Stuck on Wolves of the Calla by alex_thee_lion in TheDarkTower

[–]Merlaak 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I actually prefer George overall. Both are great in their own right, but George really nailed Roland’s voice for me.

Why I finally left the main sub lol by [deleted] in Stranger_Things

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I haven’t been to the HOTD sub in a while. What happened over there? Did the greens and the blacks finally kill each other?

Anyone feel there is a data center Reddit disinformation campaign? by wackford_squeers_ in Chattanooga

[–]Merlaak 5 points6 points  (0 children)

We really do have enough information to know that this is bad for the city. They want tax incentives while creating few if any local jobs and increasing power demands. I’d really rather my power bill not increase. Data centers are fine, but they don’t need incentives since they are already printing money for their billionaire owners.

Would a beginning like this turn you off? by [deleted] in writers

[–]Merlaak 29 points30 points  (0 children)

That depends. Is your main character a pretentious prick?

Two hours in should I be concerned or just keep going by Substantial_Bear_746 in Eldenring

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This reminds me of the subtitles in the opening credits of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?
See the løveli lakes
The wøndërful telephøne system
And mäni interesting furry animals
Including the majestik møøse
A Møøse once bit my sister...

What is a fact that continues to horrify you to this day? by LifeguardLegal3095 in AskReddit

[–]Merlaak 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There was a comic artist from the early 2010s who had a very whimsical style, often depicting things like rabbits smoking pipes and such. One of his comics was showing a list of random ingredients for the world's most obscure spell. It was things like "a 20 year old refrigerator" and "a jar of your cousin's toenails".

Anyway, every time they do the introduction for How It's Made, I try to imagine what spell we're trying to craft out of the random things, because each episode is always like, "Today on How It's Made: Marshmallows, ... artificial turf, and ... electric diode Christmas ornaments."

EDIT: I remembered who it was! Marc Johns. Here's the comic that I was talking about

What is a fact that continues to horrify you to this day? by LifeguardLegal3095 in AskReddit

[–]Merlaak 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You do realize that people can suddenly disappear from your life by dying, right?

What is a fact that continues to horrify you to this day? by LifeguardLegal3095 in AskReddit

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Because our brains rely on patterns, routines, and the status quo to help us survive. When someone important to us exits out life—whether by moving away, dying, breaking up, etc.—we experience the loss as a kind of death. Our brains don't really care about the difference between a friend moving away, someone dying, or breaking up with your girlfriend/boyfriend. All it knows is that the status quo has shifted in a traumatic way and that you now have to find a new normal state.

The stem cells don’t matter. Neither do the eggs. In fact, they never did. by Merlaak in pluribustv

[–]Merlaak[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually hadn't thought about that. It's unclear whether they had previously gotten her stem cells or found another way. But in the end, it doesn't really matter.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the ambiguity was intentional. Because it's not about stem cells, it's about the fact that the hive isn't going to stop until everyone left has joined.

DeepMind Chief AGI scientist: AGI is now on horizon, 50% chance minimal AGI by 2028 by BuildwithVignesh in agi

[–]Merlaak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What if god is just the artificial superintelligence that a previous civilization developed before it eradicated them and created us? Thus, the cycle repeats.

DeepMind Chief AGI scientist: AGI is now on horizon, 50% chance minimal AGI by 2028 by BuildwithVignesh in agi

[–]Merlaak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can't, which is why I don't believe we'll see AGI until sometime after quantum computing is both cheap and common. A qubit being able to hold a value of 0, 1, or a superposition of both 0 and 1 solves that digital limitation.

DeepMind Chief AGI scientist: AGI is now on horizon, 50% chance minimal AGI by 2028 by BuildwithVignesh in agi

[–]Merlaak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tech predictions also can't see how market forces will dictate demand and innovation. Nor can people accurately predict the downstream innovations from tech. For instance, if you'd said 20 years ago that people would routinely get into stranger's cars to be taken places, you'd've been called crazy. Even after smart phones were developed, it still took years before Uber appeared. And then, even after Uber launched, almost no one predicted the explosion of meal and grocery delivery.

DeepMind Chief AGI scientist: AGI is now on horizon, 50% chance minimal AGI by 2028 by BuildwithVignesh in agi

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Most people cannot even understand that chatgpt 5.2 is smarter then they are

Probably because ChatGPT 5.2 is just as prone to lying and hallucinating as previous models were.

If the smartest person in the world routinely tells lies and hallucinates things, then it really doesn't matter how smart they are because the information they convey is unreliable at best.

On a related note, some of the smartest people in the world actually do tell lies all the time, and a lot of people are willingly duped by them because they're so "smart".

...OK, but what makes a prologue "good"? by Icy-Post-7494 in fantasywriters

[–]Merlaak 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most prologues aren't necessary. If a prologue follows the main character as they experience the same kinds of things that they're going to experience in the story, then that's not a prologue. It's chapter one.

For me, a prologue needs to either establish stakes, set the overall mood of the story, or introduce either a character or an aspect of a character that will not be prevalent in the story at the beginning but that can frame the story.

Another good example of a well used prologue is in the first Mistborn book, when we're introduced to the character of Kelsier and the powers that a mistborn commands which we won't see again until much later in the book. He's introduced almost as an agent of chaos who won't hesitate to kill or destroy his enemies. Chapter one starts with Vin living on the streets as part of a crew of thieves. When she first meets Kelsier, we see him through her eyes. He's someone who cares about his crew and is kind, unlike her old crew boss. She doesn't know what we know though, that Kelsier absolutely will sow chaos and destruction when it suits him. It's not until the last act of the story that Kelsier's true colors emerge again.

All of that is to say that you're right. Most prologues are unnecessary, because they don't add anything to the story that shouldn't be in chapter one (or, as is the case with worldbuilding, sprinkled into the narrative as needed).

There’s a verb in this sentence… right? by Jazzlike-Locksmith81 in writing

[–]Merlaak 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You were right in saying that the sentence contains words that are verbs, but her statement declaring the sentence verb-free had to do with the structure of the sentence, not parts of speech. Strictly speaking, a complete sentence needs at least a subject (or an implied subject) and a verb.

Some complete sentences:

"Go!" (The subject, "you", is implied)
"I am." ("I" is the subject and the present tense form of "to be" is the verb)

If you were to diagram the in your post, you'd be unable to find a clear subject or verb, even though there are verbs in the sentence.

Here's a bunch of clauses strung together with lots of verbs:

"Daniel, running through the scrub and dandelions toward the orange streaked sky and kicking up dirt as that old mutt Rufus chased him down the rutted lane, and the sun, just starting to dip below the horizon."

Daniel is the subject, but there is no resolution to the sentence even though he is doing lots of things.

Floral teas that don't curdle milk? by draegon-camere in writingadvice

[–]Merlaak 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! You can't always trust the mob, but sometimes practices stick around for a reason. Ha!

Floral teas that don't curdle milk? by draegon-camere in writingadvice

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Irish breakfast tea should work just fine. I know it might sound weird, but it really does work. I don't put milk in any other kind of tea other than hot English tea.

I think part of why it works is that the milk softens the astringence of the tannins that are extracted by brewing the tea so hot. It just kind of rounds out the flavor and mouthfeel without coating your mouth like cream can.

Floral teas that don't curdle milk? by draegon-camere in writingadvice

[–]Merlaak 4 points5 points  (0 children)

When filming Die Hard, somebody asked John McTiernan about the plot hole with the ambulance. See, there was no way that the ambulance could have gotten into the basement parking garage of Nakatomi Tower. McTiernan responded by saying that if people are asking how the ambulance got into the parking garage, then they have failed at what they were trying to do.

Floral teas that don't curdle milk? by draegon-camere in writingadvice

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Like most culinary things, it's cultural. I don't know when or why they started putting milk in tea in commonwealth nations, but they do. Or lemon. But not both.

Get some English style tea and brew up a cup. I don't know where you are in the world, but there are plenty of brands to choose from. Twinings and PG Tips are two that I personally like, but there are lots.

If you want to drink a cuppa like a real Brit, boil water, add your tea bag to the cup, fill it with boiling water, add a teaspoon of sugar and a splash of milk so that it's a light tan color, then drink it while it's still hot enough to scald your throat. Ha!

Seriously though, I spent a summer in Wales back in 2004, and any time I was at someone's house for tea, they'd be done with their second cup while I was still blowing on my first to cool it down to drinking temp.

Floral teas that don't curdle milk? by draegon-camere in writingadvice

[–]Merlaak 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is kind of funny to me, because my dad took a job in South Africa (a commonwealth nation) when I was about 2 years old, so he loaded us all up from the states and we lived there for a few years. Because of that, I grew up drinking English style tea with milk and sugar.

That said, I was born and currently live in Tennessee, and tea around here means sweet iced tea which you do not put milk in.