When Brood X happened, I think one of my cats thought I was responsible for the cicadas. They kept bonking against our windows and she’d look at them, then look at me and meow. I tried explaining but I don’t think she understood :(

I don’t think you’re entirely wrong, but to me, the difference is that a good homage can stand apart as its own Thing, whereas something that’s derivative has to lean hard on the the tropes and trappings of the original in order to be anything at all.

Example: Stardew Valley vs a bunch of really mid/mediocre farming life sims it shares a genre with. SV is deliberately an homage to the Harvest Moon/Song of Seasons series and is upfront about it. But you can still pick up SV and have a great time with it, because it’s a well-designed and complete game on its own, regardless of whether you even know HM/SoS exists. Whereas with the copycats, the big selling point is “it’s just like [Harvest Moon/Stardew Valley]!” There’s not enough actual substance for these games to stand on their own.

Obviously, “quality” is a subjective measurement and all, but I think that’s where I would draw the line between an “homage” and “derivative.”

Boooooooo.

[clicks upvote arrow]

Back when I was a kid, The Simpsons was a really good show

I used to get this sometimes. Turnes out my body doesn’t process fructose well. Look into FODMAPs if none of the other suggestions work for you (usually the FODMAP thing requires an elimination diet, I just lucked out due to weird circumstances)

Regardless of age, weight, or overall fitness, I have never been able to touch my toes when bending over from standing.

That’s OK. No piece of art or media is gonna be everyone’s Thing.

Steven Universe. The online fandom was insane. The actual show was incredible.

Came here to suggest this. I’ve been doing IFS stuff with my therapist and it’s probably the most helpful therapy I’ve ever done.

Dementia specifically I don’t know about, but if you don’t eat enough it will affect brain function, since your brain requires energy to, yknow…work. Found a review article about it from a few years ago if you’re interested.

Like half of Fall Out Boy’s discography. “Hum Hallelujah” gets a special mention for literally being about a suicide attempt. Also “Dance In the Dark” by Lady Gaga, “Stomach Vs Heart” and “Humor of the Situation” by Barenaked Ladies (“Angry People” as well), “Slip Slidin Away” by Paul Simon, “When I Come Around” by Green Day…suffice it to say, I enjoy this trope a lot :P

I’m not at my place right now. If you come to my friend’s place where we’re at, you can have a donut and maybe pet the cat.

The anoles are one of the few things I miss about living in Florida. There are lizards here in Kentucky, but they’re more elusive.

E-bike?

I agree with contacting local charities (kitchens, food banks, etc) and see if they can use them.

My devil’s advocate argument for the elves being there is that there were a bunch of battles in the north that didn’t make it into the movie and only get mentioned a little in the books, and one of the important themes of LOTR is that all these disparate groups had to band together to fight Sauron. So having elves be at Helm’s Deep is a way to show the different people fighting together in a movie series that was already pressed for time. Necessary? Maybe not. But it doesn’t bother me as much as some of the other changes, because I can at least see a rationale for it.

OK, here’s the thing. Overall, Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy is extremely good. I think it’s the best Tolkien adaptation we’re likely to ever get.

HOWEVER.

The random “Arwen is dying!” subplot was incredibly fucking stupid and while it didn’t ruin the movies for me, it did dampen my enjoyment of them. There had to be a better way to get more screentime for Liv Tyler, surely.

Honestly? Gotta disagree. It’s been a long time since I’ve read the book but I remember being disappointed by it after seeing the movie. Maybe I’ll give it a reread and see if my opinion’s changed. ETA: fuck all the movie sequels though, no one needed that shit.

I love the Dark Tower series and hadn’t seen the movie yet. They dropped Susannah out ENTIRELY? Seriously???

Well, at least next year you’ll meet a dental hygenist with a spatula tattooed on her arm