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Everything posted by Nephil Thief
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@Lilith Got it in one. In this case it was an SF novel I'd been reading. Note, possible spoilers follow, and also stuff that some people might find triggery... In summary: And it hurt all the more because, up until then, it had been really good and engrossing, and had studiously avoided the usual cliches. However, I've seen the same kind of thing before, again mostly around gender stuff. Michael Crichton seems to have been a common offender. e.g. Timeline: Or Sphere: Ventus by Karl Schroeder, which I mentioned a while back, was also a particularly painful example: What's astonishing to me is that this stuff is not even subtle. Timeline and Sphere were why I had completely given up on Michael Crichton before I'd started high school. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." (Aaaaaand let's hope this doesn't go overboard into rant territory.) [Edit: Ventus is not a Crichton novel, in case you were wondering]
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When reading popular fiction, there is this combination of two factors that I really, really don't like to see. Characters who meet stereotyped expectations can be annoying, but they won't usually make me stop reading. Well established characters behaving way out of type can also be annoying; but again, won't necessarily make me stop reading. However. When a well established character, with an established personality and beliefs, suddenly starts conforming to a stereotype that is completely out of character for them, it's usually time for me to swear out loud and put the book down. That just hurts. I haven't seen many examples of it, but the ones I have seen are all memorable cases that I wouldn't read again.
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What have you been reading recently?
Nephil Thief replied to Emmisary of Immanence's topic in General
Okay, let's try this again... So yeah, I might just be a fool with easily-pulled chains. As I indicated, I've bought the second book and am hoping that Jemisin corrects the failings of the first one. Don't get me wrong, it's very much pulp fantasy, but I thought it had good ideas and mostly good execution and a lot of potential. It just could have been much better, if Jemisin had followed it to its (IMO) logical conclusion. Satisfied? Edit: finished the second book. IMO it was stronger in some places than the first, but weaker in others. Notably, Oree feels less memorable than Yeine; perhaps as overcompensation? Also the antagonist's motives seemed a bit weak. I still liked the way the godlings were drawn though; even the minor ones were, for the most part, endearingly oddball. OTOH, the ending did not disappoint this time. Jemisin does macabre really well. -
What have you been reading recently?
Nephil Thief replied to Emmisary of Immanence's topic in General
I didn't like Neuromancer all that much. Admittedly "debut SF novels I've read" is a small pool though. Hope I didn't come across as combative above. Opinions are an opinionated thing. I will try not to tread on yours. (Re the ending, I really need to figure out how to use the spoiler tags...) -
What have you been reading recently?
Nephil Thief replied to Emmisary of Immanence's topic in General
Hmm. I finished The Hundred Thousand Kingdom a few days ago. I absolutely loved it until the very last chapter. The ending was a rather jarring change of direction, and not in a good way. Also, I'll admit some of the earlier content (mostly involving the God of Night) seemed... very unwholesome. Whatever though, I'll buy the rest of the trilogy. THTK is probably the best debut SF novel I've ever read; I'm inclined to give Jemisin the benefit of the doubt for now. Oh, I also tried to read God's War by Kameron Hurley last week. I gave up after four chapters or so. Well written, great worldbuilding, interesting concepts; but the graphic violence was too much for me. I really wanted to like the novel, but couldn't bring myself to slog through it. I think I'm getting more sensitive with age (and thank the gods for that). Anyway, there's probably an interesting potential essay in comparing Jemisin's "warrior" protagonist with Hurley's "mercenary". But I won't be the one to write it. -
Just to be clear, I don't oppose charity; even personal, impulsive, maybe-not-very-effective charity. But I do think it's pretty darned creepy to use ostensible charity explicitly as a social climbing tactic. If nothing else, it says that the person doing so isn't actually concerned with results.
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@Alorael IMO what ADoS describes above should be wrong even by purely consequentialist standards. Sure it's giving someone a resource they need, but using a helpless stranger to boost one's ego might leave them feeling... well, used.
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@ADoS FWIW I've been following this, but not posting because my input would not be useful. (Too far outside my experience etc.) However, I really owe you one, since you helped me with the thing with my dad. For now, *HUGS* and try to stay safe okay? Also, much sympathy re: people not listening to you because of diagnoses. Been there, done that, it's awful.
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Depends on who you ask. Voluntarily holding onto a ton of money, while other people are starving etc. for lack of it, IMO qualifies as a form of hording. Also, I suppose this thread might be a bit less silly than it seemed to me at the outset...
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Short version: what Slartibus said above. Long version: Crossbows are marginally more effective than bows, in terms of damage and hit chance. That might be hard coded, or it might not. From the CBoE sources, barely anything improves ranged damage. Not any of the skills, and not launcher bonuses. Ammo bonuses help; as does Bless status, though not by much; and finally the Accuracy item power. Damage and hit chance both decrease with distance, and with the number of foes in the way, and also both go down precipitously at point blank range. Poisoned bolts might be useful in some situations. OTOH they have high nuisance value, since you must first unwield any melee weapons, or the poison won't be applied to the bolts. ... I suppose a part of five or six archers, with poisoned ammo, might be effective. One archer is probably going to be pretty useless though.
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"He says he was there for five hundred days." "Five hundred days. Impossible. How?" "No idea. He said he learned to breathe air." "That's..." "Crazy. I know. But you've seen the changes, you saw how his skin was all red and rough when we brought him back." "The crew did say his chest was heaving, when they saw him. Thought it was some kind of spasm. Some kind of sickness." Kam can hear the voices outside the ward. Doc Forvin, and the skeptic, another man he doesn't recognize. "This is crazy. Crazy!" Forvin walks in. "Kam? I'd like you to meet Chief Scientist Lavell. He wants to run some tests -" "Not too painful, I hope." Kam coughs into his fist. His skin still has a pinkish tinge; his throat is sore, the Wine irritating it. He feels foggy. (Back on the island: no fog, clear thought, octopus strength. Glowing skin. He could move boulders under his own power, do trigonometry in his head. All without the Wine, like it was the most natural thing...) "We'll need to draw some blood. That's all for now." "Fine by me." Forvin and Lavell are gray, granite gray. People are gray, that's the way they are; babies are born pale, start to turn a healthier gray with their first breath of Wine. But it no longer looks healthy to Kam. He talks to Lavell as Forvin takes out the needles. "How long were you stuck on that island, up there?" Lavell asks. "Five hundred days, give or take." "Without Wine." "Without Wine." "What happened?" He remembers: the thirst, the pain, the suffocating feeling in his chest. Collapsing to the black soil. Finally opening his mouth to gulp in air; first in mad desparation, then in agony, and finally in relief. "I figured out how to breathe air." "That's impossible, Kam. Human bodies are designed for Wine. A few breaths every few hours -" "But here I am." He raises a pinkish-gray hand, turns it over. Coughs. It feels strange to be talking without breathing, his trachea closed; but the air down here in the city provides no nourishment, and tastes of tar and filth. "You didn't have a supply -" "No." Kam thinks. "Mr. Lavell, don't you wonder what I ate and drank on that island?" Lavell raises his eyebrows. "It's not as big a mystery, but -" Kam continues. "There was a spring on one of the hills, for water. There were fish and octopuses on the beach - squid too. Little ones, not Wine producers." "How did you catch them?" Kam grins. "Bare hands. Air makes you faster. Makes you think clearer, too." Lavell is looking at Forvin. He looks... frightened, Kam thinks. He looks terrified. "You think he's on to something," Forvin says. "I think he's telling the truth." Silence. "Kam." "Yeah?" Lavell looks directly in his eyes, gray face grim. "In my capacity as Chief Scientist, I am ordering to be utterly silent about this. Speak of it to nobody else. On pain of death." Kam's face betrays him. "You have got to be kidding me." "There will be panic if this gets out, Kam -" "Dr. Lavell." Kam can barely contain himself. "We have been at war with Gannishmen for over forty years now." "Do not even think about -" "We have been at war, for forty years, because of the Wine. The squid population's declining, we all know that. More and more don't produce. And the ones that can, don't produce as much. Attempts to farm them, to breed them in tanks, have all been for nil. "And now you know that people, at least some people, can breathe air. Sure, it has to be clean enough - well, you could pipe the stuff down here from the mountains. The point is -" "Enough!" "The point," Kam bludgeons on, "is that people are getting shot to pieces out there, and being bombed, and living half-lives or even dying of suffocation because there's not enough Wine to go around. People cannot breathe, man! Think about that -" "Enough, I said!" "Think about what it would mean, if we didn't need it. If people could breathe something that's everywhere, and doesn't cost anything. "It could stop the war. It would save so many lives..." "Lavell - he's right. Listen to him." "No." "Lavell - " "Dr. Lavell, have you wondered why I'm not taking to the Wine again? Where the withdrawal symptoms came from, when I started breathing the stuff again?" "Kam, just -" "I think humans evolved to breathe air, in the first place. The Wine isn't natural." "Humans didn't evolve. This is nonsense." "Think about it, Lavell. Think about it. Fish and octopuses evolved in water, and they breathe it. Humans walk on land. What if we weren't created?" "Nonsense." "How would we even happen in the first place, Lavell, if we couldn't breathe the stuff around us?" Lavell sighs. "Alright. Alright. But one word of this, and I'll have you both executed on the spot." He turns, paces out of the room. "Goddamn. And I didn't even get to take any blood." Kam sighs. "Kam?" "I thought it might work. For once, I thought something might work." Forvin shrugs. "The vaguaries of the state -" "It's garbage. Absolute garbage." He looks Forvin in the eyes. "How much do you spend on Wine a week?" Forvin mumbles something. "What?" "Over ten thousand creds. Over a third of my salary." He has a wife, Kam thinks. And a kid, maybe two. "When I crashed on the island, it would have been -" his brain drags it out, foggy on Wine. "Seven thousand, probably. Maybe a little more." Forvin nods. "And the quality's been getting worse, too. The Wine we've been getting is usually stale, half-depleted. Sometimes makes my son sick." "This can't go on." "No. It can't." Forvin starts putting the tubes away, slips the needles in a sharps container. Humanity, Kam thinks. Oh, what a state we're in. To have once breathed the free air, and now rely on squid exudate, walking through dirty gray cities with raw throats and gray skin and closed-off trachea. Walking in a perpetual fog, delusion and war and government hypoxia all in one giant greasy ball - "I'm going back." Forvin opens his mouth. "You can come with me. You can bring your family." "I - it doesn't -" "I'll teach you how to catch fish, build a fire." "Not that." "What, then?" Forvin averts his eyes. "The Gannishmen." "Yes, what about them?" "The week after we pulled you off the island, a Gannish missile went slightly off target." "Oh, no -" "Yeah." "Gone." "Gone. Blown to radiactive pieces." Kam buries his face in his hands. "I'm sorry." Never again. Kam's chest burns. He'll never get away. "Do you... " He clears his throat. "Get me some Wine." "Sure." Maybe I'll get used to it, Kam thinks, as Forvin retrieves the dark bottle of squid-stuff, hooks it up to an aspirator tube. Maybe. Give it time. Maybe. But God, it hurts.
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@Richard Bacon I'm guessing it's because you used an ordinary text editor, instead of a hex editor, and moved some stuff around by accident. e.g. You have 200 gold: 00c8 Now you have 30000 7530 However, if you don't overwrite those first two NULs... 007530 ^^^ Then you've displayed all the data following that value. Position matters in binary files.
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@Slartibus BoE skills are stored in the save files as 16-bit integers, not 8-bit. Not sure if they're signed or unsigned, I'd have to check the sources; I think unsigned... In any case, the maximum is much higher than 256. However, the effects of very high skills can be weird, because most of them use lookup tables rather than flat arithmetic. For instance, 50 Strength will have you hitting rarely and doing little damage; while 255 Strength has a character hitting every time for 50+ damage. I suspect this is because the tables are stored next to each other in memory, and the index is overrunning into other tables. ... @Richard Bacon Not sure how that could happen without you noticing. What version of BoE are you using?
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@Ishad Nha It used to be possible to run them in Wine, before Wine's 16-bit support broke forever. These days my preferred solution is Windows 2000 under Virtualbox. Windows XP still has the 16-bit NTVDM subsystem, and should work just as well. (In both cases I'd recommend exporting an OVF appliance, so that you can just import it instead of reinstalling if your VM somehow gets trashed.)
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Is it weird I have an Imaginary Girlfriend?
Nephil Thief replied to RainbowDashRadical's topic in General
@RainbowDashRadical Been to many of those places, too. You're not alone. *HUGS* I know life can be really painful, but please stay with us okay? Not sure where you're located, but there are suicide crisis hotlines. The main one for the United States seems to be 1-800-273-TALK (8255) ^^^ If you're anywhere in the US you can call that number, if you're having suicidal thoughts, or if you feel like you need to talk to someone just to keep going. Best wishes. I really hope things get better for you. -
Whoah. Off topic but: is that Windows 3.x running on top of DOSBox?!
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Is it weird I have an Imaginary Girlfriend?
Nephil Thief replied to RainbowDashRadical's topic in General
[Edit: redacted.] -
Is it weird I have an Imaginary Girlfriend?
Nephil Thief replied to RainbowDashRadical's topic in General
Okay so maybe I shouldn't comment on the OP, but first off I hadn't kissed anyone until this year (I'm 26). Oh, and the person in question was a guy. This society puts huge pressure on people to "find someone," and do so quickly, as a social status thing. And especially re hetero relationships. The truth IMO is that this doesn't work for everyone, and romance-as-social-status is unhealthy either way. I was very lonely too. But after a while I got to the point where I had a day job and a few very close friends, and didn't feel like I needed a partner. I mean, it's really nice to be dating someone now, but for me a lot of it was social pressure that I had to get over. That said, what you describe is... honestly, kind of heart-wrenching. "Hours on end" sounds like it might be interfering with your external life a bit. That kind of time adds up. I would suggest you seek professional help, if only in scaling back the time usage. But on the other hand, I'm just going to put this out there: be careful. Trust your instincts. There are some really incompetent people in mental health practice, and I've met a bunch of them (and suffered at their hands). In any case, seriously, best of luck. I hope things work out better for you. -
That someone discovered, thousands of years ago, that they could preserve ideas in written symbols. I hope we never lose that. I know there's other things too - all the technology that keeps people like me alive, for instance - but writing is the one that really comes to the front, in my mind.
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I'm currently wandering around the Wurm Pit in ZKR (somewhere in Morog's territory), and I'm not sure what to do with the cursed idol my character stole... Err, recap: I walked in, slew lots of respawning Ooz Serpents and eventually a tentacled slime-beast at the center, wandered around a bit, and found a bunch of totems. There was an idol among the totems, so of course I stole it, and got cursed. Now I can't leave the dungeon, and get badly poisoned whenever I try. What else is there, let's see: - A little cavern in the northwest full of pretty mushrooms, which don't seem to do much. - A pool of water with odd tranquilizing properties. - Another group of totems in the southeast, which make me uneasy when I get near them... Unless I drink from the aforementioned pool first. But they don't do anything unusual if I blunder around them while tranquilized. I could put the idol back, but I kind of want to find out more about this creepy little dungeon. What's the deal with this place? Edit: the trick is to walk out through the wall behind the second set of totems. D'oh! Still interested in how this dungeon figures into the rest of the scenario though, the atmosphere of the place could be right out of Clark Ashton Smith.
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Is there actually a correct way to apply nail polish?
Nephil Thief replied to Nephil Thief's topic in General
@Goldengirl, thank you for your advice - it worked beautifully. -
Is there actually a correct way to apply nail polish?
Nephil Thief replied to Nephil Thief's topic in General
Thank you! I'll give that a try next time. (Though the Q-tip strategy I mentioned earlier, actually wound up looking surprisingly good...) Well yes. Especially for a computer person who likes to read a lot... :| -
Logic, art, society, and me misunderstanding stuff...
Nephil Thief replied to Nephil Thief's topic in General
Ugh. My apologies then, I wasn't understanding you at all. Edit: also sorry for the 'splaining above. I need to work on that. -
Logic, art, society, and me misunderstanding stuff...
Nephil Thief replied to Nephil Thief's topic in General
Thanks. No, really. I should stop relying on Wikipedia even for vague ideas of stuff. I'm a little bit bothered by the author's accusations re: scientific rationalism; more on the basis that "acknowledging the connection" between said mindset and the horrors of the 20th and 21st centuries shouldn't necessarily involve throwing the whole thing out. I know I sound super pompous saying this, but IMO the dose really does make the poison. Likewise the emphasis on subjectivity. That can cut both ways. (Like with GamerGate. "How dare you tell me not to harrass people online! I was bullied incessantly as a child!" etc. etc.) [Edit: bookmarked nonetheless though. That is a really cool blog.] Whether I agree with that latter depends heavily on how one defines "burn down the whole system." I can definitely see it re: Wikipedia at least. Some well-placed, persistent, and particularly comical vandalism, might have encouraged me to find better sources above for instance... Re the former, I guess I'm viewing it less through the historic perspective, and more through the perspective of a would-be physics major re: causality and time's arrow. Some things in observable reality are invariant, in terms of how we interact with them. The block of wood I mentioned earlier will always be hard and inedible. Sure, there's no way to ascertain what the "real" nature of the block of wood is. But if I don't assume some level of invariance somewhere, then I could end up... well... trying to eat a block of wood. I could talk all day about how the block of wood is just my perceptions. But at the end of the day, I would not eat it. Agreed on that much; though I'd point out that the cognitive studies showing this themselves owe something to the Enlightenment, and I'm honestly not sure what (if anything) that implies. -
First, take a look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dada Okay, Wikipedia article, yes. But I found it interesting. Anyway: I've seen similar threads in current social commentary. And I don't think it's entirely wrong. OTOH I find it rather a depressing concept, because... well, logic and reason without ethics get you war. But logic and reason also get you things like indoor plumbing and public sewer systems. If we're going for definitions: I guess I would, in this context, define reason as linear, causal thought. I do not see how humans can survive, in the long term or just day-to-day, without this. So yeah, I always get a bit uneasy reading such sentiments, be they from the radical-left Dadaists or from conservatives like G.K. Chesterton. I mean... An orange may remain edible one day to the next. A block of wood will not. That is logic. Likewise applying paint to canvas to produce a painting, with the assumption that the paint will stick this time, as it did last time. So what does it actually constitute, to take a political stand against "logic and reason"? A stand against overuse of that mode of thinking, or use in the wrong context? Or is this something completely different? As far as art, I've always considered art primarily emotional and intuitive, not conscious/logical/linear/whatever. Art can use logic, but it speaks to people's emotions. Was "art" just defined in an utterly different way, back before the days of the Dadaists? I'm confused. Probably should have taken that Art Criticism course back at Amherst. Ah well. ... I should note though, "rationality" is another matter as far as I'm concerned. Kind of personal, too, and I've been bitten by it a few times. IMO the concept of "rational" is less about logic, and more about espousing one arbitrary group of delusions while hypocritically condemning others. (But whatever, what do I know. Last time I posted something "philosophical" I confused Locke with Hobbes.)
