Random Rants 92 - Not Enough Snerk

[Takhisis]

After a lot of back and forth it seems I can finally start some sort of legal actions against my upstairs neighbour who refuses to fix a damage to some pipes that is causing some water damage to my ceiling. Got a lawyer, and insurance will be covering most of the fees. Still a right bother though. Bleh.

 

[Snerk]

Pretty much. But I just need him to fix those goddamn pipes.

 

[Takhisis]

Well, the axe must be a useful tool.

 

[Snerk]

Well, the axe must be a useful tool.

There is no problem that cannot be solved by proper axe usage.

 

[Takhisis]

Indeed. All that you need is the proper knowledge of axemanship.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Indeed. All that you need is the proper knowledge of axemanship.

I'm sure Shadiversity has videos for that. And when you realize that there are times when he really doesn't know as much of what he's talking about as he puts on (honestly, there are some of his videos that are cringeworthy, but most are at least interesting), then you go over to Modern History TV (another YT channel) and get shown by someone who actually does know what he's talking about and can demonstrate it (my grandmother would have loved his videos, not for the actual historical content, but for the horses).

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I don't possibly see how that could be a true quote.

It's from a commentary on one of The Hobbit Extended Editions where it's just her and Peter Jackson are talking. At one point she mentions that Tolkien never used themes.

Then let them be angry. There are many professional authors out there now, who are publishing original works in part because writing fanfiction is one of the ways in which they learned the craft of writing.

And by the logic "they" use (I've forgotten who "they" are), everyone who ever wrote a tie-in novel has no talent, regardless of whether they ever went on to write in an original setting.

So Alan Dean Foster, who has written many tie-in novels throughout his career, has zero talent even though he's gone on to write several SF/F series and numerous standalone novels.

Whatever.

Some people have their noses in the air. Others are having fun. And there are some fanfics that are a hell of a lot better than the source material it's based on.

The one modern example I can find for that is the current Sonic franchise. The most successful and fan favourite modern game is Sonic Mania and that was made by people who started by making fan games, but they hate that game because it's based on the Mega Drive games and not what they see is the better modern 3D games. The current IDW Sonic comic is written and illustrated by people who started by making their own fan comics. Even the redesigned Sonic for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was created by a fan artist.

So they're anarcho-monarchists? People like that actually exist?

They say that the less people involved in government, the better. A single person with authority can get things done to run the country, while in a democracy things can't get done because there are too many people arguing about what to do instead of just focusing on what needs to be done. There's also the problem in a democracy that instead of knowing how to properly run a country, instead the majority will oppress the minority just for having a different opinion. Monarchy never had The Reign of Terror. The consider the first big mistake in history when parliament decided to revolt against King Charles I.

 

[Zkribbler]

Seinfeld's TV mom and George's TV mom both died in the last two weeks.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Rant: I've just read today's list of 99-cent offerings from Amazon (for Kindle).

The problem? There seems to be a trend in titles that may have been around for awhile, but I just noticed it recently. That is for the title to be "___________: A Novel."

Well, of course it's a novel. Why do they think they need to tell me it's a novel? Do they think I might be confused enough to think it's a pumpkin pie? Or maybe it's a pair of mittens. Maybe it's my cat in disguise, trying to trick me into paying 99 cents for no reason.

Whatever the reason, it's stupid. The only reason to tell anyone on the cover that something is a novel is if they might mistake it for an anthology or a nonfiction book. But I've never seen any nonfiction book that has "__________: A Nonfiction Book" as its title.

Mind you, there actually are people who don't know the difference. Over 10 years ago a couple of social workers decided to help me sort out my books and get them onto my bookshelves. I asked them to sort the Star Trek ones out from the rest.

Confusion. They had no idea what Star Trek books looked like, and my telling them that they all have "Star Trek" on the cover somewhere didn't turn on any light bulbs of any wattage.

So I said, after a couple of other requests were also met with confusion, please separate the fiction from the nonfiction.

They didn't know what fiction was.

By this time I was wondering what box of Cracker Jacks they'd opened to find their diplomas, because during my time as a home typist, I had several dozen clients who were social work students, rehab students, nursing students... all of them knew the difference between fiction and nonfiction, because all of them had to provide references and footnotes for their papers, and in a few cases I ended up teaching them how to do them because for some reason they hadn't learned this in high school (the very worst cases were referred to the college library where free tutoring was available; I had no time for that).

So why did these two not know the difference? How is that even possible? I told them, very patiently, "Fiction means it's a story. It's not true. Nonfiction is like a reference book. Most of my nonfiction books are about science or history or politics or they're biographies."

I was met with two blank looks. So finally I said, "Just take them out of the boxes and pile them up. I'll sort them myself later."

Well, they could at least manage that. But it made for an incredibly mindcroggling conversation.

 

[The_J]

As proven over and over again, I'm an idiot, I'm always wrong, I don't have any talents and I'm not good at anything, just completely useless.

We tell you otherwise.
Why do you listen to them, and not to us?
Listen at least partially to us .

They consider ad blockers to be immoral because ads are the only way for websites to survive.

TBH, they're not wrong on that.
(and I use adblock here, so...)

Oh, and as for a rant: It turns out I've had the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap this whole time. Cilantro has always been very bitter to me, but I could ignore it in a dish and it wasn't that big of a deal. I figured that was just a taste bud difference and nothing else. This year, it's started tasting distinctly like soap instead—and this is a taste that I can't ignore. It overpowers every other flavour. Even a tiny leaf is noticeable.

Upon looking up people's descriptions of how cilantro tastes, I saw that there was a significant percentage of people with the gene who also described it as more of a bitter taste than a soap taste.

So for whatever reason, my sensitivity to/perception of cilantro has switched from bitter to soap.

This doesn't actually change much for me since I so rarely eat cilantro, but I've been eating more Lebanese and Vietnamese cuisine lately and they use it A LOT. I feel like a douche asking them to omit the cilantro every time.

YOU MUTANT!



The percentage with the gene defect is monstrously high IIRC (like 40%), so no wonder.
There is another very common single gene defect (can't remember the name though), which obliterates one of the receptors for bitterness (apparently there are multiple). I guess this could be related (not in you, but other people).

 

[Grendeldef]

Why does IMDb mostly suggest movies with the same lead actor rather than same genre, general plot, theme or whatever category movies are divided by? It's especially stupid as everyone can easily access any actor's resume to see roughly the same list.
Is it due to being American hence everything is tied to a person rather than time or place or just a matter of convenience for site itself?

 

[Samson]

Monarchy never had The Reign of Terror.

There were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake?

- Mark Twain

 

[tjs282]

That would rather seem to be exploitation, no?
Like... slavery.

AFAICT, Chukchi's friends are the most rabid Young Tories that ever existed anywhere.

So ... yes?

There is no problem that cannot be solved by proper axe usage.

Spoken like a trueborn Norse warrior

 

[thetrooper]

Careful with that axe, Eugene.

 

[Takhisis]

 

[Synobun]

I'm going to the dentist on Wednesday after years of not being able to/avoiding an attempted scam by my previous dentist. This should be a rave, but I'm not expecting a great time. Food poisoning and mineral loss two years ago damaged my teeth a lot, plus the gingivitis has been relentless despite appropriate self-care. It also took four months of harassing the office before they'd finally register me and give me an appointment. The front staff are abysmal. It's like pulling teeth (hah) to get them to respond to you. I hope the actual dental staff are better.

 

[MaryKB]

I'm going to the dentist on Wednesday after years of not being able to/avoiding an attempted scam by my previous dentist. This should be a rave, but I'm not expecting a great time. Food poisoning and mineral loss two years ago damaged my teeth a lot, plus the gingivitis has been relentless despite appropriate self-care. It also took four months of harassing the office before they'd finally register me and give me an appointment. The front staff are abysmal. It's like pulling teeth (hah) to get them to respond to you. I hope the actual dental staff are better.

I hope your appointment goes smoothly <3

 

[Birdjaguar]

Good lick Syn!

EDIT: Oopsie,I must have been distracted by the other thread...

 

[Synobun]

Good lick Syn!

That's the only kind of lick I do.

 

[Snerk]

Finger licking good!