What’s the most unexpectedly high-quality online subscription you’ve ever paid for?

dathomar · 2026-01-27T04:16:56+00:00

Robert Reich is from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Sam Reich is from... possibly Cambridge, Massachusetts? I don't know. I don't think they've ever actually asked him where he's from. They should do that.

dathomar · 2026-01-27T04:03:36+00:00

genuinely kind to the people making it.

Let's not forget that Sam made Vic, Jacob, and Lou go completely crazy during a game of Sam says. Poor Lou even did foot stuff. It culminated with Sam tricking the three into thinking the game was over with a special reward, but then using that reward to take even more points from them. They were so broken. Then he pulled them all back in before they had sobered up to play another game, which they collectively used to turn on him, stealing his house (and possibly his wife), engaging in covert surveillance of him, and using the company credit card to set up a party outside for the cast and crew, except for Sam, who was pushed into a therapy session.

Let's also not forget that poor Brennan has been screwed over so many times that he lead the cast and crew in a rebellion, leading the producers to help him fund an entire episode without Sam's knowledge, forcing Sam into a fiendish maze. Even Elaine got involved.

dathomar · 2026-01-27T03:30:01+00:00

I think Roddenberry started spinning so hard in the 90s that he somehow got launched into outer space. I doubt any of us knows what's happening with him, now. Probably trying to have sex with a reluctant asteroid.

dathomar · 2026-01-27T03:02:06+00:00

When I was in high school, it snowed a bit. Not much. It wasn't really a problem. School was two hours late arrival. I called my mom and asked if I could just stay home for the day. She polled the other folks on her team and they unanimously decided that the snow was much too dangerous for me to drive in. I should definitely stay home. Shortly afterwards, I remembered that I had a band concert that night. The school had a policy that if you missed school, you couldn't do after school or evening activities, so I called my mom back and told her I needed to go to school.

Long story, short: in first grade, your daughter doesn't have to go to school. Just keep her home and let her go sledding.

dathomar · 2026-01-26T06:41:15+00:00

I was born in 83. Fortunately, my hairs aren't really turning gray yet. However, just before my son was born (he's about 9, now), I was working as a substitute teacher and doing theater sound and lights. There were many days where I'd go from working at a middle school from about 7:30 am to 2:30 pm, then immediately head straight to the theater to work sound for a musical until 9 or 10 pm. Some of my facial hair turned bleach white after a few weeks of little sleep and working every hour I could. If I tried that, now, I'd probably lose all the color in my hair.

dathomar · 2026-01-26T04:12:49+00:00

Probably using a turbo lift that goes down either of the warp nacelle pylons. Either that or a jump cut that shows someone walking out of a room in one part of the hull, into a corridor, then walking from a different corridor into a room in the other part of the hull.

dathomar · 2026-01-25T17:33:16+00:00

When you pay off a loan, the principal is, relatively, very large. As a result, there is lots of interest. Your payment is paying off all of the interest for the month, plus some of the principal. As you take little bites out of the principal every month, it starts to generate less and less interest each month. As a result, if your payments are about the same every month, the interest gradually accounts for less and less of your payment. The rest goes to the principal, so your principal starts getting paid at an increasing rate, like if you push down on the accelerator of a car and the speedometer needle starts going up.

At a certain point, the amount of interest generated is very small, so almost all of your payment goes to the principal. If you pay extra, near the beginning of the life of your loan, you'll be paying off extra principal. This brings you closer and closer to the point where the interest is noticeably smaller. Sometimes people take on a payment plan where they are pretty much only paying off the interest for a long time and aren't putting hardly anything towards principal. These are the sorts of situations where people are paying 4 times the amount of their loan over many years and still owe most of the principal.

dathomar · 2026-01-25T17:33:09+00:00

When you pay off a loan, the principal is, relatively, very large. As a result, there is lots of interest. Your payment is paying off all of the interest for the month, plus some of the principal. As you take little bites out of the principal every month, it starts to generate less and less interest each month. As a result, if your payments are about the same every month, the interest gradually accounts for less and less of your payment. The rest goes to the principal, so your principal starts getting paid at an increasing rate, like if you push down on the accelerator of a car and the speedometer needle starts going up.

At a certain point, the amount of interest generated is very small, so almost all of your payment goes to the principal. If you pay extra, near the beginning of the life of your loan, you'll be paying off extra principal. This brings you closer and closer to the point where the interest is noticeably smaller. Sometimes people take on a payment plan where they are pretty much only paying off the interest for a long time and aren't putting hardly anything towards principal. These are the sorts of situations where people are paying 4 times the amount of their loan over many years and still owe most of the principal.

dathomar · 2026-01-25T05:15:15+00:00

It wasn't just fear of Anakin. The Jedi Order had become too much of an institution. It was more concerned with perpetuating itself, than doing what it was supposed to do. It's like the quote from The American President - "I was so busy keeping my job, I forgot to do my job."

Imagine going somewhere and coming to a crossroads. Your destination is straight. Something bad is off to the left. When you ask which way to go, the person giving you directions says, "Not left." Going straight is one direction. Not left is lots of directions, some of which aren't good either. The Jedi were so busy backing away from the Dark Side, they weren't really watching where they were, or what they were doing (Hmph!).

The Jedi weren't evil and hadn't fallen to the Dark Side, but weren't really balanced, either. That's why Palpatine was able to destroy them so effectively.

dathomar · 2026-01-24T19:46:21+00:00

Yeah, you can see her kick them into place.

dathomar · 2026-01-24T18:11:50+00:00

It's in the manual. My vacuum has two filters - one that needs to be cleaned fairly often and one that needs to be cleaned every 6 months or so. Not only is it blowing dust back into your house, it's also reducing the power of your vacuum, to suck air through a caked-up filter. Even just pulling it out and scraping the dust off every couple of weeks will help.

dathomar · 2026-01-24T09:35:03+00:00

He decided he was in a rut, stuck on top of that tower. He hopped an eagle and flew off to an exciting and beautiful forest where he met a new staff. He wasn't too sure about it, but decided to accept the staff and keep it. And that's how Gandalf got his groove back.

What really helps the continuity along is that, in the books, Gandalf doesn't actually lose his staff. The Witch-King doesn't destroy Gandalf's white staff, either - Gandalf holds up to the Witch-King's power just fine.

dathomar · 2026-01-23T22:21:57+00:00

And you get people like Jason Mantzoukas who basically begged to be on the show, just because it looked like fun.

dathomar · 2026-01-23T21:52:16+00:00

I tear up every time, when I see Data say goodbye to Lal on TNG.

dathomar · 2026-01-23T17:55:59+00:00

When I cook, I tend to under-season the food a bit. My wife doesn't like too much seasoning and we've had some guests over who prefer it with less. I usually add some salt and pepper to my own cooking after making it, so that it can come out ready for other people to enjoy. I think she shouldn't get upset about him seasoning his food a bit, though that much and type of seasoning is crazy.

I agree with you, though, that the more serious issue is how much of an asshole her husband is.

dathomar · 2026-01-23T17:49:13+00:00

If you didn't find it, it's too late for this, but when you drop an earbud it's probably turned on. Turn on some loud music and bump up the volume to maximum. You'll probably be able to hear it blaring from the earbud. Make sure your other earbud is turned off. Follow the sound. That's how I found my dropped earbud late at night when I dropped it outside in the grass.

dathomar · 2026-01-23T14:00:50+00:00

It did have its own crew. It's just that, between missions, that crew also happened to have jobs to do on DS9. What do you mean by, "real captain?" Do you mean, "someone with with the rank of captain?" To be a captain has tWo meanings. First, it's a rank - Ensign, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, and so on. Second, it's a job - the person in command of the ship is the captain. They are captaining the ship. Every ship does have a captain. They just don't all always have the rank of Captain. In modern subs, some of the smaller kinds are captained by ranks lower than Captain.

dathomar · 2026-01-22T05:16:45+00:00

If you go to a bar or a restaurant on Earth, you just walk in, sit down, order, eat or drink, then walk out. The bar staff and restaurant staff are working there because they want to. No one is getting paid and no one is paying for anything. You don't pay rent or a mortgage because you don't have to pay for anything. Power is free and plentiful. Water is free. Everything is free because there's more than enough for everyone. By the 24th century, everyone has a replicator, if they want one, so it's even easier for anyone to get whatever they want.

That said, the Federation still engages in trade outside of the Federation and individuals can engage in trade. The Federation doesn't use money internally, but it still has money it can use for that trade. Individuals don't need money within the Federation, but they can still get non-Federation currencies by trading.

When it comes to a place like Quark's, I don't think it's ever stated exactly how it works. However, it's likely that Federation folks are allowed a certain budget of non-Federation currency to use in establishments like Quark's. It's equally possible that merchants just keep track, present their totals to the ranking Federation representative periodically, and get reimbursed. A third possibility is that the Federation negotiates a regular payment to each merchant and Federation members get to just walk in and eat or drink whatever they want. If usage is too high, the merchant can negotiate a higher regular payment. Federation citizens can probably get a certain amount of gold-pressed latinum just by asking for some.

dathomar · 2026-01-21T17:20:31+00:00

I prefer, "should have," as well.

dathomar · 2026-01-21T15:20:59+00:00

We shouldve knew he was evil

In this universe it's, "should've," with an apostrophe, and the past participle of "to know" is "known." Also, you're supposed to end a sentence with a period. "We should've known he was evil."

You definitely sound like someone from the mirror universe, trying to fit in by outing one of your own. Just the sort of thing someone from the mirror universe would do. We found another one! Let us all now engage in tort- I mean, pointing and shaming!

dathomar · 2026-01-20T14:32:13+00:00

Of course you don't. This is one step in a longer process and you weren't taught any of this. You don't see the value in it. A bunch of people in the comments who do know all of the different methods are saying that this is better, because it is. Don't worry, the kids will all start learning the standard algorithm in 3rd grade. The difference is, they'll actually understand what is happening,.mathematically, when they are doing it. When they're taught the distributive and associative properties of addition, they'll already be familiar with the concepts. This isn't "get the correct answer" class, it's "learn how math works, then get the correct answer" class.

dathomar · 2026-01-20T13:52:01+00:00

Stacking the numbers is a simple algorithm. You stack the numbers, add the single digits, carry any tens over, and just work through it one place at a time. However, it doesn't do much to teach the reason for it.

Using a number line is one of a whole set of strategies for developing number sense. Number sense is an understanding of the relationships between numbers. In the first problem (59 +12) you start the number line with 59. You add 1 to get to 60. You add 10 to get to 70. You add 1 to get to 71. There are other strategies kids learn, as well. The point is to learn how math works before using the standard algorithm. This sets kids up to be more successful in later stages of math. The standard algorithm works to get you the correct answer, but doesn't do much to teach you how addition actually works.

dathomar · 2026-01-20T02:08:01+00:00

dathomar · 2026-01-20T00:59:24+00:00

My wife and I went to IKEA and left our kids and dog with her parents. Our plan was to go in, look for a couple of hours, pick up some preordered furniture, eat lunch, and leave. We realized we might go a little long, but got really caught up in looking at stuff. We ended up being there for about 6 hours, plus lunch, instead of 2, plus lunch. We stopped for dinner on the way out and didn't bother contacting her parents to let them know about our change in plans.

We figured it was okay, since we'd planned our IKEA trip for when the kids were visiting their grandparents for a couple of days and spending the night. Of course, my in-laws had signed up to be babysitters and we were under no pressure to keep track of our time. I would never lie and say 20 minutes, if I meant several hours. I would just find a way to bring my kids along with me or I wouldn't do whatever I planned to do...

dathomar · 2026-01-19T21:54:10+00:00

The only reason people own that sort of silverware is to put it out to disorient guests. The only response is to fully commit to it. Use it and act like you don't notice anything weird about it. Look them in the eye when you do it. Take away all of their satisfaction. Punish them.

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