whimsyandmetaphor

[whimsyandmetaphor]

...might've discovered a new genre to lose my mind about, hold please

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they want you to make fried rice

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(via The Uncomfortable Tea Set | theuncomfortable.com)

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You ever encounter a character where you're like ... wow, you so deeply and strongly believe that the world works like a genre fiction setting. You are deeply and 300% committed to the world working like you're in a Genre.

And I'm so, so glad for you that you are right, because any other genre, let alone the real world, would be deeply upsetting for you, and possibly you would be dead. You believe deeply unhinged things, but so does the genre so on balance, you're winning. Keep shining, you crazy diamond.

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I have so many thoughts about the university system (in my country, at least).

The twin hazards of "access to university is an aspect of privilege" and "university should not be essentially mandatory to exist in society". The fact that "some of the skills taught in university are essential and core life skills in an age of having so much information and misinformation available to everyone with a smartphone or access to a library computer" and "university is actually a horrible way to teach the skills needed for many jobs" are statements that can and do coexist.

The way that a degree -- in some cases *any* degree! -- is a fundamental requirement for getting a job, even if that job and that degree are unrelated, which leads to obligatory debt (even if HECS debt is not at all as predatory as other kinds of study debt in other countries), and an obligatory period where a person must either juggle multiple full-time jobs' worth of work in order to meet both study requirements and living expenses.

The way that the requirement to get a degree no matter what it's in directly feeds into the mentality of doing enough to scrape by in the degree and no more - the way that this contributes to separating the degree and its goals from the actual skills it's trying to teach, such that people leave university having to be re-trained for their jobs in many cases, whether because the degree didn't actually teach them what they need to know, or because the person was more interested in getting the piece of paper than in actually taking in the information, or in choosing what information (courses) they'd find most useful.

The way that the university system (like other aspects of the education system) has fallen victim so hard to the issue of "metrics are not measures", where progress and "learning" must be measured, but you end up teaching not Information, but How To Pass An Exam, even further decoupling the university degree from the actual knowledge it's supposed to convey and the industy it's supposed to support.

The way that changing any of this is treading so close to giving people excuses to be bigots, because if university is no longer mandatory, then the bigots can no longer be pressured into giving support and accommodations to people who need them. The way that changing any of this risks siloing jobs into "elite, educated" jobs and "low-class, uneducated" jobs, even more so than they already are, and deepening social divides based on what jobs you have the money/status/privilege to have access to.

I could go on. But I just. Fuck.

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Hey! Want to come watch me die repeatedly and also maybe chat? Streaming now!

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Hey, for anyone who's following: WMWAC schedule has changed. I had a weird start to this week and recording kind of fell by the wayside.

I'm going to be posting the VOD from the stream tomorrow, instead of a new ep this week. Proper episodes resume in a fortnight as normal. Sorry for the delay!

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Fascinating little jump scare when my fandom stuff from my personal blog pops up in a "Hey :) :) Someone you are mutuals with likes this, you might too :) :)" feed on this blog and I'm like no wait no. This is the blog where I compartmentalise, not the blog where I'm honest about who I am as a person. That stuff isn't supposed to leak over here.

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Live for coworking and just kinda chilling!

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brainrot abt a halfling spelunker archaeologist and a tall human guy bodyguard/porter/bf

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Hey hey new episode is up!

Ft. recording off my tablet screen because I'm very smart and good with technology (ignore the fact that I still can't set up a green screen ssshhhh) Next episode will be filmed soon, so have a watch and get those comments in soon if you want them answered! The first stream is getting organised soon, too, so keep an ear out for that.

[whimsyandmetaphor]

Thing I'm noting about The Sojourn, which I'm playing at the moment as a person who absolutely loves and has played a lot of The Talos Principle is that they have very similar structures (series of Puzzle Locations with mini-rooms branching off containing individual puzzle sections), but one key difference.

The Sojourn is a lot more structured: when it needs to teach you a new mechanic, it blocks off more advanced puzzle rooms until you have completed a basic tutorial puzzle. The Talos Principle I does this once -- you *have* to visit world A-1 first before you can progress to any other world in the game, but the series is otherwise relatively agnostic about which puzzles you complete in which order. As long as you have unlocked the area and the puzzle objects you need to complete the puzzle, you're allowed to enter and attempt it.

And on one hand there's definitely a good argument for The Sojourn's approach: it is sensible to have the devs say "hey, here's important information on this object you're about to encounter. You're going to need to understand this principle in order to solve later puzzles, and this tutorial puzzle would be really tedious to complete after more complex puzzles, so how about you do this one first?"

Nevertheless, something in me does kind of respect The Talos Principle's approach a bit more. "These puzzles are in an order. We have picked this order for a reason. If you don't like that order, any resulting dissatisfaction with either the game or your abilities is officially your fault, and you have nobody to blame but yourself."

(Side note: it is very much also a nice touch in The Talos Principle that a game primarily about the philosophy of free will does the absolute bare minimum of locking you into a certain path, and I do feel like awareness of this 100% contributed to the design choices)

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Hey hey! Just a reminder that if you want to check out the first episode of this before the next episode is released, you have one week remaining to do so!

Reminders of the existence of my work will continue until I become sufficiently famous.

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Intro and first episode just went live!

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The Forty-Fifth World of Tick, A World Drinker:

There are, at least, eighteen thousand two hundred and forty-five other worlds floating around Existence. I know this because that’s how many worlds my sire drank from before she molted to reveal me.

I remember things she saw during her time. Not properly, they’re not my memories after all. It’s not like I have her voice in the back of my head telling me facts or anything. I don’t have perfect recall of her time, or her sire’s time, or his sire’s sire’s sire’s time. It’s just in the blood – for lack of a better word because I don’t have any – and sometimes I know about things before I’ve ever seen them.

In one of the worlds I’ve clung to, there was this massive migration of butterflies every single year. They flew over an ocean in a totally straight line, except for this one singular point where they all abruptly shifted and flew west for no apparent reason before coming back to that line five or six miles later. According to the scientist I asked about it, she said that millions and millions of years ago there was a mountain in the middle of that ocean. The mountain’s gone, but the butterflies remember.

I am not a butterfly. Truly, I am not really an insect or an arachnid or a bug or a beast despite what we’re called.

I am Tick. That is both my name and what I am. It makes things simple. Sometimes I pick up names from the worlds I enter because it is necessary or it is fun. I have been a Roland, a Fiverel, a Lanthorn, a Freja, and even an Ushak Den Hagu.

But I always remain as Tick.

I would like to describe myself, but I currently cannot. I’m in between worlds right now, and I’m hungry. I haven’t made it through the surface of my next meal yet – it feels translucent like a soap bubble – and so I have not settled into what I need to look like.

It’s bending, though, I can taste the tear beginning.

It only needs to be big enough for me to fit through and afterwards it’ll close all nice and neat so no one will ever need to know.

I am forty-four worlds old. In a moment, I will be forty-five.

Only eighteen thousand, two hundred to go.

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Oh hey hi have you enjoyed occasionally hearing my silly opinions on the Tunglr dots Comme? Would you like more of them, specifically related to writing, perhaps in a handy format where you can come and find them at a certain time and place?

Or perhaps you’re one of those writer-types yourself and you’re interested in writing in virtual company, of various levels.

If so, then come to the Whimsy and Metaphor Write-Along Club. I’m filming myself writing a novella and describing the process, and you should come and write one with me, too! Or at least come shout at me about how I'm doing it wrong.

YouTube episodes fortnightly. Streams every so often as appropriate. Intro episode is right here, and will be available tomorrow (Weds 5th March, 5pm AEST).

(Title card by me, border image is corner PNG, designed by Chenxin, from https://pngtree.com/freepng/floral-corner_6028655.html).

[whimsyandmetaphor]

Ice cold take, but re: genres. I've long been convinced that one's favourite genre has little to nothing to do with the average quality of work in that genre.

But the older I get, the more convinced I am that the genres I like most are purely based around how many of the core/common genre tropes are on my "even when it's bad, it's kinda good" list, and thus how much of the mediocre entries I'm willing to read/watch to the end even if they're kinda shitty.