Story Friday October 6, 2017

[The Old Hack 2,448]

3 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Plus, since Susan didn't bring a purse or a backpack, how will she sanitize her seat?

She will conjure a lightsaber and purge all life forms from the seat with the power of the Dark Side.

What? It's what I would do.

[hkmaly 490]

17 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

So, what's next? Has anyone told Susan that Diane dates lots of boys? Has anyone told Diane that Susan has never dated any boy? Diane's reaction to that revelation might be along the lines, "What, first Charlotte and now you?!"

I suspect that Susan not dating much was obvious from the reviews - although not so much to know it was specifically "never". They did however stated multiple times she is NOT dating Elliot.

Yes, there would be lot of interesting things to speak about.

20 minutes ago, Tom Sewell said:

Plus, since Susan didn't bring a purse or a backpack, how will she sanitize her seat?

And I though fairy is the most important thing she didn't take. Hmmm ... she may have something in pocket.

[Tom Sewell 268]

36 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

And I though fairy is the most important thing she didn't take. Hmmm ... she may have something in pocket.

Not nearly enough to do even one mall food court seat.

As for fairies, the setup has been that Susan can basically summon fairies anywhere. She's been shown with three fairies at once at least three times in canon, and she has four Nanase-created dolls for her magic chest now. And it's not explicit exactly how many fairies at once she can summon; it might be more than three and even more than four. And back in the 2010 Sketchbook Hey Listen to My Little Friends! Susan is calling out ten fairies at once, very reminiscent of Adrian casting his murder shroud a year before.

Reasons Susan might want to bring along a fairy or three:

1. She didn't want to un-summon them.
2. She wanted to show Susan one of them without summoning one in a public place.
3. She wanted one to literally watch her back, although wearing that ponytail doesn't leave a lot of room to hide a fairy.
4. She thought she might need one or more, and wasn't sure she'd have the energy to summon them.
5. They comfort her. Obviously she didn't take this choice--although they could be in her car or on the roof playing with the owls.

Edited October 7, 2017 by Tom Sewell
got link wrong

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

7 hours ago, hkmaly said:

17 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Essentially, Susan mistrusts her own immune system. That's what it boils down to. If she trusted her body's ability to fight off infections more, she wouldn't have the phobia. Getting over that mistrust is one huge problem, though.

That's sound too analytical for phobia. Phobias tend to be less logical.

I'm familiar with phobias. Dear God, I'm familiar with them. Don't get a wasp, hornet, or anything that mimics one within 15 feet of me. I will hurt myself trying to get away from it. Totally illogical to me, but I'm sure some psychiatrist has worked out the machinations of the mind with something like this.

With Susan, I'll agree her phobia is illogical to her. However, I was playing the part of the paper-writing psychiatrist who's researched similar cases and has seen the cause over and over. With that, I'm guessing what I said above. Susan wouldn't be able to see that, because her fear overcomes her before logic can kick in.

[hkmaly 490]

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

As for fairies, the setup has been that Susan can basically summon fairies anywhere.

Of course she can summon them. The idea was that she needs backpack so she doesn't need to UNsummon them.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

• She didn't want to un-summon them.
• She wanted to show Susan one of them without summoning one in a public place.
• She wanted one to literally watch her back, although wearing that ponytail doesn't leave a lot of room to hide a fairy.
• She thought she might need one or more, and wasn't sure she'd have the energy to summon them.
• They comfort her.

You mean Diane in point 2. And I would agree with points 1,5,2,5,3 and 5.

6 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

although they could be in her car or on the roof playing with the owls.

They wouldn't be much use in car, but good point about the possibility the fairies are independent enough to be told to stealthy follow her.

31 minutes ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Totally illogical to me, but I'm sure some psychiatrist has worked out the machinations of the mind with something like this.

Psychiatrists are just guessing. We don't know nearly enough about how brain works. You can get hard to predict behaviour from FIVE neurons (according to professor who taught us neural nets).

Most likely, the real reason behind the phobia CANT be described in human language in reasonable space, because it's deeper than language.

Also, if the human brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would still be so stupid that we couldn't understand it. (Jostein Gaarder)

 

[Scotty 1,061]

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

So, what's next? Has anyone told Susan that Diane dates lots of boys? Has anyone told Diane that Susan has never dated any boy? Diane's reaction to that revelation might be along the lines, "What, first Charlotte and now you?!"

The last time we saw Diane and Charlotte, Diane was apologizing for the way she treated her, of course Charlotte coming to Diane's defense helped, but it still made her think twice about what she said. I don't think she'll say anything judgemental to Susan about it, she might start to think about it, but then catch herself before actually saying anything.

I wouldn't be surprised if Susan said something first, like "You must think I'm weird for being like this, not exactly a good first impression." And maybe in response, Diane tells Susan about how she used to string boys along and adding that she's not perfect either.

7 hours ago, Tom Sewell said:

Plus, since Susan didn't bring a purse or a backpack, how will she sanitize her seat?

Might be a bottle of hand sanitizer in her coat pocket?

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

Perhaps a baggie with a few chlorox wipes, which would be easier to carry than the whole dispenser of wipes would be.

And I like that Dan shows that Susan knows her disgust is illogical.  There are an awful lot of things humans know we shouldn't feel or do, but end up feeling or doing anyway -- just ask anyone who's overweight or under-exercised, or falls for the wrong kind of person, or has battled an addiction....

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, CritterKeeper said:

And I like that Dan shows that Susan knows her disgust is illogical.  There are an awful lot of things humans know we shouldn't feel or do, but end up feeling or doing anyway -- just ask anyone who's overweight or under-exercised, or falls for the wrong kind of person, or has battled an addiction....

In Susan's case, she was recently given reason to think about her insecurities and how they affect her socially, to the point where she's trying to not let physical contact bother her. It would make sense if she would be looking at how she reacted to questionable sanitary conditions of things. Though maybe the two are connected, like other people touched those surfaces so if Susan touched those surfaces, it'd be as if dozens of people had just touched her?

[Don Edwards 548]

5 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You can get hard to predict behaviour from FIVE neurons (according to professor who taught us neural nets).

X_n = fractional portion of (X_n-1 + π)²

is absolutely deterministic but hard to predict.

[hkmaly 490]

11 hours ago, CritterKeeper said:

And I like that Dan shows that Susan knows her disgust is illogical.  There are an awful lot of things humans know we shouldn't feel or do, but end up feeling or doing anyway -- just ask anyone who's overweight or under-exercised, or falls for the wrong kind of person, or has battled an addiction....

Isn't MAJORITY of feelings like this?

10 hours ago, Scotty said:

In Susan's case, she was recently given reason to think about her insecurities and how they affect her socially, to the point where she's trying to not let physical contact bother her. It would make sense if she would be looking at how she reacted to questionable sanitary conditions of things. Though maybe the two are connected, like other people touched those surfaces so if Susan touched those surfaces, it'd be as if dozens of people had just touched her?

Or it's just that Susan don't want to touch anything not clean, things OR people, and people touching her is worse as she can't ready for it. And they usually object to being disinfected.

8 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

13 hours ago, hkmaly said:

You can get hard to predict behaviour from FIVE neurons (according to professor who taught us neural nets).

X_n = fractional portion of (X_n-1 + π)²

is absolutely deterministic but hard to predict.

Yes.

Another nice example is Langton's ant. Simple deterministic rules, hard to predict behaviour.

Or fractals.

But real neurons (unlike simulated ones) are NOT exactly deterministic. (Anyone who was drunk can confirm this.) And, obviously, there is much more than 5 (86±8 billion) of those in human brain.