611828750722's recent activity
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Comment on Star Trek: Section 31 | Trailer in ~movies
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Comment on We built our house for LAN parties in ~games
611828750722 Link ParentThree things are inevitable: Death, taxes, and Chocobean being kind :)Three things are inevitable:
Death, taxes, and Chocobean being kind :)
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 (edited )Link ParentThe tradition in Aman, pre-Middle Earth, was to have a father-name, a mother-name, and then an honourary name (in Quenya, an epessë). So for a well known example, Galadriel ain't Galadriel. That's...- Exemplary
The tradition in Aman, pre-Middle Earth, was to have a father-name, a mother-name, and then an honourary name (in Quenya, an epessë).
So for a well known example, Galadriel ain't Galadriel. That's a translation of the honourary name given to her by her husband.
When she was born, her father name was Artanis - noble-woman (spoiler - the father names are always the most boring). The mother-name is usually given to an Elf when they are coming of age. Galadriel's mother chose Nerwen, which is Quenya for 'man-maiden', because of Galadriel's height and fierceness. The mother name can be prophetic, and Galadriel going on to be so active in the Noldor rebellion is an example of that.
Then we get to her epessë - Alatáriel. That's not even Quenya (high-Elvish), it's Telerin, the language of the Elves who live in Aman and are mariners by the sea. That's her husband's mother tongue. But translated to Quenya, Ñaltariel. It means 'Crown of Flowers' or 'Crowned With Radiant Flowers'. It comes from the fact that Galadriel used to bind her hair up when she was exercising, competing in physical challenges, or fighting, and her husband thought it was hot.
So why isn't she called Ñaltariel in the Lord of the Rings?
Quenya (High Elven) is the language spoken in Aman, or Valinor, the blessed realm. There were different dialects, but that was basically the lingua franca of the vast majority of Elves... except for the ones who didn't want to go to the blessed realm, and stayed in Middle-earth. They were called the Sindar, or the Grey Elves, because their king really liked wearing grey (weirdo).
They developed their whole language in Middle-earth, cut off from their kin, called Sindarin. That's what most people know as Elvish, as it's what's spoken in the films.
Anyway, long story short, a bunch of Elves (the Noldor, or Deep Elves) lost three very pretty jewels (the Silmarils!) and got angry about it. They forged jewelry and weapons, but they didn't have any sea-craft. This was a problem, as the Big Bad Guy Stronger Than Sauron took them away from Aman/Valinor, and to Middle-earth. They asked their cousins, the sea-faring Teleri, 'Can we borrow your boats that are the most precious thing to you in the world? We want to make war in Middle-earth and get our jewels back.' And the Teleri said no. So the Noldor, led by the fiery jewel-lovers, killed a lot of the Teleri and stole their boats.
So they came to Middle-earth, which by this point was crawling with orcs, and the Sindar were like 'Oh man, it's so good you're here to help us fight the orcs!' And the Noldor were like 'Ha ha yeah we just figured you needed a hand...' They essentially hid the fact that they'd killed a bunch of other Elves.
But the king of the Sindar and the king of the Teleri were brothers. And when the king of the Sindar found out about the Kinslaying for the boats, he banned the speaking of Quenya in his realm on pain of death. As more and more of the Noldorin realms got destroyed in the War for the Jewels, the Sindar became the dominant cultural force in Middle-earth. By both a matter of necessity and demographic change, the Elves from Aman who came back to Middle-earth underwent 'Sindarinization'. Not only did they translate their names to Sindarin, they essentially stopped speaking Quenya at all, unless they were just at a little Noldor dinner party. Kinda like how the rulers of England eventually stopped speaking French and started speaking English, even at dinner parties.
Sindarin is much more utilitarian than Quenya, and Elves were generally known by one name in Middle-earth. Artanis Nerwen Ñaltariel became Galad (radient, light) ri (crown) el (feminine Sindarin name suffix).
Almost all the Elves in Tolkien's work are referred to by their Sindarin name, which is usually the Sindarinized form of their mother-name or (if they're cool enough), their epessë. By the time of the Lord of the Rings, Galadriel and Glorfindel are some of the only remaining native Quenya speakers left in Middle-earth. Even Elrond - considered the wisest loremaster in Middle-earth by the time of LOTR - grew up with Sindarin as his first language. Most of the Noldor returned to Aman/Valinor after the War for the Jewels, and the Sindar didn't continue the custom of father-name/mother-name/epessë.
So for example, Arwen is just Arwen - 'noble lady' (real creative, Elrond). She does get an epessë, Undómiel (Evening Star), but only because she is hanging out with her cool grandma Galadriel in Lothlórien.
As far as Tom Bombadil goes, I've never heard his Sindarin name before, but it doesn't follow Elven naming conventions. I think it's just a descriptor (oldest, without father), like the descriptors they give to Gandalf (Mithrandir, grey pilgrim), Saruman (Curunir, being of skill) and other non-Elves.
So that's how Elves went from having a cool naming system to being boring. Well, the ones in Middle-earth, anyway. The ones in the Blessed Realm still rock it, and that's the vast majority.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentThere's a non-Star Trek thing called Wolf 359? I'm gonna have to check it out. I'm glad you're still around :)There's a non-Star Trek thing called Wolf 359? I'm gonna have to check it out. I'm glad you're still around :)
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentI had no idea he had a canonical name in Sindarin. That's awesome.I had no idea he had a canonical name in Sindarin. That's awesome.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentMe too. Just finished a full re-read with my favourite reading order. It was great.Me too. Just finished a full re-read with my favourite reading order. It was great.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentI have spent more hours on that game (Brytenwalda specifically) than all other games combined. I'm so jealous you got to beta test it. It is, in fact, almost harvesting season.I have spent more hours on that game (Brytenwalda specifically) than all other games combined. I'm so jealous you got to beta test it.
It is, in fact, almost harvesting season.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentI always assumed you were DoD related and had maybe been subsurface or carrier-based. Just goes to show, one shouldn't assume.I always assumed you were DoD related and had maybe been subsurface or carrier-based. Just goes to show, one shouldn't assume.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentIt is excellent shorthand to know what kinda base values you bring to the table. I swear we used to have a Wolf359, but I can't find them nowIt is excellent shorthand to know what kinda base values you bring to the table. I swear we used to have a Wolf359, but I can't find them now
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentAlso my favourite.Also my favourite.
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Comment on Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread) in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentI've seen a lot of people recommending that, post-US election. I should probably give it a read.I've seen a lot of people recommending that, post-US election. I should probably give it a read.
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Where does your username come from? (Following up on last year's thread)
We had a fun thread last year about what came to mind when other people's usernames come up. It ended up turning into a cool little online intro of the history of your username, if you have one....
We had a fun thread last year about what came to mind when other people's usernames come up.
It ended up turning into a cool little online intro of the history of your username, if you have one. There are so many usernames I don't recognise now that I'm back with a steady internet connection after a long time away.
Mine is boring sorry - I switch usernames every 12 months or so for the illusion of control regarding anonymity. My main username used to be Iain M. Banks' Culture series related, so I do miss meeting fellow Culture fans, but this year it's just from a random number generator.
Does your username have an interesting backstory? I recently learned that @chocobean wasn't a chocolate bean, and @cfabbro wasn't a Computational Fabrication Bro, I'm sure there are plenty of others out there.
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Comment on Can/should Tildes pull out of search engine results? in ~tildes
611828750722 Link ParentI just did this. I remember you but you don't remember me. Shoe's on the other foot now, ha!I just did this. I remember you but you don't remember me. Shoe's on the other foot now, ha!
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Comment on Thoughts on Donald Trump, America and what this all means in ~society
611828750722 Link ParentThat was what I was trying to convey, sorry. My wording wasn't very clear, yours is much better.That was what I was trying to convey, sorry. My wording wasn't very clear, yours is much better.
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Comment on Thoughts on Donald Trump, America and what this all means in ~society
611828750722 (edited )LinkI've been travelling to America for twenty or so years. Going by Umberto Eco's definition, I believed that many aspects of American culture were ripe for fascism since my first trip. I don't think...- Exemplary
I've been travelling to America for twenty or so years.
Going by Umberto Eco's definition, I believed that many aspects of American culture were ripe for fascism since my first trip.
I don't think it's possible for outsiders to convey to Americans how jarring the nationalism, militarism, machosimo, and fear running through American society is.
I have been in America when you'd be in danger for saying not only do you not support the wars, but you did not support the volunteer fighting force doing the killing.
I've had my passport stamped by (essentially) a desk clerk who had a shoulder-slung AR-pattern assault rifle in their lap, days after the Las Vegas shooting.
Years later, I went to a baseball game in an ostensibly blue state complete with military demonstrations and people openly weeping at the national anthem and the salute to the troops.
In no other place in the world that I have visited have people - especially men - felt the need to aggressively assert how non-homosexual they are through T-shirts, bumper stickers, military-inspired products, and, of course, trucks. I'm thinking of blue states here, too.
In my last trip - staying in an extremely wealthy enclave, in an extremely wealthy place - it was fear that stuck out to me. Countless signs about how many cameras were watching you. Signs about how if you took a step on somebody's property, you should fear for your life. Signs that were threatening death to people who stole packages. This is in a postcode (full of Harris/Walz signs) where the average house price was well over two million dollars. Still - an obsessive fear of people invading that enclave and taking things.
I'm very interested in American history, and American education places an outsized influence on teaching a version of that history that glosses over genocide, glorifies deeply complicated figures into simple heroes, and places wealthy men at the centre of every major event. Trying to bring nuance to this view doesn't usually end well, because people learn it from the age of 5.
All of that to say, I think America's been trending towards a fascist state for quite a long time. It just seems that many Americans are only just realising it.
Maybe it's because Americans seem less willing or financially able to travel to other countries than most other developed countries, so there is no way to compare.
Maybe it's because the candidate finally felt safe enough to openly espouse fascist policies without masking them.
But this was not some kind of electoral college trickery or the result of voter suppression. The majority of enfranchised Americans who wanted to cast a ballot cast their ballot for fascism. It takes away any pretense of that old American saying - 'this is not who we are'. For the majority, it plainly is.
However, as much as I will condemn people for voting for hate, I find it hard to condemn the circumstances into which they were born. Many, a grinding poverty that the rest of the developed world can't really fathom. A system of government so broken that any optimistic message of change just won't work. I lived in one of the richest states with one of the most 'liberal' governments, and the amount of waste in how taxes were spent may well have driven me to believe that government was fundamentally bloated and wasteful, too, given enough time.
Your system of politics and the media landscape, particularly the unregulated billionaire class, has so divided and destroyed any sense of unity in America that I can understand people voting for Trump purely for better wages. I can understand them being easily lied to, as the electorate does not have critical thinking skills. I can understand them embracing hate as a state policy, as they've been successfully taught that someone else is to blame for everything.
As I think @chocobean said in another thread (edit: great comment), someone's womanhood, their minority status, their faith or their convictions might come into play 70% of the time. But humans need food and shelter 100% of the time. That's how your fascist leader came to power. That's the promise - 'these people ruined it for you, and I will punish them and make your life materially better.' Of course that's not true, but it doesn't matter now. He's a figurehead, and this is simply a successful, modern version of the Business Plot. But no amount of soulful interrogation of what went wrong in Op Ed pages will change the reality of what's about to happen.
I hope the Americans who worked tirelessly to avoid this outcome are able to find some way through - or, hopefully, some way out. I can't imagine a future where more organising, more canvassing, trying to run a 'better' candidate through the current system, or any other non-violent solution can address the core problems of a nation built on so many systemic inequalities.
This has been building for decades. This week, the nation had a choice to choose an off ramp, and they chose fascism. If that doesn't tell people what this means for America, I don't know how to put it in plainer English.
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Comment on Helldivers 2 Tildes squad interest thread in ~games
611828750722 LinkI'd be really interested, but I don't think it's on Xbox unfortunately. Another reason to save up for a gaming PCI'd be really interested, but I don't think it's on Xbox unfortunately. Another reason to save up for a gaming PC
I like that outlook.
Except Lower Decks got cancelled this year and the final ever episode airs this week, because Paramount wanted to put more money into this kinda stuff.
So, that makes me sad, but I'm sure some people even liked Discovery. If that can make someone go 'huh, Star Trek's cool, I'll check some more out', that's a net good.