Replies

@Aleen Congratulations! If I ever get into development (something I'm actually considering as one possible career change!) I'll definitely get this before launching anything! Looks great!

@davextreme That was a great read!

@klandwehr That's a great metaphor. I probalby need to do that.

@Gabz Nice!

@rosemaryorchard ha!

@GwenfarsGarden@sunbeam.city 100% Yes on the Oxford comma from me.

@amit It is weird how that often seems to work out. In many cases you have to use something only a very little bit for it to be more cost effective. I guess maybe companies prefer the simplicity and predictability of getting a known level of income from their customers so they want to encourage that with some slight discount?

However! That's not always the case. My phone plan, which is through Ting, is WAY cheaper than my old plan with AT&T, (and to a slightly lesser extent my wife old T-Mobile plan) and it's pay as you go. I have only adjusted my usage a very little bit since switching, and even if I hadn't I would still be saving money. I used to pay around $86/month for a grandfathered in unlimited iPhone data plan with AT&T, and my wife used to pay just over $50/month for her plan with 1gig of data (I think?). So we were paying about $136 per month all told. We switched over to Ting and now our combined bill is between $50 and $60 most months, sometimes as low as around $40 (and on rare occasions a little higher. The highest bill we have ever had was $87, and I think there were some trips and time away from any kind of reliable wifi involved then).

If I used my phone very differently it might not be cheaper (I have a friend who basically does most of his work on his phone and used their payment calculator to find that he was better off staying with his current traditional pre-paid plan), but I would have to use my phone in a radically different way for that to be the case for me.

@khurtwilliams Oh! I look forward to reading more of your photo essays, thanks for the link! I am sorry to hear about your recent health challenges, but I'm glad you ware able to make this outing and share it with the rest of us.

@pratik Thanks for the reminder and link! I heard a bit about this but didn't realize there was an option for a flat $125 settlement in lieu of (probably mostly useless, and in my case redundant anyway) credit monitoring. Put in my claim just now!

@ayjay Agreed!

@macgenie So glad to hear it went well! Still sorry it happened but I'm glad recovery seems to be going smoothly so far! I'll wish you further good luck and good wishes for a continued speedy recovery!

@davextreme Well thats good! Still stupid you had to go through all that.

@khurtwilliams Living in the DC area, drones are basically useless with all the flight restrictions, so I feel your pain there. Still sending out a drone wouldn't have been nearly as interesting a journey or blog post to go along with the photos!

@macgenie Good luck!

@khurtwilliams These are some great pictures!

@smokey @pratik Ha!

@pratik @smokey I look forward to your catching up so we can talk about it! I thought it was a great episode.

@smokey I'm not sure the length of the season was the problem for character development in Riverdale. Season 1 was fun, but I think with the hindsight of the next two seasons it's clear that the problems with the writing were just becuase the writing isnt' very good, not because the season was too short or anything else. They never got any better about character development or sacrificing character motivation at the altar of "what the plot needs this week."

But with Agents of SHIELD, I think there are two things working in its favor: 1) We already know these characters (as you point out), so there's less need for development, and when they do it they can build on what's come before, and 2) The writing is good and the writers are good at doing a lot of character work with even just a few short scenes.

Also, it's a show that seems to care more about character development in general. That episode you mention was almost entirely character development with only minimal plot advancement but it didn't feel like it bogged the show down at all. Also because the rest of the season has been moving so quickly it felt like a nice short break to have an episode that was almost entirely character driven rather than plot driven.

@pratik It's been great this season! They wrote the end of last season before they knew they'd be renewed, but definitely left enough threads to pick up this season. I think the shorter season this time around has been good. Things have moved quickly.

@vasta Neat.

@linkskywalker This is amazing. I hope it's true that Romans just called their city by a backward version of the actual name. (And seemed to think their enemies would never figure it out!)

@eli Oh! That game is great! We used it once to set the scene and history of a place that was featured in the next RPG we played.

@ayjay That is the sort of name that if I found it in a novel I would say was a bit too unrealisitc. Amazing.

@macgenie oh no! I’m so sorry. I hope you have a speedy recovery!

@jack Congratulations!