[HN Gopher] You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes
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       You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes
        
       Author : colinprince
       Score  : 222 points
       Date   : 2022-07-27 16:03 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (everything2.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (everything2.com)
        
       | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
       | Nice little piece, I guess.
       | 
       | But I just can't make heads or tails _at all_ about what exactly
       | this website is. Someone's blog? Collective input? No obvious
       | "About" section? What am I missing?
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | https://everything2.com/title/An+Introduction+to+Everything2
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | (2002)
        
       | every wrote:
       | i haven't seen that message for years. A dedicated range game and
       | pets to not mix well. My config file sets pettype to none...
        
       | mberning wrote:
       | I didn't know death until I watched my old man go. It was
       | horrible. The details still haunt. I'll never get over it. Never.
        
       | throwaway81523 wrote:
       | A somewhat interesting short essay about grief, inspired by the
       | game of Nethack. The title comes from a message that appears in
       | the game in certain situations.
       | 
       | I remember everything2 which was sort of a forerunner of
       | wikipedia, and better in some ways. The contributor community was
       | much less obnoxious. I'm glad it is still around. It's been ages
       | since I looked at it.
        
         | vannevar wrote:
         | >I remember everything2 which was sort of a forerunner of
         | wikipedia, and better in some ways.
         | 
         | E2 has the best karma system I've encountered online, which
         | went a long way toward maintaining high quality content.
        
           | mixmastamyk wrote:
           | Interesting, have a link that explains it?
        
             | vonunov wrote:
             | https://everything2.com/title/C%2521
        
           | beowulfey wrote:
           | How does it work? I didn't know E2 even had karma
        
             | vannevar wrote:
             | https://everything2.com/node/superdoc/The+Everything2+Votin
             | g...
             | 
             | One key idea:
             | 
             | "Try to vote according to the standard of writing, not
             | because you agree or disagree with what someone has
             | written."
             | 
             | This is where HN's use of downvoting fails, it's often
             | mistakenly used to signal disagreement rather than
             | something off-topic or below site standards.
        
         | pravus wrote:
         | > The title comes from a message that appears in the game in
         | certain situations.
         | 
         | As I recall this message appears when your pet dies but you
         | weren't able to see it happen. It's definitely a sad feeling
         | when you are a weak character with a strong pet doing most of
         | the fighting.
        
       | derbOac wrote:
       | I feel obliged to note that for some people, with some lost, it
       | never quite passes. Or, it returns regularly. Or all those losses
       | accumulate.
       | 
       | I don't necessarily mean with me, but there is research to
       | suggest this is true in general. Also, after having reached a
       | certain stage of life, and of experiences, and witnessing others,
       | I think it can be true.
        
         | CTDOCodebases wrote:
         | I have only lost people who where peripheral in life but for me
         | it's feels like the world just becomes emptier. It's an odd
         | feeling considering I hadn't interacted with some of these
         | people in years.
        
         | worker_person wrote:
         | Enough trauma and lose and eventually you stop feeling much of
         | anything. It's weird when something happens that Intellectually
         | you understand that should or once did make you sad, happy,
         | etc; but you feel nothing at all.
        
       | zwieback wrote:
       | I had no idea everything2 was still alive! Nice surprise
        
         | uoaei wrote:
         | Off-topic, but is anyone else having deja vu? I remember this
         | comment appearing under a post about everything2 a few weeks
         | ago. Even the children of the comment above are reminiscent.
        
         | SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
         | I'm seeing "504 Gateway Time-out" so maybe it isn't still
         | alive?
         | 
         | So yeah, I have a sad feeling for a moment about that, and then
         | it passes.
        
         | atemerev wrote:
         | Yes, sure! And they still develop their engine, eCore, which
         | has a fantastic architecture (e.g. it allows to develop
         | Everything2 directly from browser when you go to "developer
         | mode" -- creating new nodetypes, page templates, rendering
         | logic etc).
        
       | vonunov wrote:
       | I have little to nothing to contribute as usual, but I feel
       | compelled to come out of the woodwork to state that I, for one,
       | am stoked to see E2 appearing on HN in currentyear.
        
       | iAm25626 wrote:
       | Susan Cain's book on the topic of Bittersweet seems apt.
        
       | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
       | That was beautifully written. I've never played Nethack, but I
       | have spent countless hours playing ADOM, in all its text mode
       | glory. These games managed to be so much deeper with so few
       | resources available to them than most modern games.
        
       | marcinreal wrote:
       | > My own death, of course, which I learnt will come when I least
       | expect it, when everything is going right for once - that when no
       | threats are apparent and I feel I can relax a little, it will be
       | then that I choke over a tin of spinach, or mistake a blue e for
       | a blue o, or a pink h for a pink h.
       | 
       | Just recently my wife developed a sudden and very aggressive
       | infection. She's healthy and it totally came out of left field.
       | Then it spread to me. It was definitely humbling. I don't believe
       | in living in fear, but it's funny how everything can change in an
       | instant.
       | 
       | I have to commend the title though:
       | 
       | > You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes
       | 
       | Coming to understand the ephemeral nature of emotions is what
       | finally allowed me deal with them. They're still real, but they
       | always pass, no matter how strong they seem in the moment.
        
         | Cyberdog wrote:
         | I personally am still waiting on the "it passes" part.
        
           | nvusuvu wrote:
           | Sorry for your loss.
        
           | charles_f wrote:
           | I weep with you, friend. Keep your eyes up, know that we feel
           | for you.
        
           | Gene_Parmesan wrote:
           | Grief is an enormously complicated emotional state that
           | cannot be pithily summed up like that sentence. It's just a
           | quote from a game.
           | 
           | In my experience, it doesn't pass, as in disappear. Instead,
           | the fact of the loss slowly becomes a new fact of your
           | reality. The newness of it will pass. The rawness of the pain
           | will fade - most of the time. There will always be things
           | that bring the person right back sitting next to you. But you
           | begin to re-make your life.
           | 
           | If you continue to struggle and haven't already done so, I
           | can recommend talking with a counselor (I hate the word
           | therapist). Sometimes we just need to unload, but don't want
           | to unload on/burden the other people in our life. Grief can
           | be isolating in this way.
        
         | peter303 wrote:
         | Death usually is not that sudden. Only 20%-25% of deaths are
         | surprising and occur 24 hours or less according the Nuland's
         | "How We Die" and other studies. The other 75% are slower
         | processes giving us plenty of time to contemplate death, make
         | peace or anger.
        
           | sicromoft wrote:
           | "Everyone dies instantly. You're alive, you're alive, you're
           | alive, you're dead."
           | 
           | -Stephen Wright
        
         | dfbsdfbwe2ef2e wrote:
         | What infection?
        
           | marcinreal wrote:
           | I don't want to say but she was in the hospital a few times.
        
       | qrush wrote:
       | Nethack taught me a lot of things, including to not to pick up a
       | cockatrice corpse without gloves on. Also: Don't throw it above
       | your head without wearing a helmet. Don't slip down a hidden pit
       | of spikes, and fall on it. Don't step on a landmine and drop it
       | on yourself without wearing boots. Don't get hypnotized by a
       | wizard, have him pick it up, and then touch you with it.
        
         | saulpw wrote:
         | Well if you just eat the corpse (with gloves on, of course)
         | then there's no risk of it hurting you by surprise in the
         | future.
        
       | bowsamic wrote:
       | I'm 27 and I've felt that way since I was 9. My psychiatric
       | evaluator calls it "permanent depression". There is little hope
       | for remission in this life
        
       | rhcom2 wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/SW2cn
        
       | jackschultz wrote:
       | > You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes
       | 
       | The main point from the writing fits right along with what I
       | consider the main point of mindfulness and meditation practice.
       | 
       | Everything that arises, also passes away.
       | 
       | Highly suggest people try out the practice through guided intro
       | courses. There are tons of benefits, but even just realizing and
       | witnessing how all types thoughts, feelings, emotions that come
       | up will go away is alone worth the time.
        
       | agnos wrote:
       | "You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes"
       | 
       | A poetic, bittersweet line. In a way, the sadness is the "good"
       | part, when you feel the most longing for what's been lost. The
       | real loss is forgetting.
        
         | Pxtl wrote:
         | Yeah, I know it's tacky to reference an MCU show, but
         | Wandavision's defining line was
         | 
         | "what is grief but love persevering?"
         | 
         | which kind of implies the sad inverse -- that once we pick
         | ourselves up and carry on, it necessarily means that the love
         | isn't persevering quite so hard.
        
           | CoastalCoder wrote:
           | > "what is grief but love persevering?"
           | 
           | It's certainly poetic, but I don't think it's accurate.
        
       | AdamH12113 wrote:
       | Hidden gems like this were one of the great things about
       | Everything2. For those who aren't familiar with it, E2 is
       | structured vaguely like an encyclopedia, only instead of being a
       | shared Wiki any user can write a whole separate article.
       | Sometimes this was helpful for learning -- having three different
       | explanations of what a tensor[1] is, for example. Sometimes it
       | gave a mix of informational and personal content, such as the
       | page on Mother's Day[2], which has one article on the history of
       | the holiday and two about the authors' attempts to cope with it
       | despite losing or never having had a good relationship with their
       | mothers. (Plus a summary of a Futurama episode by that name,
       | because E2 was like that.)
       | 
       | It also had an accidentally-fun feature in its hyperlinking
       | system. Hyperlinks were intended to be used to be used for words
       | that had their own articles, but you could link to any article,
       | and when you hovered your mouse over the link the name of the
       | target article would pop up. This could be used to make the
       | closest thing I've seen to an English equivalent of Japanese
       | furigana puns. I'm having trouble finding a good example right
       | now, sadly.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node=tensor
       | 
       | [2] https://everything2.com/title/Mother%2527s+day
        
         | Gene_Parmesan wrote:
         | Thanks for making me aware of the existence of furigana. Unique
         | corners of language are a pet interest of mine and that was a
         | fun rabbit hole to go down.
        
         | disillusioned wrote:
         | Two of my favorite E2 posts, that I think about and/or quote
         | regularly:
         | 
         | Drink from the cup as if it's already broken:
         | https://everything2.com/title/Drink+from+the+cup+as+if+it%25...
         | 
         | And: Bread is the staff of the proletariat. Toast is a decadent
         | capitalist luxury https://everything2.com/title/Bread+is+the+st
         | aff+of+the+prol....
        
         | gilleain wrote:
         | The other great feature were 'nodeshells' (that is, links to
         | pages that did not yet exist). These could act as writing
         | prompts, or just as a way to 'comment' on other nodes (pages).
         | 
         | Weirdly, one of the ones I liked (by adding it to my homepage)
         | was 'AT fields cannot be penetrated spiritually fallacy' was
         | around 20 years ago. Just this year I finally watched Neon
         | Genesis Evangelion, and finally understood what it meant :)
        
           | pluijzer wrote:
           | I never heard of Everything2. Regretfully because it seems
           | great. I see it has new articles and Wikipedia lists it as
           | active though everybody here refers to it in the past tense.
           | Why is that?
        
             | at_a_remove wrote:
             | Well, it was originally very experimental and a Slashdot
             | project -- short short stories, diary entries, poems,
             | opinions, film reviews, whatever goes. Then someone got the
             | bright idea that the place should be _factual_ , and there
             | was a big push for it to be real and grounded and not so
             | artsy.
             | 
             | Then Wikipedia came along and ate. their. lunch.
             | 
             | The experimental folks already lit off for greener
             | pastures, and others had been driven off by "XP Pack Rape,"
             | a practice as charming as its name, wherein a user would be
             | targeted and just sort of ... de-karma'd or whatever you
             | would have it.
             | 
             | Between those forces and the decline of Slashdot, well ...
        
             | wging wrote:
             | Here's one take:
             | https://twitter.com/qntm/status/1551144296014807040
        
         | EForEndeavour wrote:
         | My uncle was the one to introduce me to everything2 back when I
         | must have been around 12 years old, by linking me to one of his
         | writeups. I never created an account there, but was immediately
         | pulled in by its curious mix of geeky information and beautiful
         | writing. I voraciously read it throughout my teen years and am
         | convinced it helped expand my vocabulary, and also probably
         | reinforced my habit of aimlessly exploring information
         | repositories (e.g., Wikipedia rabbit holes). I still sometimes
         | return to it to be mildly amused at seeing present-day content
         | presented in the same antiquated frontend that I don't think
         | has changed much in 20+ years, because why mess with
         | perfection?
         | 
         | I don't know anyone in my life who's heard of the site besides
         | my uncle, but I enjoy showing it to friends and coworkers as an
         | example of the type of website I grew up with, and which stands
         | in a class of its own, at least to me.
        
       | ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
       | You have been eaten by a grue.
        
       | ternus wrote:
       | Context, for non-Nethack players:
       | 
       | Nethack is one of the original "roguelikes," back when that meant
       | a text-console game based on `rogue`. It's an RPG where your
       | character kills monsters, picks up loot, and descends into the
       | dungeon. If you die, that's it -- you can't just load a save; you
       | have to start all over. It's legendarily unforgiving.
       | 
       | In Nethack, most (all?) roles start with a pet, e.g. a puppy or a
       | kitten. In the early game, your pet is often stronger than you;
       | it follows you, fights monsters, etc. It's useful in many ways
       | beyond fighting: it won't walk over a cursed item, it can "fetch"
       | items from stores without angering the proprietor, and so on.
       | Your pet gains experience and levels up (puppy -> dog -> large
       | dog), and after a certain point you're prompted to give your pet
       | a name.
       | 
       | The message "You have a sad feeling for a moment, then it passes"
       | is displayed when your pet dies while out of sight. It's pretty
       | difficult to keep your pet alive all through the endgame, so much
       | like any real-life pet owner, there will come a time where you
       | have to say goodbye, one way or the other.
        
         | worker_person wrote:
         | Had a hunter with a blue crab named Seafood in World of
         | Warcraft for years.
         | 
         | He was somewhat famous on the server at the time. Eventually
         | got rid of him because he had no benefits compared to other
         | pets. No logical reason to keep him.
         | 
         | Huge regret. I grieved for that damn crab for months. Finally
         | stopped playing that class all together.
        
           | guggalugalug wrote:
           | As a fellow WoWer, I always opted for aesthetics, writ large,
           | over optimization. I get that folks seek out competition,
           | either vs environment or other players. But adhering to a
           | personal aesthetic Code is another option.
           | 
           | See also, I suppose, conduct runs in many roguelikes.
        
           | DarknessFalls wrote:
           | I've retained the same nightsaber on my Night Elf rogue that
           | I adopted in the beginning of the game. It feels wrong to let
           | him go.
        
         | pvaldes wrote:
         | And then you find another little kitten in the next level that
         | you (C)all "Falling rock trap III"
         | 
         | > If you die, that's it -- you can't just load a save; you have
         | to start all over. It's legendarily unforgiving.
         | 
         | Ehum...
         | 
         | ( $ cp -r /var/games/glhack/saves/1000user /home/user )
         | 
         | ( ...suddenly a wild fire ant called Rita appears )
         | 
         | ( # cp -r /home/user/1000user /var/games/glhack/saves/ )
         | 
         | ( # chown -R user:games /var/games/glhack/1000user )
         | 
         | ( $ echo "muahahaha im alive, stupid fire ant" | glhack )
         | 
         | ( Pssst, Don't tell it to anybody )
        
           | semitones wrote:
           | Well, technically you're no longer playing nethack. You're
           | playing a new game, comprised of nethack and cp.
        
             | thechao wrote:
             | > Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job,
             | build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding
             | new "features".
             | 
             | -- Doug McIlroy
        
         | anon_cow1111 wrote:
         | I remember the first time I played, my dog walked into a trap
         | and died within the first 10 moves. It can avoid cursed items
         | but was clearly helpless against my cursed gamer "skills".
        
         | LAC-Tech wrote:
         | Are three still text based roguelikes being made? For me these
         | were one of the most endearing features of the games back in
         | the day. I was a big ADOM fan and it captured my imagination in
         | an almost book like way because everything in the world was
         | rendered only symbolically.
        
           | mysterydip wrote:
           | Check out
           | http://roguebasin.com/index.php/Category:Roguelike_games ,
           | there should be at least a few you find interesting
        
         | stickfigure wrote:
         | Pets also feature strongly in the late game. Two of the best
         | items in the game are a scroll of taming (converts nearby
         | monsters to pets) and a magic whistle (summons your pets).
         | Eventually there's no point in fighting yourself; blow your
         | whistle and let your pet dragon army clear the room.
        
           | cbanek wrote:
           | I love the family dragon army! But why bother using taming
           | scrolls when you can polymorph control yourself into a dragon
           | (taking off your armor first!) and then sitting to make eggs
           | where they are actual family! Blood may be thicker than
           | water, but dragon scales even thicker than blood!
        
           | flyinghamster wrote:
           | Purple worms also make magnificent pets. Genning up a fleet
           | of pet purple worms and teleporting them away can make life a
           | lot easier on the Astral Plane.
           | 
           | Burrrrp!
        
         | YeGoblynQueenne wrote:
         | What's worse, your pet can die while you're blind and you
         | attack it without realising who it is. Thankfully this will
         | only happen once in the game. You learn the lesson afterwards.
         | Hopefully.
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | Pets can also sometimes be a problem when you're running out of
         | food and they eat the monster you have slain before you get a
         | chance...
        
       | tmountain wrote:
       | Emily Dickinson captures it beautifully.
       | 
       | https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47651/after-great-pai...
        
         | oigursh wrote:
         | That's the most affecting set of words I've read in a long
         | time. Thank you.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-27 23:00 UTC)