Profile for Or else o'erleap.

Error message

Deprecated function: implode(): Passing glue string after array is deprecated. Swap the parameters in drupal_get_feeds() (line 394 of /var/www/pied-piper.ermarian.net/includes/common.inc).

Recent posts

Pages

AuthorRecent posts
I win! in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #39
I'd put it as "one thousand slimy things" myself.

—Alorael, who would put Arctic's title in the category of deserving a title. Controlling invisible newbie populations is a service to Spiderweb.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Just say no in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #75
This thread is about Richard White! It's not spam.

—Alorael, who still has most of his old locked topic collection. RWG has been treated as a sort of catharsis receptacle historically. Times have changed, thankfully, and the spammers had better watch themselves or they'll find their backs against the wall during the Second Coming of Richard White.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A long-expected Parting in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #48
Drakey has the ability to delete posts anywhere on the boards.

Deleted posts are not subtracted from post counts.

—Alorael, who makes no insinuations against someone who has the power of life, death, and papaya over him.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Avernum 4 Complete Wish List in The Avernum Trilogy
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #173
Spiderweb has no art team. It has a budget and a pool of freelancers.

If Jeff stuck with what worked, he would never have made Geneforge. Since A4 won't have the same engine, there's no reason for it to have the same graphics.

—Alorael, who feels a strong and disquieting sense of deja vu.

—Alorael, who feels like he's posting things that he and others have posted before.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
hi in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #63
I do not shoot turtles. I enjoy a symbiotic relationship with them.

—Alorael, who actually enjoys several kinds of relationships with them, but any further discussion of that will require the introduction of the many varieties of melon and their amazing variety of flavors.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The arrow of time in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #46
Overwhelming: Entropy is true in a closed system. Earth isn't a closed system, so you can't even say that lifeforms becoming more organized violate the concept of entropy as increasing disorder. (Although I can't see what makes a human any more or less disordered than an amoeba, really).

—Alorael, who can think of some very interesting takes on time travel if quantum-level uncertainty does refute determinism. If you go back in time, there's no guarantee that the past you end up in is the past you remember. Then the future is even less likely to be the present you left. Not really physically relevant, but it makes good sci-fi.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Recommended Reading in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #70
quote:
Originally written by Student of Trinity:

It's amazing how long the Black Company books have been in print. 20 years is a long, long time for fantasy paperbacks that never get made into movies. They're grim and down to earth in ways that I think were original. How often does the climactic battle of a fantasy trilogy turn on genealogical records?
I think it helps that the series is still ongoing. As long as Glen Cook churns out new Black Company books and can sell them, people will want the first few books.

—Alorael, who must compare this to some other trilogy he read, whose name he can't recall, in which the first book was out of print by the time the third book was published.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A long-expected Parting in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #39
I deny all allegations.

—Alorael, who didn't post this, despite all appearances to the contrary, and who didn't have a single sentence in the body of his post and a single (albeit somewhat run-on) sentence in his signature.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #25
quote:
Originally written by Dolphin.:

Bring Your Own Skribbane.
So went my thinking, or what passes for thinking in the moniker department.

—Alorael, who traveled the Noble Eightfold Path backwards from his starting point and achieved anavrin.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Time vs. Money in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #37
Going to the DMV may well qualify as time better spent not existing. That's at least better for blood pressure.

—Alorael, who often wonders whether the DMV atmosphere is a product of the employees or vice versa. Perhaps the Department of Motor Vehicles is a front for some soul-draining evil conspiracy. More evil than the government!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Favorite web comic. in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #28
Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crud.

Corollary: The 90% is the loud, accessible, and visible disproportionately even for its overwhelming majority.

—Alorael, who thinks Sturgeon was a little too optimistic on that estimate.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A long-expected Parting in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #37
quote:
Originally written by Drew:

I on the other hand, have been posting at a relatively explosive rate - heck, I may even make 1k before my wedding. :)
A nervous tic, perhaps?

—Alorael, who practices constructive self-censorship.

[ Monday, July 18, 2005 14:23: Message edited by: B.Y.O.S. ]
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Damn you Icshi! Damn you!!!!!! in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #25
North by northwest and slightly downwards in a corkscrew motion.

—Alorael, who speaks with authority on the subject. Believe him as you would believe the blessed 4451st follicle of White.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Time vs. Money in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #32
What if the infinite time you are granted is all granted in a circular loop? Think Groundhog Day. Is it such an attractive idea then?

—Alorael, who will muddy the waters further by suggesting that your infinite money comees in significant but not unthinkable sums, like a million dollars a week, perhaps, forever. That means you're really going to have to set up a good system to handle it after you're dead, among others things.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #21
IMAGE(http://staff.aist.go.jp/t-uyeda/motility/biophysj/patterns/circular_tracks_arrow_pattern.jpg)

—Alorael, who sweeps both in front of the Buddha statue and behind the Buddha statue at the same time.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Regrettable But in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #124
If you feel left out in all the grudges, I would be happy to hate you specifically, personally, relentlessly, ceaselessly, and baselessly. Anyone?

—Alorael, who will even work on coming up with trenchant one-liners to crush your will to live if you throw in a few dollars for his time.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
I win! in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #30
SMoE, who hasn't been around, got a custom title from *i by request, and it was actually one he wanted.

It's not my asking that prevents me, it's the fact that I'm the only one to frolick in postland, be the postmaster general, or be addressed as your postliness. Alas! Let this be a lesson: don't spam if you want a neat title. The best you can hope for is nothing. The worst you can hope for is "Canned."

—Alorael, who will point out for the benefit of the new that "Canned" is like spam, which is in a can. It is a pun or a play on words. Additionally, it's only one letter away from "Banned," which really makes you think.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
hi in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #30
Amazingly, despite a full page of replies and many interesting images, nobody has said it right.

Welcome to Spiderweb! Leave your sanity at the door. (It's not an exit! There are no exits!)

—Alorael, who is a bit miffed to discover that this newbie bears the same name that he used three days ago. Impersonation, isn't it? A vigorous harrumph!
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
The arrow of time in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #18
Time is real, and so is distance. They're the same thing. Entropy is something else.

Psychologically and neurologically, we remember the past and not the future because our brains are, at any given time, wired that way. Physics would be satisfied if our brains gained new memories moving forward in time or lost memories going back, but remembering the future isn't part of the bargain.

Why can't our brains analyze the present and the past to come up with accurate predictions? Not enough processing power and too many unknown variables.

—Alorael, who doesn't even see the problem with which way time moves. Subjectively, our thoughts are always existing one instant at a time, and in that instant we can only remember the past because that's how brains work. Objectively, everything works backwards or forwards if you take it one instant at a time. What's wrong with that?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
RPGs in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #45
quote:
Originally written by Hectonkhyres:

SimBrick. If you know what I'm talking about, which I doubt, then you will get the joke.
It's too deterministic to be fun. Half the time your choices don't have any practical effect.

—Alorael, who will not bother to contrast this with Progress Quest.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Human nature in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #67
The royal family is a waste of the UK's money that seems to serve only one purpose: keeping tabloid "reporters" employed.

—Alorael, who is afraid that ad campaigns are never equal. One side would control all the power by being able to pitch its views better.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Time vs. Money in General
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #1
The problem with time is that no matter how much you have it still comes out to one second per second. Money can come out to billions of dollars per second.

Infinite time in the form of endless longevity is no good without health and youth to go with it. It also depends very much on money anyway. An eternity of abject poverty isn't as nice as a lifetime of comfortable affluence.

On the other hand, infinite time concurrently is the best of both words, because time can easily be converted into money. You also have the time to enjoy that money. Visiting family, traveling to exoting places, volunteering for worthy causes, and repainting the kitchen simultaneously? A very attractive offer indeed!

—Alorael, who thus cannot choose time or money until he has a better understanding of just what is meant by time.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #9
quote:
Originally written by The Almighty Doer of Stuff:

SoT's measure or DB's measure?
I oppose this measure.

—Alorael, who isn't picky about which one. He'll oppose them all, including sideways and inside out.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Down with RWG! in Richard White Games
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #5
I oppose this measure.

—Alorael, who has the autocratic power to back it up.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
A Question about the Slith and Nephilim in The Avernum Trilogy
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #50
Oops, you're right about the nagas. So now there's a clear correlation between independent civilization and hands. (The nagas do appear in civilized settings, but mainly as cannon fodder. The giants seem to worship them, though.)

—Alorael, who will amend his hands requirement by saying that any species can be civilized without hands if they have a subservient species to act as their hand proxies.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00

Pages