INN OF LOST SOULS: general chit-chat thread

[beowuuf]

Weird, people at work have just had low-grade stuff, but was around to ex-housemate yesterday, and everyone she knows seems to have been knocked by weeks long things in the last month or two.

[oh_brother]

Was that for your Burns Supper? Belated happy Burns night, I hope you had your fill of haggis, neeps and tatties!

[beowuuf]

I did! My ex-housemate is a vegetarian, but there was enough people around for me to get real haggis aswell as the vegetarian stuff! And yup, tatties, neeps (Some carrot too) - was very nice!

[iconofsin]

As a rampant meat eater and lover of offal, blood and grinded, mechanically reclaimed meat products, I just can't stomach Haggis. It's too 'mealy' for want of a better phrase. I want to live in a country where black pudding is as revered, I'd be in my element!

[Sphenx]

Something missing is a big team project for the next 10 years.

How about a super DM2 project?

[beowuuf]

As a rampant meat eater and lover of offal, blood and grinded, mechanically reclaimed meat products, I just can't stomach Haggis. It's too 'mealy' for want of a better phrase. I want to live in a country where black pudding is as revered, I'd be in my element!

I get what you mean (if I had to describe the difference between black pudding and haggis I'd probably plump for that sort of comparison!)

[Jan]

So my bank has informed me that they are decreasing the "annual compound interest rate" (or what) (I mean the money they pay me for my deposit account) from 0,05 to 0,01 % (annualy!). I'm sorry for the language, but they must be

Spoiler

f***ing

joking! Now I'm really angry. Next time I'll have to pay interest rate for bank deposits, or what? I'm more angry than I've been in many months. I'm so angry that I'm going to... I'm going to... I'm going to do something really really radical... I'm going to... I'm going to sit and read about the times of the old good Austrian-Hungarian monarchy when saving money was not only a good habit, but also a good business. I'm that angry!

[beowuuf]

Yeah, the saving rate is a joke. You could probably earn more by deciding to put your moeny under the bed, and discovering a lost bank note that had slipped down there.

[ian_scho]

The secret I find here is to borrow money in Spain is and to save money in the UK - They calculate their interest rates differently! I'm no money expert, mind.

(And, I suspect, the market is more competitive in the UK)

[T0Mi]

(had a kind of 'extroverted' (and plainly sh1tty day), I apologize in advance for any bricks dropped)

Something missing is a big team project for the next 10 years.

Not exactly a team effort, but a task for the coders nonetheless: DM coop/MP.
(Huh, is this topic a taboo? Also: S0URCE C0DE!)

2 players on the same computer (2 mice) or 2 computers LAN connected. Maybe even a server we can log on and play DM together.
A friend and me have been playing Bloodwych recently (both the original and the Data disk) and it was soooo much fun. DM MP would be a dream come true.

I was noticing that the forums are generally a lot quieter these days.

One of the main reasons for non-DM people (like me) to check in almost every day and read every thread, were the strange and wonderful ways the extraordinary creative and intelligent people on here allowed a discussion to develop - just like any talk among friends does. This is no longer happening because of the OT rule. Wouldn't it be great to let our minds wander after the initial topic has been discussed? What about a label beneath the thread title saying topic "open"/"closed"/"currently discussing"/"..." so a topic doesn't need to be split and cause tedious work for the mods?

[Jan]

Oh, I'm so glad that Tomi is still around! Welcome back. Is everything fine at work?

The secret I find here is to borrow money in Spain is and to save money in the UK

Oh, smart you!

I have a 'saving account' where the rate is just balancing the inflation - or, it would if there was no tax on it. But on the 'normal account' I use for day-to-day transactions (that one I was talking about) the rate is really just a joke. Or perhaps it's me who's stupid because I try to save money - maybe I should just walk out and buy every single useless gadget 'Made in China' on the market, and a car, and expensive cloths, and a last-minute holidays in some stupid turist resort on a stupid random coast, and spend the last penny on it, and then borrow some money and do the same, and again, and then if nobody would lend me anything, I should start striking or rioting and asking the government for a pay-rise and set a bank on fire, or I don't know.

[beowuuf]

Sounds like a plan to me!


And to answer Tomi's point, no, stopping OT comments hasn't killed discussions. It's stopped us being so insular and carrying on conversations across many threads at the same time to the exclusion of people outside the coe group. If you can show me where a few discussions has been killed off by splitting and closure, I will of course be more convinced. I'll go you one better though as a point of thought, did our previous OT habits lead to excluding discussion by lurkers? Are the forums so quiet becuase the now busier members aren't being replaced?

[T0Mi]

Meh. Maybe it is not that important anyway. Sorry to even bring it up. I feel the obligation to write a reply of course, you have made an interesting point here I havn't thought about:

It's stopped us being so insular and carrying on conversations across many threads at the same time to the exclusion of people outside the coe group.

Honestly, I can't remember -any- occasion in which people were "excluded" because the regulars went OT. I found the "please strap on topic" announcements to be much more disrespectful for that matter. Maybe I'm too much of a redneck and too unbalanced and angry in general to even notice anything beyond that.

This is a place with people of many cultures, from all around the world. There is a common sense here, a respectful politness which for whatever reason everyone seems to share and that is just there, which doesn't need these kind of rules and could not be forced to be there with any rule if it's not.

I don't think people obey the rule, because it is a good rule, but because they respect the people who made the rules.

Newcomers stop by, get answers to their questions and move on, maybe thinking "what a nice and polite place, but why is everyone staring at me, just because Mophus is in my party?". The majority of people just want to play DM one more time, most of them don't even join, they just download a clone (thanks to the coders we have here), play DM for a week or two and then move on. Some stay a little longer, maybe play a custom dungeon or DM in a different flavor, or contribute in whatever form. Or maybe not.

I find myself thinking: "there is a interesting train of thought here, I'd love to hear what A or B has to say about that, but oh noes, speaking out load would be off topic." These random thoughts often are not 'worth' a new tropic, but they are the essence of any normal conversation witthin the limitation of the written word, the essence of what people are. What's wrong about that as long as the person starting the thread gets his or her questions answered and the topic has been discussed thoroughly.

However, who am I to even bring this up. It won't change anything, it won't remove the OT rule, it won't yield OT soiler tags. Maybe it's for the better. Time is linear and there are no savepoints. And Inception still is among the most crappiest movies I have ever seen. Soylent green is made out of people.

[Ameena]

Well, you could always say whatever OT thing it is you have to say, and then add a comment at the end which still links in with the original topic .

[beowuuf]

Has a single off topic post - especially if the person then steers it back on topic - ever been dealt with harshly where there wasn't something else going on? A genune question, I do that OT occasionally, so it would be hypocrytical if that wasn't allowed to happen for other people.

If anything would take more than a single post to be answered, why isn't it worthy of a new post? Or worth posing the question in this thread?


I don't want you to feel discussion is restricted, and I don't want discussion to be restricted, but I want to make sure you aren't the one restriocting yourself to the perception of how rules are enforced.

I also think that sometimes forums are polite not because everyone has a concensus and is mature, but because there is an accepted level of propriety as default that is enforced, that is then made more lenient once the community knows who you are.


Anyway, you have my permission to be a little more OT from time to time!


More importantly, you dind't explain the original shitty day - anything still going on with that?

[T0Mi]

Thanks alot. And don't worry. I will be fine. Eventually, once the RL-crap (oh, pitiful middle Europeans) is sorted out, I can work on the hate and anger. Until then, me bringing this up feels like a shot fish in a barrel, or more like a tactical nuke in a bucket full of shrimps.

Don't let the bed bugs bite - wear your mophusian belt at all times!

See you around everyone!

[Jan]

See you too!

[beowuuf]

Don't let them grind you down!

[T0Mi]

Thanks for listening to my random whining.

Now go and watch that Zeitgeist 2011 video everyone.

Those 3 hours are well invested. If only more people could see. Get rid of your TV.

[raixel]

Thanks for listening to my random whining.

Now go and watch that Zeitgeist 2011 video everyone.

Those 3 hours are well invested. If only more people could see. Get rid of your TV.

My friends and I are going to have a 'watch Zeitgeist' party at my house tomorrow cuz its a holiday. Will let ya know what I think.

As far as getting rid of your TV, I have a really nice 30in LCD HDTV. Ive had it for about 3 years. It gets no channels, nor did I ever set it up to get any. Its basically just a giant ps3/360/computer monitor. I havent 'watched tv' in about 8 years, although I do ocasionally stream shows/movies or rent from netflix. I have to say, I dont miss tv in the slightest, although I dont get a lot of pop culture references and/or get weird looks at work when people are talking about the hot new sitcom or whatever and they ask me my opinion and I say I have never seen it and dont own a TV.

I guess an American that doesnt own a TV is an anomaly. Usually when I tell people 'I dont own a tv that gets channels' they stare at me and then offer to try and help me get the converter box in the mistaken assumption that I have an old set. When I explain to them its by choice, ive literally had people withdraw slightly like they found out I had a communicable illness.

[Jan]

I've got no TV set either (I watch TV only occasionally when I come to my parents' place). And I've got some friends who don't own it too - some of them with children (sometimes it can be frustrating for children if all other cool kids at school talk about TV and they have nothing to say). On the other hand, these people spend a lot of time with theor kids, reading books, making trips, with hobbies, etc. So I think it's not a bad choice. After all, you can do much cooler things with a computer. And the internet.

But it's 'weird' not to have a TV set here, too, believe me, it's not only in the US.

[Ameena]

We do have a telly here, but I don't watch very much. I think there's only two programmes a week that I watch atm, since one series finished recently. But hopefully Doctor Who should be back in a while - I think it normally returns around Easter. So that'll be cool .

[beowuuf]

Yeah, I have a computer, and used to watch delayed TV (basically Doctor Who) through BBC iPlayer and otherwise just buy DVDs, etc of American and British shows I like. I actually got a TV licence for the election coverage, so can watch Doctor Who and Sherlock live!

And don't watch anything else live :p

[ian_scho]

If you're feeling a bit sad, click this -> http://www.globalrichlist.com/

[MasterWuuf]

I don't watch much television either. After leaving it alone for awhile,
going back to wasting much time watching it is like switching from plain to diet, or vice versa.

[Zyx]

I don't watch tv either since I'm 15. I can't stand it. I do watch movies or documentaries on my computer, though.

[MasterWuuf]

I didn't even have a television between the ages of 17 and probably 41.

Spoiler

Oops, can't say I'm only 39 anymore 0

[raixel]

Hm. Interesting that many of us dont own or watch at TV. Wonder what it means?

Thoughts on Zeitgeist:

!st section:

I agree with the majority of it. Except for one thing. When one of the professors says that hardcore addicts are abused/dont trust caregivers"(praraphrasing. If anyone wants the actual words I can type them out). Its BS. Sheer BS. I dont really wanna splash my life across the net, but lets just say I have years of personal experience with the subject at hand. And I have, and have always had, a loving, caring family where i knew Id be loved no matter what I did, that my parents/grandparents/family care deeply for me and all that. And I still have very close personal relationships with my parents. To the point that I consider my father one of my best friends to this day.

So, I find it personally insulting when some egghead scientist impinges upon my wonderful upbringing by suggesting that my parents abused me cuz of things I chose to do, mostly out of ignorance, as the American system for teaching kids about drug usage is a joke. Ive heard this theory before, and it gets me every single time. Sure, some people who do drugs have shitty lives. I know this, ive met them. But to say that all people who end up addicted to something had some form of abuse makes me sick. I also know plenty of people with HORRID childhoods who ended up happy and sucessful people.

Also, they make no aknowledgement of the fact that some drugs are physically addictive. You expirement a few times, and *bam*. You feel like youre gonna die if you go without. So you continue doing them so you can get up and go to work/school whatever because you cant take 2 weeks to a month off to kick the habit.

/endrant (Sorry. Its a topic I feel really strongly about)

Interesting thought as to violence: If people are more likely to commit murders if they have witnessed or had a close friend/family member murdered, then it would spread across our society like a cancer as a child witnesses their parent(s) shot and grows up to be a killer thus perpetuating the cycle. Its amazing because you can see it actually happening in areas like South Central LA.

Sorry for the long post. Im an anthro major and find this kinda stuff fascinating.

[Jan]

If people are more likely to commit murders if they have witnessed or had a close friend/family member murdered

Reminds me a line from the Czech humorous anti-war novel Good soldier Švejk: "He is the son of the murdered man - so he must be a bad scoundrel too."

[raixel]

Hey with the way the justice system here is going, I wouldnt be suprised if that logic was law soon.