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PaperclipPerfector  7hr ago (text post)   201 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026

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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https://youtube.com/watch?v=1J0FC36ZHUI

I once dated someone who I'm pretty sure had BPD. She was constantly worried that I was secretly into her best friend (also a doctor) and that the feeling was mutual. For the record: not true, at least on my side.

So imagine my surprise when the best friend got engaged after a whirlwind courtship, and I looked at the wedding photos on Instagram to discover that her new husband:

  • Looked more like me than my actual brother does
  • Had the exact same last name as me

This could absolutely be coincidence. But here's the really funny part: if my ex and I had actually gotten married, she and her best friend would have ended up as Dr. or Mrs. [Same Name], married to what are essentially the same guy. I'm trying to imagine how my ex would have felt about this situation and I'm going to go with "not great" right now, but she might well have found it charming had things gone not gone to shit between us.

(I'm also at that magical age where most of my peers decide to give up on their dissolute lifestyles and marry off. I feel a tad bit left out, not that I'm in any real hurry.)

Chris Rock has this old bit about how men might see their best friend meet a nice girl and think "Man, I'd love to marry a girl like that". Women see their best friend meet a nice man and think "Man, I'd love to marry that specific man".

Now, I can't exactly speak to the truth of this. But if some sort of inverse typical mind fallacy is any indicator, way more women are worried about leaving their husband alone with their friends than men are of the same.

The singular exception seems to be the armed forces. I've known numerous men who won't let their wives on base without them. It's like dragged raw meat through a lion's den.

Four years ago I passed my ex in the street, who was walking with her current boyfriend. She was my first serious girlfriend, and we lost our virginities to each other. Her current boyfriend looked, not to put to fine a point on it, pretty much exactly like I did when we started going out: hairstyle (significant as I wore my hair quite long at the time), fashion sense, skin tone, eye colour, the whole lot.

My immediate thought was "wow, either she has a very specific type, or I imprinted on her real good".

Dollars to donuts you both look like her father.

While perusing my folder of ten thousand unsorted images downloaded from 4chan, I happened to lay my eyes on the following hilarious exchange from an old fan translation of the manga Death Note.

Yagami Light: What's your name, anyway? I'm Yagami Light (夜神月). Kanji of yoru (night) (夜), kami (神) from kamisama (god), and Light is written as tsuki (moon) (月). Weird name, eh?

Misora Naomi (undercover): I'm Maki Shouko (間木照子). It's written with the kanji for aida* (space) (間), moku (wood) (木) from jiyumoku, the te (照) from terasu (reflection), and ko (子) from kodomo (child).

Translator's note: Some kanji lesson for you :)

*I think this may be a typo.

"Lord of the Manor", an article for GURPS 4 in the magazine Pyramid, contains the following interesting summary of the cost of transporting agricultural produce from a rural area to an urban area.

  • By road, not using wheeled vehicles: 100 % of the cargo's value per 30 miles of distance, where the cargo's value is 0.5 "GURPS dollar" (copper farthing) per pound of grain

  • By road, using wheeled vehicles: 100 % per 60 miles

  • By river: 100 % per 300 miles

  • By sea: 100 % per 1500 miles

In contrast, ACKS 2 offers the following numbers for transport.

  • By road: 100 % of the cargo's value per 230 miles of distance (implicitly—the actual figures in the book are 1.25 CP per 24 stone-miles and 0.12 GP per stone of grain, where 1 GP (gold piece) = 100 CP (copper pieces) and 1 stone = 10 pounds)

  • By river: 100 % per 920 miles (1.25 CP per 96 stone-miles)

  • By sea: 100 % per 4600 miles (1.25 CP per 480 stone-miles)

The "Lord of the Manor" prices are three to four times as much as the ACKS 2 prices. Why? Two possible factors:

  • "Lord of the Manor", in conjunction with predecessor article "At Play in the Fields", assumes that the price of 0.5 dollar per pound of grain in rural areas is halved from the normal default of 1 dollar per pound in urban areas. In contrast, ACKS 2 changes its base price of 0.12 GP per stone by only −10 % in rural areas and +10 % in urban areas.

  • "Lord of the Manor" and "At Play in the Fields" assume that a typical low-tech family of five humans subsists on the equivalent of 3600 pounds of grain per year (300 $/mo, valuing grain at the urban price of 1 $/lb even if the family is in a rural area). In contrast, ACKS 2 assumes that a family subsists on the equivalent of 4250 pounds of grain per year (4.25 GP/mo × 12 mo/a ÷ 0.12 GP per stone of grain × 10 lb/stone).

Overall, I'm inclined to trust ACKS 2 (a system with a coherent economic basis) over "Lord of the Manor" and "At Play in the Fields" (two isolated economics-focused magazine articles for a system that makes some honest gestures toward a coherent economic basis but is far from totally based on one).

More house-construction drama:

  • 2026-01-08:

    The permits have been granted. See the attached files.

    I will get together a project scedule [sic] for you sometime next week[.]

  • 2026-01-22:

    You said on the 8th that you would provide a schedule "sometime next week". It has now been two weeks.

    I will be providing your schedule before you're [sic] start date.

    Please note that your official start date is not until March.

    At this time, I need you to remain patience [sic] while my team and I finalize the remaining project details.

    We are ensuring everything is properly aligned before breaking ground, so the project proceeds smoothly and efficiently.

    Thank you for your understanding.

    If you've changed your mind and now disavow your January 8th statement, that's fine with me.

When I retired from my government civil-engineering job, I was expecting to escape incompetent project managers. But it seems that I will have to deal with at least one more.

Misora Naomi (undercover): I'm Maki Shouko (間木照子). It's written with the kanji for aida* (space) (間), moku (wood) (木) from jiyumoku, the te (照) from terasu (reflection), and ko (子) from kodomo (child).

Ugh... This is up there with Mufasa's death in animation scenes that really get me.

While perusing my folder of ten thousand unsorted images downloaded from 4chan

MOAR

Video game thread! What you playing?

I'm back on Terraria. Amazing game, perhaps one of my most played of all time. The new update is coming out on 1/27 which should be fun. Also decided to try the Thorium mod which has been good.

Tried to play Bloons TD but alas no controller support. You'd think with AI and such it would be easy to put controller support on big games but....

After a discussion with work colleagues about old games that hang around, I fired up EVE Online for the first time in about 15 years. I remember trying it briefly, finding it far too dull, and moving on. But coming back to it now at a different point in my life, it definitely hits differently. It looks nice and it has a variety of progression options, but it also doesn't demand twitch reflexes and fast reaction. You can choose to do things that take time but not much attention, or things that require attention and go faster. I'm certain I've slowed down considerably and it matches my pace a little more. I think I might stick with it for a little bit

Oh man I have been winning at EVE for a couple of years. The last time I played it was a challenge to not use the market at all, except to buy skills and blue prints from NPCs. It was so slow, but quite fun as a survival style game!

Still chugging along with my sorry little merc company in Battletech (roguetech mod). It's survived almost a year I think, lost a few vehicles and a few pilots, but picked up a couple of medium mechs which both do more damage and take more spunishment at the cost of speed.

The company has enough money to pay for the next month at the end of each month which is a lot better than before! The captain doesn't have to worry quite as hard about making ends meet each month, but there's little extra (most of the early game is spent upgrading your ship to improve travel speed, morale, and unlock better options in the random events that pop up) that and repair costs (roguetech requires paying for armor replacement when you take damage each battle so generally you make a small amount of cash and the money comes from loot you pick up and sell) if you limp home after a tough fight sometimes you lose money after your pay and have to sell stuff to break even. Those are rough!

Best thing is the MechWarriors are getting skills and mostly not dying which makes everything a little better, slowly.

Still on XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. I have killed 2 out of 3 Chosen. Once I finish this playthrough, I am seriously considering playing the base game on Commander difficulty with Ironman enabled. Help, I've relapsed into my XCOM addiction.

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