Posts by Lanny

1. 2016-07-11 at 7:40 AM UTC in What are you reading?
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage
   Asimov is one of my favorite genre fiction authors. His autobiography was really interesting, his non-fiction is pretty fun too. Despite it being considered his most significant work I never could finish the Foundation series, although I want to try again after hearing his own account of it, as well as those of others, about it being an analogy to Gibbon's Decline and Fall.
   
   Also yes §m£ÂgØL you shit, post your book, it couldn't possibly be that bad. You have sufficiently lowered our expectations and you've been offered the largest sum of your literary career for it.
2. 2016-07-10 at 6:50 AM UTC in What's "your drink"?
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   Yeah, I never thought I'd gain weight ,but I have the last year from drinking teh beer and being in my late 20's. And I'm actually looking into a way on how to get rid of my belly fat, along with handeling my alcoholism.

   
   I've been back and forth between the upper end of healthy body weight and overweight since I was like 13, my metabolism is like tar and I sit on my ass all day so it's easy to put on the pounds. Recently I started doing one of the "calorie counter" app things on a bet with a friend and jesus, like half of the time I drink more calories in alcohol than I eat. Booze adds up I guess.
   
   ​

   I don't particularly enjoy alcohol, as such i don't have a particular drink neither do i know all the names but since you mentioned bloody mary, i do enjoy that. Also brandy, and this kinda' mix drink that's made with peach tree and prosecco. Call me a hipster faggot but i enjoy sweet drinks with little alcohol more than whiskey in example. Unless you have a fancy, properly aged whiskey of course.

   
   I used to really like sweet drinks, and sweet things in general. Rum and coke was the first thing I drank regularly. The sugar isn't great for you though, makes the hangover worse, and it's harder to overdrink with like a straight rye or something. Still, my go-to drinks are mostly gins with something mildly sweet.
   
   

   when I do drink, vanilla coke and southern comfort. Didn't inherit the ol alcoholism gene, mom dad sister, all alkies but nope, I get redfaced, swollen lips, shut sinuses and skin irritation.

   
   Reminds me of highschool. You probably lucked out, alcohol is a pretty shitty vice, I can't really bring myself to enjoy weed for mostly the same reason but I wish I could. I imagine it doesn't kill you half as fast plus I just can't function when stoned so there would be a natural limit on how much I could smoke.
   
   ​

   For a long time, my go to drink was gin and tonics, but lately I’ve been drinking spiced rum and fruit punch. Fruit punch because I don’t like cola and I couldn’t think of anything else to mix with rum.
   
   My gin of choice is Gordon’s and for rum I drink Cruzan or Admiral Nelson’s. I know Admiral Nelson’s has a bad reputation, but it’s cheap and it tastes ok.
   
   Neither of my parents drink now, but my dad used to drink Jack and Cokes and my mom has only drank a few times in her life and only beer.

   
   I love Gordon's, it's cheap as hell around here too. I've had a lot of gins, even "top shelf" stuff doesn't taste as good in a G&T or gimlet as Gordon's, at least to me. I prefer Bombay sapphire in a negroni and hendricks for drinking straight, if you're into that kind of thing, but otherwise I think Gordon's is just the best gin out there.
   
   

   Vodka, baileys or a mix of the two, they're the two that my mum drank so I guess I got it from her and also cider but I'm a poor brit so that should be expected.

   
   Do you drink bailey's straight? I mean I like the taste of it but I've never actually seen anyone not mix it with something.
3. 2016-07-09 at 5:23 AM UTC in What's "your drink"?
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   whatever they fuckin' have.

   
   A man walks into a bar. The bartender asks him "what'll ya have". The man replies "whatever you fuckin' have". The bartender pauses a moment, stares at the man, and then asks "yeah, but what do you actually want? We got stuff to make whatever". The man stands there, paralyzed, he only wants what they have but in the headlights of such selection he is frozen. The bar is only a few hundred square feet and yet behind the bar they seem to have packed a vast ocean of liquor. The man's mind races as the combinatorial problem quietly mounts in the corner. A long moment passes and the bartender remains, waiting to take the man's order. Then, all of the sudden, something seems to click in the man's mind. Drenched in sweat, trembling slightly from the effort he realizes. He reaches slowly for his wallet, contorting his face as if about to place his order and then bolts for the door. The problem is intractable he realizes, he wants, no yearns, for whatever they have but in all the vast strings in the english language he can not summon a one to aid him. So realizing the futility of his endeavor he does the only thing he can: he flees the scene of the crime, never to return. "This is hell he thinks", but with the exertion of his mad dash for the door comes a certain clarity. He realizes in that crystalline moment "but it should never have been otherwise".
   
   "Let's get a drink with Enter", a short story by Lanny
4. 2016-07-09 at 1:40 AM UTC in What's "your drink"?
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   A Boston Goblin

   
   
   pretty sure that's not a thing but if it is a thing please tell me about the properties of that thing
   
   

   Vodka and raspberry ice drink mix.
   It does a body good.

   
   Good for the urinary tract I guess. Pass on the vodka tho. A bloody mary is the only vodka drink I enjoy these days.
5. 2016-07-09 at 12:19 AM UTC in What's "your drink"?
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage
   I used to drink white russians at work until we lost our minifridge. Still love one now and then but too many calories for me, I'll take my alcoholism without the morbid obesity thanks.
6. 2016-07-08 at 11:27 PM UTC in A warning to all of you with the letter "L" in your username
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage
   INITAL CAPS WHEN YOU SPELL MY DAMN NAME
   
   
7. 2016-07-08 at 11:24 PM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   Ah, Lanny, let me bug you for a moment on an old subject. You may find this amusing:
   
   http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=large&id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0042366.t003
   
   Study: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0042366
   
   Kind of amusing.
   
   So are the other significant divergences. The only one that isn't explained is impersonal/less aversive: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103109000262
   There are other charts. This would make for a god thread and discussion someplace just to start a shitstorm. The differing interpretations would be the funniest aspect, each side attempting to argue why they were superior.

   
   It is amusing. The trolley problem was originally formulated as an action/inaction dichotomy, the fact that libertarians fail to relinquish themselves to the Kantian position of inaction (that is to say, taking the position that one is not morally responsible for situations one does not bring about) shows they're convinced by the proposed ends of libertarians more than the actual intellectual arguments for that position. For what it's worth the whole population is susceptible to the push/pull dichotomy, we've know that result for a long time. I think it was JJT that conducted the original study but I'm not sure.
   
   Additionally! The obvious interpretation here that would seem to be relevant to me is that liberals are shitty utilitarians. I don't particularly disagree with that assessment, even outwardly I frequently express disappointment with the american left in out/their love for emotional appeal rather than hedonic calculus. However, a potentially deeper issue is the bifurcation of "conservatives" from "libertarians". From my perspective such a split is arbitrary, you might as well have split the american left into utilitarian leftists and democrats and we could guess how these findings would turn out. The study is fundamentally apples and oranges.
   
   

   Good, alcohol is the shittiest drug ever.

   
   
8. 2016-07-08 at 10:54 PM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage

   What are you afraid of Lanny?

   
   I mean, being autistic obviously? I'm sure you understand the stigma around the condition. It's like asking why someone's afraid of when they get tested for cancer. Surprise: it's having cancer.
   
   

   You know it won’t change anything. Intellectual cowards are the worst of all. People afraid of ideas, knowledge, thoughts inside the privacy of their own minds. I don’t respect those who choose not to know a diagnosis. With knowledge you can attempt to ameliorate it if you find it/certain aspects a problem.

   
   Well does a diagnosis do something for a patient or not? What are some effective treatments for mild autism in adults? What does a diagnosis even mean? It's not a statement about some physical state, for all the interesting theories of neurological origins for autism spectrum disorders the best among them is at best post hoc. It's a behavioral disorder, diagnosis is a mere statement of symptoms conveniently grouped into disorders for the sake of treatment. That may be an efficacious clinical practice but in the absence of meaningful intervention it doesn't represent real benefit to potential patients. You should read Carnap, Schlick, other logical positivists. They're kind of laughed at by post-analytic philosophers today but they really helped clarify standing issues around meaning and language. While they have have been over ambitious, in limited contexts (and I think medicine is not a bad example) their proposed systems of language and meaning find real applicability even if psychology is cited as a popular counterexample (positivist interest in medicine was treatment, not diagnosis per se).
   
   

   The third major factor in suicide risk is desensitization to self harm, which I’ve never engaged in. Unfortunately if you don’t feel anything from physical harm it becomes much easier.

   
   I don't deny that self harm is a real problem for many people but sometimes I think our society stigmatizes voluntary induction of pain unfairly. I think it can be a valuable. A sort of reverse sublimation, the transformation of complex psychological pain into a baser, more easily resolved physical isomorph. I think most people who look at self harm as a psychological disorder would accept preference for pain in a sexual context as being healthy which I think is an inconsistent position. Sure context matters, but I don't think sexualization is the exclusive force that can justify the pleasurability or desirability of pain.
   
   On a side note, have you ever watched I Heart Huckabees? There's a scene that relates to that, but I'd be interested in your opinion on the film in general. I'm still undecided on how I feel about it. It was really just stupid in a low of ways but it got a genuine laugh out of me now and then, bordered on authentic aburdism at points although the flavor went untastefully pseudo-acedemic at points.
   
   

   IIRC those in solitary confinement or something of that nature, maybe just isolated people, referred to themselves/used the word “I” around 10-15 times as normal. Not surprising if know no on else to talk about.

   
   Aw shit, I totally do that. I have this annoying speech (any typed speech) pattern of hedging every sentence with "I think" or "as far as I can remember" whenever I want to make a deceleration. I kinda hate it, but I don't really know how to speak/type differently. When I was a kid I remember there was this one off class on "conflict resolution" (some kid probably beat the shit out of another so the faculty felt this was necessary) and the only thing I remember from it was the advice to use "I-statements" like instead of being all like "you're a fucking cunt nick" you rephrase it to be like "I feel like what you did was highly cuntly". I wonder if I picked up the habit from there.
   
   

   I was actally atttempting to find methods to inflict high levels without causing physical damage because I felt it might be therapeutic, distract (It reminds me of a scene from House, over 8 years ago, where he enacts blunt forcr trauma to his hand in order to distract from the pain of his leg, possibly when going through withdrawals from vicodin, IIRC).

   
   Hey, I remember that. He specifically used a pestle, then lied about slamming it in a car door. And I remember being like "wait, why does he have a mortar and pestle in his office?", sure he was a doctor but it wasn't like he was making medicine in his office or something. Gotta say, that show has not aged well.
9. 2016-07-08 at 10:01 PM UTC in you're more likely to die by taking a selfie than dying by a shark attack
   

   Lanny Bird of Courage
   [greentext]>telegraph.co.uk[/greentext]
   
   I'm not giving those cunts even a fraction of a penny (probably multiple pounds when converted to the newly worthless britbucks). I double checked that I have precaching off just to make sure they don't get anything from me. Nothing reeks of degeneracy and ignorance more than the telegraph. It's like malt liquor and fat housewives with nothing better to do had a retarded hate child and that kid smeared it's shit on a piece of paper which was then published incredibly widely with uncanny SEO so the general level of discourse within western civilization could be maximally degraded.
   
   I'm almost convinced it's a plot by the chinks to justify nuclear war against us and if it's not it probably should be.
10. 2016-07-08 at 9:47 PM UTC in What's "your drink"?
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Ostensibly that reduces to your go-to alcohol, the kind of thing the bartender starts making when you walk through the door if you're a barfly, beer doesn't count. Also, if you know it, what are your parents drinks? I was at a bar with some people a few weeks ago and a dude ordered an old fashioned, people looked at him kinda wierd because this is San Francisco and people are into faggy drinks that involve flowers and eggs and not a lot of alcohol, and his response was "it was my dad's drink, now it's my drink" and I thought that was kinda interesting.
    
    Anyway, for me it's a gin gimlet. My dad was into vodka martinis because he was bitch made when it came to drinking, my mom drinks gin and tonics.
    
    Something kinda funny; my grandpa was born in Tennessee but moved to California as a teenager, grew up in the depression era in a very poor household but managed to work his way up to fairly high society, belonged to various professional societies over the years, lives in one of the nicest (by popular opinion at least) areas of southern california. Once you get to know him the tension between a "low class" upbringing and his current situation is clearly an important part of his psychology. Anyway, he drinks bourbon manhattans, the kind of symbolism there always tickled me, like I think of bourbon as being generally cheap, vaguely southern, proletariat, but mix it with some french wine and serve it in a cocktail glass and it becomes something you'd find in a tastefully decorated, if somewhat dimly lit, bar with aging patrons.
    
    Now u
11. 2016-07-06 at 5:23 PM UTC in Blunder's Social Progress Blog
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage

    I've already done the dank method excluding that shitty "communicate via memes" shit. What the fuck is that? Fucking h3h3 generation.

    
    Uhh, remember that time you posted pretending to be a robot for like two weeks?
    
    Actually, remember basically your entire posting history?
12. 2016-07-06 at 2:09 AM UTC in Lauren Mayberry appreciation bread, NiS edition.
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    /mu/ circa 2013 was pretty entertaining, sharethreads had good content and genre generals had actual discussion, or at least sufficiently humorous shitposting. Everyone called it shit for being a hipster board which is exactly what turned it into an actual shit board.
13. 2016-07-06 at 2:05 AM UTC in Boys who rape should all be destroyed
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage

    IA feminist group at the local university recruited me to join their rally against the rape culture in america. And I'm going to do it.

    
    
14. 2016-07-04 at 9:55 PM UTC in Where the fuck is everybody?
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Is there anything you don't think is a conspiracy theory?
15. 2016-07-04 at 8:26 PM UTC in I want to write a novel
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Outlines are for pussies. Stream of consciousness is the only acceptable literary form in 2016. The secret to success is to handwrite everything because that's what makes it authentic.
16. 2016-07-04 at 8:19 PM UTC in The retarded thread: Fuck, §m£ÂgØL made one first edition
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    I've never tried killing myself but I'm pretty sure that doesn't get me out of the failure category
17. 2016-07-04 at 10:13 AM UTC in I don't even know why people try to make book forums anymore
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    It's wierd, you talk about MDMA like it's some transcendent thing and classical psychedelics like they're nothing.. Can't say I've tried anything labeled MDMA directly but MAPB-5 and 6 and FA-4 and all of them were fun but nothing even touched on the mind-fuck transformative experience that lysergamides have been for me.
    
    Regardless tho, Dickens is, always has been, and for ever will be, shit.
18. 2016-07-04 at 9:58 AM UTC in Where the fuck is everybody?
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    I just had to read through like most of a 5 page wiki article about some washed up kung fu nigger to learn that fag died of the ole choke and stroke.
    
    Jesus, I'll google some dumb shit for just about any old reason these days.
19. 2016-07-04 at 9:50 AM UTC in I don't even know why people try to make book forums anymore
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    Never read The Great Gatsby! It was always set up in contrast to Catcher in the Rye which is a book I never really felt any love for but have sort of come around to have a certain nostalgia for, obviously a book you've read. I probably don't use most those words very often, and authenticity is something that I think about a lot, but then I don't use any words very often and I don't really know what an authentic person looks like any more. I don't really see how MDMA is going to make the quality of posters on literature fan forums improve and correspondingly how it's going to make me happier, but hell, if it's a drug I guess I'll give it a try.
20. 2016-07-04 at 8:59 AM UTC in I don't even know why people try to make book forums anymore
    

    Lanny Bird of Courage
    I have this routine, I read a book that engages me on some level. Maybe I like it, maybe I don't, but it has the positive quality that it makes me want to talk to someone about it. Sometimes I want to yell about it, sometimes I want to speak quietly about my feelings around the subject of that book. But in any case it feels somehow significant to convey my impressions to someone else. In these dark moments of my life, wherein I don't know any real flesh and blood humans who have read this particular work, I turn to the internet to engage in conversation. It is at such times that I am confronted with "internet literature forums" and I come to doubt the fundamental faith in humanity that previously underlined my participation in society. Here I see people who not only manage to spectacularly manage to miss the point of the book in question but manage to embody it's (fairly shallow, obvious) point in their vapid fucking heinous replies. Like I read what these people have to say and I think "why the fuck did this dipshit even bother reading the book? Why not just watch american idol or something and save some time?". Man, intellectual elitism bothers me but on an authentic level I just can't sympathise people who take time out of their day to post on a forum who don't apparently have then capacity to read a book on a fucking book forum. Like jesus, I get it, sometimes my gut can't handle literature or whatever, but ostensibly these people have actually managed to grasp the skeletal structure of the novels they think they're making commentary on and yet the most simple devices of allusion or allegory are totally lost on their frankly transparent proletariat psychologies.
    
    Like yeah, I'm up my own ass with self indulgence but got DAMN you'd think people who went through the effort of seeking out a literature forum would have the base level intelligence to discriminate between INTENSE STUPIDITY and not obviously bad taste