Profile for Talent in a Previous Life
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Displayed name | Talent in a Previous Life |
| Member number | 3098 |
| Title | This Side Towards Enemy |
| Postcount | 961 |
| Homepage | |
| Registered | Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
Recent posts
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| Author | Recent posts |
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| what instrument do YOU play? in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Sunday, July 3 2005 10:19
Profile
Three notes on the trombone? Are you really too lazy to move the slide at all? :P -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Harry Potter in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Sunday, July 3 2005 10:17
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I can think of the occasional British series such as the Worst Witch books (although those would be very unlikely to occupy anybody over 11 and weren't really worth the while for under-11s either,) but no major works that occupy exactly the same niche as Harry Potter. Which is not surprising, since if there were, Rowling would be getting plagiarism suits thrown at her left, right and centre. I think a lot of the elements are pastiches of other fantasy elements, because originality in fantasy is almost totally confined to the more dystopian and grown-up examples of the genre. One could also argue that some parts are an updated version of such things as Jennings with added magical bells and whistles. But I don't think there is any one thing that it's a direct successor to. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Why would you go and do a thing like that? in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Sunday, July 3 2005 09:57
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I came here because I was a member at the Lyceum, because it was the hub for BoE at the time and the denizens were worth hanging around. It started and was a big event in the community, so we all took a look. I'm back now because I've just finished my exams and I returned during them because this place is marginally more exciting than revision. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| What do you believe.... in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Saturday, July 2 2005 08:22
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If you're going to tell me that in 1955 Cuba and Denmark were even remotely similar countries, I'd suggest you try something more rational, like joining the Flat Earth Society. I would suggest that whilst the international community remains fairly unsympathetic to it, Cuba's stuck. It has a choice of either trying to get by on socially-conscious tourism and the like or trying to get large amounts of international aid and to do so having to get rid of everything Castro's spent the past forty years working towards. Sure, free healthcare, to take Zeviz's example, doesn't work perfectly. On the other hand, if Cuba started charging patients, it'd just hurt the health of its people as they wouldn't have the money. To a certain extent, politics has to be the art of the possible and that's very definitely a finite thing. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Pick a mood, any mood... in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Saturday, July 2 2005 07:58
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I'm not proud to say it, but my favourite mood is probably vindictive. If I feel I can justify my behaviour to myself, then I really like the feeling of incredibly focused sneering I'm prone to indulging in. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| what instrument do YOU play? in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Saturday, July 2 2005 07:52
Profile
I was a trombonist for a few years. I eventually stopped when I was 14 or 15 when I lost the instrument and didn't enjoy it enough to get a new one. Which is probably a good thing, as whilst at the time that I left it on the bus I was finally getting tall enough to use it and stand up normally at the same time, I was still tone-deaf and congenitally incapable of keeping in tune. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| What do you believe.... in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:44
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Things in Germany in 1934 were better than in 1932, certainly. Hitler had next to nothing to do with it, however. The initial recovery was due to the policies of the Centre Party of slashing government spending across the board in the early 1930s. As to the later growth of the German economy, Hjalmar Schact was extremely successful. But the Nazi version of government investment was no more radical than the policies any government made up from a group except the Nationalists and the Catholic Centre would have pursued, except in that it was undertaken to wage war over Europe. Besides, the growth of the German economy largely benefitted a few large corporations and the government itself. As the period of Nazi rule progressed the government moved further and further to the economic right and cracked down more and more on labour rights. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Supreme Court Ruling on Restraining Order & Ten Commandments in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:38
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Give fundamentalist Christianity credit/blame where it's due, though. Most proponents of it don't want (and certainly don't believe it's possible) to have a world where everybody worships their particular brand of deity. They're just waiting for evidence to emerge as to whether the Apocalypse of John is a prophetic book or merely one of the most cogent arguments against abuse of hallucinogens ever, so that they can go off to heaven whilst the world spends seven years going to hell. If nothing else, it's no less credible than Khrushchev's prediction that the USSR would have achieved communism by 1980. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Worst Spiderweb Game in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:27
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Besides, that's not entirely true. Certainly in Britain those struggling in terms of mental aptitude (the certifiably insane, the monarch etc.) do not get a vote. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| In only 139 days. in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:24
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Certainly he's not suffering from a bipolar disorder. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Drakel and Eraserhead in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:21
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I haven't played his scenarios for years and even then I skipped most of them. I would say this, however. Being unnecessarily verbose is not the same as being the next Goethe. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| How good a countermeasure could this have been? in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:14
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Better idea: sober the hell up. Seriously, whatever possessed you to think this was a plausible idea? -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| TM Banned? in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:10
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TM goes out of his way to be offensive (whatever your gender, I think any difference you're seeing is mostly in the eye of the beholder and due to small sample size and implying that his use of homophobic insults signifies something is either an argument tactic so cheap it's worthy of the faux-Canadian himself or a sad indication that the gene for risible gullibility is dominant) but he has contributed to the community. I don't just mean that in the form of scenarios or his role in keeping the Lyceum up and running, I mean that I actually think the community benefits from having him around. I'm biased, because I like him, and I won't argue that reams of semi-relevant dialectic are interesting or that his ban was undeserved (if Drakey tells you to stop spamming GC on pain of banning and you ignore him, you're a fool if you expect no punishment) but after about five posts most people ought to be inured enough to his posts to recognise that he's not just our resident ogre living under a bridge. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| I will be semi-gone in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Thursday, June 30 2005 08:00
Profile
My rule of thumb is that if you're counting, you should probably slow down and only post if you have something new and relevant to say. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Cracker Jack and the Missing Peanuts in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 03:29
Profile
Looks like we'll have to discuss turnips then. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Supreme Court Ruling on Restraining Order & Ten Commandments in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 03:28
Profile
Trial by combat is booooring. There's enough dynasticism in American politics that you ought to be working to bring back blood feud instead. The level of interest congress would generate is to my mind pretty proportional to the number of shivvings that occur within its corridors to avenge family honour. You know it makes sense. Ben, there's a reason that the last six commandments would be considered good guidelines to live your life by by most people. It's because any society that encourages the breakdown of family bonds, theft, murder and general unfriendliness (though you might not think so in the obvious sense, adultery falls under this heading from a certain point of view) within the community is going to have serious difficulties raising the next generation before they've all slit each others' throats. It shouldn't take divine intervention for humans to work out that an orgy of pointless killing is a bad idea. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 03:14
Profile
I believe that's a legacy of prohibition. 18 for sales is the norm in most places. I believe in Britain you can have a drink with a meal in a licensed premises provided you're at least 14 and you can drink in the privacy of your own home at five years old or something similarly redundant. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| What do you believe.... in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
|
written Wednesday, June 29 2005 03:10
Profile
I'd argue that the fact that Cuba hasn't done worse than it did despite losing its biggest export market when he nationalised US-owned businesses shows a degree of success. On the other hand, I suspect that whilst the Soviet Union wasn't eager to spend significant sums in it terms on Cuba, it still had an important effect on keeping the Cuban economy afloat. Certainly this is reflected by the problems they've run into since the collapse of the USSR. My personal view is that he's very probably the best Carribean politician of his generation. I'd also say that that's not that hard. Washington's recommendation against political parties is all well and good until you realise that it's sheer lunacy. Not everybody will support change, so in a democracy you have a natural tendency towards a split between progressives and conservatives. The USA is much better now than it was in 1797. Washington's idea of a sort of updated concordia ordinum is a pipe dream which would have preserved almost all the negative features of US society in that time. Certainly focusing on factions to the exclusion of policy is not admirable. But something to make policy you need to rely on factions. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Cracker Jack and the Missing Peanuts in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 02:59
Profile
Some of us aren't especially fond of peanuts (I'd far rather have a packet of pork scratchings any day.) Thick greasy chips, as opposed to the pathetically thin french fries you'll find in McDonalds and the like, on the other hand, are something I do for one do like. Surely this thread is big enough for you to discuss your legumes and for us to talk about our favourite root vegetable dishes at the same time? Peace out. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Preprimary Poll in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 02:52
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14 for Alec 5 for AM 3 for Thuryl 3 for Stug -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| RW is Alive! in Richard White Games | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Wednesday, June 29 2005 02:46
Profile
Does this mean RW is cooler than Gene Roddenberry? I'm not saying that's a great accomplishment, but it's still a victory over the hordes of Star Trek fanboys. -------------------- The Empire Always Loses: Never Proved to Be a Contributory Factor to Stomach Cancer Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Differences between countries, cultural and otherwise. in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Tuesday, June 28 2005 08:37
Profile
In Britain 18 is the legal drinking age. That's not to say that it's widely observed, at least where I live, where going to the pub or going to the cinema are about the only social activities and the range of films we get are very limited. I suspect cracking down on underage drinking is the major police activity before the nightclubs close and the fights start. That's the situation in the nearest large town to me. In the actual nearest town to my home, the situation is even more boozy. A town with a population that's probably nearer 5000 than 10000 has seven pubs. This makes it great for pub crawls (until you have to walk home 3 miles through a wood in the dark) but it means that the young tend to hang around in the centre of town being thuggish and waiting until they can pass for 18 and a large proportion of the drinking population just goes full steam ahead in the direction of cirrhosis of the liver. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Best Games in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Tuesday, June 28 2005 08:31
Profile
Uber might have an umlaut in whichever language we originally stole it from (German?) but English has a cavalier attitude to preserving the spelling of its loan words. Uber is normally considered fairly acceptable usage. Coul you drop the pedantry a notch? -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Cracker Jack and the Missing Peanuts in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Tuesday, June 28 2005 08:27
Profile
Actually, in France the standard name is just frites. A potato is known as pomme de terre (literally meaning apple of the ground) but I've never seen the term "pommes frites" anywhere in France, except possibly (and I don't think so) for apple fritters. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |
| Supreme Court Ruling on Restraining Order & Ten Commandments in General | |
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This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
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written Tuesday, June 28 2005 08:23
Profile
Why does a sense of national unity actively need to be fostered? For all the talk about Red and Blue state America, America is simply not going to fall apart just like that. Secession is not going to happen any time soon. The purpose of national unity is to make people want to contribute to the running of a nation. However, a sense of alienation from the nation, or at least its actions, can be equally powerful in this respect (witness the rise of the Republican party in the 1850s.) If national unity, therefore, is to make people proud to be Nationality X, doesn't it make more sense to generate this by actions rather than a few rather vague dictums. Certainly, what national pride I feel comes because I live in a nation that, for all its manifold sins and foibles, looks after its weak and tries to improve their lot, that wants to act in a civilised manner, that has and continues to make a definite effort to make the world a better place. It's not because we used to rule 20% of the world's land surface or flogged more people per year than the Russian Empire or because of the monarch or any such thing. It's not about Dunkirk, because although I think the nation displayed certain admirable qualities during that time, it wasn't all nobility and one can't be patriotic merely due to the actions of my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations. Personally, I refuse to sing our national anthem, because I'm a republican and it's an appalling old dirge. I think I'd most likely refuse to swear a pledge of allegiance as well. If my nation behaves as it ought to, it can naturally expect my support. Otherwise it has absolutely no right to ask me. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00 |