DataNinja's Scintillating Digital Random Banter #231

[Qwertystop]

I think if I were to learn how to fight with weapons I'd want to go for some kind of polearm. Or a staff.

[halfeye]

If you do the stuff needed to start learning capoeira you will though! But yeah don't stress, you don't need to have first hand knowledge of A Thing to write it, I'm just obsessed with my own sense of realism. I specifically want to feel the weight of a sword so I can accurately capture that because to me that is something I need to do.

So long as you know you don't change feet to metres by just changing the name of the units and leaving the numbers alone, a 3ft sword is not a 3 metre sword, and a 3 metre sword would be very silly. No offence intended, I read a published book once with a 3 metre sword in it, I presume it was converted for a European readership by someone who didn't understand metres are slightly bigger than yards.

[Peelee]

So long as you know you don't change feet to metres by just changing the name of the units and leaving the numbers alone, a 3ft sword is not a 3 metre sword, and a 3 metre sword would be very silly. No offence intended, I read a published book once with a 3 metre sword in it, I presume it was converted for a European readership by someone who didn't understand metres are slightly bigger than yards.

You mean the average male isn't around 6 meters tall?

[enderlord99]

Does anyone else remember when LEGO tried to make a social-network/ARG/thing? The one with a robot named "Echo"

[LaZodiac]

So long as you know you don't change feet to metres by just changing the name of the units and leaving the numbers alone, a 3ft sword is not a 3 metre sword, and a 3 metre sword would be very silly. No offence intended, I read a published book once with a 3 metre sword in it, I presume it was converted for a European readership by someone who didn't understand metres are slightly bigger than yards.

That sounds hilarious, but also I have no idea how to visualize size so I do not have any idea how long 3 meters even is, hahaha.

[Lord Raziere]

That sounds hilarious, but also I have no idea how to visualize size so I do not have any idea how long 3 meters even is, hahaha.

3 meters is actually 9.84 feet.

meaning a sword that is 3 meters would actually be taller than a human. about 1.5 times taller than a 6ft tall human.

[Rater202]

That sounds hilarious, but also I have no idea how to visualize size so I do not have any idea how long 3 meters even is, hahaha.

If Sephiroth is seven feet tall, his sword is about 21 centimeters too short to be this hypothetical three-meter sword.

[enderlord99]

If Sephiroth is seven feet tall, his sword is about 21 centimeters too short to be this hypothetical three-meter sword.

Wow .

[Rawhide]

So long as you know you don't change feet to metres by just changing the name of the units and leaving the numbers alone, a 3ft sword is not a 3 metre sword, and a 3 metre sword would be very silly. No offence intended, I read a published book once with a 3 metre sword in it, I presume it was converted for a European readership by someone who didn't understand metres are slightly bigger than yards.

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[Anonymouswizard]

I hear Hapkido is good.

I'll have a look after the plague.

You misspelled Peelee.

I'm not sure I used enough ts

[Fyraltari]

marital arts

Kinky.

That sounds hilarious, but also I have no idea how to visualize size so I do not have any idea how long 3 meters even is, hahaha.

Take a really big step. That's roughly one metre.

Paul Merton, aka the greatest wit alive

You misspelled Peelee.

For reference Peelee is spelled "Paul Meerton".

[Anonymouswizard]

For reference Peelee is spelled "Paul Meerton".

So it's like Wookieee?

[Rawhide]

So it's like Wookieee?

Wookieeeeeeee*

[LaZodiac]

Take a really big step. That's roughly one metre.

You have no idea how big my legs are and how far I can take a big steppy, sir.

Admittedly I don't either because even with these attempts at assistance I still can't really visualize it, but I do get the general picture now.

[Rawhide]

You have no idea how big my legs are and how far I can take a big steppy, sir.

Admittedly I don't either because even with these attempts at assistance I still can't really visualize it, but I do get the general picture now.

Imagine one person of average height standing upright. They are just above 1.5 metres.

Now imagine a second person standing on their shoulders, this negates a bit of the excess height because of the head overlap, so that would be approximately 3 metres tall.

3 metres is two people in a trenchcoat.

[Fyraltari]

You have no idea how big my legs are and how far I can take a big steppy, sir.

Admittedly I don't either because even with these attempts at assistance I still can't really visualize it, but I do get the general picture now.

I said "roughly". Also, if you extend you thumb and your pinky as far as possible while keeping your other fingers folded the tips of either are distant of about (almost exactly in my case) twenty centimetres. So five times that and you've got a metre.

Edit:

Imagine one person of average height standing upright. They are just above 1.5 metres.

Now imagine a second person standing on their shoulders, this negates a bit of the excess height because of the head overlap, so that would be approximately 3 metres tall.

3 metres is two people in a trenchcoat.

World's average height is 1,67m, Zodi lives in Canada where it's 1,69m, that's more than "just above" in my opinion.

[Peelee]

3 meters is just about the height of a basketball hoop.

[Fyraltari]

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What is this man's wrist made out of?

[halfeye]

That sounds hilarious, but also I have no idea how to visualize size so I do not have any idea how long 3 meters even is, hahaha.

It's fractionally less than 10ft. Yes it was pretty hilarious, which was not apparently intended.

[Form]

Meanwhile I want to do it because it's cool. Although I'm probably going to take up unarmed marital arts again first, anybody know of a good strike-focused one?

Also, I just discovered that Paul Merton, aka the greatest wit alive, made his own sketch show a couple of decades ago. I'm so binging that tomorrow.

What, like passive aggressive sniping?

[Rawhide]

World's average height is 1,67m, Zodi lives in Canada where it's 1,69m, that's more than "just above" in my opinion.

And what is the average height of a human head?

[Fyraltari]

marital arts

Kinky

marital arts

What, like passive aggressive sniping?

There are two kinds of people.

And what is the average height of a human head?

I'm not saying your trick wouldn't work, I was just nuancing it.

[Rawhide]

I'm not saying your trick wouldn't work, I was just nuancing it.

First, I disagree with your claim, you're making the margin of error for such an example far too small. It is perfectly fine to say "just above" in this instance. This is a "rule of thumb" example with a wide margin of error (such as the "take a step" one above), not a precise calculation.

Second, the loss of a head (figuratively, not literally) close to negates the excess.

[Lacco]

One of these days I wanna try and swing a real sword and stuff. I'm a writer I should get some hands on experience with that stuff...

You should definitely do that. It's a lot of fun, and swinging sword is a nice workout. Can't wait to get out of quarantine to go practice outside.

I'd lend you mine but the shipping fees would most probably ruin a small country.

[Rogar Demonblud]

See if you can find a kendo sword to start with, Zodi. You can work on mechanics before trying to build up the muscle mass needed to use a hunk of metal for an extended period.

[Rater202]

So I don't drink, but I've seen some stories and I have to wonder.

Nobody even blinks if a man drinks a milkshake or a slushy. But the second you add some scotch to that milkshake or some vodka to that slushy, suddenly it's a "chick drink" and he's less of a man for drinking it.

Where did that double standard come from? Cause it's stupid.

[Peelee]

The manliest of men.

[LaZodiac]

So I don't drink, but I've seen some stories and I have to wonder.

Nobody even blinks if a man drinks a milkshake or a slushy. But the second you add some scotch to that milkshake or some vodka to that slushy, suddenly it's a "chick drink" and he's less of a man for drinking it.

Where did that double standard come from? Cause it's stupid.

The double standard comes from the place you would expect. Thing is considered For Mans, and then the women come in and like a specific part of it and the men are like "ah, this is For Mans not you!!!" and then oops years of in-grained misogyny happened. The same thing happened with dresses and skirts and long flowing hair and a lot of stuff. It was A Man's Thing, some women were like "we wold like this too" and the response was to go "no ours!" until they finally had to relent and change to "for girls, prissy and bad".

See if you can find a kendo sword to start with, Zodi. You can work on mechanics before trying to build up the muscle mass needed to use a hunk of metal for an extended period.

I appreciate that I bring up one(1) time I would like to swing a sword and so many people are like "yeah Zodi deserves a sword go get'em!". It's very gratifying.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Hey, you said you wanted to write from experience. Experience with a sword is putting in a lot of work just to master the basics.

[Rater202]

Hey, you said you wanted to write from experience. Experience with a sword is putting in a lot of work just to master the basics.

And that's just for flynning and fencing(or Kendo)

If you want to actually use a sword in a real fight(I'm not sure why in this day and age) that might as well be a completely different skillset. Flynning you're aiming for the other guy's sword, not his body, and fencing(and kendo) have dedicated rules of engagement—it's the difference between a boxing match and a bar brawl.