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[Akura]

For some reason I've been feeling little pings of wanting to play Tropico or Saints row or something. Pretty damn out of nowhere too.

That's incredibly odd. I just started a new run of Saints' Row 2, this time playing the game as a female Boss.

Spoiler: And here she is (click to show/hide)

I'm loving the hat.

Spoiler: A little clothes shopping, some plastic surgery... (click to show/hide)

I've turned Strawberry Shortcake into a hardass gangbanger.
(That circle is the aiming reticule. I had to stand behind a dumpster and aim at that precise angle to get that level closeness)

[JoshuaFH]

It's ok about the reticule, it makes it look like she's wearing a monocle.

[Reelya]

What is with these shows that were popular at the time being considered trash today?

Like... Friends or Sex in the City?

How the heck does this shift happen?

Well, I think those were terrible at the time, I think.
Look at other popular old shows, like Seinfeld, Twin Peaks and M*A*S*H-- everyone involved in the creation of those masterpieces has since ascended to godhood and is now reverently worshipped by the entirety of humankind.

I was never a fan of Friends. I guess it qualifies as a baseline of entertainment, along with any other sitcom you can name.

[IcyTea31]

It is why most fiction where someone gets a tarot reading they just COMPLETELY make stuff up.

Isn't that what they do in real life as well? Even if they do use a specific interpretation for the cards and don't make it from whole cloth, the 'correct' interpretation is most likely lost to history and what's left is several contradicting schools that each claim theirs is the real one.

[Rolan7]

It's not just that...  What I've always heard is that the meanings of the cards are just suggestions.  It's kinda like playing mad-libs.  "Someone important ___ money", "You ___ opportunity", "A family member - oh wait that's the ten of swords, I'm sorry for your loss"

That's how I always did it, anyway   It's a neat introduction to the people-reading "psychics" and "mediums" do.  Personally I found tarot cards useful prompts to consider situations and gain insight.  Like dream analysis, a way to connect with one's subconscious.

Also the cards can be pretty.  I grew up with my mom's Aquarian set, so I get quite a rush of nostalgia (even reverence) looking at them.

There's also a beautiful, if very difficult, DOS puzzle adventure game called The Fool's Errand.  It tells a rather surreal narrative using the arcana as characters, and the other cards as locations.  Runs great in Dosbox, and surprisingly easy to find a copy.  The puzzles don't require knowledge of Tarot, they're just styled around it.

Ouija is just stupid tho

[scrdest]

It is why most fiction where someone gets a tarot reading they just COMPLETELY make stuff up.

Isn't that what they do in real life as well? Even if they do use a specific interpretation for the cards and don't make it from whole cloth, the 'correct' interpretation is most likely lost to history and what's left is several contradicting schools that each claim theirs is the real one.

The thing is, it's not. The 'correct' interpretation that is lost to history is 'Dude, what the fuck do you expect, those are playing cards.'.

All the interpretations and mysticism was invented whole-cloth in 1700s by a bunch of extremely European extremely affluent-white-dudes like, say, Eliphas Levi. They were basically early LARPers in the Mazes and Monsters vein.

[hops]

Next you'll tell me the Voynich Manuscripts were for Labyrinths and Lamias.

[scrdest]

Next you'll tell me the Voynich Manuscripts were for Labyrinths and Lamias.

I don't need to, xkcd did. Also I think a young-Tom-Hanks-filmography reference has whooshed past you.

[itisnotlogical]

I don't understand people who are unreasonably nostalgic for a time they weren't even alive for. I have a friend from work who's always posting and talking about the 1920s as if they were actually there, and as if massive amounts of organized crime didn't arise from the prohibition of alcohol.

[pisskop]

Why not?

people are always talking about their next break.  people are always talking about their sports.  Escapism.  And 'grass greener other side'.

people will always complain about what they have and are now and reflect upon what they can or could be.  Or fantasize about things.


Like, have you even thought about how you, and your culture/language/habits/technology would be received if suddenly teleported to like say france in the 1200s?  Or 1890s america?

Or rome?  Egypt? aztecia?


would cavemen worship jew as a god?  Or beat your brains out like an inquisitor would?
Could you convince Xnoble to accept you into their court and/or retinue?

Would you be willing to accept a life as a 'wizard' (because you knew how to mix magic)?
Or a bodyguard (because you had a gun and some spare ammo)?
Or  would you be able to reform societies with teh knowledge of hindsight?
Or reform a military into something more using now-knowledge?


dont knock on 1920s guy and then go meet for D&D.

[MrRoboto75]

I always assume such a scenario would be much like in Hitchhiker's guide

I'd be that wierd guy in the tribe that can't hunt for shit, but can make a nice sandwich.

[TD1]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

dogshavebrainsthateatthemselvesifgivenwater.

I'd write a book in modern English entitled "the reasons why God doesn't exist," then have the illiterate cavemen worship it as their holy text

[Harry Baldman]

I don't understand people who are unreasonably nostalgic for a time they weren't even alive for. I have a friend from work who's always posting and talking about the 1920s as if they were actually there, and as if massive amounts of organized crime didn't arise from the prohibition of alcohol.

Well, the nice thing about living in 1920 is that it puts off today's problems a whole century. The much less nice thing is that, unless you time it just right, you're going to get drafted into WW2 in your forties. Unless you're a lady in the US, in which case you're probably reasonably safe and get to live through a time of awakening female empowerment. It's like living today, but you have an implicit guarantee that history as a whole will turn out in your favor, and by the time 2016 rolls around you'll be dead as a doornail.

Besides, surely you can't deny the stylistic merits of combining a bar and a secret club for cool people with money on hand, and when else are you going to plausibly get that if not the Prohibition? That, plus a little while later you could have amphetamines to treat your bronchitis (and before that you could buy heroin for your cough!), and how great is that? Drop in on 1921, just early enough to get prescription heroin for three years before they ban it entirely and just late enough to miss the Spanish flu!

[Levi]

The past is a terrible place.  I'd have pretty much zero chance of becoming immortal there.

[scrdest]

I don't understand people who are unreasonably nostalgic for a time they weren't even alive for. I have a friend from work who's always posting and talking about the 1920s as if they were actually there, and as if massive amounts of organized crime didn't arise from the prohibition of alcohol.

Well, the nice thing about living in 1920 is that it puts off today's problems a whole century. The much less nice thing is that, unless you time it just right, you're going to get drafted into WW2 in your forties. Unless you're a lady in the US, in which case you're probably reasonably safe and get to live through a time of awakening female empowerment. It's like living today, but you have an implicit guarantee that history as a whole will turn out in your favor, and by the time 2016 rolls around you'll be dead as a doornail.

Besides, surely you can't deny the stylistic merits of combining a bar and a secret club for cool people with money on hand, and when else are you going to plausibly get that if not the Prohibition? That, plus a little while later you could have amphetamines to treat your bronchitis (and before that you could buy heroin for your cough!), and how great is that? Drop in on 1921, just early enough to get prescription heroin for three years before they ban it entirely and just late enough to miss the Spanish flu!

You're forgetting a little thing called The Great Depression happening there too. And of course, that's assuming your presence does not derail history.