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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2023

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  • What I think you mean by “natural geography” is just one part of the field. Urban / economic geography (regional dynamics, housing policy, tourism geography, population analysis) and Historical / Social geography (historical urban geography, homelessness, migration, etc) Are big parts of the field of geography. Most of modern geography is interested in both the physical (more geology, climate, biomes, etc) and human aspects, and how they interact.






  • In some fantasy, I guess lay lines, dolmens, stone circles and the like are kinda infrastructure for magic? Totally agree about the programming = magic, and in a “fantasy” world I worked on for a game the twist was that all the ‘magic’ was just programming and hacking the old advanced tech computer / satellite network.

    The “mages” had some augmented reality type implant that allowed them to call up minority report style screens they could interact with, and give verbal commands. But to everyone else they’re just waving their hands through the air in strange patterns and saying gibberish words “sayday spayis slash eih tay say slash”.

    The wizards had no real idea what they were doing, and researching new “spells” was basically the same as a noob trying get some feature working on a remote Linux server with only two partial and contradictory walk-throughs for an earlier version of the distro. So even if they got stuff working, they rarely understood how or why it worked.

    I think it’s really interesting to think about how even though computing is generally objective / logical, if you stripped away all background knowledge and added in a bunch of uncertainty (it’s hard to communicate with the server and sometimes your commands get scrambled, so even the same command might not always work) then you’d end up in a situation quite like ancient / medieval science where people hyothosise about principles and make systems that are helpful, but don’t actually align to what’s really happening.






  • I’m totally the same, but star trek fan, love all the older stuff and have given the new stuff a try but only really love SNW. So many friends are raving about LD but I could get through more than a few episodes. I just didn’t like the characters, or find the plots interesting, and most importantly found it completely unfunny.

    I’m super jealous of all the people who love it, and I’m not criticising it. But I just didn’t connect with the humor, and like most comedies, if you don’t find them funny then characters and plots seem dumb.

    I’m going to persevere and try to make it through the first season, just because I WANT to like it. But humor is personal, and even a good show can’t connect with everyone. I wish I heard more comments saying “it gets better after…” but the people who like it seem to just like it, so I’m not hopeful.



  • I would have misgivings of using the character with René, but it wouldn’t be hard. He’s changeling, god dammit. It was one of the weird conceits of DS9 that odo kept the same humanoid form, and so the changeling who interacted with him did too (along with implausible excuses about “not being able to master the humanoid face”, or the changing virus).

    Having spent time with the founders, you could easily recast “Odo” as a dozen different characters of different species and genders. Perhaps he has transcended the attachment to a single form that he developed from living among solids? I feel like watching some good actors do Odoesque performances could be quite interesting!



  • I don’t know if I’m just being dyslexic, but I don’t feel like I get the core of your problem. Is it that you’re torn between trying to date/hook up with guys (which feels easier but is new?) vs gals (but you’re worried that women will find your advances unwanted?)?

    If I’m understanding you right, then I’ve felt the same way. I’ve actually ended up in a long-term relationship with guy, which isn’t something I’d ever imagined, just because I went through a period of time where I was very stressed and busy and didn’t have time to date girls in the way I’d been used to, but hooking up with guys (via apps) was super easy and stress free. Just happened to meet a guy that I really hit it off with and now we’ve been together a long while.

    Anyway, if you’re worried about guy stuff being new, don’t be! People are people, and in the end every man and women is pretty unique, so what seems like a really different thing (dating a different gender from usual) turns out to just be more variety. If you’re worried about women not wanting to be approached, I think if you do it nicely, in a relaxed and friendly manner and take a hint if they’re not interested then it’s okay!

    And if you’re worried that you somehow need to choose, you don’t! That one of many joys of being bi, is you can be interested in anyone who tickles your fancy!

    Something that I wouldn’t recommend (because I used to do it a lot) is trying to put girls at their ease by dropping hints that I’m bi/queer/interested in guys too. I thought it would help by making me seem less threatening, but only latter found out that depressing number of straight girls have a lot of (subconscious?) biphobia, and assume that if a guy is bi then he’s actually just gay and in denial (or worse, is some sort of std ridden slut).


  • That’s not quite right. Great Britain is the “big island” and the political grouping of England, Wales and Scotland (plus islands). “little Britain” has been used historically to name the island that Ireland/Norther Ireland is on, but that would be pretty controversial now…

    The United Kingdom is the three countries of Great Britain, combined with Northern Ireland. And it’s the “official” country / nation, has a seat of the UN security council etc. But NI, Wales and Scotland are all countries, and in many peoples they’re nations too (depending on how you define such things).



  • It’s not an area I know deeply, but it’s my understanding that certain fonts are more generally “legible” than others (for most people). This study found Arial and Microsoft Sans Serif to “be good and legible fonts” and Tahoma to perform poorly. But overall conclude that as long as people are literate, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

    On a personal level, I do find certain fonts easier to read (especially for complex, run on sentences in journals) but when reading a novel a thematic font can help set the tone. It can even slow down my temptation to skim read and force me to focus on each word, which can be satisfying. So, it’s part preference and part asking what you want the font to do for you - bland, familiar, accessible, easy to skim over? Arial is a good bet. Don’t want people to fee like their in the office while reading your novel? Go with something else.