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[hops]

Spoiler: My Son (click to show/hide)

I stand erect, six feet three inches and two hundred pounds, eyeing the wilful creature before me. Completely uncaring of the sheer danger of being in such close proximity to a full-grown human, the deadliest predator on the planet, he eyes me back resolutely.

His eyes are a light shade of baby blue, near iridescent rings of vibrant color encircling a deep pool of blackness that somehow managed to convey a keen mind rapidly grasping the realities of it's situation. His skin, paler than even mine, colored slightly at the cheeks as his small, yet oversized features crinkled in a mischievous expression that wasn't a smile or grin, rather closer to a grimace really.

His russet hair caught the light despite it's fine and sparse nature as he leaned his clumsy hand forward and grabbed the thin processed wafer of sugar and bread, then very deliberately threw it from his chair to the floor.

I look down at the wafer, then back at the diminutive being before me. He was utterly dwarfed by me, in size, shape, even intellect, barely managing two feet and thirty pounds. He eyed me back defiantly as I looked back at him.

I sighed and obediently knelt once more to return the wafer to his plate, for there was nothing I wouldn't do for this tiny bit of potential. I see in his eyes, that one day soon he will surpass me intellectually. And then physically. He may not grow larger or stronger, but I will only weaken and turn brittle, as is the way of things.

But this small, for now, man will survive me and carry forward my one true legacy. A legacy of blood, wrought of billions of years of evolution. In the grand scheme, a tiny voice from a mote of dust relentlessly insisting it isn't finished living yet.

Are you the protagonist of The Road by any chance?

[Hanslanda]

Spoiler: My Son (click to show/hide)

I stand erect, six feet three inches and two hundred pounds, eyeing the wilful creature before me. Completely uncaring of the sheer danger of being in such close proximity to a full-grown human, the deadliest predator on the planet, he eyes me back resolutely.

His eyes are a light shade of baby blue, near iridescent rings of vibrant color encircling a deep pool of blackness that somehow managed to convey a keen mind rapidly grasping the realities of it's situation. His skin, paler than even mine, colored slightly at the cheeks as his small, yet oversized features crinkled in a mischievous expression that wasn't a smile or grin, rather closer to a grimace really.

His russet hair caught the light despite it's fine and sparse nature as he leaned his clumsy hand forward and grabbed the thin processed wafer of sugar and bread, then very deliberately threw it from his chair to the floor.

I look down at the wafer, then back at the diminutive being before me. He was utterly dwarfed by me, in size, shape, even intellect, barely managing two feet and thirty pounds. He eyed me back defiantly as I looked back at him.

I sighed and obediently knelt once more to return the wafer to his plate, for there was nothing I wouldn't do for this tiny bit of potential. I see in his eyes, that one day soon he will surpass me intellectually. And then physically. He may not grow larger or stronger, but I will only weaken and turn brittle, as is the way of things.

But this small, for now, man will survive me and carry forward my one true legacy. A legacy of blood, wrought of billions of years of evolution. In the grand scheme, a tiny voice from a mote of dust relentlessly insisting it isn't finished living yet.

Are you the protagonist of The Road by any chance?

Never heard of it, so possibly?

[TD1]

Written by McCarthy. Seriously dark stuff. A child and his father traverse a dead USA landscape with no food and many cannibals. The son is stick thin. The tone is deeply depressing. Reading it made me feel horrible, and then at the end, right where you want an optimistic ending and there seems room for one.... there isn't.

[Yoink]

Spoilers, dawg.    

...Man, I love books with horrifically depressing endings. Especially right when you were expecting the characters to resolve shit and wind up all happy. Nope! He drives a truck into his hated, long-time rival, just as the latter learns over the phone that the two are, in fact, secretly brothers and prepares to try and reconcile.

[TamerVirus]

The Road. Also a 2009 movie starring Viggo Mortensen. Based on the book

[hops]

Written by McCarthy. Seriously dark stuff. A child and his father traverse a dead USA landscape with no food and many cannibals. The son is stick thin. The tone is deeply depressing. Reading it made me feel horrible, and then at the end, right where you want an optimistic ending and there seems room for one.... there isn't.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ending is arguably optimistic, though.

[Hanslanda]

>Writes a happy if oddly toned short story about his son
>It is immediately compared to a story about apocalypse and cannibals

Never change Bay12.

[JoshuaFH]

I feel I've been doing well over the last few days. Feeling good and I'm behaving very well in social interactions. I actually feel like a personable and socially competent person. I'm trying DESPERATELY FUCKING HARD to not backslide into over-anxious worrying over nothing and beating myself up over trivial nonmistakes; but on that front I'm doing pretty alright as well.

tell. me. the. se-cret

+1

I wish I could speak authoritatively on the subject, but the only thing that comes to mind is asking a repeat felon who's managed to stay out of prison for a while "My god, how have you managed to keep your nose clean for so long?!" and all he can do is shrug his shoulders and say "The police are just getting lazier, or I've gotten much faster!"

[TD1]

Written by McCarthy. Seriously dark stuff. A child and his father traverse a dead USA landscape with no food and many cannibals. The son is stick thin. The tone is deeply depressing. Reading it made me feel horrible, and then at the end, right where you want an optimistic ending and there seems room for one.... there isn't.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The ending is arguably optimistic, though.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pfffft. His dad dies. Granted, the people who pick him up are nice enough, which is alright. But he's still in a world tearing itself apart with guns, whore-patrols, and people wanting to eat him/rape him. Then there's a quasi-optimistic bit about fish, though with some funny tenses thrown in so you don't know if he's talking about the past. Even if there are fish, the world is still going ape and that boy ain't gonna have a very good (or long) life.

[Teneb]

Moving this here because it doesn't fit the terrified thread anymore. Presented an article at a historiography event today, about meme appropriation by american alt-right.

Also might be the first bit of historiographical research in the topic, which surprised a bit.

Sure, it was watched by around 10 people because it happened at 09:00, but I still count it as a happy.

[TD1]

....

Historiography, you say? Would you mind giving me a virtual hand? I'm currently trying to flesh out a doctoral proposal concerning religion in the reign of Henry II. Methodology and the identifying of themes seems to be quite important. As does methodology. Do you know where I could read up on themes/research questions/methodology?

[Teneb]

....

Historiography, you say? Would you mind giving me a virtual hand? I'm currently trying to flesh out a doctoral proposal concerning religion in the reign of Henry II. Methodology and the identifying of themes seems to be quite important. As does methodology. Do you know where I could read up on themes/research questions/methodology?

I'm an undergrad (though am pretty damn close to not being one), mate. To be honest, the methodology for the article was a mix of semiotics and winging it. Despite just presenting an article on a contemporanean theme, I'm actually specializing in medieval history so might as well share what I can remember off the top of my head. While methodology is important, most of it will end up being created by yourself. It is simply a description of how you will approach the problem, how you will analyze it, how you will discuss and work it. There aren't a whole lot of authors about it because historiographical theory isn't exactly what a lot of people become historians for, but you might want to take a look at stuff like the writings of the Annales School, of the Frankfurt School. Umberto Eco might've been from the field of literature, but he knew his shit. Also search for texts with related themes to what you want to write and see how they described the methodology.

[TD1]

I'm not an undergraduate, but only just Been on the Master's for two days now.

Brilliant work on presenting an article, though. Not many undergrads can claim that. Many thanks for the suggestions - will look into them.

[IcyTea31]

I disarmed a nuke as a team-building exercise!



It was an escape room.

[Dunamisdeos]

How much xp did you get

I am assuming this is a real nucular weapon and you get assigned nicknames and promotions based on cool points, like all military organizations.