Zompist Bboard Again

malloc wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:08 pm An alternative to suicide recently occurred to me.

Do you hate us? Have we failed you in some way?

The libertarians have a rather whimsical concept known as seasteading, basically creating artificial islands autonomous from existing governments. There is nothing stopping leftists from appropriating this concept and leaving behind reactionary oligarchies that want them gone anyway.

Unless you're a bigger name outside of conlanging than you are inside of conlanging, I doubt any government wants you gone - mostly because I doubt any government even knows any of us even exist.

even so, I am grasping at straws for an alternative to suicide.

Pretty much anything is a viable alternative.

keenir wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:17 pm

malloc wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:08 pm An alternative to suicide recently occurred to me.

Do you hate us? Have we failed you in some way?

Context: malloc has severe anxiety issues and was contemplating suicide after the election of Trump. This was in the Venting Thread, from which he was recently banned (presumably why he moved to this thread). We have repeatedly urged him to find a therapist who he can talk to, but he refuses to do so.

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:20 pm

keenir wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:17 pm

malloc wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:08 pm An alternative to suicide recently occurred to me.

Do you hate us? Have we failed you in some way?

Context: malloc has severe anxiety issues

*nods* I've got anxiety as well, and a host of other mental issues...I'm honestly not sure if those all add up (or cancel each other out, or what) to make suicide not an option to my mind (for me, much less for anyone else)...I'm trying to find common ground and understand why.

Two points that various of us have pointed out to Malloc is both that, we are Malloc's friends & and are here for Malloc, and also that we are not a substitute for mental health professionals - those are encouraged as well as friendship.

It just sucks that the best case scenario is my life permanently worsening with the few good things in my life disappearing. I will probably make my peace with it, just as I eventually came to accept my mother passing away. Over the years, I have tolerated more and more deterioration in my quality of life. Now I am expected to accept the end of liberal democracy as the new normal. There must surely come a bridge too far.

malloc wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:59 pm It just sucks that the best case scenario is my life permanently worsening with the few good things in my life disappearing.

permanently?

Over the years, I have tolerated more and more deterioration in my quality of life.

phrases like that, make me wonder if you're the personification of the nation of the USA.

Now I am expected to accept the end of liberal democracy as the new normal.

nobody 'expects' you to accept it - there are a lot of things you could do...join an organization that works on a grassroots (or higher) level to combat attempts to kill/maim liberal democracy, you could write a book, you could paint, you could redouble work on a conlang...so many more options than just what I've listed.

There must surely come a bridge too far.

As it happens, there is exactly one bridge too far: when the heat death of the universe finally happens, thats the bridge.

keenir wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2025 11:10 pm nobody 'expects' you to accept it - there are a lot of things you could do...join an organization that works on a grassroots (or higher) level to combat attempts to kill/maim liberal democracy, you could write a book, you could paint, you could redouble work on a conlang...so many more options than just what I've listed.

Precisely. I am also deeply worried about the state of the world, but I have found a way to act against that: I vote for a progressive political party in elections, am even a member of that party, attend progressive political rallies, sign online petitions, run a blog presenting solutions to our problems; I am planning to write stories about the turnaround to sustainability (that genre even has a name: "solarpunk"), and I am also planning to form a band that plays music with lyrics about such things (I have already written a few songs for that project). I don't know how much I can actually achieve this way, but it gets me a good feeling of doing something meaningful, and helps me cope with the situation.

Sure but how do you plan on countering the massive advantage that the AfD has in propaganda? Apparently Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind it.

malloc wrote: ↑Tue Jan 21, 2025 11:43 am Sure but how do you plan on countering the massive advantage that the AfD has in propaganda? Apparently Elon Musk is throwing his weight behind it.

There are many people in Germany who object to the AfD. The opinion polls predict the AfD to win about 20% of the seats in the upcoming election, which is bad enough, but even the centre-right CDU/CSU (who are predicted to win a plurality but not a majority) have given their word that they won't form a coalition with them, and any breach of the word would result in a huge public scandal and cost them many votes. (Apart from the fact that they have utterly incompatible positions on foreign affairs such as the EU or the war in Ukraine.) Rather, they'd probably form a coalition with one of the centre-left parties, most likely the SPD - they have done so before, and it worked moderately well.

Elon Musk's weight is not as great in Germany as you may believe; most Germans consider him a dangerous madman whose voice is not to be heeded. I have already seen Teslas with a sticker on the back, "I bought this car before Elon went crazy".

But this discussion belongs to the "Elections in various countries" thread, so let's continue it there if you want.

You know there's already internal fighting in the Republicans, between that Maga Repubs, the rich Repubs and the "normal" mostly centrist Repubs. They are not nearly as united after the cheetoh's inauguration as they seemed before it.

We've just been hit here by a very destructive storm called Éowyn. A few years ago there was a comparable one called Arwen. I'd love to know what Tolkien would think.

alice wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 2:48 pm We've just been hit here by a very destructive storm called Éowyn. A few years ago there was a comparable one called Arwen. I'd love to know what Tolkien would think.

Hmmm...depending upon his mood at the time, I'd hazard he'd say one of these:
a. "I appreciate that you're thinking of me, but perhaps stop naming storms after me?"
b. "Nice. But next time, use the name of Grendel's mother."
c. "Why are you asking me? You know I translated all the names in my books, yes?"

its an excellent question, Alice.

keenir wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 4:03 pm

alice wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 2:48 pm We've just been hit here by a very destructive storm called Éowyn. A few years ago there was a comparable one called Arwen. I'd love to know what Tolkien would think.

Hmmm...depending upon his mood at the time, I'd hazard he'd say one of these:
a. "I appreciate that you're thinking of me, but perhaps stop naming storms after me?"
b. "Nice. But next time, use the name of Grendel's mother."
c. "Why are you asking me? You know I translated all the names in my books, yes?"

its an excellent question, Alice.

That's alice, all lowercase

Regarding (c): "Arwen" wasn't translated, was it? I can't imagine even JRRT representing one fictional language by another one.

alice wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:41 pm

keenir wrote: ↑Fri Jan 24, 2025 4:03 pmc. "Why are you asking me? You know I translated all the names in my books, yes?"

its an excellent question, Alice.

That's alice, all lowercase

my bad; sorry.

Regarding (c): "Arwen" wasn't translated, was it? I can't imagine even JRRT representing one fictional language by another one.

when people smarter than I, say that he translated all names from Middle Earth languages to Earth languages (famously Samwise and Frodo), I take them at their word & assume that "all" = "all"...thus i presume that Arwen is Celtic or Old English...with -wen <- -wynn perhaps.

keenir wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:13 pm

alice wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:41 pm Regarding (c): "Arwen" wasn't translated, was it? I can't imagine even JRRT representing one fictional language by another one.

when people smarter than I, say that he translated all names from Middle Earth languages to Earth languages (famously Samwise and Frodo), I take them at their word & assume that "all" = "all"...thus i presume that Arwen is Celtic or Old English...with -wen <- -wynn perhaps.

Those people are wrong... Tolkien will tell you all about it in Appendix F. He represented Westron with English, even when he had devised the Westron words. As the language of Rohan was related and archaic, he represented it with Old English. However, he didn't modify elvish words, and Arwen is Sindarin.

zompist wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:51 pm

keenir wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 4:13 pm

alice wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 2:41 pm Regarding (c): "Arwen" wasn't translated, was it? I can't imagine even JRRT representing one fictional language by another one.

when people smarter than I, say that he translated all names from Middle Earth languages to Earth languages (famously Samwise and Frodo), I take them at their word & assume that "all" = "all"...thus i presume that Arwen is Celtic or Old English...with -wen <- -wynn perhaps.

Those people are wrong... Tolkien will tell you all about it in Appendix F. He represented Westron with English, even when he had devised the Westron words. As the language of Rohan was related and archaic, he represented it with Old English. However, he didn't modify elvish words, and Arwen is Sindarin.

However, since Sindarin is modelled phonologically on Welsh, it does *look* Celtic. This had the amusing and rather endearing consequence of Welsh weather forecasters on the BBC pronouncing it as if it actually was Welsh; JRRT would have been proud.

Less amusing were the newsreader and weather forecaster who insisted on pronouncing "Éowyn" as if it began with /ai/. I was strongly tempted to send a strongly-worded complaint to the BBC ("Yours sincerely, disgusted of Edinburgh"), but thought better of it.

alice wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 2:12 pm Less amusing were the newsreader and weather forecaster who insisted on pronouncing "Éowyn" as if it began with /ai/. I was strongly tempted to send a strongly-worded complaint to the BBC ("Yours sincerely, disgusted of Edinburgh"), but thought better of it.

I wish I'd caught that. I probably would have written a Yours sincerely, disgusted of [somewhere in the midst of the Westcountry] (we only got Éowyn yesterday)

How does an article titled “Music of Australia” not mention King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard even once?!

Man in Space wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:53 pm How does an article titled “Music of Australia” not mention King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard even once?!

You’d be surprised how little I hear about them in Australia. Although this article seems pretty comprehensive, so it’s a bit surprising.

bradrn wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:56 pm

Man in Space wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:53 pm How does an article titled “Music of Australia” not mention King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard even once?!

You’d be surprised how little I hear about them in Australia. Although this article seems pretty comprehensive, so it’s a bit surprising.

They are my favorite band. (Meshuggah is a close second.)