kaiasky

[kaiasky]

however many yrs on I think the only The Office scene that made a lasting impression on me is the one where dwight and jim do a sales pitch together and dwight (without explanation) dials a competitors robocall customer service while Jim is giving the pitch that finishes with him dialing their customer service and getting an instant response from kelly.

[kaiasky]

[kaiasky]

ultimately I think one of my big Things is that if I want to spend more time on (personal projects, games) etc but actually wind up spending more time on (social media, doing nothing) then I view that as much more likely to be a sign of akrasia/volitional failure than revealed preferences

[kaiasky]

being nonbinary is weird because you’re like “hello, I know this makes things difficult, but I would like to opt out of all the social and cultural customs tied to my genitals,” and all the mean people are like “no.” and all the kind people are like “alright, just to be polite we’ll pretend you can opt out, but you can’t actually opt out and, in our heads, we’re opting you in.”

[kaiasky]

@. kaiasky: what sort of things are you looking for? personal opinions, reference materials, specifics of how it works?

@.poorschilpad: ’m honestly not even really sure, i have a research class where i stupidly chose organ donation as my topic and i’m just having trouble figuring out what “fieldwork” i could do and what problem to focus on. Was mainly just a vent post as i try to get my thoughts sorted i guess :)

theres like a 70% chance somebody who follows me is secretly a huge organ donation public policy wonk or something, right??

Does anyone have anything to say about organ donation?

[kaiasky]

In capital crime cases, Grigson, throughout his career, was typically an expert witness for the prosecution. Under Texas law, for death to be imposed the jury must believe the defendant not only to be guilty of the crime charged, but likely to commit additional violent crimes if not put to death. In almost every case, Grigson testified (often after meeting the defendant for just a few minutes, or not at all) that the defendant was an “incurable” sociopath who was “one hundred per cent certain” to kill again.

In the late 1980s, an investigation conducted by the Dallas attorney general’s office looked into post-conviction outcomes of murder convicts whom Grigson had testified against. Contrary to expectations set by Grigson’s testimony, those who were still in prison were generally nonviolent and cooperative. Of the twelve paroled convicts they were able to speak to, only one had committed a crime after release.

gotta love the way that forensic “science” is utter garbage.

[kaiasky]

a silly thing abt when ur brain is actually focused is its easier to do the Focus Rituals To Enact Focus. but also the Focus Rituals seem pretty silly because it's like. I'm already ready we don't need to do that. however I feel like doing the focus ritual on the best days is important so it can be an established habit on the days it's necessary

[kaiasky]

YOUNG MAN!

There's no need to feel down,

I MEAN YOUNG THEY!

I forgot your pronoun,

[kaiasky]

getting asked to do a sensitivity read and being confused after the first couple chapters because there aren't any visibly queer characters but as you read on it becomes apparent that the thing their getting your input on is that one of the characters is a NEET shut-in who gets into arguments on the internet

[kaiasky]

I guess I think my philosophy inclination is that if something is absolute you should beat it with hammers to be sure. so like if ur like

Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all human societies. (Wikipedia)

you should be like alright bet. and try ur best to make music that doesn't involve sound, or doesn't involve harmony melody rhythm or otherwise expressive content. u should try and find cultures that have no music or make no distinction between music and some other thing. you should find things that people disagree on whether it's music. you should take something that's definitely music and remove bits of it until it stops being music.

bc like. I will reluctantly admit that there is probably some sense of "musicality" that is inherent to humans or the world. but if u just say "dang ok" then the bit of it u claim is independent will be way too large. u will end up being a credulous structuralist who says shit like "hmm yes the monomyth". and the way u fix that is by hitting it with hammers violently & incessantly until you find the tiny piece that shatters the hammers instead.

(the oversimplification here is that like. sometimes things that are socially contingent are still worthy of study. and if u are too focused on hitting it with hammers maybe u don't value the shape of the thing pre-hammers.)

[kaiasky]

I think the funniest way Kaladin can return on the next Stormlight book is if he's dating Shallan's mom. Can you just imagine how awkward that would be when the Heralds return?

[kaiasky]

so spoilers for wind and truth the latest stormlight book

jasnah has this whole debate thing with odium where she starts out as a utilitarian and odium proves to her and the judge that she's a hypocrite because 1) she cannot know the greater good for certain especially not when an immortal god is saying he knows for certain his way is best. 2) while she'd sacrifice a stranger to save her kingdom she wouldn't sacrifice her family and that makes her a hypocrite for not truly caring about the greatest good for the greatest number of people etc. and so actually her utilitarianism is just cover over more petty noble-squabbling look-out-for-you-and-yours philosophy.

and overall this works for me right. Jasnah losing a debate and having her world shaken is very fun and I like where she arrives at the end where she's like shit. I have to reassess my whole philosophy. what do I still believe in. like I think she holds the Clown Stick for much of the scene but it does mean she gets scenes of her nobly trying to be intellectually honest as she rebuilds and reconsiders her ideology.

And like. I like that she's put in the vulnerable position of feeling on a gut level that Odium is wrong but not being able to articulate that rationally yet. Particularly in a book about like. what it means to make wrong choices and then make better choices later, I like that it isn't that Jasnah's scholarship is useless when she finds she's wrong, and instead it provides an orderly way for her to rebuild.

However. part of me feels like. look. I dont think Jasnah is actually lying about "greatest good" shit. I think if Teravangian could credibly tell her that he served the greatest good she would be like. for real? Convince me that a war in the cosmos is necessary. why not something more subtle. can we put checks and balances in this? sure you wield the Shard of unbridled hatred and scorn but like. That's why we set up checks and balances. idk.

idk. there's an alternate way to write it where Jasnah ends up being the spark of the idea to fuse Odium with a balancing Shard somehow or to like. create the Council Of Feelings to manage the power etc.

and. Idk. I think probably id be a little cynical about it. Ohhh now mister liberal Mormon is going to preach to me how even seemingly reasonable tolerant atheists will make deals with the devil if they don't have a code to give them morals.

buuut. idk.

first off I think Jasnah/Teravangian is a fun dynamic. and in particular if there's not Hoid, I want her to have someone who can be like damn she's smart.

Secondly like. IDK. I think in order to sell Teravangian as an extremely dangerous person to be holding Shards you'd really like him to say like. "yes this power is driven by strong feelings. This scares me and I am thinking of how to manage this through Establishing Systems." a thing that I think Jasnah could find pretty appealing

I think it would be excellent to have a non-Yolen non-Shard who is cosmere-aware and has has strong thoughts on what the future of the Shards and cosmere should be. particularly bc she's exes with Hoid.

Like. from a doylist perspective the goal is for Thaylenah to fall from a seemingly sure position, and from a watsonian perspective it's bc Odium isn't trying to recruit Jasnah, he's trying to get Thaylenah by proving her a hypocrite. And also even if her arguments are defeated she's still ideologically opposed to tyranny and so there's nothing a tyrant can offer her. I get it. but c'mon give me Dark Jasnah

[kaiasky]

oh yeah hahaha welll idk if u'd have heard of him hes called hermes tetramegistus. so you know. one more than ur guy lol. but I'm sure it's nbd u know, it's not a contest or whatever

[kaiasky]

[kaiasky]

no no I played 30 games and am already at the MMR I was after a hundred games of Z. ez race for no skill whiners

so I've been playing SC2 terrain for the first time (other than the WOL campaign), I've got up to platinum where I plateau'd w/ zerg last

I do really like how terran feels like the most "positional" of the races like. As toss I just do adepts into 7:00 timing attack and then force field my way to winning, as zerg I just roach/ravager and shove my way in. so both of those it's just like. find army. engage onto army. win. As terran it's like ohoho can I force my opponent to take a bad fight. can I get set up in a position that will cause them to crack.

it is also very interesting learning a third way to macro & micro. like. you have to hotkey all ur production structures and tab through them?? When you hotkey ur barracks only some of them can make marauders? I have to learn how to use dropships?? (ew)

the thing I rly don't enjoy is having to relearn all the various responses to cheeses. Like--"cannon rush is impossible vs T" ok then why do I keep losing to it?! etc. it's just a matter of practice and stuff but I kinda take for granted knowing the responses to various things as P or Z. though probably I don't know them as P anymore since it was usually "shield battery, shield battery overcharge, kill them with 2 stalkers and a zealot" and overcharge is gone

[kaiasky]

we are in the news

[kaiasky]

Cannot emphasize how funny it is that @bigfoots-biggest-fan got a writeup in one of the biggest American culture newsletters yesterday but didn't know it was happening which meant the top post on their blog was a copy paste of the John Green monologue.

Couldn't think of a better way to reintroduce the world's journalists and celebrities to tumblr.