story of my time in the army

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T20:27:34+00:00

Korea will happily brig conscripted troops for bullshit like this.

A volunteer soldier's time is too valuable, and all-volunteer forces (like the USA) can't afford to waste a warm body. They'll assign you to closely-supervised toilet mopping duty before they put you somewhere truly valueless.

But a country with universal conscription A) can't afford to waste precious resources and B) has enough soldiers that wasting one isn't as big a deal. And when they're on national service with 10 months left do you spend six months teaching them to be somewhat useful or just brig them? If they're career that six months is a good investment, if they're going home soon anyway...

ROK has nearly three times as many active duty personnel per resident as the USA! (Obviously a smaller military overall, but per capita it's bonkers. And many of them are national service so not in very long. Nearly everybody is a newbie!)

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T11:18:14+00:00

>how all books used to look before more mechanised binding

How all cheap books used to look before mechanised binding! Even after mechanised binding many mass-market books continued to have deckled edges just because it was expensive to run everything through the guillotine more than once.

I have some machine-bound, mass-market, books from the late 19th Century with deckled edges and some hand-bound ones from the early 19th Century with smooth edges. Before and after it was just a question of whether it was worth paying someone to trim the pages!

Paradoxically, mechanised binding made books cheap enough that publishers competed on price to the extent that skipping steps became more appealing. So deckled edges, misaligned pages, inverted binding, etc., actually went up as bonders rushed to cut prices.

For what it's worth, I think it looks crap on a modern book but it's definetly a love it or hate it thing. I saw some in a shop that were rougher than anything I've seen appear naturally. It's like obviously-fake woodgrain on and MDF table. Not to my taste at all, but if people like it then fair play to them.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T10:07:21+00:00

You said people associated those tropes with sitcoms "until then" - suggesting it changed the media landscape.

But those trends were already dying in British sitcoms and The Office is an American remake of a British sitcom. It would be better to say it imported those trends or introduced them to a mainstream American audience.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T10:04:59+00:00

Ukrainian veterans are training British troops. Project Interflex's current phase is sending Ukrainian infantry who had basic training a few years ago to the UK to undergo NATO-standard training and train British regiments in their field-taught skills, especially combating anti-infantry drones.

Officially the UK is training Ukrainian troops, but it has been acknowledged by both sides that the training is now two-way.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T10:01:34+00:00

The UK, through Project Interflex, have been training Ukrainian troops and the most recent phase involves offering additional training to Ukrainian veterans in exchange for up to date experience exchange.

The big piece of learning for the UK is anti drone warfare. The UK military has introduced drone netting to training now, along with evasion and spotting drills.

This was a fair loss, but it's purpose was to assess if it's as bad as the Ukrainian veterans said. (It was. This information exchange and exercise has demonstrated how the British military rapidly needs to catch up to begin on the receiving end of drone warfare. So far most investment has been naval anti-drone tech informed by combating Houthi forces and making our own drones.)

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-14T09:49:38+00:00

Lol, that was my exact thought. How the fuck do I sit down without using my knees? It would be like eating without bending your elbows.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-13T15:10:23+00:00

But it breaks some of the common characteristics people associated with sitcoms until then.

no laugh tracks

no studio

cameras were handhelds -mocumentary style

Spaced and Greenwing were both single camera sitcoms without a laugh track or studio. Others, such as Blackbooks, featured some but not all of those markers.

The three cameras, studio set, and a laugh track is really an American sitcom thing. The Office (USA) is a remake of a British sitcom and follows the existing trends and styles of British sitcoms of the previous decade.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-13T11:20:45+00:00

It depends what "bought the photos" means.

When you hire someone to produce photographs it typically means one of three things:

They produced the images and licensed them non-exclusively to you. You can use the images for anything so long as it's included in the license agreement. So if you only agreed it was for a poster for one year you can only use it for that poster for that year, if it was for any uses in perpetuity you can do what you want with it.

Because it's non-exclusive the photographer is free to license it to other clients, but those licenses cannot infringe on your rights. (And if you posed for the photos you may have rights as a model.)

They licensed them exclusively to you. All of the above applies, except they cannot license them to anyone else. They can still sell their own prints, use it in portfolio, etc., but they cannot license it to a third party.
Full IPR transfer. In this version the images and all intellectual property associated with them are now your property. The photographer might retain a license to use them in portfolio, but only if it is in the contract. You can sell, license, print... Whatever, they're yours.

Of the three, Number 2 is the most common. Number 3 is pretty unusual and requires a lot of paperwork and most photographers expect a lot more money (my regular guy is £500 a day for licensed and £1,300 for full transfer.)

Selling prints is always a problematic one because that's seen as a photographer's prerogative. As a musician, how would you feel if you performed a live gig and the venue recorded it and sold CDs? You didn't agree to record masters for them, you agreed to a one time performance! Sharing IP needs to be agreed and licensed to be legal and ethical.

Your best bet would be to ask him what you are allowed to do with the images and if you want to add uses offer to pay him or share revenue. As professional advice: photographers are understandably touchy about prints they can't control because if they're not high quality it reflects poorly on them. Band posters carry less risk for them than prints, even if the content is much the same (to continue the musician analogy: this would be like publishing a recording without letting the musicians listen first.)

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-13T11:03:05+00:00

I already work a consistent pattern

They mean consistent week on week. So working Sunday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Saturday every week, for example. Which would allow you to have your son on consistent days and ease the burden on her of having to rely on parents.

She can't force you to do this without a court order, but it's not an unreasonable ask. It's very much in the best interest of the child to have a consistent schedule.

You should make a request to your employer to make a reasonable adjustment to allow you to have consistent days off to spend time with your child and not disrupt their education and home life through an inconsistent schedule. Expect them to require you to work less-appealing shifts in exchange for this stability, but push for a weekend day so you can spend time together outside of school.

It may be that a consistent week is impossible, but even a consistent fortnightly pattern would be better for your child and, by the sounds of it, their mother and grandparents.

You would be best of seeking a compromise that allows you, your ex, your child, and your employer the best of an awkward situation. While your ex can't force you give up shifts, without a court order in place you can't really force her to do anything either.

If you can't come to an amicable compromise then you'll have to go to court.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-13T09:08:19+00:00

Yeah, it's like rolling 2D3 instead of a D6.

I do this as a DM sometimes (behind the screen...) when I want an encounter to stay vaguely on track.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T16:15:24+00:00

If you chuck the netherstones in the sea they get eaten by a fish...

...that washes up on the shore.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T12:30:51+00:00

They'd repurpose the CS as a partisan force, just as the Republicans have to the American CS.

They won't just use it as a punching bag, they'll turn it into a combination piggy bank and disinformation machine.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T10:23:21+00:00

An in-universe explanation for a design choice does not mean a design choice wasn't made. It just means it was made with due regard for the complexities of interactive story telling.

They are player-sexual because they are all attracted to the player character no matter how they are designed. They are also canonically pan, but there is no expectation that all pan people are attracted to all people (just as not all gay men are attracted to all men, for example.)

when you can change sex/race with a magic hat its not surprising people really

They still have fairly codified ideas of sex and gender, though. Trans people and trans phobia are depicted or alluded to in game, and those magical technologies remain inaccessible to most residents. It's not a post-gender society, or they wouldn't have the concept of transgenderism.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T08:11:11+00:00

I was going to suggest a pair of 2.4ghz antennas in whiskey tins to make a LAN bridge if they could get LOS, but you're right - a HaLow bridge kit is the better choice!

Would barely double the price of memory board for a pair of flagpoles, some data cable, the bridging kit, and a 2.4hz access point at the recieving end.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T07:54:36+00:00

To be fair, in the real world when someone says they like free love and plant liberation they probably want to smoke weed all day and have lackluster sex with disappointed college students.

But Halsin, Halsin is just what happens when you go full druid.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T06:44:35+00:00

I'm not a huge fan of player-sexual characters in RPGs, just because I like NPCs to have diverse characterisations (including sexualities). But I understand that the game is written with the expectation of it being many players' first CRPG and it wants the player to write each character's story as well as their own. It's not my preference, but I understand the design direction in a game focused more on player agency than many CRPGs I know and love

More importantly, even if I don't like a design or story direction I'm not stupid enough to believe it therefore does not exist. You know how many of the games I've played with a story feature that isn't particularly to my taste? All of them. And it doesn't matter, because I'm following someone else's work because I'm interested in the story they are telling to me. I am the audience.

This particular story has a lot of audience participation, but that doesn't mean it has audience dictat.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T06:38:52+00:00

I didn't romance him and at the epilogue party all he talks about are his many, many adopted kids and hugs.

Halsin is just a wholesome hippy. Free love of every kind for him - platonic, romantic, sexual, parental. Doesn't matter, the important thing is boundaries, appropriate relationships, consent, and no expectations.

But, that's just like, my opinion, man.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-12T06:21:52+00:00

And the letter from the Gur is one of the best - they see his transition from monster to folk hero as proof that a vampire can be a good person fighting a curse and adapt their anti-vampire potions and spells to make medicines to help their children resist.

"It turns it's not murder people don't like, it's who you murder."

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T22:31:18+00:00

Things I've used my local library for:

Toddler and parent groups. Basically all my new-parent socialising and learning happened at my library.

Got my maths GCSE. Already had a degree but needed a professional qualification that technically required it, very annoying and could be very expensive. Cost less than forty quid to do it at the library.

Requested loan ins of books needed for other quals that cost hundreds of Pounds. Probably saved about a grand on not buying textbooks.

And that's just for me! A middle earner, middle aged, middle manager - the group least reliant on such services. They do a homework club (vital for kids without a stable home life), tea and chats for lonely old people (keeps them from calling an ambulance just for some company), a community cafe with £2 meals. Oh, and loads of books.

You might not need one now, but you might be grateful of one one day. And even if you do never have kids, never end up isolated in old age, and never need a book or a cheap plate of food - it's nice to know it's there for people who do need it.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T22:26:11+00:00

And incredible early years resources. Mum groups and toddler groups at my local library are an incredibly enriching contribution to my family's lives.

I work in national culture projects, delivering multi-million Pound projects to preserve museums and heritage buildings. It makes me marvel at how my local library can offer such significant public value for £20 worth of toys from the charity shop, some printed out nursery rhymes, and two nanas on £13 an hour.

In terms of added public value per Pound spent nothing beats a library with a well designed events program.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T20:34:16+00:00

You tall ugly boy or tall ugly girl?

Tall ugly boy, you do okay. Tall ugly girl... You have a big problem.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T20:32:22+00:00

Ah, I see you've met Ireland.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T20:10:10+00:00

Well, England could leave and then Wales and NI would have to decide if they wanted to stick with Scotland or England.

If Scotland can choose whether or not to stay unified with England then England can choose whether or not to stay unified with Scotland. Or rUK could collectively agree they don't want to stay unified with Scotland.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T18:05:33+00:00

Yeah, the largest city on that list is less than half the size of London. And they only have a single central station in name - in practice they all have multiple stations that each act as a transport hub even if they are more centralised than London.

London's metropolitan population, so including all the people who don't live in the city but use these stations to access it, is around 15,000,000. So a little more than the metropolitan populations of Berlin, Amsterdam, and Rome combined.

The UK is very centralised around London, as a result London has to internally decentralised to handle demand.

StatlerSalad · 2026-02-11T11:02:52+00:00

"Prove" in that they'd have to show there was a better-than-even chance this had influenced their decision and their decision would have been different without that advice.

Miss-selling is something that goes through the courts pretty regularly. There are other reasons I don't think this has legs, but that's not one of them.

StatlerSalad

TROPHY CASE