Jump to content

HamsterHookah

crowd sourced
  • Posts

    1495
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by HamsterHookah

  1. Spider Man into the Spiderverse (2018) I found Up to be good, but also overrated generally. Ratatouille was good but I've yet to hear anyone deconstruct why it's considered ground breaking or a marvel. Wall-E is a good answer. Personally I venture outside of Pixar to find really interesting and good animation projects: the Kung Fu Panda trilogy is probably the greatest of all animated sequel/trilogies and the first Despicable Me I'd put up against any Pixar film. Rango is one of my favorite animation films but probably the best one I've seen recently is Spider Man into the Spiderverse (2018)
  2. The real question in my mind is, is it even possible for someone as high-profile as SBF to skip bail and leave the country and join Snowden in Venezuela or Russia or some other crap hole non-extradition country? Someone game out how that would even be possible for him now and I'm not even talking about him having a tracking ankle device, but just that he is America's #1 Most Wanted Man right now and all the visibility, media and political attention he has on him. Because in my mind it seems virtually impossible, him being able to post bail and be house arrested with his weirdo parents doesn't bother me that much, unless I'm wrong and thinking about it wrong and missing something big.
  3. Okay. I thought he was excellent in both, for different reasons. Django Unchained overall was the better and more interesting movie to me and Leo D. as the villain was a masterclass (again, as was Waltz in IB). Maybe I'm splitting hairs.
  4. Some good anecdotes on this one that reinforce for me why I don’t take family help anymore. It’s tempting to because “why not?” If they want to pay for vacations and pay for random stuff, but I hate the nagging feeling of being obligated or indebted to someone, even if it’s tacit. Even if the other party doesn’t see it that way, if I still feel like I can’t make autonomous decisions because I’m in debt to someone, I don’t want it. In this sense, paying for things 100% equals complete freedom, and that’s what I value most as someone who can afford my lifestyle probably once over at this point.
  5. Okay but how many of you can say you won the Business Fair? hmmmmmnmm? That's what I thought! (and now we will see who will dox themselves as athletes because Cleveland would give auto-A's to anyone who played any sport).
  6. https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/shirtsleeves-shirtsleeves-three-generations shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations, from proverbial saying, early 20th century; meaning that wealth gained in one generation will be lost by the third. The saying is often attributed to the Scottish-born American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) but is not found in his writings.
  7. This, along with most of the thrust of this thread, is why I firmly believe that privilege is the greatest thing you can provide and then bequeath your children. The more benefits and privilege our younger ones have as they start in life, the more likely they will be comfortable and then have children (your grandchildren) who will then further benefit. Obviously it's not a science and sure thing-- kids can be stupid and make stupid decisions that ruin their lives or get unlucky. That said and at the risk of sounding discriminatory, I absolutely have different standards that apply to sons and daughters. With a son, I'm a lot more comfortable throwing them out to the wild and letting them pay their dues and ride the struggle bus for a bit (with our help to backstop any real problems) and have a son fail a bit in the real world. My sons knew at 18 they were to be in college out of the house and after college they aren't moving back in. Figure it out, use your training and privilege we've provided, and we are here to help if you really need it, etc. With daughters we were different. They were given a longer leash so they didn't feel the need or pressure to be in bad or abusive relationships or jobs or feel like they had to endure bad situations to get by or to make it. As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, my belief is still that society is set up better for a man to succeed than a woman which is why I had more grace and patience with their situations financially.
  8. Where is the line between veneration of icons and idolatry? That's always been a curious topic for me-- even as Christians and the sliding scale of "worshiping icons"/"creating idols" out of icons in deep Christian canon (e.g. The Cross, Cross jewelry, the 19 crosses hung up all over the average southern house, etc.)
  9. HamsterHookah

    Eyesight poll

    LASIK was the best $3500 I ever spent. Would do it again 10/10.
  10. The cheerleader in the background covering her mouth is aghast!
  11. I keep seeing the Inglourious Basterds love (and not just here) and every time I think of just how much better Django Unchained was, pound for pound, in every respect if if just barely in some categories (Waltz's characters are both A++). And agree that JoJo Rabbit should be moved up the list. One of the best movies I've seen in the last 10 years. I think the OG John Wick should be mentioned as it is both critically and rubes-like-us acclaimed as amazing, both in technical and stunt choreography and innovation as well a re-introduction or re-imagining of the pure play action film. The thriller category was all meh for me. The villains category I think Joaquin's Joker is such a far better villain than any on that list that I've only been able to stomach that movie 1.5x, which is a testament to this realistic sickness of the villain. Sports: Moneyball was probably the best, I actually just rewatched it again a few weeks ago. I think it's hard to make an interesting sports movie because the emotions are so cut-and-dried to be impossible to be anything but cliche'd when the focus and conflicts and climaxes are all "on the field" and then the movies that aren't sound boring (like Will Smith's Concussion) and so I end up never seeing them.
  12. So true. "All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, 1878)
  13. Consider yourself lucky. Wife and kids like it, it’s overpriced mediocre food
  14. It's just a strange take. All the horrible shit in the world and you're taking issue with a movie where a kid drinks Pepsi. Isn’t this thread for weird takes? Admittedly I said that was probably just a me thing (kids drinking soda) but the overall critique was more around how a movie rated PG you assume would be more or less family friendly (and more importantly, it WAS considered as such in the 90’s nearly 35 years ago with where we were as society) but instead the First Act of the movie is extreme family dysfunction and emotional and verbal child abuse passed off as normal Americana.
  15. See? This was the right thread as I knew this would be an innocent yet grievously unpopular opinion around here.
  16. Same. Also saw Home alone 3 for the first time a few years ago and it was pretty bad. Young ScarJo was in it which was surprising. Yawn.
  17. Cross posted from Christmas movie thread, but I know this is a very unpopular opinion around here probably: Home Alone has NOT aged well. Tried to watch this the other day with the family and for being PG, it didn't feel very family friendly. And I'm not talking about the hijinks of Kevin getting the criminals with physical harm which was warranted and awesome. Kevin was right and I actually felt bad for him because of the emotional abuse: the family is cruel, they use horrible language with each other, the parents are awful to the children, and it's just a disgusting family dynamic that made my heart hurt. Maybe this is how it was in the 90's and we've gotten better as families and a society, but it was very problematic to watch and we as a family all agreed to turn it off: If my brother ever yelled at my son and called him a jerk, we are going to have some serious problems. Much less a parent ever calling their kids inflammatory and derogatory names. The Mom being awful to her son was gross A child of Kevin's age emoting "I hate you!" screams a lack of emotional development up to this point Kids bullying one another and being ugly to one another and parents not being present or aware enough to change the behaviors. An enabling culture Letting kids as young as Fuller drink soda is probably the least offensive but as someone who thinks that's a very poor behavior/habit to allow kids it stuck with me. Anyways, this movie was a gut punch and made me feel sad. None of those things that set up the movie were meant to be funny or over-the-top, but a more or less straight take and realistic point of view of a family dynamic around the holidays. That's the sad part. Movies like Christmas Vacation which use dysfunction as comedy is different. This was supposed to be facsimile to a "modern" real family in the 90's.
  18. This is probably a good "unpopular opinion" as well, but Home Alone has NOT aged well. Tried to watch this the other day with the family and for being PG, it didn't feel very family friendly. And I'm not talking about the hijinks of Kevin getting the criminals with physical harm which was warranted and awesome. Kevin was right and I actually felt bad for him because of the emotional abuse: the family is cruel, they use horrible language with each other, the parents are awful to the children, and it's just a disgusting family dynamic that made my heart hurt. Maybe this is how it was in the 90's and we've gotten better as families and a society, but it was very problematic to watch and we as a family all agreed to turn it off: If my brother ever yelled at my son and called him a jerk, we are going to have some serious problems. Much less a parent ever calling their kids inflammatory and derogatory names. The Mom being awful to her son was gross A child of Kevin's age emoting "I hate you!" screams a lack of emotional development up to this point Kids bullying one another and being ugly to one another and parents not being present or aware enough to change the behaviors. An enabling culture Letting kids as young as Fuller drink soda is probably the least offensive but as someone who thinks that's a very poor behavior/habit to allow kids it stuck with me. Anyways, this movie was a gut punch and made me feel sad. None of those things that set up the movie were meant to be funny or over-the-top, but a more or less straight take and realistic point of view of a family dynamic around the holidays. That's the sad part. Movies like Christmas Vacation which use dysfunction as comedy is different. This was supposed to be facsimile to a "modern" real family in the 90's.
  19. Mostly agree, but I do think the Prime Prep is a black eye and a complete grift and scam as someone who personally knew someone who signed up and went back in the day and got to watch second-hand. That said, again, I mostly agree with you about him. What I remember a lot about his genuineness too was him calling out his son:
  20. Just read this anecdote from David Epstein. RIP Pirate King: I had the pleasure of joining Mike and a few others for a meal in 2019, following the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. The final panel of the conference featured Michael Lewis — author of Moneyball, The Big Short, and other books — interviewing Mike Leach. Leach was digressive (my kind of guy!) and hilarious. Here’s the story that ended the panel: One season, while Leach was coaching Texas Tech, the team was having kicking troubles. Not just missing field goals, but also extra points, which are usually perfunctory. Leach said that the team had a powerful, highly recruited kicker who could “damn near bust the windows on the offices in the end zone of the stadium,” but he wasn’t handling the pressure of the college game well. A second kicker wasn’t working out, either. As it happened, an early-season game against Massachusetts featured a promotion in which a spectator pulled out of the stands had an opportunity to win a few months of free rent by kicking a 30-yard field goal. That day, the kid whose name was chosen from a signup sheet was an education major who took a step or two and calmly drained it. Leach sent a staff member to grab the kid as he walked back to the stands. And that’s how Ed Lynnwood became the Texas Tech kicker. An important thing to know about Ed Lynnwood is that his name wasn’t Ed Lynnwood. Leach liked the name “Ed” because it was easy to remember and quick to say. And Lynnwood Townhomes had sponsored the win-a-month-of-rent contest, so Leach just named his kicker Ed Lynnwood. (His real name was Matt Williams. And he had to forgo the free rent in order to join the team, presumably because it would have been an impermissible benefit for a college athlete.) Leach described Lynnwood’s personality as “a little like Jeff Spicoli on ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High,’ which is kind of what I was looking for out of a kicker.” He told Lynnwood that they were preparing to play 10th-ranked Kansas, at Kansas. “Look, we want you to kick extra points this game. How do you feel about that?” Leach recalled asking. “Good,” he recalled Lynnwood replying. “Shouldn’t be too hard. It’s only three yards…well, I guess there’s the ten for the end zone, but it’s only about three yards. I’ll probably make all of them. I’m human, I’m not perfect. I might miss one, but I’m not going to miss very many. I’m probably going to make all of them.” Leach: “Well, there’ll be a bunch of people there yelling and stuff. Does that bother you?” Lynnwood: “Nah I don’t think it will, because I’ll just take my steps, and, ya know…” When the Kansas game rolled around, and Texas Tech was getting close to scoring its first touchdown, several coaches noticed that Lynnwood wasn’t warming up. One by one, they started alerting him that he might want to begin warming up. “I got this, don’t worry about it,” Leach remembered Lynnwood saying. And then another concerned coach approached him. “I’m fine,” he said. And then, Leach said, a third coach approached him. Lynnwood got exasperated. “It’s only three yards!” Texas Tech ended up trouncing Kansas, 63-21, which meant there were a lot of extra points. “Ol’ Lynnwood hit nine of those suckers,” Leach said. “So then they left him alone after that.”
  21. I got to know my neighbor a bit and found he has a very average, middle class job and his wife doesn't work. I often wondered how he afforded mortgage, much less everything else. I got to know him better and learned that his parents live across the street and 5 doors down. Bought him the house when they retired and moved from California to be close to the grandkids. I bet there are a lot of stories like that and hey, smoke 'em if you got 'em!
  22. Would it be fair to set my sights on next summer to be an optimal time to refinance then? Obviously nobody has a crystal ball...
  23. I think I got your Bill Parcells reference there? The million dollar question: when can I refinance back down to 3% at least interest rate?
  24. Thank you @RDCanecutter. You are living your best life as far as I can tell.
  25. Awesome. Is living as a professional artist s calling fulfilled then you would say? Stripping away all the romance and “starving artist” poetic aesthetics, I can imagine times when the growling of your stomach is telling you it would be more comfortable filing TPS reports for a predictable pay check…
×
×
  • Create New...