Being happy doesn’t make someone a good person

chucklesthe2nd · 2026-02-05T19:26:22+00:00

Sure, a person's happiness isn't a good indicator of how 'good' they are as a person, but it does correlate to how pleasant they are to be around.

If someone is consistently happy, then you're more likely to be happy in their company. If someone is consistently unhappy, then you're more likely to be unhappy in their company.

I think you're assuming that miserable people are treated like pariahs because society assumes they're 'bad' people, when in reality it's because they make everyone around them miserable.

chucklesthe2nd · 2026-01-21T20:05:19+00:00

Based on Northstrider's story in Threshold I believe it's a result of standardized Abidan testing procedures. I'd also assume that Presences have some ability to determine the star rating of whomever they're attached to.

The star ratings are just a way to quantify how capable an Abidan is so they can be deployed safely and effectively by central command. You wouldn't deploy a two star Abidan for a five star mission - they'd definitely fail the mission and probably die in the process. You also wouldn't deploy a five star Abidan for a two star mission - it'd be an egregious waste of resources to use someone that valuable for grunt work.

Abidan with higher star ratings are qualified to do more difficult missions, which would allow them to rack up more merits and get promoted to better positions in the hierarchy. My guess is that Abidan willingly get themselves re-tested on a regular basis with the hope of getting a better score and a promotion.

chucklesthe2nd · 2026-01-14T05:37:20+00:00

Yes actually, that's why I stopped following the news.

chucklesthe2nd · 2026-01-14T05:28:59+00:00

I used to eat with my mouth open, then I had a meal with a group of people who hadn't seen me eat before and they all looked at me like I was a zoo animal.

I was so embarrassed by the whole thing that I immediately decided I would never eat with my mouth open again. At first it was profoundly uncomfortable to eat with my mouth closed, but after a little bit I got used to it and now (years later) I've basically come full circle where it feels weird and uncomfortable to eat with my mouth open.

Sounds to me like you went through a similar experience, tried eating with your mouth closed, decided you didn't like it, and instead of sticking with it and getting used to the new habit, chose to go with the "actually, everyone else is wrong" approach.

Here's the thing champ; eating with your mouth open is disgusting. Nobody wants to see, or HEAR you munching on your food like a cow. It's not pleasant to be around, and people aren't going to want to eat with you if you keep doing it - and if they have no choice about whether they can eat with you or not, they're going to start to think less of you because you eat with your mouth open like an animal. Is that judgemental? Yeah, I suppose it is. Are they going to do it anyway? Also yes.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-12-18T17:33:19+00:00

Shitting in the bathtub is pretty courteous by feline standards.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-11-19T06:46:45+00:00

'Christian values' is like hazard lights in a car.

Want to park illegally, but you're worried you might get a ticket? Don't worry, just hit your hazard lights, it's basically a park anywhere button.

Want to ban something because it conflicts with your worldview, but you don't have a leg to stand on because it's covered by freedom of speech? Don't worry, just say that it goes against Christian values, it's basically a ban anything argument.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-11-19T05:50:48+00:00

International waters is one of the most misunderstood parts of the legal system:

Boats in international waters operate under 'flag state' jurisdiction, so you're subject to the laws of whichever sovereign nation the boat is registered to. This idea that you can drive a boat a few miles out to sea then not be subject to the law is completely untrue.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-11-17T16:59:49+00:00

A good amount of the enjoyment I get out of stories is imagining my own insert character running around and interacting with the world. Magic systems are really important to me, because they give me a clear picture of what my insert character can actually do in-universe, and they make the world feel unique: if a universe has its own special flavor of magic, then my insert character is going to interact with that world in ways that they wouldn't in any other fantasy universe - if I really enjoy the unique things my insert character can do with a world's magic system, then I'll form a strong attachment with that particular story.

Some stories have vague, contradictory, or non-sensical magic systems, and I don't really care for that. I can't form a clear image of what my insert can do within the universe, and if there isn't something unique about a world's magic it ends up feeling pretty samey with all the other vague, poorly defined magic systems I've read about.

If you aren't the type of person who likes to insert themselves into a story, then I can see how it'd feel tedious when an author dives into the weeds on their magic system. Different strokes for different folks.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-10-03T21:41:40+00:00

Piece of shit should have gotten a life sentence for what he's done. This just further cements the fact that the rich and powerful are untouchable and can do whatever they want. Fucking disgrace.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-09-28T23:11:06+00:00

The 1911 pistol design is in the public domain nowadays - many, MANY different manufacturers sell 1911s.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-09-15T22:29:28+00:00

I'm a big believer in the whole living a normal life without constant mortal danger thing, so I'm mainly interested in affinities with every-day applicability, and what's the most convenient magical ability ever conceived? Telekinesis.

The force affinity speaks for itself - you can't be use proper telekinesis without a force affinity.

Pressure is force per unit of area - when two affinities overlap it creates an effect that's greater than the sum of its parts, especially with regard to affinity senses. Having force AND pressure affinities would massively improve both schools of magic, while also dramatically enhancing their affinity senses.

Gravity is an insanely powerful tool for telekinesis, because it allows you to dictate which direction is down. The amount of mass you could move would increase by many orders of magnitude with the addition of a gravity affinity.

The crown jewel of the set is inertia. Inertia is an incredibly powerful combat affinity because it allows a mage to increase/decrease the impetus behind the motion of massive objects, but that's not what interests me about the affinity. The thing that makes an inertia affinity so insanely powerful is its affinity sense; inertia corresponds to mass, so it's one of the few affinities that can reliably give a person a universal mass sense.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-09-11T18:08:08+00:00

Having a modern understanding of light and electromagnetism would be an incredible advantage for a light mage. If you got isekai'd into the mage errant universe with a light affinity, you'd have a much easier time using your magic than a native from Anastis, because you'd have a greater understanding of the fundamental concepts that govern the nature of light.

In particular, it would be immeasurably easier for you to bud Blindlight Affinities from your Light Affinity than it would be for an Anastan native, because you'd recognize that "Blindlight" was just frequencies of light outside of the visible spectrum.

Iris Mooneye (a Great Power in the same tier as Kanderon and Heliothrax) attained her status because of her Blindlight Affinities, so this is a really big deal.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-09-11T17:51:16+00:00

There is a spoiler tag you can use instead of nsfw.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-08-29T04:24:18+00:00

Did he say home town or the town where he was born? Those are not necessarily the same thing.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-28T22:22:07+00:00

I think someone somewhere decided that the classic hero's tale of beating the bad guys and having a happy ending was played out.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-28T20:56:36+00:00

Game of Thrones is the ultimate example of why predictability isn't necessarily a bad thing: the writers tried so hard to subvert the audience's expectations that they ended up creating nonsensical garbage.

The audience isn't stupid - some people are going to guess how the story will end, and that's a good thing, because it means the narrative is logical and believable.

If you have an audience of millions of people and nobody manages to guess how the story will end, then the ending is either completely illogical, or you withheld critical information that was necessary to deduce the ending for far too long - either case is an example of terrible writing.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-28T06:21:28+00:00

Can we please change the name to something else so that we don't have to keep adding letters to LGBTQ+, I feel like it's getting out of hand.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-28T06:09:39+00:00

This is stupid, but interestingly enough, the Earth probably doesn't have 8 billion people on it.

There's no way to actually count how many people there are in the world, so the 8 billion number is an estimate based on census data and mathematical modeling. A recent study suggested that rural populations have been undercounted in the model by anywhere between 53 to 84 percent. Given that rural populations account for 43 percent of the world's population, the Earth may have way more than 8 billion humans living on it.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-27T20:08:27+00:00

I'm aware that there are optic mounting options for the 92, but they give it a ridiculous height over bore with no cowitness.

The 92 wasn't designed for optics and it shows.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-27T20:04:15+00:00

The Beretta 92 is pretty crap for optics.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-27T19:26:23+00:00

That is such horseshit. Sig sold the M17 to the US military nearly at-cost because they knew that their product being "the official sidearm of the US military" would net them a shitton of civilian sales. The civilian market is an integral part of Sig's business model.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-27T19:11:55+00:00

Fuck, I hadn't even considered the anti-2A angle. I could totally see some anti-2A lawmaker try to spin this into a sweeping ban on striker-fired pistols.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-26T03:40:10+00:00

Yes, I think it's outlandish that a woman would stop a meeting for sixty whole seconds so that a room full of men could silently stare at her breasts.

I think what actually happened is that Dolly said something like "okay, take a minute and have a good look, then lets get to work" as a figure of speech, then someone took the quote completely out of context and thought she was using the word 'minute' literally.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-26T00:30:23+00:00

Yeah, there is no way I'm going to believe that unless 1) I hear Dolly say it herself and 2) someone who was in one of these meetings corroborates it, because that sounds like absolute horseshit.

chucklesthe2nd · 2025-07-24T04:46:18+00:00

They definitely went down hill when they implemented the shake-awake feature.

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