dragontology

Reminds me of Doctor Who and how this awesome time-traveling, space-hopping demigod mostly only cares about this one random island (Great Britain).

The Doctor did come to America for a season (with the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith) and America has been mentioned a couple times (e.g. “New New York”, though that was an alien city) but for the most part, the series is UK-centric because it’s made in the UK.

Most anime takes place in Japan, if it’s from Japan. The Apothecary Diaries is a recent one that takes place in China. That’s weird. When anime is set in the west — for example, Fullmetal Alchemist and its sequel, Attack on Titan, Saga of Tanya the Evil, and SPYxFAMILY all being set in Germany, and The Promised Neverland taking place in the US (minor spoiler, some of these don’t actually take place there, but you’re led to believe they do) — Japan likes to make a live-action version that IS set in Japan, however ridiculous that ends up being. I guess they’re a bit xenophobic, but so are we, so… not gonna hold it against 'em, but rather, just be thankful for more entertainment options.

So, it happens. Placing the action in another country. It’s not normal, though.

Same word, same pronunciation, different meaning. In other parts of the world, cunt is a derogatory but generally endearing term for a male friend. In the US, it specifically refers to a woman’s genitals — more to the point, saying that’s the only useful thing about her.

Context matters. If you’re copying someone and I say you’re aping them, that’s an acceptable term. However, if they’re Black, you might wanna choose a different word. Associating Black/African-Americans with primates in any way is considered to be extremely racist. Imitating is perfectly acceptable as an alternative.

Back to cunt, it doesn’t even mean the same thing in Europe (English-speaking countries). You want fanny for that, but I’ve never heard of anyone calling someone a fanny to mean that they have one and its use is all they’re good for.

Furthermore, in the US, cunt is a curse. A curse is a kind of insult that goes beyond the surface level. It strikes you in your soul, and if it’s effective, it will stick with you. An insult can be brushed aside, but a curse lingers. The best curse I know isn’t even real, and it’s Hab SoSlI’ Quch, which is Klingon for “your mother has a smooth forehead.” YOUR mother has a smooth forehead (most likely) and so does mine. However, Klingons, from Star Trek, are defined by their bony forehead ridges. But mating across humanoid species is mostly possible in Star Trek, so the claim is that your mother isn’t Klingon. I should also point out that in Klingon society, honor (and dishonor) is hereditary, meaning the virtues and failings of a father are carried by his son. And that Klingon women are stronger than human men, and some Klingon men in fact. Klingon sex is violent, with hitting, kicking, and sometimes cutting. It’s a battle, basically. So for a Klingon man to have a partner with a smooth forehead, it means he’s not man enough for a Klingon woman… and his son probably isn’t, either. Worf, the Klingon on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its movies and spinoffs, portrayed by Michael Dorn, has a son by a human woman… and his honor is rarely questioned. Though I’m sure his son, Alexander, has been teased about it (his forehead ridges are less pronounced than other Klingon children, so it’s kind of obvious). Now that’s a curse that hits low and hard.

As opposed to going to regular population and being a target? Yeah, I think they’re good with being alive.

Also, I’m not sure they have solitary confinement like in the movies. Then again, what do I know? Not more than the average wage slave, that’s for sure

Um… no? It’s considered law enforcement. They would lose their position and any certifications would be suspended first.

Most likely they’d be sent to one where they don’t know anybody. Possibly even transferred out of state. And placed in some kind of protective thing like they do for child molesters and such, since I’d think the state would be responsible for their safety (to some extent/on paper at least).

I know who The Weeknd is (and how to spell his name — it always irks me that it’s missing a letter, but it makes his name more memorable, because it makes one think about how it’s different). I’m not familiar with his music.

There are people in the world who don’t know who a lot of famous people are. Consider someone in Europe who knows quite a bit about association football (called soccer in the US, but they just call it football). In the US, you might know David Beckham was a soccer (sorry, football) player. You might even know what team (sorry, squad) he was on, but you might not know too many more. Someone in Europe might be able to name ten footballers off the top of their head, maybe tell you what position they play and who they play for.

American music and movies are pretty much known everywhere, but it’s also kind of regional. I’ve moved around a lot, and I’ve met people who swear up and down they never heard of bands I grew up listening to. They’re objectively famous, they sold many millions of albums, they were on MTV, but it’s possible to have just missed them. Same with movies and games.

As for The Walking Dead, I agree the show sucks. I haven’t read the comic books. Where it excels is the first two Clementine games. They’re adventure and “Choices Matter” games (much like Life is Strange), so they don’t really appeal to TWD fans who want more action. The first one involves a convict being taken to prison for murder when things go sideways, and he meets a little girl who is expecting her parents to come back Any Time Now. (You can guess what happened to them, and you’d be right.) She becomes the protagonist of the next two games, but I still haven’t played the third one. Despite having a little girl as a main character, the first game is gory enough. In the second game, Clementine is a bit older, maybe 12-13. In the third game, she’s a mother, she has a little boy to protect. Anyway, the games only show Hershel and Glenn from the show, and only briefly. You never meet Rick or the others. It’s strictly a spinoff, and it’s the best TWD media I’ve experienced.

Everything James Bond has is tailored to him; why wouldn’t his suits be the same? Same with his mundane gadgets having all kinds of secret features? Same with his suit. I just assume it’s a bespoke suit that is cut very well and has secret features like everything else he uses.

Or: he can make video calls on a watch in the 1960s and mobility in a suit is where you draw the line??

Not exactly what you asked, but I think it’s important to note how old protest songs are still so relevant. I listen to a lot of 1980s music (in fact, presently playing my 80s playlist, just went from Tiffany to Belinda Carlisle) and older music.

Listen to the 1971 song Won’t Get Fooled Again by British band The Who. I’m sure most of you have heard it. Listen to what he said 55 years ago and imagine it was written this year, and see how relevant it is.

Mars family is pretty private, not much is known about them. The people behind M&Ms, Dove, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, Snickers, and a few others. I think they make the best mass marketed chocolate in the US. They’re owned by the Mars family (it’s actually their name) but very little is known about them.

Because they’re not computers, they’re media devices, like Xbox and iPod. They’re not meant to be open.

PC has been coopted by Microsoft and gamers to mean an x86-64 box, and it kind of applied to Intel Macs since they could run Windows and could have graphics cards (specifically the Mac Pro which had PCI-E slots and was really just a traditional PC that happened to be macOS certified and shipped with that OS.

So yes, it’s a specific kind of PC. It’s like saying a truck is a car. Yes, technically, if you wanna split that hair, but it’s not like people calling it a truck are wrong. And maybe they are proud of what they have, but they’re also just trying to be accurate and not disingenuous.

By saying it’s a Mac, I avoid people suggesting I run tools only available on Windows. However, I attract haters. I’d rather be concise and informative than well liked. I don’t care that you or the next guy doesn’t like Macs, but yes, I’m going to call it what it is, because while it’s also a PC, it’s different enough and I’d like to avoid the chain of conversation that comes with “just use X app” and then I have to say “it doesn’t run on my platform” and then we’re back to here with the haters. So I just cut out a step.

On my Mac, I just use whatever the default static wallpaper is. Or I pick one of theirs. I always have widgets covering my wallpaper and I don’t know how to easily see what it is (short of  → Settings → Wallpaper), but I think it’s like a forest/hills. On my MacBook it’s a lake.

On my phone, I have a Star Trek theme. LCARS (the OS on Next Generation) lock screen, and one of the ships (I think it’s Discovery, I never really look that closely at it) warping up toward the top with the trails down between the icons.

I mostly don’t care what the wallpaper is because I never look at it, but I’m too proud to just have it black (nothing there). I know that’s an option on Windows (no wallpaper, and there’s a setting for the desktop colour), but I’m not sure about Mac or iOS.

I almost envy people who have “cool” wallpapers (my wife has a bunch) but I mostly can’t be arsed. Like… I wouldn’t mind having digital frames with rotating wallpapers or fan art or whatever. But my desktop? It’s a workspace and I have work (or “work”) covering it all the time.