Random Stuff

[ThirdGen]

 

I know it probably wouldn't be funny if I had neighbors like that…but since I don't, the upside-down logic made me giggle.

 

Here in Arizona, it's a pretty even mix of pro- and anti-Obama people, and not a lot in between. Of course, when politics are mentioned, it's almost always in a snide and bitter way. At my sister's high school graduation, for example, there was a group of girls selling chips and water for a dollar apiece. Someone must've complained about how the school really should've been giving out free water (since it was an outdoor graduation in the middle of the desert and not providing water can be a safety issue) and one of the girls manning the concessions table said "Well, maybe if you'd voted to give us money, we wouldn't have to do this!" Politics are almost always brought up that way here—in a snide, bitter way, usually in a place where it would be rude to start an argument. Never mind that it was kind of rude to bring it up at a high school graduation in the first place; if the person she'd said that to had argued, they would've been the bad guy for starting a fight and holding up the line.

 

It's rare that I get a chance to voice an uncontroversial political opinion, but - yay more money for schools.  Thumbs up to that!

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

It's rare that I get a chance to voice an uncontroversial political opinion, but - yay more money for schools.  Thumbs up to that!

 

The thing about the money for schools isn't that people voted against giving them more money; it's that they voted to discontinue a current tax that gave the schools money. But here's where it gets interesting: Whoever put it on the ballot worded it so poorly that no one really knew what they were voting for. I saw it, and I thought they were instituting a new tax, and I thought, "Taxes here are high enough. Why do we need another one? There's probably half a dozen taxes funding public schools already" and I know others did the same. Had the ballot said something along the lines of "Keeps an existing tax that will fund public schools," I would've voted yes, and I know others would've done so as well. 

[ThirdGen]

Around here, school measures usually fail whenever tax is mentioned, but if it's a bond, people are fine with that.  Then, 10-ish years later, they're surprised at the budget crunch because... bonds are paid back with interest!

[Kestrel she/her]

No. Violently Texan sounds like "Ever since Obama was elected coyotes have been in my yard every night. I'm gonna poison a dead chicken and kill all their pups."

 

There are a lot of good Texans, but there's a darker side to this state's subculture that has nothing to do with Budwesier sausages.

The sad thing is, you aren't even joking.

[Kaymyth she/her]

It's rare that I get a chance to voice an uncontroversial political opinion, but - yay more money for schools.  Thumbs up to that!

 

You?  Espousing controversial political opinions?  Never!

 

The thing about the money for schools isn't that people voted against giving them more money; it's that they voted to discontinue a current tax that gave the schools money. But here's where it gets interesting: Whoever put it on the ballot worded it so poorly that no one really knew what they were voting for. I saw it, and I thought they were instituting a new tax, and I thought, "Taxes here are high enough. Why do we need another one? There's probably half a dozen taxes funding public schools already" and I know others did the same. Had the ballot said something along the lines of "Keeps an existing tax that will fund public schools," I would've voted yes, and I know others would've done so as well. 

 

The way they get written on the Missouri ballots usually has a translated tagline that says what passing the measure will do to existing tax rates.  So we'll get footnotes that say, "this will totally not raise your taxes, yo, just maintain one that's already there".  Now that I'm on the Kansas side of the line, I expect things will look a little different.

 

And I just realized - I've never voted in any state other than Missouri.  I've lived in several states (Wisconsin, Illinois, Nevada, Arizona, Missouri, and now Kansas), but most of them were when I was a kid.  All that moving around did tremendously genericizing things to my accent, though.

 

Around here, school measures usually fail whenever tax is mentioned, but if it's a bond, people are fine with that.  Then, 10-ish years later, they're surprised at the budget crunch because... bonds are paid back with interest!

 

And people wonder why the KCMO school district has so many problems....

 

Oh, also, you missed a great con.  (Unless you were lurking and I didn't see you.)  It was good times, man.

[Guest]

In Virginia, school bonds are put on the ballot every election. They always pass. Always. So much for fiscal responsibility.

[+Slowswift]

Trust me. You can't please everybody; there's always going to be people who disagree or just unpleasant. Just keep up the good work! Whether it's your personality, or some project you're working on, or an opinion or viewpoint, it's worth something to someone, and that makes all the difference. 

 

 

 

This has been a pep talk by the User Known As Slowswift. Thanks!

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Warning: The following is rated SR, for Spoileriffic Rambling. Do not read unless you have seen the latest season of Once Upon a Time or don't give a flying fart in space how it all turns out. 

 

As those of you who follow the series know, the latest season of Once Upon a Time introduces a new character: Isaac Heller, a man we know primarily as the Author. 

 

The Author wields tremendous power over the Enchanted Forest and, later, Storybrooke. He rendered Cruella deVil harmless with a few strokes of the pen. He forced Snow and Charming to do something rather wildly out of character because he thought it would make for a better story. In the most recent episode, he sent every character in Storybrooke to an alternate version of the Enchanted Forest, where good characters were evil, evil characters were good, and Emma was the only one who remembered anything about how the world was supposed to be. 

 

I went into the episode expecting something glorious. Snow as the Evil Queen! Regina as the good-hearted rebel! Murderous dwarves! Rumplestiltskin as a knight in shining armor! I expected a thoughtful examination of their motives, of how Regina and Rumple's inner decency could win the day; how Snow and Charming could let their dark sides rule for a change. I turned on the episode expecting a funhouse mirror, where I could watch evil twisted into good and good twisted into evil. 

 

I left feeling distinctly underwhelmed. 

 

There was no examination of motives. No twisting of qualities. No haunting portrayal of how Snow's flaws could turn her into an evil queen; no heartbreaking look at how Regina could have let herself be good all along, had she simply made a few different choices. Instead, the Author took the lazy writer's way out and simply shoehorned the characters into wildly different roles with no explanation as to how they got there. Rumple, the white knight (with a ridiculously long cloak—seriously, how does that thing not strangle him when it gets caught on a branch?) had simply always been the white knight. Heller makes an oblique reference to Baelfire dying because of his father's cowardice, but since we're in a mirrorverse, there's no way to know if it really happened the way it did in Storybrooke, or even if it happened at all. Rumple acts as though it does, but given his standard white-knight-here-to-save-you-milady shtick, superimposing dark!Rumple's actions onto this man feels false. Regina, in a similar vein, is simply given Snow's backstory and motives; she even references making the same childish mistake Snow did in the other world while Snow is given Regina's backstory and motives. Rather than a creatively fractured look at familiar characters, it feels like the characters were simply given new names and appearances for the sake of novelty. 

 

In other words, this Author is a lazy bum. 

 

However, their world is not without hope. Heller was chosen in December 1966, after the Forest's previous Author had "passed away." (Trivia time: This is all but confirmation that their previous Author was Walt Disney, as Walt died on December 15, 1966.) The cardinal rule of Authorship is that the Author cannot write him/herself a happy ending—a rule Heller admits to breaking. Now that he has broken it, he is, by his own admission, powerless to change the story. No longer can he render a character unable to fire a gun with a few words, or send everyone to an alternate dimension with a chapter or two. And now that Emma has taken on the darkness previously associated with the Dark One, the magic ink will work properly again. There will be no shortage. 

 

With a functionally dead Author, and a Dark Savior, it appears the Enchanted Forest is in need of a new Author. 

 

So, why not Brandon Sanderson?

 

Look, I know he has a lot on his plate. I'm still amazed that he can give us one excellent book per year—often more. But he has said that jumping from project to project helps keep him fresh, and that he likes to keep the projects different from one another. Well, what's more different from his previous work than fractured fairy tales? 

 

Think what Sanderson could do with the vague, contradictory, wibbly-wobbly magic system of the Enchanted Forest. Imagine how much more wonderful it would be to have shapeshifters given a few boundaries, cardiomancers forced to clarify exactly what sorts of commands they can give and when, the fairies finally given their own episode explaining the six W's (who, what, when, where, why, and to what effect) of their fairy dust! Imagine how satisfying it would be to see how dwarven names show up on their pickaxes, or why Pan's Shadow was distinctive to Neverland! And picture, for one moment, the potential a Dark Savior would have in the hands of a skilled Author like Sanderson, who made Kelsier both sympathetic and chilling! 

 

I tell myself to stop wanting this, because I know it will never happen. But the more I think about what Sanderson could do with the political relationship between Arandelle and the Enchanted Forest, or how mermaids interact with their ecosystem, or what sort of long-term physical effects might arise from having your heart torn from your chest and used to command you against your will….

 

The more I think about it, the more I want to see it.

[Kestrel she/her]

OUAT has slowly gone downhill. I'm just watching it now for the lols, and its sooo awful. I cringe every time.

On the last episode in the season, now. I know how it ends.

Putting Sanderson novel things would be cool but I feel like they'd ruin it.

[Quiver he/him]

They stopped airing OUAT here after season two; I guess the ratings weren't very good? Which is a shame. I have to admit, in a lot of ways, the show didn't quite live up to what I was expecting it to be...

 

Though I am a sucker for mirror universe stories, I must admit.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

OUAT has slowly gone downhill. I'm just watching it now for the lols, and its sooo awful. I cringe every time.

On the last episode in the season, now. I know how it ends.

Putting Sanderson novel things would be cool but I feel like they'd ruin it.

Oh, no. I don't just mean adding some Sanderson elements to the show. I mean we give Sanderson full creative control.

[Kaymyth she/her]

Oh, no. I don't just mean adding some Sanderson elements to the show. I mean we give Sanderson full creative control.

 

It's a great idea, except....that would add more to his plate and leave him less time for writing books.

 

Once Upon A Time is nice and all, but it's just not worth having fewer Sanderson books.  That is a price that is simply too high to pay.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

It's a great idea, except....that would add more to his plate and leave him less time for writing books.

Once Upon A Time is nice and all, but it's just not worth having fewer Sanderson books. That is a price that is simply too high to pay.

I completely agree. If Sanderson was offered a position on the OUAT writing team, I'd hope he turned it down. But this whole Author business still has me wondering what might have been.

[Glamdring804]

I just ate a piece of chocolate.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Glamdring804

[ThirdGen]

I just ate a piece of chocolate.

 

Congratulations!

[Kestrel she/her]

I completely agree. If Sanderson was offered a position on the OUAT writing team, I'd hope he turned it down. But this whole Author business still has me wondering what might have been.

Ohhh

Now that would be interesting.

But I don't wish that much on his plate.

[Glamdring804]

Congratulations!

Why thank you!

[Kestrel she/her]

Sooo

You gonna share that chocolate or

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I went to Whole Foods yesterday. I bought an eclair. I went home and ate it.

There are perks to being an adult.

[Kestrel she/her]

pffttt

The one day we had some freedom in band we bought a huge pack of oreos and ate the whole thing in one sitting

Is that what being an adult is like

[Kobold King he/him]

Being an adult is wonderful! There's the freedom to get snacks whenever you want, the freedom to wander around malls by yourself, the freedom to make web accounts without asking a parent or guardian's permission...

 

...the freedom to acquire employment, the freedom to take one's place as a mindless drone in a society that hates you, the freedom to slowly and crushingly realize that you will never, can never fit in with any of your peers...

 

* cough *

 

Sorry, what were we talking about?

[Kestrel she/her]

I want no part of that anymore

How do I make time stop

I'm scared of the unknown.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Being an adult is like this:

You work at a job you don't like all the time to pay bills you wish you didn't have. You want to be a kid again with no responsibilities and no bills. To drown your melancholy, you go to the store for something sugary.

You want something small, but then you see it.

A cake.

A whole cake, your favorite kind.

It's not super expensive.

You can hear your mom in your head: "Don't ever eat an entire cake by yourself! Are you kidding? You'll be sick for days!"

But that cake.

You buy the cake.

You eat the cake.

The first slice or two are delicious. After that, you realize something:

There is more cake than you imagined.

You put the cake away and eat a few carrots.

You go to bed sick, your mother's imagined "I told you so!" ringing in your ear. But unlike during your childhood, it is just your imagination.

You smile.

You love being an adult.

[ThirdGen]

I want no part of that anymore

How do I make time stop

I'm scared of the unknown.

 

I totally understand the feeling - but get this: you will have freedom to reinvent yourself over and over again if you like.  "Peers," as you know them, are a unique result of the environment you're in.  You can go and find new friends everywhere.  Fair warning, your vetting process will have to adjust... like, a lot.

 

Edit: Plus, everything Twi said above. 

Edited May 27, 2015 by ThirdGen

[Kestrel she/her]

Amazing.

Slow clap.

I won't be able to adult.

[Edit]

Pfftt that wasn't venting

You haven't seen me vent before.

Edited May 27, 2015 by LarkoftheRiver