WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
No bio...
User ID: 269
Very nice. Are you a cross-stretchers-for-legs sceptic? I have no position, just curious.
Well, there weren't any in the plans I used as a base, so I didn't add any. But also none of the chairs in my house have any, and they've held up fine over the years. My intuition is that with the seat back being so stiff, and also the fact that people generally scoot chairs forward and backwards, not side to side, cross stretchers didn't seem necessary. But I suppose should I ever discover I'm wrong, I can probably hack them in. Probably just cave and use a pocket hole screws.
Unfortunately I've lost all my photos after my phone decided that booting up was no longer to its tastes.
That's too bad. Can still share a pic of the finished product. They sound cool.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
5hr ago
This is definitely some sort of fad, and I have no idea why.
Maybe they decided most people were too stupid to know what a legislator was. Probably not wrong.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
6hr ago
Listen, if it's just me, and you, and we are trying to figure out our relationship with one another, whatever. I have my principles about how it's appropriate to treat someone, you have yours. Maybe yours hurt my feelings, but I refuse to reciprocate because I think it's wrong. Maybe it works the other way around. We could both be commended, or not, depending on how well we stick to our principles of how we believe people should be treated.
But this isn't that. This is a subject of institutional policy and legal precedent. I can be absolutely against certain behavior, but if it's actually written down in a binding document "Anyone who hurts the feelings of another at this institution, or makes anyone feel unsafe, will face disciplinary action", why should I not avail myself of the full protection of that binding document? It's sure as shit going to be used against me. Why should I not take advantage of it's protections?
The time to argue about principles and the sorts of nation we want to be is before these binding policy documents are enacted. Your leading hypothetical was the moment 10 years ago, before the rules are literally written. After that, where we are now, it's not a matter of principles, it's a matter of the rules. I may not have written them, but I'm going to follow them, and make damned sure you do too.
Your hypothetical should be "Faction A passed a law banning speech that makes people feel unsafe. When they are in power, they enforce that law against their political opponents. Should Faction B also enforce that law?"
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
7hr ago
Final chair update. When last we left I had rushed ahead getting one chair glued up, with 15 pieces left to shellac and wax.
The last three chairs were uneventful. I changed my process slightly, to allow the wax to cure for 24 hours before clamps, and then I only left the clamps on for 1 hour. This prevented the finish from being damaged at all. My daughter had a great time handing me rags, and helping to wipe off the squeeze out. The few places we missed just pealed right off the waxed finish after they had dried. So yay! Then she helped screw the seat bottoms on which she also enjoyed.
Final shot of all 4 completed chairs, as well as them around my already cluttered table. Space Empires 4X: All Good Things finally showed up, you'll have to forgive me. I was able to give them a solid test spin on Saturday, playing another game of Hands in the Sea. I was barely cognizant I was sitting in anything, which is always the sign of a comfortable chair, which was the last thing I was concerned about. Who wants to spend 6 months making a set of chairs only to realize they aren't comfortable to sit in for a prolonged period of time?
Complete album of the project for those interested.
This project was definitely a marathon that tested my ability to stay motivated. But something about having a shop that only has room for one project, as well as having dumped some cash money into the lumber for it made it the sort of thing I felt obligated to finish, come hell or high water.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
1d ago
The thing has, somebody has to be the better person if they want to keep a country.
Who's "being the better person" and who's "keeping a country?" I don't think they are the same group.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
1d ago
Both sides of any conflict will have their aggressive, radical wings. To the degree each side keeps their radicals in check, violence can be avoided. But each time a real or perceived violent attack happens, it bolsters the radicals and weakens the moderates. There is no point running around looking for intellectual consistency, because groups are not homogenous and most people are hypocrites. To the degree the center-left allowed their radical wing to run wild, or fed their violent fantasies, the center right will have that much harder a time restraining theirs.
I'm constantly struggling over this both sides fig leaf people keep throwing out there for the sake of unity. This is only accomplished because they weigh January 6th against all the Floyd riots and all the Ferguson Riots, CHAZ/CHOP, the siege of the federal courthouse, attacks on the White House so bad they had to evacuate Trump during his first term, etc. It's a farcical comparison, but they keep making it. Even assuming Jan 6th was every bit as bad as they claim, they honestly believe it makes us equal? A single day of terrifying violence for legislators versus months and months of wondering if your town would burn down, or a mob would form outside your home, for years and years?
There is no unity, and there is no both sides. Nobody is afraid of the sorts of violence that erupts simultaneously in every city as when Democrats get restive. At most they are afraid someone might get it in their head to try to take a scalp of their own. But I'd be shocked if it succeeded. Remember it took the Left 2 attempts on Trump, a home invasion on Tucker Carlson's family, sending violent mobs after Supreme Court Justices, endless credible threats against Tim Pool and Nick Fuentes, before they finally got a kill. Charlie Kirk is just the 9/11 to the 1993 WTC bombing. They've been trying this whole time in a way the right hasn't.
They aren't even bombing transition clinics! Think about that. They consider violent extremism just saying "I don't think we should transition children". People used to blow shit up they didn't agree with. Thats how thoroughly they've framed the conversation, that your speech is considered violence on par with their actual violence. The only way the left could possibly get more violent is if their paramilitary troops (Antifa, BLM, etc) had actual military hardware instead of black masks and molotovs. Think about how much room the right has to get more violent before you start pulling "both sides" on me.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
2d ago
Ask yourself this. Would these people be getting fired for saying Charlie Kirk deserved to die, had the way not been paved with firing tradesmen for making the OK symbol out their truck window?
I mean maybe. But the right did not establish this norm of getting people fired for speech. The right did not force companies to adopt formal policies around making sure everyone feels safe about their employees outside speech. The right did not force every social media company to adopt draconian and expansive speech codes.
But now that those are the rules, and I mean actual codified rules, at many institutions, why shouldn't the right avail themselves of them? If I'm against a law, but the law passes anyways, why should I not take full advantage of it? Many people see the right "playing by the left's rules", but I see the left complaining that those rules were only supposed to be for them!
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
A doctor can't be a child, you can't have that level of trust invested in you and be a child. A doctor must know better, his thoughts must be adequately ordered in, if truly nothing else, understanding you can't out yourself as having such beliefs for goddamned upvotes. Children can be trusted with guns, some of them, in very specific circumstances, they don't get to arrest criminals, and we don't let children lead classrooms of other children. You could say it's exactly this last case that is responsible for so many problems in modern education. I don't disagree.
I'm currently watching Center Left Twitter (Ryan Grim, Zaid Jilani, etc) run with the euphemism of "criticism". These people in positions of trust over others aren't being fired for cheering the murder of someone like me whom they will be in a position of trust over. It's criticism. Mere criticism. That's all. That sure sounds unfair, doesn't it? No mention of what they are saying, no mention of their specific jobs where harboring hatreds that deep makes them fundamentally unsuitable for the role.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
Regrettably, it does mean you must follow him now. At least it's not HitlerBussy420.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
Ok, dude. I've been binging this DLC since last night, and this morning the Clan Invasion finally started. I fly off to do that campaign, and on my first stab at the mission, the clan invaders get through armor crits on my cockpit killing me 3 times across 2 attempts at the mission. That sucked. A lot. Not fun at all.
I don't know what sort of RNG fluke that was though, because the next 3 missions weren't nearly as pants shittingly terrifying. There was a repair station in one of them to help service my fancy 6xAC/2 Bull Shark. Gauss is super effective against them. But even so, I only have about 10 or so assault mechs worth fielding, and 2 of those are Annihilators who are slow as fuck and a bit prone to shedding their arms and losing all their firepower. I'm just barely staying in the field, since it 1 of my mechs can be repaired in time for the next mission, 2 will usually be ready for the one after that, and the 4th might be repaired yet another mission or two after that. But so far I haven't seen a single clan assault mech either.
I went to put a C-ER PPC, C-MP Lasers and extra Clan Double Heatsinks on one of my mechs, and that refit is going to take 90 days!!! Not even sure I'll get it back before the campaign is over. We'll see.
Honestly though, this is quite possibly the best Mechwarrior experience I've ever had. MW5: Mercs has come a long way from it's launch. Almost 10 years ago now. As a platform, it's nearly perfection. The perfect canvas for any Inner Sphere adventure you want to have.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
Apparently someone called out that "Notices bulge uwu" line is a sign he was a MtF chaser. I guess that's just a meme in that community? Or something? I don't know.
This news being hours old, I mean, it confirms all my biases. It's not a totally disreputable source making the claim. But it's still a reporter, and all they do is lie. Even when they tell nothing but the truth. Sometimes especially when they tell nothing but the truth. It's like their super power.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
I've seen too many times, it's not messy at all for them. Definitionally, their side is good and only does good things, and your side is bad and only does bad things.
I watched it repeatedly on Breaking Points when their resident conservative would bring up that Trump is doing 100% the exact same thing Biden is doing, and his liberal cohost Krystal would just claim without pausing at all that only when Trump does it, it's fascism because fascism is right wing. It's not about the action, but who's doing it. The exact same policy under Biden is liberalism, and under Trump is fascism, because of who they are, not what they are doing.
This happens repeatedly with my father in law, who repeatedly just refuses to believe his side is having schools secretly socially transition children against their parents wishes. Just boldly refuses to believe it's real, because his side is the good side, and that doesn't sound good, therefore it's a lie.
Lets not forget all the deployments of assorted "internalized mumbo jumbo" or "still within the framework of cis white hetereo patriarchy" word salads that get deployed. Even if they can concede a lefty shot and killed Charlie Kirk, well, actually it's not because of leftism, but because he was raised by a gun loving Christian family. It's the lingering norms of that culture which caused it truly, even if he had leftist beliefs at the time he did the deed. You're already seeing that.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
3d ago
This is the correct reaction to have. It's a good excuse for me to shoe horn in shoe0nHead's reaction that went semi-viral and for many people put into words exactly what they were feeling. And something about it seems especially poignant in the style of a sleep deprived, unedited, 1000 word run on sentence. It ends with
posting videos and pictures of charlie’s wife and young kids will not move them because they cannot relate and never will. they are atomized bug people who hate their families and themselves. the unfortunate product of modern society. they are miserable evil human beings and i owe many people many apologies for ever thinking otherwise. maybe i will calm down, but i couldnt sleep, but i am absolutely demoralized and blackpilled beyond belief. i do not want my child growing up in a world like this. sick evil shit.
The last few days have been the clearest demonstration of evil I've ever witnessed. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, federal employees, friends, family all jubilant that a man different from me in the smallest of degrees was publicly executed, and his wife, not very different from my wife, and his children, about the same age as my child, are now widowed and fatherless. And they cheer. To bounce it back to shoe
it is clear how they reacted about charlie is how they would react about me, my friends, my family, any of you, your friends, your family that have ever stepped out of line of the nebulous ever changing definition of “progressive”, anyone who has ever been called a “nazi” for the stupidest shit in the last 10+ years.
And if it happened to you, they'd go over everything you ever said online, and cherry pick the worst of it, or the worst of it they could take out of context. And then tens of millions of people would receive their talking points and go around repeating how you deserved to die because you said "X". Did you actually say "X"? Did you actually say "X" in they way they thought you said "X"? Doesn't matter.
I've been beating the drum for over a year, and occasionally got in some mod trouble, that the left is roiling up their base to pogrom the right. Can there be any more doubt? Teachers are celebrating the murder of an innocent father and husband, publicly, under their real name, and we leave our children with them 40 hours a week. I keep seeing people push back "How do we know he was radicalized at college?" Now we don't have the ironclad chain of evidence to show. But we can plainly see that even in the moment he's shot, the crowd at that college is cheering. Sure looks like a radicalizing environment to me. Makes me wonder what the fuck they've been teaching there.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
I've been playing a shit ton of MW5: Mercs again. Haven't gotten to any of the new DLC content yet, but it's close. Jumped right into my old save, and been knocking out high value missions and Arena contracts. Now it's 3049 and it's getting so close. Can't fucking wait.
Also, finally got my favorite 4xAC/2 variant of the Mauler. But then I found a Bullshark for sale with 6xAC/2's! I fucking love infinite dakka out of my mech nipples.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
So that in three years, when Presidential Candidate Vance is debating Presidential Candidate Newsom, and the topic of extremist violence comes up, the CNN moderator can "fact check" Vance when he tries to bring up Charlie Kirk's assassination that actually the motive of the shooter is unknown.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
I keep hearing how the enemies in Silksong are obnoxiously spongy. But I also wonder how much of this is an effect of starting off under powered. I can't remember how weak I felt when I started Hollow Knight, but I know after a sword upgrade or two, it felt awesome. Perhaps so awesome I forgot how weak I began. Have you noticed upgrades helping with the hit sponge feeling I keep seeing people talk about in Silksong?
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
So we're right back to comparing Charlie Kirk to history's greatest monsters to justify how he's being treated?
Yeah, this isn't getting de-escalated.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
So then you should be aware of the social norm of not speaking ill of the dead, even flattering them, when you eulogize them. So you can't even plead ignorance, you just don't think your political enemies that have been murdered deserve even that common decency.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
You've never been to a funeral before have you?
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
Discord is a stand in (though a solid one) for all the various pozzed environments people let their kids simmer in without even thinking twice about it.
I've seen gloating on twitter that this kid is a right winger (because his parents are right wing), that the kid is antifa (because of statements he made to family about Kirk's "hateful" rhetoric and the messages written on the weapon and bullets), that the kid is just a schizo edgelord (alternate explanation for the messages on the gun). I've seen people speculating that he has SSR-eyes, that he was radicalized by college, etc, etc.
Also apparently he tried to get his roommate to pick up the rifle he ditched, and communicated this via Discord?
Like I said elsewhere, deep in my heart I fear he could be, I donno, a Groyper or something. Not like I have any reason to actually think that, it would just be the worst of all possible worlds, and the depressive part of me thinks that makes it the most likely. The left would get to have it's day of celebration, nakedly cheering and clapping and celebrating a person not substantially different myself being gruesomely murdered in public, and then they'd get to plausibly wash their hands of all responsibility for it.
I mean they're going to gaslight everyone about their rhetoric the last 10 years anyways, and all the gruesome celebrating we just saw. But it's just easier for them if the assassin isn't even one of theirs.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
Charlie Kirk believed it was part of God's perfect moral law that people who are my friends, my family, my coworkers should be stoned to death. He described Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown-Jackson (and other black women) as affirmative action hires who stole their spots from white people and who don't have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. This whole attempt to lionize Kirk after his death has been extremely black pulling, as a leftist. Basically none of the articles that try to do so can actually mention things Kirk said or believed because if they did their audience would not think he was worth lionizing! He didn't deserve to get killed for his views but this attempt to pretend Kirk was just the nicest kindest commentator we should all seek to emulate is insane.
Because it doesn't matter what he said, he died speaking. We don't murder people for speaking. If you start nitpicking the words he used while you eulogize him, you center how he brought it on himself with his speech. You accept the premise that we murder people for speech, and are haggling over the price.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
No it's not. The killing is being done by naive individuals who take Democrat talking points seriously and literally. They are sincere, not crazy. And neither are the people clapping and cheering in media, education, and government who spent the last 10 years saying "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest"
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
Yes? And?
From one perspective, sure, it looks like the right are hypocrites. From another perspective, that's just how thoroughly the left won, that now the right has to play by their rules. Congratulations! You got "your rules applied fairly". You had a good run of "your rules applied unfairly", 4-6 years I'd guess. But now you are a victim of your own success I suppose.
I wouldn't take bets on how long "your rules applied unfairly" will apply to killing people for things they say. But I would expect to reach an equilibrium of "your rules applied fairly" at some point.
WhiningCoil
Ghost of Quokka's Future
4d ago
But "the morality of a child" is, I think, putting it too kindly.
Anyone who claims Kirk had the morality of a child has never had a child. Because the morality of a child is, actually, "You hurt my feelings, now I get to maximally hurt you back in an unregulated temper tantrum". Kirk, while a partisan, still advocated for clear, uniformly enforced rules and individual rights, which trends closer to the higher stages of Kohlberg's stages of moral development. If you compare this to the morality of a child, it's just more word games to gaslight victims about the nature of their enemy, while blood libeling them into somehow deserving it.
Hmmm, I think 10-ish?
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