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beccaelizabethI keep failing at basic functions. Is not cool.
But this week I am determined to be kind of functional.
I did ordering food and will soon have many foods. At the moment I kind of accidentally emptied the freezer. I mean there's one packet in each drawer, but that's a bit not good. And I emptied the pasta cupboard. ... I have a cupboard that is pasta, because only one shop would send me pasta, so I had to make a minimum order entirely out of pasta. Except this week Sainsburys promises to sell me pasta! Yaays! ... but I still ordered the same cupboard full of pasta, so I shall now have Many pasta. But also all my other foods. So I win.
I woke up at like 3 in the morning and I only went to sleep at midnight. I tried getting back to sleep but it only a bit worked, and then after it got light. I was dreaming all sorts, like MacGyver sliding down some planks to get up momentum to throw a javelin really far. Or a whole thing where people were trying to prove whether or not Eliot Spencer was fictional. Which was funnier because in that universe he was not fictional, he was just too badass to be believed. And then there was the part where someone was pointing a gun at me so I shot them with the gun I had concealed under a book, which only hit them in the leg but they passed out. So then I was rushing to do first aid and sent someone to call an ambulance, and then the someone came back and said that with the riots it might be an hour before the ambulance, and the unconscious guy woke up in less than five minutes cause I was timing it and that was good for his health but bad for mine since he turned out to have a second gun. And he was really emphatic about not putting pressure on the injury, even though that meant bleeding. He was too paranoid for first aid and he was just going to bleed to death, possibly after shooting me. I realise it's traditional for action heroes to only care about the bit where they don't get shot, but it's waaaaay more stressful to care about trying to save the maximum lives, I tell you. So that was not a relaxing set of sleeps.
None of the people who said they'd email me back last week have in fact emailed me back. And I got no answer to the potentially super important email I sent neither. I could do the same set of emails all over again this week. It probably wouldn't help.
Also I'm not sure I'm very coherent so probably I shouldn't emails.
Ugh.
It's annoying when you reach the point that anything you could do to improve stuff (ie get bed fixed, buy mattress) requires spoons that you'll only regen once you have fixed stuff (by sleeping in nice bed instead of under loud people by the front door).
And i'm only up because the post lady dialled to get in instead of the trade button working.
... before that I was reading about Roman Republic legal structures, but in theory sleep was still a possibility.
... I got really annoyed with the book full of alternate universes I was reading because it never mentions slaves except in the context of the confederacy. It has a whole bunch of Romes, some of them surviving many many centuries, but it doesn't mention slaves. It has reached the point where I turn the page and just grump 'what about the slaves???' Because I was reading about slavery and one estimate had like 1/3 of Rome being actually slaves? And the whole growing things economy only worked because the soldiers sent captives home to be slaves to replace them working in the fields. That's why they could have an army all the time and not go home for harvest etc and not starve. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying, but I've only found simples web pages so far. I need a proper book. But my point is, if you're going to send a bunch of adventurers into an alternate universe, they really, really, really need to know about slaves. Because how do they prove they're not one? And what are their odds of ending up one? And, most importantly, isn't the only moral campaign to have once you get there to be freeing the slaves? But no, no mentioning slaves, slaves are that bad guy thing that shall mostly be ignored while we go on about the glory of Rome. It wasn't glory, it was messes. So anything going on about the glorious Roman war machine that leaves out the bit about how they can continue to eat is just not doing economics properly. And I get annoyed.
Also annoying in alternate universes is the habit of this book and other sources of assuming that if the USA doesn't enter WWII then the Germans win. America obviously did good and brave things during that war, but the Russians chewed hell out of the German army. I know that complicates the bad guy concept, but if they're doing history then they kind of need to. I think a few more of these alts need to read about the eastern front. ... also I need to read a lot more about China, because I keep bumping into big ignorance whenever I read anything.
Finally there's the teensy tiny sexism problem evident all over the place. I mean, sexism in RPGs, not new, but sexism in alternate universes compounds RPG sexism and historical sexism to get absolute messes. The GURPS Infinite Worlds setting has the official bad guys be a branch based on Eleanor of Aquitaine doing something cool enough to nudge all subsequent history, which resulted in the rise of a race and gender equal meritocracy... which is the bad guys. WTF? Whose plan was that? I know there's a box to make them the also-good guys but on the whole they're treated like they're evil idiots who do oppression in teh cause of... social justice? And, like, ugh. But also in the whole book so far there's only one other alt where a woman's actions change everything... no, wait, two if you count 'marrying Tesla', but the way it tells it is really all about Tesla. The other one is the matriarchy founded by Boadicea. And that's just really ignorant. I mean, the options are not 'patriarchy everywhere forever' and 'matriarchy'. As far as I've read in history books that mention women, Celts had (more) equal inheritance laws and could have women in charge no problems, and it was the Roman epic fail to get their heads around this concept that kicked everything off with Boadicea. So if she won, there would not be matriarchy, there would be equality. But this is only one interpretation of the historical record, and I've read a lot more books that don't mention it than do. Because history is his story and it's annoying. But this alternate history thing retells everything worse and more sexist than actual history was, and leaves out women where I know very well they were. Also has multiple alts where Elizabeth I was somehow not queen, but no alts where Henry V was not king, just for instance. It's really annoying.
Whenever I read RPG gameworlds I want to make them sit down and read actual history, because far less sexist. And this alt history thing is just frustratingly worse, because it's not even pretending to be fantasy, it's saying these are branch point worlds. Just with more sexism, because of course sexism.
Ugh.
I'm going back to bed. Maybe sleep this time.
But this week I am determined to be kind of functional.
I did ordering food and will soon have many foods. At the moment I kind of accidentally emptied the freezer. I mean there's one packet in each drawer, but that's a bit not good. And I emptied the pasta cupboard. ... I have a cupboard that is pasta, because only one shop would send me pasta, so I had to make a minimum order entirely out of pasta. Except this week Sainsburys promises to sell me pasta! Yaays! ... but I still ordered the same cupboard full of pasta, so I shall now have Many pasta. But also all my other foods. So I win.
I woke up at like 3 in the morning and I only went to sleep at midnight. I tried getting back to sleep but it only a bit worked, and then after it got light. I was dreaming all sorts, like MacGyver sliding down some planks to get up momentum to throw a javelin really far. Or a whole thing where people were trying to prove whether or not Eliot Spencer was fictional. Which was funnier because in that universe he was not fictional, he was just too badass to be believed. And then there was the part where someone was pointing a gun at me so I shot them with the gun I had concealed under a book, which only hit them in the leg but they passed out. So then I was rushing to do first aid and sent someone to call an ambulance, and then the someone came back and said that with the riots it might be an hour before the ambulance, and the unconscious guy woke up in less than five minutes cause I was timing it and that was good for his health but bad for mine since he turned out to have a second gun. And he was really emphatic about not putting pressure on the injury, even though that meant bleeding. He was too paranoid for first aid and he was just going to bleed to death, possibly after shooting me. I realise it's traditional for action heroes to only care about the bit where they don't get shot, but it's waaaaay more stressful to care about trying to save the maximum lives, I tell you. So that was not a relaxing set of sleeps.
None of the people who said they'd email me back last week have in fact emailed me back. And I got no answer to the potentially super important email I sent neither. I could do the same set of emails all over again this week. It probably wouldn't help.
Also I'm not sure I'm very coherent so probably I shouldn't emails.
Ugh.
It's annoying when you reach the point that anything you could do to improve stuff (ie get bed fixed, buy mattress) requires spoons that you'll only regen once you have fixed stuff (by sleeping in nice bed instead of under loud people by the front door).
And i'm only up because the post lady dialled to get in instead of the trade button working.
... before that I was reading about Roman Republic legal structures, but in theory sleep was still a possibility.
... I got really annoyed with the book full of alternate universes I was reading because it never mentions slaves except in the context of the confederacy. It has a whole bunch of Romes, some of them surviving many many centuries, but it doesn't mention slaves. It has reached the point where I turn the page and just grump 'what about the slaves???' Because I was reading about slavery and one estimate had like 1/3 of Rome being actually slaves? And the whole growing things economy only worked because the soldiers sent captives home to be slaves to replace them working in the fields. That's why they could have an army all the time and not go home for harvest etc and not starve. I'm sure I'm oversimplifying, but I've only found simples web pages so far. I need a proper book. But my point is, if you're going to send a bunch of adventurers into an alternate universe, they really, really, really need to know about slaves. Because how do they prove they're not one? And what are their odds of ending up one? And, most importantly, isn't the only moral campaign to have once you get there to be freeing the slaves? But no, no mentioning slaves, slaves are that bad guy thing that shall mostly be ignored while we go on about the glory of Rome. It wasn't glory, it was messes. So anything going on about the glorious Roman war machine that leaves out the bit about how they can continue to eat is just not doing economics properly. And I get annoyed.
Also annoying in alternate universes is the habit of this book and other sources of assuming that if the USA doesn't enter WWII then the Germans win. America obviously did good and brave things during that war, but the Russians chewed hell out of the German army. I know that complicates the bad guy concept, but if they're doing history then they kind of need to. I think a few more of these alts need to read about the eastern front. ... also I need to read a lot more about China, because I keep bumping into big ignorance whenever I read anything.
Finally there's the teensy tiny sexism problem evident all over the place. I mean, sexism in RPGs, not new, but sexism in alternate universes compounds RPG sexism and historical sexism to get absolute messes. The GURPS Infinite Worlds setting has the official bad guys be a branch based on Eleanor of Aquitaine doing something cool enough to nudge all subsequent history, which resulted in the rise of a race and gender equal meritocracy... which is the bad guys. WTF? Whose plan was that? I know there's a box to make them the also-good guys but on the whole they're treated like they're evil idiots who do oppression in teh cause of... social justice? And, like, ugh. But also in the whole book so far there's only one other alt where a woman's actions change everything... no, wait, two if you count 'marrying Tesla', but the way it tells it is really all about Tesla. The other one is the matriarchy founded by Boadicea. And that's just really ignorant. I mean, the options are not 'patriarchy everywhere forever' and 'matriarchy'. As far as I've read in history books that mention women, Celts had (more) equal inheritance laws and could have women in charge no problems, and it was the Roman epic fail to get their heads around this concept that kicked everything off with Boadicea. So if she won, there would not be matriarchy, there would be equality. But this is only one interpretation of the historical record, and I've read a lot more books that don't mention it than do. Because history is his story and it's annoying. But this alternate history thing retells everything worse and more sexist than actual history was, and leaves out women where I know very well they were. Also has multiple alts where Elizabeth I was somehow not queen, but no alts where Henry V was not king, just for instance. It's really annoying.
Whenever I read RPG gameworlds I want to make them sit down and read actual history, because far less sexist. And this alt history thing is just frustratingly worse, because it's not even pretending to be fantasy, it's saying these are branch point worlds. Just with more sexism, because of course sexism.
Ugh.
I'm going back to bed. Maybe sleep this time.
no subject
Date: 2016-04-25 03:36 pm (UTC)