I'm embarking on a new phase in my life and am frankly pretty darned excited about it. My only child is off in college now and I find myself with extra time I didn't used to have. As such, some younger friends of mine have been reaching out and asking me to join them for "shenanigans" in the form of online video games. Mind you, I haven't played games since the mid 90s, so while this sounds exciting, it also is quite intimidating.

So far I have gotten my hands on a ROG Ally X. It's a nifty looking handheld that I have been assured would allow me to play a lot of the games my buddies play, but my eyes aren't what they used to be and the screen, however nice, isn't quite big enough for my needs.

Time to get a dock!

I was able to find a one for this thing, which is very cool, but now I'm thinking I'm going to drive my wife crazy shouting at the device to talk to my buddies. I assume I need a decent headset, but which one? These things seem to run the range in prices. Do I need it to be wireless?

Also, I'm guessing it would be good to have some sort of controller so I'm not on top of the screen, again, what fits the middle of the road? Cordless? Do I want a trackpad? Is that even a thing?

I am overloaded with options.

Basically, I'm a dad who has discovered he has a lot more time on his hands than he expected and good (and patient) friends who want to spend time with him, but I'm way out of my depth trying to plot a modest path forward (without spending silly money).

Anyway, thanks for making an old guy coming to the hobby feel welcome!

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This will be an informal essay without citations or links. Basically, source: just trust me bro.

In the 2010s, a group of online film writers decided to reevaluate blockbuster filmmakers. This was supposed to be our modern Cahiers du Cinema, the film critics who brought us The French New Wave. They re-evaluated Hollywood directors from the 40s and 50s, filmmakers who were thought of only as making commercial entertainment. They're the reason that filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, and Nicolas Ray are now held in high esteem. They're also the reason why Citizen Kane is so revered today.

Critics from The Village Voice and The A.V. Club became proponents of this "new" auteur theory. Vulgar auteurism, which focused on a type of broad filmmaking distinguishing itself from prestige auteurs. It brought up filmmakers such as Michael Mann, who already had acclaim contemporarily, into the realm of one of the great filmmakers. It also brought up filmmakers that weren't acclaimed during their time, such as Tony Scott, who is now held in high regard and in some cases held in higher regard than his more prestige-oriented brother, Ridley Scott.

As time has gone on, this now applies to filmmakers such as Michael Bay, who has made a critical comeback after his Transformers movies with his 2022 film Ambulance, and M. Night Shyamalan, who started losing prestige throughout the 21st century. Movies from Shyamalan, such as The Village, The Happening, and After Earth are now held in higher regard than they were back during their releases.

Now that I have that out of the way, I wanted to bring up something as it's happening. While certain popcorn movies are now acclaimed (John Wick: Chapter 4 and Top Gun: Maverick being recent examples), there are still directors that are currently not being regarded highly that will likely meet a fate similar to Bay, Shyamalan, and Scott. I'm thinking of David Leitch, who received mixed-negative reception with his film Bullet Train while receiving positive albeit tepid reception with his follow-up The Fall Guy. Leitch is an auteur, much like Bay. His work on Deadpool 2 feels like him, even his film Hobbs and Shaw feels different than the other Fast and Furious franchise (although not to the same degree). Bullet Train was a relative box office hit at the time, but it's reached cult-classic status. Most people will probably know what movie you're talking about if you bring it up. It has a large presence on TikTok and other social media platforms. It simply lives in the culture. It contains the highly stylized, technically proficient action of films from Bay and Scott that were not well-liked by critics at the time. The same 20 and 30-something-year-olds who love Shyamalan today but despise Leitch will be in for a shock in ten years' time when the 20-something year olds who grew up with Bullet Train hold it in high regard like these people do Bad Boys II or Pain and Gain.

Another filmmaker who falls into this is Adam McKay. Much like Shyamalan, McKay received immense acclaim and prestige for his film The Big Short. Even films that weren't so acclaimed by critics at the time, such as Step-Brothers and The Other Guys, are held in high regard today as comedy masterpieces. So, what then of his critical reception on his last two films, Vice and Don't Look Up. Yes, they received Best Picture nominations, but they have become punching bags for these same film critics who loved Shyamalan's Trap. Don't Look Up specifically gets considered a terrible film. These aren't action films, so why am I bringing it up? McKay exhibits a loud and vulgar style in these films. He breaks the fourth wall constantly, interrupts the flow of scenes with freeze frames and insert shots. The editing in his films feels chaotic. So while this loud and vulgar style is accepted with filmmakers such as Scott, it seems like it's a bridge too far here. So I would not be surprised if McKay and Don't Look Up, which was one of the most-watched films on Netflix of all time, meet a similar reassessment period as the other films I've mentioned.

I didn't have much of a point to this other than to notice this pattern, even from critics and film lovers who seem to hold the theory to heart. And for some reason can't notice what's in front of them.

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I love reading but lately I've found myself having to sit in front of my 2k monitor to read PDFs because they're technical documents and render poorly on my Kindle, even with using various tools to optimize.

I've been considering getting a tablet primarily for this purpose. My main requirement is that I really don't want Android or iOS devices, leaving me with either purpose built Linux tablets or Windows tablets that I can replace with Linux. I really don't need much -

• Fast enough that there's no significant lag between page turns/scrolls
• 8"+ screen size
• Video watching isn't necessary but a nice bonus
• Wifi isn't absolutely necessary as long as there is an easy way of getting files on the device (USB transfer, SD card, external adapter, etc)
• SD card storage would be nice but I can also make due with just internal flash
• Keyboard is also optional - I wouldn't mind being able to run an IDE and connect to my gitlab instance for some simple coding on the fly or SSH into my homelab
• Cameras are largely unnecessary
• Decent battery life or the ability to upgrade down the road
• Looking for something around 500$ CAD (362-ish USD, 312€, 269£)

I've been eyeing the PineTab2 as it meets most of the requirements but reviews seem to be mixed on its usability. So I thought I would ask here if anybody has had similar requirements and found something that works for them. Or if the PineTab2 software has significantly improved - this reddit post seems to indicate that it is in a decent state now.

If nothing like this exists, I suppose I could settle for an Android device provided it can easily take a custom ROM and be de-googled. I would just prefer Linux as I know it quite well and I much prefer the freedom of it. I've also used a touch screen monitor with Plasma on my Arch laptop and been pleasantly surprised at the experience - the hardware is just a bit too clunky to reliably read with.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

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!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like us senate, viktor orban and knowledge management. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was mystified.

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!

I feel bored with new movies. I don’t know if it is me or if I feel burnet out on what Hollywood is putting out, either way i don’t feel there is anything new or refreshing.

I’ve watched some old movies, such as '12 Angry Men' (1957) which i found incredibly interesting. The entire movie is shot in one room basically and is about a youth charged for a murder and the twelve men in question have to decide if he should be put to a death sentence or not.

The point about mentioning this movie is that it is something very different than what is put out from Hollywood now. The same goes for 'Oceans Eleven' (1960) with the Rat Pack, which is a very different movie than the reboot from 2001.

I find older movies has more interesting plots and stories, not that it needs to be from the sixties. It can be from any decade, but I’d like to hear what you think should be on a movie bucketlist!

Thank you for your time, and I’m excited to watch your recommendations!