The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.

bhamv3

bhamv3

Here in Taiwan it's a fairly common practice to take wedding photos before the wedding. The purpose is to have pictures of the bride and groom in bride and groom getups for the wedding invitations and banquet, and (nowadays) to share on social media. These are taken by a professional photographer, in a professional studio, with professional lighting and equipment. Or if some of them are taken outdoors, then at least there's a professional photographer and equipment. And then the photos are touched up afterwards, or in my case, heavily photoshopped.

Point is, most people end up looking great in their pre-wedding photos. For instance, here's one of mine.

A former classmate of mine is getting married soon. She included one of her pre-wedding photos in her wedding invitation. And both her and the groom look horrible. Like, she's 100 times prettier in real life than the picture she picked. And the groom, though I don't know him very well, looks exceedingly uncomfortable, with a very forced smile and incredibly tight shoulders. He looks like someone told him to say cheese while pointing a gun at him.

I have no idea what's going on here. Is this really the best picture they could find? Or are they so overwhelmed by wedding preparations (admittedly it's all taking place rather quickly, they met in like April this year and they're getting married in October) that they just picked a random photo and went with it? Or is this their way of telling us they don't actually want to get married themselves?

But the problem is, I can't exactly go up to them and ask, "Yo, what's with you guys looking ugly in your wedding photo?"
 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

All the Harry Potter movies are being released in theatres again in September! We are totally going with our daughter and her friends in costume!
.
.
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only in the USA....
...those mother fuckers deserve trump.

:[
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

HCGLNS said:
All the Harry Potter movies are being released in theatres again in September! We are totally going with our daughter and her friends in costume!
.
.
.
only in the USA....
...those mother fuckers deserve trump.

:[
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Well, yeah! What's more American than Harry Potter?



;)
 
Celt Z

Celt Z

mikerc said:
I know you're being sarcastic, but Harry is a poor downtrodden kid who gets riches & fame suddenly handed to him. Which is pretty much the American Dream.
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Isn't that a universal dream, though? I'm pretty sure that has been the plot of stories from Dickens to 1001 Arabian Nights, etc. I'm pretty sure it was a thing before there was ever a U.S.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Celt Z said:
Isn't that a universal dream, though? I'm pretty sure that has been the plot of stories from Dickens to 1001 Arabian Nights, etc.
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You're absolutely right. The "American Dream" is notable in being one of the first examples where it was a reasonable expectation that one could move up in economic class strictly on their own effort, as opposed to being locked in your own class unless a happy act of God displaced you upwards.
#funatparties
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

GasBandit said:
You're absolutely right. The "American Dream" is notable in being one of the first examples where it was a reasonable expectation that one could move up in economic class strictly on their own effort, as opposed to being locked in your own class unless a happy act of God displaced you upwards.
#funatparties
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Because everything over the ocean is England?
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

GasBandit said:
Everything over the ocean, up through the 18th century, had little to no income mobility.
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And there where no dwarves, or magic pumpkins and crystal slippers either...

...

Plus, that's not really true, murdering people for their riches was a pretty wide spread way of life... ask the Vikings.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
@Li3n said:
And there where no dwarves, or magic pumpkins and crystal slippers either...

...

Plus, that's not really true, murdering people for their riches was a pretty wide spread way of life... ask the Vikings.
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Alright, I'll grant you pillage and murder. But the whole point is trying to get away from that as a fiscal matter.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

GasBandit said:
Alright, I'll grant you pillage and murder. But the whole point is trying to get away from that as a fiscal matter.
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And that's about as realistic as the aforementioned dwarves, magic pumpkins and crystal slippers... or did you forget about the Battle of Blair Mountain and all those other great uses of violence for economic reasons?

Frankly, right now, with mostly just fistfights between nazis' and antifa, we're in a weirdly calm period of history... which doesn't look like it will last.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
@Li3n said:
And that's about as realistic as the aforementioned dwarves, magic pumpkins and crystal slippers... or did you forget about the Battle of Blair Mountain and all those other great uses of violence for economic reasons?
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Murder for profit isn't really an individual thing, though. At least, not any more, and at least not in the western world.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

GasBandit said:
The "American Dream" is notable in being one of the first examples where it was a reasonable expectation that one could move up in economic class strictly on their own effort, as opposed to being locked in your own class unless a happy act of God displaced you upwards.
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I thought it was more about rejecting the dilution of one's religious principles?

--Patrick
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
PatrThom said:
I thought it was more about rejecting the dilution of one's religious principles?

--Patrick
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No. While formative in the causes of the "pilgrims" to seek greener pastures, that has never really been part of what everyone refers to as "The American Dream."
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

GasBandit said:
Murder for profit isn't really an individual thing, though. At least, not any more, and at least not in the western world.
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I was thinking more of a group thing... sacking Rome wasn't an individual thing...

And i guess at least you don't subscribe to the "Clinton's kill people" thing...
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GasBandit said:
Escaping persecution is religious intolerance?
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No, but you being taught that is propaganda...

And btw, where not you that once told me that the puritans where having a lot of kids out of wedlock?
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
@Li3n said:
Where the Clinton's always this rich? I mean, he's from Arkansas.... :whistling:
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I mean, the alleged killings didn't really start to ramp up until after they had already risen to political power.

They GOT rich through real estate fraud, not murder :D
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

GasBandit said:
I mean, the alleged killings didn't really start to ramp up until after they had already risen to political power.

They GOT rich through real estate fraud, not murder :D
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And they didn't do that very well, either. I mean, even my parents had the good sense to get out of land speculation back in the 1980's when it was apparent the oil shale thing wasn't going to do anything for the land they bought in Colorado.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

GasBandit said:
Everything over the ocean, up through the 18th century, had little to no income mobility.
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Socio-iconomic mobility is still little more than an actual dream for most but the extremely fortunate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_mobility_in_the_United_States

Canada and the Scandinavian countries have better mobility than the US, it seems (news to me too).

My reply was prompted by this post I read a while ago.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/rich-kids-stay-rich-poor-kids-stay-poor/

I am not an expert on this, but I am not presently convinced by the call to economic mobility as a great virtue in the US.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
MindDetective said:
Socio-iconomic mobility is still little more than an actual dream for most but the extremely fortunate.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_mobility_in_the_United_States

Canada and the Scandinavian countries have better mobility than the US, it seems (news to me too).

My reply was prompted by this post I read a while ago.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/rich-kids-stay-rich-poor-kids-stay-poor/

I am not an expert on this, but I am not presently convinced by the call to economic mobility as a great virtue in the US.
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Well, not as much as it was 10+ years ago, certainly. But up until then, it was creating more new millionaires every year than the year previous.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
It's largely irrelevant anyway, as it was the perception of the possibility that was the "dream," regardless of how things have worked out over the last couple decades.
 
Tress

Tress

The “American Dream” is supposed to be generational, anyway. It’s the idea that immigrants from poor countries can come here and give their children more opportunities. I would argue this is still largely true (though obviously not 100% of the time).
 
A

Anonymous

Anonymous

“Your active synch is not set to enable”.

This is why my new work phone doesn’t work.

I tried hard not to laugh. Maybe it’s really a thing.
 
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