Chogha Zanbil Is an ancient Elamite complex in the modern-day province of Khuzestan, in Iran. It is one of the last standing ziggurats outside of Mesopotamia.
The Elamite language is a language isolate (meaning it is not connected to any known language families), but Chogha Zangil is typically translated as ‘basket mound’. It was built about 1250 BC by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak, the Elamite protector deity of Susa. Its original name was Dur Untash, which means 'town of Untash' in Assyrian, but it seems unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is surrounded by three concentric walls, which define the main areas of the 'town'. The inner area is taken up with a great ziggurat, dedicated to the main god, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha.
In the middle area, there’s eleven temples, for some of the lesser gods. It is believed that twenty-two temples were planned, but Untash-Napirisha died before they could be completed, and his successors had little interest in completing this project. In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs.
Although the city’s construction halted after Untash-Napirisha died, it was still used for its intended purpose, until the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 640 BC. Some scholars speculate, based on the large number of temples and sanctuaries found at Chogha Zanbil, that it represented an attempt by Untash-Napirisha to create a new religious center (possibly intended to replace Susa) which would unite the gods of both highland and lowland Elam at one site.
https://hexbear.net/post/158599 check out this mega about a fellow comrades new game they made themselves and give it support
Resources for Organizing your workplace/community :sabo:
Resources for Palestine :palestine-heart:
Buy coffee and learn more about the Zapatistas in Chiapas here :EZLN:
Here are some resourses on Prison Abolition :brick-police:
Foundations of Leninism :USSR:
:lenin-shining: :unity: :kropotkin-shining:
Anarchism and Other Essays :ancom:
Remember, sort by new you :LIB:
Follow the Hexbear twitter account :comrade-birdie:
THEORY; it’s good for what ails you (all kinds of tendencies inside!) :RIchard-D-Wolff:
COMMUNITY CALENDAR - AN EXPERIMENT IN PROMOTING USER ORGANIZING EFFORTS :af:
Come listen to music with your fellow Hexbears in Cy.tube :og-hex-bear:
Queer stuff? Come talk in the Queer version of the megathread ! :sicko-queer:
Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread and Monthly ND Venting Thread :Care-Comrade:
Join the fresh and beautiful batch of new comms:
!worldbuilding@hexbear.net :european-soviet:
!labour@hexbear.net :iww:
And I guess !cars@hexbear.net :cringe:
Definitely found a comrade at work. As I said in previous Mega, she hooked us up with free drinks for some food and brings a bunch to a tent city on the way home. I dogwhistled that having post work drinks and talking shop was good for 'worker solidarity' and got a clear signal my dog whistle got through.
Oh and newest guy really enjoys the fact that I just do bits the whole time and complimented me on my wit and breadth of knowledge that I summon super fucking fast for jokes, which is literally telling me I'm really good at one of the things I'm pretty proud of and that's a really nice compliment but a hard one to handle casually
Which also, like, please never tell me I'm funny and why I'm really really really well aware of it. The less aware of what I'm saying the better, this is gonna make me self aware.
That is genuinely awesome. If you don't mind me asking, is that skill mostly something you've learned, or just a "you have it or you don't" kind of thing? I mean, obviously you've honed it over time, but I have zero wit and fear it's incurable, even terminal, so I'm looking for hope from those such as yourself who have it in spades.
Edit: Apologies for drawing further attention to it despite your request never to do that. Just hoping you'll make a last exception for a witless comrade.
I'm sure it can be learned but I'm not sure totally how other than be around other funny people a lot. There's a lot going on, timing, tone, the gag or bit itself, word choice. I work off other people and will usually try to give them something as well and get a back and forth banter going. There's a give and take to it. I've done a bit of acting and it's kind of similar. You're being yourself in a malleable way. It's good to know what kind of humor works for you as well. I'm pretty dry and sarcastic but can work it in a way that I can say abosultelt venomous shit and get a laugh. As I said, it kinda comes to me naturally and if I just go brain off and say the first thing that comes to me it's usually pretty good. I'm sure doing acting/improv activities and stuff would help.
Yeah, that's mostly what I chalk up my deficiencies to, ongoing isolation and never having a chance to practice. I actually did a little acting too, community stage thing, and used to give tons of live performances (that were not acting but presentations), but it was always shit I could rehearse. There were times when things wouldn't go to plan and there was no choice but to riff off of it and use it in some way, and while I did it, it wasn't what I would call my strong suit. Unlike you, it didn't come naturally, but I could usually pull it off it decently. All of that was many years ago now though, and if there was any inherent skill there to begin with, which I doubt, the figurative muscles for it have all totally atrophied. Obviously it's a different thing online, but there is some sort of crossover, because I can see what you're talking about in yours and other witty, quick on the up-take kind of people's posts. And again sorry to draw attention, but hey it's the topic here, I can legit tell it's something you've got. And it's certainly worth being proud of. So you have my comradely envy and certainly also my gratitude for the tips and advice! Thanks. And have fun impressing your coworkers, they're lucky to have the best kind of interactive entertainment while they work, basically improv comedy with a leftist bent. Fuckin' rad.
I should also add that a big part of this may come from a lot of ADHD and just a general inability to give a shit just generally. I tell a lot of jokes cause my brain doesn't make nearly nearly sufficient amounts of dopamine and making people laugh gives me a real solid hit so ingot good at that
Yeah.... don't sell yourself short with that, though. That may play a role, but I've got bad attention issues and a serious dopamine deficiency (like... time to prescribe lithium kind of dopamine deficiency). I do give too much of a shit, though. I really do, to my eternal frustration, and I'm sure that's some part of why I lack where you excel. But yeah, those lovely waves of happy brain chemicals reinforcing neural pathways... mmm good shit. Lemme just mainline it. ;)
It is probably decently a confidence thing. I'm pretty extroverted, did a lot of extreme sports as a kid a d then did a shitload of drugs and hitched around cities going to punk shows for most of my late trends/20s. I've got that dangerous lack of fucks kinda low dopamine.
Fuck. See, that's what I wanted to do. I did the drugs part, (oh man did I do the drugs) but was always stuck in my own little self-imposed solitary confinement for the crime of shame. I've got that dangerous untreatable anhedonia kinda low dopamine. Yay! heh But no, that really does sound awesome. And it sounds like it has served you well, (despite my presumption) that there must have been some hard times too.
I came out okay. Don't sell yourself short either. This is some good insightful talk that made me do some thinking there's a lot of value to that as well. And it's never too late to hit the road and see what's up
Thanks, really. I'm glad this little exchange maybe provided something worth thinking on here and there. It certainly has for me. And yeah... I keep telling myself it's never too late, but it does keep getting later and later with less and less to show for it. But hey, I'm still tryna pull myself out of that lame ass cycle, and this has been yet another nudge to do so. So again. It's appreciated. Cheers and solidarity to you my comrade.
I'll be 30 on Monday, trust me, the fleeing time feels real as fuck right now. Cheers
Oh hey, happy almost birthday! I'm not quite a decade older than you, but... pushing it. And as such, I get to tell you the same thing you've already heard a million times, that feeing and fleeting time thing only gets worse. Alright I'll stfu now. :)
I'm totally sure. This is just like a real harsh milestone about it. Culture makes 30 a crap birthday. Actually every decade after 20 kinda sucks.
Aww shucks thanks. But yeah, my family cracks a lot of wise and whatever so I was sorta raised with it. Also crust punks are some of the quickest people for gags and shit that I've ever seen and sometimes you'd better keep up
Ah, so you've been steeped in The Method for quite a while then. That goes a long ways to help explain the impressive amount that you've leveled up. Must feel good too, like being able to truly shred on guitar. heh ... Yeah, sigh, I need me some crust punk friends. Need to work on getting friends period, first, and society says I'm too old for that, eh well. I'll not go into a gloomrant now. But anyway, cheers and thanks. Never stop riffing, keep the bits flowing. :picard-pointing:
Work physical jobs with people that just shul stuff around and shoot the shit. That helps too. Growing up on The Simpsons and endless reruns of Just for Laughs helped too. It's a flow state kinda thing that Incan generate with others. I suck at stand up, I can get laughs but not ones I'm proud of, I gotta be in the moment and on my feet for maximum effect. I kinda said before that I sorta feed people setups for me as well, there's kind of a cold reading angle there as well with saying the right thing to get the right response.
Yeah, it's one foot in front of the other for me right now. Maybe someday I an really be in a position to actually consciously work on this stuff, but right now it's hard enough looking the sales clerk in the eye when I'm buying food at the grocery store. But I hear you on the flow state. That's kinda the impression I got when you were first talking about it, that it's a groove you get into - I felt it a bit when I gave live presentations, and it's what I was (poorly) jokingly getting at with the guitar shredding comment. I would bet that with your skills, if you worked at it a bit, you'd be ecellent at standup, just have to like... transcribe some of what you know and do now over to a different set of parameters, circumstances. I think what you're describing, feeding people setups, riffing off of them on the fly, leading them towards what you want as a response... that must be much harder and take a higher level of talent than just straight standup. Rather obviously, I don't know that, but it is my take none the less.
It's not unlike jamming with music. With standup I found it just felt a bit contrived to stand on a stage and be expected to make people laugh, I just went off script and riffed with the audience in the fly and did fine. It's just a different area of comfort I think. To quote Avery Brooks giving advice to Jeffrey Combs when he was directing a DS9 episode "slalom"
Right? There's a rhythm to it, a cadence, and hell, can even make an analogy with the content as being a melody, and if you're playing off someone, there's a kind of harmonizing. As for the difference with standup, yeah.... I see. That makes good sense. And hey, you even threw in a little demonstration of pulling in something cool with relevance from totally outside by referencing Star Trek. Nice. ;)
Haha. Avery Brooks is a weird fucker but I guess he said that when Jeffrey was having a tough time with a scene and in Avery's weird jazz musician sense it worked. Just like, ski through the harsh bits, get buried in powder, maybe hit the flags on the way down, slalom. And it fucking works
A fitting analogy and damn good advice. And.... Star Trek. Nice.
Always Star Trek forever.
:data-revolutionary: