Happy Chrismahanakwanzika to you too! We've been exchanging gifts off and on here.
>> I'm so happy this was sponsored!
(And not only because I have a story which intertwines with the three poems!) <<
Same here. I am really looking forward to "Marshmallow Hearts."
>> Most of the enjoyment is that, before I even click on a new item, I /know/ that it's depicting a world which is /different/ than ours, and trying much harder to maintain social cohesion. <<
Yay! I feel the same way about some of your settings.
>> A world where schools don't seem to have metal detectors at every entrance, not because they are living like ostriches, <<
They don't. I think a few places do, like courthouses, but that's about it.
Terramagne folks carry a lot more metal than we do, given the effect of gizmos and super-gizmos on technology. Most adults carry a pocketknife -- almost all men, and by this time at least half the women. Getting one is a family rite of passage, usually around 12-13, although a responsible and dexterous kid might manage at 10 and a clumsy or careless one wait until 15. You can kill someone with a pocketknife but it's a stupid choice of instrument because even a locking blade can malfunction and slice your fingers. A serious knife fighter will use a fixed blade. The prevalence of knives is a loss leader to discourage the use of guns. Much the same is true of unarmed brawling. T-America responded to the rising violence by teaching people to be more responsible with tools and weapons, not by trying to childproof the whole world. Someone who commits a crime with a tool or weapon might be forbidden from having one again, but the general assumption is that citizens are responsible unless proven otherwise.
>> but because the early, early interventions in the forties (anticipating the baby boom becoming school age, rather than dragging their feet, for example) has kept school populations /functional/ at the very least. <<
Don't forget the massive differences in federal and state budgets. They can afford to have a public class size around 20, which is manageable, and there are a lot more schools where it's the recommended 10-12 students per teacher, compared to here where we've got public classes running 30+ kids in some places. That's not just a matter of teacher time and crowd control. The techniques that work in a group of 10-12, a group of 15-20, and a group of 30-40 are different. You hear fuckall about that in most educational contexts. They usually think in two sizes: lecture hall, and everything else. It does NOT work that way, and any small group leader can tell you so.
>> Add to that changing opinions on child nutrition, exercise, child psychology, etc. and the small gap of 1945 becomes a /large/ difference in day-to-day life. <<
Yep. Here again, Terramagne has an advantage not just in zetetics alone, but because that field and some major scientists (and Whammy Lass, a bit) pushed hard for funding. So the sciences also have a lot better funding. If you feed the cow, she gives more milk, duh.
Thus the candy machine is there for the speedsters and strongmen who sometimes need calories now and most other people eat out of it only occasionally. (They have clinical-grade chocolate too, but it's not for snacking.) The chips are for all the times people come in sweaty and need to replace salt. But most folks eat with an eye toward nutrition. It's common for vending machines or fast food places to list their healthiest options. Rather than our emphasis on taking the fat out of foods, however, T-America just serves things in smaller sizes. They missed the whole trend of portion sizes increasing. That's frustrating for soups with a high-burn metabolism, and contributes toward people like Stan feeling that they're eating "more than their fair share," but for most people it's healthier.
>> Hannah /did/ make mistakes in the way she handled her part of the argument, but I consider it very akin to Danso falling and breaking an arm-- <<
Valid if he broke an arm from Helen asking him to fix the roof, rather than horsing around on his own.
>> because Helen /suggested/ the activity he was NOT prepared for, was NOT properly trained for, and felt like he could NOT say NO to. Pressure like that is VERY bad for teens, and Hannah's Mama Bear reaction is FULLY understandable in that light. <<
Yes, exactly. Hannah's sentiment was completely appropriate. Some of the ways she expressed it ... were not ideal, but understandable in context.
Training and preparation are crucial. T-America understands this, and it's why they offer so much in the way of first aid, emergency response, personal care, etc. classes. But for some things -- and this is one of them -- either no training has been developed or it's rare and hard to get. Combine that with an urgent need and scarce resources, well, people make mistakes.
>> Oddly, I'm not left /happy/ about the argument, either; <<
It's not meant to be happy ...
>> I want to watch this /resolve/ itself, not just each having a say and the status quo continuing. <<
... and it is intended as an introduction for some changes at SPOON, and attempts to change some laws. Things that worked earlier aren't all working as well as they used to, with the average age of manifestation dropping as the percentage of soups rises.
>> (Because, frankly, Helen DID put Danso in a LOT of danger with her tactic, <<
Oh, not just him. Think about what his power IS and imagine what could've happened if it went out of control.
>> and she is MUCH older than he is. <<
Plus the case of hero-worship that he has, which makes the perceived power differential much worse. Danso is actually FAR more powerful than Granny Whammy in terms of superpower, but her age and social clout just dwarf it because he'll only stand up to her as a last resort.
>> She should've recognized that he lacks the right training to be /ready/ to "fall into the deep end of the pool" as a swimming test. <<
Ideally, yes. But she tends to expect the best of people, and sometimes that is a flaw instead of a virtue.
>> So, it's a continuing thread, not a major bummer. <<
That's the idea.
>> My only worry is that IF Hannah seems to back down, it will send Danso in particular the message that Helen was "right" and HE was the one with a problem, or is otherwise incapable. <<
Hannah will back down on this when hell freezes over. She's having a hard enough time tolerating the reasonable compromises that a teen with superpowers is going to need, and that plays out over the next couple of poems.
>> There's an enormous difference between /untrained/ and /trained/ use of any skill, and he needs to be reminded of that, in MANY ways. <<
Absolutely. Give everyone time to settle down some, and an appropriate followup would be offering Danso some emergency response training. He missed a lot over the last couple years between crappy home life and then being homeless. It would be a good thing to catch up on, because right now he doesn't have a thorough idea of how to use his power in case of something like, say, a house fire or car accident. Once you know what needs to be done, you can make much better decisions about how to go about it.
>> Sigh. Now I want to go back and reread it, just to "check" if I missed anything... <<
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dancing_serpent
Re: Merry Giftmas!
Date: 2014-12-22 03:20 am (UTC)>> I'm so happy this was sponsored!
(And not only because I have a story which intertwines with the three poems!) <<
Same here. I am really looking forward to "Marshmallow Hearts."
>> Most of the enjoyment is that, before I even click on a new item, I /know/ that it's depicting a world which is /different/ than ours, and trying much harder to maintain social cohesion. <<
Yay! I feel the same way about some of your settings.
>> A world where schools don't seem to have metal detectors at every entrance, not because they are living like ostriches, <<
They don't. I think a few places do, like courthouses, but that's about it.
Terramagne folks carry a lot more metal than we do, given the effect of gizmos and super-gizmos on technology. Most adults carry a pocketknife -- almost all men, and by this time at least half the women. Getting one is a family rite of passage, usually around 12-13, although a responsible and dexterous kid might manage at 10 and a clumsy or careless one wait until 15. You can kill someone with a pocketknife but it's a stupid choice of instrument because even a locking blade can malfunction and slice your fingers. A serious knife fighter will use a fixed blade. The prevalence of knives is a loss leader to discourage the use of guns. Much the same is true of unarmed brawling. T-America responded to the rising violence by teaching people to be more responsible with tools and weapons, not by trying to childproof the whole world. Someone who commits a crime with a tool or weapon might be forbidden from having one again, but the general assumption is that citizens are responsible unless proven otherwise.
>> but because the early, early interventions in the forties (anticipating the baby boom becoming school age, rather than dragging their feet, for example) has kept school populations /functional/ at the very least. <<
Don't forget the massive differences in federal and state budgets. They can afford to have a public class size around 20, which is manageable, and there are a lot more schools where it's the recommended 10-12 students per teacher, compared to here where we've got public classes running 30+ kids in some places. That's not just a matter of teacher time and crowd control. The techniques that work in a group of 10-12, a group of 15-20, and a group of 30-40 are different. You hear fuckall about that in most educational contexts. They usually think in two sizes: lecture hall, and everything else. It does NOT work that way, and any small group leader can tell you so.
>> Add to that changing opinions on child nutrition, exercise, child psychology, etc. and the small gap of 1945 becomes a /large/ difference in day-to-day life. <<
Yep. Here again, Terramagne has an advantage not just in zetetics alone, but because that field and some major scientists (and Whammy Lass, a bit) pushed hard for funding. So the sciences also have a lot better funding. If you feed the cow, she gives more milk, duh.
Thus the candy machine is there for the speedsters and strongmen who sometimes need calories now and most other people eat out of it only occasionally. (They have clinical-grade chocolate too, but it's not for snacking.) The chips are for all the times people come in sweaty and need to replace salt. But most folks eat with an eye toward nutrition. It's common for vending machines or fast food places to list their healthiest options. Rather than our emphasis on taking the fat out of foods, however, T-America just serves things in smaller sizes. They missed the whole trend of portion sizes increasing. That's frustrating for soups with a high-burn metabolism, and contributes toward people like Stan feeling that they're eating "more than their fair share," but for most people it's healthier.
>> Hannah /did/ make mistakes in the way she handled her part of the argument, but I consider it very akin to Danso falling and breaking an arm-- <<
Valid if he broke an arm from Helen asking him to fix the roof, rather than horsing around on his own.
>> because Helen /suggested/ the activity he was NOT prepared for, was NOT properly trained for, and felt like he could NOT say NO to. Pressure like that is VERY bad for teens, and Hannah's Mama Bear reaction is FULLY understandable in that light. <<
Yes, exactly. Hannah's sentiment was completely appropriate. Some of the ways she expressed it ... were not ideal, but understandable in context.
Training and preparation are crucial. T-America understands this, and it's why they offer so much in the way of first aid, emergency response, personal care, etc. classes. But for some things -- and this is one of them -- either no training has been developed or it's rare and hard to get. Combine that with an urgent need and scarce resources, well, people make mistakes.
>> Oddly, I'm not left /happy/ about the argument, either; <<
It's not meant to be happy ...
>> I want to watch this /resolve/ itself, not just each having a say and the status quo continuing. <<
... and it is intended as an introduction for some changes at SPOON, and attempts to change some laws. Things that worked earlier aren't all working as well as they used to, with the average age of manifestation dropping as the percentage of soups rises.
>> (Because, frankly, Helen DID put Danso in a LOT of danger with her tactic, <<
Oh, not just him. Think about what his power IS and imagine what could've happened if it went out of control.
>> and she is MUCH older than he is. <<
Plus the case of hero-worship that he has, which makes the perceived power differential much worse. Danso is actually FAR more powerful than Granny Whammy in terms of superpower, but her age and social clout just dwarf it because he'll only stand up to her as a last resort.
>> She should've recognized that he lacks the right training to be /ready/ to "fall into the deep end of the pool" as a swimming test. <<
Ideally, yes. But she tends to expect the best of people, and sometimes that is a flaw instead of a virtue.
>> So, it's a continuing thread, not a major bummer. <<
That's the idea.
>> My only worry is that IF Hannah seems to back down, it will send Danso in particular the message that Helen was "right" and HE was the one with a problem, or is otherwise incapable. <<
Hannah will back down on this when hell freezes over. She's having a hard enough time tolerating the reasonable compromises that a teen with superpowers is going to need, and that plays out over the next couple of poems.
>> There's an enormous difference between /untrained/ and /trained/ use of any skill, and he needs to be reminded of that, in MANY ways. <<
Absolutely. Give everyone time to settle down some, and an appropriate followup would be offering Danso some emergency response training. He missed a lot over the last couple years between crappy home life and then being homeless. It would be a good thing to catch up on, because right now he doesn't have a thorough idea of how to use his power in case of something like, say, a house fire or car accident. Once you know what needs to be done, you can make much better decisions about how to go about it.
>> Sigh. Now I want to go back and reread it, just to "check" if I missed anything... <<
Go ahead.