Random thoughts...

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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Mon Feb 18, 2019 7:13 pm

If someone were to date several clones of the same person, would that be a mono or poly relationship?
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Mon Feb 18, 2019 11:48 pm

It's not much different from dating identical twins: clones would also be genetically identical but have different experiences. However, with clones, one clone could be older, and you'd likely see a greater difference in personality.

But if you're talking the trope where one person is duplicated on the exact molecular level and has all of the original's memories, well, they'd start off the same person but begin to diverge the moment the clone winks into existence. If their entire relationship with you is post-cloning, there's no question that it qualifies as a polygamous relationship. If someone who was already your partner is "cloned," and you keep dating both out of politeness, it became polygamous the moment you introduced a third body.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby NathanLoiselle » Tue Feb 19, 2019 3:15 am

I disagree. Definitely monogamous. Why? Fuck you, that's why.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Tue Feb 19, 2019 8:38 am

In the following YouTube video, Mousetrap Monday's Shaun Woods asks viewers to help him name a hawk.


If I had to name a hawk I'd name it "John Bolton," but only because I imagine I will never have to name a walrus.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Feb 20, 2019 2:52 am

I thought up what is sure to be the most terrifyingly faux-horrific scenario imaginable: Imagine a world that's exactly like ours in every way except for one small detail--the uses of the green bean and the vanilla bean have been completely flipped. Green bean flavored starbucks lattes. Green bean ice cream used in a root beer float. Vanilla beans cooked up with mushroom soup and French fried onions and served at the Thanksgiving table. Vanilla beans stewed with collards and bacon! *spooky noises*
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby jbobsully11 » Wed Feb 20, 2019 4:08 am

Deathclaw_Puncher wrote:Vanilla beans stewed with (...) bacon!

*adds something to a list of food combinations to try*
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Fri Mar 01, 2019 7:53 pm

It occurs to me that there's a lot of successful channels by people my age, for adults, which focus on kind of "childish" things. All the Disney-related channels are prime examples, but the Nostalgia Critic, or the channels about making candy and fancy cakes, or the multiple "science" channels devoted to making things explode; all of these are arguably expressions of childish interests.

I think there's several contributing factors to this. One is that the concept of "emerging adulthood" means that we're not expected to grow up as fast as prior generations. One is that all the stuff we learned as kids about being true to ourselves and following our passions means there's probably less shame in liking childish things.

But I think the biggest factor is that, for a number of reasons, many of us are not having kids of our own until much later, or at all. My parents did a lot of things with me and my brother which either they explicitly told us was because they enjoyed it as kids, or they were clearly doing it for that reason. So if you have to wait long enough to live vicariously through your children, you might decide to just go ahead and start reliving your childhood directly. I mean, I started going to zoos again around the time that I realized I wasn't going to had a proper adult life anytime soon, even if they weren't consciously connected.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Aquila89 » Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:46 am

This could potentially explain somehting I've been thinking about. Nowadays, the only films that can became blockbusters are ones that contain action scenes and are about things that couldn't happen in the real world. Take a look at the list of the 100 highest-grossing films, unadjusted to inflation. Because of inflation, this will reflect what kind of movies have been popular recently. All of them, except Titanic and Bohemian Rhapsody are science fiction, fantasy or action films.

It wasn't always so. A few decades ago, films like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer, On Golden Pond, Rain Man - films with no action scenes, films about things that could really happen - were blockbusters. (Rain Man was released in the same year as Die Hard and made far more money.) This doesn't happen anymore. Bohemian Rhapsody is a notable exception.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Sat Mar 02, 2019 4:12 pm

I actually think there's three reasons for Hollywood's preference for unrealistic action movies, none of which are directly tied to the other stuff, but the second and third factors may be influenced by it.

  1. Special effects and CGI are becoming better and cheaper relative to movies' budgets, making these kinds of movies relatively cheaper to produce.
  2. Going to a movie theatre sucks. It's expensive, the snacks are expensive unless you smuggle in your own, and you have to sit in uncomfortable chairs and don't have the option of pausing and rewinding. For the most part, it makes sense to wait for a movie to come out on Netflix and watch it then. However some stuff is simply made for the big screen. I have only seen two movies in a theatre in my adult life. One was a foreign film at an arthouse theatre with an exchange student we were hosting. The other was Avatar. It's a dumb movie, but it has great visuals, and seeing it in 3D in an IMAX theatre was absolutely incredible.
  3. A movie, running 90-150 minutes, is not a great format to tell an interesting story. Meanwhile, television is experiencing a golden age, and a miniseries or full-blown series is a better way to tell stories with plot twists and character development. So anything that relies on storytelling more than visuals makes more sense as a TV show.
Since my generation has less money to spend on things like movie tickets and is comfortable with watching stuff on Netflix, and likely has more free time due to being unemployed/not having kids, it makes sense to prefer things with a plot in TV form to movie form.

Of course, this still doesn't explain why a large number of TV shows are also escapist fantasies. And there, I think "the real world feels like it kind of sucks" for us does play a role. I'm trying to think of realist TV shows I like, and the first two examples I came up with Bojack Horseman and Crazy-Ex Girlfriend. Aside from fact that one involves talking animals and one involves people expressing their feelings through song, both are shows about mental illness. Now, I do watch shows where nothing technically impossible in real life happens, but the weird thing is that they feel less realistic than those two shows.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Krashlia » Mon Mar 04, 2019 2:49 am

Reason flows from assumptions
Like the river from its source
Language its bed
And Logic its course
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby cmsellers » Mon Mar 04, 2019 3:57 am

I feel like "Reason flows from premises" would both scan better and also make more sense.

Assumptions, after all, make an ass out of you and mptions.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby NathanLoiselle » Mon Mar 04, 2019 4:21 am

Don't tell him how to write his poetry! Even if it is wrong. You go on ahead and blossom like a little flower there Krashila.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby Krashlia » Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:11 am

cmsellers wrote:I feel like "Reason flows from premises" would both scan better and also make more sense.

Assumptions, after all, make an ass out of you and mptions.


Thanks. Really, I thought of it, but I just wasn't sure. Specifically, I thought of "starting premises", which as you could see, wouldn't fit well at all. But I also wanted a kind of premise. But, premises does have a slickness to it.

NathanLoiselle wrote:Don't tell him how to write his poetry! Even if it is wrong. You go on ahead and blossom like a little flower there Krashila.


Lol, thanks. I'll make it my mission to be wrong even when its wrong, because wrongs by wrongs... [Looks determinedly upward] make the world a right.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby IamNotCreepy » Mon Mar 04, 2019 8:00 pm

The main reason why action movies are now the big thing is the expansion of the international market. Dumb robot-punching movies do better in China than dramas, so more and more money is being pumped into that type of genre.
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Re: Random thoughts...

Postby NathanLoiselle » Mon Mar 04, 2019 9:16 pm

I think that Depeche Mode's 101 album is possibly the best live album ever created. Change my mind.
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