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5 votes
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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do...
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
6 votes -
My not so nice thoughts on Battlestar Galactica
I watched the 2003 miniseries which I thought was decent enough. It certainly piqued my interest, so I went into the show itself with an open mind and kind of excited that I had a nice, long...
I watched the 2003 miniseries which I thought was decent enough. It certainly piqued my interest, so I went into the show itself with an open mind and kind of excited that I had a nice, long sci-fi series to get into.. but.. I'm now solidly underway with season 1, a lot of it falls totally flat. I just finished episode 5 and while it's not the worst show I've ever watched, it certainly isn't great either and I have to say I don't understand why this show is praised. It feels really dated.
There are some truly awful scenes where it feels like I'm being preached to, like "remember to go in for your breast cancer screening!" and "prisoners aren't slaves!" and the scene from this episode where the president appears on the Galactica just to tell the commander "ackshually 45000 people are more important than just 1!" as though it's some deep philosophy, and then he changes his mind off of that, but like, his character really isn't dumb enough to not have already considered the morality of the situation. He should have perfectly well realized that they'd expended half of their fuel reserve searching for the downed pilot, and that's more than they can afford. He is not stupid, but the writing certainly can be.
There are also a ton of cliches and cheap story beats like fake-outs, cliff-hangers, characters that could solve all their problems if they simply communicated, dundundun dunnn moments with fabricated tension, not to mention the amount of halfway meaningless filler. It's a shame because the lore and overarching plot is interesting, but when every episode has so much pointless conflict in them that always gets resolved 10 minutes later, it starts to really drag. The episodes are self-contained and I get that, but I mean most of it is to the point that it's borderline a soap opera.
And it's not even filmed or directed well or anything else to make up for it. The desaturated colours are depressing as fuck, there is no cinematography to speak of, the special effects are (understandably) very cheap, everything is truly ugly which while I understand that's the point, it just detracts even more. The lighting is also inconsistent between some scenes, and the fight choreography is honestly laughable. You also have shoddy camera work and obnoxious, never ending close-ups of every actor's face - I have seen all of their pores by now, thank you very much. And omg why are they so obsessed with wide shots of the ships and then snap zooming not once, but twice, every time!!
Also, variations of the word "frak" is just so grating but I'm nitpicking at this point lol
I apologize to any fans of the show because this turned into a bit of a rant, but goddamn.. I'm kind of grasping at straws to find things I actually like about BSG. Maybe it's because it's a network production? Perhaps I'm too young to watch and truly appreciate it/its era of American network TV? Like the only of these kinds of shows we had in my country that I watched when they were current was things like Friends, Monk, Desperate Housewives etc., so I missed out on all of these supposedly great shows back then (I was only 11 years old when BSG started airing). I really love some of the other things from the 00's that I've watched much later on though, but those were cable shows like The Wire, so it's not just because it's from the 00's.
Anyway, all of the above reasons (and more) are why I usually stay far away from network shows with 20-episode seasons, but I thought BSG was going to be different because it's my impression that it has a really good reputation? Like I said in the beginning, the miniseries was decent so I'm not sure what changed between it and season 1? I think I'm gonna demote it to a background show unless the next few episodes pick up a bit. Should I keep going? Does it get better after season 1?
24 votes -
Helicopter carrying Iran’s President has crashed, state media reports
44 votes -
polyfill-glibc: Patch Linux executables for compatibility with older glibc
10 votes -
Movie of the Week #30 - Luxury Car
Warning: this post may contain spoilers
Posting a bit early as I have less time tomorrow. We continue with Cannes films with the Chinese Luxury Car from 2006 where it was honored with the Un Certain Regard award.
Any thoughts on this film is welcome.
The rest of the schedule for May is:
- 27th: The Tree of Life
3 votes -
Houston has seen a gentle density revolution since the 1990s. Allowing neighborhoods to opt out of citywide reforms was crucial.
18 votes -
What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...
What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.
If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!
7 votes -
A major initiative to scale up water chlorination in India
4 votes -
Meryl Streep: it’s ‘hardest thing’ for men to see themselves in female characters
34 votes -
Some thoughts on cleaning up my shitty apartment
So, I have some crap lying on the floor. Not crap in the sence that it goes straight to recycling, just lots of tidbits which I don't exactly know what to do with; semi-sorted papers, notebooks,...
So, I have some crap lying on the floor. Not crap in the sence that it goes straight to recycling, just lots of tidbits which I don't exactly know what to do with; semi-sorted papers, notebooks, various VR gear, some books which I don't really have room for in my bookcase, some folders where some of the papers should probably go into, my laptop, a stone which I guess I use for weightlifting except I forget to do that, and when I see all this stuff, my brain just shortcircuits.
So I decided that, okay, I can just ignore this and try tidying up this shelf which I had tried to make into a sort of cabinet of curiosities but which over time had degenerated into a bit of mess; a LCD game, the box to said LCD game, vintage headphones, vintage phone, retro Nokia mobile, beach glass, fossils, various stones, some mess which doesn't really belongs here, a cat skull (I think) ... and of course, the same thing happened. My brain just said nope, too much to deal with.
I know there are ways to go about it. If getting my apartment in a habitable state is too much, I can ignore all of it and just focusing on one room. If my coding project seem to overwhelming, I can decide on a alpha milestone to work towards and based on that make a bucket list of the tasks and start with the most basic one, and if the first one is too overwhelming, split it up into sub-tasks. So there are some tried-and-true ways to deal with it.
But for the first time, I started to wonder what exactly goes on with the brain here? Why does something consisting of a relatively small number of sub-tasks seem so overwhelmingly hard? Is it like that for everyone, does it have a name, what?
30 votes -
5D Diplomacy With Multiversal Time Travel
13 votes -
Disappearing ink, fake polls and voter fraud: EU fears as Russian propaganda ads target Euro elections
14 votes -
Raw milk easy to obtain despite bird flu warning, US FDA interstate ban
19 votes -
The world's first regenerative organic certified vineyard | Local Legends
2 votes -
The complex question of screen influence on youth
14 votes -
EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — 'We'll be very thoughtful as we move into that,' says CEO
48 votes -
Students invent quieter leaf blower
41 votes -
The US maternal mortality crisis is a statistical illusion
31 votes -
Why we don't see this physics defying pitch anymore - The mythical screwball
8 votes -
Taiwan, on China’s doorstep, is dealing with TikTok its own way
11 votes -
Meet Max, the cat receiving an (honorary) doctorate from Vermont State University this weekend
26 votes -
New GPS-based method can measure daily ice loss in Greenland
6 votes -
Archie, the (pre) Internet’s first search engine, is rescued and running
14 votes -
The little Linux distro that could - Tom's Root Boot (2001)
12 votes -
May 2024 Backlog Burner: Week 3 Discussion
Week 3 has begun! Post your current bingo cards. Continue updating us on your games! If you did not participate in previous weeks but want to start this week, that's fine! Reminder: playing bingo...
Week 3 has begun!
Post your current bingo cards.
Continue updating us on your games!If you did not participate in previous weeks but want to start this week, that's fine!
Reminder: playing bingo is OPTIONAL.Quick links:
Week 2 Recap
10 participants moved 18 games out of their backlogs!
There were 0 bingo wins.- 1 participant played free choice
- 7 participants played standard bingo cards
- 2 participants played bingo golf
Thus far, a total of 33 games have been played for the May 2024 Backlog Burner.
Week 2 Game List:
- 2064: Read Only Memories
- Andro Dunos II
- Aperture Desk Job
- Bendy and the Ink Machine
- Breakout
- Chop Goblins (x2!)
- Coromon
- Curse of D’Sparil
- DARK SOULS III - Archthrones mod
- DIG - Deep in Galaxies
- ELDEN RING
- Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
- Hotel Dusk: Room 215
- Open Roads
- Radical Dreamers - Le Trésor Interdit
- Vampire Survivors
- Umurangi Generation
- Yakuza Kiwami
Week 1 Recap
Week 1 Recap
10 participants played 10 bingo cards and moved 15 games out of their backlogs!
There were 0 bingo wins.Game list:
- Bastion
- Chop Goblins
- THE CORRIDOR
- DARK SOULS III
- Final Fantasy III
- HUMANITY
- In Other Waters
- Life is Strange: Complete Season
- Metal: Hellsinger
- Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD
- Some Distant Memory
- Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
- The Testimony of Trixie Glimmer Smith
- Vault of the Void
- A YEAR OF SPRINGS
13 votes -
Indiana judge rules tacos, burritos are sandwiches
32 votes -
Rice has a methane problem that a startup is promising to fix
15 votes -
French post office releases scratch-and-sniff baguette stamp
27 votes -
Weekly thread for casual chat and photos of pets
This is the place for casual discussion about our pets. Photos are welcome, show us your pet(s) and tell us about them!
6 votes -
Why every city wants a Wrigley Field
10 votes -
How makers of nonconsensual AI porn make a living on Patreon
15 votes -
Help: Similar songs to Back to Black? Funk, pain and bravery.
Hey peeps ! Having quite an Amy Winehouse phase right now :) The vibe of Back to Black is just phenomenal! Can y'all recommend similar songs? With similar I mean raw in their portrayal of pain,...
Hey peeps !
Having quite an Amy Winehouse phase right now :)
The vibe of Back to Black is just phenomenal!
Can y'all recommend similar songs? With similar I mean raw in their portrayal of pain, funky and enjoyable musically while at the same time remaining hopeful and powerful due to the sheer honesty and "few amount of fucks given" :D
Thanks !!10 votes -
Chinchilla - 1:5 (Lyric video, 2024)
2 votes -
Denmark punching above its weight to become a global powerhouse in the documentary world
11 votes -
Spending an afternoon in the Sizewell [nuclear reactor] control-room simulator
7 votes -
Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like gpt.4o, surcharges and judaism.orthodox. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was...
Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like gpt.4o, surcharges and judaism.orthodox. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was fussed.
But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched
offbeat
stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!15 votes -
Europe’s banks find breaking up with Russia is hard to do
10 votes -
Genetics played a role in blood clots linked to COVID-19 shots
11 votes -
Europe's gas supply once again hinges on one company – Equinor now plays an outsized role in the ups and downs of the continent's gas prices
6 votes -
Exxon Mobil is suing its shareholders to silence them about global warming
33 votes -
America's never-ending battle against flesh-eating worms
40 votes -
Wiley to shutter nineteen more journals, some tainted by fraud
20 votes -
Canada’s fire season erupts, sending harmful smoke into United States
20 votes -
NSF halts South Pole megaproject to probe infant cosmos’ growth spurt
8 votes -
ChatGPT will show sources for their search now
If you're using the ChatGPT paid version, when you search, it acts similarly to Perplexity now. It gives you sources of all the pages from which it retrieved the information.
28 votes -
The case against Charles Darwin: How the investigation into a grisly murder shocked 19th-century France and framed the scientist as an accomplice
8 votes -
Apple Music's 100 best albums list
16 votes -
When ABBA was declared the enemy in Sweden – documentary ‘Against the Odds’ sketches the ups and downs that accompanied the band's success
5 votes -
Those who journal, how do you do so authentically? (How to stop “self-editing” or “censoring” yourself and your thoughts?)
I have tried and failed to journal many times in the past. I always find myself self-editing, avoiding writing certain thoughts or feelings and just overall not being as authentic or honest or...
I have tried and failed to journal many times in the past. I always find myself self-editing, avoiding writing certain thoughts or feelings and just overall not being as authentic or honest or genuine as I should be to actually get some value out of journaling. I wish I could get over this “self-censoring” habit because I love reading and writing and really think journaling could be a great outlet for me.
So, I ask, what tips do you have to help write? To help actually get your thoughts and feelings out on the page, without judging yourself or feeling self conscious or critical? What do you write? What do you find helps you write more honestly and genuinely?
Could really use some help and guidance.
24 votes