Posts by Wilde

One certainly does hope he washed the stones, but you never know...perhaps dirt and fecal matter improve character!

...instead of these god-awful tongue twisters, why doesn´t one try the demosthenes route and speak with pebbles in one´s mouth?

Bear, there´s a thing called priority. New Orleans was a city of millions built (smart creatures, aren´t we?) below sea level, and its bloody levees crumbled. It´s an economic and cultural centre of the United States. Of course the media is going to pay attention to it. Furthermore, it is the Federal government´s job to step in <i>as soon as </i> municipal and state governments are rendered unable to respond. Not a week afterwards. Edited by - Wilde on 9/9/2005 4:02:52 PM

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>grog and wenches <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Hate to say this, for fear of disgusting the great majority of you, but women were for most of pirate history not allowed on ship. They used the cabin boys instead.

Good idea FA. Stormy, just to add on to that, before you post your gigantic story <i>please </i> ask at least Code or Athena to check it over. Fixing grammatical errors would also be nice <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

awesome. very original approach.

The weirdest thing I´ve ever seen? I´m leaning towards logical positivism. Though Daft Punk is up there. House atreides, there´s one small problem with your idea of ghosts existing: Consciousness is intrinsically tied to the brain´s existence. The brain dies, and consciousness dies. There is a variety of psychical phenomena that occurs to explain why people see and hear ghosts, nothing spiritual there. It´s somewhat like deja vu. Edited by - Wilde on 9/5/2005 6:42:02 PM

Question, stormtrooper: Why are you so intent on continuing your little Hessian subplot that has f**k all to do with the rest of the story? Honestly. It detracts from the rest of the rpg entirely. Why don´t you try connecting your story with the bloody RPG´s story? __)_*()_( my cat was trampled by a packaderm...

Umm...if they´re promising beer...

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>you cannot force people to abandond their homes and everything they´ve worked for <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Recent events in the Gaza strip rend that argument mercilessly in half. It is tragic what´s happened in New Orleans...and unfortunately, it doesn´t look like this is the worst that´s going to happen. I read a report that claimed this cycle of increasingly devastating hurricanes would continue for the next decade or so before decreasing again. Cities like New Orleans that are below sea level in the South will probably be drowned entirely.

Wow. How long have I been away? Seems like ages... or 14 days. As to books...: 1) I and Thou (Martin Buber) 2) Magister Ludi/The Glass Bead Game (Hermann Hesse) 3) The Passion of the Western Mind (Richard Tarnas)

Oh dear oh dear, what has happened in my absence?? AIEEE. More posts! Well, you´re all stuck with me again. Vacation was fun, not a second in front of a computer, so now I shall have to punish you all by writing an update. Bwahahaha! As soon as I have a monitor that isn´t on crack.

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Wait, do they have to be continuous or just touching? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Coninuous. Apologies, I´m leaving on a vacation in half an hour for two weeks. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_blush.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Sorry.

OOC: Here it is, my long awaited update! Enjoy <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> _____________________________________________________ Nikolai looked sceptically at the trader. “I really should warn you, I’m bloody incompetent at space flight. And I still have somewhat of a hangover to sleep off. You’d be better off hiring someone else.” Konn shook his head. “I can’t trust someone else. Plus, I’m not leaving you here to get drunk without me.” He sat down beside Nikolai, the latter’s head falling down on Konn’s lap. “You won’t have to fly anything, just be the turret gunner.” “Hmm.” The Rhinelander’s eyes slid in and out of focus, and closed. “You make a very good pillow, you know?” He began to drift off to sleep. Nikolai felt something thwack the side of his head. He opened his eyes again. “No sleep for you!” a grinning Konn whispered at him, his fist raised. “Ugh. Fine, fine.” He rose, walked over to the bathroom. “I’m going to take a quick shower. I’ll meet you in the hangar.” Nikolai climbed into the cockpit, yawning. His head had started pounding again. This ride was not going to be fun. At least he had managed to smuggle a bottle of whisky along with him. The cockpit he found to be cramped and cold, but fortunately clean and the seat was at least somewhat comfortable. “Initiating pre-flight checks” came a voice behind him. Konn had climbed into the driver’s seat. “So what do you think about that Urran character?” Konn shrugged. “Seem decent enough to me. A bit of an odd look.” Nikolai chuckled. “Heh.” The man had actually been preying on his mind ever since he walked into the apartment. He was bloody gorgeous, true enough…the blonde braid extremely sexy…Nikolai smiled. He seemed to have a weakness for men with long hair. But there was something else about him, some aura that was suspicious, dangerous even… The ship launched suddenly, with a **** that sent Nikolai flying forward. “Bloody hell!” “Don’t fall asleep!” The flight to Omega 5 was without incident, and on the whole, quite tedious. They rendezvoused with Urran, Warren, and his team of five crusaders outside the New London docking ring, then headed to Cambridge and the Omega 5 jumphole. Not piloting and without any attacking ships, Nikolai found himself bored out of his mind and ended up amusing himself by singing quietly and off-key into the intercom and imagining Urran in more revealing positions. Nikolai breathed deeply as Konn’s ship plunged through the jumphole. The rumbling, shaking, and the flashing lights of the space travel did not go easily on his turning stomach and pounding head. Within seconds they catapulted out of the tumultuous wormhole, into a barren, asteroid-ridden wasteland. <i>Bloody hell. What madman would want to live in this system? </i> “Careful. The entire system’s crawling with Junkers,” Urran warned. “Very well. Proceed to the wreckage of Ronneburg base. The Hessians have less to loot, we might find something there.” The Major responded quietly, orderly, with undeniable authority. Nikolai furrowed his brow; Damien had sometimes sounded like that, when he had served the Bundschuh. <i>God, what is with me? Everything reminds me of him… </i> Contrary to Urran’s word, the system was strangely Junker-free. Not a single CSV crossed their path, and long range scans showed nothing. “It looks like they’ve already drained the entire system of anything salvageable,” Konn said into the intercom. “Well, proceed. We may still find something.” Only 5 kilometres away lay what was once Ronneburg, the rock and steel of the base now scattered throughout the surrounding fields of dust and asteroid. The humpback roamed over the field of ash. Nikolai squinted his eyes at what he saw. “The way the debris is scattered…look. A larger ship couldn’t have done this. The base was destroyed by fighters.” “<i>Fighters </i> destroy a base?” The Major sounded sceptical. “Improbable, but not impossible,” Urran responded. “Several waves of strong enough fighters could easily take it out—found something!” “What is it?” “A…Black Box. In-flight recording. Completely intact, I think. It might be helpful.” “Good find,” Konn said into his comm. outlet. “But we’re going to need more than that—” Suddenly, a group of five CSVs appeared, darting through the wreckage, fox-like and suspicious in their movements. The Major’s ships moved quickly to encircle them. “Junker Beta three-dash-nine, this is Major Nick Warren of the Bretonia Armed Forces. Stand down and drop your cargo!” “Move behind them, Konn”, Nikolai whispered. “Keep the turrets facing the one in the centre.” Though Konn raised an eyebrow at him, the ship began to move slowly, unnoticeably, behind the looters, weaving behind the asteroids to avoid detection. They locked into position steadily. Nikolai flicked on the turrets, and readied his hands on his guns… A pilot’s gruff voice echoed out over the intercom: “The BAF has no authority in the Omegas. Get the hell out of—“ Silence reigned as the Junker’s ship exploded under the torrent of fighter from the humpback, strange objects flying from its cargo hold. Konn quickly hit the tractor button. “He <i>said </i>, give up the cargo! B*tch!” Nikolai shouted into the intercom. “Break and attack!” One of the Junkers called out—but the BAF ships were already weaving through their lines, gunning them down. Konn shot forward and out of the way, sending Nikolai flying a second time into the metal before his head. Not pausing to complain, he pressed the guns down once again, firing all turrets at the head of an oncoming CSV, whose shields integrity wavered for a moment and shot to nothing. Konn spun the ship around suddenly, launching a volley of three catapult missiles at the ship’s hull, pulling up rapidly as the dying pilot attempted to ram the humpback. In less than thirty seconds, it was over. “My compliments, Major. Your boys fly well,” Urran’s deep voice rang out. “Thanks. Did we get anything they were carrying?” “I picked up a gun…of some sort. Nothing my neural net recognizes, though.” “One missile launcher, sir.” Konn responded: “We have a gun here, too…and a chunk of armour. Odd, my neural net doesn’t recognize either of them.” “Looks like we might have found something, then. And I’ve got a video recording of this all, that’ll be helpful. Head to the BAF base on Planet Sprague; that’s closest.” The exploring party took off, heading for the Omega 3 jumphole. Nikolai breathed a sigh of relief; being in a dead system was more than a little eerie. <b>Summary: Warren, Urran, Konn, and Nikolai (mmm. Odd names.) head off to Omega 5. Kill some junkers, pick up strange weapons, chunks of armour, a black box, and head off to Sprague. Fun, fun, fun. </b>

Mmm. Humpback´s much better. 25 less on the cargo space, but much better weaponry and armour. You don´t need an escort if you´re flying a humpback; you do if you fly a drom.

No. Nine dots. four straight, connected lines. Connect the dots. It can´t be anything like an asterisk--the lines have to connect to each other. I´d be interested to see diagrams of solutions. There are actually several ways to do this. . . . . . . . . . Edited by - Wilde on 8/18/2005 9:24:24 AM

<font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Aaargh! I can´t do it! <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> I know <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>. I´ll draw up a diagram showing you how. Give me a minute. Ok, here´s the rest of the argument. Enjoy: <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> I´ll take the other examples, if you please. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Ok, here we go: Firstly, from direct experience: I meditate daily, so I have somewhat of a vast quantity of experiences with the terror/awe factor (disregard, momentarily at least, the fact that meditation is now being used in North America as the replacement for happy pills). The function of this practice is--at least, so my experience has been and so I have learned--not mere relaxation. It is rather a method of <i>plunging </i>, in Senecan terms, by way of alleviating the conscious thought. Ego transcendence. One´s mind expands and opens. If acted out properly, the experience can be supremely blissful (in a way that ignorance could never fulfill <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>). Having said that, the sheer envelopment of the mind, the sudden alleviation of the frame, the dissolution of the accustomed conscious thought can be severely terrifying, simultaneously coupled with the happiness derived from it. There are times when I have simply opened my eyes, stood and stopped because the total immersion is overwhelming and indeed on the verge of terror. As for the dream-ideas I presented to you, they are all somewhat like dreams that I have had. Dreams of this sort are common cross-culturally. Obviously, the specifics and details are not the same, but the same idea is there: A terror at the unknowable, dangerous forces. This theme shows up again and again--not only in dream, but also in myth (contemporary and ancient). Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. Ya and Jonah in the New Testament. In the children´s movie &quot;The Lion King&quot;, the hero covers his face in terror at hearing the thunderous voice and image of his dead father in the heavens. In the Lord of the Rings (books and movies), Pippin is strangely drawn to the mysterious Palantir...and when he gazes into its depths is overcome with terror at what he sees. In the Old Testament, Moses comes down from Mount Sinai and must wear a veil over his face because the Hebrews are terrified to look at him, shining with light (literally). Another recent thriller (I forget its name), shows a young vacationing couple who go scuba diving, and when they surface their tour boat has left, leaving them alone with nothing but endless miles of the black depth surrounding them...truly terrifying. Ok, so direct experience, ancient myth and modern popular culture...now onto rational argument: 1. / Absolute reality must by necessity exist or by necessity not exist. 2. / Only that which is a contradiction must by necessity not exist. 3. / Absolute reality cannot be shown to be a contradiction, as that would imply nothing existed beyond the frame. 4. / Transcending the mindframe, it cannot be interpreted and categorized. 5. / Being unable to interpret, to comprehend it, one feels the dual instinct of wonder and terror--the former because it transcends the ego, the later because of its awesome power that cannot be understood. Ok, I´m bloody spent. Apologies for the hideous length of the post. Truly, it is hard to explain this in terms of words, for words are only sounds and sketches given meaning solely by one´s frame. The Absolute transcends the frame. Words are insufficient to describe it.

Ahh. So we´ve reached a synthesis of sorts on most points. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Hegel would be happy. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>I assume it is irrelevant then <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> It wasn´t irrelevant at all. I just told you not to ask. And now I shall hum pointlessly another line of Phish: <i>A crystal haze, and with a sweet sound bouncing round...a neverending coral maze... </i> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> Unfortunately, it was arrogance that mainly resulted in the Cold War <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Truly, I was not speaking about what resulted in the cold war, but the fact that it continued for the better part of half a century. Both sides were so convinced they were right, so arrogant, so wrapped up in their worldviews that they failed to step outside momentarily, to view their mindframes with objectivity, to see with the eyes of their enemies. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> Alright then, but then how do you define &quot;can´t be&quot;? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Ok, let me explain myself better. Something that &quot;can´t be&quot; understood, cannot be known is a thing that no matter which way it is looked at cannot be comprehended from within the mental frame. The stimulus cannot be categorized and interpreted within the mind, because it transcends such boundaries. To understand it, one´s frame must become fluid, transmutable. Open mindedness of the highest degree. I´ll give an example, a minor example: . . . . . . . . . Nine dots. Connect them all with four straight, connected lines. Make a diagram in paint, figure it out, and post it on here. You´re right that anything can be explained. That is, however, irrelevant. Deja vu can be explained in entirely scientific terms, but that doesn´t change the fact that without said explanation the mind cannot comprehend it. Furthermore, explanation and comprehension are two entirely different things. One can <i>explain </i> the physical and biological evidence supporting homosexuality as a genetically-caused and entirely natural orientation; a homophobe will most likely not accept it as fact, even if the argument is unquestionably sound. He/she will object to their frame being twisted and broken, holding on instead to what they claimed to be truth, and therefore not comprehend the argument at all. Finallly, there are things in the universe that still we can´t explain and can´t comprehend. Quantum physics, for example. We have barely touched the tip of the iceberg on that. One of the most basic concepts, <i>time </i>, we do not understand. All we know of that is our memories of the &quot;past&quot;, sensation of the &quot;present&quot;, reasoning that there will be a &quot;future&quot;. Sensation and interpretation, no more. We don´t know what it <i>is </i>. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>No. But it sounds like it would work well in a novel. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Really? Wow. Nothing along those lines? <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Okay, that makes more sense. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Hah. Pwned. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade> I´ll take the other examples, if you please. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Give me some time to formulate an argument, mmkay?. More chores need to be done now <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

mm congrats on not dying! Err, happy birthday. Yes.

Enterprise and Voyager were crap. Even the original had its faults, but it was survivable. As was next generation.