Popular Comments Across MetaFilter

By LarryC in "On Why Star Trek is Great" on MeFi

LarryC — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:02:54 GMT

My 13-year-old son and I are watching every Star Trek right now and it is a fantastic experience. In fact it has repaired out relationship.

My son has been acting up in school and at home since he was 8 or 9. A nice kid but too smart for his own good, too easily frustrated, too easily distracted. And is it helpful that he loves attention and is great at making people laugh? No it is not. The last five years have been tough, with regular phone calls and notes home from various principals and school counselors, pleas from teachers to get the boy to settle down, hints of ADHD or Asperger's or whatever the diagnosis du jour. We put him in a private school we could not really afford in hopes a more challenging environment would straighten him out. He was expelled in the 6th grade for his constant low-grade disruptions of class and the complaints of other parents. Out of options, we turned to home schooling. That too was problematic with constant monitoring needed to keep him on track.

Last summer, when the boy was 12, he asked me to look at something on the computer. "I can tell they are making fun of someone--like when people imitate Arnold Schwarzenegger--but I don't know who it is." He showed me some Youtube video game walk through. The narrator was doing a lazy Shatner impression, biting off each word: "Now. You. Go. Through. This. Door..."

"He is imitating William Shatner playing James T. Kirk. You know, the captain in Star Trek," I told Sam.

"Do you mean Star Wars?" Sam asked. I jumped up in alarm.

"Son, go straight to the living room!" I commanded. "Fire up Netflix! Summer school is in session."

We fell in love with Star Trek. I had not watched the original series of Star Trek since I was not much older than Sam, and I had forgotten that the original series was as much about philosophy and the events of the 1960s as it was about science or adventure. Every episode was a conversation starter, and gave us a neutral ground to talk, from topics like race relations, the rights of individuals versus the good of the many, sexism, the environment.

We also had our favorites--my son liked Spock and Sulu the best of all the characters, I preferred Kirk and McCoy. And as a boy entering his teenage years, my son was very interested in the mini skirted female crew members and Green Orion slave girls. We inhaled the series like so many bags of popcorn, some days watching four or five episodes in a row. "Just one more?" the boy would ask standing between me and the clock on the wall. Why not? One night on his way up to bed he said something I had not heard in years--"I love you Dad!" "I love you too," I managed to get out before my voice broke.

We decided to watch everything labeled Star Trek ever made. We moved on to Next Gen and then to Deep Space Nine. At some point I realized that I had committed to over 500 episodes of television and 11 movies, but I had made a promise, and beside we were having fun.

From the detente of Star Trek a general household peace blossomed. We got a lot less attitude and a lot more cooperation, and so we were perhaps more understanding and supportive, and positive energy just snowballed. My son became more patient and far slower to anger. The therapist noticed the change. "Star Trek!" we explained. A few months ago my son decided he wanted to go back to public school, and even entering midyear he is doing really well. His therapist suggested that we are about done with therapy.

So there you have it--Star Trek saved our family. We just finished DS9 and are moving into Voyager. By the end of summer we will be done. That is OK though, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, and other series should carry us through his teenage years.

By cortex in "Price of Metafilter" on MetaTalk

cortex — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:57:15 GMT

Can a slashfiction tumblr about my addictions be far behind?

man why do you even says thing like that around me

By danny the boy in "$100 Invested in 100 $1 Lottery Tickets" on MeFi

danny the boy — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:58:05 GMT

There's something really... privileged about the disdain in the second link. If only all the poor people who can't afford to blow a couple bucks a week on the lottery would smarten up and fantasize about getting a promotion or taking their startup to IPO instead?

Yeah seriously, why didn't they just go to the best schools only to drop out to start a company like everyone else? Laziness, I'm sure.

I used to call it the stupidity tax too. Then I realized that those are real people, with some pretty desperate problems they see no realistic way out of, that I was insulting to make myself feel smarter.

By stltony in "Jim Gaffigan On Kids, Comedy And Apartment Living" on MeFi

stltony — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:41:25 GMT

MetaFilter: Oh, you have five kids and live in an apartment? Let me tell you what you're doing wrong and let me preface this by saying all my knowledge comes from not having kids and disliking them in general.

By East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 in "If it's consensual, can it ever be wrong?" on MeFi

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Sat, 18 May 2013 19:21:02 GMT

I hope the title is Skeets Shoots and Leaves

By liketitanic in "You serve coffee now, just deal with it already." on Ask MeFi

liketitanic — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:44:49 GMT

I just want to caution you that this might not have had anything to do with her relative class status--she could just be an asshole. And I say that because if your psychic defense is built on the perception that you are more successful than she has been, what happens when someone more powerful than she appears to be does the same nasty thing?

The issue here is not necessarily that she is envious of you because you appear to have achieved a class status that she hasn't. It's that your hometown is full of people who silently or loudly abetted your abuser(s) and now you encounter them on the regular and they haven't changed. I don't think feeling superior to someone less successful actually prepares you to handle it when it arises in anything but a temporary way. I would think of it in terms of what you would say to ANYONE, well-meaning or ill. And I say that as an abuse survivor who encounters stuff like "How abusive was X, REALLY?" from people who should know better and from all walks of life.

full disclosure: I am also about your age, about as successful as your barista appears to be, and covered in tattoos. I guess I am in favor of finding a way to deal with cruelty that doesn't involve slagging on working class people.

By jessamyn in "Yahoo Overhauls Flickr" on MeFi

jessamyn — Mon, 20 May 2013 23:25:23 GMT

A completely bizarre side effect to this... not to be all "Story time!" about this but my dad died two years ago yesterday. He had a Flickr account with 4000+ photos on it. A while back its pro account had expired and so we could only see the last 200 photos, which hey okay, but the other photos were a lot of stuff from my childhood that I'd like to see again. Photos like this. "Fix dad's Flickr" was on the "Shit to do" list along with all the other estate stuff that is exhausting and occasionally sad-making. And I wasn't sure if I knew his passwo5rd and I was just not relishing dealing with it. I am an on top of it person and I was Not Handling This.

So today, just now in fact, I realized that this change means that I can go look at all the old photos again without having to turn this into a giant hassles. So even though I don't particularly care for the redesign (and I empathize like crazy with the Yahoo/Flickr folks who have to deal with the angry onslaught) there was one little nice part of it in there for me.

The end.

By scody in "Don't Call Female Desire Drugs "Lady Viagra"" on MeFi

scody — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:24:56 GMT

Wow, I'm pretty shocked by the jokes and cynicism here. This is potentially EXCELLENT news for women (and their partners), especially women who have had serious physiological and sexual side effects from menopause, which can not only result in diminished libido but significantly painful intercourse. Having my own sexual response pulled out from under me like a rug was, in the long run, the worst emotional part of my cancer treatment a few years ago. After being sexually active for 20+ years, it was extremely disorienting to be in a body that no longer felt or responded as it had for decades.

Why do I have this odd feeling that the desire for these drugs comes more from the testosterone-addled sector of society?

I assure you, from my point of view, this comes just as much from my partner's desire as it does from mine. I hope these work. Women have the right to sexual pleasure and satisfaction as much as men do.

By hellojed in "Memories of MeFi troll" on MetaTalk

hellojed — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:42:53 GMT

I have never disliked someone on the internet

I have done obnoxious things to some people

I never really recognized them as real people

Which had ugly consequences

Burma Shave

By Legomancer in "'So don't look."" on MeFi

Legomancer — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:16:24 GMT

What is it about goddamn cell phones that makes them impossible for people to turn off and put away for two hours? Why is that such a fucking burden to everyone around me? If you're so goddamn bored at the movie or theater, leave. Go somewhere else. The world is not your goddamn living room.

By elizardbits in "I know who you are." on MetaTalk

elizardbits — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:48:12 GMT

I would much rather live in a world where doxxing meant being covered in tiny adorable daschund puppies.

By Samizdata in "Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr, Yahoo!" on MeFi

Samizdata — Sun, 19 May 2013 18:23:34 GMT

Ummmm, sorry if I ask this but -

Where in the blistering green fuck does an incredibly irrelevant company like Yahoo keep coming up with the money for these huge purchses?

By leotrotsky in "Meg Jay: Why 30 is not the new 20" on MeFi

leotrotsky — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:40:28 GMT

Here's some advice for 20-somethings and older. Writing is a much more efficient way to convey information than talking, and reading is a much faster way to acquire information than listening. THAT'S WHY WE INVENTED WRITING.

By Horace Rumpole in ""...he doesn't even pay road tax! #Bloodycyclists."" on MeFi

Horace Rumpole — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:08:49 GMT

The casual evil of average people is often the most surprisingly shocking.

By Ruthless Bunny in "You serve coffee now, just deal with it already." on Ask MeFi

Ruthless Bunny — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:34:02 GMT

It sounds like you had a very traumatic time back in your childhood. It may amaze you to know that people like this idiot have no memories for things that happened in the past, to other people. To you, it was a HUGE fucking deal, to her, it was Tuesday.

One of my friends was contacted on Facebook by someone in high school who couldn't stand her. They would have been enemies if my friend had given her a thought. For some reason, this girl didn't remember ANY of it and persists on being a Facebook friend. (My friend ignores her requests.)

It is entirely possible that this woman isn't trying to be passive aggressive or bully you or anything. She may just be a person who has a fuzzy memory and who wasn't paying that much attention. You are filtering her behavior through your experience, not hers.

So, let's pretend that she honestly believes that you and your abuser were friends, and that she was your friend back in the day. How would you play it then? There's no point in trying to get one over on this sad person. Steer into the skid on this one and continue to take the higher road.

You can simply say, "I don't remember it that way." And leave it at that.

By His thoughts were red thoughts in "Crosswalks are less common in poor neighborhoods." on MeFi

His thoughts were red thoughts — Thu, 16 May 2013 02:42:05 GMT

From the first link:

The man behind the wheel was Jerry Guy, who pleaded guilty to hit-and-run in the case. He admitted to drinking earlier in the day and said he had been prescribed pain medication as well. He's blind in one eye. In 1997, Guy had been convicted of two other hit-and-runs that occurred on the same day, one of them on the very same road where A.J. died. But prosecutors still decided to go after Nelson a month after her son died, and she could have ended up doing more time than the driver.

What the everloving fuck.

By Linda_Holmes in ""The Neighbors don't know they are being photographed"" on MeFi

Linda_Holmes — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:03:26 GMT

"they are performing behind a transparent scrim on a stage of their own creation"

Oh, are they? Because they probably think they're living their lives, but feel free to recast their lives entirely relative to your photography.

I have no idea whether this is illegal, but it's gross. One of my college professors used to stop conversations that became overly abstract with the simple question, "What kind of a world do you want to live in?" I don't want to live in the kind of world where "can" means "should" and "potentially anticipatable" means "perfectly fine."

It's not even just the invasion of privacy that bothers me; it's the narcissism of assigning people the role of performers in your little theater.

By oulipian in "And then there was One?" on MeFi

oulipian — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:41:35 GMT

The presentation did mention there will be 8 brand-new IPs to come within the first year.

Halo Sports
Call of Halo
Call of Sports
Sports of Duty
Call of Duty: Sports Halo
Grand Theft Halo
Call of Tony Hawk
LEGO Halo Sports: Star Wars

By The Whelk in "For Sale: A Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Smoking Crack Cocaine" on MeFi

The Whelk — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:45:55 GMT

JUST KEEP IT COMING 21 st CENTURY I CAN TAKE IT

By psoas in "If it's consensual, can it ever be wrong?" on MeFi

psoas — Sat, 18 May 2013 20:12:37 GMT

Is there a "New York writer goes to San Francisco" bingo card? From that first article I got

specialty stores of outrageous/marvelous exoticism
people work for tech companies!
the food is so exquisite
everyone's really into being healthy
that California freedom thing, it's in the air, which doesn't smell like garbage, weirdly
the city is so diverse (people speak Spanish!)
everyone has a lifestyle with A Brand Name
it's pretty outside
I braved the trip to Oakland (there were anarchists)
my friends back home...
people here...believe in things?
how this affects me
oh, and also, the topic of my article, which is interesting but is so Only In San Francisco I could die.