Lý sự pclouds

It was the night before Hogswatch

Dum dum dum!!!

Hogswatch was coming, but Hogfather was dead. Well gods don't die the same way humans do. But for the sake of this poor summary let's say he's dead.

Only Death noticed this. And he knew what it would cause. So he set out to save the world. As Death of Rats puts it

"The rat says your grandad's gone mad," said the raven. "Say he's pretending to be the Hogfather."

Death put on red clothes, and some cushion because Death is... rather skinny. No skin in fact. Death practiced Ho ho ho. Death went down the chimney to leave presents. Death went to store to do the same thing.

But Death is not equipped to deal with all the complications of humans. Case in point, he had problems with fairness. It's probably fair to say Death has first sight. It's just impossible for Death, a force of nature, to even see illusions. First sights are never pretty. First sights are where Terry Pratchett shines.

On his way to all the chimneys in the world, he "accidentally" dropped by one where his granddaughter was babysitting. Yes, Death's granddaughter. No, not biologically of course, no author is that insane. Long story, but the Death "genes" run in the family somehow and Susan Sto Helit inherits some of his power.

She was trying hard to be normal. When you are related to Death, you will understand, I'm sure. She was not happy to see the grandfather doing something very un-grandfather-y. She set out to fix things. Again.

She enrolled the help of the God of Hangover (or, the "ohh... god") and went to ask the wizards. As the rule of thumb, whenever something is wrong, the wizards are probably involved.

The wizards at Unseen University were not the culprits this time, surprisingly. But they also noticed strange things. Gods (or rather, spiritual creatures) appeared out of nowhere, like mushrooms. The Verruca Gnome. The Cheerful Fairy. The Eater of Pencils. And Eater of Socks...

With the help of Hex (ha ha), one of the thinking machines in this world. It was explained that there's probably some sort of law of conservation of beliefs. When people stopped believing in Hogfather, so all that had to go somewhere and it created plenty of new gods.

The wizards finally helped the God of Hangover to become sober for a bit, so he could remember what happened, to him and hopefully to the Hogfather. He remembered a place with a blue sky above, overhead but not around the edges. A strange place that Susan believed she knew.

She went to the place with the God of Hangover. It's a child's picture. A child imagination. There's always the sky above, a tree on the side, a blocky house, and green grass. It's where the Tooth Fairy lived. Oh right, Susan noticed the Tooth Fairy went missing earlier. Let's skip the Biers.

It's a child imagination. There are monsters. But there is no death. You never tell a child somebody is dead, you tell them the person has "gone away". And that's how it is in this world. When somebody "dies" they just "go away". Disappear. Precisely why Death could not come here and "accidentally" bumped into his granddaughter, causing her to do all this.

It's an old magic. So old nobody believes it's magic anymore. When you get hold of something of someone, you control them. It could be a lock of hair. Or it could be a tooth. With a lot of teeth, you could control a lot of people. Children or who used to be children. Make them stop believe in the Hogfather. A God exists because someone believes in him. When no one does, the God... goes away.

Susan confronted the assassin Teatime and beat him. She's well prepared for this. She's a babysitter after all and this is a child's place. It is revealed that the first ever Tooth Fairy was in fact, the first ever Bogeyman. It was not always about scaring the kids. It protected them. It collected all the teeth and hid them, so that no one could control them. Obviously it failed because Teatime found a way anyway.

Let's make a detour back to the beginning. Teatime was hired by the Auditors to kill the Hogfather. He's the one assassin that even other assassins were afraid of. He's probably the only one who ever considered killing a god, such as Hogfather. He almost made it.

But why did the Auditors did this? They don't like humans. They like the way the world is, without all the messiness of lives. They broke the rules. They interfered.

But why Hogfather? What makes humans human? The answer in this case is hope and belief. Or generally, to me, imagination. Why kill a man physically when you could just kill him mentally? He's no longer a man (sounds a lot more like 1984). If Teatime succeeded killing Hogfather, humans would have been no more. Or as Death puts it, the sun would not have risen tomorrow.

This is a Christmas story and of course it ends with a happy ending. The Hogfather was rescued in the end. Death went back to his usual business. Susan tried to be normal one more time. There's a lot of funny bits that I skipped, otherwise I would have to type the entire novel here.

Ayy.. one bit at least. The Unseen University's motto is "η β π". It reads "Eta Beta Pi", or "Eat A Better Pie". Being a wizard is about eating. All the wand waving business is just secondary.

A funny yet thoughtful story. A rather typical Discworld novel. It's surprising that, given its rating 4/5, I have only read it twice, the first time a decade ago. There's only 12 books rated 5/5. Perhaps I was busy. Perhaps I lost my way. Or myself. Oh well. Merry Christmas. See Death next year!

(Still from Hogfather)

I will give you a lift back, said Death, after a while.

"Thank you. Now... tell me..."

What would have happened if you hadn't saved him?

"Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"

No.

"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."

The sun would not have risen.

She turned on him.

"It's been a long night, Grandfather! I'm tired and I need a bath! I don't need silliness!"

The sun would not have risen.

"Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"

A mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world.

They walked in silence for a moment.

"Ah," said Susan dully. "Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that."

I am nothing if not literal-minded. Trickery with words is where humans live.

"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable."

Really? As if it was some kind of pink pill? No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where falling angel meets the rising ape.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little---"

Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

Yes. Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.

"They're not the same at all!"

You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me once atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet--- Death waved a hand. And yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some... some rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point---"

My point exactly.

She tried to assemble her thoughts.

There is a place where two galaxies have been colliding for a million years, said Death, apropos of nothing. Don't try to tell me that's right.

"Yes, but people don't think about that," said Susan. "Somewhere there was a bed..."

Correct. Stars explode, worlds collide, there's hardly anywhere in the universe where humans can live without being frozen or fried, and yet you believe that a... a bed is a normal thing. It is the most amazing talent.

"Talent?"

Oh, yes. A very special kind of stupidity. You think the whole universe is inside your heads.

"You make us sound mad," said Susan. A nice warm bed ...

No. You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become? said Death, helping her up onto Binky.

"These mountains, " said Susan, as the horse rose. "Are they real mountains, or some sort of shadows?"

Yes.

Susan knew that was all she was going to get.

(from Hogfather)

Death looked at the sock hooked onto the side of the stove. It had a hole in it.

A letter, in erratic handwriting, was attached to it. Death picked it up

The boy wants a pair of trousers that he doesn't have to share, a huge meat pie, a sugar mouse, "a lot of toys" and a puppy called Scruff.

"Ah, sweet," said Albert, "I shall wipe away a tear, 'cos what he's gettin', see, is this little wooden toy and an apple." He held them out.

But the letter clearly---

"Yes, well, it's socio-economic factors again, right?" said Albert. "The world'd be in a right mess if everyone got what they asked for, eh?"

I gave them what they wanted in the store...

"Yeah, and that's gonna cause a lot of trouble, master. All them 'toy pigs that really work.' I didn't say nothing 'cos it was getting the job done but you can't go on like that. What good's a god who gives you everything you want?"

You have me there

"It's the hope that's important. Big part of belief, hope. Give people jam today and they'll just sit and eat it. Jam tomorrow, now---that'll keep them going forever."

And you mean that because of this the poor get poor things and the right get rich things?

"'s right," said Albert. "That's the meaning of Hogswatch."

Death nearly wailed.

But I'm the Hogfather! He looked embarrassed. At the moment, I mean.

"Makes no difference," said Albert, shrugging. "I remember when I was a nipper, one Hogswatch I had my heart set on this huge model horse they had in the shop..." His face creased for a moment in a grim smile of recollection. "I rememer I spent hours one day, cold as charity the weather was, I spent hours with my nose pressed up against the window... until they heard me callin', and unfroze me. I saw them take it out of the window, someone was in there buying it, and y'know, just for a second I thought it really was going to be for me... Oh, I dreamed of that toy horse. It was red and white with a real saddle and everything. And rockers. I'd've killed for that horse." He shrugged again. "Not a chance, of couse, 'cos we didn't have a pot to piss in and we even 'ad to spit on the bread to make it soft enough to eat---"

Please enlighten me. What is so important about having a pot to piss in?

"It's ... it's more like a figure of speech, master. It means you're as poor as a church mouse."

Are they poor?

"Well... yeah."

But surely not more poor than any other mouse? And, after all, these tend to be lots of candles and things they could eat.

"Figure of speech again, master. It doesn't have to make sense."

Oh, I see. Do carry on.

"O' course, I still hung up my stocking on Hogswatch Eve, and in the morning, you know, you know what? Our dad had put in this little horse he'd carved his very own self..."

Ah, said Death. And that was worth more than all the expensive toy horses in the world, eh?

Albert gave him a beady look. "No!" he said. "It weren't. All I could think of was it wasn't the big horse in the window."

Death looked shocked.

But how much better to have a toy carved with---

"No. Only grown-ups think like that," said Albert. "You're a selfish little bugger when you're seven. Anyway, Dad got ratted after lunch and trod on it."

Lunch?

"All right, mebe we had a bit of pork dripping for the bread..."

Even so, the spirit of Hogswatch---

Albert sighed, "If you like, master. If you like."

Death looked perturbed.

But supposing the Hogfather had broght you the wonderful horse---

"Oh, Dad would've flogged it for a couple of bottles," said Albert.

But we have been into houses where the children had many toys and brought them even more toys, and in houses like this the children get practically nothing.

"Huh, we'd have given anything to get practically nothing when I were a lad," said Albert.

Be happy with what you've got, is that the idea?

"That's about the size of it, master. A good god line, that. Don't give 'em too much and tell 'em to be happy with it. Jam tomorrow, see."

This is wrong. Death hesitated. I mean... It's right to be happy with what you've got. But you've got to have something to be happy about having. There's no point in being happy about having nothing.

Albert felt a bit out of his depth in this new tide of social philosophy.

"Dunno," he said. "I suppose people'd say they've got the moon and the stars and such like."

I'm sure they wouldn't be able to produce the paperwork.

"All I know is, if Dad'd caught us with a big bag of pricey toys we'd just have got a ding round the ear hole for nicking 'em."

It's... unfair.

"That's life, master."

But I'm not.

"I meant, this is how it's supposed to go, master," said Albert.

No. You mean this is how it goes.

Albert leaned against the stove and rolled himself one of his horrible thin cigarettes. It was best to let the master work his own way through these things. He got over them eventually. It was like that business with the violin. For three days there were nothing but twangs and broken strings, and then he'd never touched the thing again. That was the trouble, really. Everything the master did was a bit like that. When things got into his head, you just had to wait until they leaked out again.

He'd thought that Hogswatch was all... plum pudding and brandy and ho ho ho, and he didn't have the kind of mind that could ignore all the other stuff. And so it hurt him.

It is Hogswatch, said Death, and people die on the streets. People feast behind lighted windows and other people have no homes. Is this fair?

"Well, of course, that's the big issue---" Albert began.

The peasant had a handful of beans and the king had so much he would not even notice that which he gave away. Is this fair?

"Yeah, but if you gave it all to the peasant then in a year or two he'd just be as snooty as the king---" began Albert, jaundiced observer of human nature.

Naughty and nice? said Death. But it's easy to be nice if you're rich. Is this fair?

Albert wanted to argue. He wanted to say, Really? In that case, how come so many of the rich buggers is bastards? And being poor don't mean naughty, neither. We was poor when I were a kid, but we was honest. Well, more stupid than honest, to tell the truth. But basically honest.

He didn't argue, though. The master wasn't in any mood for it. He always did what needed to be done.

"You did say we just had to do this so's people'd believe---" he began, and then stopped and started again. "When it comes to fair, master, you yourself---"

I am evenhanded to the rich and the poor alike, snapped Death. But this should not be a sad time. This is supposed to be the season to be jolly. He wrapped his red robe around him. And other things ending in olly, he added.

If you keep procrastinating on X, find something worse to procrastinate on, so that you will happily do X just to avoid that! I'm a genius.

Ha! Định viết lại bài nhạc "Show me the meaning of being hungry". Tự nhiên nhớ mang máng cái gì đó quen quen. Tìm lại thấy hơn mười năm trước có viết Show me the meaning of being busy. Xừ...

I was reading an old post about Animal Farm and found the quote from 1984:

Under the spreading chestnut tree
I sold you and you sold me

The Ministry of Education(?) did a pretty good job. They completely broke two passionate and rebellious people and turned them into no more than machines to serve the Big Brother.

But that requires surveillance and even violence. Brave New World does it a better way, breaking people genetically (and probably soon after birth, can't remember well). The end result is the same. People are happy. Sort of. Brave New World ends with a suicide though so it's not as happy an ending as 1984.

But the master of breaking is Brandon Sanderson. In his Cosmere universe, where most if not all of his books are built upon, people don't often obtain new power unless they have experienced at least some pain. If they are lucky, that's just physical pain. If not, lots of trauma.

Let's start out with Wax, from Mistborn, second era. The poor guy has to kill his wife twice. Hmm.. no gain for him though, he already has his skills even before marriage.

OK let's try again with Kelsier from Mistborn, first Era. The guy was led to believe his wife betrayed him, and had his wife killed. He did become a Mistborn after. Of his crew, most people share the same luck. With the exception of Ham and Breeze, all other people don't exactly have a happy life.

This is a pretty common method in Mistborn where the mist tries to "break" the people on purpose to reveal the inner power, if they have any. The nobles actually secretly torture their own just to see if one of theirs are Misting, or even better Mistborn. Too bad if you die because you don't have any special power. But, well.

Moving on to Stormlight Archive. While trauma is not an explicit requirement, the people in this world aren't exactly happier. Kaladin wears a sad face until this day, after failing to save his brother, then his friends in Bridge Four, then I think a couple more. Depression is Kaladin's best friend. It's not even certain if he will overcome his own problems in book five.

Shallan isn't any better, to put it mildly.

He saw it in her eyes. The anguish, the frustration. The terrible nothing that clawed inside and sought to smother her. She knew. It was there, inside. She had been broken.

Then she smiled. Oh, storms. She smiled anyway.

It's no surprise that she develops multiple personalities just to hide from all the past traumas.

Others may choose something than a fake face. Dalinar follows the footsteps of Wax. It got so bad that he went to Nightwatcher to wish to forget about his wife. And he does forget. Everything about his wife, even the name. For what, everything eventually comes back. You can never escape from your past. That's what you get to be pal with Stormfather.

What else? There are plenty of other minor characters with not so happy backgroud. At least in other books of Sanderson it's not as bad.

It's a problem with books. You read to escape from this world. You forget most fantasy or science fiction books are just the mirror of the same world, just amplified in some aspect. Welcome back to the world.

You can never escape from your past. Or present. Enjoy your pain. Sometimes you gain.

PS. Hmm... may have to write a bit about Spin just to get it off my mind, again.

Idag är måndag. Igår vaknade jag klocklan sju. Jag brukar sova till klockan nio eller tio på söndagar, men jag måste tvätta igår i morgonen. Jag tvättade till klockan nio. Jag tror jag tog en tupplur igen till klocklan elva. Sedan lade jag mat. Jag lade pasta och åt lunch. Sedan diskade jag. Jag tog kanske en tupplur igen. Eftermiddag ville jag göra läxa, men jag var lat och trodde jag skulle göra imorgon. Jag gör det nu! Klockan sex åt jag middag. Sedan tittade jag på Twitch eller Youtube, kankse något datorspel. Sedan gick jag och låg mig och somnade.

Games definitely have tunes but they are usually just the background. There are exceptions.

The first and probably the most popular example is Portal and the song Still Alive. The song that actually makes the game popular. A sharp and super passive aggressive antagonist. A song with one of the best openings (probably on par with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

This was a triumph. I'm making a note here: huge success. It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.

This comes from the end game, after you beat Glados. And then she sings like that! The song probably also popularizes "We do what we must because we can".

Coming up next is Setting Sail, Coming Home from Bastion. The song is taken just as an example as the whole collection is really good.

Going long with Bastion is another good collection in Wasteland 3. But Down in the Valley to Pray could be a good introduction (and is played quite early in the game). Battle Hymn of the Republic is another good one. The songs fit so well into the theme of the game.

While not full of good songs, other games still have notable highlights. Sing For Me from Divinity Original Sin 2 could be stuck in my mind for days. For no good reason. Oh wait I know why

Come for me the night is dark. Come for me the night is long. Sing for me I'll sing along. Sing for me. I'll sing for meeee

Well, no still don't understand why.

A bit (or a lot?) more moody is Will the Circle Be Unbroken from Bioshock Infinite. The guitar is so good.

Yakuza fans most likely claim all Karaoke songs are good. Well... can't argue with fans, but 24-Hour Cinderella may be a good entry point.

Oh and of course Witcher 3 deserves a mention as well. Silver for Monters

AAAAA aaa aa aaa aa AAAAAAAAAAAAAA lelele lelele lelele lelele lelele.

OK I'm kidding. Lullaby of Woe is not bad though.

XCOM Enemy Unknown theme songs are also good. At least better than XCOM 2. And since we're drifting away from actual songs to just music, Hollow Knight has a lot of those. I still like Silksong Reveal Trailer especially near the end and the buiding up before.

This is a short and definitely incomplete list. After all I don't play games that much. Let's end this with a Good and goofy animated trailer. Well all Dead Cells trailers actually. And probably Don't Starve ones too.