Kale

I love MPFC, but some of the sketches are “meh”. For every “Battle of Pearl Harbor”, there’s a “Confuse-a-cat”.

Fawlty Towers is great. Mildly racist against the Spanish and Irish.

It takes 4 episodes to really build into the complexity. Then season 2 turns it on its head.

Red Dwarf is pretty good. Fawlty Towers is great. Someone recommended “Yes Minister” and the first season is awesome. The Hallmark of great comedy writing is if it holds up, and Yes Minister still is hilarious 40 years later.

Dark is a German Netflix show. It unfolds into something akin to “Lost” over the first four episodes. The ending doesn’t suck, and they set up the end to where it’s almost impossible to get it right. It’s not an amazing ending, but it’s impressive that they managed to make it not terrible, since it builds up to a near-impossible ending.

Squid Game is pretty great but gory. Letterkenny and Trailer Park Boys are quirky comedies with some rough language throughout.

There are methodical ways of valuating a private (and public) company. Some are pessimistic and some are wildly optimistic. Your can legally use whichever one you want, only you must only use that valuation method for everything. It’s illegal to value the company low for taxes and high for loan collateral. And if you sell it, you can owe back taxes if your valuation was off (sale price is the new valuation).

This is overly-simplified US accounting rules (from finance class 10 years ago)

He took it private so, although there can be shares, they aren’t traded on the open market. So no positions to short.

Out of curiosity, have you watched the Simpsons recently? I think, after season 31 or 32, it started getting better again. There are some really great episodes from two seasons ago.

The latest season of Futurama had two good episodes, but the rest were kind of weak. About the same level as season 9-10(Hulu season numbering). Those seasons were “meh” mostly but with three really amazing episodes (Free Will Hunting, Game of Tones, Meanwhile).

I watched Futurama trying to stay sane in grad school, as it was released on DVD. It’s straight-up comforting to watch now. Watching it when I’m stressed connects me emotionally to almost 20 years ago. I was stressed then but I made it out ok.

Yeah, only the people who don’t flip their car should get one.

I have zero problems with owning one, and have owned them in the past. We knew this person was a crazy driver and that it was a bad idea.

And even more violence could have been prevented if Hamas had cooperated and openly communicated with Israel before they attacked and took hostages. /s

Yeah. I know people who say stuff like that. I know someone who wanted a convertible car (they were 18). Someone mentioned the greater danger of they flip, and this person said “well I’m not going to flip a car”. We all gave them a hard time about whether they thought everyone who flipped a car did it on purpose. The next year, this same person flipped their car several times (and walked away OK somehow).

Some people can’t comprehend that bad stuff would happen to them.

Plastic is usually scratchy. Glass is much better about resisting scratches. I believe you’re, right, modem phone glass is pretty flexible. It’s also (usually) coated with something that prevents finger oils from building up easily.

His childhood primed him for comedy.

I’m not following closely and haven’t gamed on PC in a while but:

Denovo is a technology that is supposed to prevent copying games (DRM). Not sure what it’s current state is or might be mixing it up with other DRM, but DRM is known for causing headaches for paying customers. Using excessive system resources, refusal to launch for legitimate paying customers, spyware/excessive data collected and sent to a corporation, etc. In some games, volunteers will patch bugs out of a game, and this will cause the game to think it’s cracked and refuse to launch.

Some DRM is “phone home” and can’t be played offline, so people in remote areas can’t play. And sometimes the company doesn’t want to keep servers online when the game has been out for 10 years, so people that purchased the game can no longer play.

In this case, the company let reviewers rate the game and got the initial scores and sales, then pushed the unpopular DRM update. It’s scummy. If you’re using it, then use it. Don’t bait and switch.

If you want to blame the Americas for anything, blame syphilis. That wasn’t in Europe until the late 1400/early 1500.

You mention bedbug PTSD. That’s not hyperbole. I think it’s about 10% of bedbug infestations cause diagnosable conditions that meet clinical definitions of trauma or anxiety.

The more adjectives in a countries’ official name, the less likely those names are to be accurate.

Republic of… ok

The People’s Democratic Republic of… yeah ok buddy

I have one. You can create a pre-text that includes GPS coordinates and send it with a couple of clicks, you can type out a text message but it takes a while, or there’s a switch on the side that’s SOS. Flip it anywhere in the world, and Garmin/Iridium is going to contact emergency services wherever the signal is coming from.

I do a lot of camping in bear country. I’ve been to Bannf. Bear spray is more effective than a firearm at stopping a brown bear attack. Bears have super sensitive noses and eyes, bear spray is immediate pain.

Bears are extremely muscular from the front, so even if you could manage to shoot one several times from the front, you’d have to use non-expanding bullets like hard cast lead or full metal jacket, which aren’t as lethal as expanding bullets like flat nose or hollow points are (for people). Expanding bullets would be stopped by muscle in bears. Non-expanding bullets are slower at killing things (I believe it’s illegal to hunt with FMJ around me). Bears can run so quickly that a lethal shot killing a bear in two seconds might not be enough time to stop the bear before it could hurt you. And if a lethal shot took a minute to kill a bear, it’s not effective at stopping an attack.

9mm has stopped brown bear attacks plenty of times, but it’s risky. Both US Parks Service and Parks Canada say bear spray is more effective at stopping a bear than a firearm. I think Parks Canada still uses 0.303 rifles to rangers, but that might be for polar bear. Canada is really strict on pepper spray and mace, but you can purchase bear spray, even if you’re not a citizen. I don’t think a non-citizen would be able to hike with a holstered 10mm or .40SW pistol anyways.

Bannf was really crowded when I went there. It’s beautiful but the “must see” scenic spots are all filled with Instagrammers. Bears are probably less afraid of people, and I saw plenty of idiots 10 meters from a brown bear with an SLR camera without any precautions at all.

Pro tip: Jasper is very similar terrain, is also a Canadian Park, and is much less crowded. When I was there a couple of years ago, there was zero cell signal an hour before we arrived at the park. You’ll need paper maps or offline GPS. If you want wilderness with fewer people, try Jasper Park.

Relationships take effort and luck. You have to work on yourself to be prepared, put a lot out of effort into social things to meet people and develop relationships, and then most don’t work out and you’re sad for a bit.

The luck part is a huge part of the equation. Two people are perfect on paper but the “spark” doesn’t happen. Maybe they could have a great relationship but the starting conditions weren’t right to form a relationship. Having a close relative die, or having a mental health issue really early in a relationship can force a wedge that can’t be overcome yet. A normal wedge that all relationships deal with regularly once they’re established, but can’t deal with in the first few weeks.

The only advice that worked for me (I was raised with very few other kids my age) when I started dating in college was that the skills to make a romantic relationship were just people skills. That I should intentionally strike up conversations with anyone I don’t know. Most people have something to occupy their time. I try to find that out in the first conversation I have with someone. You can see when someone’s expression changes when the ice breaks and they shift into excitedly talking about a new personal best in a 10k run, or getting a major part in King Lear, or published their first full comic book or novella.

I had to hone my ability to talk about my hobbies. At the time I was finding gargantuan prime numbers. I had to work on how to describe it to people to make it slightly approachable.

I also figured out that a huge part of wanting to be in a relationship was family pressure. I had to be at a place where I wanted it, and not because aunts and uncles poked fun at any young single people in the family.

I don’t think a lot of thinking was part of that equation.

“why would we want to marry our cousins?”

“because they’re so attractive?”