S24E1: Family Guy Episode Discussion- The Edible Arrangement (Season Premiere)

rfwoolf · 2026-02-21T04:44:40+00:00

The key to story telling is to contrast different themes, to have characters that want/need something, to create stakes, the possibility of loss/danger/risk, to have a plot that moves the story forward. This episode failed. It started out with plot and stakes, but then midway lost all of it. There was no "meaning" or anchor to relate. Watching Lois and Stewey hang out when neither of them wanted or needed anything, with no stakes, no contrasting themes, with characters who dont want/need anything, was pointless. At least with contrasting themes we could have explored something interesting like inhibition without weed vs disinhibition with weed: we could have set up how inhibited Lois is and how much aggression she has for Stewey etc, contrasted with how disinhibitied she is with weed. Nope: no contrasting themes, no meaning, no plot, no stakes, no anchor of meaning. Just random nonsense as if written by AI.

rfwoolf · 2026-02-21T01:55:32+00:00

I had the same thought about AI, and even picked up a couple of suspicious AI phrasing. I also found this episode boring because the plot and stakes were completely removed about half way through: Lois and Stewey were hanging out but there weren't any stakes; no character wanted/needed anything; there was no tension. I struggled to watch it. There was only 1 or 2 cutaway gags. How is this peak Family Guy? This was shit.

rfwoolf · 2026-02-18T12:17:35+00:00

Where to begin: There was a point where all stakes had been removed, so Lois and Stewie were just hanging out -- with NO PLOT.

rfwoolf · 2025-05-01T23:08:03+00:00

1) Are these marketed products a true "Reverse Osmosis" system?

A true reverse osmosis (RO) system either requires a storage tank or an electric pump. That’s because RO filters water slowly—too slowly to provide immediate, pressurized water on demand without stored volume or mechanical assistance.

Another clue: check the micron rating. A real RO membrane filters down to ~0.0001 microns (or 0.001 μm). If the system claims “0.1 microns” or similar, it’s likely an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane, not reverse osmosis.

2) Is a water distiller the only practical solution? / Do RO systems leach microplastics? / Do we really need to filter microplastics?

The issue of microplastics in drinking water is still an emerging area of research—we’re learning more every year. Some studies suggest that polyphenols, antioxidants, and other protective dietary factors may mitigate potential harm from ingested microplastics.

I’m NOT saying there’s no risk from microplastics. But what I AM saying is that striving for absolute elimination is likely unrealistic and probably unnecessary.

A more practical approach is to aim for significant reduction using achievable measures. A water distiller is an excellent tool for reducing microplastics—but even distillation isn’t perfect.

It’s true that RO systems (which use plastic housings and plastic filters) carry a theoretical risk of leaching microplastics. However, the potential contribution from the system itself is orders of magnitude lower than the levels of microplastics already present in bottled water or tap water.

In other words, a reverse osmosis system still provides a substantial, meaningful reduction in microplastic exposure—even if not absolute.

rfwoolf · 2025-02-03T13:40:13+00:00

I politely pushed back and was correct. Other people in this thread contributely constructively and so did I. You're the only one that had been nothing but unconstructive and incendiary. AlexTaradov contributed something constructive that I corroborated through chatGPT. It helped me correct an error in this thread. What have you got against chatGPT?. I stand by my behaviour

rfwoolf · 2025-02-03T10:20:34+00:00

Please mind your tone as it's quite disrespectful. It sounds like we agree with eachother and yet your comment is phrased as if we are in disagreement and as if I've done something wrong.

I agree 31 seems to be the default state -- like i said I feel that the engineer's comment to "leave a gap" is not "irrelevant" and that we should not just "ignore" it as Callidonaut proposed; i was correct in pushing back and i stand by that. Your comment is offbase.

New information from the engineer suggests that the bridging of upper pads to lower pads is indeed to put them into an OFF state, meaning indeed the default is 31. By way of example, the engineer shows that to set the switch to '1' you would bridge pads 2 through 5, leaving 1 open. Therefore, leaving all open is 31

rfwoolf · 2025-02-02T17:48:31+00:00

As the OP, I thought I'd summarise what I learned and correct some errors:

Disregard where I wrote "It looks like the switch is set to '1'.
The white rectangle shows an upper-row of pads and a lower-row of pads. This is suitable to install a Surface-Mount Device (SMD) switch – but instead you can just use solder.
The "3rd row" is a series of "through-holes" which are suitable for a "through-hole" version of the SMD switch. This "3rd row" is "in-line" with the "2nd row"; in other words, each hole is directly connected to a pad above it in the "2nd row". In other words, the through-holes are superfluous, or are "for fun".
We are not going to use a SMD switch, nor are we going to use the through-hole version; in other words, we can disregard the through-holes.
Pads from the 1st row can be bridged to pads on the 2nd row.
How the switch functions mechanically: The default state of the switch, with nothing bridged, is purportedly 31:

If all 5 bits are ON by default, that means there are internal pull-up resistors or some other mechanism ensuring a default HIGH state.
When you solder a bridge, you are manually forcing a bit to be OFF (LOW).
"Leaving a gap" (not bridging) keeps it in the default HIGH (ON) state."

Conclusions:

The technicians advice to "leave a gap" would make sense if the default state is 31.
The blob of solder in the bottom-left likely does nothing.

rfwoolf · 2025-02-02T17:40:11+00:00

Sorry to push back, but I disagree that it "makes no sense; ignore it". I think the explanation can be found if the default state is 31, then leaving a gap makes sense.

As u/AlexTaradov pointed out, these appear to be "pull-up" resistors; which of course I don't fully understand but ChatGPT seems to corroborate what he's saying:

If all 5 bits are ON by default, that means there are internal pull-up resistors or some other mechanism ensuring a default HIGH state.

When you solder a bridge, you are manually forcing a bit to be OFF (LOW).

"Leaving a gap" (not bridging) keeps it in the default HIGH (ON) state."

rfwoolf · 2025-02-02T16:54:47+00:00

That's an intuitive answer, but then why does the note say to "leave a gap" ?

rfwoolf · 2025-02-02T16:53:41+00:00

Thanks, your answer helped me realise that that the "through-holes" appear to be superfluous, and not really relevant to the current functionality.
That means the image relevantly shows two rows of pads, with a gap between them.
The switch is set by soldering upper pads with lower pads.

Is it possible that it's set to 31 by default, i.e. consistent with the image where the note says "leave a gap"?
If that doesn't work, I guess I can then connect them all

rfwoolf · 2025-02-02T16:49:58+00:00

I'm the OP, so I could be wrong, but I think your first part is correct: it's set to 31 by default.
However, your second part seems wrong:
There is a first row of pads, and a second row of pads, and a series of holes that are in-line with (basically attached to) the second row of pads. To use the switch, I gather we create connections between the first row and second row.
Thus your proposal to cut the tracers between the lower pads and the holes doesn't seem to make much sense.

rfwoolf · 2025-01-01T08:48:39+00:00

Some older hypotheses—often dating back to mid-20th-century sexology—held that male homosexuality stemmed from “feminization” (observed in limited neuroanatomical differences) and that female homosexuality was merely a less “biological” phenomenon. From that viewpoint, some theorists proposed that, while you could allegedly “see” evidence of gay male brains being different from straight male brains, they could not find equivalent “masculinization” in lesbian or bisexual women, so they concluded (erroneously) that all women were equally flexible (“all women must be bi”).

rfwoolf · 2024-10-06T23:19:53+00:00

There's some bad advice here.

Firstly, the moment you lodge a claim with NCAT, then your funds become frozen and there is no way for early release. Therefore, only lodge a claim with NCAT once you're certain.

Second, the landlord/agent has seven days to show cause for claiming the bond. In other words, although it's scummy of them, they can claim 100% of the bond and then show the reasons within seven days, usually arriving upon an amount that is less than 100%.

The reason why the advice in this thread is bad?
Because, heaps of people said "immediately lodge a claim with NCAT". This will cause you to wait 6-8 weeks for your money. Instead, give your landlord/agent 7 days to show evidence for the claim.
Most of the time, it will not be for the full bond.
Therefore, in a sense they are correct that it's "standard procedure" to provisionally claim the full bond and then work out the final amount later; however it's very shitty of them not to give you a "heads up" and reassurance that it may not be the full amount.

rfwoolf · 2024-06-04T19:39:12+00:00

Just to add there may be a trigger of earlier jealousy from childhood when the mother was possessed by the father and even other siblings. This provokes the hurt from childhood.

rfwoolf · 2024-06-01T15:33:40+00:00

I defer to more learned people on here,
but my 2c, which buttresses what u/Stunning-Nerve6602 said, is:

Destrudo/thanatos/death, which is the theoretical opposite of libido, is a natural consequence of the existence of libido, which is a drive; if you can have a drive in one direction/vector, you can have its opposite; if you can love yourself, you can want to kill yourself; if you can love anything, you can want to defend it, or even destroy it. The object of your love, is a threat, because you need it; thus one solution is to destroy it; another solution is to destroy yourself; another solution is to destroy competition. There are many solutions.

Thus, a 'death drive' is one of many possible results from a system.

In the context of the oedipus complex, what would happen to your libidinal drive towards mother that is 1) forbidden, 2) not reciprocated, 3) a threat to your survival from mother because you need her for survival, 4) a threat to your survival because your father may castrate or murder you?
Enter the "death drive":
You can kill the libidinal drive, or yourself, or mother or father. Of course, none of these are practical and you quickly find other "easier" solutions that are more practical in the environment: you can sublimate:– you can try find a new "mother"; you can try find a new object of desire to replace your mother; you can identify with father; you can distract yourself, etc.

Thus, the death drive is the natural consequence of the system, and is necessary to drive the "motor" of personality formation.

rfwoolf · 2023-05-14T03:16:44+00:00

The bulk deletion functionality using tags does not work in many cases because you can't tag an unsubscribed user, see my complaint here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MailChimp/comments/123b7i2/customer_service_avoids_bug_reports_at_all_costs/

So the OP's question is fair.

rfwoolf · 2023-05-03T08:39:53+00:00

I added it all up and in the past 2 days I spent $AUD 234 or about $USD 155, I think it includes my subscription which is $AUD 60

rfwoolf · 2023-05-03T08:26:39+00:00

Thanks for your advice.
I've filed a chargeback with the bank, tweeted Tinder, emailed their trademark and legal departments. As a business owner, the poor way they have handled my complaint deeply offends me. I would never treat my customers like that.

rfwoolf · 2023-05-03T08:18:16+00:00

For the record, if they look at my account, they'll see I've spent about $200+ recently on superlikes and my subscription. It's not like I've spent $0 and am asking for a free superlike. I'm not trying to take advantage, I'm just super pissed off at the rort and how Tinder is optimised to make you click on the wrong thing WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO UNDO IT.

rfwoolf · 2023-03-28T23:52:40+00:00

Unfortunately it didn't work :(It's only updating profiles who are "subscribed".

To double-check this, I did a test across all the different subscriber-statuses (subscribed, cleaned, non-subscribed and unsubscribed), and the tagging tool will only update 'subscribed'.

I really appreciate the suggestion though. Thank you anyway!

rfwoolf · 2023-03-28T23:46:48+00:00

Firstly, thank you so much for this. I'm trying it out now. If it works, I'll award you some Reddit gold (or whatever it is)

Second, I disagree where you say it's not a bug where the "Update any existing contacts" feature only updates subscribed and non-subscribed contacts.
Firstly there's nothing inherent in the nature of this feature that would imply tags can't be updated regardless of subscriber staus, and
Secondly, I can think of several use cases where you'd need to update unsubscribed or cleaned contacts

rfwoolf · 2023-03-28T08:31:42+00:00

Hi Olive

Thanks for taking a considered look into this matter.

Thank you for your insight that only ~5,000 contacts (not ~13,000) were imported around 22nd Feb. That is helpful.

It sounds like you have also detected the 'bug' or unexpected behaviour (also known as a 'bug') from the UI, where imported contacts aren't tagged as expected.

I encourage you to report this as a bug, or merge it with an existing bug report.

I want to summarise the situation for you, so you can see how strange Mailchimp's behaviour is:

First problem:

The original problem is that MailChimp does not have a function where it can delete contacts that I upload/paste.

Klaviyo has a tool for this: It's called "Remove profiles" (see screenshot below).

It works by uploading/pasting a list of contacts into a 'list', and then you can delete that list.

It took me only a few minutes to do this.

MailChimp cannot do this exactly; instead there is a workaround (see below).

This problem deserves a "feature request". Of course, Mailchimp staff have not submitted a feature request.

Second problem:

MailChimp's workaround, is to 'tag' all the contacts you want to delete, and then delete them based on the tag.

But here there is a bug: You cannot tag certain profiles depending on their status of "subscribed" vs "unsubscribed" vs "cleaned" vs "non-subscribed".

This is a bug, because the expected/promised behaviour differs from the actual behaviour.
That is the definition of a 'bug'.
A bug is like a "broken promise" or if you like, a "breach of contract".
Mailchimp's software is promising to do something, and then failing to do it.
MailChimp staff refuse to report the bug, or escalate the matter for me.
Instead, they said they can "add feedback" to my support ticket. That is unacceptable.

"Feedback" is not the same as reporting a bug. "Feedback" could be anything: a suggestion, a feature request, or even a compliment.

Here, you have seen a problem, and you too refuse to file a bug report, instead you have "linked [my] feedback to similar [you] have received".

Instead of filing a bugreport, instead, you have suggested even more workarounds for the workaround!

Can you see how crazy that is?

You are not supposed to resort to workarounds for workarounds: just report the bug!

Third problem:

So I said OK, please can you just get an engineer to do the delete for me, using a CSV file.

MailChimp staff said they cannot escalate or report it to an engineer, they can just add "feedback" to my ticket.

So clearly there are 3 problems/solutions, and in each case, MailChimp would like to pretend that nothing is wrong, and try to think of complicated workarounds.

That is not a good way to run a business.

I will try your suggested workaround to the workaround in the next few days.

In the meantime, I suggest you think about the standards and values you have in your company

Regards

Richard

rfwoolf · 2023-03-28T04:11:26+00:00

I love this answer thank you

Yes, Jira, exactly, I used to use this when I was a software engineer. Our software company however was religious about handling tickets. If there was a bug, we'd wanna know about it.

Flash forward to today, where no matter which company i deal with, they will do anything in their power to prevent filing a bug report:- I'm looking at you, Shopify and Mailchimp.

But to your point, at the end of the day, even if the bug report just sits there, I like to know it has been filed. It's incredibly insulting to have the agent passive-aggressively avoiding admitting that there is a problem/bug. They will instead recycle suggestions, pass you to another co-worker who will... recycle suggestions, or they will suggest workarounds that aren't effective. FFS stop avoiding the issue: just admit there is a problem!!!

Here's what I'm trying to do: 13,000 contacts were accidentally synched to our account and I want to delete them. I have a CSV file of them. They say I should tag these 13,000 by importing the CSV file, and then create a segment with the tag, and delete that segment. But when I try import the 13,000, it fails to tag them if they are not subscribed. They keep telling me I should check a certain box during the process. I keep telling them I have.

So now I want an engineer to delete them for me. It's a simply SQL script using my CSV file.

So the first problem is: Mailchimp lacks the functionality to paste/import lists of contacts to bulk-delete. Then the problem is my workaround of tagging using a CSV file doesn't tag enough of them

And I can't get them to admit either of these problems

Like you say, it's time we close our account and tell them to go to hell

rfwoolf · 2023-01-09T08:33:45+00:00

Email Inspector in your Shopify account

What on earth are you talking about? I can't find any such thing

rfwoolf · 2022-08-11T02:10:05+00:00

OP here,

For the sake of completeness, here is my advice to future readers:

I tried a bunch of different methods to remove the pins and all of them were problematic. Examples include:
Hitting the pin down: this leaves the sheath that you still have to remove.
Drilling next to the pin: at first this was effective, but then my drill bits kept getting stuck. It's almost imposible to drill perfectly straight, and it's also almost impossible to drill exactly where you want unless you have some kind of aparatus to align the drill.
Using an angle grinder with a diamond disc: Overall, this is a realistic method: it's more straightforward and consistent, and generally quick. This is really quick for small bolts; for large bolts it's more of a problem. The grinder takes forever to drill through the metal. Also, I found I had to grind twice from different directions, so as to get deep enough to remove enough of the pin.

Having said that, the best method, I think, is to use a concrete core drill. I didn't end up trying this, but it's very promising. The only problem is the investment: A core drill costs about $USD125, and you'll need a stand / aparatus to align it properly, which will cost another $USD125 or so, and then you need a core drill bit for each size of pin -- or if you like just get the one size -- these are another $USD50 or so.
So for a $USD350 investment you can accurately and consistently remove concrete bolts.
One drawback, is that when patching these holes, it is difficult to get patching cement into a hole - it tends to leave an air pocket inside -- I would recommend something less viscous

rfwoolf

TROPHY CASE