i never stayed at a howard johnsons, but i did eat periodically at the last restaurant they had open. it was not good food- i have no idea if it maybe was in their prime, but it was like an iffy denny’s by the time i was going there. 

as i understand it, the idea when they closed to the institutions was that they were going to be replaced with a 2 fold system- community based mental health centers that would provide a social network where people could get ongoing treatment and would feel safe taking their meds and crisis centers where people could…

i could also see ‘there are other versions of the raven on other worlds with copies of the poe AI on them’ as a way to bring him back. saying ‘he’s a franchise’ is kind of on point for the world of AC

boy, it was jarring as i read through this and got to the picture and went ‘wait, i’ve sat in that exact spot.’ first time that’s ever happened to me.

embarrassingly it took multiple attempts to drink the fresh tea properly and they had a snack that was basically the consistency of a peach pit covered in some sort of…

those are all good observations- i will admit i have not seen the movies nor read the books recently. The one specific part that always struck me as particularly is when aragorn goes to recruit the ‘ghost army.’

tolkien was obviously not a guy who wrote prose/story beats that lend themselves particularly well to film.…

on that point i often see people lament the closure of the institution system and the way it has led to mass homelessness, but its more complicated then that. institutions were often functionally prisons for mentally ill people. perhaps forgivable prisons (that hopefully were humanly run although we know there is a…

i guess spoiler alert, but also apparently not:

the death of his character was honestly affecting to me. i’m happy he’s going to be back but i also sort of feel like its a little let down because of how he ended the first season, so i’m torn between ‘cool, more of probably the best character on the show’ and ‘kind of…

yeah exactly- the game is- on its own face- perfectly playable. if it was a game called Space Adventure: Beyond Space (outside of the technical issues, which seem to have been mostly fixed in my recent play through) i don’t think it would be remembered as a big failure so much as its more appropriate ‘yeah, this was…

yeah, they kept repeating stuff that was very wrong and didn’t even google it.

same as conspiracy theorists- they are just average or below average people in their real life, but when they dress up they are George Washington, noble patriot fighting against tyranny!

also, they really hate black people. can’t forget that

I find they are very hit or miss and a lot of it depends on the guest and the game. neither of them seem well versed with modern games (they were weirdly totally ignorant of MK 11, which was a big ‘GOTY’ hit on todays episode.) and they have a tendency to bring on people who basically never play games and they seem…

The thing is that chris Tolkien seemed like the sort of obsessed pedant that he probably was more concerned with the story then the money (I also bet he was the only member of said trust who felt that way, especially given his rift with his own son.) And while I do quite enjoy those movies there are some really odd…

at least with hot pot it makes sense- you’re dipping the food for such a short period of time to cook it that it wouldn’t work if someone made it in the kitchen and brought it out to you.

The folks running star wars seem pretty resistant to interesting outsiders, so I suspect he will get fired in favor of Clint Howard half way through

and yet, not nearly enough 7's in hindsight

‘complete seasons of classic series’ were listed on the free tier. and really, if it doesn’t have the past few seasons of SVU because they’re still relevant enough to charge for, i’m totally fine with that. more law and order: LA for me

i have amazon prime and netflix (and for a long time HBO) and i still will sit and watch L&O season 1 in standard def with a messed up aspect ratio on an over the air channel for hours. that stuff is like cocaine for me

all the law and orders? for free? whenever and wherever i want?

this is going to take my laundry folding and mindless house work game to a whole new level. i’m going to be mary kondo-ing that shit while i mainline that sweet, sweet sam waterstone

a bagel is supposed to be soft on the inside and have a snap to the crust. when you toast it, you dry out the interior and replace the snap with a crunch. its basically just bread, so why go to the effort of making a bagel and then turn it into bread?

if the answer is ‘i’m buying a bagel that has been sitting on a…