Vondy Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings The sound of an AK-47 really is distinct from the sound of an M-4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings It's looking very much like tonight will be pizza night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted June 2, 2005 Report Share Posted June 2, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Whining crybabies who are incapable of comprehending what is written and get offended at the drop of a hat really, really piss me off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Worldmaker Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings If he gets pissed off at my sig, he'll really get pissed off at the source: As our ever growing conservative ideology rushes us down the road of selfishness' date=' intolerance, bigotry, and petty hatreds, the only thing the Religious Right has done about it is to raise the speed limit.[/i'] Evangelical Christianity has two main aspects. First is to gain enough power to force an agenda of religious intolerance upon the rest of us (the Religious Right), and secondly that part of it best expressed as my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, making the point that Christianity is the individual’s immorality. Though both these forms of selfishness have become the basis of Christianity in America today, they sure miss the central point of what Christ taught. Jesus was about changing human behavior, and to do so, he used the carrot and the stick. Resurrection (eternal bliss) versus horrible death and punishment. The story of the New Testament is not about the man, but the message of the man, a new way of thinking and a new way of acting. He tired to get men to put the hate, revenge and violence of the past behind them and replace it with love, peace and compassion. He strove to get each individual standing tall enough to stop that violent circle of vengeance by refusing to participate in it. To put away the prejudice of cultures, race, Kings and religions to love all men as brothers. Not only did he fail, but he got nailed to a tree for his efforts. And it’s a very good bet that if he came back today with that same message, people like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, William Bennett and Ollie North would be leading the pack chasing him down with a hammer and a box of railroad spikes. In this country, Christianity’s biggest disappointment has been that so many have so little trouble with the mindless dogma surrounding it and so much trouble with the point of it. Christianity should not be some uneducated preacher in a $1000 suit - diamonds and gold sparkling - spitting out intolerant fascist rhetoric to get uneducated miserable people to send them their money. Neither should Christianity be represented by those seriously unlikable creeps who get in our faces telling us how evil and Hell bent we are. Nor should Christianity be some conservative political movement based on selfishness, greed, intolerance, bigotry and violent military solutions. But that is what it has become. Piss Christ. Christianity was intended to take a long shot in trying to arrive at changing human nature by replacing hate with love, vengeance with forgiveness, violence with mercy, intolerance with understanding - making not only the individual better in lieu of his own redemption - but more importantly, to make the world a better place. And whether today’s Christians wish to accept it or not, that includes atheists, Negroes, agnostics, homosexuals, Palestinians, lesbians, Jews, immigrants, Iraqis, foreigners, and yes, even liberals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Seeman Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Happiness is knowing what cryptic messages are all about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings The guys doing the work on the studios are soon to be Darwin Award winners. I forgot to mention the electric saw incident. They sawed partially through the cord. While it was sparking, they were debating whether they should continue to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Down in the basement, I've got a Craftsman Lathe, Show it to the children when they misbehave. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Anomaly Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Life's funny, sometimes. I'm having a hard time financially right now, and it's causing me a great deal of stress. Compounding this (a lot) is the fact that last month's rent check bounced so I owe for last month and this month, and have desperately been trying to come up with the money by selling things on eBay, etc. (I thought I had overdraft protection on my account has part of the "Plus" package. What I didn't realize is, that since there's a $24.73 fee associated with each overdraft, it's an option that you have to tell them to activate -- they've had complaints from people who would have rather had a $2 check bounce than pay a $24.73 overdraft fee to pay a $2 check. I was about $50 short, as it turns out, so they bounced it rather than pay it since I hadn't explicitly told them to overdraft it.) So I go in today to pay the rent for last month, with a money order (since the notice I got from the office the end of last month let me know the check had bounced and they'd no longer take checks from me) and find the two women who man the office in a state of hairy-edged panic. When asking what the problem is, it turns out both of them have a severe "bug" phobia, and there's a wood roach loose in the office. I offer to get rid of it for them, and get such an enthusiastic response you'd think I was a heaven-sent saint or something. I find the bug and dispose of it without any trouble at all. Then with them calmed down, I apologize for the mistake last month -- 10 years of never being late with the rent checks broken!! -- and that here was a money order for last month's rent, and that by Tuesday I'd have another one for June's rent, if they could just give me two days past the due date to come up with it. Well, first of all, one of the women (the complex manager) told me to "not worry about it" -- they'd still take checks from me, because for the last 10 years I'd been one of their best tennants, always on time, always polite, etc. It was a form letter I found taped to my door, the "standard" thing they sent out in bounced-check circumstances. Plus I was the "Slayer of the Evil Bug" (that's a quote, by the way) and as such deserved anything they could do to accomodate me. Finally, they showed me a receipt where the check-recovery place they use had already got the money from my bank account for the "bounced" check, by re-billing the account a couple of days later, conveniently after I'd made another deposit. So the money order I'd brought in covered June, not May. I need to confirm this with my bank just to be sure, but after getting the money order this morning for what I thought was May's rent, I still had a positive bank balance and have some more funds coming on Tuesday, so I should be good for the next couple of weeks until I get paid again. And I have a copy of their notice/receipt from the check-recovery place showing the amount as having been "paid" already. So...a bit of good news (about not actually owing for two months' worth of rent at once) and a bit of "right place, right time" for bug-slaying has put me back in the good graces of the apartment complex manager. Sometimes, life is like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings In another identity, I teach part-time at a Jesuit university. The end of the term approaches, and today was the last real lecture (there's one more lecture period, but I reserve that for review, the obligatory course evaluation, and so on). The course being an astronomy course closing with the topic of life elsewhere in the Universe, today I talked about Habitable Zones, SETI, the Fermi Paradox, and a few of the unanswered questions having to do with extraterrestrial intelligence. I had a student -- a philosophy major -- shake my hand and thank me at the end of today's lecture. It's been a good quarter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I just got coffee up my nose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zornwil Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Dr. A, hope the luck continues to improve! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lemming Posted June 3, 2005 Report Share Posted June 3, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Occasionly we have suicidal wild beasties at Cats. Today, we had a ground squirrel found in Jill's Diner. Jane came in, looked down and saw the rodent belly up, slit down the belly, and the insides removed. She them looked to the side and saw Andrew, a nice silver tabby, dangling some entrails from his mouth. She asked me to remove the body due to the gross out factor. The body reminded me of middle school biology. Poor thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Squirrel Posted June 4, 2005 Report Share Posted June 4, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Moving In Day: ??? I've lost track of days. But the moving in process is still going. I took Tylenol PM before going to bed this morning and didn't wake up until 5:30 pm. That left little time to do things. Even still I had managed to move a bookshelf and unpack two boxes of books before Alice got home. Afterwards, we hit other boxes and cleared out at least four more. But then at 9:00 pm in the swing of unpacking, we got a phone call. Our old roommates from our old apartment had their baby today. I had promised to call people and inform them of the good news so the rest of the unpacking was lost to sharing good news. But I think I'm justified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted June 5, 2005 Report Share Posted June 5, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I'm satisfied about the stability of Mac OS X. Today I've been foing "spring cleaning". I wanted to backup some documents to DVD so I can use a "clean" Hard Drive. During my spring cleaning I found documents going back to when I started using Macs in 1991, not to mention the hobbies I've had along the way, accumulating shareware/freeware, my collection of rpg materials scattered over numerous folders and taking that trip down memory lane. Spotlight and Smart folders were very helpful in finding the numerous archives and Stuffit Spacesaver files scattered over the HD. I wish Spotlight could find "locked" files, that would have been a timesaver. Finder had to be relaunched about ten times when "getting info" on 700+ files. My workaround was to take it folder by folder. Some (user) accidents resulted in me: * opening hundreds documents (text files, word documents, excel files, clarisworks files) AT ONCE! Opps. * opening 30+ Mac OS 'classic' applications at once. Boy did the dock grow small real quick. Thank goodness for the power to force quitting the classic environment (multiple times). When you see your screen gowing haywire, and having to force-quit applications to restore "order" but the OS stability is rock solid. No restart needed dispite me doing some silly things (as above). And so the Mac has evolved into a better machine. Still has the easy to use interface of the past but now with Tiger (and Unix) the system has evolved into a great, usable and (did I mention) stable machine. When the time comes the NeXT computer I buy will be a Mac also. zornwil 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Strange things that go thru you mind when on a sleep deprived 2 hour drive home. NGD: the card game Object: to dominate the ngd board by controlling the most number of threads. Cards: there are 4 types of cards. Posters, Threads, Message, and Reaction. Each is somewhat explained below. Poster cards: Each poster is rated in the categories of Politics/Religion, Fandom, Catsuit, Humor, Esoteric, Art, Flame, Padding, and Derail-Fu. This rating is called Influence and is on a scale of 0-5. example: TIM is a poster. His stats are P/R 2, Fandom 4, Catsuit 4, Humor 4, Esoteric 2, Art 1, Flame 0, Padding 3, and Derail-fu 2. Thread cards: Each thread has a title and topic. The Topic will match one of the categorys on the Poster cards. For a poster to start a thread, he must have at least a 1 in that category. example: The player who controls Tim decides to have TIM start "The Bikini Thread". "The Bikini Thread" has a topic of Catsuit. Since TIM has a Catsuit of 4, he can start that thread. If he had a catsuit of 0 he could not start that thread. Message: This represents the various posts made to a thread to control it. As each poster puts in a Message card calculate the total of each topic from each side. The side with the largest total number in the topic controls the thread. Sometimes a message can change the Topic used to control the thread. example: The player has Tim play a "Moderate response" card on a P/R thread. Tim had not posted to this thread beofre so his P/R number is added to his players side. Reaction: Much like a Message card, these are only played during the reaction phase. These effect the thread as a whole, or one of the individual poster. example: Closed Thread- This card closes the thread. To be able to use this card, either a "Derail-Fu" card, a "Flame War" card, or a "Thread Necromancy" card must have been played. This shuts down the thread and the thread must be discarded. Neither side is considered to have control of the thread. The thread cannot be revived. Sequence f Play: Each player takes a turn in order. All players must take a turn before the first player can take another turn. A round consisted of All players having one turn. A thread lasts for at least one full round of play. Each player's turn consistes of the following phases" Draw phase: The player draws his hand up to X cards. New Poster Phase:The player plays as many Posters as he has in his hand. New thread phase: If a player wishes, he can have a poster he controls start a new thread from his hand. Old thread phase: The player may have a poster join a thread already on the board. Reply phase: All other players may have one of their posters post to one of the in play Threads. Non-phasing players may one post to ONE thread. Reaction phase: Starting with the current player each player may play ONE reaction card. End phase: The player draws enough cards to refill his hand. Some other cards: Banned by Ben: (reaction) Play this card against an opponent's poster. This poster is Banned from the board and must be discarded. All influence by this poster is lost. Flame War: (message) A poster has decided to turn this thread into a flame war. Compare the 'Flame' influence of this poster with the Influence in the original topic of the other players. If his 'Flame' is greater than the other players' original topic influence, he controls the topic and the topic is now considered a Flame war. Linky: (message) this isa link approprate to the topic. The poster who posts it gets a +1 to his influence on this topic in this thread. Scooped: (message) If a new Thread is started that has the same topic as another active thread, a poster can cause the new one to be merged in with the other thread. That's all I have for right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Gillen Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Sunday on IFC they had a 2003 career documentary on Frank Frazetta called Frazetta: Painting with Fire. It had various guys including Brom, Dave Stevens and Mike Kaluta offering commentary on how this guy had influenced their work and the whole field. The amazing thing was that Frazetta had managed to maintain a fairly decent standard of health despite one mystery illness and several strokes in recent years. Those strokes created an occasional spasm in his right arm, which means he can no longer paint with it. So he trained himself over again to draw and paint everything with his left hand. In fact that's where they leave for the closing credits: At Frazetta's house, with him at the easel, working on a piece with his left hand. I just thought that rocked. JG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death tribble Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings Saw Sin City on Friday. That was good. Went shopping on Saturday for the weekly shop and found a meal that I thought was no longer done by the particular supermarket, Chicken and Bacon Al Forno. Haven't been able to get it in months. Bought it and it was dinner. A new gaming thing is out this week that I want. But it ain't Hero. Or Superhero so I won't mention it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted June 6, 2005 Report Share Posted June 6, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings "You're an expatriate. You've lost touch with the soil. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You're an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés." --Hemingway, the Sun Also Rises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazza Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings In case anyone missed the news: Hell froze over -- Macintosh on Intel will be a reality. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hermit Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I just realized I haven't mused here in a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliceTheOwl Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I lost weight, thanks to having to carry just about everything I own. I'm ecstatic about the fact that there's less of me, even if it's almost imperceptible to anyone but Josh. Now I need to figure out how to keep it up. The fact that our new neighborhood is safer to walk around is going to be a big help. And a library in walking distance will help me get healthier in mind AND body! ^ v ^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted June 7, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings That is very very cool. So now that you're all svelte and sexy, when are you going to post bikini pics?! hehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings That is very very cool. So now that you're all svelte and sexy' date=' when are you going to post bikini pics?! hehehe[/quote'] Now I'm going to wait for Alice to post a link to pics of Rosanne Barr in a bikini. (Shadowpup didn't ask her to post pics of herself, note.) It'd serve all these lech-goobers right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuraiko Posted June 7, 2005 Report Share Posted June 7, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings I am quite mystified as to why I can create a Flash animation in Powerbullet, but for some weird reason, it won't automatically play when I open it in an HTML document... most odd. I have to right-click on it and TELL it to play... Michelle aka Samuraiko Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackSword Posted June 8, 2005 Report Share Posted June 8, 2005 Re: A Thread for Random Musings When Cultural Insensitivity becomes an art: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.