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HamsterHookah

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Posts posted by HamsterHookah

  1. Impressive numbers:

    The otherwordly journey of struggling Italian American plumbers from Brooklyn just smashed through $1 billion at the global box office. The Super Mario Bros. Movie hit the milestone yesterday, 26 days after its release. It’s in rare company: The film, from Illumination and Universal, is the fifth movie since the Covid pandemic began to hit the threshold and the 10th animated movie ever to gross $1 billion.

  2. On 4/29/2023 at 5:47 PM, Vic Mackey said:

    Polo Sports for me d49ea41443d0609cdc356c1e4055dbde.jpg
     

    I remember buying my son Polo Sport for his first day of middle school, because that's what I had and all the popular dumb tweens did back in my day, and I was looked at like I was insane by him and his mom. Had to take it back, was still $40. But just holding that bottle brought back memories.

  3. Strike Day! Any predictions?

    What are the writers’ gripes?

    They argue that Hollywood’s pivot to streaming worsened their working conditions and made it hard to earn a middle-class income as a writer. Here’s why…

    Shorter series: In the previous TV era, shows like How I Met Your Mother reliably churned out seasons with 20+ episodes. Now, streamers are prioritizing seasons with eight-to-12 episodes.

    Residuals: Historically, if you had a writing credit on a TV show and that show was aired as a rerun, you’d earn a royalty payment known as a residual. Streaming has disrupted that income stream.

    Mini rooms: In the streaming age, writers often work in “mini rooms” where they crank out scripts at low wages for shows that may or may not be made.

    So, there’s a lot of frustration. Last month, 97.85% of eligible members of the Writers Guild of America, which represents most of the working writers in Hollywood, voted to authorize a strike if an agreement with major studios wasn’t reached. That’s the most support for a work stoppage in the union’s history.

    What happens if they strike? Studios have been stockpiling scripts ahead of the May 1 deadline, so scripted TV shows would continue for awhile. But late-night shows and other topical programs like SNL could be impacted almost immediately.

    During the last strike, which lasted 100 days from 2007–2008, Conan O’Brien filled the airtime by seeing how long he could spin his wedding ring. More importantly, it cost the LA economy over $2 billion, according to the Milken Institute.

  4. 10 hours ago, Patricio Swayze said:

    I’m guessing chrispy won’t have the stones to show up in this thread until his next screen name.

    I’ve said my piece and even where I would like to respectfully respond, the snowflake heathens who will neg a post telling someone the time to someone who asked it, makes it not worth the effort anymore on these types of threads.

    Other than that, not sure what your quote is saying and what it is you want from me to respond or why you think I’m scared in defense of my beliefs and POV.

    • Fuck You 4
  5. 21 minutes ago, hpslugga said:

    It’s really not even that. It really isn’t.

    It’s that these wanna-believers are so damn fragile and insecure in their beliefs in superstitious and ridiculous nonsense that, to them, it can only be validated if enough of their peers believe like they do. 

    I saw up the thread the old “atheist atrocities” trope, but one in particular does bear mentioning: Pol Pot.

    Pol Pot didn’t murder people in the name of atheism. Pol Pot murdered people because he was a rocket surgeon that acted purely out of fear. One of his fears, for example, was that people who wore eyeglasses were smarter than him. He probably was right in that they probably were. 

    The wanna-believers are of the same general inferiority complex. Just substitute “wore eyeglasses” with “do not believe in a deity” and see how well that fits on them.

    Just speaking for myself and absolutely not in a condescending way, others hostility or contempt and derision for my spiritual belief doesn’t affect my faith walk. I don’t even get mad or upset; I just feel a bit sad for them, but know ultimately I cannot give anyone eyes to see and ears to hear.

    And it’s ironic because in my experience the more snowflakey sensitive bunch are the agitated anti-theists.

    Exhibit A is this thread where if I am even a little bit outside of the mainstream thought of this thread (even willful horn was catching strays for having a spiritual life) and I forget to couch my language with softer implied words such as “in my belief” and “in my experience” you upset people just by sharing your beliefs and entering the discussion for which this thread was created for.

     

    • Fuck You 7
  6. 11 hours ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    “The ultimate reality is…” is not how you begin a post where you are just sharing what you believe. 
     

    it also ties into a previous post you made about how anti-theists aren’t going to like the fact that more young people believe in god. 
     

    they don’t care. What they don’t want to hear is how you are right and they are wrong, or what the ultimate reality really is- from a poster who also said it’s unknowable or can’t be fully understood (whatever your actual words were). 
     

    why can’t it just be this is what I believe, but you are welcome to believe differently?

    what if most of the 18-25 year olds polled about their belief in god that answered affirmatively also say being LGBTQ is fine?  Are they believing in god the wrong way?  Believing but not following?  Muslims believe in god. As do Jews.  But not Jesus and therefore not the trinity. 
     

     

    I should have prefaced it with, “I believe…” and then laid out the premise, instead of just launching into the premise. I thought it was implied and understood.

    And I stand by the comment that anti-theists won’t like hearing the surge in faith among todays youth. When I say anti-theist I mean those who are outwardly hostile to faith and faith followers and are visibly and audibly aggrieved and make it known their contempt. Not just atheists or others who have respectful disagreements on matters of faith and philosophies.

    • Fuck You 6
  7. 6 minutes ago, locodos said:

    Yet they have time to post about it?

    I've found some really average people can be elitist gatekeepers...  it's hilarious

    I don't doubt it, i don't doubt it.

    We should all remember, De gustibus non est disputandum.

    It's one thing to be critical and critique against your own framework and values, but that's really where it should stop when it comes to creative arts. We shouldn't be denigrating each other or calling each other names because we enjoy (or enjoy less or don't enjoy at all) a particular thing. 

  8. 17 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    I’ll say this about season 1- it was for sure a breath of fresh air when it came out, partly because of when it came out. 
    but I think that much like movie franchises, the first one is the only one where the main characters are new and we get to discover them.  
     

    im sure many of us were disbelieving of Ted and his relentless positivity and were waiting for the reveal that it was all an act. Instead we got the reveal that it is a coping mechanism, an endearing and humanizing revelation.  That’s not something you can replicate in subsequent seasons. 
     

    there’s also the idea, similar to great first albums from bands, that they had a long time to develop an interesting idea but then there’s a deadline on the next one and deadlines are creatively stifling.  
     

    all that to say I guess that it’s no surprise that the first season is seen as the best and most original/least formulaic. 

    That’s pretty much the long and the short of it. And some people just want to sit back with a beer after a long day and turn their minds off and be entertained, and that’s fine too and entertainment can be that for some, but others don’t have the idleness and time and don’t want to waste any on average art, and that’s fine too.

    I’m more of a sunk cost fallacy guy so I’m gonna watch this baby until the end— there are 5 episodes left and there have been more episodes in S3 that were better than all of S2, so they’ve earned my pot-commitment even if it’s a shadow of S1.

  9. 2 minutes ago, Vic Mackey said:

    Nope don't have kids. Never heard of them. After hearing someone describe them as someone who does trick shots from hundreds of feet up, that stuff interests me none. No desire to check them out. 

    That's how they began; they rarely do trick shot episodes now. They are a general/variety youtube show at this point, but it's good, clean and usually athletic/active fun, so tweens are big on them and they are a safe youtube show to watch for the youngin's.

  10. 57 minutes ago, UpperWestside said:

    I had not seen his show in years, but we used to put it on in high school when the government teacher would leave the room. I lived in Stamford, CT for a year and was a 10 minute walk from where they filmed his show, Steve Wilkos and Maury at. I should have gotten a ticket to see him at least once. 

    I thought Jerry Springer was in Chicago.

  11. 21 hours ago, HamsterHookah said:

    As a comparison to Elon running Tesla as a modern tech company versus a legacy/union auto company:

    I have a friend retiring this year after 29 years at Toyota. A mutual who works at GM said, "just wait until your 30th year and they have to buy you out" to which the response was, "Toyota isn't unionized like that, so it doesn't matter."

    Musk running Tesla like a modern tech company (anti-union, capitalistic/meritocratic) means there isn't a ton of bloat to carry on the balance sheet, I guess, which helps. Even my Toyota friend gets healthcare for life in retirement, among other pension/retirement benefits.

    I have another friend who works at Peterbilt who is in a union and gets paid more than most people posting on this thread after 25 years, and he acknowledges he's overpaid as he turns about 12 screws, on anywhere from 60-70 units a day. It's kind of a grift, it seems.

    @Bozo_CasanovaMaybe this is yet another example of a legacy automaker trying to get the dead money off their books with those guys who turn a few screws yet cost a ton in pay and benefits (implied by starting the buy-outs at 15 year seniority) a la trying to correct a bad deal:

    Quote

    Automaker Stellantis — owner of Jeep, Chrysler, Dodge and Ram — is looking to streamline and cut costs by offering voluntary buyouts to 33,500 U.S. hourly and salaried workers, as well as some employees in Canada. Exit offers were made to salaried workers with at least 15 years of service, and Stellantis wants to trim its hourly workforce by 3,500, according to a union representing workers at a plant in suburban Detroit. Stellantis' North American COO said the company needs to prioritize efficiency in the face of "fierce" competition to transition to electric vehicles.

     

  12. 21 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:

    The abrahamic religions are so fucking bizarre to me. There is so much crazy in the various books. Seriously, if aliens came to earth and told you these stories, changing the names like Abraham and Jesus to Zork and Xorian, you would think they are ABSOLUTELY INSANE. Just like how Christian’s view things like Scientology as insane. They are all crazy and weird.

    Y’all are some strange motherfuckers.

    Ultimate reality is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; 3 Gods yet 1 God.

    Everything that you and I know waterfalls from this community of Gods in the Godhead loving one another, dancing like 3 particles in an infinite dance where they have for all time glorified and loved one another, before our creation.

    Think about what I just said now and try to process it. We will never fully understand it, the nature of the Triune God.

    If you were going to simply invent a story for a religion-- you wouldn't have chosen this framework. You'd figure something else that's easier to sell.

    • Fuck You 6
  13. On 4/25/2023 at 9:49 PM, Satchel said:

    I believe it is prudent to objectively evaluate religious people with the same probity we would members of any tribe. The point at which we surrender to the temptation to no longer see individuals but to judge tribes in the most parochial way, we run the risk of seeing every member of the group as irredeemable. 

    I read an interesting article from WSJ that gives hope that the next generation (the young adults and youth of today) will be MORE spiritual/religious than we have now. Which makes sense to me and passes the eyeball test with my lived experiences. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-surprising-surge-of-faith-among-young-people-424220bd

    Quote

     

    A greater share of young adults say they believe in a higher power or God.

    About one-third of 18-to-25-year-olds say they believe—more than doubt—the existence of a higher power, up from about one-quarter in 2021, according to a recent survey of young adults. The findings, based on December polling, are part of an annual report on the state of religion and youth from the Springtide Research Institute, a nonpartisan nonprofit.

    Young adults, theologians and church leaders attribute the increase in part to the need for people to believe in something beyond themselves after three years of loss. 

    For many young people, the pandemic was the first crisis they faced. It affected everyone to some degree, from the loss of family and friends to uncertainty about jobs and daily life. In many ways, it aged young Americans and they are now turning to the same comfort previous generations have turned to during tragedies for healing and comfort

     

    Anti-theists aren't gonna like it.

  14. 3 minutes ago, Patricio Swayze said:


    Visually it’s so, as the kids say, mid. Performance wise…ok, sure. But when I see a Tesla, I automatically assume they are a massive douche.

    Model 3's are all over the highschool parking lots of my kids school now, which shows they've gone mainstream. That, and most people I see driving them are of Indian/Asian descent, so they must still be saying something in those communities of West Plano and Katy.

  15. 23 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

    The bolded is written like this was a fact. I know that others want to run for President but I don't believe there was ever a serious threat that Biden was going to face a legitimate primary competitor.

    It's going to be interesting if Trump can effectively hold off any real challenge for the primaries, we will have a quiet POTUS primary season and go right into the general. Unlike any other year that anyone alive has experienced. The only thing preventing that is DeSantis, and he may not be able to get his campaign off the ground.

    Disney has TKO'd DeSantis POTUS hopes.

    • Hook 'Em 1
  16. 2 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

    Thanks for taking my comment in good faith and I hear you. I guess my point of view is that if you show me a bad union I'll show you bad management. Or put another way, show me a bad deal and I'll show you a bad buyer. 

    If the senior screwdriver tech is making too much from the point of view of the shareholder as a constituent of the buyer, then at least one of the following things is true
    1) The buyer/The management team you pay to manage your company is willing to pay the screwdriver tech that much, and the work is by definition worth it to the only buyer that matters
    2) Management has limited visibility to the value of the work - i.e. they don't really know who is making what, or 
    3) Management negotiates with the seller (the collective bargaining entity) on the value of the labor pool and lets the constituent members of the bargaining entity unilaterally decide how to place a value on the work itself, in this case by seniority. 

    1 is fine, 2 is mismanagement via mismeasurement, 3 is mismanagement via misalignment.  
     

    That all sounds super reasonable to me and so what I'm hearing is maybe this situation isn't long for the world, as all bad deals wont.

    This jibes with his sense that a) it's a gravy train and b) he feels guilty about it (but not *that* guilty as he enjoys the paychecks) and c) it's not going to last forever

    All this to say, I am a huge champion and fan and proponent of the American middle class. I love them, as they are me. I want to maximize the middle class and the opportunities therein. I just bend towards the white collar middle class/middle management versus the blue collar, though in reality, they are the same. Turning a screw driver 100 times is really no different than copy and pasting from a spreadsheet 100 times, right?

    • Hook 'Em 1
  17. 3 minutes ago, royiv said:

    Seems like it can be mutually beneficial if there is shareholder return and labor is being paid a good wage with good benefits. It's also people are more productive and more loyal when they are compensated fairly. In turn increasing efficiency and decreasing the high cost of employee turnover.

    Agreed.

    I'm talking about the point past the mutual beneficial line on the bell curve when the employee is clearly optimizing at the expense of the company, shareholders, the customers, etc.

    When you have someone turning a screwdriver (Peterbilt example) 60-100 times a day and making $250k+ all-in with benefits, etc. There is barely even salvage value at that point.

    It would be like continuing to pay Zeke Elliot until he wants to retire and he just runs the ball 15 times for 20 yards every game but you are paying a premium.

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