49
votes
What's your SILLY unpopular opinion?
By putting the word SILLY in the title, I mean SERIOUS ISSUES such as those are strictly prohibited:
- politics
- religion
- abortion
- capital punishment
- gender politics
- anything else that usually causes trouble or heated discussion
- anything that could lock this thread
Allowed subjects:
- movies
- television
- technology
- love
- food
- animals
- any seemeling stupid thing that will definetely NOT cause any kind of heated discssion
Star Wars isn't a good movie series.
This is a most serious charge to level.
Good, good... let the hate flow through you.
You have my vote.
Though, for some further clarity. I love the star wars universe, but I feel the movies are the weakest part of it. It's also why [here come's possibly an even more unpopular opinion], episode 1 is actually my favourite film [if I had to choose one]. You're going to say "no, it's a horrible film!", and yes, I agree it is a horrible film with awful dialogue. But it is the film which built up the universe for me more than any of the others, and I actually appreciate that.
The disney-fication of the franchise is even worse for people like me. They've killed off the EU [except for any parts they want to re-use if they can monetise it], and are now focusing only on making products which appeal to those which love the OT. In other words, nostalgic 40-somethings with deep pockets just looking to feel like a 10-year-old again. While I can tolerate poor movies [see start of rant ;-) ], it is across the entire board. Even their video games [my personal favourite form of SW media] has this strategy smeared all over the place. They are making games which don't appeal to gamers, but games which appeal to said nostalgic 40-somethings, which means it's all movie tie-ins and marketing BS. There seems to be a near endless stream of amazing concepts getting into development, only to be killed off due to not catering to the "core demographic".
So, uhhh yeah, have a vote ;-)
Star Wars movies are fun, not good.
Which was interesting with Rogue One, which was IMO a much better movie than Episode 8, but I had way more fun watching Episode 8 despite it being a mediocre movie with lots of things that annoy me.
OP said no politics! :P
I have expressed this a few times and feel like nobody takes me seriously. It's like Star Wars is some cultural institution that everyone is supposed to live and breathe, and that I've committed some mortal sin when I don't acknowledge some Star Wars reference that I've totally missed.
It's actually kinda boring!
I've never seen Star Wars
Because it's a great movie series?
Or because only Star Wars & Strikes Back were any good?
Totally agree! Most of them are mediocre at best, I think. The only one that is actually great is Rogue One, and The Force Awakens is also pretty good with Solo and Revenge of the Sith being decent.
edit: I deleted my previous ones because I thought of a way better one:
Being a morning person isn't morally superior to being a night owl. People act like if you wake up at 5 am and read a book and drink a coffee you're destined for sainthood, but if you stay up late and read a book and trade your stimulating beverage for a sedative one, you're bad and should be in bed!
I maintain that we live in a society designed for and by morning people. Like why can I not work from 10 - 7?? Why do I have to wake up at the ass crack of 7:00?!
Ditto with short sleeping. Like there is such a social stigma (at least in my profession of design) for people who aren't productive for 14 hours a day because their bodies require 8 or 9 hours of sleep. Sorry I don't have you weird mutant 5 hours of sleep per night metabolism or whatever.
My theory is that happens because morning people wake up and do things, then we wake up and have to deal with what they've done on top of doing things.
The only solution is to break things at night so that they have to spend some of their time fixing them, and thusly restore balance and bring harmony to all schedules.
Our cultural ideas about "virtue" all come from the days of doing manual labor on a farm. It's important to wake up early because you can't keep working after dark, so you need to do the hard stuff while there is still daylight.
And this is still super relevant for when I have to spend my time staring at a screen or on a phone call all day for some reason.
That's funny, maybe it's just because I'm in my 20s, but I feel backlash from the other direction. People get mad at me when start getting tired at 10pm on the weekend. I wake up at 5 every morning for work, give me a break!
You're probably familiar with the Benjamin Franklin quote, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." My favorite response to that comes from the 90s cartoon Animaniacs. "Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy but socially dead." I really believe that both quotes are true! Humans need balance!
Right? I can't wait to be elderly. It's gonna be lit.
Until your're a 72 year old who only sleeps 5 hours.
I took care of my great aunt for two months a decade back, she was upbtil 3AM, up at 8, and my tired 19-year-old self was tired after 8 hours of good sleep.
I have one sister in law who goes to bed at like 8pm every night and another who stays up til 3am every night.
They're BOTH bad!
When you're in your 20s you always get in trouble for doing anything responsible! For awhile I didn't eat pizza or fries because the greasiness was making me feel sick, and people were always on about it. Now that I'm in my thirties I can't imagine anyone caring?
Mark Tawin "Advice to Youth (1882)"
I always figured that if this were 'thousands of years ago', night owls would be the one up at late warding off the predators while the rest of the village slept.
90% of peak TV television experiences could be abridged down to a single seasons worth of television, and you would get a more enjoyable experience out of it. More still could break into in half hour episodes, and more than you think could survive as ten minute chunks.
Just ask the Brits
Yeah, I was thinking Anime, but British TV has a lot of the same in fiction: most that are one and dones, and their long runners are institutions.
Fleabag is the perfect example of this.
She's also in my favorite episode of How Not to Live Your Life.
Thats not unpopular. We all know its all fluffed out and chopped up so you end up seeing everything twice before and after the ads.
Nah, dude. I mean the Binge model, better on streaming format. Lost, Breaking Bad, Mr. Robot, all would have been better as One Season Wonders. GoT and Westworld I can't speak for, but I'd imagine it would be the same. Adapt or plot only as much story as you need to tell, and go for broke.
Breaking Bad? No way. The whole point of that show is character development, which takes time. It didn't do what Lost did and go on way too long before ending unsatisfactorily, it told the story it needed to tell in the amount of time that fit. Condensing it into one season, you'd get an experience like Season 8 of GOT, where it felt rushed and characters made huge personality shifts and all the details that made the story great get thrown aside in the name of coming to a resolution.
Breaking Bad is very dense, but if there wasn't the expectation of being able to have more than one season, you could get the point across of "Middle School teacher turns into drug kingpin after he gets a cancer diagnosis and learns that his meekness is a front for his monstrosity" pretty well. Maybe it's the exception that proves the rule and deserves every inch of it's gilded pedestal, but I think that they story was so invested in Walter White that it could never really pull the trigger on him being a villain, that the show suffers for the meandering even when it's the thesis of the show, and that the show ends the way it does kinda proves it.
The only criticism I have of the binge model is that it greatly diminishes the opportunity for the show to become a cultural phenomenon.
If you don't have that week in between episodes, there's no time for people to come up with crazy theories, analysis, opinion pieces, twitter storms, subreddits, or talk about it around the water cooler. There's no opportunity for anticipation and conversation. Talking about it in between seasons vs single episodes is not even close to the same thing. The level of investment is much smaller because it only happens once a year rather than ten or so times over the same number of weeks each year. That once a year drop of ten episodes does not generate buzz ten times, it only does it once, and not at 10x the scope of a single ep, either.
A lot of shows just up and vanished the same week they were released. Then there's no buzz, so no reason to order up another season. I suppose most shows are crap so for them it doesn't matter, but the flagship dramas definitely deserve better than an unceremonious full season dump. If the network feels like the show is a ringer, they should consider weekly releases.
Watching Lost would be such a bore if they released each season at once. The crazy theories were half of the fun.
I guess for shows like comedies, sitcoms and light drama it's fine to use the binge format, but stuff like thrillers and mysteries need to be released slowly so fans can make up theories and think about it carefuly.
You really think they could fit all of Breaking Bad into ~12 episodes and still have the same impact?
There's a lot more to telling a good story than just conveying plot points.
I'll start: I hate Nutella and anything that contains hazelnuts. It feels disgusting, my brain doesn't know if it's eating basil or chocolate. People should get out of their high horses and start eating Nutella like regular human beings: quietly, in their homes. There's absolutely no need to make it into a fucking movement. It's just chocolate, hazelnut and a lot of sugar. Not unicorn dust mixed with heroin.
I felt my rage building up as I read your comment, because I'm one of those people who fucking loves hazelnut and chocolate, but then I got to
and I couldn't agree more. This attitude applies to a lot of things, really. I mean I've always loved bacon, but for a few years it felt like there was bacon (or at least bacon likeness) everywhere. I don't need it in my soap, and on my backpack, and flavoring my breathmints, and on obnoxious graphic tees... just let me eat my damn bacon in peace!
Sriracha did the same thing. Not breathmints, but it was in a beer.
I had that, it reminded me of wasabi beer. I don't hate it, but there are other better beers I'd rather be drinking, like goose island bourbon county stout or boulder mojo rising or pyramid weiss cream or lindeman's framboise. Why on earth would you want wasabi or sriracha in your beer when you can have those instead? :P
By the way - the bacon vodka? I nearly threw up just at the smell. Yuck!
Oof. I'm a little disappointed in myself for wanting to try it.
It was surprisingly good in a stout
I believe that was more Rogue Brewery's idea and execution.
I developed an aversion to Nutella after manning a crêpe stand for two years. Nutella was the thing we sold almost four times more off than any other crêpe. It was the thing for which parents would break the "no unhealthy snacks" rule on a whim, it was the thing sulking old grandmas ordered despite berating us for offering Cola as a drink. And despite all of this it's still just a middle-of-the-road chocolate hazelnut paste with slightly more stuff in it to make it smoother.
Seriously, it's not that special, just buy a good quality chocolate hazelnut paste.
What would a "good" paste be? I only know about Nutella and knock offs.
Brands are going to differ per country, personally I found Lidl's house-brand chocolate paste to be perfectly serviceable. Otherwise delicatessen/specialty food stores will sometimes carry more high-end pastes, but again this is going to vary per country. You can also make it yourself.
I feel the same way about bacon. I maybe wouldn't go so far as disgusting, but definitely mediocre, and the worst of the usual breakfast meats. Not sure why loving bacon became such a meme.
Agreed, the meme status of bacon is weird. I (really) enjoy it as part of a hot breakfast, a pizza topping, or on a BLT. And that's about the extent of it. Can't stand it mixed with chocolate, or as a toothpaste flavoring, or whatever else those maniacs come up with.
Have you had canadian bacon on pizza? Not so big on regular bacon on pizza myself, but canadian bacon is a whole other story, probably my favorite single topping.
I have! It's okay. I mean it's pretty hard for any topping to ruin a pizza (but not impossible, hamburger I'm looking at you) and Canadian bacon's more than acceptable. I wouldn't rank it that highly though.
You know what's really good on a pizza though? Chorizo and green chile. If you've never tried it, get thee to New Mexico.
What kind of chorizo are we talking about here? Mexican, I assume, based on the green chile. I think a Salvadoran chorizo might be better on pizza, or maybe a nice Guatemalan longaniza. The only thing I've ever liked Mexican chorizo in is eggs or potato, can't really see it as a pizza topping.
I like hazelnuts and chocolate a lot, but I still think Nutella is gross. It's mostly sugar and palm oil, one of the most unhealthy oils. Pure butter would be healthier.
About 13% hazelnuts, which is more than the amount of chocolate. It is mostly sugar and fat, not disputing that part.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutella
This is the best two sentences I have read all week.
Video games with complex controls and a steep learning curve are overrated. The best video games are pick-up-and-play; they don't need an instruction manual or a long tutorial.
That's interesting. Lately I've been playing Myst. It's a pretty deep thinking game, you have to solve a lot of puzzles and do a lot of reading (in-game) to succeed in the game. But the interface is entirely point-and-click. I think the game is complex and rich, but the learning curve to get started is incredibly simple.
I've never been one to enjoy "cinematic" gaming, and I'm not entirely sure why. I love movies, film, photography, art... Gaming just doesn't do it for me. So I suppose that probably contributes to my pick-up-and-play attitude.
I think the exact opposite. Video games with complex controls and steep learning curves are the only ones that I really get any sense of true satisfaction from playing. Unfortunately I don't have the time to play games like that. I miss sitting down and reading the 300 page flight manual for Jane's Longbow and feeling like I actually put some of the work in to learn to fly an Apache.
What if the steep learning curve comes from trying to simulate actually complex things (e.g. Gran Turismo) and the game is designed to make light of your failures? (e.g. Kerbal Space Program).
Games with willfully complex control schemes that force you to do things that computers are perfectly good at (looking at you Starcraft 2), however, you are spot on about.
I'm not quite sure. This sounds like an intriguing point, but I'm not familiar enough with the gameplay of those games to comment.
What's complex about StarCraft 2's control scheme? It's bog standard for an RTS (if anything, it's the series that created the standard). Hotkeys are something you memorize to get faster at any software.
Bog standard for RTS isn’t exactly a gold standard to live up to. The genre has been stale and unwilling to evolve substantially past Brood War and it’s held it back, arguably to the point of virtual irrelevance.
Much of the complexity is intentional inefficiency in the interface and intentionally challenging to execute mechanics in the gameplay in order to raise the skill ceiling and require extremely high APM to play competitively.
It emphasizes the multi-tasking and time/attention management at the expense of strategy and the move towards executing canned build orders at lower ranks turns the whole thing into a contest of keyboard and mouse skills rather than tactical or strategic thinking.
Games like Total War are much better at scratching the strategy itch at this point since that’s the thing they prioritize the design around instead of figuring out how to play.
You've hit the nail on the head as to why I never liked RTS games that much. The only one I can stand to play much at all is Lord Monarch. All units are controlled by a basic UI, and everything pauses not only when you try to make decisions (such as changing a unit's tasks or setting tax rates), but whenever you even move the mouse.
Sorry, I thought we were talking specifically about control schemes? You said that above. The control scheme, specifically left click select and right click action, is what's bog standard.
Picking up and interacting with an RTS is pretty much as easy as it gets. You can play almost all of them with just a mouse. Being good at it them another story entirely, and that's in the realm of fighting games.
I'm sorry, I don't think this is a fair sentiment. I see it a lot around discussions of RTS games, StarCraft 2 specifically since it was the last major RTS and the subgenre seems to have fallen out of favour unless it's competitive. Those are completely different types of strategy games, and they accomplish and fill a very different kind of need. It's basically reads the same to me as "Arena shooters shot themselves in the foot for not being realistic enough, and that's why Call of Duty will always be better shooters than Quake." They're not the same kinds of game, and they don't appeal to the same styles of play.
There are a lot of people for whom the RTS subgenre's stlye of strategy appeal to with the huge popularity SC2 enjoyed and how its scene is still around (even if small). The genre's out of favour now but is that because nobody wants one, or because nobody is making a good one?
For the people who have spent the time and energy to have those mouse and keyboard skills are playing at comparable amount of tactics and strategy as Total War players, but of a much faster and instinctual sort. It's referred to as "3D space speed chess" because of the specific type of strategic thinking it activates, in a way that other subgenres like Total War, XCOM, Civilization do not.
Really, your problems there are the barrier of entry to competitive play for the subgenre. A normal RTS campaign does not require excellent mouse and keyboard skills, nor canned build orders. A good RTS' campaigns throw you different kind of strategic puzzles, kind of like chess puzzles. Not everything about these games is PvP.
Lastly: StarCraft is a bad game to generalize the subgenre with because it's the fastest one, by far. The slower ones seem to have wider appeal, like WarCraft and Command & Conquer.
I saw this video linked the other day: What Games Are Like For Someone Who Doesn't Play Games.
I've only skipped around through it quickly so far but it seems pretty good, and specifically talks about that.
This was interesting, thanks for sharing.
I know they're a small part of gaming history, but I wish he had touched on text-based games (aka interactive fiction). He spent some time talking about the subject's struggles with understanding limitations of games. The interesting thing is that text-based games are notorious for having very few limitations in terms of what you can do (or at least, try to do). You can smell things, push things, take things, talk to people, attack people... In a well-made text-based game, you can attempt just about anything you can think of. I wonder how she would have approached that experience?
My favorite games growing up were the Sierra games that evolved from the text based games that had come before. You still had almost all of the freedom of typing out what you wanted to do in the text parser, with some limitation as they were not going to 'animate' every conceivable action. You could try just about anything with what you had on hand, and if you did something that failed you usually got a good laugh out of it.
My SO did not play many games when she was younger. Recently i installed the Gamecube/Wii emulator and we played Mario Kart Double Dash.
The simplest things for me was difficult for her in the beginning, but after one hour she was getting better.
We played Mario Party 4* after that and when a minigame made her jump from one moving platform to another, she just couldn't do no matter what. It was really, really difficult.
That video shows exactly that (0:38) using Hollow Knight as a example.
* Man, that game really sucks after you experience modern boardgames. I remember being delighted and having so much fun as a kid with Mario Party on N64. Mario Party 4 is old school in the same vein. The game gives you no agency most of the time. Everything is so random that the winner is not who is better, it's mostly luck. I know i'm being an ass, it's not a boardgame per se and the game is mostly for fun and jokes, but i didn't liked any single moment of it. My SO hated it too.
You make a really good point, I hadn't quite thought about that.
I think that there are some things about gaming that are pretty universal. Nearly every video game has some kind of navigation, using either WASD and a mouse or the arrows and thumbsticks on a controller. Many games involve jumping, and some kind of attack move. You might have a time limit, or a health bar, or some other indication of how near your character is to death.
What I'm getting at here is that I think there are some basics to video games that most people know. And once you know those basics, you can pick up and play the majority of video games. I think that those games are the best games, because they're accessible to the majority of the population. Nevertheless, there is definitely a variety of skill levels out there, and one's skill level definitely affects the playability of the game for that individual.
I feel like a should get a Ph.D. to play fighting games these days...
Agreed. This reminds me of a video I saw on youtube about the game Hollow Knight and how a good game's design, tutorial, and mechanics are integrated in a - excuse the term - organic way into the game itself. It made me realize that a lot of games throw the text equivalent of a manual in your face. Rare is the game these days that is plug and play and still good with depth.
Link to youtube video: 6 Lessons from Hollow Knight's Immersive Tutorial (https://youtu.be/vWiDS8SUvds)
I played Timespinner on Xbox Game Pass, it was a high fantasy Metroidvainia that was about as inspired by Chrono Trigger as the Chrono Trigger section of AO3. Of note is that it had a difficulty more where any time your health hit zero, you immediately went back up to full, making your character incapable of dying. I don't know if it was the novelty of it, but I collected all the stuff, got the secret ending, and felt like I got my time and money's worth out of it, and I remember having a better time of it than ANY of the dozen roguelikes I've played, ever.
This is why I put down Witcher 3 after a while. I'm probably not the target audience anyway, but it seems needlessly complicated to me with way too many mechanics to keep track of and learn. I don't mind a challenge, but more than anything, I want to relax when I play video games, not feel like I'm in school and solving an assignment.
Man, you nailed it. That's exactly my perspective on many games. I know I'm definitely not the target audience, and that's fine with me. Other people can enjoy those games if they want. It's just not how I enjoy spending my time.
Pineapple on pizza is honestly one of my favorite types of pizza. It's such a good combination! The little extra sweetness is delicious
I came to post the opposite, that it's a crime against pizza. Maybe my opinion is more popular than I think it is.
Pineapple on pizza is the Jar-Jar of food on the internet.
Pineapples also contain acids that help you digest stuff like meat and cheese. Pineapple on pizza pas predestined.
Pineapple pizza only works if you use fresh pineapple this allows the pineapple to caramelize and that greatly enhances the flavor and generally makes for an interesting flavor combination.
Otherwise you are using canned pineapple in water, which just makes the pizza soupy and sloppy and everything flows together. Also the pizza doesn't even cook right because of all the added water. What makes it even worse is the fact that most pizza joints aren't using a hot enough oven to cook something like pineapple.
Canned pineapple in general is a travesty.
truth
"Y'all" is just as reasonable a contraction as "I'm," "can't," etc.. Y'all English speakers are crazy for failing to invent and popularize a plural "you."
Fun fact: The Dutch second person plural pronoun “jullie”, similar to “y'all”, actually used to be “jij lui” (“you people”), but merged into a single word over the years.
I suppose there’s a racial component in this matter.
is y'all racial? I'm white, living in Canada and I've been saying it since I was a child.
I despise the new era of always on smart-devices, especially from companies with a poor-at-best track record of user privacy.
It's disgusting.... I want my privacy back.
I’d say that on Tildes that’s a pretty popular opinion.
Guess so, lol.
I despise them as well, but for a different reason. Their battery life sucks balls. And I mean, all the balls. I still have my Nokia 3100 that used to go up to two weeks without a charge. It's over ten years old now, and it still works longer than most devices these days.
No, Samsung/Apple/Huawei/WhateverCorp, I don't want a thin fucking smartphone. I want a phat, heavy phone that lasts at least a week.
Ah, yes... if we could get back to Phones lasting a week, that would be amazing.
Any cold stew without enormous chunks is basically just a dip, and can be eaten with chips.
This is the wildest thing I would have never thought of, but also can't find anything to disagree with.
Here in Brazil, specially in my city, there was/is a boom of japanese restaurants. That's ok, i love me some shimeji and sashimi.
But Brazil loves to put some brazilian-ish touch in everything and we absolutely destroy what we touch. So now everything has cream cheese in it.
It tastes good in some things, but they put a lot. To the point that temakis becomes a mess. It drips everywhere and it's just gross.
People seem to love this and i'm the hater.
I love Japanese food and I always choose the most simple and traditional just fucking fish version of everything.
As an American I find the brazillian take on the hot dog to be terrifying, offensive and I must try one they look amazing.
There is one in my city that it's really awesome. It started as a hot dog cart near a college. It got so famous that now it has a building, far away from said college, but still carries the college name.
It's awesome. Love some shredded chicken breast hot dog.
Do you live in São Paulo by any chance?
Not the capital. Small city.
Na região de São José do Rio Preto.
That's like Mexican sushi, which is fuckin gross. It's all cream cheese, melted cheese, bread crumbs, and fake crab meat. Though...I'll have it, on occasion.. when I'm hungry enough. But I can only stomach it like 2 times a year, max.
The Mexican sushi spot I used to go to did have pretty damn good mariscos, though.* Like, better than traditional mariscos joints. And I'd go back for that.
*In fact i found this is the case for many Mexican sushi spots
There's a bunch of 'culichi' joints in and around my neighborhood and I cannot fathom why anyone would waste their time on that 'sushi' instead of going to a legit sushi restaurant with a properly trained chef. I've never been a huge fan of mariscos (we didn't eat seafood growing up), but find the idea of cream cheese on everything offensive.
Well, it's its own thing. I prefer the basic sushi rolls and nigiri when I go to a sushi spot, but some people like those extravagant rolls with a buncha crap on 'em. Mexican sushi just takes panko crumb-y, cream cheese-y, spicy mayo/eel sauce-y rolls to the next ridiculous level.
I've been to a Culichi Town once...never again. Not necessarily because of the food, but the banda music was so damn loud...
If anyone is unfamiliar with Mexican sushi, scroll through this joint's Instagram page to get an idea.
I cannot imagine why anyone would want a trumpet blaring into their ear in such a small space. I don’t want to be deafened at dinner, but I guess someone has to enjoy it for all these folks to be waiting outside in a line to get in.
Not sure if you're joking here, but technology is one of the things people spent literal years debating about. Especially if that's something about audiophile stuff or an eternal holywar like “macOS vs. Windows” or “Intel vs. AMD”.
Ignoring “technology”, some of my unpopular opinions are:
I also have a couple of other unpopular opinions about some bands, films, etc. that have a fan-bases which are… unwelcoming to criticism, so I don't feel comfortable sharing them here.
I mean technology can certainly generate heated arguments but they’re frequently silly and are unlike to make the thread be locked - /r/unpopularopinions is a bigot fest.
It was always destined to be that way. It makes no sense to set up a subreddit for unpopular opinions...on a site that ranks submissions by popularity. Of course it was going to be the bigoted opinions that float to the top there, at least without good moderation.
I loved Speed Racer. I'm watching that again soon now, thank you! :D
I was going to explain exactly where Primer went off the rails, but I'm just going to followup with an unpopular opinion that "Any Time Travel Movie that doesn't undo the inciting incident for Time Travel is incomprehensible."
You should watch Predestination or read all All You Zombies. I even wrote an analysis on it:
https://daviramos.com/en/an-analysis-of-robert-heinleins-all-you-zombies-with-visuals/
The Man Who Folded Himself is another good one.
This 100%. I pissed off a lot of the people I saw it with (a big group of us went together) because me and another guy were making fun of it the whole time. It's utterly ridiculous.
Preface: Lizzo is a great musician and it's great to see someone make it to her level with a sincere, empowering message. If you haven't seen her Tiny Desk Concert I insist that you do this post haste.
Opinion: Truth Hurts must be the product of an insidious DARPA program to manufacture and deploy indelible ear worms on densely populated areas. I literally cannot get any of the 4 parts of that song out of my head and it's driving me to distraction.
Preface: Technology is good and we have realized many great things from its development and advancement.
Opinion: Technology isn't all that great and our reliance on it is going to destroy the planet. Carbon sequestration machines aren't a replacement for forests and wetlands. Hydroponics aren't a solution to a global food system that distributes food unfairly to the richest nations. All the wind farms and paper straws in the world aren't gonna save us if we don't start consuming less. Is this one too serious? It kinda took a turn and I'm sorry.
I think you might be right about Lizzo. Truth Hurts is an amazing song but it is an insidious ear worm.
No, but forests and wetlands literally won't save us alone at this point.
You are correct, however they are a solution to our continued destruction of forests, wetlands, bogs, and other areas of land for farming. And they are absolutely a solution to our continued destruction of topsoil and beneficial microscopic life.
I have not read that. Where are you seeing that published?
Sorry to necro, but my understanding is that forests and wetlands have limits as to how much they can absorb. Older forests can sequester less carbon than younger forests. Additionally, as the planet warms, ecosystems which begin to collapse can no longer absorb CO2.
Crocs (the shoe) are friggin' awesome, and despite their looks, I don't think the hate they get is justified.
I feel like it's because famous people started using them and they look so silly you start to wonder "why would they do that? Are they so comfy you would wear that in public?"
The name of the Seventh Planet is Caelus. Every planet in the solar system is named for a Roman deity (not the Greek analogue). Mercury, Venus, Terra (in countless fictional worlds), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Caelus, and Neptune. When Pluto (Greek) was canon, there was more of a justification, but now, there is none beyond tradition.
Ouranos is dead. Long live Caelus.
This makes even more sense as no one uses Ouranos and uses Uranus.
But Caelus is Latin for "sky." You'd functionally be telling people to point their telescopes at the sky to see the sky.
Ouranos is Greek for "sky". We do that already :P
Pluto was Roman too. Hades is Greek
The word "utilize" serves no practical purpose except to make the user seem more elevated in their discourse. It is a word with a very specific application and most instances of its use are actually misuses. It's now basically a pretentious version of "use" and signals "I'm trying to sound more elevated by using long words instead of proper words."
To be fair, it's a super common word and many people who I respect use it regularly. But I'll hear it every time, like bad kerning.
Have you read Orwell's Politics and the English Language essay? I think you might enjoy it if you haven't https://orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit
Fascinating read, thanks! It definitely makes me consider the way I write emails at work
Ohh, I haven't read this particular essay. Thanks!
Everyone could use more time in their day, but would they utilize it?
Oh god yes. I only excuse it when it refers to the efficient/maximal/optimal utilization of e.g. a resource.
Also the word "novel". Just say "new".
But new things can be poorly done boring retreads of old concepts. They're new, but not novel.
Perhaps you are right, but where I do the majority of my reading, it's often synonymous with "new" and way over utilized
Perhaps we need a novel new word to fill it's spot, then?
Indubitably. Though I think it's just poor style. Tbh, I don't really have that much of an issue with "novel" and "utilize" it's just the overuse and overall poor word choice that makes it tiresome to read (moreover, don't get me started on adverbs). All words serve a purpose, it's a matter of the author to apply the right tools.
Poor society. I've never heard of a single concept that gets so much flak in high minded thinkpieces. No one ever gives society a break.
Wearing socks with sandals is perfectly fine, and in fact preferable in many cases to wearing socks without sandals.
I'm wearing sandals because it's hot outside. That means my feet might be sweaty. Socks absorb that sweat and keep my feet and shoes cleaner overall than if I were just wearing sandals without socks.
That is perfectly reasonable and fair. That's a win in my court.
I've been rockin socks+sandals pretty regularly the past couple of months. It's a look.
Tabs over spaces and anyone who disagrees is basically wrong.
What if I disagree because the guidelines of my project/company/language require spaces?
Well your company doesn't require you to disagree with me, merely to use them.
Anime sucks balls. Before someone comments "You just haven't watched GOOD anime". Maybe that's true, but I'm judging it as a whole here. I don't know how many sameish highschool romance shows where all the girls look exactly the same except for their hair color there can be before a genre actually gets judged by them. All of it looks exactly the same to me, everything I've ever watched just irritates me, and any time I ever bring it up someone tells me the same thing "You just haven't watched GOOD anime". If an art style/genre takes this much digging to find the good examples of, then it's probably not for me. It doesn't help that half of my friends are complete weebs who constantly reference stuff that I will never understand.
Anime is more a media than a genre. Not liking Anime because of a few examples is kinda disliking music because you dislike The Beatles, or movies because you hated Citizen Kane.
You can hate it all you want, but know what you're doing.
Yes.
Also probably most of what is imported to the west are probably aimed at a demographic that's not for you.
I mean, it's television or movies, just like any other television or movie, except it's animated and from japan. That pretty well classifies it as a genre in my mind. I like television shows and movies, I just don't like animated Japanese ones.
A genre is a well defined set of cliches that usually come together. A media is technology framework in which works of art can be displayed, including genres.
They’re pretty different to me.
If you can't find any anime that isn't a samey highschool romance, I'm not sure where you're looking at anime
That's kinda like saying all American shows are cop procedurals, or all British programming is about sad people. True by volume, but not the whole catalog and there's a lot of nuance that's missed in between shows.
I guess, but one can only sample so many turds before deciding that maybe turds are not for them.
I can find them, but if the majority of them are that, that's how I judge the genre.
Some animes that will probably challenge your notion of what anime even is:
Don't forget Nichijou. Which turns the traditional "anime girls at school" on the side of it's head and has clearly had a lot of creativity and heart poured into it.
To me that feels like saying "The most popular books are religious texts, and I'm an atheist, so therefore the genre of book is not for me.". Anime isn't a genre, it has many genres, and you can't judge a whole medium just by volume of a certain kind of show.
It's a genre just like cartoons are a genre. There are tropes in anime that tend to exist just like there are trends in cartoons that tend to exist. Someone saying that they don't like cartoons or anime makes a lot more sense than saying that they don't like movies or tv shows or books. After all, anime is going to either be a TV Show or a Movie. It's not a separate type of media altogether.
I'd say cartoons are a medium, not a genre - since it just means that its drawn. Family Guy, Futurama, and the Simpsons are cartoons, but I definitely wouldn't put them in the same genre as most of the kids cartoons. And I think its pretty similar to someone saying they don't like movies/TV shows/books (which happens fairly often for me).
I like anime, but there is a lot of crappy anime out there. I wouldn't blame anyone for having your opinion if you've only seen a string of bad stereotypical anime.
Out of curiosity, which anime have you watched? Also I'd like to point out that most media requires some effort sifting through bad content to find the good content.
The usual suggestions, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, along with popular stuff like dragon ball, naruto, and countless random things that have appeared and I've watched to try to give a fair shake. I just can't deal with the tendency towards extreme melodrama, and what I find to be sort of extreme juvenile, unrealistic depictions of emotion that a lot of the genre tends to have. It doesn't help that most of the people I know that are into anime and cosplaying just like generic highschool drama show #3432, which I cannot see the appeal of whatsoever. In much the same way that some people don't like horror or action or sci fi, I've become OK with the fact that anime is not for me.
If your not fishing for recommendations, please ignore, but you might be interested in Monster.
I see, I'm not a huge fan of any of the shows that you named either. If you're open for recommendations, two Anime that I like that aren't too melodramatic would be "Uchuu Kyoudai" (an anime about a man who strives to become an astronaut), and "Natsume Yuujinchou" (an anime about a teenage boy who can see monsters, yes I know that it sounds very stereotypical).
People tend to cosplay the shows with the most mindshare at the time, which tend to be worse, considering popularity =/= quality. Also, anime isn't a genre, it's a medium, there's a pretty large difference. There can be sci-fi or horror anime.
Black liquorice is good, actually
It's weird how people will think you childish if you don't like the taste of coffee or alcohol, but having a pallet refined enough to enjoy black licorice doesn't give you any maturity points.
I'm pretty sure the whole country of Finland agrees.
I don't have a problem with the word “moist.”
There are other words that I do revile (I won’t list them here) but that one’s never evoked the same reaction from me that most people seem to have.
I guess I will jump in this a little late, but better than never:
Internet forums aren't nearly as useful for learning new things as some people would think.
The world would be a better place without alcohol.
Biking is the superior form of transportation
IPAs are gross
Half of published psychology research can't be reproduced and/or uses bad statistics to determine their research findings
Behaviorism is king.
AI is not going to destroy the world. It will definitely change the way we do things and change cultures though.
Everyone should practice meditation and focusing on mindfulness
I think you may not be giving alcohol a fair shake here. Yes, it's been responsible for millions of deaths, but beer was a massive motivator for establishing agriculture, and a reliable source of hydration, and thus modern human societies. Fermentation, distillation, and so much of our understanding of modern biology, chemistry, and fluid dynamics owes itself to ancient humans trying to get drunk. Despite causing so much death, shared inebriation by powerful leaders also has lead to greater understanding and cooperation over the millennia. Without alcohol to lower the inhibitions and grease the wheels of diplomacy, who knows how many peace treaties would have never been signed?
I think this a fair response but I come from the perspective that an unwholesome act will cause pain and suffering far beyond the moment the action occurred.
A drunk who comes home and beats their kids will forever change the way those kids learn to behave and act. It will change everything for that kid and could teach them that is a fine way to behave, furthering the cycle of suffering. A drunk driver who kills another person will leave a lasting pain across several generations in a family as well as the impact it will have on the friends of that family. Overall, I think that pain and suffering of others is a burden we all share in some shape or form and alcohol as a whole causes as much long term pain as it does short term pleasure.
Yes, we have had scientific advances in the quest for a better drink, but who can tell which scientists or philosophers lives were cut short because of alcoholism. Who can tell how many wars were started due to an inebriated king or warlord from the past whose decision making has become increasingly dull over time from consumption. I think as a whole, we would be more likely to seek peace and understanding of others when we have been taught how to handle our emotions and understand where and how they arise in us.
As much as it's easy to blame alcohol for these problems, shitty people will be shitty people, drugs or not. Do drugs cause some otherwise non-shitty people to become shitty people? Sure, but so a plethora of other situations.
It's also ignoring the good that alcohol causes some. It makes some people more friendly. It lowers social inhibitions, allowing people who otherwise might not have connected to connect.
I think it's impossible to truly weigh how good or bad a substance like alcohol is in the eyes of absolute positive and negative effects on society. I think the smartest thing we can do is try to identify individuals who are addicted or causing negative things to happen and work on rehabilitating them so that we remove as much negative as possible.
I believe these two points are contradicting, at least the way I am interpreting. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I read this as "Alcohol doesn't make people do bad things, bad people do bad things". Similar to arguments I sometimes hear about guns, "Guns don't kill people, people do." Dismissing the ill effects as person-oriented but praising the positive effects of alcohol, you would end up with a positive overall view.
I come from the perspective as someone who hasn't had a drink in nearly 3 years after suffering from alcohol addiction. I have watched significant people in my life struggle and suffer. And I have had two years of practicing meditation and mindfulness to know that the positive effects of alcohol do come at an expense that could otherwise be gotten through other means.
And while yes we can identify and help people recover, they will still live in alcohol's world. I can tell you firsthand the difficulty of sobriety when it is so heavily tied to the culture of everyone else. You go to the store and are reminded of it down every aisle, it is the center piece of many people's lives when there is a social gathering, and if you choose to self-select out, you must be prepared to be excluded and treated differently from the group.
I think due to its very addictive nature alone, one can see the negative impact that it can have on all people.
Apologies, my point wasn't to say that there are no negative effects of alcohol. It's a nuanced view but I was pointing out that not all bad people who drink alcohol are bad because they drink alcohol. Some are just bad people, and they'd be bad whether alcohol was there or not. As you pointed out, some people are bad because they have access to alcohol and it's an enabler to bad behavior.
There are positive things that are addictive too. Addiction in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, and due to the variation in human population, some things which are very addictive never become addictive for some individuals and some things which are not very addictive become quickly addictive for others. Addiction alone doesn't tell us much.
I think it's important to note why people behave in this way. Generally it happens because of a bad upbringing, but can also be because of societal problems and the main reason for it I believe is stress. I had an... unfortunate relationship with my mother until she realised some of the family were toxic, she cut them off, her stress is lower, and she no longer takes it out on me. We have a strong relationship and she is a completely different person now, and much more like herself. I believe that having a proper welfare system in place (which has been shown to reduce incidence of disease, and poverty, which are the major causes of stress -- as well as being the major funding for social care that allow people to access therapists that help them deal with stress) is the main gateway to our progression as a society as a whole. I also believe that schools as a system (and the whole modern concept of Discipline) do not teach children how to deal with their anger in ways that are fundamentally beneficial. For example, shouting at a child that is stressed or angry just teaches them that that is an acceptable way of dealing with those emotions, whereas giving the child a space that they can access that is free from the stresses that are causing them trouble allow them to learn to deal with the emotions in a more productive way (This is why children are typically sent to their bedroom, it's not a punishment (even though many parents have it framed like that), it's a way to allow the child to have a safe place to de-stress) is infinitely more beneficial.
People who abuse alcohol and other substances ususally do so as a coping mechanism for something that their life lacks, or as a way of avoiding problems that they do not feel ready to deal with, allowing people access to resources to help them deal with that, and freedom from work, allows people to step back and assess their own life and find what they are missing, or deal with those problems better.
These are not opinions that are usually held in tandem :-)
This isn't an opinion, it's a fact. It's literally a part of the standard Psychology course at Ivy Tech and the NOBA Project (The latter of which consists of material contributed to by university professors around the globe. Both of which I chose as examples because their course material is open to the public). See also this good summary at Psychology Today and the source article at Science. There are more links in this article at The Atlantic.
Actually medicine as a whole is having a replication crisis at the moment, not to mention the profuse proliferation of unethical practices perpetrated by Big Pharma companies. Ben Goldacre (who is a medical doctor currently Chair of the NHS HealthTech Advisory Board, among other achievements) wrote a book about it which I highly recommend (Review for the book by experts is available here and another here)
Pro-wrestling is better than real sports and most TV/Movies.
I think the concept of "kayfabe" is essential to really "getting it" too. This article is mostly about applying it to politics, but it's a great general explanation:
Always a good time to link to Max Landis' excellent mini-documentary Wrestling isn't wrestling in case anyone hasn't seen it.
I'm sorry but I tried watching that on two separate occasions and it just makes me annoyed.
Eggs are fuckin gross.
You are not wrong. I can only eat boiled eggs now - I got food poisoning from an omelet a few years ago and threw up several times in the span of a few days. Anytime I smell eggs now, I get a little bit nauseous. But boiled eggs are fine for some reason!
That was... dangerously undercooked. Almost like they make on TV! Horrifying!
Pears are the worst fruit. Zero taste, an awful and grainy texture, and expensive. Any recipe involving pears is instantly worse. Bananas are a distant second -- mushy, not especially flavorful, and expires quickly, but there's at least important nutritional value to be had. I'll eat a banana if I'm sore after a workout but I won't necessarily enjoy it; however I can't ever imagine a scenario where eating a pear is beneficial to me.
Either our taste buds are different or you've been eating some low quality fruits. I personally can eat buckets of both of these fruits, especially the banana. Hard crunchy pears can be tasteless, but they still are refreshing to eat, sort of like cucumbers. Fully ripened reddish pears are absolutely delicious and full of taste in my experience.
Honestly my experience with pears is largely based on regularly having them at a cafeteria lunch in my childhood, the same cafeteria that made me hate sweet potatoes until I was in my mid-twenties, so maybe I could go back and try pears again.
I completely agree with you on raw pears. Why would anyone eat a raw pear? The texture is just awful. Blegh!
A cooked pear can be OK if used judiciously, however. Not my favourite, but not horrible like a raw pear at least.
Now, I've heard of fancy mail-order pears that are supposed to be silkier and tastier, but I'm certainly not shelling out $50 CAD to get a dozen of them delivered to my house just to try.
I personally really like that gritty texture. Kinda like lemon polenta cake.
Agreed. They taste like sweet cardboard.
honestly with pears it depends mostly on the type and the ripeness. bosc pears, once they're ripe (you know once you push a finger in the neck and it's slightly mushy), taste heavenly. they make apples taste like water in comparison.
The prequels are the best star wars movies.
I'll go farther: the original movies are not even that good.
They're all awful. They're kids films and bad ones at that. Spy Kids is better than Star Wars (seriously, the original Spy Kids is excellent)
Almost all on-screen sci-fi is terrible (and I'm being extremely generous classing most "sci-fi" content as actual sci-fi). Star Wars, Star Trek, that other one people go on about with that dude from Buffy in, um, all of them. With the exception of the BSG reboot and a couple of the Love Death and Robots shorts. (ok, ok, I will admit to having a soft spot for Raumpatrouille Orion). And no, not The Expanse. The books are mediocre and derivative at best and the TV series misses most of the few good parts they had.
Ahem. I'll get my coat.
I used to be a giant star wars nerd. But I had only seen the movies once as a little kid - all my star wars fandom was based on reading or audiobook-reading every. single. novel. I could get my hands on, over and over!
I rewatched the movies a couple years ago, after they had been bought by disney and all the characters and stories I fell in love with were relegated to the "legends" tag and will be forgotten by time, and you know what? you're right, they're not really that good.
RIP Jacen, Jaina and Anakin Solo, I really found your stories more compelling than Kylo Ren!
Ok, unpopular, sure... but why do you feel that way?
Felt-tip pens outclass ballpoint ones not just because they write better but because any writing you do with them will feel superior to something written with ballpoint.
Durability, and to an extent reliability. I'll never put a felt-tip into my everyday carry.
How can you describe "Felt-tip pens" so I understand what they mean in my country (Brazil)?
Aside from the picture, it's where a wick (felt can be used for this) is used to pull the ink forward, as opposed to the ball which rotates to dispense the ink.
Felt-tip pens come in a big variety; some will be garbage quality, think kids colouring markers. Also the tip is much more delicate and won't take lots pressure while writing, if it bends or splits it's busted.
A picture might be the best way.
They're kind of like markers you might use on posters, only much smaller and with a slightly firmer tip.
Any recommendations?
I wrote about some, quite frankly, amazing pens by Kuretake in this old thread with recommendations for tools:
They have, quite frankly, changed my life. I can write with other pens, but I don't like it...
I remember that thread. Your post and the other comment about pens in that thread inspired me to go looking for a better pen, and after a bit of research I ended up doing this hack to put a Mont Blanc cartridge in a G-2 Pilot. I'm not sure the cartridge is worth the price but it's definitely a lot nicer than the crappy pens I was using before.
IMHO that's a really weird choice for an everyday usage pen. It's designed specifically for brush-style calligraphy, which is why pressing down too hard is an issue for it; it's something you avoid with brushes. AFAIK those pens aren't common for everyday use even where they come from, where it is most commonly used for when a fancier style of script is appropriate, such as handwritten letters or to put names on envelopes. It's also common to use in art.
Personally speaking, if I were to choose a felt tipped pen, I would choose Kuretake's ZiG line of outline pens (the fine ones, specifically), or Sakura's Pigma Micron pens. They give well defined lines and put down a lot of pigment.
That being said, I'm far too invested in fountain pens to ever change, and I guess that's weird enough for most people.
I have another pen from them and it is literally a brush, but the PK*-10S is much closer to a felt tip in action, with just enough brush to make them pleasurable to write with.
I wish I could say I'm a connoisseur, but really I just bought a package of Papermate Flair pens once (medium point) and fell in love with them. They've been my go-to for years, only because they're the most readily available ones for me and because I haven't felt a need to search out something better.
Both coffee and beer taste like crap
An app being free but locking features behind a premium version is bullshit and I'm not petty for uninstalling them as soon as they ask me for money.
How is that unpopular though?
I don't really think that's unpopular per se. Also, understand that devs have to make money somehow.
I will agree with this 99% of the time. I have (currently) one exception to this. I use Apollo for Reddit on my iPhone. I find that experience greatly outclasses the stock Reddit app. You can do everything on the free version except make posts. The creator of the app is one guy who has made the entirety of the app on his own. The reason he locked posting behind a paywall was so he can afford to eat, it's his full time job after all. There's something like 75% of all users not really posting anyway, so most people don't lose out. I have used that app more than any other and all I paid at the time was $3. Completely worth it in my opinion. He has a subscription model for people who would like push notifications as Reddit does not allow access to this to 3rd party apps. It also unlocks themes and alternate icons, but is not needed at all to use the app.
Ketchup doesn’t belong near real food, ever.
I used to love ketchup with eggs, especially with omelettes. Then I looked at just how much sugar they put in it. I've replaced ketchup with tomato paste. It was unusual at first, but now I can barely eat eggs without it.
I kinda agree with you, especially because I don't consider pizza and sandwiches "real food".
hold up why on earth are you putting ketchup on pizza?
It's a Brazilian thing.
I like the taste of alcohol more than I like the effects. Don't get me wrong, I like having a little buzz or even getting tipsy, but drunkenness doesn't feel good to me.
I've don't usually dilute liquors. I'll have gin/whiskey/rum straight a lot of the time.
I agree. I love a good spirit but I’ve outgrown the willingness to suffer tomorrow for another one tonight.
I agree. I've never been drunk and I don't really intend to be, but I love the taste of a good whiskey.
I like JavaScript, it’s fun to program with.
Also PHP is straight fucking awesome.
I don't like oreos at all.
I like chocolate, I like cookies, I like chocolate cookies, I like cookies with some fillings, but whatever mixture of ingredients is used in oreos is not something I can stand. I eat one and it's acceptable, but if I eat more I just get sickened by the taste. Yet, every time I say that to anyone they think I'm just insane.
The only person who doesn't look down on my taste for disliking oreos is my younger sister, who rejoices in the fact she gets to eat all the oreos, and I'm okay with that since it's one less thing to argue over.
Agreed. I find that oreos are too hard and brittle, even if soaked in milk. Eating them dry feels like gritting sand between my teeth.
Whoever invented coat hangers should have been shot. Book is forthcoming.
How do you hang your coats?
If there weren't hangers I wouldn't have to wear any. As it is they sit in the closet 360 days a year, shrinking over time.
You're saying that if hangers didn't exist, you wouldn't own coats? Did you just buy coats so you would have things to put on your coat hangers or something?
I put up with coat hangers because of our silly convention of wearing pressed and folded clothes. In my circles anyway.
Start rolling your clothes. It's more space efficient and doesn't crease the clothing. I fold in half inside and roll from the top downwards.
thanks for the tip.
Pineapple, under no circumstances, belongs on pizza
Fruit is not inherently healthy and it is possible to have an extremely healthy diet with a complete absence of fruit.
The vast majority of fruit is just a source of carbohydrate. Healthy carbohydrates that are not fruits are quite varied and abundant.
No, they're primarily a source of vitamins and minerals. Many of which (Vitamin C, for example) you can't really get outside of that.
I'm assuming he was speaking about macros. Besides, lots of vegetables are high in Vitamin C. Broccoli, Kale, Parsley, and Brussels Sprouts are all good non-fruit sources. You can be completely healthy not eating any fruits at all if you wanted to.
Dear Zachary is horrible emotional porn that made me feel nothing but disgust for the makers of the film.
Could you expand on this a little? Why do you think that?
I had it recommended from reddit and watched it some years ago and was just so turned off about the whole film. The emotional cries begins from the get go even before you establish any kind of emotion towards the people evolved and from thereon out I just wasn't invested in it at all and it made me dislike it. I usually get misty eyed quite easily but this was just so forced I couldn't "enjoy" it at all. On top of that every redditor goes fucking app shit over have much they cried every time it's mentioned anywhere.
I'm not the only one! I have cried at so many things, but I couldn't finish watching Dear Zachary because it spent so little time getting us invested in the people involved that I was simply too bored to continue.
I must disagree. Dear Zachary is not emotional porn. It’s a documentary of the horror genre.
You gotta elaborate that. My sarcasm detector is weak this morning.
Not sarcasm. Actual film major speaking.
The main purpose of a horror film is to induce horror (duh!).
The main purpose of Dear Zachary film is to induce horror (duh!).
Well, then I agree with the majority suddenly. As long as we don't talk about what kind of horror it is.
I’d say it’s a psychological horror
I think any online competitive game should still be there to have fun, not win.
Whenever I play OW comp all I get are a bunch of whiny ass people who take the game way too seriously and base so much of their life off of their rank. Literally every comp game I've played I'm trying to have fun and play, but you always get at least one person who bitches about something.
In my experience CS comp players are much more welcome to shenanigans than any other game. Sure you get an asshole every now and then, but most people understand it's a game and are just there to play with new/old friends.
You might say, well just play casual if you want to mess around, but it's even worse their for OW. People need to calm the fuck down about rank, and just focus on having fun with friends. Quit thinking you're better than everyone and it's everyone else's fault you aren't pro. You're just as bad as I am, but I'm having fun at least. Plus, especially with CS, casual it's 10v10 and comp is 5v5 which makes the connections there feel much better than a clusterfuck of people yelling.
I understand there are exceptions in both games, but every time I play an hour of CS I always end up coming away with a new online buddy and a smile, vs OW I just end up being upset because someone couldn't take their stick out of their ass and realize it's not about winning.
I'm convinced that you can draw an almost perfect 1:1 graph between the amount of teamplay a given game requires and the toxicity of the game. Overwatch and MOBAs require a good team to win. If you just have one good player, that's virtually never good enough. It's almost impossible to 2v1 or 3v1 in those games. You can do it, but it requires an absolutely gargantuan skill disparity.
In CS, it's fairly normal for an above average player to be able to take out two or three average players. It's much easier to carry in that game. I think because of that, players who view themselves as especially skilled don't feel as hamstrung by their team, and when someone dies with their teammate vs one other player, they tend to get mad at the enemy team rather than their own. CS is definitely a team based game, but not to the extent that OW is, where if your team mates are not standing in the exact right spot in relation to you, you all die. I think it helps reduce the blame game a lot.
Have you ever tried Dead by Daylight? That game is a pure salt mine. It is nearly impossible to win if everyone else on your team is a potato, but instead of having fun everyone doubles down. It's not even a 'competitive' game in that respect, there's no leagues or teams. The fandom regularly bashes each other on the official forums and Reddit. I really enjoy the game but absolutely get the frustration around the poor matchmaking and how it can tilt the game in one sides favor.
Pickles are the worst food.
Do you mean pickles as in the gross vinegar-soaked cucumber type, or just plain anything pickled? Because some vegitables taste great when pickled the right way.
Every single vinegar-soaked cucumber I've ever encountered was gag inducing. I'm sure I've had some pickled vegetables that weren't awful, but I can't recall what they were.
Pickled onions are delicious, same with pickled radishes. How do you feel about sauerkraut or kimchi?
I think I've had pickled radish that was okay, pickled onions are awful, sauerkraut is worse, kimchi is okay with other items, but not on it's own. A place near me makes pretty good kimchi fried rice for example.
Go for pickled cornichon in honey. LIDL make them in tiny jars for cheap. They're amazing. Crunchy and kind of sweet. I'm not really into any other pickles, either.
In general, the point of those are to be eaten with preserved (or cooked) meats. Pickles are heavily used in a German smorgasbord in proportional quantities to cut through the mundanity of eating the types of meat that they have. For that reason, I can really only recommend them in that context. Have some Bratwurst with some mustard, mayo, and pickles, or check for other continental recipes that use them, and you might find that they balance the meal out. Like how lemon juice is used in some chilli dishes/curries to cut through the spice and bring the flavours out.
As a big fan of the boards I just ignore them and break up the meats and cheeses with other vegetables, fruit, and bread.
Taylor ham is the best meat in New Jersey, and pork roll does not exist.
If I ever go to America, I’ll come back fatter than a Grizzly Bear.
Durian is tasty and doesn't smell bad.
Speaking as someone from a country where durian is a native fruit: From experience, if someone can get past the smell, they surprisingly love the taste.
Candied durian, durian halo halo, chocolate dipped durian, and durian ice cream (forms where the overpowering stench is almost totally removed) are truly delicious and if you are a fan of durian, I highly recommend.
God does the kitchen stink for days when we get them fresh though.
You don't ever really get past the smell, though, do you? I mean, smell is a big part of how we taste. I have ate durian before, and while it wasn't terrible, the smell coming up my nose through my mouth ended up tainting the flavor of the fruit with something almost resembling a spicy smokeyness that I found unpleasant with the sweetness of the fruit.
I recently became familiar with this fruit. It's amazing. The smell is intense, but so is garlic's and most people love that. I really want to find someone who makes a durian ice cream or gelato.
I like clowns. I don't love them, I just don't get the widespread hate for them. They're funny and endearing. I don't find them creepy, unless they were designed to be that way like Pennywise in the It movies. Genuine, traditional circus clowns are great. Mimes, too.
I just thought of another one:
Plot is one of the least important elements in most storytelling mediums, but especially in rich media like film and videogames.
The prime example of this is my favorite movie, Blade Runner. The plot is mind numbingly boring. Rick Deckard learns of four escaped replicants, then kills them. What made that movie is everything else. The score, the set design, the cinematography, the acting, the script, the sound design, the special effects, and the overall mood. I think things like that separate film from something like a book, where the plot is far more important. I've seen Blade Runner over 30 times, and each time I notice something new about it. A lot of (especially amateur) film criticism gets wrapped up in plot issues, nitpicking things that don't necessarily make sense, or complaining that the movie doesn't really go anywhere, but I think those criticisms miss the entire point of the medium. As a great counterexample, consider Star Wars: Episode 2. The plot in that film is actually really good. It has all sorts of individual people and organizations, each with their own motivations. The Jedi Council, The Senate of the Republic, the separatists, darth Sideous/Palpatine, count Dooku, The Trade Federation. The problem is that the pacing, the acting, the special effects, and especially the dialog were all awful, leading to a pretty terrible movie. Plot is the thing I care absolutely the least about in any movie I see.
I uhhh. That's one hell of a compressed summary. War and Peace could be summarized as "Some families feud while Napoleon invades Russia". That's technically correct but you're skipping over everything the actual plot grapples with.
Cavatappi and related pasta shapes are the only ones that have a right to be called corkscrew.
Screw rotini.
From the research I've compiled it has worse withdrawal effects than pure nicotine re: cognitive drop, and doesn't really offer anything else over that other than it being a stimulant. Nicotine in general is actually less addictive than coffee, I've found, for that reason. Dropping coffee gave me cluster migraines. Dropping nicotine after a month of regulated usage and nothing happened (I actually forgot I had ever bought the nicotine until I rediscovered it a few months later).
It's longer than the length of time for someone to (supposedly) become addicted.
Had to Google this. Now I don't if I'm now a fan of tapered trousers, or if the models are really really pretty.
Men wear those? Must look weird.
Solipsism is reality. Don't bother responding, you don't really exist.
I'm kidding. Mostly. :)
The problem with solipsism is that it's an unprovable thesis that presents no advantage whatsoever.
Other unprovables can be somewhat beneficial.
That seems like one of the least "silly" topics possible. I'm removing it since it's blatantly the opposite of what this thread was intended for and likely to end up causing an actual argument.
DOH! I read too fast and missed "silly".
Sorry.