(no subject)

Take your opportunities when and where you can.

This is to me the true value of SF0. +2

Burn Unit Version -- Besides all the self-revelations and exploration we get the chance to do, and new experiences we face (though arguably many of us were experience seekers already), it is when SF0 causes someone to take an opportunity they never would have thought to try but for the prompting of a task that makes me feel it is all worthwhile. Break the habits, confuse the normies, all these wonderful intersections of the trajectories. Everyone needs a little more Biome and Exxon to shake up our expectations, a little aesthematics and BARTPA to shake up our worldview, and a little humanitarian crisis and SNIDE to shake up our community. Bravo.

TLDR Version -- You climbed a big ladder and shared an experience with the repair guy, and I like that.

You kids, with your fancy lingo.

I tried to imagine just what characteristics you attributed to The Unit. Introspection? Extending a friendly, motivating hand to fellow players? Analysis of the game bordering on obsession? A strict adherence to the principles of the many and varied trajectories of desire?

Then I looked up "TLDR," and discovered what you actually meant: prolix. Perhaps I do tend to go on a bit, but surely that's not all there is to creating a Burn Unit version of a text. If it were that simple, anybody could be Burn Unit.

Oh, and also, this is a mighty fine praxis, Morte.

I heartily disagree!

I don't think anybody but Burn Unit could be Burn Unit. I mean, there's a certain Burn Unity quality that only exists in 100% genu-wine Burn Unit comments.

Burn Unit: Accept no substitutes!

And thanks.

Denotation: A, Connotation: C-

Hi BU,

The definition of the lingo is precisely what you found -- "Too Long, Don't Read". As with any conversational shorthand the meaning of the phrase is several derivations away from the literal. Usually an author will include a TLDR version of their post when there are deeper and more subtle forces at play in their comment which bear mention and may spark an interesting discussion, but you also acknowledge that most readers will skip it entirely. For those readers you give the briefest summary so that you aren't cut out of the mainstream conversation entirely.

We are prolix, and are prone to introspection and speculation more than some quality players (I'm looking at you Lincoln) will abide by in their perusal of the site. You should feel that I aspire at times to your quality of introspection and analysis, and that I do enjoy the benefits our community feels as a result of those efforts. But, in turn, we must acknowledge the impatient backlash of a vibrant internet community in a hurry to make cool things happen now, lest we fall out of touch with our constituency. Besides, in the end our self-deprecating humor is itself an introspection on our introspection, so we get our audience either way.

If only it were that simple.

It didn't need a check up, it needed a new capacitor. And as I said under the pic, I was disappointed that it didn't need a flux capacitor. :( The temp here has been yo yo-ing between 50 and 20, so just opening a window wouldn't work. The walk in cooler is kept at a standard 42 degrees year round, as this is the optimum temp where the bodies do not degrade but they also don't start to freeze (which makes them harder to embalm). I have more than one funeral home that I'm currently trying to re-educate that don't have storage coolers of any sort, so they just keep the bodies in the garage (during the winter mostly, but some of them during the summer too (EWWW)) until they get the paperwork and bring them here. This means that about 50% of those bodies I have to refuse because the decomposition has progressed to a point where even I can't fix it. Plus exposure to the elements such as opening a window would cause other problems, plus the smell, and idiots that would attempt to poke the bodies.

You would be surprised at the # of people that wander in and want to poke the bodies. *sigh*

excuse me, may I poke those dead bodies a bit?

Wow.

(no subject)

That's some sentence suzy, but I bet that IS what they say. Still, a goth girl of my acquaintance who was doing a fine arts degree also did anatomy for 2 years for exactly that reason, which is even weirder.

Great Praxis Morte, I felt for you when you talked about getting back on the ladder... It's the worst part. Oh, and a very nice photo of whatever church that is.

(no subject)

Don´t get me wrong, I pestered people a lot so they let me take anatomy too even though I wasn't going to be an MD, and it was absolutely great in a non-gothic but rather reverential/breathless-at-the-immensity/beauty/near impossibilty-of-life-as-a-clockwork way. And years before that I tried many times and succeded once at sneaking into a cadaver room (heart pounding and hands trembling for hours after) even though those bodies were old and rubbery.
So, I wasn't trying to be insensitive to either the bodies or the body poker wannabes, just wondering what kind of things does Morte has to hear from them.

Yup.

I posted a reply yesterday, so I don't know why it didn't show up. Yes, that's almost exactly what they say. Where we're located is right between a sign shop and a messenger service, so I get random guys coming up to me when I'm outside smoking asking me if I can sneak them in for a tour and can they touch the bodies when they get in there. I always refuse, because all they want to do is go back to their friends and say 'Dude! I like totally touched a dead chick! *hur hur hur*' The only non-funeral directors I have ever given a tour to is a pair of cops that stopped by. People with guns get tours if they want them...

I'm a goth, by the way, and most of the people I know in the scene find what I do creepy and disgusting, often think I'm lying in order to make myself seem more goth, and when they realize that not only am I not lying but that I actually enjoy my job they freak out and won't talk to me. Most goths are fine with the trappings and idea of death, but when faced with the reality they run away.

And I would *always* recommend that any artist take a few anatomy courses. The best way to draw something it to know it as much as possible.

(no subject)

Most goths are indeed poseurs.

"Dude, I got to see real dead bodies, and it was this hot freaky chick who showed me!" Never underestimate the "hot freaky".

On this praxis though, I think this comes perilously close to not quite qualifying. Had you put your own ladder up, it completely wouldn't have. The part where you just happened to scam on with the AC guy does, just because it was opportunistic. At least, IMO.

I wish there were a video of you getting back onto the ladder...

(no subject)

And why doesn't your alarm service call you when you get overtemps?

(no subject)

Hey Morte, sorry if I sounded a little dismissive of goths (I did realise you were one ;->) that was not my intent - sure they're mostly poseurs, but it's an entertaining pose, and I for one enjoy hanging round them....

And you're right, anatomy classes seem helpful for artists, but she didn't do human figures and her STATED reason (she might have been lying of course) was "wanted to poke bodies". You'd have thought that would have worn off after the first year, but she went back for a second year too...

(no subject)

ME: I wasn't upset with anything you said about goths. We are a subculture that parodies itself merely by existing. As to her taking the classes for that reason, well, I guess she paid the money and took the classes to do so, but it's extremely disrespectful if that's the real reason. Although, I would better believe that she was just saying that for the shock value and actually was very interested and respectful of the cadavers.

MO: Screw you and the horse you rode in on. I had to talk the guy into letting me go up. He was not the first time they had been up on the roof in the last two months and this was the first one that would let me go, #1, #2 both P and D were going to be there at any minute so there was a huge chance I would get caught and in a shitload of trouble. And what's wrong with completing praxii if the chance comes up as opposed to carefully planning it out? I thought part of the point of this was being spontaneous and creative when you could.

They do call us, but D had told them to turn the alarm off the day before.

(no subject)

Hah, the horse has always had a thing for you anyway!

I didn't say anything was bad about opportunism, it's just that planning makes opportunism work better. :-)

I have rarely heard of an instance of an alarm being disabled that did not result in immediate failure of the thing about which the alarm was going off. And why would you get in trouble for being on the roof? That AC unit is very important for your work. Did you look to see whose business the roof hatch lead into? I've got to believe that there is one, just not necessarily from your place.

(no subject)

There is no roof hatch, I looked. The alarm was going off because of a temp spike in cooler, which happens every time I open the cooler door. And I would have gotten in a lot of trouble because D would see it as poking my nose where it didn't belong and P would see it as a chance to get hurt and being where I wasn't supposed to be.

And precisely, pray tell, how do you *plan* an opportunity? Isn't part of the point of an opportunity that it is unplanned? Not everything in life should be rigidly structured and codified to the nth degree. That would take all the joy out of everything, and is a major reason that D hates me so much.

And I refuse to do so, as well. I knew I wanted to get onto that particular roof and I took the chance when it arose. I see nothing wrong with that.

(no subject) +2

You plan an opportunity by always being ready.

Always.

(no subject)

Your temp alarm goes off that often? Srsly, that should be on a 10-minute sliding window or something.

And yes, you plan for opportunity by being prepared. When the great veloicraptor apocalypse happens, you're going to survive by being lucky, and I'm going to killed by driving down to rescue you but otherwise I'd survive because I'm ready to go on relatively short notice. Do I have my "Apocalypse Bag" in the truck? No, I do have an axe in there tho!

(no subject)

No, it doesn't go off very often, only when I've got the door open for longer than 10 minutes and the outside temp is warm. For some godawful reason, the temp sensor is located right next to the door, so it is very susceptible to fluctuating temp changes due to the door opening and closing. Bad set up, I know, but nothing I can do about it now.