Elemental's Excitingly Excellent Random Banter: No.CLXXVII (177)

[LaZodiac]

That's the point when you decide that you actually aren't especially well-versed in these topics and desperately try to figure out if anything interesting at all happened earlier in your day that you can retell just to keep yourself floating.

ION:
Thursday means gaming night, and more of Hell's Highway. I think I rolled more 6's than the average (5 of about 15-20 rolls), which would be good, hadn't 4 of them been bridge demolishment rolls, where you want to roll low. 3 of them even were in a row.

I have no idea about how I'm supposed to push the bloody red-caps out of Arnhem. Or prevent the XXX corps from getting there. Or achieve anything at all, actually. It's true as one of the guys at the club said last week: The only thing that isn't dangerous in this game is being out of supply.

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds fascinating.

[Mutant Sheep]

Ok, I read most of the Curly-Dragon conversation. My brain hasn't recovered yet. Will post actual substance when able. (I never post anything of substance, but still. Cut stupid freshman some slack here, I actually comprehended half of that stuff.)

[Teddy]

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, but it sounds fascinating.

I'm talking about this:

Spoiler

Show

This is the part of the map I'm fighting on:

Spoiler

Show

It's upside down for some stupid reason (or sideways, depending on how you see it. Arnhem is to the left in this picture), and it doesn't feature any markers either. Tomorrow, I might try to get my hands on some of the pictures dad has taken of it.

[wadledo]

Oh gods, old style long term board games.
All of my love/hate.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

OH MY GOD HERE WE GO!

Dragonprime is a multi-quote god now? What, are we just giving the title away? Most of those posts only quoted one previous post, just split it up into bits.
This is a multi-quote post.

Well, y'know, in comparison to most.

Well, over the internet she has time to think things through, plus the epic rants and intelligent discussions are on subjects she's very familiar with.
IRL... sometimes not so much.

I'm the same, but with suavity. On the internet, I'm a lot funnier, smoother, and more comfortable with just general conversation than when talking in person. I'm not THAT awkward in person, but in comparison...

I'll admit, I do find them lacking at times. They're not perfect, and they can be abused, but they can be used as a good general tool. Basically, it just asks you to treat others well and keep your system of ethics consistent and logical. Not all that bad. I'd have to see this article to see whether or not they were using the categorical imperatives correctly. They might have abused them.

Apparently the author was satirizing things. That was not clear to me in reading this...

Awww man, I actually quite like Spanish. I'm going to have to learn how to use it anyways, since we have a lot of immigrants from Puerto Rico in Boston with whom I might be working. Put this together with my future Latin and Greek studies, and I should know English, Polish, Latin, Greek, and Spanish by the time I'm done with seminary.

That is a lot of languages. A LOT of languages. I'm impressed!

It all comes down to who you end up living with.

Very true, very true. And that's literally luck of the draw. Literally. As in they are doing a lottery system to figure out which rez you get into...

I don't know about that. I think the Greeks mostly wrote on wax tablets, so they're not likely to have smudged their hands. Maybe it was Egyptian influence? Egypt had a lot of influence on early Greek culture.

Mmm, that would make a certain amount of sense...

I can see why we'd blur together. The rest of the New England just rips off the greatness of Massachusetts and tries to be as cool as us.

I've only ever been to Massachusetts of all of New England, and within that only been to Northampton. I want to go to Boston. I have people to meet there.

Only during term time. In the holidays she's in Penzance, of Pirates fame. The southwestest bit of England.

Ah, but I've BEEN to Oxford, but never to Penzance. And she's in Oxford most of the time, no? I think of her as in Oxford most of the time. Hey Curly, you're in Oxford most of the time, right? I think of you as in Oxford most of the time.

Newcastle upon Tyne area. Pretty much the northeastest bit of England.

That's kinda York-ish, right? Is it north or south of York, I can't remember... South, right?

Possibly. I don't really know much about the history of writing that far back, but it seems logical that you'd not want to spoil your writing. Well, at least there are probably people in my uni who are specialists on writing this far back. There's a Professor in Akkadian hanging around somewhere; and there are compulsory manuscript classes in most Masters courses which would involve handwriting.
*sighs*
Now I really want to know.
Maybe if I ask a tutor he'd know who to contact?

You should find this thing out. You should do it.

Braintree. Why.
Then again, you look at the UK in general and we're . . . a mess.
Eboracum (Latinised version of the Celtic name) becomes Ebrauc (bastardised Romano-Celtic after the Romans left) becomes Eoforwīc (Old English for 'wild-boar town') becomes Jorvik (technically the Kingdom of Jorvik) becomes York.
At least your town's names didn't change. Much.

Well, my hometown used to be called Tkaronto by the Haudenasee, then it was called York, then it was renamed Toronto, and since then the city has had the following cities folded into it: East York, Etobicoke (pronounced "eh-TOE-bih-COE"), North York, Scarborough, and York (which was a DIFFERENT city that was named York after the old York was named Toronto). That's not including the smaller villages that got amalgamated, such as the village of Parkdale, where I go to school.

See, now you're having high-brow intellectual conversations in massive quotestorms!
It's catching isn't it?

Aye, very.

It bookends the poem.
Starts with politics (familial, courtly, national, international and religious) and a betrayal, then there's a battle, a badass priest who kills loads of pagans (seriously, Roland's warcry is 'Pagans are wrong and Christians are right', but as always, context is eveyrthing), then he dies, then there's a trial where the betrayer is tried for treason.
It's not exactly advanced by any means.

Not advanced doesn't mean not interesting. It'll probably be a loooong while before I get to reading it, though. *sigh* Life, eh?

Good luck on those then.

I think I did reasonably well... Tomorrow is a much longer day: physics paper 3 AND history paper 1.

Actually it sounds pretty cool.

Why thank you!

*brain asplodes*
Wat.

Ayup.

Oh my. I think I have quotestorm fatigue.

... yeah slightly.

[Teddy]

Oh gods, old style long term board games.
All of my love/hate.

It's perfect. Just enough is happening so that you can't say that nothing happens, and the mechanics are equaly unfair to everyone so everyone thinks that they're losing.

[LaZodiac]

I'm talking about this:

Spoiler

Show

This is the part of the map I'm fighting on:

Spoiler

Show

It's upside down for some stupid reason (or sideways, depending on how you see it. Arnhem is to the left in this picture), and it doesn't feature any markers either. Tomorrow, I might try to get my hands on some of the pictures dad has taken of it.

....ok, yha, that looks awesome. I don't know what ANY of it means, but it looks awesome!

[Thufir]

Ah, but I've BEEN to Oxford, but never to Penzance. And she's in Oxford most of the time, no? I think of her as in Oxford most of the time. Hey Curly, you're in Oxford most of the time, right? I think of you as in Oxford most of the time.

Term-time is more of the year than uni holidays, so yeah.

That's kinda York-ish, right? Is it north or south of York, I can't remember... South, right?

Northeastest bit of England. Figure out which N/S direction that means it is from York.
And York's about an hour away by train. I don't know what it is in distance.

[Heliomance]

Term-time is more of the year than uni holidays, so yeah.

It is for most unis, but Oxbridge have ridiculously short terms.

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

Northeastest bit of England. Figure out which N/S direction that means it is from York.
And York's about an hour away by train. I don't know what it is in distance.

Yeah well, I didn't mean you meant the VERY north-eastern edge...

[Thufir]

Yeah well, I didn't mean you meant the VERY north-eastern edge...

That is what the -est suffix means...

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

That is what the -est suffix means...

I assumed hyperbole.

[DraPrime]

Possibly. I don't really know much about the history of writing that far back, but it seems logical that you'd not want to spoil your writing. Well, at least there are probably people in my uni who are specialists on writing this far back. There's a Professor in Akkadian hanging around somewhere; and there are compulsory manuscript classes in most Masters courses which would involve handwriting.
*sighs*
Now I really want to know.
Maybe if I ask a tutor he'd know who to contact?

It's certainly worth a shot. The whole thing is an interesting question. Another thing that I wonder about is why we write sideways, rather than vertically like in Mandarin. Somebody has to know this.

Braintree. Why.

The British named the town after Braintree, Essex. Take it up with your long dead countrymen.

Then again, you look at the UK in general and we're . . . a mess.
Eboracum (Latinised version of the Celtic name) becomes Ebrauc (bastardised Romano-Celtic after the Romans left) becomes Eoforwīc (Old English for 'wild-boar town') becomes Jorvik (technically the Kingdom of Jorvik) becomes York.
At least your town's names didn't change. Much.

You should hear some of the town names that I come across in Poland. There is Kozie Brody, which means "Goat Beards". There is Wrzazki, which means "Screams". My favorite though, is Ryczy Wol, which means "A Bull is Bellowing". Seriously, Polish farming villages have the weirdest names. Finally, there is the unintentionally hilarious town of Brony.

A lecture you go to a faculty room (usually) or another one where loads (or not very many, I've been to lectures with four people in) of people sit down and are lectured for fifty minutes.
A class is small, almost never more than six people have close interaction with the professor, do work, group discussion and so on.
At lectures you only get lectured.
At seminars and classes you can interact with the professor and other people.

Interesting. We seem to be divided primarily into lectures and seminars, though a lecture could become a class if there were just not many students. Seminars here are for specialized topics, such as Renaissance Venice, or for writing a thesis. They function much like your classes.

If you consider that aside from the Greek and Roman philosophers there just wasn't that much major academic work at all outside of monasteries, and then suddenly everyone wants to be educated and are becoming more aware of themselves and want to know about how they interact with the world on every level.
They were quite literally breaking new ground that could get them killed.
While I'm not really a fan of philosophy in general, some of their ideas were just straight up beautiful.

Their ideas? Who exactly are we referring to? The explosion of academia in the 12th and 13th centuries, or the Enlightenment?

It's mostly in the vowels isn't it? I think in ecclesiastical Latin the vowels are more clipped?

I'm not quite sure. I know that consonants do change a lot. If my knowledge of Latin is correct, then Cicero is pronounce "chee-che-ro", while in classical it's pronounced "kikero". Regina in ecclesiastical is "re-jee-na" while in classical it's "re-gih-na".

Just for you then, Bede's account of Caedmon. In parallel text! OhmyHeavenssuchnerdery.
I quite like Bede. He's very approachable as an eccleasiastical historian. And surprisingly dry (in a good way).

Ooooooh, I shall read this. Though it will have to go on my list of "things to read". I just packed up my stuff to leave the seminary, and I had to make three trips to my car to move all the books I'm taking with me over the summer.

It probably says something when I don't understand contradictory messages that add together to make one whole concept.
That's what my degree is! Mostly. Kind of. If you squint.
I also think post-modernists are a little frustrated because they can't really think up anything 'new' to say; or rather, they can, but they want to say it in an entirely 'new' way so as not to be classed as something 'outdated'.

I think the bigger problem with them is not the lack of newness, but that they just took the lazy way out of the chaos of the Enlightenment. The philosophy of the last few centuries has been constantly filled with a growing amount of division, leading many to wonder whether or not we'll ever really be able to find truth that all can agree on. In the midst of this dilemma, rather than continuing to try to pursue truth (which is was philosophy is all about), many post-modernists just threw up their hands and said that clearly there is no objective truth, even though you need to rely on the existence of truth to make such a statement. In my opinion, it's just philosophically lazy.

I know, I know. But it's still fun, albeit mostly concerned with central and Northern Europe. Too much time spent indoors in winter being bored I say.
Eh, at least you can do witch-burnings. That's cool. You can read Shakespeare in a witch-burning context too.

Ah witch burning. At least here in Massachusetts we made it quick and hung them. Except for Giles Corey, who was crushed to death with heavy stones.

Pluralising Massachusett (member of the tribe) then? I still don't know my inflections very well.

Perhaps? I don't know Latin well enough either.

*high fives*
Even though I envy you.

Don't envy me just yet. I've got a nine page paper on Aquinas that needs finishing. I will miss my medieval philosophy class though. We got to write disputations on pretty much any subject we wanted in the style of the Summa Theologica. I love it when professors give me free rein to just write about anything, as long as it's good.

Ok, I read most of the Curly-Dragon conversation. My brain hasn't recovered yet. Will post actual substance when able. (I never post anything of substance, but still. Cut stupid freshman some slack here, I actually comprehended half of that stuff.)

Freshman? You're apparently not that far behind me in college. I'm a sophomore, junior next year.

Apparently the author was satirizing things. That was not clear to me in reading this...

I hope it's satire. It's not exactly a very good understanding of Kant's ethical system. The real thing here is that it's immoral for all of society to cease to reproduce, not to start adopting kids. After all, if people don't reproduce then there will be no kids to adopt. There's something to be said about a lack of procreation to be damaging, but this definitely isn't really a good use of the categorical imperatives. Besides, that's only one of the three imperatives. Though if this is satire, then that might explain a lot.

That is a lot of languages. A LOT of languages. I'm impressed!

I have yet to see if reality will catch up with my ambition. English and Polish I've known growing up, so they're natural for me. Spanish I learned for quite a few years, so it shouldn't be too bad. Even learning Latin won't be that impossible for me. However, to master all that, and include Greek is the real challenge. I get the feeling that I'm going to need to axe one language on this list.

Very true, very true. And that's literally luck of the draw. Literally. As in they are doing a lottery system to figure out which rez you get into...

A lottery system? Oy vey. I'm glad I have my own room to myself in the dorms here. Seminary rules keep us generally peaceful, so it's rather nice.

I've only ever been to Massachusetts of all of New England, and within that only been to Northampton. I want to go to Boston. I have people to meet there.

Boston is pretty awesome. I live about 20 minutes away in a suburb. In fact, it's a pretty historically significant. Lexington is the place where the first fight in the war for Independence occurred. Not a bad place to grow up.

[Rawhide]

It's certainly worth a shot. The whole thing is an interesting question. Another thing that I wonder about is why we write sideways, rather than vertically like in Mandarin. Somebody has to know this.

This I can take a fairly good stab at. It's easier to read from side to side than up and down. Try moving your eyes from side to side, then switch and move them up and down.

[LaZodiac]

Hey Dragonprime. Hate to be a Sheep here, but you should totally get online so we can talk.

I've got Assassin Creed 3 traileeeers~ /temptation

[wadledo]

This I can take a fairly good stab at. It's easier to read from side to side than up and down. Try moving your eyes from side to side, then switch and move them up and down.

This has barely anything to do with anything, but whenever someone mentions vertical eye movement I am reminded of the kitten who grew up in a box with vertical stripes and could not function when taken out of the box because the.... cones? (rods? I don't recall which) hadn't developed fully.

[AtlanteanTroll]

AP US History exam tomorrow guys. The final was Monday and Tuesday. I got a 91. Wish me luck guys.

[Elemental]

This I can take a fairly good stab at. It's easier to read from side to side than up and down. Try moving your eyes from side to side, then switch and move them up and down.

I think part of the reason Mandarin is written vertically has to do with the bamboo scrolls they wrote on.
They'd write down one strip of bamboo, and then move on to the next.

[Mutant Sheep]

Hey Dragonprime. Hate to be a Sheep here, but you should totally get online so we can talk.

I've got Assassin Creed 3 traileeeers~ /temptation

*takes offense*Why would you hate being like m-oh yeah. I'm me.

Take it up with your long dead countrymen.

I LIKE THIS I FIND IT FUNNY.

You should hear some of the town names that I come across in Poland. There is Kozie Brody, which means "Goat Beards". There is Wrzazki, which means "Screams". My favorite though, is Ryczy Wol, which means "A Bull is Bellowing". Seriously, Polish farming villages have the weirdest names. Finally, there is the unintentionally hilarious town of Brony.

NO. HIDE THIS. DO NOT LET THEM KNO-Wait. LET THEM MIGRATE! INFORM ALL THE PONYFIENDS! SELF SEGREGATION HORRAY!:D:D

Their ideas? Who exactly are we referring to? The explosion of academia in the 12th and 13th centuries, or the Enlightenment?

Bah. "Explosion" smosion. The "Dark" Ages were better than the 14th century in so many ways its scary. I can think of only a few bad things. Like war. That sucked. And invasions of Europe also sucked. And so did a bunch of other things, I guess. But still, they weren't as bad as people say. Life in 957 and 1554 werent that amazingly different. There were just less cool monks and more absolute ass**** measuring devices.

Ooooooh, I shall read this. Though it will have to go on my list of "things to read". I just packed up my stuff to leave the seminary, and I had to make three trips to my car to move all the books I'm taking with me over the summer.

Oh, packing up from college. More painful than packing for it, from what I gather. xD

I think the bigger problem with them is not the lack of newness, but that they just took the lazy way out of the chaos of the Enlightenment. The philosophy of the last few centuries has been constantly filled with a growing amount of division, leading many to wonder whether or not we'll ever really be able to find truth that all can agree on. In the midst of this dilemma, rather than continuing to try to pursue truth (which is was philosophy is all about), many post-modernists just threw up their hands and said that clearly there is no objective truth, even though you need to rely on the existence of truth to make such a statement. In my opinion, it's just philosophically lazy.

Ok, I forgot what this was replying to (been like, 10 minutes since I pressed the quote button), but laziness in philosophy? That's good!

Ah witch burning. At least here in Massachusetts we made it quick and hung them. Except for Giles Corey, who was crushed to death with heavy stones.

Yeah, those two thousandish or whatever people in three hundred years.

Perhaps? I don't know Latin well enough either.

LEARN IT BETTER!

Don't envy me just yet. I've got a nine page paper on Aquinas that needs finishing. I will miss my medieval philosophy class though. We got to write disputations on pretty much any subject we wanted in the style of the Summa Theologica. I love it when professors give me free rein to just write about anything, as long as it's good.

Go do that more and stop hurting freshman brain.

Freshman? You're apparently not that far behind me in college. I'm a sophomore, junior next year.

I post intelligently enough to seem like I'm in college? Yeesh. Either I am so smart I didn't grasp my genius, or you can't tell the difference between a college student and a highschool freshman.

And no, I do not believe in serious conversation.


_________________________________________________

Boston is pretty awesome. I live about 20 minutes away in a suburb. In fact, it's a pretty historically significant. Lexington is the place where the first fight in the war for Independence occurred. Not a bad place to grow up.

Yeah. Spirit of shooting people! Wohoo! Shootin' up the THANGS! Great place to grow up. Of course, Trenton is much better. Spirit of murdering people who-get-their-earnings-sent-to-the-noble-back-home when the people are drunk from celebrating Christmas and STILL getting your ass beat. Brave General Washington, killing people on Christmas.
(Fine. They weren't drunk and were beaten silly. Poor you. Still murdering people on Christmas because you hate freedom. Casualties bullet wise, the Hessians sucked. But then Washington lost more people to that "goddamn freezing cold" than the Hessians did at the Christmas Murder. And the commander of the guys was disliked by his troops because they thought he was TOO NICE.)

[AtlanteanTroll]

*takes offense*Why would you hate being like m-oh yeah. I'm me.

Man, wait, what? I'm the one who's always begging you to get on AIM. When do you ever do that?

[Mutant Sheep]

Man, wait, what? I'm the one who's always begging you to get on AIM. When do you ever do that?

You're the one not on AIM. Foolish TROLL!

[Rawhide]

They say that just watching and thinking about exercise will have 50% of the effect of actual exercise. So, if I ride an exercise bike while watching a fitness program, does that make it 150%?

[Cobra_Ikari]

They say that just watching and thinking about exercise will have 50% of the effect of actual exercise. So, if I ride an exercise bike while watching a fitness program, does that make it 150%?

I dunno, seems like doing the exercise is already making you see exercise in action/think about it. Maybe that's already a component of it?

...

...does that mean the fact that I daydream and blast loud music in my ears while I run makes my exercise routine 50% less effective?

[LaZodiac]

They say that just watching and thinking about exercise will have 50% of the effect of actual exercise. So, if I ride an exercise bike while watching a fitness program, does that make it 150%?

Theoretically.

I THINK the idea is, watching a program on exercising makes you exercise harder, so it simply ups your performance by 50%. And I don't doubt it, having a constant stream of encouragement while exercising is sure to make you do it better. "Alright, keep it up, pump those arms, pump it! You can do it, burn that weight, get those muscles, yha yha!"

[Rawhide]

Theoretically.

I THINK the idea is, watching a program on exercising makes you exercise harder, so it simply ups your performance by 50%. And I don't doubt it, having a constant stream of encouragement while exercising is sure to make you do it better. "Alright, keep it up, pump those arms, pump it! You can do it, burn that weight, get those muscles, yha yha!"

No, I mean, just sitting around not exercising, but watching and thinking about doing it actually has an impact.

[LaZodiac]

No, I mean, just sitting around not exercising, but watching and thinking about doing it actually has an impact.

That's hilarious.

[DraPrime]

NO. HIDE THIS. DO NOT LET THEM KNO-Wait. LET THEM MIGRATE! INFORM ALL THE PONYFIENDS! SELF SEGREGATION HORRAY!:D:D

My poor fellow Poles.

Bah. "Explosion" smosion. The "Dark" Ages were better than the 14th century in so many ways its scary. I can think of only a few bad things. Like war. That sucked. And invasions of Europe also sucked. And so did a bunch of other things, I guess. But still, they weren't as bad as people say. Life in 957 and 1554 werent that amazingly different. There were just less cool monks and more absolute ass**** measuring devices.

Well yes, I agree. The "Dark" ages are underrated. However, I'm referring to the sudden appearance of places like the University of Paris during the 12th century. It's when our system of universities got started. A cool time.

Oh, packing up from college. More painful than packing for it, from what I gather. xD

Aye. I'm home now though. Hooray!

Ok, I forgot what this was replying to (been like, 10 minutes since I pressed the quote button), but laziness in philosophy? That's good!

Tell that to Providence College. Perhaps I won't have to write a 25 page thesis to graduate.

LEARN IT BETTER!

Fiat voluntas tua.

Go do that more and stop hurting freshman brain.

I can make you read the essay if you want.

I post intelligently enough to seem like I'm in college? Yeesh. Either I am so smart I didn't grasp my genius, or you can't tell the difference between a college student and a highschool freshman.

Pretty much ever since I joined here as a freshman in high school people have thought that I'm in my early twenties. Now I am, and people think I'm even older. Such is the Playground.

Yeah. Spirit of shooting people! Wohoo! Shootin' up the THANGS! Great place to grow up. Of course, Trenton is much better. Spirit of murdering people who-get-their-earnings-sent-to-the-noble-back-home when the people are drunk from celebrating Christmas and STILL getting your ass beat. Brave General Washington, killing people on Christmas.
(Fine. They weren't drunk and were beaten silly. Poor you. Still murdering people on Christmas because you hate freedom. Casualties bullet wise, the Hessians sucked. But then Washington lost more people to that "goddamn freezing cold" than the Hessians did at the Christmas Murder. And the commander of the guys was disliked by his troops because they thought he was TOO NICE.)

You're in New Jersey? You have my condolences.

[Tectonic Robot]

So, uh, just a whole lot of random conversation? Any rules and such? Or anything?

Also, um, hi. Name's Tectonic Robot. I like hanging around here. How are you?

[Cobalt]

AP US History exam tomorrow guys. The final was Monday and Tuesday. I got a 91. Wish me luck guys.

You need to tell me how you physically felt when you finished, because I need a damn shower, man, I was sweating. My left arm would not move at all without hurting, but surprisingly, my right arm/hand (I write right-handed) was fine. Happily, I'm feeling I got a 4 or 5. You?

So, uh, just a whole lot of random conversation? Any rules and such? Or anything?

Also, um, hi. Name's Tectonic Robot. I like hanging around here. How are you?

The first post's rules are basically it, and the forum rules of course. Being friendly, however, is nonnegotiable. And hello! I need a shower, and it's hot outside, so I'm doing good.

[Teddy]

So, we finished and tested our half of the electronics project today after 4 and a half hour of intensive cabling and a wide range of material issues. It could be further space-optimised, but at the point we realised that, the only thing we could gain from changing it would be a massive loss of valuable time. Now we'll only have to promt the other half of the group to update their half so that it can produce an activation/deactivation pulse, and then run a combined test. Hopefully there won't be any problems...

Also, I never brought any lunch with me, so I was pretty hungry when I finally could start making my way home at half past 2 in the afternoon (which means that my lunch was about 3 hours late).

ION:
The weather today has been pretty unstable. Heavy rains have been starting and stopping at random intervals all day (I think it's starting to stop again). It's been pretty warm, however, so the air humidity is really high. Even if you find it really stale inside, the best idea is still to keep all doors and windows shut.

IOON:
There's Swedish comedy on the television right now, and you'd be hard pressed to find anything more depressing. I can't drown out the sounds well enough with my music. Hyperawareness doesn't really help especially much in this situation either...