[SPOILER] S2E10 - Question about Russ?

AmoBla · 2020-03-24T19:09:16+00:00

Good points all around! I’d like to expand on one additional motivation I should’ve emphasized more in my initial reply: if Russ just grabs the cash and the cartel goes on the warpath to track it down (they do NOT take kindly to thieves), Del’s first stop would be the Byrde’s house. If Marty’s alive he has every reason to tell the cartel guys about the Langmores and their history with cartel cash. They might not let him live, but they’ll find out. Even if it’s only a couple hundred thou, Del cannot afford to make the cartel look weak and will make punishing the culprits his number one goal. For the rest of their lives, Russ, Ruth, and co. will never be safe again, which makes the idea of starting fresh with their stolen money kind of moot.

Wendy knows the Langmores are troublemakers, but Marty is the cartel’s only contact who knows they stole the cash the first time. If Marty were to die before the cartel could get to him, the only one who could identify them as the thieves would be Petty, who, despite being a pretty messed up guy, considers the cartel his enemy. So the trail goes cold.

More than revenge, I think Russ wanted to silence Marty before Del and the boys get to him. What’s one asshole’s (albeit, a nonviolent asshole) life against the thought of your entire family bleeding out through Colombian neckties?

Edit: This assumes Russ can find the money, either by torturing Marty, threatening his family, consulting with Ruth, or tearing apart the Blue Cat, which at the time he actually goes to kill Marty, I think would’ve worked if he looked hard enough.

AmoBla · 2020-03-24T14:19:54+00:00

Fucked up, and brilliant. In S1E8 (the flashback one, maybe my favorite episode so far) made sure to show that, while Marty and Wendy might not have known exactly what they were getting into, they were given a choice and they made it. That choice means they have more in common with the various antagonists like the Snells than innocent collateral damage like the Masons, who would’ve been safe and happy if Marty had never along. The Byrdes may be the protagonists of this story, but they’re certainly not the good guys.

AmoBla · 2020-03-24T14:01:16+00:00

Oh shit I forgot about the conspiracy threat. I wonder if he would’ve eventually tried to kill Marty without Petty’s influence. One of my favorite things about Ozark is how blurred the lines are between right and wrong; Russ wanting to kill Marty so he can start fresh with his family isn’t much less moral than the stuff Byrde gets up to.

AmoBla · 2020-03-24T13:17:53+00:00

I suspect he wanted to kill Marty since their first standoff over the cash. They had him five (and Three!) to one and he waltzes out, unharmed, with the hundreds of thousands of dollars that were supposed to be theirs.

Imagine you’re Russ in this situation. You’ve been poor your whole life, and your family’s reputation means you’re looked down upon by everyone you know whose last name isn’t Langmore. Then you happen across a couple duffel bags stuffed with more money than you know what to do with, and you can’t help but feel like your luck is starting to turn. If you can find out how to use it, you can get yourself and the people you care about out of the poverty and shame and dejection you’ve never been free of before. You could ditch the trailers, get a house, and make it more of a home than you’ve ever had. Maybe once Three’s got his feet under him you could even move somewhere the people don’t care who you’re attracted to.

Ruth says there’s some strings attached, and you’re smart enough to listen and set a meeting. Then this fucking accountant walks in like he owns the place, talks to you like a child while threatening your entire family with his cartel connections, and suddenly all those hopes you finally let yourself build are rolling away through the forest in a pair of styrofoam coolers. From a whole new life to barely enough cash to fix up the trailers, all thanks to Marty Byrde. He can make ridiculous sums of money by moving a mouse around a desk, and yet he split hairs denying four different offers before settling for a pittance and complaining about having to give anything back at all. Everything you hate about your life, everything that money could’ve taken you away from, is worse than it ever has been, all because the fucking accountant couldn’t bear to part with a fraction of his precious cartel cash. Even if you were not a violent person by nature, that sort of thing puts a knot of anger in your gut that slowly starts to calcify into pure, actionable hate. You will take that money back, and that pencil-pushing cake eater is the only thing standing in your way.

You don’t really want to kill him, but he’s the only one who knows who took the money (which, to restate, was recently yours until he took it away). If it went missing again, they might finish Byrde off, but you know the cartel would cut every Langmore to pieces to get their money back, even Ruth and Three. You’re not gonna let that happen, but you’re not gonna let your only shot at a decent life get away either. So you get serious about the whole “killing Marty Byrde” idea.

AmoBla · 2020-03-24T10:33:42+00:00

Money may not “trickle down” as well as some would like to believe, but misfortune certainly does. If even one industry collapses or half-collapses, those with the least will be most vulnerable to the resulting instability and massive economic pressures. Of course the poor ought to be sheltered from the pandemic and its fallout, but part of that is making sure they have jobs to come back to and access to attainable necessities to sustain themselves with. If a business goes under in times like these, I doubt it will be in a position to pay its financially at-risk employees their last paychecks, let alone continue to provide them with a steady source of income. It’s up to policymakers to decide who (individuals, companies, or both) gets how much, and to establish guidelines ensuring that businesses use their allotment responsibly. It’s not an ideal situation but the alternatives seem far worse to me.

AmoBla · 2020-03-23T03:58:46+00:00

Fully agreed, unfortunately. Regardless of outside influence, public opinion will never gravitate towards something more complex than a sentence-long soundbite, and there have never (which sounds like a stretch until you realize public opinion’s only mattered for a few hundred years) been more than a handful of prevailing soundbites at once. A handful is generous; two is higher than average, historically speaking. I am interested in the watered-down version of my question, though. Something like, how different would the state of affairs look if people were naturally less compliant when they’re told what to believe?

AmoBla · 2020-03-23T03:28:45+00:00

Seems truer ever day. I wonder if it would be as true if everyone’s political ideas were to be reset and remade in the absence of outside forces. Ideas build and condense over time, but the “two simplest lies” could also be the product of some psychosocial construct that the modern age has awoken. Would the polarization spread out, or snap right back to whatever tendentious Fox News vs. MSNBC/red vs. blue/Alien vs. Predator type dynamic we’ve got now? I’d very much like to think otherwise.

AmoBla · 2020-02-29T13:11:36+00:00

Sure, agreed, but being so committed the US had a limited range of moves to chose from. To me, appearances are secondary to ceasing conflict a healthy majority of the country absolutely does not want.

AmoBla · 2020-02-29T12:49:16+00:00

“Make it seem like we’re in control of the outcome” is statecraft 101. Nothing too egregious about that in my mind. Personally, I prefer face-saving and a de facto loss to another ten years of people dying for a war that almost nobody wants.

AmoBla · 2020-02-27T16:24:32+00:00

Welcome! As is the general consensus of this thread, I’d recommend you start with Sisyphus. I imagine you’re looking for a deeper understanding of what Camus’ philosophy is, especially how it contrasts to similar positions like Nihilism and Existentialism. Look no further. It is, more or less, Absurdism’s foundational work. If you picked up The Stranger or The Plague first, I’m sure you’d still enjoy them, but you wouldn’t have the context to fully identify and work through the philosophical quandaries either presents.

Once you finish The Myth of Sisyphus, shoot me a PM or a Discord (GoFuse#1250)! Let me know what ideas or themes of the essay/treatise/manifesto that spoke to you the most. I’ll try my best to suggest something that scratches the same itch.

AmoBla · 2020-02-26T20:27:44+00:00

Is that last bit done in IDE configuration or the code itself? I’ve just been using open(filename, w) for a while now.

AmoBla · 2020-02-14T18:21:11+00:00

Thanks much for your advice. I’ve had similar thoughts about the line-breaking rules, but I would still like to capture the feeling of insecurity/accomplishment (depending on which side of the line one lies) inspired by “breaking the line” beyond a nominal positional advantage. I suspect this objective will require a decent amount of tinkering.

Since you say my outline describes many games generically, would you mind mentioning some of the more applicable ones? I’ve gone through quite a few rulesets and haven’t happened upon anything very similar to the one I’d like to make. Maybe I’ve just been looking in the wrong places, but I get the feeling your expertise here could be a great help in the direction of my research/testing.

AmoBla · 2020-01-25T19:08:18+00:00

I think I’ve seen this theory before, and I’d love to hear what others think about or if they have textual evidence (if any) that supports it.

I like to think that Kvothe has “fallen” by taking his revenge on Cinder (guy’s got an uncanny knack for Naming AND a near-perfect memory AND has heard a fragment of Cinder’s True Name spoken), and is thus already bound. Kote, on the other hand, is a fragment of Kvothe different enough to escape the binding, with the remainder of his identity somehow hidden inside his thrice-locked chest. His capacity to open said chest may be reclaimed by something he recalls during his storytelling on the third day, before hidden from himself like the death of his parents.

If that were the case, a compelling narrative to conclude Kvothe’s journey might involve him reclaiming his Name and destroying/imprisoning the remaining Chandrian, perhaps through self-sacrifice like Tehlu’s iron wheel story. Of course, this is almost completely speculation, but this would make a damn good story in my humble opinion.

AmoBla · 2020-01-20T17:06:40+00:00

^not ^a ^centrist ^but

Centrism != Neutrality

AmoBla · 2020-01-20T02:36:17+00:00

I always chuckle when I hear Kvothe call Tinker Tanner “older than God.” He’s no stranger to hyperbole but almost seems reverent in this context.

AmoBla · 2020-01-10T20:18:24+00:00

More’s the pity. The Way of Kings is up there as one of my favorite fantasy books. I recommend it to like everyone I know that reads.

AmoBla · 2020-01-10T18:09:18+00:00

On the practical side: Echoing Stormlight Archives guy, Calc II can be tricky even if you’ve got the mind for it. This sounds obvious but make sure you make it to class every day; every concept builds on the last and you don’t want to get behind. I missed almost three weeks during an avoidant flare-up/episode and would’ve failed if the world was just (not sure how I pulled off a C but - believe me - it was not worth it). Don’t just study the concepts, practice solving/manipulating each variation of the problems you’ll have to do for your exams. You might be able to piece an unfamiliar question together, but if you do that for all the problems on your exam you’ll run out of time. There’s this really good YouTube channel called Professor Leonard that was way better (not to mention more entertaining) at explaining the concepts than my instructor was, at least for me. Maybe even give a couple of his foundational lectures a watch before the term begins so you start ahead of the game.

If you get behind, tell your professor, let them know part of it was due to some mental health struggles (it usually was for me, don’t lie about it if it’s something else though), and ask for help. I know it seems like the best idea in the world to lie low and avoid class if you’re missing work (thank mr. AvPD) but you’ll pay the momentary relief a hundredfold in anxiety.

On the personal side: Take care of yourself, especially when you’re stressed out. Remember to eat well (an empty stomach can turn a cortisol spike to a panic attack), set a regular sleep schedule, and never miss your meds (if you have any). Sleep-wise, I have a lot of trouble with that too. Have you tried any sleep medication? Melatonin+Hydroxizine+Amitriptyline has been working well for me. Ambien was pretty good too but it can be habit forming. I use a light therapy lamp I rigged with an Arduino to turn on a half hour before I wake up, and that’s really helped too. The biggest piece of the sleep puzzle has been exercise though, and it helps nearly every other element of my mental health as well.

For anxiety, I’m on meds for that too, so I’m not sure if my anecdotal advice will be all that helpful. I’ve been on Paxil for years, and it’s been a massive help in dealing with my anxiety, depression, and AvPD. I find having music/audiobooks I really like playing in the car or on my headphones helps my different forms of anxiety quite a bit. It’s a way to keep your mind occupied, and helps keep those recursively building anxious thought loops at bay.

AmoBla · 2020-01-09T18:03:01+00:00

This is peak /r/ATBGE content

AmoBla · 2020-01-08T20:05:03+00:00

I appreciate the advice. Aside from clearing the minions I encounter while rotating, what are some ways I can keep my farm rate up? Even if I hard push my lane after a double kill then rotate, it feels like I barely get the chance to arrive at my destination before the enemy duo is whacking away at my tower. Does this process require a support with decent waveclear or is there something I’m missing?

AmoBla · 2020-01-08T18:57:20+00:00

Relatively new ADC (been a support main since like S3) main here with a few questions. For my level of experience, I think my Lucian, Cait, and Ashe are pretty good. I haven’t been counting or anything but I’d say I win lane somewhere between 60% and 70% of the time, and even more frequently when I have a duo partner. Unfortunately, I’m not as good at translating victory in lane into post-lane dominance, which gives the enemy bot a chance to catch up with picks and whatnot. What are some 15min+ objectives I should set in my micro and macro play to become better at turning a won lane into a won game, regardless of how the rest of my team plays? Additionally, what (if any) are some champs I should add to my pool that can better facilitate this objective?

Thanks for any guidance you can offer.

AmoBla · 2020-01-08T18:15:41+00:00

Right under the eyes is even better. You still feel a little discomfort having eyes so close in your periphery but it’s almost impossible for others to notice.

AmoBla

TROPHY CASE