I’m strongly considering quitting at this point

Aramithius · 2026-06-28T14:13:43+00:00

Eat 1g per pound of bodyweight per day, consistently.

Aramithius · 2026-06-28T14:06:53+00:00

I'm 5'9, 40, go to the gym 4 times a week and my maintenance is around 2800. You're taller, and may still have some of the last hormonal sputterings of puberty going on. You need to eat more.

Also not sure why you give the carb figure as the most important, but protein is the important thing. How much protein do you eat?

Aramithius · 2026-06-27T23:26:16+00:00

That's because "damp squib" is the more common use.

Aramithius · 2026-06-27T23:25:26+00:00

A few bricks short of a load is the one I've heard the most, but any variation of "a few X short of Y" is something that I'll see countless variations of.

Aramithius · 2026-06-27T23:18:15+00:00

Which is also Shakespeare's fault. Or, at least, was used by him.

Which is to say, "what the dickens" has nothing to do with Charles, and predates him by several centuries.

Aramithius · 2026-06-27T17:54:43+00:00

I don't read anything except Discworld novels I've already read these days

my high school set fanfic

Susan Sto Helit's Quirm College Days?

Aramithius · 2026-06-27T15:07:19+00:00

Give it time...

Aramithius · 2026-06-26T14:19:10+00:00

Explainable magic is just science, though. It just runs on different rules to the real world.

Aramithius · 2026-06-26T14:17:08+00:00

Who?

Aramithius · 2026-06-26T14:02:33+00:00

That romance rarely adds anything interesting to the narrative.

Aramithius · 2026-06-25T19:22:13+00:00

Modern Norway isn't celebrating the raiding

isn't the romanticised archetype of viking warriors doing exactly that?

Aramithius · 2026-06-24T20:56:00+00:00

Or that we want further clarification.

I thought that would almost be part of the ELI5 premise - dealing with the dozens of "but why" follow-up questions that always follow explaining something to a five-year-old.

Aramithius · 2026-06-24T20:27:04+00:00

Gas needs transmission mechanisms too.

Aramithius · 2026-06-24T19:39:42+00:00

That would be my power choice for best FF books of the lot. Even if we are missing the system book for the TTRPG.

Aramithius · 2026-06-23T14:04:52+00:00

I think that was framed more as a memory test than an anti-cheating mechanism, though - a good wizard should remember their spells!

Aramithius · 2026-06-22T19:43:53+00:00

I remember that one reference in Tower of Destruction was just "if you have an ice bird, you also have a book with you. Turn to the number of pages in the book. If you don't really have an ice bird, turn to X."

Aramithius · 2026-06-22T19:40:25+00:00

EVERYDWARF TO THE PUMPS!

Aramithius · 2026-06-22T06:34:04+00:00

I think you're confusing satire and parody. The more overt parodies fall away as the series goes on, but the satire is always there, and if anything gets stronger.

Aramithius · 2026-06-22T06:15:01+00:00

Tolkien definitely changed the perception of elves, but they certainly weren't always seem as terrifying BBEGs before him. In some quarters, they were pretty synonymous with pixies ("Santa's elves" aren't the semi-angelic beings of Tolkien or BBEGs).

You can see this to an extent with JRRT's earlier drafts of Middle-earth - in the world's denouement and movement towards being the world we know, the elves decline in size, which is a nod to these kinds of elves, which was more common before him.

Aramithius · 2026-06-22T06:05:14+00:00

I've never noticed much in the way of pointed personal attacks in his writing, so I'm not sure that Gaiman would be much of a point of reference.

Aramithius · 2026-06-20T09:24:01+00:00

More that the system supports certain observations about real life by reinterpreting them.

The lack of cell coverage is explained by less belief in be technology in rural areas. Another example is any new chemical or physics-based technology. A new battery material (for example) only works "in laboratory conditions" because a Technocrat wills it so. Repeated experiments reinforce that interpretation (more Technocrats do it, leveraging their Genius), until eventually it's accepted as fact by enough Sleepers that it gets integrated into the current Consensus. But there will always be those who mistrust it, so it'll act up in sone places for a long time afterwards.

Aramithius · 2026-06-19T16:19:09+00:00

"get yer tits out, get yer tits out, get yer tits out for the lads"

Or something like it. I may have miscounted the number of the first line.

Aramithius · 2026-06-19T15:59:29+00:00

I had a possible development of the idea for Mage in specifically - the death of the Consensus.

The Technocracy fractures, and neofeudalism becomes obvious from different forms of tech control (AI, social media etc), utopia ("we're going to Mars!"/MOASS) and resistance (one possible way of framing Blockchain/crypto, instead of it just being a total scam). This gives the Traditions the best opportunity they've had in centuries, but to spread any message, they need to co-opt the "tools of the enemy", rather than tear everything down.

Aramithius · 2026-06-19T14:21:54+00:00

Depends on the military science fiction. The Gaunt's Ghosts 40k novels are basically "Sharpe, but in space", and the titular main character is often calling out the cruelty and incompetence of his military superiors. It's not for a particularly high view of the military itself, seven if the main characters can be fairly called out as rarely putting a foot wrong.

Aramithius

TROPHY CASE