thepissprophet

[thepissprophet]

Rant: Why romance plot? Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, first 3 books

I don't read or watch that much media. But sometimes I find myself baffled there is a romance plot. Not that it wasn't foreshadowed or anything. More that thrashing story involved young, kinda immature characters, who, from my view, due to their situation, makes more sense storywise to seek family rather than figuring out being mature and the independent balance of romance.

For Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the whole situation that was set up made me expect the exploration of family. Jacob's modern age family, and the sort of timeless family of the peculiars. About forging your own identity, legacy, etc, by finding a family in a community who can understand and relate to you and vice versa. About dealing with grief from the eyes and mouths of children or something so thoughtful. Erm..., was not expecting him to get together with his grandfather's ex basically?? What? Why?

Okay okay, fine Emma is technically a young teen and so is Jacob so it's not weird consentually. But um, maybe just due to how long it took me to read the trilogy (first full story arc), I am forgetting things. However, while ready I never really felt like there was a space, time and closure for Grandfather's death for me until the end. And with how often Granfather's legacy is discussed, and Jacob compared to him, I am constantly reminded, Emma loved **that** man! So combined with how much it is mentioned Jacob is like his Grandfather, their relationship feels soooo wrong! I am constantly reminded how Emma had decades to mature mentally, especially with all the shit she went through, while Jacob is still a goddam sprout.

I like the world building, but every time I remember the world I remember this part of the story and I always feel kinda uncomfortable with their relationship. Like, sure, they are about the same age, but just... their experiences have been so different. Emma has actually lived a life, while Jacob is still trying to define life for himself. On top of that, nothing about the way they were written made me root for them. Making reading it all just that more painful. Compare it to Fionna (plant girl) and Hugh (been boy) was actually something I rooted for. The symbolism. Subtle interactions. Whenever I had to read Emma-Jacob I wished I could read Fionna-Hugh instead. To me the romance felt forced, like the writer was told he had to add it in there "for mainstream appeal" or something. Hugh and Fionna are almost never together, and thus barely interact, yet I remember them fondly. While cringe at our main protag??

I have the same discomfort with Aang and Katara in Avatar : the Last Airbender. Again due to set-up. But for them it's more they writers have done so well setting them up as family, the pivot to romance felt, uh, incestuous. It probably wouldn't feel like that so much if the story carried on into their adulthood, living life less as family more close friends, then growing close romantically... but within the time of the show? There was no need. They are like what, 12? 13? And they had so much trauma? Brother, let them heal first, eh? Humans can live up to like 80yrs average? Maybe over a whole century. Give characters their time.

Additonal:

Also why did the book introduce this whole family and never keep them around? Yes, juggling a gigantic cast is hard, but, felt a little jarring. Because all those characters were set up with background and shit. Felt like we would've been with them a lot more?

I guess I just need to read the rest of the books.

[thepissprophet]

Other odd ads I got

Why this picture?? Why?

This Temu ad on YouTube:

I can see the appeal, I guess. This is definitely one of the nicer Temu ads. It was just silent. Unskippable, but super quick.

YouTube ad.

No

[thepissprophet]

Tumblr has some really odd ads. Here one I got:

[thepissprophet]

"Queer couples shouldn't have children because then child will be confused about where babies come from"

No. No they won't.

They'll be learning about invertebrate reproduction first. Then entire ATP synthesis from glycolysis to the electron transport chain.

[thepissprophet]

Thoughts on Miss Trunchbull, Matilda 1996

Was rewatching Matilda and some things just occurred to me.

Pretty sure the writers/movie directors, etc. meant to characterise Ms Trunchbull as that bitter and mean to the core type person that is just selfish and only do things for themself. Kinda like Debbie Jellinsky from The Addams Family : Family Values. And thus have no one to love nor anyone who loves or likes her.

But I can totally see her villain story being that she's a sad and bitter butch who was raised super religious and instead of realising all the awful of her life was trying to follow beliefs that was just not her, she lashed out. And say, her worst bullies were the other children at school. Then children again in a younger adult life because she didn't fit societal norms. Hence why she hates them so much. And maybe because her childhood was so traumatic she has convinced herself she never had one because she doesn't wanna think about it.

And honestly, if she had been lucky enough to look at the shitty stuff in her life and said, "I will do better. I will be better than that", and had worked to be a good person for the rest of her life before she had become such a jerk, I could totally see her being in a less lonely life. She was an Olympic champion! If she was a nice person, and was interested, I can see her with a partner (woman). If not interested, I can still see her being a loved member of the community.

So yeah. If I watch the film from that perspective I feel sorry for her for not trying to live life for peace and happiness, but to inflict greater pain and sadism to drown out her own.

This is likely not an original thought. Probably a lot of peeps have already had it cross their minds. But I wanted this to remind myself I had this thought.

Miss Trunchbull. Image from the Wikipedia page.

Debbie Jellinsky. Image from her Fandoms page

[thepissprophet]

I was reminded of a book I had as a child that I kinda liked. Looked around online for an English copy, but came to find it was only every printed in its original Norwegian or Chinese.

The book was Verden har ingen hjørner (The World has no Corners) by Svein Nyhus.

The only English translation I really got was from Maagerø & Østbye (2012). In which they analyze a few of the "spreads" (each two pages has one set of writing associated. Can just be one sentence or quite a few. All written in poetical phrase. Pretty, but real hard to translate) .

Anyway, I really want to be able to share this my English speaking (and reading) friends, so I thought I'd very roughly translate the book. The research article's translation of course are far superior, I have not the first clue how to translate not just the meaning but poetry of a writing. Maybe one of the people around me know someone who can fluently read Norwegian or Chinese, lol.

Note: The version I have access to is the 2005 Chinese version, I used ArchChinese to translate. I can't really understand what tense is being used, so the tense for the translation is all over the place. I am not fluent in Chinese.

Spread 8 in this version ends with "But I can never become a lady/women. | And I can never be an African." -> um, huh, I think I prefer the version Maagerø & Østbye (2012) was using I guess, because their version said "And I can never be a baby again". At least only one sentence is eyebrow raising, not both!

(yeah, they technically can be fairly innocent comments. You cannot change your race or ethnicity, if your know your gender you know it, but in a wider cultural context they really don't work)

> images from Maagerø & Østbye (2012), Svein Nyhus' website and the 2009 blog (that seems to be teaching how to make art), this nordic theater website, some other of Nyhus' blogs (?)

Victor is seated within a paper-box, and peers out. (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

This is the world, thought Victor.

And the world is bigger than thousand and thousand

enormous mountains.

But nevertheless, it all fits inside my head,

Victor thinks. (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

2.

Invisible things keep falling into my head all the time. 

It’s my thoughts coming and escaping and escaping and coming all day. 

Because nobody can hammer the thoughts in with nails (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012).

3.

A piece of bread is but a lot of crumbs,

A wave is but a lot of droplets.

I am also but a assemblage of many smaller constituents. (adjusted wording to keep the poetic flow in English)

Just like how my skin wrap them up and hold them in place. (I don't think this translate right, but this is what I got)

4.

My eyes see, my ears hear.

My teeth peeps out my mouth.

5.

I’m not very big.

I only have two short arms and two small hands,

that cannot reach the chocolate in the cupboard. 

But I can do boxing.

My legs are rather strong.

That is good.

As there is a long way to go, 

and it’s not obvious that the world will wait for me. (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

6.

My arm is a robot, it does what I want it to do.

But sometimes, if I do not manage my arm well, it would do something clumsy and I make a mistake.

7.

My shoes has a tiny space at the front,

A suitable distance,

I will grow into it.

Without me knowing, my feet were growing and growing. 

My eyes getting larger and larger.

So I have to get new clothes.

Thus someone will have to get scissors and cut my hair.

8.

I shall become a man I don’t know now.

Because one day there will grow a beard in my face,

and I will get long legs,

and my voice will be heavy and strange,

and I can shout.

But I can never become a lady.

And I can never be a baby again. (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

9.

[intentionally blank] (was this censored in my version?)

10.

There’s food in the fridge,

they look very sweet when I’m hungry, because I want to grow,

you have to eat more. 

Like, I can eat a pig, 

but I can’t eat a rock,

The stone has no flesh on its body.

We killed a pig,

put the pork on a plate,

the pigs could no longer oink.

11.

[intentionally blank] (maybe it was censored in my version)

12.

I am more than me./ I am not only me

I am still a carrier

Because even when I am clothed, 

There is still dirt beneath my nails, 

There is still food in my stomach

And a bird stands in my hair.

13.

The blanket upon my bed isn’t hot, it’s just a cover.

While my body is a heat making machine,

To prevent heat from dissipating,

Every night, my mother places a cover over me.

Dad covers himself with his own cover

14.

Houses have roofs

So the rain doesn’t get in.

Houses has floors

So I don’t step on snails, ants and very long earthworms.

When I close my eyes,

The walls become invisible.

Yet, I can still feel them.

I know behind this door there is another room. 

15.

The world is full of things.

There are things on the table, there are things beneath the chair, there are things in the cupboard.

So there are boxes/chests and boxes and drawers 

and flies hanging upside down on the ceiling.

16.

Chairs never sit down,

It stands for its whole life.

Golden rays crawl across the floor.

17.

Up in the attic has more boxes and stuff, spider webs hang upon the walls.

It scorches in summer and freezes in winter there. 

Upon the floorboards stared back a family of eyes.

Yet the spider web is so quiet/silent, so quiet/silent.

Maybe the spider is singing, but I just can’t hear it?

When I turn my back, maybe the spiders are laughing at me and I just can’t see

18.

There exists many instruments.

For example, guitar.

It doesn’t talk.

It sings.

Mum can also sing.

A big drum can talk.

A small drum hear everything.

19.

There are many dads.

Some play violin.

Some hammer nails into walls.

And more appear in downtown stores and on the TV.

There are also many mums.

She wears a bun and skintight clothes.

Dress the same colour as the walls. 

Dad sits laughing in the chair.

His pants has many buttons, pant pockets full of nails.

20.

Dad has a necktie.

Strangling the neck, the neck constricted by the necktie.

21.

In the photo, nana is a little girl.

Mum had not been born yet.

I hadn’t been born yet. I did not exist.

Maybe I was that shadow at the back of nana’s photo.

Grandpa (paternal) is that tree beside the church.

Once, grandpa had a big black car and arms covered with strange designs.

What about great grandma? She lays upon the bed in the house waning away with age. 

22.

Nana also has a photo of me.

It has been placed away in a shoebox.

Tied around the box is a thick ribbon (string).

That way, my photo can’t run away.

23.

In great grandma’s room, in her fruit bowl, are a few pears.

In the air above the pears, are tiny, black flying insects.

Maybe they are angels?

Maybe they are here to take great grandma away [to the afterlife]?

Despite how heavy great grandma is.

24.

In the sky there is the sun shining on all the cars,

and there are clouds and there God lives.

Gods sits there waiting and waiting,

and God has a very long ladder

and a very heavy piano which falls over when there is thunder.

The ladder goes down to granddad at the graveyard.

He is not alive and cannot eat his food.

Because people grow till they cannot grow any more.

Then they die.

And mice die and cats die,

and the flowers dry in the vase and fall down on the table.

And everything disappears at the roadside. This I have seen.

But in the earth the potatoes lie and talk to each other

and want to get up in the light. (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

25.

We cannot breath anymore after we die.

Because death is like a taut/stretched sweater.

We will [all] become the dust beneath the sofa.

I don’t want to die.

I prefer to become a firefighter.

26.

Walking atop the church courtyard wall fences is fun.

I must stretch out my arms like a pair of wings, otherwise I’d lose my balance and hurt myself (by falling).

In the church courtyard, lived the priest. / The Father/priest lived in the church courtyard.

Beneath the pillar of the wooden roof beam lived the centipede. / the centipede lived beneath the pillar of the wooden roof beam. 

27.

My legs hold up my stomach/torso, my shoulders hold up my head. 

The walls hold up the roof,

The woods hold up the air/atmosphere,

The air/atmosphere holds up the sun.

But then no one/nothing holds up the ants on the (dirt) mound. 

The ants on the mound must support themselves.

28.

Over the tall hills, towers/stand the city.

Inside, the city is full of colours and noise, their hustle and bustle surrounding me. (used hustle and bustle because more familiar english expression. The text I have more literally translates to "revolving and shouting")

Tall not short, fast not slow.

Inside the city is a tunnel with two exits, but only one tall slope for uphill and downhill (traffic).

Behind that tall tower/spire is a bridge crossing over a stream. A bridge is a roof for the ships and fishes. 

A train whistles in the distance, carriage wheels rolling. 

Many little screws coming together to form a whole factory/machine/train.

But one square, and it cannot roll. 

A square/cube can only sink and stand silently.

29.

The forest has no cities.

The forest has twigs and birds, and huge animals that no one owns. 

And floors covered in ants.

Animals hide away, so I cannot see them, so I would believe they don’t exist. 

But I am still on the hill, finding tracks. I am still able to hear the crickets in the tussock.

Rocks all look the same. Because they live for too long.

But they don’t say anything, because they are tired, they only want to sleep. 

30.

A tree can be as old as great grandma. 

But a golden yellow flower cannot live that long. 

31.

Then are some colours a family?

Is dark green light green’s older brother?

Is red the currently angry father of this family?

32.

Many types of animals can be found.

For example a little bug.

It can’t jump about.

A cat stuck along the slender branch it climbed.

But a bird can carry its two legs over the roof, and over the clouds.

So only a bird can lift itself. 

33.

There are also many things that cannot be found.

Dragons don’t exist.

Monsters don’t exist.

Humongous monsters/demons also don’t exist.

Yet crocodiles exist.

Genuine/Real volcanoes also exist

Hearing dad tell us we still have bats outside the house.

34.

The ant next to another ant are still different ants though they look the same. 

While all the ants are small, some will pee on the branch. 

Pigs don’t pee on themselves.

Because pigs don’t wear pants.

35.

In the ocean whales swim like big trucks.

Jellyfish like red and blue lights.

All those in the depths become pitch black, though the water is clear.

There lies an old rusty ship.

Fish are in the sea. Fish in the sea are gleaming.

Because they are always wet, you cannot see when they are crying.

36.

I can control the shoes I wear.

But I cannot control the rain.

Rain falls on the body of the dog, the prince, and the poverty stricken wife.

All getting soaked. 

37.

But my shadow won’t get soaked.

When I enter the house, they’ll always be dry.

Shadows endure all/everything.

They don’t have a body, they do what they want.

Doesn’t say a word when they leave.

Because shadows are like winds. Wind and shadows cannot be captured by anyone. No one can tie them up with a rope/string.

The wind blew past my cheeks, past my pants, until my eyes watered.

The wind searches for its body.

It carefully peeks beneath the paper and inside the plastic bag, but it wouldn’t find anything.

Because the wind cannot be seen, see, or perceive things.

38.

I am stronger than a storm/hurricane.

Because while a storm can topple a whole tree, it cannot rip out the lawn.

I sure can.

39.

Sometimes, the sky are white as angels.

The wind, lightly descending down upon the climb I climbed, bringing its cold.

Then, it is night. Then, I must go home.

The light has left, vanishing into a black sea with many little holes.

Thus my shadow spread everywhere to cover the whole world.

Thus an inky man in the inky darkness stands behind the house, saying not a word. 

40.

There are millions upon millions of stars in the sky.

There are millions upon millions of sand grain on the beach.

But there is only that one stunning moonlight.

Yet, when the moonlight is the guard of night, I don’t need a torch.

41.

My dream was in the far darkness beyond the sky.

When night came temporarily as a guest. 

But dreams don’t have to be blank darkness and unseen.

I can see dreams.

I can feel it on my legs and inside my stomach.

When I have my eyes closed beneath the blankets, I walk onto an extensive/infinite blue path.

This path leads to every place in the world.

42.

Maybe I can fly when I am asleep?

43.

The shoes rest on the rug,

the shadow rests on the chair,

the wall is reflected in the mirror.

A seed lies in the earth.

Victor moves his legs.

Yes, these are my legs.

And these are my arms.

I grow a little all the time.

And now I’m a little bigger

than I was a time ago.

This Victor thinks in the paper box.  (Maagerø & Østbye, 2012)

[thepissprophet]

With movies like "a bug's life" and the "bee movie", what always perplexes me is do people not know what termites are?

Sure, bees (eusocial species) are the most charismatic of the eusocial insects I guess, but these films always show a disproportionate number of males doing most of the work and even have them as a main character. Hymennopteran eusocial insects (ants, bees, wasps) all kinda follow the giant queen, drone with only mating purpose and haploid females strategy.

Termites, while yes, related to cockroaches (Order Blattodea) would lend them way better to the anthropomorphism those films want. Still won't have the parents situation in the bee movie (wtf was that?? What???), buy hey, workers are both female *and male*. Which is clearly what the creators prefer, yeah? A male insect in a eusocial insect society? And don't say "but termites are gross and disgusting!" Or "But they are pests!"

The insects are already being anthropomorphalised (is that a word?), if it's got enough human features to sexualise people won't care. Consider the spider in the "a bug's life" movie.

Termites also have strong differentiation for jobs and even practise fungiculture like ants do! Can easily lend them to the charm and huge complex society thing these creators like to draw on by creating a world of eusocial insects with heavy anthropomorphism.

On the same mark, termites, just like ants and humans are ecosystem engineers. Just look at the species that make giant above ground nests:

Of which has inspired human buildings

Imagine what subterranean species are doing. And we know how extensive pest species are with wood in houses. Which can extend to trees.

[thepissprophet]

Study biology they said. It'll be fun they said...

Actually yeah, it is really fun. Maybe a little too much fun because I procrastinated on productivity for my life and instead have a 12, 000 word document detailing "briefly" the geography, biology and history of a fictional planet

Most of it is in bullet points, how is it still that long?

I watched star wars original trilogy and prequels and managed to binge all of the Star Wars: Clone Wars (2008) show (and movie), mixed with all the new exciting biology knowledge, spurring me on.

Decided this planet had 3 "complex sapient" species, all have cognitive capacity on human lvl (cumulative culture, complex social world, sophisticated language, etc). Disasters happen and the 3rd species will go extinct, leaving only the two, which is where most of the history surrounds. But, since inspired by star wars, this is a fantasy with scifi themes, not scifi. So of course, magic stuff can happen, the 3rd species actually have a non-corporeal existence like the prophets in DS9, but it's more they live via the unconscious parts of the mind of the other two species. And via a ritual (by the living species), some of them can combine with the conscious part of the mind. This joint individual become one of the "mortalised" Deities. They have the knowledge of all minds before them (not necessarily consciously). They are worshipped as, well, deities. They have a counselling/guiding role.

Also my brain decided the two living species are hermaphrodites. Why is that important? Because.

[thepissprophet]

computational models are boring to learn

clean

sterile

or maybe this lecturer needs to stop using blank white slides

[thepissprophet]

I feel like once metal gets heavy enough it just becomes white noise. And in fact are very helpful sleep music

[thepissprophet]

The way direct realism was described to me made it seem very hippy

JJ Gibson's ideas being compared and contrasted to the computational model guys (Marr and Bierderman) really did it for me.

Like computational models give me the vibe of the ultimate pursuit of pure science. Break everything down into this clean, sterile and categorisation of things.

Where direct realism is like, nature is chaotic. Our psychology is chaotic. You wanna study leaf litter ecology? You can't study each animal in isolation and know what would happen when all the biotic and abiotic elements are placed together! This can't be expressed with nice mathematical models

(Nature can oft be studied using mathematical models yes. But they get so big and complicated just to try and account for all the different factors lol)

[thepissprophet]

African Wild Dog (Lycaon pictus) - social structure

general information about species:

Both sexes mostly same weight (23kg). And both hunt

home range: 1500 - 2000 square km

average group size: 9.8 (range: 2 - 50)

gestation: ~70 days

average littler size: 10.1 (range: 6 - 16)

dens used to raise pups

both sexes of the pack involved in parental care

social system:

anyone can leave and join pack (emigrate) or remain with same pack (philopatric)

at the top is a dominant breeding pair

when one of the dominant pair dies, the next oldest close kin (usually a sibling) will replace them

if emigrate --> usually immigrate away as a small group (either sexes, mixed, whatever ratio. Any of them can establish new group)

usually younger members will emigrate away because low chance of becoming alphas. More likely if join smaller pack or establish own pack

[thepissprophet]

Social Mammal Carnivores

yep, I am revising for an exam

african wild dogs get bullied in the triangle between them, spotted hyenas, and lions. If hyenas can successfully group together, they can intimidate lions off a meal. But are generally cautious of lions because they can be killed by them. Lions are also cautious of the hyenas because as a big group they could cause grievous injury to death. Lions will also steal off hyenas. But african wild dogs. African wild dogs are good doggos. good honest doggos. they do not steal. They get all food honest and square. (them being in a pack possibly allow them to use a relay-style hunting. A few tight on the prey's tail, a few running at slower pace to recover, saving energy) >> and hyenas will happily bully and steal from the good doggos. The doggos are smaller in body and pack, they cannot fight back

[thepissprophet]

Excretions can tell a lot about an organism's health. Urine being a big one and an old one. It's colour, smell and taste does have real medical implications. Like black likely means upper gastrointestinal bleeding.

One thing I did find interesting was sweet taste. In diabetes, excess sugar is sorted out by the kidneys as it would other excess material. This causes the urine to taste sweet!

Of course people tried to stretch the actual abilities of reading urine too far. Tried to predict the future and shit, hence piss prophets

Eknoyan and Nagy (2005) A history of diabetes mellitus or how a disease of the kidneys evolved into a kidney disease

DOI: 10.1053/j.ackd.2005.01.002