kelem_ryu

Some random thoughts on the topic: Download and stream whatever you want and if you like the album/movie buy it and put it into your shelf. We all know that you see something on youtube or wherever. The most convenient step is to just download the piece and look at it in depth. If it turns out to be just some junk you don't care about, oh well. (..delete it you must! well no need to clog up your hdd with it anyway. then again there is this saying sharing is caring. maybe somebody else likes what you got.) So you got what you wanted for free, why would you waste your limited ressources on paying? Obviously because it's sucky not to. If i were an artist, i would be very happy if people like what i do, no matter if they pay or not. Where i draw the line is, when people start not paying out of habit or selfishness. With movies it's a bit silly to get somewhat mediocre copies of the internet, if you could just go to the cinema and get the fullscreen experience. (<--- i'm the silly guy here) Guess the bottomline is: If you just think: "yeah i got it for free" then you aren't appreciating what you got. if you feel like: "how cool is that, me wants it. awsome there is a torrent. boah cool, look at what i got." it would be fine with me. Artist who are that greedy, that they want money no matter what suck imo. (If they aren't the kind who are really in need.) Guess the whole thing is more a problem with movies then with music, because in general movies aren't watched repeatedly. Maybe i encourage somebody to find a better balance in this matter. Maybe some people have a differnet viewpoint on this.

25. I got a guy, i sometimes refer to as my evil twin. He's called Stephen and tells me in all seriousness i have to clean up my room, or my darkest nightmares will come true. Then he starts picturing what that would mean. He's rather imaginative. It's not THAT messy though.

46. reads to me like: "You've been exiled!" Ah well... not so bad

I had this nightmare about some beautiful womans left arm getting separated from her body and forming a whole new girlish creature, spreading havoc among the male populance.

Nechryals can be killed in droves using ancients in the chaos tunnels (Icing and blood, if you need to heal). It probably isn't worth the cost, but it's fun and makes for a blazing fast assignment. (The best slayer monster to aoe i found to date.) EDIT: ... and thanks for this guide! EDIT: I'm probably a bit too overexcitet about this methode - i might have already posted it on a previous incarnation of this thread. Guess from a practical point of view you can't favour ancients over chinchompas here.

Yah that would be my guess to. Nothing to worry about, everything is normal, nothing special, quite mundane, common occurance, trivial -.-

26/30 28/30 It's a concentration test as well =P

There is no audience in the "Younge People" video.

I despise this sitcom feature of people laughing in the background.

I think it is important to make the wrong-doer understand what he did. The most obvious way to accomplish that is revenge. If you do exactly the same to him that he did, he should get a pretty solid grasp on what he did and what feeling it caused. So at some level revenge is a simplistic education methode. From that point of view prison is a pretty poor methode. It's mainly punishment based. (The same is probably true for chopping off fingers and the like.) Because then you'd have to deal with a bunch of very angry people. A chopped off finger is nothing you would easily forget and forgive.

Although i've already seen something by him a while ago, i started only recently to hunt down vids of his shows in youtube. They never cease to amaze me and i had to think a lot about what he does recently. In case you might not know him, here are just some examples of what he does: Trains... of thought He makes shows about mind tricks. In the beginning of every episode of his show "Mind Tricks" he claims that he doesn't use actors and stooges (if you look closely, you'll notice that he enforces this claim with a very suggestive hand movement). Most of his tricks could be easily explained by assuming his victims to be actors. There would be an army of actors and stooges employed by him now. On the other hand hypnosis and suggestion are known to work, aren't they? (Personally i know way too little about this particular subject to make any educated statements.) There are certainly plausible explainations how many of his tricks would work using these techniques. In fact he makes a point in explaining plenty of his tricks himself according to this. Personally i'd like to believe he really is doing what he claims. Many of his victims responses look so damn genuine, as well as he and his explainations do. Then again it is easy to convince somebody who wants to believe in the first place (like me). Add to that that what he accomplishes is unbelievable, it really makes you wonder. (Well at least it makes me wonder.) Nevertheless i do believe he is just doing mind tricks (and really that is the only explaination besides stooges). Assuming that he is genuine he obviously knows much more about the workings of the mind then i do and that is what intruiges me most. I wonder to what positive effects you could influence people with his level of expertise. I also imagine that he might see the world around him quite in a different way. Take this birthday present thing as an example. He basically just took a random guy and told him that he really, really wants a BMX bike and once asked the guy stated he really wants an BMX bike. Sure there was plenty of technique involved, but imagine you could tell random people what they want, what to do, what to see and they would follow your lead. It is quite ridiculous. If he can do that, who tells me that what i think i want is what i really want, that i don't just do what i was told to and that i see what is actually there. I can't quite shake this feeling that this is what his show is all about (besides being fun for him to make it). Yah and this is one piece, where i think he went to far: Zombies If i was that guy (assuming he wasn't an actor), i would be pretty pissed off, once i would see what he did on TV. On the other hand he got exactly the gaming experience he was looking for. Can this whole stunt be even legal though?

Well awsome. They have plenty of experience to build on. Could be good. The rumours about this seem to get louder, so i guess they are really doing this. Basically it just is a matter of time anyway. Who wants to work on only one game forever? About the financial issue.. Jagex is a private compay that is owned by Andrew and his brother Paul Gower. They can do whatever they want with it. Sure they probably won't make decisions that would immideately jeopardize the jobs of all their employees. Other then that though, considering that they are set for live (estimated to be worth 100 Million Pounds (i wish i would have the source at hand... EDIT: Oh.. that's even on wikipedia)), they can do whatever they find interesting. What could be interesting to game designers? Making a new game probably =P

I know people who hunt and i even like some of them (hunting license is pretty expensive where i live, so most hunters are snobs to begin with), but stating to enjoy hunting definitely has an impact on my opinion on somebody. I like watching birds in the trees, hamsters in the bushes, crows on the fields, dogs in the park, rats in the subway, bees and bumblingbees around flowers and so on. I hardly ever saw a deer in the forest, but i would hate to see one drop dead. I really don't get how anybody could enjoy doing that. I could imagine that i would enjoy the aiming and shooting part of it, but i don't want to have to kill anything actually and watching something die isn't exactly pleasant to me either. (Just take flowers as an example. So pretty when they are blooming and eventually they'll just crumble away. Somehow that is heartbreaking.) Yah and stuffed dead animals on a wall give me the creeps.

Hehe.. it's exactly these lines that entice me to try to do so. I fall for it and regret it every time. Oh well.. i'll give it a shot nevertheless (for your amusement). Do You know Peter Pan? Everytime you say you don't Believe In Faeries a faerie dies. What i Believe runs along this lines. I think that In Whatever you believe is true. So everything merely depends on whether You Want things to be true or not. Once you start believing something, even if it may sound fantastic, It Will - fueled by your believes - Become True. Agreed. It sometimes doesn't ring true to what i know.

I'm very glad you actually posted this one. Taking this post as an example, i didn't take the time to actually think about your post. I read it, browsed over the first page of responses and hit the reply button. I often ask myself what i want to accomplish with my post - what purpose it serves and most of the time i actually don't really know. Probably it's about giving shape to your own thoughts, so that you yourself get a better idea about what you are on about. Personally i find it very helpful to present these thoughts in a public manner, rather then writing in a diary or something (wich i don't). The good thing about it is that your thoughts might actually be helpful or interesting to somebody else and you might get response you find insightful yourself. I'm not a big fan of arguments for some of the reasons you already mentioned. The amount of thought to give into a post is probably dependant on the context of the thread or the forum. It depends on whether you are looking for a constructive response or just want to share some thoughts. Both is valid i guess. Some more or the less random thoughts floating through your mind might actually be pretty interesting to some other people. Proper spelling and grammar is nice, but not really relevant imo. One liners as response are funny sometimes, but it gets a bit boring when nothing you ever read on a thread or a forum has any substance whatsoever. Substance doesn't necessarily mean a great deal of reflection though. More often then not it is probably better just to let it flow.

Just recalled something Darren Brown said in an interview. It went along the lines that he thinks if you hold wierd believes it's better to shut up about them. I guess he has a point there. Judging from Rebs response i went waaay overboard. I guess i am slowly learning this lesson.

Why one? Isn't it supposed to be three? Oh well.. a sexy woman i like. Otherwise it would be three sexy women i like.

I did attack somebody? Basically i said that most people would believe just about anything as long as it is told them in a sincere voice. Creationist are biased because of their believe in a very distinct kind of god, but we are all biased. It's just that many people believe that logic and reason is above bias. You could put it as simple as: What makes something that is logical true, or that is true according to observation more true than something that is true according to believe? You say things are real, because you can see them, but in turn define reality as the sum of the things you see. That is circular logic. From a certain point of view logic is always circular. I just want to point out that there are good reasons to believe that the world isn't as mundane as it seems (although even i have a hard time to believe what i write.) Maybe it is. What do i know? Maybe i'm just desperate. I think this is basically what this is all about.

I might do that, but i'm not that interested in the subject. Besides it is pretty hard to find publishers today. .... That's what books are for. What I don't understand is what the planet's positions have to do with my, or anyone elses life for that matter. Heck, what were the astrology signs for that school killer 2 days ago? I don't even want to know in case it's too ridiculous. People base their actions on what they need, want, or can do. I could smash my PC right now but I don't want to. A planet isn't going to make me do this or that. It would be interesting to know how astrologers come to the conclusions they do, or is it just like Feng Shui - a pseudoscience without clear guidelines? Penn & Teller did an episode on that, and not one of the 'Feng Shui consultants'were consistent in what is the right 'Feng Shui'. They'd all just position the furniture randomly, or absolutely opposite from the last consultant's setup. If this phenomenon occurs in astrology too, it can't be regarded as a real science. Findings and techniques must be consistent. One astrologer can't say "Mars opposite Jupiter means good luck today" and the another "Mars opposite Jupiter means something bad will happen today". If that's the case, it's nothing but a hoax, or at best entertainment. About Feng Shui. This is something i barely glimpsed into, but it is based on a very solid idea (something that should be much more obvious then astrology): The things around you influence you. So from what i assume a good Fengh shui guy would arrange things harmoniously. This computer trash story ... i won't even try to go anywhere from there. The whole idea is full of assumptions. What i read all the times between the line is that most people don't want it to be true. (Mostly then it seems that they fear for their free will, wich is an idea that you can believe in at best, but can hardly be proven. It's almost like believing in god.) What you need to do (imo) when trying to understand astrology (or whatever else) is to start by wondering: "Okay some people tell me about astroloy, how could this concept possibly work?" Ask yourself how it could work, instead of why it can't work. Go into detail and so forth. Eventually there is a point where you have a solid base for a judgement. That's what i am so furious (well not really, but so to speak) about: You have no intention of even trying to make it work. What would be the harm to just accept it for the sake of experiment. Say: "Okay fine, astrology is working." and from there try to explore it. You can dismiss it later on anyway, if it ultimately proves to be too incoherent. That's why no astrologer can take any scientific attempt to disprove astrology serious. None of them was taken by a person who truely learned about the subject. They leanred a little about it with the sole interest of disproving it. It's so obvious, because their assumptions lack detail. so much detail in fact that their experiments are worthless. I'm not even saying astrology has to be true, mind you. I'm extremly discouraged though, because on the one hand i got people who outright dismiss it and on the other hand i got people, who go out of their way to make it work (or just blindly believe it.) I think that if it works (if i were to discuss with an astrologer i would look very critical, but here on tip it i probably look like a believer of some kind.) there are numerous technical inconsistencies and as i already pointed out a huge pile of problems. Yet i don't think that necessarily means it is wrong. Even in science a theory almost always has a lot inconsistencies at first. It's so futile to discuss this here.

I want to knit on this idea. I have the impression that many people don't "believe" in science for scientifc reasons. People seem to mostly believe what they are told to be true. Actually it goes so far that i have no reason not to believe that people dismissing astrology do that because of ignorance. They dismiss astrology, god, the easter bunny and idk what with the same certainty they affirm that everything "science" says (as if science could say anything. Usually what they mean is some people told me that some scientists thinks that, or i read somewhere that science says this or that is so.) is true. It is more likely that everything science says is false, because almost every theory becomes refuted someday. That is what science is all about: Finding models to explain the world (by certain means). I also often have the impression that people believe there is somekind of unified body of scientists who perfectly agree on what is true and what isn't. Sure they conform on some things, but there is much dispute, many unverified theories, much controversy on about just what constitutes a theory to be verified and for every verified theory there is somebody out there, who already has doubts. The much hyped string theory has hardly any solid evidence from what i read (and that's this point again. Most we "know" we base on something we read. It may sound more or less convincing, but only in very rare cases we go so deep into the materia, that we even could make reasonable claims on the truth of it. My conclusion of all this is that our thinking is so deeplay biased (i haven't even begun on explaining how i came to that conclusion) that you cannot believe anything. From that point i went out and ultimately came to the conclusion (would be a very lengthy topic on it's on) that you can believe everything.

There were threads about astrology before and i tried to explain before, but i did a poor job at it. Most i know about this subject comes from books. One huge problem is that almost everybody, even about all scientists trying to disprove astrology are basing their ideas mostly upon hearsay and newspaper astrology. (Nobody takes newspaper astrology less serious than astrologers.) Another problem is that astrology doesn't provide quantifiable data. Hm.. i doesn't really serve any purpose trying lengthy to explain, what the theories are why astrology is supposed to work, how it works, what statements you are supposed to be able to make based on astrology and so forth. Since i got most my information (as mentioned) from books, i don't really know any quality links. I expect plenty of the astrology stuff on the web to be garbage, but i'm sure there are serious sites out there to. If you really are interested, you'll probably find sources that show you what astrology is all about. What i'll probably never know is, whether fuzzy statements are made because astrology is bogus, or because the data is interpreted insufficiently, wich would be a very reasonable explaination because the very nature of the data (and the data is precise) makes it hard to interprete. One problem i always had with astrology is that i have a very hard time translating a very clear statement like "jupiter opposition mars". The very act of translating such a precise and beautiful statement has to make it fuzzy. That are reasons why i have a hard time to understand, why anybody could just outrightly dismiss astrology out of scientific reasons. In principle it would be possible to design experiments to verfy it, but it would be insanely hard to come up with an appropriate setup. I can understand why people don't believe in statements based on astrology, but i disagree with their reasons. That newspaper horoscopes are vague at best is the most invalid reason of them all. I have yet to see an attempt to disprove astrology, where the basic assumptions and questions are valid. The best thing i have seen so far is a experiment by Darren Brown. Unfortunately i can't find the link anymore. In the end however he just shows that astrologers could all be applying consciously or unconsciously cold reading. I think it is very possible that it is something that is done very frequently. Still this doesn't necessarily mean astrology is bunk. A simplistic example: Neglecting all other factors of a horoscope, leos are supposed to be more outgoing then idk cancers or capricorns. If you tell any person for example: "At times you are outgoing." or even "You are very outgoing." You got a myriade of problems here. First of all (that's what cold reading is all about) you can't quantify "outgoing". There is no scale o measure it. Second the term "outgoing" is wishy washy. The data is "sun in leo". This is a clear stament. Summing up everything the sun or leo symbolizes isn't the same as the symbol itself. I try to give an example: Try to translate this to somebody who hardly knows anything about the concept of numbers: 2+5.5=7.5 Just in case you are already thinking about apples: yes that is the way we learn how numbers work, but nothing in the statement 2+5.5=7.5 implies apples in any way. It is a very precise statement, but without knowledge of mathematics it is worthless. In order to understand it, you first have to understand the principles behind it. Besides all that just because the sun is in leo doesn't mean the person has to show very much leo characteristics on the surface. Other aspects can reinforce the leo impression (and all what i am saying is very wishy washy for the outlined reasons) or they can hide it. A person with sun in cancer on the other hand can have a leo moon and a leo ascendant plus a leo mercury, venus and mars to top it off. A untrained eye would see very many leo characteristics. Basically the sun symbolizes something where outgoing is an adjective to describe it. Since everybody has the sun somewhere, everybody is outgoing, but in a different way. Facing astrology i'm inclined to say that our vocabulary is very limited. Just remember the innuit with their idk how many words for snow. To us it all is snow, or if you live in an alpine country, like i do, you might have mabye 5 words for different types of snow. I believe many insufficiecies of astrology might as well be insufficiencies in our language. I'm just starting on the problems with astrology. Maybe you can understand why i hate it when people, like the TE (meaning no offense)who obviously know next to nothing about the subject ask meaningless questions like "do you believe in astrology?", with an underlying suggestion of disapproval about people who do "believe". (Although i have to admit that there are plenty of people out there, who believe (without quotation marks) for the wrong reasons (namely for the reasons of others disbelieve). So yes, i guess i do believe in astrology. I'm even claiming that you can find the sun in BlueLancers birth chart in the 8th house. I might obviously be wrong and if i am right, it proves nothing.

[hide] The grammar was bad but I couldn't agree more with that post. By being a bully, hitting, insulting kids like this.. By being a neglecting parent/teacher... You create serial killers. Did someone really think someone with no friends who has been bullied all his life will just "suck it up" as if he's an emotionless robot? Block out all good and happy memories you have that involve your friends/family/girlfriend/any other person you knew. Not very much good stuff remains, huh? In that situation your mind gets filled with hateful and angry memories & thoughts. The killer wasn't born that way. While he was a serial killer, he was also a victim of his overly cold emotional/psychological environment. [/hide] Yup that's the way it is. It's a chain actually. the guy who bullies has to have some issues already. Hm... those killers basically are a destillation of all that is dysfunctional in our society. Like doctors and lawyers are the destill of the education system. They don't invent medicine or the law. It's a bit "Brave New World" without a master plan behind it. It's a kinda scary thought. I like the way you are thinking, Lancer. With that in thought it becomes hard to judge people. How do we know how their lives are. (Right now i am thinking about all this Emo bashing) And about "What the killer thought to accomplish".. I think basically he wanted to express his anger (wich he did in a very clear way - he definitely accomplished to make a statement about how he felt). Everything else are just poor attempts at justifying his actions to himself.

Oh god not again a thread about astrology. Of course you don't understand. You don't even try to. If you want to understand, try reading a book about it, instead of throwing around assumptions. I have a feeling though, you are very happy the way you are.

So, what are you going to do, tough guy? Have fun being imprisoned. I'd try to flee and if they catch me they can put me into prison. No way i'd be a soldier ever. I'm not an american though anyway. My sister wouldn't have to sign up and still gets the same benefits i assume? It's not that signing this contract would be a real choice. You are born there and at some point you are basically forced to sign it, unless you are a very adventurous soul, who has little trouble leaving the country on a whim. It's like living in a house for two decades, when suddenly somebody comes up to you and tells you to sign a contract, or leave. Where i live (in Austria) males have either to do 8 month military service or a year alternative service (something like driving in an ambulance, working at home for old or handicaped people). I refused to do either. I won't be someones [bleep] or rather slave.

kinda cool. What are you using CAD for usually? (It isn't the kind of tool, people just happen to have.)