Thomas-C's recent activity
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Comment on The Florentine Diamond resurfaces after 100 years in hiding. Legendary jewel of the Habsburgs not seen since 1919 and thought lost, has actually been safe in a Canadian bank for decades. (gifted link) in ~humanities.history
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C Link ParentI am quietly cheering on any Bubba Truthers out there for the sheer entertainment value of watching what happens if such a thing is real. I am in it for maximum absurdity. Deal with that, all you...I am quietly cheering on any Bubba Truthers out there for the sheer entertainment value of watching what happens if such a thing is real. I am in it for maximum absurdity. Deal with that, all you politicians everyone dislikes. Can this machine cope with another Clinton blowjob scandal or will it be the end of us? Can bill get his revenge or will the forces of darkness convince enough people that it was good, actually? If it happens, we will be able to answer these questions and more in the next episode
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C Link ParentWe will watch this event play out, but we don't know from our current position how (or whether) it will matter. "Might buckle" is what it says. It might, it might not. Could be it's just one more...We will watch this event play out, but we don't know from our current position how (or whether) it will matter. "Might buckle" is what it says. It might, it might not. Could be it's just one more thing in the long line, could be it's the end of the line. It's a shock to a weakened system. With how unstable the structure already is, anything disruptive takes on greater potential.
I don't myself believe in a savior of the present. Such a figure is supposed to have come and gone if I take what scripture I'm familiar with seriously. And, if I take some more controversial literature seriously, such figures take a back seat to the shifting of conditions anyway, so I choose not to pin hopes on big people for both reasons. It won't be so simple, what happens later. All I really mean to say is that this particular story has a lot of potential, so if OP has more of a serious interest, bruh go check it out it is some cray-zee shit. The array of people involved and their positions within the structure, the more you see of it, pretty much guarantees a wild time of some kind or other.
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Comment on Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why? in ~tech
Thomas-C Link Parent"That's the way the cookie crumbles" is something I heard somewhere, at some point, is the best I got on that one"That's the way the cookie crumbles" is something I heard somewhere, at some point, is the best I got on that one
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Comment on What is going on with the Epstein files? in ~society
Thomas-C LinkI got you homie imma catch you up To stick to basics: the "files" is in reference to all of the material the federal government has about Epstein, his network of clients and associates, and their...I got you homie imma catch you up
To stick to basics: the "files" is in reference to all of the material the federal government has about Epstein, his network of clients and associates, and their dealings/depravity. They have not been released, in the sense no comprehensive record has been put out by the federal government, unredacted and without interference. Folks expected it because it was an explicit promise Trump made when he was campaigning, that folks would be given the info along with JFK and MLK and some other stuff. They've done some here and there but it's been a poor showing, with obvious effort to obscure what connections the president had to the people involved as well as what Epstein was up to. More has come from folks leaking stuff and as pressure builds the federal government is acting more desperately. Just recently congress let out a trove of emails that are so on the nose terrible that it's got folks across the politics saying, basically, "just fucking do it already". Folks believe the admin less and less, congress is doing dumb shit to avoid releasing stuff, it is both the biggest and dumbest coverup.
You can go way deep on it by checking out Whitney Webb's site, Unlimited Hangout if you like. She's been going through it for quite a while. It's way bigger than just Trump - the whole of the western empire might buckle, hard, if the full picture gets assembled. What little credibility remains in our political systems/aristocrats will pretty much vaporize and who knows what happens then. Have fun!
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Comment on Posts vs. comments. Where do you fall and why? in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkI don't think much about it. I'm not really looking for anything, I just see stuff that catches my interest and compose some thoughts when I got em. I do try to be fun to read - you're giving me...I don't think much about it. I'm not really looking for anything, I just see stuff that catches my interest and compose some thoughts when I got em. I do try to be fun to read - you're giving me some time so I wanna give you something that's worth some time. If folks are on about something, I'll try to fit in what I've got where it seems appropriate, where it fits in the context of the conversation. I just go where I go and say what I say and leave the rest to fate. If it's a bunch of top level comments then that's what it is. Just the way my cookie be crumbling.
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Comment on Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta's internal documents in ~tech
Thomas-C Link ParentI'm sure there's some advanced legalese/analyst language out there Facebook would lean on to say why a vast chunk of scam content doesn't actually count, or wasn't included. "Ah, you see, these...I'm sure there's some advanced legalese/analyst language out there Facebook would lean on to say why a vast chunk of scam content doesn't actually count, or wasn't included. "Ah, you see, these ads for fake diet pills and reverse mortgages came from an affiliate so they're not included. We're only measuring what's been put out by non affiliate, automated ad networks operating on thursdays, outside the borders of the US and only during winter, so you're gonna have to talk to someone else about those. Not liable!"
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Comment on Valve announces new hardware: Steam Frame, Steam Controller, and Steam Machine in ~games
Thomas-C LinkDamnit Valve. I already got hooked with the deck, now you're tossing me a cool headset, a GameCube, and a good controller. Honestly the controller is the thing I most want - I have tons of custom...Damnit Valve. I already got hooked with the deck, now you're tossing me a cool headset, a GameCube, and a good controller. Honestly the controller is the thing I most want - I have tons of custom layouts for all sorts of stuff in my library. I play on the deck more than my bigger machine because of those layouts, they're more comfortable and in some instances make the game more interesting to interact with. Being able to flip over to a more powerful machine and use the same things, yes please. I will be heretical and say, finally I can be free of the mouse and keyboard forever - your day has come, my poor, strangely damaged wrists. I don't know why, but KB/m becomes painful after about an hour. Controllers though, no such limit.
I have to wonder how they'll go about supporting these once they're out. The deck got constant improvement, if they've got this array of hardware out there they can do some more "ecosystem" type stuff, I'd be interested in what comes along. Crossing the streams by running the Frame off a mobile chip seems like the beginning of bigger things. It would be sick to one day have steam input include touchscreen layouts/controls and just run all your stuff on anything.
The cube, if its priced well, is phenomenal. If their goal was to be hitting 60 at 4k with upscaling, I am confident me with my 2k monitor will be happy with what it can do.
Sorry wallet, I know I know we were doing good there for a while but I'm about to blow all that to hell.
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Comment on Facebook and Instagram are paradises for scammers, reveal Meta's internal documents in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkI'm actually left surprised the number isn't higher. A while back, I decided to trek into the heart of darkness and try to untangle the array of accounts my grandmother had made. With Facebook...I'm actually left surprised the number isn't higher.
A while back, I decided to trek into the heart of darkness and try to untangle the array of accounts my grandmother had made. With Facebook alone, there were six, because she just made new ones when she thought it didn't work, or she got a new email address. Her activities made it pretty clear she was elderly, so huge chunks of her page would be different kinds of old people scam material, info harvesting quizzes, and these days ai slop content. When I sat back and thought about what the experience of this was, I could only think of the word "brainrot", because no other word captured the gestalt. Its just a mind melting thing, a beam of fire that cauterizes the neurons. My goal was to get rid of the extra accounts, take the most recent and whittle things down to only friends and family. I tried to show her how stuff wasn't real, how none of the offers were worth her attention, and for a while honestly I felt like I was just pissing in the wind with how completely incredulous she was over it. I see her friends now and then, and I've asked around - they're all like that. Near total disbelief that Facebook didn't give a shit and didn't enforce anything, despite the mountains of dumb crap they were sifting through on a daily basis. Can't accept that for all intents and purposes you can just do crimes there and no one gives a shit.
Eventually I got her account cleaned up, but not without being left with a profound sense that the elders who are not yet lost are in need of some form of rescue. My best strat so far has been to talk about how lame and boring Facebook is and that seems to reach a few now and then. Like honestly do you really want to know what [woman you know is a crazy asshole] said today? You really enjoy watching ole Earl repost Twitters from the nether hells? Don't you wanna, I dunno, watch a video of some actual puppies instead of this AI shit and ads for fake government stimulus checks? A lot of the time, when they see who is to them a younger person (they don't notice the ...steadily... increasing amount of grey in my hair) just totally shit all over how awful the platform is, its like it snaps em back a bit and they do other stuff. But, and I suppose this is the constant issue, what I can't do is be around to do that all the time, and the platform is accessible 24/7. It is impossible to really compete against a bored moment alone, and I have totally seen folks slip back into nonsense because they gave in on a bored weekend.
It makes me wonder sometimes. Can there be an app, hidden from view, that causes minor technical problems? Nothing huge, a login loop or bad captchas, if they open Facebook/insta/etc? I feel like small stuff would go a long way considering the demographics. Share it within the legions of clever nephews, conduct a covert sabotage of the platforms by way of compulsory family tech support. Or a ready made server machine, operable from home that serves up a fake Facebook full of actual family memorabilia to g-maw's electronics. Something.
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Comment on Post breakup ramblings in ~life
Thomas-C LinkFolks have said a lot I would say, so to avoid some repetition I'm just gonna hone in on something. You wrote that you resented the idea that someone else could make you happier. You then wrote...Folks have said a lot I would say, so to avoid some repetition I'm just gonna hone in on something. You wrote that you resented the idea that someone else could make you happier. You then wrote out where you stood on why that is. It sounds to me like you don't really resent that idea, but rather that it was told to you, which would mean resenting the person for having said it. If that is true, let that be gone from your life, along with this person. Forgive it within, consider its merits, and be free to see who else comes along. I'm saying so because I've made my own mistakes, and one of them was to hold that same resentment. I reasoned it out, I came up with a compelling narrative about harboring it. People agreed with me; it felt justified. But when someone else did come along, the resentment was still there, and it meant losing them too when they came to have doubts. I brought forth resentment that was not for them, and pushed them away. When someone tells you something like that, that they think you'd be happier with someone else, it is a deep expression, a final action that belies true concern. I know its cliché to say but its a cliche for a reason - loving something enough means knowing when to let it go, and choosing to say so is a brave kindness. They showed you they cared, one last time. She could have just disappeared, plenty of people do that. She could have lashed out, admonished you for your wrongs. Instead she told you why, and let you do with that what you will. Take what you can from it and travel on, toward what's next. You can move more freely, and faster, with less weight. Sincerely, good luck to you. There is a hill beyond this valley. Just keep going, and you'll reach it.
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Comment on Leaker reveals which Pixels are vulnerable to Cellebrite phone hacking in ~tech
Thomas-C LinkFor anybody curious, on top of security features/under the hood changes, GrapheneOS gives you a lot of control over how the phone/apps operate, which might appeal to you even if the cellebrite...For anybody curious, on top of security features/under the hood changes, GrapheneOS gives you a lot of control over how the phone/apps operate, which might appeal to you even if the cellebrite thing doesn't freak you out.
Apps can have permissions approved/revoked at any time. When you install an app, if it requests Network permissions you're given the ability to deny before it is installed, and afterward you can flip back and forth as needed. You can do the same with Sensors, which to my knowledge just about nothing lets you manage. The phone has a log of which apps used which permissions. You can deny all permissions and plenty apps still work just fine. If you use apps like RethinkDNS or Invizible Pro, you can firewall everything and see a log of connection attempts.
Storage can be encrypted, and apps can be given restricted access to storage in place of whatever storage permission they request. For instance, I have a game emulator that can only access the one folder where my games are. The app works like normal but it can only see the one location. It doesn't have access to anywhere else in the filesystem, and has the option to grant access to more if desired.
You can set timers on Bluetooth and WiFi, so that if no connection is established it will shut those features/components off. You can limit what type of cellular connection the phone uses. The phone can obscure its name from networks and randomize its MAC address with each connection. You can set a timer for automatic rebooting, so that the device can go back to BFU on its own/when you go to bed. You can set a Duress Password - a passcode that causes the phone to wipe itself, that can be utilized on the unlock screen or in any field where you can type.
You can create separate profiles, with their own access to apps and phone functionality. You could, for example have a profile with google play services, that can't do calls/text and can't access anything other than those play service apps. You can change the behavior of the charging port, even disable it while the phone is on. The OS comes with an Auditor app which, set up properly can help you know if your software has changed without your knowledge.
You don't have to mess with any of it, but you can and that's what makes it good. There's a lot under the hood you don't need to care about to benefit from. If a phone is a cop in your pocket, thus far it seems like Graphene is the most sure way to fire that asshole and get your cool gadget back. I've been very satisfied since switching to it.
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C Link ParentOmg thank you, that is exactly the sort of thing I like to have Bless thee, kind travelerOmg thank you, that is exactly the sort of thing I like to have
Bless thee, kind traveler
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Comment on What games have you been playing, and what's your opinion on them? in ~games
Thomas-C (edited )LinkI've been playing Tactics Ogre: One Vision, a mod of the PSP version of Tactics Ogre. TO is not a game I think most folks recognize, so I'll expound a bit. Tactics Ogre is the precursor game to...I've been playing Tactics Ogre: One Vision, a mod of the PSP version of Tactics Ogre. TO is not a game I think most folks recognize, so I'll expound a bit.
Tactics Ogre is the precursor game to Final Fantasy Tactics. Some of the same people worked on both. Where FFT focuses more on building a small party of five, TO is meant to more closely resemble building an army, with 8-10 units. Its narrative is one of civil war in a medieval realm, with a more subdued approach to its fantastical elements and a lot more emphasis on intrigue/politics. In it you play as a young man leading a militia, a war orphan who grew into a rebel. As he becomes more of a leader you are left to decide what sort of leader he is - one possessed of a sense of loyalty to liege and adherence to the law, or one who lives by his own sense of what is right and just? Perhaps neither? While this plays out, you're exposed to the fantastical nature of the world and become entwined in things beyond the realm of men like any good fantasy game. A lot of what TO did is in FFT; if you really liked one you are well served playing the other.
It was originally a SNES game, got ported to the PSX and Sega Saturn, got remade for the PSP, and then remade again for PC with Tactics Ogre Reborn.
There are really three versions of this experience. The pre-psp titles were more straightforwardly similar to FFT. You built characters and improved them mostly through better gear and good class arrangements. The battles tend to demand 10 members, so you're meant to balance classes with each other to be effective. Characters would die permanently in battle, as part of that goal of simulating an army over a party. Characters leveled individually. The PSP remake ambitiously elaborated, adding in systems for class skills along with reworking the statistics. Classes leveled instead of characters, so you could more easily change out teams to meet new demands. A huge chunk of content was added at the end, with battles that demanded finer command of the mechanics. An issue of the remake though was time, so while the new systems were welcome additions there hadn't been enough testing to really dial in how it all fit together. In the end most of the game could be done by just leveling up and keeping gear up to date - what was new was interesting but not actually very necessary. The very end demanded more of you but that comes well after the narrative has concluded - most folks just wouldn't end up getting that far so a lot of what worked went unnoticed.
The PC port took that setup and tried to sand the rough parts. Combat got faster, skills became simpler, and leveling was made into a more collective thing instead of being focused on character class. It's good for what it is - a revision, with some fantastic music, good voice acting, and a few new things here and there. Seriously the music is just phenomenal, considering a lot of it was originally SNES music the composition is pretty impressive, and they chose nice instruments for the remake's ost.
One Vision takes one step back, to the PSP's setup, and then a momentous leap forward into being that version's full realization. It's a product of nearly ten years of work, to take what all was there and get it all to fit together, hammer out every rough spot and give everything a place. The end result is one of the finest tactical rpg's I've ever played. TO was always my favorite of this type of game but it had clear shortcomings. Some classes weren't very useful, a lot of spells just weren't worth using, and you could barrel through by just leveling a bunch of archers. One Vision corrects for imbalance in all directions, the weak is made strong and the strong is made more contextual. You have to maintain a range of options for dealing with different kinds of opponents, and choosing to use the more obscure stuff doesn't leave you wanting.
I just can't think of anything I would recommend over it for someone who likes those kinds of games. It successfully weaves together the giant collection of ideas lurking around, takes all of the little things the remake tried to do and makes them as worthy of choice as anything else. Imagine chess, where you can choose a set of pieces to bring and slowly improve over time. Your pawn can upgrade to move a little more, your rook can do a diagonal in the right context. Where before doing the diagonal was rarely worth it, now there is ample opportunity, because the context for it more often happens. Your enemies are more smartly designed, and use more of the available repertoire in ways that just didn't occur in the original game (as much, or at all). TO has some secret mechanics/classes and weird shit you can do in the late game, that originally was kind of extraneous but here feels like a real reward.
I would hold it up as the definitive way to experience Tactics Ogre, but beyond that, I think it outdoes much of its genre. My only gripe is I want that PC version music. One Vision genuinely feels like something you should have to pay for, but you don't! If you get the mod you'll need to patch an .iso of the original, but too you can find prepatched copies in the same sorts of places you can find .iso's. It's actually a really good game to have on a phone - the controls are simple, no need for fast reactions or hitting lots of buttons, and you don't need particularly good hardware for it.
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Comment on What we talk about when we talk about sideloading in ~tech
Thomas-C Link ParentSorry it took me a bit - yes! With any app you can approve/revoke permissions whenever, including Network, Sensors, whatever it asks for.Sorry it took me a bit - yes!
With any app you can approve/revoke permissions whenever, including Network, Sensors, whatever it asks for.
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Comment on What we talk about when we talk about sideloading in ~tech
Thomas-C Link ParentI switched over to GrapheneOS a while back and have been really happy with it. The level of control it lets you have over app permissions, storage, network behavior, location services, etc was why...I switched over to GrapheneOS a while back and have been really happy with it. The level of control it lets you have over app permissions, storage, network behavior, location services, etc was why I gave it a look, and in the end I found I could pretty easily switch all my stuff to it, or find workable alternatives quickly. I went from a thoroughly googled device to googleless with minimal struggle. Their web installer took all of about 15 minutes, and thanks to their users I found a list of stuff like banking apps with steps to get them working where it was necessary. My bank app didn't need any special attention.
By default it doesn't have google services, but they do have a sandboxed Google play implementation that, far as I was able to tell, works just fine. You can of course sideload whatever you like. You might have to mess with some of the security options to get some apps working, but we're talking a toggle or two, nothing huge and it is good about telling you exactly what to look at. You can do multiple profiles too, so it would be possible to separate everything google connected from everything else, along with granular control of app permissions and all that. The OS gets updated pretty often, and they've got a support schedule for different models along with channels for getting security updates faster.
You are limited to a Pixel device for now, is the major caveat. Their documentation goes over why that is, but they are working at making the OS available for other models. It's worth a look IMO, very easy to try if you already have a Pixel phone lying around. They don't seem particularly concerned about Google's changes either, just have to see how that develops but I find that encouraging.
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Comment on Escaped monkeys and the post truth era in ~talk
Thomas-C LinkIt's not just you. I tend to think though that the change is more subjective than objective, that the experience you had is closer to pulling off a veil than it is an observation of material...It's not just you.
I tend to think though that the change is more subjective than objective, that the experience you had is closer to pulling off a veil than it is an observation of material conditions shifting. Material conditions have been shifting but the moment you had could have happened at any point with other forms/sources of information. Truth is not quite as solid as we want it to be, or are led to believe. In the end, we have to function as the arbiter of it - one way or another, your own mind ultimately decides what sticks and what doesn't, with or without you being aware of the exact process. What I think you have experienced is the breakdown of a part of the process of justification.
Epistemology tries to understand that, through what observation we can manage of how people come to believe things and what they actually do in their minds when they accept something as true. I won't go too far into that because I'd like to spare you some (intensely) dense reading, but if you're curious, there's the word to start with if you're inclined toward an analytical approach to learning about the experience you have had. I think being more skeptical of the internet as a source of information is a good thing. We should be more wary, not just because a lot is easier to do today but because it always was a kinda flimsy thing to be relying upon.
What I think AI has done has been to take apart at large scale folks' epistemic processes. It doesn't mean truth is impossible to determine, or has no value, but it does shift around a bit what we need to do to reach the determination, and I think "value" is where focus should shift toward. We may need to abandon the search, or as I will try to lay out, put some conditions upon when we go about doing it.
We can't use things like the trivial nature of the story or difficulty producing doctored content to justify belief in what we see. Anyone can do it, anywhere, and networks of machinery can do the distribution without a human touching it. So, at least personally I have made it a habit to ask some different questions. Using the monkey story as an example - if I come across something like that, my first question after reading it isn't "is this true?". It's "OK, so what?". Does it matter in any way, whether this event actually happened, for me? Does anyone I know live there, or know folks there? Does it mean anything where I am, if it is true? If I don't have obvious answers, or even just some speculative answers, 99% of the time I'm moving on. Literally it is time I could use on something else and there's plenty else I'd rather be doing than figuring out the monkey story (like discussing it with you, perhaps ironically). If it comes up some time later I might be inclined to rethink that, but for now, no. I am intentionally abandoning thoughts about anyone other than myself in this moment, because my time is mine and I'd like to spend it on other stuff.
It probably comes off closed minded to think that way, but I would challenge that a bit. Why should I be open to believing this specific story about this specific incident? Why should I consider what the story means for anyone else? Does the truth matter, in this instance? The open mindedness I try to practice is of being open to someone's answers to those kinds of questions. If someone explained, I might reengage and investigate further. That way, my time remains optimized in my favor, but I can still reach for the truth of the story if it turns out relevant/necessary.
I wanna emphasize this isn't some elaborate dismissal of your experience and concern. I think you're pointing out something important about our information environment and your experience is something just about everyone will eventually share. Some won't. I guess they'll end up in machine cults or something, but I like to think most will, and if we can all do some amateur epistemological work it's not as difficult to deal with as it might seem. Nobody needs to do what I'm saying but my hope is that sharing it will be helpful for somebody. Gotta put the degree to work some way or other right?
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Comment on Millennials: How do you feel about nostalgia pandering? in ~talk
Thomas-C LinkI don't enjoy generational language but I'm gonna do a lot of it for a minute while I ramble. In principle I don't think there's anything wrong with drawing from and repeating a bit of the past....I don't enjoy generational language but I'm gonna do a lot of it for a minute while I ramble.
In principle I don't think there's anything wrong with drawing from and repeating a bit of the past. I'm always happy to check out an earnest effort - if someone loved something enough to try to do it themselves, I'm up for seeing their effort. I vastly prefer when folks go their own way, but also recognize that sometimes it's the act of trying to pay homage what leads to that path taking shape.
I don't think there's hard rules about stuff like this, but for millenials in particular I think we do have a problem with accepting/indulging nostalgia too much. The permanent record and algorithmic behaviors of the internet connected world means having to be more intentional with what we engage with, including intentionally ending our time with things when they've run their course. If we don't disengage, they don't stop. Things won't end "naturally", we broke the pattern our elders had developed of being pretty different decade by decade because we have the permanent record as a central feature. It's more than being able to record a tape or keep some cd's, what we enjoy literally keeps returning because we keep rewarding it even when the attempts only barely resemble what we liked. We have to end things ourselves, by ending our engagement. Our burden as millennials is of having to Old Yeller the things we love for the sake of the future, is kinda how I've come to see it.
Yes the last bit is arbitrary, there is no concrete way to determine when something should be over. But we should think about it, and put things away when we feel they're done. Stop indulging the new show, get the remake movie on sale months after release (or better, torrent it), break the consumption patterns so the companies will stop thinking our nostalgia matters. I don't mean a consumer boycott, I mean individuals deciding to disengage, trusting that if we adopt this kind of attitude of impermanence, eventually our nostalgia will stop being important. I want it to become unimportant, because I want to see what comes next. The elders had an advantage here, of their media and entertainment being unable to be kept forever until after their time. Yeah, tapes and stuff exist, but that's not the same as the online communities we got to have, and plenty of the boomers' stuff kept on too because it was there in time to be swept up. We can keep things going because folks remain silly enough to think being loud on the internet is enough to justify investing in production equipment. They're silly to think it but rational to do it, because we keep saying shit to ourselves like "well maybe it'll be better than the last one", or "its only X bucks why not", "maybe they'll get it right this time", and so on.
Too, while I'm on this train of thought - drop the idea that someone younger must experience what you experienced to get what you got. They don't. Folks after us can have their own stuff, with their own sensibility, theming, etc, and they should because their world isn't the one we grew up in. They reckon with things we did not have to reckon with. Our idols and heroes can't serve them quite the way they served us, our sensibility isn't from the same place. The folks coming after should be able to develop those things unburdened by a need to appeal to folks who aren't from where they're from. We can accelerate their coming to prominence by forsaking the relics. I'm not an accelerationist but I guess I might be in this one respect.
New things do take shape, in fairness to reality, but I do think we Millennials can take up trying to help that along in our own specific way. We know well how false our visions of the future were, derived as they were from a past imagined. In this time perhaps our role isn't to bring forth one of those visions, but rather pave the way toward having such vision again, by performing a burial ritual for our old totems. Maybe that's some nihilism creeping in, I'm not sure. There's more to it, I'm not done thinking about it. Gotta cut the post somewhere so I'll leave it at that.
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Comment on Lazy Sunday storytime - One for the Trekkies in ~tv
Thomas-C Link ParentI think we're on the same wavelength on it - it would be a real difficult needle to thread, but if it did, that would really be something wouldn't it In thinking about the characters/crew, what...I think we're on the same wavelength on it - it would be a real difficult needle to thread, but if it did, that would really be something wouldn't it
In thinking about the characters/crew, what I'd want is for different characters to represent paths analogous to what we've seen and experienced. Some folks go deep and get lost. Some get stuck on things that don't serve their ends and get alienated. Some rely on incompetent/malicious authority for their guidance. Some get pressured too hard and break. Etc, so on and so forth. Everybody though, by allowing others to see and know their experiences and by way of some external pressure can come together around a purpose, and maybe that can be the thing that flips their world a second time, into a wholly different configuration. Once that's done the future is open - the way has been cleared, strange new worlds await.
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Comment on Lazy Sunday storytime - One for the Trekkies in ~tv
Thomas-C Link ParentI haven't seen it at all. No particular reason. Should I find a reason?I haven't seen it at all. No particular reason. Should I find a reason?
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Comment on Lazy Sunday storytime - One for the Trekkies in ~tv
Thomas-C Link ParentI admittedly cheated by just pretending none of the things after Enterprise happened. 15 year hiatus, its ~2020, an old thing returns to ride along while huge groups of people rethink a bunch of...I admittedly cheated by just pretending none of the things after Enterprise happened. 15 year hiatus, its ~2020, an old thing returns to ride along while huge groups of people rethink a bunch of fundamental assumptions. Goal being to tell em, there is a way through the various kinds of noise and toward reconstructing stuff thought lost. The nature of things isn't the same, the past is both gone and not what folks thought, but some things remain true, and through that we can shed the past and set up for two more shows with lucrative contracts and creative freedom.
I totally agree on the cast. It's the one afternoon and I'd get lost in that. The focus on the captain was to keep on track, I would want to go deep on each person and center episodes around their evolving relationships. The action moves the plot along but it wouldn't be what I'd put the most attention into. I'm gonna cheat again and say I got a bunch of good actors to help me figure out who everyone is and how they fit together.
Ah but you see on this napkin from 191X the ruling authority wrote, "its mine and nobody else's, all the diamonds are mine, no takebacks", and according to the Law on Monarchical Table Scrawlings that means ownership transferred to the state when the dinner was over. I'm not gonna get into the minutiae of how the state owns things before it existed. Go get a law degree, pay the fees, and if the deadline hasn't passed for public comment I will be happy to tell you in more detail why the diamond is ours no matter what you came up with.