These are all too small for their own article, so I’m collecting out of context thoughts that keep recurring to me, most of which are inconsequential.
I didn’t used to believe in “Sick Building Syndrome” until the start of the lockdowns. In the office I was constantly suffering from upper respiratory issues and falling ill. Once I was forcibly separated from that environment, these all went away. Now that I spend no more than three days a week in the office, it has not returned. So it really exists.
In 40k, the secret of the Dark Angels should have been that after the dust settled from the Battle of Caliban, it was the rebel legionnaires who came to the Imperium and went “We were with the loyalists all along, honest”, becoming the foundation of the current chapter. That would be a secret worth keeping and a reason to hunt down the survivors of the other side to keep it secret.
The Carthaginian Tophet is argued to have just been a cemetery for children, and that the connection with child sacrifice were Roman propaganda. There are urns in these Tophets which contain only child bones, some which contain a mix of child and lamb, and some which are lamb only. Also there is one site which was hastily fortified in antiquity. The wall tore straight through a cemetery, but they routed around the adjacent Tophet, adding material and effort without gaining a tactical advantage from the shape of the wall. This indicates a higher degree of sanctity than a mere cemetery. Lastly, some have argued that there should be a bias in the sex of remains if there was a sacrifice involved. I don’t think this is the case, as in other societies with human sacrifice, children, especially infants, are undifferentiated in terms of sex for the purposes of sacrifice. Post-puberty, they end up in different categories. On balance, I’m convinced the Tophet was a sacrificial ground and begin to wonder about why there is whitewashing of the Carthaginian reputation. I suspect it has to do with Phoenician-Palestinian implied associations.
Archeology is never going to be able to explain everything because people are crazy. A prospector in the Rockies spent his entire life digging a tunnel through a mountain to extract the gold he was convinced he would find but never did. Because of the geologically stable nature of where he dug, the tunnel could last millions of years. A future archeologist, bereft of records coming across this hole through the mountain with no related sites to be found is going to have a heck of a time explaining it. How many current mysteries are the result of one nutter doing something that only made sense to them?
In Battletech, I could never suspend disbelief enough to accept the Clans having better tech. Not only are they described as having a socialist economy, but their culture not only does not incentivize innovation, it would incentivize stagnation. If anything, the ruthlessly capitalist Inner Sphere with its frequent large scale wars along the borders but protected core worlds would be better positioned to innovate. Repeated plot patches have been applied to try to explain the discrepancy. All they do is further strain suspension of disbelief. It doesn’t help that the creators’ pets are the boring factions.
While it is stereotypically the American who is ignorant of the rest of the world, I am often annoyed at the ignorance of foreigners about America.
“Git Gud” is not an answer to “Help!”
As a writer there are some times when in the act of creation, you think a line of dialog is more impressive than it is. Other times you can come back to a turn pf phrase years later and go, “Wow, I wrote that?”
“Will they/Won’t they” is the worst kind of plot. At best, the audience doesn’t care. At worst they will be frustrated with you until the end of the story. Commit and let the ramifications play out within the yarn. The consequences are bound to be more interesting than stringing everybody along.
I have used the saying “If it’s worth Engineering, it’s worth Over-Engineering.” This may have been over-edited into ambiguity. On reflection, I can see the other common use of over-engineering coming into play. I did not mean “complicated beyond necessity” but instead intended “more robust and reliable than strictly necessary.” Ragnarok-proofed, if you will.
I still can’t understand cities. They seem like storehouses for excess unproductive people yet somehow extortionately expensive. The math never adds up. Growing up, I knew nothing was made in cities – all the farms and factories were outside of the urban area. Work was a rural thing, stagnation an urban thing.
Also in BattleTech the question arises of “Why are these war machines designed to fire salvoes of small missiles instead of individual larger missiles capable of killing the target?” I think it comes down to the AMS. Anti-Missile systems would have an easier time taking out the single ‘Mech killer missile, but the salvoes and swarms can overcome it by sheer volume. In-universe the AMS became LosTech for a while, but the salvo design stuck around due to the period of technological stagnation it suffered. Firing a bunch of small projectiles became the way it was always done.
The Joint stock company has become the bane of good management. The “fiduciary duty” of ever increasing stock prices for the shareholders plus the number of transient upper managers who are paid in stock leads to a markedly short-term thinking. If this quarter’s numbers go up, things are good. But you can get short tern gains by selling your productive capital and leasing it back. This immediately hamstrings future endeavors because someone else now owns the key to your business and has an extractive incentive to drain as much profit from you as they can get away with. But hey, you had a bump in revenue for a quarter and cashed out anyway. I don’t know how to incentivize for long term thinking, but that’s what builds successful ventures. I’d even venture to say the short-term goosing of stock prices is counter to shareholder interests, and a failure of that fiduciary duty.
I think I’ve thrown out enough nuggets of thought to prompt some discussion.
You’re all already wrong. There got it out of the way.
Cities
Good restaurants
More entertainment options
Good looking people,
More shopping options,
Cosmopolitanism can be a good thing,
Without cities, who will subsidize major league sports?
I spent many, many hours doing the Cosmopolitan thing in San Francisco. I don’t care if I ever set foot in another big city. Give me the out of doors. I would make an exception to visit Lyon again.
You dont need to leave the city to enjoy the outdoors. Most urban areas have parks and camplands within a few hours of town at most.
Parks and camp grounds are controlled outdoors. With rules. Fuck that
It ain’t outdoors ’til you can shoot a gun and no one complains
I like cities. I like the country. I don’t like the sprawling suburbs in between.
I wouldn’t mind too much if all the bridges between here an Washington were demolished to stop the spread.
Give me a town of about 50-60k. I have lived in cities, I spent time living in the country. Suburbs are OK, but I prefer the town vibe.
I have spent enough time in cities, ’cause that was where the jobs were. The last 30 years and more have been in the country, I don’t want to see my neighbors and certainly they don’t want to see me.
I hear my neighbors shooting, when I don’t hear them I worry that something may be wrong.
I traded a dysfunctional city of eight million for an equally dysfunctional small city of around thirty-two thousand but only because I got old and my wants have changed. At least the small city doesn’t have the titanic wealth of the big city and therefore can’t do much damage to me.
The suburbs are a complete non-starter for me, as is the country. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I live in a suburban area, but it’s old enough, poor enough, and “diverse” enough – architecturally and demographically – not to be a sterile, cookie-cutter, little-boxes-made-of-ticky-tacky corner of Hell. Mature trees and awesome neighbors go a long way.
That said, my ideal would be to live in a small town with basic amenities within walking distance OR to live in a clearing in the woods. The trouble with the woods option is that I have no experience with wells or septic systems. 😕
GT, there are the people that know wells and septic systems. Fortunately we haven’t had to deal with them often. It is, however,
expensive when that phone call is made.
I have that, but it ain’t cheap. I don’t own a car so I save a lot that way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But yeah, I’m never going to pretend my choices are ideal for anyone other than me.
That’s because you’re still in NY. 😉
Mainly, it’s because I’m in a college town full of commies and rich foreign students.
There are much cheaper alternatives nearby I may take advantage of if necessary.
Rat on a train,
NezPerce county has in their serious emergency plan tripping the power poles that feed power from Dworshak dam to Whitman and Asotin Counties WA.
If it’s worth Engineering, it’s worth Over-Engineering.
I wish I could over-engineer more. I barely have enough cycles to keep up with user requests. It will be nice when I get the new guy trained.
Seriously.
“Get it barely functional” is the much more usual process and I’m sure it’s not just my employer.
A friendly Hispanic colleague had to leave for a while for reasons I can guess, but he’s back and he’s chats with me to improve his English. He was asking me about games I played today and he went through a few. I don’t play any, and other than online poker games with real people but no actual money (in my games), I haven’t played anything in nearly a decade. I played Warcraft III but never got into the MMOG. (There may be a P in there, somewhere.)
I wouldn’t say I miss it. I suppose I regularly play octordle, if that counts. *shrug* I also am a textbook ‘in-need of ADHD meds’ person. I require a theater to properly watch a movie, to immerse myself in it. Far too many distractions all around me and my brain wants to dive into all of *them,* to my detriment.
I saw Oppenheimer with family and the Bob Dylan flick with Mom. And now fucking Springstein. My parents’ gen just *loves* jerking off to the version of their ‘cultural icons’ they want to imagine. The Dylan one is well-acted, sung and looks good, but, uh. What’s the point? Other than tissue sales.
“While it is stereotypically the American who is ignorant of the rest of the world, I am often annoyed at the ignorance of foreigners about America.”
This. To be fair, I suppose, there’s a lot to know to our ‘mixture.’ Not having a ‘distinct’ culture doesn’t make sense to many other folk. S Korea’s a great example; their homogeneity is ‘settled’ in their youth. Not having it? Uh? Huh? (Korean kids also lack individuality, to a predictably frustrating extent. Yeesh. Smart as shit and no ability to ‘improvise’ with creativity. (It’s getting better.)
America absolutely has a distinct culture. Hell, the left takes great pains trying to destroy it.
I agree we do, but the ‘distinct’ nature of it is inherently the mixture of all the shit we’ve taken in and improved. Pizza’s the easiest global example, and Hollywood, baseball and blues are certainly ‘American.’
But especially now, and really always, ‘American’ is the juggle-shuffle of many different cultures, even specifically within America. Our culture is having many cultures.
By that token, you might as well claim that England doesn’t have a culture. It’s an older mix but a mix nonetheless.
Most cultures are mixes, barring some extreme outliers one of which you mentioned.
I agree in the current context. But from 1066-WWI, I think England had a distinct identity, certainly (to overlapping extents) to be culturally ‘different’ from Scotland, Ireland, and Wales to a much lesser extent. The US had the exact same with States, but that was the purposeful intent of our system. Mixed in differences within America are the norm, but being a part of the mixture was the point.
American Exceptionalism, indeed. We are the exception!
America has seven or eight or more distinct cultures.
Id say we have 100s of distinct cultures all centered on a central tenant that has been continually attacked since 1776.
OBE I think there are three or four cultures in the U.S. that are those atacking the central tenants. While feeding off of those that try to uphold them, at least in part.
What OBE says X1000
There is a genre of YouTube videos where a foreigner is hospitalited into submission.
I’m not smart enough to figure out the stock market so I stick with mutual funds, hoping to lose my money slower.
I look at the market in the light of it having to outperform inflation plus the capital gains tax, to keep from backing up.
(I’m always backing up, it seems)
The only individual stock I own is my company’s through the employee stock purchase program. We get it at 85% of market price.
I lost $1700 on that one. Feh!
I always took my bonus in company stock at a discounted price. We had to cash in when we left the company.
I have 2 small insurance policies from Prudential that I’ve had for many years. Anyway at the time Prudential was a privately held company.
Then they went public and I ended up with a few shares of Prudential common for free. I still have them, get invited to the pow wows and ballots
at voting time. They keep wanting me to sell but I kind of enjoy having a piece (a tiny piece) of the Rock. I get quarterly dividends and it’s like free
but taxable money.
I lost $1700 on that one. Feh
How? Were you not selling right after the purchase?
It’s essentially free money for me – two purchase periods a year, they take the lower price of either the beginning or the end of the purchase, then knock 15% off that. I sell as soon as it hits my account.
It would have to drop more than 15% in a single day in order for me to lose money.
That sounds like you expect the company stock to crater.
Where do you work so we can avoid investing there?
If by that you mean “not completely ignored for a dozen years”… no.
I have no head for money stuff whatsoever.
I should note:
I sell right away due to systemic risk: they provide my paycheck. Should some Enron level scandal hit, I’d lose that paycheck and don’t want to also have a bunch of my net worth in a suddenly worthless stock.
Keeping that money in an index fund avoids that risk.
I can’t recommend this enough
https://www.amazon.com/Bogleheads-Guide-Investing-Taylor-Larimore-ebook/dp/B00JUV01RW
As close to fire and forget as you can imagine. 3 fund portfolio, rebalance once a year, forget about it and live your life.
The message board will answer any questions you have with advice I’d pay significant money for, provided for free by personal finance autistes
Slow and steady and pick, say, an S&P 500 fund. I happened to look up the history of the Dow Industrial Average yesterday. It finally crossed 1,000 in 1972; it is now above 47,000. If one had invested steady, ignored the swings, you’d have even more money today than Bernie Sanders. A few weeks ago, I calculated that $57,000 invested in 1950 in the S&P 500 would have grown to $102 million today! Even with inflation, stock investors have done fine.
I tend not to get excited by the swings, the negative ones in particular. I kind of watch the Dow every day but mainly to see how much damage Trump is doing.
There are a number of people in furious agreement with you.
https://www.bogleheads.org/
Don’t forget paying your accountant.
Between the tax man, the accountant and the mutual fund advisors I’m the only one not making any money off of my investments.
“While it is stereotypically the American who is ignorant of the rest of the world, I am often annoyed at the ignorance of foreigners about America.”
I don’t mind their ignorance. How could they know everything about America? I mind their smugness when they tell me how much they know about America, like how we have 52 states, and then they don’t believe me when I tell them it’s only 50.
As much as I know…old school American education taught not only American history, but world history. I know it may have been slanted to our world view, but it was taught. Do the British teach their history of when they lost their greatest colony?
Anything but farms “outside of the urban area” is a very recent development.
Not in the East where the colonials had water power up almost every stream and river.
“As a writer there are some times when in the act of creation, you think a line of dialog is more impressive than it is. Other times you can come back to a turn pf phrase years later and go, “Wow, I wrote that?””
To go back to Vonnegut, one of his ‘Rules for writing short stories’ is to “Kill your babies.” That bit or phrase ya love so much ya get blinded by its.. lack of purpose. Another that gets me is ‘Every character must *want* something. Even if it’s just a glass of water.’
Fun example is Tallahassee in Zombieland (spectacular flick in every way, borderline Perfect). He just wants a Twinkie. It doesn’t matter what it is, but he fucking *wants* one. The scene in the store where he lures the zombies out with his banjo.. *mwah.* (He ends up getting a new ‘daughter’ and family!’ *cuddle-swoon!*)
Kinda intertwining the twain- Vonnegut’s use of ‘Granfalloon’ in Cat’s Cradle is fun, a false sense of belonging to a community that doesn’t exist. Something like ‘Hoosiers are people from Indiana, and Hoosiers have no true spiritual destiny in common. They really share little more than a name.’
I rather enjoy sharing my ‘Hoosier newspaper man’ status with him, though mine was only for a spell.
The Clans “works” for the same reason Gault’s Gulch does. All the smart, honest, hard-working, etc went with the exodus. The Successor States were politicians playing political games.
So, utterly laughable.
You don’t think Libertarian will work as long as you have the right Top Men* in charge?
*Men Ayn Rand wants to bang.
Tablet wants to autocorrect “libertopia.”
I embrace my bad tryping and turn of autoerror.
Griping about the clans and not griping about machine guns that weigh 1000 pounds but can only fire 900 feet? Missiles that do so little damage it takes 15 to destroy a suburban house? Long range missiles that fire about a mile? Multi-ton “auto-cannons” that do about as much damage as a present day hand grenade or a land mine.
Or the fact that Battlemechs would be irrelevant because the population needed to ensure the perpetual ware would mean you could outfit billions of infantry to over run the 10,000-odd big robots that exist in the inner sphere.
And that’s ignoring the gentleman’s handshake on not using nuclear weapons in a world where combat vehicles are primarily nuclear powered.
“ it’s worth Over-Engineering”
Buy yourself a HK P7.
I lost two hours by being an idiot and making the Mountain/Pacific shift in my head the wrong direction.
And there’s no Polaris Lounge here.
Where are you going and what airport are you in?
LAS. Heading to IAD.
Done that but Central to Atlantic…for an interview. Turned out, it was in my favor – that aircraft program only lasted another few months after the interview.
Sometimes you get lucky.
Eastern Time for all.
Pacific or GTFO
More deserved love for Alejandro Kirk. Alejjjaaandro.
Look at that fat little Mexican run!
inorite?
I just call him “fatboy” in my head.
I’m fat so I can do that.
Lol. We hosted some Japanese students at the frat house one semester. Suzuki couldn’t remember the name of one of the brothers who was BIG (6’4″, 350#) so he said “ah… Fat Boy.”
Look at you flaunting your fat privilege.
lol that was great.
My brotha from anotha motha.
TIL that today is the one day this year that the top 5 American sportsball leagues are in action at once.
I just saw part of the 4th quarter of MNF. I’m not sure how much action there was. But I assume Mojeaux is happy.
I supported Forgotten Weapons by buying some Finnish booze.
I got some spring cleaning done today – it feels refreshing to throw out a dozen identical USB cords I don’t use, for example. Or a baggie containing one shoelace each of two different styles for some mysterious reason. Sometimes I need to fight my compulsive need to hang on to shit years longer than I have any reason to.
Are we secretly related?
😑
Steam sales are incidious. I was confused as to why I had all the DLC on a game I hadn’t played in a while and knew the prices were higher than I liked for the DLC. I apparently grabbed them all during a sale and haven’t played them.
Oh, for Uncivil and the constantly moving goalposts:
You’re not wrong. The written instructions were incomplete. Then my (ex) mentor apparently is an idiot. However, this last iteration of “this is how things work” came directly from the director of NROI. So there’s nobody left to overrule him… Though I guess it’s possible he changes his mind.
I’m frustrated by proxy just observing.
I *never* fail. To say this has been embarrassing for me is an understatement.
The last shutdown Mrs OBE had her very lucrative business. This one, she doesnt. She is freaking out no matter how much I tell her we are good for a few months.
She is the type of person who thinks if we dip into savings it is the end of the world. She aint wrong. That mindset is why we have the savings.
It is also why she’d take 2 or 3 jobs not to dip into those savings.
What is weird…last time we shutdown the world was relatively normal being pre-covid
She doesn’t groom dogs since you moved?
Humidity levels and snow/ice are a factor along with lower floor on willing paying customers had her not continue.
We may open a brick and mortar though
President Trump has now ended a 20 year conflict:
https://x.com/gamestop/status/1982619455797821810
All praise He!
All praise helium?
The console wars never die.
He’ll I’m a veteran of the Cola wars and the console
Wars.
Thank you for your service.
Cute but there are still numerous exclusives on every platform.
I cant but laugh at NYC. Dude was caught in a lie, shifted it to another person who is dead to cover the first lie…and they will gleefully pull the lever for him.
I suspect London level tolerence within 6 months of him taking office.
I’m most appalled that all the Dems who matter are falling in line to support the communist, with a couple notable exceptions like Schumer who will no doubt cave soon.
The Party is being skin-suited by ratfuckers in real time. It’s kind of glorious, actually. Honesty is the best policy or something.
Revealed preferences.
The past 6 or so years has been there ‘moment’ to really bring forth from the shadows and into the light, their glorious revolution hasn’t it?
I am interested to see if cops retire at a high rate. It’s going to be ugly for my fellow Jews. I think it’s going to get ugly for everyone else too.
What are you talking about? Jews will be fine so long as they submit.
The As A Jews will accept dhimmi status. The rest of us… not so much.
“Get Gud”
I see you have met my father.
Ohtani is… Ohtani. I wonder what the prop odds are for him to *get out.* Or for pitchers to *get him* out. They’re gonna start walking him even with the bases empty.
Those Canucks are crafty.
With his 4th wife. It brings a tear to the eye. 🙄
WTF! I really like the guy and I know he’s rich. But he will be lucky to attend the kid’s high school graduation.
That’s what the help is for.
Is this going to be a Bruce Wayne/Alfred set up? Because I think Bruce still wanted his dad around.
If ever a man…he is giving Elon a run for his money.
I think he’s got 13 or 14. *hand up* Were I a birthing person, I’d volunteer to have one of his. That’s, uh… pretty much my life sorted, right there. I’m fecund, babe. My birth slot, prodigious. We’ll name her Audrey, after our conception ritual!
“SEED ME!”
Just read the article. His wife is 46! Goodness gracious people. Lock the barn door.
I should show this to my wife.
She’s not too old.
Whoah.
We go to the 13th. This is great timing for my Friday eve. Normally, my alarm’d be going off 3hrs and.. 2min. (I’d ‘find’ a way to ‘stay awake,’ were it a work night. Positive Distraction Dust is positive.)
First attractive woman praying was attractive.
Good Moring everyone.
WRT Clans, it does beggar believe that a group of refugees wouldn’t splinter apart and start fighting like the inner sphere. But its a story……
My fellow gov drones are starting to get anxious. I will not be making mortgage payment. I think it will be ok in the moderate term.
With my disastrous finances, this is only a blip. I am still headed for bankruptcy of some sort.
I did offer to slaughter a sheep for my coworkers for meat if they would just help with getting into a slaughterhouse. So far no one is taking me up on it. They should have enough resources to withstand this.
What i find interesting is how well Trump is managing this so far. Even the media is not portraying this as a humanitarian crisis for the country.
General consensus is we are off to Thanksgiving, why then? I have no clue.
Thank you once again for being a great bunch of people.
*waves*
Sorry dude.
Thank You, I will survive this.
As long as you know how to love you know you’ll stay alive.
Good morning, ‘bodru, Sean, Ted’S., Roat, and ChipP!
Hang in there, ‘bodru!
Morning, GT.
Good morning, U. How goes it?
I’m lucky it’s a remote day, since I woke up not long before I had to start work.
Not sure what I’m having for breakfast. Hopfilly this skewed start time doesn’t throw tomorrow off, since that’s an office day.
Brain is still booting.
AFGE stepping in will probably sway the Dems this week.
Happy national chocolate day, Glibs!
🍫👀🫶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlSEKEwJUg
🎶🎶
That is off a few days.
https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-chocolate-day-october-28
*shrug*
When I saw the thermometer this morning I thought it read 31degrees. Thankfully it was actually 37.
32 on the dot here.
The Big One
I thought the government was shut down?
Speaking of which, if the government is still shut down by this weekend, do we not change our clocks back?
Without the government who knows what changes will occur.
suh’ fam
whats goody
Good morning, homey.
Nights are getting cold. The calico slept on me.
Did it try to smother you?
It tried to steal my soul.
California says it will monitor the Justice Department’s election watchers next week
But who will watch the watch watchers?
Just like ICE. Resist, California!
“You’re gonna watch us? Well.. we’re gonna watch you! Yeah! Take that, poopyheads!”
I think they just angle a mirror so that the watch-circle has no end.
lol Some people are just beyond repair.
Andy Kaufman lives.
o.O
Pure destruction of self culture in the hopes of not being lined up against the wall first.
That rabbi is not female. And none of those protesters trying to shut down yeshivas are hasids.
Back in Dulles. Looks like the layover won’t be extended today (knocks on really airport furniture.)
Good luck! We fly next week so expect we arent getting to Vegas even if I pull strings to do so.