Re: "Lights"

1

Man, man.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:27 PM
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It doesn't make very much sense, does it?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:28 PM
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Lights will fucking EAT YOUR SOUL MAN.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:34 PM
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4

Fashionable.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:36 PM
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5

Nothing that a "Fuck you, clown" couldn't fix.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:36 PM
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But nothing clown-related could improve on "teh forces of Hell."


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:40 PM
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I love it. You were so beat.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:43 PM
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8

Swords'll fuckin' cut you wide open!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:44 PM
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9

"teh forces of Hell."

That's actually a typo introduced in the transcription!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:44 PM
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10

I wondered!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:47 PM
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11

I was afraid of that.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:47 PM
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12

11 to the sword as well.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:47 PM
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BEN WOLFSON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, MAN!


Posted by: alameida in 7th grade | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:50 PM
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14

I love it. You were so beat.

Or Jamaican.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:54 PM
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15

Fuck, man. The lights. Have you thought about the blue ones? They leave your corpse dead.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 7:58 PM
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16

"guly"?


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 8:40 PM
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17

Oh hai I'm the only one commenting on 3 different threads


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 8:43 PM
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18

Also, holy shit just saw at the other place the discussion of the source of Fafblog.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 8:49 PM
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19

And as a matter of fact, as we discovered on the train, it's all the same fucking day, man.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase-Joplin | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 8:58 PM
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20

Who's talking about Fafblog?!


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:03 PM
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21

Wouldn't that violate SOother-placeC? It's on the wall of someone I'm not friends with there but others are who runs a headless blog.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:10 PM
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Apparently Fafblog was written by someone who used to comment here, man, under a pseud rhyming with a certain tangerine-grapefruit hybrid, man.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:16 PM
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23

Oh, right. I knew that.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:16 PM
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24

Also I hope to god my middle school poetry no longer exists because it was the worst and I was encouraged by my English teachers who thought it was brilliant. Arrgh it's so embarrassing to remember it. Emotional faux-literary crap.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:17 PM
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23: I guess a lot of people did? But I had no clue. I guess I'm bad at picking up stylistic commonalities. I also had no idea who meekins was until LB splained it to me.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:18 PM
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I was surprised at how many people in that thread didn't know. I had figured it was common knowledge, but then again I forget how I figured it out.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:33 PM
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I still don't know who Meekins was, though. That was a period when I wasn't paying much attention to Unfogged.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:33 PM
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27: the meekins thing was kind of a head-fake, teo. I don't know that meekins ever invoked meekins-self's posting privileges at all.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:54 PM
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Oh hey I just saw that. Wow.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 9:56 PM
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As I (or someone posing as another me) said at the other place: Hmm, this certainly explains a rejoinder I got from ___ during a debate at unfogged with regard to internet identity. Me: " your simplistic view of Internet identity matches the subtlety of your political analysis." ___: "This statement is hilarious for so many reasons I can't possibly begin to explain." Point to ____ on that one. Although I cede no ground on the debate itself* , nor on my characterization of the political analysis as exhibited under that particular pseud.

*Which brought honor to no one--although in retrospect it was a foreshadowing of future disagreeableness on ye olde blogge.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 10:00 PM
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I was reading that thread elsewhere earlier today and although I had known the name of Fafblog's creator I never connected it with stras. I boggled. I still can't get them to fit up in my mind. A!=B. I continue to suspect someone else from here of being (a/the) voice of Fafblog. Faflblog, it is the best blog and I miss it.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 10:46 PM
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32

31: you and me both.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 08-20-13 10:55 PM
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33

I mean, look at his comments in this thread.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:10 AM
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34

I was in that thread and I still didn't figure it out.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:40 AM
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35

From the looks of it you weren't alone.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:42 AM
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36

The British fantasy author Tom Holt had a splendid author biography, which started "Tom Holt was born in 1961, a sullen, podgy child, much given to brooding on the Infinite."


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:26 AM
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Aw, this is really sweet, man. If I could find my poetry from 7th grade, I would provide you with a thing about the rainforest disappearing that hails the world's forest ecosystems as "thee."


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 6:39 AM
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38

I can't believe the most humorless commenter in the history of Unfogged, which is saying quite a lot, could have been behind a website like that. The mind boggles.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:01 AM
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39

There...are...FOUR...LIGHTS!!!


Posted by: OPINIONATED JEAN-LUC PICARD | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:11 AM
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38: I kind of had the same reaction. I liked Stras a lot, and was sad and annoyed when he left -- wrong about some things, and cranky and hostile when he disagreed about something, but I thought he was a real plus to have around. But he never struck me as funny at all, while Fafblog often had me making little gasping noises trying to get enough air into my lungs to laugh properly.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:23 AM
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In the future scholars link-rot scholars will reconstruct important early blog posts only using the surviving snippets in other blogs.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:49 AM
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I miss that guy too, though I think he stopped commenting while I was still lurking. He really brought the rage. Who knew he was funny?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:56 AM
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43

Where the sense requires it, I am prepared to write Strasmangelopolitanus where the link has the monosyllabic o.


Posted by: Awl | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:59 AM
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38: Right? I would have characterized stras as humorless, and yet he wrote a blog 50 times funnier than anything I could ever do.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:04 AM
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45

Next thing you know Sifu Tweety will be spilling that the genius behind The Editors really was Bob McManus.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:28 AM
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I can't believe the most humorless commenter in the history of Unfogged, which is saying quite a lot, could have been behind a website like that

Fafblog always read to me as though it had two authors, one distinctly funnier than the other...


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:46 AM
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45:Good alt indie group, but a stretch to call them "genius"

I'm missing Elmore Leonard and Bradley Manning


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:46 AM
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The comments in the thread linked in 33 are amazing.

"Looking back in it, Fafblog wasn't that funny"
"Have fun dying alone at Whole Foods, you bitchass yuppie"


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:00 AM
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"Have fun dying alone at Whole Foods, you bitchass yuppie"

That's kind of a funny line.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:17 AM
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Yes, that was a hell of a thread. Very early in my active time here.

As I wrote to JRoth in email (sanctity of blah, blah, blah can fuck me), if stras authored Fafblog it probably says something profound about how wildly different people can come across in different voices/mediums or what have you. Some of us apparently do contain multitudes.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:35 AM
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Looking back at it, the thing that made Fafblog funny was not the political humor or the absurdist humor. It was the character-driven humor. Fafnir, Giblets and The Medium Lobster were funny creatures.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:42 AM
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Oh no. I followed a link in that thread to GrammarPolice, which is now a 1985 prom in Japan. :-(


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:53 AM
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The stras/Fafblog thing totally blows my mind. Also, I hope I'm not alone in not being able to connect several people from the other place with their presences here.


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:59 AM
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I have facebook friends who I dearly hope are commenters I've forgotten how to connect with their real names, because if that's not it I have no idea at all who they are.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:02 AM
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I think the stras/Fafblog connection is the only case where I've been ahead of the curve. I didn't even know meekins had an identity.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:03 AM
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56

He really did post once (about iced tea), and as far as I know still retains the capacity to post again at any moment.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:09 AM
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57

People will be claiming to drink regularly with Standpipe in a minute.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:12 AM
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I 100% for real still make that cold brewed ice tea from the only ever Meekins post. It's on the top 10 useful Unfogged moments for me.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:16 AM
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59

At any moment Unfogged could be overwhelmed by golf blogging.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:19 AM
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60

Slolernr wrote, in the thread teo linked, "strasmangelo jones is ogged's sock puppet. And both of them wrote Fafblog." Uncanny!


Posted by: Jesus McQueen | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:20 AM
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61

The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy led directly to the passage of a historic law, the Gun Control Act of 1968. Does that change your view of the assassinations? Should we be grateful for the deaths of these two men?

Of course not. That's lunatic logic. But the same reasoning is now being applied to the actions of Edward Snowden
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/08/edward-snowdens-real-impact.html

Stupidest analogy ever?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:33 AM
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Wow, the thread linked in 33 is something. Stras: Ogged, you're interminably stuffy. Ogged: Nuh-uh.

In retrospect, that thread is a horrifying trainwreck in the making. On the other hand, unfoggetarians are so sensitive these days by comparison. I miss ogged's *winky-winky* style comments, and miss stras's willingness to become infuriated. (Ogged was right that there's as much anger as there is humor in fafblog, but that was pretty obvious to any reader.)


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:00 AM
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63

I'm not sure what a "winky-winky" style comment is but it scares me.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:10 AM
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64

unfoggetarians are so sensitive these days

Nuh-uh.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:13 AM
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65

Isn't a winky-winky comment one that is posted by a blue creature with a coat-hanger shaped antenna and a TV shaped gray patch on its stomach?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:14 AM
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66

The highly confused discussion of shooting people with rock salt at the end of the thread amused me.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:21 AM
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61: If you are into that kind of thing, Digby just opened multiple new orifices in Jeffrey Toobin's rotting carcass. You know where to find her.

This Comment at FDL

So lets get this straight Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for nothing but the hope he would end the wars soon a Freakin Hope. Bradley's leak motivated the Iraq's to insist on prosecuting war crimes and since America under Obama could not agree to that we withdrew troops from Iraq. Bradley actually did what the Nobel committee hoped Obama would do! Bradley helped create Arab Spring by revealing the corruption in Tunis and how they cooperated with America. Has anyone else did as much as Bradley lately to further world peace?

Always kick up and close, I say.

All hope and outrage aside, Manning might get out in 7-10. I am frankly relieved.


Posted by: bob mcmanus | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:27 AM
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68

The highly confused discussion of shooting people with rock salt at the end of the thread amused me.

The sudden turn to weapons & ammo was a bit puzzling. I was a regular unfogged reader at the time but I don't remember that particular thread.

And as long as we're reminiscing, have some vintage Camille Paglia (actually from 2013, via LG&M).


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:49 AM
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From the link in 68 -- (WARNING!!! reading this may cause brain damage)

Hanna Rosin's "The End of Men," a best-seller last year, is the focus of a Munk Debate that I will be part of at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Nov. 15. The proposition is: "Be it resolved that men are obsolete." Arguing for the motion will be Rosin and Maureen Dowd. Arguing against the motion will be me and Caitlin Moran. It should be a fascinating and substantive discussion. Lineups of opposing views like this have been rare indeed in feminism, which has preferred to ostracize and exile dissident voices.

Conclusion -- men are obsolete, because women can be just as stupid.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:56 AM
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I feel like a lengthy discussion of who wrote fafblog, concluding with "stras!", is something like a semi-annual rite around here. But maybe I'm thinking of somewhere else.

Regardless, stras wrote fafblog and also was often quite funny here. As JP said above, it was always a question of how one read his tone. Having met him first through his fafblog characters and only later here, and having missed the era of blogging that boiled down to pinpointing who was right about Iraq and then vowing never to forgive those people who were wrong (and by "the era of blogging," I of course mean "blogging"), I always read him as speaking with an absurd -- albeit occasionally enraged* -- voice.

* Sometimes justifiably, sometimes not.


Posted by: Von Wafer | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:58 AM
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You know, this explains why Stras was so boggled when we easily identified International Island Bird as being a Stras-by-another-name: to Stras, we'd all been failing to recognize his voice in a different context for years.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 11:58 AM
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72

||

I just got a red squiggly line when I tried to write "mischievious" in an email, and upon looking it up, realized I've been mispronouncing "mischievous" for the past 35 years.

|>


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:01 PM
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Sorry to skip over 68, AcademicLurker, but I'm still amazed by the thread from 33, and can only read it in stops and starts. Here's foolishmortal remarking on anger, for example.

Wherever is foolishmortal these days?

Anyway, the talking at cross-purposes and without knowledge of secrets, in both directions, is, well, makes me simultaneously frown and smile. Ogged knew that at least.

Remember: don't assume.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:07 PM
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74

Agreed with 70 that stras was often funny here.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:09 PM
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75

So many names on that thread that I recognize but I have no idea if they changed handles or just left. I suck like that. I probably have the wrong gender in my head for a lot of them too.


Posted by: SP | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:11 PM
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71: I don't think he was boggled; I think he was embarrassed and disappointed, because I think he wanted to continue to be here. I feel badly now as I did then. But enough of old stuff.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:12 PM
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77

This thread gives me a nostalgic glow of "I am relatively new here and have no idea what the hell any of you are on about"--a feeling I used to have more when people talked about Ogged more. Ogged is like Cthulhu now, an elder god I expect people meet in swamps now and then to worship but mostly his presence is just an undercurrent.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:18 PM
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78

...man.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:19 PM
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79

That was back when I had a feeling that arguing about politics on the internet was somehow important, and effective. Now I've become reconciled to the fact that nothing will ever change for the better, and particularly that nothing I do or say will ever affect anything. It takes a lot of the energy out of the squabbling.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:23 PM
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Ogged is like Cthulhu now, an elder god

Does that make unfogged like Innsmouth?

"He suffered from body dysmorphia every time he glimpsed himself in the mirror and noticed traces of the 'unfogged look'."


Posted by: AcademicLurker | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:26 PM
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79: I feel you on all of this.

I also remember swearing off Unfogged regularly because I really got my feelings hurt. In the above (amazing!) thread, I think I am referenced as the female commenter who got panties in a twist on name-change day. Isn't that cute? What a twist my panties were in about that! On a few occasions, I remember not being able to concentrate on prepping for class because of Unfogged fights. Like, in my real life.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:28 PM
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82

||
This is me floating the idea of a NYC meetup somewhere above 59th Street on Monday Sept 2, aka Labor Day.
|>


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:36 PM
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83

I always read him as speaking with an absurd -- albeit occasionally enraged* -- voice.

I would change this to "enraged - albeit occasionally absurd".


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:39 PM
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84

At the risk of appearing earnest -- actually, in honor of stras, I shall risk appearing earnest -- I'd say that I mostly agree with 79. But, BUT, I keep trying to remind myself that: a) lots of things are getting better, and some at a breakneck pace; b) the idea that one can't make a difference politically is actually pernicious nonsense, especially if one follows the lead of wildly successful movement conservatives and focuses one's energies on local issues (this may be much more complicated in major metropolitan areas); c) napping and then walking the dog are both important, albeit underrated, parts of effecting social change.


Posted by: Von Wafer | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:42 PM
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85

82.--poop. I would love to do that, but I'm going to be out of town all weekend.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:43 PM
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86

81: AWB, I'm not seeing that reference on a quick scroll of that thread, but if someone harassed you about that, I feel responsible. Six years later, I hope we're okay.

79: That was back when I had a feeling that arguing about politics on the internet was somehow important

So that's why we hardly ever have political threads any more! It's boring without them; political issues occupy a fair amount of my mental space.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:45 PM
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87

86.1: We are totally cool. It was a weird time for me emotionally. To be honest, it's almost always some kind of weird time for me emotionally, but that was especially weird.

Oh, and if anyone is keeping track of my stupid personal life, I got ended up projectile-crying all over my new handsome friend about how miserable I am that the shy gentleman has a girlfriend and no one will ever ever love meeeeeee. I stayed over and we spooned. I do not have good boundaries!


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:49 PM
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83: and I would (either politely or ironically, depending on your preference) reply that I think that's almost entirely a matter of how one read his tone. Because I met him first through fafblog, then through my own blog, and only later here -- or at least that's how I perceived things -- I tended to read almost everything he wrote as absurd, even if often angrily so. But I can totally understand how other people would have read him as strident and sometimes unhinged, especially if they hadn't first met him as a humorist.


Posted by: Von Wafer | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:50 PM
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77: Oh, and ogged is not an elder god, for heaven's sake. He's just a guy. Interesting guy, if you like that sort of thing, but just a guy.

I don't know why I bother to say that -- it sounds obnoxious -- but really, ogged is a person just like all of us.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:50 PM
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90

I got ended up s/b last night I ended up


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:50 PM
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91

but really, ogged is a person just like all of us

Now Labs, on the other hand, . . .


Posted by: MAE | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 12:53 PM
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I don't know why I bother to say that -- it sounds obnoxious -- but really, ogged is a person just like all of us.

But you know his name isn't really ogged. I had thought ogged was an Iranian name.



Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:02 PM
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82: Argh -- I'm out of town from Thursday the 29th through Tuesday the 3d. Other than that, a meetup sounds spiffy.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:09 PM
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89: I deny this vehemently. If I keep clicking the refresh button, eventually Ogged will bring cargo.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:12 PM
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95

87: But at least Handsome sounds supportive and comforting, which is what you want in a friendly good-looking handsy guy. That does suck about shy guy, though.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:15 PM
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96

82: Is the 3rd or 4th a possibility?


Posted by: Mr. Blandings | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:16 PM
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97

||

Holy shit litte tiny quadcopters are fun. Thanks, Spike!

|>


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:17 PM
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98

This can only end with Zardoz becoming a Luddite.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:21 PM
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95: Yup, totally. I am very glad he's turning out not to be weird about it. It was a weird thing for me to do, especially because I thought I had managed to control all of my feelings through private expression followed by intense repression.


Posted by: AWB | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:22 PM
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98: Or clinging to the top of the Empire State Building, batting madly at drones before plummeting to her doom.

One or the other.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:28 PM
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101

Is "handsy" a euphemism?


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:33 PM
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102

88 has convinced me that fafblog was never funny. I bet Von Wafer ruins Santa Claus for little children by explaining that the reality of Santa Claus is all a matter of perception.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:35 PM
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103

No, Zardoz will grow to love the BottleCopter.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:42 PM
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104

102: Also, "Hark! A Vagrant" is written by Megan McArdle.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:42 PM
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105

104 made me snort, hard.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:42 PM
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106

98 and 100 seem complementary rather than contradictory.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:44 PM
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107

105 gets it exactly right.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 1:50 PM
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108

101: Not more than a synechdoche, in my experience.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:20 PM
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109

name-change day.

Ugghh, interesting idea that turned out very badly.

On a few occasions, I remember not being able to concentrate on prepping for class because of Unfogged fights. Like, in my real life.

Is that so surprising? I avoid getting into fights here, and I've had days when I was pretty distracted by either being grumpy about a thread or waiting to see what would happen in a thread.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:28 PM
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110

109.3 is missing italics.


Posted by: NickS | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:28 PM
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111

I um.

Didn't really think ogged was supernatural.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:30 PM
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112

See if you get any cargo when he returns.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:36 PM
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113

Less to move.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:39 PM
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114

111: Like you would know. You weren't here, man. Noob.

Ogged is the Twelfth Imam. You'll see.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:40 PM
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115
Yet hear me tell how in their throats they lie
Who shout you mighty: thick about my hair,
Day in, day out, your ominous arrows purr,
Who still am free, unto no querulous care
A fool, and in no temple worshiper!
I, that have bared me to your quiver's fire, 
Lifted my face into its puny rain,
Do wreathe you Impotent to Evoke Desire
As you are Powerless to Elicit Pain!
(Now will the god, for blasphemy so brave,
Punish me, surely, with the shaft I crave!)


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:41 PM
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Smearcase: Tell me. Either five in eight months, or three that took months each. OTOH, I like the undergrads I've just given a bed to, so all is well.

And I can move books by Amtrak freight, thank goodness.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:42 PM
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117

Holy shit litte tiny quadcopters are fun. Thanks, Spike!
How small? Could it hold a camera? where did you get them? I want one/some.


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 2:53 PM
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118

The Walkera Ladybird can have a little camera modified on, but doesn't come with one. Some do. They are indeed super awesome.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:01 PM
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119

Actually I want to attach a tiny speaker to a tiny drone and fly it down to hover outside my neighbor's window and have it scream shut up shut up shut up!!!


Posted by: mcmc | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:01 PM
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120

It takes some inside practice first, but I'll bet that's possible.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:03 PM
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121

||

It's pretty rude to turn down an invitation from an old friend for dinner at his house while I'm in town, isn't it? And yet I really just want to go back to my hotel and crash because I've had entirely too much social interaction already. Hmm.

|>


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:12 PM
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121: go, but fall asleep on the floor.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:23 PM
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123

Also, I'm sorry, AWB. Not having what you want and having to admit it, yuck.


Posted by: clew | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:25 PM
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104: Snorting > little gasping noises, or the other way around?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:27 PM
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125

104 s/b 105. I s/b more attentive.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:29 PM
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126

But I won't.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:30 PM
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Little gasping noises > snorting. Snorting just means I was taken by surprise; little gasping noises is for things that are so funny I can't successfully breathe for a while.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:35 PM
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117, 118: you can get one with the camera already on it, actually. Google walkera ladybird v2 fpv devo f4. It is three times as expensive as the cameraless one, though.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:40 PM
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I nearly fainted from joy imagining doing what is described in 119.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 3:54 PM
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We can build these shutupneighbor drones. We have the technology.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:04 PM
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Ditto 129. You have the very best ideas, mcmc.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:07 PM
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I never connected stras with Fafblog, but at some point stras made it pretty clear he was a comedy writer and that he commented here to be serious. I think he used a phrase like "escape the funny." I figured he was telling the truth because people are like that sometimes.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:12 PM
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people are like that sometimes.

Namely, truthful.


Posted by: nosflow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:16 PM
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132: Interesting! Similarly we've discussed the odd fact that Bob Somerby is a comedian, but the Daily Howler often seems utterly humorless. Is it the case that comedy professionals can turn on and off the funny? That maybe normal people disperse their comedy in small portions through all their communications, while comedians are able to contain their humor, so it all goes into their art?


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:40 PM
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I have to say now I'm consumed with the idea that the Parrot is way way better than the walkera ladybird. I still don't feel quite confident enough yet to take the ladybird on an outside run.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:43 PM
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135: the Parrot sounds kind of lame now that I have learned more about it. Way less range than the ladybird (or Phantom or X350 or whatever) and nonstandard controls. You could get the camera for the ladybird and a pair of amplified goggles and fly it from like a kilometer away.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 4:55 PM
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Holy crap. If I had had to pick out two people of my internet pseudo-acquaintance whose tone and affect was most opposite, it could have been Stras and Fafblog. Amazing. 88 is a very interesting comment along those lines -- I really thought of tone as kinda sorta objective somehow, but I guess not.

Unfogged fights

Not sure we get enough turnover here for big fights any more, everyone has already had their relevant fight. Unless VW goes back to insulting me every other comment, just for old times sake.

If we can just stick it out for a couple more years, I'm sure some people will lose their shit during the 2016 primaries.


Posted by: PGD | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 5:02 PM
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134: Yes. I know plenty of comedy writers and performers who are not cutups in person.


Posted by: k-sky | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 5:13 PM
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In contrast, I'm hilarious and no one has ever offered to pay me for it.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 5:35 PM
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Re: 125. Tell me how abashed I s/b that although I understand "s/b" I didn't realize why it had its meaning.

(I hadn't in all these years been curious enough to look it up, and if pressed I would have averred that it was an abbreviation for "substitute", with a syntax unique to "s/b".)


Posted by: joyslinger | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 5:36 PM
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136 is reassuring


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 5:44 PM
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137: we could revive the discussion of how much Obama wants, in his heart of hearts, to gut Social Security. I'm sure JRoth would be pleased to join in the fun. Heck, that might even bring stras back.


Posted by: Von Wafer | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 7:57 PM
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everyone has already had their relevant fight

We could start new ones for entertainment value. Like I could have a terrible feud with oudemia about something TV-related and regularly storm off in a huff.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:05 PM
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I got the Helimax 1SQ V-Cam recently. That one has a camera that saves stills or video to a micro-sd card. Its been fun, but haven't managed yet to get any remotely decent videos out of it. A few interesting stills, but the resolution is fairly crap.

This is quadcopter #3. My wife is at the rolling eyes stage.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:21 PM
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The parrot was pretty ground-breaking, really the first off-the-shelf thing that could do what it does, but I think its fallen behind a bit - outclassed by the Phantom, which is awesome because of the GPS feature. But I saw a rumor Parrot will be getting GPS, which would be pretty sweet.


Posted by: Spike | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:27 PM
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142: Or hurricane season could mean we're due for a discussion about letting the earth re-claim New Orleans.


Posted by: gswift | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:27 PM
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I was just in a meeting today with some people from FEMA working on the long-term rebuilding of a community that was destroyed by a catastrophic flood earlier this summer. It was interesting.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:37 PM
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I'm sure some people will lose their shit during the 2016 primaries.

Why wait? Go Hillary!!!!


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:40 PM
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everyone has already had their relevant fight.

Another problem of getting here too late. I've had snippy exchanges with three people I can think of but nothing beyond a few comments, nothing knock-down drag-out. It's really very sad.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:52 PM
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Oh man we're going to have a "primary" here in NZ for the first time ever and I am not looking forward to the internet during it, based on my memories of Clinton/Obama.


Posted by: Keir | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 8:59 PM
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I'd offer to have a nervous breakdown just to get into a serious fight with you, mister smearcase, but I've discovered it's actually rather draining. also, we instituted a new family rule that if either your doctor or anyone in the family thinks you should go to the hospital, you have to go to the hospital, and I think if it's the psych ward then actually without wifi. maybe! husband x could poll you guys actually, it would be a good guest post.

I was a dick to you a month and a half ago about saying things were "totally gay" but then I apologized because I was completely in the wrong; that's really no way to fuel a long-simmering feud.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 9:12 PM
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127: Little gasping noises > snorting

Ok, otherwise I might be forced to conclude that OPINIONATED GRANDMA was Giblets.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:04 PM
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I have only the faintest recollection of that. It's highly possible I was overreacting to something. It has been known to happen.


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:07 PM
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I was completely in the wrong;

Right, it's only specific things like opera that are gay, not everything.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:09 PM
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I think the official order for greater gayness is having sex with men I think the official order for greater gayness is having sex with men < showing any interest in the emotions or opinions of women < rollerblading.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:40 PM
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walt, surely frequently attending the ballet has to come first, then knowing that you want to have sex with men, rather than thinking you just suffer from nameless unhappiness and dread and self-loathing, then opera, then actually going ahead and having sex with other men, then being calvin klein's boyfriend.


Posted by: alameida | Link to this comment | 08-21-13 10:57 PM
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156: It's possible to suffer from nameless unhappiness and dread and still be 100% heterosexual, though, right?

...I'm asking for a friend.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 1:37 AM
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I think nameless unhappiness and dread comes with being functionally literate.


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 2:11 AM
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What about dread-that-one-can-name? Viz, 'the world is governed by cunts, who can longer even keep up the pretense of basic decency, and they get more nakedly triumphal and self-satisfied about it every day' dread.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 2:59 AM
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157: It's always worked for me.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 3:56 AM
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159: I'd call that more "rage" than "dread", but there you go.

I think nameless unhappiness and dread comes with being functionally literate.

Being literate --> reading Peter Watts --> nameless unhappiness and dread. Yep, your logic is flawless.


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 4:18 AM
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re: 161

I suppose the helplessness added to the rage makes for a dread-like experience.


Posted by: nattarGcM ttaM | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 5:03 AM
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161: Actually, reading Peter Watts (specifically, Bulk Food) motivated me to visit Vancouver and the Vancouver Aquarium, which wasn't an unhappy or dreadful experience at all.


Posted by: Benquo | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 6:07 AM
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Lovecraft made me want to visit Antarctica, but I think his place descriptions are considerably more fanciful.


Posted by: Benquo | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 6:07 AM
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Extrapolating from Stras, possibly Peter Watts is a ray of sunshine in person. I wonder.


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 6:14 AM
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162: two tastes that taste dreadful together!

165: Watts comes across as pretty cheerful on his blog, for sure, although most of the time what he's being cheerful about is fairly unusual. Most recently, the discovery of a sort of tick whose bite induces a delayed anaphylactic shock reaction to red meat in humans ("PETA could release this in hotel rooms! EAT MEAT - and DIE!"). Before that, his attack of necrotising fasciitis and resulting emergency surgery and skin graft (with photos).


Posted by: ajay | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:22 AM
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In his other life Peter Watts was James Herriott.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:30 AM
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In his other life Peter Watts was James Herriott.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:31 AM
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All creatures great and great and small and small.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:32 AM
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132: I think he used a phrase like "escape the funny."

It truly is a fine line between enraged and funny.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:33 AM
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169: You can say that again.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:35 AM
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166.2 suggests the disturbing possibility that Peter Watts has been doing his best to write cheerful novels about cheerful subjects.


Posted by: Benquo | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 7:47 AM
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Glad rollerblading is still one of Walt Someguy's stages of gayness, but he forgot the last one.


Posted by: Cryptic ned | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 8:16 AM
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gswift, have you opined about videotaping cops?

The results seem alarmingly good.


Posted by: Annelid Gustator | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 8:34 AM
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Iberian Beauty, at my suggestion, started reading "Blindsight". I'm not entirely sure whether encouraging others to read Watts is something you do because the book is awesome, or something you do because life's pain must be shared.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 11:34 AM
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That said, "Blindsight" isn't even close to as grim as the "Rifters" books, only the first of which I thought was genuinely good.


Posted by: x.trapnel | Link to this comment | 08-22-13 11:35 AM
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