Andrew Roach @ajroach42@retro.social

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Man, apparently any take on Starship Troopers is a Hot Take.

I haven't seen my mentions blow up like this since the last time I went on a several page rant about whatever computer project had struck my fancy that day.

And then, beyond that, voting as a privilege\\military service being the only path to citizenship...

It's such a powerful, dangerous idea.

The whole film could be read as a warning against the encroaching combination of advertising and fascism.

But I know plenty of people who would watch this and see some kind of fantasy, and ideal society.

Anyway, I watched it a few days ago, and it's still siting with me.

A film of Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet would either be 1) Exactly as brutal and horrifying as starship troopers, 2) an action flick for kids, with all of the consequences sanitized away.

The more I think about this, the more it's bothering me.

It felt like Space Patrol or Tom Corbett, with the principal characters all still playing an idealized 1950s rendition of heroism and patriotism, while the rest of the world played by real rules, with real pain.

I found myself thinking back to Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20147?msg=welcome_stranger) and thinking about how those characters would have acted in the face of the same situations.

It would have been the same movie.

Seriously, the kind of satire that Starship Troopers pulled off was impressive.

But it was so well done that I can imagine people mistaking it as sincere. There were moments when it felt sincere.

The dialog is what gave it away. In the big, tense scenes, it was too wholesome. Too Gee-whiz, 1950s, Space Cadet-y. Crafted to remind you that this isn't how people talk.

I rejoined my old D&D (5e) game last night, playing a character who's motivation is to find my last character and kill him.

My last character is already dead, my current character refuses to believe it.

Damn this is a weird movie.

I’m by myself this evening, so I’m watching starship troopers with dinner.

This is my first time watching this flick, and I don’t know what I expected, but a parody of fascism isn’t it.

(so I'm going to ask for stuff with which I could be useful once people are online.)

that second one really gripes my goat.

- I'm back to doing training stuff, because I've knocked out all of the pending real work that was sitting on us, with the exception of some stuff that we can't do because of other people. I don't mind doing training stuff, and learning new things, but I wish I could be more generally useful.

- I'm flying out to the home office in 4 days, and I'm nervous about it. This will be my first solo flight, and my longest flight.

- My new co-worker, who does essentially the same job that I do, was just asked to provide an itemized invoice detailing what work he did over the hours that he worked. I don't have to do this. I told him he wouldn't have to do this. We didn't keep an itemized list of the things that we worked on, he basically had to make it up.

I ordered transfer paper for hecto/jellygraph experiments.

It has arrived.

After my standup, I'll take a walk to the parcel lockers and pick them up.

Then, tonight, I'll walk to the grocery store and buy some gelatin.

If all goes well, I should have 25 - 30 copies of a thing done this week.

Entirely without a computer, even.

Finally in a private office for the first time in months.

I need to get a damn stereo for this apartment. Sun Ra's Lanquidity is helping me through the day, but my laptop speakers simply cannot do it justice.