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Old Man

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  4. The cranky thread

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: The cranky thread

     

    And, to pre-empt youor inevitable "how do they stay in business" question, it's a nonprofit, which means there's a wonderful lack of accountability to ride along with the incompetence.

     

    My experience with nonprofits is that they have incredibly stringent bookkeeping requirements to keep that status. You could always call in an IRS air strike as a parting gift when you leave.

  12. The cranky thread

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: The cranky thread

     

    Dear colleague:

     

    Today you told my superior that I am "not responsive to e-mail". So I went back to see which of your emails I was not responsive to. It turns out that you haven't emailed me all year. If you want me to be more responsive, perhaps you should try giving me something to respond to. Perhaps you should try not making baseless accusations about me to other people. I do nothing but put out the fires that you and your department ignite on a daily basis, and what do I get? Stabbed in the back. Because you can't wait another 48 hours for your new laptop. My toddler is more reasonable than you. I'll tell you what: if you think I am unresponsive to your tantrums, then fine. So shall it be henceforth.

     

    Most sincerely,

     

    Old Man

  15. The cranky thread

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: The cranky thread

     

    It's bad enough a helicopter crashed here killing some hapless vacationers; must there be wall to wall media coverage for an entire week following the event? Especially when absolutely no new information comes up from one day to the next. There were no witnesses and the NTSB isn't talking. Quit running the same front page story.

  18. The cranky thread

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: The cranky thread

     

    Smells before 8 A.M.:

     

    Peanut Butter

    Stale Drool

    Someone cooking some nasty kind of sausage elsewhere in the building

    Fresh Drool

    Milk Vomit

    Secondhand smoke from some exotic cigarillo

    Diesel fumes

    Children's Benadryl (Cherry Flavor)

    Carpet Cleaner

    Lysol

    Laundry Detergent

    Bleach

    Febreze

  19. Longest Running Thread EVER

    in Non-Gaming Discussion

    Posted

    Re: Longest Running Thread EVER

     

    Quick Googling turned up this link. No idea of the veracity.

     

    http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutenglish/numberwords

     

    The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words. To this may be added around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries. Over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and about a seventh verbs; the rest is made up of interjections, conjunctions, prepositions, suffixes, etc. These figures take no account of entries with senses for different parts of speech (such as noun and adjective).

  22. Tuala Morn Discussion

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Tuala Morn Discussion

     

    Hey' date=' [i']I'm[/i] Scottish, Welsh, and Irish! (And English, Swedish, Baden-Wurttemberger, Pomeranian, and Cherokee...see what happens when Yanks do genealogies?)

     

    At least you can do yours. I can't trace mine back more than five generations--we have the sneaking suspicion that someone ran away from somewhere and took steps to not be found. The stuff I can trace is all of British Isles descent, and the surname is ultimately misspelt Scottish.

  24. Designing Sword Schools

    in Fantasy Hero

    Posted

    Re: Designing Sword Schools

     

    From a purely creative standpoint, virtually all martial art styles started out with a philosophy or inspiration that dictated how the art developed. Wing Chun was based on 'occupying the center', the space squarely in front of the opponent, and deflecting opponent attacks to make room for your own. So lots of blocking and punching, very little dodging. Bruce Lee's philosophy in developing Jeet Kune Do was speed through economy of motion--lots of quick attacks and a more emphasis on dodging. Tae Kwon Do's philosophy is that the legs are much more powerful than the hands and so the legs are the primary weapon in that style. Brazilian Jiujitsu contends that most real fights wind up as wrestiling matches anyway, so it concentrates on takedowns, holds and locks. Aikido's philosophy is one of redirecting your opponent's energy and using it against him and consists almost entirely of block/throws and joint locks. And let me quote Wikipedia on the differences between Northern and Southern Shaolin kung fu:

     

    The Northern Shaolin martial arts are characterized by quick transitions between extended postures like the horse, bow, drop, and dragon stances, as well as jumps, high kicks, and acrobatics that are largely absent from the Southern Shaolin martial arts, which are characterized by relentless hand techniques delivered from less mobile but more firmly rooted stances. It is believed that the distinction between Northern and Southern is due in part to geography and genetics. The Northern terrain was considered flat and easier to do jumps and kicks and Chinese of the North were considered taller with longer legs. Southern Chinese were considered shorter and lived on rocky terrain. Their style developed with more hand techniques and less leg work.

     

    That's all unarmed combat but sword styles are the same way. Ittosai's philosophy was one of simultaneously blocking and attacking with the same sword motion. Musashi's was that people have two hands and should use two swords independently (but by most accounts Musashi was huge and had fewer str min issues). I'm not up on fencing but I know the lunge was designed as a quick, efficient in-out attack from range; Bruce Lee was inspired by that maneuver.

     

    So to design sword martial arts out of thin air, just make up philosophies of your own and go from there. An art based on entanglement with sword and main gauche would have disarms, blocks, and holds. A style based on attacking the foundation (feet) might have trips and high-dcv strikes. One based on the scorpion would have one-hand grabs and overhead strikes. YMMV.

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