Zompist Bboard Again

The way you fix it is going to the shop and asking them to replace your electronic throttle control actuator. It'll cost you $200.

Rant!

I read the first two Teixcalaan books and really enjoyed them, but I thought the fake Meso-American thing was a little grating. there was a Mayan king of Copán named "18 Rabbit," and so I guess people just assume that this was a normal naming convention among Meso-American civilizations and never bother to check. I rolled my eyes but didn't let it stop me from enjoying the book.

Then recently I learned that there was a whole appendix I missed, with pronunciation guides. The name Teixcalaan is canonically pronounced [tʰeɪ̯kskʰɑlɑːn].

...

I...

I don't even know how to process this.

Why would you even make a Meso-American setting for your space empire if you have as much interest in Meso-American language and culture as J. J. Abrams has in Star Trek? Why stop there? Why not give them pyramid-shaped space ships? Have them eat tacos and wear sombreros, because why the hell not?

Weller is a PhD in history. This is moron-tier cultural research.

End of rant.

(in case it doesn't go without saying, I will not be reading your responses)

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 5:39 pm Why would you even make a Meso-American setting for your space empire if you have as much interest in Meso-American language and culture as J. J. Abrams has in Star Trek?

Yeah, that bit is definitely a misstep. Her speciality is the Byzantines... maybe she thought another culture with a z in the name would be a good disguise?

What bugs me more, though, is Mahit's complete incompetence from the end of book 1 through the entirety of book 2.

Could we have a new Board rule against posting something and then immediately announcing that you won't read responses to your post? The whole point of online forums is to facilitate discussions. If you don't want to discuss, you've got no business posting here.

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2024 9:32 am Could we have a new Board rule against posting something and then immediately announcing that you won't read responses to your post? The whole point of online forums is to facilitate discussions. If you don't want to discuss, you've got no business posting here.

lmao where

Raphael wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2024 9:32 amCould we have a new Board rule against posting something and then immediately announcing that you won't read responses to your post? The whole point of online forums is to facilitate discussions. If you don't want to discuss, you've got no business posting here.

I don't see what purpose this would serve given that we can't actually compel anyone to read responses to their posts.

(Note: I will say here that I'm not going to read responses to this post but I actually will anyway.)

I'm guessing that Moose has discovered that opinions about the books get heated... somewhere. I take her comment as the equivalent of that meme with a guy being threatened with a bunch of swords and the caption "What opinion do you hold about ____ that would result in this?"

I picked up the first book but didn't really get very far. Maybe I should try again but something wasn't working for me there. Surprising because normally I can accept basically anything in space opera or mystery and it was supposed to be both.

Ann Leckie is better at names. "Radch" and "Anaander Mianaai" have the correct, vaguely alien feel.

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:03 pm I picked up the first book but didn't really get very far. Maybe I should try again but something wasn't working for me there. Surprising because normally I can accept basically anything in space opera or mystery and it was supposed to be both.

Well, you are our local expert in matters Mesoamerican…

bradrn wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 5:10 pm

Ares Land wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 2:03 pm I picked up the first book but didn't really get very far. Maybe I should try again but something wasn't working for me there. Surprising because normally I can accept basically anything in space opera or mystery and it was supposed to be both.

Well, you are our local expert in matters Mesoamerican…

Ohh, I'm definitely not an expert!

I've picked up the books where I'd left it off. Honestly the names feel more Pratchettian than Mesoamerican. The quasi-Nahuatl is a little weird; there's something about a yaotlek (yaotl is Nahuatl, yaotlek can't be) from Teixcalaan (which I guess combines Texcoco and Tlaxcallan).
Adapting this to a more familiar, that's kind of like talking about the Navarchus of the planet Spartaanth -- not unusual in SF by any means

Picking up on what I posted in the Computer thread, as a result of a long drawn-out saga involving weird software behavior, I now have two online subscriptions to one and the same newspaper. I can use one of them perfectly fine, while the other is unusable; I can't even log in to it. At some time over the next few days, I'll contact them and ask them to cancel the one that doesn't work. I hope they don't cancel the one that does work instead.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:13 am Picking up on what I posted in the Computer thread, as a result of a long drawn-out saga involving weird software behavior, I now have two online subscriptions to one and the same newspaper. I can use one of them perfectly fine, while the other is unusable; I can't even log in to it. At some time over the next few days, I'll contact them and ask them to cancel the one that doesn't work. I hope they don't cancel the one that does work instead.

You'll need to send them a picture of both accounts with a large arrow saying "CANCEL THIS ONE IT DOES NOT WORK".

alice wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 2:36 pm
You'll need to send them a picture of both accounts with a large arrow saying "CANCEL THIS ONE IT DOES NOT WORK".

Perhaps I'll try that.

Unrelated: I have some things to do next Wednesday and perhaps next Tuesday. From now until then, however, I don't really have anything to do, except for household chores.

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 3:14 pmThe way you fix it is going to the shop and asking them to replace your electronic throttle control actuator. It'll cost you $200.

Not necessarily. The last time I took my car to the mechanic, they wanted $700 for something that only cost $50. Scaling it proportionally, I could easily end up paying thousands in this case.

Unfortunately the damage done to my rental history will last quite some time. It will probably take years for my missed payment to fall off, assuming it ever does. That presents extraordinary challenges for moving for the foreseeable future.

malloc wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 3:45 pm

Moose-tache wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 3:14 pmThe way you fix it is going to the shop and asking them to replace your electronic throttle control actuator. It'll cost you $200.

Not necessarily. The last time I took my car to the mechanic, they wanted $700 for something that only cost $50.

was it $50 for the part or $50 for the part & installation? there is a signifigant difference there.

Unfortunately the damage done to my rental history will last quite some time. It will probably take years for my missed payment to fall off, assuming it ever does. That presents extraordinary challenges for moving for the foreseeable future.

You did read the reassurances on that score, right?

keenir wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 6:18 pmwas it $50 for the part or $50 for the part & installation? there is a signifigant difference there.

The part itself. Unfortunately it looks like I will have to spend hundred or thousands to get this fixed and hours out of my busy schedule waiting. This seems like a long shot, but does anyone know anything about electronic throttle control actuators and how to fix them?

You did read the reassurances on that score, right?

They help little against the stern and implacable judgment of the faceless corporation managing my apartment complex. So long as their records have me down as skipping payments, my chances of digging myself out of this hole seem slim.

Raphael wrote: ↑Tue Jan 23, 2024 8:13 am Picking up on what I posted in the Computer thread, as a result of a long drawn-out saga involving weird software behavior, I now have two online subscriptions to one and the same newspaper. I can use one of them perfectly fine, while the other is unusable; I can't even log in to it. At some time over the next few days, I'll contact them and ask them to cancel the one that doesn't work. I hope they don't cancel the one that does work instead.

I've managed it to resolve that thing!

malloc wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 12:33 pm

keenir wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 6:18 pmwas it $50 for the part or $50 for the part & installation? there is a signifigant difference there.

The part itself. Unfortunately it looks like I will have to spend hundred or thousands to get this fixed and hours out of my busy schedule waiting. This seems like a long shot, but does anyone know anything about electronic throttle control actuators and how to fix them?

yes: get an expert.

seriously (and I'm typing this last, of all the parts of this post)...and rhetorically asking where the heck do you live, that it costs thousands of dollars to get something fixed, and your landlords are even more coldblooded than Skynet?

You did read the reassurances on that score, right?

They help little against the stern and implacable judgment of the faceless corporation managing my apartment complex. So long as their records have me down as skipping payments, my chances of digging myself out of this hole seem slim.

Well, then you can take a measure of pride, my friend, for you have the high honor of being the first person in history to be in the grasp of a hyperlegalistic implacable and faceless corpor-person who will kill people slowly for any tiny violation of an existance.

Just remember to say "(your name here) barada nikto" to calm them.
{sorry}

My brother probably recently ran over a cat shattering its ribcage. We can't get it to a vet for now because of the roads being blocked.

keenir wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 12:03 amseriously (and I'm typing this last, of all the parts of this post)...and rhetorically asking where the heck do you live, that it costs thousands of dollars to get something fixed, and your landlords are even more coldblooded than Skynet?

Missouri, specifically a suburb of St Louis. One of these days, people will come to understand why I want to leave so badly.

For now, I need to get my car fixed and that means making an appointment to get it checked and rearranging my entire schedule around that. Unfortunately that means I will have to spend several hours standing around outside in winter waiting for them to replace the part.