INN OF LOST SOULS: general chit-chat thread

[Ameena]

Hehe yeah, it was pretty crap snow, really. Just a thin coating which was half-melted by the time I went out at about half past nine. The train I caught was delayed by half an hour, which meant it turned up at exactly the same time as my usual train (which was itself delayed - dunno when that turned up in the end). Coming home, there were no problems, nor any sign of snow . I've just checked the weather and it looks like ti's gonn apiss it down tomorrow. Oh yay .

[Seriously Unserious]

Snow in England, eh?

And here I sit in Canada looking at nothing buy rain outside. Although I did get some sun this morning, just long enough for me to get in a quick bike ride and get some Christmas lights hung up outside. The rain started just as I was hanging up the last string of lights too, so got that in just in time. That was the first bit of sun I've seen all week, at least. There's a chance of some snow or rain-snow mix this Sunday though. I'm hoping for some snow this weekend as my part of Canada doesn't see much snow, and even at my age I still enjoy a good snowfall every now and then.

[Ameena]

It's looking pretty icy outside atm, but no more snow. Bet it's bloody freezing out there. Well, I suppose I'll find out in about ten minutes .

[cowsmanaut]

Snow on sunday? That'd be nice, my daughter hasn't really seen snow, most years BC just gives rain. Since it looks like we can't afford to go to france this year it'll be a canadian xmas..so crossing my fingers for one of those nice big snow falls we get like once every 10 years

[Seriously Unserious]

@cows: do you live on the coast of BC then?

[cowsmanaut]

Coquitlam, used to live in north van.

[Bit]

It's looking pretty icy outside atm, but no more snow. Bet it's bloody freezing out there. Well, I suppose I'll find out in about ten minutes .

A lot of snow for us in germany promised for today - and the night from saturday to sunday.
Have to drive then again - well - one can see wild porks maybe better...

[Seriously Unserious]

Coquitlam, used to live in north van.

WOW, I live just 1 block inside the NW corner of Port Coquitlam, wouldn't it be funny if it tuns out we only live a few blocks from each other?

And kind of cool as well.

[cowsmanaut]

nope not a few blocks.. I'm down closer to sapperton.. there are a few of us in from BC though on the forums. I think many are probably lurkers.. but I've noticed "BC" come up more than once

[Seriously Unserious]

Ah, yes, that would be a little ways away, although I'll be heading out that way 2 days a week in January as I'm attending some classes at Douglas College's New West campus.

[Gambit37]

I just saw someone on Twitter make this comment: "Boy decided he wanted KFC after watching a guy burn alive on Farcry 3. Apparently it made him think of fried chicken."

Now I don't know the age of this person's "boy", but I believe he's a fair bit younger than the game's 18 certificate.

I'm not stupid enough to call someone out on Twitter about their parenting skills, especially as I'm not a parent myself. But I obviously have an opinion, and as parenting skills go, this alarms me somewhat. Not so much that the kid is playing a game too old for him (kids are always gonna get hold of material that's not really suitable for them), but that the parent seems to condone it.

I know parenting is very hard, but still..... does anyone else find this a bit... wrong?

[Zyx]

I don't know the veracity of the tweet, but I can relate somehow with the parenting problems I'm facing everyday with my son (2years and half) and niece (8 years): there is a constant exposure in medias to things which diminish their emotional well being and intelligence: violence, stupid but omnipresent reasonings, social coercions about consuming the most superficial things, forged images of what one should look like, completely unrealistic and beside the point of life, etc... You have to constantly filter or talk about this conditioning to defuse it. Also, they discover reality first through the medias, and only way after, and only partially, through their own senses (like the animals beyond the urban ones). They also have lots of technologically interfaced interactions with humans, sometimes even one-way (like TV), which are more difficult to establish deep empathy.
Not to mention that the world is becoming so technical that they don't have a chance to understand how it works, only how to use the end product. Without the constant presence of lucid parents (or teachers), one growing in such environment can lose touch with reality (as we old farts understand it) or his own human nature.

[Joramun]

I agree, in a sense human are build in mimickry/mimetic desires (read René Girard), and the more we're exposed to biased examples or the more machines intervene, the less we empathize.
On the other hand, machines are getting increasingly human, so all hope is not lost.
The coming 3rd industrial revolution, of 3D printers, clever machines, cyberprotheses, etc.
will probably revolutionize the world in a way completely different from the current "producer->consumer" model.

Also, I don't feel especially "referential", since I doubt, for all my ethic, that I am anything close to what an "original human" was, say, 40 000 years ago.
Property ? Money ? Love ? Friendship ? Society ? All of this is but a construct, on top of a card castle, on top of a shaky stone bed lost in the mist of ages.

PS: Zyx, your avatar is quite frightening.

[Seriously Unserious]

I agree with the previous 2 posts that exposing children to this sort of violence is not smart. All it does is desensitize such young people to violence. IMO there is way too much violence in modern media, along with the cheapening of relationships into it just being about lusting after the body, not two people connecting emotionally, and wanting the person. This is again done by modern media, especially those online porn sites that go into all sorts of deviant sex stuff, the worst of which is pedophilia, bestiality and rape porn. All this does is drive people down a slippery slope into insanity and a deepening compulsion to commit such acts themselves.

[MasterWuuf]

We live in a world where the senses are coming into contact with such graphic news/movies/etc
that it is difficult to know what to leave in and what to protect from, in regard to our children.

I watched a man stoned to death on television, one year, while visiting some friends.
I said, "They just killed that man." The people looked at the news broadcast and said, "Yeah, I guess they did."
That was the end of the conversation. It left me a little confused. That's the first time I had seen such a thing.
Know what? It seemed somehow unreal, given the amazing graphic violence to which I had become accustomed.

Still, I agree that as adults, it only makes sense that we would want to allow children the luxury of innocence,
especially when it comes to what they have paraded in front of them in their own front room.

The television, as well as the internet, are vehicles of almost unlimited experience.
We would do well to control our appetites, then hope we can be reasonable guides for those following us.

Children are beings of appetite. We would surely benefit them better by filling them up with healthy experiences.

[Bit]

That's surely how it should be - but they don't listen to old wise people anymore.
Not long and they throw the virgins to the lions again.

[Zyx]

As long as we cultivate our critical mind and humane values, we become filtering machines for this now accessible unlimited experience. So somehow it should be possible, among trusted friends, to share our cultural selections that should, according to us, guide kids into fair, free, healthy humans. At least, that's the theory, though I don't know how it should be done.

@Bit: yeah, they should give the virgins to us the old men!

[Bit]

Beware!!! My nerves!!! (from a certain age on sneezing is simply not so exhausting!)

some day i'll write a book: from Artemis to Arthritis

[MasterWuuf]

That's surely how it should be - but they don't listen to old wise people anymore.
Not long and they throw the virgins to the lions again.

And just which generation ever did otherwise?

Spoiler

(at least according to the older generations living alongside the younger one?)

[Seriously Unserious]

I guess both being young, and being old have their own set of foibles.

[Ameena]

Aww, bugger, I forgot to do an "Omg I've been here ten years" post last Sunday. Oh well, bit late now...
Omg, I've been here over ten years! :O

[Bit]

Congrats!
But ... me 5 years now?
Two I would believe...
And I didn't finish anything - even not played the Conflux yet.
Damned job!

I promised Sphenx that this year will be the resurrection of DM2, because I thought I'm close to be through with it.
A quarter of the year is gone - I haven't made too much progress from that statement...

[Gambit37]

Wow Ameena! I'm not sure whether to congratulate you or commiserate....!

[beowuuf]

conmiserlations?

[Seriously Unserious]

i'll congratulate you ameena of the fippy avatar.

[Bit]

Hope the innkeeper has enough reserves around.
My lil notebook is a few years old now (3 I think). And it was under heavy usage in this time.
Last months the display became more and more instable depending on position. So - cables...
Today I gave it a try - all or nothing. Digged out the old soldering station of my father and .. power on,
hoping that if all fails a new cable set is still available (but it's expensive!)
One cable was already cut, one close to it. But - normal wire - not flat! So I had a chance.
To my surprise I made it in the first try - I did such things 30 years ago the last time... It's more the problem to assemble it together again - why are there always screws missing
Well - I wonder how long this will hold. But now I'm in *beer-for-all* mood.

[Zyx]

Well fought! You defeated programmed obsolescence!

... for a time.

[beowuuf]

Yay, a successful self-repair

[Bit]

Well, at least it didn't explode or such
In fact it's better, but not completely solved. Maybe I just fixed the webcam-cable - never used that one, so can't say if it was broken. As Zyx says, it's just a matter of time anyways

[Sphenx]

I promised Sphenx that this year will be the resurrection of DM2, because I thought I'm close to be through with it.
A quarter of the year is gone - I haven't made too much progress from that statement...

I'm like a child waiting for his new toy! keep your promise!