Timewaster's Guide Archive

So what was up with everyone seeing imaginary Head Six holding up Baltar without seeing Six? So Baltar is not halucinating Head Six, just no one else can see her?

So many questions.

And next week looks like Mutany on the Bounty, but in space.

Hey, congrats! That's quite cool. (Uh...I didn't even know you were writing...)

I defy your preconcieved notions of what I do in my spare time.

I don't think Dr. Who has ever tried to have good science. Maybe when it first started, but it's really a lot more fantasy than science fiction.

Quote from: Parker on April 11, 2008, 06:05:43 PM

In the end, I love the fact that books are sort of self regulating. If you pick one up and don't like what you see, put it down. Turn the page. It's up to you. If you don't like a certain author, don't read him/her again.

Well said. There are a number of books/series I haven't finished. I decided I didn't like what I was reading, so I just stopped. In all honestly, the same can be said for a lot of media. There are movies I never finished and songs that I've abandoned because I decided the content wasn't for me.

Isn't that kind of backwards? I mean you don't want to read or watch something offensive but you stop reading or stop watching after it's already offended you? Once the damage is done you can't really go back. Putting down the book or stop watching the movie...does that really make things better?

It's kind of like drinking spoiled milk. You could drink some of it to see if it makes you sick or you could look on the experation date to see if it's gone bad.

I'm actually surprised more people haven't gone crazy on the show. Considering the situation these characters are in, most people would have lost their minds from the stress a long time ago. Seriously, it's now been years that these characters have been daily struggling against dying from many, many sources.

Aargh! Cylon society is being torn apart.

I'm also worried that Cally will die in the next episode. No more corn muffin goodness for Galactica.

Also, somehow Baltar has left Caprica Six's head and entered his own head which is far more disturbing than anything else they could of done.

An author has to think about who will be reading what he/she writes. Authors that work professionally sell to particular audiences that they understand well. They know what that audience whats to read and what that audience doesn't want to read.

It's kind of an elementary rule of writing: know your audience.

Authors get in trouble when they end up writing to the wrong audience.

So in a lot of ways, content ratings would help authors understand their audience better.

I would say that visual mediums are more likely to stick in one's mind. Music, while not visual, also has tremendous ability to stick in one's mind. How much prose do you have memorized, compared to how much music you have memorized?

Memorization works through three processes: repetition, emotional context, and connection to previously stored memory.
There is an argument that music or visuals help memorization, but that is yet to be proven. Memory is linked to cultural factors as well as individual learning styles and is greatly influenced by developmental and environmental effects. Personality may also play a role. So what sticks in one's mind is highly subjective.

One of my big arguments for rating systems comes from working with adults. Many adults who have been convicted of sexual crimes are aroused more quickly by music, visuals, or words that are suggestive than an unconvicted person (usually). When working with adults who suffer from sexual addictions it is important to help those adults gain control of their environment so they are less likely to commit other offenses. Content ratings can greatly improve the livelyhood for these individuals as they learn to more responsible. ANd for some content ratings will probably encourage worse behavior.

Basically, there is no base-line in human behavior to what a person (child or adult) can handle. Some people are very resilient and others are very fragile. There is an average and, of course, lots of outliers.

I'm kind of expecting that finding out who is the final cylon model will be more of a revelation and less of a surprise (if that makes sense). I just hoping it's a satisfying revelation.

Also, the seems to be a lot more male cylon models than female cylon models. Why is this?