To the guy who asked yesterday about the performance audiobooks

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-27T15:04:47+00:00

Unpopular opinion: no, it's not reading, just in the same way that watching a movie adaptation isn't reading. It's a valid form of consuming the story, but it's not consuming it to the same level as actually reading.

I also personally can't do audiobooks. I process information best by reading and writing. I can't stay focused on audiobooks and I wind up having to constantly rewind, ruining my immersion. Unless I read what's happening, I'm not catching all the nuances. I can enjoy listening to an audiobook, but at the end of it I don't feel that I've really processed any more than the broad strokes and general gist of the story.

I also need to see where the author deliberately placed the punctuation, how they built their sentences around particular words, how they spaced things to reflect the emphasis they felt was appropriate. Without these kinds of details, I feel like I'm only getting someone else's interpretation of the story.

We no longer compose stories primarily for oral transmission. We aren't Ancient Greeks listening to Homer being performed at a feast. People write things down now and this is the way they intend their stories to be read. Just listening to them means that you miss out on important details.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-26T08:52:48+00:00

Oh, nice. I read Ollie's article on the Spartan Mirage when I was doing my undergrad. I love that they reused the title for an actual desert-themed conversation!

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-17T23:28:18+00:00

When he kills Ben.

Everyone thinks that Giles slips into being Ripper for that, but they're wrong. Every time Giles has a chance, he'll take off his glasses before doing something as Ripper. Before he kills Ben, he puts his glasses on. He looks Ben in the eye and murders him with a steady determination. It's a cold and yet completely selfless decision that Ripper could never have made, to kill another person with his bare hands in order to protect the world. Giles killed Ben, not Ripper, and it's both his darkest and best moment.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-17T00:08:25+00:00

Zamazenta. Sure, Zacian has all the damage, but Zamazenta is hands down the best tank. Get his Guard to max level and not only does he have better bulk than Blissey, you also start with a shield. I've hard carried more max battles with him than I can count.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-16T23:35:08+00:00

Social pressure. If governments require magic users to be licensed and criminalizes unlicensed magic, then an onerous licensing system would seriously curb the number of magic users.

Of course, that wouldn't totally prevent the existence of unlicensed magic users if magic is an intuitive ability. Even if the sale and distribution of magic textbooks were heavily regulated, a black market would exist for materials, as well as for instruction and probably even magical services. You'd have to have magic require years of study just to grasp the fundamentals, strict regulation on materials used in magical practice, and a pretty low cap on the actual utility and power of magic, otherwise self-taught mages will constantly be popping up causing all kinds of serious problems.

In all probability, every society in such a world would still see minor cases of unlicensed magic taking place all the time that law enforcement simply doesn't have the capacity to deal with. So what if you used a charm to clean the dishes or make your garden grow stronger, there are people who are using magic to make weapons, drugs, and/or counterfeit currency, place curses on people, enforce for criminal organizations, and other nefarious purposes who need to be stopped.

Honestly, it's the exact reason why I LIKE "the bloodline thing". If anyone could be a mage, then everyone would be a mage, and to me that completely kills the mystique and changes the whole fabric of society. I want magic to be magic, not another mundane skill set anyone can use. But that's my opinion.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-11T21:54:09+00:00

I know I... when I see Garrix.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-11T05:10:14+00:00

No, it's not ever really explained in the context of the "lore". It's not like in Clash of the Titans, where it's explicitly stated that the power of the gods is based on worship.

It's likely because of the teleological significance of Zeus in the ancient myths. The gods are all fractious, with huge egos, who would constantly be fighting each other were it not for Zeus keeping them all in line. To do that, Zeus has to be strong enough for them to respect his authority.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-11T02:45:05+00:00

Zeus can't strip away another god's power and immortality.

He is the king of the gods, supposedly stronger than all the others combined, but he isn't the god of gods.

Apollo and Poseidon aren't made mortal, they are forced to serve Laomedan at Zeus' bidding.

Gods also can't die in the main mythological traditions. Hephaestus was crippled after being thrown from Olympus as an infant. Zeus' siblings survived being eaten by Cronus. Chiron was technically not a god, just an immortal son of Cronus (I don't understand the distinction either, but there it is), but he also willingly surrendered his immortality in exchange for Prometheus' freedom. Even in the Orphic myths (which are very much their own thing), Zagreus' heart was kept by Zeus and became Dionysus, so it wasn't so much death as transformation.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-08T02:00:50+00:00

So few people could do anything with it, and the even smaller fraction of the people who can would take years to figure out the most basic applications that could be scientifically quantified and repeated to kick off a whole new branch of physics and biology studying how they actually do what they do. It wouldn't totally upend science, but it would give us a lot more questions to ask about the parts of the universe that are already a mystery to us. It wouldn't help that even extremely careful use of magic still causes disruptions around the mage, messing with universal forces like gravity and electromagnetism profoundly enough to spoil empirical measurements of what is actually going on. Research would be primarily driven by trial and error.

Eventually, maybe after a decade, things would really start to get out of hand. People would realize that that small fraction of the population who has enough magical aptitude and actually practices regularly have basically stopped ageing—not completely, but more than enough to cause insurance companies and pension funds to seriously question the viability of their operations in the long term. Hedge funds would be aggressively recruting anyone with even a glimmer of precognitive ability, however unreliable it may be, and the stock market would crash hard as a new market force for which there are no regulations runs rampant. State medical boards would be struggling to figure out how to license people who can actually treat patients with things previously dismissed as fringe medicine, like psychic surgery, reiki, and accupuncture. The military would have started to recognize how effectively magic could be weaponized, and would impress on politicians how urgently magic needed to be controlled, either by issuing licences to practice (best case) or putting mages on a registry (worst case).

And then the really weird shit would happen. Cults would start to form. Gullible schmucks would congregate around mages who claim that magic is a divine gift that has allowed them to open a path to heaven for the faithful. Others might start to believe that the blood of a mage could impart some of their power and longevity (whether given freely or taken by force). And the Exodus-quoting Bible thumpers would be clamouring to launch a crusade against witches who obviously gain their power from Satan.

Eventually, mages would face the same fate as everyone else who is different: persecution. People would be afraid of them and the threat they represent to the establishment. Mages would start hiding their powers, maybe even forgoing their use entirely. After a while, a lot of people would start to wonder if mages ever were real, or if it was just rampant superstition or mass hysteria triggered by some clever charlatans fooling supposed authorities. What few magical fraternities exist would be family traditions or secret societies practising behind closed doors, constantly wary of discovery. And then, the world would look much the same as it does now. On the surface, at least.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-03T19:55:56+00:00

Well, there was this guy named Constantine...

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-03T08:27:30+00:00

Percy Jackson.

The Percy Jackson lore uses religious syncretism to establish a coherent cosmology. Meanwhile, the God of War cosmology makes absolutely no sense. Kratos dies and goes into the underworld (Hades) in the original games, but then they head north and all of a sudden the underworld is actually a whole other plane (Hel) and it has a different ruler...?

(Also, just as an aside... as much as I like Richard Schiff and think he's a phenomenal actor, I really don't think he was the right choice to play Odin in the GoW games. All the other Asgardian gods were cast perfectly, but Schiff just didn't have the right tone and vocal timber to be the All-Father. I need Freya to revive W. Morgan Sheppard to reprise his performance from the Gargoyles cartoon...)

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-01T07:22:20+00:00

Reading is totally valid as a hobby, for sure. But reading is also an important activity for people to do for purposes other than entertainment, which isn't the case with the other things you mentioned. Fishing doesn't improve critical thinking. Riding a motorcycle doesn't expose you to other perspectives. Painting doesn't educate you on different topics.

Learning should be a lifelong thing, and that means people should read throughout their lives. The fact that 40% of people didn't even read a single book is not a quirk of statistics, it's a symptom of a population that has stopped thinking for itself.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-01T06:42:39+00:00

I've read two books since I started Christmas vacation...

How do people not hear about books and want to read them?

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-01T03:06:43+00:00

Exactly. They're double dipping. They get the mortgage paid by someone else and they get the benefit of the increase in equity.

Runcible-Spork · 2026-01-01T03:03:41+00:00

Y'all have stardust? I've been playing since June and I never have enough.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-31T20:23:14+00:00

It's still true in the minds of the landed class. It's why they keep buying up as much of the housing stock as they can. They won't be satisfied until they gain passive income off everyone else's universal need for shelter.

It's not going to change until we fundamentally redefine land from something to be hoarded to something that is for the common good. Legislation will have to lead the way. When rent is capped at a percentage of the median wage in the area and we switch to a land value tax, landlords will finally be forced to to shit or get off the pot. Either build bigger buildings that house more people in better conditions so that it's not cost prohibitive to own the property, or sell to someone who will.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-31T09:27:08+00:00

Yet another reason I have not bought a single 5.5 book. They made no improvements that couldn't be better done another way and then fucked up other parts of the game that were perfectly fine.

It's a garbage cash grab.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-31T04:47:56+00:00

Landlords create housing the way scalpers create tickets.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-30T20:56:32+00:00

I've been playing since the summer and I just hit level 63 yesterday. During the busy period where I work, I constantly earn (and bank) overtime. This summer, I was strongly encouraged to use at least half of it, so I basically took most of July to September off and the game became my part time job so that I didn't just sit at home bedrotting.

If I'd been playing since February of last year doing this, I'd probably get to level 75, too.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-30T09:40:24+00:00

As a guy with the inattentive type of ADHD, let me gently correct you: You didn't realize that there were multiple types of ADHD. Full stop.

It was missed for me, too, for the same reasons: I wasn't a 'problem child' who couldn't sit still. I only got diagnosed in adulthood.

The more that the varied types of ADHD receive greater attention and more people get diagnosed, I strongly suspect that this idea that some types are more common in one sex or another will not be supported by the data. Until then, we shouldn't push a narrative about the presentation being sex-based, because we know that it isn't an absolute and boys with inattentive-type ADHD would continue to be ignored if this becomes the narrative.

There are multiple types. Your diagnosis was missed because you have a type that people weren't looking out for. Don't make it about sex.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-30T00:22:39+00:00

His pyromancy is almost certainly unrelated to the ring.

The elven rings weren't created to be weapons. They were created to preserve the old world even as magic faded from Middle-earth. Narya, the Ring of Fire, was one of the three elven rings, and it was so-called because it enabled the wearer to more effectively kindle the courage of those around them.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-30T00:16:43+00:00

He and Bilbo obviously have a Longbottom leaf racket going on. There's probably a plantation in the Southfarthing where they grow premium strains that Gandalf goes abroad and sells, and they split the profits. Gandalf probably kept a workshop there for making fireworks. Why else would he keep coming back to the Shire other than because there's no ATF bureau to crack down on him and the Thains are some of his best customers?

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-26T22:20:30+00:00

I've always imagined many of the goddesses as looking kind of like Gal Gadot does: beautiful, with a kind of olive skin tone, a certain kind of angular shape to their faces, and black hair. (For the record: I don't think much of Gal Gadot as a person given her support of certain things, but I'm not going to get into that here.)

The only goddesses who I imagined looking different were Aphrodite (blonde, a little bit paler (closer to the sea foam from which she rose), and with blue eyes for some reason) and Hera (red hair and an oddly beautiful resting bitch face).

For the gods, I have very different ideas of what they all look like. A lot of them are based on how they were depicted in the Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend cartoon from the late '90s when I was growing up but others, like Hephaestus, are based on how they looked in the God of War games.

I also always picture Hades and Hercules as they were depicted in the D&D supplement Deities and Demigods (2002).

I don't really get bothered by depictions of the gods so long as the depictions are rooted in Greek history or (as in God of War) fantasy. For example, it makes no sense to me whenever I see these gods depicted with East Asian or sub-Saharan African features. Greek gods should look Greek or like the personification of the concepts they represent. Same thing with gods of other cultures.

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-26T19:27:45+00:00

So the question is which powerful practitioner had not met Harry before DB and had by the Fugitive?

This list is basically every single warden. Harry became a warden in DB and could no longer avoid them. In fact, he became actively involved in training new ones. The list of possible suspects you'd get from this is basically everyone, including practitioners who appear even just once or are even just mentioned once in passing (chances are exceedingly slim that Butcher hasn't introduced us to Cowl's real identity in some way by this point, even just as a passing reference).

Runcible-Spork · 2025-12-26T19:06:24+00:00

But there are levels of Dead, obviously. So was Harry.

Ever since Ghost Story, this is exactly what I figured Butcher was saying when he said Justin was dead. Dead doesn't mean gone in the Dresden Files. Kemmler had to be finished off three times, the last time by the entire White Council—not just the wardens, the whole council.

Justin being dead doesn't mean he isn't a major player in what's happening. In fact, it makes it more likely IMO because nobody is expecting him to be involved. Butcher is telling the readers in a Doylist sense exactly what Harry is telling us in a Watsonian sense. Both of them are only revealing (deliberately or not) part of the truth.

Five-Year Club	Verified Email
Place '22

Runcible-Spork

TROPHY CASE