I know when I started posting on the image forums I would not have been comfortable at all around trans people, and definitely called people fags and said that gay people didn't deserve to get married. I'd like to say being 13 was an excuse, but I'm sure 13 year olds now are much better about it (at least with gay people). I just think (most of) society has progressed a ton in the last 10 years or so.
Rant VIII: The Reckoning
- Thread starter Anonymous
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- boat people
To contrast Nick's recent customer experience, after going round and round and round with ISP answering service (and that's all they were), when guests started coming down to check out Monday morning, it didn't matter to them that it was an ISP fault. I couldn't give them a receipt THEN AND THERE, so I was a horrible employee, this was a horrible hotel, and they were never coming back.
(not all of them, and not all of those said they weren't coming back because of this, but more than one of both)
(not all of them, and not all of those said they weren't coming back because of this, but more than one of both)
@DarkAudit, my brother has been working graveyard shift at a hotel front desk for the last year. The more stories he tells me, the more I appreciate everything you go through as well.
fade
Staff member
This is a Fade (the comic) rant, so feel free to ignore it if you don't care.
Every time I think I have some neat idea, I find another example that's nearly identical and far more popular. Usually written around the same time, which is kind of cool from a collective conscience point of view. Fade revolves around this science fantasy idea of magic based on probability and multiple dimensions (the string theory kind, not the sci-fi kind), which I know well is not new. That's not the issue. The issue is that central to the magic is this stuff I call blackwater (after the rivers that always creeped me out as a kid, not the cartoon). From Fade:
So, I was checking up on the originality of the idea, and I came across John Dies at the End, which has an extremely similar concept in a drug called Soy Sauce. I can't disparage the book because it looks like it's pretty good, and the movie is a good watch. But still, it's frustrating.
Every time I think I have some neat idea, I find another example that's nearly identical and far more popular. Usually written around the same time, which is kind of cool from a collective conscience point of view. Fade revolves around this science fantasy idea of magic based on probability and multiple dimensions (the string theory kind, not the sci-fi kind), which I know well is not new. That's not the issue. The issue is that central to the magic is this stuff I call blackwater (after the rivers that always creeped me out as a kid, not the cartoon). From Fade:
When the protagonist breaks the rules of magic at the beginning, he causes this rainstorm over the city partly composed of the blackwater, which serves as the origin point for other characters and events. An enterprising drug dealer figures out that any collected blackwater can be refined into a drug he calls Breach, which gives the user an experience related to the way magic works. Essentially, the user temporarily shifts their consciousness to another self in another lifeline where things may be better or worse. There's limited blackwater, so every dose is small and very diluted.
Nothing new under the sun.
When I was first writing the NaNoWriMo story that would become a Touch of Magic , my main character gets a concussion. A mage sends off his friend to find flowers of a particular color in order to get him out of the way. Years later, I dust off the prose, and get to working on it again. Shortly thereafter, I watch Shrek for the first time and watch Donkey get sent off for blue flowers to get him out of the way. D'oh.
In 1986, I wrote a story prompt in a spiral notebook about mages that leave their bodies and travel to an unreal plane called "The Matrix", where they would fight it out and if they had enough strength of will, could bend the rules of the world. 1986. The Matrix came out in '99. Imagine my surprise.
I recently watched "Seventh Son", and there were enough similarities in the first 20-30 minutes to my Llandra series that my wife was starting to think they cribbed from me.
You just can't let these things bug you. If it's something you're currently working on, just be sure your spin is arguably yours. For instance, in AToM, the friend is sent off to strip willow bark from a tree, instead--which is the modern-day basis of aspirin.
Yup, it came out in '89, but I never played it. All of my friends were D&D nerds, and no matter how much I tried, I couldn't get them interested in sci-fi RPGs (shadowrun, star frontiers, gamma world, etc)
Shadowrun is arguably closer to the worlds of William Gibson than it is to The Matrix (which is more similar to my idea). The coincidence of us all calling that otherrealm "the matrix" is kind of interesting. "cool from a collective conscience point of view" as Fade said.
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Hey, I wasn't kidding either, but of course I didn't go and patent my idea. Granted, mine was probably just a case of parallel evolution, and I did get college credit for it.How bout that time I essentially invented Javascript and Windows Update.
--Patrick
So chick at work doesn't think we should go speak to my boss together. Ha-ha! It's happening.
I'm sure you're well aware that similar ideas are scattered all over all forms of entertainment. There's nothing with a similar idea. It's what you do with the idea that makes it unique.
fade
Staff member
Yeah, I get that, but there are different levels of similarity, and this one struck me as quite similar.
So I got PICC'd on today.
haha that joke is so much funnier if you know what PICC is.
This is, apparently a safe, fairly routine medical procedure.
let me tell you, if someone says that it's all LIES.
Also, hospital food sucks.
haha that joke is so much funnier if you know what PICC is.
peripherally inserted central catheter
So, basically an IV line that goes pretty much directly into or really damn near my heart.
So, basically an IV line that goes pretty much directly into or really damn near my heart.
let me tell you, if someone says that it's all LIES.
Also, hospital food sucks.
Yeah, no, it's ok. Now if they had performed any tests that had triggered my claustrophobia I'd have-
"oh god oh god oh god!"
That was yesterday?
BUT HEY AT LEAST I KNOW WHAT A PENIS IN VAGINA FEELS LIKE
(wow I said that wrong)
GasBandit
Staff member
What? Yes it is. That's pretty much it exactly.
Isn't it?
I mean... that's...
I think I need to talk to somebody...
GasBandit
Staff member
Oh, alright... that's not what it feels like for those of us who DO NOT have robot girlfriends.
I have minor claustrophobia. Usually it's not so bad, so long as I can't feel my breath bouncing back against my face.
Being in an MRI machine? Yeah, that motherfucker triggered me like Tumblr, when they were looking at my shoulder.
You have my sympathy...
Being in an MRI machine? Yeah, that motherfucker triggered me like Tumblr, when they were looking at my shoulder.
You have my sympathy...
I didn't think I had that bad of claustrophobia until I got Guillain-Barre and they had to put me into an MRI machine. They offered me a sedative, but said it wasn't going to take more than twenty minutes to do so I thought "Nah, I'm good, I can handle twenty minutes!" An hour-and-a-half later, I was lamenting to everything holy that I didn't take the sedative.
The way I understand it, MRIs trigger people because they are cramped and also because they make a loud thumping sound while they run. I don't know if it's that it triggers feelings of unbirth or whether it's just the sympathetic nervous system kicking in.
--Patrick
--Patrick
After two days of not being able to move my leg due to the catheterizarion after the heart attack, I was a cramped up mess when they tried to do an MRI. Docs weren't happy, but it freaking HURT.
How was your week? This was mine:
http://globalnews.ca/news/2153312/children-were-living-in-st-albert-home-targeted-in-drug-bust-rcmp/
Oh, it's only in my fucking neighborhood.
http://globalnews.ca/news/2153312/children-were-living-in-st-albert-home-targeted-in-drug-bust-rcmp/
Oh, it's only in my fucking neighborhood.
The person keeps talking to me and making things worse. I truly hope that they aren't doing it entirely on purpose, but now they keep making comments like:
I could never cope with so much pain, I'd have given up by now.
Most people would just go on long term disability by now.
I admire how hard you try to lead a normal life.
You try so hard to find joy in things.
Somewhere in there she might think she's paying me a compliment but what I hear is:
The brain dead puppy peed on the paper today and not the carpet! yay!
She could not sound more condescending and ignorant if she tried. I want to slap her. Hard.
I could never cope with so much pain, I'd have given up by now.
Most people would just go on long term disability by now.
I admire how hard you try to lead a normal life.
You try so hard to find joy in things.
Somewhere in there she might think she's paying me a compliment but what I hear is:
The brain dead puppy peed on the paper today and not the carpet! yay!
She could not sound more condescending and ignorant if she tried. I want to slap her. Hard.
Yesterday I had to teach someone how to use the Shift key. I am absolutely not joking.
They thought the Shift key was there just for things like !@#$%^ but that you used Caps Lock for typing all the capital letters.
I handled it with aplomb and was professional and educational through the entire experience even though I was all SMH on the inside.
--Patrick
My dad usually has to be sedated before he has any MRI work done because he'll flip out if he's in there too long.
About every couple of years, my alcoholic, no job holding older brother looks back on his life with loathing. Then he spends several days emailing everyone in the family about how much their life sucks and how they are such losers.
Last night was the start of a new cycle. Hopefully he'll drink himself out in a couple of days.
Last night was the start of a new cycle. Hopefully he'll drink himself out in a couple of days.
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I'll never understand that thought process other than self-loathing. How would someone with no job, and a drinking problem be able to rationalize that other people are losers? What mental gymnastics are required to make that leap? Or is it simply "You guys aren't helping me, you're obviously losers."?
Nah..he doesn't want help. When he gets this way, he seems to honestly believe that his life is so superior to everyone in the family, and he'll lambast us for all of our supposed faults and how we're failing at life.
Believe me, I don't get it either, other than transference and self-loathing.
Oh, and he was going to sue me because I wouldn't give him and his wife control over their profiles on the geni.com family tree I hadn't even logged into in years. And, he's teaching his daughter kung fu so she can come beat up my son. He's just so random.
It's sad really. But after 20 years, I just don't even try to figure it out any more.