Pete_the_Viscous

Yeah, actually that was the last film I saw too. I agree with How2PK's score: it was fun, but it could have been better in some respects (e.g. removing the constant rude words in German; it's not clever or cosmopolitan to swear in other languages -- they might have said something moving in place of that).

I went into a fast food place a while ago now and noticed there was a CCTV camera pointing out over the till with the screen pointing in, so that the workers could monitor the outside. Personally, I think it would be a much better idea if the customer could monitor the inside.

Not bus related, but anyway... Once I was walking down the road with my mother, and I'd been questioning the motives of people who eat apple with cheese. She was trying to explain. "Why, though," I asked. "I don't understand why peop..." Then suddenly a man in a flat cap walking past in the opposite direction to us said "apple and cheese, it's nice: so you eat it!" in a really animated way and continued on walking. On the topic of busses, though. I'm usually plugged in (i.e. with earphones in) on the bus, and people don't talk to me. At least, not people I don't know.

What, are you not terrifying enough children? 'Cause chicks dig that. As I recall I'm pretty terrible at ice skating; it could have been the skates (knackered, the were) but I suspect it was me. If you're really very concerned, and want to be sure you're good at it before letting the person see you do it again, perhaps go on your own some time and practice? It's probably a practice thing -- though, as with most things like this, some people can probably do it straight away.

My eighteenth was OK. Nothing that special. I did, however, get a complete works of Shakespeare, an OED and other such things :D . To me, birthdays don't seem that big an event -- apart from all the nice things that tend to happen (i.e. gifts and suchlike) they're just a normal day.

I think I'd have either just ignored it (probably), or would have (less likely) started talking to him in the same way. "I want everything with that -- that's everything, got that?" "OK, here's one with everything. That's everything -- you got that? -- everything. That comes to $4.90 -- that's 4 dollars and 90 cents..." Etc. But... I'd have probably ignored it to avoid confrontation and risk getting in trouble with my boss. Then maybe I'd have told the boss about it, and seen what could be done; nothing, probably, but it'd be worth a try.

I think my computing teacher looks a bit like Chuck Norris. Look hyar -- http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8868/robchuck7kf.gif

My favorite character is [character]. Reason: none given.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120866/ That was the last film I saw -- t'was in English, over the past lesson and a half. Don't bother watching it. It's got Anthony Hopkins in it, which is a plus, but it's got that air of... "let's adapt Shakespeare" -- you know the type: like that Macbeth film in which the witches are on roller skates in an underground carpark.

While we're at it, does anyone have any favorite numbers, dates, days of the week, names etc. so as to stop us from needing any more "favorite ___" topics. Lists are great, after all.

Chuck Norris is so baddass that he doesn't need subtlety -- he roundhouse kicks the advertisement home. I don't think this is anything bad, mind you. Not that I'm going to buy whatever it was -- his book/s -- but I would never have heard of them otherwise; this might give them a chance.

Now there's and idea... I wonder if we have any duct tape.

Well, I just thought I'd slip in a few exaggerated comments about my fighting prowess. :). Ignoring bullies sometimes works; sometimes it doesn't. It depends how persistent they are. I mean, I don't get bullied (which surprises me; I'm the type) but I've seen it done to friends of mine, and in about half of the cases ignoring the bully would have worked -- in the other half it would have made matters worse. I'd never recommend fighting back*, for a number of reasons. First, if you're weak, you'll lose. Second, if you're strong, you'll win, and this will cause problems: for instance, that bully might be bruised and battered for the afternoon -- his friends won't be. He will recover, too, and they'll cause trouble. By winning fights one always gets in trouble with authorities, regardless of who started it. Third, if you are fairly evenly matched, they will simply tease you worse for being weak -- regardless of the fact you are as good/strong as them. The sad fact is that the best way to avoid being bullied is to be completely normal. Some people can't do this -- maybe it's a dissability they have, or something along those lines which they are teased about. I don't know what to do about it in this case. For those people who are bullied because they wear outlandish clothing (I'm looking at goths and the ilk here), the best way to avoid being bullied is to stop wearing that sort of clothing when arround that sort of person (bullies). Of course, it's not that simple either... perhaps it's just best to wait until you get into proper adult society, where bullying is almost exclusively psycological. When I started going to college, one of the first things I noticed is that there weren't any bullies at all -- everyone was a reasonable person. Perhaps this is just luck on my part, but I put it down to their all having chosen to attend college, whilst the bullies all went straight into jobs (or the dole queue). *though of course, if it's absolutely necessary for self defence.

...and if we keep on long enough, we could organise "greatest greatest [thing] tournaments", "greatest greatest greatest [thing] tournaments" and so ad infinitum. I would worry that it might be more difficult to have a fair "best actor" competion than best film, because, while people could still watch films with that actor in them (as they watched the films being voted for), depending on which performance they see, they might get a different impression. We can't exactly expect people to watch everything that actor has done. What we could do, however, is say "best actor performance"; i.e. nominated "so and so's performance in Bladerunner" or "this-that-ortheother's acting in Pulp Fiction". This might also let different actors lose one bout and win another (from being voted for in two seperate performances); or it could be limited to one performance per actor. I think the latter might be more difficult. If there were to be a "best game" thread, I think it'd be better if it were two: "best console game" and "best PC game". Not that I want to let my huge PC bias slip through here, but there are a lot of people who have consoles who don't play PC games, and vice versa.

If I see anyone bullying anyone else, I usually apply the touch of death -- being an octarine belt in Deja fu as I am -- after which I 'lay the smackdown' on them with prods in the points of death. Sometimes I apply the touch of death to the points of death; this has the effect of killing them in the afterlife, too. I do this to all parties involved, not just the bullies. In fact, being so skilled at Deja fu, I usually strike before the bully.

I tend to like it. However, I don't really like cardamom, and am not that fond of corriander (seeds: leaves are fine). Other than that I tend to, as I say, like spicy food. In terms of hotness, I don't mind hot things, and I do see some heat (enough to know it's there, at least) as an essential part to some things. Not being a masochist, however, I don't actively seek out foods which will hurt me -- I draw the line at eating things when I need to drink more than I eat because of this.

...and of course, one can roleplay to different degrees: some people will really get into character, whereas others stick to "I walk through the door", or "I ask him what he's on about". It is still possible to create a "character" that way, by which I mean an interesting person. So, where in Godslayer's example there was a lot of talking in character, other people might just say "I ask him about this or that". I suppose it must be easier to deal with inter-character relationships (assuming you want to go into that) if one makes a big effort over it; my friends and I didn't bother though (first time -- we just wanted to get a good way into it first). We still managed to get characters with personality, however -- actions, as the clicḫ̩̉̉ goes, speak louder than words sometimes. For instance, we had a paladin, but he was really annoyed with having picked that class and getting the statistics he got; he started acting the part of a wreckless do-gooder paladin in order to get the character killed. Without actually going into detailed conversation with the NPCs, he still managed to put across that his character was acting like "Hail, noble squire! What h o! Lead us not into temptation, but allow me to deliver us into evil!" and so on.

I knew it was "of"s that I had to look for, but I skimmed through it anyway, and only got 4.

Well, the campaign setting would have a world-map sort of thing -- but it's not used in a put on the table so that people can put their figures on it sort of way; it's like a map for a book -- read the Lord of the Rings? Like the maps for that. Let's say that there's a dungeon. As far as I know (not having ever actually run a game) there is a map of that dungeon that the person doing the "behind the scenes" business can see, and no-one else can. Places are described, and perhaps a map is drawn out every now and then. There are also grids, as I recall, that can be put down to show more detailed maps and things -- not sure, really. To recap.: if your characters travel to some far off city, you might be told "you arrive in [city]. [Description]". Now, if you have access to a world map -- i.e. a map of that whole made up world, you can look at it and think "OK, I'm here"; that's about as much as the world map is used for, other than perhaps... getting an idea of how far away somewhere is. I really can't say any more; I only did this a few times, so am not really qualified.

I suppose it differs from place to place or people to people, but as far as I know, it usually involves having something like a little figure to represent the character on a table, showing their rough position -- also, little figures to represent enemies. They don't have to be, you know, special brand things or anything like that: if you've seen that episode of Bottom in which they play chess, you'll know what I mean when I say you can replace them with anything you have to hand, as long as you can keep track of what is what. The rest is done in the head and on paper; note making, etc. That sort of thing. Of course, there's a lot of dice throwing, etc. Objectives... I'm not sure how to explain this, not having done enough of it to really know what it's like long-term. As far as I know, though, one can purchase or get hold of "packs" or modules or something of... well, missions or something. If you imagine you have a campaign, which is the overall goal -- which the characters and players may or may not know about -- then within that there are objectives which have to be completed; being more abstract than the computer games, these done all have to revolve around killing people (but usually do, probably). There might be "side quests" to do, as in the computer games. That's my understanding of it, anyway.

I don't think it is too much, no. I think that a lot of it is cheap, but I don't have a problem with it. It really depends who's watching it: some people can watch anything and not be affected adversely; others watch things and go out and kill people. The thing is, (I think) those people would crack sometime in life anyway. There is no way (I don't think) that any sane person will see a film and, because there is violence in it, assume this is OK for real life. Generally (now that I'm an adult and can watch what I please) I agree with age classifications, at least when it comes to levels of violence. What I do not agree with is the way swearwords, sex and all sorts of things like that are slipping into pg films. My reasoning is (however right or wrong) that seeing someone being shot won't make a kid go out and shoot someone; hearing a swear word will make them use it, however, or at least draw their attention to it. Strangely, I don't have a problem with people using swear words. However, I think kids find it (forgive me) "cool" to do something which isn't allowed; ergo they will tend to over-do it. I don't have a problem with someone swearing when they get in a bad mood, or hit their thumb with a hammer or something, but when people use swear words to fill the gaps in their sentences I think it has gone too far. Anyway, I don't want to get this too off topic, so back to violence. I just don't see what is wrong with film violence. For the very young, maybe it's not good, but for anyone with any proper sort of a mind, I don't see how it could affect them.

I am, though I've not done it for ages and am out of touch, I should think. I've only done it with second edition rules, but I've got the rulebooks and things for 3rd/3.5 or whatever it is these days. Still, I suppose it's one of those things you have to experience to fully understand (the way 3rd ed. works, I mean). Some of the people we did it with have come to college now (in the year below me). Apparently they carried on for a while after we left, but it all broke down, and they started again with third edition. I wonder if they still do that...? Anyway: I'm hugely into the older computer games, by which I mean anything from around the time of Pools of Darkness or Curse of the Asure Bonds (or whatever) to Baldur's Gate II -- I haven't liked any that I've played since then. They seem to be too hack-n-slashy and "modern"; not as deep.

Pink Floyd - Any Colour You Like Pink Floyd - Us And Them Pink Floyd - The Great Gig In The Sky Pink Floyd - Money Pink Floyd - Time ... my, dark side of the moon in entirety, almost. Dream Theater - Caught In A Web Dream Theater - A Change Of Seasons Gentle Giant - Nothing At All Holst - Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity UFO - Doctor, Doctor (Though I've listened to it as performed by UFO, I only have it by Iron Maiden). -- I really like this one. Muse - Plug In Baby Queen - Death On Two Legs Queen - Jealousy Queen - Hammer To Fall The Cure - In Between Days The Cure - Bloodflowers The Cure - Lullaby The Smiths - This Charming Man Thin Lizzy - Dancing In The Moonlight Van Der Graaf Generator - Black Smoke Yen Van Der Graaf Generator - La Rossa Yes - The Remembering (High The Memory) Khachaturian - Sabre Dance

Y'all know about jdoom, right? If you happen to have the WADs for them, you can use Dooms 1 and 2, Hexen and Heretic with this^.

First, English. I speak about enough German to butt in on my friends' (who take German, so speak it) conversations with stupid things. I don't speak French (I've always found it embarrassing to do so, with all the nasal business), but I remember enough to get the gist of "easy" written or spoken stuff.