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I have to admit I don't get the hate
There are some things that are fashionable to hate in certain parts of the webs. People look down at you if you don't despise them properly and spend unduly amount of time on making others hate them too. Today I will talk about few such things.
Comic Sans - it's been called the font of the feeble minded and ugliest type ever invented. There are articles and songs about how bad it is and a website dedicated to banning it. Mentioning it anywhere with even slightly more readers then my blog will result with someone expressing how ugly it is.
I have no problem with it. It wouldn't be my choice as it feels dated because I strongly associate it with the early internet of geocities and angelfire (I'm old - you can look that up on wikipedia). Still, I don't see the reason for hate. It's readable. I don't expect much more from a font. And it looks nice to me. It may not be the prettiest type but it's not the ugliest thing ever - none of the examples in the video bother me. So Happy Birthday Comic Sans. However, American quotation standards drive me nuts - they are awful, stupid and I will not willingly adhere to them ever so to each their own.
Nickelback - sometimes it feel like it's more uncool to like them then any of the boybands (at least you can like boybands ironically). I'm not sure why they are hated so much and I don't care enough to google it. I'm not a fan because I usually like songs not bands (at least until I like so many songs from one artist I admit I do like their music in general). However, both Photograph (for it's you can go home again vibe) and Rockstar (for it self aware satirical take) are among my favourite songs.
I do care about the lyrics and I have a things for songs that are not about love (I like plenty love ones but still). I also like artist who make fun of themselves - that's how Robbie Williams convinced me to like him despite me being dead set not to (for what it's worth I still don't care for his boyband days and his love songs). Now, I just don't care anymore about who I'm supposed to like. I don't even keep track of who we are supposed to look down on to be cool (what is the recent status of Coldplay?) but, as I mentioned, I still care about the words so no matter how cool the melody sounds I do despise Roots - Seed and Blurred Lines.
Big Bang Theory - it's all slander and stupidity and they just do it to make people laugh at us (nerds, geeks and scientist are all us to me). I think it's OK. When I happen to watch it from time to time I find it funny. I do it more often now because of Bernadette and Amy who are both close to me. Of course, they are not very representative. Just look how Mayim Bialik the real neuroscientist differs from Amy Farrah Fowler the sitcom neuroscientist. And SFF genre fandom is not so male (most likely both Bernadette and Amy would fans or at least had exposure to fandom before meeting the guys), and most physicist don't dress so badly, and most scientist are not that socially awkward.
However, if you look for true to life and thoughtful representation of a group of people sitcoms are not a best place. They are exaggerating fringe and ridiculous to make things seem funnier. In this case fine as you also feel great dose of sympathy for the characters. And I do love that they do check their science. That's actually makes me fan of the show because it is so rare on TV. However, I do hate Two and Half Men and find it unfunny and can't even go through a full episode so there might be something inherently wrong with Chuck Lorre.
Johnny Mnemonic - I always liked this movie - dolphins and all - despite people laughing at that. I liked a lot of stuff in it - Dina Meyer's cybernetically enhanced bodygaurd, Dolph Lundgren's cyberpriest/bounty hunter, cyberdolphin - generally all the cyberthings. I liked the action. I generally am fond of Keanu in everything he's in (I know - another point proving my bad taste) and even Ice-T was OK with me (even if not as hilarious as in Tank Girl). I still have fondness for it despite the way it aged (32GB - LOL). Also Strange Days was a great film and Richard K. Morgan thinks so too.
I still haven't read or watch Twilight but the excerpts I saw convinced me not to waste my time and trailers make me want to band my head on the wall until I unconscious so I think I'll agree with the haters on this one. Still, it's not worth the amount of time and pages people spend on hating it.
Now, go leave hate posts and unfriending threats below (good, that not enough people read my posts for this to actually happen but it'd be funny if it did).
Comic Sans - it's been called the font of the feeble minded and ugliest type ever invented. There are articles and songs about how bad it is and a website dedicated to banning it. Mentioning it anywhere with even slightly more readers then my blog will result with someone expressing how ugly it is.
I have no problem with it. It wouldn't be my choice as it feels dated because I strongly associate it with the early internet of geocities and angelfire (I'm old - you can look that up on wikipedia). Still, I don't see the reason for hate. It's readable. I don't expect much more from a font. And it looks nice to me. It may not be the prettiest type but it's not the ugliest thing ever - none of the examples in the video bother me. So Happy Birthday Comic Sans. However, American quotation standards drive me nuts - they are awful, stupid and I will not willingly adhere to them ever so to each their own.
Nickelback - sometimes it feel like it's more uncool to like them then any of the boybands (at least you can like boybands ironically). I'm not sure why they are hated so much and I don't care enough to google it. I'm not a fan because I usually like songs not bands (at least until I like so many songs from one artist I admit I do like their music in general). However, both Photograph (for it's you can go home again vibe) and Rockstar (for it self aware satirical take) are among my favourite songs.
I do care about the lyrics and I have a things for songs that are not about love (I like plenty love ones but still). I also like artist who make fun of themselves - that's how Robbie Williams convinced me to like him despite me being dead set not to (for what it's worth I still don't care for his boyband days and his love songs). Now, I just don't care anymore about who I'm supposed to like. I don't even keep track of who we are supposed to look down on to be cool (what is the recent status of Coldplay?) but, as I mentioned, I still care about the words so no matter how cool the melody sounds I do despise Roots - Seed and Blurred Lines.
Big Bang Theory - it's all slander and stupidity and they just do it to make people laugh at us (nerds, geeks and scientist are all us to me). I think it's OK. When I happen to watch it from time to time I find it funny. I do it more often now because of Bernadette and Amy who are both close to me. Of course, they are not very representative. Just look how Mayim Bialik the real neuroscientist differs from Amy Farrah Fowler the sitcom neuroscientist. And SFF genre fandom is not so male (most likely both Bernadette and Amy would fans or at least had exposure to fandom before meeting the guys), and most physicist don't dress so badly, and most scientist are not that socially awkward.
However, if you look for true to life and thoughtful representation of a group of people sitcoms are not a best place. They are exaggerating fringe and ridiculous to make things seem funnier. In this case fine as you also feel great dose of sympathy for the characters. And I do love that they do check their science. That's actually makes me fan of the show because it is so rare on TV. However, I do hate Two and Half Men and find it unfunny and can't even go through a full episode so there might be something inherently wrong with Chuck Lorre.
Johnny Mnemonic - I always liked this movie - dolphins and all - despite people laughing at that. I liked a lot of stuff in it - Dina Meyer's cybernetically enhanced bodygaurd, Dolph Lundgren's cyberpriest/bounty hunter, cyberdolphin - generally all the cyberthings. I liked the action. I generally am fond of Keanu in everything he's in (I know - another point proving my bad taste) and even Ice-T was OK with me (even if not as hilarious as in Tank Girl). I still have fondness for it despite the way it aged (32GB - LOL). Also Strange Days was a great film and Richard K. Morgan thinks so too.
I still haven't read or watch Twilight but the excerpts I saw convinced me not to waste my time and trailers make me want to band my head on the wall until I unconscious so I think I'll agree with the haters on this one. Still, it's not worth the amount of time and pages people spend on hating it.
Now, go leave hate posts and unfriending threats below (good, that not enough people read my posts for this to actually happen but it'd be funny if it did).
no subject
Twilight, on the other hand, I like :P I mean, sure, the books are not a great example of writing, and I haven't actually read them, but I saw all the films at the cinema, and I enjoyed the first two ironically, and the remaining three in the regular way, because they were pretty and fun. And the way Bella's pregnancy and birth scene were presented was actually interesting to me as a cultural studies student / feminist, because that was Alien-levels pregnancy kills stuff ;)
I can't watch TBBT. I was made to watch one episode and it did make me want to scratch my eyes out - the stereotypes, the jokes about men vs. wymynfolk, the overall ugh. I think it was the episode with Summer Glau. I don't even try 2 1/2 Men.
I think Cassandra Clare gets the same hate Twilight does, only from old school Harry Potter fandom, as she was largely infamous there (scandal after scandal followed her tenure as a Big Name Fan - and her Mortal Instruments does start like a HP fanfic with some other stuff thrown in, before gaining some more originality) - but I liked the flm unironically, thought it solved most of the book's problems (added Rhys-Meyers, but nothing's perfect) and in spite of the generic soundtrack, ended up extremely watchable in a mindless summery way. So the haters seem very gleeful that it's flopping while I am sad, because I wanted it to succeed.
no subject
Twilight - I can't even look at it. I think it's like the Emmerich movies for me. A lot of people enjoy them for disaster porn. I can't even do that because the utter stupidity just kicks me out of the action. Somehow the dip out of the cool awesome and don't rise up into the so bad it's funny and I just get annoyed when trying to watch them.
TBBT - I know I should be angry. I know what I should be angry at. But I'm not. This is the opposite of previous paragraph - I can ignore the bad and enjoy the rest in this case. Maybe it also helps that I really only started watching after Bernadette and Amy came onto the show so it was easier with more regular female characters.
Mortal Instruments - I was thinking about seeing that but I've been going to cinema very often lately (once a week almost is very often too me) and I really wanted to see The World's End so skipped it. It looks like fun and it has Lena Headey and Robert Sheehan so I was hoping it'd do good just so they could make ungodly amount of money just like Pattison did.
For me Harry Potter always felt like a rip-off of Lindgren's Mio, My Mio (my favourite book when I was a kid) and I look at the whole discussion like this with certain detachment ever since the whole thing when Wheel of Time people were accusing Terry Goodking of plagiarising Ajah for his Sister of Light in Sword of Truth. It was very amusing since you could make exactly the same argument for Robert Jordan ripping-off Bene Gesserit form Dune (and more with Aiel - Fremen and Rand - Paul similarities). The things fandom thinks original never cease to amuse me. Or maybe I'm too old and have read too much.