The worst part about Black Mirror season 4

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s only six episodes, and I am already finished with all of them.  Lord only knows how much longer it’s going to be until there’s another season, and even still, new episodes are going to have to be written and filmed and edited and this is maybe one of the only flaws with entire seasons being dropped on Netflix, when you get engrossed in something and blow through it in just a few sittings, you’re left feeling empty and unsatisfied at the prospect of there being no more on the horizon.

Anyway, I was super excited when I heard that Black Mirror was coming back for a fourth season, so I gave it the excitement treatment: avoiding absolutely anything and everything about it until the date it released, so that I could be completely blind and have zero preconceived notions going into it.  Frankly, I don’t think there’s any way to possibly enjoy things any more than doing that, because just about everything gives way too much information away.

In short, I enjoyed season 4.  The show invariably had the challenge of producing fresh content despite being four seasons in, and I think the challenge proved to be such at times, but overall by the time I had gone through all six episodes, I was left with a feeling that I was sad that there was no more, and wishing that there will be more in the future, sooner rather than later.

I do think the season started off with a bang, with USS Callister, an absolute marvel of an episode that was a spectacular blend of a good story, excellent acting and really stellar visuals, with the definite homage to old episodes of Star Trek.  Contrary to the start of the entire series where there’s a fairly unanimous agreement that The National Anthem was a terrible way to start the series, season 4 definitely hits the nail on the head by starting out with their best episode first.

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Oh, Atlanta #776

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Despite the fact that it ended up being an epic game, I’m glad I didn’t go to the National Championship.  One, it was simply too fucking expensive.  Two, with the president coming in for it, it would undoubtedly become a bigger shit show than it normally would have been.  And three, I simply fucking hate crowds.

Don’t get me wrong, I still tried to get tickets from a company give away, but with hopes of winning them, and flipping them for thousands of dollars, to which I could use to spend on some actual home improvements, that’s how much they would’ve commanded.  But I had zero intention or interest of going to the National Championship despite the fact that it featured the hometown Georgia Bulldogs and was being played in the heart of College Football Mecca, here in Atlanta.

Crowds.  Fuck that.  I absolutely loathe crowds.  I’ve been to two Wrestlemanias and have zero desire to go to another.  I’ve been to Falcons games and Braves games, and I have little motivation to go to many more without good reason.  It’s a miracle I still bother attending Dragon*Con and it’s nearly 70,000 attendees every year, although afterwards every time I go through a spell of saying I don’t want to do it again.

But the National Championship game?  Short of Virginia Tech being in it, I can’t say that I’d want to go to one, even if it were literally within walking distance.  Articles like this one justify all of the reasons why going would have been a terrible idea; from MARTA shitting the bed like expected at the extremely high volumes of attendees, from the presence of the president and the Secret Service adding 50 layers of security to an already abysmal situation, forcing people to wait literally hours outside in the dreary rainy conditions.  Without question, I my day would’ve been ruined before even getting to my seat, which for many didn’t happen until the game had already kicked off.

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Different Georgia team, same choke job

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

The morning after, I’m a little surprised at how agitated I am by Georgia’s heartbreaking loss to Alabama in the National Championship.  It’s like there’s a part of me that should be satisfied because I was right, and accurately predicted Alabama would win in a low-scoring affair, and the pursuit of being right is the reason why predictions are made in sports.  But then there’s the part of me that still went on record stating that in spite of my prediction, I hoped that Georgia would win, because it sure would be nice to see a sports team in Georgia actually hoist up a championship.

Unfortunately, rooting for sports teams in Georgia is like rooting for the Buffalo Bills in the 90s; no matter how good they might be, they’ll never manage to get over the hump and never be anything better than second best (but also being capable of being absolutely anything well below).

Much like the Atlanta Braves have done countless times in the last 20 years, they failed.  Just like Atlanta United’s soccer team made the playoffs in their inaugural year and filled the city with hope and faith for some accolades, they too choked, losing to a lesser-heralded team, at home no less.  And just like the Atlanta Falcons choked away a 28-3 lead, the Georgia Bulldogs somehow found a way to lose their own championship game.

And it’s that Super Bowl that this game felt eerily identical to, in the way it played out, with Georgia jumping out ahead and holding the lead for the vast majority of the game.  Alabama, much like the Patriots, were pretty inept in the first half, but it’s the second in which legends are born and heroes are made.  Alabama came roaring back in the second half, and before we knew it, the game was tied closing out regulation.  The next thing we know, the team representing Georgia is standing under a deluge of confetti, heads down, as the other team begins celebrating their championship win.

I have no beef with Alabama, and everything about them is pretty awe-inspiring at this point, from the never-ending excellence of Nick Saban, to the story that college football fans are going to hear a LOT of now on, the birth and rise of Tua Tagovailoa, the true freshman with the cannon arm who came off the bench to lead the Crimson Tide back to the glory land.  The freshly-benched Jalen Hurts displayed a level of maturity, class and sportsmanship that couldn’t possibly be expected from a guy who went 25-2 and just got benched in the National Championship but still did, showing how much of a classy man he is.

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Predictions for National Championship Day

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Today is National Championship Day in honor of the College Football National Championship being played tonight.  It has a little bit more meaning this year than it has in previous years, because not only is it being played right here in Atlanta, the two teams vying for the National Championship are Georgia and Alabama, basically two teams that are within a three-hour drive from the Mercedes-Benz Stadium and can declare it their home field, based on proximity or frequency of how many games they’ve played there.

It’s supposed to rain today, and was scheduled to have already started and turned the city into an icy catastrophe but surprising nobody such has yet to occur.  It was actually a rather clear and pleasant morning drive into work today in fact.  But if it ever does rain and the extra low temperatures we’ve been getting over the last week take hold of it, it could lead to some inconveniences to people like me who, work jobs and drives to and from them.

Also, the president has also decided to grace the city with his presence for this momentous occasion, because there’s no secret he can’t resist a scene, regardless of the fact that he’s demonstrated zero interest in any sports other than his own frequent personal golfing habits, and the fact that Atlanta is a city that in all likelihood hates him passionately after he called it “crime-infested” at one point.  It’s still a major, major event with a multiplied hype behind it, and why not go for the trifecta of bombing the city with even more insanity and hoopla than showing up?

Needless to say, in a rare instance of foresight, the vast majority of Atlanta has actually decided to shut down, or at least acknowledge and/or make accommodations for the fact that today is a particularly volatile National Championship Day.  The government has mostly shut down, most companies in the heart of the city have declared half or telecommuniting days, and once Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County decided to close in light of expected weather and traffic problems, most of the metropolitan counties have followed suit.

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Weird ass dreams

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Seldom do I remember my dreams, but when I do and they’re particularly weird or strange, I like to write them down so that I can try and process what I think my mind is going through, or just to remember them so I can think about later, or in cases like this, so that I can have something to write about when I feel like there’s nothing to write about.

In this particular dream, Earth has been invaded by aliens that remain faceless throughout the duration of my dream.  They do not seem to necessarily be hostile, but based on their request of humanity, there is an underlying threat of world domination that seems to be present throughout it.  I think at one point in the dream, I compare them to the Borg from Star Trek, and that the key to defeating them might be domesticated animals like dogs, because they seem to have a lock down on dominating humanity, but not necessarily animals.

Anyway, the aliens basically request that humanity submit to them, and that humans can voluntarily submit themselves to a remaining lifetime of captivity where they will live out their lives in what’s basically hotel rooms or really small apartments.  However, they will basically get anything they want or need, so it doesn’t really sound like that bad of a deal, except for the fact that we’re all voluntarily giving ourselves away to live in a degree of captivity.

Mythical gf and I, among many other people in the world decide to take the deal, because there’s an underlying sense of humanity going all biblical on each other once the aliens likely become more hostile and violent to resistance of their existence, and the notion of safety and security in spite of confinement seems like the more logical choice than to live in a world that has a high chance of going dystopian.

We show up to one of the areas where humans basically check themselves in, and naturally there’s that perpetual second-guessing of wondering if we’re doing the right thing, and how we’re basically giving up our lives and all of our earthly possessions and that there’s not really any turning back once we give ourselves up.

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Livestreaming media will never succeed at this rate

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

During New Year’s Eve, a friend of mine and myself spent an inordinately long time trying to figure out how we could get a livestream of the Dick Clark Rockin’ New Year’s Eve or whatever it’s called special, on ABC.  Apparently, it’s not as simple as going to ABC’s website and clicking a button that says “LIVE” on it anymore.  Far from it.

Even entering in valid credentials for a cable subscription results in no progress on the ABC app, or on the ABC website.  A little bit of research revealed that Atlanta is one of countless major markets in the continental United States that have yet to be authorized live feed permissions, and that there are maybe fewer than twenty cities that actually do.  How an American network as large as ABC can justify being available to so few markets over the vast and global world wide web is completely beyond me, but the fact of the matter was that we were striking out fast on being able to get the Dick Clark NYE, because this particular friend, like many, have cut the cord and does not rely on cable or network television.

We even tried IP cloning, to make it look like we were pinging from some of the authorized markets, like Chicago or New York, but apparently, ABC is smarter than we gave them credit for, and seemed to be able to detect something was amiss by constantly erroring us as trying to access from outside the country.

Needless to say, Dick Clark’s NYE wasn’t going to happen, and the girls who demanded it would be denied seeing the supposed live performance by BTS.

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Triumph to heartbreak; New Year’s Day 2018

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

After midnight struck bringing in 2018, I knew that my night wasn’t long from ending.  It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve actually been under the weather, and I knew that I didn’t really want to be out too late, since no matter how many pills I take, how much fluids I drink and how often I go tinkle, the penultimate cure-fast for any ailment is still sleep.

With mythical gf still out of town, I made it a point that I would not leave my house at all on New Year’s Day, and that I would sleep in, rest and do absolutely jack shit but watch football and relax.  I stocked up the fridge earlier in the day, and I even made a point to go spin a Pokéstop to satiate the OCD to get my daily Pokémon Go spin of the day on my way home, since it was past midnight and the daily bonuses had reset.  I took drowse-inducing cold medicine and went to bed with full intention to rest, recover, relax and be lazy.

As far as the day went, it wasn’t bad.  Dare I say, it was pretty good.  I probably slept close to ten total hours, and I woke up without any of the sinus/swallowing pain that is among the most obnoxious of cold symptoms.  I sat down with my morning cup(s) of coffee, and proceeded with my usual morning routine of Fire Emblem Heroes, knocking out the daily quests and cashing in on all of the little bonuses of the new month and new year, accumulating the precious orbs necessary in order to make pulls for additional characters.

So with 138 orbs grinded out and with a promotional event set to expire, I decided to cash in some orbs to try and get some of the character I wanted (Gunnthrá and New Year’s Azura).  And in a rare demonstration of actually succeeding in a gatcha game, I actually succeeded in getting both, along with two other five-star units I didn’t have (Eirika, Genny) without having to unload everything completely, leaving me with like 80 orbs for a rainy day.  Needless to say, I was quite satisfied at my luck, in only the way that a video game on a mobile device can make.

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