Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

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  • I remember that day, twenty-two years ago.
  • You know what I hate?  I hate the fact that books automatically enter the public domain some amount of time after the author dies.

    If I were an author, the only reason I'd be writing books (other than for the money) is to support my publisher.  If my books enter the public domain, then anyone can publish them, so they're no longer an advantage for my publisher, so what's the darn point of writing them in the first place?  The publisher doesn't die when I die, it continues.

    Even worse, fan-fiction can eventually just become regular fiction if the original work is in the public domain, so for the rest of history my creation would be in the hands of others, to do with as they please or to profit as they wish.  A lifetime (plus a scant few decades after) compared to the rest of history is egregiously unfair, and means that, on the whole, any book I would write would likely provide more benefit to not-my-publisher than to my-publisher.

    That's not to mention things like Project Gutenberg, which are of no benefit at all to publishers, or the E-book and audio-book* formats (which, even if I could prevent my work being in those formats during my life, I could certainly not prevent such centuries after my death).


    *Not the same thing as books on tape, which are fine.
  • Before anyone brings up the readers or whatever message, meaning, story, or anything else I might want to express, relate, or portray in my work, remember that the reason I said "if I were an author" instead of "if I was an author" is because I don't want to be an author (and haven't for years), and I don't want to be an author because I can't imagine anything I create being worthy of the printed page.
  • To make things even worse, paper recycling exists, meaning that my books might be abominations strewn together from other books like Frankenstein's Monster (perhaps I could prevent this during my lifetime, but there's no way I could prevent it centuries after).  Therefore, such a creation-by-me as a book would, overall, be ruinous to the existence of books.  You wouldn't want your book to be made from the recycled pages of the Book of Kells or the Voynich manuscript, and who am I to judge between one book and another, to say that a mass-market romance novel has less right to be preserved than an illuminated masterpiece.
  • In fact, I have judged between books before, in my old job at the warehouse where I killed books by the crateload, sparing only those few which the rules said ought to be spared.  I've sent-to-be-recycled more books than I've ever read, more than I can ever read, and surely my soul is stained black with their ink.  What right could such a person ever have to add to the printed, published, paper world?

    No, I've judged books before, and I've hated myself for it.  By no means could I judge my own writing as more worthy-of-publishing than others, and the existence of the paper-recycling industry means that having my work published would be doing exactly that.
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]

    I know you probably already know this, but audiobooks are actually very important as an accessibility tool. If an author wants their work to be enjoyed by blind people or other people who can’t read text, making an audiobook available is the most effective way to give them that option.

    (Braille books, while really cool, are unfortunately not as common in the ’20s as they once were, and they are often prohibitively expensive compared to audiobooks.)

  • After that job, there was a while when I couldn't bear the printed page.  I know it sounds overly dramatic, but the feelings of guilt and shame were real, and such turns pleasure into guilty pleasure and guilty pleasure into just guilt.
  • edited 2023-09-12 19:49:21

    I know you probably already know this, but audiobooks are actually very important as an accessibility tool. If an author wants their work to be enjoyed by blind people or other people who can’t read text, making an audiobook available is the most effective way to give them that option.

    (Braille books, while really cool, are unfortunately not as common in the ’20s as they once were, and they are often prohibitively expensive compared to audiobooks.)

    This is why I approve of books-on-tape.  Their interfaces (tape players, especially portable or pocket-sized ones) are much more analog and thus much more accessible than current-year touch-screen stuff.

    Furthermore, when you buy a tape, you actually own it, as opposed to owning the right to use the machine's services to access the content.
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]

    From my perspective, as someone who does aspire to be a published author one day, I would personally like to make use of any medium available to me if it means more people will read my work.

    That said: Yes, there is absolutely a special appeal to an old-fashioned dead tree book, and I hope to have my work printed in one at least once.
  • Ali_Roz said:

    After that job, there was a while when I couldn't bear the printed page.  I know it sounds overly dramatic, but the feelings of guilt and shame were real, and such turns pleasure into guilty pleasure and guilty pleasure into just guilt.

    Yes, the feelings might sound excessive, but it truly was a betrayal from what was once the little kid who fished broken books out of garbage cans and sneaked them home with tape for each tear and a promise to always love and protect them, a person who had been comforted by books since infancy, who had always been able to find in them solace and friendship.

    Eventually, though, old friends stop letting you get away with wallowing in self-pity, and remind you that you're still you and that they're still them.
  • From my perspective, as someone who does aspire to be a published author one day, I would personally like to make use of any medium available to me if it means more people will read my work.

    That said: Yes, there is absolutely a special appeal to an old-fashioned dead tree book, and I hope to have my work printed in one at least once.

    See, your purpose in the book is creation (done in service of the readers), whereas my purpose would be preservation (done in service of the publisher).

    To you, the printed-page form is a means to bring across the content, but to me, it's the end in itself and the content is a means to get readers to give money to publishers (so publishers can afford to make books, because books are good).

    [And before you point out that I write and post stuff here, note that I do so for the purpose of preservation:  to maintain the heap and its community (or at least that's how I justify the creation of these words to myself)].
  • edited 2023-09-12 20:26:37
    If you ever publish a book in the old-fashioned dead-tree form, I will buy a copy.
  • My grandmother passed away on the morning of the fifteenth.  It was not a surprise, she had been needing constant care for a year and had been declining a lot in the last three weeks.  What do I do now, what do we do now, what does my mom do now?  I feel as though I can just run up the lane and she'll be there in her bedroom two houses away.  Will I really never get another text telling me to run up and bring some eggs or to come up for a couple hours because a cousin, aunt, uncle, or parent either needs a break or can't make it?  

    She's cruising around heaven with Grandpa now, in a Studebaker.
  • So, I'm sorry for not posting for a while.
  • My dreams exceed my real life
    I'm so sorry
  • In this thread, there is no such thing as on-topic or off-topic.  


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  • Despite being a rare pronounceable former nuclear launch code, AEEUYOTIGCAEQRR has no results on Google.
  • 1:  The government tasks you with preventing a set of people from threatening the monopoly on force.

    2:  You become friends with that set of people.

    3:  You convince said people that violence is not in the best interests of their ends at this time.

    4:  The government gets destabilized by agents from a different government, and is replaced.

    5:  You remember that you are not a centipede,

    6:  You convince your new friends to create a haberdashery and hone their skills.

    6:  It turns out your government still exists, but in exile, and it has arrested your new friends for reasons that make sense every time you hear them, but which you immediately forget after hearing.

    7:  You become concerned that your brain may have become compromised.

    8:  The New government tasks you with spying on the old government in exchange for the great favor of not-selling-you-out-to-that-different-government-from-4.

    9:  The Different-government-from-4 tasks you with undermining the new government to lure the old government into attempting a comeback tour, in exchange for not-selling-you-out-to-your-old-government.

    10:  The old government tasks you with destabilizing the different-government-from-4 in exchange for not-selling-you-out-to-your-new-freinds-and-telling-them-you-were-sent-to-manipulate-them.

    11:  An escaped member of your new friends tasks you with busting the rest of them out of MEGA-CABBAGE-PRISON-DELUXE-2000 in exchange for not-selling-you-out-to-your-old-friends-who-once-worked-for-the-old-government-but-went-underground-and-resent-you-for-not-being-there-during-the-coup

    12:  You realize you have one day to decide on a course of action before stuff starts to get zany around here.

    13:  You remember why you are not a centipede.

    14:  Put the bread-slice with the jam on top of the bread-slice with the peanut-butter such that jam and peanut butter are on the inside and the blank bread-faces are on the outside.

    15: FILLER ARC FOLLOWED BY HIATUS.

  • SOHCAHTOA, PEMDAS, My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, Donnkey Kong's Parents Came Over For Grape Soda, FOIL, D=RT, Vf=Vi+AT, Every Good Boy Does Fine, FACE, Never Eat Soggy Waffles, ROYGBIV, CAM-ORD-SIL-DEV-MIS-PEN-PER~TRI-JUR-CRE.
  • Alright, I'mma drop some knowings on you so pay some attentions and take notes.

    One of the worst fates that can happen to you is to end up unwillingly married to a villain.  This is why so many villains attempt to make such things a reality.  While your other instructors and your own imaginations ought to be able to make it abundantly clear why this is a top-priority MAKE-NOT-HAPPEN, the surgeon general has tasked me with educating y'all on the lesser-known badnessses of such, because EVIDENTLY some people think this sort of crud is easy-street kiddie-pool "just misunderstood" scoundrel-ness.

    First off, the kind of villains and villainesses who would consider coerced marriage never do the dishes. I'm not talking get-someone-else-to-do-the-dishes, I'm talking get-new-dishes-and-keep-the-old.  Remember, saving a buddy from this fate saves him or her not just from unwanted smooching, but ENDLESS SOUL-CRUSHING HOURS of loathsome chores.   Moving heavy furniture.  Hosting dinner parties for noisy sleazebags at unspeakable hours with no preparation time.  Planting lightning rods so the lightning will strike at dramatic times.  Changing the water filter in the vat of sharks.  Chainsawing trees into creepier shapes.

    Second off, it's just financially unsound since we all know dang well none of the bills are going to get split fifty-fifty.  Rescue doesn't always mean retrieval of stolen shinies, and everything becomes much harder after loss-of-shinies.  This means fewer hats.  Heartbreaking.  This part is especially concerning in these years with the rising costs of filtration systems and chainsaw fuel.

    Third off, no access to good sandwiches.  All the sandwiches you see at forced weddings are either FAKE and MADE OF SAWDUST or are swimming in mayonnaise and served on unwashed dishes after laying in the sun for six hours.  The surgeon general has informed me that you should not consume either of those, or put your mouth within twenty feet of the latter.  The EPA has informed me that bad sammiches account for twelve per-cent of ocean pollution and are the leading cause of stomachache in sharks.
  • Remember approximately 126 weeks ago when we were all isolated and slowly going insane with grief and a lot of us threw ourselves into work or pastimes?  Yeah, I'm kind of doing that.  Closer to being employed than I've been in a while, and trying to get 180 emblems in Sonic Adventure 2 on Steam.

    I know it doesn't count if it's on steam because computer files can easily be altered and faked, and also keyboard-and-computer doesn't count as console-and-controller, and even if things were otherwise it's not on a Dreamcast so it's like a reflection or a photocopy of the thing; but the point is to let my brain gnaw on frustration rather than other things.  If just I wanted to have a good time I'd play Sonic Adventure 1.  If I wanted to accomplish a cool computergame thing I'd savescum an old strategy game.
  • I'm not good at fast games and I'm not talented at platformers but I can brute-force my way through this kind of stuff through rote repetition until it's muscle memory.  if I can B-rank a mission, I can A-rank it.  If I can A-rank one of the five missions of a level, I can A-Rank them all.  It's just a matter of trying and trying and trying and getting incrementally quicker until I make it happen once and then I never have to do that specific one again.  It's a matter of doing the hardest ones first until they're done so all that remains is the easy ones.

    I have A-ranked 66 of the 155 missions.  I never have to play Route 110, Route 280, Meteor Herd, or Mad Space ever again.
  • edited 2023-10-21 18:29:53
    Darn, I tried to calculate 2^24 in my head  and with my fingers and got 16,776,616

    because 2^5=32 (Left hand thumb),
    Then 64 (right hand thumb),
    then 128 (right hand pointer),
    then 256 (right hand middle),
    then 512 (right hand ring),
    then 1,024 (right hand pinky), so 2^10 is 1,024 (right hand pinky),
    so good old 2048 is where we start again (left hand pinky),
    then 4096 (left hand ring) is the twelfth.
    Do this all again to verify until I'm certain, now I'm certain.
    4096 (left hand ring) is the twelfth,
    I can skip two-two-two-two and land at the right hand thumb by multiplying by sixteen,
    4,096 times sixteen is (4,000 times sixteen) plus (96 times sixteen),
    and four thousand times sixteen is sixty-four thousand, remember 64,000,
    while 96 times sixteen is {(four less than a hundred) times (sixteen)} so it's (64 less than 16 hundred),
    which is 1536, which is fifteen thirty six which is 1,536,
    so remember 64,000 plus 1,600 minus 64 so 65,600 minus 64 so 65,536 at the right hand thumb.
    Sixteen (right-hand-thumb) is 65536, 6~55~36.

    I like how right-hand-thumb is 64, and later again it is 65,536.  Okay, so 2^16 is 65536 or 655~36.
    Repeat until certain, including the 4096 repeat.

    Next would be 65536 doubled, which is too hard, so instead of 65~536 doubled it's 655~36 doubled which is 1310~72, so tap right-hand-pointer for 131,072.

    Next would be 131,072 doubled so it's 131~072 doubled which is 262~144 (ohmigosh 144 my old friend so good to see you wait darn what was the first part of that was it 133 or 131, go back, 655~36 doubled would be 1310~72 so it was 131 so it is 262 oh dang what was the second part, wait no oh dang what was it crud) [back to 65536 right-hand-thumb so 655~36 doubled is 1310~72 right-hand-pointer]

    Okay try again 131,072 doubled so it's 131~072 doubled which is 262~144 (Ohmiggosh 144 my old frie-nope not doing that) 262,144, remember two-six-two-144 right hand-middle.

    Continue 262,144 doubled is 262~144 doubled is 524~288 is five-two-four-288 right-hand-ring so 2^19 is 524,288.

    Continue 262 wait no 524 dang it remember.

    Continue 524,288 doubled is 524~288 doubled is 1024waitno 1048~ohdang.  288 doubled is (twelve less than 300) doubled which would be 24 less than 600, so 576.  This means 1028 NO this means 1048,576 right-hand-pinky.  So 2^20 is 1,048,576.

    I like how right-hand-pinky was 1,024 and is now 1,048,576.

    Repeat previous until certain.

    1024waitno 1048~576 doubled is 2096~oh dang, make that 2097~(twice of 076) so it's 2097~152 left hand pinky,

    2097~152 doubled is 4194~152, left hand ring 2^22 almost there.

    4194~152 doubled is [six less than 4200}~[304] doubled is [twelve less than 8400]~{308] is 8388~308 is 8,388,308 left hand middle.  Left hand middle is 8~388~308

    8,388,308 doubled is 8~[twelve less than 400]~[608] is 16~[twenty four less than 800]~[616] which is 16~776~616 left hand pointer.  Thus, 2^24 is 16,776,616.





    The problem here is that this is wrong and 2^24 has three sevens in a row.

    This is why I got C's in college.
  • Ali_Roz said:

    I have A-ranked 66 of the 155 missions.  I never have to play Route 110, Route 280, Meteor Herd, or Mad Space ever again.
    As of later that day, I never have to play Final Chase ever again.

    As of the 17th, I never have to play Crazy Gadget ever again.

    As of the 18th, I never have to play Final Rush ever again.

    As of the 19th, I never have to play Cannon's Core ever again.

    As of today, I never have to play Egg Quarters ever again.

    One good run and I'll never have to play Eternal Engine ever again.
  • I've A-Raneked 96 of the 155 missions.

    Since I have A-Ranked Metal harbor mission one, Death Chamber Mission Two, and Hidden Base mission two, the only "I might not actually be able to do this" obstacle remaining is Eternal Engine mission five.

    The only level I have no A-Ranks on is MIssion Street.  The only levels/missions left that might pose big frustrations are Tails's levels.
  • I need to take back most of the bad things I've said about the Disney corporation.  They kept this world from being cursed with Blood and Honey for decades.

    I mean, I've hated the public domain for a long time, but I'm no longer considering myself crazy or wrong for feeling that way.
  • Also, for the record, Disney is much less responsible for United States Copyright Law being changed than they've been given credit for.  First off, there's a whole world of copyright holders there, and heirs of creators. Secondly, the lobbying of such is not the only factor, and is almost certainly less of a factor than the need to have copyright laws consistent with other nations.  Thirdly, with new technologies making copying easier each century, the material barriers to such lessen, so the same level of control can only be had if the legal barriers to copying increase to compensate.
  • If we're going by the (in my opinion, fundamentally wrong) assumption that incentives influence or determine behavior, then we ought to allow that people might have motivations other than finance in the creation of art.  And in that case, I'd posit that to creators, tone/mood/emotion/"vibe" may mean as much as (or more than) setting, character, story, or any of the concrete portions of a work which can be copyrighted.

    I think for a lot of authors, the characters/story/concrete-portions are the means to which the tone is the end.  The public domain allows people like Rhys Frake-Waterfield to use Milne's means to accomplish the exact opposite of Milne's ends.  It means that, for those who want to make something like the original Winnie-The-Pooh, our culture is a blighted soil.  The same instinct that drives an author to nurture a draft would drive an author not to plant good seed in blighted soil.

    There are other ways to make money.  There are other tones/moods one could try to achieve.  But this cultural situation (where the inevitable result of Winnie-The-Pooh entering the public domain is Blood and Honey existing, and this happens within months) is not one conducive to such tenderness and sincerity.
  • I mean, expecting people to just be okay with their works being used for the exact opposite of their intended ends is such a frankly bizarre expectation that I feel like there must be some secret that nobody's told me.

    It's like expecting a loyal-to-the-IRA baker to hold a holiday bake sale knowing that the law means that (at least portions of) the profits from all holiday bake sales inevitably eventually go to supporting the British Monarchy.  
  • Ugh, why am I unable to write my thoughts on such things without it coming out in the tone of a college essay or internet argument.  Where is the frenetic fervor with which I used to write?

    Perhaps this soulless mode of expression is necessary to dampen the emotions and express my "irrational" feelings in a "logical"-sounding manner?  Perhaps the voice of a lecturer is that least vulnerable to critique?
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]

    The thing about Blood and Honey is that it basically exists solely for the shock value. Some hack filmmaker wanted to generate hype and realized that an easy way to do that would be to create an intentionally provocative violent film centered on a beloved children’s character.

    It’s not worth paying any more mind than the kid in your 7th grade class who liked to draw pentacles and write “HAIL SATAN” all over the paper covers on his textbooks.

  • It’s not worth paying any more mind than the kid in your 7th grade class who liked to draw pentacles and write “HAIL SATAN” all over the paper covers on his textbooks.

    It's worth paying mind if that kid's going to have the right to draw on your notebooks.

    I'm probably the only person who thinks like this, but knowing that my work will eventually be vandalized is enough to prevent me from wanting to doodle in the first place.
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]

    I understand where you’re coming from, at least.

    I kind of take the extreme opposite view: My work, once it’s left my brain and been printed on paper, is yours to do with as you see fit. I can’t stop you and I have no desire to stop you. All I ask is basic reciprocity: if you choose to use my work however you want, please do so with the understanding that I will similarly be using your work however I want.

  • I think the major difference is that you work more through the motive of creation and I work more through the motive of preservation.  I put the thing on paper mostly so it can stay, in a stable form, so it might not be lost or forgotten.  I used to be much more creative, years ago.

    It concerns me greatly that the original Motherheap may be lost.  Someone must program something to put all of those pages on the archives.
  • Two-thousand-zero-zero, party over, oops, outta time! Self-described narcissist and aspiring author with an imagination even I can’t contain. [she/her]
    I don’t see why preserving the work in its original form and permitting others to create derivative works would have to be mutually exclusive.
  • Derivative works can change the context in which people experience the original.   It colors the lens that people wear when they look at the source-thing.

    It's the difference between an object in a museum, and the object in the archaeological site, and the object as it was made and used.  Context is not necessarily extricable from content, and vice-versa.  Commentary can aid, hinder, or define understanding.

    A derivative work is a thing more of creation than of preservation.  It is at least a form of sub-creation, and as such I can't really consider it an inherently innocent act.
  • Of course, the constant changes as time happens also change our context and our lenses.  One could preserve a VHS or a DVD of Napoleon Dynamite, but that's not the same thing as keeping the understanding of the movie, the time/place/culture/world it depicts.  It's not just the scene with the schoolbus and the cow, it's the way that everybody from a certain generation of a specific part of the world, upon watching that scene, will with complete sincerity and conviction tell you about how that scene was based on something that happened "when I was a kid" or "when my parents were kids", and how they either experienced or knew someone who experienced that exact incident.

    No outsider can ever really "get" it, even with explanation and commentary, but it's the closest one can come to expressing the inexpressible, to communicating  

    It's not just the scenes with the tetherballs, it's going on a trip through Preston and driving past the school where they were filmed and seeing those tetherballs still there (in addition to most of the locations of the movie still there, unchanged, as Preston has remained unchanged for decades).  It's remembering the tetherballs in a neighbor's yard you used to play with, and getting hit in the face with them.  It's not just the sprinklers in the background, it's the slightly-ammonia smell that seems to be there when I see them because of sensory memories of wide fields irrigated with ammonia water, and the feeling of staring up at the first stars on a trampoline and hearing those sprinklers stop and the crickets start, and knowing that even though that's not a scene in the movie, it's what happens next to the characters.

    True preservation is impossible, and even the attempt is a creation of a derivative work.
  • You're right that it's not mutually exclusive.  But I don't think that the creation of a derivative work is necessarily an act that has no consequences for the original.
  • Ali_Roz said:

    True preservation is impossible, and even the attempt is a creation of a derivative work.

    Well, everything is transient, after all.

  • Ali_Roz said:

    True preservation is impossible, and even the attempt is a creation of a derivative work.

    Well, everything is transient, after all.
    An untruth, and one repeated shockingly often.
  • Ali_Roz said:


    Ali_Roz said:

    True preservation is impossible, and even the attempt is a creation of a derivative work.

    Well, everything is transient, after all.
    An untruth, and one repeated shockingly often.


    Not so.

    What I said is pithy and therefore easy to misinterpret, so I will be clearer.

    Of all creation, all creating, all created, and all discarded, there are a great many things that are ephemeral. A great many, too, that are permanent or eternal, at least from the limited perspective we have as beings of the First Scroll. There is nothing in these realms though, that is static.

    Perhaps it would be better to phrase it as, everything changes, no matter how rare those changes are, nor how long the gaps between them.
  • Yes, improvement and progression have one eternal round.
  • I am not fond of the terms, but I suppose you could put it that way.
  • What those terms mean in this context is not what our blighted modernity uses them to mean.  I lack the sophistication to explain further.
  • Happy Boarday, Yarrun.
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