Best posts made by Ganymede

In this helpful video, start at around minute 8 and keep listening.

This is why I support nailing down certain discussions on this board regarding diversity.

@Lotherio said in Good or New Movies Review:

My theory, especially for the critics, is that the more popular it is the more kitsch it must be.

The critics couldn't find enough tissues to jerk the Mouse off with when Avengers: Endgame was released. Or Frozen II.

While I don't expect the critics to possess Musical Lore 5, knowing the "plot" of Cats and how it came about should be common knowledge to them. I have not seen the movie yet but every criticism I have seen has been along the lines of: (1) what the fuck am I watching; (2) why is it so fantastically flamboyant; and (3) omg hooper sux.

It is hard to take any of these critics seriously at all if they don't understand that over-the-top dance numbers and special effects is the damn point to it all. ALW, for all his flaws, really pushed musical theater hard into the "modern era," with sticking roller-skating into a production about a child's trains (basically a predecessor to Toy Story). Whereas Les Miserables is about showstoppers and angst, Cats is all about what may be referred to as "kitsch to the extreme and then set on fire*.

No offense intended, but it is supposed to be so lit that gay people be like "damn dat flaming gaaaaaay."

@Auspice

Mine is Elcor erotic poetry.

I’m going to interject to suggest that franchise directors are more hamstrung creatively than cinema directors.

Knives Out was fantastic, but it was all Johnson. I like Abrams just fine, but he’s working within the confines of a franchise. Nolan had an aberration to work with because Batman is fucking Batman, and I doubt his skills would have worked with Green Lantern.

So I think material is very important. And yes you need the right tool for the material.

@Selira said in Vietnam War MUSH:

As for the word salad, @Chet, please remember that jargon is not key to effective communication outside of the specialized group fluent in that jargon. If you can't explain your ideas in a clear way that people can understand, you probably don't actually have a firm grasp of your ideas.

I'll take "Shit They Don't Teach in Law School" for $200, Alex.

Partner: Did you have a good Christmas?
Me: Yes.
Partner: Even if I didn’t get you anything?
Me: You’ve given me two children. That’s all I need.
Partner: That’s sweet.
Me: Thank you.

(Dramatic pause.)

Me: Toil and pain make me stronger.
Partner: I hate you.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

@faraday said in Sensitivity in gaming:

Literally nobody is seriously suggesting that you should put things like "spiders" or "canadian geese" or whatever into a content warning field.

Sounds like someone who hasn't been attacked by a Canada Goose.

(It's Canada Goose, by the way, yanks.)

@Rinel said in Good or New Movies Review:

Crucial to understanding our differences of opinion on the work is the fact that its music was never mentioned in your post.

Of course not. Music is something I don't fight about with people. Some people like Cardi B, for instance, and I find her rapping to be hot garbage.

I have found that many people get hung up on any of the songs with the word "jellicle" in it. That's fine, but nonsense words are: (1) sort of what the modernist poets, like T.S. Eliot, were all about; and (2) perfectly crumulent in a musical number. That aside, if you like the music in the musical, you will probably really like Hudson's Memory and, of course, Grizabella the Glamour Cat,* while hating Swift's version of Macavity or the fact that they turned Skimbleshanks into a tap number (but it sort of makes sense, I suppose, for the railway cat).

I really liked what they did for Magical Mr. Mistoffles. Sir McKellen kills it as Gus the Theatre Cat,** but I am just flabbergasted and appalled that they elected to remove/alter Growltiger's Last Stand (because of racist performances back in the 80s). Hated Wilson; tolerated Corden; and am in love with Hayward.

If I read another person's comment about Dench's "unnecessary" fourth wall break, I swear I'm going to scream.

*- This was based on the poem given to ALW by Eliot's literary executor, and was excluded from the Old Possum book because it was too sad for children. The song opens with an except from Eliot's Rhapsody on a Windy Night, and is a wicked bitch to sing.

**- When you listen to it, close your eyes and imagine Sir McKellen quietly singing as a doddering old actor seeking to be reborn to tell more stories to a new generation.

@wizz said in MUs That We Would Love To Make (But Won't):

Though beware the catbot @Ganymede, whose wroth is most dire if you make her work.

When a white person whose credentials include “working for other much more successful white people” gets a job in the NFL, but Kaepernick, who went to a Super Bowl, can’t get on a damn roster.

In the beginning of the evening: "You know, I really miss playing a vampire; I'm going to read through the V20 books and splats and think about a character."

By the end of the evening: "Fuck that, Hilda is so awesome, no, I want a fucking changeling or mage or something I don't know, fuck, there needs to be a system for this universe."

Neil Peart.

I can’t believe I’m the first to post it here.

I grew up believing that high-technology leads to feudalism, planetary destruction, and massive family battles fought by mercenaries.

But I grew up playing fucking Battletech.

@nyctophiliac said in The Art of Lawyering:

Apparently you should write a sequel to the Hitchhiker's Guide. Because they seem like great alien species... and I giggled tremendously thinking they'd be great celestial neighbors to the Vogons.

Oh, they are existing races for the Mass Effect series.

So Lawyers, do you have a favorite case? Not necessarily yours, but one that is, I don't know.. unique in some way? Stands out?

Unfortunately, most of my interesting cases I cannot comment about. But there is a case where I got a judgment in excess of $1,000,000 because a company's owners embezzled money from it, thus causing it to go into arrears with the IRS and a lot of other creditors. Receivership cases are really cool.

Do you have any thoughts or opinions on any high profile cases that we plebs might know about? (I mean, for instance the OJ Simpson Trial but there are plenty I'm sure).

All I can say is that you should believe nothing you read on the internet about cases. Most of the articles are written by non-lawyers.

@arkandel said in Antagonistic PCs - how to handle them:

Many players want to be special and stand out (which I won't analyze) but MU* social systems are often designed a bit like dancing chair games; your playerbase of 30 may only have 10 'ranks' - there is only one Prince, 5 Primogen, etc - so there you have it... competition.

And yet I can count the number of times I have seen players with the crown fulfill the responsibilities that come with it on my fingers.

@Ghost

Ted "Brotosaurus" Lawyerstein, Esquire
641 Castlewood Lane
Deerfield, IL 60015

Dear Mr. Lawyerstein,

We are writing to notify you that we received a letter dated January 16, 2020 from your office. I feel you should be aware that some asshole is signing your name to stupid letters.

Yours Truly,

Erin "Trash Panda" Hayes, Esquire
Dewey, Cheathem, Howe & Weinstein, PLL
3159 W. 11th St.
Cleveland, OH 44109

@arkandel said in Online friends:

Are online friends real friends? Where do you draw the line, if you do?

Of course they are.

I mean, I think they are.

If I had them.

@bored said in Separating Art From Artist:

You're the lawyer, but I assume the split you're describing between 'this action causes a person to lose their job' and 'this action causes a person to become a victim of subsequent physical violence' is largely a division of the same basic concept into civil and criminal realms, right?

I split the two situations based on observation.

Kim Davis, the duly-elected Rowan County, KY clerk, refused to issue marriage licenses for gay couples after the Obergefell decision and defied a court order directing her to issue marriage licenses. Later, she was unseated by a Democrat challenger in an 2018 election for her seat. Many attribute her unseating to the very public campaign shaming her for her decision, which she made on religious grounds. Few people I know cry about this.

Pamela Taylor became notorious when it came out that she had referred to former First Lady Michelle Obama as an "ape". She was forced to leave her public job as director of the Clay County, WV Development Corporation. That county's mayor, Beverly Whaling, resigned after it became public that she had liked Ms. Taylor's comment. Ms. Taylor was later convicted of embezzling FEMA funds.

Ryan Roy marched in Charlottsville, VA. When he was discovered, he lost his job with his employer -- an Uno's Pizzeria and Grill in South Burlington, VT. When asked about his very public white supremacist comments, he said: "There's nothing wrong with white people standing up for their own interest and identity."

It sounds like we're all okay with this, right? We may also be somewhat pleased when Richard Spencer gets punched in the face. Frankly, I think this is because it's Richard Spencer, but his views certainly don't help. (I also advocate for the public punching of Curt Schilling.)

If I have an objection to what is being called "cancel culture," it is shaming other people for having an unaligned view. While many people have harped on J.K. Rowling for her support of Maya Forstater, I believe I understand why she did so, and it has little to do with whether her position in her single post is biased against the transgendered. (In saying this, I mean to say that she very well may have said other TERF-y things, that you are welcome to your opinion regardless, and that my comment is only directed to the tweet made at 0757 on Dec. 19, 2019.)

But no one that I know (personally) seems to care about why J.K. Rowling would have an even iota of interest in the Forstater case (which is an interesting case, I suppose, but wholly inapplicable to anyone outside of the UK, legally-speaking). They have focused on what she said, not why she said it. No one (I know) seems to care what the implications of the Forstater case may have on freedom of speech in the UK, an issue that a British author would have every reason to be concerned with.

So, as it may apply to the topic of separating art from the artist, I think we ought to be concerned about that little part of us which delights when "evil" gets its comeuppance.

@carma said in What is a MU*?:

I find myself agreeing with half of the posts you make on MSB, Derp, and the other half just make me retch to hear the equivalent of, "Hey now pard'ner, we don't have to spend any time letting blind people play our games."

That does not mean that what Derp is saying is incorrect, though. We don't have an obligation to consider certain disabilities when making a game. I agree that designing for disability is a process that should be woven into the design process. Whether that should be an obligation we all ascribe to is another question.

For instance, we have heard others talk in another thread about how having a blinking notification is helpful to know that activity is occurring elsewhere. But what if a player may be triggered by such blinking into a mental fugue? Does that mean a portal designer has an obligation to use a sound instead?

So, if a game does not have support for the blind, I am reluctant to make a value judgment as to the game designer. And I think that is what Derp is getting at.

@Sunny

How about we decide as a community to keep announcements and mourning in one place and criticism in another?

It’s 2020.

I suppose we could just enact an official policy.