ParadoxLost

I don't think that its all that contradictory. The one thing that went in favor of Heard was a very specific statement recounting very specific events that involved very specific people. I see the verdict as more along the lines of the jury feeling Heard defamed Depp. The general statements that didn't go Heard's way were in line with the Depp conclusions. They believed Depp overall. But Depp's team didn't prove that Heard made a second attempt to stage a scene at the penthouse after cops left with the guidance/counsel of her lawyer and PR rep. The jury could even believe 2/3 of that and they would still have to call it false because it says X happened and then Z happened and A and B and C were involved and it wasn't all proven beyond reasonable doubt.

But isn't this mostly a result of the bad lawering. Do you think Heard's lawyers have done a competant job of bringing evidence of Depp lying to light without it getting impeached? Do you think they were better or equal to Depp's lawyers on that front? I think they have not, so I don't find it strange that people are not holding onto some narrative not presented in the trial based on memories of stuff that is faded with time if they ever knew it at all. i'd actually be very open to hearing what this evidence, contradictory information from/against Depp is because it keeps getting referenced but no one explains it. Did I miss something? At the same time Heard has been clearly shown to be contradicting herself and lying. From the pledge/donate thing where it appears she actually perjured herself in the UK. To the before and after (photoshop) photos/video of the time, etc. Depp's lawyers have pretty well undercut all of they claims as lacking evidence. Support for Depp doesn't have to be some sad 40 year old fan girl crushing. It could be, .... watching the trial. Well this I agree with. Depp's team is not even attempting to win the suit they brought. They are trying to rehabilitate Depp's reputation in the court of public opinion and take down Heard in the process. They know she can't pay $50 mil. They are playing to the cameras not the jury. They are trying to make it entertainment with the audience rooting for their client. If they lose, I don't think they'll care because they are winning where they want to win. Heard is in the unenviable position of not being able to hire a team of lawyers to be able to counter act that (or keep cameras out of the courtroom) which is probably part of the reason it seems like her defense is all over the place and disorganized. And its sad that a case where abuse is at the base of it and should have a measure of sobriety and seriousness has been turned into a farce. But that is what happened.

Then you should watch a few of the channels that make up lawtube. Almost all men. All lawyers. Pretty unanimous that this is not going well for Amber and that she is lying.

I honestly can't even concieve of the idea that there is a level of certainty around the reality of this situation to even know what reality is being denied by those supporting Depp based on what I've seen of the trial. So here is where I stand on this thing. I think this trial is a dumpster fire. Heards lawyers are being run in circles. I would not be surprised if Heard sued them when this was over because they suck so hard. They are doing some pretty seriously stupid crap that makes no sense in terms of this case. Heard was a terrible witness and almost all witnesses on her side were terrible and they put some stuff in trying to get the counter suit substantiated that really, really did not help them. Her expert witnesses are clowns too, evidenced by today's witnesses. The net result of that for me is basically this. I think the Depp/Heard relationship was abusive in both directions. Mainly because I think it would be difficult to be in a relationship with an addict who is actively using and it not to be abusive at some level and in at least one direction. But from what I've seen in the trial, I would say that I think that Heard is exagerating the situation and flat out lying about a lot of it and manufacturing evidence for her own reasons, money or career or etc. And to be totally transparent here, I am more convinced that the physical violence accusations against Heard towards Depp are true than the reverse. I'm thinking that the emotional abuse likely goes both ways pretty evenly. She was trying to make a better story instead of telling an authentic story and now that is coming back to bite her in the ass because she doesn't have the truth on her side even if there is a kernel of it. And Depp has better lawyers. Having been on a jury for a sexual assault case, Heard's testimony just rang totally false to me. Maybe there is some reaction to trauma that is driving that but the lawyers certainly didn't manage to find anyone to testify to convey that very well. But if you put all that aside. I'll telll you what I think is going on here. Its not masses having a crush on Depp. Its the memes. All the memes are cutting in Depp's favor based on how the lawyers, witnesses, Depp, and Heard are behaving in court. This is no longer a case about domestic abuse and defamation. Its turned into a farce.

Depending on who you believe, she started dating Elon Musk some time between while she was with Depp to no later than a month after the divorce filing. So taking a shot at the richest man in the world does seem like a page out of the grifter handbook.

i hate inflation. And supply chains. And shortages. I decided to buy a piece of furniture. But its a giant piece of furniture so I decided to do the musical furniture and get the out going piece to the dump (its broken, no one will take it). So its been a couple weeks and the price went up 20%. This isn't a place that has sales ever. This is inflation not missing a sale price. This is the second time it went up. I was an idiot not to pull the trigger on the last increase thinking it wouldn't go up a second time in the time it took me to stop procrastinating. I am also peeved at my tendency to procrastinate.

I had one brief moment where I had the fleeting thought that maybe falling into a ravine would drop a person through another tear in the space time continuum to a better show. This is not a thing that happened. I don't think this show will grow on me. All I remember is that Eve was inexplicably not the person having a hard time walking Seal Doctor back to base camp and therapist guy was slowing them down. And everyone has a mysterious, probably nefarious secret. My mind kept wandering so I'm nit sure how much of anything was actually revealed vs hinted at. And the uninspired episode titles "Day Two" are an indicator that this show isn't going to be fun to snark on. I miss Zoo episode titles. They would have called it Sabre Twooth.

Different place but same reason. I'm getting survey calls that won't stop calling until I answer the survey. In other news. I had a call with an exterminator today that led me to utter these sentences in mildy freaked out exasperation. "You can stop trying to persuade me to sign up for your service. I am surrounded by giant spiders and I want them dead. I want them dead now. I'm convinced. When can you have someone out here?" "I don't want to know about what I can't see. What I can see is bad enough. Inside outside, Do it all. I want them dead." That did not stop them from finishing their sales script. If I weren't surrounded by freaking spiders I would have called someone else. I only saw them outside. I have to believe they are only outside. Because its horrifying how big they are. I'm not going to sleep well tonight. I would really like to figure out how to cover my ears nose and mouth without asphyxiating myself.

B5 is a tough one. The effects probably make it really hard for the show to pick up a new generation of viewers. The loss of most of the cast makes it really hard to do a sequel that ties back to the show. I mean how do you tie in Sheridan without Delenn or Lando without G'kar. And Sheridan puts a limit on the timeline. And its kind of a closed story to a degree. It was hard to care that much about S5 of the show because the main arc was over. The spin off show didn't make it past one season. Since it was such a defined narrative, its hard to just do something like Star Trek where a new crew goes on an exploration of space in self contained episodes with new characters. But having said all that, my initial reaction was that it was strange that they were doing a straight reboot/retelling of Sheridan's time on the station. I would have thought that they would have maybe retold the story closer to the original plan before casting changes or the First Shadow War. Now that I think about it. I don't think a sequel works without re-building the universe of the show first. But I do think they could find a way to do a prequel that is far enough removed from B5 to find a new audience and pull back the older audience. You know just the other day, I admitted to myself that I'd officially reached the age where nothing on the CW interested me anymore. If this comes to be, I'll have to check it long enough to return to being embarrassed that I'm watching the CW.

I want to agree with you but I can't agree with you because Bezos is involved. Blue Origin is funded on the back of 1.4MM Amazon employees, many of whom aren't exactly treated well by his design and contempt for them.

I remember them. Definitely a fan of that coupling. That ship took the place of another old western ship that had just gone off the air, Young Riders. Although that holds a special place in my shipping heart in that its the only triangle I can think of where I didn't care which potential couple won out. Because on the one hand I really liked Lou and Kid together and on the other side Josh Brolin. BTW, my grown up self disagrees with my idiot preteen opinions. Because Josh Brolin.

I had no hopes for this one. But I realized while I was watching it that I really wanted something that would be escapist entertainment in some way. I'm practically desperate for it. A few characters to care about. Some potential ship worthy couples. Anything. Even a terrible show with enough of a sense of humor about itself to make it fun to snark on would have been fine. The first glimpse at the ensemble of characters has not left me particularly hopeful about this show engaging me in any way. I'll give them a few more episodes. Maybe there is some other inhabitants that have been pulled in before this incident that will make the show more engaging. I think I glimpsed some guy that had definitely been there a long while.

No worries. I'm a consumer too. I get it. Its just because I know too much , so when things aren't available to buy I just go down a doomsday spiral instead of venting. If I had more free time, I'd probably be a full prepper at this point. But I don't so that reigns in the crazy. Although I'm not sure if its engineered. I'm always on the fence on if its dumb or diabolical. So want to here my latest theory on the thing that is going to trigger the "its going to get (visibly) worse". We've been noticing that all the stores around here are really low on juice. But its actually the "snack aisle" of the store. Its got to be that school started and kids need different stuff for their lunches to take with them. So this weekend I noticed that the emptiness of the juice aisle has spread to soda and water. So buckle your seat belt folks. The triumvirate of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are coming and the supply chain can't handle any more surges in demand. And that is going to create a cycle of panic buying that reinforces the problem.

There was a very large roach at the top of my wall.{shudder} I bug sprayed the thing and it fell eight feet and headed for the door. I got it outside without having to touch it. So I am officially a Jedi because I chased a bug out a door that was ten feet away. I may have also gone to the dark side because the roach was smart enough to head for the door while fleeing the giant spraying toxins at it. This is not going to stop me from calling the exterminator tomorrow. I don't like bugs.

As someone who manages this as my job. I work in a hell dimension you cannot imagine. Its not going to get better any time soon. Its going to get worse. And there is not one damn thing I can do about it. I would simultaneously like to suggest consumers to stop buying stuff and suggest some light hoarding. I personally endeavored in some light hoarding last weekend because I know too much.

'm warnin ya now. If you guyzz subject me toa nother tree page grmar discussion Ima gonna post like this until you sop. Prolly. Edit. I'm joking. Maybe.

I agree with this. People didn't get it. But having half the audience not actually understand the ending makes it not brilliant. I remember the morning after Lost's finale the local radio station was talking about it and I was dumbfounded that they had a fully different understanding for the ending than I did. Of course, I assumed I was right but who the hell knows. I don't think they intended it to be ambiguous and I don't hold to the idea that the viewers are too dumb to get it. Seinfeld is another show that I thought had a bad ending but was actually clever. But I've never actually encountered anyone who saw the thing in it that I thought was clever (and I only thought it clever because they never outright said it). Putting them on trial for criminal indifference and parading a history of that kind of behavior made a show that was notoriously about "nothing" retroactively entirely about something.

I think they should have changed the narrative for the simple reason that they went too far with Barney and Robin and were too persuasive that Ted and Robin weren't a good fit for each other. Handwaving that Ted and Robin would just get back together once the obstacles of Ted wanting kids and Robin wanting a career were out of the way would have been unsatisfying if I didn't like the Mother. That doesn't have to be true. Babylon 5 had the whole story mapped out from the beginning. Then more curve balls were thrown at it than any show in history, from the lead actor needing to leave after the first season to the network it was on lasting one less season than the show did. And for all the changes they had to do, there are still episodes like War Without End where things come together in a way that is so coherent in weaving plots and characters together that it seems like it was planned exactly that way from the start because it is such a perfect fit. And frankly the character growth and foreshadowing that came from having a road map of where they were generally going was pretty impressive.

Its actually DHARMA on Lost.

I'm not saying extremism doesn't exist. But that it does is why its so dangerous to go straight to that word when it doesn't apply. And people are doing that. They are doing that a whole lot.

Ditto, I find myself peeved with the "my truth" people but I often feel like the people arguing with the "my truth people" are in fact also "my truth" people a lot of the time even if they don't utter that stupid, stupid phrase. Because frankly, the level of misinformation or spin going around leads me to the opinion that people are often arguing bitterly about topics that they don't have enough facts to back up their "truth". My work trained my brain to look three steps ahead for the unintended consequences across a broad range of possibilities and plan for them. And I instinctually apply that to everything; which annoys me to no end because that low level hum of anxiety at all times is the gift that keeps on giving these days. Just generally speaking, anyone who is arguing like there is a clear cut truth without acknowledging that the opposing opinion hasn't germinated from some (often legitimate) concern over something just comes across to me as right fighting and not really understanding people at all. To me it adds nothing constructive to the world. I find myself hoping a lot that people on social media don't act in their real life the way they say that do on social media. It seems like responding with anger and hurling labels like extremist at people is the least productive way of handling anything. Its just going to make people dig in to their position. Frankly, the worse thing about the mandates is that its making not getting the vaccine a form of protest against a variety of things that aren't really about the efficacy of the vaccine. It seems like it would be better to acknowledge that handling of communication and policy about a lot of the stuff going on could have been done or explained a thousand times better and suggesting that this needs to put aside and for the sake of themselves, family, and friends they should consult with their physician who knows their situation and then make a decision. And if they've done that or won't do that, then just shut up about it because its just going to entrench their POV further and raise the volume. Here is why I think this. The news about the FDA response to the booster came out One news outlet leads with the "approved for narrow group" and buries the "not approved wider group" Another news outlet leads with the "not approved wider group" and buries the "approved for narrow group" My doctor sends a newsletter that is completely straight forward and pragmatic. Its a reminder that everything we hear is playing to the base and to the ratings and to the narrative they want. Talk to your Doctor who knows your situation. And base your decisions on that. And when you are talking to other people, keep in mind that you and they are both being manipulated to be emotional and take a step back to try to give people the benefit of the doubt and try to help instead of trying to win.

How I Met Your Mother didn't actually paint themselves into a corner. They went willingly into the corner because they couldn't let go of how cool they thought it would be to use that original footage of the kids in the finale. If only deepfake technology was in existence when the were writing the final season it could have gone in a totally different way.

My floors are dusty again by the time I circle back to where I stared My yard guy didn't pull a weed. I couldn't motivate myself to pull the weed or tell them to pull the weed. The weed grew, unchecked. This week they trimmed it.... like it was a bush.

I doubt it. If you read through articles about Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and their first marriage and when they started dating, the older the article time stamp, the younger Melanie Griffith gets. And the older ones that throw around tidbits that they met when she was 14, moved in together at 15, and married at 18 with quotes from Tippi Hedren, Melanie Griffith, and Don Johnson liberally scattered through talking about it as the article waxes poetic about the impending second marriage. Find anything more recent and they met and starting dating when she was 16, but its hard to work around the date of the movie and the marriage.. Which still bad, but not 14/15 bad. I don't think anyone wants to unearth any open secrets because then they have deal with it being an open secret and no one being particularly motivated to give a shit about it.

Doubt it. They may try to hire people but I doubt they'll be particularly successful. No one is having any luck hiring. Also, it never ceases to amaze me what random topics I stumble upon in here. Kittens farting.