Sermil and the Banter of Randomness: Random Banter #228

[Mystic Muse]

Yes but not everyone doesn't have to like everything just to make that person happy.

Despite my best efforts, I can't find the Neil Gaiman quote I'm looking for that would help sum things up.

You are correct. You are not required to like or dislike anything. I'm mostly just trying to say there's a time and place for criticism, and there's a difference between reasonable and unreasonable criticism. So, theoretical situation based on one of my hobbies, mini-painting.

Let's say my goal is painting Space Marine number 269 and his squad of 5 friends to a tabletop ready standard, so all that's required is 3 colors. I put on their base color, the color on their shoulder pads, the trim, various details and their weapons, totaling about 6 colors. I then send a friend a picture of the ones I've gotten done, because I like sharing things I've done with my friends.

If I do not follow it up with asking for feedback, saying "It's just okay, you should have done this, this and this though." they might be technically correct, but the critique is inappropriate here, because that's not what I'm trying to do.

It would be even less appropriate for them to say "You're garbage at this, you didn't paint micro-murals on their shoulderpads?"

I have already exceeded my original goal of tabletop ready. Telling me to do more for generic marine number 269 kind of misses the point.

Forget Grammarly. I need a new app to improve my proper English and grammar.

You might consider taking a college writing class, or even just getting help from a friend who's good at grammar to improve your own. Ultimately, you will need something to teach you, not something to act as a crutch.

[Fyraltari]

Yes but not everyone doesn't have to like everything just to make that person happy.

Sometimes, when you don't have anything good to say, it's better not to say anything.

[Tvtyrant]

I would learn a different language, by the time you learn to speak that language you will know how to properly write English. That's because there are tons of weird rules you learn from pure imitation, and they get highlighted if you learn another language formally. For instance: "The Boy runs." Where does the S on the end of runs come from? Why isn't it "the boy run?"

[Bartmanhomer]

Despite my best efforts, I can't find the Neil Gaiman quote I'm looking for that would help sum things up.

You are correct. You are not required to like or dislike anything. I'm mostly just trying to say there's a time and place for criticism, and there's a difference between reasonable and unreasonable criticism. So, theoretical situation based on one of my hobbies, mini-painting.

Let's say my goal is painting Space Marine number 269 and his squad of 5 friends to a tabletop ready standard, so all that's required is 3 colors. I put on their base color, the color on their shoulder pads, the trim, various details and their weapons, totaling about 6 colors. I then send a friend a picture of the ones I've gotten done, because I like sharing things I've done with my friends.

If I do not follow it up with asking for feedback, saying "It's just okay, you should have done this, this and this though." they might be technically correct, but the critique is inappropriate here, because that's not what I'm trying to do.

It would be even less appropriate for them to say "You're garbage at this, you didn't paint micro-murals on their shoulderpads?"

I have already exceeded my original goal of tabletop ready. Telling me to do more for generic marine number 269 kind of misses the point.





You might consider taking a college writing class, or even just getting help from a friend who's good at grammar to improve your own. Ultimately, you will need something to teach you, not something to act as a crutch.

You're right. Good criticism is better than bad criticism.

[Fyraltari]

I would learn a different language, by the time you learn to speak that language you will know how to properly write English. That's because there are tons of weird rules you learn from pure imitation, and they get highlighted if you learn another language formally. For instance: "The Boy runs." Where does the S on the end of runs come from? Why isn't it "the boy run?"

I've gotta admit that "conjugation is a weird rule" is the most native english speaker thing I've read in my life.

[Aotrs Commander]

It's bad enough with everything not going on, but I seem to be spending my unlife waiting for responses, from the important to the utterly unimportant.

In order of importance: Waiting for theshop3D to fix their "technical issue" so they can put this month's release on the website so I can do my release post (after waiting ages after sending it up and finding that my last couple of emails had inexplicably gone to their spam folder - par for course). Waiting for Catalyst Labs to respond to why I'm not getting the authentication emails so I can go on the BattleTech forums (so I can ask them which PDFs I should get to get approximately up to date...). Waiting to see if I need to PM Glyphstone again come Wednesday or something to be granted offiical permission to double-post in the Bleakbane Plays thread so it doesn't just stop 75% of the way through; plus waiting for the gratefully recieved rare comments on any of the three sites I've been posting that just so as I KNOW I'm not just shouting into the void like it seems like I'm doing nothing but anymore most of the time and which is depressingly usually more feedback than I get on my actual work releases.



Edit: *eyeglow twitch* *eyeglow twitch*

Waiting for another six days before I can renew my Pokémon Bank Pass, and with the sinking feeling that it's going to be ten times more complicated that it used to be.

[Tvtyrant]

I've gotta admit that "conjugation is a weird rule" is the most native english speaker thing I've read in my life.

Yeah. It's a fun language.

[Anonymouswizard]

It still confuses me that there's a censored version of Oranges and Lemons (which I believe I can still repeat off by heart). It doesn't get that dark... okay, it does get very dark at the end, but it never seemed that dark as a kid and censoring it involves cutting the last line and as such the last rhyme. And yet people apparently don't notice anything wrong with the censored version, but think there's a problem with the fully constructed version?

Yes, some nursery rhymes are dark, and we should celebrate this. Kids like dark in the right way, I certainly did, and I don't see why we should be removing darkness just because it's obvious.

Chop chop chop chop the last one's DEAD.

Spoiler

Show

For those who don't know the rhyme the last couplet is:

Here comes a candle to light you to bed
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head

[Qwertystop]

I've gotta admit that "conjugation is a weird rule" is the most native english speaker thing I've read in my life.

Yeah, there's plenty else to hate about English. Have a look at this blogpost.

[Sermil]

I would learn a different language, by the time you learn to speak that language you will know how to properly write English. That's because there are tons of weird rules you learn from pure imitation, and they get highlighted if you learn another language formally. For instance: "The Boy runs." Where does the S on the end of runs come from? Why isn't it "the boy run?"

One thing I noticed when learning Spanish is how much more they use "to have" where English would use "to be". It kept making me think of Petra from Fire Emblem and her "I have sorrow".

[Bartmanhomer]

My solo D&D 3.5 is doing great. So anyway my team have a rest and they brought a healing belt, backpack, rations, and waterskins.

[DavidSh]

It still confuses me that there's a censored version of Oranges and Lemons (which I believe I can still repeat off by heart).[/spoiler]

The final couplet is a 19th century accretion, and only makes sense in the context of the singing game. But you're saying there is a version that includes only the first half of that couple?. That is odd.

And in Derby, apparently about an annual Shrove-tide football game:
Pancakes and fritters
Say All Saints and St. Peters;
When will the ball come,
Say the bells of St. Alkmun;
At two they will throw,
Says Saint Werabo;
O! very well,
Says little Michel.

[Anonymouswizard]

The final couplet is a 19th century accretion, and only makes sense in the context of the singing game. But you're saying there is a version that includes only the first half of that couple?. That is odd.

I mean, I have nothing against evolving rhymes, it's the weird desire to remove the fun bits that annoys me.

And yes, it's not the only censored version (there are some which actually do finish the couplet), but it's the one that as far as I know gained the most traction. A number of people I went to uni with where always shocked at discovering that line (my response the first time was 'there's a line after the chopper).


Although most nursery rhymes are either dark or have farm variations. Apparently there's a version of London Bridge is Falling Down where the second verse is:
Build it up with children's souls
Children's souls
Children's souls
Build it up with children's souls
My fair lady


Maybe I should take a break from all this, and draw myself as a cat...

[Aotrs Commander]

So, just for anyone who might have seen the trailers for Thundercats Roar and thought "wow, that looks like a terrible Teen Titans Go! knock off that is an insult to the original Thundercats," do yourselves a big favour and DO NOT go back and watch the original. Just watch the intro on youtube with the cool music and cling to the illusion of nostalgia.

Do not, for the LOVE of LICHEMASTER, actually attempt to watch the original series again.

Just don't. You owe it to yourself.




Edit: Out of morbid curiosity, I went and found and watched the first double-episode of Thundercats Roar.

Yeah, honestly? Maybe its my sense of humour (I mean, TTG has me in fits on their best days), but while I'm not a big fan of the animation style... It made me laugh WAAAY to much. And the plot was coherent, and the characters showed more personality in 22 minutes than the regular show's did in a dozen episodes.

Most of all? The dumbass Lion-O thing? It's exaggerated and self-aware, but it is also ACCURATE to how he was in the original thus far. There's enough of a core there that makes me think think someone DID watch the original series before writing it and, like me, went "WOW, this is dumb crap." So, plus side, I have something I can watch for a bit when I feel like a laugh.

Probably after watching more original Thundercats.

(Also, it uses the original score, and thus also has the best bit of the original ANYWAY.)

[BisectedBrioche]

And my hazelnut brioche is made!

[DataNinja]

And my hazelnut brioche is made!

It's not bisected. I am somehow disappointed.

[Qwertystop]

And my hazelnut brioche is made!

Looks like cinnamon rolls. Yum!

[BisectedBrioche]

Looks like cinnamon rolls. Yum!

It's basically my goto cinnamon roll recipe, but with hazelnuts added to the dough and hazelnut praline instead of cinnamon. ^_^

[Peelee]

Can't do anything with Flashforge v2 until the new pieces come in, since I cannot budge the "removable" tubes to replace with the all-metal upgrades. So, armed with the working knowledge of having taken the whole dang thing completely apart, I've revisited Flashforge v1, got a temporary fix in until I can replace the PETG tubes and maybe get another nozzle upgrade because why not, and even opened up the front-end electronics to figure out yet another issue. So, after four or five times unsuccessfully trying to load the filament and then removing the stepper motor to figure out the issue, I've finally got it loaded up, replaced the bed's old platform base (v2 is going to get a nice glass bed upgrade in the sometime in the following week!), and I've got a test print running now.

tl;dr - I AM A 3D PRINTING MASTER.

ETA: BB, those look fantastic!

[Aotrs Commander]

Can't do anything with Flashforge v2 until the new pieces come in, since I cannot budge the "removable" tubes to replace with the all-metal upgrades. So, armed with the working knowledge of having taken the whole dang thing completely apart, I've revisited Flashforge v1, got a temporary fix in until I can replace the PETG tubes and maybe get another nozzle upgrade because why not, and even opened up the front-end electronics to figure out yet another issue. So, after four or five times unsuccessfully trying to load the filament and then removing the stepper motor to figure out the issue, I've finally got it loaded up, replaced the bed's old platform base (v2 is going to get a nice glass bed upgrade in the sometime in the following week!), and I've got a test print running now.

tl;dr - I AM A 3D PRINTING MASTER.

ETA: BB, those look fantastic!

Well, at someone is is having a good week with regard to printing for once...




I have hurt myself enough today, and I'm not... Ready... To face Supergran again, so frack it, I'm going to go back to another perennial childhood favourite, the one true proper story of Robin Hood.

Maid Marian and her Merry Men.



(Which is, for those of you not forunate enough to see it in the UK in the... 90s? *checks: '89-94*m like Black Adder meets Red Dwarf for kids, right down to Tony Robinson and Danny John Jules being in it.)

[Peelee]

Well, at someone is is having a good week with regard to printing for once...

Following a bad month with regards to printing, for context on that victory.

I have hurt myself enough today, and I'm not... Ready... To face Supergran again, so frack it, I'm going to go back to another perennial childhood favourite, the one true proper story of Robin Hood.

Maid Marian and her Merry Men.



(Which is, for those of you not forunate enough to see it in the UK in the... 90s? *checks: '89-94*m like Black Adder meets Red Dwarf for kids, right down to Tony Robinson and Danny John Jules being in it.)

I know Black Adder and Red Dwarf, but not Tony Robinson or Danny John Jules.

[Aotrs Commander]

Following a bad month with regards to printing, for context on that victory.



I know Black Adder and Red Dwarf, but not Tony Robinson or Danny John Jules.

Baldrik and Cat respectively.

(Tony Robinson actually wrote Maid Marian and her Merry Men, plus he did as lot of stuff other stuff, notably Time Team, which was practically an British institution for ... crap, was it really twenty years, ye gods, it was.)

[Peelee]

Hey y'all remember this?

For those unfamiliar with the fun of owning a 3D printer....

Spoiler: This is NOT what infill should look like.

Show

Well good news! I can grant you all the closure I'm so sure that none of you knew you needed, let alone wanted!

Spoiler: This IS what infill should look like!

Show

[LaZodiac]

Yeah, honestly? Maybe its my sense of humour (I mean, TTG has me in fits on their best days), but while I'm not a big fan of the animation style... It made me laugh WAAAY to much. And the plot was coherent, and the characters showed more personality in 22 minutes than the regular show's did in a dozen episodes.

Wow, you mean that... a show everyone hated on the outset of the trailer for petty stupid reasons was... good actually once you watched it on its terms?

What a shocker. I'm so shocked. shockity shock-shocked.

And my hazelnut brioche is made!

This looks delicious and I want to put it in my mouth please.

[Bartmanhomer]

Well, yesterday, my supervisor called me and he said that the Air Conditioner is broken so I don't have to go to work on Wednesday.

[LaZodiac]

Funny, I had something similar happen. I wasn't able to work at all today because I couldn't remote in. Something was wrong with our temp office's internet or something.

Incidentally, I hope everyone is doing well to... day? Night? Morrow? Whenever you read this, I hope you're doing well.

[Aotrs Commander]

Wow, you mean that... a show everyone hated on the outset of the trailer for petty stupid reasons was... good actually once you watched it on its terms?

What a shocker. I'm so shocked. shockity shock-shocked.

In fairness, when I watched the trailer, it did make me snicker a couple of times. So I didn't HATE it on principal like a lot of people. I was never a huge Thundercats fan - see how Thundercats was the LAST of the 1980s cartoons I got on DVD¹. I wasn't mad it wasn't another Serious Reboot (I never managed to catch more than an episode or two of the last one¹.)
It just did not give the impression that it was going to be good or a good adaption of the source material, and pertinently I HAVE NOT GOTTEN OVER REBOOT GUARDIANS YET and that's a pretty deep scar.

But? I stand by my assessment, the animation style/aethetic I think is bad; I REALLY don't like that style. And in animation, if I don't like the art style, you have to work PRETTY FREAKING HARD (and it usually takes sheer desparation) to make me watch something if I don't like it (see Adventure Time as a classic example) Thundercats Roar succeeded despite it, due to direction (if not art design), dialogue and voice-acting delivery (though only to a certain level, it's not Supper-Telly Quality); and I suspect it did so because of the push that while the original shows was... Had a... better artstyle? Kinda? Eehhh? It fell flat in every other respect and I was like, "oh, wait, right, the original source material was largely complete dog-poop, so why WOULD they be faithful to that if they'd actually watched it?" So had I not just finished hurting myself watching four episodes of that, I would not have been as receptive to it, because there was no possible way it could have been WORSE from what was shown on the trailer.

(I still have not tried watching Sun/Moon, because I hate Ash's redesign THAT MUCH, but I might be trying after I finish Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon.

Better Than Thundercats.

...

Actually, now I think about it, I'm starting to see why critics have such a hard time defining the worst, because is Thundercats actually better than the failed shows of Can Bleakbane Stand More Than Two Episodes Theatre? I'm afraid the answer is probably no, (they bored me but didn't cause me actual pain to watch; okay, maybe that Saint Seiya one did) but unlike those shows, me or a family member paid good money for Thundercats, so it behooves me to watch it.

...

Lichemaster, it's going to take YEARS. 128 episodes! Ye gods, that's three DVd volumes of Naruto and how long did it take me to get to the end of that and I was watching that nine episodes a week...

I mean, 128 episodes. They HAVE to get better, right? RIGHT? I mean, there two five parters at the start of season two... I mean, sure MASK and Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors basically sucked all the way through, but MASK got very slightly better in the last 13 episodes when theyh dropped the formula and Jayce... Okay Jayce was still hot garbage at the very end, but they killed a character in the last episode so... Maybe if they had a season two it would not have been as horrificlly a total waste of potential that out of every 1980s cartoon show is crying out for a modern reboot (NOT LIKE REBOOT'S REBOOT, THOUGH.)



Though, fair cop, I do keep forgetting that People Can't Make Good Trailers 99% of the time. After every time I look at a trailer and think something looks awful and don't watch it (see Naruto) until I run across it in desparation, you'd think I would learn. But then I think "y'know, maybe the people that make trailers would, instead, at some point LEARN TO BE GOOD AT THEIR JOB."

If your trailer actively puts me off your show/movie, that's on you. That's YOUR failure in marketing. If you advertise a product and make me think "wow that looks like a pile of crap," you failed at your one job, didn't you?

But even fricking MCU only gets it right, like 75% of the time (the absoutely dreadful-looking first trailer for Captain Marvel, looking at you very specifically, ye gods people, the moment I saw her Brie Larson actually showing Carol's character, and literally her first line of the movie had me take to her INSTANTLY and become my new favourite Avenger. How the FRACK could you have got that so badly wrong in the first trailer?)



(But after the Equestria Girls disaster where I swore up and down that DHX couldn't make a purse out of a sow's ear and had to eat my helmet, I reserved judgement on Pony Life until I actually watched a couple of episodes and it was likewise "fine.")



¹Okay, yes, I do not have Visionaries, but that's been on my wishlist for years and it was at stupid prices when I started. Oh, and not Pole Position either, but they only made six episodes of that and I only remember it was about cars and because Shuki Levy is basically the best cartoon-theme-writer in history and it's a crying tragedy his level of art is almost entirely lost in the latter age. I mean, outside of anime we have, what, Miraculous and She-Ra being pretty okay musically and before that we're going back to Ironman Armoured Adventures, the FIRST season of Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Justice League/Justice League Unlimited.


¹This is because there is only two ways to watch a cartoon on British Children's Telly: Buy The DVD or It Is On Netflix in more recent years. Because of the crappy, crappy way they treat the shows (show all episodes one per day for x-amount of time in order, repeat in random order ad finiteum until the series finishes and then stop), it is almsot IMPOSSIBLE to watch something with a plot. You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of work I had to try and put in to record W.i.t.c.h and BattleTech back in the day and I only really mostly succeeded with the former (and even THEN I lost one episode because there was a recording failure and because it was the thrid episode before the season finale, I never caught it again). For DECADES, I only had the first half of Star Fleet and the penultimate episode, because the time they started showing it, they just stopped half-way through and then I only caught the one episode by pure change.

You guys in the US complain about the death of Toonami and such; well, we never HAD that, ever. There was ONE SUMMER, during the time JLU and Pokémon Advanced Battle's first season was being shown, where they seemed to actually be making some attempt at it, as at the end of the week, they did a catch-up where they showed all that week's new episodes back-to-back in the evening. And that got dropped VERY quickly.

I cannot state enough how bad it is.

Steven Universe? Star and the Forces of Evil? Never seen more than random episodes, all out of order. (And, of COURSe, Netflix only has the first season of the former, so there's zero point making the effort, else that would at least have been Cleaning The Room Telly. FRACK, even when we get streaming services, we only ever get half the ruddy show. I'm pretty sure we only ever got the first 12-13 episodes of ANY children's cartoon in the 1980s, to be honest, because I found on my various rewatching that the stuff I remembered petered out after that and everything else was entirely new or something that I'd seen on a lazy 2-3 episodes video release a few years later.)

And then there's Disney, which DOES produce som good stuff, but refuses to release it on DVD in boxed sets and sits on it like a dragon on its hoard, because apparently - just like the whole regioning crap whereby I have to buy more than half my DVDs from the US or Europe - OR AUSTRALIA - because they would would rather retain the possibility of trying to rip me off in the future than take my money now and releasing stuff in the UK (and even when they do, they often make a PATHETIC effort; I bitterly regretted buying the first season of Frienship is Magic UK and not US, because it was actually cheaper to buy the US versions and to pour salt in the wound, the US release had better production values, like ACTUALLY HAVING A LIST OF EPISODES IN THE CASE SOMEWHERE and did this clever thing were they actually put them in RIGHT ORDER, where the UK releases had just slapped the cash-grab compilation episodes (and that's another vile practise) into a single set and just shrugged, because apparently no-one GAVE a flying crap.

I'm kind of astounded I was able to get the entirity of Naruto on UK DVD, to be honest, it's the one time a UK release had, like, rolled a natural 20.



Apparently, I really needed a rant today.

[LaZodiac]

I am glad to have facilitated that, since if you had all those words in you you probably needed them out.

It's okay to not like the art style of a thing, some friends of mine are never going to watch Mob Psycho 100 which is a show that I know for a fact would knock all of their socks off, because the animation kinda creeps them out. It's just an unfortunate reality of the situation. I think Thundercats Roar is very cute looking personally, but to each their own.

It's just also important to have a reminder that "not a fan of this art style" is a very like, super small thing and should not lead to Angry Video Game Nerd style explosions of expletives. I know you haven't done that, but I see it a worryingly large amount, and basically always pointed at shows that surprise are extremely ****ing good, like Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[Bartmanhomer]

Funny, I had something similar happen. I wasn't able to work at all today because I couldn't remote in. Something was wrong with our temp office's internet or something.

Incidentally, I hope everyone is doing well to... day? Night? Morrow? Whenever you read this, I hope you're doing well.

Oh I'm doing well. Thank you for asking. Anyway I woke up at 10:30 AM this morning. Took a shower, eat oatmeal, uploading Youtube videos and right now I'm watching classic TV shows.

[Sermil]

It's really weird to have a thread title with my username in it. I keep thinking people are trying to address me.