Posts made by surreality

@Macha ...that is like the whole forum some days, so I'm on board.

While I'm sure it is as historically accurate as... well, as to be expected, but I'm enjoying Medici on Netflix. I had managed to miss the first two seasons (or added them to the general 'I'll get around to it' list, and I finally got around to it) but when the third hit, started them up. It isn't labeled by seasons, so it starts with 'Masters of Florence', then goes on to the better-labeled 'The Magnificent'+2. Netflix doesn't always know where to try to start playing it automatically for whatever reason, which can't help.

Am starting to believe that flashy period epics on Netflix are the home for retired CW teen-targeted show actors, between this and The Last Kingdom inheriting at least one of them. (Medici has a couple.) It's good to see them in things that seem to showcase more range than CW tended to give 'em. So when I say, 'the cast is surprisingly good', don't give in to that inclination to see those familiar faces and roll your eyes -- it also has Dennis Hoffman, Sean Bean, Ray Stephenson, and Julian Sands, after all (all of whom I to death).

My inner costume geek is pleased. It's not perfect -- nothing usually is -- but it's better than most I've seen.

I will also admit, my expectations were very low after (Showtime? Starz? I forget.) DaVinci: A Shiny Ball of WTF is This Even How Much Acid Did These People Drop, but it's definitely better than that.

@TNP said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

@Aria Make them a mix tape and send it to them anonymously: Music to Fuck To.

Make double damned sure it includes this.

That one hits me in the feels pretty hard.

I have no idea if he was still doing it, but in the 90s, while I was in Los Angeles, he would have his driver take him down along Hollywood Blvd, and he'd hand out religious books to all and sundry without pushing them at people who didn't seem interested in a really joyful way. All the books were signed (in pen), "Jesus loves you, and so does Little Richard." I still have the one I was too stunned to think twice about; he was just such a ray of sunshine about it.

Shit, sniffles.

There was a recipe I wanted to try with chickpeas I'd forgotten about until they got mentioned, and now I can't remember what it was at all. It wasn't hummus or similar, either. They were pan-fried with spices or something and it sounded so fucking good. Boo, dammit. <irk irk irk> That is going to haunt me now.

I would guess it might be a texture thing. That can get super weird from time to time.

@Coin I think -- think -- the reason for the 'B' was that his father's name was also John (Big John). People who knew both (which would be most everyone in the story) would likely have had that drilled into their skulls as a means of addressing one or the other clearly. It's a pretty common thing to do name-wise, anyway, when someone does the whole same-name thing.

The same-name thing seemed really common when I lived in North Carolina, more than I saw elsewhere, anyway. It probably isn't statistically, but I knew easily half a dozen folks it applied to there in 2 years, and have only run into 1 anywhere else ever. It always had some kind of differentiator like that involved, so this may have just rolled off as making it seem more genuine, weirdly enough.

@Goblin The husband: 'So, not a flashmob, but a trashmob. I approve.'

@Ganymede Virtue signaling has prior academic usage, it just wasn't really anywhere near common parlance. I do get what folks are getting at re: 'white knight' and 'sjw' having snarky origins, but... <handwaggle> ...not enough fucks left to give to worry about it either way.

The moment you realize you're saving Pringles cardboard tubes because your cat also needs a tank.

@GreenFlashlight I also just... just... I see absolutely nothing whatsoever wrong with their hair. Their hair is fine. It is fine. It's FINE.

And OH MY GOD of all the things to demand. It isn't adequate PPE, it isn't food, it isn't shelter, it is such a profoundly trivial bit of vain bullshit that it makes me want to buzz their heads to see if all that hair that's so clearly a problem is clogging whatever brain may be under it from proper function.

These people leave me gibbering in Even Cant with wild gesticulations enough to puy my grandparents' entire generation of Italian siblings -- they were each one of eleven! -- to shame, and that is truly a lot of emphatic hand gestures.

@Ganymede I don't disagree with this. I say the same myself often in regard to a lot of terminology.

Hell, we even have a community-specific definition of 'white knighting' in the hobby, and there's an even more nuanced one I recall that was on Shang (and presumably other, similar sites).

I'm not surprised if I use a term that has been co-opted and people make assumptions, even though I know those assumptions are inaccurate and I'm probably going to have to correct them. Depending on context and other things, that assumption is going to be more or less idiotic, and really, people shouldn't be doing that.

The tl;dr is: it isn't safe to assume which definition is in play, but so many people do based on tribalist thinking (in any given direction) that it's necessary to prepare the helmet and the explanation because these people attack first, justify second, blame-shift third, and think last if at all.

@Ganymede said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

So long as we understand what normal people consider to be an acceptable definition, why does it matter that unreasonable people will attempt to subvert its meaning?

Because the normal people, when they go, 'huh? why is <thing> bad?' will get told by the assholes or poor ol' google spewing out the endless repetitions of the assholes' meaning.

@Aria I actually can't even articulate the level of <internal screaming> that first half pic inspires. It really, really wants to externalize, on... on... on... like... a 'this photograph depicts cluelessly smug white male privilege if it was an actual face' as an opener and just taking off from there.

Sadly I just got up from a nap and haven't coffeed yet. So I probably have that woman's 'I am dismayed by literally everything I see here' speechless face.

So I'll just go with this for a reaction right now:

I think (the collective) we don't see as much genuine 'standing up for' (vs. the 'for status/reward' versions described) is... well, it's depressing, but true:

...people don't necessarily know or recognize it if they aren't in the group being targeted.

There have certainly been times I've been in the group that's being targeted and am oblivious, and I see a fair bit of this go around as well.

It is non-trivial if not actually impossible to stay on top of all of the creative, twisted, fucked up ways people express gross and horrifying bullshit, even among genuine allies -- as in, the people who absolutely would speak up for the right reasons if they recognized what's happening.

This is legitimately frustrating for all parties except the assholes, which is essentially the worst possible outcome for decent human beings and anyone simply trying to go about their life minding their own business unmolested by assholes.

I wish I knew what to suggest here, beyond 'grab someone you know who either is familiar with what gross is happening, or grab someone you know who isn't an asshole and be (frustratingly, I know, believe me, I really do) willing to provide a short-form (one-two sentence) summary of the thing. (ex: 'the word <slur> is a slur used to dehumanize <group>' should be more than enough for a genuine ally without a long-winded dissertation/extensive emotional labor required to clue them in.) It's a shitty solution, but it's the only one I've got.

@GreenFlashlight said in Real World Peeves, Disgruntlement, and Irks.:

they forget that it is possible to like Star Wars without getting mad about whether we'll ever see Hugo Weaving play Talon Karrde.

^ This sums up the reason I just happily enjoy things and squeal about them here in the TV/movies/etc. thread or recommend them to friends once in a blue moon now. Too much 'if you don't know what color Jane's shoes were in season 2 episode 23, you're dead to me, lying hater infiltrator' in any given fandom.

@Kestrel @Quinn My favorite thing about the check I did on it before sending off the report was how it was described as 'a scam specifically targeting men' on the IC3/FBI alert page about it.

...then proceeding to read the comments from dozens of women in their 70s piping up about how they were hit by it. (It was a dazzlingly high percentage of the commenters.) I was at turns annoyed that they claimed this was targeted at men when it was obvious it was scattershot, and amused that it was so badly targeted if in fact it somehow was. I mean, dang, at least edit that later.

OMFG my state is apparently stupid.

Got three letters from the state tax office today, claiming I owe business taxes for three years.

They are basing the amount owed...

...on my husband's income. Not mine.

As in, they want business taxes from me based on my husband's already normally taxed income -- and he works out of state, so he pays income tax to both our state and the one he works in already.

And they want shit-tons of fees.

We have our taxes professionally prepared to conform to all the technicalities just like this. (Irony: some years, that costs more than my income for that year... even is.)

So I get to spend the morning calling and yelling at people, then calling our tax lady over at H&R Block to yell at them even more and doubtless sic their legal team on this idiot's ass.

Bonus irony: up to $1000/year of 'craft work' profits are not even subject to tax in my state. With the major depression and inability to work for the past three years, uh, yeah. I haven't even made that $1k/year. I might maybe have hit $1k for those three years combined.

There's gonna be yelling. A lot of lispy Sylvester-the-Cat stupid spluttery yelling, thanks to the teeth from hell, but they're not going to stop me from the yelling, nope.