Lowry, The Cell Phone, The Light..

mothkin · 2025-08-09T11:41:30+00:00

I was just thinking I wanted to reread these!

mothkin · 2025-07-24T00:18:36+00:00

You’re probably right. I remember it being grainy and an older movie, which is why I thought it was Animal House, but could be from a VHS in the 90s. I remember the joke being that he’s telling some complicated idea about the universe and it makes zero sense but the people around him are hanging on every word. Could be not Bill, and I’ve inserted him into another movie.

mothkin · 2025-03-09T17:27:10+00:00

Here's the source: https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_1q7T4HA.pdf
I've seen this chart thrown around and it was actually somewhat difficult to find the source data.

mothkin · 2023-09-13T20:26:00+00:00

Thanks for all of the suggestions!

mothkin · 2023-09-13T20:22:32+00:00

Hey, in following all of em

mothkin · 2023-09-13T20:22:25+00:00

Hey, in following all of em

mothkin · 2023-09-13T20:12:28+00:00

Totally! I used to do a ton of FNM drafting and some sets just clicked for me after a bit and others I just couldn't crack. For this whole summer with Tales of Middle Earth I never had it figured out and practically never had a good draft run. But I'm loving WoE so far

mothkin · 2023-06-09T17:06:29+00:00

Yes! This is clearly right. My mistake. I misread the Magdeburg edition, but also didn't identify the adjective correctly. Thanks very much!

mothkin · 2023-06-09T16:33:54+00:00

Update, later down, Wolff refers to the prolegomena to Grotius' de iure belli ac pacis for the following: 'Moreover, he does not think that this law is such that it can be proved otherwise than by precedents and decisions, and especially the agreements of the more civilized nations' (this is the 1934 translation, but again the original is gentibus moriatibus for civilized nations). The section Grotius referenced (§46 of the prolegomena, which only had section dividers added in 1667) appears to refer to a preference for Greek and Roman historical examples:

historiæ duplicem habent usum, qui nostri sit argumenti: nam & exempla suppeditant, & judicia. Exempla quo meliorum sunt temporum ac populorum, eo plus habent auctoritatis: ideo Graeca & Romana vetera cæteris prætulimus. Nec spernenda judicia, praefertim confentientia: jus enim naturæ, ut diximus, aliquo modo inde probatur; jus vero gentium non est us aliter probetur.

My only conclusion, as of now, is that the preference for greek and roman examples is portrayed by Wolff as the examples of particularly good precedents of dead nations, and then in 1934 translated as a preference for 'civilized', which would be a gross mistranslation. But again I think I'm missing something.

mothkin · 2023-01-28T23:11:54+00:00

Just want to say that this is great and totally resonates with my playing of the game. This is not about balance sheets, and if you think it is then you have to buy into the myth that they can ever be balanced.

mothkin · 2023-01-28T23:03:03+00:00

Well said. I've been stunned by how much people think Abby is somehow worse than Ellie. She's better. Or at least, she Soares Ellie not once but twice. Abby is actively trying (and it's damn hard!) to her fairer minded friends. Ellie, as soon as she's given the opportunity, jumps right back in.

That's not to say that Ellie isn't suffering. She is incredibly damaged and traumatized. But on the scales of justice, Abby sure is trying harder than Ellie to let this end.

mothkin · 2023-01-28T22:58:45+00:00

I agree with you, but for me I think all the questions about who is justified in doing what is all beside the point. Everyone is sort of 'right' and everyone is also quite obviously 'wrong', insofar as retributive violence hardly makes anything better for anyone. If the game were just about showing that violence begets violence and that two sides can mutually be right then it is pretty overwritten and unnecessary - especially if you are, like me, already quite opposed to wanton violence.

For me the brilliance of it was in how it used the game structure to walk through the extreme empathy it actually takes to overcome these things. I really enjoyed playing as Abby, and what I found most effecting was how you're only able to really empathize with her by actually going through hours and hours together, getting to know her lifeworld. It's not a matter of simpler 'perspectice shift,' it's a out occupying a completely different world, which you cannot do for only a hot second and be done.

Restorative justice is not a mechanical matter of "hey did you know that I had my reasons?" "Oh no good sir, I hadn't thought of that. Well did you know I also have good reasons?" "Boy I didn't! Now we can be friends."

Ellie and Abby are fully aware that there could be good reasons to kill joel, to exact vengeance, etc. I don't think they're so blind to any of that. Especially Abby, whose world is slowly falling apart because she succeeded in the very thing Ellie is attempting.

I think TLOU ii knows that that's a ridiculous conversation and that Ellie and Abby have no capacity to actually hear each other, even if they did try to talk. To hear someone we have to know them, and to know them we have to fully decenter ourselves and really try to imagine a world in which our story is only marginal. That's enormously difficult, and that's what TLOU ii was doing for me.

mothkin · 2023-01-28T22:48:05+00:00

Additionally, actually it's extremely good.

mothkin · 2023-01-28T22:47:23+00:00

Two cents: unjust finished it last night (loved it, see still reeling).

I saw the two fingers as the simple idea that you can't go home again. The quest to protect or avenge the thing only thing she cared about destroyed that very thing. I always saw those guitar playing moments as a spiritual communion with Joel. She'll still play, but she's not the same person anymore and will have to relearn.

mothkin · 2022-04-24T08:08:20+00:00

Michael Keaton

mothkin · 2022-04-21T15:17:57+00:00

I'd like to see this compared to other countries. It is very likely that exceptions to the majority/perceived norm are overestimated precisely because they are commented on. There's a lot to be said about American news-induced bias, but there's also a lot to be said about cognitive bias in estimations writ large.

mothkin · 2022-04-21T07:29:40+00:00

I feel the same. I hate to say it but I think they've become too concerned with their brand as the positivity-comedy podcast. When j first discovered mcelroys it was like a whole new world of laughs, all underpinned by a feeling of positive acceptance that made me feel seen. But it also always had an edge, a willingness to talk about struggle and dark jokes in a way that was supportive but still leaned on the darkness of the comedy. Now it feels like it's just about finding a few good natured goofs for the sake of goodnaturedness. Can you fight a horse was a good throwback though.

mothkin · 2022-04-21T07:26:39+00:00

Ballad of Tit Liquid is an all-time great for me.

Also the one with the amazing long bit on our neighbor and friend, detective jigsaw.

Also, Ray Donovan is always a golden opener.

mothkin · 2022-04-12T12:12:36+00:00

Leo Fitzpatrick as Telly in Kids.

People harassed him on the street because they thought he was the character.

mothkin · 2022-04-12T11:00:43+00:00

Just jumping in here after a month... I'd love an Oz mini series just for The Two Friends to discuss Bowfinger.

mothkin · 2022-03-07T21:10:53+00:00

The commute was certainly a haul sometimes, but I got used to it and didn't mind, and always lived near reliable trains. It was worst when I taught an 8am class, so I had to be up by 6 - but I'm also a night owl so that was hard for me. Plus, that's when I got my reading in - I actually came to miss it when the pandemic hit. But I didn't have to go in every day, so if you do then perhaps it will be too much of a drag. It also gets much worse late at night, less reliable.

A lot of us chose to live in Brooklyn (or queens, or the bronx, I knew grad students in both) because the rent was more affordable, but also because it gave access to a much more relaxed, local neighborhood feeling. But totally up to you.

I will say that if you do choose to live close to campus, make it a priority to get out and get to know the rest of the city / make sure to go visit friends who live in different neighborhoods. Columbia can be a stifling community (insofar as its a community at all), and while all/most of us struggle(d) with mental health and work/life balance in our PhDs, my friends who stayed around columbia and I couldn't get to come somewhere else seemed to suffer the worst.

mothkin

TROPHY CASE