Gormongous

In St. Louis, which has a fairly robust beer-brewing tradition both at the corporate and craft level, it's still a little ridiculous. The average bar will have six or eight beers on draft and at least three to five of them will be pale ale or IPA, guaranteed. I drink those sometimes, but they're not really a pillar of my beer consumption, and even my hops-loving girlfriend gets sick of the wall-to-wall IPAs from local breweries. Thankfully, saisons are becoming popular here and that's shaking up the pale scene a bit. I think this editorial has it right, although probably not to the degree stated: the hoppiness of craft beer is an easy way to distinguish it from Bud Light and its ilk, plus it's the most tangible way that brewers can control the flavor and experience of the beer they make, so a lot of them are leaning probably a bit too much on that one ingredient.

I wonder if he wanted to write a short piece on how nice it was to discover Bukowski over the summer, but his editor wanted something on Terry Pratchett, who's actually relevant right now, and this is how we got these, uh... five hundred words of prose.

"Embrace what you've become" is exactly the phrase I was thinking for you, Ubisoft.

Today is August 31, marking exactly three months since I started trying to remove a waiver that was placed in error on the health insurance coverage that I get from my employer. I have been assured five times by four different people at my workplace and at the insurance company that the waiver has been removed, but somehow I'm still listed on their website as uninsured by them. I don't have any insightful commentary, I just wish that they made it as easy to have insurance as to not have insurance. I don't think I've ever filed a document with such staying power, never mind one that worked in my favor.

Insecure, fussy elitism is alive and well! Everything is a "disturbing cultural phenomenon" now.

This interview with Varoufakis, where he answers questions from nine economists, is a nice mix of academic theory, politics, and general disdain for the nation-state: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/08/yanis-varoufakis-greece-eu/402580/

I woke up to this bizarre article from the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2015/aug/31/terry-pratchett-is-not-a-literary-genius You know, it takes a special amount of gall to dismiss an author having never read his books, especially if you spend the rest of your breath name-dropping other universally acclaimed pieces of literature as if they're some kind of gnosis.

I want a supercut of all of Chris' weird stories about being a kid. I'm sure we were all little shits way back when, but for some reason, Chris has such a better recall of it than anyone else I've known that there's a sense of continuity in his naive and sometimes awful-by-accident behavior that's just sublime.

Thanks, help like that is exactly what I have in mind! We can help each other out here, if you like. I mean, I'm well-liked and have a lot of clout in my department, it's just not going to get me a professorship that I can live on. Also, we had our department's beginning-of-year reception tonight, and it was a really interesting feeling being there. I love the atmosphere of an academic department and there's just so much hope surrounding our research about rich white men who've been dead for a millennium, but then the conversation transitioned to the fact that there are four tenure-track professorships opening up for the two hundred Ph.Ds in medieval history graduating this year, soI was back to looking for a way out after only a little bit. Thanks, Danielle! I'll try not to geek out talking with a celebrity like you. What you posted about getting something full-time to supplement my teaching work is almost exactly the reasoning that finally sold my girlfriend on this decision: if I'm going to be working forty-plus hours a week while finishing my doctorate, it might as well be for good pay at a job that respects my time, which adjuncting almost never does in my experience, particularly if you're trying to juggle more than two courses. That way, if I blow out on the Ph.D like a little part of me fears that I'm going to do, I'll have money in the bank and an alternate career path already blazed for my thirties. It's boring, but it feels smart, and you're right that I already have the masters to come back and teach on my own terms if I feel the call. I hadn't thought of that. Anyway, I'm probably misusing the term "adjacent" when talking about my abiding interest in remaining close to the academic, creative, and tech industries. I mostly use it to signify that I don't have much aptitude for programming or art or even (tragically) writing, but I love supporting people who do, and I'd love to serve as an editor in some capacity, even the abstract. That's why most of what I'm looking at right now are special collections in academic libraries, marketing and administration for university colleges, and maybe IT or tech for a company doing some type of artistic work out here. As of now, I'm just trying to talk to as many people as possible who seem to enjoy their jobs, to get an idea of how they knew what they wanted and how they got it. Hilariously, I just had coffee with an acquaintance who's risen rapidly to be de jure head of marketing at the business school of the biggest university in town, and she was really adamant that an interview with career services would help me, especially my technical status as a student here would make it free. Career services, who'd have thought? They were crap at my undergrad and I just figured they'd be crap everywhere.

There was a hotfix out yesterday for the latest Nvidia Windows 10 driver. I'm on my phone, so I don't have the link.

No worries! I'm disinclined to move, but since I still have a year left on my contract here and some hope of finishing my doctorate, I'm mostly just doing informational interviews and building contacts for the time being. It definitely seems like what you're doing is something that I'd wouldn't mind transitioning into, from what I've seen you say on the forums. My field's medieval history, but I'm actually not terribly accomplished as a scholar in it — one published article, two edited volumes, a half-dozen conference papers. Besides the four courses I've taught over the years, the real job-relevant stuff on my CV are the two academic databases that I've helped to build, four years as the head of a research center's executive board, two years doing exhibitions in our library's special collections, and seven conferences with me as lead technology and volunteer coordinator. Most of that stuff is buried in unofficial duties associated with the assistantships that I held, though, and that's frustrating, almost as much as the complete lack of formal credentials to reflect my technical skills (I've built computers for myself and a half-dozen of my friends; I do tech support for everyone I know, including my incredibly successful friend who's a programmer; etc). Anyway, I'll find the most recent copy of my CV and try to update it, maybe wing it your way in the next few weeks or so, if you think you can work your magic for the liberal arts as well as science. Like I said, I'm just taking it slow and trying to have all my options available for me if and when I start looking next spring or summer.

I'm sorry, pabosher. I do agree with namman that the girl doesn't seem to know what she wants and a lot of the pain and confusion from that is falling on you, so it's probably better just to get clear. There's no way to control when is the last time that you see someone whom you care about, but the trip to Italy doesn't sound like it'll be very promising as a capper, given how she's been behaving when you guys have a chance to get close... My heart goes out to you, Danielle. The fact that I will almost certainly have to move in order to get a job with my doctoral degree, leaving behind the best friends of my life and the person I'm in love with, has actually been pushing me out of academia really hard the past year or so. Don't get me wrong, I love writing my dissertation and teaching students about history, but I'm tired of being in crippling poverty and an uncertain living situation in order to do so, with the hardest part still yet to come when I go on the job market. Actually, I've been working up the courage to admit on here that I've started talking to the more successful among my friends about jobs outside of academia that are still academic-, tech-, or creative-adjacent. None of my friends or family really understand why I'm looking into alternatives, I guess the prestige of a Ph.D is just that high, but if next summer rolls around and I'm not within a few months of finishing my dissertation, I'm probably going to make an exit, because there's no way I'm starving while working an untold number of hours a week as an adjunct, just to remain a part of the education system in a country that hates teachers. Now the problem is really just finding a career that I like in St. Louis. I think of myself as extremely talented and motivated, but I already feel like I'm going to be hobbled by a seven-year gap on my resume that's filled by various assistantships, the job descriptions of which never correlated to the sometimes immense amount of work that I did for less than minimum wage, and a general lack of familiarity with working a forty-hour week. I thought about applying for a position as associate director of IT at a nearby university, because the job description was almost exactly what I did last year as technology coordinator for the three different conferences that were held here, but then I saw that the salary was six figures, so they probably don't have someone like me in mind for that, no matter how good I probably am at it... Basically, if any of you hear anything of interest, go ahead and message me, because I'm so hungry for ideas.

I mean, this is intersectionality in a nutshell, right? Most things are not just one single thing and nothing else, so treating them like that is reductive and sometimes harmful.

And I think that's self-reinforcing, too, because a large segment of the people who push traditional notions of the patriarchy do so as "biotruths" free of cultural or political framework. There's a definite investment for people to sell it that way.

Yeah, I've really turned around on Working!! as a series. When it was just two seasons of pattern-holding, it was everything that I despised in gag anime, but now that it's proving itself so determined to finish up in its final season, it's going to be one of my favorites instead. Especially because the final season is so Yamada-heavy...

Yeah, I had no problem summoning and being summoned for the one "mandatory" boss of each DLC. It reveals to me a hitherto unconsidered style of playing the Souls game, which is just rushing along the critical path without deviation until an area could be called "beaten." The majesty of the Souls games is in the exploration, but I guess there are bound to be people out there who don't want to explore...

I made about two dozen attempts, pissing away at least 40,000 souls, and finally gave up. I've beaten every boss in Dark Souls 2 with two separate characters at least twice, except for those two fucking cats, which I've only gotten to try to fight just twice (and once, with my Berserk homage, I almost beat them, starting with me at half health, but then I tried to rush the last two hits and got owned, because Dark Souls). Fucking lightning-demon horses in a snowstorm...

After two full playthroughs of the full game, I've found that people summon a lot less in the various DLCs, especially in the gauntlet sections that are expressly designed for multiple players. It's a frustrating phenomenon, but I guess that just not as many people buy the DLC for any game, even if the DLC is better-regarded than the game itself...

I finally got to play the copy of Funemployed that was given to me for my birthday. Basically, if you've heard anything good about this game, particularly from SUSD, I can confirm it. It's the Apples to Apples derivative that should completely replace Cards Against Humanity, wiping the latter off the face of the earth, if there's any justice anywhere. Let me put it this way... In Cards Against Humanity, if you've got a poor hand and no ideas, the game's writing pushes you very hard to pick something so random and horrifying that it'll stand out among other choices that are less nonsensical. In Funemployed, if you've got a poor hand and no ideas, the game's writing pushes you very hard to play your cards as a pathetic person who desperately needs the job despite being totally unqualified, because... I don't know, it's just what the cards seem to say if there's no stronger narrative. The former situation might go over like a riot or offend everyone, which isn't the best odds with a party game, whereas the latter situation is something that anyone who's ever had or needed a job understands and knows how to find the humor therein, so it's much harder to cross anyone's boundaries. Basically, instead of the Hail Mary that is "dickfingers," I apply to be a parade float as a drunken sadsack with nothing left to lose. It certainly doesn't hurt that every player has a chance to discard some cards, drawing new ones from a public pool, and then sell what they've chosen to the round's judge in a make-believe interview, forcing people to own any gross decisions that they might make while giving weaker hands a chance to shine with some acting talent. Overall, it's just a much better game, because it encourages people to actually interact rather than trade cards that tell half-intelligible madlib jokes. Really, my only complaint is that the Seasonal Help expansion pack is of noticeably poorer quality in the writing department, making me wish that we could call a mulligan when someone pulls up a dumb holiday-themed job like "Father Time" or a dumb qualification like "Mistletoe." Skip that one, save yourself $14.99, and enjoy the base game, which has more than enough cards already.

I've long had an idea for a boardgame where you play as different factions within the Holy Roman Empire, starting out as mostly powerless during the Ottonian emperors and needing to work together to have an influence on what is mostly an acclamatory process, but gradually gaining power and introducing new amendments to the electoral system to consolidate power with your selection of princes and bishops and no one else's. I even drew up a preliminary COIN document, but... Yeah. different thread, different time...

I can't find a good link that explains the 4/6 proposal, but it's basically what you said: people can nominate a maximum of four works for a final slate of six. The formal proposal for the much more complex "E Pluribus Hugo" system is here: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/016262.html. There aren't many good plain-language explanations of it, but I'll keep looking.

The amendments have to be ratified at a subsequent Worldcon, leaving the door open next year for one last round of abuse, but they're likely to pass, although the 4/6 nomination process will probably be chanced to 5/6, which works better with the "E Pluribus Hugo" system. After next year, slates will be powerless and reactionary assholes will have to figure out a different explanation for increasing progressive influence in sci-fi.

Excellent post and full of the hope that I think the Hugos need moving forward. I've noted that Beale and Breitbart are both crowing about how sci-fi fans were forced to burn their house down rather than invite them in, but "no award" is not some unprecedented nuclear option, like you'd be excused for thinking if you followed the tweets of various Puppies. It has been used before, though never in banner categories, when there just wasn't a strong contender for a Hugo in a given year and people didn't want to put a weak compromise alongside the greats from previous years. The lack of strong contenders was definitely the case in all the Puppies-dominated categories this year, with even the best short story "Totaled" being an "ideal" Hugo loser, in my opinion, so the use of "no award" was appropriate, unless you feel like someone should win just for showing up. No, nothing's been burned down, the Hugos will happen next year as planned, and two years from now the rules will change so slates will be mostly useless if the intent is to shut out other nominees (now there will be multiple rounds of finalists, where finalists coming from a set of nominations with fewer other finalists will be given more weight, and voters can nominate only four works out of a final pool of six). It's a completely obvious and meaningless attempt at spin, especially from Beale, who is notorious for either winning the game or quitting it because it's unfair. io9 is putting out good coverage, especially compared to the Wired article, which displays an uncomfortable willingness to take Torgensen at face value, given how he's done stuff like editing the comments of Puppies opponents on his blog into caricatures of their arguments when they took his request for people who voted "no award" to explain themselves at face value. I especially liked reading io9's reconstruction of an alternate-history Hugo ceremony without any Puppies nominees, even if I find it a bit fanciful, and a separate writer there a few days ago did a good job of explaining that, if it was really true that "SJWs are already rigging the Hugos with their lockstep groupthink, so slates are fair game for reactionaries too," then it wouldn't have been possible for the Sad and Rabid Puppies to sweep so many categories in the nominations like they did. No, they simply would have cancelled out the left-leaning conspiracy and been presented with a mixed set of finalists. By not voting for nominations in good faith, the Puppies proved that everyone else was voting in good faith, and it's possible to argue that their doom in the finals was sealed right there.

It's an inexplicable design choice how tough they make it to get into Payday 2 without a crew. You're not a real contender until you have a decent gun (with a solid idea of what their numbers actually mean) and a few levels (which give you the skills to really take on a role and some armor that lets you survive more than a couple of shots), and neither of those come without beating at least a few medium- to high-level missions. There's a bit of meta, but not much, and it's more important to be able just to work in a team and take orders. Anyway, I've got a crew of non-internet friends that run semi-regularly, as well as my tendency just to do stealth heists for cash to feed my love of customizing sub-optimal guns, so I'll go ahead and add you!

I'm on my phone, so I can't really give links, but I believe the arguments for behind-the-scenes collusion are the Rabid Puppy slate going up less than a day after the Sad Puppy slate, implying that Beale was probably shown a draft beforehand; the presence of Beale, Wright, and company on the Sad Puppy slate despite lacking literary merit, courting their ongoing investment; and the weeks before Torgensen and Correia bothered even to tried distancing themselves from Beale, despite dozens of posts from both sides of the aisle asking them to do just that. The lattermost is the really baffling one, since both Torgensen and Correia put out shockingly milquetoast repudiations, of the "Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism..." variety, Correia's FDR, Churchill, and Stalin analogy in particular. It feels pretty clear to me that they hoped for Beale to bury their opponents without getting them dirty themselves. I'm probably being a bit too spiteful, though. It's possible that Torgensen and Correia were unaware of how stupid their actions could turn out to be.