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i've also learned that apparently using sedimentary rocks as building materials makes your building able to record psychic trauma
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:28 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 14:48 |
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Benagain posted:What if cats are ghosts Cats are the natural predators of ghosts.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:34 |
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Discworld post: I'm almost done with Reaper Man and I am TBH not as into this one I guess my biggest gripe is that Death's story and Poons' story don't seem so far to be connected in any major way? I guess with Death temporarily out of service the life force built up and it made Ankh-Morpork a target for the mall predator but that's all pretty abstract. The problem of there suddenly being mischievous ghosts everywhere kind of got dropped in favor of mall attack, meanwhile Death is off in the countryside just sort of doing his own thing. How many times does Pratchett go back to the well of "Death is retiring or on vacation or something" because so far it's happened at least twice I also still wish that wizards would do more magic. Like, I get that's part of the Discworld wizard concept (wizards CAN do magic but mostly don't because they are quite lazy and more interested in eating large quantities of food) but when a major character is a wizard and he is under direct threat I think it'd make sense if he cast the occasional spell in response to it? I dunno maybe the problem is that my baby is going through a sleep regression and I'm tired as gently caress reading this book. The concept of malls being a predator that lays eggs in cities and infests them with living shopping carts is a cool idea, though -- I always liked the horror concept of buildings that weren't built or designed by humans and just sort of grew according to the whims of some alien presence to trap you in a labyrinth, a la House Of Leaves or The Backrooms. The most unintentionally scary building I've ever been in IRL in my opinion (a model train museum in rural NJ called Northlandz which is also full of creepy doll displays for some reason) gave me this feeling too. loquacius has issued a correction as of 15:37 on Jan 2, 2024 |
# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:34 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:i've also learned that apparently using sedimentary rocks as building materials makes your building able to record psychic trauma No no, you need reinforcement bars of pure selenium. Also lol finish Reaper Man, you might like the ending. Agreed that it's basically two stories taped together though.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:35 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:i've also learned that apparently using sedimentary rocks as building materials makes your building able to record psychic trauma the psychic trauma of having been built out of crumbly poo poo
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:35 |
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I need to do a full-on Discworld reread sometime. Maybe that will be my reading project this year. It's been way too long for some of those books. I also haven't read some of his later books because I found his post-Alzheimers decline to be a bit too heartbreaking, but I could probably steel myself against it now.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:45 |
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Nichael posted:Oh no, she went murder-nazi too? That sucks, because she's pretty funny in that. she is hilarious, such a good writer and performer, but she unfollowed me 10/8 and started making weird subtweets about pro-Palestinian stuff and liking Ziofreak posts lol
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:49 |
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docbeard posted:I need to do a full-on Discworld reread sometime. Maybe that will be my reading project this year. It's been way too long for some of those books. I also haven't read some of his later books because I found his post-Alzheimers decline to be a bit too heartbreaking, but I could probably steel myself against it now. I can't speak to the very last books but my favorite one, Going Postal, was released in 2004, so there is absolutely some gold there I slept on this series for too long and am enjoying my readthrough even if it is a capital-P Project. Reaper Man came out directly after what have so far been my least-favorite books (Eric and Moving Pictures) so it's possible he just went through a doldrums period between Guards! Guards! and Small Gods.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:50 |
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the moist von lipwig trilogy is my favorite even if the train one is weak
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:53 |
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Safety Factor posted:Over the last six months or so I've watched a lot of Ghost adventures with a few friends over discord. We just put it on when we're hanging out and bullshitting. It's dumb as hell, but also really entertaining. They're always doing dumb, goofy poo poo to piss off the ghosts. Sometimes Zak Bagans gets possessed and acts weird. Every few episodes they bust out a new piece of equipment that does... something??? to detect ghosts. Like in one episode they busted out some PVC tubes full of water to reduce echoes or some poo poo. Or another involved a tesla coil. I have no idea how these were meant to work. play Phasmophobia. its Ghost Hunters: The Game and it owns
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:54 |
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loquacius posted:the scariest thing about ghosts is that they are super lame and weak and if they attack you you literally won't notice it until you spot superficial damage hours or days later
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 15:57 |
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Ranking of recurring Pratchett Tropes I have noticed in order from most-favorite to least-favorite 1. Disgraced cynic is charged with reviving once-great, now-defunct public service in libertarian paradise 2. Main cast foils a conspiracy to revive the Ankh-Morpork monarchy 3. Concept of fantasy craftsman's guild for trade that maybe shouldn't have a guild (eg clowns) thoroughly explored 4. Ancient evil with mind of its own surfaces in the guise of a modern-day cultural concept (eg malls or golden-age Hollywood) 5. Wizards never do any actual magic and are mostly just fantasy academics 6. Death is taking a little break and now things are getting a little wacky!!! 7. Main character and secondary character have no romantic chemistry but get married or something because why not, this might as well happen I guess RandolphCarter posted:the moist von lipwig trilogy is my favorite even if the train one is weak Moist owns Vimes is pretty cool but he is, I am sorry to report, a cop. Moist is a criminal which is much cooler than being a cop.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:00 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:not once have I ever found a random scratch on my arm or leg and thought "I must have been attacked by a ghost and not realized it" but this is a pretty common occurrence apparently
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:00 |
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loquacius posted:
Rincewind is my dude, my guy. I am his #2 fan, only because goddess of luck loves him more.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:06 |
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loquacius posted:I can't speak to the very last books but my favorite one, Going Postal, was released in 2004, so there is absolutely some gold there I think this was right around the period before he settled into a groove of writing around the same groups of characters (the Watch, the Lancre Witches, the University) for most books, yeah. Vimes is a cop but he's also a noir protagonist, so basically the lone decent person in a sea of corruption, which is an archetype I will always have time for in fiction. "Con man being backed into doing good things under duress" is one I also enjoy, so of course I like Moist. (My girlfriend does not, and I have made peace with this.) I liked Going Postal a lot, didn't really care for Making Money though (and I don't think I've read whatever the third one in that cycle is).
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:11 |
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My last year of college, I was sharing a house with a few other folks, and I was reading Soul Music at the time and left it sitting out, as one does. Which lead to an uncomfortably earnest conversation with one of my housemates about why was I reading a book with a demon on the cover and that's when I decided that living situation was maybe not for me any more.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:12 |
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KirbyKhan posted:Rincewind is my dude, my guy. I am his #2 fan, only because goddess of luck loves him more. Rincewind is the only wizard who has an excuse not to do magic, and obviously I'm a fan. It's more when other wizards show up and continue to not do magic that I get annoyed. I've only read one Witches book so far but it's a breath of fresh air that the witches actually do magic sometimes
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:13 |
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loquacius posted:Rincewind is the only wizard who has an excuse not to do magic, and obviously I'm a fan. It's more when other wizards show up and continue to not do magic that I get annoyed. The difference in attitude between the witches (especially Granny) and the wizards toward the magic they mostly don't do is pretty fun too.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:17 |
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ScootsMcSkirt posted:play Phasmophobia. its Ghost Hunters: The Game and it owns Yeah, Phasmophobia is great. Played it a couple years ago and went into it completely blind. It got a little less fun when I actually learned how things worked, but it's been long enough by now that I've probably forgotten most of it. I should hassle my friends and ghost hunt again.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:17 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:i've also learned that apparently using sedimentary rocks as building materials makes your building able to record psychic trauma The Stone Tape rules
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:36 |
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oh i also watched the first episode of the new Frasier and by the end of it, boy, that Frasier was Frasiering
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:41 |
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I haven't seen it but it doesn't feel right without most of the cast
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:43 |
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his son is Marty, his nephew is Niles, the son's girlfriend with the baby is Daphne, the Psych Dept. Manager is Ros, and the other professor is to make Kelsey Grammer look relatively younger
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:46 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:his son is Marty, his nephew is Niles, the son's girlfriend with the baby is Daphne, the Psych Dept. Manager is Ros, and the other professor is to make Kelsey Grammer look relatively younger assuming that the other old professor fills the Bulldog niche
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:48 |
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good to hear that the son is being Marty though, my expectation was that Kelsey Grammer's dream project would have the token millennial be a strawman a la Last Man Standing or something
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:49 |
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a lil yeah, his whole thing is being a drunk who doesn't care about his job because he's got tenure so he's there for the Dept. Head to score zingers on
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:49 |
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the son has tenure?? the last person to get tenure in the US was in 1997
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:51 |
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Pepe Silvia Browne posted:his son is Marty, his nephew is Niles, the son's girlfriend with the baby is Daphne, the Psych Dept. Manager is Ros, and the other professor is to make Kelsey Grammer look relatively younger who’s Eddie
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:51 |
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loquacius posted:good to hear that the son is being Marty though, my expectation was that Kelsey Grammer's dream project would have the token millennial be a strawman a la Last Man Standing or something No, that role has been given to David, Niles and Daphne's Zoomer son who is a freshman in college. and he's pretty good at making it not just a sort of David Hyde Pierce impression So Frasier's son Freddy decided to follow in his Grandfather's footsteps and dropped out of Harvard to become a Fireman (because that's much less problematic in 2024 than Cop lol) so he is wise to all of Frasier's psych talk while still being grounded as a kind of Man Cave millennial. Pepe Silvia Browne has issued a correction as of 16:56 on Jan 2, 2024 |
# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:53 |
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i say swears online posted:the son has tenure?? the last person to get tenure in the US was in 1997 no, the professor. sorry I was replying to your post about the professor being bulldog
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:53 |
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Pretzel Rod Serling posted:who’s Eddie not clear yet but I'm assuming the baby will fill in for Eddie
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:53 |
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docbeard posted:The difference in attitude between the witches (especially Granny) and the wizards toward the magic they mostly don't do is pretty fun too. At beginning of The Thief of Time you get a glimpse at a young Nanny Ogg. There's a line that shows she is freshly credentialed like "she was still at the stage of wearing her witch hat inside her home" that really captured that med school idiosyncracy.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 16:55 |
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watching Chernobyl again and it's absolutely bananas that Mazin thinks it's anti-communist
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:04 |
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is it hosed up the only pratchett I’ve read is good omens? I think I tried reading the color purple once and wasn’t feeling it
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:10 |
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Xaris posted:is it hosed up the only pratchett I’ve read is good omens? I think I tried reading the color purple once and wasn’t feeling it do you mean the colour of magic lol
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:12 |
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theflyingexecutive posted:watching Chernobyl again and it's absolutely bananas that Mazin thinks it's anti-communist it might have seemed that way at first but then covid happened and then it was more like "wow a large government addressed a problem and actually solved it, that's weird"
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:15 |
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Xaris posted:is it hosed up the only pratchett I’ve read is good omens? I think I tried reading the color purple once and wasn’t feeling it Once in my twenties I tried starting The Colour Of Magic and A Game Of Thrones on the same day and as a result of that comparison I didn't read Pratchett again for like ten years Continuity is very loose and the beginning is not the best place to start. Someone rec'd Guards! Guards! to me as an intro book and it worked
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:21 |
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I was doing imperialism at England in my early 20s. I found The Thief of Time paperback on a bookshelf in a pub called the King's Head or The Hog's Rump or whatever. Anyways I just started reading it and about 2 pints of Stella I was all in. I just walked out with that book like it belonged to me because that's how imperialism works.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:27 |
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Guards! Guards! is the first one I ever read, yeah. I would say either that or Wyrd Sisters would be my recommendations as starting points, though really the vast majority of the books stand on their own. This gets less true for the later ones but really the only one I can think of that I'd recommend NOT starting with is Night Watch (which is otherwise probably my favorite thing Pratchett's written), because it really hits hardest if you already know the major characters. The first few books are not really representative of the series as a whole, either.
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:27 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 14:48 |
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The first few books have some great characters and concepts in them but they absolutely do suffer from Pratchett repeatedly trying to lampoon Conan the Barbarian, which is much less relevant in the 2020s than it was at the time, rather than settle fully into his own poo poo
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# ? Jan 2, 2024 17:50 |