SZbNAhL's Similarly Sibilant (if unpronouncable) Random Banter #223

[Anonymouswizard]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Depending on the causes of your stomach upset, you may want to consider the various things that have worked for me over the years:

• Carbonated water
• Candied ginger
• Benadryl
• Avoiding certain foods
• Choosing smaller containers to drink whiskey from

After a sandwich for lunch making me feel nauseus I've stopped eating, although thankfully hot drinks aren't beign a problem (and cold drinks aren't either).

You are allowed to be attracted to your friend, and it does not make you a terrible person. It's not necessarily something you get to act on, but feelings are feelings and humans get to have those.

Yeah, I know, and it's one of those cases where things are better because she knows about it. But it's one of those things where after years of media and society implying you shouldn't feel like that make me feel bad about it. I'm just going to watch FMA:B while waiting for OkCupid matches and trying to message Tinder matches.

[enderlord99]

Hey, Peelee...

Have you ever made flavacol waffles?

[Insane Jeenyus]

by the way, this past Friday was supposed to be social night, but I was too tired. I went Saturday instead. I waited until too late and missed my friend. Also, It was really muggy out and I walked a little over a mile to get to the pub which left me dehydrated. I could only drink 2 drinks as I was that dehydrated.

Oh well.

[Peelee]

Hey, Peelee...

Have you ever made flavacol waffles?

No, and I highly doubt I will anytime soon.

[LaZodiac]

Every so often I get this awful, terrible experience of seeing something I should like, seeing people like it, and finding that I myself don't care for it. And it makes me so concerned that something is wrong with my brain. That I've erred in some way, that I don't truly know what is good or not. That I'm not actually smart and don't deserve anyone to like me or my thoughts.

It sucks. Anybody got any advice on this?

[factotum]

Um, why do you "think" you should like these things? If it's because they're popular, then no, there is absolutely no reason why you should like them--everyone's tastes differ, and yours being fractionally different from the majority doesn't make you a bad person and it *totally* doesn't mean you deserve to go friendless.

[Tvtyrant]

Every so often I get this awful, terrible experience of seeing something I should like, seeing people like it, and finding that I myself don't care for it. And it makes me so concerned that something is wrong with my brain. That I've erred in some way, that I don't truly know what is good or not. That I'm not actually smart and don't deserve anyone to like me or my thoughts.

It sucks. Anybody got any advice on this?

I feel you, I don't like The Office or Battlestar Galactica. I like gaudy art styles like Baroque and Art Deco and think "tasteful" art or styles is the biggest waste of space people can have.

Taste is entirely subjective, I would try not to let it bother you. Enjoy what you enjoy.

[Peelee]

I feel you, I don't like The Office or Battlestar Galactica. I like gaudy art styles like Baroque and Art Deco and think "tasteful" art or styles is the biggest waste of space people can have.

Taste is entirely subjective, I would try not to let it bother you. Enjoy what you enjoy.

Art deco is pretty tasteful, IMO.

[Anonymouswizard]

I lost another kilo this week, so I've decided to celebrate by Besiege being on sale on GoG (and redownloading KSP).

I do worry that I play building games wrong, my engineer instincts mean that I attempt to build logical machines which might have a chance of working in real life instead of going crazy and have fun. In Kerbal I still try to make sure that the engines I'm using are suitable for the mission (I'm loving the Terrier for drone missions) and that I'm not carrying too much fuel (I redesigned a drone to have basic control and a lone solar panel so I can boost it into Munar orbit and use it as contingency fuel for bigger craft). My eventual plan is to tug some asteroids into orbit around every major celestial body and mine them for fuel, but I'm still not great at manually flying my rockets.

ETA: the most tasteful style is High Gothic.

[LaZodiac]

Um, why do you "think" you should like these things? If it's because they're popular, then no, there is absolutely no reason why you should like them--everyone's tastes differ, and yours being fractionally different from the majority doesn't make you a bad person and it *totally* doesn't mean you deserve to go friendless.

I mean, like TVTyrant said. "This is a thing I like, what about it makes me not like it?"

To serve as an example, though in this case I know what the issue is, the Adventure Zone just finished it's latest campaign, and it was a very good story, for the most part. But I just didn't enjoy any of it because... I didn't want a story. Even though the story had a lot of elements I liked, I'm watching a table top rpg game to watch people play a table top rpg game, not to listen to a story (if that makes sense. It's kinda complicated a headspace I think...). So for me, everything felt kinda flat and off because it was not what I wanted, even though it's things I like presented in a good to decent way.

Another example, and my go-to for one I just don't understand, is Hunter x Hunter. I love subverting expectation in a fun way, I love this weird blend of modern fantasy, I love how it tries to be really inclusive and cool. I also ****ing hate it, Hunter x Hunter is super boring and awful and I cannot stand to even see people praise it because it sounds like the fakest, unreal positivity I've ever heard. But the people who like it on the whole seem to be really smart and inteligent people who are good at saying their (patently, obviously untrue by my understanding) points really well. So which of us is wrong?

So yeah.

[enderlord99]

So which of us is wrong?

Neither. It's called an "opinion." Everyone has them.

[Mystic Muse]

Every so often I get this awful, terrible experience of seeing something I should like, seeing people like it, and finding that I myself don't care for it. And it makes me so concerned that something is wrong with my brain. That I've erred in some way, that I don't truly know what is good or not. That I'm not actually smart and don't deserve anyone to like me or my thoughts.

It sucks. Anybody got any advice on this?

Well, I've got advice, and then I've got helpful advice.

The helpful advice is, we all respond to things differently, and have different standards. A good example is Astra: Lost in Space. I can TELL this show is great, I just can't get into it the same as Kill La Kill or Azumangah Daioh.

[LaZodiac]

Neither. It's called an "opinion." Everyone has them.

Yeah but I wanna know if their opinion is wrong. If someone tells you they like the Micheal Bay Transformer films for their wonderful use of racial themes, you can safely throw that opinion into a dumpster because sometimes "that's just how I feel" is wrong, actually. So I wanna know why people like (or dislike) things so I can compare it to my own and understand myself and the world better.

So when I see people enjoying a show in a way I don't understand it gets... concerning to me, because I don't feel like I'm intelligent enough to understand why.

Well, I've got advice, and then I've got helpful advice.

The helpful advice is, we all respond to things differently, and have different standards. A good example is Astra: Lost in Space. I can TELL this show is great, I just can't get into it the same as Kill La Kill or Azumangah Daioh.

Yeah, that's true. But something about that sounds different to me and I can't wrap my head around it.

This is what happens when I let my brain wander too far off the beaten path, I suppose. Worries about my own self worth for dumb reasons. It just concerns me, is all. Makes me, even if only for a bit, question what I'm doing.

[Tvtyrant]

I mean, like TVTyrant said. "This is a thing I like, what about it makes me not like it?"

To serve as an example, though in this case I know what the issue is, the Adventure Zone just finished it's latest campaign, and it was a very good story, for the most part. But I just didn't enjoy any of it because... I didn't want a story. Even though the story had a lot of elements I liked, I'm watching a table top rpg game to watch people play a table top rpg game, not to listen to a story (if that makes sense. It's kinda complicated a headspace I think...). So for me, everything felt kinda flat and off because it was not what I wanted, even though it's things I like presented in a good to decent way.

Another example, and my go-to for one I just don't understand, is Hunter x Hunter. I love subverting expectation in a fun way, I love this weird blend of modern fantasy, I love how it tries to be really inclusive and cool. I also ****ing hate it, Hunter x Hunter is super boring and awful and I cannot stand to even see people praise it because it sounds like the fakest, unreal positivity I've ever heard. But the people who like it on the whole seem to be really smart and inteligent people who are good at saying their (patently, obviously untrue by my understanding) points really well. So which of us is wrong?

So yeah.

I like HXH, so clearly you :p

More seriously though, you like what you like. The author of HXH has a bad habit in all of their stories of switching between storylines with dramatically different moods, so there is some whiplash involved. Gang war between a world wide mafia and the spiders followed by light hearted video game romp. If you like dark storylines half the series is good, if you like kid adventures the other half is.

Edit: On self-worth. Your taste in entertainment is not a sign of your worth or not.

[LaZodiac]

I like HXH, so clearly you :p

More seriously though, you like what you like. The author of HXH has a bad habit in all of their stories of switching between storylines with dramatically different moods, so there is some whiplash involved. Gang war between a world wide mafia and the spiders followed by light hearted video game romp. If you like dark storylines half the series is good, if you like kid adventures the other half is.

Edit: On self-worth. Your taste in entertainment is not a sign of your worth or not.

I like both of those things but HxH is just, too janky for me to enjoy. Nothing about it "works" for me, and I feel like I'm copping out when I say something like that. Like, I know it's wrong but "I don't like the execution" feels like a fake argument to me, when I use it anyway, because I should be better about that. But it's a valid complaint and I need to stop beating myself up over it.

I know, but it's not my taste in entertainment that I'm worried about, it's my ability to articulate and understand things. It's that situation where, I'm sure my writing is good... but I'm clearly not able to understand why people like X Thing, so what if I'm wrong about my own writing? What if everything I've built up about myself is just faulty? It's not my taste I'm worried about, that's just a side effect of what I'm actually worried about; that I'm not as smart as I think I am, to a degree where I'm actually very stupid.

[Tvtyrant]

I like both of those things but HxH is just, too janky for me to enjoy. Nothing about it "works" for me, and I feel like I'm copping out when I say something like that. Like, I know it's wrong but "I don't like the execution" feels like a fake argument to me, when I use it anyway, because I should be better about that. But it's a valid complaint and I need to stop beating myself up over it.

I know, but it's not my taste in entertainment that I'm worried about, it's my ability to articulate and understand things. It's that situation where, I'm sure my writing is good... but I'm clearly not able to understand why people like X Thing, so what if I'm wrong about my own writing? What if everything I've built up about myself is just faulty? It's not my taste I'm worried about, that's just a side effect of what I'm actually worried about; that I'm not as smart as I think I am, to a degree where I'm actually very stupid.

I have the same worries sometimes. I was one of the smartest people in high school and my field in undergraduate, and then fell apart in my late 20s. I know now that I invested too much of my self-worth in my intelligence, which has led to long term identity problems.

I know you aren't stupid, because stupid people can't envision being smarter then they are. In the time I have interacted with you I have found you quite intelligent.

My identity issues stem from realizing I'm not as smart as some of my peers, and I had built an identity around being the "intellectual energy in the room" (or an intellectual bully as another professor called me.) Finding my limits pretty much crushed that conceit, and I now find myself struggling with my identity at 30 instead of at 20. At 20 I knew who I was.

I won't claim our circumstances are identical, but I relate to the feelings you have.

[LaZodiac]

Honestly that makes a lot of sense to me too and talking it over like this feels like I've grown more as a person. Given last week I got to experience being the dumbest person in a room thanks to annoying try-hards at trivia night, I can definitely relate, and I think "intellectual bully" describes me more than I care to admit, and that's a thing I need to work on. So thank you, TVTyrant. You're smart too.

Hunter x Hunter is still boring though

[Tvtyrant]

Honestly that makes a lot of sense to me too and talking it over like this feels like I've grown more as a person. Given last week I got to experience being the dumbest person in a room thanks to annoying try-hards at trivia night, I can definitely relate, and I think "intellectual bully" describes me more than I care to admit, and that's a thing I need to work on. So thank you, TVTyrant. You're smart too.

Hunter x Hunter is still boring though

Thanks LaZodiac! *Friendship finger guns*

H&H has problems, no doubt.

[LaZodiac]

Thanks LaZodiac! *Friendship finger guns*

H&H has problems, no doubt.

Pew pew, eat friendship beams.

*glares at Hisoka*

Anyway hey, in an actual serious way thanks. All of you are beautiful, thank you for caring about my dumb ass.

[DataNinja]

All of you are beautiful, thank you for caring about my dumb ass.

Look, if any part of your body besides your brain is smart, I'd consider that concerning.

[HalfTangible]

Every so often I get this awful, terrible experience of seeing something I should like, seeing people like it, and finding that I myself don't care for it. And it makes me so concerned that something is wrong with my brain. That I've erred in some way, that I don't truly know what is good or not. That I'm not actually smart and don't deserve anyone to like me or my thoughts.

It sucks. Anybody got any advice on this?

In brief? Literary analysis.

Look at the thing you don't like, and compare it to something similar you do like. Try to figure out what makes the latter work for you while the former doesn't. Spot the contrasts if you can. Understand why you feel a certain way.

[Tvtyrant]

Look, if any part of your body besides your brain is smart, I'd consider that concerning.

Butt enlightening.

My worst pun? Perhaps.

[HalfTangible]

Look, if any part of your body besides your brain is smart, I'd consider that concerning.

I dunno, if more of my body could think...

Butt enlightening.

My worst pun? Perhaps.

......


hurling noises

[LaZodiac]

In brief? Literary analysis.

Look at the thing you don't like, and compare it to something similar you do like. Try to figure out what makes the latter work for you while the former doesn't. Spot the contrasts if you can. Understand why you feel a certain way.

Yeah but then I might fall into the trap of "okay but now why do they like it?" and it's always so... insufficient, whenever someone does actually answer, and I feel bad still.

Or worse; I do the literary analysis and there's no reason for me to dislike this and I'm basically at an impasse of "okay so what's the issue then?"

Butt enlightening.

My worst pun? Perhaps.

Not your worst, butt not your best either

[HalfTangible]

Yeah but then I might fall into the trap of "okay but now why do they like it?" and it's always so... insufficient, whenever someone does actually answer, and I feel bad still.

Or worse; I do the literary analysis and there's no reason for me to dislike this and I'm basically at an impasse of "okay so what's the issue then?"

The more ya analyze, the better you get at it and the more stuff you find to like/dislike about a work. Ye also learn a fair bit about your own tastes. And if you still don't like it and don't know why, you could look at someone else's analysis.

Not your worst, butt not your best either

Kill me.

[Tvtyrant]

The more ya analyze, the better you get at it and the more stuff you find to like/dislike about a work. Ye also learn a fair bit about your own tastes. And if you still don't like it and don't know why, you could look at someone else's analysis.



Kill me.

I'm a little behind on this analysis stuff, coming at the rump end of the conversation.

[SZbNAhL]

I'd like to join in on this pun thread, but I'm afraid I'd make an ass of myself. Everyone just pretend that I'm American so that that pun will work.

[Bartmanhomer]

I'm going to a dinner banquet a day before Halloween.

And I'm nervous as heck.

[HalfTangible]

I'm a little behind on this analysis stuff, coming at the rump end of the conversation.

I'd like to join in on this pun thread, but I'm afraid I'd make an ass of myself. Everyone just pretend that I'm American so that that pun will work.

Kill me faster

[Bartmanhomer]

Well, I finally beat Level 5 CPU of my Chess Free App Challenge. Now I'm up to Level 6 (Rating of 1435) I think this must be low-tier or perhaps mid-tier territory.