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That's bull that some networks are reporting. The crowd shot I saw was packed all the way back to the Washington Monument, same as any other inauguration. Was it the most crowded ever? I have no clue. But it was far from sparse.

I would disagree on those points about Obama. We have pretty different views of the man and of his wife. I really don't have an opinion on their family though. I really never got enough information about their family unit to get an impression of how they were, but it wasn't important to. Their private life wasn't important to me.

But I'm not going to go on a long rant about Obama. His presidency was what it was, and now it's over. No need to kick that dead horse right now.

I have never been a big fan of Trump. I think that he can be an ass on an epic scale. I did like the tone of his speech though. Less about what America can do for him and more about what he can do for America. I'm eager to see what he does and whether or not it works. As with any President, I'm willing to give him a chance and hope for the best (yes, I even wanted Obama to make the country better and was disappointed when he didn't). I don't disagree with a lot of what Trump says, but I'm curious to see how much of it is for show. He's been known to go back and forth and change his views on a whim. I don't trust him... but then again, I never trust any politician. Hopefully he can change that (though I will never blindly follow anyone, so "trust" may be a high bar to set).

I wanted to see Hillary's expression as Trump was speaking, but the channel I was watching had a bad angle, so some other guy was blocking her. Hmph!

I should say, your philosophy isn't very different than what I usually do. In normal life, I usually take things in, shake my head and then move on with my life. But it's just gotten harder to ignore the crazy, so I wanted to limit my exposure for a while.

It only works in real life if you're not willfully ignoring facts, just for the sake of continuing to hate someone. In real life, letting fantasy outweigh reality doesn't lead to good things. I do tend to smile and ignore people that I know when they say crazy things, but watching them go insane over something that they're essentially made up in their head is frustrating. An the more frustrating part is that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I could show them video proof that proves that they are wrong about X, Y or Z, and they would refuse to absorb that information. They would deny it, and then forget that it existed as soon as it wasn't right in front of their face.

It reminds me of the Ben/Glory thing on Buffy, in a way.

Avoiding those sites made me more productive... In a way.

I hacked my NES Classic and added a bunch of games. Now I have about 50. I will be doing more, but I just wanted to see if I could do it. I've heard that someone got an SD card working with it. If that happens, I will have pretty much all the old NES games

I wish I had an understudy in life.

I think that for now, I might just go internet light. And internet diet, if you will. Skip news (which isn't worth much anyway) and maybe cut out social media, but allow low-stress sites like this one. I'm a writer, on a computer for hours at a time... it's hard to not research stuff. It's just been getting way more insane lately. And by "insane", I don't mean what we do here, where we have a pleasant conversation and everyone disagrees but ultimately gets along just fine. No, I'm talking about people who are losing family members because of the post-election hysteria. It's gotten completely irrational, on a very large scale. I generally don't do politics on my private, personal Facebook page, so I observe a lot of what people I know say. And I see some normal people who are usually pretty nice and rational, posting things about how they can't be friends with anyone who voted for Trump because of this or that (usually based on false news stories or things they don't understand, not Trump's actual d-bagginess). It's a shame. There is absolutely no desire to understand the other side of any issue, so they just create these monstrous images of their "enemy", so they can justify the ugliness and the hate that is consuming them.

And even for stupid things... There were images released for the Justice League movie. But I can't get excited about it, because every article and every comment revolves around this notion that DC is doomed and everything is horrible, and there is no way to recover and misery, misery, misery. I don't get what would be so hard about letting people enjoy the movies they like without going insane over it. I don't tear into every Star Wars fan I see. I've discussed the Marvel movies, but I'm not on some active mission to tear down any shred of enjoyment that people might get from them. It seems like the pop culture machine has turned hating those movies into the cool trend. The movies themselves have little to do with it at this point... another situation where facts and details aren't as important as feeding the fire. Meanwhile, Disney could release a movie that is nothing but a chimp eating a banana for two hours, and the world would cheer them on as long as it had "Marvel's" or "Star Wars" before the title (don't get me wrong, there may be examples of good work from each franchise, but there are also definite weaknesses that nobody cares about).

Seem like the internet as a whole is becoming more about destroying anything good that someone else has. But this board is nice. We disagree, but we discuss. I don't get what is so hard about that. Maybe I just don't get the team mentality, where you are undyingly loyal to something, regardless of what it becomes.

Sorry. Ranting.

http://tvline.com/2017/01/11/the-x-file … -episodes/

“A lot of conversations are going on. As you can imagine, these conversations are complex. We hope to be able to announce something shortly.” (The exec later confirmed that goal is to order more than Season 10’s six episodes but less than 22).

Bottom line is, people are fine with fake news, as long as it says what they want to hear. Now people are citing an unverified article from a site best known for letting you know which Disney Princess you are as their latest source of outrage.

Whatever. Facts don't matter, so why bother?

Mocking a disabled reporter isn't the issue. The issue is that he is being accused of mocking the disability. He did not. The media grabbed a screen capture of him flailing his arms around to make fun of the guy. They implied that he was mimicking the disability. However, the man has a paralyzed arm, not any sort of spasms. The press used the disability to create false narrative, and they should be ashamed of themselves for that.

Did Trump mock the journalist himself? Yes. But he did so using the same arm movements that he has used to mock several other people, none of whom are disabled. The journalist is not mentally incompetent and is fully capable of being treated the same as anyone else.

I'm not saying that Trump doesn't make himself look foolish or childish. But this narrative is false.

Agreed. I think that Streep looked like a fool to anyone that isn't already suffering from post election insanity. She tried to make the most elite elites in Hollywood look like voiceless victims. She went on about protecting journalism while referencing a fake news story.

Her speech was just as ugly and hateful as anything Trump says, but people will swoon over her because she said it to a room full of mostly sympathetic audience members.

And Hugh Laurie should probably go work in the UK for a while.

These celebrities look like idiots in their fancy gowns, spewing venom at most of the US, completely oblivious to the fact that they live in a fantasy bubble. They probably cringe every time they have to fly over any state that isn't New York or California.

I expected it, but still glad to hear it.

I just watched the series. It was really good. And yeah, the Ford who died could have been a host, because we did see him making someone in his hidden lab.

There is a lot to say, but I am on my phone. But I will mention two things really quickly...

1. The de-aging of Anthony Hopkins was really well done.

2. I wish they'd shown more of what happened to the guard guy (the third Hemsworth brother!) and the tech girl who got nabbed. We saw her attacked, but not killed. And we never saw bodies for either. It felt like a loose end in an otherwise pretty closed-off season.

It could really go either way. But Target laughed off recent calls for boycott and it wound up costing them hundreds of millions of dollars (the last time I checked. I'm sure it's more now). Typically, boycotts don't work unless you enrage a rabid crowd... but the Star Wars crowd is rabid.

To me, it doesn't matter. They're all going to wait for Netflix anyway. Same with Marvel movies. Walt Disney would absolutely hate what has become of his company.

There is the option to have her go off, the way Luke did, and just leave it all behind. The could use her image to create a hologram, as a throwback to the first movie.

But Disney has to treat this with some care. They can't just go for the toys, because if they piss off the hardcore fans who have been fans since the 70's, there is nobody to buy the toys.

The movies are going to have to change. Whatever their plan was, it can't be anymore. If they cling to it, they will fail. They need to acknowledge that she is gone and respect the fans enough to know that they're aware of this. Even if they just shoot a short film to go with the next movie that has no place in the overall story, but features a proper funeral for the character, fans will go along with it.

I think people are over complicating the issue. I don't think that there will be any CGI work or a replacement actor, unless they are needed for a brief shot where they need to show the character die.

The easiest solution would be to review whatever they filmed for the next movie and see if there is a way to rework it so that she dies. Any near-miss action sequence would become a sudden death.

If that is not possible, maybe something more like a Joyce Summers death... Leia doesn't report for duty and someone goes to check on her, only to find her dead. It isn't super action hero-y, but most deaths aren't. Her son just killed his father/the love of her life... She is under stress. She could just die.

They will probably need to film additional scenes, but I think it would probably be best to just deal with it in the next movie, rather than leave everyone holding their breath for years.

Yeah, but I expect them to turn that story around any minute now. By the end of the season, he will be an ally.

I'm wondering how they're going to reset the timeline. They're using up all of the big moments in history (even when they don't need to), which is going to make it tricky for the writers to not get everything confused over time. So will history eventually reset itself once they wrap up this storyline?

Okay, since every other show is on hiatus and I have a lot of free time until the new year, I have been catching up on the series. It really is Sliders-y in a lot of ways. I wouldn't call it great, or even really good, but it is entertaining enough to pass the time. My main problems are:

The lack of historical depth... The series would be a great way of moving beyond the shallow pop culture views of history, and really digging into the less discussed aspects. It would probably piss a lot of people off, since reality isn't quite what people sell the masses today, but it would be interesting.

And also, the huge plot holes. The writers are opting for easy writing and false drama over legitimate character depth and legitimate drama. Characters want to "fix" history, but in stupid ways that anyone with any amount of sense would know is a bad idea. It sucks that Lincoln died, but changing it would probably suck a lot worse.

Watchable show. Not as good as it could be though.

I look forward to sitting down and finishing this series once I complete the absolutely insane writing project that I am dealing with (halfway done! Woot!). It sounds great, and if it's anywhere near as good as The X-Files Reborn, it will be well worth my time.

It is being reported that Carrie Fisher has died. Sad news, not just for Star Wars fans.

I was just watching the "Lexmas" episode of Smallville... Classic episode. Yeah, the series had its issues, but I have to say once again that Supergirl just doesn't compare. Smallville  movies the concept of Superman forward in so many ways, and Man of Steel picked up on that. But Supergirl just lacks so much by comparison. It lacks the heart, opting instead for hollow smiles. It lacks the care. The Character. The chemistry of the cast. The set design. The lighting. It lacks soul. And one thing that the Superman and Supergirl stories need above all else is soul.

It's such a shame. You don't realize how much care was put into Smallville until you step away for a while and then look back at it. The warmth of the show really set a mood.

Perhaps, but we have viable alternatives to cable. At the moment, we don't have anything that compares to those forms of energy, aside from maybe nuclear, but there has been a big push to keep nuclear power from being used. The funny thing is that in a lot of ways, nuclear power would be that magic bullet energy source. But the people who are trying to keep it from being used aren't the oil companies (who, again, aren't nearly as powerful as people make them seem), they're the environmentalists and politicians who create regulations.

Bah. Anyone could have written Sliders Reborn! The X-Files stuff is your greatest accomplishment! I really appreciate the effort that you put into it.

(I'm just going to duck and cover now)

Yeah, but that isn't the same. The magic bullet energy source that never runs out and yet has no dangerous waste or potential for massive explosions isn't exactly a gamble when it comes to potential profit. We aren't talking about a new search engine or a new fun gadget. We are talking about inventing, as I said, the holy grail of technology.

I don't think that's true. If I invented a way of pulling a crap-ton of energy out of a little solar panel and this could power homes, cars, or whatever, I'd GoFundMe that son of a bitch and never stop counting the money that rained down on me. There are a ton of companies that would love to bring this technology to consumers. There is nothing but incentive for most of the people in this world to be that person who finds a way to put a little panel on a roof and powers a high-rise for all eternity, and no evil oil company would have the ability to take that away from them. At best, politicians could try to regulate it into the ground, but even that is iffy in an age where a tweet can reach three million people in two seconds. And if politicians in the US try to regulate it into never existing, there are plenty of other places that someone could go to develop that technology.

People give too much credit to the mysterious men in black suits.

You can't really say that oil and coal are things of the past. They are still the best source of energy that we have, and unless people are prepared to stop consuming energy, we need them. No other source will fill that need in the near future, especially since nuclear power isn't being used more. Not to mention, windmills are death farms for birds.

We can't just pretend that we're beyond using oil and coal.

It seems to be taking on a more British approach... they'll do it, but when they're damn well ready.

And I'll probably get excited again, only to have my hopes dashed. If only we could take Chris Carter out of this discussion. Maybe he could retire to Hawaii or go fight climate change with Leo DiCaprio in the arctic... and they could take Matt Damon!

I love this idea!!!

I've always expected the Joker stuff to be a bunch of over-hyped nonsense. Jared Leto probably spent hours being all "method" in front of the camera, and they chose what they needed to make the movie work.

I'm sure that there are deleted scenes that were story points at some point, but it was probably edited in a way that built up Harley, rather than the Joker.

I could be wrong, but I think that people are expecting way too much from this Joker footage.

If they streamed it on their own site, it would probably not make much. They would have to partner with a service to make it work. Even Amazon or Hulu would be iffy. Netflix could work, but they already partner with Marvel.

Nah, they're probably better off the way they did it.

There are a lot of balls to juggle here, so let me try to quickly address different points without rambling too much...

Obama was never qualified to be President, and remains unqualified to this day. He got the support that he did because he was pretty much Oprah's book of the month. Once she put her label on him, he got other celebrities behind him and he became a pop culture icon. People voted for his poster, not his ability.
The reason that Obama has remained without scandal is because the people who decide what is and is not a scandal have deemed Obama untouchable. They will not ask questions about his past, or demand his records the way they do with most candidates and Presidents. They gloss over his missteps or stupid slip-ups (I'm still hearing about Rick Perry forgetting the name of the EPA while on medication, but never heard anyone bring up Obama's 57 states comment). They do not hold Obama accountable for his failures. There is now an overlap between blaming Bush and Trump, with absolutely nobody in between. They ignore his failings when it comes to the economy and national security. They ignore the way he blatantly pushes for racial tension and violence. Obama is no better than Trump when it comes to arrogance or the trash that comes out of his mouth. The difference is that the media spit-shines every turd that Obama drops. The man is known to have associated with radicals and terrorists, and it is considered racist to question him.
There is plenty of material for a scandal when it comes to Obama, but the scandal makers won't go there. They love him too much. While George W Bush had movies and video games depicting his assassination, Obama gets fictional rom-coms and glorification. He abused his power. He created an unthinkable amount of debt. He failed to protect us from terrorists, choosing to target law-abiding American citizens instead. He did significant damage to out healthcare system. And the only reason that the unemployment numbers are so low is because workforce participation has dropped so low. Obama is a failure in every respect, and a man who loves to divide the American people. But good luck getting that record to show up in the history books. He'll be as shiny as FDR for generations to come.

George W. Bush was blamed for natural disasters. Obama isn't even blamed for his own actions.

Hillary Clinton never should have been in the running. The democrats failed their people by acknowledging her existence, both this year and in 2008. People don't like the Clintons, but the establishment democrats love them. I don't think that Sanders would have won against Trump, because he is too far in the wrong direction for a country that is trying to get away from Obama right now, but I do think that the democrats would have had a better chance if they could have chosen a less extreme, more relatable, possibly even human candidate. Both parties have the same problem, in that the establishment is very far removed from the people that they are supposed to serve. The republicans suffered dearly for that this year, and so did the democrats. The people are not happy with the way things are being done. Term limits are needed, and I think that the people that we elect should have to spend less time in Washington and more time amongst the people that they serve. They need to be reminded that they are not supposed to be our masters, they are supposed to be our voices.

Until the popular vote means something, it means nothing. You can say that Hillary won the popular vote, but most of those votes come from very specific areas and do not represent the country as a whole. I, for one, would not be a huge fan of California deciding the fate of our country. Their state is a mess, and they have no idea what it is like to live in "fly-over country". We have an electoral college for a reason, and it's a good reason. Acting as though the popular vote means something fails to take into account the fact that these are pretty localized groups, and the fact that there are also millions of people who don't vote because their states aren't in question. I know people who don't vote in Texas, because it's a waste of their time. Until the national popular vote actually matters for something (which it shouldn't), you can't hang your hat on that number. Hillary Clinton lost. Her loss was quite significant.

I think she lost because of arrogance. Her campaign didn't believe that they needed to earn the trust or the votes of people, and abandoned a lot of states that they assumed would be going for them no matter what. Trump picked up a lot of votes because of that, and we are seeing a lot of whining and bickering and foot stomping now, because Hillary's camp thinks that they deserved to win. That they were entitled to it. That they had a right to it, because it was theirs. Simply put, she lost because she deserved to.

So now we have Trump. A man who is undoubtedly already on the media's list of worst Presidents in history, for his failure to make Obamacare work, and whatever else is going wrong in the world. There will be no talk of the mess that was left for him when he entered office. There will be no "It takes a decade for the economy to reflect a President's impact!" There will be no forgiveness when we are attacked by terrorists again and again and again. There will be no unity behind the man when a race war breaks out. And I'm not saying that he should get away with any of his failures. I'm just saying that it doesn't matter what he does, because the narrative is already being written and the headlines are, in some cases, already being published.

The democrats failed the democrats. The republicans failed the republicans. The media failed everyone.

Merry Christmas!