Lol. Nice

LKJ, as the resident country fan around here, what are your thoughts on "Old Town Road"?

I've been avoiding listening to it despite seeing stuff crop up about it on Twitter. I suppose I can go take a listen in the interest of science...

Prediction:

My reaction during the first minute:


My reaction at the end:


I don't know, there's something sort of catchy there I guess. It grew on me as the song went on.

I'm mildly surprised. Kind of expected Clint Eastwood all the way.

Your thoughts are basically the same as mine.

On another note, I finished The Americans today. I will call its finale one of the finest that I've ever seen, as it singlehandedly improved my already-positive opinion of the series.

I keep toying with the notion of binge-watching GOT and trying to catch up to current in the middle of the last season (obviously if, and only if, it actually takes for me in a way that it has failed to in the past), but that's a daunting amount of watching. Even though I think I've got about two seasons in the books, that still leaves like 45+ episodes.

That said, I could string together two one-week free HBO trials (one through Amazon, another through HBO Now directly), so I think I'll give it a shot and see if it hooks me.

I had never heard of the song or the controversy regarding it. I quite like it.

I don't think there is really any downside to trying, but thinking about it I feel like the middle was kind of a lull so it might be hard if you weren't drawn in early

So far my efforts have consisted of activating a free trial, watching some early-season recaps and trailers to refresh, then getting distracted by other things.

I probably won’t get far.

How far did you eventually make it? I stated this before, but I took about 3 attempts to get past season 2, and it was listening to the books on audible that got me over the hump

I found GOT really bingeable once I started watching it. I can't see it being terribly enjoyable if you have to force it. Obviously ymmv.

I mean I liked it, I just fell off with watching it because it didn't grab me as strongly as it seems to grab everyone else. I mentioned it in the past, but a lot of it is just that I'm an attention-addled dope that can't get my mind around this whole damn world of people.

It would be like:
GOT: <two characters talk about Stannis Baratheon>
Me: "Wait, Stannis Baratheon? Which one is that?"
Me: <Googles "Stannis Baratheon">
Google: <Suggests prefill of "Stannis Baratheon death">
Me: "****ing hell, didn't want to know THAT much. No, Google, just 'Stannis Baratheon.'"
Google: <displays pictures>
Me: "Ahhh, oh yeah, that generic-looking guy who appeared once for five minutes three episodes ago. Can totally see why they wanted me to have successfully downloaded him into my memory."
GOT: <two characters mention Tywin Lannister>
Me: "Wait WTF, there's a Tywin AND a Tyrion? While they're at it, why did they cast identical-looking dudes to play Theon Greyjoy and Robb Stark? What are these people trying to do to me?"

To answer your question PJ, I think I got through season two, but the fact that I don't know that is causing me to take on a quick research project of episode recaps so that I don't jump further than I was anyway.

Just discovered this thing about the Politics forum getting shut down.

Though it was among my life goals to never break down and become an actual reg in that forum, and I had disdain for some aspects of it, I certainly liked having it as an option to go read sometimes.

Hopefully that decision doesn't turn out to be permanent.

Lol, they actually pulled the trigger? What a bunch of thin skinned ****s

"They" apparently being Mat without consulting the others at the top, per his posts about it in ATF.

Oh yeah, I saw his tantrum last night. I just didn't think he would do it.

lol @ Sklansky in that thread.

I had a similar problem getting started. I started binging after Season 3, and then kept up in real time starting with Season 4. I would Google things like "character map season 1 no spoilers," but would still end up getting spoiled. I thought Jon Snow and Robb Stark looked alike.

I've since listened to all 5 books on Audible twice. Now I'm doing a physical reading (through Book 2.) I bought a map poster to understand locations better.

Anyway, if you want to PM me with any questions at any point, I can give you the "important thing to understand without spoiling" synopsis.

Thanks; I may take you up on that.

I'm really remarkably dimwitted specifically to my ability to follow along with a TV show or movie of any depth. I got started on The Americans because my friend was over and urged me to watch the series premiere with him. By about my fifth question, he threw up his hands and said, "Do you ever pay attention to ANYTHING?"

I made the mistake of posting in a politics thread a bit. Was able to nope right the hell out of there when the "Misrepresent what you said, twist it in a way to make you seem like you support something despite that not being said at all, then tell you why you're wrong to support that" strategy that runs rampant in there got applied to me. It's like playing werewolf except 1.) the majority of the thread are wolfing instead of villaging and 2.) It's about topics with real life consequences instead of a pointless text game. ****'s exhausting.


Wasn't a bad place to read from time to time though.

LKJ, if you have any GOT questions about who someone is you can just post it in here with "who is X, season Y episode Z" and there are people (myself included) that can tell you what you need to know as well.

Yeah, I always just generally found the tone of that forum obnoxious even if I agreed more often with posts than I disagreed. I find that I can generally get a lot better learning experience by cultivating a good set of Twitter follows that contains some level of balance (devoting a reasonable number of follows to smart people who I frequently disagree with but who I believe are generally intellectually honest) than by spending an excessive amount of time submerged in an area with an overwhelmingly one-sided partisan bent.

The topic is one of great interest to me, I follow it closely and enjoy discussing, but I'm pretty selective of who I'm willing to put in the energy to discuss with.

I do appreciate the thread because it was a nice introduction once I became more interested in things. The biggest thing I got from them was a post about where different media outlets fall on the bias scale. It's really helped to make sure I'm getting information from good sources. After a bit though I realized similar to you. It's a lot better to curate a list of people that present their opinions with intellectual honesty, read through them, and formulate you own opinions instead of just dropping into a place where people are purposefully wolfing.

Yeah, no question there was value there, and I still hope there's a reversal even though Mat seems to be pretty dug in.