The Old Hack

With people saying stuff like exposition sessions like these being awkward... That's the trouble with the episodic format of El Goonish Shive. Each issue has to entertain in and of itself for reasons I'm unsure on, which means we as readers catching each new update it'll be ok to read, but if we read them in one go, moments like this where the characters mostly just sit aroynd and get told the plot as has happened offpanel seems... Clunky, at best.
 
But then again, EGS has always had this, and its main strengthhas been and always is that real consideration is put into these talky Q&A moments where the world is built up from characters discussing the world.
 
It's not really a problem, per say, it's just awkward narratively whilst being interesting on an intellectual level. I'd read an essay Dan'd write about his setting thus far, detailing its many layers and facets, if he wrote one.
 
 
Still love it though. 
 
(plus this is the most negative in my life I have ever spoken about EGS' writing, so considering how positive this is mostly, I can prove quantatively that I want Mr Shive to go full steam ahead as is on his current course.)
 
 

I have always had an odd love-hate relationship with Karma meters. I like the idea and it does add variation to the games, but sometimes the choices are so STUPID. For example, in classic KotOR where you play a force sensitive character you keep getting choices between Light and Dark Side. In one situation you meet a man being mugged by gangsters. You can elect to save the man (Light Side), ignore the event (Dark Side) or kill the muggers because they irritate you (Dark Side.) Okay, no problem. But afterwards you can either help the man a bit more (Light Side) or extort all his money from him (Dark Side.) Er, what?
Let's say you were trying for a Darth Vader style character feel. I can totally see him kill some muggers because they irritated him. But can I see him taking the victim's money afterwards? No. Why not? Because it is TOO SODDING PETTY. It is so much beneath Vader's dignity that it is ridiculous. And that is the problem with Karma meters. They all too often oversimplify, or worse yet, do evil for evil's own sake, purely for the muhahahaaa of it. If I play a villain, I'd like my evil to at least make sense.
This can also be a problem with Good, but in my experience Evil tends to be the more egregious of the two. (Or Light and Dark Side, or in the case of Mass Effect, Blue and Red.) Sigh.

It would easily be understandable if, after a month or so of no word from Andrea, Tara would have been too worried to remember all the details Andrea mentioned.

Heh, I could totally see me forgetting some important detail that was mentioned in passing. I would also feel like an idiot for doing so even were it totally understandable that I forgot, or more likely that it didn't register as important information and thus not be stored properly.
Furthermore I recall reading somewhere that when under stress it's harder to recall things, which is why people will be taking a test and totally blank out on the subject at hand. (Which is why doing relaxation exercises before a test can actually help you pass)

It's interesting to apply this type of thinking / analysis / linguistics thought to programming languages. They have to be very rigidly defined...but still often grow and mutate over time...while still having to be absolutely rigid in their definitions and grammar. And the breaks tend to come from just outright creating a new language (if not outright whole cloth, then close to it).
EDIT: And I feel there's an interesting comparison to make between the two styles of language and how each type evolves and how they're created. Additionally, I feel there's an interesting conversation to be had between linguists on both sides.

Trust me, they had lots of rules regarding grammar or their language just wouldn't work. The problem is that formal grammatical rules are an attempt to describe how a given language works, not actual rules for how it works -- and too many people put the cart in front of the horse and think that they are the latter.
Since language is constantly and extensively mutable, it follows that grammar must be as well. The trouble arises when people treat grammatical rules as ironclad, which they really aren't. The best metaphor I can think of is to compare grammar to a map of a language. But the 'landscape' the map depicts is one subject to constant change and prominent features keep appearing, vanishing or shifting about. And if there is conflict between map and reality, grammaticians who insist that it is reality that is wrong will all too often find themselves walking off metaphorical cliffs.

Trust me, they had lots of rules regarding grammar or their language just wouldn't work. The problem is that formal grammatical rules are an attempt to describe how a given language works, not actual rules for how it works -- and too many people put the cart in front of the horse and think that they are the latter.
Since language is constantly and extensively mutable, it follows that grammar must be as well. The trouble arises when people treat grammatical rules as ironclad, which they really aren't. The best metaphor I can think of is to compare grammar to a map of a language. But the 'landscape' the map depicts is one subject to constant change and prominent features keep appearing, vanishing or shifting about. And if there is conflict between map and reality, grammaticians who insist that it is reality that is wrong will all too often find themselves walking off metaphorical cliffs.

Am I the only person who calls out latest interfering immortal "Floating Elf Lucifer"?
Why that name?  Because he's a light-bringer, and was called a floating elf Jesus, but does not appear at-all christlike.
... that being said, he probably isn't an elf.

Trust me, they had lots of rules regarding grammar or their language just wouldn't work. The problem is that formal grammatical rules are an attempt to describe how a given language works, not actual rules for how it works -- and too many people put the cart in front of the horse and think that they are the latter.
Since language is constantly and extensively mutable, it follows that grammar must be as well. The trouble arises when people treat grammatical rules as ironclad, which they really aren't. The best metaphor I can think of is to compare grammar to a map of a language. But the 'landscape' the map depicts is one subject to constant change and prominent features keep appearing, vanishing or shifting about. And if there is conflict between map and reality, grammaticians who insist that it is reality that is wrong will all too often find themselves walking off metaphorical cliffs.

I'm happy about how happy something made me!
I think I've mentioned that our local public library is closed for renovations.  For the next year and a half, they'll be moving 40% of the collection to a temporary location, which will be opening in one week.  Anything not in their top 40% (or checked out when the main place closed last week) will be in storage, completely inaccessible, and we'll have to request stuff through interlibrary loan to get any of that material.
The temporary location happens to be directly across the street from our animal hospital.  Pretty cool, to get to have the official public library close enough to walk to on half a lunch break!  They're still putting the place together, and I went and peeped through the windows at lunch today.  There were shelves, some full and some empty, chairs, computers, check-out stations, most of the necessaries were in place.  I could even see stairs leading down to a basement area, which were prettied up and not blocked off, making me think there's more library down there, too.
As I stepped away from the window to walk on to Subway, I realized I was grinning from ear to ear!  I'm feeling so excited that we're getting a new library to explore right across the street!  Books and movies and programs and magazines....it doesn't matter that it's less than half what we already had access to every day anyway, and what will be there is the same old stuff.  It's still so cool!
I'm happy that I still feel that child's excitement at the thought of what can't help but feel at least a little like having my very own special library, moved there just for me.  That I can't wait to explore the new space, discover where everything is, stumble across new stories I haven't read before.  I can't wait to see what sort of children's area they come up with, what sort of displays, how they'll work around having so much smaller a space.  Maybe sneak over there at lunch when I'm not tied up in surgery, and just sit and read.

The only Charlotte/Diane ship I have is a friendship. I just don't see it, feel it, or hear it otherwise.

Am I a bad person for immediately going through Charlette's entire rant mentally before I looked at the second panel?

Highlander 2.

 
No-kill runs are some of the most fun to watch, while at the same time being the most frustrating to watch.
 
^I might have hundreds of hours watching let's plays...

I suppose Grace more or less has to make friends with her assailant, or at least leave him unharmed, if she wants to go through the game non-violently. From what I read, the plot basically is about finding him. So she can't take the more sensible non-violent option of staying the hell away from him, for then there wouldn't be a game.

The guy probably thought it was worth a shot...

You wanted kitten pictures. There's only three of them now (see the Sad thread), but there's still kitten pictures.

So little...

Why would you want to use your cat's pillow as a DVR remote?

Watching our cat use our DVR remote as a pillow.

Yes, overriding a being's free will to the point where they will obey a command to commit suicide is likely one of the most heinous things that Immortals can do to non-Immortals.

Yay for Charlotte being pedantic.

EAT .44 MAGNUM MARSHMALLOWS!


Such as the plot of the first Half-Life game. Extremely popular FPS, but the plot is somewhat... incoherent at best. Ross Scott's excellent serial Freeman's Mind spends a good deal of time making fun of some of its worst inconsistencies. (If you should happen to try it, the first three episodes are the slowest due to basically being the very long trailer of the game, but after that it speeds up and never slows down till the end. Be warned: it is LONG. Also, you may risk laughing. A lot.)

Glad to hear things have been going well today!  May you have many more productive days and fun windings-down.

Trying to wind down after having written music all day long. I've been busy, and I've also been wearing myself out. Creativity does that to you.

Yes.
Jerry doesn't consider the immortal rules to be sufficient to judge behaviour. He don't think that just because Helena and Demetrius didn't broke the rules they behaved correctly.