INN OF LOST SOULS: general chit-chat thread

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Wed May 04, 2005 8:55 am

Yeah, those '0's get stuck round loops in the cable, '1''s are pointy and get round easily though

I reckon it would be easier to to operate on your own leg, and if it all goes wrong and falls off you have something heavy to beat them all aroudn the head with - it's a win-win situation

Post by **PaulH** » Wed May 04, 2005 5:13 pm

Yeah I thought about that... if I got stuck I'd go to casualty and say I had a freak accident with my samurai sword! The adrenal glands are buried a bit too deep though, so I might leave the surgeon to remove them! Though if I had a few nice vi potions nearby, and maybe an altar...

Nope, I'll keep on waiting! Though I might beat them around the head anyway.

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:27 am

this has nothing to do with anything, but I have just found the most incredibly large snail I have ever seen in my back garden.

Post by **Ameena** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:29 am

Ooh maybe it's a Giant African Land Snail escaped from somewhere...they're pretty big

.
Attack of the Killer Mutant Giant Gastropods! RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIIFEEEEE!!!

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:31 am

If its still there tomorrow, I'll photgraph the beast: unless the dog eats it first, she is pretty territorial. Its bloody huge!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:32 am

Thanks for sharing that info with us Paul. Can you take a picture and post it here? I am kind of curious how big it is...

And now for something completely different: I noticed you lived in Sheffield, isn't that where the Snooker World Champs just took place? I became quite fond of that sport in the past few months due to the constant screening on Eurosport. I heard there that Snooker is actually the second-most popular sport in British TV second only to football, and I wondered if this is true. Here in Germany, Snooker is practically non-existant, and pool billiard is something that has quite a bad image of beer-drinking semi-criminals playing illegally for money in smokey pubs...

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:38 am

Yep, the the snooker championships are indeed in Sheffield, I hope you enjoyed it. I love the game and play as often as possible: I would say it probably is one of the most popular games in the UK, it has a huge audience. The new champion, Shaun Murphy is a local lad and practices in my local club!!! The 147 club in Ecclesfield which is about a mile away.

Pool is more accessible due to tables being in pubs, and is another game I love. I captained my college at University and played in the local league.

This snail... I'll photo it in the morning!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:50 am

Wow Paul, I am really impressed! Isn't Sheffield sort of the Mekka of Snooker? I actually hoped that Shaun Murphy would win right from the moment I saw him in the quarterfinals, both for him being the hometown hero and the total underdog going into the Championship. I am one of those guys who really likes these "Cinderella stories" in sports, so I didn't really mind when the big names like Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stephen Hendry were out. I sadly missed most of the finals, I tuned in once when the score was 10-8 in Stevens' favour, and I was afraid he wouldn't make it anymore, but I was wrong! Should you ever talk to him, please send greetings and congratulations from Germany!

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 1:58 am

I think Sheffield IS snooker now! The authorities were thinking of changing the venue for the world championships, but was unaminously voted in for the next 5 years. The players really like the Crucible, which is the theatre where the championships are held.

The final was very close, with both players trading blows. I watched every shot! Murphy won 18-16 after winning the last two frames: bad luck to Stevens, he is a nice guy.

If I bump into him, and he is by himself practising, I'll ask him for a game! That would be great! My brother lives 50 METRES away from the club!!!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:07 am

That's really amazing Paul! I really hope you will get your chance to play him, that must be an incredible experience. Maybe you should stay at your brother's house more often...

Speaking of metres: This question might be a bit strange, but what kind of measurement is commonly used in Britain? Miles, feet, inches or the metric system with centimetres, metres, kilometres and such? Whenever I hear something from Britain, it seems the people there don't really use the metric system. I can handle feet and miles and such as well, but nobody here uses it at all, so I was just wondering. Sorry if this question seems stupid or ignorant, I am just curious.

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:15 am

Its a great question, and I am glad you have mentioned it.

Britain has been metric for a while, but the imperial measurements still linger. EU directives have tried to put an end to this, but it still remains. In honesty, I tend to use imperial: this was probably because of my parents. I will say my height is 6 feet and weight 12stone rather than, well, I don't really know! At school it was ALL metric.

But, road signs in England display 'miles' but in Ireland show 'kilometres'. Almost all golf courses are traditional 'yards'.

So overall I would say the imperial system that some quote is due to the British sense of traditionalism and refusal to change. Thats the British for you...

To get some sense, I am 27. We adopted a new currency in 1969, but some people STILL refer to the old system!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:27 am

I have no idea how many kilograms 12 stone are, but 6 feet equal about 1,82m or 1,83m. This brings me with my 1,79m to 5 feet and 11 inch. This reminds me that I will never forget that Monty Python sketch: "With me is Sir Robert Eversly, and you must be over 6 foot!" - "Uh, yes..." - "I bet you are 6 foot 5!" - "Yes..." - *Huge Applause*

People in Germany indeed think of the British as being traditional, stiff and not really open-minded to change, but the stereotype also displays them with quite a lot of style. The dark British sense of humour is also famous here and loved by many. The Germans, in contrast, don't really have something going for them: They are stiff, bureaucratic, boring and always whining about how bad everything is and how everything used to be better. It is probably without any significance, but the stereotypical image I have in mind of the British is certainly more positive than the one of the Germans. But hey, we at least have some consistency when it comes to measurement.

EDIT: On the currency, it is of course not that bad here, but the Euro is here for almost 3.5 years now, and everybody still keeps converting the prices to German Marks. It is somewhat scary if you do it, because it seems a lot has become more expensive...

Post by **Ameena** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:51 am

I'm weird, I think - I measure in metres and centimetres, but when talking about distances to places (like, between towns or whatever) I use miles. As for weight, I have absolutely no clue how much pounds and stones and stuff are - I use grams and kilograms.

zoom · Post by **zoom** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:47 am

I used to play billiard for some time. (you call it pool/snooker we here call it billiard, do not know how to write it.)
tables are rather small here, so it is no comparison to snooker and the rules are a bit different to that of pool.
We first have to sort out the straight billiard cue ; In order to do that you have to lay them on the table and roll them a bit around; if the end woggles , you should take an other!( If you do not know that, you are like: hmm, but I DID aim in that direction!).
I tended to digest alcoholic beverages while playing, this could be another reason as to why I did sometimes miss. Oh yeah...
In the little Hobbit, by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, there is that part, where he uses a rope to climb down a 9 feet and 2 inches chasm. I was like; ok, "feet". it must be somewhat more than the hobbit´s size and a bit less than the total lenght of his rope.. It is all about getting used to it. a feet is something like a "elle" a measure form ellbow to hand.
Actually there is a kilogram prototype. I do not know where or when, but what other means do we have to measure weight other than by stones!!
Moreover, you really can imagine sth. when saying i weigh xy stones.
Stones has better ratio than kg, when refering to humans.
I think stones is good for the weight of adults, but if you want to tell how many stones a banana has, you get like 0,098 stones or sth.

We here have old measures here too. It´s similar to yours. We have "Zentner", which equal 50 Kilograms. (this is good, because you have a maximum load value for the standard man and if you have to carry sth. which weighs roughly 3 Zentner, you cannot handle that alone; What I want to tell you is, that all this measurement stuff has had some sense for the people, more than it does nowadays. Well, people just do different things, so in general, one does not "need" some measures anymore or frankly they are inadequate for some uses.
Another example: Here in bavaria, if you buy wood for the chimney, you do not buy tons or kgs or stuff like that, you buy a "stear". It is a meter by a meter wood with air in between!
When a woman here has big breasts, you say : she has much wood in front of her hut.
then there is Ar and Hektar. I do assume it must be something like a morgan/morgen or square yards, area stuff.
Anyway, hope there is something interesting in here..

Sera · Post by **Sera** » Thu May 05, 2005 2:08 pm

i swear things are really going too fast here -.-

Selie · Post by **Selie** » Thu May 05, 2005 4:43 pm

America is imperial, Canada is metric. It's really funny for an American driving in Canada for the first time, to see all those huge km/hr numbers. This I know through hearsay, as I have never driven in Canada (too far away!), despite being half-Canadian.

In school, we learn both systems. I think they're trying to slowly phase us over to metric. Metric is a hell of a lot more logical. I'm sorry, British people, but the imperial measurement system was NOT one of your best inventions. Except that I like feet for measuring a person. I have a very very bad ability to imagine distance based on a number, and I think swimming pools messed me up for life ("ten feet is deep? okay, then ten feet is a big distance"), but I can imagine a person's height based on feet.

Wow, I'm incoherent. I got less than 5 hours of sleep and I get to go back to moving heavy objects. But in the end, I will have a totally awesome new apartment - except I won't even be able to stay in it because then I will be staying for a week at the home of the kid I babysit because her mom will be in Poland. Poland! I never go anywhere cool or exciting. I told her I want to go to Europe because in Europe you can actually travel somewhere and have an experience. If I go to Europe someday, we need to have a Dungeon Master party or two. Maybe I will stop by France and appall the French with my very limited speaking vocabulary and atrocious American accent. And I can visit the people in the UK and you can all be drunk and silly and whatever else you guys do when you aren't at work or playing DM or something.

Post by **Ameena** » Thu May 05, 2005 7:59 pm

Hehe a DM meet would be funny

. I suppose there'd be little chance of my getting to one though, unless my friend felt like driving me, and she isn't a fellow DM-fanatic, sadly

. I tried getting her to DL RTC and play DM there, but she only got to about level three or four and hasn't played it since due to playing other stuff

.

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:02 pm

Some interessting things their zoooom. Especially on breast sizes!

OK: 1stone = 14 pounds = 6.5kg (roughly)
1 meter = 3ft 4 inches (roughly)

I think that the 'official' kilogram is a lump of platinum somewhere in Paris, and the metre has been redefined as a certain number of wavelengths of light emmited by an excited Caesium 137 atom. This is straight from my head, so I may be wrong.

Zoooom, thats why I have my own cues! I hate bent cues.

EDIT: I was wrong on the meter. But nearly right.
http://www.mel.nist.gov/div821/museum/timeline.htm

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:26 pm

Listing all German expressions for female breasts would probably cause the forum to explode, but the "wood in front of the hut" is one of the more obscure and interesting ones.

Interesting info on the stone Paul. Zoooom already mentioned the old "Zentner" of 50 kg, but here is one more interesting term: "Pfund". This is always translated as "pound" in English, but the German "Pfund" is 500 g while the "pound" is, as far as I know, about 425 g. Weird, isn't it? Today, "Pfund" is still commonly used when it comes to measuring weights of food, like sugar, wheat, butter and potatoes. You won't see it written anywhere, but many people still talk about them; when I ask my mother how much butter I should use if I want to make a cake, she always tells me something like "half a pound", and I always need a second or two to convert that to grams!

Paul, what about the photo of that snail you promised us? Or did your dog it eat?

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:35 pm

Yeah, we use 'pound' quite often for the same goods, but shops HAVE to display metric. It is 454 grammes. Which also equals 16 ounces. Also as our currency is the pound, asking for a 'pound of cucumbers' may confuse confusable people! We order beer in pints, which is 567 ml, but cans often are half a litre or even 440ml which is 'nearly' a pound by weight. 1ml of water weighs 1g at STP.

As for breasts, yep, the same here, many names but to say a lady is 'loaded' or 'stacked' is what many a young male might say. (not me, I'm a gentleman

)

The snail has not returned, and the dog doesn't look too guilty so I guess its either hiding or has made supper for the blackbird that lives in the trees. We seem to be getting a lot of weird creatures, vine weevils being one of the more comical looking beasts but nothing will top the 6inch leg span house spider I once captured!

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:50 pm

6 inch???

Are you sure it didn't escape some B-movie from the 50s??? A monster like that would certainly freak me out. The largest one I saw here made its lair in the bathtub, it must have been about 3-4 inch (legs included). Too bad it didn't like water very much... I feel a bit more pity for my DM heroes when facing Oitus since that day.

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 10:58 pm

It was a Tegenaria Gigantia, which is the Giant House Spider. It was an male and I couldn't get a pint glass to cover it. I put him in the garden! They usually grow to about 4.5inch span maximum, but also has relatives. You get them in Germany, and the US where they eat their similar looking spider, the hobo which is poisonous.

Anyway I have you a question. I am about to buy a new telescope (from Ebay) and have found a German company called 'Seben'. Do you know of them? Their deal sounds good, but I need to know that the product is of good quality.

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:06 pm

Sorry, I don't know anything about telescopes, and I never heard of a company called Seben. I am afraid I can't help you on that.

Post by **PaulH** » Thu May 05, 2005 11:27 pm

Ah well, I think I'll just buy it..

If its crap I'll turn it into a rocket launcher or summat

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Fri May 06, 2005 1:05 am

Paul, you can turn a telescope into a rocket launcher? Are you somewhat related to a big black man with a strange haircut and lots of gold chains around his neck who is afraid of boarding planes?

Speaking of TV, the crappy Beowulf version starring Christopher Lambert is just on German TV, and I immediately thought of this forum. Beowuuf, I guess you could say you changed the way I think - at least somewhat. If this is something you can be proud of is up to you to decide.

Post by **PaulH** » Fri May 06, 2005 1:15 am

Well, maybe not... Maybe I should call the A-Team...

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Fri May 06, 2005 1:18 am

I hope the telescope is good so you won't need to do that.

Post by **PaulH** » Fri May 06, 2005 1:21 am

Well if I have to, at least I'll be able to pick out the target easily using the little spotter scope attatched

beowuuf · Post by **beowuuf** » Fri May 06, 2005 3:21 am

Selie - don't listen to the kid if she insists that there is any Scottish holiday that lets her run around eating and drinking the whole house dry

Trantor - I'm glad that I, and the board, could in some small way mess up your mind. If it's any concellation I saw 'I saw Beowulf' and got scared

Man this thread has been interesting and scary to read...and to think I only came here to see if anyone as watching the election!

Edit: Woah, not even Toni is in the inn tonight...that's...freaky...

Trantor · Post by **Trantor** » Fri May 06, 2005 11:32 am

Ok, I think I now have officially freaked out. Last night, I dreamed that I would stay in a house that was inhabited by a girl that I went to school with (and I haven't seen her for almost 10 years) and none other than Beowuuf!