this has nothing to do with Islam
I liked Skyward Sword... But then I spent hours running around catching butterflies in the forest at the beginning. I hope the sinuplasty helps your sleep!
Skyward Sword is a halfway-awesome game ruined by the fact that you get no goddamn damage gages on the bosses, and rather than come up with an interesting progression they just have you kill them and have them come back an arbitrary number of times. Since your'e hopped up on Oxy can I recommend Leela? it's like 6 bux on Amazon and is fuckin' awesome when you're blitzed.
Should I Leave the House? Divorce: "OK, you take the damn salad spinner. It was yours anyway." I needed a salad spinner (SS). Paper towels just didn't do it for me. I had been looking in the neighbourhood: @ the supermarket, health food store, 99 cent store, nearby surplus store. No, no, no, and no. I had to go further afield. My friend, Tekkie, said she was going to Canadian Tire to buy paint. I decided to look there for a SS and headed over. There was ONLY one in a box on a very high shelf. A tall salesman whacked it a few times and it fell into my arms. It was higher end, half price, and $25. It did more than spin. Tekkie showed up, paint in hand, and said "No way." Let's try the Dollarama. I left the pricey one on a lower shelf and reluctantly got into T's car. I knew better. I had set out with her before on a short trip and didn't get back for hours. I knew that about her, but left my car in the parking lot anyway. NEVER AGAIN. Anyway, after checking the downtown Dollarama without luck, we tried another place called Family Liquidation Centre – seemed relevant given the divorce and all. Edit bf says Family Liquidation Centre sounds kind of holocausty. They had no spinners either. Then I remembered a restaurant supply store where I had once bought a frying pan. This was just west of the main downtown intersections. Tekkie let me out and parked. I ran in and asked the chipper, red-haired shopgirl if she had a salad spinner. “Yes! yes!” she said eager to be helpful. “We have two different sizes. I’ll show you.” “Wow,” I said. “I’ve been looking all over town. Are they less than $25?” “More,” she said. “Much more.” Then she showed me a 20-gallon salad spinner that could do 16 lettuces at once. It cost $2870. The smaller, 5-gallon, 8-lettuce spinner was only $200. At this point, paper towels were looking pretty good. I wanted to go back to my car on the other side of downtown at the Canadian Tire, but Tekkie said she had two in her shed. She knew exactly where they were, but couldn’t get to them. How hard could that be? On the way to her house, we had to drive by five different properties that she had been looking at as she is desperate to move. Eventually, the shed. We got into it, but the salad spinners were in a box at the far end under 10 other boxes, behind the contents of the homes of her dead relatives. I finally got back to Canadian Tire. The one I had taken off the high shelf was back on the high shelf. A step stool was in the aisle. I climbed up and got the $25 one down BUT . . . While I was up there, I noticed another salad spinner that had not been there before. The new salad spinner was infinitely inferior to the $25 one, but exactly what I needed. It had less capacity than the industrial-sized ones and was $9.99. To paraphrase T.S.Eliot: We shall not cease from exploration (for a salad spinner), and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started (Canadian Tire) and know the place for the first time.
My union has informed me that they feel "bad", but not "sorry" for what happened to me (although I was informed that the guy who was talking to me the most "apologized several times" to the head of the union), because I should have informed them that I'd moved. When I mentioned that the card they had from me requesting union representation on this project was postmarked from Seattle, and had my address listed as "Lynnwood, WA" they said "We thought you meant Lynwood, CA." They then sent me a text of my address record from accounting, which listed it as "Lynnwood, CA." When I pointed out that the only way I can change my address is by writing it on the back of the envelope when I send in my dues, and pointed out that they had spelled "street" with three "e"s, they mentioned that mistakes were made. And they sure feel bad. But not sorry. Because it was my responsibility. Apparently to inform them that their intern had written my address wrong. Which I didn't find out until three months later, when they sent me notice of my dues again. So. The bastards won. Because my side is incompetent. Which I knew, but it sucks to be reminded. So I guess the lesson learned is "when you're approaching your breaking point, fuckin' break because it's not going to be worth it." I could have been working on a documentary on land mines in Cambodia. I could have been navigating the dumpster fire that was my family's reintegration into our house. Instead I was getting my ass kicked for lose-my-number rates on the side of a mountain for a group of executives that I would gladly see die of ebola. The one silver lining is that the utter and total lack of Washington State income tax means that my take-home rate was more than half-way to what it would have been under union wages anyway. On the plus side:
In the end, you've got a goal and you're going towards it. That's like 99% more that most people ever do. I meet so many wankers right now talking about building businesses while living on 400$/month in thailand and going to pointless seminars it's getting depressing... Sorry you sent that time in the woods, I remember those Pubski posts, it sure was hell. Fuck them ppl, glad to have you here bl00
I swear I remember Charles Stross talking about solving the same class of problem by giving up and setting his books in particular years, but I couldn't quickly find a link. edit: And of course right after I posted that I found it
Pros: Went to a spin class for the first time ever and killed it. Have a lot of friends, doing well in school, seeing my mom tonight. Excited for hiking season. It's nice outside. Cons: Broke it off with a guy last night who checked off 80% of my boxes because I'm terrified of commitment. Got a C- on a paper for the first time ever. Booked an appointment with professor to discuss aforementioned paper, who did not show up. The world is falling apart. I'm doing okay.
It was a ton of fun. I love activities where you just compete with yourself. I've been told there are spin classes elsewhere in the city that are like going to rave with flashing lights and dubstep. Okay, maybe that 20% was enough to frighten me away, but I don't want to think about that! Let me self-blame for a little while.
hello today i am 24 and no one has crashed into my car. i did however get a threatening letter from state farm saying "we notice you've been hit while parking 2x in the last calendar year. stop that. yours truly".
Happy birthday. 24 is nice, still young enough to imagine that anything is possible. Set some goals to hit by 30... Speaking of ridiculous mail, I asked my professional association to not send me their thick magazine which I never read. They sent me this email (just an excerpt): "We are unable to cancel delivery of the magazine. It is not a subscription; it is part and parcel of your membership in the College, just like your membership card or your listing on the College’s public register of members. We can’t remove you from the mailing list for the magazine because the mailing list is our register of members in good standing."
WELL the 2nd day of being 24 I got a letter from my estranged ex who would have had to have paid a private investigator to get my info so like there's that :)))))
Yeah, 24 was a hard year for me too. I would say that my life really turned a page around 26 and 27 was a banner year. I can say with some certainty that with very few exceptions every year has been better than the last since 26. Oh wait, were you referring to the TV show "24?" Cause in that case, yes... refuse.
I am daydreaming about handmade pasta. This will be the cover of a book, maybe as soon as by the end of today. It has taken flippin' forever to construct mainly because I'm using shitty cheap Elmer's glue and you need a lot of it for all those ribbon ends and it takes VERY LONG to dry. I have this same 'yarn' in blue and wanted to make another book with a blue cover like this. If I do so I will buy rubber cement first. This morning I had a Stephen-King inspired (I suspect) dream. Someone was tapping on the window next to my bed in my bedroom, trying to get the attention of (it seemed) my cats. But I was home! And hugely pissed at this person invading my space, especially because if they wanted my attention, they were 2 yards away from my doorbell and should be using that, not peering through my window. So I flipped them off, though my hand was shaking and it was difficult to show the bird at first. They started and acted offended. So then I double-flipped them off. I think then I ran to the door and flung it open and voila - there was no one there. I had woken up in the middle of the night and couldn't sleep for a bit so was reading Skeleton Crew. That is why I think the dream was King-inspired. A bit of a weird one, honestly. But aren't they all?
Yeah, he was talking about the importance of body language and how to establish yourself as the "leader" of the pack of kids you're trying to teach something. Makes sense, I've had a lot of really nice teachers that simply could not control the class in the past.
I'm a dad, I'm used to cleaning up pee! He's a 8 week old black pug, and yes I do know about all the issues they have, before anybody points this out to me -- the wife did her research and she is very happy with the dog she has chosen. We've yet to pick him up as we're going away for a few days, but once we do it'll be a constant hum of "awwwwww" from our house I think.
I'm a little late to the pub. I was supposed to be in Detroit hanging with mk and family this week. Instead - craptastic weather pushed me west. It has worked out nicely in the end. While friends and family in Denver are dealing with this ACTUAL snow: I got to hike snow canyon and climb through lava tubes: Today started with a migraine and nausea. It ended pretty damn well.
After the shooting earlier in the week a half a block from the coffee shop there was a shooting a half a block from my house two days later. this had happened in suburbia I'm sure that I'd be all worked up about it but it's the city. Give it 5 years and this neighborhood will be thoroughly gentrified. I'll be able to buy a scented candle or a dog coat on every block, and in that way it won't be much different from today, filled with things I dislike but which only tangentially effect me. I found this gem of a photo on the sidewalk outside the shop. I traded a few pounds of coffee for some lp's and 45's. There were a few good rockabilly 45's which I then traded to a guy I know who collects them for another stack of soul and mixed 80's 45's. Not a bad bit of trade.
I had a bone marrow aspiration on Monday. Not for diagnosis or disease. It's part of a plan. It's not nearly as bad as one might expect. The whole thing took 10 minutes from laying down to standing up, and I walked across town a couple of hours after. I'd give the worse discomfort a 4 out of 10, and it was just a weird cramp in my butt and leg that lasted about 5 seconds. Aside from the prick of the anesthetic needle, no sharp pain at all.
I'm walking again, went climbing at 7am today after a several days of poor sleep. Seems it was an injured tendon that I didn't know I had in my knee, doing some PT has helped, as has a brace and a bit of time. Plague's been going around here, I got it slightly, but at least one person in every building I've stepped into that past few days has had The Cough Of Death. Even heard it when calling home to my family the other week. It's a pitty scientists refuse to take time off. I think I might also have a slight throat infection that's causing me to snore (at least, based on the only times in the past when I've been told I snored) too hard and wake myself. But short of recording myself all night or making a roommate share a bed, I'm not sure how to check that. Lastly, lab work has still been stalled. I got positive results last week, and then failed to replicate it yesterday, wasting $500+ in reagents in the processes.
I've done worse. :) In fact, one could argue that billions have been similarly spent. Reproduce-ability is a precious thing. If you find something that is unexpected, with a minimum of a 3-fold change, and reproducible, drop everything.Lastly, lab work has still been stalled. I got positive results last week, and then failed to replicate it yesterday, wasting $500+ in reagents in the processes.
Cost to medicare / medicaid of Alzheimer's is >$150 billion. If it could promise a cure, you could double the NIH budget and save a decade's worth of money in two years. Sadly no matter how much they decide to spend, I'm still just leeching off of cancer grants. Hopefully that changes this year. I'm looking at a max of 6-fold, and a lot squinting at 2-fold. It's got me hopeful, but now starts the follow-up...In fact, one could argue that billions have been similarly spent.
If you find something that is unexpected, with a minimum of a 3-fold change, and reproducible, drop everything.
A tall glass of soy milk for me, please, and an ice water with a pinch of salt on the side for my friend. I couldn't keep up with TNG's fast, but 48 hours without eating was a new and interesting experience for me. The big surprise was how much time passed before I really felt it. I felt hungry a few times, with borborygmi, but nothing more intense than I occasionally feel anyway. Walking home from the metro station last night I hit the wall. This was the feeling, familiar from long runs, that I thought would arrive sooner. I felt lethargic and out of sorts. I made it home and stretched out on the bed to rest, but didn't feel better and my heart was still laboring. I had decided in advance to quit if there were any symptoms besides hunger, so I quit after 48 hours, finally indulging the fantasy of eating warm bread that had been frequently on my mind. _refugee_ gave the wise advice to get medical advice before experimenting with an unusual and unproven nutritional habit, which I didn't do. I rationalized that I was starting out in good health, would not be driving, and would never be far from medical services if needed. I also reasoned that we should get a doctor's advice before eating half a pizza, but nobody does because we know what the advice would be. If we accept doing things we know are harmful sometimes, we should be willing to try things that might be harmful, or might be beneficial. I didn't notice any big difference, besides the loss of 4-5 pounds which I expect to return soon. I did some reading and learned a lot, mostly from two articles on a site that promotes what I would describe as a fad diet, though it was much more informative, objective and less ad-ridden than WebMD.
When I fast, I do the Master Cleanse. Basically you reduce your intake to nothing but this water, cayenne pepper, and honey mixture. It's weird, but you get used to it quickly. The key thing is that the honey gives your body some sugars to run on, the cayenne tricks your body into thinking it is getting food, and the copious amount of water cleans ter tubes right out. The longest I have done it was close to 2 weeks - maybe 10 or 11 days? - and it is amazing. Your body goes through several distinct phases, where it is working on different stuff. The results? Well, weight loss is an obvious one, of course. But portion control is a big one, too. We don't realize (in America) how ridiculously huge our portions are, and how little of that we really need to eat to be healthy and well fed. There's also a lot of stuff that happens with your colon when you are basically just drinking fancy water, and your body starts searching in all the dark corners for more nutrients. Things come out of you that you are REALLY GLAD are not still inside of you. If you get the book on the Master Cleanse there are whole sections on poop and ... well ... the less said about that, the better. I'm gonna be launching into a new Master Cleanse possibly next week. (Gotta plan ahead for these things, ya know.) I really need to kick start my body to drop a few pounds before the wedding.
On the topic of long runs and nutrition, what are your opinions and practices around energy gels on long (say, more than ten mile) runs? Hitting the wall was new to me last weekend, so I'm going to give them a shot this Saturday. My practice hiking is to take gummi bears or jelly beans, so I think my body will handle the sugary gels ok.
I don't have any great solutions, but wouldn't attempt anything longer than a half marathon without carrying supplemental fuel. Sports drinks have plenty of sugar, but there's only so much liquid you can keep down. Clif Bars are energy dense, and the varieties are not equally nasty. White Chocolate Macadamia Nut is the one I find most tolerable, but I carried two of them for 30 miles and never ate them at the 2014 50M. Gels are about as good as it gets. I recommend trying a few flavors and only carrying something you know you don't hate on a run you care about. I have to plan a schedule and keep an eye on the clock or I will postpone them. If there are no aid stations, I would aim for a gel every half hour or so, followed by fluid. The Clif Shot package has a strip to keep the tear-off tab connected to the packet, which makes them a little less annoying. I keep some gels spiked with caffeine in reserve for late in the run. Like with Advil, I never feel sure that the drug makes much difference, but sometimes it really seems to help and that is good enough. If it's a warm day or a very long run, electrolyte capsules are also essential. Succeed S!Caps are popular and have worked well for me.
A schedule makes a lot of sense. I felt good with nothing beyond water for 14 miles Saturday, then bam, hit a wall. That's too late to do something about it. I'll have to work out some plans. I have a couple Gu gels I'm going to try this weekend. They have sodium, but it's way less than an S!Cap (a product new to me). I read some Gu reviews yesterday saying they feel the caffeine helps. One more thing for me to experiment with.
Our shit got listed in the UO Store (we still didn't get paid yet but invoicing takes 2 weeks so whatever) Other that that. still going that vlog thing (why?), learning stuff. We;re halfway through our trip and being myself I can't just enjoy stuff for what it is. I'm already thinking about what to do when I get back etc... Anyone got tips on how to live in the present? Cause the present is great but the future is just spoiling my fun right now.
Duly noted for birthday gifts for my bearded friends! I think my tip is to keep doing something. Be busy. Things that force you to stay in the present. Work out, get outdoors and push yourself, cook, get out and around people. I speak as a university student who is ignoring the pressing issue of finding an internship for the summer.
Congratulations on getting listed in the UO store!! I wish you the best of luck. I don't really have any tips on living in the present, but at least you know that's what you should be doing. <starts singing> Look around, look around, at how lucky you are to be alive right now...
I just try to remind myself that all of the past presents have usually ranged from "okay" to "class!", so the future presents will probably be okay too, or maybe. ...Beard oil is a thing? I guess it works; I was impressed by your hirsute face in the videos.
Yup, didn't know it was a thing either and now i'm selling it! I just wanted to put something on my CV and it snowballed out of proportion :) It's a success for my CV so far, but maybe I can turn it into my monthly income if I work a little more on it? I don't know...
I made vacation plans for three weeks from now. The plan is to hike three days and camp two nights. Weather is a wildcard here. So I'm just going to take it as it comes. I'm hoping for pleasant, cool spring weather. I probably need a little new gear, like a sleeping bag liner. I have a new down coat I'll take as a mid layer. Summits might still be chilly. I think I'm going to start putting stickers on my bear canister, thus marking it as mine forever.
Adirondack Park in New York is my favorite place right now. I'll get into Albany late morning, so if all goes well I'll go straight from the airport to a campsite. There are a couple designated sites 2-3 miles from a major trailhead, and I think I can be at a site by 5:30. Then I'll hike the next two days from my campsite, packing up and heading out the second day. After a hotel night, I'll hike a third day and then head to a hotel in Albany before my morning flight home. I think it's a solid plan! I'm peak bagging out there, and this could net me five new summits, including two more difficult ones. Plans don't always pan out, and I've gotten more comfortable with changing plans depending on conditions. It's a beautiful area.
Wow just looked it up that place looks awesome and close to Ottawa hmmm. I'm hoping to do a weekend trip to canoe Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park so I can at least get some outdoors time in. I'll be sending out good vibes in hopes you get nice hiking weather. As long as you're prepared though it's not so bad. Once I was hiking a mountain in the summer and I got hailed on which I was not even remotely prepared for. We just decided to go on a whim so we didn't prepare well and ended up having to hide under a tree... Hail hurts :(
I've been very lucky with weather on my trips. Probably my worst luck is overcast skies at two views said to be among the best in the park. That just gives me a reason to go back. :) Cold and light rain I can manage, but heavy rain or hail would likely see me changing plans. I'm still sort of new to hiking and remote camping. You do it a lot? Have you spent a lot of time in Algonquin? Last summer I learned taking my overnight bag over summits was very taxing. This trip, my full bag will stay much lower down. If you ever want to talk about the Adirondack high peaks, I could talk about them, hikes I've done and others I've read about, all day.
I was living in Alberta for a bit and was able to hike some pretty awesome trails there. Unfortunately I had issues at that time so I stayed away from a lot of really amazing hikes since they were longer. I'm back in Ottawa now and I've done some hiking but not Algonquin yet. My dad is super into hiking and backcountry camping so I follow his advice most of the time which is to do some easier places first. We have some places closer like Gatineau and Frotenac ( plus everything else in that area really ). I've done a decent amount of hiking but not really the camping part. This last summer would have been my only opportunity really but I was trying to work as much as possible. This summer I think I've booked as much time off as reasonably possible and next summer I'll be in school so I'll have to go winter camping if I want too get any in. Have you ever gone winter camping ? I'll definitely look in to it some more and keep that in mind. Always good to get some first hand information on parks.
I have not winter camped, but it's inching its way up on my to-do list. In some ways it feels insane, but in others it doesn't seem so bad. It just takes some careful planning and the right gear.
I took a hiatus from Hubski while I was crunching at school--and now I'm back! Expect to see more Nautilus links in your feed, and the Sunday Paper again this week. Should be a good one. Started learning Norwegian on Duolingo - Jeg snakker bare litt norsk... More updates to come in a bigger post, I guess. We'll see. Also, does anyone know anybody who is anybody at data science startups in the Bay Area and wouldn't mind connecting me?
It's been a long time since I've been on here, and a good deal of it in a very dark time for me. That being said, I'm glad to see it hasn't changed much here. Since I graduated college in May, I went on a trip to Europe on my own for a month. It gave me some great perspective, some great times, and all in all was an eye opening experience to be alone in a bunch of countries where I only can kind of speak the languages, despite trying to learn them beforehand. Afterwards, I moved to where I got a job, a place where I thought I'd just end up depressed and hate it so badly I'd have to leave. Funny enough, I stopped feeling sorry for myself and started really applying myself. I started taking piano lessons, started working towards my career goals, and pushed myself to be a better person all around. Turns out, I'm feeling good about myself. And I'm looking forward to what the future will bring, without getting lazy in my ideals and aspirations.
My life's transforming, slowly and carefully. I used to feel cheerful, but I feel like it was a mask for people not to look deeper inside of me. Now, I don't look so joyous, but - I'm content with that: it feels sincere, and that's what I'm aiming at. It's an odd feeling for me for I'm entering uncharted territory of doing fine even with things still undone. Not being driven by guilt feels new to me.
No, it is not. When guilt is so close to you that you start using it as a reason to do things, it's very, very hard to do something else - something better, in this case. I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help to you, for I don't have much to say - and I suspect I won't, either. My progress is mostly intuitive, hard to put into words. I can show you the islands of wisdom between which I've travelled to get to where I am, but it may be the best I can do. However, I will probably write something about it at some point. I'll keep in mind that I could help a fellow human by describing the mind processes with precise detailing. For now, I'll say this: Stay strong. You got this. Carry on no matter what.It's not as easy as it sounds.
Today is a good day. I've recovered from the equipment failures of the past evening, new gear is in the mail and on the way, I may have something worth posting later today, taxes are done, and I got a collection letter from one of the doctor's offices I went to after the accident. Good times.
Whiskey and coke. The cheap shitty whiskey, because it doesn't matter when you mix it and I'm still a cheapskate student at heart. I did that retake exam and posted about it. Posting in general is something I'd like to do more of. Producing content is fun, even if it's something artless like a "this is what happened the other day" kind of thing. Push back the dark. I found out that a friend I haven't seen in almost two years (we went to the same university for undergrad, but he did a sandwich year in industry and then I did an MSc) works near where I work. So we plan to meet up sometime soon. I need to do something proactive to make that happen. Now that my exam is over, I want to make more friends and reconnect with more people in London. Commuting makes that more difficult, but not impossible.
We're going to have a table quiz at work in April to raise money for Pieta House (an Irish centre for suicide prevention); the current problem is figuring out whether Thursday 28th or Friday 29th is best. Friday leads into a bank holiday, so a lot of people will have plans, but Thursday is the day before payday (of a five-week month, too), so a lot of people will be skint. It's all for a trip I'm taking around Ireland this summer - in May I'll be embarking on a 2,000 kilometre journey around the island in an attempt to get the Guinness world record for longest barefoot journey. I've spent tons on equipment already - a backpack, a super-light tent, a GPS device, and with just one month to go it's getting increasingly real and I can't wait to go. It's a lot of different things, for me; for one, it's the first time I've really stepped out of my comfort zone and decided to do something really cool instead of worrying about the future. Perhaps it's even reckless - I have no idea what I'll do come August. Stay in Dublin and go back to work at the school? Move home to Mayo for a while and maybe get a job in a pub or something? Just finally leave and start seeing the world, like I thought I would when I was young? It's all scary and exciting. I just know that where I am I'm not really moving forward snd I don't know where to go, but surely stepping in any direction is better than staying still - especially since I can always turn back. Otherwise life is okay. Work, eat, jog, procrastinate, drink at the weekend. Things could be better, things could be worse; to a certain extent I'm just waiting to get going.
I wish I could stay healthy for any length of time. At least I'm fairly certain I don't have norovirus. Edit* Sick though I may be I had a cool weekend. Got my new rig up and running, went to a birthday party, and got to see Batman Vs Superman at an advanced screening. I think that BvS was a little overproduced, and probably took itself a little too seriously for a comic book movie. Bat-fleck was surprisingly good, though his take on Bruce Wayne was pretty different from Christian Bale, and I definitely prefer Bale. Also I was super skeptical about Jesse Eisenberg but he pulled off a very interesting take on Lex Luthor.
Finished season 2 of Daredevil last night. It was decent overall but I think I enjoyed season 1 more. Sticking true to form for DC movies, and as I predicted, Batman vs Superman isn't doing too hot with the critics. I kind of want to sleep all day.
Season 2 was on par with 1 for me. The pacing was much better for me, I remember the middle of season 1 seeming a bit of a slog. I also thought everyone's various plot strands were weaved together well. They certainly upped the brutality to 11 and the action scenes were top class. Having said that, I do think the experience was altogether a tad shallower. Fisk taking a back seat left a bit of hole which even The Punisher/Elektra combined couldn't quite fill, despite being a great characters. Vincent D’Onofrio's character is just such an imposing/powerful figure. Though that should change next season and I'm excited to see how it evolves. Also, the dialogue/themes really needs some work as they're awfully one-dimensional right now. There were multiple times when I spoke the coming line out loud before it came out the actor's mouth. That's not really acceptable.
While lovely, it's worse functionality than what you had. People don't use strikethroughs to hide spoilers on here. They use it for editorial expression. The whole point of strikethroughs is they're legible. With the gray blocks at least you can highlight to read; with what you have here, you have to copy/paste to read anything.
Not on my Mac (Safari 9 nor Chrome 49 nor Vivaldi. El Capitan). Does work on Chrome Mobile. edit: Personally, I prefer the blackout. It reminds me of confidential records, and I think it is more inviting to highlight the text than something you with just too much blur to read.
I agree, Season 2 did feel much better as far as pacing is concerned. That said, if I were to have one complaint, it's that every time you turn around BAM! Drama bomb plot twist to the face! It's cool Netflix, chill. I'm watching this show two episodes at a time. You don't need to have crazy cliffhangers to keep me hooked. Some people would disagree, but I think upping the brutality a bit actually helped the fight scenes a little. They have some really great ideas, choreographically speaking, that are hindered just a little by what I would consider sub-par execution. The stuntmen play it very safe in this series when it comes to pulling punches and making wide, passing blows and the camera work isn't always sufficient to hide these techniques. When added with the fact that some of the stuntment, even the ones playing the main heroes (Daredevil in particular actually), don't always exhibit the best techniques and postures, it takes me out of the fantasy a bit. (Seriously, go look at some classic Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, and Jet Li films and compare the fight scense to Daredevil and you'll see what I mean.) The blood and the meat slapping sounds help to bring me back in a bit. As for the one dimmensional themes and characters? Ugh. I feel you on that. There were a few times I just felt like everyone was acting stupid for the sake of just advancing the plot. Also, I hate Stick as a character. There. I said it. I don't regret it.
Yeah, the whole 'end of episode cliffhanger' technique is probably slightly less relevant in the age of binge watching. It is something that I noticed was slightly too forced but I can't say it bothered me. I'd agree with your fight scene analysis. There were definitely some points where camera cuts or stunt work took me out of the action. Especially after watching the 'Jackie Chan - How to Do Action Comedy' video that Every Frame a Painting did and the section in it about conveying the force of a hit. The sound (and music) was generally pretty great though. I also agree with your opinion on Stick. I think it relates to your point on things happening just to advance plot. He seems to be a character that just drives plot development. Outside of that he seems to have little history, backstory, world involvement. He just turns up when things go to shit or preempts things going shit. Have you watched Jessica Jones? I've asked a few people and read opinions and it seems the general consensus is JJ is the superior show. I'm not sure I agree. I'd be interested to hear your take.
You should post that Jackie Chan video onto global. A lot of people could really appreciate it. Jessica Jones is something completely different, both in story telling and in feel. Pacing wise, it was kind of a slow burn. For the most part, it seemed to fit the tone of the show. It's more of a thriller/mystery than a beat-em up action fest so any sense of urgency would need to fit the situation for fear of it being forced. There are a few episodes where I did feel like the story was being dragged out a bit, because of the pacing. I didn't enjoy the series as much as Daredevil, as it's not really my kind of story, but overall I think it was alright. If I had to say one thing definitely, I think they did a wonderful job with the character Nuke. In the comics, he's a bit over the top and I don't think it would have fit the series by being a direct translation. By toning him down a bit, he became much more realistic.