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Messages - House of Mustard

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2491
Movies and TV / A topic that's 15 years late
« on: September 22, 2002, 04:29:59 PM »
Okay, so the other day The Abyss was on AMC.  I had never seen it before, and I knew absolutely nothing about it, except I remember seeing commercials for it when I was a kid and knew there was some kind of alien/sentient-sea-creature type thing that looked like a snake made of water.

So anyway, I was extremely surprised to find out that the aliens have NOTHING whatsoever to do with the plot until like the last ten minutes.  It seemed like they wrote a neat Cold War paranoia action movie, and then tossed in the aliens as an afterthought to give it a moral.

In general, I thought it was a very cool movie, but the alien stuff at the end (which, once again, influenced the plot in no way whatsoever up to that point) seemed out of place and almost laughable.  I may be wrong, but wasnt this a very critically acclaimed movie?  I suppose I could look it up.

What are your opinions?

2492
Role-Playing Games / Re: real world vs fantastic worlds
« on: September 19, 2002, 04:38:11 PM »
A cross between a chauffeur and a valet?

2493
Role-Playing Games / Re: Tracy Hickman's rant
« on: September 17, 2002, 03:28:43 PM »
I don't want to get off topic, but I need a little explanation.  My RPGing experience is fairly limited - mostly Rifts, After the Bomb, and Star Wars.  I don't see what the point of the book of Vile Darkness is.  In the games I've played, if you wanted to know the bad guy is evil, you could say he was a murderer or a rapist or something, but why would the details ever come up?  What are the point of rules about "overtly sexual necrophilia"?  I'm having a hard time seeing how it would ever even show up in a game.

Maybe I'm just a little naive in my role playing.  The only time sex has ever come up in a game I played was when I was about twelve.  My friend Giles thought it was very funny for his character to sleep around with everybody, and would tell us that he did.  Is the Book of Vile Darkness written with the same motives (to make pre-teens giggle?)  Is it simply a book for the immature to gawk at, or is there a practical gaming application?

Please, somebody explain.

2494
Everything Else / Re: Bush's UN Speech
« on: September 16, 2002, 08:34:25 PM »
Well this was unexpected.  Who thought that Saddam had a rational bone in his body?
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/09/16/iraq.un.letter/index.html

2495
Books / Re: An attack on fantasy fiction
« on: September 13, 2002, 02:20:58 AM »
Wow.  That was a lot longer than I meant it to be.  Sorry for the interuption - you can go back to your fantasy argument now.  (Argument about fantasy, not an argument that is a fantasy -- a little clarification.   :)

2496
Books / Re: An attack on fantasy fiction
« on: September 13, 2002, 02:17:02 AM »
First, I don't read a lot of science fiction, and I don't want to get into this argument.  However, I would like to defend 'argument.'

Spriggan said:
Quote
You're takeing everything way to seriously.  The reasin why I don't bother looking up the info is that I DON't care. why waist your life looking up pointsless facts.  will this discussion ever make your life better, no.  there are so many better things to do than just jumping around the web looking up things for pointless arguments.  I'll post what I feel or think and if you don't like it than fine.  They're just my oppinions and opinions don't have to be fact based.  And just because they aren't fact based dosen't mean they're stupid or worthless.


As I'm sure you're all aware, I love to argue on the forum.  In fact, I'm sure that I irritate quite a few people when I won't concede defeat or let a topic die and I jump down somebody's throat over a little comment.  However, there is much to be said for arguing.

I argue because I like to see what people really think, and I like to see what I think.  Often I, as well as others on the forum, will take an opposing view just to see where it goes.  Often, I will learn things along the way.  For example, in the argument last month about the pledge of allegiance issue, my opinion of the whole thing radically changed because of evidence EUOL gave.  It was through this socratic, discussion-oriented method that I figured out more of what I truly felt about the topic.

Of course, I also figured out in that thread that making personal remarks isn't really called for, either.

As far as facts vs. opinions:  It reminds me of a Homer Simpson quote - "Don't give me facts.  You can use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true."  It's okay to have opinions.  I don't see, however,why an unsubstantiated opinion should carry any weight in a forum for discussion.  I agree with Spriggan that having an opinion that isn't based on fact doesn't make it worthless.  However, an opinion without facts behind it makes it worthless in an argument.  It would be like someone asking Columbus why he thought the world was round, and he responded: "It just is, okay?"  (Dumb example, I know.)

Apparently there are two different schools of thought on the forum.  I think the forum is a place where we can discuss ideas and try to learn things.  I think that, in a way, the discussion on the forum can "make your life better" (to quote Sprig).  After all, the great thinkers of history didn't come up with their ideas in a vacuum.  They discussed and argued.  How good is an opinion that can't stand up to a little arguing?

2497
Everything Else / Re: Bush's UN Speech
« on: September 13, 2002, 01:29:20 AM »
Here's my guess (I haven't heard anyone saying this - it's just a hunch):  When the US goes in to Iraq, they're going to help them set up a better government and address some of the human rights issues.  One of the things they'll have to address is the issue of a Kurdish state.  The Kurds have wanted this for quite a while now.  If the US lets the Kurds of northern Iraq have their own government, what implications does that have for Turkey?  Nearly a third of Turkey is Kurdish, and they've been wanting a Kurdish state for a long time too.

While Turkey is a generally nice place and pretty friendly with the US, a restructuring of Iraq's government will have some pretty major consequences.  Whether it's good or bad, maybe Turkey is just a little skittish about the shake up.

2498
Everything Else / Re: Bush's UN Speech
« on: September 12, 2002, 05:54:54 PM »
Sounds pretty good.  Here's an in depth report from the White House that was also released this morning:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/whitehouse_iraq091202.htm

Here's one concern though:  After the speech, Turkey said they weren't in favor of military action.  Even if the U.S. goes in without the UN, they would still need the support of places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia to launch the attack from.

2499
Video Games / Re: Greek Game Ban
« on: September 09, 2002, 08:12:33 PM »
According to the CIA factbook, the official form of government is a parliamentary republic.  44% of the parliament are socialist, 43% democratic, and 5% communist, plus a couple of goofy little parties.

2500
Video Games / Re: America's Army
« on: September 09, 2002, 08:04:45 PM »
I ordered mine about three months ago and have yet to recieve it.

2501
Movies and TV / Re: Interesting Movie Facts and Rumors
« on: September 05, 2002, 05:15:07 PM »
I personally worry that any movie adaptation of Ender's Game would end up being too much of a kid's movie.  All the major characters are kids, and it would be hard for a movie company to sell the movie to a public unfamilar with the story.  Adults might not want to see it because it's all about kids.  Kids would probably want to see it, but, if kids are the target audience, it would have to be dumbed down quite a bit and the tone would be considerably lighter.

2502
Video Games / Re: Warcraft III
« on: June 14, 2002, 02:06:21 PM »
I would like to see something new.  And I would especially like to see something that is not a MMORPG.

2503
Everything Else / Re: Cool stuff found on the Internet (Take 2)
« on: May 07, 2002, 03:57:21 PM »
I don't think we can be friends anymore EUOL.

2504
Everything Else / Re: Cool stuff found on the Internet (Take 2)
« on: May 06, 2002, 03:21:18 PM »
I'm exactly 50% - a happy medium.

2505
Everything Else / Re: Cool stuff found on the Internet (Take 2)
« on: May 06, 2002, 03:00:17 PM »
Ok - It was buggin the crap out of me so I figured it out -- referring to the triangle thing.

Since I don't have pictures, I will refer to individual shapes by their colors, the top composite as A and the bottom as B.

The total area of both A and B is the same: 32 units.  The problem is that the pictures are an optical illusion (with the aid of thick lines.)

The slope of the green triangle is .4 and the slope of the red is .375.  Therefore, while it looks like the hypotenuese of the composite is one straight line, it is actually two straight lines, angling slightly in the middle.  You can tell because the added length of the hypoteneuse of green and red equals 14.045, while the length of the hypoteneuse of a 5x13 triangle should be 13.928.

Composite A bows slightly in - the red triangle has less of a slope than the green.

Composite B bows slightly out.  This bow (along with the excessively thick lines) give the composite enough extra room to shove that "hole" in.

If none of that stuff made sense, just remember that the composites are not true triangles - and that A and B are not exactly the same shape.  (though they look like it.)

IB Trigonometry finally pays off!

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