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Politics are just too depressing at this point to want to discuss. The republicans have become cartoonishly evil. The democrats are slightly less evil but still pretty bad. Which is to say, they both want to bomb Arabs for little to no reason, but the democrats seem to feel bad about it occasionally.
Congrats on the kids everyone. At this rate there will be a parent-child faction in no time.
Joined: May 31, 2010 Posts: 108 Location: London, UK
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 5:39 am Post subject:
Hungerer wrote:
MASUMI HI.
Hi Hungerer! It's really good to see you back. I hope life has been treating you well. Apologies for turning down the Chaos Chaos Chaos invite - I'm not sure my sanity could have taken it, but I will have to see if I can get one of my characters into Lawful Good or something though.
toxicology wrote:
I'm pushing electrons around and loving it, my health seems to be doing fine, which is novel and exciting, and an agent asked for two full manuscripts from my wife, so that's exciting and stressful, but good.
That's good to hear, Fred. When you suddenly vanished from NW we all got a bit worried! _________________
Today's the first time I've come to the NC forums since the Breath started. Life has gotten to the point that I play the game, but in 2-minute gulps one or two times a day, meaning that I'm not doing much here.
I wish it was because I'd finished my dissertation and gotten an awesome job teaching somewhere, but it's more like scrambling to make ends meet while the academic job market has turned into a chum-filled shark tank.
And speaking of chum, my daughter turns 27 months old tomorrow. Jack, her first 3 months were a blur, and (I don't mean to scare you) the next 6 months were the hardest for me--I hope you have a better experience.
In other news, for those who might've encountered my characters late in Breath 2 while I was reduced to typing with one hand (more than once I thought of co-opting Helen Keller's schtick and just mashing my hand on the keyboard rather than trying to type out something coherent), I'm about 98% recovered from neck surgery (had the same procedure as Peyton Manning, just a month or so after he did).
It's great to see/read about everyone here--quite often, I'll see a familiar name in-game and think, "Wow, that's the same person I've played this game (and/or similar games) with for almost six years."
And dammit, it's a shame Shintolin wasn't robust enough to handle the invasion. Goddess-Empress Masumi could've ruled the world!
My 2 cents on Santorum... the guy is a fucking lunatic. I hate him to the depths of my soul, and if he wasn't such an idiotic joke, I'd be worried about what lengths I'd actually go to in order to prevent him from holding office again. I worry about what the robustness of his candidacy says about the country, but then, 20%+ of people think that 9/11 is a conspiracy, and 17%+ think Obama is a Muslim, so there's always a fringe with their heads screwed on wrong.
Sadly, in my state's primary I declared Republican and voted for Santorum, in an effort to screw with the GOP as much as possible.
Because despite this:
Toben wrote:
I find it stunning that someone can go from losing their campaign as an incumbent senator (seriously, incumbent senators hardly ever lose...and Santorum managed to lose by close to 20% or something ridiculous like that IIRC) to being a serious contender for President
I don't feel that Santorum is a serious/legit contender for the office. He's not even a serious contender for the Republican nomination. He's the "anyone but Mitt" choice.
And I agree that Santorum (and Gingrich's) popularity at the polls is indication that the GOP is heading for a meltdown. I hope it's particularly melty.
OK, now the nearly-27-month-old is crying and needs to be put back to sleep.
G'night! _________________ Vile Brimstone: The Original Stone/Invisible VW
Meatbag the Mime: Meaty Mime of Death
Mephistopholes: Next Door Tea Drinker
Zaradiel: Looking for his umlauts
Adjatha: Finally, BEER in the Nexus!
Jabril: Stabbing & smithing
Oh hey its Masumi! I went by Binxman back in NW and UD. I recently found Nexus Clash also! I wasn't super active in NW main forums or IRC but I was in some super secret zombie stuff in UD that grew out of the Mall Tour.
Last edited by Fellis on Sat Aug 07, 2021 2:41 pm; edited 1 time in total
Hey Masumi! Nice to see you again. Hey Meph, hey everyone!
Since I stopped playing nexus war and nexus clash heavily I've been trying to refocus my spare time and creative energy on writing screenplays. I've gotten enough positive results to keep me going at it, but not enough to make me feel successful, so that's a mixed bag.
Amyway, right now I feel like I need to take break from that, and and it's great to see so many familiar faces. I'm a little reluctant to get on irc quite yet, though, because then I'll never get anything done. Except conquering and enslaving the nexus, that is.
Masumi wrote:
Maybe Jrom's annoucement of StellaVitae helped kick my gaming bug back to life
I didn't know about that. You just blew my mind, but that's for another thread.
Masumi wrote:
I don't know, maybe I just wanted to ask some Americans how bizarre they think Rick Santorum is (I just got back from Oklahoma and boy were they all agog for him there). It's like the Republican Party is a cult or something now.
You're a journalist in Canada, is that right, Masumi? I live in New York, and the republican primaries fascinate me. It's like one of those reality TV shows like "Hoarders" that entertain you by documenting dysfunctional people and allowing you to feel superior to them. In this election cycle it's more entertaining than horrifying because one gets the sense that the Republicans are running off a cliff.
If polls are to be believed, I guess there's about twenty-something percent of Americans who say they believe the most incredible things: that the bible is "true" in a literal historical sense, that evolution is a myth, that Sarah Palin is not a complete idiot, etc. It's so hard for me to understand these people.
It's tempting to think of them as stupid, or as having flawed personalities, but I don't think that's the whole answer. I think that's a failure of imagination of our part. Some of them must be quite clever and nice. Trying to understand someone on the extreme right of the American political spectrum is like trying to understand a Muslim suicide bomber, or an Afghani man who kills his own daughter because she has dishonored the family or whatever. Intellectually, I understand that these people have a system of beliefs in which these actions make sense, but it's impossible for me to imagine what the inside of their head looks like because they're starting from a set of givens which are so different than my own. I mean, can at least understand the no-taxes pro-business republicans, because I can be greedy and narcissistic and uncaring too.
Sorry about going off on such a tirade. And yeah, Archons, wtf? But demons are always the underdogs, that's why I like playing them. Complaining about it is like complaining that zombies can't shoot guns.
Joined: May 31, 2010 Posts: 108 Location: London, UK
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:30 pm Post subject:
Hi Meph, Timstro. Long time.
Timstro wrote:
You're a journalist in Canada, is that right, Masumi?
Actually I'm British. I live and work in London, but I travel a lot, often to the US and Canada, which may be where the confusion comes from. I didn't know you were a New Yorker, Timstro. Weirdly, in spite of my travels, I had somehow never been to New York until last year, but I must admit I've never felt more at home outside London.
Quote:
I live in New York, and the republican primaries fascinate me. It's like one of those reality TV shows like "Hoarders" that entertain you by documenting dysfunctional people and allowing you to feel superior to them. In this election cycle it's more entertaining than horrifying because one gets the sense that the Republicans are running off a cliff.
If polls are to be believed, I guess there's about twenty-something percent of Americans who say they believe the most incredible things: that the bible is "true" in a literal historical sense, that evolution is a myth, that Sarah Palin is not a complete idiot, etc. It's so hard for me to understand these people.
I think that's the same disconnect that I feel. There is a surreal quality to debates over inserting "wands" into women's vaginas to punish them for seeking an abortion. And yet, you sense that these are in general very pleasant, well-meaning people.
Quote:
Trying to understand someone on the extreme right of the American political spectrum is like trying to understand a Muslim suicide bomber, or an Afghani man who kills his own daughter because she has dishonored the family or whatever. Intellectually, I understand that these people have a system of beliefs in which these actions make sense, but it's impossible for me to imagine what the inside of their head looks like because they're starting from a set of givens which are so different than my own. I mean, can at least understand the no-taxes pro-business republicans, because I can be greedy and narcissistic and uncaring too.
Well, such an attachment to free market dogma in the face of the crash of 2008 is almost as hard to understand.
I can understand, same as I can understand the point of view of a 5th century BC Athenian or a medieval monk, but empathising is much harder (especially with the misogyny). I suppose it's just surprising to an outsider how the religious right has risen so rapidly over the past 50 years in the US, from almost nowhere, in a country that is so hooked on its roots in the Enlightenment. _________________
... from almost nowhere, in a country that is so hooked on its roots in the Enlightenment.
Just a couple of countervailing bits of trivia:
So, well, yes, hooray for the Enlightenment, for it gave us cool 18th century clothes on some iconic Founding Fathers, and some weird deistic stuff here and there, and such.
On the other hand, some of my 17th century ancestors came here because, rather more or less, Oliver Cromwell wasn't hard-core enough for them. I mean, archery on the Sabbath? No wonder the UK turned out the way it did. You start there, and you end up with a nation that proudly named an airplane design "Nimrod."
And although I wouldn't call them a huge political force back in the day, the evangelicals and their friends have a much longer history here than 50 years (e.g., I drive by a place called Holy City on my commute every day, and it didn't get named that by the Jesuits).
Not that I want to defend us from the general charge of having depressing insanity rampant in our political institutions--just from the charge that this is novel. My parents, were they still alive, would have been pleased to explain how the Republican party drove them into the arms of the Democrats in 1964.
Joined: Jan 19, 2010 Posts: 2278 Location: Charlotte's Bakery University
Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2012 8:21 pm Post subject:
Hello again, Masumi! It's good to see you back in the hacking, slashing and scheming of the Nexus.
Since anyone last saw me when NW shut down, I've been juggling the insane but furiously awesome vagaries of chasing an architecture degree, and have been married for about half a year to a lovely woman that I met in grad school. The former has been stressing me out immensely (I love my field, but it's terrifying) and the latter has convinced me to relax a bit, so here I am again.
Politics...ehhhnh. I've recently had to learn how US immigration policy actually works, which has made me into a single-issue voter dissatisfied with every single candidate. Everyone, including Obama, keeps saying that illegal immigrants need to 'get into line' even though that line exists to process family of long-established citizens and highly-educated professionals with high-level job offers. I understand that scapegoating is useful in politics, but the degree to which both parties buy the same insane narrative mystifies me as much as the wands.
It's tempting to think of them as stupid, or as having flawed personalities, but I don't think that's the whole answer. I think that's a failure of imagination of our part. Some of them must be quite clever and nice. Trying to understand someone on the extreme right of the American political spectrum is like trying to understand a Muslim suicide bomber, or an Afghani man who kills his own daughter because she has dishonored the family or whatever. Intellectually, I understand that these people have a system of beliefs in which these actions make sense, but it's impossible for me to imagine what the inside of their head looks like because they're starting from a set of givens which are so different than my own.
Joined: May 31, 2010 Posts: 108 Location: London, UK
Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2012 12:06 pm Post subject:
toxicology wrote:
So, well, yes, hooray for the Enlightenment, for it gave us cool 18th century clothes on some iconic Founding Fathers, and some weird deistic stuff here and there, and such.
On the other hand, some of my 17th century ancestors came here because, rather more or less, Oliver Cromwell wasn't hard-core enough for them.
Yeah, I mean I realise that nothing comes exactly out of nowhere, and a colony settled by religious fanatics is going to have a Puritan streak buried quite deeply in its DNA, but there was a lot of religious fanaticism and intolerance around back then, and I don't tihnk the Pligrim Fathers were that out of step. Over here we had the Thirty Years War, Cromwell's military-religious dictatorship (I suspect he was doomed from the moment he tried to ban Christmas and dancing - You Can Take Our Freedom, But You'll Never Take... Our Booze-Fuelled Celebrations!), Matthew Hopkins the Witchfinder General, and the attempted assassination of King James and the entire ruling class in 1605 for being insufficiently Catholic.
But my impression is that in America, as over this side of the Pond, people did calm down during the 18th century, and got a bit Enlightened. It's not like Massachussetts is still a hotbed of Puritanism, after all. The rise of Christian fundamentalism and Biblical literalism is very much a 20th century phenomenon I think, and didn't really start gathering steam until the 60s.
Quote:
You start there, and you end up with a nation that proudly named an airplane design "Nimrod."
This from a nation that uses the word 'fanny' in polite conversation? I can vividly remember on my first trip to the US trying on a pair of jeans and being told by the shop assistant that they were a bit tight around my fanny. I nearly died of embarrassment! _________________
I'd agree that the flavor of religious crazy we know and love today really takes off like a rocket in the 20th century. Arguably, yes, late 50s-early 60s you see it go seriously big business, as folks discover that you can make the big bucks without necessarily going all Aimee Semple McPherson.
I suppose that's the unfortunate part, really. We've always had some froth of religious eccentrics bubbling away (e.g., Holy City, coming back to my local favorite example, was something like the teens or twenties iirc, but there are plenty of good nineteenth century examples). And of course one person's cult, and all that, we have the Successful ones that you can't call a cult any more, like for instance the nutjobs at Nicaea, hoo boy, were they on some strong stuff, I mean, woops, of course I welcome our new Nicene overlords, nope, Nestor, never heard of him.
And not to speak ill of my neighbors, or anything, but let's just point out that the state of Utah was a good example of nineteenth century religious innovation.
So hey. I'm all for deploring the mental acuity of the person with the bumper sticker "If It Ain't The King James, It Ain't The Bible" (oh really, you don't say, I wonder what this koine Greek thing is, then), and I deplore the Big Business Evangelicals and similar folks, too. I just feel as if I see something similar wherever I look historically (sadly, I'm a sometime classicist, so that does go back a bit before my own dear nation of religious nutjobs). And yes, I especially deplore literalism from people who don't read Greek and Hebrew, when you get right down to it, and wouldn't know an ap crit from a hole in the ground.
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It's good to see you back in the hacking, slashing and scheming of the Nexus.
