Random Stuff

[Kobold King he/him]

I was standing in Wal-Mart with my four year-old sister, and a random lady walked up and asked me "Is she yours?"

 

 

Well I don't remember siring any offspring when I was fourteen, but let me check my records and get back to you later.

[Mailliw73 he/him]

I was standing in Wal-Mart with my four year-old sister, and a random lady walked up and asked me "Is she yours?"

 

 

Well I don't remember siring any offspring when I was fourteen, but let me check my records and get back to you later.

Child Kobold sighting confirmed.

[Delightful]

I was standing in Wal-Mart with my four year-old sister, and a random lady walked up and asked me "Is she yours?"

Well I don't remember siring any offspring when I was fourteen, but let me check my records and get back to you later.

I have a friends who's mother was consistently asked if she was the babysitter, meanwhile my teenage friends while babysitting kids at the park sometimes get strange looks. Society is weird.

[Quiver he/him]

Neither is she. When she watched Les Miserables with my parents, they told me she cheered for Javert and constantly wondered aloud why Jean Valjean didn't turn himself in if he was such a good man...until my dad pointed out that she was kind of missing the point of the whole movie.

 

...I have a crime to confess. A horrible, horrible crime.

 

I kind of like Russel Crowe's Javert.

 

I mean... I know it's ridiculous. And he's not a good singer, and he sounds really awkward, but for some reason, I just... like it? Proof (if ever any was needed) of my lack of musical credentials.

 

(Though I do find Javert fascinating as a character. My only experience of Les Miserables is the recent movie, so maybe I don't have room to talk, but I just love the confrontation between Javert and Valjean before the second time skip when their fighting. I think it's just a great look at what motivates Javert and his mindset)

[ThirdGen]

...I have a crime to confess. A horrible, horrible crime.

 

I kind of like Russel Crowe's Javert.

 

I mean... I know it's ridiculous. And he's not a good singer, and he sounds really awkward, but for some reason, I just... like it? Proof (if ever any was needed) of my lack of musical credentials.

 

(Though I do find Javert fascinating as a character. My only experience of Les Miserables is the recent movie, so maybe I don't have room to talk, but I just love the confrontation between Javert and Valjean before the second time skip when their fighting. I think it's just a great look at what motivates Javert and his mindset)

 

I agree.  His performance, and that whole movie, gets a lot of flak it doesn't deserve.

 

30-Odd Foot of Grunts is still terrible, though.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

...I have a crime to confess. A horrible, horrible crime.

I kind of like Russel Crowe's Javert.

I mean... I know it's ridiculous. And he's not a good singer, and he sounds really awkward, but for some reason, I just... like it? Proof (if ever any was needed) of my lack of musical credentials.

(Though I do find Javert fascinating as a character. My only experience of Les Miserables is the recent movie, so maybe I don't have room to talk, but I just love the confrontation between Javert and Valjean before the second time skip when their fighting. I think it's just a great look at what motivates Javert and his mindset)

To be honest, I haven't seen the newest movie. Most of my experience comes from the book and the 1998 non-musical version with Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean and Geoffry Rush as Inspector Javert. And in my opinion, that version does more justice to the source material than the musical. The songs are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I think stripping the music and leaving just the story better preserves the book's sense of drama and the paranoia underlying Valjean and Javert's game of cat and mouse.

[Quiver he/him]

To be honest, I haven't seen the newest movie. Most of my experience comes from the book and the 1998 non-musical version with Liam Neeson as Jean Valjean and Geoffry Rush as Inspector Javert. And in my opinion, that version does more justice to the source material than the musical. The songs are beautiful, don't get me wrong, but I think stripping the music and leaving just the story better preserves the book's sense of drama and the paranoia underlying Valjean and Javert's game of cat and mouse.

 

Why, Twilyght! Are you a Les Mis hipster?   

 

But... I need to read the book sometime. Honestly, my school skipped a lot of that "Classical Literature", and I need to get caught up on it.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

Why, Twilyght! Are you a Les Mis hipster?

But... I need to read the book sometime. Honestly, my school skipped a lot of that "Classical Literature", and I need to get caught up on it.

Darn. And here I left my non-prescription horn rim glasses at home in favor of my prescription ones.

But yeah, I kind of am. My school didn't teach Les Mis, but I read it and The Count of Monte Cristo on my own and compared the movies to them. Jim Caviezel's performance as Edmond Dantes was perhaps the best I've ever seen.

[Kobold King he/him]

Darn. And here I left my non-prescription horn rim glasses at home in favor of my prescription ones.

But yeah, I kind of am. My school didn't teach Les Mis, but I read it and The Count of Monte Cristo on my own and compared the movies to them. Jim Caviezel's performance as Edmond Dantes was perhaps the best I've ever seen.

 

 

I haven't read Les Mis, but I did read The House on the Borderlands by William Hope Hodgson. You've probably never heard of it.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

I haven't read Les Mis, but I did read The House on the Borderlands by William Hope Hodgson. You've probably never heard of it.

I have now that I googled it. If HP Lovecraft listed it among his greatest influences, it may be worth looking into.

[Kobold King he/him]

I have now that I googled it. If HP Lovecraft listed it among his greatest influences, it may be worth looking into.

 

There is definitely a very Lovecraftian vibe in that story. Do you read a lot of Lovecraft?

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

There is definitely a very Lovecraftian vibe in that story. Do you read a lot of Lovecraft?

Not really, though I know I probably should.

[Kobold King he/him]

Not really, though I know I probably should.

 

His style of writing isn't for everybody. He was a cosmicist, a point of view best described as the belief in the utter, complete insignificance of humanity. The basic conceit of his works is that the human race is but a single grimy speck of the cosmos, and that next to the average being of the universe we are less than bacteria. His writing evokes the kind of horror you'd expect from that kind of horror; no jumpscares or gore, but lot's of focus on fear of the unknown and powers greater than man.

 

It's excellent, but like I said, it's not for everybody.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

His style of writing isn't for everybody. He was a cosmicist, a point of view best described as the belief in the utter, complete insignificance of humanity. The basic conceit of his works is that the human race is but a single grimy speck of the cosmos, and that next to the average being of the universe we are less than bacteria. His writing evokes the kind of horror you'd expect from that kind of horror; no jumpscares or gore, but lot's of focus on fear of the unknown and powers greater than man.

It's excellent, but like I said, it's not for everybody.

I wonder it he influenced Douglas Adams. His work is usually hilarious, but also very cynical, and a common theme pervading that cynicism is the insignificance of humanity and human choices. You could even arguably expand that to say he focuses on the insignificance of sentience in general, especially in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And like I said, his books are hilarious, but very cynical, and a lot of the cynicism stems from the idea that humans and their choices are largely insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Edited May 20, 2015 by TwiLyghtSansSparkles

[Kobold King he/him]

I wonder it he influenced Douglas Adams. His work is usually hilarious, but also very cynical, and a common theme pervading that cynicism is the insignificance of humanity and human choices. You could even arguably expand that to say he focuses on the insignificance of sentience in general, especially in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. And like I said, his books are hilarious, but very cynical, and a lot of the cynicism stems from the idea that humans and their choices are largely insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe.

 

 

It's possible. At risk of stereotyping, a lot of atheist sci-fi writers either emphasize the insignificance of humanity as Lovecraft and Adams did, or else over exalt the importance of sentience in the universe as Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke did.

 

(I consider myself a "Christian cosmicist"--I believe that on our own merit the human race isn't terribly important, but we have a loving God that cares about us and that love gives us meaning. Much as a painting is just a bunch of chemicals on a canvas until it's observed and cherished by an art lover.)

 

 

In any case though, I need to get around to reading The Hitchhiker's Guide books. Have you ever read Shada? It's a novelization of an unproduced episode of Doctor Who Adams wrote in the Fourth Doctor's era, and it's awesome.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Kobold King

[Kaymyth she/her]

It's possible. At risk of stereotyping, a lot of atheist sci-fi writers either emphasize the insignificance of humanity as Lovecraft and Adams do, or else over exalt the importance of sentience in the universe as Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke did.

 

(I consider myself a "Christian cosmicist"--I believe that on our own merit the human race isn't terribly important, but we have a loving God that cares about us and that love gives us meaning. Much as a painting is just a bunch of chemicals on a canvas until it's observed and cherished by an art lover.)

 

 

In any case though, I need to get around to reading The Hitchhiker's Guide books. Have you ever read Shada? It's a novelization of an unproduced episode of Doctor Who Adams wrote in the Fourth Doctor's era, and it's awesome.

 

My view of the Universe is, well....very Unitarian Universalist.   I'm a polytheist, true, but of the bent that all gods exist as a result of the Universe and us trying to understand each other.  It's always interesting seeing the different ideas of what God(s) and the Universe are and how they fit together into little pieces of the greater puzzle.

 

And heck, if you've read the first Dirk Gently novel, you've got about half of Shada right there.  He recycled a lot of that episode into the novel.

[Kobold King he/him]

My view of the Universe is, well....very Unitarian Universalist.   I'm a polytheist, true, but of the bent that all gods exist as a result of the Universe and us trying to understand each other.  It's always interesting seeing the different ideas of what God(s) and the Universe are and how they fit together into little pieces of the greater puzzle.

 

That is actually a very interesting belief. Not a belief that I share, but definitely an intriguing way of looking at the universe.

 

For clarity, does Unitarian Universalism hold that all these gods are the same entity--implying that Jesus Christ and the Aztec god of human sacrifice were one and the same, for instance--or does it maintain something else entirely?

 

 

I too find examining different religious points of view to be quite an enlightening experience.

Edited May 20, 2015 by Kobold King

[Kaymyth she/her]

That is actually a very interesting belief. Not a belief that I share, but definitely an intriguing way of looking at the universe.

 

For clarity, does Unitarian Universalism hold that all these gods are the same entity--implying that Jesus Christ and the Aztec god of human sacrifice were one and the same, for instance--or does it maintain something else entirely?

 

 

I too find examining different religious points of view to be quite an enlightening experience.

 

Consider it my own personal cosmological headcanon.  I tend to look at the concept of the Divine as being the soul of the Universe itself.  It's just too big for us to understand, so nobody's got it completely right.  We're all holding one piece of a 15 quadrillion-piece puzzle.  I've got this funky little piece with a splash of purple on it, and you're holding a bit that's all shiny blue and gold with sparkles.  They're part of the same puzzle, but nobody's got enough pieces to even get the edges put together, let alone see what the picture looks like.  In the end, we're all going to take what we've got from our little piece.  The point is to use what little bits of wisdom we've got to try and be better people.

 

Unitarian Universalism is actually so generalized that trying to say anything that specific about it is going to leave out the beliefs of at least half the members.  It's sort of the ultimate non-denominational religious organization.  There are a lot of former Christians turned secular humanists, so a lot of congregations operate on that basic structure because it's what they're used to.

 

My congregation is....weird. We're a bunch of mostly pagans hanging out together under the UU umbrella.  The UUA doesn't really know what to do with us, because they think we're weird and don't understand how we can get along without a minister.  The local pagan community doesn't really know what to do with us, because we're not set into one specific Tradition or pantheon.  We are the oddball conjunction of two somewhat oddball sets, a Venn diagram of untraditionalism.

 

Yeah.  We're weird.

[DanTheSeamonster he/him]

I'm trying to decide if I should spend $100 on the complete Alcatraz Boxset or not. The only places I can find it are ridiculously expensive.    

[Kestrel she/her]

My mom- hey come down we're having dinner

Me- oh cool what is it

My mom- Budweiser sausage

?????????

Do you ever hear something so violently texan that you just ???

I was about to say something along the lines of "what are we, in Texas?"

But then I remember. I live in Texas. I'm Texan. I've never lived anywhere else in my life.

[Kobold King he/him]

My mom- hey come down we're having dinner

Me- oh cool what is it

My mom- Budweiser sausage

?????????

Do you ever hear something so violently texan that you just ???

I was about to say something along the lines of "what are we, in Texas?"

But then I remember. I live in Texas. I'm Texan. I've never lived anywhere else in my life.

 

 

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 Budweiser sausages.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Kobold King

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles 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.

 

 

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.

[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!