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Shelf Life - Hal I Met Your Mother


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TarsTarkas



Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Posts: 5821
Location: Virginia, United States
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:41 am Reply with quote
AnimeMaine wrote:
It actually better to pay a small amount in April. Otherwise, you are giving the government an interest-free loan, instead of using that money yourself.

Perhaps. But the U.S. tax system is arcane enough to make figuring out that golden spot a pain. It is easier for us to have the government take as much as they can, and get our refund back in April, instead of paying several hundred dollars in April. But each to their own, some people like the financial math involved in the calculations and the tax forumulas.
dtm42 wrote:
No offense you guys, but an even better practise is to not overpay or underpay tax in the first place. I realise that for certain people like the self-employed or those with investments this can be difficult if not impossible to achieve, and that's fine. Their income is irregular and they don't know exactly how much they need to pay. But the majority of wage and salary earners are not due refunds because their income is automatically taxed under PAYE at the correct rate. Being a wage slave has its advantages.

There is no such thing in the U.S. It is left to the employee to set their W-4, which in turn tells the government how much to take out of each pay day. Salary earners probably have it better than hourly wage earners in being able to figure out exactly how much they are going to owe in taxes. Tip reporting also gums up the works.

Don’t know how dtm42 finds the time to watch all that anime, I have yet to watch a single show of the new season, and I still haven’t finished the shows I want to watch from the last season, not to mention my backlog of even older anime I still have pending.

As to the title of this topic, I found the finale to be a bit misleading. The title of that show should have been, spoiler[”How I Met Your Step-Mother”. ]
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thofheinz



Joined: 23 Jul 2013
Posts: 98
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:19 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Are you comparing the inconsistent Sword Art Online with the great Madoka Magica? How dare you. If you cannot distinguishing between quality, your analysis of anime is pretty much worthless.


This is my first post. God, I'm asking for it...

What I don't understand is why people don't realize what 'objective standards' are. They're simply informed approximations of consensual agreement, and they are often evidently true, until someone demonstrates otherwise.

Arthur Miller is a fine playwright, but only an idiot, even an Arthur Miller fan, would say with a straight face that he's a better playwright than Shakespeare. That's because anyone with a brain can pick up on the different levels of complexity in the poetry and narrative, even if they don't like Shakespeare.

Or say you like Madonna more than Mozart. That's just fine. But anyone who can draw an equivalence between the two based solely on her or his own preferences is simply going to sound stupid and shouldn't be surprised if someone tells them so.


Last edited by thofheinz on Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:03 pm; edited 1 time in total
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AnimeMaine



Joined: 11 May 2009
Posts: 123
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:38 am Reply with quote
TheAncientOne wrote:
AnimeMaine wrote:
It actually better to pay a small amount in April. Otherwise, you are giving the government an interest-free loan, instead of using that money yourself.

Have you checked interest rates in recent years?

There is also the point that most people, upon receiving that additional income throughout the year would have simply spent it each pay period, meaning it never would have earned any interest.

For many people, the US federal tax system is like a Christmas Club account that pays off whenever they get around to filing their tax return.


True, interest rates are near 0%. But the stock market has done well; increasing about 12% over the past year.

But let's put this in anime terms. Assume anime costs $30/DVD and you get a $360 refund in April. Most people would be better off having $30 a month from May 2013 to April 2014 to buy an anime a month, rather than waiting until April 2014 to have the money to buy all the anime they had wanted to buy over the past year.
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:16 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
It is easier for us to have the government take as much as they can, and get our refund back in April, instead of paying several hundred dollars in April.

Considering that the government can siphon money out of our pending refunds for myriad reasons I would have to agree that it is easier but it is certainly not preferable. It's bad enough giving Uncle Sam an interest-free loan but if he doesn't pay it all back it is most brutal.
TarsTarkas wrote:
As to the title of this topic, I found the finale to be a bit misleading. The title of that show should have been, spoiler[”How I Met Your Step-Mother”. ]

I wish that I didn't know what you were talking about but I, tragically, saw that episode as well.
AnimeMaine wrote:

But let's put this in anime terms. Assume anime costs $30/DVD and you get a $360 refund in April. Most people would be better off having $30 a month from May 2013 to April 2014 to buy an anime a month, rather than waiting until April 2014 to have the money to buy all the anime they had wanted to buy over the past year.

Having the money during the year allows people to buy anime during the RightStuf and Amazon (et al) sales that occur during the year, especially the winter sales. Increased purchasing power ftw.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:44 pm Reply with quote
TarsTarkas wrote:
There is no such thing in the U.S. It is left to the employee to set their W-4, which in turn tells the government how much to take out of each pay day. Salary earners probably have it better than hourly wage earners in being able to figure out exactly how much they are going to owe in taxes. Tip reporting also gums up the works.


Good god, that's beyond arcane. In New Zealand you simply give your employer your tax code and they and the taxman work it all out themselves. Employees hardly need to lift a finger.

TarsTarkas wrote:
Don’t know how dtm42 finds the time to watch all that anime...


Not having to fill in a tax return every year helps a bit, LOL. But I guess anime is my main hobby and I am fortunate to currently be in a position where I can devote a relatively large amount of time to it. I can watch over seventy episodes of anime in a week with a bit of effort, and when I really try I clock in over one hundred episodes in a week. Doing that is unhealthy though so I don't do it too often.
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Ignatz





PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:15 pm Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
I clock in over one hundred episodes in a week

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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:30 pm Reply with quote
^
LOL.

I can count the number of times I've done that with one hand. It messes up my sleep cycle something wicked and can burn me out, so I don't do it often. I've never done it back-to-back; that would darn near kill me.

FYI, my average for the last year is almost exactly fifty-three episode per week. It ain't easy trying to get through a backlog as monstrous as mine, on top of watching twenty or so shows a season. That said, many people have backlogs that make mine look ho-hum and tame by comparison, and I seriously doubt that they'll ever get through it all without resorting to the odd week-long marathon like I do.
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Sailor S





PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:25 pm Reply with quote
@dtm42

I suppose I have one of those backlogs, since I don't count it in terms of episodes, but in terms of discs. By that count, I have some 873 discs of varying episode size to go through. But, even averaging it out to 4 episodes per disc, puts me at 3492 episodes. How do I manage to cull the backlog? I don't. If I go with what I can manage to watch of current episodes, which I do when I'm at work, I manage about 52 episodes over the course of 2 weeks. I can sometimes manage more than that on my backlog when I'm at home, since it is only 4 episodes a day, but often I can't just because it's hard for me to drink a lot and watch subtitled anime. Anyways, my point is, you're right that I'll probably never get through my backlog at my current pace.
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Player No. 3



Joined: 21 Jan 2010
Posts: 209
Location: San Antonio, Texas
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:33 pm Reply with quote
Personally, what I really enjoyed about Psycho-Pass was its treatment of society's demonization of mental illness. People having difficult maintaining low stress levels are ostracized. Parents pay top dollar for private schools that ensure anxiety-free educations. Sure, the proliferation of psychotherapy and psychiatric medications are great, but they come with societal stigma.

Speaking as someone with depression, it was fascinating to compare and contrast how our current society treats those diseases with future Japan's.
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3980
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:03 pm Reply with quote
Bebop-Bang wrote:
Long post.


Fantastic post, I loved Psycho-Pass and can't wait for the new season.
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Echo_City



Joined: 03 Apr 2011
Posts: 1236
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:56 pm Reply with quote
Player No. 3 wrote:
Personally, what I really enjoyed about Psycho-Pass was its treatment of society's demonization of mental illness. People having difficult maintaining low stress levels are ostracized. Parents pay top dollar for private schools that ensure anxiety-free educations. Sure, the proliferation of psychotherapy and psychiatric medications are great, but they come with societal stigma.

Speaking as someone with depression, it was fascinating to compare and contrast how our current society treats those diseases with future Japan's.

The society in Psycho-pass actually glorified mental illness, a certain type of it, when you get down to it. In PP, mentally deranged people order the incarceration and, disturbingly often, execution of other mentally deranged people.

If PP were real, odds are they'd be scraping you off the walls Sad
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Bluenoser



Joined: 17 Jul 2012
Posts: 39
PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:47 pm Reply with quote
Wow dtm, even for someone that has anime as their primary hobby that is some impressive throughput, as I am on long term disability and I couldn't keep a pace like that up (then again though I am first and foremost a bookish person so reading takes an even higher priority for me), let alone trying to do so while working a full time or even part time job. Way to go there dude!

As to the actual material under discussion, I can only speak to PP since the other two are not ones I have seen (Hal is on the list, while Silver Spoons did not interest me conceptually since I have more than a passing familiarity with where my food comes from and what rural life/realities are like, and unless a setting grabs me I tend to need more than just good character development at the moment to interest me, although it does sound like something I'll watch eventually). I have to say I am in complete agreement with dtm's comments regarding PP, especially regarding how we didn't see the tired SF cliche of destroying the "evil controlling system" by our MC but instead saw a far more nuanced and to my mind realistic reaction of "while I dislike this system for good reasons I am forced to admit it works better than any other option I can see for the greatest number of people, but if I ever find a better one then I will work for that change, and that eventually there WILL be a better one and it WILL replace this horrid reality".

I also never understood why some people find our MC so flat or dull, she grabbed me right from the outset as obviously reflection of what it took to be a good fit in her world while still having her own feel to her (yes, I'll admit it was a soft and subtle feel early on, but that is different to my mind than thinking/saying she had none at all before ep 11).

As to the Sybil system itself and how realistic/unrealistic a concept it was, on that score I'll admit to needing to suspend disbelief a bit more than I would like, but compared to a lot of other plot devices used for similar purposes I actually found this one did not require as much as others, and it did feel consistent with the overarching vibe/mindset of that society to have things work that way. As to the question as to whether it would be possible for such a system to gain the foothold it did in the first place, well given how many other even worse systems of social control have managed to do so in human history and societies, again, not that demanding a need of suspension of disbelief for me, and personally I found it a bit better than many such devices I've encountered in my lifetime as a hard core SF reader.

Overall, I agree with the level of worthiness the reviewer gives Psycho-Pass even if I disagree with some of the points within the review itself. I also agree with the view of people that think the last elements spoiler[dealing with the hyperoats and isolationism] was brought in too quickly and without sufficient foundation laying to feel like anything other than bad plot device, but for me that was about the worst example of that through the entire season. Overall PP was one of the best anime I've watched as a SF fan in years, while it has the flaws it does, it also has a lot more depth and flavours running through it than so many as well. Which given I am *NOT* a fan of dystopian SF is saying something, as I grew up in the Cold War and had to put up with almost all AV based SF starting from the premise of some sort of post apocalyptic start (usually nuclear war, but not always, but it seemed very hard to find anyone that thought we were going to survive that period without cataclysm of some sort) with the notable exception of Star Trek left me with a very shall we say sensitive palate when it comes to that sort of writing. PP though tasted very good to me overall, which I will admit was a surprise, but a welcome one.
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yuna49



Joined: 27 Aug 2008
Posts: 3804
PostPosted: Sat Apr 19, 2014 8:30 pm Reply with quote
I have to thank Bamboo for reminding me to finish watching Silver Spoon. Few shows move between comedy and serious matters as well as this one. The last half-dozen episodes have truly heart-breaking moments, yet the series concludes on an optimistic note.

I do wish Aki and Hachiken-kun at least hugged somewhere toward the end of season two. There were a couple of moments where a warm embrace, even without any kissing, seemed highly appropriate. Why can't anime show adolescents in normal emotional relationships? Even when everyone around them were trying to get Aki and Yuugo to acknowledge their feelings for each other, they simply could not do so. In Cross Game we waited fifty episodes for the mains to spoiler[hold hands]. In Silver Spoon I believe the only time they touch one another is when Hachiken grabs her wrist near the end of season two.

Maybe it's just that I cannot connect with the formality of Japanese relationships, but it does seem implausible that two fifteen-year-olds remain so awkward and stilted for an entire school year.

I wish we saw a bit more of Maron down the stretch; his relationship with Yuugo was often quite hilarious.

I rarely think series deserve another season, but I'd watch more of Silver Spoon in a minute.
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