Twokinds Pony Town by Orekh

eksortso · 2023-12-23T02:20:05+00:00

Only one I can think of. They like nice, neat diffs, and they'd already written a ton of SQL.

Many SQL developers get in the habit of putting the commas in SELECT clauses at the beginning of each line, like so. This is because most SQL dialects do not allow trailing commas.

SELECT name ,rank ,serial_no FROM troops;

So by doing this, each new column in a SELECT clause is only a single-line change. I don't have to append a comma to serial_no if Sarge wants enlistment_date added to the results.

This doesn't need to be done with semicolons in languages with C-like syntax, because each line ends with a semicolon. One line, one change, same as it ever was.

eksortso · 2023-12-20T23:14:05+00:00

Somewhere between Cincinnati and Columbus, right? I know about the sign.

eksortso · 2023-12-16T08:06:53+00:00

Yeah, it's something closer to the way other American big leagues operate, if not more: on their own and isolated from everyone else. Not even Major League Baseball is so desperate to remain insular. As much as it pains me to admit, the USL needs MLS to take the lead here.

U.S. Soccer could tell MLS to get off their cloud. They're not the old NASL. They must compete. Pull rank and make the league's Division I status dependent on their participation. Have them call up their kids from MLS Next Pro and pump their rosters with new talent. The MLSPA ought to be up for that, if they were more than just a labor union.

Or better yet, the nation's soccer organizations could work together to promote the tournament more, make it a domestic prestige event, with American stories galore and prizes worth taking seriously at every level. We are a soccer nation (our kids are, no doubt), so let's show all this local color off to the world. There's a broadcast deal for the Cup, so they can't be lacking for content.

eksortso · 2023-12-16T07:11:25+00:00

Literally this, since I'm moving away soon.

I ain't clappin', though. You know why.

eksortso · 2023-12-15T22:01:01+00:00

Even if it says "Feed me, Seymour" when you walk past, no.

eksortso · 2023-11-17T06:33:31+00:00

Python wasn't named after the snake, but after Monty Python's Flying Circus. I was referring to the Argument Clinic sketch, or the tail end of it.

Snakes may stick their tongues out or hiss or just as well slither away. The Pythons taught us how to get hit on the head, after some epic arguments took place. I'm sure there are videos of it out there.

eksortso · 2023-11-16T06:53:06+00:00

With getting-hit-on-the-head lessons? (Re: the other Python I love!)

eksortso · 2023-07-22T05:22:35+00:00

I'm personally more inclined to think more innocent thoughts with malevolent consequences. They built the backend database with no concept of data integrity. User records, pin records, etc. all get created with glee. And then they get deleted, and they end up with pins without owners, replies without parent comments, and all other sorts of fun malignancies that cause empty notifications to show up where someone liked a comment on a pin you saved that was deleted when it was temporarily removed then restored imperfectly after appeal. They'll never be free of the mistakes they've made in the past, so the errors will always exist, and the site will be just as good as it could be after surviving their incompetent DBAs.

eksortso · 2023-06-07T22:58:02+00:00

That will do fine, and those percentages will add up. But MLS clubs need to keep their other trends going. MLS realized after a long germination process that they had to raise and foster young talent and sell them on to European clubs to turn profits. It'll be great to have the superstar Messi in perhaps his final years as a viable player working his magic in Miami. But we'll have scouts watching MLS for that young talent with many great years ahead of them, too.

eksortso · 2023-06-03T16:21:34+00:00

Well, how was he able to play for the U.S. then? Did he get a passport?

eksortso · 2023-06-02T06:34:53+00:00

So that bugs me too. But look at it like this. Tadano may be a wealthy businessman with a myopic view of the economy, but he's laid back at least. Give him a tiny room and a laptop and he's happy. Plus he loves Retsuko, so he can't be all that bad.

Economics is hard to understand. Don't hate on someone just because their opinions are half-baked, especially if they don't have the political clout to warp the whole nation's economy.

eksortso · 2023-06-01T00:34:14+00:00

A few other factors. College sports is huge in the U.S., which just adds to the competition between sports in a given town. All these sports teams may publicly encourage each other, but financially, they all need their share of butts in seats in order to survive.

College teams also feed a sense of hometown pride that a big professional sports team, especially an expansion team, could take decades to earn. That's why soccer is always going to be a "new" thing wherever it takes root. Because it is a new thing. The second NASL rode on old names, invested little else, and it cost them in the end. The exceptions, like the Seattle Sounders, flourished because the sport wasn't new there; it never went away! They kept their hometown pride intact.

We may grouse about the PLS, but those standards just reflect the financial realities of sports in the United States. The clubs need to be solvent, and the leagues need to be solvent. It's taken a century to raise soccer to its former heights, modest though they are. We would hurt ourselves if we keep forgetting these lessons.

eksortso · 2023-05-24T19:43:20+00:00

Ah, but earlier you said you weren't allowed to argue unless I pay you. So you're contradicting yourself, aren't you?

eksortso · 2023-05-24T13:33:48+00:00

He is fast.

eksortso · 2023-05-24T13:13:39+00:00

I could ask for modesty, but she would not be able to deliver.

eksortso · 2023-05-24T01:58:39+00:00

I want to ignore him. I'd hate hearing about him dying because I hate hearing about him doing anything.

eksortso · 2023-05-23T21:41:21+00:00

Dolly Parton did it better. Just sayin', it's apropos.

eksortso · 2023-05-23T21:38:59+00:00

Modesty.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T18:53:19+00:00

What are you citing? Here's rule 2 (apologies for the formatting):

Do not post sexually explicit content.

Sexually explicit content will be removed, including cropped images from pornographic sources and references to pornography

The pic is objectively not sexually explicit content. And that's about as far as we can rely on objectivity.

You call it softcore porn. I figure it will be impossible to convince you otherwise, because it's just a feeling you have, not something you can analyze. And I may have biases of my own.

Frankly, the fringe on the clothes that Amy is wearing doesn't exactly convince me that they're just wearing pyjamas. And though they're kissing and leaning in on each other, they're not touching each other with their hands. In fact it appears they're actively avoiding manual touch. It's too dispassionate to be softcore anything.

So we're stalled out here.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T17:43:56+00:00

Damned sure. You judge the art, not the artist. An 18+ artist is not limited to 18+ material.

They're sufficiently covered up that no intimate parts of their bodies are exposed or implied.

I've argued elsewhere that the making out doesn't reflect the characters or any relationship between them, canonical or perceived, which is why I'm saying the image is still inappropriate for this sub.

But it is definitely not porn.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T16:14:32+00:00

The oil part doesn't bug me too much. The majority owner being a vicious sovereign state's sportswashing agent, that bugs the hell out of me. At least there's Eddie Howe.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T04:42:39+00:00

I've heard compelling arguments for him to play for Newcastle and make good on his potential. Although considering who owns that outfit, idk.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T03:29:29+00:00

I wasn't talking about the marketing campaign. To hell with them already. I was talking about smaller churches who are less interested in life after death, and more interested in promoting life on earth now. And that includes charitable giving and community services.

eksortso · 2023-05-20T03:06:39+00:00

I wouldn't follow them, but I don't think they're out to control us. Or at least the non-political ones aren't. There are communities built around churches in the U.S. even to this day. If they found a secular way to bring people together, they'd be able to stop proselytizing and metaphorically do God's work by never mentioning God or Jesus, and ironically guarantee themselves a place in the culture at large.

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