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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   436 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 6, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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One of the ChatGPT image-generation things going around Twitter is to ask it to create an image how it feels about you. Goblinodds has a cool one and features more in the replies. So I gave it a shot and the results are... underwhelming. At least it gets the melancholy right but I don't think my shoulders can pull off that mourning dress.

I think it overindexed on characters I previously generated to accompany a writing project and decided that my "self-portrait" needed to look along the same lines. Or since I'm a freeloader I'm not getting the fun, creative version; I notice the settings are more restrictive for the free tier recently.

Anyone else having fun with image generators? Or more generally, doing anything fun and non-programmer with generative llms? I like skimming Zvi's updates but so much of supposed usefulness is for programmers, where do I find the normie's guide to interesting things to do?

mrvanillaskys guide to rural India

I finally stepped foot in the village my mother comes from today. It's an hour away from hier small town in my last weeks update and the problems of the city are not as apparent there as the entire village is one km in radius or two if you are generous, so if you walk for t10 minutes and so without stepping on the animal waste, you will find yourself surrounded by proto bali like crops on slopes that are not super impressive compared to bali but still pretty interesting.

My moms family ran the entire village and a few centuries ago one of our ancestors saw Shiva in a dream, where he was told to go to a tree, uproot it and make a shiva temple with the Shiva Linga found there, he did just that and the most important temple in that small region of a few villages was built on that site. I feel great whenever I go there. The problems of poverty and a lack of resources, general helplessnes plague the people, unlike the city, you dont see rivers of open sewage, the air is cleaner. I felt quite out of place too, I was introduced to some of my distant relatives and it was nice to see that they were studying real things like biology or math in college as the arts here are just bad.

My familys house there has close to 80 something rooms, built more than a century ago, the most important person being my uncle, one of them, the youngest one, though all are older than my mom who was the youngest and the only girl. His wife got a PhD in psychosomatic disorders and has been trying her hardest to make the place go beyond plain agriculture by getting people to open shops up that provide some regular cash. She moved back to the village because of my uncle and renovated parts of our huge house. I felt quite a bit of peace going through the narrow paths that cujt through fields and semi arid forests. You apprecaite and also dislike the large city you live in.

People were quite short, pretty dark and very simple minded. There were some marriages happening, marriages are gneerally happy times in the grim setting that rural India is. People vist the temple my family built and everyone knows everyone. We had giant monekys that have a black face entre the house daily which led to my aunt and uncle using their air gun a bunch of times. What did surprise me was tha availability of ultra procesed food and smartphone addiction. Everyone is 2 feet away from shops that sell soft drinks, potato chips, ice creams and everyones always on thier phones, much less than a city. I wish to visit the place soon, hopefully as a better man.

Parenting win?

My 3yo has a tough life. He's got two older brothers (4, 7) and all the neighbor kids are older. The 3yo is big enough to want to play with them all, but small enough that he's not quite capable of understanding their games or communicating his thoughts. So the neighbor kids end up picking on him a lot, calling him "poop boy", taking his toys, and other misc mischief. Because they're not my kids, I can't do too much to stop the neighbor kids from being jerks. I've managed to convince the older brothers that they have some sort of brotherly-responsibility to stick up for their sibling, but there's also only so much they can do.

The 3yo is tough and violent. He's been stung by bees ~5 times over the past year, and each time he shouts "die bee", grabs the nearest rock, and smashes the bee to death several times before running over to me/mom crying that he needs a band-aid. So he's pretty good at standing up for himself when the big kids are mean by trying to punch them / throw toys / etc. I'm proud of him for sticking up for himself, but we've been trying to work with him on helping him control his violence.

We found a new tool to keep his violence in check this week.

At the beginning of the week, one of the big kids came over and dumped a bucket of water on 3yo's head when he was playing nicely by himself. I had the idea that we could get revenge by using the hose. We setup an ambush for big-neighbor-kid around the corner of the garage, and 3yo got big-kid right in the face at point blank range. The shadenfreude was great. Big-neighbor-kid learned a valuable lesson about why other people don't like getting water dumped on them and not to mess with my 3yo. 3yo now is the only one with permission to use the hose, and everyone talks about how they shouldn't mess with him anymore. 3yo also has a lot more confidence interacting with both the neighbors and his brothers, and there's been much less hitting and throwing of rocks.

Overall I feel good about how this played out, but I have some questions about what this is teaching my kids about violence. I'm a committed pacifist (in the style of the Amish), and I'm trying to raise the kids to also be pacifists. The hose-to-the-face is obviously less violent than throwing rocks: there's no potential for lasting injury, and it's not nearly as "escalatory" since the big-neighbor-kid already used water as a "weapon". But there was still lots of "evil" in 3yo's heart. He clearly wanted revenge and specifically aimed for the big-neighbor-kid's face so as to cause maximum damage.

So the lesson here wasn't perfect, but I do think it was at least "directionally correct". One common failure mode of pacifism is to become a doormat for other people to run over you---basically all objections to pacifism boil down to rejecting this failure mode---and I don't want to instill this failure mode into my children.

Sorry man, but you taught your kid to respond to random violence with wisely targeted violence.

Unless you are operating on a very different definition of pacifism than I am, you are a bad pacifist, but if it’s any consolation, you are a good dad.

I'm a committed pacifist (in the style of the Amish), and I'm trying to raise the kids to also be pacifists.

There's a reason there's no Oakland Amish. This is not an argument against the values described, just a note on their evident limitations. Pacifism works when you live with other committed pacifists. Distance can replace walls and spears.

This is a straightforward example of my claim that "basically all objections to pacifism boil down to rejecting the doormat failure mode", and so whole-heartedly disagree with you :)

could you elaborate? This sounds interesting.

There's a reason there's no Oakland Amish.

There's no Amish, but there are self-declared pacifists. See for example https://oaklandcatholicworker.org.

This is not an argument against the values described, just a note on their evident limitations.

I disagree this is a limitation of pacifism. No body wants to live in "Oakland" (which I'm assuming is metonymy for any violent place). I claim that pacifism has better outcomes than non-pacifism for someone who must live in such a place. I don't think these are always strictly better outcomes for the individual, but that these better outcomes are society-wide.

Pacifism works when you live with other committed pacifists.

You imply that it doesn't work around non-pacifists, which I disagree with. Although the disagreement is probably about the aims that we should be working towards.

Distance can replace walls and spears.

Most reasonable people would prefer to be away from violence. So I don't think this is a unique jab at pacifism.

The implication is that pacifists cannot strategically interact with violence in a way that achieves their aims. But there are plenty of pacifists who would strategically reduce their distance to conflict in order to effect change that cannot be accomplished with spears. The AFSC ambulance units that helped combatants and non-combats on all sides in WWI and WWII is a standard example. In my own life, I've lived in North Korea trying to reduce conflict between them and the US.

There aren't, but there are plenty of Amish a stone's throw from Cleveland, Columbus, Philly, and Pittsburgh. They even open furniture stores in these cities, and employ the English to run the stores, build websites, do customer service, and what have you. Doesn't take as much distance as you'd think.

Because it's not an environment suitable to small scale agriculture?

and yet, think of the carpentry opportunities!

I'm still slowly making my way through The Essential Ellison: A 35 Year Retrospective. I know there was an update 50 year version, but I'm not sure I care.

It's a lot. I've read my share of Harlan before. But getting through 200 pages of Harlan is significantly different from 1000 pages. Harlan is such a committed misanthrope, it really starts to wear on you after enough of it back to back. And of course, in this collection especially, there is an emphasis on how much these stories relate to Harlan the author. Little tidbits about Harlan are included by the editor in short prefaces to each section that lay bare how autobiographical many of the stories are. Many of his characters have had 4 divorces just like Harlan. Many of them are short, or did a brief stint in the army, or ran away from home, or had their father die young, or have spent time in jail, or are also authors.

Funnily enough, few of his self inserts copy his famously cantankerous nature. They are just obviously correct about most situations. I guess every author has his blind spot.

He really doesn't disguise his self inserts that much, but they also never meet good ends. They serve more for self flagellation than wish fulfillment.

All in all, past the first 300 pages I find it to be a challenging read, an exercise in spiritual endurance. But I'm past the 600 page mark and the end is in sight so I'm trying to commit to reading it more. I have other books I'd like to get through that I anticipate being brisker reads.

Does the book mention what pen name he wrote smut under?

Hah, not yet. I actually didn't know that myself.

I just finished my 102nd book in Spanish yesterday! I've been learning spanish for about 5 years now, and reading has been a great way to improve in the language (the other things I do these days are watch Netflix/YouTube and take lessons once a week with a tutor on iTalki). Full list of books here, but some favorites below:

Olvidado Rey Gudú by Ana Maria Matute. Mix of Game of Thrones and a fairytale, nothing like it in English. The central premise is that the main character has been cursed (or blessed) with being unable to love. There also is no English translation, so you have to be able to read Spanish/Italian/German to be able to enjoy it. Longer review here

Crónica de una muerte anunciada by GGM. This is a who-dunnit but rather than a search for the murderer it's a search for the reason that the whole town allowed the murder to happen. This one has a pretty unreliable narrator, and has been increasingly fun on re-reads as I try and piece together the real motivations of the various characters.

Los cuerpos del Verano by Martin Felipe Castagnet. This is a short science fiction novella about a world without death where bodies are recycled. Probably one of the more depressing (but realistic) takes on trans-humanism I've seen in science fiction. My longer review here.

Castilla en llamas by Calvo Rúa Alberto. Non-fiction about the rise of the house of Trastamara (whose most famous monarchs are Isabella and Ferdinand). Probably one of the best arguments against monarchy ever: every time the King of Castille dies there's a civil war for succession in this period. The book did a good job of storytelling rather than just name dropping facts and people.

Translations of Joe Abercrombie: I love the first law trilogy, and these are some of the best fantasy translations I've come across.

every time the King of Castille dies there's a civil war for succession in this period.

It's kind of crazy how unstable the house of Trastamara was compared to the Jimenez and Ivrea dynasties. The previous dynasties had plenty of minor succession struggles and an unfortunate tendency to keep breaking apart and reuniting the kingdoms, but rarely anything that broke down the kingdom's ability to resist external threats. My theory is that Reconquista/Crusader kingdoms generally had far more flexible customs of succession (note how much more often you had queens ruling in Iberia/Jerusalem than in the older Western kingdoms) - a necessary adaptation to frontier rule, where you needed a monarch to fight off Muslim threats, but one that became very troublesome once you either ~finished the Reconquista and no longer had that threat compelling unity, or when things started to go badly in the frontier struggle as they did for Jerusalem.

I think it's because Henry II (the first Trastamara) was technically a bastard. Makes it pretty hard to uphold the divine right of kings when you usurped the throne from your half-brother.

From my limited reading on the Wars of the Roses, this was also a factor there - Henry IV's usurpation of the throne meant that all the various cadet branches of the Plantagenets felt they had some kind of a claim.

Mildly interesting autopsy report related in a court opinion:

The trial court set forth the relevant facts and procedural history of this case as follows:

Ian Hood, M.D., an expert in the field of forensic pathology, performed an autopsy on [the victim, Joshua Smith, Appellant’s good friend.] The victim presented as a 25-year-old male, 5′11″, and 230 pounds. The doctor determined that the victim died as a result of gunshot wounds to the head and neck. The most obvious injury was a gunshot wound to the neck, and the doctor opined that there would have been a lot of blood loss from this injury. Dr. Hood also testified that there was an unusual gunshot wound to the back of the victim’s head. There was soot and gunpowder on the hoodie that the victim had been wearing, indicating that the gun was only a few inches away when it was fired. Dr. Hood opined that this execution shot to the back of someone’s head would normally cause a victim to drop and die, but in this case the victim had an unusually thick skull, so that the bullet actually bounced off his skull and came back out. Putting this physical evidence together, Dr. Hood believed that the bullet to the victim’s head was probably the first wound, and then the victim was shot in the neck and ran 200 feet, pumping blood out of his severed arteries, until he went down where he was found.

The murder weapon was a Ruger revolver of a caliber not specified in the opinion. So feel free to assume it was .22 caliber and make jokes accordingly.

So feel free to assume it was .22 caliber and make jokes accordingly.

In all seriousness, skulls are incredibly tough. I remember a slaughtering day when I was young where my great uncle put an entire cylinder of .357 rounds into a hog's head before he went down. The first couple of shots knocked it to the ground, but he got up and just kind of shook it off.

When we skinned the head, you could actually see two of the rounds embedded in the bone.

Human skulls aren't as robust as pig skulls, but you'd be surprised at the beatings they can take.

Only thing that would have made it better is if the execution came at the end of several intractable arguments where the victim was repeatedly accused of being too hard headed.

Also I kind of want to see the whopper of a cromag skull this guy was sporting.

Dr. Hood, indeed.

It appears that this murder occurred in an industrial part of the town of Pottstown, PA (23,000 people), not in the "hood" of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

Last night, I was telling the missus about Countess Constance Markievicz, an Irish revolutionary who was the first woman elected to the House of Commons, participated in the 1916 Easter Rising against British rule, and was appointed as Minister for Labour in Ireland's first Dáil.

As a member of the Citizen Army, Markievicz took part in the 1916 Easter Rising... Markievicz fought in St Stephen's Green, where on the first morning —according to the only two pages surviving of the diary of an alleged witness — she shot a member of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, Constable Lahiff, who subsequently died of his injuries... Markievicz supervised the setting-up of barricades on Easter Monday and was in the middle of the fighting all around Stephen's Green, wounding a British army sniper...

The Stephen's Green garrison held out for six days, ending the engagement when the British brought them Pearse's surrender order. They were taken to Dublin Castle and then to Kilmainham Gaol through what Matt Connolly described as "several groups of hostile people". There, she was the only one of 70 women prisoners who was put into solitary confinement. At her court-martial on 4 May 1916, Markievicz pleaded not guilty to "taking part in an armed rebellion...for the purpose of assisting the enemy," but pleaded guilty to having attempted "to cause disaffection among the civil population of His Majesty". Markievicz told the court, "I went out to fight for Ireland's freedom and it does not matter what happens to me. I did what I thought was right and I stand by it."

She was sentenced to death, but the court recommended mercy "solely and only on account of her sex". The sentence was commuted to life in prison. When told of this, she said to her captors, "I do wish your lot had the decency to shoot me".

I miss the era when feminists were tough as nails. The only things "triggering" this woman were the guns being fired at her. Every time I read about her, a frisson of awe runs down my spine. We used to be a proper country.

Books I've readAnime I've watched, Magical girls update It's less than two weeks until my next digital fast, but I have watched two additional series about magical girls in the meanwhile. As usual, the ratings go from -2 to +2.

  1. Gushing over Magical Girls, 0. It's not as edgelordy as Redo of Healer, but the basic idea is the same: make the setting more spicy so you can put some tits in (and yes, they are schoolgirls' tits, so you are on another watchlist now). The actual plot is not bad, but ends up sabotaging itself: the protagonist is a loser who is obsessed with magical girls. Bam, a cliché creepy-cute mascot appears and offers her superpowers. Uh-oh, turns out he's a creepy-cute mascot in charge of the other side and she's not a frilly magical girl, but a magical dominatrix with kinky powers. And she realizes she loves using them on her idols a lot. But not too much, it's no fun if they stop being magical girls, is it?

    There's a small plot arc where she obtains equally dysfunctional teammates and is embroiled in a struggle with other evil generals that take their job too seriously for her liking, but that's where the premise starts to hobble itself: the protagonist's nature reconstructs the typical dynamic of a mahou shoujo series through a new lens: the villains are seemingly toying with the protagonists and not pressing their advantage because that's what they are actually trying to do. But this also means that Gilligan is never leaving the island: the plot is seemingly moving forward in each episode, but it's running on a treadmill, as the premise established in the first episode cannot change.

    The opening song is disgustingly catchy, though.

  2. Magical Girl Raising Project, +1. This anime is a much more straightforward subversion of the genre and you can tell it must have been inspired by Puella Magi Madoka Magica: the creepy cute mascot is rather obviously nefarious, being a magical girl is a dangerous and often gory affair, and becoming one won't solve whatever issues you might have had as a regular girl.

    The plot is quite straightforward: people are recruited into being people-helping and crime-fighting magical girls by playing a phone game and when there's sixteen of them, the mascot announces a gradual downsizing. When the girls realize the losers' termination is terminal in more ways than one, the situation devolves into a battle royale, with everyone forging desperate alliances and trying to survive the longest. Now this is a plot that forces itself to move forward, and I really enjoyed this aspect of the series: by the end of episode 12 almost all of the cast is dead and the plot has reached its conclusion. Like the equipment in Fukasakus' original Battle Royale, the superpowers some of the girls have sound completely useless, and watching the girls find a use for them was a joy. Summoning puppies anywhere, indeed.

    One surprising aspect of the series was how... Western the writing felt. The light novel was written in 2012 by a Japanese writer and the anime was released in 2016, but the characters might have been written by a socially progressive Californian. We get to see the characters' mundane lives and backstories, and they come from all social classes, some are disturbingly neurospicy (while some of them might actually be mildly retarded, there's another explanation that I won't spoil), some have gone through some serious shit in their so far very short lives. You don't see this kind of stuff in your run-of-the-mill anime.

    Where the series shows its roots is that it isn't a slave to the pyramid of oppression. If your have past trauma, you are not saved from becoming a villain, you are free to do heinous deeds, you don't even get a free path to redemption. If you have had the most miserable life out of all the cast, you don't get to be the final girl. You are judged only by the content of your character as shown by your actions.

    All in all, I quite enjoyed the series. The music is meh, though.

Why does the rDrama engine insert paragraph breaks of different sizes? This is really annoying.

Ok can you recommend some good anime for me? With a good dub ideally.

Darker than Black had a fine dub. Seconding Cowboy Bebop.

The only dub I have enjoyed was Cowboy Bebop. Everything else was meh to bad in my experience.

If you don't watch the ADV Films dub of Evangelion, complete with nepotistic casting of Asuka voiced by the wife of the ADV president, you are doing it wrong. Yes it's terrible. Yes it's obnoxious. Yes it's horribly unprofessional and undermines the quality of the entire show.

But damnit, it was the 90's and that's just how old anime was done.

I am a "subs-only" weeb, so I can't recommend a good dub.

Some of my +2's are Cowboy Bebop, Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (season 1 only), Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Why does the rDrama engine insert paragraph <del>breaks</del><ins>margins</ins> of different sizes?

I think it's some kind of weird interaction between margin-top:0;, margin-bottom:1rem;, the collapsing margins behavior, and the fact that the paragraphs (<p>) are inside list items (<li>).

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