necarion

[necarion]

Oh, extra thought about writing: I think there's a difference here between "I want to find out what happens next" and "I want to spend more time in this story".

I think the former can be fun - mystery is a good way to keep people intrigued and is a great way to maintain interest. But it can become very hollow. It's not actually exclusive with the other, but there's a different feeling to it. I was very sad when I got to the end of The Wheel of Time or A Practical Guide to Evil because I loved the characters, the story, and the world. I can always come back to it, but I want to spend more time with the protagonists and see what they get up to. This is the same feeling that makes people keep coming back to murder mysteries; you know the characters and like the feeling you got in the world as they solved the problems.

I also devoured The Da Vinci Code where every chapter ended on a cliffhanger and I just had to find out what was on the other side of that. But I ultimately didn't really care about Robert Langdon, just that he got to the bottom of it and told me who was really behind The Stuff.

Comparing these to Severance though (again, I'm really salty about that show), those stories, which are kind of exploitative in how they keep you reading, ultimately answered their questions.

I really want to know what the fucking explanation for anything in Severance, even as I really don't want to watch the next season. And this pisses me off.

Murderbot Season 1 reminded me how nice it is when a season of TV actually completes a story.

I'm still a bit salty about the Severance finale. Murderbot had a bit more than half the time of a Severance season and somehow managed to get substantial character arcs for two characters and minor character arcs for a couple more, multiple well-done action scenes, beautiful sets and environments, good tension, and great character moments, all while completing a story.

In contrast, I really feel like Severance was wasting my time. Big long establishing shots of Newfoundland were pretty. But our characters were under a time crunch, and the show utterly failed to capture that for me. At least two extremely slow episodes, as well as a bunch of characters wasting time and not actually explaining shit to each other despite acknowledging that it's important and having the time and proximity to do that. Like, yes, I understand that people are bad at communicating. I too am a fan of Wheel of Absolutely No Communication Ever. But even in that series, people would, in fact, communicate mission-critical information more often than not.

We got a cliffhanger in that show because the writers wanted a cliffhanger, not due to any demands from the pacing or content. Like, sure. Any cliffhanger is a decision. I get that. I am just annoyed that I spent at about 2 hours of that season bored and waiting for something to happen, or for people to tell anything to each other. Only to end with "oh shit, we didn't have time to tell you any important plot details, sorry!"

So, anyway, I recommend Murderbot a lot. It's extremely pretty, well-written, and a really solid adaptation of the source material.

[necarion]

Murderbot Season 1 reminded me how nice it is when a season of TV actually completes a story.

I'm still a bit salty about the Severance finale. Murderbot had a bit more than half the time of a Severance season and somehow managed to get substantial character arcs for two characters and minor character arcs for a couple more, multiple well-done action scenes, beautiful sets and environments, good tension, and great character moments, all while completing a story.

In contrast, I really feel like Severance was wasting my time. Big long establishing shots of Newfoundland were pretty. But our characters were under a time crunch, and the show utterly failed to capture that for me. At least two extremely slow episodes, as well as a bunch of characters wasting time and not actually explaining shit to each other despite acknowledging that it's important and having the time and proximity to do that. Like, yes, I understand that people are bad at communicating. I too am a fan of Wheel of Absolutely No Communication Ever. But even in that series, people would, in fact, communicate mission-critical information more often than not.

We got a cliffhanger in that show because the writers wanted a cliffhanger, not due to any demands from the pacing or content. Like, sure. Any cliffhanger is a decision. I get that. I am just annoyed that I spent at about 2 hours of that season bored and waiting for something to happen, or for people to tell anything to each other. Only to end with "oh shit, we didn't have time to tell you any important plot details, sorry!"

So, anyway, I recommend Murderbot a lot. It's extremely pretty, well-written, and a really solid adaptation of the source material.

[necarion]

What? I do not get this Tumblr. Why "perfect for workers?"

[necarion]

My friend in college had a tool he called the "depunerator". It was a screwdriver electrical taped to a hammer in a most threatening manner.

He pulled it out of his desk every time I walked into his room with That Look on my face.

"It means, my dear friend," explained the Woggle-Bug, "that our language contains many words having a double meaning; and that to pronounce a joke that allows both meanings of a certain word, proves the joker a person of culture and refinement, who has, moreover, a thorough command of the language." "I don't believe that," said Tip, plainly; "anybody can make a pun." "Not so," rejoined the Woggle-Bug, stiffly. "It requires education of a high order. Are you educated, young sir?" "Not especially," admitted Tip. "Then you cannot judge the matter. I myself am Thoroughly Educated, and I say that puns display genius. For instance, were I to ride upon this Saw-Horse, he would not only be an animal he would become an equipage. For he would then be a horse-and-buggy." At this the Scarecrow gave a gasp and the Tin Woodman stopped short and looked reproachfully at the Woggle-Bug. At the same time the Saw-Horse loudly snorted his derision; and even the Pumpkinhead put up his hand to hide the smile which, because it was carved upon his face, he could not change to a frown. But the Woggle-Bug strutted along as if he had made some brilliant remark, and the Scarecrow was obliged to say: "I have heard, my dear friend, that a person can become over-educated; and although I have a high respect for brains, no matter how they may be arranged or classified, I begin to suspect that yours are slightly tangled. In any event, I must beg you to restrain your superior education while in our society." "We are not very particular," added the Tin Woodman; "and we are exceedingly kind hearted. But if your superior culture gets leaky again -- " He did not complete the sentence, but he twirled his gleaming axe so carelessly that the Woggle-Bug looked frightened, and shrank away to a safe distance. The others marched on in silence, and the Highly Magnified one, after a period of deep thought, said in an humble voice: "I will endeavor to restrain myself." "That is all we can expect," returned the Scarecrow pleasantly; and good nature being thus happily restored to the party, they proceeded upon their way.

— L Frank Baum, The Marvelous Land of Oz (1904), Chapter 14: "Old Mombi indulges in Witchcraft"

In which the Tin Woodsman responds to a bad pun by threatening to kill the perpetrator with an axe, as is only proper.

[necarion]

Forget anything I've ever said about the past being a horrifying alien place that we should continue running away from.

In Shakespeare's day, they started referring to hose that went around the feet (socks, basically) as "netherhose" and we need to go back.

[necarion]

How do datacenters "consume" water? I get how power plants do, where water used for cooling ends up boiled and vented into the atmosphere. But datacenters are not operating at 600C or higher and do not have the same cooling needs. Can't the water used for cooling just get put back into the river when they're done with it?

Or is the "they use so much water!!1" because the heat does meaningfully increase the amount of evaporation?

[necarion]

I think something about my work's ChatGPT system is severely limiting its capabilities. Like, beyond the obvious thing where it is blandly helpful, it's not actually all that helpful. It makes a bunch of coding mistakes, and is extremely bad at debugging. Claude managed to catch a bug almost instantly that had eluded ChatGPT and me for several hours. And I know Claude is the GOAT, but I feel like the mistake I was making was sufficiently fundamental that ChatGPT should have been able to figure it out.

[necarion]

I saw someone describe it as "Dora the Explorer murders Netanyahu". And yeah, I was really expecting them to have taken a moment of self-reflection there.

On the other hand, it's not Superman who saved them, but a bunch of his friends who are corporate-aligned and much less moral, so at least it's not Superman who's directly getting involved in international politics during the endgame, right? Right?

Superman 2025 is obviously trying to be the anti-MCU movie as it goes, “look! Instead of going along with the whims of the MIC and enforcing American hegemony, this guy decides instead to Do What He Thinks Is Right, and damn the bureaucrats if they don’t like it.”

[necarion]

This scientist crafts stunning visual art through chemistry.

[necarion]

Also, this is way funnier than just doing a picture of Obama:

We can create an image of a fictional character resembling a Baroque-era nobleman with modern African-American features, wearing elaborate Louis XIV-style clothing. Then you can use it as a stand-in for "Baroque Obama" while keeping the pun clear.

On the one hand, I think it is plausibly good that Chatgpt and its ilk aren't allowed to make images of public figures because of fear of disinformation (although that is definitely problematic if it comes to, say, Putin, who will have his own systems without those restrictions).

But on the other hand, it means that my easy solution for my "Baroque Obama" pun didn't happen.

[necarion]

On the one hand, I think it is plausibly good that Chatgpt and its ilk aren't allowed to make images of public figures because of fear of disinformation (although that is definitely problematic if it comes to, say, Putin, who will have his own systems without those restrictions).

But on the other hand, it means that my easy solution for my "Baroque Obama" pun didn't happen.

[necarion]

There are certainly plenty of people who could serve in a border, immigration, and customs capacity.

But sometimes, you do in fact need a lesson in "'just following orders' isn't an excuse".

Relatives of 82-year-old Allentown resident Luis Leon are headed to a Guatemalan hospital Saturday in hopes of reuniting with the man they say disappeared without a trace into the American immigration system a month ago — and who, for a time, they thought was dead. The last time anyone in the family saw Leon was June 20, when he went with his wife to a Philadelphia immigration office to have his lost green card replaced. There, the family says, he was handcuffed by two officers, who led him away without explanation. His wife, who speaks little English, was left behind and kept in the building for 10 hours until she was released to her granddaughter, the family says. Repeated inquiries to immigration officials, prisons, hospitals and even a morgue yielded no information. Leon’s name was not in ICE’s online database of detainees. Finally, on Friday, a relative from Leon’s native Chile was told he had been taken first to a detention center in Minnesota and then to Guatemala. The hospital, citing privacy rules, would not verify his presence there when contacted by The Morning Call.

[necarion]

That's how I felt about The Magicians. I think I ultimately concluded that the stories that were good, imaginative, funny, creative were probably the ones where the writers just did whatever the fuck they wanted, and the bits where the characters were out-of-context stupid or selfish* were those where they had to make Book Plot happen.

* To be clear, these guys were often stupid selfish assholes. I'm complaining about the times when they did a stupid selfish thing that unlearned an entire season of character development and that is self-evidently disastrous.

a bad show? that's nothing? a good show? sure. but a bad show that, for a brief moment, becomes very good, and then never is again? that'll drive a person to madness

[necarion]

Oh I absolutely agree - it's too hot to spend a lot of time at. And the climate is actually getting hotter so there are more of these heat waves.

But in the US, we've been largely air condititioned in hot climates for decades now. In more marginal places, like the Bay Area or Seattle, people are adding AC at a reasonably fast clip (and of course there are always places that are AC'd for hot days).

But there's just this attitude there (and I found it in Japan, too) where they could AC, but don't because sweating is good for you (and AC is bad for you).

My point was that the US has social and technological adaptations to hot climates that make me go "wait, you're serious that 32C counts as a deadly heatwave?"

Is it that their culture is more pro-vacation, or is it that it's too hot? Is it that they're more laid back, or is it that it's too hot? Is it a rebellion against the American grindset, or is it that it's too hot?

[necarion]

These are temperatures where I basically wouldn't notice that it was too hot. "Rome vs Sacramento" is particularly funny, because it spends entire weeks above 40C there, but it cuts off at like 32C.

Is it that their culture is more pro-vacation, or is it that it's too hot? Is it that they're more laid back, or is it that it's too hot? Is it a rebellion against the American grindset, or is it that it's too hot?

[necarion]

In 2025, a woman died of pneumonic plague in the US, but thank god just one. In 2024, someone got the plague from their cat, and got treated with antibiotics, and the area isolated. People still get the plague from time to time, but almost all cases in the developed world are treatable, and every "outbreak" has been one or two people (usually because the disease is endemic in chipmunks).

And it is tragic that people die from this.

But the plague also killed an estimated 200 million people over the centuries. You can see it has a remarkably high fatality rate (looks like 10%) here, because of how fast it acts (you have to get antibiotics the day symptoms start) and that doctors are kind of incredulous that it is "plague". But this historically had a 20-50% mortality rate.

So, plague went from "you had it and now a quarter of your town is dead" to "wait really? The fucking plague? Here's some antibiotics".

whenever I see archeological remains of a human who suffered from a terrible disease that couldn’t be treated in their lifetime but could be fixed now, this wave of sorrow and mourning washes over me. a woman in the 14th century who spent her 35 years of life bent at the waist because of congenital scoliosis. a man from the 18th century who died because of a non cancerous mass on his jaw that made eating progressively more difficult. remains of a woman from the Neolithic who died in childbirth having evidence of peri-mortem trepanation on her skull.

and yet she survived to 35. and yet the physicians in his time tried to strengthen his jaw. and yet someone 4,000 years ago tried to save someone they loved from dying of preeclampsia/increased cranial pressure. we tried. we tried and we tried and we tried. we failed and we learned but we tried. that’s what makes humans so beautiful.

[necarion]

There's a mistake a lot of people at the edges make, treating the only True Victory as a complete one. But "thanks to our interventions and encouragements, people eat 10% less meat" would be a huge accomplishment, especially if the numbers had been going up. [Making up the numbers]

Any progress is good.

As an omnivore who likes vegan and vegetarian cooking I think the mistake a lot of people make when trying to convince meat eaters to go plant based is trying to convince them that something you’ve got will replace meat for them.

I like vegan nuggets and real chicken nuggets for different reasons. They taste different. They only taste identical to you because you haven’t eaten meat for five years.

When cooking for myself I only eat meat maybe like three times a week because vegetarian cooking is often cheaper and it tastes good.

Like just give people the actual recipes you use that aren’t pasta. Every time you ask what to eat on a meatless day people are like. Pasta. I don’t want pasta every day.

Point out the foods people already eat that are vegetarian. Like sweet potato fries, veggie chow mein, grilled mushrooms, mashed potatoes, black bean enchiladas, peanut butter sandwiches. Tell people what you microwave when you’re drunk at 3am. Show people that vegetables are so good they’ll want them in their diet.

Also some people are just never gonna go vegan. They’re just not. I’m certainly not, and I love vegan food. But since I’ve fallen in love with vegetarian cooking I eat meat much less and I’m much more careful about picking the meat I do eat. Doesn’t that align with a lot of your goals?

Impossible burger doesn’t taste like meat. But you know what tastes really good? A mushroom fajita taco. Falafel. Potato pancakes with applesauce. Smoky vegan collared greens. Hot potato salad with herbs. Palak paneer with rice. Tofu Pad Thai with extra peanuts. Some of my favorite foods of all time, and I’m a dirty rotten meat eater. Use THAT to get your foot in the door. And be more accepting of some half-assed victories. I’m on your side for the most part, believe it or not. But stop trying to claim certain things are just like meat. You and I both know you don’t plan most of your weeknight dinners around meat substitutes.