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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   630 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 23, 2026

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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.

Funny I was still on Light's side at this point. I was thrilled he pulled it off. I can't exactly recall when I finally agreed he had to go down.

I was all the time on Light side. I just have soft spot for brave, competent women.

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