Alright, some "recommendations" are driven by pure self-interest, while others might actually be meant for the benefit of others.
In my experience, none of the referrals I’ve received were motivated by any kind of kickback for the person suggesting them. Maybe once in a blue moon, sure, but honestly, I highly doubt a friend recommending a contractor to me stands to gain anything from it. It’s simpler than that: they used the service, thought the work was solid, and passed it along. To be clear, they weren't the cheapest option—I did my homework and looked at several other bids—but they weren't overpriced either. They sat right in the middle of about seven or eight different quotes, plus the recommendation, and there you have it. 😁
It wasn't even about trying to cut corners on cost. Look, it’s not like I’m throwing money around, but we aren't talking about massive renovations here. And the recommendation wasn't based on finding a bargain. In fact, it was quite the opposite... it was literally, "They’re a little pricier than average, but the quality is great and I’m happy with them." 🤣
Whatever... I’m willing to pay a premium if it guarantees better quality. At the end of the day, it’s worth it. Besides, I ended up negotiating the final price down quite a bit—not down to the initial quote, but significantly lower than what they walked in with yesterday. 😬
And naturally, I don't hand over a dime until the job is fully completed (even though they did ask me for 😉 ).
Regardless... this isn't really about contractors; it's about why people seem to throw recommendations around so carelessly. I could probably ask five friends, colleagues, or even random people on the street tomorrow to recommend a high-end saddle 😁 or a quality crossbow 🤣, and at least two of them would just point me toward someone they heard makes equestrian gear or can source a bow, saying, "Hey Tom, give this guy a call, he makes the best saddles west of the Grand Canyon," or "George can get you a top-tier crossbow." And the kicker? They don't know the first thing about saddles or crossbows any more than I do... which means their advice is worthless.
I'm exaggerating a bit, obviously, but I'm not far from the truth.
TBF says: I am a genius, a true marvel of nature. I know everything there is to know about the world and everything is perfectly clear to me... I suppose that's just how it is.
Of course I’m being salty. We were sitting there waiting forty minutes for our main course in a restaurant that had maybe five or six other customers in the entire place... then my "stuffed" Philly cheesesteak finally arrives, only to find about an ounce of cheese and a microscopic sliver of ham. Even the turkey dish my colleague ordered wasn't anything special—at best, it was mediocre.
And as for recommendations... people act like it's the greatest place ever, but when I posted my review on the food forums, several others actually chimed in with similar horror stories. 😢
Look, let’s be clear: I’m not just out here trashing every little bistro. I’ve called out even the legendary Mundak 👎 and that local "institution" 🤣 known as "at Shim's." There were probably a few other negative reviews out there too, but who bothers remembering those? 😁
Ultimately, the point isn't about bashing specific restaurants; it's about why people feel the need to recommend absolutely everything they eat, regardless of quality.
Personally, I steer clear of giving recommendations. When I do suggest something, I make sure it actually aligns with what the person likes and wants, and whether it's genuinely good 👍 and 🙏 rather than just... whatever... okay... tolerable... or just passable.
handymen, flooring experts, tilers, a top-tier restaurant, a great movie, some damn hotel, etc.
I don’t know what your experiences have been with recommendations, but in at least 80% of cases where I actually listened to someone else, I ended up getting screwed over... it makes me wonder, what is wrong with these people?
They just want to act like they're the ultimate authority because they "know things," they "have connections," or maybe they're a cinephile, a semi-pro 😁 sommelier, or whatever the hell else.
Take my last two examples... I had two different people recommend the exact same restaurant—let's call it "The Mediocre Bistro" if you're curious. I go there, and it’s mediocre at best. Actually, it might be worse than that. Then, because I can't let it go, I go online to read reviews, and people are absolutely tearing it apart. But noooooooo, "Go to The Mediocre Bistro, it's amazing, the food is great, the atmosphere is perfect," and all that nonsense. 😢
Second example... I'm renovating my apartment, and I talk to a friend who just finished some work at his place. He tells me, "Man, the crew that worked at my house was suuuuuuuuper. Fast, punctual, affordable, everything went perfectly..." And I, like an idiot, listen to him. The job is already taking twice as long as originally quoted, the price has jumped by over 40% (not that I'm paying them that much), and they've botched half the work...
So, what's the deal with people? I get that tastes vary... that's a given. But if someone asks me for a good series and mentions they don't like Sci-Fi, I'm not going to suggest Battlestar Galactica... If someone says they aren't into historical dramas, I'm not going to say, "You have to see it, trust me, Braveheart is a suuuuuuuuper film."
And so on. As for contractors, don't give me that crap about how they did a flawless job for you while they completely trashed my place. 😵
The bottom line... screw recommendations. If I had just closed my eyes, opened the Yellow Pages 🤣 under "restaurants," and picked a random spot, I probably would have found somewhere better than The Mediocre Bistro. If I had done the same with construction companies, I would have found better ones too...
Those are just the two most recent examples... unfortunately, there are plenty more, but I don't feel like dwelling on it anymore. 😢
It's obviously that classic thing: "I want to look cool and show off how much I know and how many people I know," only to end up looking like a fool, and then feeling even more like a fool 😬 for actually following the recommendation...
Of course we should all have equal rights. On paper, 😉 we certainly do, but... Let’s be realistic here: there are certain social norms regarding things like dress codes, appearance, and so on. While everyone has a right to work, someone with, say, facial tattoos is going to find exercising that right significantly more difficult than someone without them. Now, a person like that can complain all they want about their rights being violated, how shallow society is, or how people judge based on looks, but that’s just the reality. By stepping outside those social norms, they've essentially accepted the consequences.
We all need to realize that breaking certain unwritten rules can create problems for ourselves. So, man, if you want to tattoo your face and get five piercings, go ahead—that’s your right. But it is also anyone else's right to pass on you immediately and cross you off the candidate list at first glance during an interview.
Since we are discussing the professional environment, one really ought to know how to separate business from private life. You can break every social norm you want in your own time, but in any other setting, it’s much smarter to follow them.
As for this idea of "robotization," I don't think that's quite the case. Most of us—or at least the vast majority—share very similar desires and goals in the grand scheme of things. Adhering to social norms can actually help us achieve those goals. Only fools cling blindly to anything. As I said, you have to distinguish between your personal life and your professional one. It’s about knowing how to behave, how to dress, and how to speak to different people in various environments and situations; you shouldn't approach everyone the exact same way.
I might be a hardcore punk rocker and dress the part at a concert for my favorite band or when I'm out with my friends, but if I show up to a job interview, meet my girlfriend's parents, or attend a wedding dressed like that, then I'm simply being an idiot. 😬
Someone once wisely 😁 stated: Life is a river. We can let the current sweep us away wherever it chooses, or we can try to swim against it and drown; alternatively, we can swim with the flow to eventually reach exactly where we want to be. 😉
When navigating our day-to-day interactions, we really ought to respect certain social norms and follow established patterns of behavior, communication, and action—purely to avoid becoming social outcasts. 😵 Social norms aren't just arbitrary rules without purpose (at least most of them aren't); they carry genuine weight and logic. At the end of the day, we all tend to think of ourselves as unique wildflowers in a vast meadow 🤣 but more often than not, reality doesn't quite work that way...
Well, damn... maybe she just had one too many and lost her footing, or perhaps she accidentally bit herself too hard... either way, you really should have just stayed out with your buddies... total coward 🤣 Now you can finally ponder what the poetess was actually trying to convey 😬
Honestly, if you haven't made mistakes in your past, you aren't living. You just have to find the lesson 😁 and move on. What’s done is done... you can't go back and fix what happened a second ago, let alone five or ten years ago. You take the lessons, leave the baggage where it belongs, 👍
Don't waste your energy stressing over things outside of your control. 👍 Every mistake I've ever made, every stumble along the way—just like the wins and the successes—has shaped me into the person I am today. A bad experience is still an experience, and sometimes it's the best teacher you'll ever have 👍 though, let's be real, every lesson comes with a price tag...
The meaning of existence... please. Even if there is one (which I highly doubt), why should we even care? Why do I exist? Why are there another 8 billion people roaming this planet? Where are we headed? And why are we moving in this specific direction? 😬 Who exactly set us on this path... honestly, it’s all just exhausting and hollow. Who cares, really? Why does everything need to have some grand purpose or deep significance? I’ll leave those kinds of existential crises to the academic philosophers or the high schoolers. For the rest of us, you just need to get moving and do something primarily for yourself—provided, of course, that you aren't stepping on anyone else's toes in the process. And if you really want to go hunting for "meaning"... well, after pulling a nine-hour shift at work, you aren't exactly in the mood to search for some massive, cosmic life purpose when you walk through your front door. 😁 In my book, the whole point of it all is for me and the people I care about to be happy and content. That seems like a perfectly valid 🙂 reason to live. If everyone actually lived by that, maybe we wouldn't see so much conflict and nonsense breaking out all over the country. 😢
Alright, we've 🙂 😬 covered the alcohol topic. I think most people would agree that having a drink once in a while, in moderation, is perfectly fine—it’s fun and socially acceptable enough. 😁 But what about that whole issue regarding a partner's assets...
As for getting blackout drunk? In my opinion, that largely comes down to the fact that kids these days simply haven't learned how to handle their liquor. Honestly, you have to go through the ringer at least ten times before you actually learn how to drink properly. That's just the truth of it.
Look, we’re talking about two perfectly normal things here. At least, we used to talk 😁 about them: having a drink every now and then and finding a partner. Honestly, for those people who find both of those things so appalling, they really ought to 🙂 take a moment to ask themselves what's actually wrong with them... 🤷
Richard Wilson4 said:But honestly, people just straight-up love sci-fi.
Look, it’s pretty simple. People who actually dig sci-fi aren't looking for some soap opera or a heavy drama—they want real sci-fi. And the folks who live for those soap operas? They aren't going to touch sci-fi either. It just doesn't work that way.
Battlestar Galactica was actually pretty solid, but man, Caprica? Not even close. 🤦
Well, speaking as someone who genuinely appreciates the SF genre, 😁 I have to point out that it unfortunately suffers from being constantly underrated. Sure, there is trash, garbage, and pure nonsense in SF—of course there is. But let me ask you: what genre is exempt from that? It exists in SF in no greater quantity than any other genre. However, truth be told, you really have to be a true fan to appreciate the good stuff (meaning you’ve actually read more than three pieces of SF literature), and that’s precisely why BSG resonated with me so much. 😁 It’s purebred SF infused with elements of drama; the characters are well-developed and feel real. It isn't a "no brainer" (okay, it’s not exactly Shakespeare 😬), but it's dark, occasionally brutal, and its target audience definitely isn't teenagers...
Yet, we find ourselves in this situation where SF fans actually *expect* something shallow, superficial, and childish—total mindless filler that you can enjoy while simultaneously scrolling on your phone, surfing the web, chatting with your aunt, and "following" some "SF series" on the side. 😵 To view the entire genre this way and expect nothing more than what I just described is absolute stupidity; it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of SF, primarily in its written 😬 form, and subsequently in all other media...
BTW... I never even watched Caprica because I did my homework beforehand. 😁
Richard Wilson4 said:But back to the 90s—the comedies were top-tier, whereas nowadays they're pretty weak.
On the flip side, you've seen a total renaissance of comedy series over the last 6 or 7 years (though it sucks that this revival seems to be fading out over the last two).
There are good movies today, sure, but I really don't think there's ever been as many great drama series as there are right now. Not in terms of pure quality.
And what exactly are we talking about here? 🤦Community I actually forced myself through three episodes and I genuinely couldn't figure out what was supposed to be funny about it 😁. Someone suggested Blue Mountain State... watched one episode and hated it. Parks and Recreation... watched an episode and didn't laugh once. Rules of Engagement... I caught bits of it on TV when I had nothing better to do, but there is absolutely no way I'm sitting down specifically to watch that. How I Met Your Mother... same story as Rules. I'd watch it if it happened to be on, but that's it.
Aside from those, we have decent shows like Two and a Half Men (and thank God it stars Charlie Sheen instead of that new idiot 😢) and The Big Bang Theory, which is my favorite at the moment, even though the quality has fluctuated quite a bit in the later seasons. So, what else is out there? Give me some recommendations. 😁
wiredraven82 said:Comedy series are an entirely different beast altogether...
I’ve never actually viewed them as "series" in the traditional sense; I strictly categorize them as "comedy series." And when you look at it through that lens, there isn't a soul—heaven or hell—in the entire world of television comedy that will ever come close to the level of Seinfeld or The Sopranos.😁
wiredraven82 said:It just doesn’t work that way—take The Twilight Zone (the original, obviously) for example. Look, we all know how The Twilight Zone operates; every single episode stands entirely on its own. But that is exactly why your logic fails here. 😁
The same goes for The Sopranos. Like I mentioned before, the show just... flowed. It didn't latch onto one specific character and incessantly ramble about them; instead, it unfolded "on the fly," so to speak. You gradually grasp who people are and what they represent. Of course, they centered everything around Tony Soprano since he's the lead, but there was never any of that "brainwashing" nonsense.
The moment Richie Aprile got out of prison, I understood his entire deal within two minutes. 🤣 Just an example.
You can't apply this to The X-Files either. In The X-Files, it was only at the end of the seasons that the actual skeletal framework of the story would emerge—which, by the way, was excellent and definitely wasn't some soap opera drivel. That skeleton was basically the Cigarette Smoking Man and his crew against Mulder and Scully; in the meantime, Mulder and Scully were busy resolving individual paranormal cases.
Sure, okay, there were a few episodes that felt a bit like a soap opera, but truly, very rarely... maybe one per season if you're being generous.
Do you remember when they did that one episode specifically focusing on the Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files? The way they revealed just a sliver of who he actually was—that was masterful.
And so on... there are plenty of other series, of course, that don't fall into this "soap opera" trap that drags on for an entire season (or two), and sometimes it serves as the backbone for the whole series—like Battlestar Galactica. 🙄
Okay, look, The Sopranos and The Twilight Zone aren't soap operas, but The X-Files definitely is... I followed it closely until, I think, right before the final seasons... and then it started veering dangerously into that territory. Mulder believes everything and always figures out that aliens, paranormal phenomena, mutants, or global conspiracies are at play, while Scully constantly tries to find a rational explanation and remains skeptical. 😬 Come on, give me a break. 👎
Richard Wilson4 said:It’s the same deal with The Walking Dead. Battlestar Galactica has seasons, sure, but it sucks how they spent all that budget on killer production and effects just to mask what was basically just a soap opera drama.
Caprica was even worse, ten steps behind. They could have shown the Colony in its true light, but instead, we got this heavy melodrama set in a period that felt way too modern. It died after three episodes—thank God they canceled it.
As for Game of Thrones, I've got mixed feelings. The characters like Tyrion Lannister, and especially his father, are top-tier. Some parts are genuinely great.
Everything else? Total garbage.
The fight scenes are actually pretty bad, specifically that SPOILER attack by the Wildmen on the Black Castle, where three villains manage to kill over 50 people combined. SPOILER
People rave about Lena Hedley, but to me, her character is just Cersei Lannister—total Shit. Her whole purpose in the plot is just whining every two episodes about how much she loves her kids and how far she'll go for them.
The rest of them are even worse and totally one-dimensional.
They want the younger guy to be some mastermind, but they constantly show him in brothels with cheap hookers. It's like the writers think a character isn't interesting unless there are naked girls on screen, even though he's supposed to be more like Frank Underwood.🙂
Personally, I found that "masked drama" to be exactly what drew me in.😁 It's precisely what sets Battlestar Galactica apart from almost every other sci-fi series, especially those set in deep space.😁 The cast is top-tier, the effects are perfectly fine, and you can tell they didn't skimp on the budget. This isn't some "kid's show," and it certainly isn't targeting the 12-to-16-year-old demographic that so many sci-fi shows and movies unfortunately cater to. It's dark, gritty, and serious. I know plenty of people😛 expect sci-fi to be nothing but constant explosions, fifty different alien species, at least one comic relief character, and mindless action. Battlestar Galactica definitely isn't that, perhaps specifically because they leaned so heavily into the dramatic elements.
Regarding Game of Thrones, I could go on extensively, but honestly, I just don't have the energy for it right now.😁
You and about 55 other people 😁 I’ve actually debated these points with... The reality is, most people dropped off after the first season or halfway through the second...
Frank Thomas92 said:Absolutely nothing happens. With soaps, you can skip from episode 50 straight to episode 350 and you still won't have missed anything of actual importance. An episode feels like a total waste of a Sunday afternoon.
If we’re following that logic, we might as well lump shows like CSI, Law & Order, and everything else into the soap opera category... you miss ten episodes and nothing significant changes regarding the main cast... By that same reasoning, we could just label Breaking Bad a glorified soap opera too... Don't get me wrong, I love the show, but let's be real... we have five seasons where Walter White just becomes an increasingly more despicable person, his wife remains as irritating as she was on day one 😁, Hank and his wife are just as bad 😁, and Jesse Pinkman is essentially a lost cause... Sure, characters (well, some of them) evolve and grow, but all of that could have been packed into four seasons—maybe even three. They didn't need five.
Richard Wilson4 said:Glad you kicked this discussion off.
One of the biggest arguments for why a series beats a movie is just having more breathing room to flesh out the characters. And honestly, most of the time, that's spot on. That’s really the whole point here.
But once they start—pardon my French—making up Shit just for the sake of making up Shit, when shows drag on for way too many seasons (looking at you, Cottage), it totally backfires.
Take Rome, for example. That series about Rome has just the right amount of episodes, killer dialogue, great plots, and it's better than any historical movie about Julius Caesar and his crew. Literally every single one.
But doing something stupid like what the Hobbit did (I watch it as a series because stretching a thin book into three three-hour movies is just dumb), where you just drag, drag, and drag the plot along? That's nonsense. A lot of shows that started out amazing eventually hit that wall.
Luckily, Rome didn't. There's almost no historical movie out there that could be called better than it.
*Rome* is also my all-time favorite series.🙏 🙏 🙏 But honestly? Only the first season. The second was cluttered, messy, and felt rushed, which is such a shame. Originally, *Rome* was envisioned as a four-season arc that would have even featured Jesus himself🙂... man, I would have loved to see that😁 but the massive production costs just swallowed them whole.😢
Regarding what was said about Baltar, he was actually one of my favorite characters 😁 and I didn't find his episodes boring at all—quite the opposite, really. I loved watching his evolution; there's something compelling about a character who makes you constantly flip-flop between loving him and hating him 😁. One minute you're ready to see him gone, and the next, you just want to grab a drink and argue with him, haha.
Hmm, I feel like what you’re saying could apply to pretty much any series out there. Personally, I don't see how deep characterization is a bad thing, and honestly, having that extra layer in Battlestar Galactica—like what you mentioned—wasn't a bad thing at all. Sure, there were a few episodes where they really overdid it 🤦, but it stayed within tolerable limits...
Regarding The Walking Dead 😬, I'm with you on that... they absolutely suffocated us in the second season. They leaned way too hard into the interpersonal drama—who likes whom, who's changed, who's siding with who and why... it got tedious, but hey, if the show was just about "let's go kill zombies, every single episode, en masse," we would have burned out on it immediately...