wjrii

joined 2 years ago
[–] wjrii@kbin.social 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)
  • Galaxy spanning empire with unseen emperor.
  • Spice as a valuable commodity
  • Desert planet to include skeleton of wormlike creature and suited inhabitants
  • Secretive sect of religious warriors with magical powers
  • Chosen one narrative with a dead dad

Now that said, almost every one of these is sort of set dressing and skin deep, and changed drastically in some fundamental way. Lucas was also not exploring remotely the same thematic ground as Herbert. He owes some of the world building to ideas lifted from Dune, without a doubt, but also to Lensman and Flash Gordon and John Carter of Mars. He owes plot and structure to Kurosawa ad Sergio Leone, and themes to Joseph Campbell and three thousand years of adventure tales, fairy tales, and coming of age stories. the only thing "original" about Star Wars is the integration of so many disparate influences into a coherent whole. You could argue that Dune was exploring more sophisticated themes and had a more actionable morality, but Herbert was flattering himself that Star Wars was a "ripoff." The influences were obvious, but they were just one hopper of grist for the Lucas mill.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Well shoot, now I need to make a COWABUNGA novelty keycap.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

No need to go crazy with the first one. That first step from laptop keyboard or membrane pack-in is the biggest jump you'll ever make in typing experience. a brown-switch gamer board with the RBG turned off and some cheap Amazon "CSA" style keycaps might be all you'd ever need. Of course, even that type of thinking can lead to certain... rabbit holes.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I never truly learned to type, though I had a few weeks instruction in school, and did a few levels of Mario Teaches Typing when I was a kid. None of it really stuck, and typing remains an exercise in hand-eye coordination for me. I topped out at around 70-80 WPM if I'm composing rather than copying, but that's been good enough for a lifetime of office jobs, and certainly for writing school essays. There is definitely a lower ceiling if you don't get proper instruction, but simple practice is still helpful.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 24 points 2 years ago

Drawing an imaginary factory- and they wanted kids to do this before teaching them the parts of the cell- isn’t going to help you learn what mitochondria are.

That sounds like it's an exercise meant to get the kids thinking about a multi-faceted system existing inside a single structure, with parts that are interconnected but distinct, and will lead into a common metaphor teachers use to teach about biological cells. Not being graded means they're not judging the kids on what they know or don't, but want to evaluate where they are with this sort of thinking and figure out what they will focus on. Also, your kid may be smart and already know where they're going with this, but others in the class may not. If she does, she could probably knock that out in fifteen minutes. Even if you decide that she doesn't need to do it, I don't think it's stupid busy work, at least not necessarily.

Some teachers are dumb; we need too many of them and pay them too little for each and every one to be a superstar. The ones coming up with curricula and lesson plans usually aren't, though.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Abiword is okay for now, I guess, but it's basically a zombie, waiting for dependencies to break:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=412196

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

I did once try to drop my largest book on my dad's head from as high up as I could get, my logic being that since it wasn't an anvil, which was clearly artistic license, he'd probably be fine.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

This is also age and culturally contextual. If kid and dad are on the same page about why junior is still living there, and if Dad is financially secure, he may want kid to pay down debt and be ready to jump straight to a nice place of their own. Now, if the family unit overall could use the help, and there is no specific plan for junior to move out, and and they're just sandbagging to have more money in their pocket after paying down student loans, it could be kinda shitty. Paying down the debt is not bad; minimizing overall cost of living for the family is not bad; what Boop2133 does with their money beyond loan payments might be bad.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Pigeon sweat.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Gotta love the casting. 5th century BCE Jewish guy? Well, probably a brunet, but definitely still super white.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Was going to respond that they were probably talking about Lamanites, but then I remembered the curses of Cain and Ham and was like, oh yeah, right, they went to this well on multiple occasions.

[–] wjrii@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago

The Book of Mormon is the most racially and ethnically unifying book on the planet!

And if it isn't, we'll revise it in the next edition so that it is!

 

Honestly, this TCU team could be more talented while losing more games. Last year was crazy.

 

A lot of love for Washington and Texas Tech, interestingly enough.

 

Not gonna lie, I remain interested in the walking intersection of sports and "famous for being famous" and East Texas affluenza that is Johnny Manziel. Actually saw him play once, in Canada.

As an aside, CFL football is awesome when the offenses are humming, but endless two-and-outs are mind-numbing. Some might even say 33% more boring than an equivalent game in the US.

 

Low key one of my favorite off-season stories. Popcorn at the ready…

 

From Larry Scott to George Kliavkoff, here's how the Pac-12 fell apart amid mass departures to the Big Ten and Big 12.

TLDR: Larry Scott, empowered by presidents who were alternately apathetic or arrogant, fucked them. Kliavkoff was uniquely poorly suited to get them out of it and was clueless enough to have been surprised. Nobody but Colorado and Arizona actually wanted to leave at this time.

 

Annnnd... it's official.

11
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by wjrii@kbin.social to c/cfb@lemmy.world
 
  1. Arizona Board of Regents has meeting. Supposedly allows UA and ASU to do what they think is best.
  2. B12 votes to accept UA once they apply.
  3. B1G has meetings about ORWA.
  4. B1G lowballs ORWA.
  5. ASU convinces ABOR that they should be together, and hear out the PAC.
  6. PAC decides that things are looking good and schedules an early meeting to knock out the GoR.
  7. ORWA starts whining about the Apple deal again.
  8. UA tells ASU to STFU and stop pretending that Stanford really likes you.
  9. B1G says they'll check to see if there's any money in the ~~couch~~ FOX.
  10. Nobody signs shit at the PAC meeting.

EDIT 1:
11. B1G presidents schedule an impromptu meeting.

EDIT 2:
12. Rumors now that ORWA will get their B1G offers shortly.

 

Best accent-work since... well... since Daniel Craig in Knives Out.

 

The numbers are smaller, but so many of the issues are exactly the same. This is a really interesting long-form piece about how the big schools were getting frustrated with the perceived caps on their potential that came from being "stuck" with their smaller regional rivals. To be fair, it also goes into how those rivals were indeed tempted to coast on the big schools' investment and attention. Same writer did a brief follow-up twenty-years later when the SWC finally announced it was done.

 

FSU: We're leaving unless you give us a bunch of your money!

Wake: What happens if you leave?

FSU: You make less money!

Wake: ...

19
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by wjrii@kbin.social to c/cfb@lemmy.world
 

I think this is my favorite part: "The affidavit alleges Dekkers was under 21, the legal betting age in Iowa, when most of the bets were placed, but disguised his identity with the help of his parents, Scott and Jami Dekkers."

 

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled media-industry meta analysis to bring you a story about football players trying to become better at football (which, btw, they need to do rather badly).

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