Thufir's Third Random Banter #224

[The Fury]

That's horrible. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

I'm pretty much already recovered. Mostly it just hurts when it gets cold out. Plus I got a gnarly-looking scar on the back of my hand. I can mostly get through the day without it hurting, so I'm pretty much fine. Though it's useful to know that I can't use my hand for anything that strenuous. I guess it's lucky that I found out from bowling rather than rock climbing or something.

Oh no D:

I hope things turn around for you, that sucks. I don't suppose using your other hand will help either...

It probably won't. My metal plate is in my right hand, which is my dominant one. Though it's fine. As I mentioned, I've had my metal plate for about two years and this was my first time bowling with it.

The worst part was probably meeting new people when the fracture was still healing and I was out of the splint, just regaining range of motion. I'm sort of a nervous person, and I'm really hesitant to share information about myself to people I don't know. Some people I meet are quick to shake hands, and have really firm handshakes... That's not an experience I'd wish on anyone, both painful and awkward. Though in hindsight, I guess it's a little funny.

[DataNinja]

Imean, I'm not surprised it's egg. I'm just surprised it's cracked in house.

Oh, oops. Yeah, it is. It's probably less messy and easier to transport them in nature's container than pre-crack just to put them in another container. Plus eggs are a lot more painful to un-preserve than things like meat. Can't freeze 'em, certainly.

[Anonymouswizard]

A) ...yes. Yes they do. I know that it does surprise people, but they do use actual food in their, well, food.
(I wouldn't exactly call their ice cream 'ice cream', but, other than that, the food is what it says it is. Well, except for Canadian bacon, which isn't bacon.)

To be fair I think I've only ever seen real bacon in their bacon rolls, everything else uses this fatty stuff that comes in strips instead.

Speaking of food, it's been over a decade since I've had Nutella, and I'm not seeing what all the fuss is about. Sure, it tastes alright, but I've not exactly missed it since I stopped eating it.

[PhyrexianShovel]

To be fair I think I've only ever seen real bacon in their bacon rolls, everything else uses this fatty stuff that comes in strips instead.

Speaking of food, it's been over a decade since I've had Nutella, and I'm not seeing what all the fuss is about. Sure, it tastes alright, but I've not exactly missed it since I stopped eating it.

Meh, I'm not a huge fan of Nutella either. The reason everyone seems to love it is because of people like my friend, who eats a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich every other day as his main meal and will not listen to anyone that tells him it's unhealthy (I'm honestly worried that he'll get diabetes).

[Bartmanhomer]

I have another great idea (I think I've mentioned this at an old Random Banter thread already) What if every member in this forum was a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character. It deserves a video game called Giant In The Playground Ultimate where everybody fights. I'll be a bottom tier character. Somewhere at the bottom 140,000 members section. So what do you think of my idea?

[2D8HP]

Well I feel like....

Sorry you're still down but based on my own experience not surprised.

Unfortunately you're at an age where social connections are harder to find time for compared to just a couple of years ago because you and your peers having less time due to work and other duties.

Besides volunteer work, short romantic 'flings, and other social connections what helped me in my very early 20's to overcome my worst prolonged depression (though part of how bad it was was losing the "in love" bio-chemical 'high') was:

1) Riding motorcycles

2) Time

Alcohol helped, but only when drinking with friends, never alone.

What also didn't help was:

1) Pills (at least of what was available in the 1980's)

2) Therapy

It does get better.

Unfortunately relapses do happen.

It's a bit like having the flu, when you're well you don't think about being sick, and when you're sick all the previous times you were sick become memorable again and being well a dream you had, but the knowledge that you've been there before and gotten better helps.

After quitting motorcycling (I've many acquaintances and friends die while riding) acutely feeling the duty of being a parent helps as "fake it until you make it" really works.

On the plus side of depression: sanguine 2D8HP is a square with really bougeoise tastes, cranky 2D8HP is hipper but still limited, depressive 2D8HP on the gripping hand has wide, and avant-garde tastes, sanguine and cranky are suitably impressed!

[Anonymouswizard]

Meh, I'm not a huge fan of Nutella either. The reason everyone seems to love it is because of people like my friend, who eats a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich every other day as his main meal and will not listen to anyone that tells him it's unhealthy (I'm honestly worried that he'll get diabetes).

Yep, I know somebody who got very emotional when it turned out that it might not be sourced entirely ethically. Some people ate weirdly attached to the stuff.

I have another great idea (I think I've mentioned this at an old Random Banter thread already) What if every member in this forum was a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character. It deserves a video game called Giant In The Playground Ultimate where everybody fights. I'll be a bottom tier character. Somewhere at the bottom 140,000 members section. So what do you think of my idea?

Unfortunately 99% of the characters were made by a bot, because there wasn't the money for enough characters, and around the 27th fighter it ran out of ideas and made everybody else a Captain Falcon clone. After a few thousand it got lazy and the rest are just Captain Falcon.

[Bartmanhomer]

Unfortunately 99% of the characters were made by a bot, because there wasn't the money for enough characters, and around the 27th fighter it ran out of ideas and made everybody else a Captain Falcon clone. After a few thousand it got lazy and the rest are just Captain Falcon.

I'm more like a Ness character than a Captain Falcon character.

[Anonymouswizard]

I'm more like a Ness character than a Captain Falcon character.

Captain Falcon!


@2D8HP: thanks for the advice, I'm going to try to get back into drama, few less tragic accidents than motorcycles.

[Mith]

Captain Falcon!


@2D8HP: thanks for the advice, I'm going to try to get back into drama, few less tragic accidents than motorcycles.

Mac-, *ahem*, I mean The Scottish Play...

[Anonymouswizard]

Mac-, *ahem*, I mean The Scottish Play...

Nah, we actors are too superstitious for that. My troupe only puts on MacBriain, The Irish Play.

The hope is that you'll be so offended by the accents you won't notice that we forgot to change any of the names.

Anyway, I'm all ready for NaNoWriMo, I've got a plot, well most of one, and some random attacks to pad out the word count, all I need to do now is remember to write it.

[SZbNAhL]

A guy on the bus today demanded to beet off in the middle of the street.

There are two possible typos there, and I really hope that you intended to say "get".

All I remember of hollandaise is having to wash the stupid tiny jars of it out at an old job as a dishwasher. Every week or whatever the restaurant'd get a dozen small jars of it (rather than, like, one big one), and then when those were gone they needed to be rinsed. And because they were so small, they were a pain to clean due to the angles the jars had. Frustrating.

The important thing to remember is always to eat it off of hubcaps. As Perry Como once said, there's no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.

[Tvtyrant]

There are two possible typos there, and I really hope that you intended to say "get".

In this case yes. Public transport is fun though, that wouldn't be that out of place. Every adult assault I have witnessed has occured on a bus or train.

There was one time I was waiting for the greyhound, these four dudes were waiting together and three went to thr bathroom. While they were getting very obviously high their friend was arrested and they came back to him just being missing. They were very spooked when they got on the bus.

[LaZodiac]

Wore cat ears around town today, because it's Halloween. Got a few shouts of "cat!", some people saying nice ear, one drunk lady started singing "The cat came back" and I got upstaged by this one lady walking down the street in full Diablo face paint and demon horns.

[Insane Jeenyus]

The important thing to remember is always to eat it off of hubcaps. As Perry Como once said, there's no plate like chrome for the hollandaise.

*shudder* ouch!

I know we can chocolate of puns to you, SZbNAhl, so I need to ketchup.

Spoiler: what I looked like 9 years ago

Show

of course, this is before the induced coma

[Anonymouswizard]

Wore cat ears around town today, because it's Halloween. Got a few shouts of "cat!", some people saying nice ear, one drunk lady started singing "The cat came back" and I got upstaged by this one lady walking down the street in full Diablo face paint and demon horns.

Cat!

I want a kitty, unfortunately I live with parents. Although knowing my luck the kitty wouldn't want to spend time with me and I'd just be even more lonely (also, going to give Bumble another try, maybe women have learnt how to message).

[LaZodiac]

Cat!

I want a kitty, unfortunately I live with parents. Although knowing my luck the kitty wouldn't want to spend time with me and I'd just be even more lonely (also, going to give Bumble another try, maybe women have learnt how to message).

Look I realize sometimes when you're depressed you wanna indulge in your sadness a bit but dude that's just how cats are.

*sends hugs* good luck.

[Anonymouswizard]

Look I realize sometimes when you're depressed you wanna indulge in your sadness a bit but dude that's just how cats are.

*sends hugs* good luck.

Nah, cats have never liked me. They'll snuggle up to everybody else occasionally, but not me. Mao.

And thanks for the hugs, been low on them lately.

[PhyrexianShovel]

Nah, we actors are too superstitious for that. My troupe only puts on MacBriain, The Irish Play.

The hope is that you'll be so offended by the accents you won't notice that we forgot to change any of the names.

Anyway, I'm all ready for NaNoWriMo, I've got a plot, well most of one, and some random attacks to pad out the word count, all I need to do now is remember to write it.

I am too. Recently I looked up the guy who founded it while bored, and it turns out the founder of NaNoWriMo is the husband of an old math teacher of mine. Small world, huh?

[Qwertystop]

I did a Halloween costume! And it looks decent!

Spoiler: image

Show

(I made the cape. Dress is borrowed.)

[Durkoala]

Anyway, I'm all ready for NaNoWriMo, I've got a plot, well most of one, and some random attacks to pad out the word count, all I need to do now is remember to write it.

Same. I've got an idea or two and some old stories I wouldn't mind getting back to, but I'm really bad actually writing them.

[Bartmanhomer]

I scared the Heebies-Jeebies out of everybody today with my Halloween costume today. I was the Glowing Grim Reaper. I did my scary voice and I scare everybody at the parade. I even did a parody song of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the parade. "Let do the death warp again." Everybody was so afraid of my costume. Best Halloween ever.

[Mith]

I did a Halloween costume! And it looks decent!

Spoiler: image

Show

(I made the cape. Dress is borrowed.)

Nice! I like it.

[Anonymouswizard]

I am too. Recently I looked up the guy who founded it while bored, and it turns out the founder of NaNoWriMo is the husband of an old math teacher of mine. Small world, huh?

Same. I've got an idea or two and some old stories I wouldn't mind getting back to, but I'm really bad actually writing them.

Well I've begun writing, and I realised I didn't have the start of the story plotted. Hello very boring opening scene, I'll see if I can fit something more dynamic in before it later. Now I just have to learn how to connect the opening to the main plot (the primaey subplot being engaged in about scene 2).

[Durkoala]

Well I've begun writing, and I realised I didn't have the start of the story plotted. Hello very boring opening scene, I'll see if I can fit something more dynamic in before it later. Now I just have to learn how to connect the opening to the main plot (the primaey subplot being engaged in about scene 2).

Some advice that I hear often (and then never follow...) is to start writing the story from the interesting part and come back and do the boring opening later. I don't know how well it works, as I can never make myself write out of sequence, so make of that what you will.

[Anonymouswizard]

Some advice that I hear often (and then never follow...) is to start writing the story from the interesting part and come back and do the boring opening later. I don't know how well it works, as I can never make myself write out of sequence, so make of that what you will.

What I've started doing is write a scene, slot that into place via Ctrl-X Ctrl-V, and then seeing if I have to write any linking scenes. My novel now begins with the main character getting off the bus to meet their best friend for coffee, and the plan is to now spend about 5000 words easing into the creating life idea that runs through the entire piece. Which means I properly introduce the main villain until about a fifth of the way into this, time to start sprinkling CV lies.

In the plus side I now open with a subversion of 'rainy Britain' and get to use whatever weather pleases me, so I'm aiming for realism with regards to my setting (currently London 2020, considering moving it back about seven years and aging my characters back accordingly).

[LaZodiac]

My method of writing is to, first off, basically just think about nothing else if I'm in a rest period. I can't turn my brain off so whenever I'm not thinking of anything, I'm thinking about writing. When you have a story, think about two things first, in this order;

1: The ending. I don't mean the exact specific events of the ending, but the sort of feelings and ideas and places the ending has you at. To use my own story as an example; the end of my book leaves our heroes bloodied, but triumphant. They're aware of how bad things could have been, and how bad things may continue. Character V has started her path towards violence, Rei and Chloe are in the budding start of their romance, and there's some set up involving Character L.

2: Think about the story beats you want to happen on the way. These can be general things. Again, examples; Rei learns about the supernatural (I want this near the start), Rei tries to become friends with Chloe again (this is a middle thing. It's the point of no return to use a flawed methodology), Character G tells his backstory (A little after the mid point, a way to let the readers in more to the world now that they're hooked and things are serious. Ends on a joke that I think is real funny). These are things you want to touch on, the important moments. Situations that if people where to make AMVs of your book once it gets animated, that would be AMV'd to hell and back.

Then, think about how to connect those. This is typically where I start writing. But with a caveat, and this is the most important caveat to keep in mind.

Sometimes your characters will pull you in a different direction than what you want and nine times out of ten that's probably a good idea. You can still think about how to get to where you want from where your characters are taking you (to cite another example, Rei and Chloe being a romantic item is something introduced as part of me restructuring the entire story from like, chapter 2 onward. I was able to hit all of the story beats I wanted in this altered timeline, just in a different way). It's a good way to show a living, breathing world, and will help the writing naturally flow. When a character is telling you how they'd react instead of you having to think about it, things just go way easier.

But yeah. That's my method. Last year I wrote 10 000 words for Nanowrimo so I think it's a pretty solid strategy, but then that's me. Not everyone is me and you don't have to be me. Be you. Write the way you do. This is just some potentially useful advise to think about.

[DataNinja]

Definitely knowing where you want to end up is important. It took me a while to figure that out, and even now, endings are still the weakest part of anything I write. ...it's really easy to write yourself into a corner, where nothing that you do can seem satisfactory.

[Anonymouswizard]

My method of writing is to, first off, basically just think about nothing else if I'm in a rest period. I can't turn my brain off so whenever I'm not thinking of anything, I'm thinking about writing. When you have a story, think about two things first, in this order;

1: The ending. I don't mean the exact specific events of the ending, but the sort of feelings and ideas and places the ending has you at. To use my own story as an example; the end of my book leaves our heroes bloodied, but triumphant. They're aware of how bad things could have been, and how bad things may continue. Character V has started her path towards violence, Rei and Chloe are in the budding start of their romance, and there's some set up involving Character L.

2: Think about the story beats you want to happen on the way. These can be general things. Again, examples; Rei learns about the supernatural (I want this near the start), Rei tries to become friends with Chloe again (this is a middle thing. It's the point of no return to use a flawed methodology), Character G tells his backstory (A little after the mid point, a way to let the readers in more to the world now that they're hooked and things are serious. Ends on a joke that I think is real funny). These are things you want to touch on, the important moments. Situations that if people where to make AMVs of your book once it gets animated, that would be AMV'd to hell and back.

Then, think about how to connect those. This is typically where I start writing. But with a caveat, and this is the most important caveat to keep in mind.

Sometimes your characters will pull you in a different direction than what you want and nine times out of ten that's probably a good idea. You can still think about how to get to where you want from where your characters are taking you (to cite another example, Rei and Chloe being a romantic item is something introduced as part of me restructuring the entire story from like, chapter 2 onward. I was able to hit all of the story beats I wanted in this altered timeline, just in a different way). It's a good way to show a living, breathing world, and will help the writing naturally flow. When a character is telling you how they'd react instead of you having to think about it, things just go way easier.

But yeah. That's my method. Last year I wrote 10 000 words for Nanowrimo so I think it's a pretty solid strategy, but then that's me. Not everyone is me and you don't have to be me. Be you. Write the way you do. This is just some potentially useful advise to think about.

Yep, I get all this, I know where I'm going and I know some of the pretty major story beats as well as roughly where they go. It can just be hard working out how to begin (do I start with action or go with a slower scene and building suspense?), and I was utterly surprised when I realised that the first thing I wanted to do was introduce the best friend character. She just demanded to get in on the plot and changed her job just to facilitate earlier conversations. Which means I now have to go off and investigate biology so I can write these conversations, because I was banking on the idea that all the biological stuff in the vaguest terms possible.

At the same time, I'm having to deal with a lot of undefined space. There's so many things I know in broad spokes, but a quick change in specifics would alter the meanings of several scenes I've already written. I've to try and keep everybody vaguely on track, even if I'm utterly worried that this meeting between friends is coming off more like a date with your partner of 2 years. A lot is streamlined by my main character having a decent enough idea of the magical world, and some of the supporting characters having a basic idea, so I don't have to go into lengthy discussions and can spread my exposition out compared to some of my last novel attempts.

[DataNinja]

At the same time, I'm having to deal with a lot of undefined space.

Good news! You don't need to worry excessively about it. The universe has to deal with a bunch of that, too, and it's getting along fine.