I Had A Random Thought...

[clyde]

I'd want one if It had any back-support, it was cheap, and they offered free delivery. I love designer furniture, but it's a rich-person hobby. I've seen some furniture from the 60's and 70's (not in person) that looked like it would be super fun to lounge on.

[dibs]

Live been lying on my fleshy cushions all afternoon.

[clyde]

[SuperBiasedMan]

Listening to classic Thumbs and it's fun hearing their reactions to a slightly older era of gaming, particularly in #21 where they discuss the upcoming game "League of Legends", shortened to the acronym LoL that they make fun of. Then Nick questions how many characters there'll be cause the original Defense of the Ancients had 8 and didn't give much variety. Then when Chris says DOTA instead of Defense of the Ancients, Jake makes fun of him for pronouncing an acronym as a goofy word.

 

How the times have changed.

[SecretAsianMan]

I was playing online over the weekend and during one game I heard what may be the dumbest conversation I've heard in a while.  Two guys (with really heavy southern accents) were talking about nonsense stuff when one of them said that he tried an experiment and was surprised by the result.  It turns out the experiment was trying to use a lit cigarette to ignite a pool of gasoline.  He was surprised because instead of a big fire like he was expecting the liquid gasoline just put the cigarette out.  After several failed attempts he gave up.  While that in and of itself is pretty dumb, the thing that struck me as the dumbest part was that the source of his surprise appeared to be the first time discovery that not everything in movies and TV are true.  This wasn't a kid who perhaps might not have enough life experience to know this, it was clearly a young adult.

[Griddlelol]

I don't know if that's incredibly dumb, there are no smoking signs everywhere in gas stations in the UK. Granted it's probably because they don't want people lighting up considering

that are flammable. 

 

To be fair, I best most people think that it's the liquid petrol that's flammable, not the vapour anyway. I know I did until I had a job in chemistry. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I'm not necessarily accusing people who don't know how gasoline actually works of being dumb, I'm saying that his expectation of TV and movies being a reliable source of knowledge is dumb, especially when it comes to facts and science.

[Griddlelol]

I still don't know if I agree with you on that being dumb per se. There's nothing anywhere to indicate otherwise that things you see on TV don't fit in with natural laws. It's made worse by writers themselves probably not knowing the natural phenomenon they're writing about (or ignoring it because it's more fun). 

 

I have to kinda applaud the guy for actually doing the basic experiment and questioning it in the first place. Although I will concede - a young adult, assuming 18-26 (hooray! I still fit!) only just coming to this realisation is pretty dumb! Most of us tried this stuff out in our childhood/very early teens and came to that realisation then. I'm pretty sure I was pissed off at 11 when I found out that not all spirits can be turned into molotov cocktails like they are on TV. My dad was also pissed off that I wasted a whole bottle of Jack Daniels. 

[Bjorn]

My dad was also pissed off that I wasted a whole bottle of Jack Daniels. 

 

If my kid had ever tried that, I'd pissed, proud and terrified simultaneously.

[SecretAsianMan]

Honestly, my description of the event is probably giving him more credit than he deserves because I'm also fairly certain he was drunk (him having basically said as much) so "experiment" probably isn't the right word so much as "hey, I wonder what happens if I throw my cigarette at that gas can over there".  I remember thinking he said a lot of other stupid things but not what those specific things were.  It didn't help this his friend also expressed the same degree of surprise that movies where everything blows up are not real.

[Griddlelol]

lol alright, there are dumb people out there! Just gotta hope most of them get all the dumb out by the time they're done with high school. Some people take it too far with not trusting movies though. I had a buddy who insisted that it was impossible for one person to fall faster than another. I can't remember what movie it was but it involved people falling out a plane, one with an un-deployed parachute, catching up to a guy without a parachute. He insisted that it couldn't happen, but didn't take into account wind resistance and changing body shape while falling. 

What was more unlikely in the scene was when they met and the parachute was deployed, the one without it had enough strength to hold on to the other with his bare hands.

 

 

If my kid had ever tried that, I'd pissed, proud and terrified simultaneously.

 

I, like a lot of kids, had a mild obsession with fire and anything flammable. I remember there was a dead Leylandii, which looks like:

 

 

In my garden that was completely brown and dessicated thanks to the summer. Also thanks to the summer and as they say idle thumbs...I took a lighter to it to see what would happen. Resulted in the fire brigade screaming at me. In my defence, I had a bucket of water next to me, and the hose in case it got out of hand. I expected it to smoulder a little like paper, but the thing went from a tiny smoulder to a full blown tree of fire in a heartbeat. 

 

Needless to say there were no lighters in places a small boy could reach after that one.

[SecretAsianMan]

lol alright, there are dumb people out there! Just gotta hope most of them get all the dumb out by the time they're done with high school. Some people take it too far with not trusting movies though. I had a buddy who insisted that it was impossible for one person to fall faster than another. I can't remember what movie it was but it involved people falling out a plane, one with an un-deployed parachute, catching up to a guy without a parachute. He insisted that it couldn't happen, but didn't take into account wind resistance and changing body shape while falling. 

What was more unlikely in the scene was when they met and the parachute was deployed, the one without it had enough strength to hold on to the other with his bare hands.

 

Probably the movie Point Break

[Bjorn]

Needless to say there were no lighters in places a small boy could reach after that one.

 

 

Ha!  Yeah, dead pine trees are way more flammable than gas (to tie that back into the other conversation).  I grew up on a farm, and my brother and I had access to our dad's fuel tanks for the farm equipment.  This was a bad idea that eventually resulted in him hiding the key for the padlocks to the tanks.  It's possible that a failed attempt to create a Hollywood style explosion with an ant hill might have influenced his decision.

  

I tend to think that breaking rules and making dumb decisions are an important part of growing up.  So even when our kid fucked up, we'd have to punish her (particularly if it was about being safe in some way), but if she did it in an interesting way, we'd be kinda proud too.  

[undermind9]

Ha!  Yeah, dead pine trees are way more flammable than gas (to tie that back into the other conversation). 

 

being the eldest of 3 boys we had our fair share of stupid projects/maneuvers while growing up...fortunately nothing burned down or any missing fingers.  Part of this i attribute is planning - like when it explodes who has the hose, where do we run if the cops are called, etc

 

Finding the Anarchist Cookbook on IRC was a major mile stone; including napalm (gasoline & Styrofoam), tennis ball bombs, etc.  The worst i made was a full brick of blackcats wired up with speaker wire, gator clips, and a cut extension cord. Essentially blow the fuse and 25' away a whole brick explodes at once. 

[SecretAsianMan]

I never really went through that phase as a kid.  I found fire interesting but never had a particularly strong desire to create it or see it.  I was pretty much a stereotypical Asian child: extremely well behaved, good grades in school, played the violin, quiet and soft spoken, etc. which probably explains why I'm such an incredibly boring adult.

[Bjorn]

I never really went through that phase as a kid.  I found fire interesting but never had a particularly strong desire to create it or see it.  I was pretty much a stereotypical Asian child: extremely well behaved, good grades in school, played the violin, quiet and soft spoken, etc. which probably explains why I'm such an incredibly boring adult.

 

Honestly, if I could trade a few of my "setting shit on fire" stories for the ability to play the violin, I'd do that in a heartbeat. 

 

 

Essentially blow the fuse and 25' away a whole brick explodes at once.

 

That still sounds awesome to me.  The single dumbest thing we probably ever did as kids didn't even involve fire.  We decided to weld together our own grappling hooks out of rebar to climb shit around the farm (like the rickety old windmill).  Dad had only shown us the most rudimentary stuff about welding at this point.  My older brother had his Boy Scout knot tying badge, so he was pretty sure he could make a knot that would hold our full weight.  It's a fucking miracle neither of us managed to make a Bran Stark impersonation. 

 

Some people never get tired of seeing the world burn though.  My 70-year-old father-in-law is still obsessed with blowing shit up.  A few years ago, he had a guy licensed in explosives bring out a bunch of detcord to blow some tree stumps out of a pasture (because that seemed like it would be a lot more fun than using the tractor to pull them out like normal).  He kept a bit of detcord for the next family bbq, and that night wrapped it around a gallon of gas suspended from a pole a few hundred feet from the house.  It sent a 30+ foot diameter fireball screaming straight up into the sky, lighting up the yard like it was noon.  That was awesome. 

 

I have to admit, blowing up tree stumps is more entertaining than just pulling them though. 

 

 

A couple of years ago, he discovered anvil shooting and he's been trying to talk his wife into letting him do it ever since.  His wife is unrelenting in her stance that this is an unacceptable hobby that may be grounds for divorce.  All three of his sons-in-law keep egging him on to try it anyways.

 

Although we probably shouldn't have let her see this video:

Gay Wilkinson may well be the coolest fucking dude in Missouri.

[Griddlelol]

The anvil was fantastic. I never got into anything like explosives as a kid because of how far away you had to be when you did it. I always wanted to be up close (having awful eye sight and refusing to wear glasses probably had something to do with that) and that's not possible if you're blasting things. So I guess I had some judgement.  

[tegan]

Why doesn't Wolverine have Adamantium-coated teeth?

[Bjorn]

I just learned a new word: obamanation.  It's clever, as it has several meanings.  What will the right think of next.

[dibs]

Teeth aren't bones, and that's an obamanation. Thanks Obama.

[Dewar]

lol alright, there are dumb people out there! Just gotta hope most of them get all the dumb out by the time they're done with high school. Some people take it too far with not trusting movies though. I had a buddy who insisted that it was impossible for one person to fall faster than another. I can't remember what movie it was but it involved people falling out a plane, one with an un-deployed parachute, catching up to a guy without a parachute. He insisted that it couldn't happen, but didn't take into account wind resistance and changing body shape while falling. 

What was more unlikely in the scene was when they met and the parachute was deployed, the one without it had enough strength to hold on to the other with his bare hands.

 

Probably related to the Mr. Wizard (or other childhood science show) showing that a bowling ball and a baseball fall at the same speed. It quickly glossed over the concept of air resistance. For as awesome as that show was, there were a few questionable bits of science on there.

[Ucantalas]

I don't know why it took me so long to do this, but today, for the first time, I went to the library in my city. Got myself a library card and had a look around.

It was... amazing. They have these little machines where you can check out the books by yourself! You scan your library card and put books on this little shelf and they get scanned and poof! Thats it! I don't need to talk to anyone or go to the front desk, I just pop on over to one of these machines! And I can go online and using the number on my library card I can check which books I have checked out and when theyre due! It's fantastic!

Also they recently added video games to the things you can get. I don't currently have an XBone, PS4 or WiiU though, so there's nothing there for me. BUT STILL.

Agh I didn't think I could get this excited about going to a library. I guess my library experiences as a child were severely limited...

[dibs]

I joined the library here two weekends ago. They have a massive classical music collection. Weeeee.

[syntheticgerbil]

Besides that the whole concept of super heroes in general annoys the shit out of me, I'll never understand people's obsession with the franchise of a particular character. As an aside, do kids even care about men and women in tights with bad dialogue fighting generic crime anymore? Is it just adults who never grew out of that obsession? It's like the equivalent of being a follower of Taco Bell. It's just a vehicle to keep money flowing, it's not the personal work of anyone in particular as there are no constant creators for super heroes that have carried over for half a century or more. Sure some things can come out of competant creators, but in the end the work is always lesser than an original piece a creator came up with as it's just paid fan fiction.

 

So when people get mad over whatever new incarnation or depiction of a character not following whatever they think the character is, I always wonder what decade or writer or artist they are even clinging to if they are even clinging to anything at all, as I assume most comic readers don't give a shit about creators much like most people who see movies decide based on the actors. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in books most writers of franchises they created stay within the ownership of the writer and don't revert to some major corporation right? Doesn't J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter universe, so ultimately any depiction of her creation still refers to her?

 

One thing though about movies is a lot are marketed based on the director, so there must be a more mass audience who goes by the creators in the movies space rather than just film buffs, so that is good, but comics are so taken over with just one bad concept of people in tights that there is no room to breathe for almost anything not a franchise. It'll just never make sense to me why people keep encouraging such a bad marketplace.

[SecretAsianMan]

I have those same thoughts about soap operas that have been going on for decades (sans the tights).  That's what most modern mainstream comic books are to me.  At one point it used to be about an interesting, creative idea but now it's just lots of drama and craziness that's constantly being overwritten when someone new takes the helm.  That's obviously a huge generalization.