Messages

16

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Picking Cain's Brains

« on: July 11, 2021, 08:47:16 am »

Hey Cain, what's the deal with the Haitian assassination? Big bag of fun?

Well that the hitters are from Columbia is quite telling.

Columbians are cheap, and usually well-trained. By Americans. My guess is that most of them went through an American-sponsored counter-terrorism or counterinsurgency training program at some point. We know one of them certainly did, Manuel Antonio Grosso. Army, urban counter-terrorism outfit. Likely several of the others also. Two US-citizens of Haitian descent were also arrested alongside them.

However, the opposition in Haiti are claiming that Moïse’s own Presidential guard did it. There's also some time discrepancies on the Colombian hitters story, video reportedly does show them arriving...at least an hour later then initial reports have said.

Working theory? Moïse was whacked by a team put together by the Americans for this kind of work in the central Americas. Now whether the Americans were explicitly on the trigger on this it's harder to say...it wouldn't surprise me, but at the same time it doesn't take a genius to hire a bunch of paramilitaries for an assassination, and if the CIA can do it, then Haitian oligarchs also certainly can. We also know the Americans have been a bit trigger-happy with their cut-outs in that region of late, so it's possible the DIA or CIA or someone is making their own foreign policy.

Beyond that, I'll have to look into who Moïse has been pissing off lately, and who's most likely to step into his shoes.

I was just reading that he was getting in the way of profits for some of the fat cats who have been more or less running the joint since 2010.

By which I mean drug traffickers.

17

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 11, 2021, 08:45:40 am »

Birds cannot be trusted.  They are not on our side.

I warned everyone.

A single blow to the back of the head, and my perspective is irrevocably changed.

Is this a kind of enlightenment?  But it came not from the cudgel of a well-meaning Buddhist monk, but from a black-winged devil.

The crows are everywhere.  How did I not notice this before?  Every time I leave the house, they're there, shrieking, rasping, lurking, glaring with soulless eyes.  They're almost always in groups of 3 or 4, and seem to have a affinity for parks.  They are intensely territorial, and will scream continuously if they consider me an intruder....which seems to be about half the time.

Now, whenever I hear a crow, or see one, I snap into a heightened level of awareness.  I need to know where they are and what they are doing.  I am beginning to learn their language.  When I walk past a group, I turn to watch them, in case one decides to swoop down on me.

And one did, this morning, in a park far removed from the earlier attack.  As I passed, it started circling at a low altitude, perhaps just warning me off, but maybe looking for an opening to attack.  But I kept turning to face it, maintained eye contact, and it broke off and perched on a lamppost.  If it had actually dove, I would have tried to knock it away.  I don't know what the outcome of that would be, but I think I'd rather take damage to an arm than to my face.

I'm starting to think about maintaining air cover while I walk.  Directly under a tree, I'm likely safe; but a short distance from a tree, or anywhere out in the open, I'm a target.  There really aren't many safe spaces, when you start to think about it.

Crows, it turns out, are the only creatures other than humans to "know what they know".  They do this intentionally, not as some kind of instinct.

Exterminate the brutes.

18

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 11, 2021, 08:44:19 am »

how far the mighty have fallen

I would have ms-painted that, for old times sake, but for some reason I thought it would be easier to do it in photoshop... so I spent 5 minutes trying to find the right font / stroke width for pi and then i got shot by a laser and died


THE END .... ?

Yeah, one day you're CRAMMING REMINGTON'S GRAM and then you're clocking in at the 9-5 and then your hair falls out.

This is what happens when you go cold turkey off of fake mustaches.

19

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 04, 2021, 07:24:03 am »

Yesterday the temperature in Saskatoon reached 39C and it was too hot and then everybody died.

The End.

Welcome to Tucson.

20

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 02, 2021, 10:30:27 pm »

possible to add an fill-in-the-blank question to registration? Just something like "if you're not a bot, type hello "

Theres actually two questions and a google captcha, which makes me think they are circumventing the registration process in some way (smf bug or outdated issue)

The one thing that would really help but I just have not had the time to do is integrate stopforumspam for their api, which would check if the email or domain is a dodgy one.
so even if they get past the registration process it just auto shitcans them at the end.

No rush, it's not the end of the world.  It's just a pain in the ass.

21

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 02, 2021, 04:20:40 pm »

possible to add an fill-in-the-blank question to registration? Just something like "if you're not a bot, type hello "

Faust has tried all manner of things.  I'm not sure if the software allows that.

22

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 01, 2021, 10:28:39 pm »

One proof that capitalism is fucked in the head is the sheer number of ad bots trying to get onto a BBS that has maybe 5 people posting 5 times a week.

Jesus Christ, it never ends.

23

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: July 01, 2021, 06:13:36 pm »

you realise your home is a Saw like deathtrap and literally everything needs to be locked up or get coated in rubber.

THIS.  Toddlers are self-destruction machines that will go totally haywire the moment you turn your back.

24

Apple Talk / Re: The Compleat Billy Chronicles (thanks to Zenpatista)

« on: July 01, 2021, 06:07:38 pm »

Today at work:

Luis:  "I think I'm ready to retire."

Me:  "By an odd coincidence, your pay went up $5/hour."

Luis:  "But I'm tired.  I want to go home.  I'll be 69 next week."

Me:  "If you work a year or two at the new rate, your social security checks will be measurably larger, AND you'll get the higher rate for late retirement."

Luis:  "You son of a bitch."

Me:  "We're going to do great things.  Forever."

25

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: June 30, 2021, 09:43:20 pm »

Donald Rumsfeld croaked.

Boy, today has been a mixed bag.

26

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: June 30, 2021, 09:39:27 pm »

Also, they let Bill Cosby out of jail because the DA fucked up.

27

Aneristic Illusions / Re: Random News Stories

« on: June 30, 2021, 07:19:16 pm »

To avoid having to raise wages post-pandemic, Russell Stover is now using prison labor in their facilities.

I expect a lot of this to go around.

28

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: June 30, 2021, 03:57:34 pm »

Creative geniuses are fungible.

The internet has brought in a golden age of access to, and ability to discover, new media. There is no shortage of talented people producing high-quality entertainment.  Sure, you won't find writers like Ellis hanging out in every coffeeshop, but he doesn't have a monopoly, or anything.  You don't feel like supporting one writer, for whatever reason, you can find another.


...I've been toying the above theory for a while, now, but I don't know if I actually believe it.  Could you replace a Gen Urobuchi, or a Yoko Kanno?  My gut says no.

And I knew Ellis was an asshole, but I watched season 4 of Castlevania anyway.

Warren Ellis can kiss my entire ass.  I didn't think much of him as a person before the blow up, because he's an arrogant windy bastard who is often too impressed with himself to, you know, write.

However, he CAN write.  Fell is a story I have wanted finished for more than a decade, and he's got Ben Templesmith back on board.

And, as Altered says

Speaking for myself, some kinds of hurt cut too close to the bone for me to deal with. Being near some kinds of people is as dangerous to me as if they were actually doing shit to me. I can acknowledge and understand cancelling creators. I do it myself. I don’t think anyone here listens to Lostprophets or Ted Nugent, reads the really racist Lovecraft stuff (I mean yeah it’s all racist as fuck but some of it is waaaay worse than others), or so on and so forth.

There is for every person a line.  JK Rowling is a good example.  She is so wealthy she can literally do whatever she chooses, but what she chooses to do is spend all of her time on hate campaigns against transgender folks.  This crosses the line between "Arrogant bastard writer" and "Literally reading fiction written by Goebbels."  I wouldn't use one of her books as a doorstop.

Lovecraft is another type of case, where he had personal failings and odious habits that really only impacted those in direct proximity to him, but he was a shitty writer.  He was a great world builder, and I read stuff set in his setting all the time, just not HIS work.  Because the racism and misogyny is embedded in every line, on top of the fact that he never ended a story properly in his life.

I won't touch his stuff, whereas I will read Robert E Howard if nothing else is available.  He was also a great world builder and a shitty writer, but he had black folks as heroes and villains, and women as heroes and villains, and in each case, the person (good or bad) had a personality written into the story so that you'd know why they were good or bad...Whereas Lovecraft relied on the fact that they were all smudgy so therefore evil.

To me, this entire thing took Warren Ellis from "someone I'd like to meet for a VERY short time" to "shut up and write."  The critical difference being that unlike Rowling, Ellis doesn't use his platform or his writing to spread hate, he's just a shitty person.

29

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: June 30, 2021, 03:45:23 pm »

Ill have to watch that, since baba I don't play much of the long story games, just stuff I can play for 10 min or so and put down

hahah is this my fate? to only play games in 10 min chunks?
baby sleeps sometimes though, right? Surely you can fit in an RPG now and then? he asked hopefully

Baby sleeps.  After about 6 months.  You have no chance to survive, make your time.

30

Apple Talk / Re: Open Bar: Curbside Pickup Only

« on: June 29, 2021, 07:28:01 pm »

Also

All of the women, those who are trans, those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community, all of the POC, all those who love this medium as much as you do, all of whom create such wonderful, beautiful work and deserve to feel welcome and to belong in this industry, where do we go? Because we can’t stay here.

This sounds like a self-inflicted wound.  I work with a couple of genuinely bad people, real predators.  I could quit, I suppose, while holding my nose and having the vapors.  Instead, I will continue to work and earn my money and make things rough on the two bastards when I have half a chance.