I didn’t know who Jenny McCarthy was when I started watching The Masked Singer. I don’t keep up with a lot of pop culture, so I thought she was probably an actress who’d just been on shows hadn’t seen before. (I didn’t know Robin Thicke or Nicole Scherzinger were either, at first. And I often don’t know who the celebrity contestants are, too.) Then one time a contestant thanked her for her work… and so I wondered and searched online.

Ken Jeong is a comedian, but he was a medical doctor first and he continues to work enough as an MD to keep his credentials. How can stand to sit at the same table as her? Especially when it was COVID and people were literally dying by the millions. (That’s when I first saw the show.) I suppose the money is good enough for him to put aside his medical credentials and Hippocratic oath aside when he’s not actually practising.

I know a couple who speak French and Spanish, and English is the majority language here. They speak and reply to each other in their own language. It’s amazing and I love it.

As one who’d seen lots of Days of Our Lives when I was a kid (parents, you know), I found this episode to be utterly hilarious in playing up the tropes. The “I’m your daughter” thing was a story straight out of Days. Getting Diedre Hall in was amazing. The transition over to Pike’s unprocessed grief was really good, and I’m glad they addressed it, as well as reveal more of what La’an’s got going ok in her.

As much as I was amused by this ep, I can totally see how it would fall flat for someone who has not watched soaps, and I’m not sure it was actually a good ep.

You may be interested to read about the scheme of intellectual and ethical development by William Perry. This website has it discussed only in terms of cognitive development, but I think you’ll see how it directly correlates to ethical development: https://neurolaunch.com/perrys-theory-of-cognitive-development/

I’m going to be the “um, akchually” person:

Lunar calendars, like the Chinese and Jewish ones, have leap months for the same reason the Gregorian calendar has leap days: to keep our seasons in line. It’s an entire, extra doubled-up month. However, one would say that year has 13 months, not 12. (At least for the Chinese calendar, not sure about the Jewish one.)

My dad (not even American, but he would 100% be Republican if he were) will randomly bring up Obama and Biden and blame them for the economy, and even blame them for what’s happening in Iran. He claims that Trump had no choice but to attack Iran because of what Obama and Biden did to the economy 🤦🏻‍♀️

My father has multiple degrees and a professional designation, but he is living proof going to school doesn’t make you smart.

I loved opening flip phones with a flick of the wrist, and the physical action of ending a call by closing it.

The philosophy of libraries are great, but the reality is that they are cost-centres that are usually financially neglected. Public libraries especially, IT depts especially especially. Ask any librarian or library worker ☹️

The author of Heated Rivalry donated $300k to save five libraries that were slated to close due to underfunding. That’s wonderful news, but she’s only bought them one year. But hopefully her celebrity and the donation brings enough attention to the matter. We need to vocally support libraries!

Agreed, the whole “every episode is a different genre” is tiresome. I think that would have been fine for just one season, with some reason for that season to be like that. The show feels inconsistent and discontinuous, which is generally not what people like to experience. A good show may have both good episodes and sucky episodes, but still stand as at least the sum of its whole, if not more than its sum. SNW is kind of the opposite, where even if you have good individual episodes (and they’re not all good), the whole does not stand together.

I do appreciate the experiment in television and story telling (one of the reasons I loved Fringe way back when, even when the “science” was pretty awful), but I think they should have learned earlier. Oh well, too late now.

Speech-to-text (a type of AI) has been around for a fair good years, but now they’re being paired with generative AI. This is the kind of thing that shouldn’t be paired with a generative LLM. A language model to identify words? Yes. Generative? No.

Where I am, there’s a requirement for 15% (I believe) of new condo developments to meet accessibility standards. You wouldn’t believe how people—potential buyers, not developers—are against that, saying it’s too many. That’s just new developments. All the existing old stock is not accessible, so that percentage of total accessible living spaces is, actually, still tiny. But it’s still too much to accommodate accessibility.

Literally everyone is one accident, illness, or old age away from being disabled in some way. I can’t believe how stupid and short-sighted people are. (Maybe that’s their disability.)

The thing that surprises me is he was arrested instead of promoted.

As cheers_queer has experienced, “flood” means something specific in insurance. It’s wise for everyone to check your specific policies (even if you’re not currently experiencing water in your home). Water that comes up from your pipes/sewer, fresh water that enters your home over land, and salt water can be referred to and covered (or not covered) separately, depending on your specific policy.

You’ve written into your mind that he was a competitive asshole before the academy, but the entire point is he was not like that until he got to the academy. He had to be perfect for his parents, not an asshole. You’ve decided that perfect = asshole, but that is not supported. You can watch that episode again and listen to what he says about his parents.

We’ve known very little about Khionian society till now. Darem was competing hard with Genesis because his parents would, if we believe he was being truthful, leave when he made a mistake. That’s what that episode was about: him dealing with the insecurities caused by his parents’ neglect (and realizing there was another way). He and Genesis had a bonding moment over living up to their parents’ expectations. They wouldn’t even call him back, hence his going to Reno saying his PADD was broken as it wasnt receiving calls. And Reno saw through the situation and talked about people who do show up for him, referring to Genesis.

I understand why they didn’t want to put all the time (and money) into everyone’s make up, but, story-wise, that was pretty inexcusable.

I mean, have you really never met anyone who’s one way around some people, and another way with others? We should all be so lucky! I’ve had co-workers who are total assholes to colleagues, but become simping ass-kissers in front of higher-ups. Or kids who are angels at home and absolute terrors at school. Or the other around: they’re angels at school and terrors at home.

Darem was sweet, deferential, and dutiful for Kaira (and his parents’ approval), and then he let himself loose for the first time at the academy when he didn’t have any of that baggage on him. That’s not at all different from kids who grow up in strict homes, then basically go hog-wild when they go off to college, and then later grow out of that wild phase.

Personally, I hope Jay-Den and Darem become/stay close friends. I think boys and men need more close, intimate, platonic friendships as a whole.

The change in Darem was the whole point of the Calica/prank episode. He went from needing to be the best (because of his parent issues) to apologizing to Genesis, supporting her as their team leader (with the prank as well), and telling his parents he’s found another way.

With the Miyazaki episode, he immediately gave Genesis credit for the idea of how to find the cloaked ship, and while he didn’t have lines for it, when she was getting frustrated with the search, his body language and gestures were essentially encouraging her.

I understand where you’re coming from, but, to put it plainly, this show is not meant for you. Media reflects the times; Enterprise is the way it was because of 9/11. Academy is for the young people of today who have grown up in and are facing an increasingly bleak and hostile future. They will have to fight for a better future, because the one that is being handed to them is a dumpster fire. A show that shows them a better future is attainable and models how to do it is what they need, not a fantasy that is unobtainable.