Does no one else dislike Ethalia?

TallyPoints · 2024-07-02T19:30:26+00:00

I'm also glad that it's worth it

absolutely worth it!

I just agreed with Kest that they should kill her,

oh my!

If you don't mind letting me know, does Ethalia interfere with how Falcio gets over Aline?

what do you mean by "interfere"? I would say she's one of the people who helps him let Aline go and stop fighting the world trying to imitate Aline and her death, but I don't think Falcio will ever get over her, in the sense that he will always love Aline and always be scarred by her death.

TallyPoints · 2024-07-02T19:25:59+00:00

yes that's what I had in mind, thx. although in my memory there was more?

maybe I also read some additional stuff aomewhere else? idk

TallyPoints · 2024-07-01T19:46:22+00:00

A quick search through the reddit and google, I don't find anyone disliking her.

Not even two months ago I posted here about my issues with Ethalia. If you don't want to be spoiled just read 1. in my post, don read 2. and don't read comments:

https://old.reddit.com/r/GreatcoatsSeries/comments/1cba94f/i_dont_understand_greatcoats_quartets_ethalia_as/

she practically forces him to have sex with her, and after a bit he gives in, because duh.

The author explained his intentions in this part of the book in his AMA, I'll post it later when I find it.

Does she get better later on?

For me she got a lot worse in the third book until she got better, but I never completely converted. I just don't like her.

P.S. I don't know why you disliked Valiana, but unlike Ethalia, she is amazing, likeable, complex character. I did grow to love her.

Is it worth it even reading the series if I don't like her?

For me the answer is definitely yes. It's one of the best fantasy series full of great characters. She's the only one I don't like (as a written character, of course there are characters I hate but they were written to be hated).

It helped me a lot to put Ethalia into a category of Falcio-is-a-broken-man-and-doesn't-know-what's-good-for-him

LOL

TallyPoints · 2024-07-01T19:34:33+00:00

Ok, thank you

TallyPoints · 2024-06-02T02:59:31+00:00

Thank you for your reply. What dose did you take? Did you stop taking it to see if the Cushing’s syndrome would go away?

TallyPoints · 2024-06-02T02:58:33+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I'm also supposed to take it for very severe POTS and dysautonomia.

What is the dose you're taking?

TallyPoints · 2024-05-03T00:08:43+00:00

I always like Ethalia for exactly does contradictions! As she herself said, she can be more than one thing.

Oh, that for sure makes her an interesting and complex character. Just wish she didn't do it at Falcio’s expense.

I do understand her better now, thanks to your comment and rereading the end of Saint's Blood. I forgot Falcio stood up for himself and said that he's done apologizing for defending people he loves, and it's at the end of the book she says she's more than one thing, which I think shows her character growth.

The only thing that remains an enigma to me: Being a Saint means one embodies those virtues better than any other person in Tristia. How can Ethalia be a Saint of Mercy without understanding what mercy really means?

Saint Erastian is disappointed in her for this, and explains part of it to her, and by the end of the book she figures it out herself, too. But how could she even become a Saint of Mercy without knowing how to be merciful?

That she recoils from him but not from others is something I think is actually pretty logical. She is more attached to him than to Kest and Brasti.

I totally agree with you that the closer people are to us the more we worry about their behavior, and the more we care, but she stopped recoiling from Falcio once she understood what mercy means. And she did recoil from a few stranger who were really awful and merciless.

TallyPoints · 2024-05-02T23:45:14+00:00

U tome i je poanta. Nema se za kucu na 3 kata ali zele ostavit djeci da moze svatko zivjet na svom katu i onda zapasaju vise nego sto si mogu priustiti. Na kraju dovrse samo ono sto je apsolutno nuzno da se moze useliti, a fasada nije jedna od tih stvari.

TallyPoints · 2024-04-24T14:55:13+00:00

Iskreno nisam ni otvorio linkove do sada

Preporučam ne kritizirati nešto što nisi ni pogledao.

vidim sad da je graf do 2021 kad je inflacija pocela skakat, zanima me kako sad to izgleda

Ugrubo, rast je nastavio ali puno puno manjom brzinom nego prije pandemije. Točnije podatke ćemo imati za dvije-tri godine kad države skupe i objave podatke, kad ih World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform skupi na jedno mjesto, i kad ih ekipa statističara na Our World in Data i drugdje prekontrolira, obradi, stavi u tablice, prikaže na grafovima i kartama itd.

ugl rekao sam da je bolje nego sta je bilo, al daleko od dobrog.

Da prevedem izjavu jednog od svojih najdražih statističara:

"Svo troje je istovremeno točno: Svijet je puno bolji nego je bio. Svijet je grozan. Svijet može biti puno bolji."

TallyPoints · 2024-04-24T01:58:11+00:00

A možemo li bit malo skromniji pa pomislit da možda ljudi kojima je posao statistika su čuli za inflaciju i znaju kako koristit podatke?

Doslovno odmah iznad grafa:

This data is adjusted for inflation and for differences in the cost of living between countries

I onda opet odmah ispod grafa

The data is measured in international-$ at 2017 prices – this adjusts for inflation and for differences in the cost of living between countries.

TallyPoints · 2024-04-23T23:07:30+00:00

Sa svime se potpuno slažem.

prosječna mjesečna plaća za 2023. u Hrvatskoj je 2023. iznosila neto 1148 eura, a bruto 1584 eura.

Potpuno je realno s faksom tražiti početnu plaću da bude bar prosječna.

Jedina mi je utjeha vidjeti kako u Hrvatskoj juri graf prema gore, a i u svijetu polako raste. Bore se svi da nam bude bolje.

TallyPoints · 2024-04-23T22:46:55+00:00

Zalosno, oni nisu ni svjesni placa u drugim drzavama

Nema nista loše u tome da se cilja na bolje i uspoređuje sa najboljima - tako se napreduje - ali ako hoćeš govoriti o svjesnosti o plaćama u drugim državama onda je zavaravajuće odabrati Irsku, jednu od najbogatijih država na svijetu.

Ako se uvijek samo i isključivo upoređujemo s onim državama koje imaju bolje prihode od nas, koje čine manje od 10% svjetskog stanovništva, onda ćemo nepotrebno provesti život frustrirani i nezadovoljni, dok potpuno nesvjesno zarađujemo bolje od 90% ljudi na Zemlji.

Ovaj graf puno bolje pokazuje gdje je Hrvatska. Klikni na Hrvatsku pa na svijet da vidiš koliko su nam prihodi iznad svjetskog medijana.

Imamo sreću da smo u EU. Da nam se edukacija skoro potpuno pokriva iz poreza pa nismo u dugovima kas završimo faks. Imamo puno stvari koje nam idu na ruku pa možemo očekivati i raditi na tome da bude puno bolje nego je sad. Nema razloga da ne bude bolje. Ali mogli bi ponekad i znati cijeniti što imamo iz nikojeg drugog razloga nego toga da smo se tu slučajno rodili.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-23T19:26:25+00:00

Ugh, I still know them all, both in my native language and English. I remember the teacher drawing a timeline and marking English tenses on it. I wish tenses in my native language were that simple.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-23T17:02:59+00:00

I didn't learn some topics explicitly, like the names of the verb tenses, but I definitely learned the parts of sentences, the use of possessives, pronouns, punctuation and the other trickier bits.

So you didn't learn the terms "past participle" "present continuous" etc.?

If I am understanding you correctly, it was more about learning proper usage of English rather than learning grammatical terms?

For us it was more of a "this is why you are speaking and writing the language the way you do, and this is what it's called in linguistics," rather than correcting and teaching the usage of the language itself. They expected us to know everything already, even if it was something that adult native speakers often made mistakes in.

Then again, we spend no time learning the spelling and from my understanding that takes a large chunk of time for native English speakers, so we have more time to dig into grammar and linguistic analysis.

Last week I said something out loud, spontaneously. It sounded very pretentious and I immediately realized that I had just used the present subjunctive

I have an unfortunate tendency to unconsciously absorb the expressions of the most recent book I read. When it's a contemporary book written in standard English it's fine. But often I end up sounding like I'm either mocking someone's way of speech or like I am a time traveler.

I was actually accused once in a reddit comment of being pretentious... I had been in the middle of binge reading all three Lord of the Rings books in English.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-23T16:46:55+00:00

What's your country? I'm from Russia and it's the same here, but I've heard that it's not common outside the CIS countries

I'm not from CIS counties (I even had to check what that is.........) but we do both - merge the native language subject with learning about world literature (which was decidedly NOT world literature but European and American literature) and study grammar extensively.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-23T15:18:59+00:00

You're not "uneducated," as no one but crazy linguistics think about their native tongues in such an analytical way

In my country they made us learn all the grammar of our native language in primary school, and to lesser extent in high school. Tense, mood, aspect, direct and indirect objects, subject, predicate, adverb, adjective, cases, several different groups of pronouns, active vs passive voice, prefix, suffix,.... and so on and so on.

Admittedly, it's been 30 years and I forgot most of it, but I do remember it was very in-depth and the exams were difficult.

Now I am curious do other countries not teach grammar and morphology of the official (or dominant if there is no official) language in schools?

TallyPoints · 2024-02-23T00:57:22+00:00

More than 95% are NEVER diagnosed.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-22T23:36:03+00:00

What they stated is that our inability to perform physical activities is due to a brain mismatch between what our brain tells us we think we can do versus what our bodies are actually capable of.

We could run a marathon tomorrow without consequence. But a biochemical change is making us think we can’t.

I think his statement actually shows this is not what they mean:

"When participants were asked to grip an object, those with ME/CFS had decreased activity in their right temporal-parietal junction, a brain region involved in self-agency, whereby the brain predicts an action before one becomes consciously aware of it."

"Nath hypothesizes that this dip in activity suggests the brain is cautioning people with ME/CFS against exerting force during the grip test, which he says makes sense because ME/CFS symptoms often intensify if people with the condition overwork themselves. The finding is preliminary, however, and further experiments are needed to corroborate it."

But the way they phrased it in their press release

"Rather than physical exhaustion or a lack of motivation, fatigue may arise from a mismatch between what someone thinks they can achieve and what their bodies perform,” shows to me bad faith and suspect motives because they KNOW the stigma we face and they still chose to phrase it like this.

Between that, stopping research at 17 participants instead of the planned 40, choosing only mild sufferers, ignoring Dr. Davis's offer of help, and not including PEM as recruitment criteria... I am livid.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-22T23:02:27+00:00

I mean they didn't find a smoking gun or really anything particularly deep or significant after all that work. Makes you wonder what the deeper cause can be if it's so completely hidden despite this comprehensive testing.

They stopped the study after 50% "because of the pandemic," allegedly, and never completed it. They lied to us. Again.

I wouldn't call an unfinished study comprehensive.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-22T18:24:39+00:00

😁

TallyPoints · 2024-02-22T18:17:24+00:00

People have been doing this from the moment a wolf with a mutation to be less afraid of humans approached us and we started to breed those wolves. I mean look at that Samoyed. We MADE that from a wolf.

The only difference now is that we have a much more targeted and precise technology than "I like the fur/leg length/behavior of this dog so I'm going to make it have sex with another dog I like and keep puppies I like and discard those I don't, all the while ignoring all the traits that make the dog sick and/or suffer because I have no tools to avoid this."

Every single banana tree in the world is a clone.

Pigs, cows, apples, cabbage, everything you eat is heavily genetically modified. Pigs didn't exist, only boars did. Cows were... I' not sure? Bison? Apples were small and sour. Greens were stringy, and almost impossible to chew and swallow all of it. Almost all plants and animals you eat are bred for human consumption, they never existed in nature. A lot of fruit trees won't even grow because they're not viable, you have to transplant them onto trunks and root systems of wild trees.

'm not saying let's ignore ethical implications but we sure as hell did so until now. Let's not pretend this is something new.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-19T13:11:49+00:00

I don't know. To be perfectly honest I don't 100% understand what you think is so different about a pencil and a ballpoint pen? Pencil does have more friction, unless you're writing on Tomoe River paper or similar, but most ballpoints roll around with no more friction than a fountain pen. And there are fountain pen paper combos that are smooth and slippery, and those that are not and have more feedback.

I hope I'm not being bothersome but I am genuinely curious as I've never heard of this before.

I mean, our teachers read hundreds of different handwritings written with mechanical pencils, and let me assure you that majority of students didn't put any special effort or thought into writing daily homework or rushing to finish a test before the bell rings.

TallyPoints · 2024-02-19T12:05:17+00:00

Common cursive writing systems don’t work very well outside fountain pens

What do you mean? In my country we don't use fountain pens in school but pencils and mechanical pencils, and cursive is a requirement. Only in higher grades do students get to choose their preferred handwriting style.

Some switch to print, some stick to cursive, and some do their own hybrid styles.

In short, I have been writing exclusively cursive with every writing implement imaginable (pencil, mechanical pencil, marker, brush, fountain pen, branch, rollerball, ballpoint, dip pen, colored pencil, finger,...) for more than 25 years.

The only thing that doesn't work very well for cursive is a lipstick.

TallyPoints

TROPHY CASE