The Vent and Rant Thread

[covingtoncat73]

I hear you, Wearever! I hope you continue to improve as well.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Hitch

@eschwartz:

Yea, verily darling, we all know you're certifiably odd. But we wuvs you anyway.


Hitch

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Wow. I love ya, Hitch, you know I do but, seriously, that is your takeaway? I'm not saying old G.R.R. doesn't have some kind of personality disorder. I'm sure he does. Many writers do but that is one of the things I love about the series, that the imperfect are given key roles. Haven't we had enough of fairy tales where the good are always hyper-beautiful and the physically ugly are also always evil?

Anyway, as I said, that is kind of what keeps me coming to this story. Martin is great at creating complex characters. Not a bland beauty among them.

I agree with everyone that the sex scenes and nudity are really egregious on the show, though. It does bug me. A witty friend, who, to my surprise (this is a middle-aged lady who plays piano for the ballet), loves the show said, "Its HBO. Of course they're hanging from the chandeliers."

/Soft spot for "cripples, bastards, and broken things."
//Tyrion forever!

Agreed -- especially about Tyrion. On of the few really likeable character IMO.
(I also like Arya for attacking Prince Joffrey in defense of a butchers boy. )

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Wow. I love ya, Hitch, you know I do but, seriously, that is your takeaway? I'm not saying old G.R.R. doesn't have some kind of personality disorder. I'm sure he does. Many writers do but that is one of the things I love about the series, that the imperfect are given key roles. Haven't we had enough of fairy tales where the good are always hyper-beautiful and the physically ugly are also always evil?

Yes. That's my takeaway. He positively loathes anyone that he thinks is undeservedly "luckier" than him. I mean...seriously, name ONE character (I can only go by the show, as the show has disinterested me in reading the books) that is either wealthy or beautiful that doesn't get utterly screwed? Or isn't, alternatively, ridiculously "evil" or perverted? The characters to which he shows some...I guess for lack of a better word, "affection," are all ugly, damaged-from-birth, etc. The only good Lannister (and even that's arguable) is the Little Person, Tyrion. The two "beautiful" ones are incestuous. The boy, Joffrey, (or, as his Native Name calls him, "Product-of- Incest") is absurdly evil. (P.S.: eschwartz, didn't she attack him over the Wolf?)

Anyway, as I said, that is kind of what keeps me coming to this story. Martin is great at creating complex characters. Not a bland beauty among them.

I just don't see it that way. Sure, I like complex characters as much as the next guy, but to me, he positively feels like he's on a mission to punish everyone that's attractive, rich, or just generally "born lucky." The Starks all get screwed (at least, thus far); the Lannisters are all almost caricatures of evil--except "The Imp," who's impacted by his size, in terms of things that have already happened to him. I mean, really: what rich, or even "just" wealthy, or beautiful, or gifted character, thus far, hasn't been punished, somehow? It's pretty hard to miss his worldview, IMHO.

I agree with everyone that the sex scenes and nudity are really egregious on the show, though. It does bug me. A witty friend, who, to my surprise (this is a middle-aged lady who plays piano for the ballet), loves the show said, "Its HBO. Of course they're hanging from the chandeliers."

/Soft spot for "cripples, bastards, and broken things."
//Tyrion forever!

As I said: to me, it's reached the point of the paid-product-placement. I genuinely think that there's a script guy, or probably, credits-wise, "the sex guy" on the set, who checks to be sure that not more than 5 minutes of film has gone by without a tit shot. It's tedious enough, to me, that I now start reading when the ubiquitous and gratuitous TWIT shots start; and I rarely come back to the show from whatever book I've then stuck my nose in. Somehow, I don't think that's precisely the effect that the producers and HBO were hoping for.

And vis-a-vis your friend: I somewhat expect this on Cinemax, and have ever since they (also) ruined Spartacus for me with about 20 sex-scenes per 30 minutes in the first 3 episodes. I gave up on it after 3 epis. After all, they make a lot of their ducats from soft-porn, already, so...{shrug}. But I don't actually expect this much TWIT on HBO. I expect great production values; wildly varied (and mostly psycho-evil) characters; I expect actual PLOT, silly me. I simply don't remember quite this much TWIT in Boardwalk Empire, Carnivale, True Blood, etc. A lot? Yes. But this much, to the point where it feels this forced? No.

I guess I've just reached that point of "old fogey-ism" that occurs, where I'm just not COOL any longer.

FWIW, I think that's why most people don't tell HBO that they're bored with the TWIT; it's because they're afraid that they'll be marked down as NOT COOL. That they'll be seen as country bumpkins, etc. So they go along with it, to be in the "in crowd," to be cool. {sigh}. Whatev!

And, don't get me wrong: I'm not dissing anyone who enjoys the show. Just venting my own exasperation with the film-stretching TWIT. That's all.

Hitch

[eschwartz]

Nope, she attacked him over the boy -- she attacked with the Wolf. Well, at least the wolf attacked as soon as Joffrey went after Arya for smashing him on the head with a stick.

The wolf is TBH a better fighter ATM than she is. Hardly unexpected.

The direwolf let go of Joffrey and moved to Arya’s side. The prince lay in the grass, whimpering, cradling his mangled arm. His shirt was soaked in blood. Arya said, “She didn’t hurt you*…*much.” She picked up Lion’s Tooth where it had fallen, and stood over him, holding the sword with both hands.

I have a soft spot for nobility that actually cares about the commonfolk. So far, that would be... Arya.

[Hitch]

I know, I know, I've had more than my fair share of ranty-ness lately, but...

1. I have signed up for an independent review company (for independent verification of customer reviews of the services they, the customers, get from us, not some type of paid review scheme, to be clear), and the included support period to get it really going is running out (and the manuals/help just aren't that clear; they're obviously aimed at companies larger than mine, with an IT department, etc.), so...that clock is ticking...tick-tick-tick....
2. The Google Mobile update is in, now, 11 days...(for those of you not webmastering, this means, if your site is not responsive to mobile devices and tablets, you lose page rank, search placement, etc. This = BAD). Eleven days.
3. My still-in-progress website is not done, and my ENTIRE IT division (that's me, myself, and I) are all slaving on it, but if the Google update misses us, it will NOT be good, and.
4. In the last 36 hours, my right-most monitor (of 3) has started being glitchy, just turning the hell off. Now, it "knows" it's turning off, because the content on that screen slides to one of the other screens. It seems like something is...overriding, or..?, the video-card memory, but...so far, nothing definitive, but it's happening more and more, since it started, and,
5. Tonight, in the middle of the night, I walk into the home office, sit down to do something quick, and notice that the center monitor "looks funny" to me. To be clear, this is NOT the same monitor that's just shutting off. I look at it, and then I put my hand underneath it, to raise it up a bit (angle it upwards), as it seems just "not quite right" to me, and,
6. The whole bloody thing suddenly KERPLUNKS down, toward the desk, like it's trying to get a really, really good look at the keyboard. Angled at about a 45-degree angle, TOWARD the desktop (top nearest me, bottom away from me).

These monitors are on quite good, sturdy, extremely adjustable arms, which I don't actually use very much, in terms of screwing with them. I tend to get monitors set, and then leave them, so it's certainly NOT overuse, or anything like that.

So...I'm really down to one monitor. To replace the arms, which come in paired sets, will take at least 2 days, as they are special order. And as it's now the weekend, that means...Tuesday-Weds., at the earliest. The weirdo thing with the video card? Who knows when we'll get that figured out. And, of course, now I'm waiting for that third shoe (monitor) to drop, figuratively speaking.

I know that sounds like a first-world problem, but when you run a business like mine, and have 20-30 browser tabs up at any given moment (our CS system, our project management system, our accounting/quoting/invoicing system, social media crap, dropboxes, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, Amazon S-3), 4-5 Skype/webchat windows open, and you move a LOT of files around every day (we move thousands of files, literally, per month), suddenly going from 3 monitors to ONE (and couldn't it have left me the damn center? Oh, noooooooooooo, of course not) it's just...

BUGGER!!! BUGGER IT!!

Damn if I know how the hell I'm going to hit that Google deadline. Jesus wept. WHY do things happen like this? In pairs, or threes, or...? WHY???




Hitch

[poohbear_nc]

I'd administer a "there, there" head pat ... but would probably knock over your last surviving monitor ... so instead will from a distance and suggest a road trip to a bar where no one knows you .. and subsequent wailing, flailing of arms, and gnashing of teeth .... whilst consuming a therapeutic quantity of medicinal libations ...

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I'd administer a "there, there" head pat ... but would probably knock over your last surviving monitor ... so instead will from a distance and suggest a road trip to a bar where no one knows you .. and subsequent wailing, flailing of arms, and gnashing of teeth .... whilst consuming a therapeutic quantity of medicinal libations ...

Agreed. This definitely calls for some serious medicine. For me, that would be about 3 fingers of Talisker, but not sure what Hitch's choice would be, since she doesn't often come by to visit in What's in your Cup.

[eschwartz]

Why am I not surprised poohbear suggests Guiness as the answer?

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Why am I not surprised poohbear suggests Guiness as the answer?

Medicinal! I said medicinal!

Guinness - it's good for you!

[CRussel]

Right. It just TASTES like medicine! <g,d,rvvvf>

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Medicinal! I said medicinal!

Guinness - it's good for you!

Oh, I never doubted the nature of your claim.

I am simply pointing out I am unsurprised you of all people would believe Guiness is medicinal (among other things...).

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Oh, I never doubted the nature of your claim.

I am simply pointing out I am unsurprised you of all people would believe Guiness is medicinal (among other things...).

[eschwartz]

P.S. When will you be ready for 2015, one wonders? You are running out of time..

[CRussel]

Well, if poohbear_nc is doing about as well as I am, somewhere around mid 2017.

In other news, is there anything slower or more annoying than waiting for 200 GB of files and structure to copy from your fast SSD to your s l o w storage spaces array. And I can't have my Talisker until it finishes.

Now THAT's something to rant about!