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I've had pneumonia a couple times. It's awful. I've been wondering if I should get the pneumonia vaccine since I seem to be susceptible to it. Although I have no idea what it'd be for since pneumonia is more of a situation than something specific.
A dramatization. May not have actually happened.
IREACTIONS: "A friend of mine said that now that all the first-tier shows have been revived, it's time for second-tier shows like SLIDERS to come back. I said that calling SLIDERS second-tier was an insult to every genuine second-tier show."
TRANSMODIAR: "Hahah!! SLIDERS would be lucky to make it to third-tier! And isn't it weird that people would rather bitch about politics on the Sliders.tv Bboard instead of talking about the massive find that's the 'Raging Quinn' script?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that this glorified spec script of generic set pieces is what qualifies as a massive find in SLIDERS fandom?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that people would rather talk about how shitty the DC superhero movies are rather than read an overelaborate and ridiculously overcomplicated six part series of SLIDERS screenplays?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that the biggest fan of SLIDERS will never read that series and the other biggest fan of SLIDERS only read it when he was roped into editing it?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you don't even think of me when you're talking about the biggest fans of SLIDERS?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that you're a public pariah in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you're seen as the village mental patient in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that we're both Big Name Fans in TV show fandoms that nobody actually watches and you and I spend more time mocking the series than its worst critics?"
A dramatization. May not have actually happened.
I will read the scripts when I can!!! I spend my days either writing or reading! My eyes get tired!
You should make an audiobook or radio show.
I've had pneumonia a couple times. It's awful. I've been wondering if I should get the pneumonia vaccine since I seem to be susceptible to it. Although I have no idea what it'd be for since pneumonia is more of a situation than something specific.
This is my first experience with it. It's bad, but I've had worse.
Going back to the question of whether the Sliders are superheroes, I recently started reading The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero by Jess Nevins. It's a fascinating look into the history and antecedents of the modern comic book hero. Nevins claims the defining characteristic of a hero to be a selfless mission. I don't think that describes the Sliders, whose primary mission was always to get home.
Going back to my opinion that pilight is a jerk --
I find pilight's view of superheroes toxic in trying to police what a superhero is or isn't, primarily because pilight's views are in terms of defining what a superhero isn't, what a superhero shouldn't be, what a superhero can't be -- and pilight's view is that superheroes (and Sliders) should never be whatever ireactions thinks they are because pilight doesn't like me. pilight is regularly belittling my views despite the fact that pilight shares them.
Because, I dunno, I was critical of pilight's ideas for rebooting Sliders and thought it was absurd to pick up off of "The Seer." Shame on me for looking at stories from the perspective of the average TV viewer! One could argue that Sliders Reborn is then a hypocritical work, except Reborn was made for a diehard audience and the Redux was my pitch for a general audience revival.
When I rambled about how I thought the Season 3 monsters could be integrated into the Season 1 - 2 style of Sliders, pilight told me my ideas were too much like MacGyver, shouldn't be used for Reasons -- but when asked how pilight would use the Season 3 monsters, pilight laid out a proposal that was no different than mine, which means pilight's issue with my opinions is that they're my opinions.
And then there's the tactic of pilight's analysis -- it's wholly in terms of negative definition. Superheroes aren't this. Sliders isn't that. It's anti-creativity; pilight looks at something that exists and subtracts from it rather than adding to it. It's an argument style that isn't about exploring different points of view, but redrawing boundaries so that any opinions from people pilight doesn't like are outside what pilight deems acceptable.
The eliminative method for fiction is destructive. If a character having personal goals (like getting home) disqualifies them as a superhero, then characters who aren't superheroes include Spider-Man (he goes looking for crime to photograph himself doing it to sell the pictures and pay his rent), Iron Man (Stark Enterprises earns money), the X-Men (fighting to survive their own future genocide), the Flash (gets paid by local hospitals as part of an ambulance service), Green Lantern (toy salesman), Aquaman (trying to protect his home from water pollution), Green Arrow (Queen Industries earns money) -- which means that pilight's process of defining superheroes entirely in terms of which ones don't count is so flawed as to be worthless, useless and incompetent.
There is a futile foolishness to declaring that fictional characters should be reduced to selflessness or any one specific trait. Drama is about conflict and if characters are granted only a single characteristic, there are no opposing forces within the character, no contradictions, no points of view. It's a simplistic, clumsy concept of writing characters and stories presented by people who are only ever inclined to tear things down and have no ability (or interest) in building things up.
The only requirement of a superhero is that they have an ability that the characters around them don't. Even superpowers aren't necessary; Batman technically has none, and his power is represented through usually mundane aptitudes operating at peak performance. The sliders also have abilities and advantages in that they are visitors who can sidestep consequences of each world they leave behind, making them free to do things others can't.
The sliders have ideas and perspectives the characters around them lack, matched with the ability to cheat normal narrative rules in that they have experienced madness, horror and death, but the nature of the sliding concept means they can survive anything, even their actors being fired and their show being cancelled.
And, to wrap up the last time I will ever bother to directly address pilight unless I get some apology for all of the above:
Defining characters in terms of what they aren't is a dead end for creativity and criticism.
It is a route taken by people who attack other people's ideas because they have none of their own.
Your means of reviewing fiction is toxic.
Your approach to analyzing superheroes is ineptly idiotic.
Your Sliders reboot ideas are terrible.
And also -- y'boring.
A dramatization. May not have actually happened.
IREACTIONS: "A friend of mine said that now that all the first-tier shows have been revived, it's time for second-tier shows like SLIDERS to come back. I said that calling SLIDERS second-tier was an insult to every genuine second-tier show."
TRANSMODIAR: "Hahah!! SLIDERS would be lucky to make it to third-tier! And isn't it weird that people would rather bitch about politics on the Sliders.tv Bboard instead of talking about the massive find that's the 'Raging Quinn' script?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that this glorified spec script of generic set pieces is what qualifies as a massive find in SLIDERS fandom?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that people would rather talk about how shitty the DC superhero movies are rather than read an overelaborate and ridiculously overcomplicated six part series of SLIDERS screenplays?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that the biggest fan of SLIDERS will never read that series and the other biggest fan of SLIDERS only read it when he was roped into editing it?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you don't even think of me when you're talking about the biggest fans of SLIDERS?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that you're a public pariah in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you're seen as the village mental patient in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"
IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that we're both Big Name Fans in TV show fandoms that nobody actually watches and you and I spend more time mocking the series than its worst critics?"
A dramatization. May not have actually happened.
I'd like to believe this happened.
It did happen. Albeit not in one conversation and not in those exact words. I said it was a dramatization, not that it was a complete fiction.
With regards to the cast of SLIDERS as superheroes (and without any interest in responding to the person who re-raised the subject):
There are two ways of portraying Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo that I like to present in writing them. The first is to present them as idiosyncratic dramedy characters, the cast of a quirky sitcom of life and death situations with highly distinctive voices and some truly crippling character flaws that make them hilarious, capable and intensely troubled -- so Quinn is both a hypercompetent scientist and a troubled shut-in whose only friend is his mother; Wade is a relentlessly practical problem solver who finds it easier to focus on other people's problems while ignoring her own needs; Rembrandt is a highly adept social engineer with a completely delusional self-image (either thinking of himself of a superstar when he's not or an inept civilian when he's not) and the Professor is a man of wisdom and intellect who is deeply insecure about his own competence and scientific skills. And when you play up the first halves of the characters, you can tap into their (somewhat mundane) superpowers, but if you want a more grounded story, you use the second halves.
And this leads into the second way of handling SLIDERS' cast: presenting them as iconic, legendary figures of infinite potential and limitless possibilities propelled by a boundless storytelling engine -- and the neat thing about SLIDERS is that they can be both those iconic characters and the shambling, clumsy human beings we met in the Pilot.
Temporal Flux, years ago, came up with a superhero story where a superhero character used vortex technology in order to lift heavy weights, instantly transport to different positions for combat purposes, to manipulate gravity for transport or propulsion or as a weapon. Sliding does have application as aggressive and defensive weaponry.
And finally, SLIDERS is an innately multi-genre series where you can plug the characters into any kind of story: legal drama, horror, romcom, espionage, space opera, a workplace dramedy, mumblecore, standup comedy -- I'd love a SLIDERS cookbook of recipes from alternate dimensions and a SLIDERS self-help book with chapters alternating between characters writing them. The superhero story is one of many genres the sliders could visit. Any story is conceivably a SLIDERS story.
I can be a bit obsessive compulsive about my gadgets. I put tempered glass on my smartphone and put a plastic case around it, thinnest I can find on eBay or Amazon. My tablet is sheathed in a matte anti-glare protector and a bumper case. My Surface 3 laptop is protected in the same way -- except the plastic shell case cracked in the upper right and left corners. Given that both corners cracked, I think it’s a design flaw in the case. There aren’t a lot of other Surface 3 case options. The kickstand’s hard to encase without impeding.
The only other case options for the Surface 3 besides this flawed design that’s prone to breaking is the full body skin -- a transparent and protective film that can protect devices from scratches (but not impact damage), is very expensive and after a few months, it starts to peel off at the edges which makes it kind of a ripoff.
Anyway. I bought a three dollar zipper sleeve for the laptop. It’ll protect it during travel. I imagine the laptop will start sustaining scuffs. I accept it. At least the screen’s protected.
The new Samsung Galaxy is coming out soon and I need to save money for one, because my S4 is slowing down. So that, and maybe some marketing for my books to reduce the stress level... Then I can promise to pretend to have fun for a while.
I cannot in good conscience support the purchase of Samsung's overpriced, overdesigned, overly incendiary products, and I say that as someone who bought the Samsung Galaxy S3 three times. There was a time when to get a decent Android phone, you had to spend $700 - $800 USD; that's simply not the case anymore.
You can get a 1080p, 5.5-inch Android phone with 16 GB of storage, microSD and a clean version of Android in the Motorola G4 for $180 off Amazon. (I'm using one now.) You can get a 5.7 inch LG Stylo 2 Plus or a Sony Xperia XA for $200. You can get a BLU Life One X2 Mini with 64GB of memory and a 5-inch screen for $180.
Once you're at 1080p, you can't really distinguish between that and higher resolutions on a phone sized screen, all these 'budget' phones have the gyroscope and compass sensors, so the only thing you get for all the extra money is Samsung Pay. Is that really worth it?
I'm a Samsung fan. I've had other brands, but found them incredibly frustrating. I finally stopped messing around with other brands when I had a Motorola and they released an update that wasn't stable and made the phone unusable... Then they stopped supporting the phone and wouldn't respond to customers who wanted their phone to be functional again.
I've had my S4 for about four years now, I think. Something like that. It is starting to get a bit slow and glitchy, but that could be because I'm constantly adding new technology, like watches and smart home technology. Overall, the phone has lasted quite a while, despite not being kept in any sort of case unless my niece or nephew are around.
I want the S8. Yeah, I want Samsung Pay, but I could get that with a refurbed S6 or S7. I want the better camera. The new AI which is supposed to be really good (Alexa has spoiled me). I want the 6.2 inch screen of the S8 Plus, despite the smaller frame. I like the rumor that you'll be able to plug into a monitor and use a the phone like an Android computer. I'm not saying that I will necessarily get an S8, but I want one. 
I hate that providers have taken away the option of free or reduced-price upgrades, because cell phones are ridiculously expensive now. If I go for a cheaper option, it will probably just be an older Samsung.
Well, it's your money. But it does occur to me that this discussion highlights the differences you and I have in approaching hardware. To me, a company sending out a software update that bricks the phone wouldn't be a problem; I'd either reflash a backup or go so far as to reflash the entire ROM. That's not a chore for everyone.
There's stuff I like about Samsung and stuff I don't. I really like their hardware, but I really hate their software. Before I lost my Samsung S5, I wasn't running Samsung's Android; I put Cyanogenmod (now Lineage) on it because I wanted the plain Google experience but mostly because Samsung doesn't let you hide the status bar.
And that's a huge problem on an AMOLED screen because images retained tend to burn in and most Samsung Galaxy phones have ghost images of text, the keyboard and the status bar burnt into the screen after a few months. And the only way around that is to use expanded desktop mode (hiding the status bar) and adjusting the visual settings in a way Samsung's blocked off. It also irritates me that Samsung's method for shifting apps to microSD seems completely broken and outright sabotaged and the only way to get Google's measures for merging a microSD with the internal memory was to replace Touchwiz with a cleaner ROM.
Motorola doesn't actually exist anymore. They were bought by Google who turned it into an outlet for Nexus style phones that were a lot cheaper, then sold to Lenovo who dissolved it while maintaining the Moto brand. Lenovo kept the great prices but stopped doing the regular software updates -- but it doesn't matter to me because I'm not even using their ROM anymore; I've switched to Lineage OS.
The Moto E2 and G4 have yet to receive an update from Marshmallow in my area, but I've already skipped ahead to Android Nougat. So... I guess I deliberately buy phones with lots of custom ROMs and don't depend on the manufacturer for software. I'm less about features and more about how active the device is in the XDA forums.
I've tried flashing new ROMs in the past, with a mixed record of success. I have never had trouble with Samsung's interface though, so it hasn't been a huge point for me. Either way, I definitely prefer to have the option. My S4 is locked, preventing me from flashing any ROMs, which annoys me. But that's more of an AT&T thing, I think.
What I am really looking for in a new phone is something that will last me a while. When I get a phone, it's the phone that I'm going to have for the next four or five years. I want something that won't be obsolete within a month. I still like my S4 in a lot of ways, but I know that the processors now are faster, the battery life is longer, screens are crisper, the phones are resistant to water and dust (which is a nice feature, considering that I really don't use a case very often). I don't plan on using fingerprints or anything like that, so that's not a big deal for me, but if the new Bixby AI is everything that it's supposed to be, that could be a pretty big deal as well.
I just like Samsung products. I like their phones, their watches, their TVs, etc.
I think the SD card merging thing has been resolved in more current models, but I could be wrong. I would love that.
It might be worth holding off for a while though. There's a rumor that they will be announcing another phone later this year that could be more impressive than the S8. Even if it's just a Note, the S-Pen might be worth the wait. My brother has a Note and it seems like a really nice feature to have.
But yeah, there's a chance that I'll eventually flash a custom ROM. I just don't always have the best of luck with them.
I want a Galaxy S8+, but I don't have $850 of bonus money to throw around without a care. So... I may have gone about doing something that some people on the internet find distasteful (not porn), but with relatively little time invested, I've solved the money issue.
Now I'm thinking that maybe I should hold off and see what they do with the Note 8. If the S8+ is about as big as a typical Note 8, they can't just slap an S-Pen on it and call it innovation, right? There's a voice in my head that's telling me that they're going to want to do something big and impressive with this thing.
Or I could end up spending several months yelling at my quickly-dwindling S4, only to find out that the Note 8 is just an S8+ with an S-Pen.
I have never done this and would never countenance doing it -- but have you thought about going on one of those two year payment plans where you pay your $850 in installments? The reason I would never advise this: I imagine it would be deeply depressing to lose the device and still be paying for it years after it's left you and your life.
But if you want a big screen phone that feels borderless, I say get the Sony Xperia Ultra for $300 and tell me if it's any good.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Xperia-unlo … B01FJT7E4Q
I considered one of the payment plans, but they usually go together with a service plan that I'm not interested in. Plus, as you say, there are downsides to spreading that cost out over the course of a year or two. Typically, when I want something, I set that goal and then figure out a way of making it happen without costing me "real" money. (meaning, I find a way of making money specifically for that purpose, so I don't feel bad about spending that money on something that I could probably live without).
This time, right around the time I decided to set the S8+ as my goal (I may end up with the Note or even the S8, but I set the S8+ as my goal), Nintendo announced that they were discontinuing the NES Classic Edition, but would have a few more shipments to various stores until the end of April. So, I did my research and got my hands on several of those (with a little bit of help). Reselling them earns money for a high end new cell phone!
It also earns me the scorn of many people online, but I don't care. If people really wanted these things for retail price, they would get them. I did. But the people complaining didn't want to put in the effort, so they wouldn't have gotten any of them anyway. Now I'm playing personal shopper for people who are willing to pay for my services. Capitalism at work!
I'll have to take a look at the Sony, but when I was looking at phones not too long ago (my brother needed a replacement), I noticed that a lot of those other phones had lower quality screens than I'm used to, and there were some other aspects that I wasn't a fan of with a lot of them. Samsung has their weaknesses too, but their screens are beautiful and crisp, their cameras have given me a lot of really great images (with the right lighting, I've gotten images of my nephews and niece that look like professional portraits).
We'll see. I'm probably still going to wait a little while before buying a phone, unless my S4 gives me no other choice. I swear, it was running incredibly smoothly until it suddenly took a sharp dive in functionality. I'll look at some other options, but I've been happy with Samsung phones for a while now, after some unpleasant experiences with other companies.
What are your thoughts on unlocked vs. carrier phones? I'm liking the idea of no bloatware, and no chance of AT&T bootlocking my phone, like they did with my S4 (which is why I haven't flashed a new ROM), but I've heard that the unlocked phones can take longer to receive updates. I guess that would be where the custom ROMs come in.
The Sony LCD screen is good enough. Well saturated, high contrast, extremely bright at 530 nits. But it's not an AMOLED and while I liked the AMOLED display on the S3 (black is just a switched off pixel, rich colours), I'm kind of over them. The burn-in on AMOLED is hideous; I had ghost images of my keyboard and status bar seared into my screen after a few months. I did buy the S3 a few more times and I had to install a custom ROM to hide the status bar because Samsung permits you no option for that. I also had to run a screensaver sort of app once a week for several hours to flash red, green and blue screens to make sure any burn-in could be avoided through 'exercising' all the pixels.
While I miss the higher contrast now that I'm on a Moto G4 and I especially miss reading ebooks with white text on a totally black background, I don't miss (a) not having a status bar (b) fretting that an overly long Google Maps-guided journey would burn the navigation app into the screen (c) running the screensaver every week. It was a lot of work.
I don't really like carrier phones; I don't like all the bloatware. But to me, I tend to root the phone and remove all the bloatware anyway. I don't like it that carriers install all this space-consuming rubbish for their own commercial concerns when apps are getting bigger and bigger. That said, it's less of an issue with Android 6.0 and onward having the option to merge the internal memory with a microSD card -- except Samsung disables that option in their version of Android.
The NES Classic-propelled fundraising is very impressive, that's a highly in demand product.
I kinda enjoy the thrill of the hunt for these NES Classics
I haven't really had major burn-in issues with my S4. There may be some, I guess, but it's hard to tell, so I don't think it's a major thing for me.
The storage merging issue seems to have a fix!
https://www.instohub.com/tech/how-to-en … y-s8-plus/
That said, my storage space is so low in my S4 that even basic S8 storage will boggle my mind.
So... Anyone happen to know a veterinarian neurologist who would be willing to consult on a mysterious spinal issue for a charitably low price?
One of my dogs went to the vet a little over a week ago. Aside from a skin infection, for which he was given antibiotics, he was fine. He got a normal vaccination and we went home.
Within a couple of days, he was having some trouble standing up on his own. Soon, he couldn't stand or walk at all, without help. He simply has no strength in his hind legs. He isn't totally paralyzed or anything, just... Weak, I guess.
He had been at the vet's office since yesterday. Blood work initially showed some elevated liver numbers of some kind, but they were normal today. An x-ray shows what I've had described to me as either inflammation or collapse of a disk... But my vet really doesn't know what's going on or why. He made some calls, but the better specialists are out of their offices until Monday. Another vet suggested degenerative myleopathy, which I think I've seen in another dog, but that doesn't explain such a sudden onset.
So now he is at the vet for a second night, getting anti-inflammatory medication that doesn't seem to be working. We may have to go to a neurology specialist who can do more scans and possibly surgery, but that will cost a lot of money.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this information, but this dog has gotten me through some very bad times. I need to fight for him... If someone could just point me in the right direction.
So... Anyone happen to know a veterinarian neurologist who would be willing to consult on a mysterious spinal issue for a charitably low price?
One of my dogs went to the vet a little over a week ago. Aside from a skin infection, for which he was given antibiotics, he was fine. He got a normal vaccination and we went home.
Within a couple of days, he was having some trouble standing up on his own. Soon, he couldn't stand or walk at all, without help. He simply has no strength in his hind legs. He isn't totally paralyzed or anything, just... Weak, I guess.
He had been at the vet's office since yesterday. Blood work initially showed some elevated liver numbers of some kind, but they were normal today. An x-ray shows what I've had described to me as either inflammation or collapse of a disk... But my vet really doesn't know what's going on or why. He made some calls, but the better specialists are out of their offices until Monday. Another vet suggested degenerative myleopathy, which I think I've seen in another dog, but that doesn't explain such a sudden onset.So now he is at the vet for a second night, getting anti-inflammatory medication that doesn't seem to be working. We may have to go to a neurology specialist who can do more scans and possibly surgery, but that will cost a lot of money.
I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this information, but this dog has gotten me through some very bad times. I need to fight for him... If someone could just point me in the right direction.
I don't know anyone, unfortunately. I hope you can get it figured out though, it does seem strange. I understand the feeling of wanting to fight for your pet (I did for a cat a few years ago). How old is the dog?
12 years old. Unfortunately, we never figured out what was wrong with him. Boo died last night at the vet's office. Nobody saw it coming.
I'm sorry to hear this. :-(
Really sorry to hear that. Pets are as much members of our family as humans are.
Is it possible whatever caused the skin infection just became worse? I also wonder if he had a wound and then caught something at the vet.
It's so sad to hear about your dog, my condolences.
Wow, that's awful, so sorry to hear this. I know the feeling of losing a pet. It's just as bad as losing a human in many cases.
Thanks for the support. Right now, I keep going back and forth between feeling numb and feeling like a part of me was amputated. I have another dog who is older than Boo was, and he has been close to death twice before. It's horrible to say it like this, but most people were expecting him to be next, and for Boo to be around for a year or two more. Losing him is just shocking and painful. I have so many regrets about leaving him at the vet's office, even knowing that I'd be feeling the same way if I'd brought him home. It's just a horrible, sick feeling.
We still don't know what happened. The vet theorized that it could have been a blood clot, but we really don't know. I guess we never will. The best I can do is hope that my dog didn't think that I was one of those d-bags who abandons their dog just because they got older or sicker. I never planned to leave him there alone.
Something weird happened today. My Moto G4 started showing ghost images. The status bar and the text messaging app were burned into the screen with phantom images of the keyboard, notification icons and time embedded the background over top of any app. But the burnt in image was from half an hour previous. I restarted the phone twice and it wouldn't go away. And so, as I am wont to do with many things that irk me, I froze it out -- which is to say I put the somewhat hot phone in the freezer and the ghost image was gone a half-hour later.
I think there's a weird glitch where high heat when the phone's under load and at maximum brightness causes images to briefly be retained in the display. I'm going to limit myself to 70 per cent brightness from now on, which is still pretty bright. And at least the 'burn in' isn't permanent like it'd be on a Samsung.
Netflix has decided that anyone with a rooted Android shouldn't be able to use their service anymore, so it doesn't even show up in the Play Store for anyone with a rooted phone.
Considering that this is a pretty standard function, and one of the primary draws of Android in the first place, I don't see how this goes well for Netflix. It's not like people are going to throw up their arms and decide not to root their phones or tablets anymore, just because Netflix doesn't work. If anything, they'll just side load Netflix, which gives the company even less control than they had before.
This looks a lot like shooting themselves in the foot to me.
I agree. However, I must confess that I don't even have Netflix on my phone. It's always been a home theatre and tablet app for me and Android tablets aren't very prominent these days.
I rarely use it on my phone, but it's been known to happen. My tablet hasn't worked in a while, but I used to use it all the time while working out.
I just don't see how this could possibly be good for Netflix, or even really what the point is. I am on a Windows machine right this second... and it's far more capable of pirating anything than my rooted Android phone is. Is all computer/mobile device support going to disappear? I just don't see the point to this.
I almost never use Netflix on the phone. I use it on my tablet most, with occasionally using it on the Apple TV. Phone is too small to commit to watching anything longer than a clip of 10 minutes or less. I've only used it I think twice on my phone (I do t like to kill the battery on the phone too much when I'm out and if I'm not out I use the tablet or Apple TV for tv viewing
So, one of the key plot points of SLIDERS REBORN is that all these mysterious little digital clocks have been scattered across three Earths, all counting down in perfect sync, all accelerating in their countdown with each natural or sociological disaster, all thought to be counting down to the end of all things and referred to as doomsday clocks.
And the storyline for how the sliders all came back to life (a joyful timeline of wonderful adventures corrupted by cynicism and horror through the reality alterations of a malicious mad scientist) bore an uncanny resemblance to the plot of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH, written by Geoff Johns, where it's revealed that the current DC Universe of depression and darkness has been corrupted by the manipulations of Dr. Manhattan.
Well, the big finale for this DC superheroes vs. Dr. Manhattan storyline has been announced and the title of this Geoff Johns written story is DOOMSDAY CLOCK. I've clearly been reading comics for too long.
**
In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just -- I think I may have gotten over SLIDERS.
In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just -- I think I may have gotten over SLIDERS.
And, with that, the Sliders BBoard disappeared.
But for those of us what lived and died in them furious days, it was like everything we knew was mightily swept away. And no matter what they did to build the internet up again, for the rest of time, it'd be like no one even knew we was ever here.
So I didn't get around to watching the DC movies this weekend as planned, dangnabbit. I found a 55" Samsung 4K TV at Walmart for super cheap ($250) and setting that up took more time than I expected.
The movie is going to look amazing on this TV when I get around to watching it, even at 1080p (there's upscaling that seems to work pretty well), but I need to find the time. I did watch the Justice League trailer in 4K a few times. Damn that looks good.
**
In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it.
The last portion of that episode was one of the more interesting conversations I think we've seen on the podcast so far. Starts at about 1:12:45 mark. I found it engaging, at least.
ireactions wrote:**
In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it.
The last portion of that episode was one of the more interesting conversations I think we've seen on the podcast so far. Starts at about 1:12:45 mark. I found it engaging, at least.
I think the problem with that podcast episode is that the Sliders episode they were reviewing was a bad episode. And not bad in a "so bad it'll make an an amazing podcast review episode" way (like Paradise Lost I'm sure will). I was looking forward to the podcast episode (since I love the podcast series), but found myself struggle to stay focused for the first part as well. I agree, it did get better when the content got better (through no fault of the hosts). I suspect future episodes will be back to being just as entertaining if they get back to a normal schedule again. I can't wait to hear their thoughts on many of the episodes remaining in the series.
I think I am just taking a little break from SLIDERS. I tried to watch the new episodes of DOCTOR WHO recently and didn't finish the new episode with Capaldi and Pearl Mackie. It was good, I just wanted to rest. I think finishing SLIDERS REBORN just left me feeling like I'd done my part for the cause and it was time to retire or at the very least, take a leave of absence.
Decisions, decisions.
My someplacethatiselse.net site is up for renewal. Do I keep it up, or let it go? Hmm...
I lost another dog this weekend. The second since May and third in the last two years. This one, Rocky, was 15 years old, which is amazing for his breed (he was a lab) and he was an overwhelmingly awesome dog. I can't even put it into words right now, but if you've read Freedom/Hate, Ammo was based on Rocky.
This summer has sucked a whole lot.
I'm sorry to hear this. It is an unavoidable yet painful consequence of pet ownership that we outlive our companions. Please hang onto your 15 years of memories as best you can.
Thanks. I'm trying to stay positive. It's been an incredibly sucky summer, but there were many great summers before this and I truly am thankful for that.
I'm sorry to hear about your dogs, Informant. It's hard to fill that hole in your heart, but hopefully you can begin to feel better. How many dogs do you have? Are you going to get another one?
A few years ago, I had three (not counting my brother's dog who came to live with me for a while back then)
Today, those three are all gone. I have one dog now (my brother's dog who has since come to live with me permanently, since my nephew is allergic). I don't know if I'm going to get more. On the one hand, I love dogs and it would probably be good for the one I have if she had a friend to play with. On the other hand, these last two years have killed me. I don't want to get a new dog until I can do it without trying to replace what I once had, since no dog will be my old dogs and it's not fair to ask it to be. If that makes sense.
That makes sense. My last dog died a few years ago, and I never replaced her.
It is sooooooo damn quiet though. And I have far too much free time. My three boys were all pretty old and had their medical issues and needs over the last few years. Now I have a spry young dog, and she can take care of herself for the most part. I don't know what to do with myself.
Finally got book 5 in my series published today! With the craziness of this year, it's been really hard to get these out, but I only have one more to go after this, so I can see the finish line! Eventually, someone will have to remind me why I thought it'd be a good idea to release six books in two years.
http://a.co/eUW1U2w
I upgraded my Moto G4 from Android 6.0.1 (Motorola's Marshmallow build) to Nougat (7.1.2, a custom Lineage OS ROM). Some very interesting results.
Apparently, all this time, my phone has had a notification light that the Motorola Marshmallow software ignored. Why install a light and not write software to use it? Lineage OS uses the light. A flashing notification light uses much less energy. Previously, the phone used Ambient Display which would flash notifications across the screen and every time you picked the device up. But this was a huge power drain because it meant keeping the light and motion sensors permanently engaged to detect unpocketing, flipping and picking up.
The phone can now read the battery life of my Bluetooth earpiece and headphones where it couldn't before. Bluetooth performance on the whole seems to be greatly improved with devices pairing instantly and automatically when they previously had to be connected individually, manually and repeatedly.
There are a lot of effective little tweaks, too. Messaging apps now hyphenate words. Security features will allow the phone to stay unlocked in sleep if you keep it on your person and stay in motion. Snapchat didn't load before; it does now.
And everything is responsive: apps load faster, all the animations have been additionally smoothed. The camera app used to take 4 - 5 seconds to load up, now it takes 1 second, if that.
The phone was now so fast that it began to overheat regularly. That's right! All eight CPU cores were perpetually at maximum clockspeed. The phone got so hot that I had to put it in the freezer while I tried to think out what to do.
The phone's battery drained from 100 to 0 in five hours of mixed use and in sleep mode. Even when idling, the phone was extremely heated. I set the phone to Power Saver mode and its longevity stretched to six hours.
Eventually, I decided to lock the CPU to the lowest clockspeeds. The Moto G4's processor contains two quad-core arrangements, the first at 0.84 GHz to 1.2 GHz, the second from 0.96 GHz to 1.5 GHz. I've set the processors permanently at the base speed and this put the phone back to the icy cool it had on Marshmallow. I'm hoping the multi-core setup will negate any performance loss for me. It seems good enough for Facebook and Twitter and ebooks and Chrome.
I haven't noticed any loss of speed beyond a slightly longer pause to wake the phone from sleep mode (which is better than the phone going dead inside six hours). But I suspect that if I were a gamer (and I'm not), the processor being locked to lowest speed would lead to slow load-times and poor framerates.
Damn, that sounds like a hot phone.
I'm not sure what else to add to the conversation. I find your phone stories fascinating, but I don't have much to add.
For the next week or two, I will be watching YouTube videos about the Note 8. I'm partly doing this because I am considering buying one (keep in mind, I don't replace phones often. This is a four or five year commitment), and I'm partly doing it because I have no gas for my car and every station around my area is sold out. People were convinced that Harvey would create a shortage, so they rushed to fill up. There is no real shortage because of Harvey, but the rush to get gas has resulted in a shortage that will probably last about a week. So... I'll be here... Waiting for gas...
If I had to buy a new phone today, I would get the Moto E4. It's a budget device with a 5-inch, 720p screen, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, microSD and it would be sufficient for my ebook reading and social media and total lack of gaming. The 8-megapixel camera is adequate; decent in daylight, needs a flash in low light. It's about $130 USD and I just wouldn't recommend buying a superphone because phones are too fragile and easily lost in my experience.
In your case, I'd probably recommend the Samsung S7. It's about $340 USD and you'd get about the same user-experience as on an S8 except you wouldn't have the bezel-less look.
I'm considering the Note 8, possibly going to the S8 Plus if I can find a deal that I like (trade-in, plus bonus accessories that I can sell on eBay). The 6GB of RAM and dual cameras with good low-light photos are big selling points for my use. The S-Pen is also something that I could probably use quite a bit with my work, and the screen resolution is pretty great too.
The Note FE (Note 7 rebranded) would be another option.
Like I said, for me it's about getting a phone that can last five years without falling too far behind. If I go for a phone that's already a year or two old, I'm cutting the life by about that much. The 6GB of RAM in the Note 8 should keep it in the race for a while at least.
I've been using my S4 for a good long while now, and it really only became a problem within the last year, and getting progressively worse. I haven't had a case on it for most of the time that I've had it, and I haven't dropped (severely), scratched or lost it, so keeping a phone for several years is doable for me. I just need to future-proof it as much as I can. I've looked at some other phones and I've considered some, but I just can't do Motorola again and a lot of the phones just don't fit my needs in terms of resolution, camera, future proofing, etc.
I think I could get a solid deal on the S8 Plus. I'm just hoping that I can work my way into a Note 8 instead.
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