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Samson's Wig

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Samson's Wig

  1. The no kill shelter in Austin has been 99.9% pit mix dogs every time I've been there.  We finally gave up trying to adopt from them.  I agree they should just be put down.  The sentiment behind no-kill is something I tend to agree with, but it's not working when all you have to adopt are piles of dogs with faulty wiring.

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  2. On 10/2/2022 at 12:01 AM, Deej said:

    Careful with that. Coyotes will have a member of the pack lure a dog out and then the entire group will attack and kill the dog. 

    That's dingos.  I don't how the notion spread to include coyotes, but coyotes do not hunt that way.  The urban legend has been around a long time, probably just stories about dingos morphing into coyotes in America.

  3. Twitter was right to reject it, of course.  Elon was also right that Twitter fundamentally misrepresents the value of their company to lenders and investors.  Of course, so does every other tech company, including those run by Elon.

    I don't know what the next chapter in humanity holds, but I'm ready for the era of modern tech companies and their complete lack of creating anything of value to humanity to run its fucking course. Elizabeth Holmes is about to be sentenced (maybe) for doing exactly what all of those pieces of shit do.

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  4. 52 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

     

     

    European, Northeasterner, or just a young twat trying to make a point through hyperbole? 

    My favorite part was the earnest belief that people drive pickups so they can fit their groceries in there.  Clearly, he doesn't suffer from a tiny penis or he would understand.

    This could also just be placed in the, "please go back where you came from" file.

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  5. I took his confession to mean that he cheated at two different periods of time, once at age 12 and once at age 16, where he cheated on a number of matches.  It would be really weird to go to the trouble of setting up the system of cheating and only cheat on one match at each of those two instances.  I may be misunderstanding something, though.

  6. I'm failing to see a smoking gun here, although I just read the summary and not the report itself (ain't nobody got time for that).  We already knew he cheated on chess.com, he's admitted it, including in 2020 when he was 16.  So this report verifies what he's already admitted to, and then goes on to do exactly what Magnus did, speculate that he probably cheated OTB as well because they think he's odd and doesn't follow "normal" chess behavior.   Once again, Camus to the courtesy phone.  Carlsen was/is also a young genius with a shitty personality who has dominated in a manner not in line with expectations.  One could just as easily suspect something fishy about him based on such nonsense.

    My best guess is that the Europeans involved just don't like that a Yank is named Hans.  I guess the ultimate lesson here is to never fuck up even a little bit, not even as a child, because everything is documented and public now it will be held against you for the rest of your life.  I don't envy young people these days.

  7. On 9/25/2022 at 3:13 PM, TKthunder2 said:

    Fonzie waterskiing in a leather jacket and jumping over a shark has become widely used in US vernacular about television series, but it’s very commonly used incorrectly. “Jumping the shark” equals a moment/episode so awesome nothing the show can do will ever top it.

    The way most people use “jumping the shark” is implying that it the Fonzie waterskiing was a collective eye roll/groan moment from the American public where most people saw it and said this is stupid and stopped watching Happy Days, when in fact jumping the shark was the absolute peak of the show and Fonzie’s coolness.

    Shows that are never that great shouldn’t be said to have jumped the shark. Limited series or shows that go off air at the peak of their popularity (like Seinfeld) also never jump the shark. The best example currently is (although not a TV show) likely the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

    Phase 3 ended with Avengers Endgame (and Spider-Man Far From Home). Endgame was so popular and the build up and payoff (despite what the resident critics here think) was so satisfying to the public that almost everything in Phase 4 that has come after has been a disappointment outside of Spider-Man No Way Home (which is really a culmination of the 8 previous Sony Spider-Man movies despite Dr Strange’s involvement).

    If Marvel never figures out how to put together another worldwide, universally acclaimed ensemble movie like Endgame ever again then that would be their jumping the shark, not Thor 4, She Hulk, or the Eternals.

     

    While it's true that the shark jumping episode had wide viewership, and the show continued to draw in enough viewers to avoid cancellation until 1984, Happy Days is the impetus for the creation of the "jumping the shark" phrase for more than just the obvious reason.  If you ever saw the first season, it was an earnest show about coming of age in the 50's, shot on single camera and taking itself fairly seriously. It was tonally very similar to The Andy Griffith Show or even Leave it to Beaver. That season got pretty good ratings, but in season two the show plummeted. So Garry Marshall sold his soul and turned it into a gimmicky nonsense show shot in multicam.  The shark jumping episode was in season three when they were still desperate for a stunt to get some press and draw in more viewers.  The phrase "jumping the shark" still very much means the moment when a show gets desperate and tries some kind of stunt (whether literally, through casting, or otherwise) in order to get a bump in viewers for a once popular show.  It absolutely does not describe the moment a series peaks, and it never did.  The guy who coined the phrase, Jon Hein, intended it to mean exactly what most people think it means. 

    Hein first used the phrase in 1985, not long after Happy Days ended, and was pointing to the moment as exactly what it was, a pathetic ploy to appeal to the lowest common denominator (the entire episode is about the gang going to California - travel episodes are one of the oldest gimmicks in the book) and increase ratings.  After season one, you could argue that entire show was jumping the shark every week, even before they literally did so.  They employed gimmicks, bad jokes, and writing so dumb a four year old could follow along for a reason.  It worked.  The show didn't remotely peak in season 3, not in ratings and certainly not in quality.

    Shows like Seinfeld never jumped the shark because they never had to, or never chose to, pull such stunts to chase ratings. Seinfeld did take a season to find its voice and pacing, but once it locked in it never compromised. 

    I don't know what to say about the Marvel stuff.  Hard to jump the shark when that's your baseline.

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  8. 13 hours ago, closetohumping said:

    I remember most of these.  That third one was a surprise as usually the loud guys don't really want to fight, but of course the louder dude sort of landed a cheap shot.  Rest of the fight sort of looked like a movie.

    Really odd to see a mouthy frat bro actually manage to come out on top of a fight.  Those guys usually eat shit without their friends jumping in. Seeing the other guys kicking people in the face was less funny than the rest of the fight.  Someone may have come out with permanent damage from that one, and the dude who did it should be rotting in prison for attempted murder.  Kicking someone in the head who poses zero threat to you is not only extremely stupid, it might be one of the more pussy moves I can think of.  

    I don't really understand who these people even are.  I don't see them out and about during the daylight hours.  Do they drive in from the country for the weekend, or am I just not hanging out where the cool kids are?

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  9. 4 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

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    Yep.  It's complete nonsense, and most corporations only pay lip service publicly to get assholes off their back.  True socially conscious investors are rare, even if plenty claim to be.  Most people will do exactly what they've always done and invest in what will make them the most money.  I think the internet has skewed our perception of what's real so much that we often end up working hard to placate people who don't actually exist.

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  10. 28 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

    On the business level, I am curious if it will go out of fashion to think that values/core mission/etc are important to organizational success. I kinda doubt it, although I think a lot of companies and leaders should understand what they are and what they are not (and they are not Steve Jobs).

    I think having corporate values/core mission/etc. is very important.  Paying lip service to children with complete waste-of-time initiatives aimlessly striving to positively impact the world is complete nonsense, though, and evidence of little more than how much bloat most larger organizations carry.  As you said, companies should understand what they are, and way too many seem to think their role in the world is to bend to every trend and suck off every activist that sends them an angry tweet.  It's bizarre, reactionary, and serves no purpose.  There is an immense amount of value in doing a job well, both for employees, the company, and the world.  Striving to do this without causing harm to the earth or others is honorable and right.  Thinking that a company that exists to design video games, or provide accounting services, or build machines, or provide short term rentals is somehow best suited to make positive changes in a philanthropic way is ridiculous.  Donate money to those organizations that are actually designed do something about these issues and get back to work.

  11. 3 hours ago, crash_davis said:

     

    ". . . and a company that has a good mission and is doing something great not just within their product, but for other people.”

     

     

    This cracks me up with young folks entering the workplace.  I get it, it feels right, but assuming you have any leverage whatsoever as a fresh grad and no experience is asinine.  Companies have been putting up with this shit in order to hire folks, but the clock is ticking.  Once a recession hits, this will disappear (outside of tech companies with no real product who have to leverage "making the world a better place" to sound like they do anything at all).  As much as millennials struggled to find work and financial stability during lean years, GenZ has had it way too easy.  It's going to be eye opening for them when everything shifts, and most of us know that shift is bearing down like a freight train.   

    I'm always amused when a young person applies to work for us and asks what we're doing to make the world a better place.  I always explain that we do our job and we do it really well. We take pride in our work and provide a needed service to our clients.  We have a number of charitable giving programs, but if you want to save the planet or rescue orphans there are non profit organizations that would love the help.  I've only had one of them turn down a job offer, because most don't actually believe their bullshit.  Young people are just more empowered to speak their mind than they used to be, for better and worse.

    I'm amazed how many organizations, including publicly traded ones, waste valuable time and resources discussing how they can improve the world.  Entire long-ass meetings led by someone with a business degree, but incapable of actually excelling in business, discussing philanthropy.  What an amazing amount of hubris, naiveté, and/or downright stupidity that requires.   Your consulting firm isn't going to improve living conditions in Uganda, or turn back the clock on climate change, so fuck off and get back to work.

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