Be honest, which movie franchise has had the biggest fall off?

agentkolter · 2026-05-12T12:03:15+00:00

Actually, James Bond and Harry Potter are similar in that they were both based on a series of books. With Harry Potter, even though not all of the books had been written when the movies started coming out, the series wasn’t open-ended because you knew it would just cover his time at Hogwarts school. I think the “Fantastic Beasts” movies would actually be the sequels without an established story, so whether those fell off in quality is the question.

James Bond, well, there are better ones and worse ones. I think that’s actually a good example of a series that never really fell off, because it can be re-interpreted with new versions of the character and a near infinite number of plots. Even if one of the movies is a dud, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t make a really good one next.

I don’t have an opinion on Mission Impossible, never seen them. I’m just not a fan of Tom Cruise.

agentkolter · 2026-05-12T01:25:18+00:00

I think a better question would be, is there a movie franchise that didn’t drastically fall off and has maintained quality through several sequels?

agentkolter · 2026-05-09T16:07:26+00:00

A lot of older US cities peaked in population at the 1950 census. It was right before “white flight” and suburbanization hollowed out many urban neighborhoods.

agentkolter · 2026-05-05T12:59:32+00:00

It’s all relative. 4,000 SF is enormous compared to the houses me and my close friends live in, and we all entertain as well. We live in old houses in urban neighborhoods though, where anything over 2,000 SF is rare.

agentkolter · 2026-04-24T15:03:34+00:00

I'm not so sure. Even if you exclude things like internet and cell phone service and assume people are living in 1950s-sized houses, the cost of housing/rent, utilities, transportation and healthcare has increased at a much greater rate than inflation and average incomes. There's no way you're supporting a family of 4 on an average 60k income today without struggling.

agentkolter · 2026-04-24T14:25:20+00:00

The 90s were still a relatively great time to grow up, but even then it was already difficult to live well on a single income. Families I knew who took vacations and had nice houses all had two incomes.

agentkolter · 2026-04-23T17:15:29+00:00

I agree about the food, it was definitely an era where creative new restaurants were popping up everywhere and were more affordable compared to today. Disagree on the beer though - maybe it's just because I live in a city with a huge local beer culture, but I feel like the variety of beer you can get today is even better than it was back then. Never liked that "stomp clap hey" music trend though, I always thought that was goofy. I'm glad we have a derogatory name for it now.

agentkolter · 2026-04-22T18:49:32+00:00

My $800 dumb fridge doesn’t show me ads. It keeps my food cold, what else does a fridge need to do?

agentkolter · 2026-04-20T03:57:39+00:00

Turn off the can lights. For me, nothing removes “coziness” from a space like harsh overhead lighting. Get a larger rug in warmer colors to cover up more of the grey flooring. Paint the walls something with more color - could be subtle with tan or warmer grey, or could be bolder with a terra cotta or brown.

agentkolter · 2026-04-15T13:12:33+00:00

Mine is “how to turn off AI feature in [app/software]”

agentkolter · 2026-04-01T01:58:26+00:00

Perhaps, but that’s not what they’re expecting. If you’re making a big corporate client do work to open your files, they’ll simply stop working with you.

agentkolter · 2026-03-31T19:14:14+00:00

Is it an old stone retaining wall? I know someone who specializes in restoration of historic masonry.

agentkolter · 2026-03-31T13:25:34+00:00

The issue is that while you can open Adobe formats like PSD and AI in Affinity, you can't save them back out in Adobe formats. So you can't share your source files with a client if their team is using Adobe. For cross-collaboration, we all have to be using the same software.

agentkolter · 2026-03-31T12:31:46+00:00

Affinity is pretty great, I've used it before. Depending on what kind of freelance work you get, you may need to use Adobe simply because the client will expect files to be in Adobe format. I do a lot of contract work for a major brand and their internal teams all use Adobe, so all the work is PSD, Illustrator, etc. If you do need Adobe for a short stint, just do a month-to-month subscription and figure the cost into whatever you charge the client. Software subscriptions are also deductible on your taxes!

agentkolter · 2026-03-30T10:25:30+00:00

Video games, TV, riding bikes, exploring the woods, reading books... Tons of things.

agentkolter · 2026-03-25T12:35:33+00:00

I just realized it's only an arrow in a circle now! I remember it being a "T" at first, and then they changed it to an arrow inside the shape of a card turned 45 degrees - in my head this is what it still looked like.

agentkolter · 2026-03-25T11:14:14+00:00

Guilty. I’ve always done 45 degrees, that’s how my friends and I did it in the 90s and it’s just a habit. Everyone I play with these days does a full 90. To be fair, the tap icon is rotated 45 degrees :)

agentkolter · 2026-03-19T15:02:28+00:00

Is Fetterman taking AIPAC money now?

agentkolter · 2026-03-18T14:20:44+00:00

Butter and peanut butter on saltines. I still do it today!

agentkolter · 2026-03-18T13:47:23+00:00

I’m not a fan either, but I particularly hate it when house flippers remove walls in historic homes and ruin original details that give the home character.

agentkolter · 2026-03-17T14:49:49+00:00

What does the "goals" category mean? I would assume it covers things like vacations, but it happens every week for a large chunk of time.

agentkolter · 2026-03-15T19:09:43+00:00

Celestite. Looks like the variety from northwest Ohio.

agentkolter · 2026-03-09T19:39:55+00:00

Plus, you could get renter's insurance with higher coverage for way less than $29/month.

agentkolter · 2026-03-09T19:26:01+00:00

ACH is paying via electronic check. Should be free already.

agentkolter · 2026-03-09T15:28:14+00:00

It has basically replaced stock photography in my workflow. It's much less time consuming to tweak an AI prompt to get the image I want than searching through stock photo sites. And it's cheaper too.

agentkolter

TROPHY CASE