Can we talk about me now? (Open bar thread #3,494)

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

For strangers, I'd just as soon return to the days of formal address by honorarium and last name, because I'm not that keen on people I don't know using my first name without permission.

So, is that "Dark Empress Nigel" or "Queen Skinsaw"?   

Yes.

[Juana]

I hate petnames. Hate hate hate them. From everyone, but especially from strangers. They are condescending and full of false intimacy. People who know me know better than to use them with me.

What do you mean by "petnames"? To me, a pet name is an affectionate name that is given you by someone who knows you well. Like my friends calling me K-dogg.

Do you mean things like "hon" and "sweetie" from strangers? That has always seemed deeply inappropriate to me because they are intimate terms of address.

"K-Dogg" I would classify as a nickname, which are different than a pet name and are things I like. Pet names would be, yeah, "hon" and "sweetheart" and the like, which I don't like from ANYONE.

Pretty sure that pet names are normally defined as affectionate nicknames between people who are close, FYI. You're referring to terms of endearment, which are not appropriate, IMO, from those who are not actually dear to us.

OIC. I've usually seen them as pet names, but the more you know.

I hate petnames. Hate hate hate them. From everyone, but especially from strangers. They are condescending and full of false intimacy. People who know me know better than to use them with me.

What do you mean by "petnames"? To me, a pet name is an affectionate name that is given you by someone who knows you well. Like my friends calling me K-dogg.

Do you mean things like "hon" and "sweetie" from strangers? That has always seemed deeply inappropriate to me because they are intimate terms of address.

"K-Dogg" I would classify as a nickname, which are different than a pet name and are things I like. Pet names would be, yeah, "hon" and "sweetheart" and the like, which I don't like from ANYONE.

I like 'em, when it's my wife saying them.  She is the one person that doesn't annoy me by shortening my name.

Or, hell, my daughter (Baldy, Old Man, etc)

I know what you mean about the diminutives. Occasionally someone will decide to call me "Kal", which I fucking loathe. I am fine with "K-rah" and I will tolerate "Lera" but I fucking. HATE. Kal. Anyone who calls me "Kal" doesn't know me well enough to attempt to use a diminutive of my name.

"Nig" is fine though. Which reminds me of a story, which is that in my local BBS group of friends back in the dialup days, we had this girl, Laughing Toad. One day, while registering on a BBS, she mistyped her name as "Laughnig Toad". She was black, and everyone thought this was adorable and funny and we called her "Nig". One day, a new guy came along, and he was HORRIFIED AND OUTRAGED because someone referred to Nig, and he went BAAAAWWWWW RACISM!

And then Nig was all, duh, it's my name, also I'm black, and verily, he was embarrassed. And we all had a good laugh, The end.

For me, it's more that shortening the name implies a level of familiarity.  Having someone I'm not that familiar with shorten my name is an intrusion into my space, if you know what I mean.  It's having that person interject him/herself into a level of relationship that I find uncomfortable in the extreme.

I know what you mean.

I hate it even more when people decide to use a shortened version of my legal name (it happens A LOT with people who know it, which is why I never ever give it out). It's extremely disrespectful. The name I give people is the name I want them to use. If they can come up with some sort of pet name around the one I give them, that's fine. But my name is not Cat or, god forbid, Kat.

For strangers, I'd just as soon return to the days of formal address by honorarium and last name, because I'm not that keen on people I don't know using my first name without permission.

This is why I wait until someone gives me the okay to use their first name most of the time.

Also, saw the best Republican sticker today: Romney-Ryan Hope for the Unborn.

I alternately wanted to giggle and throw up a little bit.

Sounds like they support the Unborn, eldritch things that are not gods because they were never alive in the first place, and can also never die.

THIS EXPLAINS EVERYTHING!

They feed the Unborn on the misery of the poor, sick, and suffering, and in return the Unborn help them consolidate their power, which is why they are so desperate to force impoverished women, underage girls, and struggling single mothers to have more babies, and why they are against social safety nets and universal healthcare.

[Don Coyote]

The petname thing pisses my wife off when someone who isn't me uses one.

[Cain]

Charles Stross has a better explanation for it, from his excellent Laundry series:

"Outside the edge of our conscious perceptions, the walls between the worlds are thinning.  Things that listen to thoughts and attend are gathering, shadows and fragments of cognition and computation.  The Laundry has a code name for this phenomenon: CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN.  Magick is a branch of applied mathematics: solve theorems, invoke actions, actions occur.  Program computers to do ditto, actions occur faster and more reliably.  So far so good, this is what I do for a living.  But consciousness is also a computational process.  Human minds are conscious, there are too damn many of us in too small a volume of space on this planet right now, and we're damaging the computational ultrastructure of our reality.  Too much of our kind of magic going on makes magic easier to perform - for a while, until space itself rips open and the nightmares come out to play."

"CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is the code name for the end of the world.

[...]

To put it bluntly, there are too many humans on the planet.  Six-billion plus primates.  And we think too loudly.  Our brains are neurocomputers, incredibly complex.  The more observers there are, the more quantum wierdness is observed, and the more inconsistencies creep into our reality.  The wierdness is already going macroscopic - has been, for decades, as any disciple of Forteana could tell you.  Sometime soon, we are going to cross a critical threshold which, in combination with our solar system's ongoing drift through a stellar neighbourhood where space itself is stretched thin, is going to make it likely that certain sleeping agencies will stir in their aeons-long slumber, and notice us.

[...]

No, we can't make CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN go away by holding a brisk nuclear wear and frying the guys with the biggest dicks - induced megadeaths have consequences that can be exploited for much the same ends, as the Ahnererbe-SS discovered to their cost.

CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is the demonological equivalent of an atomic chain reaction.  Human minds equal plutonium nuclei.  Put too many together in too small a place, and they begin to get a wee bit hot.  Cross the threshold and suddenly and emphatically they get a lot hot.  And the elder gods wake up, smell the buffet, and prepare to tuck in."

In the series, the link between religious cults, high birth-rates and elder gods trying to speed up the CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN scenario are made very explicit.

[Don Coyote]

WHAT THE FUCK??
I guess I have to add that to the stack of books to read.

I finished reading M. Butterfly, the play about the French diplomat who was seduced by the male Chinese actor thinking he was a woman. In short, to the West the East is a woman who wants to be raped.

[Freeky]

HAY BRAINMEAT. YOU KNOE WAT WOULD BE SUPER AWESOME?  SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT EVERYTHING AND STOP OBSESSING SO I CAN SLEEP, TGAT WOULD BE SUPER AWESOME.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am now drunk, apropos of nothing.

My ex opened his bar tonight (not especially related to me being drunk) and I went to the opening, picking up the kids on the way on the ex's request, and had two drinks. HC met me there, which alleviated my boredom considerably. Also I enjoyed introducing HC to my ex, because HC very tall and handsome and dimpled etc. and it's always nice in a probably very petty way to show up at an ex-event with someone super hot. Oh hai, remember 13 years ago when you didn't like me nagging you about trashing the house? Look who does my dishes and buys my dinner. And rubs my back, lol.

Anyway, wow this is a boring story in which nothing really happens! On the way home I bought a six pack because I don't have to be at school until 11, and now I have had three of them. I am totally going to regret the shit out of this in the morning, aren't I?

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Just dont forget about water and you should be relatively ok.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Just dont forget about water and you should be relatively ok.

I am about to eat some chicken wings.

GOOD REMINDER ABOUT WATER! I will get myself some now.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Tonight my daughter asked me what the odds are, between me and her dad, that she will be a lightweight with regards to alcohol. I said "probably about 50/50". 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

When we were young, he used to brag that I was half his size but could drink him under the table and kick his ass. Probably both true. But I got all lightweighted somewhere in the last couple years. Beer especially... I can still take down four ciders if they aren't too strong, but beer will kick my ASS. And bourbon, my old friend, just flat out destroys me.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Might get some water myself. My mouth and throat feel a bit dry.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Boyfriend is asleep THAT'S STUPID. He should be entertaining me. 

[Cain]

WHAT THE FUCK??
I guess I have to add that to the stack of books to read.

They're quite fun, while nothing too heavy.

Essential plot synopsis: somewhat geekish British hacker is recruited into the top secret intelligence agency that deals with the threat of the elder gods deciding we would make an excellent appetizer.  However, as a government agency, said threat is dealt with large amounts of paperwork, training courses and little in the way of any kind of budget.

[Luna]

Boyfriend is asleep THAT'S STUPID. He should be entertaining me. 

If you can't think of at least six entertaining ways to wake him...