Best Of
Mozart in the Jungle
Most people who know me know that I don't go in for television shows. Of course, as we get deeper into the 21st century, the line between "movie" and "show" is starting to blur quite a bit, but I can name on one hand shows that I've actually seen the full run of:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Firefly
There we have it. That's the television I've watched as an adult. I just don't get into TV. I've caught passing glimpses of shows that my roommates and wife watch (Sherlock Bumberdumb, Doctor Bleh, Dowdy Abbey, American Horror Boring, CSI: The Same Thing Over and Over), and they're all just crap. The acting is flat, the scripts are formulaic and filled with tropes, and they don't interest me at all.
I saw a tweet from @SylvieBarak that mentioned this show "Mozart in the Jungle" that mentioned a hot chick, so of course I went looking and found it on Amazon Prime. It's an original series from Amazon because that's what you do now. The premise seemed interesting: a show based around the seedy underside of a major metropolitan orchestra (The NY Symphony Orchestra in this case), and that purported to show the orchestra members as real characters rather than stuffy people in suits.
I have Prime, and I was bored and doing something else, so I clicked the first episode. It wasn't mind-blowing but it was compelling enough to watch the second. By the time I was four episodes in, I was pretty much hooked.
The thing that drew me in was that the acting is superb. Really, this could have been a feature-length film. Even with the episodic format, they're not formulaic and are instead just chunks of the continuing story (I guess that's why I like those other three shows I've watched). The acting is fantastic and the story is character-driven, and that's very important to me. While a few of the characters are one-dimensional (after all, this is about a whole symphony orchestra and therefore you cannot have a character drama about 100 different people), the main characters are surprisingly deep and interesting. Since this is a TV-MA rating, it means they can be real adults rather than a sanitized version for television.
At any rate, if you have Prime and a spare 300 minutes, I heartily recommend the first season of Mozart in the Jungle. 
Re: I Need New Network Gear
I'm not the best for this advice, but since nobody else has replied I am extremely happy with this guy:
http://www.amazon.com/RT-N66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-N900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B006QB1RPY
That's my router, but I also configured one for a coworker as an access point a few years back and AFAIK there has never been an issue. You could use this as a router, and two more as access points. Seems expensive, but I'm not sure what you are up against or what you need.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Asus_RT-N66U
That's a guide that basically tells you it's possible to run DD-WRT on this router, but you have to be careful because of a risk of bricking it.
ICSP 2015
Starting this one, as I just bought plane tickets! Hooray for drinking shenanigans, green shirts and one to many Irish Car bombs that will most likely be had. "Costumed march & revelry thru Detroit Sunday morning"
March 20-22nd!
SEE ALL YOU FABULOUS PEOPLE THERE <3333
/// LINC EDIT ///
This is an Icrontic boardgaming & party weekend starting 4pm Thursday night. You can show up earlier, just let us know. You can stay overnight; there is limited space in the main room and plenty of space in the attic if you don't mind lots of blankets. Please don't drink and drive.
On Sunday morning, we will prepare our flasks and thermal mugs and take a 10-minute walk to Midtown, where we will participate in the Marche Du Nain Rouge (website has not been updated with 2015 dates yet). Red is the color of the day, and silly costumes are recommended but not required. We'll march for maybe an hour, then scatter to find a warm meal and head back to the house. If we make it to the end of the march, there is a short, fun pep rally to drive the "red devil" from the city and herald in springtime.
Re: The homebrew thread
@oni_dels said:
Not a lot. But the thing is with Mapple Syrup there is different sugar content per each thing of it. Can be very easy to over carb and under carb. Yeah a cup should be plenty of water.
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