Deth Muncher's Destructive and Meandering Random Banter #141

[UglyPanda]

holy **** this episode of Community is the best episode of anything ever in the universe ever.

Oh good, it's just blood. I thought it was paint. Stroke of luck.

It was funny, but I couldn't get it out of my head that paintballs hurt. And they didn't wear goggles*.

I know they weren't the types of guns used in competitions, but I was still cringing too much to laugh.

*Or maybe they did. God, my short-term memory sucks.

[Anuan]

Saw a guy shot in the goggles like three times during a paintball game. Had to drag them off to clear the paint; big bruise around his face where the goggles had lined.

[UglyPanda]

Yeah, goggles do nothing. That's why masks are used. I've been shot in the face two or three times and I've only gone paintballing* once.


*Is that even a word?

[Thajocoth]

The goggles! They do nothing!

Fixed!

[UglyPanda]

I am well aware of the meme, I simply wished to use it more subtlely* subtly**.

*Crap, I'm not sure if that's a word either.
**Ok, so it's not. But how is that the adverb form? It has a silent b and a non-silent syllable! Or is the b supposed to sound like an h?***
***The Aristocrats!

[Jack Squat]

Yeah, when playing it's pretty common to get hit in the face, gun, or strong hand. This is because of the simple fact that those are what pokes out while shooting from behind cover.

I really need to get another game going with the weather warming up and all. Maybe I'll do that instead of boozing it up in celebration of my 21st.

[Phase]

I know they weren't the types of guns used in competitions, but I was still cringing too much to laugh.

Tell the Drama Club that tonight their tears will be real.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

My ancestors were some of the first ever settlers in America. Came over to the Massachussets Bay colony in 1633-ish. I can't remember right now. We can trace back without gaps up to 1550-ish. And that's with my ancestors being through and through peasants.

It's not like my mum's friend Reera, who managed to hit a lucky noble line somewhere, and can trace back to Roman times.

[Deth Muncher]

It is currently half an hour until Friday. At 9AM Friday, I have a Russian 101 exam. On Monday and Tuesday, both by 5PM, I have papers due. The one on Monday is 8-10 pages, the one on Tuesday is 15 pages but those pages can include references.

My father's callenderically-challenged genes must have transferred to me, because I just realized that MONDAY IS THREE DAYS AFTER FRIDAY. I HAVE NOT FINISHED RESEARCHING OR WRITING EITHER OF THESE PAPERS BECAUSE I HAVE BEEN WRITING ANOTHER PAPER.

I think I may just be in my college's library until like...5AM listening to Benny Benassi and researching/studying for my Russian exam, go sleep for two hours, then cry.

[Pheehelm]

So I'm taking a brief nighttime stroll and pass by the fenced-in kennel area where the dogs are. I hear them barking, and I initially assume it's because a human's walking past, until I hear this hissing noise. I almost don't think anything of it, but then I remember what some of the local wildlife consists of.

So I run, grab my flashlight, come back, and sure enough, there's a rattlesnake coiled up right inside the only gate into the kennel, which means I can't safely let the dogs out or leave them in there.

Wheeeeee.

[Zeb The Troll]

Question: I know a lot of older Playgrounders are changing their names from their long, well known names to abbreviations. For example, BolddyRedCommie has been BRC for a while now, and Face of Evil is now FoE...why? Why not just leave it?

BRC was asked politely by the powers the be if he would accept the name change because of the political overtones. I believe FoE changed his name as part of an RP thing going on because the original request was to change from Face of Evil to Foe of Evil. I suspect in the long run he went with the initials so that he could say it means whatever he needs it to mean at the time, RP-wise.

Just spitballin' on that last one though.

[Quincunx]

Irish airspace is partially closed today, again--this time a full-day for partial airspace instead of all the airspace for part of the day. That'll be the third closure since this sorry mess began. Irish airlines are having fits. Irish ferries are not as happy as they might be, with planes not bringing in tourists who think ferries are quaint. Thankfully the islands are so very close to the main island that propeller planes needn't ascend to ash-bearing strata of the atmosphere, and so they're not cut off from speedy transit if need be.

*****

The inter-relatedness of humankind, in my mind, is proof of how close we as a species came to snuffing it. The full hypothesis was linked in a Random Banter not that long ago and involved volcanic catastrophe, affecting the very small area in the Horn of Africa and the coast south of it, which humans had managed to populate by that time. However, with last month's discovery of the oldest human fossil in South Africa, well beyond the ranges both geographical and chronological previously known to have been populated with human ancestors, that hypothesis needs re-working to explain why human territory would have dwindled to the area affected by said volcanic eruption.

[YPU]

Here is a situation I thought never would come up. I am somewhat sad that it appears there are lenses that work for my girlfriend; I think she looks cute with her glasses. And it’s not simply the change; I was together with her for two years before she even got them.
But anything that makes her happy, she will still be cute without them.

[Kobold-Bard]

Just tried to put myself on my ignore list and got this message: Sorry, no matter how much you try, you can not ignore yourself.

It amused me.

[Player_Zero]

I have my shirt on inside out. Only just noticed. Good job I don't leave the house.

[UglyPanda]

Just tried to put myself on my ignore list and got this message: Sorry, no matter how much you try, you can not ignore yourself.

It amused me.

I've attempted that before. I think it might be a default message on... whatever software these forums run on. It also shows up in Kingdom of Loathing in at least one place.

What would happen if you could ignore yourself? You wouldn't be able to read your own messages after you posted them, you wouldn't be able to search for your old posts, and would that be all? It doesn't seem too disruptive. More than a little silly, but not too disruptive.

[Dragonrider]

My ancestors were some of the first ever settlers in America. Came over to the Massachussets Bay colony in 1633-ish. I can't remember right now. We can trace back without gaps up to 1550-ish. And that's with my ancestors being through and through peasants.

Mine too. Don't remember strictly when, but it was early 1600s. As family legend has it, our ancestor rowed across the bay and founded Beverly, Massachusetts. His . . . son, I think it was, or brother, I'm not sure as they were both named William, kept a horse saddled in the stable during the Salem Witch Trials to help witches escape (another ancestor was accused as a witch, and another ancestor was the one doing the accusing).

We also had family at Bunker Hill and others who fought in the revolution, and my great-great grandfather signed up at the age of 15 to be a drummer boy for the Union Army (they were still in Massachusetts and were fiery Boston abolitionists) and fought in the Shenandoah Valley. We still have all the letters he wrote home - comforting ones to his sisters and mother, talking about how he sometimes babysat for one of the local families, and bloody ones to his brother and father, describing people with their heads blown off and suchlike.

[wadledo]

Shesh, and my family just had a city in Pennsylvania named after them.

Done with finals! Which means I can finally devote more of my time to you people on the internet.

Ho-ray.

[MountainKing]

I just found out that my girlfriend got some really good grades this semester, despite a series of tough trials with being sick early in the semester. I'm so proud of her and just really wanted to share that with everyone. :D

[absolmorph]

I'm trying to figure out how to set up a game of Assassin without the other people playing knowing who else is part of the game.
It just seems like this is the way it should be, even if it'll make it more difficult.
I'm also trying to decide if I should make emails for them to receive their assignments through. They may know I set it up, but I don't want them to know I'm running the whole show.

[Teddy]

I'm trying to figure out how to set up a game of Assassin without the other people playing knowing who else is part of the game.
It just seems like this is the way it should be, even if it'll make it more difficult.
I'm also trying to decide if I should make emails for them to receive their assignments through. They may know I set it up, but I don't want them to know I'm running the whole show.

Perhaps forwarding your assignments through someone else might work to keep the secrecy. Or creating a hundred of anonymous hotmail adresses to mail from.

By the way, what is the problem with them knowing that you're running the show? As long as you aren't participating yourself (which would be unfair), there shouldn't be any problem with them knowing that you're doing it. Just make sure that they can't hack your computer/e-mail, though.

[Kobold-Bard]

I'm trying to figure out how to set up a game of Assassin without the other people playing knowing who else is part of the game.
It just seems like this is the way it should be, even if it'll make it more difficult.
I'm also trying to decide if I should make emails for them to receive their assignments through. They may know I set it up, but I don't want them to know I'm running the whole show.

Anonymous contact. Have them post you their details/pictures. Send the back by post. Though email works too, as long as you use a new address that can't be tracked via facebook etc.

One thng: make it crystal clear that the consequences of escalation are their own business not yours or the game's. I explained it to someone and their first reaction was to carry a tray everywhere with them so they could block attacks and crack people on the head with it to disarm them. If the police get involved because of an assault you don't want it coming back to you.

[absolmorph]

Perhaps forwarding your assignments through someone else might work to keep the secrecy. Or creating a hundred of anonymous hotmail adresses to mail from.

By the way, what is the problem with them knowing that you're running the show? As long as you aren't participating yourself (which would be unfair), there shouldn't be any problem with them knowing that you're doing it. Just make sure that they can't hack your computer/e-mail, though.

It's just for the sake of style. It's more fun to do stuff like this with a pseudonym than it is to be up-front about it.
I think I'll start working out the details and look to see who all is interested later today, once I've got some homework done.

[KuReshtin]

It's just for the sake of style. It's more fun to do stuff like this with a pseudonym than it is to be up-front about it.
I think I'll start working out the details and look to see who all is interested later today, once I've got some homework done.

So, the easiest way I'd think of getting people not know that you're the one organising it, or to know who else is playing would be to just post posters with basic, vague, information telling people to e-mail a certain e-mail for more information, and then once they've got the information, they can either agree to play, or not.
If they want to play, they need to provide a recent photo of themselves so that their 'assassin' can identify them, together with a few other pieces of information about themselves (name, classes they go to, place of work or something like that). Not enough information to make it too easy for the assassin, but enough to get them started with their own recon mission to find out more about the 'target'. Make them do a bit of homework for themselves.

Once you've got enough players signed up, you assign each of them a number, either based on the order they signed up, alpabetically or any other way you want to assign numbers to them.
Then you send out an e-mail to each of them asking them to pick a number to get their target assigned.

If the number they choose is the number you've asigned to themselves, give them the next target in the list (so if the player assigned number 5 picks number 5, give him Number 6 instead).

Once the numbers are starting to run out, just keep counting from the start again (so if there are 30 players to begin with, and you've already assigned 15 targets and someone picks number 26, just go through the list once, then start back at number 1 as number 16 and keep counting til you reach 26, where you've got your target).

This manual assignment of targets means that you can at least initially prevent two people from getting each other as targets, which would cause a problem with reassigning of targets.

Also, since the assassin gets the target's target after elimination, tell the players that part of the rules means that the eliminated target must share the basic information about their target as a minimum and whatever other information they feel they want to share of the information they've gathered themselves as part of their recon mission.

To keep players interested in the game and to make sure it doesn't dwindle into neglect as people lose interest, make a rule that they need to send 'mission updates' at least once a week to show that they are active.


Wow, that wasn't supposed to be that extensive... Hope you managed to read through it all.

[Coidzor]

Irish airspace is partially closed today, again--this time a full-day for partial airspace instead of all the airspace for part of the day. That'll be the third closure since this sorry mess began. Irish airlines are having fits. Irish ferries are not as happy as they might be, with planes not bringing in tourists who think ferries are quaint. Thankfully the islands are so very close to the main island that propeller planes needn't ascend to ash-bearing strata of the atmosphere, and so they're not cut off from speedy transit if need be.

*goes to look up what the heck happened to Ireland while he was drinking on Cinco De Mayo*

...Whenever people start talking about their family histories, I always feel so boring because all I know is that one of my ancestors joined the revolutionary war as soon as he got off of the boat to immigrate here and that inbetween that and me there were plantation-owners and a judge.

[Thufir]

...Whenever people start talking about their family histories, I always feel so boring because all I know is that one of my ancestors joined the revolutionary war as soon as he got off of the boat to immigrate here and that inbetween that and me there were plantation-owners and a judge.

If you go back far enough, my family is decended from some Scottish clan or other. That's all I know.

[absolmorph]

Woah, thanks, KuReshtin.
I'll definitely use a lot of that.

[Coidzor]

So I had a toddler jump out of a second story window to get away from my cooking today.

About... 3 hours ago now while I was cooking the birthday dinner for my girlfriend.

Just got back and he's apparently fine, though he still wasn't too enthusiastic about eating what I'd made.

The zucchini parmesan that I made based off of this recipe here turned out phenomenally well though.

I am drained as all get out though. I think I ended up spending 3-4 hours in the kitchen.

[absolmorph]

I'm no fan of zucchini, but jumping out of a window seems extreme.

[Amiel]

Are you sure he isn't half Kangaroo? or the offspring of Spiderman or the Incredible Hulk?


Was he alright?
You must be commended, Coid, for spending so much time in the kitchen and for cooking for your girlfriend; obviously kids do not appreciate good food or nice things.


I saw a car with the words "Does not stop for zombies" written across its passenger doors on my way to work yesterday; I lol'ed, heartily.