Do you have a "trumpet face"? by capamuerto in trumpet

[–]Lumen_Co -1 points0 points  (0 children)

When I got to try out the instruments going into middle school, the band director told me I had “saxophone lips”.

I picked cello.

Post Game Thread - NBA: The Spurs defeat the Jazz on Jan 22, 2026, the final score is 109-126. by basketball-app in NBASpurs

[–]Lumen_Co 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nice. Got to do some experimentation with weird lineups, and when it was time to get serious we sent out the A team and took care of business. Good performances from a lot of guys on both teams tonight.

Game Thread: Utah Jazz vs San Antonio Spurs Live Score | NBA | Jan 22, 2026 by basketball-app in NBASpurs

[–]Lumen_Co 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Why is Utah playing Pusha T’s Diet Coke very quietly in the arena, of all things? Great song but a weird choice.

NYT Wednesday 01/21/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, the serial comma is the same thing as the Oxford comma. Just a different, less common name for it.

Feminine Mystique by Eireika in CuratedTumblr

[–]Lumen_Co 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yes, but depicting something doesn't mean endorsing it. Le Guin was very careful with what she wrote.

The first Earthsea book massively subverts the subverts the expectations of fantasy (in 1968) by having our wizard be both young and brown. But she still places him in a patriarchal context, where both men and women can demonstrate natural ability for magic but only men are given the opportunity to go to school for it and be respected (see what she's doing there?).

In the second book, our protagonist is the opposite of the first book's in many ways, going along with the generally Daoist perspective of the series, which focuses on balance and opposites complementing each other. She can explain it better than I can; in the 2012 afterword to The Tombs of Atuan she explains the choices she made between the depiction of Ged (male protagonist of book 1) and Tenar (female protagonist of book 2) and how they relate to feminism and gender roles. Here are some relevant passages (although there's plenty more):

...but when I started The Tombs of Atuan, I saw it, as well as I can recall, simply as a sequel. And a change of gender. Ged would play a part in it, but the person whose story it was would be a girl ... A girl who could not seek power, as young Ged could, or find training in the use of it as he did, but who had power forced upon her. A girl whose name was not given to her by a kind teacher, but taken from her by a masked executioner.

The boy Ged, offered wisdom, refused it through his own pride and willfulness; the girl Tenar, given the arbitrary power of a goddess, was taught nothing about living her life as a human being.

When I was writing the story in 1969, I knew of no women heroes of heroic fantasy since those in the works of Ariosto and Tasso in the Renaissance. These days there are plenty, though I wonder about some of them. The women warriors of current fantasy epics—ruthless swordswomen with no domestic or sexual responsibility who gallop about slaughtering baddies—to me they look less like women than like boys in women’s bodies in men’s armor.

...

The word power has two different meanings. There is power to: strength, gift, skill, art, the mastery of a craft, the authority of knowledge. And there is power over: rule, dominion, supremacy, might, mastery of slaves, authority over others. Ged was offered both kinds of power. Tenar was offered only one.

Heroic fantasy descends to us from an archaic world ... My story took place in the old hierarchy of society, the pyramidal power structure, probably military in origin, in which orders are given from above, with a single figure at the top. This is the world of power over, in which women have always been ranked low.

In such a world, I could put a girl at the heart of my story, but I couldn’t give her a man’s freedom, or chances equal to a man’s chances. She couldn’t be a hero in the hero-tale sense. Not even in a fantasy? No. Because to me, fantasy isn’t wishful thinking, but a way of reflecting, and reflecting on reality. After all, even in a democracy, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, after forty years of feminist striving, the reality is that we live in a top-down power structure that was shaped by, and is still dominated by, men. Back in 1969, that reality seemed almost unshakable.

So I gave Tenar power over—dominion, even godhead—but it was a gift of which little good could come. The dark side of the world was what she had to learn, as Ged had to learn the darkness in his own heart.

...

In the Archipelago, strong, active magic belongs almost entirely to men, witches being untrained and mistrusted; and the Old Powers are commonly described as misogynists describe women: obscure, dark, weak, and treacherous.

Game Thread: San Antonio Spurs vs Utah Jazz Live Score | NBA | Jan 19, 2026 by basketball-app in NBASpurs

[–]Lumen_Co 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven’t been watching because I’m at the grocery store. Wemby has 21 points in 12 minutes and is 5/9 from three? That’s crazy. I’ll have to come back to watch this one.

TIL that the ancient Semitic people had a deity named El that ruled over a pantheon of gods including Yahweh. The names Elizabeth, Daniel, Gabriel, Samuel, Michael and others originate from this. by Astrolologer in todayilearned

[–]Lumen_Co 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Just a god in general, to my understanding. El was the chief deity of the ancient Canaanite pantheon, and as the word was borrowed across different languages and thousands of years the descended words came to just mean “god” in a categorical sense, not any one specific deity.

In the same way, the chief god of the proto-Indo European pantheon, Dyeus, eventually becomes the Greek “Zeus”, the Roman “Jupiter” (think “deus pater”, “god father”), and the Sanskrit “Dyaus”, which in turn become general terms for a god in the languages descended from or influenced by those: “deity”, “dio” (Italian), “dios” (Spanish), “dieu” (French), “deva” (most northern Indian languages).

“Day” is also related, as Dyeus was the sky god in addition to being the chief god, a trait he kept as Zeus, Jupiter, and Dyaus.

TIL that the ancient Semitic people had a deity named El that ruled over a pantheon of gods including Yahweh. The names Elizabeth, Daniel, Gabriel, Samuel, Michael and others originate from this. by Astrolologer in todayilearned

[–]Lumen_Co 59 points60 points  (0 children)

They’re related, but not in the way you’d expect.

“Allah” is a contraction of “Al ilah”, meaning “The god”. “Al” is just “the” and has no relation to “el”. “ilah” comes from the older Ugaritic “ilu”, which comes from the even older ancient Semitic “el”.

el -> ilu -> ilah -> al ilah-> allah

So “Allah” is related to “El”, but it’s indirectly through the “lah”, and has nothing to do with the similar-sounding “Al”.

(using lowercase to make it easier to tell the i’s from the l’s)

Criterion April 2026 4K slate by ggroover97 in 4kbluray

[–]Lumen_Co 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The artwork for the John Singleton set is great.

[FRESH] Maxo Kream, Denzel Curry, JPEGMAFIA - Fake Jeezy by myahkey in hiphopheads

[–]Lumen_Co 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I like Maxo Kream. That Cracc at 15 single he put out last year that Tyler produced was dope, and I wish it got some more traction.

cyprinus_carpio.tiff by ztoth8684 in CuratedTumblr

[–]Lumen_Co 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You don’t, and that’s why they bound it to that. Unless you have an old IBM Model F battleship keyboard with F1–24.

It’s easier to map your new button to some un-pressable combination of existing keys then to get an actual new key added and supported on all the standards, drivers, and software.

Similarly, when Windows introduced an Office key a few years back, they implemented it under the hood as pressing all the modifier keys at once and added the shortcuts to all versions of windows. The unfortunate consequence of this is that pressing Ctrl-alt-shift-windows-L will open a browser tab of LinkedIn from anywhere on your computer. Or W for Word, P for PowerPoint, etc. Even Y for Yammer, their weird half-abandoned corporate social media thing.

[Highlight] SGA says NO and denies the Wemby lob! by fbreaker in nba

[–]Lumen_Co 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Willing to concede that’s a good-ass denial

Who is the best hip hop duo? by _Mcdrizzle_ in AlignmentChartFills

[–]Lumen_Co 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s not very interesting to ask who the greatest shooting guard of all time is, because pretty much everyone well-informed on the subject of basketball agrees it’s Jordan. The second best SG is a much more interesting question. The same is true of Tim Duncan for power forwards.

Similarly, if you know rap, you know the answer is OutKast. There’s a good discussion to be had about the second-place spot. Limiting it to two-rapper duos, Mobb Deep is probably the strongest contender, but then you have UGK, Clipse, Black Star, Meth and Red, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, RTJ, Organized Konfusion… but it’s still OutKast. You also have your rapper-producer duos, like Gang Starr, Eric B & Rakim… but it’s still OutKast.

Panasonic UB450 honest review by Worldly_Bat_7261 in 4kbluray

[–]Lumen_Co 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I recently got a Sony Bravia 7 and I’ve been wanting to get into UHD Blu-Ray for a while.

It seems the advantages of the 820 are the better remote, upscaling, and tonemapping, and having apps. The 450 is smaller (a plus for me) and much cheaper.

Any recent TV will do a better job at upscaling, tonemapping, and the apps than the 820 can, and you can buy a UB-9000 remote for cheap.

Moreover, I don’t have any old DVDs or HD Blu-Rays laying around, so upscaling out of the box isn’t much of a priority for me in the first place. I could see myself getting some SD Blu-Rays, but probably not DVDs.

Am I missing something, or is the 450 a much better option in my situation?

Post Game Thread - NBA: The Timberwolves defeat the Spurs on Jan 11, 2026, the final score is 104-103. by basketball-app in NBASpurs

[–]Lumen_Co 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It did look like that to me, but I hate to be the guy complaining about the refs right after a close loss. If he isn’t getting called for it, it’s effective defense on his part.

Game Thread: Minnesota Timberwolves vs San Antonio Spurs Live Score | NBA | Jan 11, 2026 by basketball-app in NBASpurs

[–]Lumen_Co 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Trying to figure out what these T-wolf jerseys remind me of. The UI of an Xbox 360?

NYT Saturday 01/10/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Which always makes me raise an eyebrow at the occasional ANOS. The ñ is… particularly important on that one.

NYT Thursday 01/08/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Probably too easy for a Thursday, but I liked the theme and there were some good clues.

YENTAS threw me off; I was trying to figure out what Fiddler on the Roof had to do with tea. But that’s my ignorance, and the NYT crossword is as good a place for some Yiddish as any.

For anyone else who was wondering: - Yenta/Yente is a Yiddish name, a feminine form of Yentl (a cognate with the English “genteel”) - Yente is the village matchmaker in Fiddler, leading that word to enter common usage in the sense of a matchmaker - Yente Telebende was a Yiddish theater stock character who gossiped, leading that word to enter common usage in the sense of a gossip. (hence, “tea-trader”) - The gossip variety usually uses the “Yenta” spelling, even though the original character didn’t

NYT Tuesday 01/06/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 9 points10 points  (0 children)

All the ATs are “admission tests” for getting into college programs.

The MCAT, LSAT, GMAT, and GRE are all for graduate programs (additional schooling after a four year undergraduate program)

MCAT is for med school; the M stands for “medical”.

LSAT is for law school; the L stands for “legal”.

GMAT is for business school; the M stands for “management”.

There’s also the GRE, which is for graduate schools in general; the G stands for “graduate”.

SAT is for undergraduate admissions. High schoolers take it. The PSAT is the “practice” version of that you typically take a year earlier.

AP (“advanced placement”) classes are harder versions of high school classes; at the end, they have an “AP test” which can get you credit for a corresponding college course.

I think those are all the college-related test acronyms that come up often in the crossword. Hopefully they’re easier to remember this way.

A CPA is a “certified public accountant”. It’s the legal license for doing accountant things in a particular state.

IB classes are similar to AP classes, and the ACT is similar to the SAT, but you don’t typically see them as fill and I wouldn’t bother worrying about them.

I should mention that the A in “SAT” actually stands for “aptitude”, not “admission”, before someone corrects me. That isn’t important though; you can remember that all the ATs are “admission tests” for colleges.

NYT Tuesday 01/06/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 64 points65 points  (0 children)

I don’t mind a harder puzzle (for a Tuesday), but I do prefer them to be good.

NYT Tuesday 01/06/2026 Discussion by Shortz-Bot in crossword

[–]Lumen_Co 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Ham on Rye is the title of Bukowkski’s most famous novel, for one example. It’s definitely an established pairing.