I've always had a bit of a soft spot for octopuses, but I never thought one would end up being my boyfriend.
Okay, I'll admit that "octopus" is the wrong word for him. Bloop, as he calls himself, is much more man than animal, with a combination of features that make him look just human enough to push him into the "unsettling-yet-attractive-alien" category. Among other things, he stands upright on four noodly legs and walks much like a man does (though a bit more fluidly). The other four appendages are his arms, which are eager to give me four times the cuddles that my last boyfriend did. And his eyes are in the wrong spot when compared to earth octopuses: two golden, expressive orbs that face forward instead of jutting out at the top of his head.
"Mike, our coffee date." Those orbs have an unamused look as I plop down at the kitchen table in the apartment we've shared since the Intergalactic Homestay Exchange Program two years ago.
"Was that today?" I yawn, scratching my behind and glancing over at the calendar. Sure enough, there was a little sticker of a smiling coffee mug in today's box.
"Yep. And you slept in again," said Bloop. "You're gonna fuck up your sleep schedule, y'know." He presses one of his arms to my face and sticks several suckers firmly to it. I groan. He's doing the "thing" again.
"Stop that," I say, pulling at the tentacle until it comes free with a large pop. "You know people don't take well to tentacle hickeys on faces."
"Human people don't take well to it," says Bloop, pressing another arm against my neck. "But with how many 'aliens' are living here nowadays, they'll get used to all sorts of marks pretty quick."
"I hope so," I say, I go to remove his arm, but pause, feeling his bright orange skin beneath mine. You'd think an extraterrestrial mollusk would be cold and slimy. Instead, he's warm and smooth.
There's a smirk in Bloop's eyes as he wraps a third tentacle around my fingers and pulls my hand onto the table between us. My face flushes. He knows damn well that hand-holding still makes my heart pound like a schoolboy, even if I'm a grown man and the "hand" I'm holding is a tentacle.
"Better try to wriggle free," says Bloop, "or I'll put hickeys on your palms, too."
"You asshole," I say.
"I try," says Bloop.
A knock at my door interrupts the moment, followed by a chipper voice.
"Mike? Bloop? Are we going or not?"
"Get dressed," hisses Bloop. "You don't want to make a Clodling angry."
"Right," I say, hopping up
... keep reading on reddit ➡I used to read Simpsons comics when I was little because I was cool. One of them had a really weird and different art style that felt a bit Alien (pun). But seriously there were Xenomorphs and then at the end Maggie's pacifier fell out and she had a little Xenomorph tongue. I think it had something to do with Bart watching horror movies. And Homer may have been frozen or something, believe me i know it's weird, but it was a legitimate comic book that I bought. Any help is great, thanks.
You don't need me to tell you that this year was a hell of a solar orbit, but if any positives can be said, I imagine time for casual recreation would be among them for a lot of you, locked away in your homes with minimal contact with other humans. If these recreations included books, I invite you to discuss them here.
Here's what I read, and my opinions on the works:
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1493: Discovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C. Mann - I read Mann's other book, 1491, a few years back, and I was really interested to read its "sequel", so to speak, once I learned about its existence. While 1491 introduced its readers to the complex world of Pre-Columbian Native Americans across both North and South America, 1493 provided a more dynamic analysis of how Europe interacted with the New World early on, and how this would have effects on the greater world for centuries to come. I found much of the book very interesting, especially the chapters on China and how Spain dominating the silver market in Potosí and Mexico City ultimately led to the downfall of the Ming. I admit that my attention started to drift away towards the end, when Mann discussed biodiversity and the chemical composition of rubber as we know it today, but if you're interested in world history, particularly the realms of European colonialism in the New World, I recommend this and 1491.
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Artemis by Andy Weir - This little-known novel written by the same man behind The Martian was a delight to read. It has good characters, a really interesting world, and a compelling story about conspiracies and intrigue. I encourage you to read this story if you like sci-fi.
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Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, by Bradley P. Beaulieu - The fantasy genre is tried and true. Ever since Tolkien ushered in the era of mainstream fantasy novels with Lord of the Rings, thousands of authors have tried their hand at fantasy, to varying degrees of success. As a result, it can be hard to make your voice heard or make something that will stand out enough to attract the eyes of the readers. But every once in a while, there's a fantasy novel that rises above its contemporaries and is something truly fantastic, unique, and captivating. Twelve Kings is that book. Taking place in a world taking its influences from the antiquity/medieval Middle East, Beaulieu crafted a fantastic narrative led by compelling characters dabbling in magic, conspiring against one another, and plotting the overthrow of nations. Beaulieu furtherm
Happy New Year everyone! I'm a big fantasy person myself and have never really been able to get into science-fiction. As a heads up, I have read Hyperion, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Martian (didn't read the book but liked the movie), and Parable of the Sower (I don't know if that counts, but I figured I'd mention it because it was really good).
A big issue I have with science-fiction is that I am far from the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to science. A lot of the time, I fail to understand the concepts presented and feel alienated (pun intended). It becomes hard for me to continue reading when what's being presented doesn't make too much sense to me.
I'm looking for a good beginner book into the genre that won't overwhelm me with scientific concepts and is easy to understand. Preferably standalone and not a part of a long-running series (not sure if I'm ready to make that commitment right now). Thank you all!
So for a long time I thought I hated sci-fi. I thought it was all biblically proportioned epics with too many characters and stupid alien names, based on some complex planet system, where everything was an allegory for the cold war or the authors repressed sexuality or whatever.
But then I read Ted Chiangs "The Story of Your Life and Others" and absolutely loved it. Then a friend pointed that "The Martian" by Andy Weir was also scfi. So trying to be less ignorant to the genre I have started reading "Neuromancer" which I am also finding very good.
I think what they all have in common is that they are all based in a world I roughly recognise? With sci-fi elements sprinkled into a world I am familiar with, rather than being some unfamiliar alien (pun intended) landscape.
Please help me find more scfi like this!
(Thinking of movies before I post, I like the Alien movies and Event Horizon. Star Wars is the exception to hatred of sci-fi epics but even then it's a B/10)
These days, a revival of fairly low-level programming languages seems to be happening. No one seems to be free from the fad: C++ users have Rust to put up with, Java programmers have Go to an extent, and even /r/Lisp gets its monthly "Foo-lang: a Lisp with no garbage collection / static types / region memory management / &c" post.
We define "low-level programming languages" loosely, as requiring some mental state from the user:
- handling pointers,
- forcing static typing on the user,
- little support for object-oriented programming, and/or
- using an underdeveloped exception system.
Not all of these need to be replaced for a non-masochist programming language. For example, a functional language can use richer types instead of exceptions or dynamic typing, and other paradigms that are not OOP exist.
Some masochist anti-features do not require a language to be low level:
- a clear procedural or imperative taste in an otherwise "functional" or "object-oriented" language,
- enforcement of a possibly sub-optimal "Right Way" to solve a problem, or
- traits inherited from older, potentially also masochist, languages, where they are not beneficial.
With these definitions, we devote the rest of this essay to singling out smells from masochist languages we believe programmers should be wary of.
Prelude: why this on /r/SocialistProgrammers?
- Deciding how to implement the Right Thing demands a lot of time, and so reducing development and testing time gives us more time to think about what we are doing, and gives us greater flexibility in what we are able to implement.
- There are a lot of jobs that could have greatly reduced hours if we reconsider their purposes: legacy systems are a good example, but some problems like code deduplication can be solved by macro systems, and interactive programming environments (like Jupyter for Python, SLIME for Common Lisp, and many Smalltalk IDEs) greatly reduce the develop-compile-test cycle period.
- Even in a capitalist environment, minimising programming time allows for more time for worker agitation, procrastination and many other wonderful things. (Just don't tell your manager about this essay :)
- Posting to /r/programming sounds scary too, it's quite big.
This essay is quite varying in density in some sections; I have better knowledge of some topics I'd like to cover than others.
Previous works
[The Hacker Dictionary](http://www.
... keep reading on reddit ➡So I was watching Horror Noire on Shudder the other day and this quote really resonated with me.
Horror is a conduit through which we can express and explore the darker aspects of our society and ourselves. While it can be used to 'other' minority groups within society it can also lend a voice to those groups and explore the experience of being 'the other'.
As horror fans, when is a time that you felt 'othered' by the genre and, just as equally, what film resonated with your experience of being 'the other' or outsider?
My examples:
- I read Alien and Aliens as a rape revenge double bill. I particularly like the way that these films portray Ripley's fear and trauma alongside her courage and resilience in a way that makes her feel relatable and human. I also love her interactions with Hicks- especially the way that they value each other's expertise and the fact that Hick's never tries to minimise or dismiss Ripley's feelings.
That said, I am not a fan of the rape/trauma recovery through motherhood metaphor. Granted that part of this is due to my own feelings on motherhood (not for me) but I think a bigger part of it is motherhood can sometimes be pushed on women as a 'cure all' for any psychological (and even physical) problems that they may be experiencing.
The idea that Ripley can be healed by taking on a role that puts her in service of another feels overused and alienating (pun absolutely intended because I'm a monster). - A film that really resonates with me is Audition. I love the way it subverts the Romantic Comedy trope of the 'silly misunderstanding' to examine dating culture and the way that people can project their own desires on to a person without fully getting to know them as well as the fall out when a person cannot match up to the standards of this fantasy.
I have been the subject of an unwanted crush where, like Asami, the guy built up a fantasy persona of me as the sweet, docile type who couldn't wait to settle down and play housewife for him. It was an uncomfortable experience and my need to assert my actual personality and express my own desires (in this case- not him) was tempered by my wanting to let him down gently and caution over his reaction and any fallout.
I love the switch to Asami's perspective in the second half of the film and the flashbacks to the dates that reveal her side of the conversations that were previously glossed over in the first half of the film.
As much as I love the extremity of Miike's films
Hello again all! I'm back with some more questions I hope can be answered. Some of them are not necessarily questions, more like conjectures I hope to share. Please let me know your feedback on them. I hope I can make sense of what I'm trying to say!
There's quite a bit... (RIP mobile)
1.) How long was Kos(m) on shore until Orphan was born? And why at the exact moment the hunter appeared did OoK birth?
2.) Why did hunters kill everyone in the fishing hamlet? What purpose did it serve? If the hunters were somewhat loyal to the Church it could have been that the fishing hamlet's existence was either a.) seen as direct defiance of church teaching much like how the Spanish Inquisition viewed its laypeople, or b.) they saw what the hamleters had become and "mercy killed" them.
4.) Why is there no rune regarding reduction of blood damage specifically? There is Great Lake which reduces everything, but nothing for specifically blood?
5.) Why Kos parasites? What's parasitic about them? Is it a Kos parasite because it came from Kos, or because it perhaps is Kos or what composed of Kos?
6.) What correlation is there between lead and mercury (quicksilver) and gold? The only three metals I know of that are listed by name in the game.
7.) I think Brador when he says "Are you a hunter? That's odd" is referring to the fact that he would NEVER expect a hunter to come willingly (or perhaps at all) to the hunter's nightmare without being blood drunk (as opposed to Redgrave’s theory that Brador knew us).
8.) Eyes are a big deal. Eyes, some people say, are the gateway to the soul. There is so much emotion and life behind someone's eyes. Why cover them? And why do we need more eyes to see? Some of the NPCs seem intelligent enough to realize that having more eyes cannot make us physically see what may be spiritual or mental or metaphysical. So why focus on having physical eyes instead of mental understanding?
9.) What if every person (human) you see is actually Pthumerian? What if everyone, even yourself, are Pthumerians? It could be that at a certain age your body elongates and grows (much like Martyr and Queen Yharnam). Most of the people we encounter are "young" compared to these two, so is it too crazy to think that instead of "humans" the race of the world is Pthumerian that have not yet grown to the size of the other confirmed Pthumerians? I ask because think of the arms of all the Yharnamites and even ourselves. They can appear to be longer, the beasts appear t
... keep reading on reddit ➡It's slick, really really slick. Fast paced action sequences, spiffy CGI, coherent GitS/blade-runner-y art direction, fantastic characterization, it's got the Hollywood obsessed heavy colour grading... it even does the thought-provoking sci-fi elements well. They're well trodden ideas, but well executed. As far as the show being a character driven exploration of the human condition, it's very promising. I'm excited.
However, there's something a little off about how it deals with race and gender. The show consists of a primarily white cast (pun :/) with Karl Urban as the lead and Michael Ealy, the black "almost human" android. Sigh. Do we (white people) really need another TV show with such laboriously didactic a theme as, "See this black man (who necessarily represents all minority ethnicities, though not necessarily all minority representations whom we may judge sinners) who you've been consistently perceiving as less than human? Yeah, he's actually a person, with feelings and even a soul! He's not 'almost human'; he's just like you!"
Science fiction at its best uses plausible but alien(pun:/) and unfamiliar circumstances as a vehicle to explore and comment on the human condition and human society. The distance provided by the unfamiliar gives us perspective; the plausibility of science fiction anchors our connection to those unfamiliar circumstances with wonder and verisimilitude. Almost Human is doing just this, and that's why I'm excited about it. However, I find it a just a little perverse to create a purportedly post-racial world, with the purpose of making commentary on racial issues, only to tell a story about white people and how they mistreat their multi-coloured toy robots. I mean to say that the show, as a show produced in North America, embodies (in its structure and design) the very construct that its material aims to criticize. In other words, J.H. Wyman, you, as a white man, have created a show about white people in positions of power--a show aimed at a white demographic, with the didactic message that slavery is bad because slaves are human beings too. Congratulations. I think you can do better than that.
Oh right, I forgot that there's supposed to be a hispanic male on the main cast, that makes everything okay. Was he even in the second episode? And remember that Japanese cop, Officer Patel (see? post-racial)? She was blown up off-screen.
This brings me to the second issue on gender representation. You've got your multi-coloured to
... keep reading on reddit ➡They looked at the reviews... only 1 star
Aliens is legit one of the top 3 best action films of all time, the characters, effects, and of course, action, are all top notch, this is James Cameron's second best film {Behind T2} and this is IMO not just one of the best 80s action films, but one of the best action films of all time.
Ripley is one of {if not the best} female action heroes ever, Sigourney Weaver makes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone look like a bunch of pipsqueaks. Get away from her you bitch! That alone puts her above Rambo and John Matrix as far as I'm concerned.
Just look at these action scenes and tell me that Bayformers or F&F are better.
But, I think they are done by cereal killers.
The modern culture shuns people who claim alien encounters and UFO sightings, yet openly embraces people who profess belief in ancient miracles otherwise unexplainable by science. I find this to be a very strange double standard. In this CMV I want to put forth the claim that it one cannot state that it is more reasonable to believe in one over the other. Whether or not both are unreasonable is outside the scope of this CMV.
For the purposes of this CMV, let's focus on one of each, e.g. Raelism, which is a new religious movement based on the ancient aliens theory, and Christianity, which is the world's most popular theistic religion today. Compare and contrast these two situations:
- If I tell people that I believe an extraterrestrial species called the Elohim created humanity through advanced technology, that Jesus and Muhammad were some of many prophets sent by Elohim to prepare humanity for news about their origins, and that the Elohim will one day return to save humanity from its own technology (e.g. nuclear annihilation), then people will think I'm totally bonkers.
- On the other hand, if I tell people that I believe Jesus was God descending to Earth by taking on human form, that God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit all exist together as one in a holy trinity, and that God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit will one day return to save humanity and reward their faithful followers with resurrection and eternal life in God's kingdom, then people will think I'm totally normal. In fact, I'm expected to believe this in order to run for president in the United States.
In terms of empirically verifiable evidence, both have the same situation. There is zero evidence for aliens ever visiting Earth besides the words of some witnesses who claim UFO sightings and perhaps some circumstantial evidence around certain ancient structures, and there is zero evidence for God taking on human form either besides the words of some witnesses who claim post-resurrection appearances. Neither of these are empirically testable after the fact.
In terms of spirituality and moral guidance, it appears that both can serve equally well for this purpose. Both Raelism and Christianity can give the followers a greater sense of purpose and guidance in life. Both speak of humanity's inherent problems and promise that there will be some eventual returning of the creator to solve the world's problems, which instills a sens
... keep reading on reddit ➡Not only are we getting closer but about two months ago when I first discovered that post from 7 years ago I randomly thought about the UFOs interest in our nuclear tech and how Zeta Reticuli has been mentioned many times and how if a signal was sent the day of the first reaction and a ship left immediately what date would they arrive..... it turns out that it’s the same date from the post 7 years ago. At first my mind was blown but then I decided that it’s much more likely that this person did the same math when writing their story. Since then I have been spamming with the following post:
The first nuclear reaction was Dec 2 1942 (UFOs are strongly interested and/or concerned in our nuclear tech) and Zeta Reticuli (referenced by Barney and Betty Hill and Bob Lazar) is 39.3 light years away. If a signal was sent immediately after the first nuclear reaction and a ship left as soon as it was received (assuming light speed is max for both) the arrival date is July 9th 2021 which is a day after u/throawaylien claimed (7 years ago) that aliens would arrive. That’s either a hell of a coincidence or they did the same math when fabricating the story
I'm a little bit of a baby when it comes to horror, and as I sit here writing this post with aliens on in the background, Alien: Isolation is too scary.
I have done about two missions with the xenomorph, and even thinking about doing another one sends a chill down my spine. This is my first horror game ever, and I have it on easy, and I have yet to die, but oh my god this game succeeds at being scary.
The tension is just insane. It feels like a panic attack (in my experience). You're sweaty, focusing super hard and on edge all the time. It's a fantastic game. But Jesus, it's too scary.
I've tried thinking of it as a game, like oh yeah they'd put a jumpscare there, but it doesn't work with Isolation. The alien is an AI and unpredictable. And I just want to be left alone!
it's enjoyable, I guess. great game. but I can't bring myself to play it. did I mention it's too scary?
Anyone have any tips to not make me such a baby?
E.T. Bone Home.
As much as I love them, possession movies have been done to death. Slashers, monster and concept horror movies, too. I feel like there are so many really good movies that fit all of these categories, but there are so few really good alien horror movies, and there is so much you can do with them.
I know people are divisive about pretty much everything, but I loved The Fourth Kind and Dark Skies. I was kind of meh about Event Horizon. But even the first portion of Alien: Covenant where they land on that planet and the alien infiltrates the ship and hunts them from then inside - I’m desperate for a movie with that level of intensity with an alien theme. Anyone else feel this way?
EDIT: One of my favorite games of all time is Dead Space.
Super powered suits and equipment (I.e. Iron Man, Batsuit, Thor’s hammer) are also excluded. The character may find familiar tools or weaponry throughout the ship to assist them in survival. Androids are roaming the ship.
With years left before any hope of outside help, what fictional action hero is best suited to survive, or even defeat, an Xenomorph in a drawn out game of cat and mouse?
It's crazy but it's Trudeau
