Now This Just Isn't Funny

[Eulalia]

just a case of pattern recognition under circumstances of dubious lighting

I thought the dog's waiting for her to chop a finger or two off.

Remarkably overlooked here : the Dutch! They have no reason to increase their worry level (currently : "asjemenou!"), since they simply closed all their storm barriers and feel safe now.

so long as they don't take their fingers out

 

[Silent_Water]

Thanks for such an informative post. I was curious about how our European friends are faring in this pandemic crisis.
...
But I’m pretty sure the Germans don’t like wearing fancy uniforms as much as they once did either.

Hm, there are some differences in wearing uniforms in Germany now. It might be interesting for you that there are German jobs in which you can decide for yourself if you want to wear an uniform or not. For example, in my hotel chain you can wear one but I was looking so good in my "Cary-Grant-Memorabilia"-dinner jacket that the female manager told me that I can decide myself if I want a hotel uniform but she advised me to keep my "tuxedo" at night because it looked better than the hotel uniform for her.

Another example: In the city buses of the next bigger city, the bus driving men should wear dark trousers and almost white shirts in summer and a jacket in winter. Usually, you do not really remark that this is a uniform and the men do not really seem to care about their uniforms. Completely different from that are the bus driving German women in this city. They sometimes really seem to love wearing their uniforms and some of them really seem to love their job in these often brandnew buses they drive, because this job is relatively well paid and they have a lot of responsibility ... and they are usually really very good, attentive and observant drivers - better than the men, so the bus driving women often get the newer buses and the men drive the older ones.
There are at least three of these female drivers in this city who are really very beautiful women. One of them was driving the bus which I entered on my way to work and right behind her, she also was on an advertising photo for attracting more women to become bus drivers.
The text in this picture: "In earlier times (when I was younger), I was dreaming of driving a bus. Now, I am really the bus driver!" - Next stop: Your new employment!



And she or the other woman who looks similar to her, are really the best and friendliest bus drivers I have ever witnessed. Once, an old couple behind me tried to get out of the bus and the man was really old and infirm, but his impatient younger wife told him to hurry up and move faster because the bus would have its time table and could not wait so long for him.
Then, this beautiful female bus driver was heard through the whole bus via the loudspeakers:

"I have just heard you and I can see you via my cameras and mirrors! It is me who controls this bus and I control my time table in order to comfort the passengers! Do NOT hurry up and watch your step! I will lower this bus on your side for 15 centimeters! Take your time to get comfortably out of the bus! - I can easily wait all the time until you are safely out on the pavement!"

The other passengers in this bus were partly applauding to this beautiful friendly bus driver and it is sometimes really a pleasure to meet someone who loves his job and who also is so considerately and thoughtful towards older people.

 

[fallenmystic]

Hm, there are some differences in wearing uniforms in Germany now... For example, in my hotel chain you can wear one but I was looking so good in my "Cary-Grant-Memorabilia"-dinner jacket that the female manager told me that I can decide myself if I want a hotel uniform but she advised me to keep my "tuxedo" at night because it looked better than the hotel uniform for her.

Ok, I got the message that you are a handsome man especially in a suit.

Jokes aside, yes I find it rather interesting that they let you choose to wear uniforms in Germany. When I was young, we were still under a military dictatorship and we had quite a long history of suffering a militaristic culture which dates back to the Japanese colonisation era.

So, when I was a student, uniforms were mandatory in most of schools and the boys were forced to crop their hair like soldiers. They put the children through military drills in schools, and we even had actual military training classes in which we wielded a model rifle.

I was fortunate to enter some special highschool where I didn't have to wear a uniform (I wore it when I was in middle school though) but I still had to crop my hair (after I got beaten with a baseball bat for not complying) and we went to school before 7 a.m. and stayed there until after 11 p.m. everyday. Then there's mandatory military service after you graduate the highschool... No wonder why I still have such a strong aversion to any sort of authoritarian or militaristic culture.

 

[Silent_Water]

Ok, I got the message that you are a handsome man especially in a suit.
...

Yeah, you are absolutely right!
Someone who looks better than me in my Cary-Grant-Memorabilia-Tuxedo at night under the dimmed light at this hotel's reception has to have a makeup on his face!

But I must admit, I am such an individualist that I do not really like uniforms, too. ... Except, when they have something very beautiful or unique. I think, for example, I could like to wear the uniforms of French generals which were sometimes made for a perfect fit by French fashion makers like Pierre Balmain or Yves Saint-Laurent and I like the look of these French military caps so much when only the uniform would always be in NATO's dark blue color:



Oh, I would look sooo good in such a French general's parade uniform and all the women would love to meet me in this uniform!

But I would not like to make all the military career until I get such a uniform ... it's so sad.

 

[Hugin&Munin]

When I was still working as a bus and tram driver, we also had to wear some kind of uniform, but we could decide which parts of it. Long shirt, but only with a tie, I didn't really like wearing that. I never put on my service cap or uniform jacket either. But there were also short-sleeved shirts and the dark blue or white polo shirt, the sweater vest and a softshell jacket, that had to be enough. So not everyone in Germany, in the driving service must wear uniform.

 

[Loxuru]

so long as they don't take their fingers out

Filling the holes with cheese or tulip bulbs mostly proves sufficient!

 

[Migoz2]

First, I feel the need to say:



I saw this and thought it was a spoof goodreads thing.



It isn't. If you would like to get a taste of this autumn's literary sensation, try this review........

 

[malins]

I protest against the stereotypical representation of the Virus as some second-rate Hulk! That is just prejudiced!
@montycrusto has a more precise rendering I think...

 

[Loxuru]

I protest against the stereotypical representation of the Virus as some second-rate Hulk! That is just prejudiced!
@montycrusto has a more precise rendering I think...
View attachment 907546

You are absolutely right.
Corona is a female name. She should be represented correctly!

 

[Silent_Water]

Talking about incredible (bad) books, I am sometimes fascinated by such books when they seemed to have anticipated reality.

There is a book, which is really not funny and hard to read from our point of view today. Just an example, one sentence, which is terrible enough to read, but the "funny" part is how I stumbled over it:

"As a brimming maiden, out-worn by her virginity, yields half-fainting to the dear sick stress of her desire – with just such faintings, wanton fires, does the soul, over-taxed by the continence of living, yield voluntary to the grave, and adulterously make of Death its paramour."

And now my story: I once studied "Politology" in Germany and was looking through a book's list of Germany's history between 1930 and 1945, searching via Google books in the university's very good library catalogue and found "The S.S." by Matthew Phipps Shiell, written in 1895 in Great Britain.
"Hm?", I thought: Written in 1895, really???

I read more about this book and it is a very, very bad "Gothic horror novel" about the "The Society of Sparta", which kills throughout Europe, but especially in Germany all human beings who are "inferior", "ill", "not fit enough to live through all the hardships of life" in order to make a new human race superior to all other races on Earth, but the mass murder of this "S.S." has to look like suicide.
The "secret soldiers" of this "Society of Sparta" are wearing black uniforms with skull emblems and similar logos on it to identify themselves within their secret society.

Brian W. Aldiss once said - and he hated the books and style of Shiel - he found it so terrible that history in the first half of the 20th century really seemed to have developped like from a movie script out of Shiel's nightmare horror tales.

And after having read this and being German, I always wondered if Heinrich Himmler - the real German "Reichsführer SS" - might have been a secret fan of British "Gothic horror novels" ...

M. P. Shiel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Die Kurzprosa des Inselkönigs - Der erste deutschsprachige Erzählungsband von Matthew Phipps Shiel ist erschienen, lässt aber viele Fragen unbeantwortet : literaturkritik.de

Die Kurzprosa des InselkönigsDer erste deutschsprachige Erzählungsband von Matthew Phipps Shiel ist erschienen, lässt aber viele Fragen unbeantwortet

literaturkritik.de

 

[fallenmystic]

You are absolutely right.
Corona is a female name. She should be represented correctly!
View attachment 907581

That reminds me of this dialogue from a video game called "The Cat Lady". It's a low-budget but highly original and stylish game with a strong narrative:

On a side note, I wish more people could try playing those types of video games. I believe the video games are starting to catch up the cinema when it comes to its capabilities as a narrative vehicle.

It's notable in such titles like "What Remains of Edith Finch" which show how can video games can even surpass films in that regard, exploiting their unique advantage of having an interactive environment as the story's background - it can't get any more immersive when you can actually talk with the characters or even become one. I can't wait to see how VR would take it to an even higther level.

 

[Praefectus Praetorio]

Some artists make incredible likenesses.
View attachment VIDEO-2020-02-10-03-32-52.mp4

 

[Silent_Water]

... I can't wait to see how VR would take it to an even higher level.

Mhm, you might know that we Germans are really good in playing the "advocatus diaboli" in order to bring enthusiastic people from their idealistic heavens down to earth or even lower into their personal hell.
Don't you think there might be a danger in playing more and more realistic video games?
We are already having special psychological departments for young people who are addicted to some video games. I know one story about a young man who was brought to a psychologist because he did nothing else but playing one of these games. OK, his father said, we must do something with you because you are no more working or interacting with real people and you don't have a girlfriend.
- But yes, I have one. I met her at the moon lake!
- Where is this moon lake?
- Well, it is certainly in the video game ... but I really met her in real life which is not so interesting ...

And in the most famous German weekly science fiction dime novel "Perry Rhodan" which is still running since 1961 (!), the human beings from Earth are the heirs of the galactic empire of Arkon, which is on the decline for centuries after all the Arkonides became addicted to the most perfect video-computer-game that was ever developped.
(The Empire of Arkon did only still exist because computers and their automatic robot starship fleet were the emergency government of this empire!)

How will you make sure to stay in the real world after reaching the highest possible level of an almost perfect video game?

 

[fallenmystic]

Don't you think there might be a danger in playing more and more realistic video games?... How will you make sure to stay in the real world after reaching the highest possible level of an almost perfect video game?

But why do I have to stay in the real world when I can be somewhere more fascinating and beautiful than my 3-square-meter room which I share with a few spiders?

Seriously though, I don't find it any more dangerous than becoming a cinephile. And nowadays, I often find my gaming experience to be more rewarding than what I can get with watching films.

And generally speaking, the kind of video games that I play is the least addictive kind. There are many different genres of video games nowadays and it's mostly those games in which you compete with other people to win that could be dangerously addictive. The interactive story games, on the other hand, are much less addictive because it's more or less like watching films and you are not even supposed to "win" anything.

It's just a different way of enjoying a fictional story, which can be much more immersive than other traditional media can be due to its highly interactive nature.

Furthermore, I regard those works of art which I've been fortunate to be able to enjoy, like songs, films, novels to be one of the most important reasons why I still find living worthwhile. It's just that in my case, the list also includes a few video games. Certain video games show originality and innovative ways of telling a story that I wouldn't hesitate to rank them among my favourite songs and films.

Such memories and sentiments I gathered from those works are something I value more than anything else and I wouldn't trade them even with a large sum of money.

Aesthetical or artistic values aside, I'm also much excited with the prospect what a VR device and future 3D technology could achieve in the realm of dark fantasies I enjoy. Just imagine you could vividly experience what it feels like being a slave girl or a victim of crucifixion (or an owner or an executioner, depending on your taste) without any real life consequences. Who wouldn’t want to have such an experience? (I mean among our members on CF, obviously )

We almost have such a technology now, and even the current generation consumer grade VR device can make people immerse themselves into a virtual world so completely that they take it to be real. It’s not the graphics that can fool people in such a way as we don’t take such life like images we see on a TV screen for real, for instance. But when your whole peripheral vision is showing an image synchronized with your motions, our brain works in an interesting way to persuade us to take as the “reality”.

Add to that the ability to become a character in a fictional world and to talk and interact with other people or the environment, then probably a VR video game could be quite an addictive one, I have to admit.

But it’d be a sort of addiction which I would rather welcome than avoid, so I’m more excited than concerned of the prospect when it comes to the advancement of video games and the related technology.

 

[Silent_Water]

Hm, OK, I understand the enjoying of video games but I am also afraid of the possibilities to be one day manipulated by such games without remarking it - or remarking it too late.

The French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville wrote already in 1835 (!), that the dangers of a peaceful democracy - and in those days, he took the new democratic system of the USA as an example - in the future could be the everlasting search of its people for an entertaining distraction, forgetting to care not only for themselves but also for their neighbours or their friends, living only for themselves or their closest family and their own distraction, having no feeling any more for the nation as a whole or for politics at all.

So in the end, according to Tocqueville, a caring democratic state, caring for every needs of its citizens, could turn them into a herd of sheep which forget how to care or how to fight for themselves or for their rights, believing everything what the government says because it cared so good for everything in the past that the people would think, this living in relative security could and would last forever - and the government will no more tell the real dangers to the people because they would no more know how to care or fight for themselves anyway - because the majority of the people became in fact - living for decades or centuries in peace and absolute security - "a silly herd of sheep" - which could also be exploited by a future government who remarks how silly the people have become, believing everything what the government says without questioning it anymore ...

 

[malins]

caring for every needs of its citizens, could turn them into a herd of sheep which forget how to care or how to fight for themselves

reminiscent also of the 1909 short story, The Machine Stops, short enough for a read online,

Quarantine Reading: "The Machine Stops"

Thinking about our digitally mediated lives with E. M. Forster's 1909 short story

theconvivialsociety.substack.com

 

[fallenmystic]

Hm, OK, I understand the enjoying of video games but I am also afraid of the possibilities to be one day manipulated by such games without remarking it - or remarking it too late...

I think understand your position and I'm certainly not inclined to force anyone to change one's opinions on such a matter. It's a matter of personal taste after all.

Still, I find it a bit ironic that you've mentioned the possibility of the government's using video games for such a purpose. In my country, the government has been consistently hostile to the video game industry which is something not difficult to imagine considering how Korean parents want to keep their children like 15-16 hours a day in school, forcing them to do nothing but study.

On the other hand, the last military government we had which lasted until the late 80s had pursued what they called "The 3S Policy" which stands for "Sex, Sports, and Screen", to distract the people from taking too much interest in politics, like you were concerned of. As such, both the sports and the movie industry had given quite a boost from the government at that time, which probably have helped to make the country one of the last remaining cinema powerhouses in the world besides Hollywood.

In contrast, the government has heaped regulations upon regulations on the gaming industry, and they even proposed to make them pay a certain amount of their sales revenue (not profit!) as a special tax because those companies are making money by selling dangerous products to children, in their mind.

I think the lesson we can get from this is that an undemocratic government can use any tools - not just video games - to tame the population, while sometimes art can flourish even when it was endorsed by powerful people with less honourable motives, possibly because it's the nature of art that it can sometimes transcends and even corrects such concerns like temporary power struggles or our greed for profit.

 

[fallenmystic]

On a side note, I lament the fact that the video game industry seems to be suffering from the same problem as cinema does. Nowadays, the production cost of a major video game title roughly matches that required to shoot a block buster film (a popular game called "The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare", for example costed about 298 million dollars to produce, adjusting for the inflation since then).

And just like how only such sort of films that would be understood by anyone because it mostly sticks to a proven formula (e.g. the hero films) get all the investment, truly innovative and meaningful video games are mostly coming from much smaller studios and indie developers.

"The Cat Lady" could be one of such an example. I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but it certainly has a very original art style and a strong narrative. The depiction of manic depression in that game, for example, is very realistic and serves its purpose greatly to drive the plot. But the whole game was mostly produced by a single person with a budget around $2,500, because major studios are mostly interested in making shooters or puzzle games, as a gory, stylish psychological thriller dealing with a depression and suicide isn't something they can make a lot of money out of.

As such, I have to wonder what sort of games such people can make if we can give them just a half the money they used to make Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.

I'm just glad that many indie developers have been quite ingenious in finding ways to create original games with minimal amount of budget (like the case with "Her Story", for example, where the entire game consists of managing video clips recorded in the same room of the same actress). But I certainly hope the things could change in future so that I can expect both artistic and BDSM video games made with sufficient budget from big studios.

Sorry for prolonging the discussion on this subject. It's one of the topics that I can be the most passionate about, so I couldn't help.

 

[Crux-Emperor Baracus X]

 

[phillpain]

polar bear nice one