Profile for Talent in a Previous Life

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Displayed name	Talent in a Previous Life
Member number	3098
Title	This Side Towards Enemy
Postcount	961
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Registered	Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00

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Jeopardy and Ken in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 05:41 Profile #10 I'm on my school quiz team, and have been since I started the school. We actually won the nationals a few years back. Why is there a delay if you interrupt? That seems intensely counter-intuitive and unfairly punishes quicker thinkers. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
This is strange, in a scary way. in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 05:26 Profile #4 You don't set yourself not to get rated, but for your rating not to be shown, so far as I remember. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
What are the Forum Ranks? in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 05:23 Profile #36 quote: Originally written by Saunders: Note also that Imban is the first five letters of "I'm banned". Note that this once got Imban banned from a MUD. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Dr. Seuss Is Better Than Shakespeare in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 05:21 Profile #14 Shakespeare is for very puerile adults. It is a travesty that Shakespeare is regarded as high-culture. Read him and enjoy him, but throw aside the assertion that his work is the greatest pinnacle of the English language. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Religion, Homosexuality, the Usual in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 05:18 Profile #96 quote: Originally written by Overwhelming: Besides, you can read in Revelation (Apocalipse) that homossexuals won't be saved (just as adulterers, thieves, murders, etc won't). Hence, Revelation should be publically rejected by all Christian groups and ceremonially burnt. Revelation is the most doctrinally dodgy book of the whole NT (the Eastern Church didn't allow it to be read aloud until the fall of Constantinople, perceived to be a sign of the coming Apocalypse and the Copts still reject it, whilst I understand Luther toyed with throwing it out with the Apocrypha.) And the point of the crucifixion was to forgive humanity provided they put their faith in Jesus. So if murderers, homosexuals and the like are being rejected, that's because John of Patmos was wrong. In my religious moments, I daydream of the second coming of Jesus, in which he casts down the fundies and those who took his name to support their drug-induced bigotry into the lowest hell. Real Christians would have forgiven Judas. quote: Originally written by Eldiran: I don't understand people who say they respect Jesus, but don't think he is the Son of God. I'm not sure if you said you felt that way or not, but how can Jesus be respectable if he's not the Son of God? Seeing as he said that he was the Son of God, he'd either have to be a madman or a liar. No liar or madman could have the power to heal people and to speak as he did, in my mind. Were he a liar, then he's not respectable, anyway, and how could someone who taught such things be so evil as to claim that they are God? It doesn't work. Nor does him being a madman. There is no one who could have said and done what he did without (or even with) full control of their mind. I can admire a liar. I can admire his actions, at the very least. I can admire him and disagree with him. I don't have to believe everythin he said to respect the man. Besides, if you don't believe in God, you aren't going to consider it evil for someone to claim they're the son of God. Particularly since I'm not sure evil can be empirically defined. Jesus said he was the son of man. I've yet to hear a convincing argument that that must mean 'son of God.' It would imply the reverse, in fact. Mind you, he says a lot of other things that suggest the opposite. It's hard to justify the argument that he wasn't the son of God if you believe the Gospels, but it's notable that many first century Christians held just that view. quote: Originally written by Eldiran: It seems impossible to me that the Bible could have been composed without godly intervention, because if it was I'd expect it to be massively flawed and completely disproven by now. I'm fairly pessimistic about human capabilities. I'm also pretty sure that if there were a clear contradiction in the Bible, the media would be all over it by now, because such a thing would cause a lot of controversy, and controversy sells well. And FZ, the only place you would read what Jesus says is in the Bible. Why would you trust one part of one of the books and not another, if they are written by the same person? Let's take the example of the Iliad. Composed about 800BC in a pre-literate time, refering to events of around 1250BC. There's still massive debate about it's exact historicity, but the central theme has never been conclusively disproved and is if anything looking stronger by the day. Compare to the Bible. The Old Testament underwent some editing and maintenance around the 6th century BC, the stuff which didn't make sense was cut out at the Council of Nicaea and there are a number of 4th or 5th century bibles, which do contradict each other on occasions. You don't need divine assistance to preserve a degree of coherence for hundreds of years. And the bible was not written by the same person. You can claim divine guidance, but an atheist won't believe you. Indeed his case is supported by the differences of opinion between writers, from the pro-Judaean kingdom writings of Kings and Chronicles, to the anti-urban rabble rouser Amos, to the vicious nationalism of Obadiah, to the entirely secular book of Esther. Then there's the massive change in perspective between Old and New Testaments. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Dr. Seuss Is Better Than Shakespeare in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, July 4 2004 04:59 Profile #12 She isn't ripping off Dahl very blatantly. Which is a pity, to my mind. Mind you, she is very readable. It's just that if she's 'inspiring a generation to read' serious effort needs to be put in to make sure they read other things as well. Dolney, Shakespeare didn't write epic poetry. He wrote plays and sonnets. Epic poetry is Paradise Lost, the Iliad, the Odyssey, Beowulf, Gilgamesh and things of that ilk. Personally, I'm no great fan of Shakespeare, but I like Seuss still less. In Britain, they aren't read as much (I never saw one im my primary school) but when I later compared them to the books I did read at that age, I wasn't impressed in the slightest. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Lucien 'Thuryl' McMahon Is Naked in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Saturday, July 3 2004 02:05 Profile #70 quote: Originally written by FatBatMonkey: I can pull atractive non-blind women I will become a creationist. Has anybody seen I, Robot? The trailer looked awesome, but that doesn't necessarily preclude the actual film being a travesty. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Good books? in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Saturday, July 3 2004 02:02 Profile #22 I've pretty much stopped reading fantasy now, as I don't want to make the effort to get through the cookie-cutter plots and tired Tolkien ripoffs to discover if there are good books in there somewhere. I read a bit of SF, although with a few strict criteria. I would recommend Iain M. Banks very strongly (although Thuryl's warning does apply) and also his books set in the real world, under the name Iain Banks. I've also recently got into Ken Macleod and found him very readable. And Richard Morgan is a very good writer, but whilst Banks is disturbing through his graphic descriptions at some points, Morgan is disturbing due to the volume of graphic sex and violence in his books (the main character can be fairly securely defined as a psychopath.) As regards books outside those categories, I'll read pretty much anything, so my input might not be that useful. I recently enjoyed Egil's Saga, however. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Name my web page! in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Thursday, July 1 2004 12:24 Profile #29 Untitled page -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Hi!! in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Thursday, July 1 2004 12:22 Profile #46 quote: Originally written by George A. Custer Declares You To Be: Oh, God. Don't tell me that you're saving yourself for after you marry the Smith & Wesson of your dreams. I'm thinking more likely a Sears product. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Euro Cup 2004 in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Thursday, July 1 2004 11:55 Profile #37 FBM, I feel tempted to call in some of my football-mad friends to destroy your arguments (essentially, they'll disagree with anybody who doesn't follow third division football in December) but I'm merciful and lazy. Just accept that we lost with the good grace and sportsmanship that Englishmen are erroneously supposed to display. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Lucien 'Thuryl' McMahon Is Naked in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Thursday, July 1 2004 11:51 Profile #54 OK, I may have been unnecessarily harsh. I revise my previous statement, changing "women" for "any but the most horrifically brainless harridans" -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Your daily routine in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Thursday, July 1 2004 11:40 Profile #2 Stick needles in me. Other than that, I'm a creature of sloth as much as a creature of habit, so my daily schedule varies and I'll have days off certain activities. Only diabetes doesn't give me that option. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Religion, Homosexuality, the Usual in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Wednesday, June 30 2004 09:09 Profile #84 David, your views are basically Arian. In essence, they believed that Jesus was subordinated to God. You might want to check out a little early church history. It's an area I have some interest in, particularly as it relates to the Migration period but I'm afraid I can't recommend any must-read books for the subject as a whole because I haven't yet found any. If you've got a preacher with an interest in that, you might want to try him. My views are influenced by Arianism but tend to come to the opposite viewpoint. I'm not convinced of the existence of God, and if he does exist I'm not sure I'd want to worship him. He's clearly not all-loving (which is too subjective a term to be possible anyway,) which to my mind would suggest that there is no being that is utter evil (Satan,) and this would suggest that God's decisions are whims more than anything else (since he isn't doing things for political or material gain or anything else which mortals might.) I'd also suggest that just because you're God, doesn't make murder acceptable. Being a deity DOES NOT remove from you the standards expected of Hitler and Pol Pot. So I'm more or less an atheist. But I do have a great deal of respect for Jesus. Jesus puts forward a set of beliefs I'd be very happy to live by. In Jesus' worldview, it is impossible not to sin. And unless you live an entirely sinless life, you are doomed to the fires of hell. Jesus is therefore saying that obscenity is as wrong as stealing which is as wrong as homosexuality which is as wrong as child abuse which is as wrong as murder which is as wrong as genocide. The only escape is faith in God. I don't want to take that road, since I subscribe to the 'God as bastard' model, wherein God is behaving like a human, only much more powerful (although to give him his due, if we had his power, we'd be behaving to a much less than human standard, I'll bet.) But I'd be quite happy with a religion with Jesus at its centre. I also find Jesus the prophet of social change to be worth listening to. I like his strictures on wealth, on the necessity of loving all men equally and the like. There are plenty of bits of harsh Judaean morality I don't like, but it could be argued that just because I find them distasteful, doesn't make them wrong. As to Paul and his ilk, I have little time for them. They are bigotted, glorify in the suffering of their opponents in a most unChristian manner (the description of Judas' death in (I think) Acts is almost gleeful.) There are points to be found, but there's also stuff that just isn't worth obeying. Some of the letters, moreover, seem to have been included despite the fact they only had relevance to local church policy in Asia Minor in the first century AD. Revelations is of very dodgy authority and the selection process for the books of the bibles was very deeply flawed. Also, from a personal standpoint I'd much rather read a rabble-rouser like Amos (although not his jingoistic and hateful fellow author Obadiah) or indeed Jesus himself (although the Gospel writers themselves ought to be taken with a pinch of salt.) Lastly, a few comments on things I've read in other posts which I disagree with to some degree: MSW, there may have been gay marriages in the 12th and 13th centuries, but at this point Southern Europe didn't even have the institution of religious marriage (it was an entirely secular ceremony) and this was probably the low point in adherence to biblical teaching in the Christian era. The bible does clearly make objections to homosexuality. It's arguable that those sections were written by closed-minded bigots, but those verses are in there, albeit in a very muted role. Ergo, the issue is mostly whether the bible is right, not what it says. ef, angels aren't entirely a product of the Babylonian Captivity. The four cardinal angels, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel have names which mean respectively Man-God, Eagle-God, Bull-God and Lion-God (don't know which one means which) and there have been finds in the area of Israel from the 14th century BC of altars in high places flanked by representations of these four creatures, so there's an argument that the cherubim were absorbed from a pre-Judaic religion. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
...W..T..F... in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Wednesday, June 30 2004 08:37 Profile #30 I'm very happy that I don't dream in the conventional sense. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Lucien 'Thuryl' McMahon Is Naked in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Wednesday, June 30 2004 08:33 Profile #31 FBM, lying about your nationality wouldn't make you any less horribly repulsive to women. -------------------- Voice of Reasonable Morality Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
"Wut do u look like 2" in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Wednesday, June 30 2004 08:28 Profile #66 After the previous 65 posts, I don't think that really applies anymore, Morgan. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Zhuu Buxu and Me: Creativity in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 09:35 Profile #21 BSC, if you email them to bob_the_impaler@hotmail.com I could upload them to my webspace. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Michael Moore - Unfairenheit 9/11 in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 09:30 Profile #33 I think you should take what Moore says with a pinch of salt. There are plenty of liberal commentators I much prefer. Nevertheless, there is a lot of truth in what he says and right-wing commentators are no more reliable. I find him amusing, I occasionally find him thought-provoking and I fairly often find him irritating. I would agree that most of the points made against him in this thread have attacked the person more than the message. I would also agree with the description of Christopher Hitchens as a tiresome neo-conservative hack with too high an opinion of himself. I don't find Blair that convincing, maybe because he's been prime minister since I was 10 years old and I've seen much more of him. I admire him much more now that he's practicing 'conviction politics' but I also think he's making the wrong decisions and preoccupying himself with foreign affairs rather than trying to put into action genuinely progressive policies. The trouble is that were he to concentrate more on Home Affairs, he'd probably just go for more PPP, despite its conspicous failure. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
I'm back in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 09:17 Profile #22 I'm sorry? Since when has grannyporn been an acceptable lure? -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Valley of Thunder RP in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 09:15 Profile #283 Right, I've waited two days for somebody to continue the temple storyline and I'm bored. I'll post my original post again. If you're one of the other characters at the temple, your characters will be controlled to a degree, but I wouldn't say excessively so. Here goes: A demon reached Garath within 30 seconds. Panting excitedly, it hopped from foot to foot nervously "Master, the old man, the mage, he's escaped! What are we to do?" "Calm down. He's not got the strength to go far. Alert the patrols ahead, tell them to cover the routes through the fire too, since he's a pyromage. They're to block the roads. Meanwhile, send out search parties comprised of-" The doors to the temple burst open, hitting the walls beside them with an earsplitting crunch. Kenthred calmly strides in, carrying the severed heads of two demons. "Your guards are terrible. Really shoddy ectoplasm. You ought to complain to whoever you take your orders from." "What are you doing here?" Garath reaches for a weapon. "Well, aside from quality assurance, I sort I'd see whether you've got any job offers." "You want to join us?" "Sure. I'm not very keen on dying. You lot can't be any more incompetent than my current employers, so maybe I'll live a little longer." Garath looks incredulous. "That's all you want? Isn't it more traditional to want immortality in battle, or the love of a beautiful woman, or a life three times as long as it might be otherwise? Is this a joke or do you really not understand evil?" "Don't patronise me, grasshopper. I was raping and pillaging years before you were born. I've seen more men die than you've had hot dinners. Looking at you, that doesn't seem as impressive a boast as it normally is, but I think you get the gist. "Of course I understand evil. If I had three times my allotted lifespan, I still wouldn't get through all the nightmares I'm due. But I also understand it's limitations. Maniacal laughter and megalomaniac plots are all very well, but being desensitised to violence is always going to be more effective." Garath chuckles slightly. "All very impressive, but that sounds a little far-fetched for a low-level grunt like yourself." "Mercenary, kid. Since I was fourteen. And three years as a murderer before that. I didn't get paid unless I actually went into the shield wall. Even then, I've had to use skulls as IOUs in the past." "What? Are all your anecdotes so laughably false?" "It happened, I swear. Battle of Capracchet. In the campaign against False Maxemnos. We were in the centre at the end of the first day in a temple. Dedicated to Sorov, I think. We'd taken it as the sun set and we were about half a mile in front of the rest of our forces. "Casualties had been high and we were auctioning their personal effects amongst ourselves. Old mercenary custom. Weapons get doled out to those who need them, but all the rest you have to bid for. Trouble was, our cash was back in the baggage train. We couldn't go there, in case they retook the temple. "It'd been desecrated. Virtually everything had been destroyed. Except the ossarium. They hadn't really bothered with that. So we used those in lieu of currency. With stories like these, I almost wish I had grandchildren." Garath smiles thinly. "And the upshot of all this is what? My prisoner has escaped, you're telling me shaggy dog stories and I'm still no more certain I can trust-" Sadith's aim was good. The potion sailed in through a broken window and bounced off a mung demon's head before shattering into a million pieces. Black flames billowed up, burning with an otherworldly violence. Kenthred seized Garath. "Let's go. There's no way you can stop this." The pair sprinted out of the building, with the demons on their heels. The slower members fell back into the black flames. They literally disintegrated, screaming in freakishly high voices. Last to leave the temple was the demon carrying the stone of Thunder. It almost outpaced the flames, but not quite. As it leapt for the doors, it caught up with it. Its last act was to fling the stone out through the doors. An act which did not go unnoticed by Vor, Eferas, Ray and Alex, crouched behind a nearby gorse bush. Vor sprinted towards it and fell on it, clutching it tightly to his chest. He looked up to see Garath pointing a very small, very nasty looking crossbow between his eyes. "The scribe? How nice to meet you at last. And my scryers tell me you have information for me. You are indeed a valuable catch." As the other three watched with horrified expressions, they missed the demons grabbing them from behind. "Don't think I didn't notice you. You think you escaped on your own iniative, Eferas? It was a trap, you may be certain of that. Of course, my knowledge is not absolute. For example, I have no idea which one of you destroyed that rather nice temple. It was a work of art. Perhaps if one of you could explain how it was accomplished, I might spare his life." Nobody saw Kenthred's arm move, but suddenly there was a knife held against Garath's throat. "Mercy is weakness." That might have been the end of it, had not a crossbow bolt thudded into Garath's shoulder, causing him to fall from Kenthred's grasp. Ignoring the pain, he scooped up Vor and leapt through a waiting portal. "Chadussid, what were you playing at, you idiot?" roared Kenthred. "I had him!" "That wasn't me, Kenthred," Chadussid replied, appearing from the rough where you would have sworn there was nothing. "I suggest you duck." The portal wavered. "After him," cried Ray. "There's not much time!" He, Eferas and Alex crashed through the portal, instants before it destroyed itself. (OOC: Garath has gone to Selger. The portal will have pitched you somewhere outside Selger but relatively nearby.) "Think we should have gone with them?" asked Chadussid. "Nah. We'd have been mad to. Could have been vapourised. We'll follow on later. First, we have to find somebody your lot really should call next time you need a demolitions expert." Your move everybody. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
"Wut do u look like 2" in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 09:11 Profile #50 That's settled. I'm not uploading any recent photos of me. In fact, thinking about it, there is only one recent photo of me (as in from the last 12 months) on a hard drive, and that's on a different computer. And I've seen Alec's time of registration reversed for a few weeks now. Our tentative hypothesis is that it's to do with the way IE renders the gibberish in his location. [ Tuesday, June 29, 2004 09:12: Message edited by: Your Unborn Child ] -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
GOODBYE FOREVER! in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Tuesday, June 29 2004 08:48 Profile #30 Or he could have a high IQ but still be a braindead monkey-retard -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
I'm back in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, June 27 2004 12:02 Profile #10 Hurrah! The opportunity to loudly declaim "Choke on it" without being accused of sexual harassment has at last arisen. Choke on it, FBM Or in this case, them. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Religion, Homosexuality, the Usual in General
Talent in a Previous Life This Side Towards Enemy Member # 3098	written Sunday, June 27 2004 11:59 Profile #14 How many creation myths do you know where the origin of tribe X is two homosexual men, Nightwurm? Of course it's not going to be Adam and Steve. You might like to notice that David and Jonathan's relationship might be construed as homosexual, however. I'd say that in general the Old Testament disapproves of homosexuality (the New Testament doesn't say much, but its strictures on matters of sexuality are prohibitively tough. Deliberately so, I'd assume, since the point Jesus was making was that sin is inevitable and the only escape would be forgiveness from God.) I'd also say it isn't 700BC any longer and this doesn't look like Judah to me. In general, I think it varies from church to church. -------------------- "I particularly like the part where he claims not to know what self-aggrandisement means, then demands more wing-wongs up his virgin ass" Posts: 961 \| Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00

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