FtttG
User ID: 1175
FtttG
3hr ago
I think if Israel currently posed as grave a threat to American national security as claimed, it shouldn't be hard to find a credible source arguing as much within the last decade.
FtttG
4hr ago
Fair enough, although I can't help but note your source is a decade old and based on a report published nine years prior.
FtttG
5hr ago
I don’t want that guy being loyal to a country that is considered one of America’s top espionage and influence threats
Weasel words. "Considered" by whom?
FtttG
1d ago
For me, the visual aura usually precedes any actual pain, and if I find it I take two paracetamol (and drink lots of water), it usually prevents the part of the migraine that actually hurts, and the visual aura generally subsides shortly thereafter.
FtttG
2d ago
I came to the end of the last chapter. At 101,232 words, the fourth draft of my book is now almost 12k words shorter than the third. But I'd like to get it to an even 100k (rounding down), so I'm doing a second pass on the unusually long chapters, and considering recording myself reading the whole thing aloud so I can identify any clangs that aren't obvious on sight. The consensus from last week's survey is that neither of the two opening paragraphs I came up with is particularly strong or compelling, so I think the opening will need to be reworked.
FtttG
2d ago
"If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it." – Prince Philip
This was included on a list of Phil's worst "gaffes", but no Chinese person I've mentioned it to has been offended by it, or even contested it. They really will eat anything that moves, and more power to them.
FtttG
2d ago
I Love You, Man is a fairly safe and predictable comedy, but the chemistry between Paul Rudd and Jason Segel is strong and endearing, and I laughed plenty of times.
FtttG
2d ago
The only movie I've ever seen with a date-rape sight gag. And it works. And the movie got away with it.
FtttG
2d ago
The first one to come to mind is The Nice Guys, from writer-director Shane Black, starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. His 2005 film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang holds a special place in my heart for being laugh-out-loud hilarious, meta before being meta itself became a tiresome cliché, and featuring a romance between two believably flawed characters with amazing chemistry who I genuinely wanted to end up together. The Nice Guys doesn't quite live up to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang but is nevertheless a consistently funny movie, Gosling and Crowe bounce off each other very well and the 70s nostalgia is a fun vibe.
FtttG
2d ago
I wouldn't find this surprising in the least, although I have met a couple of lesbians who grew up in Asia and who were as tomboyish as you'd expect based on their sexuality.
FtttG
2d ago
New year's resolutions check-in:
- Posted my fifth blog post of the year on Monday, offering my two cents on the school shooting in Tumbler Ridge. It was expanded from a comment I wrote here after the Annunciation Catholic shooting last August. I'm sad to say the points I made remained exactly as relevant six months later as they were at the time.
- Went to the gym three times last week, again on Monday, planning to go this evening. Can deadlift 1.8x my bodyweight for 4 reps, squat .98x for 9 reps and bench press .82x for 7 reps.
- Have not consumed any pornography since waking up on January 1st.
- Have completed 8/11 modules in the SQL course.
How goes it, @thejdizzler, @birb_cromble and @oats_son?
FtttG
3d ago
I agree, but I think butches vastly outnumber femmes, and even the typical femme will be significantly less conventionally feminine than the average straight woman.
FtttG
4d ago
One main difference is that PornLesbians look conventionally feminine, whereas RealLesbians usually don't. RealStepmoms will be unlike PornStepmoms in many ways (less attractive, smaller breasts, less sultry, less promiscuous), but both tend to be conventionally feminine in terms of dress sense, hairstyle, makeup etc. "Just like the real thing, but hotter" is a smaller gap than "hotter than the real thing and with a completely different dress sense, hairstyle etc.".
I personally know several divorcés, but off the top of my head can only think of one stepmom.
I suppose what I was really getting at is that being a stepmom is rarely the most salient fact about a person in a way that "lesbian" is. "Lesbian" is a highly salient trait about Megan Rapinoe, such that when someone says "lesbian" she might be one of the first people who pops into your head. Meanwhile "bookkeeping clerk" isn't a very salient trait about someone. If someone says "bookkeeping clerk" you would probably draw a blank, even though statistically most people surely know at least one woman in that line of work. I think "stepmom" is more like "bookkeeping clerk" than it is like "lesbian".
FtttG
4d ago
I can't imagine the average stepmom is especially attractive, but how many stepmoms can you name off the top of your head? It's not a highly visible identity in the way that "lesbian" or "black" is: no woman introduces herself by stating that she's a stepmom. Probably the only time we hear about women raising the children of her husband from a previous marriage/relationship, it's a celebrity, who are selected for being attractive. Hell, even searching the term "stepmom" (specialised websites excepted) would probably just bring you to the movie Stepmom (starring a young Julia Roberts). Most of the time you hear the word "stepmom" used in the media, it's in reference to an unusually attractive woman!
(Funnily enough, the primary context in which I heard the word "stepmother" growing up was the "wicked stepmother" archetype in Grimm's fairy tales: that being an evil, sexy woman who seduces a hapless man and persuades him to abandon or kill his children. I wonder to what extent porn studios are consciously playing on this archetype. Certainly the "stepmom" in porn videos is a wicked, conniving seducer.)
Personally, the incest/faux-incest trend in porn never appealed to me – I just find it creepy and off-putting, and downright paedophilic when it comes to the "stepdaughter" stuff.
FtttG
5d ago
While not mentioned in the book, the usual supporting evidence is observation of sleepwalking humans or blackouts
I don't know if we read a different edition or something, but I read Blindsight recently and IIRC it mentioned the sleepwalking thing a lot.
FtttG
5d ago
I was considering submitting my review of Rejection, but I decided it's probably not the sort of thing that would appeal to SSC readers, so I just went ahead and published it. If I think of something else I might give it a go, but at the moment I have no plan for a specific book to review. My not-a-book review got a fairly positive reception in spite of not making the finalists, which I was pleased with.
Incidentally if you'd like me to read over your draft and offer feedback, I'd be more than happy to.
FtttG
5d ago
Just copying the past
As big as it is and as awkward as it is to play, it probably isn't actually very heavy, by virtue of being hollow.
Now I have to go back through your comment history to see if you've written anything to piss me off that I've forgotten about.
FtttG
5d ago
Everything about the visual aesthetic screams "annoying gimmick band" (they seriously replaced the volume and tone pots with dice? really?), but I can't deny this is a lot of fun, while still being math-y enough for the "count the time signatures" crowd.
My God, that double-necked guitar/bass must weigh a fucking ton though.
I'm saying the fact that something was true in 2007 doesn't necessarily prove that it's true in 2026.
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