Thanatos's Tharmturges Present: Tropical, Tipsy, and Typically Random Banter #127

[Coplantor]

Try being 16 and having someone look down on your head and saying "Dude, you've got like, a mess of grey hair on the top of your head..."

Been there, and my mother loves to pull them off from my head, sadistic bastard.

[Cristo Meyers]

High school must have been stressful for you.

For me it's usually being at home. -.-;

You might say that...

Lucky. I think I've - wait.
I have a prose edition and a poetic edition of the Odssey! I can't believe I forgot the poetic edition, but I did only pick it up a few months ago when our Classics department was jettisoning some old books.
I quite liked the prose Odyssey, but I had a really good version. The Iliad definitely has to be poetic though.

I can't stand the prose translation of the Odessey. It just seems so very dry compared to the poetic.

[Alteran]

I come to you, Playgrounders, from my school library! This is my first spare period. Ever. I have no work to do, so I figured I can waste time on the internet.

So far school has gone well, I like the looks of all of my courses. My teachers look good as well, but the ones I'm worried about I won't meet until tomorrow.

[V'icternus]

Did they seem concerned about the cobra that resides inside you, or was it taken in stride, leading you to beleive that they all have venemous creatures inside them?

Either way, hope you have fun and whatever, and don't worry. There's nothing they can do to you that therapy can't fix.

[Rutskarn]

Gonna be gone for the next few days. Luckily, since I've been falling out of synch with FB, y'all shouldn't much notice.

[KataraAltinaII]

Gonna be gone for the next few days. Luckily, since I've been falling out of synch with FB, y'all shouldn't much notice.

dude, FB is all about the quizzes.

[Coplantor]

dude, FB is all about the quizzes.

I think he meant Friendly Banter

[KataraAltinaII]

and THAT FB is all about the crazy.

[Pyrian]

Mesopotamia is basically Iraq. The borders aren't exactly the same but then the borders were never particularly consistent anyway. Mesopotamia is known for the cradle of civilization that developed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, and that area is central Iraq.

[Coplantor]

@Katara: While one connects you with people you haven't seen in a while and might want to see again, the other one conects you with people you you've never seen and it's probably for the better

[Dragonrider]

dude, FB is all about the quizzes.

Since I've been FBing for two and a half years and Facebooking for half that, I cannot STAND people referring to Facebook as FB because my first thought is, "You're on GiantitP too????"


I think a lot of the Mesopotamian peoples were also Mediterranean, though. Akkadian was the lingua franca of the whole Mediterranean area and I'm pretty sure the Akkadians were considered Mesopotamian? The Sumerians were.

I dunno. It's only been a week - I'm not going to pretend knowledge that I don't have. I'm entirely too good at stating things as facts and having people believe me, only to later find out that I was mistaken. I don't do that anymore. But when I was, oh, fifteen, it seemed to happen a lot.

[KataraAltinaII]

Since I've been FBing for two and a half years and Facebooking for half that, I cannot STAND people referring to Facebook as FB because my first thought is, "You're on GiantitP too????"

I'm no facebook junkie... I'm musst not enough of a GitP junkie to know that.

either way, yes, this FB is all about the weird...

[Coplantor]

Nah, you can learn a lot from here other than just wierd stuff, like, mesopotamian stuff, and book things, and Rutskarn, you can learn Rutskarn.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Lots of random knowledge, and apparently you can learn Rutskarnian.

[Cobra_Ikari]

I never confuse FB (Facebook) with GitP. Because Friendly Banter here has always seemed like minor offshoots of the unstoppable RB thread. RANDOM BANTERERS UNITE! =D

[Coplantor]

Yeah, RB seems to take the spot light of FB, and it's quite adictive too.

[Cobra_Ikari]

Yeah, RB seems to take the spot light of FB, and it's quite adictive too.

I know. I almost feel like admitting that I spend hours staring at this screen, refreshing once a minute or so, hoping that someone will have posted something new for me to read and respond to.

*giggles hysterically*

Ok, maybe I'm not THAT bad, but... >.>

[CurlyKitGirl]

Since I've been FBing for two and a half years and Facebooking for half that, I cannot STAND people referring to Facebook as FB because my first thought is, "You're on GiantitP too????"

I've always taken FB as Friendly Banter, probably because I tend to forget to Facebook etc. exists.

I think a lot of the Mesopotamian peoples were also Mediterranean, though. Akkadian was the lingua franca of the whole Mediterranean area and I'm pretty sure the Akkadians were considered Mesopotamian? The Sumerians were.

I dunno. It's only been a week - I'm not going to pretend knowledge that I don't have. I'm entirely too good at stating things as facts and having people believe me, only to later find out that I was mistaken. I don't do that anymore. But when I was, oh, fifteen, it seemed to happen a lot.

I'll concede to that for now; it could be a linguistic choice rather than a geographic choice. Maybe you could ask your professor later on.
I think the problem with stating things as fact here is that generally, we're slightly more intelligent than 'average'. I say 'slightly more intelligent', but actually I'll amend that to slightly more well read or knowledgable than the 'normal' person in our age groups. This means we've got enough of a smattering of something to be more willing to accept what we've read or heard of from other, 'more knowledgeable' sources.

@Coplanter: This is the only place I know where we can go from discussing theoretical scientific/historic/literary/linguistic topics before devolving into endless puns and innuendo.
You can learn loads here.

[Coplantor]

Yeah, I understand what you say, lack of activity on the forum seems wierd and void.

Is SMBG ADD suffering people heaven or hell?

@^: Yeah, I know, although my regular conversations with friends are quite the similar

[Rutskarn]

Damn. I think my brain coagulated overnight.

I can just about concentrate on something for fifty seconds at a time.

[Neko Toast]

Damn. I think my brain coagulated overnight.

I can just about concentrate on something for fifty seconds at a time.

You've caught the ADD, sir.

[Rockphed]

Whether SMBG is heaven or hell depends on your point of view. I, however, have a very real problem. I need a good, free, text editor that will highlight words while I program. I could use notepad, but I would rather use something like vim or Emacs. Any suggestions?

[Dragonrider]

I'll concede to that for now; it could be a linguistic choice rather than a geographic choice. Maybe you could ask your professor later on.
I think the problem with stating things as fact here is that generally, we're slightly more intelligent than 'average'. I say 'slightly more intelligent', but actually I'll amend that to slightly more well read or knowledgable than the 'normal' person in our age groups. This means we've got enough of a smattering of something to be more willing to accept what we've read or heard of from other, 'more knowledgeable' sources.

We actually discussed it as a class the first day: What defines a region? How far do you go and when does it stop being "us" and start being "them"? But yeah, the linguistic definition seems to be a large part of it.

[CurlyKitGirl]

We actually discussed it as a class the first day: What defines a region? How far do you go and when does it stop being "us" and start being "them"? But yeah, the linguistic definition seems to be a large part of it.

SO what was class consensus on: What is the Mediterranean?

"Us" and "Them" are fluid. Four miles away it's still Cornish, and we're even still in the same district, but They're not Us, but Them.
It depends on how far down into an area you want to go. Cornwall is Cornwall, but the North Cornish (that's north coast) and the South Cornish (south coast) treat each other with mild condescension. And when it gets to how close you are to the Tamar . . .
Them up there are almost Devonshire folk. And They're Up Country.
And we're still in the same county!

It's mainly a literature based history class, yes? Either way language has a big impact on things, you'll be doing interactions between civilisations and things maybe and how they affected the dispersion and assimilation of myths and stories as you've already seen. Ha. Here's me telling you what your class is doing when 1) I'm not in that course, 2) or in the college, and 3) or even in the same country.
Still, hooray! for me making a mildly logical guess. I will now have a celebratory ice cream. Because I've not had any in three months.

[Coplantor]

I must say, Curly, that your use of the language is truly lovely.

[Thufir]

Yes, those were two of the best bits; then there was that chorus right before part one ended. Loved that too.

Yep. Though apparently the tenors were slightly flat on the final note

Well, yeah, how many under twenty - ones can say "I performed at Royal Albert Hall [insert length of time], it was good. Not that I'm being blase or anything."

That did occur to me. In the afternoon rehearsal Nick McGegan said something about us being the future of choral music. I never thought about myself as being really part of big things in choral music, but then I've just performed in one of the proms at age 21, so maybe I should rethink that point of view.

I remember Stephen Fry got interviewed in that Twenty Minutes segments; he thought the performance was bloody fantastic. Also: Hugh Laurie? Cool. Daniel Craig, I don't know him. He famous somehow?
And the conductor said the same thing too. Thufir and his 300 companions are "the history of classical music". So, Mr. Thufir, how does it feel?

I heard about the Stephen Fry interview. He also posted about it on his twitter. And came backstage after the performance and signed autographs (I couldn't be bothered to wade through the crowd to reach him, so I didn't get one). Oh, and apparently he said our diction was excellent, which is astounding for such a large choir.

Standing ovation. Very good, but not all that rare.
Royal Albert Hall: correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it one of the most famous halls in the world and ridiculously prestige? And a standing ovation there is "less significant".
You really are on a music high. It's incredibly deserved though; I've not heard much choral classical music, but I've heard enough to say that was really good and I'm glad I caught it.
Even if I did get into more than a sinkload of trouble for saying, "I'll go shop when the break's on. In an hour." It wasn't all that urgent anyway.

Still, you had a once in a lifetime opportunity, you took it, and you enjoyed the performance incredibly. You can have my envy now.

I loves my music highs Though of course the Royal Albert Hall does apply to the performance as well as the standing ovation. So it's kind of like it just put everything at a higher basic level.
And thinking about it some more, really a standing ovation just lets you keep feeling the elation. The extent of the elation is down to the quality of the performance - in which the Royal Albert Hall was obviously a factor. Amazing setting and excellent acoustics.
*Is envied*
*And kinda smug*

<Long poetry/language rant/defence-thing>

Your awesome, it is truly overwhelming.
And of course this is another example of how things can't be incorrect english. A dictionary would tell you awesome is an adjective, but I just used it as a noun, something you have.

Recalling a previous RB conversation topic, a friend of mine currently has the following as his facebook status:
[Name] it amusing to sentences with no verbs, and whether you still from the context what.

[Jack Squat]

Whether SMBG is heaven or hell depends on your point of view. I, however, have a very real problem. I need a good, free, text editor that will highlight words while I program. I could use notepad, but I would rather use something like vim or Emacs. Any suggestions?

What are you programming in? For Java, netbeans is supposed to be one of the best (I don't/have never programmed in java, but have friends who do). There's also the windows virtual suite, although the user interface sucks for that. Bloodshed is supposed to be pretty decent as well.

I'd probably just dual-boot linux and use vim, but that's what I'm used to as well.

[Dragonrider]

SO what was class consensus on: What is the Mediterranean?

"Us" and "Them" are fluid. Four miles away it's still Cornish, and we're even still in the same district, but They're not Us, but Them.
It depends on how far down into an area you want to go. Cornwall is Cornwall, but the North Cornish (that's north coast) and the South Cornish (south coast) treat each other with mild condescension. And when it gets to how close you are to the Tamar . . .

We talked about it: There are different tiers of Us and Them. I have a lot of Us:

If I go out around town, I'm a Whitman student.

If I cross to the other side of the state, I'm from Walla Walla.

If I go to California, I'm from Washington.

If I go to Pennsylvania, I'm from the West Coast.

If I go to England, I'm from the USA.

Presumably if I leave the planet, I'm from Earth.


The difficulty lies in where US stops. Because eventually it does, and that's where wars happen. In the American Civil War, people's concept of "us" didn't really extend beyond the state they lived in: A person was a Georgian first, a Southerner second, and an American last of all. People in the north may have been Americans, but they were Northerners. Pennsylvanians. Not Us.

(For my ancestors, it was the southerners who were Thems). And it was after the war that things started to reverse so that people were American first, West Coaster second, Washingtonian third.)



Sorry. It's interesting.

[Coidzor]

interesting and annoying.

Does have a fair bit to do with how easy it is to get us to do violence upon one another though, if I'm recalling correctly.

[Coplantor]

All of this reminds me of the monkeysphere.

Human evolution is determined by the abilty to relate to larger groups of people, yet, from a big group and a small group closer to the individual, the smallest group will always be "us".

Us the family, us the neighbours, then us the fellow citizens, country men, humans. And it gets more and more intresting when you add other categories such as religion, ethnic group, language, studies, hobbies, etc...