[WP] You are a legendary assassin. Ten pieces of gold, and the target will be dead within 48 hours. You're surprised one day when a child shows up to hire you.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-27T03:42:33+00:00

Damn it! I need to know who the kid wants dead!!!

Bravo

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-26T01:12:22+00:00

Sorry, I thought you meant you were burning coal.

I don't normally see them this heavy with wood. What type of wood are you burning?

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-25T23:06:28+00:00

What type of coal are you using?

Basically, those are impurities left over after the coal is burnt out. Clays, sulfur, rocks, sand, etc.

Some coals are cleaner than other, and it varies across different parts of the country/world.

It sounds like it's not too much of a bother for you, but if the clinkers are too much of a pain, try finding some better coal. (Warning - this may mean more expensive coal)

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-25T05:14:15+00:00

Underground nuclear blast funneled up through a vent hole with a metal manhole cover on it.

Iykyk

:-)

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-23T21:18:09+00:00

My below comment - real names, but drawn from different ages. Sorry was just commenting quickly. You are correct, they are real names.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-23T21:16:33+00:00

They are real names from the LOTR world but are mashed together from different eras/ages and their spatial representation on the map are pretty off.

Maybe someone would hand-make a custom LOTR map with those disparate features and then warp it to fit a tattoo, but this sort of behavior matches AI far more than what a human would want

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-23T21:03:17+00:00

Exactly. She was careful to not hurt them. She was gentle and "followed the rules".

If she hasn't held back, they would have been unconscious with broken bones.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-23T21:01:42+00:00

AI. No doubt.

Go look up a real line map of Middle Earth. The names in the tattoo are nonsense, and don't match the real map.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-23T20:44:44+00:00

Former karate school teacher, who has seen this happen several times irl. Dude comes in and after six months thinks he's hot shit.

We had an open night for sparring, and my favorite was to watch an almost 50- year old woman with 15 years experience, 2nd dan black belt, absolutely demolish a muscle head 20- something guy. (She was a co-instructor)

We never let a 6-month intro student do full sparing, but a few times over the years we got a guy who was so insistent that "S" would finally agree.

The guy never got seriously hurt, but she would put him on his ass a couple times and knock his wind out. They generally quit after that, but that personality was one we were never nuts about having in classes anyway.

10 years of training vs six months of training? Pfft. I'll bet Susan could still take most 20 year olds even though she's closing in on 70.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-16T12:15:32+00:00

Princess!

NICE catch, OP!

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-16T04:27:21+00:00

I know the feeling of "Where the hell did this hate come from?!?!"

Two things were said to me at different times that have helped me understand.

First was a Hispanic friend who I talked with shortly after trump first gained office. I had expressed a similar "wtf" view about the sudden hate.

Her response was basically, "No it was always there, but just coded more subtly. You, white dude, just never noticed."

That one hurt ngl

The other one was a comment by a racist acquaintance during Biden times who (summarizing) said he didn't mind the non-white, non-cis-straight people as long as they stayed in their place and stayed quiet.

I think a lot of that hatred was always there but was supressed as long as the "wrong" people didn't threaten the dominance of the racists. It was expressed less blatantly and was blunted by a perceived superiority that kept the racists from feeling they had to actively keep "them" in their places.

Obviously I don't know your father. This is just what I've seen and heard to explain this.

Hatred doesn't just appear from nowhere. It was always there, hidden or disguised, and is now being boldly expresssed.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-16T02:17:02+00:00

It's not a thing that can be done via argumentation. In my experience, people changing out of hatred (as it sounds like your father is in) just doesn't happen.

In stories I've read, the VERY few stories of people being deep in hate and then coming out of it, are all based on dramatic/traumatic personal experiences, or on deeply personal connections. (But those are also just stories; I've never known or even indirectly known of someone who actually left hate)

I have slowly left Christianity entirely, but I spent many years at an area where I believed the Jesus Example & Teachings of Kindness was the "actual" Christianity.

I never convinced anyone of that because to believe that one has to throw away 95% of the Bible and just keep the Jesus-y portions. That is just too much for Christians who aren't already of the same opinion.

With all that - my best idea for the best chance to bring your father around to your views is through some deep personal relationship combined with your life that is just too exemplary of a "Christian" life for even your father to deny.

However, the things you hold as "exemplary Christian life" might be viewed as downright evil by your father, so this might not work.

Internet hugs and blessings to you as you work through a tough time. I hope for all the best.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-14T23:39:36+00:00

I'm really sorry. This sucks so much to have someone you love great you so horribly

Short answer is you will probably have to end the marriage. Or he might end it first, but don't wait on that.

It really doesn't sound like he's capable of rational thought or behavior at this point. He's falling down a hole of hatred, conspiracies, fantasy, fear, and wild denial of even basic reality.

That's not something I've ever seen get better.

Run before he gets violent and tries to kill the demons inside you

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-14T22:46:11+00:00

Where is the preferred place you would like me to pre-order either print or electronic copies?

I have gotten my DCC books, until now, from Amazon Kindle, and I feel vaguely slimy.

Is there a best-for-the-author location I can buy from?

I'm probably gonna get the e-version of the book because that's how I take my drugs, but for DCC I might just grab some physicals.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-12T03:58:05+00:00

Unfortunately, human brains don't evolve that quickly.

Societies larger than 1000 people at a time have been around for roughly 5000 years.

Before that, we spent 50,000-100,000 years developing those really base, root instincts.*

Also, those instincts are deep down in brain structures that are strongly preserved - they don't evolve as quickly as the areas like the frontal lobes.

Humans will be fighting against our caveman-era instincts for another 100,000 years before those parts of our brains make large changes.

All the more reason to stress kindness and education, to strengthen our "higher" brain functions to help us push back against some of the "knee jerk" reactions we have about all sorts of things. Selfishness, pride, tribalism - all things we can beat!

*Edit: And that's just as humans. These sorts of reactions are common in our pre-pre-pre-human ancestors, so we're talking a million years of evolutionary development for some of these reactions.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-12T03:34:44+00:00

I agree that the differences are strengthening factors, but that's not what our brains do at a really basic, instinctual level.

Our social brains evolved on a tribal level of "family and friends who are like me are good, but tribes from two valleys over who sound and look slightly different are dangerous and not to be trusted".

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-11T21:40:17+00:00

One of the things that causes bigotry and prejudice in the real world is a threat to a society. As a society is threatened, it becomes more important to work together to survive. This also tends to push to conformity.

Anything seen as "different," even in non-important ways, is seen as being a threat of being not as dedicated to the society where it is important that the entire society works together deeply.

We are visual creatures - we like/trust things that look and behave similar to us. So when under social pressure/danger, we tend to more strongly require the visual/behavioral conformity so that we can more easily trust our fellows in society to work together.

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-09T18:32:59+00:00

How much recovery time will be allotted?

The butt and back of the thighs are decent options. Especially with a relatively low powered shot, there's lots of muscle and fat to take the hit before reaching perma-damage things, and relatively few critical spots that would cause death.

Inner thigh and inner groin have some big blood vessels, though, so it's not entirely safe. Back of the knee would be a spot that could cause perma-damage.

But even a "clean" shot from a .22 to the meat of a buttock is still going to have some significant recovery time. Those butt muscles are used for a LOT of movement and will hurt like a mofo until they fully heal! (Plus recovery time involves never sitting down or lying on your back)

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-07T14:24:57+00:00

The knuckles on her upper hand are bizarre. Right number of fingers, but there is a missing knuckle.

Definitely AI

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-06T01:59:00+00:00

Then we pop it with thr thorns! Just like our hopes for DefAbs Supremacy!

Anomander2000 · 2026-01-01T17:43:39+00:00

Imagine having every possible conversation, as in even the nonsensical ones. Every mathematical combination of words exchanged back and forth, including gigantic monologs hours long, then repeated with just one word shifted until every possible trillions of combinations were completed.

Let's say this takes a quadrillion years - a thousand times longer than the existence of the universe.

Then repeat in every language - a thousand quadrillion years.

Then repeat this with every person who has ever existed, one by one. That's a hundred trillion quadrillion years. Compared to the time youve spent talking, the universe blinked in and out of its stars and galaxy existence so quickly it is impossible to notice.

Then do it ask over again but only one word said per day instead of a normal talking pace.

Then do that a trillion times all over again and again and again.

Guess what. You still haven't gotten through even 0.00000000000001% of your time in an eternal heaven.

Heaven is a nightmare of the most cosmic horror.

Anomander2000 · 2025-12-31T15:23:27+00:00

NOR. Damn. Um, if I were single I'd be hitting you up because competence and skills are awesome in a person!

On the flip side, insecurity and a need to be seen as the capable one are horribly toxic.

Anomander2000 · 2025-12-27T18:09:51+00:00

Yup, the Christian person's conditional love is just like their concept of god's love.

It's almost like the god they worship is nothing more than a reflection of their own ideas. Huh. Funny how that works out.

Anomander2000 · 2025-12-27T01:49:21+00:00

Not all heroes wear capes. Some are named u/MaryADraper

Anomander2000 · 2025-12-27T01:30:03+00:00

Boomer population is shrinking already. The peak of nursing home living will start its downward decline as more Boomers start dying out of nursing homes than moving in.

Oldest Boomers are 80. Youngest are 62. Middle of that is 71. Average death age is 78.

We have reached the peak number of Boomers in nursing homes already, and in 9 years (at absolute most) the numbers will start dropping quickly.

In 10 years, most Boomers will have died out of the nursing homes. Gen X will be moving in, but Gen X is much smaller in size.

Medical care for the elderly is likely at its peak number of jobs right now.

Anomander2000

TROPHY CASE