CritterKeeper

I think you're either underestimating the studios, or overestimating the slush pile. I'd say it might be another 1% that has potential to be good movies, but saying there are twice as many better ones is just an expression of scorn for the studios, not a real number. Agreed about there being another 2% that would be good niche movies, except that a fair number of those do get made, just by smaller studios. Of course, picking a topic or work to adapt is only one small part of the process; turning that into a script, choosing actors and directors, adapting the script to suit those actors and directors, shooting the movie with lighting, sound, costuming, etc, editing it all together....there are a lot of things that can go wrong or right. It's amazing we get so many movies where it all or mostly all works in the end! No, but it shows that the "popular taste" isn't as horrible as snobs like to think it is. Yeah, ffnet came to mind immediately, but I wasn't gonna be the first to say it....I've got a few things there and I don't know if I want to know what percentage of readers would put my stuff in which category. ;-) Exactly. Novels show it even moreso, there are an awful lot of books mercifully lost to time which were actually published. Ugh. How can anyone keep up with all their movies and TV shows, unless it's their full-time job? I watched the first couple X-men, the first Iron Man, the first season of Jessica Jones, but beyond that? Too big an avalanche for this poor pebble. Heh. I've gone back and watched some of some old series I used to watch, from The Tomorrow People to The Fugitive to The Invisible Man to a series on the very first year of the FOX network called Werewolf. It's fun seeing what things stand out as dated or cliched now, versus what still works.

I liked the original Eastman and Laird comics. When they moved to TV and turned into surfer dudes I kinda lost interest. Since I don't usually watch or read that sort of thing, it was more the original version being an anomaly, rather than having any problem with the rest of it. Now I'm really feeling like an old grump. I started watching with Transformers: The Movie, back when I had time free in the afternoon too watch the show, and was busy when it was on for all the other "generations."

He could be on compassionate leave, or using accumulated vacation time, or just be calling in sick. It was pretty clear he was letting things go after losing his mother. I doubt he's used much legitimate sick leave in his time there, or even gone on many vacations, plus I really doubt he's ever used "my mother died" as an excuse before....

Um, show me where I ever even implied that the studios are infallible? Does the term "pretty good" now equal "perfect" and no one told me? (It's possible, just look at what's happened to "literally"....) All I said was that what we see, however we feel about it, is better than at least 99% of the *other* options the studios had to choose from. It was a comment in how much *worse* they could be doing, not that everything they did do was somehow perfect. A lot of people like to bash anything and everything that's popular, but if you look at the list of the top ten most popular movies, or even the top 100, there are some pretty damn fine movies on that list! The popular taste isn't as bad as the snobs like to think, and I get tired of seeing people bashing things by pointing out they're popular and implying that somehow makes them bad. Show me a studio that made a movie you don't like, and I can pretty much guarantee they've made some movies you would like, too, and that there are also millions of people out there who did like the movie you didn't, because their tastes and experiences and perspective are different from yours. My general policy about adaptations and remakes is that they're a good sign the original has some sort of merit and maybe I should read/see the source material. One of my favorite things is when a book I really liked has an Afterword which goes into what the author's inspirations were!

Yes, some of us found that suspicious at the time. It's a trick J. K. Rowling is especially fond of...."Here's one little thing not yet done but oooh, look at the shiney new development, don't pay any attention to what I've just interrupted!" Why specifically leave off Sarah from the list of those he'd "looked" at?

I wonder if Noah is aware of Sarah's visiting his dad. ( :-D ) It does seem to be what inspired Adrian to finally clean up and shave....

The comparison I've heard is to Shakespeare's plays. The people who saw their very first performances probably couldn't imagine their favorite characters played by any other actors. Over time, we've seen tons of people play those roles, with different interpretations of the characters, and with directors and producers translating them from their original settings to The Wild West, or to modern-day New York street gangs, or to a high school clique..... I enjoyed the 1979 Superman movie, I enjoyed Lois & Clark, and for a while early on I enjoyed Smallville. Same characters, different interpretations of them. We don't have to vow loyalty to one version, and then reject everything that comes after.

Not surprised that they can come up with a story that they like much better than the studio's. They are only two individuals, who seem to hve a lot in common when it comes to imagination. The studio has to try to please a lot more people than that. And honsetly, I think they do a pretty good job of producing stuff that's enjoyable to watch. They wade through the slush pile so we don't have to, and if you've ever talked to an editor or publisher about the slush pile, you know how absolutely horrid 99% of it is. Anything that makes it on the screen has to be in the top 1% on a number of peoples' lists.

Seems like it's about time for a visit from Will and Gil, so we can find out how "the not-change" is affecting them.

My personal headcanon is that in the version of reality where Immortals exist, the border between the USA and Canada is slightly further to the north in that area, so the unnamed city is actually Vancouver, Washington. (That other, dinky Vancouver in our version of Washington just had to pick a different name.)

Hmm, the link for Seacouver didn't link. Sorry for the double post, but trying to edit that in would be a nightmare.

I'll have to remember, next Nov 5, to wish people a happy Robert Catesby Day. Don't forget the porn. There was no internet back then, it was either seedy little shops with a fence around the parking lot so people can't see whose car is parked there, or watching the late-night naked people on cable. (Hmm, not letting me separate these like it usually would. Weird.) Defining "religious freedom" as "freedom to control which religions are acceptable and which ones aren't" or "freedom to promote my religion while still oppressing other religions we don't like" is still a thing for many Conservatives today. Didn't try googling, but the Wikipedia article wasn't bad. Nothing I'd never heard of before, just a much broader umbrella than I'd thought. Sounds like the Australians were doing something similar to what America has done, especially the "what will happen to their children" part. There's a reason the official definition of "genocide" includes preventing children from being raised in and taught their culture and language. For many, many years, the symbol for America was a female figure named Columbia. Any place you now see Uncle Sam, picture seeing a woman there instead. It still kinda amazes me how quickly and completely she went from being a symbol of our nation we were proud of and named many places after, to being pretty much forgotten. I prefer Seacouver. My sister, a biologist and professor of anatomy and physiology, once got called out to the site of a deceased whale. A whole bunch of different scientists and grad students all wanted to do various tests or get various samples as part of their varied research. There is, of course, a time factor involved, regarding how long specimens will be useful, or indeed, even collectible without self-contained breathing gear or complete anosmia. It then becomes more and more urgent to find a way to remove a few hundred tons of rotting flesh. From what I've heard, the goal in Oregon wasn't to "destroy" the whale, but rather to break it up into more manageable-sized pieces. Where they went wrong was in underestimating just howfar all those pieces would be flung by the explosion. Eh, a whole big country usually needs some version of a bureaucracy to administer it, and that can keep rolling along without the supposed guy in charge. Sometimes (often?) things work better without him. Kill them now so they can't sin in the future? As the lesbian said to the guy who told her she just hadn't had sex with the right man yet, "Well, you know, that could work for you, too!" Huh. Usually, space scientists plan ahead better than that. Then again, maybe the person in charge of aiming was someone who didn't really want to announce our presence too loudly..... I always wondered why they didn't just give the award to whoever it was that *did* sing the song. Someone sang it, so if it's a Grammy-worthy performance, why should what they look like or under what terms they performed change that fact? Let the anonymous "session musicians" come forward and be recognized! We don't actually do too badly. You just better include Stan Rogers's birthday, too! Except not always. When Star Trek: The Next Generation did their season-ending cliffhanger "The Best of Both Worlds", at the start if the next season, we nerds kicked the Bears fans who wanted to watch the big game out of the TV lounge of our dorm. We had them beat in numbers, and in sheer determination to find out what the heck happened after Commander Riker ordered Worf to fire on Captain Picard! I have seen it. I have also seen Highlander II. They are about on the same level of quality. Yes, brain cells died. But only the weak ones! What, no comment about how the restored Temple will surely stand for all time? And yet movie theaters still get cranky if you try to record the movie you're watching. (I actually did record a couple of movies in the theater, years ago. On audio cassette. They were something to listen to while running. They were also the only movies I went to see in the theater more than once. I think I saw one of them five times. Yeah, that recording sure cut into their profits, yeah....) Well, despite all those investigations, they hadn't found anything she actually did to villainize her for. What else could they do? Invent things out of wholecloth? They certainly couldn't demonize her for doing something a whole bunch of them had also done.... I had to look up which song she's known for. I tend to think of this when I hear it. "Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad...." Wow! Thank you for sharing that one. Sort of a great-uncle of the Flash Mob, too. Another cool one to learn the background of! He got it from Senator Paul Simon, and later passed it on to Matt Smith. Smallest professional basketball player ever. If you can count sitting in the bench, then being put in to make one play and then being put back on the bench, to be playing professionally, It was really a stunt to call attention to the way she was being treated as a professional jockey. She got a standing ovation, whether for her courage, her cause, or her miniskirt is hard to say. More importantly, did she end up with the nickname Penny Annie, and if not, why didn't someone up the ante? Only person so far to have served as both Vice President and President without being elected to either office. Shortest in the NBA, and at 5' 3" he's tied with Penny for shortest pro ever, but he's not the smallest, she weighed at least twenty pounds less. :-) Nope, you missed it. 1949 -- Stan Rogers is born. Barrett's Privateers steer The Mary Ellen Carter through the Northwest Passage during a White Squall, from Fogarty's Cove to Make And Break Harbor (The Idiot thought it would take Forty-Five Years!). Reminds me of the Beloit College Mindset List, sent to all their professors to remind them of all the things they need to keep in mind regarding the incoming freshman class. Here's the first one, which I saw at the pre-Web time because my sister actually went there. "They have never owner a record player. The phrase "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them." I remember playing Pong on our TV at home. It was fun. Thank you so much for keeping this going, it's been fun catching up!

Try white tea, it tastes good all on its own so you won't need to hide the flavor by adding sugar or milk at all! ;-)

So. I and my work are in Cook County, just south of the border with Lake County. Saturday, they're giving blizzard warnings for Sunday night for Lake but not Cook. Sunday noon a little snow starts, turning to big wet flakes that turn into slush because the ground is still warm, which continues for a few hours -- a lot more snow in the air than actual accumulation because it keeps melting. But, the forecast is for much colder weather starting Monday mid-day or so. Meanwhile, all the snow in the air is getting blown around enough to be called a blizzard, even in Cook county by bedtime. The animal hospital normally opens at 7am, with Doctor appointments starting at 8:30am. Around 7:30am, I get a group text from the boss that the door locks are both frozen, front and back, and no one can get in, so don't hurry too much if you're still on your way. Obviously mostly meant for people who are actually supposed to be there at that hour, so I continue preparations to head for work, while wishing I didn't have to. I get outside much earlier than usual to clean all the snow off my car, and discover that my Court hasn't been plowed at all. (I live in a townhouse complex, with a main road in a sort of a figure-8, and short little roads called Courts with three to five buildings each that attach to the main road. I'm at the very end of my Court.) Boss texts about 8am that she's gotten into the hospital (Yay!). So, dog in car with heater on, clean off car, then shovel snow from around tires. Still no plow, although I can hear a backing-up beep from somewhere out of sight now. The snow is a few inches deep, and still has slush at the bottom that hasn't frozen yet. This makes it very heavy to shovel, but at least it's not ice that can't be shoveled! It's deep enough I could get stuck, but shallow enough I could go through it fine, and loose and warm enough I can shovel it easily. It now being 8:30am, meaning I'm late, I decide to try it. Back up out of my driveway into the Court okay, start going forward, get a few feet....get stuck. So, I get out, shovel snow from around all four tires, get back in, drive forward ten feet, get stuck again. Start-and-stop like this is clearly faster than trying to shovel a full clear path to the other end of the Court myself, plus a few other people have broken ground driving their vehicles out of their places up ahead, so I will likely be able to get out with maybe two or three more gos. And finally, at 9am (half an hour after work was supposed to start), a little Jeep shows up, with a little bitty Jeep-sized plow on the front. No wonder it's taking forever to plow our complex, if this is all that's plowing! But, it's good that it's small and maneuverable, because that means it's able to plow fairly close next to me, then in front of me, and I only have to shovel away the ridge of snow that always forms at the edge of where a plow plows. I'm finally able to drive over onto the little strip he'd plowed to my left and follow it to the central road, which is at least somewhat plowed although not very well. The main roads to get to work are better, but still clearly more snowy than they will be later. Luckily the road surface is still warm, so under all the snow is slush and pavement, not ice, and traction is pretty good. Final arrival at work, 9:22am. One of the receptionists who usually starts at 7am is only just arriving, too. The boss has gone to the breakfast place next door and brought back pancakes, french toast, eggs, etc. for everyone. The first appointment, with the other doctor on duty, is underway, but I haven't missed anything, as my first (non-cancelled) patient isn't until 10am. So, it all worked out in the end, and I got a bit of exercise and break in routine. Oh, and it looks like Mickey doesn't mind snow a bit, he goes charging out into it fearlessly! Pippin always hated snow, so this is a nice change. He had a little trouble getting close to the tree and balancing next to it, but figured things out in the end. :-)

I'd have preferred seeing George keep a George-ish size, just a feminine version, instead of giving her a skinny waist like that. And maybe keep Tensaided his proper age, which is noticeably older than our protagonists. I agree they don't look much like their male selves. A bit disappointing, but then transformed characters are often unrecognizable as themselves.

Reminds me of a scene where the bad guy thanks the superheroine for flying around above everyone while wearing a skirt....

Maybe it will next shrink her when Sarah approaches, only to have her grow back to full size as she rolls? Or maybe it will make Sarah temporarily bigger?

Heh. I think that's an entirely different test than one to see if you are worthy to enter the crypt.

Got some catching up to do! Oct 1, 1887 = Friday ;-P The Celtics? Another Friday. Perhaps the expression needs modification? ;-) Whoops, maybe not, that's a Saturday.... My family went shortly after Epcot opened. It seemed crowded then, but considering the very longest lines were a bit over an hour, and the wait time for a couple of Avatar rides on my last visit were closer to four hours than three, I guess it wasn't so bad then. I remember when Nickelodeon was non-commercial. And had an actual nickelodeon, being cranked by a mime, for their station IDs. Nick cannot scoff at anyone else, ever. A mime! There were some interesting theories going around for a while that Peshtigo, Chicago, and several other fires that same day were started by a meteor that broke up into pieces which landed across the midwest and started the fires. Trouble is, meteorites don't generally start fires, they're cool by the time they land. If it were London, it would be aliens. Isn't that usually the other way round, re cold water making things more or less prominent? ;-) No permanent bases in the moon? Even if they're peaceful? I think I'm a little outraged, too! I remember driving past that on our big California trip! That, we got to see, but not Meteor Crater?? Aw, c'mon, Dad! Even the crooks had more integrity back then. Or at least cared about that part of their image more. I just have to speak up on this one. Those men and women got more right that most of us will ever get right or wrong in our lives. People struggled and died to get them up there, and then on to the moon. I'm with the xkcd guy on this one....they deserve our utmost respect. It's London. Wizards would be up in Scotland in their castle. In London, it's aliens and Time Lords. People talk about "as slow as molasses" -- well, apparently, molasses can flood a city at 35 mph. Killed 21, injured 150 in Boston. They're ahead if us on so many things.... I thought of Dagobah, myself. Not as easy a joke, though. Ah, yes, Seward's Folly, one of two such deals, the other being the Louisiana Purchase. Bite your tongue! (Or whatever the typing equivalent is) Yay Downton Abbey! Yay Sherlock! Too late, you already made it. But you'd be surprised how the law defines things -- there are a lot of laws which refer to "animal" in such a way that it doesn't include, say, birds or lizards. First so far as you know, anyway. ;-) "Ah, Jack, if ye'd fought like a man, ye needn't be hanged like a dog!" Mary Reade and Anne Bonney went above to fight while the men were all cowering and/or drunk down below. There's a guacamole for sale at Trader Joe's called "Avocado's Number"! Should've asked the natives whether to trust our treaties. The Olympic, of course, being the sister ship to the Titanic. Guess it's better to witness a sinking than to participate.

New doggie! Mickey is eight or nine years old, and his original owners had to give him up because he had bladder stones and they couldn't afford the surgery to remove them. He went from the Anti-Cruelty Society to another rescue, to Young At Heart, a place that specializes in older pets. And thus to me! He has to be on a prescription diet so he doesn't make more stones, but as a vet, I can at least get that at cost, so it's not as much of a burden as it would be for most other owners (that was a stumbling block to getting adopted at least a couple of times). He's sweet, and energetic, and loves walks, and is very snuggly and loves everyone. He is a bit shy of other dogs, but not in a biting aggressive way, just a moving-away way; and now that he's settled in he tends to bark at new people or opening doors a bit, but not to a point it's a problem. I feel very, very lucky to have gotten such a great dog! (He's also one of the reasons I haven't been on as much for a bit, but we're settling into a routine now and despite going on more walks, which also makes me happy, I think I'll be keeping up with the boards better now!)

Just to show how cutting-edge a gamer I am, I just started playing Pokemon GO. I didn't have a cell that could handle it until recently. Gives me a second reason to do more walking (see Happy thread for the first!) and I'm slowly learning how to play.

Sounds like a lot of kinky/vanilla marriages -- the kinky member usually has some sort out outlet, be it a steady Dom/me or a series of one-time encounters, so that the vanilla partner doesn't have to participate. Sometimes there are rules, such as no sexual contact, but not always. You make it sound like Justin did something to her. They had one attempted encounter, and Justin never deliberately led her on or made any promises that would have matched the fantasy expectations she apparently had built up in her head. Melissa is the one who built up everything in her head with too little basis. It was a bad match, but neither one did anything to the other. Individuals don't generally think about such things when developing relationships, nor when sneaking in a quick mating while their partner's usual mate isn't looking. It happens all the time in nature. Biologists refer to "sneaky fuckers" (or more polite versions in more formal settings), often males who look like females so they can get to a more masculine male's girl(s) without being driven away. The female is usually a willing participant in the deception. That means both sides are being poly in their mating habits -- males seek out extra females to mate with, and females attract extra males to mate with. We're finding that even animals we used to think of as mating for life, actually can "get a divorce" or sneak around on each other while still acting like lifemates towards each other. Not really. As well as other methods of passing along property and wealth, many cultures see genetic relatedness as only one factor in choosing an heir, and not really all that important a factor. In Japan, it's quite common for a business owner getting close to retirement to choose an heir, someone experienced and capable of running the company but a generation younger, and adopt that person so that they can inherit the business instead of having to buy it or be given it as a gift and owe far more taxes etc. than if it were "kept within the family."

http://www.tomsmithonline.com/freestuff/oddio/SF01_Sheep_Marketing_Ploy_128.mp3

....because he thought everyone else, from the Ancient Greeks on up to the then-present day, had all somehow gotten the math wrong, and that the world was actually several thousand miles diameter smaller than we knew darn well it was. If there hadn't been s big honkin' continent in the way, his crews would have dies of hunger and thirst as their supplies would never have lasted far enough to reach India etc., given he'd only planned and supplied for the much shorter distance to the Indies that he was expecting thanks to his bad math. Also, he never actually set foot on said continent, so really he only discovered some islands.

Wow, is that really that unusual?