domain:alexepstein.substack.com
CanofWorms
21m ago
Treehouse is a great call
Warrior Apprentice does start slow, but it gets a lot better when Miles get into Dendarii mode. If you got turned off in the first couple chapters, try skipping to chapter five and start from there. On the other hand, if you were still getting bored by the pathos in chapter ten, you're probably better off skipping the book. The main character's a bit bipolar, so Warrior's Apprentice isn't the last time he'll go into a pointed funk, but it's usually paced a lot better. If that's issue, some options:
Cetaganda works without having much knowledge of the setting. I think it leans a little to heavily on the 'throw a grenade in when stuck' approach to plot pacing, but it's got a reasonably good grabber and at worst that pacing errs toward the rushed, so it's a good middle-of-the-pack read. Murder-and-politics mystery in a scifi setting that pushes real heavy on what transhumanism might actually look like rather than Star Trek-style goofiness, though the expectations are a bit dated today.
The Vor Game is much stronger work and a lot faster to the point -- which is good, because it sets up a lot more small plot points for the rest of the series, often in pretty subtle ways -- but it is still very much The Sequel To Warrior's Apprentice. It'll tell you most of what you need to know about big plot, but there are especially some character bits that won't hit as hard without having seen the characters in action before. Great villains, witty heroes, and Miles at his most second-most saving-the-day-by-the-seat-of-the-pants, and necessary reading for the great Memory and Komarr (and, indirectly A Civil Campaign). There's a particular quote about unsolvable problems that'll stick with you.
Barrayar is probably easier as a starting point, and a much faster-paced work with clearer stakes (and a more specific timeline) for the protagonists, along with being set chronologically earlier. It gives a lot more complete an understanding of how fucked up the titular planet is, rather than leaving you wondering if it's Just These Assholes, and the motivation for all the characters is generally resonant even where a reader might know what the actual conclusion to the character's arc is going to be. Downside is that Miles is literally prenatal, and while Cordelia is a good main character, she's drastically different in tone. Also, like Pratchett's Night Watch there's a lot of subtle references to chronologically later works that you don't need to know, but will still miss out on. (Shards of Honor is chronologically even earlier and is readable, but it's the most Star Trek-fan-story of them all, so I wouldn't recommend it as a first read in the series.)
Borders of Infinity is a short story, and does show up enough in the rest of the stories to be worth reading in timeline order, but also they're representative of the highs and lows of the series. Would read before Komarr regardless, but it's a good intro to the pre-Memory Miles character and works with fairly little knowledge of the setting. There's a few stories in the series that are better, but if you don't like this one you're probably going to find getting to the best ones not worth it.
The strength of the Star Trek female fan base has always been slightly surprising to me: it’s military science fiction! That said, I can see it: it’s military sci-fi, but the military solves problems through the power of empathy and diplomacy, Kirk and Riker (my phone literally autocorrected his name to “Romeo,” which is hilarious) are… present, and most stories in Trek are soft science fiction, using alien societies or time travel to explore social structures and personal relationships. TNG always stood out to me as having a remarkable number of episodes about character romance, particularly for the female characters.
Trek also stands out to me for how it’s very formalized and society (in Starfleet — who knows what people do on Earth) is regimented, and I think that’s a factor in geek culture more broadly. Geeks seem to really like dreaming of societies with clearly-defined rules and chains of commands and even uniforms. I have a theory that geeks, often autistic or hypo-social, find the improvisational and non-explicit social rules of society hard to navigate or understand, and wish things were more explicit and systematic. I think this is what psychologically unites ren faire people who dream of m’ladying their way into a woman’s affections (or a woman who would like to be treated like a courtesan), and Trek fans who dream of color-coded uniforms.
Star Trek has ranks and command structures (but is highly non-rigid in social organization for a quasi-military organization — it’s how a progressive imagines a military should operate), Harry Potter has Hogwarts houses with found families based on character traits ordained by a magical hat. Both are about social institutions that provide the security of structure without the rigidity of oppression, with many stories revolving around how morality and justice override authority. There’s a fundamental liberalism at the heart of nerd interests, but one that absolutely finds the improvised social structures that actually characterize liberal society hard to fathom.
But also after a long period of miss after miss, even my geeky friends aren’t into Star Trek. I know more fans of The Phantom Menace than The Next Generation. I remember when I took IT classes and the instructor was appalled when I was the only one in the class who copped to liking Trek. Nerd culture has changed.
I don’t think it was Scott Bakula’s show that killed it — I’ll come out as actually liking Enterprise, but also I liked Voyager so I have terrible taste in Trek. Was it Abrams? I always used to joke that Abrams ruined Star Trek as a job interview for ruining Star Wars. No one should have let this man near a franchise. (While I hated The Last Jedi, I also generally like Rian Johnson, just not for a main episode in a long-running franchise focused on nostalgia.)
The only person in my cohort I’ve ever known as a Star Trek fan was an autistic, asexual girl who seemed to have picked it as her special interest, reading the novels, playing STO, and of course writing fan fiction. I would have liked to have known her better but she was a hard person to get to know.
Forty-Bot
50m ago
He's being forced to insure the value of his own car even though (presumably) he is prepared to replace it out of pocket in the event of an accident. If the car is paid off this is an entirely plausible problem.
odd_primes
1hr ago
Kids love digging holes. Whether that counts as actual landscaping, however...
As for an actual constructive suggestion, a treehouse or some other type of outdoors semi-permanent structure that would be impractical to install at a rental.
GBRK
1hr ago
Subisides are just a strict loss of monies, and treasuries have abysmal interest rates. The superior growth rate of stocks makes them a means to raise government revenue without raising taxes.
TIRM
1hr ago
I thought it was the other way around. Lewis wasn’t a Christian for most of his life. He converted in his middle age and wrote those books. Not everyone was Christian.
Mormon cosmology definitely has something to do with it, but the "Banned Mormon Cartoon" doesn't have much in common with Mormon cosmology.
If you don't believe me (a Mormon), here are a bunch of bitter ex-Mormons saying the same thing.
As for the substance, it is largely accurate, in the sense that, for most things it says, you can find some quote where something like that was taught by a Mormon leader at some point. There are a few just plain misstatements like “Star Base Kolob.” No church authority has ever called Kolob a star base, as far as I can find anywhere.
But it is wildly inaccurate in the way it characterizes and connects things. If they were giving the Catholic Church the same kind of treatment, they would say that Communion is “Catholic ritualized zombie cannibalism.” And one could argue that they are technically correct. After all, Catholics believe that Jesus rose from the dead. And another word for a person who came back from the dead is a zombie. And Catholics believe that in a sense the Host is transformed into the literal body of this Christ. And another word for eating someone’s literal body is cannibalism. But calling it that communicates a wild caricature, that no Catholic would actually identify with. No Mormon would identify with the caricatures in the cartoon, despite the fact that you could find a seed of truth in most of the particulars.
Early Christians were put to death partly because they were said to be practicing cannibalism. This statement is much more true of Christians than most of the claims in that cartoon are of Mormons.
fmac
Ask me about bike lanes
2hr ago
Why is that an improvement? This seems like a terrible way to allocate capital.
Glassnoser
2hr ago
I'm confused. Are you regularly getting into accidents? It is definitely never worth the cost to get insurance for something that regularly happens. Insurance is for things that will probably never happen in your life.
Glassnoser
2hr ago
No, I think that in practice, private companies are much more focused on the long term than governments because they have very strong incentives to be. Most real humans aren't paid millions of dollars to run large companies after going through an extensive filtering process disciplined by markets. Most companies don't even survive more than a few years. The market selects for companies that are unusually well-run and mostly only allows them to survive, at least in competitive industries. It's not perfect process but I think it works much better than politics.
Glassnoser
2hr ago
The entire value of the company comes from the money it eventually pays out to its shareholders.
Glassnoser
2hr ago
Well, the shareholders care about the market's assessment of the long-term profitability of the company, and the shareholders elect the board of directors, so the company has a much stronger incentive to care about the long term than the government does. For the government to care about the king term, the voters need to be able to assess their performance and vote in that basis, and they just don't.
CanofWorms
2hr ago
As another commenter said, I think painting or wallpaper is going to be your best bet because this is the easiest DIY project and the most easily fixable if your kids make a mess. Other DIY projects are, while satisfying, not exactly fun.
Landscaping is a potentially good option, but I would have found gardening/landscaping as boring as watching paint dry when I was a kid.
Other ideas:
- Wall mounting a TV
- Pillow fort with wall hooks installed
- Putting glow in the dark stars up on the kids ceiling
- Installing new LED lights in the kids room (adhesive strip lighting is really cool even for adults lol)
- Adding dimmers or other custom lighting. Be careful if you're going to do any electrical/outlet work.
- Installing shelves
- Setting up a woodworking/art studio if you now have a dedicated space or garage
Reading this list, I think the custom lighting would be a really fun one for the kids.
Also, you should ask ChatGPT!
CanofWorms
2hr ago
WoW Classic is still the most addicting game I have ever played. Sometimes I will randomly think of Stranglehold Vale and get an insane itch to create a new character.
ulyssessword
2hr ago
I feel so seen haha. I also refused to watch the last one. Can't even remember its name if I'm being honest. Total fundamental drop off of interest.
I was disappointed at The Force Awakens, and dropped the franchise after The Last Jedi. My first instinct is still to call Episode 9 "From His Nap".
Quantumfreakonomics
3hr ago
Reading the text of the chant (“The power of one. The power of two. The power of many.”) is doesn’t sound so bad, but when you watch the scene itself it sounds like a cross between “Gen-Z boss and a mini” and a cringe college protest chant. Just absolutely awful sound design.
SnapDragon
3hr ago
Zootopia too. There's some woke messaging, but the story is a hell of a lot of fun.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
3hr ago
I finished Stranger In A Strange Land earlier this week, as I mentioned at one point in last week's SSQS thread. So now I'm on to the other book I picked up at the same time, an anthology of short stories by Harlan Ellison. Overall I have found it to be quite good, though I strongly recommend against getting the specific volume I got (a Barnes and Noble edition called "Greatest Hits"). First, B&N put a sticker on the cover that I didn't notice until after I got it home and ditched the receipt, and it left glue residue when I peeled it off. Second, it is tainted in places by the Current Year - there's a content warning saying that the stories have offensive thinking about women and minorities, and some editor thought it would be acceptable to change Ellison's text to say "Black" instead of "black" when referring to a character's ethnicity. Honestly, I would return it if I hadn't immediately thrown out the receipt, because editing an author's work after the fact like that is downright offensive. But c'est la vie.
For the actual content of the stories themselves, they are good (which is no surprise considering the author). I bought the book because it contained I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (which I had never read), and I thought it deserved all the praise it gets. But surprisingly, I found "Repent, Harlequin" Said The Ticktockman (which I had not heard of) to steal the show thus far. The story is a classic sci-fi story type, the cautionary tale. It shows a version of humanity where society is so far in service to keeping a schedule that the tool of a clock has become a tyrant over humanity. I don't want to talk too much about it because it is a short story (only perhaps 30 pages), so it would be pretty easy to give the whole thing away. But I thought that Ellison does a great job of introducing the world, setting up a story that the reader cares about, and resolving said story in an effective way, all within a very short format. It is a really great bit of writing and I'm glad I got exposed to it even though it's not what I originally purchased the book for.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
3hr ago
Admittedly, almost none of these extremely well-dressed young people look like they can fight in their outfits, or do rock-climbing in heels... Form is clearly privileged over function.
It is very much a game for normies, you play as a pure-good hero. Sometimes the saccharineness of it all does get a bit over the top. But it is remarkable to think how far it can go into horror only for the artstyle to make it not-really-horror.
SubstantialFrivolity
I'm not even supposed to be here today
3hr ago
I must give you props on accomplishing something I wouldn't have thought possible: you almost make me want to try Arma sometime, through the sheer enthusiasm and love you clearly have for the game. I strongly suspect I would hate it, as I tend to be not too fussed about realism in games (indeed, Battlefield is already the more realistic shooter compared to others I have played a lot of, such as Quake 3 or UT2k4) and so I expect I would find Arma somewhat frustrating. But there is something enchanting with the picture you paint of the kind of fun you unlock when you can study infantry tactics manuals to get better at a game, or the way it forces teamwork in a way other games simply do not even try to. Perhaps if I ever clear out my prodigious backlog, I should give it a shot.
RandomRanger
Just build nuclear plants!
4hr ago
Well that still wouldn't work since they would've caught up to the big ship since it was imminently about to run out of fuel, attacked it, discovered the crew were mostly absent, then traced it back to Crait.
However you're clearly right, I'm surprised the cloaking/stealth angle wasn't in the extensive plot description on the wiki where I checked first, before AI confirmed you: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_Episode_VIII_The_Last_Jedi
OliveTapenade
4hr ago
I wonder if there's a cycle - there was a phase, I thought, of really Catholic science fiction, works like A Canticle for Leibowitz, or A Case of Conscience, and prominent Catholic authors; Gene Wolfe springs to mind. Apparently some people think there's something there even today, though to my untrained eye the golden age of Catholic science fiction was in the past.
So maybe just different subcultures or groups get into particular genres every now and then. There may not be that much to it.
5434a
4hr ago
My take on helping people is that if I can I should
I used to feel the same. I don't anymore, but I used to.
It took me a long time and a lot of money/free labor to learn the "within reason" part
Amen. I never did it in the hope of being liked. I did it because I wasn't doing anything else with my time so why not pitch in. I stopped doing it because I reached the conclusion that doing nothing and losing nothing was preferable to helping people and ending up worse off, plus getting lined up to be volunteered to have the process repeat.
The last time I did a good deed worth talking about post resolution was when me and my gf at the time found a pair of debilitatingly intoxicated students in the park around midnight so I called a taxi and gave the driver £20 to take them home. They, a boy and a girl, were half naked and had just crawled out of a large water-filled ditch together. God knows what they'd been doing but it was clearly not working out and it was time to call it a night. When the taxi arrived the girl complained that she didn't want to share the taxi with the boy so I let her know that she could either deal with it or resume searching for her shoes. She wisely decided she'd deal with it.
In that instance I was pretty confident that I wouldn't become jaded from repeatedly encountering the same situation.
We had the Witches of Dathomir and they were fine.
Much like The Rise of Skywalker was an incompetent and facial adaptation of Dark Empire, this is once again just Disney remaking the EU but worse.
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