"Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content."
--Conan the Cimmerian, in Queen of the Black Coast.
torsdag 27 oktober 2011
onsdag 26 oktober 2011
My problem with pony haters
So, most of this might be pretty obvious to anyone who reads my blog, but I'm still going to put it up here because it bothers me.
People are being confused, even upset, by the My Little Pony fandom. At first glance, the accusations seem to (sort of) make sense: When grown men watch childrens' cartoons, isn't that a little strange? Grown men should enjoy things for grown men, children should enjoy things for children. Simple.
However, the thing is, nobody seriously applies this principle in a broad sense. Few people really bat an eyelash if a grown man owns Finding Nemo on DVD, or if he has a bunch of Superman* comics, or if he owns a few collectible Transformers. Sure, people might roll their eyes and call him a nerd, but most people still seem to grasp the basic idea: Boys will be boys. It's not strange if a grown man wants to regress to being a little boy from time to time - even your most stuck-up, snobby banker can admit to enjoying some childish activity from time to time.
So the moral outrage and confusion clearly doesn't stem from the idea of grown-ups enjoying something for children. Instead, I think, it's rooted in a deeply anti-feminist statement, which is this: Nobody seriously wants to be a girl.
I'm not saying that pony fans are all transsexual, of course. It's just that we, culturally, still have some idea of "cooties". It's by no means explicit; it's a very subtle idea that we seem to have, that doing or liking feminine things is like a sickness. It's basically the same as fear of "catching the gay". So exposing yourself to something girly (like say, My Little Pony) means that you might turn into a "girl" (very important quote marks there): Effeminate, ornamental, helpless, and so on. Why would anyone want that?
So this contradiction appears in peoples' minds, a contradiction that pits two entirely false ideas against each other: "Girls are worthless" and "Guys who do feminine things become girly". Neither is in any way true. If you believed only one to be true, the behaviour wouldn't seem strange: If you believe, for instance, that it's just fine and peachy to be as much of a girly-girl as you like irrespective of your biological sex, then it won't at all be strange for a guy to wear pink hairbows and giggle and watch My Little Pony. On the other hand, if you believe that being "a girl" is "bad" (irrespective of biological sex), but not that say, wearing pink transforms you into "a girl", then logically you should be fine with anyone wearing pink as well - it's just a color, it has nothing to do with the undesirable qualities of being pretty and helpless.
The strangeness only occurs if you believe both statements to be true. And, as it turns out, both of them are absolute bullshit.
*This example is out of date, admittedly. Comic books are today mostly written for adults. During the Silver Age, though, they were written predominantly for children, and the reason there was a demographic shift was that adults started reading them anyway.
People are being confused, even upset, by the My Little Pony fandom. At first glance, the accusations seem to (sort of) make sense: When grown men watch childrens' cartoons, isn't that a little strange? Grown men should enjoy things for grown men, children should enjoy things for children. Simple.
However, the thing is, nobody seriously applies this principle in a broad sense. Few people really bat an eyelash if a grown man owns Finding Nemo on DVD, or if he has a bunch of Superman* comics, or if he owns a few collectible Transformers. Sure, people might roll their eyes and call him a nerd, but most people still seem to grasp the basic idea: Boys will be boys. It's not strange if a grown man wants to regress to being a little boy from time to time - even your most stuck-up, snobby banker can admit to enjoying some childish activity from time to time.
So the moral outrage and confusion clearly doesn't stem from the idea of grown-ups enjoying something for children. Instead, I think, it's rooted in a deeply anti-feminist statement, which is this: Nobody seriously wants to be a girl.
I'm not saying that pony fans are all transsexual, of course. It's just that we, culturally, still have some idea of "cooties". It's by no means explicit; it's a very subtle idea that we seem to have, that doing or liking feminine things is like a sickness. It's basically the same as fear of "catching the gay". So exposing yourself to something girly (like say, My Little Pony) means that you might turn into a "girl" (very important quote marks there): Effeminate, ornamental, helpless, and so on. Why would anyone want that?
So this contradiction appears in peoples' minds, a contradiction that pits two entirely false ideas against each other: "Girls are worthless" and "Guys who do feminine things become girly". Neither is in any way true. If you believed only one to be true, the behaviour wouldn't seem strange: If you believe, for instance, that it's just fine and peachy to be as much of a girly-girl as you like irrespective of your biological sex, then it won't at all be strange for a guy to wear pink hairbows and giggle and watch My Little Pony. On the other hand, if you believe that being "a girl" is "bad" (irrespective of biological sex), but not that say, wearing pink transforms you into "a girl", then logically you should be fine with anyone wearing pink as well - it's just a color, it has nothing to do with the undesirable qualities of being pretty and helpless.
The strangeness only occurs if you believe both statements to be true. And, as it turns out, both of them are absolute bullshit.
*This example is out of date, admittedly. Comic books are today mostly written for adults. During the Silver Age, though, they were written predominantly for children, and the reason there was a demographic shift was that adults started reading them anyway.
söndag 23 oktober 2011
Bizarre workings of the unconscious mind
I had a dream last night. It was a most peculiar dream.
I do not remember where it started, but I remember I was doing something entirely unrelated, walking down the street, when suddenly a group of people dressed as fruits started following me, talking to me about their nutritional value. They were out to teach kindergarden children about fruits and vegetables, when suddenly they had gone insane. They were pursuing me and I knew I had to run.
Unfortunately, I had some sort of strange katamari damacy-condition that meant I had to keep holding on to everything I touched with my hands. I didn't stick to it or anything, it was just this psychological tic that I had to pick it up and keep it. One of the strange fruit-men tried to stop me, and I crashed into him - he was holding a giant pillow which I touched with my hands, and so I had to take it and run away with it. This enraged the fruit-men, for now I had stolen from them - so they all ran after me, shouting loudly about nutritional values and about how Gustav Vasa ate lots of blueberries.
Then, as I was fleeing, I barreled into a group of people dressed as superheroes. These, too, were insane, and I realized to my great horror that some sort of curse or virus or affliction was making everyone who dressed up as something else insane. It wasn't "they believe they are what they are dressed up as", they just became these weird babbling zombie types that pursued people and spewed nonsense at them. Unfortunately my katamari-curse meant I had to steal guy-dressed-as-Spiderman's mask and gloves because I had touched them, and I made a mental note not to put them on, or I would be forever doomed.
Now I was running carrying a mask, some gloves, and a giant pillow, and I was trying very hard not to drop them, but they were slowing me down. As I was running, I got the brilliant idea of putting the pillow on my head, and putting all the Spiderman paraphernalia in my pockets, so that helped. Then I found a third group of people, dressed up as mythical beings. They had captured this woman and were forcefully dressing her up as a mermaid. I decided to use my katamari-curse to save her, so I touched all the mermaid-clothes - because apparently, nobody else could take anything from me once I had picked it up - and left the woman naked, but her soul was intact. This enraged the mythical-creatures people even more than I had enraged the fruit-men, so they left the woman alone and started following me.
I quickly ran inside my apartment, because I had devised a brilliant scheme by which I could keep safe. I camouflaged the door to the apartment with the giant pillow (apparently, I could put it down now, somehow) so that nobody could find it, then I ran inside and hid under the covers. Too late, I realized that hiding under the covers counted as being "disguised", and so the curse afflicted me. I put on the Spiderman mask and gloves, and went permanently insane.
The end. As in, I woke up.
I do not remember where it started, but I remember I was doing something entirely unrelated, walking down the street, when suddenly a group of people dressed as fruits started following me, talking to me about their nutritional value. They were out to teach kindergarden children about fruits and vegetables, when suddenly they had gone insane. They were pursuing me and I knew I had to run.
Unfortunately, I had some sort of strange katamari damacy-condition that meant I had to keep holding on to everything I touched with my hands. I didn't stick to it or anything, it was just this psychological tic that I had to pick it up and keep it. One of the strange fruit-men tried to stop me, and I crashed into him - he was holding a giant pillow which I touched with my hands, and so I had to take it and run away with it. This enraged the fruit-men, for now I had stolen from them - so they all ran after me, shouting loudly about nutritional values and about how Gustav Vasa ate lots of blueberries.
Then, as I was fleeing, I barreled into a group of people dressed as superheroes. These, too, were insane, and I realized to my great horror that some sort of curse or virus or affliction was making everyone who dressed up as something else insane. It wasn't "they believe they are what they are dressed up as", they just became these weird babbling zombie types that pursued people and spewed nonsense at them. Unfortunately my katamari-curse meant I had to steal guy-dressed-as-Spiderman's mask and gloves because I had touched them, and I made a mental note not to put them on, or I would be forever doomed.
Now I was running carrying a mask, some gloves, and a giant pillow, and I was trying very hard not to drop them, but they were slowing me down. As I was running, I got the brilliant idea of putting the pillow on my head, and putting all the Spiderman paraphernalia in my pockets, so that helped. Then I found a third group of people, dressed up as mythical beings. They had captured this woman and were forcefully dressing her up as a mermaid. I decided to use my katamari-curse to save her, so I touched all the mermaid-clothes - because apparently, nobody else could take anything from me once I had picked it up - and left the woman naked, but her soul was intact. This enraged the mythical-creatures people even more than I had enraged the fruit-men, so they left the woman alone and started following me.
I quickly ran inside my apartment, because I had devised a brilliant scheme by which I could keep safe. I camouflaged the door to the apartment with the giant pillow (apparently, I could put it down now, somehow) so that nobody could find it, then I ran inside and hid under the covers. Too late, I realized that hiding under the covers counted as being "disguised", and so the curse afflicted me. I put on the Spiderman mask and gloves, and went permanently insane.
The end. As in, I woke up.
torsdag 13 oktober 2011
A Quote
"It’s like you’ve become a fan fiction of yourself, with a completely
different life story and endgame"
-- Nobilis, 3rd edition.
That's right. I'm reading Nobilis. Tremble.
different life story and endgame"
-- Nobilis, 3rd edition.
That's right. I'm reading Nobilis. Tremble.
onsdag 5 oktober 2011
L'Art De Jeu?
I really should do more blog posts on the history of my gaming. They're interesting to write and allow me to reflect some upon past adventures and achievements. Anyway, incoming ramble:
I'm reflecting on what I've been doing lately, gaming-wise, and I sort of miss doing more artsy stuff. I'm not exactly sure on what I mean by "artsy", here, and it's not something I can easily define; I just know that in the past I've ran some games which really felt deep and meaningful, games to which you could apply literary analysis and find, well, cool stuff. The old Arcana Evolved game had a solid theme of Free Will vs. Destiny; the Vampires In Berlin game had recurring motifs of juxtaposition between ugly and beautiful.
Basically, some of the games I've been in have really felt like they have meaning, like there is a message to them. Maybe I'm just being pretentious here, I don't know. Don't get me wrong: Roleplaying games are first and foremost about being fun, not about being meaningful. Kicking in doors and killing orcs is every bit as "good" roleplaying as is debating the meaning of (un-)life with an elder vampire, and the former is probably more fun in a direct sense - but still, I feel the latter can be very interesting and I don't know if I've done anything like it for a while.
I'm not sure if there's a point to trying, either. When it happens it's almost always by accident, though it can be consciously planned into existence. It just takes a lot of planning, so much that I don't know if it's worth it.
Art is certainly not the opposite of entertainment - they can exist together, despite the connotations that "art" has to a lot of people today. But in the case of roleplaying games, maybe there's no point in trying to have both? Or at least, not enough of a point to be worth the effort?
I'm not sure. Often times when I've really tried to get a tight, structured, themed game, the effort has failed; and a tight, structured, themed game is kind of what you need for the story to actually tell a message (unless the message is invented and delivered by the players, which is totally awesome; the Mutant game was arguably of this variety, but such game experiences are rare treasures indeed). So there's a lot of work going into it, and a huge risk that the whole thing might just collapse, but...
...I dunno. Somehow I still feel like roleplaying games are still stories, and ought to be treated as such. Crafting a meaningful story is certainly, well, meaningful, and usually well worth the time: In literature, these are the stories we tend to remember. So it is as well, at least for me, concerning RPGs: The games and the characters I remember are those that really had something to say.
Maybe I'm just being pretentious. Trying to craft art out of a medium that was built for "I hit it with my axe" seems a little fruitless, sometimes. Then again, all of the literary tradition of the entire world has grown out of something like "Once there was this guy who killed a really big animal", so...
I'm reflecting on what I've been doing lately, gaming-wise, and I sort of miss doing more artsy stuff. I'm not exactly sure on what I mean by "artsy", here, and it's not something I can easily define; I just know that in the past I've ran some games which really felt deep and meaningful, games to which you could apply literary analysis and find, well, cool stuff. The old Arcana Evolved game had a solid theme of Free Will vs. Destiny; the Vampires In Berlin game had recurring motifs of juxtaposition between ugly and beautiful.
Basically, some of the games I've been in have really felt like they have meaning, like there is a message to them. Maybe I'm just being pretentious here, I don't know. Don't get me wrong: Roleplaying games are first and foremost about being fun, not about being meaningful. Kicking in doors and killing orcs is every bit as "good" roleplaying as is debating the meaning of (un-)life with an elder vampire, and the former is probably more fun in a direct sense - but still, I feel the latter can be very interesting and I don't know if I've done anything like it for a while.
I'm not sure if there's a point to trying, either. When it happens it's almost always by accident, though it can be consciously planned into existence. It just takes a lot of planning, so much that I don't know if it's worth it.
Art is certainly not the opposite of entertainment - they can exist together, despite the connotations that "art" has to a lot of people today. But in the case of roleplaying games, maybe there's no point in trying to have both? Or at least, not enough of a point to be worth the effort?
I'm not sure. Often times when I've really tried to get a tight, structured, themed game, the effort has failed; and a tight, structured, themed game is kind of what you need for the story to actually tell a message (unless the message is invented and delivered by the players, which is totally awesome; the Mutant game was arguably of this variety, but such game experiences are rare treasures indeed). So there's a lot of work going into it, and a huge risk that the whole thing might just collapse, but...
...I dunno. Somehow I still feel like roleplaying games are still stories, and ought to be treated as such. Crafting a meaningful story is certainly, well, meaningful, and usually well worth the time: In literature, these are the stories we tend to remember. So it is as well, at least for me, concerning RPGs: The games and the characters I remember are those that really had something to say.
Maybe I'm just being pretentious. Trying to craft art out of a medium that was built for "I hit it with my axe" seems a little fruitless, sometimes. Then again, all of the literary tradition of the entire world has grown out of something like "Once there was this guy who killed a really big animal", so...
tisdag 13 september 2011
Top 25 Movies
Iceye: Challenge accepted! EDIT: Now with more movies! 21, to be precise!
---
This list of movies is somewhat hastily constructed, I'll be the first to admit. I was initially going for a "Top 25" list, but I couldn't actually think of 25 movies that I like, so in the end I settled for 20. There may be some that should be on the list but that I've forgotten - well then, I still have five more slots! That is the genius of my plan.
Like Iceye's list, mine is not in any particular order - it's just 20 movies I like above other movies. It's based on the following sorting algorithm: Which movies that I have already seen would I like to see again?
Not all of the 20 movies on this list actually meet that criterion - I've just rounded it up a little to make it an even 20, and tossed in a few movies that are special because they've impressed me in other ways even though I wouldn't want to see them again.
Here, then, are my top 20 (with open space for 5 at the end, in case anyone reminds me of a movie I've missed):
1. Casablanca - My number one all-time favourite film.
2. The Matrix - The film I have seen the most times of all, and still wouldn't mind seeing again. It was a real trend-setter and a fantastic picture, that's all I have to say about it.
3. Picassos Äventyr - My number one all-time favourite film when I was a child, this movie still holds a special place in my heart. Which is weird. This movie is weird. No, seriously. It's weird. This movie is in... uh... some languages. Narration is Swedish, but to my knowledge only one actual line is ever uttered in Swedish in the whole film ("Hur fan ska jag kunna veta det?").
4. The Lion King - This is probably the best film ever made for children. 'Nuff said.
5. Labyrinth - The 1986 movie starring David Bowie in tight pants. I don't know what this movie is doing on the list, but I loved it as a kid and it has forever etched a love for Jim Hensons' sense of aesthetics into my heart. I can't deny that it has had a profound impact on me.
6. Yellow Submarine - A movie that can best be summed up as "How many Beatles songs can we stuff into one animated film, while making absolutely no sense whatsoever?", I love this film in part because of the soundtrack and in part because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I guess they were successful in that sense.
7. The Fall - The 2006 movie starring Lee Pace. Of all the movies on this list, this would be the one I would recommend the loudest. It's absolutely fantastic, and if you haven't seen it already, do so. It's damn unique, without being best described as "drugs", as is the case with so many other movies on this list.
8. Waking Life - This movie is best described as "drugs".
9. Mulholland Drive - This movie is best described as "drugs and also AAAAAH WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON"
10. Hero - This is a very beautiful, aesthetically pleasing movie with deep themes of nationalism but also, surprisingly, of peace. Also, it's full of kung fu. This movie is in Chinese, making it the first movie to appear in this list which has no English-language dialogue in it.
11. Wall-E - You know why. You should know why.
12. Blues Brothers - Another movie with lots of music in it. It's a pretty film, mostly memorable for the great lines and all the great music.
13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Having spent over half my life quoting this movie, I feel it deserves a spot on this list. It may not be absolute genius like many of the other films here, but it's definitely a movie that's had a profound impact on my life.
14. Ronja Rövardotter - Well, something of Astrid Lindgren had to go on this list, and this is a film I've seen rather a lot. It's neat, it's pretty, and I like it. It's the second movie on this list with no English-language dialogue in it.
15. Beetlejuice - Another childhood favourite, and another movie that permanently engraved a love of a certain look in my mind. Much like Jim Henson, Tim Burton has very much affected what I think of as beautiful and interesting to look at.
16. Willow - This is a somewhat obscure fantasy movie I think, but I like it. One of the movies that I probably actually would not see again, but is on the list for having impressed me.
17. Jönssonligan - Okay, so this is technically cheating, given how it's eight movies and not one, but there's not really one of them that stands out above the others and putting all eight on the list would be excessive - I don't like them that much. I just felt they belonged on the list - slapstick comedy is my guilty pleasure, and these movies do it really, really well. This entry contains I think at least one movie with no dialogue in English, making it the third on the list.
18. The Dark Knight - Yep, this is a great film. All the ingredients are there. I would watch this movie again.
19. The Fifth Element - Really just here to announce the fact that I like sci-fi, this was the best sci-fi movie I could think of. There may be others that ought to take its place.
20. Watchmen - Thank you, Watchmen, for being a faithful adaption of a comic book series for once. Because of that, you get to be on the list.
21. The Princess Bride - I don't know how I could forget this movie. I love it. A lot.
22. Vacant
23. Vacant
24. Vacant
25. Vacant
As an overview, this means of my top 20 movies, only four are not entirely in English, and of those, two are in Swedish, one in Chinese, and one in some sort of linguistic potpurri. I will probably think of movies for the 5 vacant slots, but I can't think of any more right now.
---
This list of movies is somewhat hastily constructed, I'll be the first to admit. I was initially going for a "Top 25" list, but I couldn't actually think of 25 movies that I like, so in the end I settled for 20. There may be some that should be on the list but that I've forgotten - well then, I still have five more slots! That is the genius of my plan.
Like Iceye's list, mine is not in any particular order - it's just 20 movies I like above other movies. It's based on the following sorting algorithm: Which movies that I have already seen would I like to see again?
Not all of the 20 movies on this list actually meet that criterion - I've just rounded it up a little to make it an even 20, and tossed in a few movies that are special because they've impressed me in other ways even though I wouldn't want to see them again.
Here, then, are my top 20 (with open space for 5 at the end, in case anyone reminds me of a movie I've missed):
1. Casablanca - My number one all-time favourite film.
2. The Matrix - The film I have seen the most times of all, and still wouldn't mind seeing again. It was a real trend-setter and a fantastic picture, that's all I have to say about it.
3. Picassos Äventyr - My number one all-time favourite film when I was a child, this movie still holds a special place in my heart. Which is weird. This movie is weird. No, seriously. It's weird. This movie is in... uh... some languages. Narration is Swedish, but to my knowledge only one actual line is ever uttered in Swedish in the whole film ("Hur fan ska jag kunna veta det?").
4. The Lion King - This is probably the best film ever made for children. 'Nuff said.
5. Labyrinth - The 1986 movie starring David Bowie in tight pants. I don't know what this movie is doing on the list, but I loved it as a kid and it has forever etched a love for Jim Hensons' sense of aesthetics into my heart. I can't deny that it has had a profound impact on me.
6. Yellow Submarine - A movie that can best be summed up as "How many Beatles songs can we stuff into one animated film, while making absolutely no sense whatsoever?", I love this film in part because of the soundtrack and in part because it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I guess they were successful in that sense.
7. The Fall - The 2006 movie starring Lee Pace. Of all the movies on this list, this would be the one I would recommend the loudest. It's absolutely fantastic, and if you haven't seen it already, do so. It's damn unique, without being best described as "drugs", as is the case with so many other movies on this list.
8. Waking Life - This movie is best described as "drugs".
9. Mulholland Drive - This movie is best described as "drugs and also AAAAAH WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON"
10. Hero - This is a very beautiful, aesthetically pleasing movie with deep themes of nationalism but also, surprisingly, of peace. Also, it's full of kung fu. This movie is in Chinese, making it the first movie to appear in this list which has no English-language dialogue in it.
11. Wall-E - You know why. You should know why.
12. Blues Brothers - Another movie with lots of music in it. It's a pretty film, mostly memorable for the great lines and all the great music.
13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail - Having spent over half my life quoting this movie, I feel it deserves a spot on this list. It may not be absolute genius like many of the other films here, but it's definitely a movie that's had a profound impact on my life.
14. Ronja Rövardotter - Well, something of Astrid Lindgren had to go on this list, and this is a film I've seen rather a lot. It's neat, it's pretty, and I like it. It's the second movie on this list with no English-language dialogue in it.
15. Beetlejuice - Another childhood favourite, and another movie that permanently engraved a love of a certain look in my mind. Much like Jim Henson, Tim Burton has very much affected what I think of as beautiful and interesting to look at.
16. Willow - This is a somewhat obscure fantasy movie I think, but I like it. One of the movies that I probably actually would not see again, but is on the list for having impressed me.
17. Jönssonligan - Okay, so this is technically cheating, given how it's eight movies and not one, but there's not really one of them that stands out above the others and putting all eight on the list would be excessive - I don't like them that much. I just felt they belonged on the list - slapstick comedy is my guilty pleasure, and these movies do it really, really well. This entry contains I think at least one movie with no dialogue in English, making it the third on the list.
18. The Dark Knight - Yep, this is a great film. All the ingredients are there. I would watch this movie again.
19. The Fifth Element - Really just here to announce the fact that I like sci-fi, this was the best sci-fi movie I could think of. There may be others that ought to take its place.
20. Watchmen - Thank you, Watchmen, for being a faithful adaption of a comic book series for once. Because of that, you get to be on the list.
21. The Princess Bride - I don't know how I could forget this movie. I love it. A lot.
22. Vacant
23. Vacant
24. Vacant
25. Vacant
As an overview, this means of my top 20 movies, only four are not entirely in English, and of those, two are in Swedish, one in Chinese, and one in some sort of linguistic potpurri. I will probably think of movies for the 5 vacant slots, but I can't think of any more right now.
måndag 8 augusti 2011
A Link to the Copypast
Below follows a blog entry I wrote on Gaia Online in 2007. I recently found it again and I thought it was sort of cute - it might perhaps say something about how I've changed over the past four years.
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This is a blog.
You heard me. A blog is a blog is a blog is a blog is a blog, as Gertrude Stein said it, and she probably meant something by it, too. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas might be one of the more interesting pairs in the history of authors, though I doubt it, since it seems authors are so often good friends. I mean, many awesome authors knew each other - F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Kurt Gödel and Albert Einstein, and so on. They did write books on science, so they are authors. And were friends. Before they died - maybe afterwards too, I do not know.
Friendship is defined by Wikipedia as co-operative and supportive behaviour between two or more humans. Humans differ from dwarves and elves in that they have no racial modifiers to ability scores, and gain one bonus feat and one extra skill point per level. One extra skill point per level is very useful, and many people actually favourise playing humans over other races simply for game-mechanical reasons; they're so much more versatile, whereas optimising other races requires specialisation - with the possible exception of dwarves. Yes, I would have to say, game-mechanically humans and dwarves are definitely preferrable.
Terry Pratchett never used the plural form "dwarves", only "dwarfs". I don't know why He did that, maybe there was a point to it. Note that I just now accidentally depressed shift and capitalized "He". If this isn't some sort of keyboard Freudian slip, it's probably just a typo. Nonetheless, this typo makes it seem as though Terry Pratchett is some sort of deity or god. He's not. When submissivies in a Dominance/submission-relationship refer to their dominator, they also use capitalisation, as in He. Terry Pratchett does not dominate me, though he owns, in the modern descriptive-of-skills meaning of the term.
Dominance/submission is a fetish, much less physical and more psychological than other branches of BDSM. For this reason, it requires much more acting skills and also much more trust between the involved parts, since anyone can spank a woman but only a select few can expose her to psychological "torture" without any real imminent danger. Torture was invented by the Japanese as a means to cook fish, but it wasn't entirely successful; the Japanese nobility, known as Vicomtes, took to the dish with heart - but since this was in 1532, Jonas Salk and his army of sparks invaded Prussia, stealing with them the secret to immortal life and twelve oven mitts that belonged to Federico de Soya. This caused tortured fish to be largely forgotten as food.
Food is necessary for human survival, and for that of most other animals. Wikipedia defines it as "any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure." Given this definition, it is a little vague whether or not chewing gum is food, since it's not technically eaten but certainly is for pleasure, unless it gets stuck in someone's hair.
That happened to a friend of mine at a festival a few weeks back, it was quite nasty. Fortunately she only needed to cut off very few strands of hair, otherwise she would've looked silly, and looking silly isn't fun, unless you're a clown. A famous Swedish comedian, speaking of clowns, is Gösta Ekman, who once starred in the absurdist comedy "Picassos Äventyr", also called "Adventures of Picasso."
I have seen this movie; all the actors were good, but aside from Ekman I especially liked Wilfrid Brambell, who played Alice B. Toklas. Alice B. Toklas was a long-standing and good friend of Gertrude Stein, who wrote that "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose", and she probably meant something by it, too. Gertruide Stein and Alice B. Toklas might be one of the more interesting pairs in the history of authors, though I doubt it, since it seems authors are so often good friends. I mean, many awesome authors knew each other - F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Kurt Gödel and Albert Einstein, and so on. They did write books on science, so they are authors. And were friends. Before they died - maybe afterwards too, I do not know.
I hope they were friends afterwards. It would give me some hope that friendship is more than just the Wikipedia definition.
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This is a blog.
You heard me. A blog is a blog is a blog is a blog is a blog, as Gertrude Stein said it, and she probably meant something by it, too. Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas might be one of the more interesting pairs in the history of authors, though I doubt it, since it seems authors are so often good friends. I mean, many awesome authors knew each other - F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Kurt Gödel and Albert Einstein, and so on. They did write books on science, so they are authors. And were friends. Before they died - maybe afterwards too, I do not know.
Friendship is defined by Wikipedia as co-operative and supportive behaviour between two or more humans. Humans differ from dwarves and elves in that they have no racial modifiers to ability scores, and gain one bonus feat and one extra skill point per level. One extra skill point per level is very useful, and many people actually favourise playing humans over other races simply for game-mechanical reasons; they're so much more versatile, whereas optimising other races requires specialisation - with the possible exception of dwarves. Yes, I would have to say, game-mechanically humans and dwarves are definitely preferrable.
Terry Pratchett never used the plural form "dwarves", only "dwarfs". I don't know why He did that, maybe there was a point to it. Note that I just now accidentally depressed shift and capitalized "He". If this isn't some sort of keyboard Freudian slip, it's probably just a typo. Nonetheless, this typo makes it seem as though Terry Pratchett is some sort of deity or god. He's not. When submissivies in a Dominance/submission-relationship refer to their dominator, they also use capitalisation, as in He. Terry Pratchett does not dominate me, though he owns, in the modern descriptive-of-skills meaning of the term.
Dominance/submission is a fetish, much less physical and more psychological than other branches of BDSM. For this reason, it requires much more acting skills and also much more trust between the involved parts, since anyone can spank a woman but only a select few can expose her to psychological "torture" without any real imminent danger. Torture was invented by the Japanese as a means to cook fish, but it wasn't entirely successful; the Japanese nobility, known as Vicomtes, took to the dish with heart - but since this was in 1532, Jonas Salk and his army of sparks invaded Prussia, stealing with them the secret to immortal life and twelve oven mitts that belonged to Federico de Soya. This caused tortured fish to be largely forgotten as food.
Food is necessary for human survival, and for that of most other animals. Wikipedia defines it as "any substance, usually composed primarily of carbohydrates, fats, water and/or proteins, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal or human being for nutrition or pleasure." Given this definition, it is a little vague whether or not chewing gum is food, since it's not technically eaten but certainly is for pleasure, unless it gets stuck in someone's hair.
That happened to a friend of mine at a festival a few weeks back, it was quite nasty. Fortunately she only needed to cut off very few strands of hair, otherwise she would've looked silly, and looking silly isn't fun, unless you're a clown. A famous Swedish comedian, speaking of clowns, is Gösta Ekman, who once starred in the absurdist comedy "Picassos Äventyr", also called "Adventures of Picasso."
I have seen this movie; all the actors were good, but aside from Ekman I especially liked Wilfrid Brambell, who played Alice B. Toklas. Alice B. Toklas was a long-standing and good friend of Gertrude Stein, who wrote that "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose", and she probably meant something by it, too. Gertruide Stein and Alice B. Toklas might be one of the more interesting pairs in the history of authors, though I doubt it, since it seems authors are so often good friends. I mean, many awesome authors knew each other - F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Kurt Gödel and Albert Einstein, and so on. They did write books on science, so they are authors. And were friends. Before they died - maybe afterwards too, I do not know.
I hope they were friends afterwards. It would give me some hope that friendship is more than just the Wikipedia definition.
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