Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

Ali_Roz · 2022-08-24 20:24:04

I made this. While I like the colors, certain details didn't pop out enough, so I edited it:

Ali_Roz · 2022-08-26 23:53:24

I feel like there's this unspoken idea, and I'm part of it, that (in terms of fiction) it's better to dislike or disapprove of something you ought to appreciate than it is to like something you ought to disapprove of.

It feels intuitive and right to me, but my family says that it is important to have an open mind, and that being overly critical and stern means you miss out on a lot of decent, wholesome, worthwhile fun.

Perhaps part of it is the notion that liking a work of fiction means you "fell for it", that it successfully manipulated you into feeling what it wanted you to feel.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-08-27 01:27:07

I think I see the whole " don't want to look like I enjoyed it" thing going on in some other social circles, seemingly because people want to look "sophisticated" and have "good taste" which somehow means displaying a very exclusive sense of taste.

I disagree, however, as I see that as mistaking exclusivity (particularly using it as a marker of social status) with actual appreciation of the art.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-03 02:42:37

The best part of Darkest Dungeon was always hiring a bunch of bards and sending them into missions to slowly go insane from stress and then die.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-04 04:47:48

Does anybody have contact with Yarrun? He's been silent on Discord since the 25th, and I'm starting to worry...

Princess Alice · 2022-09-04 04:50:40

I saw Yarrun posting on the Magic Planet Discord server earlier today. I'm pretty sure they're fine.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-04 04:55:23

Oh, thank goodness.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-09-06 18:48:06

...that reminds me, i haven't posted on facebook in forever

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-08 16:09:30

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-08 21:38:56

Darn, I wanted Queen Elizabeth II to live to be 100 years old, because all English people who live to be 100 get a letter from the queen.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-11 21:13:37

I remember that day, 21 years ago.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-09-11 22:07:57

Ali_Roz said:
I remember that day, 21 years ago.

Me too.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-11 22:31:41

blah blah blah feelings blah blah blah under no obligation to live by my convictions blah blah blah would have no friends if I stopped being friends with people who do things of which I disapprove blah blah blah multi-billion dollar industry blah blah blah internalized guilt for not dying on this hill blah blah blah already gone over this a million times blah blah blah forbidden topic blah blah blah that one Lackadaisy comic blah blah blah cranky he'll have to reckon with himself again blah blah blah that one Order of the Stick Comic blah blah blah right-all-along village blah blah blah making this about my own issues instead of what's going on with other people blah blah blah the gas station blah blah blah 2002 Olympics blah blah blah never again blah blah blah caffiene blah blah blah university blah blah blah all you'll ever be blah blah blah Stardew Valley blah blah blah job market blah blah blah construction blah blah blah appreciation is fine but enjoying is decadent blah blah blah playing ping-pong blah blah blah perseverating blah blah blah one hundred and ten blah blah blah that one Freefall Comic blah blah blah losing one's soul blah blah 2015 blah blah blah 2016 blah blah blah 2017 blah blah blah 2018 blah blah blah 2019 blah blah blah the radio blah blah blah inability to deal with disagreement blah blah blah Gmail Interface blah blah blah can endure all things so long as the sky and the sun remain

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-12 04:39:28

@Centie's thread: I'd have WAY more feelings on this if it weren't for other things taking my attention and using up my stress capacity, like my grandma's health problems, or my cousin's kid's health problems.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-19 04:19:01

https://i.gifer.com/ShFi.mp4

Odradek · 2022-09-19 13:34:16

Ali_Roz said:
https://i.gifer.com/ShFi.mp4

Impressive

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-19 19:01:48

HIGH-STAKES TWENTY QUESTIONS, HISTORIAN EDITION

"I'm thinking of a year after 1066, you have twenty yes/no questions to figure out at least one English Monarch whose reign included at least one day in that year... or I burn down the orphanage!"

"American Independence Y/N?"

"What?"

"Is The United States of America an independent nation at any point during the reign of an English Monarch whose reign overlaps the year you're thinking of?".

"No. You have nineteen yes/no questions remaining."

"King Henry Y/N?"

"What?"

"Does the reign of any of the King Henrys of England overlap with at least one day in the year you're thinking of?"

"No. Drat, that's more than half the years eliminated. sigh. You have eighteen yes/no questions remaining.".

HIGH-STAKES TWENTY QUESTIONS, MATHEMATICIAN GUESSING EDITION

"I'm thinking of a year after 1066, you have twenty yes/no questions to figure out at least one English Monarch whose reign included at least one day in that year... or I burn down the orphanage!"

"Is the year after 1544"

"Yes. You have 19 yes/no questions remaining"

"Is the year after 1783?"

"No. Drat, 20 questions is far too many. You have eighteen questions remaining."

HIGH-STAKES TWENTY QUESTIONS, LOGISTICIAN GUESSING EDITION

"I'm thinking of a year after 1066, you have twenty yes/no questions to figure out at least one English Monarch whose reign included at least one day in that year... or I burn down the orphanage!"

"Am I correct in assuming that 'a year after 1066' means 'a year after 1066 A.D. and not after 2022 A.D'?"

"No. Dang it! I thought you wouldn't notice that and I could cheat this time! Argh, okay, starting over..."

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-20 19:33:47

Spoiler:

Ugh, Google is nagging me about the midterms, and on Sunday my dad was watching a YouTube video titled "Midterm Elections in 51 days". This sort of overstimulation and stress is not good for the public psyche. Assuming no leap years, 51 days of this once every two years is nearly seven percent of life, which is absolutely absurd and obsessive.

Elections are an unhealthy self-harming social ritual, and though I participate out of a moral obligation because I have been raised to believe that not participating makes me responsible for our societal problems, I resent the constant reminder that there is a double standard about what things it is okay to perseverate and fixate upon. I have a similar dislike for most Christmas music during nearly all of the year, for much the same reason. This message has been spoilered for being unpleasant.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-20 19:47:20

"If you don't vote, you can't complain" always felt like a horrifying thought to me, even as a kid when it was on posters in schools, and I wasn't ever able to put it into words why that was so until recently. The idea that if you didn't do this thing, then any and all grievances you have are (or might as well be) illegitimate and you don't deserve to be heard, much less speak, is unsettlingly "conditional" for a society which otherwise often feels like a cult dedicated to the unconditional freedom of expression.

I know that that's rather uncharacteristic of me considering my usual stance on obligation and duties, but I was a little anarchist problem back in elementary school.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-21 00:25:16

Voting is important. It is your moral and social duty and obligation, a hard-won privilege and right, and one for which people have been willing to make great sacrifices. None of that means that it ought to be extracted by coercion or threat of personal invalidation.

Celeste · 2022-09-21 06:17:13

Our personal stance on voting is that swapping out individual politicians or policies within the existing system is never going to solve the problems inherent to that system, but voting is important anyway because a revolution isn't happening anytime soon and we ought to reduce harm as much as possible in the meantime.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-21 19:49:20

I think a revolution is very unlikely to end without either wrecking society or changing society so much that I no longer have a place in it, and I'm pretty sure the second is slowly happening.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-21 20:01:38

Unrelated: I've thought about it for a long time, and I don't think think I am, or want to be, an ally to LGBTQ+. The thing about allies is that the obligation goes both ways, in a "you join the fights I am in but didn't start (on my side), and I join the fights you are in but didn't start (on your side)" kind of way, and that's not an obligation that I think the LGBTQ+ community is capable of upholding, especially given the past. I'll be a friend, sure, an advocate and supporter to whatever limited extent I can, but given my other loyalties and tribal obligations, "Ally" is not truly an appropriate term.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-21 20:04:53

Also unrelated: I don't count "asexual" as being part of LGBTQ+, but as separate from the whole thing, much as an atheist might not count atheism as a religion, but as separate from that whole thing.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-25 04:03:39

Someone made a Starship Troopers RTS recently, and it gives me the moral problem of having to want a new-indie-RTS-that-isn’t-a-Starcraft-clone to fail because, well, it’s Starship Troopers.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-25 04:31:54

See, long ago, in a distant land, I, ALI, the HAT-WEARING master of book-stuff, unleashed an UNSPEAKABLE GENRE, but a FOOLISH naval man wordsmith wielding a magic brain stepped forth to OPPOSE ME.

Before the final tale was told, I TORE OPEN A PORTAL IN TIME and FLUNG THE FOOL into the FUTURE, WHERE MY EVIL IS LOL,

Now the fool seeks to return to the past, and undo the future that is THIS POST.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-26 17:52:17

Man, the fan arguments over The Lion King canon are such a mess of original movie vs sequel vs tie-in-products vs popular fanfiction vs a recent tv show vs concept art vs creator interviews, and meanwhile the tv show and movie about Timon and Pumbaa both manage to not conflict with any of the above.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-26 18:06:45

Of course, I decided to try to resolve this (Because I like making family trees and resolving canon entanglements), and ended up counting as canon everything except the fanfiction pretty easily by just having Simba and Nala have seven cubs, two of which die young and three of which aren't born yet in any of the animated material.

Most fictional family trees are pretty simple compared to real family trees.

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-28 19:28:35

1: Regrettably, the public domain still exists.

2: There is such a thing as a public domain character; many of them are historical people.

3: There is a Broadway musical about the people who have assassinated to attempted to assassinate one or more Presidents of the Unites States.

Conclusion: Murdering the President of the United States means ending up in a Broadway musical, which means the potential of a duet with John Wilkes Booth, or worse, being shipped with John Wilkes Booth... there's no recovery from that before Judgement Day. The United States has a flawless system to prevent me from ever murdering a president. If I am ever accused of such, I've been framed.

Odradek · 2022-09-29 00:26:44

https://twitter.com/incunabula/status/1574546784365445136?cxt=HHwWoICwxaj99NkrAAAA Thought you'd think this thread was cool

Ali_Roz · 2022-09-29 00:44:08

There aren't words for wonders such as that. May it ever be preserved.

Ali_Roz · 2022-10-18 22:19:01

From Ghilorst the Unreliable's Musings on Governance:

"Consternation, suffering, badness, strife--these are things by which societies can be measured. With this in mind, the aim of governance is proposed to be the amelioration or alleviation of strife, badness, suffering, and consternation."

"Those systems of governance described as 'representative' are notable for minimizing badness and suffering while subjecting the citizenry to chronic consternation and strife, often (but not always) in a ritualized manner or on a situation-response basis. Sources are unclear on the mechanisms involved, but references to 'poles', 'voats/voalts', and words beginning with 'elec' or 'mot', all seem to imply use of the forbidden spark-magics known to be associated with the fading of the stars."

Ali_Roz · 2022-10-18 23:54:08

The* problem with thinking poorly of yourself is that your loved ones either (a) don't share that viewpoint, and thus frustrate you by disagreeing with you; or (b) share that viewpoint, and thus think poorly of you**.

*Okay, this is one of the problems, and not even the main one.

**I'm pretty sure these aren't the only two options, but darn if I can't think of a third one.

Ali_Roz · 2022-10-22 15:06:22

Teach your children about extinction and habitat loss early: tell them that Unicorns and Dragons don't exist... but used to.

Give your children a sense of wonder: tell them the blue parts of the map are unknown and forbidden.

Prepare your children for the dangers of the world: tell them about abusement parks, harmacies, and wreckord shops.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-10-22 21:23:47

That was a funny post. :D

Ali_Roz · 2022-11-01 19:54:38

"Two things which are, in regards to dragons, well-attested, are as follows. They exhibit a hoarding behavior towards shinies, and steal prencisses parnzessus proncesess. While Nizarm's model supposes that pirncsesse are a subordinate caste-form to the oft-mentioned Human Queen, Abzy's model has princesses pironcsess as the Queen's larval form, or perhaps the King's. Note that the Human Queen and King (at least anecdotally) exhibit shiny-hoarding behavior, as well as aggression and territoriality similar to that attested to dragons. While this has been explained as simply convergent life-forms occupying the same ecological nitch nish nietzsche niche, this explanation is here regarded as deficient in its relegation of shinies to an inactive element. Proposition: humans and dragons are both controlled by shinies, and exist primarily as tools used by the shinies to facilitate accumulation."

glennmagusharvey · 2022-11-01 20:18:51

is the telos of shinies to be accumulated?

Ali_Roz · 2022-11-02 15:55:47

Yes, yes it is.

Ali_Roz · 2022-11-17 19:48:26

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: 12-21-1937

Pinocchio: 2-23-1940

Fantasia: 11-13-1940

Dumbo: 10-23-1941

Bambi: 8-21-1942

This ordering does not take into account the fact that by the time of Pinnochio's theatrical release, much of the animation on Fantasia and Bambi had been done. In terms of the art and animation, the commercial failure of Pinocchio meant that such effort-intense and ambitious projects would never be attempted again by the company.

I don't think this necessarily means that the films got worse, but the hand-drawn frame-by-frame inventing-the-techniques how-in-the-world-did-human-beings-even-do-this animation on Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Bambi is just jaw-dropping, and I can't imagine what it must have been like in the theaters back in the day.

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-01 04:19:16

So, for real-life reasons, I've needed to do a fair bit of waiting around in places I can't bring my laptop, and I've been rereading the first Harry Potter book. I've been enjoying it, it's a comfort-food sort of book, easy to pick up and put down at any point.

I like random details in books almost as much as babies love staring at ceiling fans, and unlike babies I get to post about things that interest me.

So, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley bought their son, Dudley, 38 presents (Dudley received 39 presents in all, because he got one from his aunt) for his eleventh birthday. This included sixteen brand new computer games. Since this part of the story takes place in 1991, I decided to go on the internet and try to calculate what sixteen brand new computer games would cost in 1991 in England.

It turns out that, adjusted for inflation, new computer games were much more expensive back then than they are now, and computer games were much more expensive in the United Kingdom than they were in the United States. After a while, the best estimate I could come up with was between 40 and 50 British Pounds each for the sixteen games, and with exchange rates and interest rate calculators, I calculated a reasonable benchmark that came out to approximately $2,345.24 in 2013 dollars or $3,000.00 in current dollars. For the record, my brother complains about the price increasing from $60 to $70 for new games, but 70*16=1,120.

Note that it is mentioned that for his tenth birthday, the Dursleys gave Harry Potter a coat hanger and a pair of Mr. Dursley's old socks, which I estimate to have represented a total expenditure of no money at all.

I guess Harry still wins, though. He didn't get sixteen computer games, but I think he's probably been in sixteen computer/video games.

Princess Alice · 2022-12-01 05:33:18

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm kind of tempted to go re-read that book myself, just to see what I make of it as a supposed adult

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-01 15:52:45

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-02 04:39:38

Do not trust relative-placement statistics of the "[thing] is the xth in [category] of this set of x things". Assuming ties aren't allowed, there must always be an xth in a set of x. Thus, for example, for the 50 States of the United States of America, there must always be some state that is 50th in whatever is being measured (again, assuming ties aren't allowed). You could double (as an example) education funding in every state, and the relative placements would not change at all. You could halve education funding in every state, and the relative placements would not change at all.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-12-02 06:49:36

Agreed. It just encourages one-ups-man-ship, rather than cooperative progress.

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-09 18:53:30

The Neon Genesis Evangelion meme that snowcloned into "Get in the X, Y", is, in my opinion, often improve by lengthening it to "Get in the X, Y, or Z will have to do it".

I mean, "Get in the garbage chute, flyboy" is already probably the peak version of the base meme, but "get in the garbage chute, flyboy, or someone will have to save our skins" is just magnificent.

Also, it allows for versions that don't work with only the base meme, like "Get on the court, Stockton, or Hornacek will have to do it", or "Get in the pipe, Mario, or Luigi will have to do it".

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-10 07:36:26

Spoiler:

There’s a certain love of one’s fellow man that I lack, which I ought to have nurtured when I was younger. I’m not sure I’ll ever truly forgive my generation, or be able to respect people my age in positions of authority. Were I fictional, I would be a highly unsympathetic character, and this deeply troubles me about myself (once again, this message has been spoilered for being unpleasant, so replies, if any, ought to be spoilered as well—note that replies are neither requested or necessary).

glennmagusharvey · 2022-12-10 19:01:13

Spoiler:

I'm not sure if this is relevant to what you said, but I feel like I'm more capable of sarcasm and sardonic communication nowadays than I was ten years ago and I don't like that about myself. And I think that being quite active on the internet has contributed to this.

Ali_Roz · 2022-12-12 21:05:31

Detective: The perpetrator always returns to the scene of the crime.

Guards, remembering that escaping is a crime: >:D

Prisoners, remembering that escaping is a crime: :C

(This joke is logic-sequence based absurdism, not social commentary)

Princess Alice · 2022-12-13 05:40:32

I giggled.

glennmagusharvey · 2022-12-13 22:33:06

:B

Suchian Musings And Ramblings About General Designs Involving Notable Estuaries

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