Adventures in Fandom

Geeking out in various ways over other people's cool things since 2000. FYI: I am an adult. This is an adult site. I assume, therefore, that if you're interacting with me you're ALSO an adult. Act like a jackass, and I will respond as I would to any other adult behaving like a jackass.

[ladyshinga]

i think baby-priority-seating should be a thing on planes. like. not, "they go on first", i mean how seating is ARRANGED. like o shit there's a baby on this flight? then the attendants ask everyone in the waiting area "who here is good with babies and enjoys the communal human experience of helping a parent soothe a scared child?" and then they rearrange everyone to make sure those people are sitting next to the baby just in case, and boom, less stress for probably literally everyone including the baby

i have no idea why i am thinking about this. i have no baby and have not been on a flight in years. this is dan levys fault

[larathia]

I'd go further and just have some flights designated 'family flights'. Like, maybe it's cheaper to fly on family flights? But if you buy the ticket, you accept as part of that that you're going to be on a flight with young children/toddlers/babies. You will be expected to help keep the babies and toddlers soothed, and the children happy and entertained.

Conversely, you *cannot* board other flights if you have babies/toddlers/children unless you are damn sure those children can be quiet the entire flight. Because just as some families need help on trips to keep their kids entertained, some people flying without kids really need that flight time to rest, or prepare something for work, or do some other task that means they need the quiet to concentrate.

[larathia]

My dreaming mind is weirdly word-focused lately.

The latest one was this: I had this idea that the word "avid" had arisen to describe AI vidos. A-Vid. Simple, right?

But no. No, my dreaming mind then went on to create an entire timeline and fandom argument around this word. There were the people that insisted the A was for Artifificial (as in AI), the people that insisted the A was for Artificial (as in fake, not-real), and the people that insisted the A was for Animated. And a whole bunch of really irritated people that insisted this was a pointless argument because all three groups were basically saying the same thing and getting hung up on useless details.

...And off in the corner of the internet were some nerds that heard "avid" and thought it sounded like "aphid", and so named what became the most popular anti-AI blocker The Ladybug.

Why, brain, why.

[willgrahamscock]

how are you gonna be 31 and posting fandom content bro leave it to the teenagers

People 10 and 20 years older than me are writing your favorite fanfics, and drawing your favorite characters. You'd have no fandom without the people you think are 'too old' to have hobbies.

[emachinescat]

This mentality is so insanely frustrating. Why do teenagers think that people have to give up their hobbies, give up fun, when they reach a certain age? Like??

When I was a teenager writing fic, I remember finding out that one of my favorite authors was in her 50s and that just was SUCH a revelation for me!! What do you mean, 50 year olds can write fanfic?!? Does that mean I can write fics when I'm her age?? That's AWESOME! I seriously looked up to her so much. And now I'm 35 with a husband and kid, and I'm still writing fanfic and posting fandom content - and I have no plans of stopping!

If you try to drive 30+ people out of fandom, you're going to lose the backbone of said fandom!

[evilwriter37]

The ageism in fandom is fucking insane. It’s strange that people seem to have the idea that fandom was created by and for teenagers… It was not. It was created by adults. How would we have ao3 if only teenagers were in fandom?

I don’t want to sound like I am hating on younger people in fandom, but god, y’all need to stop it with the ageism. You don’t have to give up what you love once you’re an adult. Honestly, the belief that you have to is pretty bad. It sounds like it would make people afraid of aging. Granted, modern society is so very afraid of aging.

Don’t give up what you love just because you’re an adult. You don’t have to. And don’t try to force others to do it either.

[larathia]

I think it's just that age matters so much more at that time of life. I mean. From a teenager's perspective, childhood was just a few minutes ago, y'know? A sixteen year old enjoying a six year old's games is just horrifically embarrassing. And maybe indicative of some deeper problems. And that's just a ten year difference. So, going from that, of course a thirty year old enjoying a teenager's fandoms must be at least just as bad, right? And because it gets hammered into teenage heads that Grown People hanging out with Teenagers is probably indicative of something pervy and sick going on, you get that tacked on too. Add in the general self-absorption natural to the age group and it can't be that you could possibly be enjoying the Thing for itself, or to talk about the Thing with people your own age; you must be there because of the teenagers!

Teenagers are gonna be teenagers, and that includes errors in reasoning. I mean. That's the whole point of the learning process, right? You start out with something that's dead wrong but looks reasonable, and then you learn why this and why that.

TL;DR - I don't sweat it when teenagers get all loud and weird about adults being in fandom spaces. They'll figure it out when they're ready. Meantime, teenagers gonna teenage. And I'll enjoy what I want to enjoy in my own way.

[solradguy]

Going to the library tomorrow to find out if I'm allowed to print hypothetical boobs for the GG copybook I wanna do

[solradguy]

Libraries don't fuck around when it comes to copyright law

[official-boob-posts]

reminder to use your library’s resources so that they continue to be funded

[larathia]

Agreeing with above, but also noting that unfortunately there are states where libraries have to comply with obscenity laws.

THEREFORE, I amend.

For the library's sake, no copyrighted boobs. Either your own, or at least your own artwork, or creative commons boobs please. Especially because,

Honestly, a pretty high percentage of librarians do not care, and do not want to have to care about what you print, so if you're going to do something like this at least try to arrange matters such that they can do the whole plausible deniability thing. And, again, especially because

There's a small percentage of moral busybody librarians who totally care if you're doing things like this, and some of them are supervisors, and the rest of the staff would REALLY rather they didn't wind up involved, 'kay?

Good luck and happy boob printing.

[larathia]

The least those St. Ives facial scrub makers could do is put the whole riddle poem on their packaging somewhere, so I wouldn't be spending every half-awake morning trying to remember it.

[espanolbot2]

The Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett.bsky.social)

#HowDoTheyRiseUp #Glorious25thMay #Discworld

[larathia]

It is important to understand that Pterry did not mean by this "don't fight". Just that it's much, much easier to destroy than it is to create, and "destroy it all" will not make "create something better" any easier to accomplish.

Harder, possibly, since if you destroy everything first you've already expended a lot of your energy to no real good.

[greelin]

$50,000 immediately dropped into my bank account wouldn't improve EVERYTHING but boy it sure would be a grand, sexy little start to a good, happy life path, don't you think

[meilintheempressofdreams]

Reblog for unexpected $$$ dropping into your Bank account.

[symbolblue]

uhh did i forget how time works or was the first post in december 2018 and the second in august 2018

[greetings-inferiors]

Reblog for time travelling $$$ dropping into your Bank account.

[prokopetz]

Sometimes you send something you found online to a friend because you want to brighten their day, and sometimes you send something you found online to a friend with the precise attitude and bearing of a cat very carefully lining up their paw with the back of another cat's head.

[a-mel0n]

reblog if you’ve had an online friendship that’s lasted more than 2 years

[larathia]

I've got some online friends that've passed the twenty year mark, thank you very much. We've met in person only a handful of times, but I treasure them just the same as my long-term in person relationships.

[brightclothesforwinter]

(There is perhaps a certain irony in seeing this post and thinking 'oh! I haven't spoken to you in ages!' lol)

Huh, I wonder if it's just that we're, you know, probably a fair bit older than the twitter OP, or if this is the friendship-does-not-degrade-over-time thing in play..?

[larathia]

The beauty of online spaces is you can update everybody, and as part of 'everybody' I am still updated and happy knowing how you're doing without you having to, as it were, tap me on the shoulder and do so personally.

And then you can tap me on the shoulder and update me whenever about OTHER stuff, and I'm still caught up!

(So yes. Totally the 'friendship does not degrade over time' thing.)

[a-mel0n]

reblog if you’ve had an online friendship that’s lasted more than 2 years

[larathia]

I've got some online friends that've passed the twenty year mark, thank you very much. We've met in person only a handful of times, but I treasure them just the same as my long-term in person relationships.

[larathia]

Hey, so. Any of you (other) oldbies remember Mark Does Stuff?

I'm trying to explain this to some people that, while they were alive at the time, missed the glory of it. I was hoping to find a copy of Mark Reads Twilight somewhere (since it's vanished from the face of the internet, and all links are dead) but so far no luck.

Anyone know where I can unearth a pdf copy?

[homunculus-argument]

I think it would be funny to write a murder mystery where not only did every single character involved have an obvious motive to kill this mf, they were actually all attempting to murder him first, but the murder attempts all cancelled each other out all except for one. Two people tried to poison him but the poisons just happen to work as antidotes for each other, and instead of killing him only gave him the shits, and due to having the shits he couldn't go hunting that day like he had planned, foiling the plans of the one who had conditioned his favourite hunting horse to panic and bolt at the cue of a whistle, and the other murder attempt of tampering with his gun so that it would have exploded his whole face off.

The whole mystery isn't about who could have done it or how, but who was the one who got lucky and actually succeeded.

[terriwriting]

Sherlock Holmes and The Case of Perhaps We'd Best Leave This One Alone, Watson. There Appears To Be An Excess Of Armed Maniacs In The Vicinity.

[copperbadge]

When I was in high school a friend of mine would host murder mystery dinners once or twice a year. They were the kind you could buy as a kit -- I don't even know if they exist anymore -- and everyone was assigned (or chose) a character, then received a booklet of clues to share. The idea was to spend an evening in a one-shot LARP designed like an Agatha Christie novel.

I was a year above most of them at school so they threw a "goodbye" murder mystery for me just before graduation, and about 2/3 of the way through the game we all realized that everyone had at least attempted to kill the victim. The game then shifted from "whodunnit" to "who succeeded in dunninit" which we all felt was not only super fun but above the usual level of narrative complexity for those games.

After we solved it, we discovered that the game wasn't from a kit -- the host had written it herself and meticulously printed out the booklets in replica style of the kits. It was the best going-away party I think I could possibly have had.

[larathia]

CSI: Las Vegas episode, "Ending Happy".

It's even weirder when you watch it. I mean, sure, google a summary, but if you never watch CSI, still you should make time for this one episode.

[hexbugswallower]

We should have a savory pop star. Pop music by and large is inseparable from candy metaphors both externally (music critics talk about "bubblegum" pop, or call a pop song "cotton candy") and internally (hundreds and hundreds of pop songs with lyrics that refer to candy or sweets). What if there was a pop star that was completely savory-themed. She's singing a sexy club song that's like oh oh ohhh I know you want this soyyy sauce or maybe she's singing a breakup ballad that's like loving youuuuu.... was like eating beef with bouillon cuuuuuubes...

[godlessondheimite]

[ang3l-d0lli3]

is that… EDDIE FROM ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW??????

[not100bees]

I'm trying to imagine a person that can recognize Eddie from Rocky Horror Picture Show at a glance but doesn't know that he was played by Meatloaf.

[findingfeather]

I really hate to tell you this, but the kids are absolutely watching RHPS, but frankly Meatloaf is starting to be a Historical Fact.

[larathia]

True. Although that means there's at least one entire generation of music listeners about to be subjected to the sheer over-the-top theatrics of Meatloaf without any preparation whatsoever.

*glee* It'll be like the kids discovering Queen, all over again.

[thestuffedalligator]

It’s not a Discworld joke unless you read it, don’t parse it as a joke, and then carry on with your life for ten years until someone stops you to say something like “It’s a pavlovian response because the dog ate a pavlova” and you scream Terry’s name with enough indignant rage you hope it rattles the pillars of the multiverse so wherever his soul is he’ll hear it.

[andhumanslovedstories]

#i don’t think this is what pterry meant by ‘a man’s not dead while his name is still spoken’

I absolutely think it is

[seiya234]

I read Jingo for the first time when I was 13.

I’m 33 now, and I still discover a new joke every time I reread it.

Terry was a comedic genius

[stormsbreadth]

#shoutout to the one in Soul Music about the leopard that got thrown out of the circus because it couldn't hear the ringmaster#it was several months after my second or third time reading the book that I clocked it was a Deaf Leopard (via @morkaischosen)

god DAMMIT

[adverbian]

When I was informed that “Vetinari” is a pun on “Medici”. That pun was so painful I couldn’t even see it.

[triflesandparsnips]

...are you FUCKING KIDDING ME.

*starts thunderously knocking on the doors of heaven*

get out here Terry I just wanna talk

[amuseoffyre]

Twurp’s Peerage made me throw a book (gently) at a wall.

In the UK, the book of the peerage is called Burke’s Peerage. Burke sounds like berk, which means a silly/annoying person. So Terry took ‘twerp’, another word for a silly or annoying person, and replaced the e with u. 

The Book of Silly and Annoying People, based on the real thing with a pun on the name thrown in for good measure.

[deathsmallcaps]

OMG I FUCKING *KNEW* VETINARI WAS A JOKE ON FUCKONG SOMETHING I JUST COULDNT GRASP IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS A REFERENCE TO WIND SOMEHOW

[sarahreesbrennan]

I am not a talented punster so I was today old when I realised about Vetinari.

[fiollaigean]

guys it's fucking close to water

[aridotdash]

[jennyofmany]

Latinclass ca. 9th grade: the text we had to translate contained the words trans means "on the other side of" or in german it can be translated to "über/ hinüber". Also silvas; silvanis means "the forest" or in german "der Wald".

Trans silvas very simply translated into german would be über den Wald

Trans silvas -> Transsilvanien -> Überwald

My latin teacher gave me a very weird look as I suddenly facepalmed myself and groaned quietly.

[arkytiorlecter]

The Venturi and Selachii feud is what killed me when I got it.

The Venturi Effect is a scientific term referring to the acceleration of a liquid through a narrow tube (like a jet).

Selachii is a classification of sharks. (I discovered this when my stepson got really into sharks)

... fucking HELL Terry.

[nochd]

In Carpe Jugulum, Count Magpyr boasts of having helped write the Malleus Maleficarum, along with the Torquus Simiae Maleficarum, the Auriga Clavium Maleficarum, and in fact the entire Arca Instrumentorum.

The Malleus Maleficarum is a very real, very nasty and absolutely batshit insane book from late 15th-century Germany, basically laying out the procedure for catching, torturing, and executing witches. Its title translates to The Hammer of Witches. The other titles are Pratchett's inventions.

Malleus = "hammer" Torquus Simiae = "monkey wrench" Auriga Clavium = "bucket of nails" Arca Instrumentorum = "box of tools"

[larathia]

'Vetinari = veterinarian" also explains why his taunt name was "Dog Botherer".

Also I was this week old when I realized just how often Pterry was riffing on the movie Pulp Fiction (a movie I had never seen until this week) and entire chunks of dialogue and a few events wound up recast in my head to Nobby and Colon, or the Watch books in general.

[omtai]

Im sorry I didn’t reply to your message for three weeks. I did not forget about it infact I thought about it regularly every day. It will happen again

[gwydionmisha]

Hegseth Quotes Made-Up Bible Verse From Pulp Fiction

Does Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth actually know what’s in the Bible?

[larathia]

The thing a lot of liberals really need to learn to do is parse, first of all, that they are Not The Intended Audience and what they think of whatever any republican does Does Not Matter.

The only thing that matters to these guys is the reaction of the Intended Audience - which is to say, the people who only get their news from Fox and other conservative sources, because at this point that's a bubble that encompasses entire states in the middle of the country, and quite a few counties in the 'blue' states.

Yeah. Territorially, the news bubble is that big. Territorially, if you want a non-conservative-dominant news opinion, you need to either Already Be Liberal (and thus the internet algorithm follows you wherever you move to), or you need to be in a large city. If you just look at the political map geographically, then liberal media is a collection of blue islands in a vast sea of red.

Populationwise it's not quite the reverse, but it's getting there.

Anywho. Point is.

Hegseth ain't talkin' to you. If you're someone going 'wtf?' or 'get a load of this guy' or 'does he even read the Bible', you're highly likely not to be his intended audience in the first place, and so he does not care.

What he does care about is the reaction of his intended audience. Will the media he cares about think this was cool? Probably. Will the media he cares about spin this as intentional? Very probably. Will the media audience care, particularly, that it's not a real Bible Quote? Nah. It sounds cool and badass and that's the main thing, and flag waving he's Christian (TM) matters more than being theologically correct about it.

Conservative Media as a whole has become the Guy Being Wrong On The Internet to a lot of online liberals. You get a lot of hand wringing and "but that's wrong" and "it doesn't work like that" when by now, istg, you need to be looking past that and mentally translating

a) what this meant to the Intended Audience, and

b) responding to that accordingly.

[herainsorcia]

[larathia]

The Granny Weatherwax school of therapy: Don't tell them the boogeyman can't get them. Give them a big stick with nails in it and a cattle prod.