Honestly, I could deal with Adrian’s shenanigans just fine. That whole thing was supposed to be over the top, so they shifted most of his story to non-canonical status. I understood why, at the time. But then, the main storyline moved on to a lot of odd muscle porn stuff that was kinda not important to the story. I was dealing with that when I came across a thread lamenting the fact that the actual Gilgamesh of ancient legend was coming into the story as a living character somehow. I read ahead to confirm, and then I gave up. It was just one ridiculous bridge too far. The beautiful HFY story I’d started reading all the way back with Kevin Jenkins (whose character transformed in some nonsensical ways himself) was just too off the rails for me at that point. Add the dismissive treatment of female characters later on, and it was just another story ruined for me. So many great characters and so much unrealized potential…

There were some seriously emotional stories in the Jenkinsverse, but there were so many side stories that went nowhere. I’ve just been disappointed too many times to continue to sort through it all.

If you liked it all, more power to you. It had some pretty fantastic moments. It just transformed too far away from what I enjoyed about it for me to continue.

It’s just the ice wall on the edge of the flat earth. Checkmate, globe-lovers!

/s

God, I’m still so sad that that universe went so off the rails. It’s like the GoT of online fiction.

Making an important distinction, my friend.

I tried explaining universal precautions to a pastor of a church I was attending, and pointed out that there is a Christian commandment to love one’s neighbor that overrides one’s personal desires. He could not dispute my points, but he also didn’t do anything to implement safety procedures.

Guess who left the church after the unsurprising COVID outbreak?

I realize a lot of people here aren’t believers, but my point is that even within the context of religion or common wisdom, masks make sense.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how decades of lead in gasoline, pipes, and in other places likely damaged generations of people’s ability to reason. I’m sincerely beginning to think this is a bigger problem than we’ll ever truly know.

RIP SGU

Didn’t gun control ramp up when the Black Panthers started exercising their rights to bear arms? Funny thing is the Panthers seem much more like a “well-regulated militia” than this Wild West, permitless carry, anything goes BS.

People act like their mamas never told 'em to cover their damned mouths when they cough or sneeze. It’s the same damned thing, only masks work much better at keeping your filthy germs from infecting other people.

Common sense ain’t common, they say, and this anti-mask nonsense is just proof that it’s true.

The high level of sheer incompetence at all levels, but especially in management. I’m lucky to work with competent folks directly, but the sheer amount of work created by stupidity outside of my department is soul-crushing. I can present definitive proof of systemic failures all day long, and no one is interested in doing a damned thing if the people or departments in question are politically powerful within the organization. Neither I nor my immediate colleagues are perfect, but we acknowledge our failures and try to create solutions. So many others, though, seem so invested in the status quo beyond all reason.