Mantis

Re: Military SF Character Stereotypes ? The wiseass punk who only joined up because he was given a choice between jail and the military, but at the climactic moment turns out to have a heart of gold under his hard-bitten devil-may-care badass exterior.

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Musings on Random Musings Bazza, have you got yourself a tank?

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Ooh! Idea! Start up an insurance company, call it "Nukem From Orbit", and adopt the motto, "It's the only way to Insure".

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER This is an experiment. What we have is an attempt by me to create the longest running, NON game thread. Our record to beat, is the Catsuit thread. Quite a challange. And we are going to have to keep this thing as best we can. Threads and Tangents are welcome. Getting it locked is not desired. Now all we need is a launching point. What does everyone feel about the Red Sox "Curse"? And are you aware that this year Stephen King is going to every game and will be writing a book about the season.

Re: The cranky thread Last month I signed a contract extension for six months. Figured that since that would give me a full year employment, and usually the only time off work I have is when I'm "between contracts", I should take this week off - it's school holidays, and yesterday was a holiday anyway (I don't get paid for any time off). So today, my first actual day off, I get a phone call to give me four weeks notice, the projects they were expecting to be ramping up have been put back and they are going to trim staff.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER A quick (traffic-generating) straw poll about my signature: I had two thoughts for the caption, both sort-of comic-related. I went with the current one ("I'm the goddamn Bugman!"), but the alternative was, "I'm the Predator, bitch!" except I'm not sure how many people would get the reference. I'm pretty sure most people get the reference for the other. So, should I stick to the existing caption, or change to the other? Or does anyone have their own suggestion? Or do you not care?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings I went to a meeting today about some changes to the current projects we have in the office. The large meeting room was packed, but the meeting mercifully brief. It was really just an announcement of the changes, not a discussion, there is going to be some merging of projects, slight changes in some goals and some resultant project renaming, nothing earth-shattering. A couple of folks weren't invited for some reason, and I'd undertaken to give them a summary afterwards. When they asked me for a rundown of events, I thought about how we are overburdened with crippling levels of bureaucracy, and the fact the term "modifications to reporting lines" had come up several times in the meeting, and came up with the following executive summary. "We are still going to be using red tape" I said, "but we will be changing brands!"

Re: Musings on Random Musings Arrrr, ye scurvy dogs all be a few planks short of a poopdeck.

Re: Need Perjoratives! Rainbows, for the colorful threads they wear. I do like "towel-backs" too.

Re: help with ship clasifications Terminology changes between ages - 'Frigate' has meant many things - but the Age of the Battleship ended in WWII, so here's the rough guide to names and sizes at that time: Battleship - 25,000 tons or more, up to ~70,000 tons. Guns in the 14"-18" range (usually 16"). Thick armor - 4-6" deck, 12-16" sides. Battlecruiser: 20,000 - 40,000 tons, 12"-16" guns. Lighter and faster than battleship with same guns - "Can outrun what they don't outgun." - due to thinner armor (2-4" deck, 8-12" sides). Not known as a successful class. Cruiser: 8000-10000 tons. Generally carried 8" guns. Long ranged - name derived from role of "cruising" the sea lanes. 2-3" deck, 4-8" side armor. Light cruiser: 6000-8000 tons. 5-6" guns, some also had bank of torpedoes. 1-2" deck, 3-4" side armor, usually faster than heavy cruiser and shorter ranged. Destroyer: 1000-2000 tons. 4" guns (some had 5"), 4 to 6 torpodoes, also depth charges. No armor. Name derived from "Torpedo Boat Destroyer" - original role was to screen large ships from craft armed primarily with torpedos, prior to WWI the two types merged (except in German Navy which still operated Torpedo Boats in WWII). Also given role of anti-sub warfare (ASW). Fastest class of ship, 33-38 kts. Not long ranged. Frigate: Similar size to destroyer but slightly smaller. Carried 4" guns but fewer than destroyer, and no torpedoes. Intended for convoy escort and hence slower (20 kt) but longer ranged. Due to ASW role, primary weapon was depth charge. Corvette: About 1000 tons, single 4" gun, no torpedoes. Slow (15 kt) but long-ranged, also intended as ASW convoy escort so main weapon was depth charge.

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Picture #3 Caption: I'm in ur storagebay, havin sum kittenz

Re: Help me name this hero!

Re: The cranky thread If it isn't too late, contact the folks you have written checks for and explain what has happened (circumstances beyond your control), apologise profusely, and ask them not to deposit the check - there is no point anyway, it'll just bounce. At least you can avoid paying the fees on them that way. Also, in my experience, if you let folks know up-front there has been a SNAFU, and you can let them know exactly when you can make payment, they can be quite reasonable about alternative payment arrangements. Or will your bank let you have a temporary overdraft to cover the excess of the checks you wrote until your paycheck comes in? Sorry if I'm stating the obvious with the above, but I've been there, done that, and some of the above I only thought of when it was too late!!

Re: Help me name this hero! The Good Humor Man

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER The next spin-off of the Law & Order franchise...

Re: Need Perjoratives! Dexies (from "Spandex"). Breakers (proclivity for breakling things). Dans (rearranged DNA).

Re: Musings on Random Musings

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I've just noticed that the removal of the Custom User Titles has also removed the "BANNED" title from the not-so-dearly departed.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Police - Driven to Tears

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Man, this thread is sloooow to load.... maybe "Longest Running" is a reference to the time it takes the server to load it up?

Re: A Thread for Random Musings If this subject wasn't compulsory, I would be withdrawing so fast you'd hear a *pop!*.

Re: A name looking for an archtype My first thought was "Hasta la vista..."

Re: A Thread for Random Musings The Ark was built by amateurs, the Titanic was built by professionals.