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General chat thread

Reader mode
Daytripper said:
How do I make my fics less cringe?
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Unfortunately, cringe is relative. If you have gotten any reviews, though. that called your works cringe, perhaps carefully consider if they specify which parts are the cause. Some of the criticism might be worthwhile. But if they call you and/or your works cringe and don't specify why or how, ignore them. They clearly have nothing worthwhile to say.
 
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Scary moment this morning; had a very brief power outage then it looked like my computer didn't work anymore despite the power supply/surge protector it's plugged into.

Luckily, it just turned out I wasn't pressing the power button correctly.

So I'll carry that feeling of being a supa smot guy for the whole day.
 
MadGreenSon said:
Scary moment this morning; had a very brief power outage then it looked like my computer didn't work anymore despite the power supply/surge protector it's plugged into.

Luckily, it just turned out I wasn't pressing the power button correctly.

So I'll carry that feeling of being a supa smot guy for the whole day.
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Dude, get a UPS. It'll change your life. I can't tell you the number of times I'm glad I have it, especially with the power around here being somewhat dodgy even on the day-to-day.
 
NuclearBird said:
Can we expand this to weather forecasters?
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This one I feel is entirely unfair.

What you're probably complaining about, what MOST people complain about when it comes to weather forecasts: Chance of Rain.

Yes, they absolutely decided to divine the chance of rain for the two square feet of ground you occupy. Yes, specifically you. Because it's not like they have an entire city/county to cover, is it?

People, when they say '70% chance of rain' that does not mean there's a 70% chance of rain happening, that means they estimate about 70% of their coverage area is going to get rained on. Probably. Clouds can decide to pour unexpectedly or hold their water and there's nothing the weather man can do about it. Yes, weather science can predict some things, but the system is so massive with so many factors that their accuracy is always going to be somewhat suspect.

The weather is a GUESS people. An educated guess, but a guess nonetheless. The people who report it don't deserve your shit unless they're actually deliberately ignoring the expert's predictions and making shit up.
 
Reminds me of a K-drama I watched on Netflix a while back... the main characters worked for the Korean Meteorological Agency, and I dunno if it was a cultural thing or just something the show did, but they were always giving forecasts as if they were absolute, never a "chance of hail" or "the storm will probably follow this path"
 
MadGreenSon said:
Scary moment this morning; had a very brief power outage then it looked like my computer didn't work anymore despite the power supply/surge protector it's plugged into.

Luckily, it just turned out I wasn't pressing the power button correctly.

So I'll carry that feeling of being a supa smot guy for the whole day.
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The exact thing happened to me a couple months back, the power strip reset and the computer wouldn't turn on. All I needed to do was fiddle with the cables on the back of it.
 

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXY71hCkLCE


Just an old video that's lived in my head rent-free since the first time I saw it- well over ten years ago, I think, though the oldest copy on YT is ten years. Watch this copy instead, they used filler so the fantastic ending isn't ruined by over-video ads.
 
MadGreenSon said:
So... I just now found out my Dad is considered a Vietnam veteran. This is despite the fact that during the Vietnam war he was on a ballistic missile sub cruising around the Atlantic ocean.
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How does that logic work?

By that logic Grandpa gets counted for Korea despite being posted to an early warning station in Europe
 
MadGreenSon said:
So... I just now found out my Dad is considered a Vietnam veteran. This is despite the fact that during the Vietnam war he was on a ballistic missile sub cruising around the Atlantic ocean.
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Imperator Pax said:
How does that logic work?

By that logic Grandpa gets counted for Korea despite being posted to an early warning station in Europe
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Highlord said:
Veteran status is Veteran status. If you put on the uniform and served, it doesn't matter what theater you were in.
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If you ever served officially in any military in any capacity, you are a veteran. However, most people that are called veterans of a specific incident/conflict are implying they were actively involved in said thing, which might not be true. There were people, like the National Guard or international base staff, that were military members of the era of a given conflict, but never directly were part of the conflict itself.
 
Hatless Nuance said:
If you ever served officially in any military in any capacity, you are a veteran. However, most people that are called veterans of a specific incident/conflict are implying they were actively involved in said thing, which might not be true. There were people, like the National Guard or international base staff, that were military members of the era of a given conflict, but never directly were part of the conflict itself.
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Pretty much. Because he was cruising around with a brace of Polaris missiles during the Vietnam war, he's considered a Vietnam veteran and it was even put on his headstone.
 
Hatless Nuance said:
If you ever served officially in any military in any capacity, you are a veteran. However, most people that are called veterans of a specific incident/conflict are implying they were actively involved in said thing, which might not be true. There were people, like the National Guard or international base staff, that were military members of the era of a given conflict, but never directly were part of the conflict itself.
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Yes, I am aware, but I would not consider a man who didn't serve in country or in support of the actions in theater to be a veteran of the conflict.

A clean sleeves in the guard is still a veteran, but I wouldn't call him a veteran of the conflict. [and now I sound like one of those crotchety old men at the VFW or the Legion that I hate]
 
So, there is a story concept I have that won't leave me alone but is being stubborn about not developing. Part of me has a feeling that maybe it needs to be split into multiple stories that connect together somewhere. But I want to have enough to dig into without it feeling confused.

The most vague element that I wanted to make a sci-fi xianxia maybe taking some inspiration from star wars?

It has been bugging me for like over half a year now, but I can't get a good enough grip to really get started. The biggest issue is that I am having trouble thinking of core conflicts for the story. Normally when I have some meaningful themes to work with getting conflict out of that isn't crazy hard.

Anyways it seems like the kind of story that would be best served by hookiing the main characters motivations into the conflict and themes of the story.

Star wars kind of has a light and dark thing going on but by default dark is evil essentially. Although there is also the emotional connection. And the prequels and other media added more nuance, but theme of family is also kind of woven through it.

On the most basic level I kind of wanted to subvert the "dark is evil" and try to maybe go for something more rooted in Yin and Yang.

However if I go that way, where does the conflict come from? And who is the villain?

I guess maybe I could go in a more avatar/legend of Korea like direction but in space?

Trying to work with a more eastern style element system, or maybe throwing in some stereotypical xianxia tropes like flying swords could be fun if it doesn't go overboard.

Trying to explore some of the ethics of transhumanism, cybernetics, etc. And comparing that to some of the similar strivings in the realm of daoist magic. Spaceships and flying swords. Magical immortals, cyborgs. brain uploads vs. Ascending to the spirit realm. And to to try diving into more sci-fi questions but with the added complexity of magic putting a finger on the scale.

I think part of the problem might be that I have too many possible themes and can't find something to narrow it down to that doesn't feel like too few.

Family, loyalty, yin and yang, authoritarianism, technology, the soul, and magic, the role of emotion, the evils of slavery, etc.

I want the gross setting, theme, and major conflicts to work together.

As for setting I could go for something sort of like the old republic, chaos, wizards as quasi feudal lords.

Or maybe something like the Han china But in space? An empire of a different sort than the one in star wars heavy laden by corruption and facing rebellion due to the weight of the buerocracy. Maybe borrow some plot points from romance of the three kingdoms but reinterpreted and with new different focal characters and the space daoist wizards inserted.

Could also go for some sort of clone wars equivalent by handled differently so the separatists were more in the right?
Maybe borrowing some elements from th yellow turban rebellion or perhaps going for a more anti-colonial direction? Since I want to take an original direction with things. By still ask some similar questions yet give different answers. While still feeling clearly distinct.

I thought about maybe going for staffs and fire or other elemental themed magic rather than the psionic-like force?

But things just aren't coming together. I feel like eventually if it keeps digging at me with the potential there will eventually be a breakthrough. But wh knows how long that will take, usually I word have wither forgotten, dropped, or actually started getting something concrete written. I don't even have a main character yet. But I am not quite sure how to get things to be cohesive enough. I have a feeling that once I get it to stick that things will flow from there though.

I guess I thought by posting here someone might say something or help me narrow things down enough.

I had been trying to restart some of my stories after a brief period of busyness of a couple weeks, but this old idea bit me and wouldn't let go. I have been able to consider and work on others a little but this one still is getting in the way, so I figure ifi can make enough progress here then it should allow me to get back to working on my simpler stories which are easy to write.
MAybe I get something really cool out of it. Hard to tell.

I thought about posting in th idea thread. But thus isn't th sort of idea where other peoples opinions effect whether I do it or not, rather simply whether I can manage to gett it to work.
 
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The more I read about French conduct (especially in their colonies) between 1840 and 1980, the more Prussophilic I become.

It's like they were trying to be as contemptible as possible.
 
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Treble said:
The more I read about French conduct (especially in their colonies) between 1840 and 1980, the more Prussophilic I become.

It's like they were trying to be as contemptible as possible.
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The only reason Napoleon isn't considered one of the most vile war criminals and monsters in human history was because the 20th century was filled with scores of people trying to one-up him.

Not even joking half the stuff I've read about him alone have convinced me he was just pure garbage poured into a French uniform.
 
Treble said:
The more I read about French conduct (especially in their colonies) between 1840 and 1980, the more Prussophilic I become.

It's like they were trying to be as contemptible as possible.
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I hadn't read as much about that period. I heard they behavied badly in Algiers. But that they were a bit nicer in the Americas?

And that more generally they had issues with robber barons and were a bit nasty politically? I am not the biggest fan of the prussians but they were interesting. It seems like that if you look at most European nations or even nations in general there was a period when they were pretty abhorrent.
 
khatun said:
The only reason Napoleon isn't considered one of the most vile war criminals and monsters in human history was because the 20th century was filled with scores of people trying to one-up him.

Not even joking half the stuff I've read about him alone have convinced me he was just pure garbage poured into a French uniform.
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Napoleon was an incredibly charismatic speaker, an effective emperor and delegater, a decent (but far from flawless) general and military leader, a patriotic Frenchman, and a selfish warmongering bastard.

A good leader, but not a good person, really.
 
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Napoleon's legal reforms also laid the groundwork for the legal systems of modern European countries; the Napoleonic Code covered everything from education, taxation to governmental structure. The Code became the template for legal reforms across the entire continent, to the point even the British began to implement parts of it in their own society. Of course the people who took lessons from him the most happened to be the Prussians (another people who seem to send Brits seething in apoplectic rage), to great and terrible effect.
 
Ranmabomb said:
I hadn't read as much about that period. I heard they behavied badly in Algiers. But that they were a bit nicer in the Americas?

And that more generally they had issues with robber barons and were a bit nasty politically? I am not the biggest fan of the prussians but they were interesting. It seems like that if you look at most European nations or even nations in general there was a period when they were pretty abhorrent.
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It's not just about how vile they were, but also about how pathetic they were in their vileness. At least British and German imperialists could honestly claim they were genuinely pretty tough. France was only capable of fighting well when facing helpless civilians or slapdash militias, and go down like a dropped rock when facing any enemy with even the slightest ability to defeat their armies.

And then had the audacity to act tough in front of their much stronger allies because they know the almost infinite patience the US has for its allies.
 
Goodness is it a day ending in 'Y' that Treble is seething over the mere existence and achievements of England's historical rivals that haven't fallen and decayed to the same degree as it?

Also, it's a Hell of a fucking thing to claim France lacks true military capability when you're fucking British. Last time I checked the British Armed Forces were in the sorriest state they were since Dunkirk.

To say nothing of the sheer audacity to grandstand over France's colonial exploits...
 
khatun said:
The only reason Napoleon isn't considered one of the most vile war criminals and monsters in human history was because the 20th century was filled with scores of people trying to one-up him.

Not even joking half the stuff I've read about him alone have convinced me he was just pure garbage poured into a French uniform.
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It wasn't just napoleon, tallyrand and robesipiere all deserved to be put up against a wall. as did degaulle and petain the great irony is that Bonny is the one who remarked that tallyrand was shit in a silk stocking but of course the irony is that all of these men were impressive political orators all the same and competent organizers of men
 
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NuclearBird said:
rivals that haven't fallen and decayed to the same degree as it?
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Mate, France got its ass beat by North Vietnam. They're the only colonial power to get legitimately beaten and driven out by force. The rest left because they were broke and the US and Soviets forced them to. France defied the US's decrees and tried to fight it out, and that's why they're called the Fifth Republic of France.

If anything, they fell the lowest of all Colonial Powers.
 
Treble said:
Mate, France got its ass beat by North Vietnam. They're the only colonial power to get legitimately beaten and driven out by force. The rest left because they were broke and the US and Soviets forced them to. France defied the US's decrees and tried to fight it out, and that's why they're called the Fifth Republic of France.

If anything, they fell the lowest of all Colonial Powers.
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I think the Ottomans during it's reshuffling had it better. They kept bits of Greece they took from the Byzantine Empire and kept the capital.
 
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