campfire
23d ago
I remember Aella or other Rationalist-adjacent person on social media sharing a word doc that compiles various controversial opinions and survey questions, anyone remember this and have a link to it?
campfire
30d ago
First time I read it was Googling it when I heard a line from it quoted in Civilization IV, I was probably 10. I don’t read much poetry but it resonated with me so much I’ve had the whole thing memorized since then.
campfire
30d ago
Oh I missed 1999, yeah I can see how the threat of nuclear war captures the same ethos
campfire
30d ago
The songs you mention don’t seem to fit the theme, and I only listed a few in the genre.
campfire
1mo ago
Time for a music thread
Recession pop is a trend that's only obvious in hindsight. The specific label only took off this year. Does anyone remember it? You've definitely heard the songs. From 2008-2012, it was impossible to turn on the radio without hearing a song whose lyrics that were more or less "Heyyyy/ woooah/ let's have fun toniiiight/ have a good time toniiiiight/ drink and put your hands up". They were tonally different, and from different genres, but those lyrics basically encapsulate the trend. Music about drinking and partying your problems away and living for the moment, specifically, tonight. They almost all used the word "tonight". Many also said "woah-oah", sometimes the Millenial whoop. Once you hear it you really can't unhear it:
-
Lady Gaga - Just Dance (2008): "Just dance/ It'll be okay", "Control your poison, babe, roses have thorns, they say/ And they're all gettin' hosed tonight"
-
Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling (2009): "I feel stressed out, I wanna let it go/ Let's go way out, spaced out, and losin' all control", "I got a feelin'/That tonight's gonna be a good night"
-
Usher - DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love (2010): "So dance, dance like it's the last, last / Night of your life, life, gon' get you right / 'Cause baby, tonight / The DJ got us falling in love again "
-
Katy Perry - Teenage Dream (2010): "Let's go all the way tonight/No regrets, just love /We can dance, until we die/ You and I, will be young forever"
-
Pitbull - Give Me Everything Tonight (2011): "Tonight, I want all of you/ Tonight, give me everything/ Tonight, for all we know/ We might not get tomorrow"
-
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem (2011): "Party rock is in the house tonight/ Everybody just have a good time (yeah)/ And we gonna make you lose your mind (woo)/ Everybody just have a good time (clap)"
-
The Wanted - Glad You Came (2011): "The sun goes down, the stars come out/ And all that counts is here and now/ My universe will never be the same/ I'm glad you came (Came, came, came)"
Hey, that last one actually manages to not use the word "tonight". But don't worry, we still get a reminder that "all that counts is here and now".
I turned 10 in 2008 so this was around when I was first starting to gain awareness of the wider music landscape. At the time, I thought, this is just what pop music is. Insipid electro-bangers about dancing the night away and living for the moment. But no, the music of pre-2008 sounded very different. I much prefer the music of 2016-2019 which is when I did most of my partying in college. You had a few stinkers but a lot of the rap hits of the time were actually pretty creative, Black Beatles and Bad N' Boujee come to mind. Are there any trends in the media now that don't have a label yet?
campfire
1mo ago
Taste is her best single. The opening line “I leave quite an impression/ 5 feet to be exact” is hilarious and on-brand for someone whose image is built around being short and horny. Isn’t she cucking the other girl though?
Oh and in her live performances of Nonsense, she changes the last line of the song to a different innuendo every time. The original is “woke up this morning thought I’d write a pop hit/ how quickly can you take your clothes off? pop quiz”. When she played on BBC she changed it to “BBC said I should keep it PG/ BBC I wish I had it in me/ There’s a double meaning if you dig deep”
campfire
1mo ago
Vampire does shamelessly rip off Creep but that song also rips off an older 70s hit so I can’t complain
campfire
1mo ago
That’s the only one of her hits I don’t find obnoxious. I mostly can’t stand the new crop of pop girls. Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter have some okay singles but their most popular songs are annoying, Espresso has some of the worst rhymes I’ve heard in a while. On the other hand, I’ve liked Charli XCX since 2013 and she’s only gotten better since.
Probably throw on a lazy cowboy/pirate outfit, get drunk, and hang out with some otherwise modest women dressed like strippers for the night
What are your favorite things about this season?
Iykyk
campfire
2mo ago
“We” (elementary school teachers, really) teach them those things in hopes they’ll have fewer fights to break up or tantrums to subdue, not because they’re effective strategies
campfire
2mo ago
Miami ACX Meetup at 6PM @ Lagniappe next Saturday (10/12), come hang out if you’re in the area
Posted a few weeks ago about trying to figure out Crusader Kings III. Some 50 hours later, I'm pretty entertained. My first "real" campaign was as the de Bessas in Northeast France, became King after a few generations but got too bogged down by factions and decided to give another character a try. Played as a duke (doux) in the Byzantine Empire, conquered a few Kingdoms (Despots), but massively underestimated how big the de jure Byzantine empire was. Then tried out a count in Skane, a duchy in Denmark, in 867. Realized tribal plays very differently, depends a lot on prestige which is hard to come by. Starting as a count, it can take a while to build up an army that can raid effectively depending on how well your leige does setting up alliances for himself. Remains to be seen how this plays out, but might just start as a Duke in Scandinavia instead.
Fun game, but I'm still shocked how many people have 2000+ hours in it. The core gameplay loop seems like it could get repetitive very fast. Make babies, marry them off for alliances (thanks @orthoxerox for the tip), fabricate claim on county, invade, make higher and higher tier titles, rinse, repeat. Is the appeal to the diehard fans just how many various ways there are to roleplay? Far more than any of the Civilization games at least.
I have dabbled in the total conversion mods. A Game of Thrones is almost too bespoke to believe, has ever a game complimented a novel series so perfectly? With the Tours and Tournaments DLC you can even host your own Red Wedding. Now there's a bookmark that triggers a civil war after Viserys I dies (the Dance of the Dragons). After The End is very original, set in a post-apocalyptic New World in 2666 where people practice religions vaguely associated with their geographic regions. Nevadans worship UFOs, the people of Svalbard pray to their seed vault, rust belt Americans worship the 19th century industrialists. That said, these mostly seem to just give you different ways to roleplay. The core gameplay loop is the same.
I've heard CK2 is better but I've tried it and just find the graphics and UI hideous and outdated.
I can still see myself getting 100+ hours of enjoyment out of CK3 though so feel free to recommend specific starts, mods encouraged.
This is a great Harry Potter themed parody of Empire State of Mind. Cadence is perfect, every line rhymes and is a reference to the series. Think my favorite is "Two girls ask about my scar, told 'em I was born with it/ Took 'em to my dorm for a Triwizard Tournament" or "Decked out cauldron, they wonder how I paid for it/ Drive-by on Gringotts leave a goblin on the pavement".
campfire
3mo ago
Your mistake is that upon drawing a gold coin, you concluded you’re equally likely to have drawn from 1g1s and 2g. The latter is twice as likely as the former. Interesting that more people would have understood this if the numbers were 100s, 99s1g, and 100g.
campfire
3mo ago
Haven't touched video games much these last few years but Civilization has had a special place in my heart since my parents got me Civ IV for my 8th birthday. Now the first looks at Civilization VII are out, and I'm sort of disappointed. The graphics are the best in the series so far (as you'd hope) but there are lots of baffling game design decisions being made here. The biggest change by far is that you no longer play with one civilization, the game is divided into thirds and each involves you playing as a different civ. Your cities (well, 'settlements', of which cities are only one type) and units carry over but other than that all the civs are reset to roughly the same development level and you choose a different civilization lead by the same leader. This is strange and immersion-breaking, especially when you can choose to transition from Egypt under Hatshepsut to Mongolia if you have enough horses. I actually think this model has some potential but they'd need a LOT of civs to make it work while also changing the player's leader and they'd have to limit you to civs that have actually controlled the same area through the ages. If they pull this off it could address the snowball effect that's plagued the late games of the previous entries. Also, the current UI is terrible and looks like a cheap mobile game. There's time for them to make adjustments and it could be a good game after an expansion pack or two but this might be the first time I don't preorder an entry.
But now I'm in the mood for some historical strategy and role-playing. How does Crusader Kings III work? Last time I tried it I'd get 10 years into a game and build up my economy at a snail's pace and then someone who had a claim on my land would invade me with an army twice the size of mine and I'd be dead.
campfire
3mo ago
Generally, no, quite the opposite. What it’s good for is putting me to sleep because I’m more focused on the fictional conflicts than any problems irl. A coworkers recently told me he was surprised I could watch House of The Dragon to relax before bed, considering how violent it can get. But it works as a sort of reverse-escapism for me, my life seems so much more comforting when compared to medieval barbarism.
campfire
3mo ago
Great recommendation, reminds me of Ken Jennings Kennections for Mental Floss.
I’ve always thought American game shows are overly simplistic. My quizbowl friends and I in high school would watch University Challenge together. Much less serious is the Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Random thought but it seems like game shows are much more regional than other media. Americans do like British TV and vice versa but we never seem to watch your game shows, and the rest of the world seems to have no idea how Jeopardy works.
campfire
4mo ago
I was referring to separate threads not just top-level comments. I’ve been meaning to make effort posts on Georgism/Land Value Tax, various topics in philosophy of mind, my thoughts on the sociology of religion.
campfire
4mo ago
I’d like to, there are some topics I have in mind. But where exactly do I post about them? Right now the main threads are focused on culture war, health & wellness, personal projects, questions, fun, and small-scale questions. What if I just want to share my thoughts on an issue without making a top-level post? Or is the bar for top-level posts not actually that high? Seems few people actually take advantage of the ability. Relegating all the top-level posts to one of the weekly threads seems like a holdover from the days of Reddit where it helped us not get banned, but doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reason for it now.
Post on social media and link in your bio. I noticed you have a review of A Song of Ice And Fire, that means you should have a few comments a week in each subreddit associated with that fandom, for about a month. Pretty low-effort if you're knowledgeable about it.
More options
Context Copy link