Kungfunurse

If the Golden Honmoon was ever achieved, it probably wouldn’t know the difference between demon and half-demon. It sees what it’s meant to banish and forces all of them below the Honmoon. Rumi could’ve ended up on the wrong side after spending her whole life building the very thing that sent her there. So much self-sacrifice, for a goal that damned her, and Rumi will only blame herself for not being human enough to be spared instead of realizing it never mattered in the first place. And a lone Hunter in the demon realm, right after the Honmoon is sealed? That’s, unfortunately, the perfect scapegoat. Even without Gwi-Ma ordering retribution, many demons would want it anyways.

On the flip side, if Jinu got what he wanted and lost such a core memory of himself? Forgetting his shame and god knows what else Gwi-Ma decided to wipe? Probably would have some pretty drastic changes in personality. How much would Gwi-Ma would take in response is another thing, because if he can remove memories, why not cause Jinu to forget the things that make him human? He asked for it, didn’t he? Why not take advantage of a newly mind wiped Jinu and mold him into someone loyal to him? Why not do whatever he wants? Jinu could be free of the shame that haunted him for centuries, but god knows what mistakes and vulnerabilities that would open him up to in return.

Two goals that could’ve (and probably even would’ve) gone very poorly for them but they were chasing anyways. And two goals, with each other’s influence, they learned to let go to embrace better things (change and acceptance; forgiveness and redemption).

A lot of traditional fantasy fans don't like it because it's, well, missing most of the stuff that we love about traditional fantasy. There is often very little character development and very little philosophical musing. There is often no nuance or complexity.

But I've seen folks say some very mean things about the subgenre and the people who like it. ... And I don't think they get the fundamental draw of LitRPG. I'm mostly coming at this as an outsider, so I could be very wrong about this; I've seen a lot of people talk about the LitRPG/progression fantasy settings they're building on r/worldbuilding and r/fantasy, and I've read a wee bit of it but not much. I'd love to see someone who reads a lot in the genre weigh in.

But it seems like the main draw of this genre, the main daydream powering the fantasy, isn't actually about the leveling up or even about the clever tricks that the heroes use when they're under-leveled. It's that in a LitRPG world, if what you can do is reduced to a number, that number means something.

Like, the whole 'isekai with power scaling based on video game mechanics' genre came from Japan and Korea, right? And it's aimed at teenagers, right? ....Think about it for a sec. Across the world, and especially in East Asia, a lot of teenagers' lives revolve around one number: their school grades (and/or test scores). If your grades suck, you are treated as subhuman until you get your shit together. If your grades are good, you are under an incredible amount of pressure to keep it that way. Your grades/test scores are A Number That Defines Your Fate.

And like, grades are a terrible measure of human worth for a whole bunch of reasons. But one of the biggest ones is that, as a high schooler, they're not actually under your control. There are absolutely things you can do to raise your grades if you're struggling, but a lot of your life circumstances, as a teenager, are defined by someone else. If your parents are fighting and keeping you up til 3 AM? Or if you get a teacher that hates you and grades you accordingly? Your grades are going to suffer, through no fault of your own, and there isn't much to be done about it. Everyone knows that The Number That Defines Your Fate is garbage, and yet you have to obsess over it, or you're going to suffer for the rest of your life.

The fantasy of LitRPG is that the Number that Defines Your Fate is an objective fact, that hard work and persistence can actually change that number for the better, and that having a higher Number makes you cool rather than 'tired, stressed out, and unable to have any time to be yourself'. It isn't focused on relationships because most of its target audience doesn't have time for relationships, romantic or otherwise. There isn't room for philosophy or nuance, because most of the kids reading this stuff are tired to death and want popcorn fiction they can read between juggling 16 different assignments.

In my favorite titles protagonists find themselves in a world with no context and with power structures revolving absolutely around NTDYF. Somehow, through witt, gritt, or luck they survive a world hell-bent on crushing them for no other reason than someone stronger exists.

Somewhere along the way as they get stronger they become accustomed to what it takes, who they have to become to survive this world. Eventually, because they've become accustomed to responding to every threat with everything they have, they inevitably respond to a situation with disproportionate force. In the ensuing horror/realization, they're confronted for the first time with the responsibility of their power. Do they become like the people/system that tried to crush them? Pursue power until they can protect themself and maybe the people they care about? Do they try to dismantle the system itself for those that will never have the means to raise their NTDYF?

This is where the Litrpg fanbase primarily splits. While stories like these explore and criticize the way we see power used/abused day to day, there is also a large part of the fan base that really enjoys titles that emphasize the pursuit of power for power's sake. Those titles tend to focus on fighting, training, and grinding out levels.

These two camps often find themselves at odds with each other! There are notable titles that fit these respective archetypes, and it's extremely common for fans of one to claim that they couldn't finish the most popular title of the other.

The latest one published on Tuesday, but as I was waiting for my pre-order, I borrowed from the library an Agatha Christie novel that I’d read in high school and remembered nothing of but the solution. It was fun to re-experience it while watching for the clues.

The newly translated Kindaichi novel has the same twist. So far I haven’t caught author Seishi Yokomizo actually borrowing a twist from a golden age detective novel (although even in this one, the execution is different enough to be a reinterpretation/homage rather than a copycat) and the first time this he’s used a recognizable ploy,

Tuesday, Wednesday tread through muck

Thursday maybe eat a duck

It’s Friday, Flat as Fuck

Have you guys seen that clip

Shockingly, however, spending most of your time in close proximity to 500 pounds of liquid mercury is Not Great For One’s Health and tons of lighthouse keepers started to go crazy from the whole. Mercury poisoning thing. Hence why there are a lot of “haunted” lighthouses or wickies that lose it and maybe do a bit of manslaughter.

In a letter written on April 19, 1825, Augustin Fresnel proposed the use of mercury to reduce the friction in revolving lenses. His statement follows: “I propose to float our rotating devices, of the first order, in a bath of mercury, instead of placing them on rollers. This project won't present many difficulties; nevertheless, as I have not put it into execution, I won't require you to adopt it for your first lighthouse.”

Fresnel’s plan for mercury flotation was not put into practice until 1890 when Monsieur Leon Bourdelles, Chief Engineer of the French Lighthouse Service, designed and built a workable mercury flotation system. The mercury bath allowed the lens to operate in an almost frictionless environment and, additionally, allowed the speed of rotation to be dramatically increased.

It mattered for optics reasons.

Under less-than-ideal conditions, you can only see the beam when it’s pointed more or less directly at you. In-between beams you would not be able to see anything. One solution to this was to create multiple beams, and the lenses Mr Fresnel designed usually created 8 beams. But, even still, duration between flashes could be as long as one minute in the old mechanical roller systems.

The nearly frictionless operation of the Mercury suspension system allowed the lenses (large pieces of precisely ground glass weighing several hundred pounds in some cases) to rotate fast enough that they could be redesigned to create fewer (usually 3) beams. Fewer beams from a similar light source will be proportionally brighter, and the gains in speed were sufficient that duration between flashes could still be reduced to as little as 10 seconds.

This was a big upgrade. It didn’t just make the lighthouse signal faster, it allowed them to completely overhaul the lens and derive more visibility from a light source.

This one hurt, her work had such a profound effect on my life, thoughts, and politics.

May her memory be a blessing

recently I started a new job that involves a lot of bending/twisting, and picking up heavy stuff, and the best way I could get myself to actually do the "lift with your knees not with your back" thing, because those instructions are kind of not detailed enough, was to instead put the instruction of "point your BUTT at the GROUND" which works better cos it makes more sense to conceptualize. trying to reach into a box under waist height? don't bend at the waist to do that, that'll hurt your back. because you stuck your butt out instead of down. instead you gotta point your butt at the ground and bend your knees instead.

Another way to think of it might be:

you are wearing a corset/safety vest/plate armour/super tight waistcoat that you’re not sure of/full binder or Spanx that you’re not 💯 sure of. Get to the ground without bending your waist and compromising this garment.

If this doesn’t mean anything particularly to you, because you haven’t worn one, then do feel free to purchase and wear a garment that forces a certain premeditation upon yourself.

Myself (and Charlie) wear an invisible corset, and use the resulting knee-movement to remind ourselves of how sexily supple and versatile we are in the knees and hips 😌

Killie would presume his back is straight and that his sit bones move down on command (as you do)

Someone like Derek, who is unsure of what “core muscles” are in the first place, might benefit from more severe instructions, like being told to balance an imaginary book on their head!