#qog314

[bisexualstokes-archive]

qog314

replied to your post

“okay I’m gonna try to get some sleep now…episodes are downloading and...”

What are the things you're reading that make you less pissed? Still in frustrated/annoyed stage.

It’s difficult to explain.

I was reading some theories and such on reddit, reading opinions of people’s thoughts of this episode throughout the spectrum, the knowledge that while it may seem like the end it’s not the end at all, it’s a new beginning. the release final dossier and the possibility of a season 4 or another movie aside, there is so much to explore and dissect and yes, there were a lot of things that really pissed me off, but there were a hell of a lot of things I liked and sure, while the things that pissed me off kinda outweighed the things I liked, having the mindset that there is always the potential for more has been putting my mind at ease...sort of. 

I think it’s also just time. Just sitting here and putting some distance from it (outside of making a gifset here or there in which I’ll have to rewatch a scene or two) and letting it digest is also helping, and reading these theories and opinions are sort of re-calibrating my mindset I guess?

edit: also sherilyn fenn’s twitter suggests that she seems to be very satisfied and also wants more...so maybe she knows more than she’s letting on?

[prokopetz]

Regarding the steam sale, I don't really have any idea what games I like - so I end up buying games that seem interesting, then end up hating and wasting money. I play Civ 5 more than anything, but I can't get into Crusader Kings II, because it's too complicated. I loved Borderlands 2, but in general I find FPS boring (I thought I would like the Secret World, but no). I loved Portal. I seem to like things that require strategy/puzzles, as long as it's not too complicated. What genre do I fit in?

It sounds to me like you enjoy high mechanical engagement - that is, you like to have lots of rules-mediated Stuff to play with - but don’t care for games that demand deep system mastery to get anywhere. It’s not an uncommon set of preferences; lots of folks like games that give them a lot of mechanical knobs and levers to play with, but don’t have the time or the inclination for games that will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t arrange those knobs and levers just right. Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find games that suit, since most games that offer high mechanical engagement think they’re hardcore.

Since I don’t have enough information to tell exactly where your tolerances lie, I’m going to take a shot in the dark here: Invisible, Inc.

It’s a turn-based stealth/espionage game. You control a team of agents infiltrating various government and corporate facilities to steal resources in preparation for a showdown with a rival intelligence organisation. You’re working against the clock: each mission eats up a certain number of hours, and you have a limited amount of time to marshal your resources before your enemies catch you, so it’s entirely possible to back yourself into an unwinnable corner with injudicious play - even a successful mission may consume more resources than it yields!

I’m recommending it for a couple of reasons:

1. Gameplay is a semi-abstract, chess-like affair with an enormous degree of game-mechanical transparency, so it’s easy to tell exactly how everything works and how things are going to interact; and

2. The campaign mode has some of the most fine-grained difficulty customisation I’ve ever encountered. Along with seven preset play modes of varying difficulty, it also has a custom campaign editor that lets you adjust everything from campaign length, to starting funds, to minutia like the conditions under which guards will raise the alarm, the number of times you’re allowed to undo a bad turn in each mission, and even the exact circumstances under which you can perform stealth kills. There’s a lot of latitude to find something you’re comfortable with (though if you’re not sure, don’t wrack your brain - just start with the easiest preset and see how it feels).

It’s sort of questionable whether this one can be said to have a “female protagonist”, since you control a rotating team of agents, but there are a fair number of female agents available, and both your agency’s director and the AI who coordinates your missions are ladies - so, eh, close enough.

Also, it’s 70% off until tomorrow, so if you hate it, at least you won’t have wasted too much money. ;)

(As for content warnings: the usual murder and mayhem you’d expect from an espionage title. Not especially graphic - there’s no spraying blood or crunching bones or anything - but you do see little cartoon people get shot in the face.)

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

I recently got into several arguments about why it's better to "happy holidays" to people you don't know than "Merry Christmas". I explained that by doing so, people are erasing every other culture except Christianity. She responded that if she's not allowed to say "Merry Christmas", *her* culture is being erased. Could you articulate why the majority culture can't be erased?

Well, really, there are more muslims in the world than christains, but I'd say on the whole, at least in the western world, that christianity is much better received than islam.Anyway...saying "happy holidays" to someone you don't know is acknowledging the fact that not all people are like you and that's okay. It's acknowledging that yours isn't the only valid holiday or religion. It's a sign of respect.Saying "merry christmas" to people you don't know assumes that everyone celebrates christmas, as if it was the clearly superior holiday. It's disrespectful. Assuming that everyone is like you sends the message that anyone who *isn't* like you is somehow less than. Hopefully, that's not a message you want to be sending.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

Have you watched Red Band Society? I watched the pilot and was astonished by the racism and misogyny in it. I was wondering if other people had seen it and if it got better after the first episode.

I haven't. It didn't look that interesting to me. I got the feeling the network is using it to go after Glee's old audience. (Anyone else get that impression?)

What do other people think about this claim? Is the show misogynist/racist? Why?

[pyrrhiccomedy]

How did you cultivate your skepticism? I think of myself as fairly intelligent and yet I'm also exceedingly gullible when it comes to things I know nothing about. How did you train yourself to question instead of accepting what even a seemingly reliable/trustworthy source says?

I started and re-started my answer to this ask half a dozen times. Because it's a really, really important question, but it's also a hard question to answer in a useful way. I'm going to do my best.

Nothing is as important as what you believe is true. If I can control what you think, I can control every decision you make. I can control what products you buy, who you vote for, which of your friends you trust--and which of them you distrust; I can choose which social causes you apply yourself to, and how effectively you champion them; to a very great extent I can even decide what you'll major in in college, who you'll marry, IF you'll marry, if you'll STAY married if the marriage goes bad, what job you'll go for, how well you'll do in that job, how you spend your leisure hours, how you treat your children, how you feel about yourself when you look in the mirror, what you'll eat for dinner, and if you'll respect yourself in the morning.

EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE is based on what information you've accepted. So if I can make you believe what I want you to believe, I own you.

And make no mistake: my best interests are NEVER the same as your best interests. The most you can hope for from ANY source is that their interests and your interests align. If I'm a company, then it's in my best interest if you buy my product. I am only interested in the quality and safety of my product to the extent that you will not buy it if it's garbage, or too dangerous. If I'm a newspaper, believe me, my goal is not to make you a more informed citizen of the world. My goal is to sell newspapers.

However, it may be that my reputation is an important part of reaching my goals: and if I feed you misinformation, my reputation may be damaged. And so a degree of trust may be invested in sufficiently reputable sources, since their goal ("to maintain a high reputation") and your goal ("to learn something") are aligned. Be VERY CAREFUL when bestowing this kind of trust on a source, and NEVER let them act as your ONLY source. You can never know for sure how important that reputation really is to them, or for what ends they may be willing to compromise it.

"But this information is from a random Tumblr post, not a news corporation, or a professional blog. Nobody's making money, here. So why would they lie to me?" Attention? Attention's a big one. Those posts you see going around, full of SHOCKING CLAIMS, usually have tens of thousands of notes. Tens of thousands of people shocked - shocked! - to learn that feeding bread to ducks makes them sick, or that Charlie Chaplin was a Nazi, or that bleach mixed with baking soda can eat through concrete. It doesn't matter that none of those things are true. It doesn't even matter if the OP, or all of the people reblogging it, BELIEVE that they're true. What matters is that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE had in their own interest something that was more important to them than "make sure the things I'm reblogging are accurate."

Maybe they wanted the prestige of being the first to bring interesting new information to their social group. Maybe they were alarmed by what they read, and they wanted to keep their friends and loved ones safe. Maybe what they read reinforced some bias that they had, and so they disseminated it because they wanted it to be true. Maybe having this surprising intel on their blog made them feel more intelligent, or more socially conscious. There are lots of reasons, because there are lots of people, and every single one of those people had their own best interests.

And none of those interests are yours.

So because what you believe is SO important, and because you are the sole guardian of your own best interests, I think it's downright reckless to accept any piece of information as fact without asking two questions first:

- Who is telling me this? Do I have reason to trust them? Should I trust them SO MUCH as to let them be the sole arbiter of what I believe on this subject?

- Who benefits if I accept it as the truth? THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. A lot of information masquerades as being in the interests of one thing when really it's in the interests of something else. Really think about it.

When you choose to believe someone - anyone - about anything, you are giving them power over you. And skepticism is the only thing that protects you from giving that power to people who don't deserve it.

[studiesineventide]

MOAR TUMBLR QUESTION MEME THING

I received questions from both celestial-squirrel and qog314, so I'll answer them! Or just ignore the question if they're too hard.

Janelle's Questions:

1.  If you were a genre of music, what type would you be? I'll defer this to my friend Franklin, who has gone on the record to say that I'd be ska/pop. Like a combination of the two. I can see that.

2.  Have you ever had a paranormal experience?  Give us details! :D Up until recently, I would have said no to this, but I was reminded yesterday by my director's daughter Maggie that I did, in fact, have a paranormal experience. Two of them, actually. Both happened in the same place, but at different times.

I do a lot of theater or things in theaters, mainly at the Freeport Preforming Arts Center (or FPAC [eff-pack] for short). During senior year of high school, I and three other students were dicking around the light booth near midnight working on the one act play we were going to field. No one else was in the building but us. However, we all heard a noise coming from outside the room sounding like footsteps. So, someone (probably not me) opened the door and looked out into the kinda dark theater. There was no one. Okay, neat- we're just hearing things. But then it starts up again. This time, it not only sounds like footsteps, but those footsteps are now walking up the wall. If memory serves correct, we quickly vacated the area.

The second one happened a few years later, and is the one Maggie reminded me of. I was working as a camp councilor for Script-to-Screen, a program the town puts on for kids who want to get involved with acting and making movies. Maggie's father, my current director, was my boss. Anyways he, Maggie, and I were opening the FPAC from a direct outside entrance, so it was pretty dark inside. I know the layout of the place pretty well, so I was sent into the darkness to go and turn the lights on from the switches on the other side of the room. No biggie. Half way there, however, I see something moving at a good clip between the seats nearest the stage. I didn't get a good look at it, but I decided to NOT go that way, and take the slower, alternate way to the lights (that involve brightly lit areas and large windows).

Now, I'm not much of a believer in the supernatural. But those two things were certainly among the creepiest things I've ever been a part of.

3. In your opinion, what is one of the most underrated films?  Why? There's probably some better movie I can't think of right now, but You're Next popped into my head. It's a slasher dramedy, sort of akin to An American Werewolf in London (except I'd probably say that You're Next is more intentionally ridiculous). It's underrated because I've never actually have heard of anyone else talking about it except for the three other people I went with to see it in the theaters.

4. What is the one thing/place you want to see before you die? Place: Europe. Just, like, a big ol' tour of the continent. From Reykjavik to Istanbul. Physical Thing: I'd really love to see Windsor Castle. I know that's a place, but it's specific, so nyuh. Action Thing: I'd like to see less strife in the world, and a few new countries being formed, and a few others fail miserably. I won't say which ones.

5. What is the biggest “nope-factor” in people for you?  (I.e. what is your biggest turn-off?) Arrogance. Unfathomable stupidity. Any combination of the two.

6.  Do you prefer thoughtful gifts or expensive gifts? Why not both?

Seriously, though, I'd probably say thoughtful gifts. Because I'm not a tool. Usually.

7.  Where is your happy place? What was that saying? Oh, right: Serenity now, insanity later.

8.  What was the first video game that you fell in love with? I want to say it was Pokémon Red or Gold, but I know that's not true. I didn't really start getting obscessed with Pokémon until Pearl. I'd probably say that it was Warcraft III. I was enamoured with that game.

9.  You have one Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Bean: what flavor are you praying for? Perhaps cherry. Or vanilla. OH! Cherry vanilla. That, definitely.

10.  What is your most positive trait? Do I have one? I hear people sometimes like my hair.

11.  If you could ship yourself with one character and have it come true, who would it be and why? It took me a long-ass time to think of an answer for this one because I don't really ship characters with other characters, let alone characters with me. Ultimately I decided that I don't ship myself with any fictional character that I know of.

Rachel's Questions:

1. If you could choose to be good at one thing, what would it be and why? I'd love to be able to just sit down and write whatever story or thing I have in my head without immediately hating it. That way, I could maybe make money as a writer. Otherwise, I'll have to do something NORMAL D:

2. What is one thing you’d like to change about yourself? Oh sweet summer child, there are many things I'd like to change about myself. But I'll just pick one. I'd like to be less automatically unfriendly to friendly people. Old habits die hard.

3. What book(s) are you currently reading? I'm currently reading A Game of Thrones.

4. Do you want to be famous? If so, why? If not, why not? I would like for things I do or make to become famous, but not myself. That's why if I ever published anything, I'd use a pen-name.

5. If you could meet one celebrity (alive) who would it be and why? I'd really like to meet John Green. Not necessarily to geek out with him (because we all know that'd just happen anyways), but I'd really like to just listen to his world views on things and understand him as a human, and not some idol people think of him as.

6. Favorite book? If you can’t choose, favorite author? My favorite book of all time would probably be Slaughterhouse-5, though I do like John Green's work. Jane Eyre is also high up on my list. WHY DID YOU ASK SOMEONE WITH A DEGREE IN ENGLISH ABOUT BOOKS.

7.  Favorite TV show? Current: Community Of All Time: Jericho

8. Favorite band? I know they're pretty popular, but I really like Arcade Fire, especially their album Reflektor.

9. Favorite Harry Potter book? Order of the Pheonix, followed by Deathly Hallows.

10. If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? A writer of novels.

11. If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it? Create my own nation. No, seriously.