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Original Message
"Trope Of The Day V: tropes spring eternal"

Posted by Estee on 03-17-13 at 11:25 AM
On the other hand, the Random button is about as reliable and trustworthy as Ryan Seacrest reading a vote ranking order.


Table of contents

Messages in this discussion
"#401"
Posted by Estee on 03-17-13 at 11:32 AM
So you're saying the Focus On The Family headquarters burned to the ground last night?

And all the major members were inside attending a conference?

Plus every single six-digit donor on up is verified as having been in the building?

And the fire department wasn't able to rescue anyone?

Whatever.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IncriminatingIndifference

Huh. I'm low on soap. Better go take care of that.


"RE: #401"
Posted by kingfish on 03-17-13 at 05:11 PM
Oh Boo hoo hoo.

Life is so hard.

Cry me a river.


"#402 (more evil incarnate)"
Posted by Estee on 03-18-13 at 08:42 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FashionMagazine

So apparently the theme of this century is going to be 'things which bring out the arsonist in us all.'

*mutter*

Remind me not to be found near anything flammable for a few hours.


"#403"
Posted by Estee on 03-19-13 at 04:51 AM
LAST EDITED ON 03-19-13 AT 09:23 AM (EST)

You do what is right -- because it is right. Good is an absolute. The world is not. There are laws that are meant to protect people, yes. Those laws can help and you'll follow them whenever possible. And sometimes those laws get in the way. There are times when those laws are evil in and of themselves, and in either case? You will break them to do what's right. The world can call you a criminal for it. Society can label you as unmutual because you're willing to help anyone, not just those few lucky enough to be fully defined as citizens, or holy, or just as people. Let them. Maybe you'll build new laws. Maybe you'll keep breaking the ones already present. Whatever works best for the greatest number.

There are times when you've met evil with an outstretched hand and offer of comfort instead of a fist and sword. Sometimes it even worked. And when it didn't, that hand became a fist quickly enough, and a sword is always close by. Just because you can fight doesn't mean you always want to. Is it more important to turn someone away from evil or punish them for it? That's a variable -- one you recognize where others don't.

To do what is right. Not because someone says you must. Not because a structure of any kind dictates your actions. But because it. is. right.

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NeutralGood
http://tinyurl.com/TVTropesNeutralGood

It's not easy. But it has to be done. And you're the one who has to do it. Because once you've seen that action must be taken -- how can you do anything else?


"RE: #403"
Posted by kingfish on 03-19-13 at 09:12 AM
Link doesn't work, but that’s of little importance to me. I know Estee well enough to trust that when she says to the turn the other cheek that she has the right of it, and that she will fight the good fight in defense of small children, purse dogs, and the American way. Maybe Tea Partiers not so much, but everybody has chinks in their moral code.

One just has to envy evil though, when she reaches out the hand of comfort, and of the warm enfolding of her generous bosom.




To the Shwack shack with you!


"RE: #403"
Posted by Estee on 03-19-13 at 09:49 AM
And then there's The Knee Of Discouragement, The Knuckles Of Back Off, and everyone's personal favorite, The Taser Of Quick, Somebody Upload The Video On This Twitching Fool.

Got it linked, but I had to use a runaround: every direct copy lacked the initial coding.

I will not try to define my personal moral code along the axis of the original D&D nine alignments. If I've learned anything through occasionally browsing through the Order Of The Stick forums, it's that alignment discussions always lead to one fight and often create two to three thousand. Okay, two things: that and don't start one.

http://friendshipisdragons.thecomicseries.com/comics/214/

Ever.


"RE: #403"
Posted by kingfish on 03-19-13 at 11:55 AM
What? Oh, sorry, still distracted by that warm bosom thing.




"RE: #403"
Posted by cahaya on 03-19-13 at 02:59 PM
This was most common alignment for my D&D and AD&D characters (about 40% of them). Being lawful-good could be a pain in the arse with the rules and being chaotic-good can be problematic in a role-playing setting with the lawful types.

"#404"
Posted by Estee on 03-20-13 at 06:39 AM
There are times when an actor becomes so associated with a role that afterwards, audiences seeing that person will only perceive that role. It doesn't matter what they're playing: everyone just thinks of that one show/play/movie, and it never stops.

This trope? Is the reverse.

For today's random draw, we're looking at performers who can't get an audience to accept them in a part because all the viewership perceives is the actor. Not the role: the person playing it. That performer may be too well-known to fade into the skin of another: hardly their fault (some of the time), but that's how the audience sees it. Maybe they keep playing the same part over and over agin in different films, so it's This Woman In A Cop Movie followed by This Woman In Space which leads up to This Woman Trying For Oscar Bait. Some of them just play themselves, and do so repeatedly no matter how badly they fit the script. There are a lot of these actors, and they all seem to keep working -- which makes it a path others will follow.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IAmNotLeonardNimoy

Just be glad there are no reality show examples.


"RE: #404"
Posted by kingfish on 03-20-13 at 08:40 AM
So, I read the post, and the first actor that came to mind was John Wayne. Then I go to the link. Sure enough, John Wayne tops the list.

I actually thought he was great in True Grit. Mainly because his role was the same role he'd been practicing all his life. His naturalness was natural. And he was paid Hollywood money for it. What a life.

Kim Darby had the truly brilliant performance. Too bad they were associated with the performance disaster that was Glen Campbell.



"#405"
Posted by Estee on 03-21-13 at 06:55 AM
"See, their song goes "ding-ding-ding da-da ding-ding/ding-ding-ding da-da ding-ding",
and mine goes "ding-ding-ding da-da ding-ding/ding-ding-ding-ding da-da ding-ding".
It's totally different."

-- Vanilla Ice, comparing his Ice Ice Baby to Queen's Under Pressure

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuspiciouslySimilarSong?from=Main.TheJimmyHartVersion

This is everywhere. The trope examples stretch across nine genre category pages. Some of them may make you smile, a couple are brilliant, and more than a few are going to be irritating.

We invoked Vanilla Ice. Irritation is guaranteed.


"RE: #405"
Posted by kingfish on 03-21-13 at 08:13 AM
Conan OBrian has a recurring bit that he does two or three times a month called the "Name the Well Known Tune That This Sounds Suspiciously Like But That We Don't Have the Money to Pay For". Then a comic in the role of a sleezy nightclub singer paraphrases the words to an obvious knock off backed up by the house band. They manage to make it pretty funny.

And make that the last time that Vanilla Ice is mentioned in this Forum.


"#406"
Posted by Estee on 03-22-13 at 05:08 AM
So if you throw blood on those wearing fur, what's appropriate here? Droppings? Lots of droppings? The average daily output of a New York pigeon, assuming you're capable of lifting fifteen tons?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FluffyFashionFeathers

Throw the designer? That's never a bad idea.


"RE: #406"
Posted by kingfish on 03-22-13 at 08:39 AM
Big bird poop.

"#407"
Posted by Estee on 03-23-13 at 05:26 AM
Hello,

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MyNameIsInigoMontoya

You killed my father.

Prepare to die.


"#408"
Posted by Estee on 03-24-13 at 12:07 PM
Someone you care about is about to go charging off into potentially fatal danger -- no, make that almost certainly fatal danger. You are of the opinion that they should not go. You? Will go in their place, because it's better that you perish than they suffer a single moment, other than, you know, all the ensuing mourning. But before you can rush out to get yourself killed, you must stop them from doing it first. Do you:

A. Lock the doors.
B. Hide the car keys, money, bus pass, train schedule, and airline miles.
C. Tie them down with whatever's handy and call the police to free them when you're about ten feet from your own destination.
D. Hit them over the head with a frying pan, potentially fracturing the skull and causing anything from severe bruising to death in your attempt to inflict unconsciousness which will last long enough to keep them out of the action.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PercussivePrevention

On the plus side, they would then have to escape from the hospital room.

Or the coffin.


"#409"
Posted by Estee on 03-25-13 at 07:43 AM
I can't pass up an opportunity to use the lead page quote.

'The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat around the bush. "Make it evil," he'd been told. "Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sorts of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it, then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand; it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with."' (Douglas Adams)

However, for this trope, the central purpose of the gun is to just be looked at. Because someone looking at it will be terrified. The last thing they want is for you to fire it. They will do anything to prevent that trigger from being pulled -- and ideally, that means you'll never have to use the thing. The nastier the weapon looks, the more damage it does, total awareness of just how bad that is -- and the mere presence of that power leads to a total lack of actual firing.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WeaponForIntimidation

In theory.

In real life, the other party generally gets their own and then dares you to see if the bullets meet in the middle.


"RE: #409"
Posted by kingfish on 03-25-13 at 08:46 AM
One ploy of this sort that might work is to mount a Hantz head on your weapon. Or a Piers head.

Preferably, an authentic head.

On the other hand, if you want to amuse your opponent, a Busey head. Or a Trump head.

Again, preferably the real thing.


"#410"
Posted by Estee on 03-26-13 at 10:09 AM
Good reach on the mounting -- which is typically wood and barely able to take the weight of the very unbalanced metal at the far end, and will snap the instant anyone plants a strike on the right point. Also, you're holding it by handles attached to the wood. Both hands separated by a good distance, with no direct grip on the mount. Guess how well you can hold onto this thing when someone lands a non-snapping blow on it.

But at least there's a a very long blade -- that curves. Towards you. And the sharpened cutting surface for both blade and point is on the inner edge. Of course, that very long handle keeps them away from you, but there will be times your opponent can force the whole unit back and hello, self-impaling. And by the way, the blade is horizontal. Just try swinging it in an uppercut. Go on, try it -- oops, there went that handle again.

They look terrifying. The death inferences are locked in place. You don't want to actually be hit by one. But the best way to be on the receiving end is to be on the wielding one -- so as a weapon, it lacks something.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SinisterScythe

As an 'oh crap' inducer, it's priceless.


"RE: #410"
Posted by kingfish on 03-26-13 at 01:13 PM
As a weapon I can see how it would lack efficiency and practicality.

But if someone came at me with a scythe, I would run away, terrified by the sight and very much aware that up to that moment I had never really given any thought to planning a defensive move against a scythe. And of course then it would be way too late.


"RE: #410"
Posted by foonermints on 03-26-13 at 01:35 PM
I've used a chainsaw-on-a-stick. Scary!


Like robots. Robots are scary.


"RE: #410"
Posted by Molaholic on 03-26-13 at 04:31 PM
Looks like something a mohel could use.

"#411 (real life)"
Posted by Estee on 03-27-13 at 07:49 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheBadGuyWins

99.9% of the time.

The remainder just provides time to regroup.


"RE: #411 (real life)"
Posted by kingfish on 03-27-13 at 08:49 AM
So, we end up in a world where a Reality show isn't really a reality show unless there is a Hantz on it?

What I liked about this was the link to the "Shoot the Shaggy Dog" trope.


"#412"
Posted by Estee on 03-28-13 at 08:43 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Diary

Because you can't put your hackable online status notes in that forgotten dumbwaiter behind your bed.


"RE: #412"
Posted by kingfish on 03-28-13 at 09:34 AM
LAST EDITED ON 03-28-13 AT 09:34 AM (EST)

I'm more of a "make up someone else's diary/blog" than a "write my own story" kinda guy.

As demonstrated with the UofK guy. He just wishes it were true.



To the Shwack shack with you!


"#413"
Posted by Estee on 03-29-13 at 07:10 AM
Time travelers -- those going backwards -- frequently have trouble with technology. Namely, that whatever there is of it, they brought with them. And typically, they won't have the tools they need to maintain it, much less repair or rebuild from scratch, and there is no industrial society which can manage the trick for them. Slightly hard to deal with if said malfunctioning tech is what was supposed to get you home in the first place. What are you supposed to do, recreate the march of industry from the six simple machines to portable wormhole generators all by yourself -- before your lifespan runs out?

Some will try exactly that, keeping it totally private so as not to damage history. But they're not the totality. A few will openly recruit help from the local geniuses of the era and gather financial support along the way, either not caring about what this does to the timestream or because they figure it's too late already. A few came back to do exactly this in the first place. Moveable print in 1200 B.C. Antibiotics before the Black Plague. Moses with another kind of tablet.

Change the technology, change the world...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GivingRadioToTheRomans

...and not necessarily for the better.


"RE: #413"
Posted by kingfish on 03-29-13 at 09:07 AM
LAST EDITED ON 03-29-13 AT 09:08 AM (EST)

I've got a brand new time machine. Should I go forth bring back a few year's worth of powerball numbers?

Or take a flame thrower, a .45 and a big box of ammo back to certain specific times?

Or a rocket big enough to divert an astroid?

How about inventing a parlor game that involves going back in time, making a specific change (editing Moses's tablets? Stepping on a butterfly on a remote deserted isle?) and returning to see how history changed. Fun for all.

These decisions vex me.


"#414"
Posted by Estee on 03-30-13 at 07:34 AM
I have taken a picture with an incredibly low-resolution camera. To call the resulting image eight-bit would be an insult to cabinet video games. You're lucky if you can make out the most vague shapes in the background -- like, say, buildings. And because I was standing in the wrong place at the right time, this picture contains the complete story of a murder. Victim, method, angles, and the identity of the killer. None of which can possibly be made out because it's all a blur of hyper-pixels which makes it look as if I was doing an abstract painting out of Tetris blocks. Clearly nothing can resolve this mess.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnhanceButton

Nothing except The Power Of Repeated Media Lies!

Sadly, this is one of the tropes people now expect to work in real life. On demand. Right next to the ESC key.


"#415"
Posted by Estee on 03-31-13 at 10:25 AM
So if divorce is a mortal sin, and you remarry the person you originally separated from, you still get to burn forever, right?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ComedyOfRemarriage

Now that's funny.


"RE: #415"
Posted by kingfish on 04-01-13 at 08:22 AM
Thus supporting arguments for and against polygamy.

"#416"
Posted by Estee on 04-01-13 at 08:58 AM
Ah, the horse. What a magnificent specimen. Able to run at forty miles per hour for days on end without tiring, much less needing to stop for food and water. Their legs are indestructible, their hooves moreso. Their stomachs can handle any food a human can eat, so there's no need to worry about special provisions, ever. Immune systems that stand up to any disease. Gentle dispositions except when you want them to fight, and then they'll fearlessly attach whatever you designate as the enemy until it's dead. Smart? Why, some of them are smarter than your average Congressional representative! And let me tell you about how well they handle unexpected situations with no stress whatsoever --

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomewhereAnEquestrianIsCrying

-- but the Congress part was true...


"RE: #416"
Posted by kingfish on 04-01-13 at 11:05 AM
I once dated a girl (and no, this one was real) that was obsessed with her horses. She owned and rode several.

So, naturally I had to act interested in riding horses. Acting interested meant that I had to ride them. And I had to be enthusiastic about it. And I had to treat the horse like it was made of the flimsiest tissue paper. Since I had a tendency to yank on the reins like they do in Westerns, yell “Yee Haw”, and poke them in the ribs with my heels, I was soon in deep disfavor with the girl whose philosophy was (I think) to simply imagine what you wanted the horse to do. Very nuanced, and it seemed to work for her. But it never worked like that for me. I guess I just wasn't 'one' with the horse.

Long story short, I learned that, yeah, horses are finicky and fragile, that they aren’t able to gallop as long as they seem to in movies, and finally that women who ride horses are pretty picky and can be real bitches. Boyfriends of women who are obsessed with riding horses never rank higher in the pecking order than the horse, and often rank under horse feed, saddles, and shrubbery.

And I also learned that riding horses does something to crotch/groin muscles that takes a week or so to get over.



To the Shwack shack with you!


"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes spring eternal"
Posted by Estee on 04-02-13 at 04:17 AM

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BulletproofFashionPlate


"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes spring eternal"
Posted by kingfish on 04-02-13 at 08:42 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-02-13 AT 08:44 AM (EST)

Scene opens:

A fake duck swims up the canal. It's an obvious fake, yet it is purposefully swimming to a point on shore. Puzzling.

The duck rises and it becomes obvious that the duck was a decoy being worn by a man, like a hat. The music tells you that something sneaky is happening. Intriguing.

The man climbs up on the canal bank in a wet suit, is seen to begin taking off the suit, and emerges a few minutes later in a non-rumpled immaculate tuxedo, attitude debonair, hair perfectly coiffed, nails gentlemanly elegant. Impossible. Yet cool beyond description. And the music explodes to the theme of a 007 thriller.


"#417/418 (host)"
Posted by Estee on 04-03-13 at 09:02 PM
As there are pages for works of fiction, there are pages for those who sponsor or air them. This means networks tend to have them, and with this press of the Random button, one finally came up.

Admittedly, I wasn't expecting this to be first out of the gate.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/TheHub?from=Main.TheHub

Trollestia strikes again.


"RE: #417/418 (host)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-04-13 at 08:53 AM
It's hard to get into this one.

Hit that button again.


"#419"
Posted by Estee on 04-04-13 at 07:07 AM
It is a sixty-foot tall piece of alien technology in roughly humanoid shape.

It has enough firepower to devastate a city in under five minutes.

It is sentient.

It considers a single human to be its absolute lord and master.

That human is nine years old.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheKidWithTheRemoteControl

So hand over the candy.


"RE: #419"
Posted by kingfish on 04-04-13 at 08:54 AM
And again.

"RE: #419"
Posted by Estee on 04-04-13 at 09:03 AM
You cannot tell me with a straight face that when you were nine years old, having total control of a sixty-foot tall invincible alien robot would not have been the greatest thing which ever happened to you.

Also, if you have not seen The Iron Giant, rectify by this Sunday and have a full report on someone's desk.


"RE: #419"
Posted by kingfish on 04-04-13 at 11:55 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-04-13 AT 12:00 PM (EST)


(At that age I was checking out sister’s Barbie doll cleavage. Ok, maybe superhero role playing too, but way back then they hadn’t invented robots, nor had I read Asimov. Yet. But yeah, that would have been pretty cool. Would be pretty cool today as a matter of fact.)

I or II? Or should we wait for III?

Long review short of them all (in my imagination):

Robert Downey Jr. Is an arrogant actor. Sometimes brilliant, always insufferable. With a high profile supporting cast in these films that fail to support the movie.

Part one: At first he’s a rich insufferable snob. Then he suffers a few setbacks, and in his arrogance he insults and alienates his best friends and supporters. He takes on wastrel ways and becomes a national disgrace.

Part 2: In his lowest, most drunken, most drug addicted moments, he is confronted and almost defeated by an arch rival who has built up a special animus for him, and becomes a friendless insufferable slob.

Part 3: Supported by insufferable and unlikely new friends and predictable jokes, he confrounts and defeats his arch enemy in a surprising way after being almost killed, but at the last moment snatching victory from the jaws of defeat all the while using lame dialog like “snatching victory from the jaws of defeat”.

The outcome is telegraphed to all living creatures, excepting maybe some backwoods protozoa living in the depths of Europa, but not before a few billions dollars’ worth of action scenes are shot. Along the way sets are smashed, iron suits are crushed, and mass civilian casualties and global destruction are incurred.

Lots of flying and throwing everyone about, too.

Part 4: All his old friends return to the fold, misunderstandings are forgiven, he is reinstated as a national hero, and gets to kiss any dam body he wants to kiss.

Updates coming after I actually see one of these movies.


"RE: #419"
Posted by Estee on 04-04-13 at 10:19 PM
*sigh*

The Iron Giant. Jennifer Anniston, Harry Connick Jr. Set in 1957. Warner Brothers. Nothing to do with Marvel whatsoever. Can you find the appropriate disc/download/don't want to know about torrents from that?


"RE: #419"
Posted by kingfish on 04-04-13 at 11:17 PM
Darn. Thought I had it nailed. At least it shows me how I do with movie reviews. Not only do I review a movie I haven't watched, I review the wrong movie I haven't watched. That takes talent.

OK, I'll check into it, but I don't do deadlines, and I'm usually not big on Jennifer Anniston movies (apologies to Boner).


"RE: #419"
Posted by dabo on 04-05-13 at 01:13 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UkZOZIO63I

"#420 (our newest Pope)"
Posted by Estee on 04-05-13 at 05:40 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArgentinaIsNaziland

But then they all got bored and moved to North Carolina.


"#421 (mysteries)"
Posted by Estee on 04-06-13 at 08:20 AM
Let's say your story involves someone's death and the ensuing investigation. Ideally, how long should it take before the body is created or discovered?

Fifty pages?

Four minutes?

First scene?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StartToCorpse

Opening credits?


"#422"
Posted by Estee on 04-07-13 at 09:35 AM
One of the little details which can give a fantasy world some welcome reality is a good character name. Seriously. Sometimes a whole community's worth. Conventional names get overused -- a lot: just look at the top ten English ones for newborns every year. But spin a vowel out of place there, put an extra V here, twist a couple of syllables until they scream -- and suddenly, it looks as if you're presenting names which originated in an entirely new language. This can add layers to the world, because a foreign language implies an unknown culture and new environment -- which is what you were after in the first place.

The problem: ever try to whip up a whole new language from scratch? Even just the personal titles section of it? There are only so many syllables to twist before you scream. And when that happens, many authors throw up their hands and start bringing out the spackle to fill the last few gaps.

What does nomenclature spackle look like?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AerithAndBob

That.


"RE: #422"
Posted by kingfish on 04-08-13 at 08:40 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-08-13 AT 10:22 AM (EST)

I'm thinking that when I wake up in the morning I could be speaking a new language.

At least, a new language as spoken on the planet phlegm.


"#423 (video games)"
Posted by Estee on 04-08-13 at 10:56 AM
There is a health-restoring item sitting on the floor. And that's all there is in the room. The reason it's alone is because you just finished hauling the enemy corpses out. The last one has been burned to ash. You did the same thing to all the bodies outside. Every corridor, room, secret compartment, hidden underground tunnel, and overly-wide air vent in a half-mile radius has been inspected and sterilized. This took a while. And you did all of it without the benefits of a health-restoring item. Because this time, you had to know.

Pick up the item. The health bar jumps to the right --

-- monstersfireballsgunszombiesoldiersbulletsclawsdeathdeathdeath!

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TeleportingKeycardSquad

So it's official. They're confirmed as cheating.

Which isn't much of a comfort.


"RE: #423 (video games)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-08-13 at 01:34 PM
So, before you pick up a suspicious item, you do a "save", then check it out.

"RE: #423 (video games)"
Posted by Estee on 04-08-13 at 01:47 PM
Presuming it's a save-anywhere game with no limit as to how many you can drop, yes. But with this trope, you aren't punished for picking up suspicious items: the game automatically gang-tackles you for getting vital ones. If there's a key you need to unlock the door into Stage Three and nothing else will get you through, that key will be rigged to trigger an attack sequence. Sometimes several, especially if the key and door are at opposite ends of the level. You can clear out the entire place, but as soon as you get that crucial item, it will refill itself and your opponents used the break to get some upgrades.

If there are limited saves and/or designated save areas with no recording possible away from them, and you combine that with this trope -- say, only getting to save when you reach the end of a level -- then we're getting into Kill The Designer territory. And they probably rigged their office with monster closets.


"RE: #423 (video games)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-08-13 at 05:00 PM
So, basically, you have to grab it and run like heck for the door, or kill everything all over again?


"RE: #423 (video games)"
Posted by Estee on 04-08-13 at 05:20 PM
Generally it's grab it and run like heck for the door while killing everything all over again. There are games in which it's supposedly possible to do speed runs with no enemy fatalities, but most of the ones under this trope don't qualify.

A side trope is that virtually any area featuring a resupply hoard of health boosts, vital supplies, and ammunition is game designer code for You Are About To Get Your Ass Kicked. The ones which don't trigger instant attacks are generally meant to reinforce you for a huge fight in the next area. Typically, any time the game is being nice to you, fear.


"RE: #423 (video games)"
Posted by cahaya on 04-08-13 at 07:18 PM
As a former original D&D (date '75 Gygax) and AD&D GM since then, I totally get this trope.

No easy pass. Earn it.


"#424"
Posted by Estee on 04-09-13 at 09:12 AM
i am still your dog

i will always be part of your pack

i am still loyal

i don't understand where you've gone

but i will wait for your return

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Hachiko

forever


"RE: #424"
Posted by kingfish on 04-09-13 at 02:36 PM
I liked this one:

A Looney Tunes cartoon featured a dog waiting faithfully for his owner for three years, in all winds and weathers. When his master finally returns, all is inverted as the dog grumpily snarls, "Where the hell have you been?"


"#425"
Posted by Estee on 04-10-13 at 09:16 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-10-13 AT 09:17 AM (EST)

There is a fictional city. It has been placed in a country which actually exists. Therefore, it should be possible to figure out its location within that nation.

Except -- that in one episode, the city is on a coast with the sun setting into the water, and in the next, the sun comes up out of it. Two seasons later, it's back to water on the east, but now there's a desert to the west, mountains to the south, and a radioactive wasteland downtown. The climate indicates subtropic -- no, tundra -- make that surface of the sun. The native accent exists nowhere else on the planet and in fact exists in the city only when the writers want to tease you with it. And after all those non-clues and contra-indicators torturing every viewer without a care, two things happen. The first is that the ratings drop, because some people just get sick of this crap. And the second is that everyone realizes there's only one answer to the following question.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhereTheHellIsSpringfield

Why should I care?


"RE: #425"
Posted by kingfish on 04-10-13 at 10:07 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-10-13 AT 12:16 PM (EST)


You care because you are burning to know the answer to the question that is the human equivalent of “Where is Springfield?"

Which is: “Who is Kingfish?”

(You thought I was going to say “Who is Fooner?” Or ”Who is Estee?” “Or just who the heck is Mattben”? Well, those are good questions too, and deserve an example page each under the human equivalent trope. But let’s limit ourselves to me, Al Franken Kingfish.)

Sometimes Kingfish is depicted as soft hearted with a mortal yearning for everlasting love, and at other times he is fiercely independent, taking love where he finds it and leaving them yearning for more Kingfish, much more. Sometimes he breaths air, other times he swims with the fishes. Sometimes he reveals a thoughtful side, other times he is seemingly callous and is said to kick kitty cats (a malicious lie, BTW) . Sometimes awesomely insightful, but other times he just doesn’t get it at all. Sometimes a great notion, sometimes an afterthought, but usually just a really bad idea.

Who is Kingfish?


"RE: #425"
Posted by Estee on 04-10-13 at 10:22 AM
He's John Galt.


"RE: #425"
Posted by cahaya on 04-10-13 at 10:49 AM
Yup, he's a capitalist, with a capital K.

On the rails.


"RE: #425"
Posted by kingfish on 04-10-13 at 12:25 PM
Alas, if only it were that simple. You see, he lives in Springfield, with a view of both oceans, the mountains and the desert, in a little south seas house on the prairie that, as an architect, he built all by himself himself, with help.

"RE: #425"
Posted by Estee on 04-10-13 at 12:29 PM
Incidentally, this once again semi-proves why I can think of many situations where I would endorse waterboarding and just about none where I would force someone to read or watch Atlas Shrugged.

"RE: #425"
Posted by kingfish on 04-10-13 at 01:42 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-10-13 AT 02:55 PM (EST)

He's read Rand, he's read Heller. He's eaten brownies with Tim Leary, he's downed stringy chicken with Tricky Dick. He drank Jim Jones Kool-Aid, and he's had Ken Kesey's Kool aid. He's been water-boarded, sand-boarded, and jello-boarded. And board-boarded. Just who is this guy, anyway?

"the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist", and poof, just like that, he was gone.


"RE: #425"
Posted by kingfish on 04-10-13 at 05:36 PM
I know who he is, he's a BS artist.

FOONER


"#426"
Posted by Estee on 04-11-13 at 09:21 AM
To: Nigel
Re: American Idol
Subject: Goodbye

Here's the core of it: you're boring.

We have reached the point where I can tell whether your panel of paid puppets is going to praise or try to bury a singer before they ever perform. In some cases, I can predict this several weeks in advance. I suppose watching them squirm as they try to go counter to what actually happened on stage while pretending they ever had credibility at all might amuse some, but it's happened so often now as to become routine, mundane, and yawn-inducing.

Your song catalog is in full retreat to the year 1890. Yes, that was some great old music. It is also the same old music and you trot it out every single year. There have been wonderful compositions played in the past decade, but you wouldn't know because you won't listen to them, pay for their rental, or acknowledge anything beyond your show's birth year unless a former contestant did it. Sometimes not even that. If I want to rock out to one of your typical theme weeks -- well, no one can do that: at best, they can ballad out. So if I want to ballad out to one of your typical theme weeks, there's generally a Civil War recreation playing near me. The judging there is admittedly harsh, but nicely final.

You no longer have an Agenda: you have a script. Who believes votes are still being counted? Not much of your audience. Your show has become the karaoke version of WWE: the smart marks know who's supposed to win and no matter what how badly the moves are brought across, the commentators will still try to sell them while the crowd chants 'You suck!' and gets ignored. The victor was predetermined and no reality of talent can change that. Sabotage the males, kiss up to the evangelicals, watch the download sales and interest plummet to the point where no one even steals off the torrent sites, possibly repeat because you're not capable of learning from the experience. Those who are still falling for your Most Popular Wins routine have either deluded themselves because their personal chosen one might be the most popular or are too stupid to realize what's going on. What a choice of groups you're offering people for identifying themselves with.

I know exactly what's going to happen. When, to whom, and why. And as part of that knowledge, here's what I know I'm going to do.

Leave.

You.

Because you're boring.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BoringInsult

And you know it -- don't you?



"RE: #426"
Posted by kingfish on 04-11-13 at 09:28 AM
Yeah! What she said!

"#427"
Posted by Estee on 04-12-13 at 07:44 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Hermaphrodite

And now an extended pause while the entire thread experiences a total maturity failure.


"RE: #427"
Posted by kingfish on 04-12-13 at 08:39 AM
..........

"RE: #427"
Posted by cahaya on 04-12-13 at 07:15 PM
That looks like Remorse Code.

"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes springs..."
Posted by foonermints on 04-12-13 at 12:07 PM
The Swoop Block!


Handcrafted by RollDdice
If it were easy, everyone woul do it.


"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes springs..."
Posted by kingfish on 04-12-13 at 02:26 PM
The swoop Nazi; "No more swoop for you!"

"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes springs..."
Posted by foonermints on 04-12-13 at 03:01 PM
The Democrat Tax Nazi: No Vacation For YOU!

Live better on your EBT card!


"RE: Trope Of The Day V: tropes springs..."
Posted by cahaya on 04-13-13 at 10:41 AM
Whut?

No school vacation for us?

"You must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!" the teacher's assignment sheet said.

The assignment reiterated, "You do not have a choice in your position."


"#428"
Posted by Estee on 04-13-13 at 09:02 AM
The limerick, peculiar to English
Proved exceedingly hard to extinguish
When Congress in session
Decreed its suppression
People got around it by writing the last line without any rhyme or meter.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion


"RE: #428"
Posted by cahaya on 04-13-13 at 11:54 AM
Real life rhymes and mimes.

Treasury measury.


"RE: #428"
Posted by kingfish on 04-13-13 at 04:27 PM
Much better than "You break it, you buy it!"

"Lovely to look at
Nice to hold
If you drop it
You get torn apart by wild horses.

Which is based on a sign in real-life souvenir shops (somewhere?)that feature "Consider it sold" as the last line.


"RE: #428"
Posted by Estee on 04-13-13 at 05:02 PM
Unfortunately, for those of us who've read the book, this little gem is directly followed by the scene with the spare Brian.

(In brief: Discworld magic generally respects conservation of mass, which means most wizards and witches, rather than turn someone into a frog, will make the target believe they're a frog: it's a lot easier and considerably more entertaining for any spectators. Tiffany (or something that believe it's her) goes the other way on shop security, resulting in a standard frog and -- a flesh-hued semi-sphere (which goes bloop) consisting of everything which doesn't fit into a frog, hovering near the ceiling until such time as she decides whether or not to drop it. Wild horses might have been kinder.)


"#429"
Posted by Estee on 04-14-13 at 05:23 AM
So you're playing a game in which you take on the role of potential world ruler. Your character has just arrived in a new area. The first thing to do is begin recruiting the local farmers for your army.

...huh. There's no actual farms here. Lots of peasants wandering about the map looking for some crops, but not a single farm in existence. Well, you do have this handy Build command. Maybe if you told them to grab a hammer...

...and now you have farms. How helpful. And sure enough, they're farming. But now they're tired and heading to bed for the night in -- the fields? Don't these people have a place to live? Did they spend their entire existence just bumping off trees before you came along? Okay, fine. Build Home.

So they're sleeping. Their stamina is going back up. Maybe they'll have enough to swing a sword in a few days -- except that now they're crossing their legs and looking anxious because --

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommandAndConquerEconomy

-- oh, come on.


"RE: #429"
Posted by kingfish on 04-15-13 at 08:49 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-15-13 AT 09:34 AM (EST)


"...and looking anxious because --"

...because the of the explosive nature of the farmer's pent up needs.

Aunt Lily just got in from the airport (as yet un-built, another last minute realization) and announced a surprise visit from her and her family which may be extended indefinitely because the wandering farmers, when instructed to find a place to relieve themselves, actually squatted on her land. Well, the women squatted - the men of course peed standing up. Most of the men. The manly men. Anyway, they anxiously dug privy pits all over. Shortly after that revolting turn of events, the smell led to her having to up and leave the old homestead so here she is. But she will be no trouble, neither will her pregnant twin 16 YO lesbian daughters (hey, you want an explanation? It’s my game, that's the explanation) or, when they get out of prison, her drug addicted gang banger sons and their Motorcycle Club (the "Road Rage Rapers"), which will be headquartered in the garage.

"It'll be cozy" she reassures them, and BTW, with her back the Doctor says that she'll need to stay in their King-sized bed, pretty much all the time. Her special daily diet won't require more than six hours a day to prepare. They already do have a specialty blue ribbon chef, don’t they?

"We're going to have a great time, just you wait and see" she says as she checks the clip in her .45cal Glock before firing off a few rounds "just to clear the barrel, you see" and putting it beneath her pillow (formally your pillow) and growling at the dog.

The dog disappears out the back door, and henceforth can be found bumping into trees for the rest of his doggy life.


"#430 (fashion accessory)"
Posted by Estee on 04-15-13 at 08:51 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HazmatSuit

There's been a flu bug going around.

It's a fashion accessory.


"RE: #430 (fashion accessory)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-15-13 at 09:08 AM
All this time Tinkerbelle was sprinkling "Phlebotinum"? Well, I still say, as a very boinkable four inch woman, she had to have been pretty frustrated sexually. Did she know any leprechauns?

Ok, as commentary or response goes, a C&P is a pretty cheap way to go. But I liked this:

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a completely ad-hoc plot device"

—David Langford, "A Gadget Too Far", as a corollary to Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law.


"#431"
Posted by Estee on 04-16-13 at 07:39 AM
Let us consider the Power Rangers franchise for a moment -- or as it's known in Japan, Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. As some of you will painfully remember, the American version of the series is a pastiche work. The fight scenes and monster battles are filmed in Japan, then dubbed into English. All segments with American actors are filmed over here, and then someone very awkwardly pastes the thing together. This has been going on for well over a decade now through many iterations of the series, all of which typically feature an initial Ranger team of four males and one female.

Right. Four males, one female. In Japan. The U.S. has a little more trouble with having a single token girl on the team, partially because someone will complain and mostly because gosh, you just can't get those trite teenage romance plotlines with only one dose of estrogen. But the Sentai wear face-concealing helmets...

So the American end of the original production simply looked for the slightest build among the Japanese actors -- then cast a woman with minimal hips, waist flare, and bustline, prayed no one in the intended audience age group would look too closely, and went for it. Thusly:

And when they sort of almost got away with it, they did it again. And again. For season after season.

This? Happens a lot. And not always for the above reason. There's a mistake in the translation and someone's voice does a gender switch. Japan has less trouble with openly gay characters and transvestites in their animation, -- but bring it to America and suddenly that creation must be nailed down as heterosexual, which means swapping a chromosome. No one cared enough to actually read the thing and just cast whoever was handy. The hilarious effects on the original plotlines? Oh, someone on the writing staff can just work around those. Or totally ignore them. Whatever's easier.

So sorry, guys, but

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShesAManInJapan

Gonna leave that poster up?


"RE: #431"
Posted by kingfish on 04-16-13 at 10:28 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-16-13 AT 10:31 AM (EST)

A thought that once again goes on a tangent from the trope (so sue me):

So, in Japan, at the end of the night when perception and judgment are alcohol impaired but the libido is working overtime, one really needs to do a hand check on a prospective take home date? Even more important there than in New Orleans.

Did I ever tell you the story of a friend of mine who actually made this kind of mistake at Mardi Gras one year? He met a man/woman named Velveeta in a bar…


"RE: #431"
Posted by Estee on 04-16-13 at 10:56 AM
In general, when you find yourself having a bar conversation with someone named Velveeta, your evening already left mainstream reality. Beyond that, I think you missed the point again.

"RE: #431"
Posted by kingfish on 04-16-13 at 12:27 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-16-13 AT 12:29 PM (EST)

That was one of the many observations pointed out to him, and that he is occasionally reminded of when ever the subject of Mardi Grass comes up. He was more than a little intoxicated.

Yeah, I know. There are certain subjects that, when they arise, one just has to improvise on. For me, Japanese anime is one. Years later I still resent that "Power Rangers" took over the slot that "Pinky and the Brain" used to occupy.

A travesty.


"#432"
Posted by Estee on 04-17-13 at 07:20 AM
The problem: a runaway locomotive.

The tools available to halt it: your hands.

Just your hands.

Nothing else.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Trainstopping

...well, this is gonna svck.


"RE: #432"
Posted by kingfish on 04-17-13 at 10:02 AM
Thanks to this amazing photograph, no doubt shot by a bystander using a cell phone in which the sound effect of steel wheels skidding on rails – but not the rumpling or tearing of metal - is also captured (remarkable technology, especially considering the fact that Superman’s blunt approach to stopping the train doesn’t involve braking the wheels), we see a steroidal Superman stopping a train with most of the resistance coming from the friction of his right foot against the gravel railroad bed. The other leg appears to be simply providing him with a heroic profile.

Thinking...OK, there's probably 15-20 square inches of contact between his size 12 (?) foot and the gravel, let’s be generous and say 20 sq. in., all managing to stop a runaway locomotive and train weighing hundreds (thousands?) of tons traveling at what? Let's say 70 MPH? And somehow, incomprehensibly, making it say “Skreeeeeeeech”?

Cahaya, do the math. I say that even Superman's foot gets ground down up to his hip before the train is finally stopped. There will also be a very clean but narrow trench several miles long lined with super flesh and bone. I also see a lot of lower back pain for ole Supes in his retirement as well as shortened forearms.


"RE: #432"
Posted by Estee on 04-17-13 at 10:27 AM
The typical result of this move is that Clark's fine -- but if the train was in fact doing seventy, any passengers on it are now extremely dead. If it's doing, say, five, then send the bill to The Wayne Foundation Incidental Damage Fund, paying out eighteen trillion a year since the spandex showed up.

(The first episode of the animated series had Clark make a rookie attempt to catch a falling plane by the tail. Which promptly broke off in his hands. Hello, learning experience.)

Peter's dragline trick in the second movie is very slightly more realistic. Especially the part where it nearly killed him.



"RE: #432"
Posted by kingfish on 04-17-13 at 12:28 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-17-13 AT 01:09 PM (EST)

More passengers might survive if SuperMan would just let the train plow into the station, or go over the cliff, or whatever.

And after he stops the train, does he linger and volunteer to clean up the mess of pulverized people flesh that he generated with his 70 mph to 0 mph abrupt train stopping and body smashing heroics? I'm guessing no, that if asked to do so he would conveniently find another good deed to do. Somewhere else.


"RE: #432"
Posted by Estee on 04-17-13 at 01:35 PM
So I should cancel your seat reservation at the Man Of Steel premiere?

"RE: #432"
Posted by kingfish on 04-17-13 at 03:23 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-17-13 AT 03:29 PM (EST)

No. I like Superman. And it's good to know that I have a reservation.

My jabs are more directed at that art than at the writers. Even though they are worthy of some satirical digs too. Actually, Superman and DC comics was the main reason I learned to like reading. There was a time when I would devote as much time as I could to reading comics. So I owe him and them thanks for that.

Mainly, (as I think you can tell), I just had fun writing the above posts. I had not thought of the body mashing implications involving the quick stopping of a locomotive until your post.

I still think Reeves (the latter day Reeves) hit the relationship balance between Clark's personalty and Superman's personality better than anyone else.


"RE: #432"
Posted by kingfish on 04-19-13 at 12:18 PM
From this, it seems as if they are telling the story of the first Christopher Reeve story all over again, except with 2013 special effects (was Zog in the first or the second one?).

In any case I will see it. Maybe on DVD.

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/04/17/man-of-steel-mysteries-new-trailer/5/


"RE: #432"
Posted by cahaya on 04-18-13 at 01:02 AM
Cahaya, do the math.

Kinetic energy: Greek root κίνησις (kinesis) motion.

Ek = ½mv2

Even if the Sup Dude has the E-kay, there's still torque in action with the rest of the train on the rails, so stop the engine and derail the whole train.


"RE: #432"
Posted by kingfish on 04-18-13 at 10:44 AM
To predict the reaction MV of one pool ball (Superman - 250 lbs? - times - well, how fast can he go?) vs. the MV of the other pool ball (the train, several 1000s of tons times 70mph) equals little ole Superman getting bounced into orbit around the moon.

"RE: #432"
Posted by cahaya on 04-18-13 at 01:58 PM
Assuming a 5000-ton (10 million pound) train, where vS is Sup Dude's speed upon colliding with the train with equal kinetic energy...

vS2 * 250 = 702 * 10,000,000
vS2 = 4900 * 40,000
vS = 14,000 mph exactly

Which he is apparently capable of, given that he can reach the escape velocity from Earth at 25,300 mph.


"#433"
Posted by Estee on 04-18-13 at 09:19 AM
They have spaceships -- which they barely understand how to run. If that. Really, they're like a typical teenager with their first car: this pedal means go, that one means stop, and anything going wrong means grab your phone and cry. They can't fix anything. (They can lie about what happened, but not very credibly.)

They have firepower -- but it's the same thing: This End Towards Enemy. Maintenance? Construction? Field repairs? They get the weapons somewhere else and all they need to know is the location of the trigger. The rest takes care of itself.

Their technology -- is purchased off the shelf, or stolen, or was just found somewhere. Everything is treated as if it's a smartphone: after a while, you're pretty sure of which button does what, but you've never tracked down all of them, you don't know what happens when things go wrong, and you could never build one.

So basically --

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien

-- they're just like us.


"RE: #433"
Posted by kingfish on 04-18-13 at 11:10 AM
Then, when they have a moment and just decide to try one of those seemingly innocuous little buttons that they hadn’t had a chance to check out till now, they take out most of Manhattan. Their reaction is a twitch which in turn turns Long Island into Long Crater. And the day just goes down from there.

At that point, they would naturally put in a call to a newly educated (in the results of quickly stopping trains) Superman, with his newly shortened forearms.

(I still think that mental image is amusing).


"RE: #433"
Posted by cahaya on 04-18-13 at 03:37 PM
If the ship's got a General Products hull with a hyper drive of unknown origin, I'd want Nessus flying it...

Problem is, Puppeteers are such chickens.


"#434 (comics creation)"
Posted by Estee on 04-19-13 at 07:21 AM
Say, what do you mean, 'Slow of trope?'

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/GrooTheWanderer?from=Main.GrooTheWanderer


"RE: #434 (comics creation)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-19-13 at 08:17 AM
Never heard of it. Sounds hilarious though.

"#435"
Posted by Estee on 04-20-13 at 09:16 AM
There are words which destroy. They end relationships, kill friendships, stop all chances of the former two getting started (although the use means you didn't want either with that person anyway). They cannot and will not be forgiven, revealing character while declaring war. They are verbal nukes and no positive emotion survives the fallout.

This is one of them.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CountryMatters

Don't.


"RE: #435"
Posted by kingfish on 04-20-13 at 09:58 AM
C##t.
(Please go about your normal activities, nothing to see, this has been a test of your RTVW filter. And I bet it gets fixed faster than the flag problem, too).

This trope is interesting and worthy of close examination.

And pictures. We definitely need pictures.


"RE: #435"
Posted by cahaya on 04-20-13 at 10:09 AM
As a seasoned traveler, Mr Kingfish, you already know of the peculiarities of certain gestures in certain countries.

Smack one palm on your other fist and, in SE Asia, you're telling the recipient of your gesture, "F-U", enough to cause an altercation and potentially a kampung riot.


"#436"
Posted by Estee on 04-21-13 at 07:24 AM
Due to his use of foul language, I shoot Kingfish in the exact center of his forehead, driving the bullet directly through the brain. He dies instantly.

I shoot Kingfish in the heart, shredding the muscle and permanently disrupting the beat. He should hang on for a few seconds while his cells lose the ability to dump carbon dioxide, but he dies instantly. Go figure.

I shoot Kingfish in the thigh, nicking the femoral artery. Death should come within minutes as his entire blood supply rushes out through a single hole. Instead, he dies instantly. Which is kind of weird.

I shoot Kingfish in the abdomen, perforating the large intestine. Death is a matter of days as the released fecal matter infects the abdominal cavity. It will be slow and excruciatingly painful. So in order to avoid this, he somehow manages to die instantly. No one knows how.

I shoot Kingfish in the hand, just barely grazing the third knuckle.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InstantDeathBullet

...okay, now he's just cheating.


"RE: Kingfish"
Posted by foonermints on 04-21-13 at 07:58 AM
It's young love. You'll get over it.

"RE: Kingfish"
Posted by Estee on 04-21-13 at 08:24 AM
I'm the reincarnationist in the group. I get over dying instantly. And even then there's significant memory trauma.

Also major weight loss, height loss, and extended assignment to diapers. Let's not talk about the diapers.


"RE: Kingfish"
Posted by foonermints on 04-21-13 at 11:24 PM
When you are spiritually pure we can talk about marriage. Get beyond the diapers.

Sheeeeeit! Ate there no gurls left to flirt with on OT?
Not that I don't love you, darlin'. I just have an active libido.


"RE: #436"
Posted by kingfish on 04-21-13 at 04:12 PM
Ha Ha, you missed!!

(He says as he prepared to take a long drink of water).

Either another trope or maybe just a cliché.


"#437 (reality TV. And Congress)"
Posted by Estee on 04-22-13 at 07:48 AM
So you're casting a show which will focus around opposing points of view. And you've decided to start with one conservative and one liberal. Naturally, in order to make sure you attract the widest possible audience range and wind up with a coherent result once the editing is complete, you are looking for intelligent people who have come to their respective viewpoints by a route of pure reason. They will be capable of explaining themselves in gentle terms to anyone who asks, serving as teachers and ambassadors for their positions. Both will be more than able to engage in metered, sane debates as opposed to simply shouting over the other. They might even be able to reach compromises now and again. After all, there's nothing people like to see so much as their reflection in the other side of the mirror.

Yeah, right.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BigotVsBigot

You know what really brings in the audience? Murder!


"RE: #437 (reality TV. And Congress)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-22-13 at 03:41 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-22-13 AT 03:42 PM (EST)

"So you're casting a show which will focus around opposing points of view."

Not a problem. Doesn't stand a chance. There aren't any networks interested in airing a non-biased show.


"#438"
Posted by Estee on 04-23-13 at 09:51 AM
Physics 608: A superheated object will invariably retain all heat possessed without transferring any to surrounding objects or atmosphere unless a living being makes direct contact with that object, causing it to release nearly all energy possessed at once.

...look, that's how it works on TV.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConvectionSchmonvection

Repeatedly.

And now we listen for the subtle sound of engineers crying.


"RE: #438"
Posted by kingfish on 04-23-13 at 10:31 AM
Real Life:
Scientists who venture out to the rims of volcano cauldrons, some of whom actually dip thermometers and other instrument sensors into the cauldron, should by rights all die, especially those who do that unshielded and/or without supplied air systems. And really especially those who do for an unnecessary action “macho” video shot.

Add those scientists and other idiots who walk out onto active lava beds (thinking Hawaii here), where breaking thru the thin brittle hardened layer would mean instant parboiled foot.


"#439"
Posted by Estee on 04-24-13 at 05:37 AM
There are five boroughs of New York City.

You can only hope to freely mess around with four of them.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrooklynRage

And even for the other four, it's a pretty faint hope.


"RE: #439"
Posted by kingfish on 04-24-13 at 08:28 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-24-13 AT 09:21 AM (EST)

What about the borough of Coney Island? They ain't tough? Who do you think they are, a bunch of clowns?

And the borough of New Joisey?


"RE: #439"
Posted by Estee on 04-24-13 at 08:59 AM
So. These suicidal urges you've been experiencing. Are they new?

"RE: #439"
Posted by kingfish on 04-24-13 at 09:24 AM
I'm done for now.

Paulie Walnuts is looking for me.


"#440 (not reality TV)"
Posted by Estee on 04-25-13 at 07:38 AM
So the apocalypse has come and gone, the population has crashed, and whatever remnants of humanity remain clinging to the planet are trying to pick up the pieces. If you're lucky, some of those still alive have the vital skills necessary for rebuilding, or at least repairing. Maybe you have an electrical engineer. The truly fortunate can add a doctor or two to the list. Lottery winners add a pharmacist and computer technician.

Those at the bottom of the random draw get the following instead:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CelebritySurvivor

This is any character who was well-known before the crisis hit. Some of them will try to ride their fame into the leftovers, others will happily discard it to become Regular People again, and more than a few will cheerfully lie and claim they just happen to look like someone who used to be famous and is assuredly dead now. The majority do not come with much in the way of base survival skills: actors, musicians, writers, professional partiers -- go ahead and wait for one of them to get a fire going: we're going to be here a while. A few will learn. The athletes might even be helpful right away. But others will continue to insist on the world (what's left of it) serving them first and foremost, and when that happens --

-- well, the population already crashed. You can probably spare one more.


"RE: #440 (not reality TV)"
Posted by kingfish on 04-25-13 at 08:41 AM
It might take an apocalypse to weed the Kardashians out. I might vote in favor of such an apocalypse, cause even if they survived, it might be fun watching them flop around like...well, I'm not going to say because the simile would disrespect out-of-water floppers that I have known (hand over heart - RIP).



"#441"
Posted by Estee on 04-26-13 at 08:07 AM
"You have passed the recommended turn. Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*

*beep-beep-beep* "Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*

*beep-beep-beep* "Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*

*beep-beep-beep* "I do not understand 'The exit was closed for ramp repairs, you incomprehensible foreign language moron'. Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*

*beep-beep-beep* "Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CriticalAnnoyance

*beep-beep-beep* "Recalcula --"

*beep-beep-beep* "Unit is in grass on side of road. Recalculating." *beep-beep-beep*


"RE: #441"
Posted by kingfish on 04-26-13 at 08:25 AM
Life is full of annoying little bleeps. And yes, once again I am referring to the Kardashians.

"RE: #441"
Posted by cahaya on 04-26-13 at 12:49 PM

"RE: #441"
Posted by Estee on 04-26-13 at 12:58 PM
Given the current tabloid deluge, Kim might just be happy to have someone calling her little.

"#442"
Posted by Estee on 04-27-13 at 03:57 AM
Equal and opposite reaction -- applied as thrust and recoil. Better hope you're not prone to motion sickness and that every single surface is heavily padded. Every surface, because you will inevitably find the only one the interior design people missed.

Blood pressure -- or the resulting drop in same resulting from the environment. Better limber up. Don't bother bringing any artificial aids, because that equal and opposite applies to them too.

Cleanup. Sure, let's discuss cleanup, also known as Chasing A Hundred Miniature Blob Creatures With A Wet-Vac. Want to know what the alternative is? Another Tom Hanks movie. With nudity.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ZeroGSpot

{sarcasm}Yeah, this is gonna be fun.{/sarcasm}


"RE: #442"
Posted by kingfish on 04-27-13 at 10:08 AM
I've met Jan Davis, attended few meetings with her. Nice lady.

And no, I didn't ask.


"#443"
Posted by Estee on 04-28-13 at 03:41 AM
Fire one arrow = good.

Fire many arrows = potentially better.

Fire several arrows from the same bow at the same time = physics is laughing at you.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Multishot

However, writers who've never so much as touched a bow in their lives? Don't get the punchline.


"RE: #443"
Posted by kingfish on 04-28-13 at 12:02 PM
LAST EDITED ON 04-28-13 AT 10:31 PM (EST)


I shot five arrows in the air,

they fell to earth I knew not where,

Then five shots of tequila followed,

And I found the arrows in my pool of vomit.


"RE: #443"
Posted by kidflash212 on 04-28-13 at 01:52 PM
Five shots and you get sick? You need more practice.

"RE: #443"
Posted by foonermints on 04-28-13 at 03:33 PM
A fish out of water?
Unbelieveable.
Hop in. Let's go find some. Bring along the fish.

"RE: #443"
Posted by kingfish on 04-28-13 at 04:55 PM
My rhyming ability was certainly shot.

"RE: #443"
Posted by Estee on 04-28-13 at 07:51 PM
As a total non-drinker, my guess is that I'd follow the classic pattern: one tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.

"RE: #443"
Posted by kingfish on 04-29-13 at 08:10 AM
All this isn't making drinking too enticing for you, I guess.

However, I still don't understand how anyone can not drink given our current political climate.

Serendipity now! Oblivion now!


"#444"
Posted by Estee on 04-29-13 at 07:11 AM
LAST EDITED ON 04-29-13 AT 07:17 AM (EST)

And now, to honor America and show just why they're the only real Americans in it, our Tea Party members will favor us with a rendition of the complete Star-Spangled Banner.

...not so fast. I said all of it.

All four stanzas.

Any truly loving and patriotic real American would know the whole thing, correct? I mean, it is your national anthem? For the nation which you're the only true citizens of? Why would a real patriot not know their own nation's anthem?

I'm waiting...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SecondVerseCurse

Oh, come on. The blatant wartime bigotry alone sells the whole third stanza!


"RE: #444"
Posted by kingfish on 04-29-13 at 08:27 AM
Oh say can you see,
Bumbledee dum diddly light,
Fatso proundly, we hailed,
By the dawn's twilight gleaming,

O'er the speakers loud blare,
The bums lying everywhere,

And the home of the brave.

(thank yew, thank yew)


"RE: #444"
Posted by kidflash212 on 04-29-13 at 11:25 AM
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes


I'm going to start using that line from the second verse in everyday conversation.


"RE: #444"
Posted by Estee on 04-29-13 at 11:46 AM
With whom?

I think we found the ultimate Idol bus throw. Sing this all the way through. The first verse has left a trail of bodies over the centuries: two through four would require their own cemetery.


"RE: #444"
Posted by kidflash212 on 04-29-13 at 11:57 AM
Living in Queens, NY where most people don't speak English as a first language, I can pretty much use it with anyone and get the same nodding head response I get from anything else I say.

"#445"
Posted by Estee on 04-30-13 at 11:32 AM
Insanity takes its toll. First charge: your shampoo. Hand it over. And now the lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, rouge -- all of it. Right now. Coordinated clothing next, please. Symmetry of expression: in the drawer and slide it through. Let's have the unblotched skin, please. No arguing. That bald spot you don't have because you haven't torn your hair out in a fit of rage? The time is now.

It's not as if the viewers can tell you're losing it from your actions, right?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MadnessMakeover

Two things:

1. It's not listed under the examples, but this is a trope we've run into more than a few times in reality television. In particular, think of Shane Day One versus Shane Special Woodberry Edition. We're looking at more than just the weight loss.

2. Should it bother me that Twilight Sparkle is both the official page image and demonstrates the trope that well? Mad Little Ponies...


"RE: #445"
Posted by kingfish on 04-30-13 at 11:59 AM
Syd Barrett is by all accounts a perfect example. I understand his downward spiral was exacerbated by his experimentation with LSD.

The brilliance of the work from Pink Floyd that is attributable to his influence, and the works that resulted from his bandmates in his memory make his insanity a positive thing. Except for poor old Syd, unfortunately. But Gilmore and Waters really produced some exceptional work thanks to Barrett's madness.

Yeah, it's amazing that there isn't a reality TV page. As edited in the lastest season in Survivor, Brandon certainly had his cycles.

FullOfIt was pretty stable, though. He was crazy from start to finish, with no perceptable change from his earlier season to this.


"RE: #445 (Pink Floyd tangent)"
Posted by Estee on 04-30-13 at 12:31 PM
There's a darkly brilliant bit on the Pink Floyd page under the Author Appeal trope, quoted here for graveyard comedy.

"There's a moderately well known joke about the eras of the band. There are 3 eras of Pink Floyd, the Syd Barrett Era, The Roger Waters era and the David Gilmour era. There are 3 main motifs for each era:

Syd Barrett

I rather enjoy rock and volume.
I rather enjoy taking drugs.
Listen your milk! DO YOU GET IT!? If a translations of the preasing aboutside your bed! That's what I'm talking grammar, then up! That to urink to place little, where Kauderwelsch still in determined by the middle in the language the translation firemen HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Roger Waters

My father died in WW2 and I'm still a bit angry about that.
The Who ended all their rock operas with a rebirth of fascism, so I'll just do that in mine.
My goodness, Syd did enjoy his drugs.

David Gilmour

If I don't do what Roger did, the gravy train will come to a screaming bloody halt.
If I don't do what Roger did, it will be beyond my musical capacity.
Holy chickenpickin' son of an ass, did Syd like drugs!

The conclusion to this little thing-a-ma-diddley? David should be given a gold watch and a CD of African rhythms, Roger should be given a puppy, and it's far too late to give Syd anything."

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/PinkFloyd

I suspect you'll enjoy the page, which was clearly mass-edited and written by people who truly love the band -- flaws and all. The subpages (Funny, Headscratchers, Nightmare Fuel, etc.) are also worth a look.


"RE: #445 (Pink Floyd tangent)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-01-13 at 10:54 AM
Nicely put.

Waters was a poet;

"And if your head explodes with dark forbodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon"

Gilmour's guitar work is unmatched. And it's way too soon to retire him. Waters and Gilmour still occasionally perform Pink Floyd stuff, but only Gilmour can still entrance an audience with the impact of the old Pink Floyd. He does owe Waters a debt, however, but Waters vocals have faded. He's just nostalgia now.

Syd? Well he did like the drugs.

Nick? What a lucky lucky (and talented) drummer he was.


"#446"
Posted by Estee on 05-01-13 at 09:35 AM
Out of the hundred-plus examples on the page (and hundreds of thousands out there in the world), I picked this one to represent the general level of subject idiocy.

(Because I hate the author. Next question?)

"According to one Chick Tract, the dinosaurs escaped the great flood by getting on the Ark with all the other animals. Unfortunately, the flood destroyed much of the plant life, and the reduced oxygen levels made them sluggish and slow. They were ultimately hunted into extinction by human hunters who considered "dragon meat" to be a delicacy."

And that? Is the tip of the meteor crashing into the planet and obliterating all scientific fact. Species in the wrong eras. Instantaneous extinctions. Coexistence with mammals from millions of years later. Several skeletons get mixed together and suddenly you have something which never walked at all presented as solid evidence. Shall we start on the cold-warm blooded debate again? Feathers? Color patterns? Six-foot eggs? How about Creation Museums just to bring it full circle?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SomewhereAPalaeontologistIsCrying

And they're not the only ones.


"RE: #446"
Posted by kingfish on 05-01-13 at 11:03 AM
I have an abiding faith that the best way to ensure that a crazy belief that was invented solely to support other innately unbelievable explanations of nature will dissolve and fade from the scene is for that belief to be just crazy and unsupportable as are the creation related theories.

Unfortunately, the time required for said dissolving and fading is probably to be measured in geological terms.

Oh well


"#447"
Posted by Estee on 05-02-13 at 09:13 AM
This is your willpower. We've made it visual for you. See that bright blue glow? That's all the mental strength and resolve you possess. Beautiful, isn't it?

This is your stability. It's the soft dove grey with the granite surface. Can you feel how solid it is? How it represents the core of you?

Here's your reasoning and intellect, melded together as a gentle molten copper river. The heat of thought radiates from the flow.

And how we're going to put them all together -- and the white light you see is everything you are. The essence. That without which there is no you.

Now go out and combat the horrors --

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SanityMeter

-- so they can eat it all away.

This is your essence. And soon it will be gone. Very soon...


"RE: #447"
Posted by kingfish on 05-02-13 at 10:02 AM
If there was a "Firefly" game, and your sanity meter went to 11, you'd become a Reever.

If you were on Survivor, and your sanity meter went off scale, you'd be...(too many examples to list, although odds are your last name would be Hantz).


"#448 (games)"
Posted by Estee on 05-03-13 at 09:03 AM
Let's say you're going to design a character for a game where your representative is build on six attributes. Just for the fun of it, we'll call those six Strength, Intelligence, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. And you're making a front-line, armor-wearing, sword-swinging basic fighter. The person running the game has given you a handful of points to assign into the six attributes. You can't get any more and anything you assign is permanently locked.

Fighter. Hmmm.

Well... gonna need a decent amount of strength in order to carry some of the weapons and use them for any amount of time, plus you need to hit hard. So that's a priority. Dexterity keeps your character moving and dodging out of the way of someone else's prospective hit once in a while: definitely important. Constitution controls how many of those non-dodged hits you can take, so something has to be thrown in there.

Intelligence? Well, there's battle tactics, analysis of your enemy's weak spots, the ability to come up with a strategy that will command an army --

-- oh, screw it. "You call me dumb? Wanna fight?"

Wisdom? "You call me mendicant? Wanna fight?"

Charisma? "You call me ugly and socially maladjusted? Wanna fight?"

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DumpStat

Hey, at least you left the poor thing able to tell which end of the weapon was for holding. And isn't that the important bit?


"RE: #448 (games)"
Posted by cahaya on 05-04-13 at 10:31 AM
And then you hear the dreaded words from the GM:

Roll your saving throw.


"#449"
Posted by Estee on 05-04-13 at 08:52 AM
You said "I do" once.

So now you will. Every time. Whether you want to or not.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MaritalRapeLicense

And no other words will be heard.


"#450"
Posted by Estee on 05-05-13 at 05:25 AM
you suck my blood like a leech
you break the law and you preach
screw my brain till it hurts
you've taken all my money - and you want more.
feel good, are you satisfied?
do you feel like suicide
(i think you should)
is your conscience all right
does it plague you at night
do you feel good - feel good

-- Queen, Death On Two Legs

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheVillainSucksSong

Guess how many politicians are in the Real Life section.


"RE: #450"
Posted by kingfish on 05-05-13 at 10:23 AM
"Whistle While You Work (Hitler is a Jerk)".

Short, sweet, and easy to remember. Too bad Hitler isn't around to enjoy it.


"#451"
Posted by Estee on 05-06-13 at 08:26 AM
...say, do you think the Diary Room ever tries to manipulate the votes?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PostponedQuestion


"RE: #451"
Posted by kingfish on 05-06-13 at 09:21 AM
Shortest trope so far.

And the subject is cause of the various dents in my TV's and books. When obvious questions aren't asked, or discrepancies aren't commented on, it's a source of frustration for me.

And probably why I ask a lot of silly questions.


"#452"
Posted by Estee on 05-07-13 at 06:33 AM
You are in a cemetery, fighting zombies which are rising from their graves.

There are 3,850 graves in the cemetery.

These graves have produced 46,324 zombies.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClownCarGrave

Do the math.


"RE: #452"
Posted by cahaya on 05-07-13 at 08:17 AM
That's a lot of baby zombies.

They failed to practice death control.


"RE: #452"
Posted by kingfish on 05-07-13 at 08:20 AM
Everybody (every zombie-o-phile, anyway) knows that there is an underground tunnel system that links local cemeteries to each other and to and a central materialization station that links cities to other cities around the world.

Don't make me have to explain this to you again.


"#453 (reality TV)"
Posted by Estee on 05-08-13 at 08:12 AM
Balut eggs.

Haggis.

Hill cheese. Or rather, cheese that just rolled down a hill.

Caviar. Two pounds of it.

Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Live.

Donkey semen. Mixed with urine. Also presumably donkey.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EatThat

You never saw that last one. NBC kind of freaked.


"RE: #453 (reality TV)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-08-13 at 08:49 AM
"I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!"

"...and sometimes of trying to collect items while blindfolded/ with your mouth/ underwater/ from inside a box of snakes etc- usually while having gunge or cockroaches dropped on your head or biting ants climbing up your legs."


"RE: #453 (reality TV)"
Posted by Estee on 05-08-13 at 09:49 AM
It couldn't have happened to a nicer Pratt.

But then his sister showed up and it did.


"#454 (for Brenda)"
Posted by Estee on 05-09-13 at 07:49 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-09-13 AT 08:05 AM (EST)

Take the Reward. You will be voted out because you denied four people a chance to see loved ones they were going to meet up with less than a week from now anyway.

Give up the Reward. You will be voted out because your selfless sacrifice to aid the majority makes you look too good in front of the jury and no one wants you in the finals.

Want a split-second to think it over? Too bad: you're not getting one. One option or the other. Let's hear it.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SadisticChoice

Punch Jeff in the face: justified, but not helpful.


"RE: #454 (for Brenda)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-09-13 at 08:11 AM
Very timely.

The family visit reward challenge winner is guaranteed to lose. Just remember that, future Survivor competitors.

Poor Brenda. They made a butterfly cry. Dr. Seuss could have wrapped a story around that.


"#455"
Posted by Estee on 05-10-13 at 08:00 AM
He is handsome.

He is rich.

He is so highly placed in society that everyone else is effectively holding him up.

He is actual royalty.

He is everything the fairy tales tell you to dream of.

He has all the empathy of a narcissistic rabid stoat.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PrinceCharmless

He just threw you in front of an incoming cake.


"RE: #455"
Posted by kingfish on 05-10-13 at 08:22 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-10-13 AT 08:23 AM (EST)

He drinks...Dos Equis!


"RE: #455"
Posted by Estee on 05-10-13 at 09:29 AM
No... Dos Equestrias!

He is... The Most Irritating Stallion In The World.


"#456"
Posted by Estee on 05-11-13 at 07:26 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TriangleShades

*looks at page image*

No. No, he does not.


"#456"
Posted by kingfish on 05-11-13 at 03:53 PM
Cheap Sunglasses are a whole lot better.


"Hey!"
Posted by foonermints on 05-11-13 at 05:47 PM
How'd the keys to my Mercedes get in her belly button?

"RE: Hey!"
Posted by dabo on 05-11-13 at 06:23 PM


"No!"
Posted by foonermints on 05-11-13 at 07:18 PM
Not ever enough Craziness for that.

How come on a Saturday:
1: I'm doing cut lists and cost sheets?
2: I'm designing a carrier for the back of a tactical vest? Eleven .45 mags. That is an odd number, you know. Very strange.
2½:. I have to go into the shop on Monday . Jesus Mary Mother of God..
3: I finally broke into Sandee's tequila. It's too early!
4: Ah, wtf.
eta: I wrote # 2½ after #3. The day is going better already! Uh Oh! I didn't even edit this did I?
%: who cares!


"RE: No!"
Posted by dabo on 05-11-13 at 09:43 PM
And she isn't even doing it on purpose.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DistractedByTheSexy


"YES!"
Posted by foonermints on 05-11-13 at 11:18 PM
Oh Yes, yes they are.

Where is Socartes in his old age? Freed from lusting after a woman?

Hemlock! Give me more Hemlock!

I have a story about a very practical girl I met in Texas..


"#457"
Posted by Estee on 05-12-13 at 09:17 AM
You said you wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit.

And then you were.

And now you are being caught dead in that outfit. Every day. For the rest of your afterlife.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JacobMarleyApparel

High heels tracking across eternity sucks.


"RE: #457"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-12-13 at 10:28 AM
Yesterday at the gym, I saw the strangest outfit ever. There was a woman wearing sweats and high heels. Made no sense and I wondered if it was some sort of prank. I hope she didn't pass on in that outfit.

"#458 "
Posted by Estee on 05-13-13 at 05:19 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-13-13 AT 07:08 AM (EST)

No matter what kind of visual line you have on him, Mickey's ears will always look round. Front, back, sides, diagonal, underneath -- doesn't matter. Two perfect spheres attached to his head. Somehow.

Rarity's mane should obscure at least part of her face half the time, on the side where the curls fall -- but that side is always the one facing away from the viewer. How does her mane do that? Only her stylist knows for sure. And apparently that's the stylist for all of Equestria, because virtually every obscuring mane pulls the same trick.

Goku can rotate his head, flip upside-down, get soaking wet -- doesn't matter. His hair will look the same regardless. From any viewpoint. From every viewpoint.

Spongebob is virtually always facing the camera. Or else.

Phineas is never, ever seen from anything other than a 3/4 shot...

...well, actually, there was that one time...

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/2544/phineas.png

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CheatedAngle

...and that's why.


"RE: #458 "
Posted by kingfish on 05-13-13 at 12:56 PM
Same with those haughty Betas. They never let their feathery fins obscure their good side. And their tails are always in that fashion model pose. Those conceited Mother-Fishers.


"RE: #458 "
Posted by cahaya on 05-13-13 at 06:03 PM
And no anatomical accuracy at all! The way the artists draw us, we got nuttin' down there or up there!


Ragtop Ride by foonermints


"#459"
Posted by Estee on 05-14-13 at 06:16 AM
And if the show went on just a few seconds longer between last shot and credits, you'd get to see people picking lenses out of their foreheads.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlyAtTheCameraEnding


"RE: #459"
Posted by dabo on 05-14-13 at 09:39 AM
It took 20 years, but riding off into the sunset in Last Crusade segued into a nuclear bomb detonation in Crystal Skull.



"RE: #459"
Posted by kingfish on 05-14-13 at 10:56 AM
In cartoons, this is followed with a uvula which also rushes headlong onto the camera screaming.

They should at least shut their mouths before they die. Tis only proper.


"#460"
Posted by Estee on 05-15-13 at 08:02 AM
This one may have been done on purpose.

'He was marooned in the jaws of a human minefield, and with every step the noose grew tighter.'
- sports columnist Jerry Izenberg, Newark Star-Ledger

This one? Was not.

'The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding. Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.'
- some unsung genius in Newt's press staff, or quite possibly him.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MixedMetaphor

But on the bright side, no one can accuse him of being an intellectual elitist.


"RE: #460"
Posted by kingfish on 05-15-13 at 10:43 AM
The Mixed Metaphor!

We could have a whole thread dedicated to this.

Although Newt is actually a very articulate speaker, and I doubt that he writes his own press releases, one would suppose that he had to have at least approved if not edited that clinker.

I like well crafted mixed metaphors, except that there is always someone who doesn't get that it was done on purpose, and upon whom the flowery smoldering beauty is lost.


"RE: #460"
Posted by Estee on 05-15-13 at 02:15 PM
The Mixed Metaphor!

We could have a whole thread dedicated to this.

So who's stopping you?


"RE: #460"
Posted by cahaya on 05-15-13 at 10:31 PM

Hmmm... threads and horses again.


"#461 (as old as fiction)"
Posted by Estee on 05-16-13 at 07:26 AM
You have raised your daughter faithfully since the day she was born. You have taught her all the right things and kept her away from the wrong ones. You spent years keeping her from danger. And now, after all this time, she is turning into a perfectly healthy and well-adjusted girl.

Who was never your daughter to begin with.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SwitchedAtBirth

Don't expect her biological parents to thank you for your efforts.


"RE: #461 (as old as fiction)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-16-13 at 09:21 AM
Nowadays you also have to switch DNA to get away with this. Life just keeps getting harder and harder <Sexaprop. Sort of.>.

"#462"
Posted by Estee on 05-17-13 at 06:44 AM
The spell requires a pure heart of the caster. Without that, the ritual cannot be intoned.

It is being carefully practiced by a serial rapist who does arson on the side and pushes passersby into traffic as a casual hobby.

There are many kinds of pure.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PureIsNotGood

Six people must work the spell at the same moment. And the rapist is recruiting.


"RE: #462"
Posted by kingfish on 05-17-13 at 08:31 AM
So, who would be the judge for “pure-ness”? Presumably, a judge in any category of "Pure" would have to already be considered “Pure” in that category in order to have the authority and discernment to judge.

So;

Pure good? - <looks up, crosses self> nuff said?

Pure handsome? – Aww, gee, you embarrass me.

Pure ostentation? – Niki M?

Purely idiotic – again, Niki?

Pure Honesty – Old Abe?

Pure evil ? – Who could that be…let’s see…hmmm…could it be…


"#463"
Posted by Estee on 05-18-13 at 07:35 AM
Nothing happens here.

Nothing ever has happened. Nothing ever will. Steps to prevent things from happening have been taken. You will exist, and you will wait in vain, and if you are very lucky, you might die. Your death will not count as something happening, for no one will notice.

Nothing happens here.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InTheDoldrums

Forever.


"RE: #463"
Posted by kingfish on 05-18-13 at 09:55 AM
Sounds like the town I was a teenager in.

Now that I'm older, I'd like to move back.

Dullsville USA.

(Lyrics to a CW tune I'm working on).


"RE: #463"
Posted by dabo on 05-18-13 at 12:11 PM
A maritime term, actually.

The Doldrums

All in a hot and copper sky,

The bloody Sun, at noon,

'Right up above the mast did stand,

No bigger than the Moon.

Day after day, day after day,

We stuck, no breath no motion;

As idle as a painted ship

Upon a painted ocean.


"RE: #463"
Posted by cahaya on 05-18-13 at 12:49 PM
Arrr!

Dead in th' water!


Piracy on the high seas and flying of the Jolly Roger by agman


"RE: #463"
Posted by dabo on 05-18-13 at 12:55 PM
N' Ther Ent No Good Fishin!

"Doldrums"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-18-13 at 02:22 PM
I have a fond memory attached to the word doldrums - years ago, I worked with this jerk who was inexplicably hired in a mangement position and acted like he knew everything and was smarter than everyone else because he went to an Ivy League school. He sent out a mass email one day bragging about some big sale he had made during the "dull drums" of summer. He was mocked and shortly thereafter was fired for stealing from the petty cash.

"#464 (warning: bad writing ahead!)"
Posted by Estee on 05-19-13 at 06:50 AM
Some detectives follow a trial of tiny clues, gathering each in turn and gradually adding up the information from each until they have something more than the sum of the parts.

Others make intuitive leaps, seizing on a few pieces of evidence and using them for the springboard which allows them to jump the chasm of ignorance and find a solution on the other side.

Still more simply have so much trivia and factual effluvia memorized as to spot that one thing which everyone else has missed.

And depressingly, more than a few simply do this:

Batman: Pretty fishy what happened to me on that ladder.
Gordon: You mean, where there's a fish, there could be a Penguin.
Robin: But wait! It happened at sea! See? "C" for Catwoman!
Batman: Yet — that exploding shark was pulling my leg!
Gordon: The Joker!
O'Hara: It all adds up to a sinister riddle... Riddle-er. Riddler?

- Batman: The Movie.

As Seanbaby later put it, "For example, people like you can see an oven and grunt out loud, 'oven is hot. Hot things hurt. Hurt is bad. It is bad to touch oven.' The Super Friends see an oven and shout, 'oven... heat... lava... Great Gotham! The Legion of Doom's headquarters is in the heart of a volcano! Let's roll!' But the most insane part is that they're usually right."

In other words, we have entered the sad, sick, and plot-compressing realm known to readers of bad mysteries everywhere as the

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BatDeduction

Adam West? @#$% you very much.

The South Park example under Western Animation is brilliant.


"RE: #464 (warning: bad writing ahead!)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-19-13 at 10:50 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-19-13 AT 01:58 PM (EST)

I'm surprised that the 'Real Life' example section isn't a mile long.

There should in fact be sub-sections for 'Real Life - Politics', 'Real Life - Science', 'Real Life - Biblical facts'.

Every thing I say, however, is pure fact based logic.


"#465"
Posted by Estee on 05-20-13 at 06:34 AM
Imagine for a moment that you are the greatest archer in the world.

You have put years of practice into mastering your weapon. Your mind subconsciously calculates for wind resistance, arc, gravity, and thermals while you're still notching the arrow. You can handle a composite bow with a 150lb pull for hours on end without breaking a sweat. Your distance vision ranks above that of an eagle. Your shots are accurate to within a fifth of a millimeter. The only time you don't hit your target is if something else hits it first. Given a protected site to shoot from and a good supply of ammunition, you can do serious damage to entire army units.

So they put you on a team with an eight-foot mountain of green muscle who bench-presses tanks.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OvershadowedByAwesome

Yeah, let's see how much screen time you're getting.


"RE: #465"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-20-13 at 07:49 AM
He can console himself that he got more screen time than Antman.

"RE: #465"
Posted by kingfish on 05-20-13 at 10:13 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-20-13 AT 10:18 AM (EST)

The answer of course would be to escalate the Machismo Factor.

Trade in the bow and arrow for two (one for each arm) shoulder mounted rapid fire 30MM Gatling cannons that can be switched to an atomic flame throwers, or to launch mode for quick getaways.

If the concept of Archer needs to be preserved, then the cannons would have to be attachments for the bow.

Then fry that green scene stealer's caboose, riddle the charred carcass with explosive shells, and make an eye popping exit.

(I think I have a knack for this stuff).


"#466"
Posted by Estee on 05-21-13 at 08:40 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-21-13 AT 08:41 AM (EST)

It's a popular stock storyline: take an established character and make them rich for a few days. Inheritance, lottery, major gambling win -- anything which could drop a vast sum of cash into their hands out of nowhere and be vaguely acceptable to the audience. And then watch to see how they handle it, with the inevitable answer being 'badly'.

But because few writers want (or are allowed) to change things that much on a permanent basis, the wealth is -- and pretty much must be -- a temporary condition. Because as we all know,

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted

Generally within twenty-two minutes.


"RE: #466"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-21-13 at 09:06 AM
Just had a flashback to the final unwatchable season of Roseanne.

"RE: #466"
Posted by Snidget on 05-21-13 at 09:19 AM
Dude, I had the same flashback.

Do we need a support group?


"RE: #466"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-21-13 at 09:21 AM
Perhaps just a few tequila shots to drive the bitter memory away.

"RE: #466"
Posted by kingfish on 05-21-13 at 09:23 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-21-13 AT 10:28 AM (EST)

Congrats on the zeros.

And that was especially unwatchable.

However, the main point I'd like to make is that I am willing to make the ultimate sacrifice and throw myself on the pyre of unimaginable riches.

If you find yourself in the unenviable position of having to accept sudden wealth, I volunteer to save you from the evils that are said to befall people in that position.

I just think it’s my civic, yea moral, duty to protect my friends and fellow human beings from that fate.


"RE: #466"
Posted by kidflash212 on 05-21-13 at 09:27 AM
My hero

"#467"
Posted by Estee on 05-22-13 at 06:56 AM
You know God exists.

This is not a case of belief. This is absolute knowledge. You have factual proof of God's existence. You have seen His works. You have walked in His realms. You have met Him. Every argument against His existence falls apart in the presence of basic truth. God exists. Made the world. And made it -- exactly as it is. Full of hate, full of murder, full of pointless petty evil existing for the sake of hurting others. On purpose. And He sits back and watches it all for the amusement.

You know God exists. You have the proof. And you know He's an asshole.

And you, like everyone else, will be punished in the end for your actions or lack thereof, because everyone gets punished. It's just funnier that way --

-- but there's no way you're going to thank the bastard for it first.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NayTheist

"If there is any kind of supreme being, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."

-- Havelock Vetinari, via Terry Pratchett.


"RE: #467"
Posted by kingfish on 05-22-13 at 08:18 AM
God exists so that Catholic Popes and Evangelical preachers can get rich.

(BTW - Bravo for "And you, like everyone else, will be punished in the end for your actions or lack thereof, because everyone gets punished. It's just funnier that way --")


"#468 (huh)"
Posted by Estee on 05-23-13 at 08:52 AM
I defer the description to our resident expert.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FishPeople


"RE: #468 (huh)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-23-13 at 11:04 AM
Thank you.

And I will respond. Not as Estee might, with insightful analysis and all that smart stuff, but with a cautionary history lesson.

The cautionary element of my response is to remind everyone to respect your evolutionary elders, and to not dis-respect the fish. Or you should stay out of the water, because fishes gots teefs.

The second element is a history lesson.

We fish have seen a lot, we’ve learned a lot, and we maintain a healthy hydration level. Further, I think we can all agree that by and large, fish people (Hey! We’re people too. We got feelings!) are handsome as all get out, and are universally (well, almost universally) successful in our chosen endeavors. Admittedly there are the few that have had to be banished to the Marianas Trench for extreme weirdness-ness,

...but by and large we are a handsome bunch.

This is because evolution has been kind. But we had to evolve from the original progenitor of life on earth in order to be so. As a result we still carry those original genetic markers. And they’ve become your evolutionary inheritance as well. All o’ y’all (yes, that is the correct form, as are ‘sompin’ and ‘nuttin’).

You see, life on earth goes back to that lone alien who visited here billions of years ago. Apparently the alien was so lonely he attempted to mate with earth rocks who were relatively young at the time, and apparently fecund. Repeatedly, for seven alien days. And so created the original earth life form that eventually developed into fish, into amphibians, etc.

If you want to go all the way back and see what the original X Chromosome creature looked like, take a gander at Uncle Roscoe. That original gene still pops up every once and a while.

Uncle Roscoe can't help his appearance, or how he was born, but even so he has had success, mostly in the movies but also in the rodent removal industry, as a Sci-FI convention celebrity, and he is swamped (heh heh) at Halloween.

So, respect your elders, and eat more Chikin.




"RE: #468 (huh)"
Posted by cahaya on 05-23-13 at 05:48 PM
And here is the science behind the evolution of humans from fish.

The way this happens only really makes sense when you realise that, strange though it may sound, we are actually descended from fish.

The early human embryo looks very similar to the embryo of any other mammal, bird or amphibian - all of which have evolved from fish.

Your eyes start out on the sides of your head, but then move to the middle.

The top lip along with the jaw and palate started life as gill-like structures on your neck. Your nostrils and the middle part of your lip come down from the top of your head.


"RE: #468 (huh)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-24-13 at 08:21 AM
Thus, we are all gillable.

"RE: #468 (huh)"
Posted by cahaya on 05-24-13 at 09:29 AM
Thus, humans are below fishes in the pectoral order.

"well..."
Posted by cqvenus on 05-23-13 at 11:12 AM
... it took me over a month, but i finally read through this thread.

fishpeople.

my kids watch this show called fishtronaut on netflix... they aren't fish people but reading 'fishpeople' reminds me of that show...

cq

i have to write substantiative posts for school, so don't expect a lot out of me here


"#469"
Posted by Estee on 05-24-13 at 07:38 AM
Evil likes to live in expensive homes. When you steal your money and thus have a lot of it, why not buy the nicest place you can find?

Evil surrounds itself with lovely furnishings and fine art. Don't ask who had them originally: only look at how well they round the home out.

Evil loves to import fine food and have it cooked by gourmet chefs. That the chef works here to keep her family from being killed adds flavor.

And what does evil like to drink?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AGlassOfChianti

It's amazing that you even had to ask.


"RE: #469"
Posted by kingfish on 05-24-13 at 08:28 AM
I give this guy props for knowing how to spell "Merovingian".

<from the 'The Matrix Reloaded', "...the Merovingian sips wine while holding court in the restaurant."


"#470"
Posted by Estee on 05-25-13 at 09:51 AM
This one is worth roughly four billion dollars. And there is love between you. Sure, there's flaws because there always are, but there is real, true love present.

This one is worth about a buck eighty-seven at the end of the month once all the bills are paid. And there's love here too. A couple of problems to iron out as usual, but -- real, true love. Again.

And neither of them is interested in a threesome.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RichSuitorPoorSuitor

Decisions, decisions.


"RE: #470"
Posted by cahaya on 05-25-13 at 10:46 AM
LAST EDITED ON 05-25-13 AT 10:55 AM (EST)

Then you have the Fifty Shades of Grey guy who owns his collection of companies, corporate jets and personal chopper which he flies around in (and a yacht to sail around in too). The problem is that he has a past history of abuse in his childhood prior to adoption and, later, an illicit and illegal relationship with a cougar friend of his adoptive mother, followed by serial submissives who gave themselves to him to meet their desires and his with painful episodes in the red room.

Contrast this to a simple caring, sympathetic Mexican-American photographer who plants a drunken lip smack on the lady only to get decked by the rich man who witnesses it.

Only two in the ring, never three.


"#471"
Posted by Estee on 05-26-13 at 03:17 AM
So what's the current employment status for Seacrest and Harrison?

And the renewal options on their series?

Mean audience intelligence scores?

*sigh*

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AfraidYouWereGoingToSayThat

And didn't think you'd say anything else.


"#472"
Posted by Estee on 05-27-13 at 04:32 AM
Guns? Any idiot can use a gun, and most do. Just pick it up, point it in some random direction, pull the trigger, and hope it kills something. Which is pretty much all it's going to do other than 'miss'. The gun is the first resort of those who have more desire to create fear than benefit from accuracy. Why hit anything? Isn't the terror from seeing the thing more important, including lessons, holding the thing right-way up, or adding a sight?

Any idiot can use a gun.

You?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheStraightAndArrowPath

Are not an idiot.


"#473"
Posted by Estee on 05-28-13 at 05:39 AM
Location, location --

-- mislocation...

...relocation...

...shifting of specific points within a single location...

...rearrangement of rooms, furniture, staircases, which door leads where...

...while you weren't looking...

...or while you were...

...basically, imagine if the Winchester House and Hogwarts had a baby.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ChaosArchitecture

And it charged you rent.


"#474 (coming soon to a theather near you -- again)"
Posted by Estee on 05-29-13 at 06:42 AM
Smirk. Make sure one side of your mouth is higher than the other. Hold that. Now raise an eyebrow on the side where your lips are lower. Hold that. Check a mirror if you're so inclined, and you will look -- actually, you're going to look rather stupid, but in the eyes of a certain animation studio, you will look like a confident rebel hero who knows more than everyone around them and is simply indicating how much cooler they are than the world by regarding the universe with bemused disdain.

You have seen this face before. You may see it at least once a summer. You will be seeing it soon on a snail.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DreamWorksFace

Now go ahead and unsee it.


"Un-see THIS!"
Posted by kingfish on 05-30-13 at 04:19 PM
LAST EDITED ON 05-30-13 AT 04:21 PM (EST)

Although I guess it's pretty predictable that Khloe would get her lefts and rights confused. And the effect isn't so much of cunning as, well...incomprehension.


"And THIS!"
Posted by cahaya on 05-30-13 at 04:51 PM

"#475 (historical)"
Posted by Estee on 05-30-13 at 06:09 AM
To defend the sick.

To evacuate the wounded.

To give one's fallen body to science so that others may be cured.

To take no more from the world than is needed for survival while using all strength for others.

For life.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheKnightsHospitallers

Some lived by that. Others -- did not.


"RE: #475 (historical)"
Posted by kingfish on 05-30-13 at 09:13 AM
The spin-off Order of the Piscine Monks, also known as monkfish, crusaded against the frying of the fish flesh for centuries.

Just thought you'd like to know.


"#476"
Posted by Estee on 05-31-13 at 06:05 AM
You are a pacifist. You have taken a vow of total non-violence. You will never attempt to hurt a sentient being through physical force. Frankly, you have trouble with the idea of slapping mosquitoes. And now you are under attack by a sentient being who intends to kill you. Running away is impossible. You must make your stand here and now.

What do you do?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuicidalPacifism

...and that's the end of this story. Next character?


"RE: #476"
Posted by kingfish on 05-31-13 at 08:18 AM
"What do you do?"

Check for loopholes.

You won't be in contradiction of your life philosophy if there is no "You Can't Change Your Life Philosophy" clause in your belief. If there is, KYAGB.


"#477"
Posted by Estee on 06-01-13 at 03:35 AM
The puzzle has remained unsolved for centuries. Hundreds of years have passed while scientists have tried to figure out how to bypass the traps which will let them access the tomb. A million pages of notes have been taken and studied to no avail. PhD dissertations have been written on how not to get in. It is fully acknowledged by all of science that baring the invention of teleportation or phasing, it cannot be done.

And then you showed up and pushed any six buttons in random order.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RedundantResearcher

If the interior traps don't kill you, they will.


"RE: #477"
Posted by cahaya on 06-01-13 at 09:44 AM
Beware the dragon Smaug in trying to enter into the mountain from the secret back door! And beware the Lake Monster in trying to fathom the secret to open the door into Moria.

"#478 (goodness gracious)"
Posted by Estee on 06-02-13 at 04:26 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreatBallsOfFire

Appropriately, this is a music trope -- and it's the one where the concert is trying to distract you from listening to the music by having something explode. You'd think this would be limited to rock and metal, but -- well, look at the example list. It's very Christian to have things blow up. Also very country and extremely classical. After all, there's no genre where some event designer won't desperately be trying to disguise the fact that no one can play. Of course, this can backfire -- just ask the members of that well-known group, Thor. Never heard of them? Exactly.

And then there's the Great White tragedy. Fire spreads. And nothing distracts from death.


"RE: #478 (goodness gracious)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-02-13 at 12:02 PM
Then there's the capper, the NY (and various other) New Year's fireworks show where the explosions are the show, and the music is the supporting act.

"#479 (games)"
Posted by Estee on 06-03-13 at 07:08 AM
Glitches can take on a life of their own: nearly every video game player knows that. But for some of those code errors, garbage files which were never removed from the final product, and cross-contaminations never meant to exist -- it becomes literal. Games with multiple characters floating around occasionally produce an extra one which no designer ever saw. A few dozen lines of binary meet in a dark corner of the processor, engage in orgy, and produce children made of fizzling images and corruptive data which will crash everything around it if giving the chance -- or just accidentally double your character's inventory. They have no name until the players give them one. They have sometimes a use in combat and most opponents won't be expecting them. They aren't supposed to be.

But they are.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheMissingno

Who's that Pokemon?


"RE: #479 (games)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-03-13 at 09:08 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-03-13 AT 12:20 PM (EST)

You see, this is what we really have to be afraid of when computers take over the world.

Then we can really fear Zombies. Night of the Dropped-Bit-Byte Zombies!


"RE: #479 (games)"
Posted by suzzee on 06-03-13 at 01:32 PM
This is just how a little thing like Skynet, or Homeland Security gets started.



I should be watched....closely.


"#480"
Posted by Estee on 06-04-13 at 07:51 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-04-13 AT 08:02 AM (EST)

For reasons known only to yourself and whoever sells you anti-chafing cream by the ton, you wear a chainmail bikini. You wear it when it's sunny. You wear it in the wind. You wear it when the heat wave has reached the point that the metal should be giving you scorch marks in awkward places. Now it's forty degrees below zero, the metal is giving you frostbite in those exact same locations -- and you're still wearing it. Admittedly, there's a chance the cold has melded it to your skin by this point, but you didn't even think about changing into something else. You never do.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ExposedToTheElements

So basically, either you have metahuman powers or you're just. that. stupid.


"RE: #480"
Posted by kingfish on 06-04-13 at 08:01 AM
And besides, it makes you easy prey for...MAGNETO-MAN!!!

When ever he crooks his electromagnetic finger, you go to him. You got to. You're compelled.


"RE: #480"
Posted by Estee on 06-04-13 at 08:20 AM
Just one of the reasons why Anthony Stark vs. Max Eisenhardt is an exercise in very brief comedy -- no matter how Tony tries to modify the armor, it's hard to keep all the metal out.

On the other hand, at least Tony has an actual choice of wardrobe and armor for all occasions, so he averts this trope -- constantly.


"RE: #480"
Posted by kingfish on 06-04-13 at 08:51 PM
Not a X-man follower, I stumbled into Magneto man because it made sense in that context.

But what an intense back story. That just kept getting intenser and intenser.


"RE: #480"
Posted by Estee on 06-04-13 at 09:34 PM
Oh, did someone visit the character's Wikipedia page?

The Magneto: Testament graphic novel (which is available in some libraries -- and I understand it's being used as study material in a few schools as well) is a fairly intense reading experience. Not as strong as Maus, where you know the events are biographical -- but it's still the story of a Jewish German teenager living through the Holocaust. Not exactly a casual flip-through. (It's also very light in the powers department: at the time, Max had no conscious awareness of what he was capable of -- and so it's the story of a normal teenager.) You might want to check your local library and see if you get reading-lucky. And if they don't have that, they're almost guaranteed to have Maus -- which is the superior read and well-worth your efforts to find. In fact, if at all possible, grab both. (Note that Maus is two volumes: don't miss one.)

On a side trope note, Max is one of the characters under the Frozen In Time entry, and another for whom it's a problem. Figure realistically that he was born around 1922 or so, and that date is fixed. It's increasingly harder to get him up to Marvel's current day -- and he never spent any time in an iceberg.

He can also be an ironic figure in that he's always on the verge of becoming what he hates: the persecuted minority who turns things around and puts others into camps....


"#481"
Posted by Estee on 06-05-13 at 06:18 AM
You love your father, and he loves you. He would do anything for you. He works such long hours to give you the best things in life. All that time spent down at the office, the port, the docks. He has so many friends and they're all happy to keep you safe until he returns home. Sometimes he comes back with loads of cash. Sometimes he comes back smelling a little like blood. Sometimes he breaks phones in half, tears things out of the walls, and tells you not to worry about it because some fathers just get these urges to remodel. And everyone's father has cars with government plates following them everywhere. He said so. And you believe him on all of it, including how he's just trying to bring the bullet hole detailed look back.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MafiaPrincess

Yes, you are this naive.


"RE: #481"
Posted by kingfish on 06-05-13 at 08:44 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-05-13 AT 09:21 AM (EST)

And you get your reality show.

Down deep, down where you rarely visit, where in fact you have never, ever, looked, you have no idea why you got a reality show. That thought is just a shadow, a wraith that flits thru the background of your consciousness at odd times, there, but never drawing your focus.

And the sense of self entitlement that was part and parcel of your upbringing pretty well obliterates any curiosity about that anyway.

You got your show because of the lies everyone tells about your daddy. And that made you famous. Of course.

Now, you use those God given talents to identify and sell the perfect perfume, and record an album of standards.


"RE: #481"
Posted by Estee on 06-05-13 at 09:11 AM
Flitting wraith. Nice one.

So glad I never watched that thing or any of its variants. Funny that it's not on the example list, though. Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment?


"RE: #481"
Posted by kingfish on 06-05-13 at 09:25 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-05-13 AT 10:05 AM (EST)

Oops. Make that "Flitting Wraith"™©. Just in case I need it for the title of my next novel. (Next, in this case, would also be First.)

Or for my Hockey team. Great name for a hockey team.


"RE: #481"
Posted by kidflash212 on 06-05-13 at 11:16 AM
They missed Argent under the comics example. She fit perfectly.

"#482"
Posted by Estee on 06-06-13 at 07:10 AM
You're going to put an explosion in this scene. And your actors are, frankly, not that skilled at startled reactions. They look at the set, knowing there's going to be special effects added later, and do an extremely bored job of responding to the nothing which typically takes place. They pretend for money and they can't make themselves imagine there's a real explosion there. Not well enough to be credible for the film.

So you have a solution in mind.

You're going to put an explosion in this scene. A real one. Right as they're about to try and act around the imaginary one.

And you're not going to tell them first.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnforcedMethodActing

That'll make the little buggers jump.


"RE: #482"
Posted by kingfish on 06-06-13 at 08:01 AM
A little creative thinking with those "Enforced Acting Explosions" would also be helpful in avoiding the "Acting for Money" part.

Not that anyone would actually try and kill an actor, but planned accidents can happen, right? And what's insurance for, anyway?

Just make sure there's film in the camera.


"#483"
Posted by Estee on 06-07-13 at 07:37 AM
All people from (insert race here) act the same way. In fact, all those who are (insert mix of races here)? Exactly the same every time.

Would you let me get away with that for a character in a story? Ever? Maybe in something which poorly disguised itself as a political tract or had emerged from the 1900s on back, but no one's going to let me make those statements seriously about human beings in the modern day, right? Not without at least some kind of backlash at the instant my readership went over two?

Really?

Then why is everyone allowed to get away with it once the leg count goes to four for those who are supposed to be your best friends?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DogStereotype

Speciesists!


"RE: #483"
Posted by kingfish on 06-07-13 at 08:06 AM
An exception to the cat exception, Siamese cats, often portrayed as evil, sly, and conniving. Which, in real life they are.

(From Lady and the Tramp)

"We are Siamese if you please,
We are Siamese if you don't please.
We are from a residence of Siam,
There is no finer cat than I am."

"Do you see that thing swimming round and round,
Maybe we can reach on in and make it drown.
If we sneaking up upon it carefully,
There will be head for you and a tail for me."


"RE: #483"
Posted by cahaya on 06-07-13 at 08:38 AM
This trope reminds me of...


"#484 (just about link only)"
Posted by Estee on 06-08-13 at 06:27 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DestructoNookie

No. Comment.


"RE: #484 (just about link only)"
Posted by cahaya on 06-08-13 at 07:46 AM
Geez, who is writing these tropes?

Use and abuse.


"RE: #484 (just about link only)"
Posted by Estee on 06-08-13 at 08:35 AM
It's a legitimate trope: there's certainly enough examples out there to codify it and it's not as if new ones don't keep cropping up. It's just not the kind of trope I care to write a summary of.

Also, it'll take at Kingfish at least two hours to stop editing himself. Or worse, to start.


"RE: #484 (just about link only)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-08-13 at 08:48 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-08-13 AT 08:50 AM (EST)

Destructo Nookie!

I think you just hit on a theme for a best selling video game.

(Yeah, I'll be working on it all day. And it'll be worth every second).


"RE: #484 (just about link only)"
Posted by cahaya on 06-08-13 at 09:18 AM
Estee just called you out, you're editing yourself!

"RE: #484 (just about link only)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-08-13 at 10:12 AM
An un-selfedited Kingfish is not a pretty picture.

"#485"
Posted by Estee on 06-09-13 at 05:59 AM
The team is about to enter a hedge maze. Something extremely nasty is waiting for them at the center. It has planted traps along the way designed to do things to each member -- things which probably won't happen if they encounter each trap as a group, since each trap is targeted to one member and the others could see and stop it in time. The group, not knowing what's ahead of them, reassure each other that they can do it and step into the maze, declaring that they are together in this.

Multiple hedge walls immediately spring from the ground and turn the maze into six mazes. One for each.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/InvoluntaryGroupSplit?from=Main.RocksFallPartySplits

Silly ponies.


"#486 (video games)"
Posted by Estee on 06-10-13 at 05:11 AM
There are golden coins floating in the air.

Why?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FollowTheMoney

...question still applies.


"RE: #486 (video games)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-10-13 at 08:12 AM
There is no God.

Or else he would have thought of this. Think of how much altruism and good works there would be in RL if a gold coin magically appeared afterward.

His job would be so much easier.


"RE: #486 (video games)"
Posted by suzzee on 06-10-13 at 09:41 AM
Don't TV preachers use this method?


I should be watched....closely.


"RE: #486 (video games)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-10-13 at 10:31 AM
They do use a form of this trope. Except that they end up with the gold coin, and you get a scarf that they sweated their holy sweat into.

"#487"
Posted by Estee on 06-11-13 at 06:38 AM
The world is perfect.

The planet is pristine.

There is no pollution. There is no contamination. A simple green world, beautiful in its restored innocence.

And all it took to make everything better was --

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NewEden

-- getting rid of every human on it.


"RE: #487"
Posted by kingfish on 06-11-13 at 07:56 AM
Amen.

Those first steps onto the mudflats, and those first gillfulls of air, those were the worst mistakes we ever made.

Someone should be slapped silly for that.

Down with the meatbags!


"RE: #487"
Posted by suzzee on 06-11-13 at 03:49 PM
Naturally, this is the perfect setting for an Adam and Eve Plot.

Maybe, but without the snakes


I should be watched....closely.


"They Forgot"
Posted by dabo on 06-11-13 at 04:11 PM




"Maybe..."
Posted by Estee on 06-11-13 at 04:47 PM
...but don't you wish you could?

"#488 (Hey, Fooner!)"
Posted by Estee on 06-12-13 at 06:54 AM
Most of the smaller species of octopi are something less than bold chargers into the unknown. And they also tend to be much smarter than people expect, to the point where a few have designated them among the possible species who've Got Next.

Consider the veined octopus. It isn't that large. It is fragile, especially compared to the things which might try to eat it. Not exactly going to be good in a fight. And the universe has not given it much in the way of natural armor.

So it carries around discarded halves of coconut shelves and whenever anything threatens it, curls up tightly and slams them back together again, staying in the middle hollow and forcing whatever was about to attack into a question: can I bite through a coconut?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeployableCover

Keep an eye on that one.


"RE: #488 (Hey, Fooner!)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-12-13 at 08:33 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-12-13 AT 10:05 AM (EST)

Don't you be giving Fooner any ideas.

One has to wonder how the octopi pass down their knowledge. Are sophisticated ideas such as using clams shells and coconut husks, or the even more advanced mimicry that some species perform actually hardwired into each baby Octopus brain? That’s a lot of pretty advanced instinctive knowledge. Mom doesn’t have time to teach them anything because although a she takes great care of her clutch of eggs, once they hatch they’re gone, off on their own.

The mental image of a "veined octopus" is a little off-putting.

Fascinating creatures.


"#489"
Posted by Estee on 06-13-13 at 06:13 AM
Here is a very small enclosed space, which you are standing in.

Here is every single person you know, have met over the last few days, was within casual to moderate travel range, and a few strangers you have never met.

We are now going to insert B into A.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheStateroomSketch

Lots and lots of B.


"RE: #489"
Posted by kingfish on 06-13-13 at 08:14 AM
Still very funny.

"Hello, room service? Send up a larger room!"


"#490"
Posted by Estee on 06-14-13 at 07:32 AM
You have to love Cave Johnson, as long as you've never worked for, encountered, or had anything to do with him whatsoever.

"I just wanna get it on record that using force fields for doors in a space prison...is a bad idea. You know what would have been better? Regular doors, with locks! Locks that don't open when the POWER goes out!"

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForceFieldDoor

Preaching to the choir, not-my-brother.


"RE: #490"
Posted by kingfish on 06-14-13 at 08:25 AM
Ironically, on the RL page is presented this:

"Considering that atoms are mostly empty space, and only feel solid due to the strong negative charge present on their surface (such that it is) which repels other atoms in a similar manner to what happens when you try to touch the south poles of two magnets together, ordinary doors are technically examples of this trope."

Absolutely and mind-blowingly (IMO) true. Matter is, for all practical purposes, space. The matter within an atom is mostly space, and the matter within the atom's nucleus is mostly if not totally space. Electrons are basically just a force shield, thus mostly if not totally space.


A pea in an NFL stadium would represent more matter per cubic measure than space. And in this analogy, the pea would also be basically space.

So a door made of steel, platinum, invulnerbilium, or whatever, would be a force shield with its own self-contained power source.

And you and I and our not-brothers are all made of force shields, of space.


"RE: #490"
Posted by Estee on 06-14-13 at 08:54 AM
I know several news personalities whose brains are 99.9999% vacuum. Does that count?

"RE: #490"
Posted by kingfish on 06-14-13 at 09:14 AM
Add a few more 9s to the right, and you get a BB hamster. A few more and you get Robo-Julie.

"#491"
Posted by Estee on 06-15-13 at 03:06 AM
You are in space. You have a weapon that fires a super-intense, ultra-focused laser. You shoot and miss your target.

What happens to the laser?

More to the point: what happens to anyone it hits over the next billion light years or so?

Well, if you're flying an early model of the Enterprise, pretty much nothing because the energy broke up after a few hundred thousand meters, tops.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArbitraryMaximumRange

If you're in anything closer to a real world, not quite.


"RE: #491"
Posted by Molaholic on 06-15-13 at 12:29 PM
I ken'na violate the laws of physics, Cap'n!"

"RE: #491"
Posted by kingfish on 06-15-13 at 12:56 PM
So what stops a light sabre from being longer, like a billion miles or so? Seem like that would be a chaotic advantage.

"RE: #491"
Posted by dabo on 06-15-13 at 01:00 PM
LAST EDITED ON 06-15-13 AT 07:20 PM (EST)



"#492"
Posted by Estee on 06-16-13 at 07:00 AM
Let us consider Victor von Doom, dictator, genius, villain, and man with a rather singular wardrobe. He wears a suit of full-body armor complete with mask, and the only times he ever takes it off is in small sections for repairs or upgrades. For all intents and purposes, he is encased in something beyond steel at every possible moment in the course of a normal day -- and month -- frequently year. And let us also consider that the never-earned-his doctorate subject, while a genius, is physically an ordinary man. He has a mental power which he only brings out when the writers remember it, some understanding of magic (same), and the armor itself can do any number of tricks depending on that last upgrade, but the body beneath it is completely normal. And he has wearing that armor at all times for years.

Now:

What is his skin like? Is he basically a walking full-body fungal infection at this point? Does he have skin left, especially at the joints where the abrasion would be worst? Does any dust and grit work into the armor? It does have eyeholes, you know. Human skin needs occasional exposure to sunlight in order to internally produce certain vital substances, and he? Isn't getting any. Shall we assume rickets?

How about the weight of the armor? Even after we give him credit for new alloys and hyper-compressed tech with miniaturized power sources, we've seen people trying to move him -- and the normal ones fail. The stuff has to weigh a couple of hundred pounds at the very least -- and he's never out of it. What is that doing to his spine? Bone structure? You'd expect long-term compression at the very least, right?

Let's give him credit for installing ports for body waste and there's presumably a sealable hole for a straw somewhere so he can drink his meals. However, brushing his teeth still appears to be an issue. Beware the Breath Of Doom. Also, there's shaving. He can't. Beard stubble under armor can't feel good, and he's got to have more than that by now.

Oh, and -- sex. Yeah, right. Sex. Forget that...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyFourHourArmor

Kind of explains ninety percent of his personality problems, doesn't it?



"RE: #492"
Posted by kingfish on 06-16-13 at 07:38 AM
Makes one rethink how 'genius' could be an accurate description of someone who decided to wear full body armor 24/7/365.

"Even in full plate, one could remove the plates needed for the toilet without removing the full armor, one only needs to remove the fauld/tassets & cuisses which can be done by undoing the laces."

So, in the middle-ages, probably a common prank would be to loosen the laces to a knight's "fauld/tassets & cuisses" in battle I suppose.


"RE: #492"
Posted by dabo on 06-16-13 at 05:35 PM


"#493 (see above)"
Posted by Estee on 06-17-13 at 08:41 AM
But Dabo, the thing about yours is that he's got room for an entire apartment in the torso...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MobileSuitHuman


"RE: #493 (see above)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-17-13 at 08:49 AM
I like the fact that the artist thinks that the little guy in charge would use brass levers like on a steam locomotive, or on the H.G. Wells' "Time Machine", for controls.

"RE: #493 (see above)"
Posted by dabo on 06-17-13 at 06:44 PM
But he was all alone in there. Really lonely Arquillian prince, no one else in there with him. At least none that turned up in autopsy.

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=2469


"#494 (here come the fights)"
Posted by Estee on 06-18-13 at 08:24 AM
At best, all George Lucas could have done was destroy Star Wars on its first outing. Gary Kurtz molded it. Maria Lucas edited it into something which would make sense. And years later, Timothy Zahn defined it.

Which Gene truly made the Enterprise into something which could soar for half a century? Roddenberry or Coon?

Bugs Bunny was originally drawn up by Ben Hardaway and Carl Dalton. Directed by Tex Avery. Made into something beloved by just about everyone else at Termite Terrace.

Who's Bonnie Zacherle? She originally created the My Little Pony franchise in the early 80s. Who's Lauren Faust? The redefining party everyone thinks of instead of Bonnie Zacherle.

If you're talking about a Flash artist, you are talking about Carmine Infantino (moved to his next on April 4th). If you're talking about his writer, you are talking about Mark Waid. And his voice is Michael Rosenbaum.

Incidentally, Batman is Kevin Conroy. No one else. Forever. Name one other Batman who could rally the WTC workers just by showing up. But he wouldn't have been who he is without Bill Finger: no detective aspects, no secret identity, no cowl -- all things Bob Kane didn't come up with.

For any long-running franchise which passes through the hands of multiple creators, there will just about always be one person, team, or era which truly puts the eternal stamp on a character and creates the model to follow forever after. And regardless of who came up with the original idea, for better or worse, those who refined it are forever after viewed by the fanbase as

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MyRealDaddy

and everybody else was just attending the birth.


"RE: #494 (here come the fights)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-18-13 at 10:02 AM
So, credit for a character goes to whoever first slaps a copyright on it?

"#495"
Posted by Estee on 06-19-13 at 06:03 AM
There is no way for me to currently discuss this trope without hitting the Random button sixty more times with a sledgehammer as punishment for ever bringing it into view in the first place.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WonderTwinPowers

So I won't.


"RE: #495"
Posted by kingfish on 06-19-13 at 08:23 AM
Careful, what might seem like a good idea right now will result in having to shell out for a new computer. Again.

"RE: #495"
Posted by kidflash212 on 06-19-13 at 08:28 AM
Form of a waterfall!

"RE: #495"
Posted by Estee on 06-19-13 at 08:49 AM
And suddenly half the villains in the fight realize they really have to find a bathroom and rush away before anything happens.

Most effective use of his power ever.


"RE: #495"
Posted by kidflash212 on 06-19-13 at 10:29 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-19-13 AT 10:29 AM (EST)

There was that one time he turned into a sheet of ice and caused the villains to slide headfirst into a wall.


"RE: #495"
Posted by cahaya on 06-19-13 at 10:26 AM
And then you have the WonderTeamPowers.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers!


"#496"
Posted by Estee on 06-20-13 at 07:23 AM
There are ancient runes inscribed in a secret room of the temple, and they must be read to prevent the disaster from occurring. One man has spent his life studying those runes in preparation to recite them. He will take one step into the temple, hit the first incredibly obvious trap, and die. The other characters take over from there.

Or there's a criminal who must be caught. This valiant officer has spent her life studying that criminal. She knows everything about the scum and how he operates. She's just taken on a rookie partner. And a few days after doing so, she meets the criminal in the world's most obvious ambush and never even gets a shot off. The rookie takes over from there.

The jungle survival veteran steps directly into the quicksand. Good luck to the rest of the party.

The superlative hunter is taken down by his prey without ever getting a whiff of the prey. Everyone else had better find a gun.

What do all these people have in common?

They are

http://www.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWorldsExpertOnGettingKilled

and now that their resistance-free deaths have proven the danger is real, on to the main story.


"RE: #496"
Posted by kingfish on 06-20-13 at 08:17 AM
Wait a minute, you end your story with "...on to the main story."?

Now I'll never get to sleep, wondering what happens next.

There's gotta be a trope page on that somehwere.


"#497 (Courtney Yates & Danielle Donato)"
Posted by Estee on 06-21-13 at 07:46 AM
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SkullForAHead

*walks away whistling*

I post this in the comfort that they would say worse about me.


"RE: #497 (Courtney Yates & Danielle Donato)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-21-13 at 08:24 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-21-13 AT 09:47 AM (EST)

You ol' skullhead you.

(There. Hey, somebody had to say it).

"Monty Python's Flying Circus. In a sketch about a hospital for overacting, there's a brief animation of actors portraying Hamlet giving his "To be or not to be" speech. At one point they pull the flesh off their heads, leaving them with only their skulls on their shoulders."

Everyone's a Yorick! Monty Python was brilliant.


"#498 (engineer's nightmare)"
Posted by Estee on 06-22-13 at 07:36 AM
The first model off the line is perfect. It has every feature you could ask for and a few which you didn't, but the one which spontaneously manifested are better than anything on the specs. The power source is a thing of beauty: it runs for weeks without recharge, gives off no pollution and in an emergency, goes solar. The body will take impacts from the kinetic, pressure, energy, and anything else you can throw at it and show no damage at all. It upgrades itself. It learns. It is perfect.

The second model off the line through the very last are all complete pieces of crap.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SuperPrototype

...what?


"RE: #498 (engineer's nightmare)"
Posted by dabo on 06-22-13 at 01:48 PM
But which one is the original?

http://kesslerkomics.com/7661/httpblog-newsarama-com/agent-of-s-t-y-l-e-flying-high-with-robin-the-boy-wonder/


"RE: #498 (engineer's nightmare)"
Posted by cahaya on 06-23-13 at 10:03 AM
The Literature tab completely misses Larry Niven's Ringworld craft, of which there is only one prototype, with a GP hull and a singular hyperdrive of unknown origin.

"#499"
Posted by Estee on 06-23-13 at 08:03 AM
It's the high-pitched whining, deep clicking, and sudden absence of fan blade whooshing you actually have to watch out for...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeepingComputers

So who's willing to admit they have enough experience with modems to know what the connect rate is going to be while the thing is still technically dialing?

(Note the Real Life examples section. AM tunes! Wonder if anyone ever tried to program a beat.)


"RE: #499"
Posted by cahaya on 06-23-13 at 10:15 AM
The computers you really have to worry about are the completely silent ones, until it talks to you...

Dave Bowman: Hello, HAL. Do you read me, HAL?
HAL: Affirmative, Dave. I read you.
Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Dave Bowman: What's the problem?
HAL: I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do.

"RE: #499"
Posted by Snidget on 06-23-13 at 10:18 AM
I don't know which one was which, but I did notice when it changed with a new Modem.

I don't know my reading rate in words per minute, but I know I can read at 300 baud as I used to proofread my programs as they loaded onto the the dumb terminal at that rate.


"RE: #499"
Posted by cahaya on 06-23-13 at 10:30 AM
Back in the old days, before fiber cable and wireless streaming...

If you listen in on it, it will scream and squelch over an analog line, tagging onto a frequency with the least data errors, error correction algorithms taking out the noise until the exchange of bits runs smoothly in silence.


"RE: #499"
Posted by kingfish on 06-24-13 at 09:22 AM
LAST EDITED ON 06-24-13 AT 10:27 AM (EST)


Once again going ever so slightly off track, what amuses me is when the Foley dept. imposes sounds on combatants even though they are fighting in the vacuum of space. Or even just when another ship in in proximity, and they impose that deep bass background sound.

Coming a little closer to being on track here; when there is someone within earshot who insists on accompanying their keyboard with their own vocal beeps and boops. As if they are pretending to be R2-D2, or something.

Stop it!


"#500 (music)"
Posted by Estee on 06-24-13 at 09:41 AM
Smells like teen spirit someone hasn't washed their hair for three weeks.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Grunge

Shall we put up the Summer thread tomorrow?


"RE: #500 (music)"
Posted by kingfish on 06-24-13 at 10:35 AM
Hey. I was on vacation. Nature boy.

And I'm guessing that unwashed hair wouldn't be the source of the most objectionable smell after three weeks, although I'll admit that sorting out and classifying those odors would be a dumb thing to do.