This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

I don't know if there's a feature to hide reblogs (I heard there is, but I don't know what it is) but I do know that a fair few people tag every one of their reblogged posts with "reblog" so if you use something like Tumblr Saviour you can automatically hide them.
Still a bit messy though.

And alas yes, I am an unrepentant reblogging addict.
I honestly thought I'd sign up to Tumblr and not say much, using it purely to peek at other artist's submissions.

And then...


And then well...

I read a thing on penny-arcade today:

The answer is always more art; the corollary to that is the answer is never less art. If you start to think that less art is the answer, start over...

...The problem is that so many people believe that culture is something other people create, the sole domain of some anonymized other, so they never put their hat in the ring. That even with a computer in your pocket connected to an instantaneous global network, no-one can hear you.

There's more to the quote, (most of it talking about moral indignation to games like "Hitman"), I'd encourage you to read the whole thing.

That first statement though, it's one of those statements you come across and go "woah, that's really true." And I think the truth in it reaches beyond just a argument about video games. In all arenas, all areas of human expression, when you feel like what you believe and pursue aren't being represented, the best thing you can do is to promote and create those things that do reflect your experience.

Beyond even that though, there is a call to more. More art, more music, more expression. There is so much to be found in a single life that there will never be a limit to what can created.

It feels weird that I would be the one to type that. It is not something I would have typed years ago.

This community though, simply thrives on this sort of idea. In many ways this is an art-centric forum. I don't know if that's because many people here consider themselves artist, or simply because we are comfortable and open enough here to express ourselves.

Art is expression. When we stop making art, we stop expressing ourselves. But whenever we express ourselves, we make art. Here we have a big beautiful mess of people all living their lives and growing and changing in so many ways. It's something great to be a part of that dance. Come on guys. Make more art.

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Spoilerbluhhhh I'm in one of those moods where I want to say a bunch of something and say a bunch of nothing instead. bluuuuhhhhhh somebody stop me

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Spoileron an unrelated note: my Sam and Fuzzy books came in and they are great The comic really translates well to book-form. I almost find it preferable to the online offering. If you guys have a few hours to spare you should read some Sam and Fuzzy

so uh hey, heheh
anyone else here ever seen Cat Soup?
*excellent conversation starter*

KE, stop trying to push your crazy recipes on us.

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Spoileroh so Wikipedia says its a story about a cat in the land of the dead? Hmmmmmmm. Did this story have any influence on devil and the deep blue sea?

dohohohoho

uh no, not at all. i only saw it about a month ago. my brain's been different ever since.
or maybe i'm just tired of school.

Augh i have to wait 2 hours on the school computers until a friend arrives 'cause we're going to a concert thing and mibbit is not loading, i am super bored :(

Okay, we'll play hide n' seek

You're it, count to 100 and come find me.

EDIT: Base is Kansas, no hiding in Montana

Found you in Dumbville.

I meandered upon this article; my overall opinion on it is "fuck yes". (That's coming from a scientist, though, so I may be biased.)

I guess this made me realise that there should be some kind of equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath for scientists, where being able to convey your discoveries to others (laypeople and school kids, not just your contemporaries) is just as important as the discovery itself. An entire society with a scientific mindset would be an amazing thing, although I'm probably idealising that a fair bit.

All in all, it just cements my view that popularising science (at least, my ecological-bent science ) is gonna be a crucial part of whatever I end up doing after I graduate. Hard to say yet what kind of capacity I'd do it in, but I suppose I've got time to figure that out.

E: The article also linked to this, which has illustrations and descriptions by kids of what they think a scientist is, before and after visiting a centre of particle physics research.

I meandered upon this article; my overall opinion on it is "fuck yes". (That's coming from a scientist, though, so I may be biased.)

I agree.



I think the main problem with science is that most people don't see it as just a bunch of dudes saying opinions until... "okay, i guess that's how it is?? let's go with it". This and the scientists-are-not-regular-people thing should be solved by actually giving a fuck about science history, which could double as making history classes less terrible.

So basically all our problems would be solved by telling everybody how Schrödinger got all of the chicks AND a wife to scare them off when he got tired of them.

I find this particularly interesting as someone whose wanting to go in and teach science for a time.

I remember growing up with a difficult view of "science". The very concept itself has been over-idealized. Few people really understand the process, (not the "scientific method" but the process of how "science" is made). It wasn't until college that I begun to see how certain ideas came together. That you had to do X amount of Y type of research and publish in Z articles and have it accepted by some amount of people before that information trickled its way down into common textbooks.

I particularly dislike the whole Science vs. Religion stigma. Elements of it make sense, showing how physical laws challenge tradtionally religiously held notions. But it's reached a point where science is seen by many as a substitute for religion - for any worldview. As if Science was something deep and expansive enough to cover fields like art and literature and answer the very 'why' questions that hound us. Likewise some would think that religion is something designed to tell us how the climate changes or what we're made of or what the smallest particle is. It shows you don't understand either.

The two fields are so very different that to pit them against each other to the degree we often see becomes detrimental to the both of them. People begin to assume that the two are antonyms. That where science is silent, it disagrees with religious thought, and that where science speaks clearly then religious thought must foolishly stand against it.

I think doctors have found a good blend. Somehow people dont see them as "scientists". Even though if you want to know about medical research they are who you have to go to. Yet people see doctors often as healers physically, and comforters spiritually (okay both of those will vary from physician to physician just like they vary from person to person, but that's just it. People get that. People know that doctors are fully rounded people with everything that goes with it)

We need to order about twelve dozen more Neil deGrasse Tysons.

Guys let's talk about robots

I'd make a game playing app so all day when I am at work it'd play online to make my gamer scores on 360 and ps3 better lol

Also I've seen that hand before

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Boy is it consistently c-average science student in here or is it just me?

You should let me tutor you!

It won't change your grades or anything, it's just that I'd get to be the one to personally Fail you.

Why is the future about five billion more times exciting than the present? In the future I'll have a car and won't live with my parents. In the future I'm halfheartedly in my first presidential election. In the future I'm (not really) enjoying dorm life. In the future I'm going to Gen Con, perhaps in Cucumber Quest cosplay. In the future the local drugstore calls me in for an interview so I can have a job to pay for all of this.

In the present I have a house to clean. You can guess how that's going.

Maybe it's the dullness of the present that makes the future so attractive. Or maybe it's because I now feel as if I have more to gain from the passage of time than I do to lose from it. Hmmm...

/sips tea thoughtfully

If I lost a hand I would want that robot hand to replace it. Not because I'd be able to do crazy knot-tying tricks with it, but because I could spin it 360 degrees and creep people the fuck out.

In the near future i'll be at home and not in school so yes the future is about five billion more times exciting

YEAAAHHHHH

I just sort of act really casually online, which means that I kind of don't really add "Please" to when I'm asking somebody for something. I simply hope the please is implied. I at the very least try to be grateful when people do help me with shit and thank them, but I don't say please in real life so I don't type it out on the internet. And sure, the impliedness probably doesn't get conveyed as well over text, but I still feel kinda weird when I'm typing something out as myself that isn't something I'd actually say.


A casual setting, mind you. I'll add that shit for sure if it's something professional. It rarely is, though.

I once promised someone I'd do something. They messaged me every day to ask how I was doing on it until I did it. It was not a very cool thing to do. I mean he didn't just go FINISH THAT THING WOFFLES but the fact that he started with an entirely phony hello only to ask about it immediately after I replied with a hello of my own just... kind of made it worse. I can understand being excited about stuff like this, but can you at least assume that I don't live to take care of your things and that I haven't forgotten any more about your favor than I did a day ago?

As a 20something on the internet. I always make sure to be polite if I'm asking something of someone. Especially if it someone I don't know.

Nope. Language means nothing but what it means. If I mean to be polite, why do I have to specifically use the word please? I'm well meaning, I try to be nice about it, what does using one extra word add to it all? It's all just words. It's basically my same argument for why using swear words doesn't mean shit until you apply the meaning to it. Fuck and frick are the same meaning, but one is apparently more offensive. Why does whether or not I use one little word change everything?

I mean, I'm not going to go swearing in front of a nun but I'm not going to suddenly decide to bring out all the 'polite' words in front of the people who already know what I mean.

And like, I still thank people. I'm not "so far gone from polite society" that I'm not going to show appreciation for their help.

It just hate these... expectations from language. Why doesn't what I mean count for more than how I say it?

Not that I'm saying I expect people to be... psychic... but if I don't think this one single word is necessary to convey what I'm trying to say... why would I use it?

Okay I think I'm done with this, if I've proven anything from my five or so edits to this, it's that I'm bad at speaking in general. Maybe I do sound like an asshole. Who knows.

In the interests of not sounding dumb, I have replaced this post with a promise not to continue my argument.
SYNOPSIS: I am not good at speaking. I am still fine with HOW I speak. I disagree with Superfrequency. No further details are required.