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Joined 7 months ago
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Cake day: March 7th, 2024

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  • GenX tv addict here. I grew up in a time when, if you wanted to watch a show, you need to make an effort to be in front of the tv when it aired. If you missed seeing it, you had to hope that if was repeated over the summer (only about 2/3’s the episodes of a continuing series would be repeated, and if a show was cancelled, that was it). If you missed it on summer repeats, you’d have to hold the show went into syndication, was carried locally at a time you were able to watch it, and then stalk the series because syndication packages were notoriously shown out of order (which is why almost all the episodes ended up with the characters being in the same base situation as they started out in).

    It was the same thing if there was an episode or series you loved and wanted to watch again.

    VCRs were an absolute game changer. You didn’t have to revolve your life around a tv schedule- you could go out, to go events, go shopping, have a late dinner. You could pause tv to go to the bathroom, you could watch and re-watch episodes that you enjoyed, or verify something you thought had happened earlier instead of relying on collective memory. If you missed taping something, you might still have to wait for re-runs - but there was also the chance that someone else had taped it and could loan you the tape.

    Having learned the lessons of broadcast tv, I taped everything I watched, and I kept the tapes of the stuff I liked, or that had actors I liked. I could sit down today and watch all the episodes of David Soul in Casablanca or Billy Campbell in Moon Over Miami, or short-lived shows like Space Rangers or South of Sunset.

    I still record and save things locally. The myth of having immediate access to everything ever produced was always just a myth.








  • I’d’ve called the front desk when they were screaming at each other in the room. The front desk handles this sort of thing more than you and would have a better feel as to whether (for example) these are regular customers, how the local cops react, whether this is a normal or irregular occurrence for the area, etc. If the front desk or the cops had then stopped by the room with a noise complaint, that may have interrupted the disagreement enough that it may not have escalated later on. If they didn’t stop by with a noise complaint, I very likely would have done the standard ‘banging on the wall to get them to shut up’ thing, which may have had the same effect (I have trouble sleeping and this nose would’ve made me very irritable). I don’t know if I’d’ve opened my hotel room door, but I’d’ve at least looked out the peephole to assess the situation - and I’d’ve double-checked the lock and chain on the door during the first argument.


  • The same way you form any group: you meet regularly. Set a time and place that seems like it would be good for a good percentage of the people, and turn up there, every meeting. Have some of the meetings be about a concept or theme; let everyone know what the concept is ahead of time, so they can think about it and maybe do research or bring examples. And have some of the meetings be open meetings, where anyone can talk about stuff relevant to the group’s purpose. If it becomes a more active group, you may need to limit talking time per person in the open meetings; and if a particular topic catches fire in an open meeting, you can revisit the topic in a themed meeting.

    But groups are formed the same way friendships are formed: people turn up regularly to spend time together. Some meetings you may be the only person there, but be open and welcoming to those that do show up.






  • Right from the start, things seemed off. Some contestants said they had originally been told that the competition would have 1,000 participants. (This was also the figure advertised by Prime Video earlier this year.) But upon arrival, contestants received a video message from Mr. Donaldson, reviewed by The Times, informing them that the number of contestants was higher.

    “Obviously, there’s 2,000 contestants,” Mr. Donaldson said in the video. “I don’t remember if I said that publicly or not, but there is.” A spokesperson for MrBeast said the intention had always been to have 2,000 competitors during that phase to winnow down to the 1,000 for the Amazon MGM show.

    Honestly, it sounds like he decided that he didn’t want to hand everything off to Amazon and decided to double the contestants so he could post some shit on his YouTube. And then, having doubled the number of contestants, didn’t change any of the other preparations. If you work from that assumption, then a lot of the other stuff falls into place: there wasn’t enough food, there wasn’t enough medical attention, staff were pretty overwhelmed, etc. Not saying all of the problems came from there, but it sounds like a bunch of them did.

    I’ll also add that there’s a clear lack of diversity on his planning crew. Any woman who spent five minutes thinking about it would’ve been advocating for a hygiene setup and would’ve pointed out that the women would be pushed out in that first scrum for jerseys. Real competition shows account for that shit.