reply via reblog

I’m Officially In The Bay!

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

{{previous post in sequence}}

sdhs-rationalist:

brin-bellway:

sinesalvatorem:

Well, I’ve been in the Bay for 15 hours, but I didn’t have wifi for most of that time. However, I now have wifi so I can now tell you that I made it!

When I arrived at the airport there were a bunch of people waiting there to meet me. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of their Tumblr urls in the meantime. I remember @theunitofcaring, @endecision, @ozymandias271, @michaelblume, @luminousalicorn, and @chroniclesofrettik were there. I also remember a bunch of other people by face/voice.

We played a dice farming game, because Kelsey had a bag of 150 dice on her, because Kelsey. Alicorn was the most successful dice tycoon, while most of my dice died of malaria. We then located our cars, while singing the Hamilton soundtrack, and migrated to a sushi restaurant.

Alas, the sushi restaurant was out of sushi. This is apparently a thing that happens. We moved from there to another restaurant where we discussed the morality of Sith lords, the moral relevance of orcs, unprincipled exceptions in politics, and how exciting it was to have acquired an Alison.

Then everyone drifted off to their homes. Kelsey and I went back to her dorm room and cuddled a lot. It was during the cuddles that it really hit me that I had made it. It stopped feeling like a dream. I was safe. I was home.

I slept well last night.

*cheering, also aww-ing*

(By the way, I think you need to update your Tumblr timezone setting. My brain’s timezone-translation subroutine is throwing an exception: Error: Feb 3, 2016 3:21 pm PST has not occurred.)

Tumblr has timezone settings?

I assumed it just took the d&t from the computer where the post was made.

Also, :D :D :D :D we have successfully acquired an alison

Hmm, yeah, I’m not seeing a button for it. Might be her computer’s timezone that needs updating, then.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #:D indeed

{{next post in sequence}}

I’m Officially In The Bay!

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

sinesalvatorem:

Well, I’ve been in the Bay for 15 hours, but I didn’t have wifi for most of that time. However, I now have wifi so I can now tell you that I made it!

When I arrived at the airport there were a bunch of people waiting there to meet me. Unfortunately, I have forgotten most of their Tumblr urls in the meantime. I remember @theunitofcaring, @endecision, @ozymandias271, @michaelblume, @luminousalicorn, and @chroniclesofrettik were there. I also remember a bunch of other people by face/voice.

We played a dice farming game, because Kelsey had a bag of 150 dice on her, because Kelsey. Alicorn was the most successful dice tycoon, while most of my dice died of malaria. We then located our cars, while singing the Hamilton soundtrack, and migrated to a sushi restaurant.

Alas, the sushi restaurant was out of sushi. This is apparently a thing that happens. We moved from there to another restaurant where we discussed the morality of Sith lords, the moral relevance of orcs, unprincipled exceptions in politics, and how exciting it was to have acquired an Alison.

Then everyone drifted off to their homes. Kelsey and I went back to her dorm room and cuddled a lot. It was during the cuddles that it really hit me that I had made it. It stopped feeling like a dream. I was safe. I was home.

I slept well last night.

*cheering, also aww-ing*

(By the way, I think you need to update your Tumblr timezone setting. My brain’s timezone-translation subroutine is throwing an exception: Error: Feb 3, 2016 3:21 pm PST has not occurred.)

Tags:

#unless of course you are actually writing from four hours in the future #in which case could you ask near-future me if she liked her dinner? #Mom talked Brother into making something new and I’d like to know if I need a backup plan #reply via reblog #home of the brave #(yes yes I’m sure I could do way more with having a contact in the near future) #(not the point)

{{next post in sequence}}

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

{{previous post in sequence}}

sinesalvatorem:

brin-bellway:

sinesalvatorem:

I am amused to see a bunch of posts saying “tag 12 followers…” in my social sphere, because

Like,

The 12 is a lie. The OP that I got the meme from said “20”. It just so happens that, when I wrote my entry, I only thought of 12 people to tag off the top of my head.

Then I thought “Should I look at my follower list? Why? Because a meme told me to? HA! I am an independent black woman and I don’t need no meme tellin me what to do.” And I snapped my fingers three times to level up my inner goddess.

And now there are a bunch of people using something that I pulled out of my arse as if it had been declared by G-d Himself. I’m no long sure whether my name is ‘Alexander Hamilton’ or ‘Moses’.

…are you okay? The level of superiority oozing off this post is really out of character for you.

I’m not sure whether the problem is with the sender or the receiver, but clearly at least one of us is fucked up right now.

Oh nooooo. I’m not sure whether this means I should have just avoided the joke to begin with, or been more ridiculously over-the-top to make sure it would be interpreted as a joke. It’s very distressing to learn that I landed in the uncanny valley of unironic superiority. Should I just delete this?

“I’m not sure whether this means I should have just avoided the joke to begin with, or been more ridiculously over-the-top to make sure it would be interpreted as a joke.”

Hmm. Assessing it from that viewpoint, I think the main problem is that you didn’t use your “not serious” tag. I mean, if we start from the assumption that it’s not going to have that tag, you could maybe have compensated by adding more over-the-top-ness, but as I understand it “making sure it’s 100% clear a jokingly mean post was not genuinely mean, in case it turns out to be insufficiently over-the-top on its own” is that tag’s main purpose (or one of its main purposes, anyway).

“Should I just delete this?”

I’m not sure how much that would accomplish? I think if I were you, I would edit the post’s tags to add the “not serious” tag and a commentary tag explaining that the “not serious” tag was originally missing. That would probably minimise both distress and confusion among people catching up later.

(I just remembered that in the tags of your reply, you referred to confusion as one of the reactions people might have to the OP. When I say “and confusion”, I’m referring to the possibility of latecomers finding taken-seriously reblogs of an OP that either A: doesn’t exist, or B: said explicitly in its tags that it was joking, depending on which of those you did.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

sinesalvatorem:

I am amused to see a bunch of posts saying “tag 12 followers…” in my social sphere, because

Like,

The 12 is a lie. The OP that I got the meme from said “20”. It just so happens that, when I wrote my entry, I only thought of 12 people to tag off the top of my head.

Then I thought “Should I look at my follower list? Why? Because a meme told me to? HA! I am an independent black woman and I don’t need no meme tellin me what to do.” And I snapped my fingers three times to level up my inner goddess.

And now there are a bunch of people using something that I pulled out of my arse as if it had been declared by G-d Himself. I’m no long sure whether my name is ‘Alexander Hamilton’ or ‘Moses’.

…are you okay? The level of superiority oozing off this post is really out of character for you.

I’m not sure whether the problem is with the sender or the receiver, but clearly at least one of us is fucked up right now.

Tags:

#or ‘was fucked up at the start’ I guess #I mean definitely I’m fucked up *now* #because *damn* does this hit my ‘following rules is against the rules’ buttons #eventually I managed to come up with a reasonably polite phrasing for this post #the original had a lot more swearing and italics #reply via reblog

{{next post in sequence}}

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ilzolende:

Name: Ilzolende “Ilzo” Kiefer

Tagged by: @sinesalvatorem, @arbitrarilychosen, @ozymandias271

Sign: I think the last time I had to make up a name for myself in ASL it was the computer symbol, but with my first initial instead of the letter “c”. So, for your purposes, IIRC, my right hand forming the letter “I” and bouncing along my left arm. Alternately, the image in my sidebar.

Height: 4’11”, 5’ if I puff up my hair and wear bulky shoes and smile at the measurer.

Average hours of sleep: No comment.

Lucky number: Sm0lzolende liked reciting powers of two.

Last thing Googled: “metal laf”

Number of blankets I sleep with: 1 blanket and 1 duvet.

Favourite fictional character: The Bell template from @luminousalicorn

Favourite book: Off Armageddon Reef?

What are you wearing right now: Jeans, button-down blouse (I think I wore this one to Solstice), bathrobe.

When did I start this blog: 2015-01

Amount of followers: 302

What do I post mostly: School stuff, morally iffy speciesism, website aesthetics, generic somewhat angry transhumanism.

Do I run any more blogs? [soon-to-be-deleted failed sideblog], ilzolende.neocities.org (which has much of the content of the failed sideblog), my Diaspora*.

Most active follower: @sinesalvatorem talks to me the most, @brin-bellway likes lots of my stuff.

What made me get a Tumblr: Wanting to interact with cool rationalists.

Why did I get this URL: Picking a name from my list of Rinkworks-generated PC names for tabletop gaming that had no other associations in Google.

Tagging: @theicalife, @blastfarmer, @thetransintransgenic, @jaiwithani, anyone else tagged in this post, anyone else interested.

You’re at least the fourth person to say that about me. Apparently I must be rather more free with likes for people I follow than most people are.

Tags:

#reply via reblog

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

lucassfilm:

 

sdhs-rationalist:

scientiststhesis:

4lung:

brotoro:

niamhrhymeswithleave:

Help me what is an apple Luke trousers

honey

FUC

someone explain this to the non-native-English-speaker?

native english speaker, just as lost as you are

I tried using the XKit TagViewer on this post and got several people saying the punchline was “Apple Bottom Jeans”.

I still don’t get it. I mean, I’m guessing it’s some kind of joke about Luke Skywalker’s sexual inclinations, but what the hell are “apple bottom jeans”? Is that like a bell bottom?

Apparently it’s a brand. *shrug*

Tags:

#reply via reblog #explaining the joke #in which the joke turns out to have multiple layers of incomprehensibility

brin-bellway asked: (1/2) Re “why do I follow you”: you were part of the amorphous collection of rationalist blogs I poke at sometimes to see if they’ve said anything interesting. This is how my following-new-Tumblrs process tends to work in general:

~ Brin ~ 2 Comments

{{previous post in sequence}}

sdhs-rationalist:

brin-bellway:

sdhs-rationalist:

(2/2) I start off by checking in manually every so often, and if I find myself checking frequently enough (and don’t have any particular desire to save their posts for when I feel like reading them specifically), I eventually figure I might as well just follow them. Your process was a little bit accelerated because I responded to your post asking for new people to talk to, which prompted the same “well, if I’m going to do that, I’ve clearly reached the point where I should follow them” reaction.

Interesting, and good to know.

What first brought this blog to your notice?

Your interactions with other rationalist-sphere people that I already followed. Probably Alison was the plurality of it, but she was definitely not the only contributor.

Ok.

(That was what I assumed, but it doesn’t have good implications for future expansion unless I’ve already hit a critical mass)

Why does it have bad implications? Is the implication that pretty much everyone who was going to encounter your posts already has?

If so, bear in mind that not all blogs are firmly associated with a single community. I count about half a dozen recognisable blogospheres represented among my <150 followers. I’ve definitely ended up introducing things and people to spheres that wouldn’t have encountered them otherwise, even when I wasn’t intentionally trying to spread the word. I doubt I’m the only one, either.

Tags:

#reply via reblog

{{next post in sequence}}

brin-bellway asked: (1/2) Re “why do I follow you”: you were part of the amorphous collection of rationalist blogs I poke at sometimes to see if they’ve said anything interesting. This is how my following-new-Tumblrs process tends to work in general:

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

sdhs-rationalist:

(2/2) I start off by checking in manually every so often, and if I find myself checking frequently enough (and don’t have any particular desire to save their posts for when I feel like reading them specifically), I eventually figure I might as well just follow them. Your process was a little bit accelerated because I responded to your post asking for new people to talk to, which prompted the same “well, if I’m going to do that, I’ve clearly reached the point where I should follow them” reaction.

Interesting, and good to know.

What first brought this blog to your notice?

Your interactions with other rationalist-sphere people that I already followed. Probably Alison was the plurality of it, but she was definitely not the only contributor.

Tags:

#reply via reblog

{{next post in sequence}}

Anonymous asked: is this your first time watching star wars?

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

sinesalvatorem:

Yep! Due to generally low levels of exposure to American media, plus ADHDish issues that prevent me from focusing on a film unless I’m watching it with someone, I had not seen any of the Star Wars movies until yesterday.

However, yesterday, @rusalkii and I scheduled some time together (because we are girlfriends) and watched A New Hope (because we are nerds) and bitched about it the whole time (because we are Jews).

*late Star Wars watching fistbump*

I watched it for the first time about a month ago. It didn’t live up to the hype, but really, nothing could.

(I did find out that Toy Story (and especially its spinoff series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) contains even more Star Wars references than I thought it did. Clearly, then, I did level up in cultural literacy, which is the primary thing I wanted out of watching A New Hope, so in that respect it succeeded.)

(Personally, I only bitch about videos the whole time if I’m re-watching them or if I actually hate them. If I don’t hate it and haven’t seen it before, I stay quiet while the video’s on. After all, if I talk during the video, I’ll miss even more of it than I normally would.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #Star Wars #I have an unfortunate tendency to treat TV and movies like audioplays with a *bit* of visual enhancement #I’ll get the broad outline of the visuals and miss most of the details #ask me how many times someone I was watching with said ‘Oh my god the look on his face!’ while I was completely ignoring the guy’s face #(if you ask me I can’t actually answer because I have long since lost count) #(relatedly I would never have guessed that people hate on Keanu Reeves if I hadn’t been told) #(I can fairly often tell when someone is a *bad* actor) #(but the difference between a good actor and an aggressively mediocre one is pretty much all in things I don’t notice anyway)

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

responsible-reanimation:

As president, my first executive order will be to make it a felony to use popular messaging programs’ notification chimes in techno songs.

I suppose that might reduce the number of incidents of mistaking music for being called (though I have never encountered your specific variation of the problem myself), but your brain would still find something to latch onto sometimes. There’s a bit in the background of a Florence and the Machine song that coincidentally resembles the sound of my mother distantly calling my name. It’s the exact right amount of distant for her being in her bedroom and me being in the living room wearing earbuds. (Guess what the most common circumstances are for me listening to that song.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #music

{{next post in sequence}}