Monday, December 9, 2013

Can you believe

Can you believe I'm still fucking doing these?
I thought for sure I'd have gotten bored after like week two.
Who rules?
Me.
Anyway here's some cunt who writes fanfiction about video games no one plays.
Are you a big fan of Fire Emblem?
No?
Well I'm not really surprised.
But if you are then you might want to avoid this entry.
I have a self-portrait and some formidable studying to get done before tomorrow morning, and a research paper and take-home final to complete by Thursday.
Yeah and I'm teaching chorus tomorrow.
We all have our challenges to overcome.
If you had ask me 10 years ago "hey do you think you'll be leading a chorus class in your life?" my answer would have been "no" and I'd have been wrong 3 times over.
Instead, I have written three pages of meta in the last two hours.

I think this is a good time to give a jovial little "FML."
You say this like it's something that happened to you. Like when my car blew a spark plug and needed a 400 dollar repair.
No, you knew you were supposed to study and instead you wrote some insufferable "meta" (whatever the fuck that is) and now you're updating your blog like LOOK WHAT SHIT HAPPENED TO ME TODAY.
I came to a fandom epiphany a couple of months ago and have been wanting to write about it, but like everything else, it needed a bit of time to stew before I got it into words.
Wow a fandom epiphany holy shit count me right the fuck in!
It's only 8 paragraphs.
I have time to read all these words.

There are multiple ways to approach being a fan of something. You can approach it like a diner: just sit back and enjoy, let the work wash over you and just react to it in the moment.
AKA what sane people do.
You can approach it like a scientist: take it apart to see how it works, make observations, and come to conclusions after a period of study.
That's the nerd approach but equally acceptable.
You can take the approach of a historian and determine where it came from and the sort of effect it might have. 
Generally a part of the second one but all right.
You can look to defend it without question or rip it to shreds in the name of love. I think everyone takes a different approach depending on the work, or even just how they're feeling at the moment.

As for me? I tend to approach FE as a performer. What are my lines, and more importantly, what can I do with them on stage?* My impetus for writing meta and fanfiction is to explore what we're given and, with all due respect, do something interesting and at least a little bit unexpected with it. It's about potential for me. This is why I look at things with, for lack of a better term, a sort of optimistic overanalysis. I like making connections and revealing hidden depths and opening up characters or situations for other people. I love it when other people love characters and write about them at length, because it opens them up for me in new ways. 
Fire Emblem, for those of you uninitiated in obscure Japanese turn-based tactical RPGs, is a series well known for its political drama and not so much its deep characterization.
So keep that in mind as this bint rattles on.
(*The other metaphor I've given for fanfic in particular is that the source material is like a coloring page. We all get the same black-and-white lineart. Most people are going to color it similarly based on the sort of colors things are generally supposed to be, give or take the odd artist who turns it into a whacked-out Lisa Frank mural or something, but even among the similarly-colored pages, there will be differences. An unclear line might yield a leaf for one person and a bird for another. The leaves could be spring-green or autumn-orange-- neither one is wrong! There's going to be a few artists who rise above the crayon-and-marker crowd and turn in, say, a gorgeous watercolor piece that doesn't even look like it was a coloring page in the first place.)
There is no metaphor to give for fanfiction because it's straightforward. It's a bunch of self-important cunts who think they're better than most people because they happen to like something and write at length (poorly) their own misguided interpretation of it.
This is also why I tend to get bristly about author intent. I totally understand the purpose of looking at it, and I definitely don't think it should be discounted from the wider conversation. It just doesn't help me as a fan or as a writer to look at things that way most of the time. The idea of looking at things that make sense as probably being slipshod and things that don't add up as being dead ends is frustrating to me. 
You don't like author intent?
You don't like the reason the author created something?
Look your idea might be better than theirs (not true in your case but it can be true) and if that's the case maybe you should tell your own story because clearly you have this better in hand than the author of the thing you're a fan of.
To once again be clear, I'm not claiming Death of the Author: that author intent doesn't matter because ~it's all relative, maaaan.~ There's stuff we don't know because it's left ambiguous, and then there's stuff that, yeah, we don't technically know, but come on.
The characters in Fire Emblem are supposed to be blank slates that make way for the political intrigue and double dealings and the tactical game play.
The author does not care about your dumb fanfiction about how two characters might be gay together. You are not some great artist for concluding this. Literally anyone can do it.
Literally everyone does do it if the typical fanfiction writer's blog is to be believed.
tl;dr, take this for what it's worth: a long-ass reflection on why I react weirdly in discussions and why I (don't) write (enough).

With that off my chest, I'm gonna go write something.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Dear Assholes

Dear Annie it is this Friiiiiiiiiiiidaaaaaaaaaaaaay Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight muthafuckas
Dear Annie: My boyfriend and I have been together for two years, and he moved in six months ago. "John" is 25 years older than I am. 
Found the issue.
If I was dating someone 25 years my junior I'd be dating a 1 year old.
Think about it, won't you?
John was forced into retirement last year, and I think he somehow blames me. I work full time, take care of two teenage boys, cook dinner every night, do dishes and laundry, clean the bathrooms, buy the groceries and pay the bills. John sweeps and vacuums and does the yard work, which is a godsend because I have had shoulder issues that make these things difficult for me. 
Sounds like you're just together.
I've learned in life that most people can't choose their significant other with any sort of ability so it sounds like you got off easy.
I don't care about this.
Dear Annie: I recently missed my 10-year high school reunion. I found out it was held in August, and I was never invited because I am not on Facebook.
Good.
Who would want to revisit those jackoffs anyhow?
I don't understand.
Anyone I'd want to see at a high school reunion wouldn't be caught dead at one anyway.
Dear Annie: I read the letter from "Waiting," who doesn't like it when the bank tellers chitchat with the customers. I enjoy the personal touch and suggest that those who don't use the ATM instead.
As a man who spent the last two days on a quest to get two documents notarized and two envelopes mailed I can tell you that shit gets old fast. I'm not going to point any fingers here but when it's two women doing a transaction you might as well get in the other line even if it's out the door and around the block because that one is going to die down faster.
Dear Annie: My husband and I frequently go out to dinner with several other couples. One of the wives is a vegetarian. That's fine, but she sometimes makes a scene with the server. She argues about the way things are prepared and accuses the waitstaff of lying. 
I've been watching a lot of Kitchen Nightmares lately and I've learned a lot about cooking and how to run a restaurant and I can tell you she's probably right but because she's acting like a cunt she should probably be thrown out.
Dear Annie: In 1988, I had a wife and three beautiful children. Then my wife decided to be "liberated." She wanted to spread her wings and be independent. She engaged me in a particularly acrimonious divorce and lived on child and spousal support until she discovered that being independent was not working for her. She remarried and moved my children hundreds of miles away, effectively excising them from my life, even though she admits I was a great father. Needless to say, I harbor considerable animosity toward her.
As well you should.
I mean goddamn.
I've since remarried a wonderful woman. My children are grown and starting their own families. I recognize that I must endure the unpleasantness of having to see my ex at my children's weddings, etc., but I never expected that my brother and sister would invite my ex to their own children's weddings and other family functions.

I feel that because my ex divorced me, she is no longer a part of my family and should not be invited to attend family gatherings
That's a tough one because she's your children's mother--
I dunno man.
Look I know this won't help you too much but as I've advocated numerous times I think it is clear where you made your mistake.
I have made this point very clear to my siblings, along with the fact that seeing my ex causes me significant pain. Further, my new wife feels she's being upstaged by my ex at these events. Yet, my siblings insist on including this woman.
Is it unrealistic for me to believe that when my ex divorced me, she also divorced my family? Am I expecting too much to ask that my siblings not embrace the woman who devastated my life? — Divorced in Oregon 
You know maybe it's a good thing. I personally believe you can't come out on top without facing a lot of misery in your life.
Look at Caesar during his Gallic years.
That must have been a shit time. On campaign all the time in barbaric France/Germany/Spain kinda area we're not really sure what that is and then he decides maybe he could do better by conquering all of Rome and liberating it from the corrupt senate and so he did.
Then he got stabbed a few times on March 15, 44 BC but let's not talk about that.
Dear Oregon: Sorry to say, but what your siblings do is not something you can dictate. Their children may still consider this woman to be their aunt, and their relationship to her does not include the bitterness and rancor you are hanging onto.
Please let it go. Allowing your ex to rattle you after all these years gives her power over you. You don't have to enjoy her company, but you can work on making her presence insignificant.
Don't let go of your hate, man.
That's what makes you strong.
Dear Annie: My wife and I recently married. The wedding was in Texas, but most of our family lives elsewhere. Although we were disappointed, we understood that many folks would be unable to attend due to the travel and hotel costs.
Here's the problem. Not one of these relatives sent so much as a card, let alone a gift.
No one cares two people got married. They'll probably be divorced in 6 months anyway.
Don't use your wedding as an excuse to jerk yourself off, throw a big party and treat it like a fundraiser.
Maybe treat it like exactly what it is.
A legally binding contract.
Only when you are adult enough to acknowledge this reality then you can get married.
I'd have a quiz before a wedding. "Why are you getting married?"
"To express our love for each other!"
"Oh shit better luck next time, kids. Time to pack this tent up."
In the past few years, we have attended several family events and always gave gifts.
 "A gift or a present is an object given without the expectation of payment."
Says Wikipedia.
Now we all know reciprocity with presents is the polite thing to do but most people can't disgorge their heads from their ass long enough to do anything about this.
Dear Confused: Many people feel that if they did not attend the event, they do not need to send a gift, although a card with good wishes is always proper. But please do not treat your wedding as a fundraiser. While a gift is welcome and appropriate, it should not be the point of the invitation. And gifts may still be forthcoming. We hope they will extend their good wishes, but you cannot demand that they do so.  
Thank you, Annie, but I got this one.
My supervisor rarely states his desires clearly. But if I take the initiative or ask him to clarify, he makes me feel like an idiot. He is condescending and highly critical of most people. He also is a nonstop gossip. He has portrayed me to others as racist, womanizing and incompetent. 
Who hasn't been depicted as these things?
I'm dead serious.
They're easy things to push.
Also just do this to him.
How many places with a notary public should a man have to go to before he can get two documents notarized?
I'd think one.
The answer, of course, was seven.
Thank you, NC, for your remarkable efficiency.
No wonder this state is shit for the birds.
Can't even get a semi-literate cretin to stamp a paper.
Dear Annie: Why do people make a big deal out of men who are crossdressers?
I am 43 years old, happily married and not gay. I'm a businessman, and I wear lacy lingerie with breast forms under my suits every day.
Holy shit dude
What the fuck
Suddenly I see why I'm doing so well on Wallstreet Magnate. This is what I'm competing against. I'm sitting in my underwear, miserable and eating Cap'n Crunch competing with this guy who has given up on life.
How can you make the trades if you have frilly panties on?
I'm so filled with hate when I click buy I can barely see.
YEAH
CHINA MOBILE.
THE HATE HAS SEEN IT.
My beautiful wife of 20 years thinks I look hot in lingerie. When we go out to fancy restaurants, I dress up as a woman. I'm very passable, and our four teenage daughters are OK with it.  
BRO.
CHINA MOBILE.
CHINA MOBILE IS GOING TO CUT A DEAL WITH APPLE. GET ON THIS TRAIN NOW.
Nope can't be a businessman because he's too busy going to dinner in a dress.
Give me your money. I can do more with it than you can.
There are straight women who wear men's clothing, and I never hear anything negative about them.
Yeah there are. They know what it means to be in business.
Here let's do a little thought experiment.
You need to conduct business/buy stocks/sell shit/whatever this man does.
Who do would you trust more to give reliable advice?
Or:
 Go on. Think about it.
Dear Happy: Women who wear men's clothing generally do so because it is more comfortable. Men who wear women's clothing, which is decidedly less comfortable, often do so because it gives them a sexual thrill or satisfies some emotional need. (Some women dress like men for the same reasons.) The important thing is that your wife and daughters are OK with it. No one else's opinion matters.
If you haven't seen the show Profit (which is the top image) you really should because it's 5/5 bretty good :DDDDDD
Jesus Christ.
Well so ends another session of assholes with problems.
Song of the now?

Monday, December 2, 2013

Jesus Christ People

Dreamwidth's front page is awash with people posting every single log of every single roleplay they ever did ever and it's mostly two people just posting constantly.
No one cares. Knock it off.
This one person just signed up today and they already have 20 posts.
Stop.
But luckily amid all the garbo I found this jackoff.
Look at this motherfucker's avatar. Have you ever seen such a fedora tipper in your entire goddamn life?
I was very depressed this morning, and am less so now.

I essentially gave myself permission to do whatever I wanted today, as long as I was doing something, so naturally I defaulted to coding on LiSE. I've nearly got the map editor working again.
How long until there's a post about My Little Pony or atheism?
I'm not feeling well lately. I doubt I have any very compelling reason for feeling this way. The stresses I am reacting to are ordinary, and I know how to deal with them generally. I need to refine my approach a bit, and I'm having trouble with that, because I'm not feeling well, and planning for the future is difficult.
"He felt the hate engine stab rage into the meat of his mind."
-- Aaron Denski-Bowden, Betrayer, 2013.
Seriously one of the best Warhammer books ever written. Listen to the audio drama Butcher's Nails then read Betrayer for some shit, man.
It may be difficult because I haven't examined the present closely enough. To examine the present I need to examine my feelings, since they are rather directly relevant to my plans.
I was going to quote something but I forget what it was and I ended up listening to The Geto Boys for some reason.
I think it was related?
Can you imagine if blogs were as well written as Mind Playing Tricks on Me?
This blog wouldn't exist.
Any amount of self-reflection upon my emotional problems is going to sound very similar to self-pity. Maybe it is self-pity. I'm not sure. Is it always called "pity" when you try to empathize with sorrow, your own or someone else's, and want to make it better? Is that condescending? Regardless, this is what I need to do. It will probably sound bad, even to myself. So I shouldn't dwell on it any longer than useful, and I shouldn't try to share it with people who aren't already interested in it.
What the fuck are you talking about you nut?
I'm feeling disappointed in myself. Not for any particular failure. There are a few that I can point to, but they're either recoverable, or they're old news. It's stupid to be disappointed that I didn't put enough effort into high school, or I shut myself off from my would-be friends. I don't even remember those experiences very well.
I forget who said it but someone wise said he never trusted a man that has never felt disappointment and failure.
Who knows how you'll act when you inevitably face failure if you've never felt it before?
Best feel it early so you don't feel it when it really matters.
And then fail that.
I lack motivation.

To get motivation, I need to form an emotional association between what I want and what I need to get it.
There is no greater or purer emotional assistance in aiding motivation than anger.
Studies have even demonstrated you make your best decisions while mad.
Contrary to most conventional wisdom.
Except, of course, the sanguine wisdom of the true wise men.
To form an emotional association, I need to go about doing one thing in a way that evokes the emotions of another thing. To form an association with something I want, I need to find bits of what I want that evoke an immediate, visceral emotional reaction, and insinuate them into whatever I need to do.

I am not in the habit of finding the visceral bits of things. I'll need to practice.

To viscerate something is to find the visceral bits of it.

To enviscerate something is to insinuate those visceral bits into it.
And to feel like you need to eviscerate something just read this tripe.
I am a nihilist by disposition.
I do not subscribe to any of the various belief systems called "nihilism," unless you're one of those people who think that moral relativism is strictly equivalent to moral nihilism. However, I dislike belief, and try to avoid believing in things whenever it's reasonably practical. I rejected theism just about as soon as I understood it, 
BOOOM
ATHEISM POST
I'm counting it
fuck you
a thousand points to me
I am the greatest
rejected the notion of American exceptionalism (past or present) once I understood it had to do with identity politics, and rejected most notions of group identity in general when I learned how easy it is to identify as anything you damned well please.
I think I was thirteen when I did that. I was trying to reject the relevance of mathematics, too, but that didn't stick.
I rejected the relevance of mathematics in my life when I was like 10 and haven't looked back.
Have I mentioned how well my fake stock portfolio is doing?
Why not just describe myself as a skeptic? Well, I guess I could say that, but skepticism to my mind implies a degree of curiosity and inquisitiveness that I only demonstrate on occasion. My urge to disbelieve is more like a reflex. I rarely think about it, and I don't remember a time when I didn't have it.
I have a theory about how I might have learned this habit.
>I reject belief
>here's what I believe about what I think
hurrrrr
Today wasn't terrible.
Can't ask for more than that I find.
That's what I do when I look for jobs on the substitute teacher system. "Well that probably won't be terrible or get me killed or fired."
I have power issues.
That's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has those. It's like saying I have "health issues". It's trivially true, because "power," like "health," is an exceedingly broad category.
Me too.
My power issue is I'm not caesar.
Power is a confusing concept. Most of the time, when we say a person is powerful, we're not really referring to the number of joules or amperes they can put out. We're referring to who obeys their orders and under what conditions. So "power" in the common use is intrinsically conditional.
There's soft power and there's hard power. Soft power people feel obligated to do what you say based on some sort of fallout for not doing what you say or whatever. Hard power people want to do what you say because they're compelled either through mutual interest or admiration or whatever.
Machiavelli makes this all very clear in his definitive guide to the subject.
As Machiavelli teaches and is so often mangled by idiots misinterpreting his wisdom it is better to be feared than loved if you can't be both but he never goes so far as to say being feared is preferable to the point of exclusion.
Even if you're commanding an army, your power is contingent on the cooperation of everyone in your chain of command. Getting that chain of command to the point where it's reliable enough that the people giving the orders can be meaningfully said to have power is a very difficult problem that takes up a fair portion of the national budget.
Wow your understanding of power politics, government and military spending is breathtaking.
Clearly, clearly the US government spends a lot of its budget ensuring the loyalty of the troops.
That's why troops make so much money, obviously.
Not, you know, the fact that guys are firing rockets that cost more than they'll make in a year at people who won't make that much money in their lifetime. 
As an aspie, I have to think harder than most people in order to accomplish basic tasks like talking, eating, and getting out the door.
Are you genuinely autistic or are you just an antisocial, lazy cretin using that as a screen?
If you're genuinely autistic then no harm but if you're just saying that then you're a fucking asshole.
Like what, I'm just sitting here having the time socializing, eating and getting out the door?
Life is a fucking wide awake nightmare and no one has an easy time doing fucking anything. We just pretend we do because if we don't then that's when motherfuckers get shot.
Because I am accustomed to thinking about every action, I often fall for the delusion that thought is action. 
I do that a lot. "Did I do that or did I think about doing that?"
Most of the time I don't remember.
I think I've worked out what my issue with "pride" is.

It's rare for a person expressing pride to say exactly what they are proud of doing.  
Oh let me break this shit right the fuck down for you before you launch into a 3 page treatise of pretentious garbage on the subject.
Pride.
I am proud I lived.
I am proud I died.
Simple as that, dipshit. It's a trait you either have or you don't.
The old Pagan cultures engender a healthy sense of pride in its men in particular believing that's what caused people to aspire to greatness.
And I think few can argue with the glories of Rome or the Han.
Christianity was quick to quash that idea and instead opted for meekness and submission.
Dark ages ahoy!
Usually they point at the result of their efforts instead: "I'm proud of you, son" vs. "I'm proud of the way I raised you, son". The intended meaning is the same. The former phrasing means something different by the pronoun "you" than usual: instead of referring directly to the person the speaker is talking to, as they stand right here and now, it refers to some experiences that the speaker had with them.
Usually when someone says "I'm proud of you" it's more of an empathetic thing or perhaps a notion of being proud to know the person.
Because, you know, usually we're judged by the company we keep because we tend to surround ourselves with people who are at least similar to us in some regard so if someone does something you're proud of you likely possess a characteristic at least broadly similar to them.
Also pride is a pretty serious thing. It's easy to not have pride.
Having pride suddenly makes you intolerant of a lot of shit you'd otherwise be fine with.
To use my empathy to its best effect, I need to turn it up and down at will. Perhaps I already have this ability. I seem to be pretty good at turning my emotions off; my new task is to turn off particular emotions when and where they cause trouble.

For example. My calc teacher will be disappointed to see how far behind I am on the homework. But it's still his job to help me, so I should ask, and when (if) he makes his displeasure apparent, I should acknowledge that, and not care.
You're in college, dipshit. His job is to lecture and your job is to figure it out on your own.
He can help you and probably will if you're a nice guy but no, his job is not to help just you when you need it, plebeian. 
See that's what I mean about pride. If I were a college professor and you said that to me that'd be my reaction.
I didn't get a fucking PhD in mathematics to babysit spoiled bitches like you.
Starting today, I am going to award myself experience points for every moderately difficult task I complete. Ten points is standard;
If only life worked that way.
I'm serious.
I am a coward.
“It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.”
-Herodotus
I love these essays on bullshit that can be answered with one sentence by me or someone else.
Years spent actively pursuing indifference have left me with a general tendency toward indifference. This is causing problems.
Wow what do you fucking know
If you think something over and over it becomes your thoughts
Beat your thoughts to the mold of your will.
Fuuuck.
Anyway work tomorrow and shit so time for the SONG OF THE NOOOOW.