Unironically Deus Ex, it's full of cookie-cutter crazy conspiracy theories and references, but it introduced me to the literary genre of Cyberpunk and it's surrounding culture back in the day. If it wasn't for it, I probably wouldn't be so critical of modern consumerism and corporate culture. It helps that a lot of the game's social commentary remains very topical twenty years later, they simply don't make games like this anymore.
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Blue's Clues. The humour is extremely subtle, and without a solid grasp of theoretical physics most of the jokes will go over a typical viewer's head. There's also Blue's nihilistic outlook, which is deftly woven into his characterisation- his personal philosophy draws heavily from Narodnaya Volya literature, for instance. The fans understand this stuff; they have the intellectual capacity to truly appreciate the depths of these jokes, to realise that they're not just funny- they say something deep about LIFE. As a consequence people who dislike Blue's Clues truly ARE idiots- of course they wouldn't appreciate, for instance, the humour in Blue's existential catchphrase "a clue a clue," which itself is a cryptic reference to Turgenev's Russian epic Fathers and Sons. I'm smirking right now just imagining one of those addlepated simpletons scratching their heads in confusion as Traci Paige Johnson's genius wit unfolds itself on their television screens. What fools.. how I pity them. π
And yes, by the way, i DO have a Blue's Clues tattoo. And no, you cannot see it. It's for the ladies' eyes only- and even then they have to demonstrate that they're within 5 IQ points of my own (preferably lower) beforehand. Nothin personnel kid π
βοΈ This comment changed my life πππ
Nice Rick&Morty copypasta you got there.
Why can't they be of higher IQ than you?
And why 5 points, doesn't communication gap theory push for 15?
I dislike 3 digit numbers
You fooled me, well played sir.
Thank you, glad this joke landed.
Blues Clues and "Scott's Tots". High IQ required or don't even bother
Bold of such a casual watcher to opine on her motivations.
If you had actually been paying attention, each clue represents one of the 12 arcana given context by the way it is revealed, each episode being a tarot reading that gives depth and context to her character.
A true fan would watch in order, and would discover each season clearly describes the fools journey with a reading for each step - at that point it just. It then repeats, revealing more of her backstory each season
I'll give the broad strokes, since I'm sure that's all a casual viewer like you is interested in.
Blue was born as the deity of a small tribe on the coast of modern day France. She loved her people and worked for them tirelessly, and they loved her as she lavished them with bountiful harvests and artistic inspiration. Her people were kind and righteous, creating beautiful sculptures and cloth that they traded generously. Then the sea people attacked.
It's unclear who they were, but her people were slaughtered and enslaved, her power slipping away, for she had given back all her people gave her, not considering her own needs. Slowly they died out, and knowledge of her name slowly died out.
Fading and in desperation she bound herself to a place, a cave in modern day Paris. Her heart broken by loss, she changed in those dark centuries. Her presence still brought fortune and so her former people's land was taken by others, but she no longer had love in her heart. She compelled them to bury their dead in the caverns under the city, where she feasted upon souls of the dead for generation after generation. But none knew her name, and so she barely was able to sustain her existence.
At the advent of WWII, knowledge of the occult reached a peak. The Nazi leadership heard of the abnormal luck of the city, and so made a deal with the French - they only wanted access to the city without revealing their goal.
The Nazis took the city, and drove the resistance down into the catacombs, giving them an excuse to seek her out.
They succeeded, and they found her. She was almost feral at this point, but after heavy losses they managed to imprison her in a relic, an urn containing scraps of bones of her people. On this urn, they engraved an inscription, a binding to a single person. That person would gain eternal youth and funnel power to her, but they misunderstood what she was - in effect, those bound to her died quickly.
The relic was captured at the end of the war, and ended up in Hollywood along with many other odds and ends. After several high profile deaths, they discovered that attention from children could sustain the needs of this unnamed being. By destroying their potential, a little at a time, the host would not age or be drained by the relic.
What no one expected was how well this would scale. The fallen deity known as "Blue" has swiftly recovered, and there's many fan theories about what this means.
And just to spell it out for the slower among you, this is a clear metaphor for capitalism, the effects of the industrial revolution, and the how in an effort to make children subservient , we reduce the future prospects of everyone, including those at the top
I read Asimov's Foundation series of books when I was 14 or so, and it made me a lifelong science fiction fan.
https://youtu.be/xUiuVjX2ubQ?feature=shared
Transplant tourism in China π¨π³
There's only one reason to make a device to give people an invisible lobotomy with that contraption. Transplant tourism is a real thing, if you need a kidney, they'll find some poor Chinese citizen who's broken some menial law or just pull some poor Uyghur, labotomize them, poof there's your kidney match in short order.
Here's a video of what these people are doing https://youtu.be/xUiuVjX2ubQ?feature=shared
It changed my life because after seeing this, for all practical purposes, I try my very best to avoid things from China because I don't want one penny of my money going to support this barbaric inhumanity.
If I see "made in China" I will try my best to find an alternative. For example, I returned to razor mice because they were made in China and got one of the same model instead that was made in Taiwan. It was sort of a luck of the draw, I had to buy two of the same model before I got one from the country that I wanted it from and I returned the one that was made in China. It was about an extra hours worth of annoyance, but it's important to me to keep doing things like that, because of this video. Fuck the Chinese Communist Party and their treating other human beings like animals.
I think it's important to keep in mind that this happens everywhere in one form or another. For example Frontex, ICE, Solitary confinement and so on. I'm sure you're aware of more examples.
I believe it can be quantified in some way. I live in a country that has no problem with solitary confinement of minors at an early age for decades at a time.
I think that's deplorable and monstrous also. But something about government endorsed (don't tell me the CCP doesn't know about it) organ theft where they kill the donor and keep them alive through controlled brain damage so they can harvest more organs from them. Something about that seems worse to me than solitary confinement, enough that I changed my behavior.
Yes keep it in context, but whataboutism isn't an excuse for objectively dehumanizing behavior from anyone.
(Note: I'm aware of companies and name brands that invest in private prisons, I do my best to avoid those brands, really I try to live my life but do what I can within reason)
Yes I agree it isn't an excuse. Am I right to be worried about people's frustrations and their resulting anger? Change in China and other places must come from within.
Urgh - MONSTEROUS behavior
Ugliness
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The ones that affected my life the most are probably Chuck Palahniuk's books. I read them as a teenager.
Thus spoke Zarathustra. I've been thinking about this book pretty much everyday for the past 20 years. It made me want to enjoy life and create great things.
There have been several. I'll pick Eric Berne's book Games People Play.
I immediately recognised a few that I had played and, having been 'called out' on them by the book, it did lead me to stop and behave more constructively.
The Selfish Gene, 1976, by Richard Dawkins.
Morrowind because I'm one of those people. But for real, that game in part defined large parts of my life. I got frustrated with the limits of the game so I started making mods, then got frustrated with the limits of the engine so I learned how to make my own. Now I work adjacent to the game industry with plans to get back into the industry proper in a couple years. Making games is all I've ever wanted to do and I owe a big part of that to Morrowind and the construction kit.
Were you involved in making OpenMW? That's so cool
No surprisingly, I haven't managed to contribute to the project. Reminds me I should definitely look into that though
Homestuck.
Not in the reading of it, which I did out of the momentum of Bard quest and Problem Sleuth, but in the way that it rippled through the online media landscape and affected discourse and things like Undertale, webcomics, and crowd funding.
Not in any "profound" way, but in a measurably gigantic one.
It's a bit early to say if it's life changing, but Hi Ren made me reassess my thought patterns and negative self talk in ways therapy never could, which is pretty damn powerful for a musical performance.
Podcasts count? Huberman Lab has been such a life-changing listen! Lots of great information about sleep and how our body functions
Books.
I have several!
Disco Elysium: I played Disco Elysium at a dark time in my life and seeing the protagonist hit absolute rock bottom and begin to cope with his myriad problems throughout the story amidst how fucked his situation (and the world's) was resonated with me a lot. I could go on a lot longer about this game, but it definitely changed my perspective on life and the world.
Mr. Robot: What starts out as a story about a hacker and the ethics of technology ends up as a look at personal trauma and coping mechanisms. As someone in tech who's dealt with a lot of mental health issues throughout my life, I (and my sister) saw a lot of me reflected in Elliot as well.
A lot of similarities between those two pieces of media, lol
Disco Elysium:
Ah. I had KotORII:TSL in the same role. While the game you're talking about was apparently that for one girl with which we didn't understand each other. But the game is good and I think it did help me get to the better condition I'm in now.
"In Search of SchrΓΆdinger's Cat" - John Gibbon (1984)
Crash course in quantum physics and reality. Changed my perception of the world in a way that "things could be worse" could never accomplish on its own.
Drowning in a world of marketing and political slogans, this books helps me them how they attempt to persuade me. It also opened up a whole new interest in rhetoric.
Heinlein's "The Door Into Summer". Both beacuse it reminds me that I might never find what I'm looking for; and because it taught me to never give up on looking, anyway.
I was bored on an airplane a while back and discovered a Japanese movie adaptation of A Door Into Summer: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_door_into_summer
It'd been 25 years since my mom read the story to me so I can't tell you how accurate the adaptation is but it hit the parts I remembered.
Hackers as a kid, got me into IT security. Daemon and Darknet by Daniel Suarez, gave me a new perspective on society.
Daemon is a fantastic book. I remember reading it in middle school and a classmate was like oh yeah my dad's friends with him
A friend once gave me an ipod mini with Tony Robbinsβs Personal Power series on it, and it was one of the best gifts Iβve ever received.
In fact, Iβm gonna get in touch with that guy.
The Dune trilogy when I was in something like 6th or 7th degree. It was just such a great piece of fiction to introduce quite a few philosophical thoughts at the time. I still enjoy the books. (and the old film with Sting in it)
VAST's first self titled album
YES!!!!!! So glad there are VAST fan out there
saw him with orgy, linkin park, and disturbed at lupos heartbreak hotel wbru birthday bash and he was honestly the best part <3
Guitar Hero exposed me to the idea that there was great music that wasn't on the radio and inspired me to pick up an instrument
Pinkerton by Weezer. Its my favorite album of all time. It also introduced to a while bunch of other great albums, namely American Football's first album and Kid A by Radiohead. And El Scorcho is an absolute banger.
Red Dwarf anyone?
Steven Universe defined my high school years and made me who I am.
Cosmic Trigger or any other RAW books. I read so many of his books in my formative years and they dismantled or completely destroyed some of my previously held superstitions, biases, and beliefs about the world.
Vagabond manga.
HTML 4 for Dummies
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