The big name movies now are so cringeworthy and require zero thought on the part of the viewer. I’d be almost embarrassed to go watch them. The worst part is that I used to watch them because there was just nothing else to see, until one day I was so bored that I walked out of the theatre. To my surprise, I was even approached and given a refund by the manager without asking… maybe they watched it too and understood the pain.

But are those the things that get marketing? I’m with you on loving that content, but none of the main theatres in my area (a city of 7 million) even show them. A couple will put them into the standard screen theatres at oddball times to fulfill their contracts, but the good content is in the local dollar theatres where, of course, the movie gets less traffic.

I think what they’re saying is that the movies that you’re “supposed” to watch are things like those god awful Harry Potter prequels (literally any fanfic amateur could have written them better), the ten thousandth Marvel movie (seriously, just stop), or those Adam-Sandler style low effort white trash movies that run solely on the recognition of the probably male and supposedly “so talented” lead actor.

But are those the things that get marketing? I’m with you on loving that content, but none of the main theatres in my area (a city of 7 million) even show them. A couple will put them into the standard screen theatres at oddball times to fulfill their contracts, but the good content is in the local dollar theatres where, of course, the movie gets less traffic.

I think what they’re saying is that the movies that you’re “supposed” to watch are things like those god awful Harry Potter prequels (literally any fanfic amateur could have written them better), the ten thousandth Marvel movie (seriously, just stop), or those Adam-Sandler style low effort white trash movies that run solely on the recognition of the probably male and supposedly “so talented” lead actor.

They’re fighting a losing battle, but I hope a side effect of it is that new people come in and change both the economics and artistry of Hollywood. Most Hollywood content sits in a very rigid box. It’s repetitive, unoriginal, and unappealing. People are encouraged to eat ramen for every meal in order to “make it”, simply because far too many of them try (which is partially the result of the “follow your dreams” narrative in America as well). The further down you are, the worse your compensation. Good ideas get missed or thrown out and relegated to dollar theatres all the time.

If this strike goes on long enough that it starts to flush people out, I’m ok with that. Sucks for the people who are going to lose their livelihoods, but for some of them that was an eventuality. Hopefully in the end creators will have more creative freedom and receive more proportional compensation.

Weirdly, I’d feel better about “parts of my body floating around” than “my body curled up in a capsule on the ocean floor”.

Totally agree, this is great insight. Political leaders also sometimes do this.

Can’t argue with that.

Just to defend this as an engineer (though not one that works with submarines in any capacity), using a video game controller might sound funny, but it could actually make sense vs. using a device of your own creation. They’re highly replaceable, so you have an infinite supply of reliable backups to draw upon. It’s not prone to design flaws in the same way a “homemade” controller would be. OTS devices are often designed to withstand certain conditions or modes of use, such as force or moisture or whatever else you anticipate in your environment. They’re also widely used, so there are troves of publicly available information on them to draw upon. It might seem silly, but if I were building a titanic submarine YOLO ship thing, I’d probably use something similar.