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      Welcome!   03/05/2016

      Welcome, everyone, to the new 910CMX Community Forums. I'm still working on getting them running, so things may change.  If you're a 910 Comic creator and need your forum recreated, let me know and I'll get on it right away.  I'll do my best to make this new place as fun as the last one!

banneret

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Everything posted by banneret

  1. Story: Friday 24 Feb 2017

    In my first pass over the strip, I thought Tedd might have stepped away from Elliot due to something she saw through her powers. There was, and is, a suspicious dearth of blush.
  2. Political Discussion Thread (READ FIRST POST)

    That article is a mess as written, I'm loathe to engage with it at all, since it primarily cites previous articles from the same site and is a collection of five incidents that it presents as "'transgender' men" abusing restroom occupants, where only one of the five involves an offender identifying as trans in their incident. The first case is man, who makes no effort to identify as a woman, attempting to excuse his entry by suggesting it is enabled by the law, which it is not. The third and fourth cases are men using drag to gain access, which has been happening for decades. The fifth is men taking photographs of women in a neutral bathroom, which is not substantively different from them doing it in a women's bathroom, or taking photos of men in a men's bathroom, both of which have been happening for decades. The second case, it doesn't seem - having followed the article trail through several different deeply partisan sites - like the offender genuinely identifies as trans, nor that he made any effort to present as a woman. It isn't the same sort of opportunism as the first case, because some authority did give him access when he made a claim. There isn't a lot of information out there, beyond the fact that he is mentally ill and was already a convicted sex offender. So, there is that one, I shouldn't have been absolutist. Beyond that, the fact that this article can be presented as five cases of "'transgender' men" abusing restroom occupants, and read as "at least three, arguably four" is very telling. Every single one of these incidents was perpetrated by straight, cis men against women, and that is the only common element. One offender claimed identity to gain access, one offender attempted to invoke the law as a defense, and the remainder did things they could - and probably would - have done regardless of the law. When all is said and done, which of these cases could have been avoided by removing restroom protections for transfolk? Not one. While the article is not persuasive, I do understand what you are getting at, Don Edwards, and I do not think you are transphobic. I apologize if I inadvertently gave you that impression, I am merely frustrated with the red herring, and in fact I was responding to Scotty. Personally, I would prefer neutral, single and double (for diaper stations) occupant restrooms with actual doors and locks. Moving over to that standard could actually have an impact on restroom comfort and safety.
  3. Political Discussion Thread (READ FIRST POST)

    As it does not solve anything, it is, by definition, not a solution. Can I just say something? The whole "dangerous pervert" angle is a red herring, and we have to dispense with it. Even the hypothetical you've presented - "could there be... probably" - is ridiculous. Not one person is going to attempt to pass themselves off as trans to gain access to other people in a restroom. It requires a lot of effort to present, and presentation will make you visible or notable, either because you do not pass, or because you perform femininity/masculinity to a prototypical level to pass. There are probably hundreds of ways to sneak a peek, and not one of them is going to be more difficult, nor expose the hypothetical pervert to greater risk of discovery and/or violence. The whole legal push against transfolk is not about public safety. It won't improve the safety of any restroom occupant. It does not address the incidents that do occur in restrooms. All it seeks to do, and all it does in real terms, is make a subset of the population more vulnerable.
  4. NP: Friday February 17, 2017

    I don't think there is anything questionable in those undertones. If anything, they afford some answers.
  5. Story: Friday February 10, 2017

    No disagreement here, Scotty. I was dancing around the gatekeeping role of medical professionals. They have a lot of latitude in how they approach treatment, and many do demand a period of living as the target gender prior to surgical and, in some cases, hormonal intervention. This was more common in the past, as the DSM-V and the most recent revision of the WPATH Standards of Care no longer treat gender dysphoria as pathological, but these demands do persist in some practices. Where you are and what insurance you are on can lead to a completely different experience with the establishment from another person. Sometimes, there are a lot of hoops.
  6. Story: Friday February 10, 2017

    That is a good question, but I think institutional sexism in the standards of care is beyond this thread.
  7. Story Monday January 23, 2017

    I always miss calls, and nobody ever leaves a message. Texts are simply better until we've mutually decided to have a call.
  8. As I do not have an income at present, I do not participate in the Patreon, but I am not that fond of the recent output either, with the exception of Dan's choices. Touch Practice and Noah with Elliot were both head and shoulders above the other recent pinups. Perhaps it is the fault of the backing, voting public - though they haven't done as poorly as I expected with the major January polls. We will get Mechanic Tess, at least. Anyway, I miss the commentary as well.
  9. NP Wednesday January 11, 2017

    An unconscious response? I mean, I don't choose when or where to blush. Nonetheless, I concede the point.
  10. NP Wednesday January 11, 2017

    I expected a faint blush. Where is the faint blush?
  11. Story Friday January 6, 2017

    Ahem. One man's junk is another man's treasure, and I'm always up to abscond with a fortune. I'll see myself out of this thread.
  12. Fifteen Years of EGS

    El Goonish Shive is the only comic I was reading fifteen, or even ten, years ago which I am still reading today. As I grew old and tired, other media failed to grow with me, but El Goonish Shive has. That is all I can say, for the moment.
  13. NP, Friday December 9, 2016

    Was the enchantment on the boar permanent, or merely open ended? The boar sought calories - presumably it could not merely tap into the ambient energy of Moperville, perhaps because it did not cast the spell itself - to maintain the enchantment. I suggest there is a difference between the two, a permanent enchantment would be self-sustaining, an open ended enchantment would last as long as it was fueled. As for Sarah, she's effectively creating a delusional space. People do that all the time, this one merely starts with an explicit replication of her locale.
  14. Forum officialness

    I'm concerned about this shift, though I have long felt that EGS should have a dedicated, independent forum which is tailored to the community. This is the only forum I visit, and I seldom use the various "social media" platforms, because they are all unsuited for conversation. Indeed, the centralization of communication has had no real benefits in my opinion, the quality of discourse has dropped for almost all subjects as they've moved from traditional forums to platforms like Reddit, Tumblr, and Facebook - and without any sort of focus, shallow and fleeting participation has become the norm.
  15. What are you reading right now?

    I haven't read anything for a week or so. I just can't muster the focus and comfort to do so, though I have a dozen texts open.
  16. Magic: The Gathering colors of the cast

    All archetypal models are necessarily reductive, so the intent is to capture the broad strokes. If we were building decks around the eight, most of them would have three if not four colours, but distilling down their primary one or two aspects for a single card is a more interesting challenge. I think the cast in general is lacking in Black - the only two living human characters I can think of who have any Black are Diane (with Blue) and Ellen (with Red) - the former because of her longstanding focus upon her own self interest, and the latter due to her individualistic hedonism. Neither would be wholly Black, of course. Green is also uncommon, as it entails a philosophical acquiescence to natural law and is thus less agentive than the other colours; you can make a case for Grace (with White), Justin (with Blue) or perhaps Catalina (with Red). The other three colours are both easier to apply to the individual as defined and more common in the cast, with Red and Blue the most common. Justin is where our categorizations diverge the most. I feel he is best described as Green and Blue. In terms of Green, Justin accepts people and circumstances as they are, and is always looking to their further development; recall Nanase's sexuality, his experience at the game store, his own contemplation of zen philosophies, and even his whole friendship with Susan. On the other side, his self-expression is always muted, tempered by consideration and moderate introversion, which echoes how Susan approaches her own life. Like Susan, our Blue paragon, Justin keeps his mind in the forefront and is always analyzing, often helpful as a result.
  17. Story Friday December 2, 2016

    At this point, even if they're not related, it isn't just about birth. The sister you make along the way matters as well, just ask Elliot.
  18. Things You Only Noticed On Reread

    I agree, hence "talents" rather than "skills". I was referring to her placement with her partner, rather than being in the Bureau to begin with, sorry about the ambiguity.
  19. Things You Only Noticed On Reread

    If Cranium has the same spell, or even a similar one, it could account for her position in itself. The spell is very powerful, she need not have a great many other talents to prove valuable.
  20. NP, Wednesday November 30, 2016

    I think the size of Diane's group is curious. I've never seen a group of three function over time when two are at odds with one another, the group has to be larger to diffuse the tension, or it fractures.
  21. Story Wednesday November 30, 2016

    While I agree in principle, in practice, telling Susan does nothing to improve Diane's chances of survival, it isn't really a choice between the two. Susan may be more effective than Tedd or Sarah in a fight, but she goes to a different school, and all the members of the circle from Diane's school are considerably more powerful with much more access. For that matter, Rhoda might be a potent protector in time. I think Susan should know, but this isn't really about Diane's safety.
  22. Story Wednesday November 30, 2016

    I am in agreement with you, Hack, this is one of the most painful pages of the comic to date. The conversation is necessarily insensitive, due to the topic, but Nanase and Ellen did not approach it very well. This exchange is made worse by the absence of an intermediary, because - of all the friends in their circle - they've spent the least time developing their relationships with Susan. Discussing the topic with Tedd's father was quite invasive, and seeking the truth is not a sufficient justification for either invading her privacy or putting this on her in the moment. They haven't thought this mystery through, it is not as simple as unmasking a man. Telling her creates distress but it doesn't benefit her or Diane in the near term.
  23. Story Monday October 31, 2016

    As my grandmother once told me, if you're not willing to listen to what you have to say, then why should anyone else give a curse?
  24. Story: Friday, October 28, 2016

    To expand on the above post, when an individual moves, it is the product of a mixture of involuntary, automated, and voluntary processes. The involuntary accounts for necessary functions, such as breathing. The voluntary usually covers intention, and clarification through decisions along the way. The automated is the meat of the matter, we do not think ourselves through each step, we simply walk. Automaticity, or the formation of subconscious response patterns, is one of the most important aspects of human cognition. Without it, we could not easily walk, read or speak... let alone run, write or sing. However, it is most easily disrupted by bringing voluntary thought to bear on the task, a prime example being an attempt to remember a number that you regularly input "by heart". I figure there are a two probable explanations for Grace's behaviour in Sarah's simulation. 1. Sarah's spell is using her own automatic patterns and subconscious, in conjunction with her understanding of Grace's personality, to synthesize an "actor" which responds to her requests. In this case, Grace could use any automatic patterns, like speaking, that Sarah has established. If her instructions go outside the personality or the bounds of her own patterns, the spell will either fail or derive a placeholder. 2. Sarah's spell is using her own memories to synthesize a sensory composite which reflects her direction. In this case, the composite would only be limited by Sarah's memories and capacity to distort them, and would thus be particularly susceptible to projection. The first option is both more interesting and more useful for simulation. The second is just what people do normally, we don't need magic for that.