[QUOTE=ArrMatey!]
Something refered to by my screenwriting teacher as ‘Third appearance law’, when dealing with seemingly innocuous minor characters in films. It has variants in anime (‘third power-use law’) and action films (‘third (or fourth) nazi law’), but the basic root of it all has spoiled many a mystery movie for me.
[/QUOTE]
So what is the law exactly?
[QUOTE=Ice Cream Man]
I wish I had never learned that your tongue rests on the roof of your mouth. I might have learned that here. I can’t remember.
Muahahaha!
[/QUOTE]
Mine doesn’t. At least, I don’t think. Why is that disturbing?
[QUOTE=Freudian Slit]
Mine doesn’t. At least, I don’t think. Why is that disturbing?
[/QUOTE]
Not disturbing, but whenever I remember it I can’t stop thinking about my tongue and then I can’t just let it rest normally… kind of like thinking about your breathing.
[QUOTE=BaneSidhe]
I wish I’d never learned how to change the toner in the 2 printers we have in my section of the office, including the very cranky color printer. Or how to change the toner and troubleshoot misfed paper in the copy machine either.
[/QUOTE]
I worked in a real estate office the summer after my freshman year of college. After I graduated, they were still calling me when the power went out and the fax machine lost all its presets.
Rotten.com and most of its contents.
[QUOTE=Ice Cream Man]
So what is the law exactly?
[/QUOTE]
The third appearance law happens in most lazilly-written mysteries for the screen. To wit: If you see a supposedly ‘minor’ character twice, it means that the third time they appear, they will either be killed or be the murderer, usually the latter. The week I learned this, I watched The Bone Collector and nailed the murderer on that alone.
The variants:
Anime- The third time a major power is used by the main character, it will fail, almost always because the target of the power is somehow resistant / more powerful than it. (Nailed some vampire-anime with this last week. “The scythe isn’t going to work this time.” “How do you know?” pause “Wow… How -did- you know?”)
Adventure- (The ‘third or fourth nazi’ law). The protagonist will, in a chase, be able to take out the first two persuers easilly, but will be stopped by the third or fourth nobody, blossoming into a full-scale fight between said chaser and said protagonist.
I’m glad you posted that, ArrMatey!, because I returned to this thread purely to ask. I have no idea why I cared but just couldn’t stop wondering 
What I hate learning is about stuff that I like but is VERY Bad in terms of environmental effects, exploitation of workers or whatever. Coffee, chocolate … well, most things really. 
[QUOTE=BaneSidhe]
I wish I’d never learned how to change the toner in the 2 printers we have in my section of the office, including the very cranky color printer. Or how to change the toner and troubleshoot misfed paper in the copy machine either.
[/QUOTE]
One of my personal mottoes is “Competence is it’s own punishment”. The incompetent are competence consumers. If you display competence, the incompetent will attach themselves to you like leeches.
The process the human body goes through when burned in a fire. I could have done without the pictures too.
Chemical burns don’t seem to bother me as much.
[QUOTE=GuanoLad]
There’s nothing wrong with kerning, folks.
It’s a little irritating to see bad graphic design, aka “look what button I found in Photoshop”, but seeing poor kerning is not a big deal.
[/QUOTE]
Next time you’re driving, get into a turning lane and look at what’s painted on the pavement: an arrow, and:
ONL Y
If you’ve done as much kerning as I have, there will be times when reading will no longer be a pleasure.
[QUOTE=nikenik2069]
I wish I could delete the memory from my mind the image of the 60 year old woman I work with talking about all she needs is a man in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. Eww. Then another woman the same age and her were both having a discussion on their preferences. I think my ears started to bleed.
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What’s your point? Do you find it disgusting that a 60-year-old can have a healthy sexuality? “Eww,” right back atcha.
I could have lived without learning that fecal matter is on most toothbrushes (albeit a microscopic amount of the sort we probably pick up every time we use a public restroom).
Or that- don’t know why this freaked me out but it did- the patients (14 to date) who’ve had Abiocor Artificial Hearts implanted don’t have heart beats, just a whirring. And of course their blood continues circulating after they’re dead. Ewww, for some reason (though certainly it’s better than much quicker death from heart failure).
[QUOTE=Cicero]
Obudar Obudar-Sur-Glane
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It’s Oradour sur Glane, and I was there two weeks ago. Very powerful. Very disturbing. Very moving.
Me - I could happily live my life without having learned of the existence of fecal vomiting.
[QUOTE=Raguleader]
The fact that a rabbit screams when you beat it to death (which I learned from a friend of mine who went through aircrew survival training with the Air Force) :eek: 
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Sheesh, and why would anybody beat a rabbit to death? I can see having to do something nasty to catch it, but once it’s caught it’s easy to break their neck.
That discrimination by reason of gender in the workplace (which I’d grown up being told didn’t exist any more) is alive and well. It’s not always as blatant as it used to but yeah it’s there. Same for other kinds, but that’s the one that slapped me during an interview for a college summer job.
[QUOTE=panache45]
Next time you’re driving, get into a turning lane and look at what’s painted on the pavement: an arrow, and:
ONL Y
If you’ve done as much kerning as I have, there will be times when reading will no longer be a pleasure.
[/QUOTE]
I think I’ve noticed that too, but what’s more annoying is when there are multiple words spaces rather close together that read something like:
ONLY
TURN
I-95
LANE
THIS
Obviously meant to be read one at a time, bottom to top, but close enough together to read top to bottom.
Many years ago I was told that because I was doing professional/managerial work, the Department of Labor couldn’t help me when an employer refused to pay me for 30 hours of programming work. I left the state not long afterwards, and I never did get the money I was owed.
Several months ago, I learned what it’s like to watch the home of someone you love go up in flames and what the aftermath is like.
On a lighter note, I’ve also learned that some people actually do care about the amount of space between lines of text and will not believe you if you tell them the spacing is even until you actually prove it to them and possibly not even then. :rolleyes:
Mark Twain wrote a famous passage about this in Chapter 9 of Life on the Mississippi. I hope I don’t get in trouble for this, but it’s worth quoting in full:
From this site, although there are plenty of others:
[QUOTE=CalMeacham]
Mark Twain wrote a famous passage about this in Chapter 9 of Life on the Mississippi. I hope I don’t get in trouble for this, but it’s worth quoting in full:
From this site, although there are plenty of others:
http://www.mtwain.com/Life_On_The_Mississippi/9.html
[/QUOTE]
Strange how it reads like blank verse…
It’s the way the page setup prints it on this webpage. In the copy I have at home, there’s no suggestion of that. I have a couple of audio recordings of this, as well, and I can’t say that either feels like blank verse.
It is gorgeous writing, though, which is one of the reasons I had to quote it in full.